You Can Play PS5’s Biggest RPG of 2025 for Free and You Don’t Even Need PS Plus

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PlayStation 5 owners now have free access to one of the year’s largest role-playing games, and a PlayStation Plus subscription isn’t required to start playing. Even without a subscription, PS5 owners can still enjoy many games online at no cost.

The RPG Where Winds Meet, launched on November 14th for PlayStation 5 and PC, is already proving popular with players. On Steam, it reached over 251,000 concurrent players during its first week, consistently maintaining a daily peak of over 141,000. According to PS-Timetracker, the game is also among the top 20 most-played titles on PlayStation Network. Considering Where Winds Meet has only been available for less than 30 days, its number-17 ranking is a strong achievement.

Where Winds Meet Offers a Massive Free Experience for PS5 Players

Players are loving the engaging combat and stunning graphics in Where Winds Meet, but the game’s expansive map is also getting a lot of attention. At launch, the world covers over 20 square kilometers (about 12.4 square miles) – making it slightly larger than Ghost of Yotei, which previously claimed to have the biggest open-world map ever. The developers at Everstone Studio aren’t finished yet, with planned updates every few months expected to further expand the game’s world.

As a PlayStation gamer, one of the things I appreciate about PlayStation Plus is that it unlocks online play for a lot of the games I already own. It’s not always needed, though – most of the free-to-play games on my PS5 don’t require a subscription, although there are a few exceptions. If I’m ever unsure, I usually just check the game’s page on the PlayStation Store to see if a PlayStation Plus membership is needed to play online.

You don’t need a PlayStation Plus subscription to play Where Winds Meet, but the highest tier, PlayStation Plus Premium, offers a handy benefit: you can stream the game instead of downloading it. Since the game is a large 100 GB file – taking up a significant portion of a standard PS5’s storage – this streaming option could be a worthwhile perk for players who have a lot of games already installed.

While you can explore the vast world, advance the story, and complete quests on your own, Where Winds Meet always requires an internet connection to play. The game’s online multiplayer mode unlocks a lot more content, including player-versus-player arenas and cooperative features like healing, shared character progression, and group challenges. The main endgame content – weekly dungeons – also needs an online connection. There’s even a unique online feature where players who commit crimes can participate in ‘Pardon Parades,’ being publicly displayed in a cage while others playfully mock them with rotten food!

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2025-11-29 01:05