10 Little-Known PS4 RPGs From Famous Developers

RPGs are a popular genre, with games ranging from innovative and record-breaking to ones that were totally forgotten because they were flat-out terrible. I've got to admit, I've loved some terrible RPGs in my time, but fun is subjective, so I'm not too bothered! I'm just in it for sheer love of the game.

I'll play games by massive studios and games by solo indie devs; I'm not that picky! Fortunately, the RPG world is filled with studios that are well known for churning out rock-solid RPGs beloved the world over, and sometimes you get a surprise entry from a studio you just never would have thought of. These 10 PS4 RPGs are all examples of the latter — little-known RPGs from famous developers that make you stop and think, "Wait, what? I didn't know they made stuff like this!"

10 Vampyr

DON'T NOD's Game That Wasn't Life is Strange

Vampyr Action RPG FX Wiki Wiki Released June 5, 2018 Developer(s) Dontnod Entertainment Publisher(s) Focus Home Interactive Platform(s) Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 Genre(s) Action RPG

DON'T NOD was responsible for Life is Strange, the sensational game that put it on the map. Life is Strange is iconic, but Vampyr is much less so. I should be clear here: Vampyr wasn't a commercial failure. It's not a totally obscure title that no one has ever heard of. It got about 2 million sales! My point is, you don't have to dig through dusty archives to find information on it, even if it is a little underrated.

It's just overshadowed by its much more successful sibling. I think that's a little bit of a shame, since Vampyr has an intriguing premise: you play as a doctor and a vampire at the same time, forcing the player to choose between medical ethics and a vampire's need to feed.

9 Victor Vran

Definitely Not Tropico By Haemimont Games

Victor Vran Action RPG Hack and Slash Released February 20, 2015 Developer(s) Haemimont Games Platform(s) PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One Publisher EuroVideo Medien Genre(s) Action RPG, Hack and Slash

Have you ever played Tropico? Haemimont Games is responsible for Tropico 3, 4, and 5. I love the Tropico games because they're the exact combination of settlement building and management mechanics that make me crazy, so I've played the hell out of them all. Haemimont has also made games like Surviving Mars.

What I was much more surprised to find out about was Victor Vran, a niche Diablo-style RPG that never seemed to make a splash. Its PS4 release (Victor Vran: Overkill Edition) even included a crossover expansion based on the heavy metal band Motorhead, which is really cool.

8 Empire of Sin

John Romero's Criminally Bad RPG

Empire of Sin Real-Time Strategy Released December 1, 2020 Developer(s) Romero Games Publisher(s) Paradox Interactive Platform(s) Xbox One, PC, PS4, Switch Genre(s) Real-Time Strategy

This one's a little bit of a cheat, since Romero Games per se isn't that famous; it's a relatively new studio with a small catalog of games. I'm sneaking it in, though, because it's the ninth game studio founded by John Romero, an award-winning game designer responsible for a massive number of famous games from the dawn of video gaming.

The sheer number of games he worked on is impressive, but some of the more famous include Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon. His new studio, Romero Games, also made Empire of Sin, a tactical strategy RPG based around historical mob bosses. Look, I'm not going to tell you this is a good game; it got generally bad reviews, and I'm not here to argue against them. That said, it's an interesting departure from his other work, and it stands out in his back catalog.

7 Call of Cthulhu

Cyanide Studios Goes Off-Road

Call of Cthulhu Horror Adventure Released October 30, 2018 Developer(s) Cyanide Studio Publisher(s) Focus Home Interactive Platform(s) Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One Genre(s) Horror, Adventure

Cyanide Studios has an extremely strong identity as a studio producing sports-based games. They have a massive back catalog of cycling games. I've actually written about their more obscure RPG titles before; they made a completely overlooked Game of Thrones RPG that got totally lost in the noise after the explosive success of the television adaptation.

We're back for another look into their back catalog, this time for Call of Cthulhu. This niche title flew under the radar for most gamers, with an interesting mix of RPG, stealth, psychological horror, and investigation. It's based on the tabletop RPG by Chaosium rather than a straight Lovecraft adaptation. By all accounts, it's actually not that bad, with average Metacritic scores across all platforms.

6 The Technomancer

Spiders's Flawed Sci-Fi RPG

The Technomancer Action RPG Science Fiction FX Wiki Wiki Released June 27, 2016 Developer(s) Spiders Publisher(s) Focus Entertainment Platform(s) PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One Genre(s) Action, RPG, Science Fiction

Spiders wasn't a ridiculously famous developer, but they'd gained a level of notoriety by the time they released their RPG GreedFall, and they even managed to make a prequel, GreedFall: The Dying World, prior to folding as a company. The studio felt like a company on the brink of hitting the big time. Sadly, that didn't happen, and the company folded.

The Technomancer wasn't nearly as popular or well-received as GreedFall, and even that wasn't quite enough to save the company. I think that's a shame, because The Technomancer was an ambitious, low-budget attempt at making a large sci-fi action RPG. I love a good sci-fi action RPG, and the field is relatively thin. It only managed to get average reviews, but I think it was quite charming. Spiders as a company had a lot of promise, so I was pretty sad to see them go.

5 ELEX

Piranha Bytes's Ambitious Open-World RPG

Elex Action RPG Open-World FX Wiki Wiki Released October 17, 2017 Developer(s) Piranha Bytes Publisher(s) THQ Nordic Platform(s) PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One Genre(s) Action RPG, Open-World

ELEX isn't totally unknown, but it's relatively obscure, and most people who know Piranha Bytes will think of its classic franchises, Gothic and Risen. Gothic was an iconic part of the RPG genre, and the Gothic remake has brought it back into the mainstream, but I feel like ELEX doesn't get enough love.

It's not a perfect game by any stretch of the word, and it suffers a little from being a relatively low-budget AA game. That said, it was a solid attempt at an ambitious open-world RPG, even if many haven't already played it. ELEX was also one of Piranha Bytes's last ever games before its closure, making it a cool historical time capsule. It's not bad for one of the studio's final outings, but it's nowhere near as famous as its long-ago predecessors.

4 Torment: Tides of Numenera

InXile Entertainment's Overlooked CRPG

Torment: Tides Of Numenera RPG FX Wiki Wiki Released February 28, 2017 Developer(s) inXile entertainment Publisher(s) inXile entertainment Platform(s) PC, PS4, Xbox One Genre(s) RPG

inXile Entertainment is a studio with a pretty long gaming pedigree. It produced the 2004 cult hit The Bard's Tale, along with (much later) Wasteland 2 and Wasteland 3. Its founder, Brian Fargo, also co-founded Interplay, the original Fallout and Baldur's Gate studio.

Torment: Tides of Numenera is well-known among hardcore CRPG fans, but it's a pretty obscure title outside that community. That's a shame, though, because its Kickstarter campaign raised more than $4 million, and it attempted to bring text-heavy, isometric CRPGs to modern consoles. Unfortunately, it didn't quite manage to pull off a Baldur's Gate 3, and it's largely forgotten outside its core community these days. But it's pretty cool, even if it does get overshadowed by inXile's other games.

3 Mistover

Krafton's RPG No One Remembers Because of PUBG

Mistover

Krafton's company structure is a little complex, but they're ultimately responsible for PUBG: Battlegrounds. Created as a holding company for Bluehole Studios, Krafton is the umbrella company responsible for a number of smaller "independent" studios, including one that created Subnautica 2!

But PUBG was a surprise hit and had a bit of a moment, and it's one of Bluehole/Krafton/PUBG Studio's biggest hits. This is the game most players will associate with the company, but Krafton also created an RPG called Mistover. This niche PS4 roguelike RPG was an intentional departure from online, MMO, and battle royale games, but it didn't pan out. The game was delisted from all digital storefronts in 2022, so it's no surprise it's nowhere near as well known as other Krafton games.

2 Battleborn

Gearbox Software's Live-Service Flop

Battleborn FPS FX Wiki Wiki Released May 3, 2016 Developer(s) Gearbox Software Publisher(s) 2K Games Platform(s) PC, PS4, Xbox One Genre(s) FPS

Everyone knows Borderlands. This is unarguably Gearbox Software's most famous franchise. It's essentially their flagship. I'm not a particular fan of Borderlands, but I've played and enjoyed several of them. Still, if you only know one Gearbox game — and most gamers do know one Gearbox game — it's probably Borderlands.

Gearbox also tried out a live-service free-to-play first-person shooter hybrid RPG, but it launched in direct competition with Overwatch and never properly landed. Its servers were shut down, and it's now a largely forgotten part of Gearbox's history. It actually got decent reviews; the problem was that it was relatively inaccessible to new players and lacked the immediate appeal of Overwatch.

1 Babylon's Fall

NieR:Automata Studio PlatinumGames Made an Awful Live-Service RPG

Babylon's Fall Action RPG Hack and Slash FX Wiki Wiki Released March 3, 2022 Developer(s) Platinum Games Publisher(s) Square Enix Platform(s) PC, PS4, PS5 Genre(s) Action RPG, Hack and Slash

PlatinumGames usually makes action-packed hack-and-slash games. This is the studio responsible for Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, along with NieR:Automata. These are generally well-liked games, especially NieR:Automata. I personally loved NieR:Automata because it was just the right blend of weird, philosophical, and fun to get me hooked.

But PlatinumGames also made an unsuccessful live-service RPG called Babylon's Fall. I'd never heard of this game before, and upon researching it, I learned its servers were shut down just six months after launch. It's easy to see why, though: the game had very poor reviews across the board. Its Metacritic aggregate score for the PS5 was just 41, and its OpenCritic score is near-rock-bottom 3% recommend.