Best Open-World RPGs Without Level Scaling
Do you hate it when enemies level up with you, making it seem like you are making no progress whatsoever? Quite a few open-world RPGs incorporate level scaling to try to make most of the sandbox viable at any difficulty stage of a playthrough. While this feature works for plenty of projects, some games opt for and benefit from no level scaling, crafting a world that gradually opens up as players become more skilled.
These open-world games either start difficult and get easier as players grow stronger, or cleverly curb how fast the player levels up so they do not become overpowered. When a new area presents a particularly challenging set of new enemies, players are further encouraged to explore and do side quests to eventually match the new monsters’ strength.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
Elden Ring
As Brutal And Unforgiving As It Is Mysterious
FromSoftware’s epic open-world RPG puts the joy back into the simple act of exploring an unknown land. The world is open to players pretty much from the start, though some bosses and story events lock off certain areas. In the opening hours, only the weakest fodder enemies are approachable, but through leveling up, players can more confidently explore dangerous areas.
Best Open-World Games For Feeling Like An OP Mage
If you are craving a touch of magic, these open-world games will make you feel like an allmighty mage who can destroy enemies.
As hard as Elden Ring is, there are enough paths to go down that players should never feel like they have to enter a dungeon at too low a level. If simple enemies are causing too much trouble, it is a sign to leave and come back later when one is stronger. Elden Ring takes player agency to a new level in open-world games by even making them mark points of interest on the map themselves instead of the game leaving a bunch of them automatically.
Your Enemy Pool Deepens As You Level Up, But A Rat Continues To Be A Rat
While Oblivion famously added level scaling, its predecessor does not include the feature. To be more exact, it has a more primitive and simple style of scaling. Morrowind‘s world really feels like it exists irrespective of the player, making you feel like a singular entity in a wider landscape. The game lets players accomplish absurd feats, including breaking the laws of gravity if they desire, and it does not go out of its way to kill chances of exploring OP fantasies.
Now, Morrowind is a bit of a complicated case. Locations do not scale to the player’s level, and enemy NPCs don’t suddenly get better armor or stats if you fight them later down the line. This goes in the opposite direction as well, and if you are level one and enter a Daedric ruin, the game will not go easy on you. As you level up, Morrowind gradually expands the enemies that spawn, leading to a gradual increase in world difficulty. However, weak enemies never fully disappear, and they don’t become stronger. A Nix-Hound will not become a walking deity just because players reach level 78; it will remain its helpless self.
Xenoblade Chronicles (Original Or Definitive Edition)
A Strange Science-Fiction Landscape
Xenoblade Chronicles feels a lot like Final Fantasy 12 when it comes to traversing vast landscapes on foot, fighting enemies, and passing gigantic threats that are clearly too strong to take on at the moment. Progression in the game is pretty precise. If the party is a couple of levels below the enemy, they barely stand a chance at victory. If they are just a couple of levels higher, then they steamroll them and gain only a pittance of experience points.
This leaves little room for experimenting or trying to break the game, but it also lets players clearly know when an area is too intense for them at the moment. It can feel restricting, but letting players know what areas are or are not explorable is important for a game with a world as big as this.
Dragon’s Dogma 2
Quirky, Difficult, And Surprising Fantasy RPG
The long-awaited sequel to the cryptic 2012 open-world RPG delivers a more refined version of what players came to love about the series. Players are free to experiment and travel the world as they please. This does not mean the world will not bite back, however.
8 Open-World Games Worth Playing Just For Their Combat
These open-world adventures are great not just for exploring, but for taking down enemies in the most spectacular ways possible.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 starts brutally difficult. Players are likely to fail many times, but that failure is just a learning opportunity. As players become stronger and learn more about the game’s system, the world’s threats become less deadly. However, the game still has some surprises in store to drive up the challenge later on. The endgame, in particular, offers a whole new set of quests that provide a challenge even for the most prepared explorers.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Do Side Quests To Even Out The Levels With Monsters
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth takes the beautiful visuals of the game and blows it up into an open-world environment with various biomes. The game features four difficulty modes to make sure every type of gamer has an experience tailored for them. On a first playthrough, most people are likely to play on Normal, which offers just enough pushback to make players train a bit and do some side quests. People who do everything are likely to become overpowered.
Those looking to breeze through the story will have a harder time. Once hard mode is unlocked, FF& Rebirth provides a new challenge that forces players to think about the battle system and exploit its nuances to come out victorious.
The game does feature a dynamic mode, which scales enemies to the party’s level, but it is completely optional and not mandatory for even trophies. The three other difficulty modes do not scale enemies’ levels or stats.
Outward
No Level Scaling Whatsoever – Just Head Out, Explore, And Try Not To Die
Admittedly, Outward is probably the most flawed or divisive entry in this article, and there are certainly open-world RPGs that are universally more beloved. However, Nine Dots’ game has one of the purest implementations of a “no level scaling” system, so I felt it warranted a mention. Tasked with clearing debt, players pick a faction and then head out into the world, essentially becoming adventurers. There is something resembling a story, but Outward is at its best when approached as a pure sandbox where the goal is to go further and survive for longer.
As enemies and regions stay at the same fixed level, they go from areas that destroy players to ones that feel satisfyingly safe. Exploration is meant to feel risky in Outward, and you will die if you head into areas that you should not enter; however, you gradually gain better gear and more knowledge about the monsters that exist in the world, allowing you to overcome them.
Outward doesn’t have a traditional leveling system, as progression is through weapons, armor, and skills.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Smoothly Balanced So Players Don’t Have To Grind
Infinite Wealth takes place on three distinct open-world maps. The chapters bounce players between them, but eventually they have access to everything at their fingertips. As an RPG, Infinite Wealth offers an extremely smooth progression that ups the challenge at the right moments in the narrative.
Sometimes it is even rough to take on ordinary enemies on the street, but players level up fast enough to see the results of the training quickly, so it never feels like a grind. This only becomes a problem after beating the game. Most of the endgame content is locked behind launch DLC, making it almost impossible to reach the max level with the vanilla content.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 and 2
The Most Realistic Open-World RPG Series, Naturally, Does Not Have Level Scaling
When we think of open-world RPGs, vistas defined by fantasy tend to come to mind, be it lighthearted or dark. There really aren’t all that many games that aim for historical realism in nearly every aspect of their being, but Kingdom Come: Deliverance shows this approach can work if the commitment is there. In both games, you play as Henry, a blacksmith’s son who is the only survivor of his village’s massacre. Seeking revenge, he joins the King’s army and gradually becomes a soldier, a slow and arduous process that features a particularly challenging early game.
KCD and its sequel feature combat that is entirely skill-based, forcing players to learn how to fight. In the first 15 hours, you will regularly find yourself overwhelmed by even basic enemies, all of whom will gradually become easier as you grow more confident. Enemies maintain their base level of danger, and they won’t become harder just to match your growing expertise. You will fight more skilled enemies, though.
8 Best Open-World Games Where Exploring Freely Is More Rewarding Than The Main Story
These open-world games do offer a main story campaign to complete, but their settings are so immersive that exploration almost always takes priority.