Thebest RPG video gamesare known for theirmyriad of choicesand paths that let you shape the story and gameplay to your liking. In most cases, this leads to new talents, skills, and buffs designed to bolster your character’s abilities, proficiency in different tasks, and overall stats.
However, this isn’t always the case; some RPGs will actually punish you for playing a certain way rather than reward you, either by locking you out of specific quests, assigning you a different ending, or bestowing your character with negative traits. Make enough wrong moves in these games, and you’ll soon regret your decisions for the remainder of the adventure.
Updated on Jun 11, 2025, by Jack Pierik:Making games is a complicated, labor-intensive process. The broader the scope, the more opportunities there are for blindspots in mechanics, leveling systems, and a whole mess of other variables. On top of that, many games fall into specific metas, an advantageous or suggested way of playing that offers the highest likelihood for success.
The silver lining in all of this, though, is that it can be fun to try and play a game in a way that wasn’t intended, or make the best out of the poor decisions you made in the past. Why not attempt that in the three games we’ve added in this update?
12The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
InOblivion, you have seven attributes: Agility, Endurance, Intelligence, Personality, Speed, Strength, and Willpower. When you train enough primary and secondary skills, like Destruction magic or Alchemy, you can sleep in a bed to level up. But what could be so bad about leveling up?
Here’s the problem: everything you did leading up to that level will impact how effectively an attribute can be increased. So, if you only trained Athletics and Acrobatics, you’d be able to invest the max amount of stat points into Speed, plus five. But, if you did a bunch of random skill training, your attribute increases, and thus your levels, aren’t going to be or feel as effective. Thanks,Todd.
11Baldur’s Gate 3
This won’t come as a surprise for those of you that have played the masterpiece that isBaldur’s Gate 3, but there are all kinds of friends to win and enemies to create, depending on how you play. If you’re not save scumming, you’re gonna have to live with the consequences.
Everything, from party and class compositions, to party member relationships, and different factions you decide to help or fight, creates lasting impacts that oftentimes ripple throughout your journey and personal experience with the game’s storyline. Also, if you don’t let the animals you come across live at your camp, you’re probably a monster.
10Elden Ring
WhileElden Ringis designed to be difficult, and it’s expected that you’ll need multiple attempts before finally beating a boss you’ve been stuck on, it’s no secret that not all builds are created equal. If you’ve ever solely focused on one attribute, like Strength, or tried a Faith build in the early game, you know the feeling.
But hey, some people make oddball builds that work, or are just simply so skilled that suboptimal setups don’t ultimately matter,like that player that helps others fight Malenia, one of the hardest bosses in the game, solely with two katanas and a ceramic pot on their head.
9Kingdom Come Deliverance
Kingdom Come Deliveranceis a surprisinglyrealistic medieval action RPGthat casts you as Henry, the son of a blacksmith seeking revenge after raiders massacre his entire village. You can improve Henry’s stats throughout the game by equipping certain gear and making other choices.
While the four primary stats benefit Henry (Strength, Agility, Vitality, and Speech), there are also derivative stats that can negatively impact him, such as Charisma, Visibility, Conspicuousness, and Noise. The severity of these stats’ effects is reliant on how you play the game and can have a significant impact on how Henry is perceived by other characters.
8Darkest Dungeon
Darkest Dungeonis a hardcore roguelike RPG that tasks you with managing a roster of heroes on a mission to uncover the secrets of a sprawling gothic mansion. By design, any characters you recruit from the game’s stagecoach will possess various quirks that can either hinder or help during a given run.
Each hero can have a maximum of 10 quirks at any time, five positive and five negative, with certain choices and events revealing new ones. Although some are unavoidable due to the nature of the game, putting your characters in stressful situations will increase the likelihood of them developing bad quirks like Nervous, Fragile, or Slow Reflexes.
7Disco Elysium
Taking its cues from classics like Planescape: Torment,Disco Elysiumis a dialogue-heavy RPG that casts you as a detective investigating a murder. The game is a non-traditional role-playing experience; it features very little combat while still offering a robust stat system in which each skill is tied to a specific attribute.
The effectiveness of your character’s skills will vary depending on the level of the associated attribute, determined by dice rolls and choices throughout the story. Each skill has the potential to yield both positive and negative effects; for example, having high Drama will help you detect lies more effectively while making you more prone to hysterics and paranoia.
6The Outer Worlds
Created by the revered RPG developer Obsidian,The Outer Worldsis another dark comedy role-playing experience that layers on action-driven combat and sci-fi themes. You play as the “Stranger,” a blank-slate hero tasked with determining the fate of a starving space colony while forging their own path.
As such, many of your actions throughout the game come with unique consequences, both good and bad, that can cause your character to gain new skillsas well as flaws. Certain repeated actions can instigate the option to deny or accept a new flaw, yielding you a perk point at the cost of being negatively impacted when performing certain tasks or facing a particular enemy faction. For example: taking too much fall damage can give you the fear of heights flaw.
5Divinity: Original Sin
Divinity: Original Sin is a critically-acclaimedturn-based RPGby Larian Studios that sees you guiding two characters on a quest to rid the world of a dangerous type of magic known as “Source” The game provides many opportunities for defining your character’s playstyle and personality through choice-driven events such as conversations and battles.
How you approach these can affect your characters’ attribute stats and cause them to develop good (Left) or bad (Right) traits such as Altruistic or Egotistical, Compassionate or Heartless, etc. This can open up new opportunities while also locking you out of certain quests or NPC conversations.
4Fallout: New Vegas
Another Obsidian joint,Fallout: New Vegasis a standout entry and spin-off to the hitpost-apocalyptic RPGin which you’re dropped into a sprawling, irradiated open world. Assuming control of the Courier, you set out to recover a stolen package while becoming entangled in warring faction tensions across the Mojave Wasteland.
Similar to other games in the series, New Vegas offers a ton of freedom in shaping your character’s playstyle. This includes optional traits that come with both positive and negative changes to your stats. The most common example is Four Eyes, which grants a bonus to Perception when wearing glasses, but a penalty in Perception when not.
3Crusader Kings
Debuting in 2007,Crusader Kingsis a long-running grand strategy game series that tasks you with growing a dynastyacross multiple generationsby leveraging diplomatic, militaristic, and religious ideologies. To this point, each scenario can play out in several ways depending on your approach, allowing you to obtain new territories but possibly make new enemies in the process.
The game leans into this heavily, throwing both yearly random and scripted events your way. Your options for resolving these will vary based on your character’s traits, which can be gained or lost as well as inherited by descendants. Every trait has positive and negative effects that will benefit your kingdom in one area while limiting its potential in another.
