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catherinekal · 11 months ago

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Giant Fucking List of Obscure Video Games I Recommend!

It's finally done!! Took me long enough, but here it is. Over 50 games I recommend. Just in time for the Steam Sale. Holy shit I spent way to much time on this.

Some of these are well known to anyone into the indie/AA gaming scene or just on the internet often, but I still felt the need to mention in case people haven't heard of them. All of these are obscure compared to any AAA game and I'm confident no one would have heard or played all of these.

They all have something I found interesting in someway. I was going to include a trailer for each game, but apparently Tumblr doesn't like that. So I have put a link to a Youtube playlist for all of them in the same order as this list. Some of these games are also on various consoles to, but I can confirm they're all on Steam beyond one.

I only picked games I've played personally. I know of many other good obscure games, but haven't tried or bought them yet so they don't get on the list. Also many games on this list remain unfished to me, but that's more due to time and other life shit then them getting bad.

There's a lot of fucking games In this list so hopefully you find something you've never tried before and give it a shot. All these games are on Steam with one exception, but that's a free game. I also organized them by genres that make perfect sense to me.

Trailers Link:

The Best Game Ever:

Outer Wilds

Fuck it let's just start with the only mandatory game on this list you need to play. You know how nearly every space game is a overpromised underdelivered fucking mess? Like all of them.

Outer Wilds is the actual good one. Don't want to say much more then that. This is very much an experience that you need to know as little as possible to get the best experience. Not even linking the trailer in the playlist.

Absolutely play this game if you had to pick only 1 thing on this list.

EarthBoundLikes:

OMORI

OMORI is a game about a group of kids who go on magical adventures and save the day. That's it. Nothing else sinister going on here.

It's a well known indie game and for good reason. It's fucking good. One of my favorite games of all time.

Art style is peak. A mix of pixel and pencil drawn art that works so damn well for me. The battle system is turn based and revolves around changing emotions and teamwork. It mixes a happy child like vibe with a darkness underneath it, which is right up my alley. A tale of trauma and grief. I'm still fucked up thinking about some story bits in there.

All the characters are wonderful and the story is helped a lot by keeping it focused on a small group of friends.

Play it.

LISA: The Painful and LISA: The Joyful

LISA: The Painful/Joyful are a pair of games that fuck. They fuck hard.

They're morbid, tackle many taboos, and have a dark but also stupid sense of humor. The visuals are nothing groundbreaking, but this isn't a game that needs perfect pristine pixel art. The combat system is a lot of fun, but takes very clear inspiration from Earthbound. The story is just perfect though.

You play Brad whos on a journey to rescue his adoptive daughter who was kidnapped in a post apocalyptic world of only men. You meet the strangest allies and the game has a lot of odd characters in it. Want a lawyer fish in your party? This game has it.

It does not shy away from throwing punches and is not for anyone who can't handle a story that tackles themes of abuse, depression, suicide, and more. The game also has a sequel I don't want to say to much about, but it's absolutely worth it as well.

If you want a fun and fucked up 2D RPG adventure and somehow haven't played this then please do so.

Mandatory Metroidvania Soulslike Indie Game Darlings:

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights

Ender Lilies is the first of many metroidvania's on this list. The indie scene is filled with them and for good reason. The formula works so damn well.

What I love about Ender Lilies is the concept of the player character. You play a white priestess who is also a child and helpless on her own. However, you can summon the spirits of allies and slain enemies to fight for you and those spirits are all your attacks. Gameplay is the same as any other Metroidvania, but knowing I'm this helpless child in this world infected by blight really sells me on the setting.

There's nothing revolutionary to this entry in the pantheon of Metroidvanias, but the visuals and setting are why I recommend it. This game is a slow descent into hell. Also you do get a big heavy hammer attack and any game with a big hammer weapon attack is a good game. Big bonks.

Craving a Metroidvania with a macabre setting? This will do it.

GRIME

GRIME is something else. I don't hear anyone talk about this game and it's a damn shame. I don't even know how to even describe GRIMEs setting. You play as essentially a sentient black hole on a rock body. You go through, with lore slowly revealed as is the Metroidvania stable, and absorb your enemies.

This games aesthetic is best described as fleshy stone. It's very unique visually and what made me want to try it out. As for gameplay you'll need to learn parrying as this games combat system heavily relies on it.

This game surprised me and has a entire level I never expected with one very unique boss to top that off. Also be warned. This game is very much a platformer as well. Similar to how the Ori games are, not just pure combat challenges. If you like your metroidvanias with little to no platforming then you won't enjoy parts of this game, but nothing as difficult as things in Hollow Knight.

If you enjoy metroidvanias then this is a must play. More people need to talk about it.

Salt and Sanctuary

This is where it all started. Certainly not the first Metroidvania by any means, but the first 2D Soulslike Metroidvania or at the least first advertised as such. The devs intended to make Dark Souls in 2D and they did it. Before Hollow Knight, the games listed above, or so many others that took inspirations from Souls in the 2D world, was this game. I know this game was popular with the souls community as it came out, but I don't really hear about it anymore. Hollow Knight just dominated all discussion.

The controls and combat are very much Dark Souls but in 2D. The lore is cryptic and hidden away. There's a fuckton of weapons and spells and multiple playthroughs worth of stuff. The game is hard though Hollow Knight would easily one up it in terms of difficulty.

This game also has covenants that are actually good and the mechanics around them are vastly improved over any souls game that has covenants. I won't go into detail, but I wish the souls games copied this games mechanics for that.

The setting is high fantasy with the lovely dark bloody horror underneath it all. The art style can turn people away, it's not as pretty as other 2D souslikes, but I enjoy it personally. It fits.

The game has a lot to explore and you can get lost in its world pretty easily. I remember walking into a boss room from the exit somehow and got behind the boss and it was all intended if you navigated around him.

If you can appreciate or just get past the visuals and want to see where the 2D soulslike genre began then you should play it.

Metroidvania's Before the Dark Age of Soulslikes

Dust: An Elysian Tail

Long ago there was a time where Metroidvanais didn't have soulslike mechanics defaulted in and set in these bleak post apocalyptic worlds. I have 3 of them to recommend. Starting With Dust: An Elysian Tail

This is a fun little game. A game that I'm not sure many people know about or would think to play today. Metroidvanias pre Hollow Knight tend to get forgotten when I see people about them now. It has a mix of platforming and hectic combat. I remember the game having a cool spin sword attack with a even cooler aerial attack. I liked it a lot when I played it many many years ago.

The art style is colorful and everyone is an anthropomorphic animal. More games need anthropomorphic animals beyond catgirl or rabbitgirl, seriously I grew up on shit like sly Cooper and Ratchet and Clank.

You play as Dust and are accompanied by Fidget. you got a magic sword and you kill a bunch of shit while saving the day. Just a fun little Metroidvania that doesn't overstay and go on forever.

It may be dated in some ways, but if you're a fan of these types of games and want to play a older one then here you go.

Guacamelee!

The combat in this game feel great. Another little forgotten gem of a Metroidvania. It has such a unique style to it and has a fun cartoony vibe. It's pretty fucking great.

You play as a farmer who dons a luchador mask to save his friend he loves and the world being taken over. The combat is a mix of punches, kicks, and throws which is unique from the usual swords and magic these types of games tend to default to. As the game goes along enemies will have shields that need certain moves to break and you'll be switching from the land of the dead and living in combat and platforming.

Both this and Dust before it don't reinvent the genre or anything, but have their own unique charms that I recommend them both if you're a fan of Metroidvanias.

Cave Story+

This is a old classic. The original Cave Story came out in 2004, and was released with a enhanced version in 2011. This is a must play Metroidvania and an old gem. It's the oldest game on this list technically.

This game has little to no melee combat, but instead goes all in on using guns. More Metroid then Vania in that sense. What's unique to the combat is enemies will drop experience that will level up your guns automatically. Each gun can be upgraded to 3 levels, but when you take damage you lose experiences and levels. This adds a extra layer or rewards and punishment to getting hit that I like. Your weapons are perfectly usable at level 1 so it's not like you're fucked, but it gives a greater incentive to avoid damage.

It has fun characters and and fun gameplay. It's a genuine indie gem that I think everyone should play.

Pixel Action Adventure Games With A Dash of RPG Elements to Taste:

ANNO: Mutationem

This game is a pixel art cyberpunk adventure. I adore the art style. It's a 2.5D action platformer set in a futuristic setting. You're on a quest to save your brother with the help of your hacker friend/girlfriend. A quest which leads to a far more complicated story.

The story in this game goes off the rails in ways I love, but I know it threw people off. People have compared the latter half to Evangelion and It can be confusing to follow at times. I still highly recommend it, even if you get lost near the end. A simpler story in terms of Lore would have worked better, but I say fuck it. Go all in.

To me the appeal of this game is the setting. A fascinating cyberpunk sci-fi setting shown through wonderful pixel art. Just walking around the various cities was a joy on its own. There's a lot of attention to detail and I think it's worth playing for that alone. Combat is your standard side-scrolling Metroidvaniaish kind of stuff with various weapons and upgrades and all that. I found it a little challenging at times, but this isn't a game meant for extreme difficulty from what I remember.

If you want to play as hot badass woman in a cyberpunk setting given life through detailed pixel art, then this is the game for you.

CrossCode

This is the most dense indie game on this whole list. CrossCode has so much to do. The game is expansive and slowly drip feeds you with more. You have 5 skill trees, 4 of which are tied to an element, multiple upgrade paths in them. You have a mix of melee combat with twin stick shooter mechanics thrown in. The game has multiple dungeons with puzzles that are both difficult to figure out and then execute the solution for. These aren't like a 2D Zelda dungeon where things never get to complicated, I really took a lot of time with every dungeon.

The setting takes place on another moon physically, but its actually all virtual and a MMO people are playing from all over the galaxy. Though the game itself isn't a MMO really. You play as a set character in a set linear story that's unrelated to that actual in lore story of the MMO.

The characters are fun and the setting is a joy to explore. There's a lot of side content and I don't remember any of it being a drag. This games also challenging and I know It took me a bit to progress at various points. The pixel art is very detailed, especially with the outdoor environments.

This game will keep you engaged for a while and there's challenging DLC and even fun incentives to play new game plus. This is just all around a solid game experience.

Hyper Light Drifter

I played this game a long time ago so details are hazy, but I know I really enjoyed it. It's top down and filled with action. You got a sword. You got a gun. You go kill things and I do remember many challenging combat encounters.

I have forgotten all story elements, but even now I still remember some imagery that reminded me of Evangelion, which is always a plus. Though story was never the main draw to games for me so the setting and combat were all I needed to keep engaged.

Not the most descriptive review of the game, but I know this is one of the furthest game on this list from when I played it and I only went through it once. It's a cool game though and if the trailer enticed you then you owe it to yourself to get it.

Phoenotopia: Awakening

I adore this little hidden gem of a game. If CrossCode is the most dense indie game on this list then this is a very close second. Possibly even more dense, I truly can't decide for sure. It's cute, funny, charming, and full of legitimate challenges.

You play as Gail who lives in a small town village. Some shit happens that I won't give away, but you end needing to travel the land and go on a fun adventure. The story is full of comedic and lively characters. It never takes itself to seriously or gets really dark which Is a nice change of pace.

This game really is an adventure. You will travel a lot and get very familiar with any hub area. There's secrets and puzzles packed all over and gives you good reason to revisit. A nice drip feed of progress is felt as you unlock more stuff.

In terms of combat it's bar far the most simplistic on this list and could even frustrate others, but like everything else in this game it has charm and I adore it. The simple mechanics don't mean no challenge though. I was stuck often, but felt so satisfying when I won.

Some of the late game areas can be bullshit and will frustrate you, but stick with it. This is a genuine top tier hidden indie gem that got no attention. Honestly just under Outer Wilds this would be the other must buy. Absolutely play this.

Vampire Survivorlikes:

20 Minutes Till Dawn

Everyone knows about Vampire Survivor and everyone knows many games came out that tried to capture that style of gameplay. This one is the only one of those I've played and it's wonderful.

You unlock multiple characters and multiple guns with various upgrade trees. Kill the horde, survive, upgrade, survive even longer. Each level only takes 20 minutes, hence the title. I appreciate that as the game would never end with how strong you end up being by the end after you learn the mechanics.

This isn't anything groundbreaking, but if you need to kill half a hour then it's a fun thing to play.

Hawklikes:

Umurangi Generation

Let's fucking go!! This game rules!

As someone who is going to pursue photography more seriously as a hobby this game is perfect. Unlike something like Pokemon Snap or games with photo modes, this game really captures the feeling of holding a physical camera and the moment to moment decisions you make with each shot.

You unlock different lenses and control each shot as you would a real camera. After each photo you can edit it on the spot purely for your own creative reasons. The visuals are low poly and very colorful.

The game has a tony hawk style of progression. A hawklike if you will. You get dropped in a level and are given a list of photos to try and take. You can of course take photos of anything. You have a limited amount of film and can find more throughout the level.

Also there's a story. There's a dark undercurrent to the whole thing and the game is very overtly political in all the right ways. Don't like politics in your games? Fuck you! This game dives right in while still maintaining the core gameplay loop. Need more games like this please.

Please buy this game and it's DLC.

Action Games:

Furi

Top tier action game. It's a boss rush game, that's it. 10 bosses with some vague story that briefly connects them. It's not bloated with bullshit and knows exactly what to focus on.

The combat is a mix of intense melee combat with parries and dodges and the like, with twin stick shooting. No upgrades. No farming. No choosing between this weapon or that. No additional moves or mechanics. You fight a tutorial boss which teaches you everything and then you go. You have the full toolkit from the start and that lets you master it slowly over the game.

It's so fucking satisfying finally winning and knowing you improved and earned that win. I like the story as well. It's not that complex, but the ending bits worked for me.

If you want a genuine good action game that has no bullshit attached then get this.

Amid Evil

There's not much to say about this one other then it's really fucking fun. It's a first person action game where you use magic and weapons to go through combat filled levels. You have health and mana that all weapons use outside of your axe. The levels are filled with secrets, you move fast, and it's just a fun action game.

Sometimes a game isn't more then that and it beats games that are stuffed with unnecessary mechanical bloat. If you want a fun first person action game that's not just a full shooter then this is the game for you.

Adventure Games:

The Cat Lady and Lorelai

I love these games. No one ever talks about them or knows about them and they will certainly linger in your mind. The devs have made 2 other games that I have yet to get to so for now I am recommending only these.

Play The Cat Lady first. It's the first one and tells the story of a very depressed middle aged woman who gets a second chance at life, at a cost.

Lorelai is about a young woman in a very abusive household trying to survive while seeing what lengths she will go to save those she loves.

Both these games revolve around deals with a devil and feature a lot of horrific violence. Fun!

The stories in both evoke a creepy disturbing feeling and you're always on edge. I won't say these are straight horror games, but they sure use horror imagery. The art style really helps sells it. The animations or character models may not be the most beautiful thing around, but it has that indie charm I love. The voice acting isn't perfect either, but these aren't negatives for me. These are passion projects and imperfections are what make any piece of art shine brighter. Real people put their soul into these games and it shows.

The gameplay is standard adventure game fair, but all keyboard controlled. So no endless mouse clicking everything on the screen. which works wonderfully. Though being pure adventure games you're here more for the story then the moment to moment gameplay.

Please play these.

Detention

Detention is probably well known due to the controversy with Red Candle Games other game, Devotion being wiped online for shitty reasons. It's available now on their own websites store, though I still have never played it. I should one day as Detention was pretty fucking good.

The gameplay is the usual 2D adventure game fair. A lot of clicking and puzzle solving with some horror thrown in. The story and setting are where it's at though.

The game is unique in that it's made from Taiwanese devs and the games setting is rooted in their cultures history. I don't want to give away any real details beyond that, but it certainly left an impact and seeing a game not set in Europe, America, Japan, or any fantasy equivalent to those was refreshing. The games also not super long and could easily be beaten in a day.

Go buy it. Play it on a long free night. Support these devs.

Rime

I love the aesthetic of this game. Cel shading indie colorful goodness. I got this for the visuals alone and was very happy the game that came with it was good to. Visuals are a major factor in me getting interested in a game and the reveal trailer was enough for me to play it.

It's very light and cryptic on story for most of it as to be expected from this kind of game. You're a kid, you wake up on a beach and go forth exploring. You solve puzzles and hide from danger and go through each of the unique levels trying to piece together whats going on.

Like the game before, this isn't a super long one. Shouldn't take more then a day or a few to get through it all. Though I do recommend you take your time and explore like I did. Let yourself be immersed in the setting.

This is another example of just a pure perfect indie game. Doesn't overstay it's welcome, tells a simple but cryptic story, and has lovely visuals.

Atominous

This is the one of the few games on this whole list that I would say is truly obscure. In fact I have no doubt this is the most obscure. If you're big into indie games then nothing on this list will honestly surprise you, but I'm confident this is the exception.

In this free game you place as a a little guy who's job is like pest control. Instead of bugs your job is to collect and protect the world from rare atoms called Atominous. Basically little atoms that can alter reality. You go into a big house and your job is to find them through the power of puzzle solving and clicking every little thing you see.

This game is all about clicking everything. Nearly every object has unique text that pops up, if not multiple. You find keys to open more of the house and slowly suck up the atominous atoms and clean up the place.

That's it. It's a fun quirky little free game that shouldn't take more then a couple hours. No excuse not to try it, it's free. It's also the only game not on steam, but instead here

Adventure Games Where You Hit Things:

TUNIC

TUNIC is a lovely indie game. You play as a little cute fox and go on a adventure to save your poor trapped mom. such a cute game :3

I adore the visuals, I love low poly stuff and the game is full of charm. Looking at this game makes me happy. The game is like a mix of a top down Zelda and Fez and it being reminiscent of FEZ was what really took me by surprise. I won't go further in how it's like FEZ, but it really elevated the game for me.

It's a fun top down game with simple fun combat. You kill enemies, find key items, unlock more of the world, and get fed cryptic lore. The perfect formula for a fun little indie game. The game is decently challenging to with it's boss fights, and overall a nice fun little experience with some neat surprises.

TUNIC is wonderful, go play it.

Kena: Bridge of Sprits

This is the most PS2 game I've played since the PS2. I mean that as a compliment. This game felt like going back in time to a simpler time.

Visually the game is not at all like the PS2. The visuals are beautiful and has been compared to Pixar. It's bright, colorful, and well polished. To me this is peak aesthetics. This game is worth playing just to see all the work that went into the game's visuals alone.

It reminded me of a PS2 game because it's a self contained fun third person action adventure. Just a fun game with no bullshit holding it down or any other purpose then being a fun adventure. The world is a joy to explore with a nice steady progression. I especially love how the Hub is mostly corrupted and you slowly restore it over the course of the game. Shit like that always feels so good.

There's a lot of unexpected challenge to. Some of the later fights and especially bosses took me a bit to beat. Just like a PS2 game you'll get random difficulty spikes that are so fucking satisfying to beat.

I highly recommend this game.

Adventure Games Where You're in the Desert:

Sable

Sable is a coming of age story presented in a very fun interactive package. This is a game about heading out into the world and exploring on your own whim to figure out what your character becomes as an adult.

You play as Sable, a young adult girl who has to leave her tribe and head into the wider world to discover herself. The goal is to find mask which representative a life path and pick one by the end. The actual game is about heading into a desert open world, solving puzzles, helping NPC's, and discovering what bits of hidden lore hide throughout. You do this all on a hoverbike you can customize as you unlock more parts.

As always the art style is important to me and this game has something really unique. The characters animation is low framerate and it can be off putting to some, but of course I loved it as I love any odd creative choice. I love the lighting and colors to. It's hard to describe just why I was so mesmerised by the art style, but I can safely say it's one of my all time favorites.

The only negative goes to technical issues. The game ran like shit on my PC and my PC isn't bad. Even people with far better PC's then me ran into frame rate issues and others didn't have any. Sometimes games aren't optimized well, but this game was so magical to me that I loved it, despite the tech issues.

It's a very chill game. You want to explore a cool world at a slow pace and get lost in it? Sable's the game for you.

It Comes In Waves

This is a short game where you have to start over if you die. A penalty I feared, but truthfully this isn't that difficult of an experience. You start on one end of a desert and have to carry something to the other end as it grows inside a tank on your back.

As you wait for whatever your transporting to grow you will explore minimalist environments with some unique imagery that speaks of a wider history you just have to wonder about. The whole time you have to watch out for raiders and watch your water level. It always depletes and you will need to explore and refill it as you journey on. I also love how you have a map, but the map is like an actual map. It doesn't show you on it, but just the overall area.

This game will take you a hour at best and is unlike anything else on this list. There's something about just slowly walking across the desert, not knowing what's ahead, and hoping you can make it to the next water tank. Just a little experimental game about a harsh journey.

Platformers With 2 Entire Dimensions:

MO: Astray

Ever wanted to play as a little blob? No? Well you should because this game was a hidden gem. I was thrown off by this game at first and then pleasantly surprised by the whole experience.

This game feels like it should be a metroidvania. It's 2D and you're on a broken down ship or facility or something. Nope. This game is fully linear and at first I didn't think I'd like that and was disappointed, but it works so damn well.

You play a slime essentially and you have the magical power to read the last thoughts and minds of corpses by settling on their rotten fleshy head. With this power and other little story tidbits you learn what's going on, your purpose, and so on.

There's no combat in this game really. You move by shooting yourself in any direction you can see and you can stick to surfaces. There's danger. There's enemies. There's boss fights. All without the usual fair of attack/dodge roll, that's standard for 2D metroidvanias now. This game is something different and that alone makes it worth it.

Also a note on the boss fights. All of them felt very unique from each other I prefer having a few well crafted unique bosses then having a bunch of the same type of fight over and over again.

Another genuine hidden gem you should try.

Platformers With 3 Entire Dimensions:

Frogun

Frogun is adorable. It's like a N64 game and I love it.

You have a frog grappling hook and go through little short levels that ramp up in difficulty. There's optional challenges in each one. The art style is absolutely going for that early 3D low poly vibe that is starting to become more popular.

This is a perfect example of just a fun video game for the sake of being a fun video game. No serious story or message or intense complicated gameplay mechanics. Just a cute 3D platformer reminiscent of a older time.

Also I played this back when I used to stream and a Frogun speedrunner showed up in chat and helped me pull off a couple speedrunning tricks so that was fun.

If you want something simple and fun then here it is.

Cyber Hook

The ultimate speedrunning game. You have a gun, a grappling hook, and the ability to slow down time. This is a pure platformer. You enter levels with the goal of getting through as fast as you can.

I never got great at it, but the few times I really got going fast and flew through a level felt awesome. It's so satisfying finally doing things right after many failures and you will fail a lot.

There's really not much more to it. Neat visuals with satisfying and simple mechanics. If that sounds fun to you then check it out.

Marble It Up! Ultra

Platformers really are just the perfect mechanic to make fun mindless games with. Marble It Up! Ultra is another simple 3D platformer that's just purely focused on being fun.

As always it's not that complicated either. You're a marble and you try to reach the end of each stage with a time limit. There's items to stop time, make you jump higher, and go faster. Just all about building up speed and there's tons of ways to skip past parts of levels. Like the two games before, this one is perfect for speedrunning.

It's fun, go buy it.

RPG's:

Roadwarden

I was going to make a big post about why I preferred this to BG3, but scrapped it. BG3 is fun, but the story just bores me from the get go. Where BG3 failed for me Roadwarden succeeded. All story and all fantastic.

This is a text based RPG. Very simplistic visuals which show just enough to let your imagination handle most of the work.

You play a roadwarden who has the lovely job to travel the dangerous roads and help the townsfolk all while working on your greater goals. You pick between 3 starting classes and those do change how you approach things quite a bit. You have a time limit and that will force you to prioritize things over others. You can't do everything in a single playthrough. Your decisions matter and you aren't going to figure everything out.

You have to manage your health, money, hunger, and cleanliness. You will never have enough money for everything and that helps create more interesting choices. You have to manage what you do in a day. You meet a lot of people and forge allies or enemies and it's all told with stellar writing.

If you want a well written fantasy interactive story then you must play this game.

RPG's With Intense High-Octane Turn Based Combat:

Epic Battle Fantasy 5

A long time ago in times forgotten there existed these ancient relics called Flash games. Maybe one day I'll talk about old flash games I was into, but for now I'm only talking about the latest instalment in one of them. Epic Battle Fantasy is a series of games made by Matt Roszak. They started as little flash games, but have since turned into bigger games that are on Steam. 5 is the latest one and also the best so I'm recommending this one.

I've gone through this game multiple times. This game fucking rules. The game is easy to control, satisfying, and has my favorite turn based combat system period. No seriously, this is my favorite turn based combat system. I could go on what I like about it so much, but I'll spare you all most of the details. I'll say it gets rid of mana entirely and put all your abilities on cooldowns which changes based on what you're using. This just fixes balancing and helps you from spamming heals and all that. I love this system. It's easy to control, intuitive to understand, full of options, and can have a chaotic randomness I enjoy.

In this game you explore the overworld, solve puzzles, and fight enemies. The story is not at all serious or anything like that. It may not be a Flash game anymore, but it still has the older internet spirit of not taking things to seriously and being a little juvenile. There's also a lot of post game challenges that still are impossible for me to really do well or at all.

You can change the difficulty anytime and another thing I love is the entire game can be controlled with just a mouse. You can use a keyboard to, but a mouse covers everything which I think is neat.

This is such a wonderful combat system and the game I've beaten most on this list. If you want legitimately challenging turn based RPG combat and don't care about story or characters to get that then this game is a must play.

Shadows Over Loathing

Want a lovecraftian mystery RPG injected with a dose of comedy where everybody is a stick figure? Yes? How very specific, but luckily there's a game just for you.

Shadows Over Loathing is a turn based RPG where you search for your missing uncle in a area full of strange locations and characters. I never did play their other game West of Loathing, and I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It was a lot of fun, creative, difficult at times, and had a world I really wanted to explore.

It has a lighthearted comedic tone throughout and the silly art and stick figure characters help with that. The actual turn based combat is fun to. Nothing to complicated but could be challenging to which is needed to help this style of combat really shine.

There's really not much more to it. If this sounds like something you'd enjoy then please check it out.

RPG's Fused With A Light Novel:

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA

AA games still exist! I finally get to talk about Ys. I've played 3 Ys games and I'm going to talk about my favorite one because of the fun gameplay. This is a very unknown franchise that has existed since the 80's and even now the 10th instalment is set to release later this year.

As for why I'm recommending Ys 8, it's because it has some of the most fun gameplay. The combat is fast paced, encourages good timing, and full of that anime over the top stylish action. You control up to 3 characters and can easily switch between them. Each character plays differently and has their own special moves and everything just feels so satisfying.

You play as generic light novel anime man, Adol. Tagging along is generic tsundere light novel anime girl and other light novel anime characters. Like edgy boy with a gun, loli raised in the wild, and blue haired girl. You crash land on a island and have to survive and find survivors. Much like LOST the story goes off the rails and of course in classic JRPG fashion you need to stop the end of the world somehow. Unlike LOST characters are generic and the usual anime fair.

Despite the lackluster story this game still fucking rules because it's so goddamn fun to play. It also solved crafting forever by making it so you can convert common items into rarer ones making anything you find useful potentially. Seriously it's such a nice feature and all crafting systems without it are lesser.

If you want some fun action combat and don't mind anime bullshit then really, check out the entire franchise. Any of them will do, but this is the one I'd recommend the most.

RPG's Fused With A Light Novel and A WW2 Textbook:

Valkyria Chronicles 1 and 4

Picture this. WW2, but with anime and magical girls. Japan just never stops with these incredible ideas.

I adore these 2 games. I haven't played 2 or 3 as those are PSP games and I don't hear great things. However I can confirm 1 and 4 are fucking fantastic.

These games are tactical RPG's where you command troops one by one in missions. Most are usually about capturing a enemy base, but there's a lot of variety beyond that in both of them. You lay out your troops at the start plus your commander who's in the tank. You get a set level of CP per turn and each CP is used to control a unit. The actual game is probably piss easy for experienced tactical game players, but I'm not that at all. I found it legitimately difficult, both games.

What sets it apart is the game turns into a sort of third person shooter when controlling the units. You can freely move up to your AP and get one action to do. If it was just top down the whole time I'd find that not that interesting, but actually moving around and taking cover unit by unit is very engaging. There's 5 classes in the first game and a 6th added in the fourth game. Each class can be upgraded as well along with weapons, equipment, and the tanks.

The stories in both are nothing special truthfully. It's anime WW2 with silly dumb anime characters. I don't mind that and had a lot of fun, but if you can't stand something like Persona then these games will infuriate you. To me stupid anime characters in games can be a lot of fun, like Raz in 4, the dumbest but somehow most entertaining character for me. Expect some silly anime cliches and tone changes and the usual fair for these kinds of games. Even if the story is a big nothing for you, I still think both games are worth it for the gameplay.

Another aspect that I really love is all your units have personality traits that can trigger as you control them. What caught me off guard was that they're both positive and negative ones. There's ones like a woman having man hater and fancies woman as traits, aka the lesbian. There's straight up a guy with misogynist as a trait. Some are lonely, frail, daredevils, have crushes or people they hate, even one with the masochist trait. All these good and bad traits translate into potential buffs or debuffs that can happen in the game.

Sadly these side characters don't get much story in the first game. Just a unique design with some personality traits and maybe a couple in battle lines of dialogue. However, the 4th one introduced squad stories. Essentially little side stories that revolve around the non important squad mates. They were always fun to do and the missions for them are more unique because they are designed around only using those 3 characters.

I recommend both of them, but if you had to play one I'm not sure. 1 has the better story, the overall lore itself establishes in 1, and the gameplay is still fun. 4 has the better gameplay, more unique missions, and the squad stories which were a highlight for me.

Just pick which one sounds more like your thing if you only want to spend the time with one of them. Both are fun.

RPG's About the Harsh Reality of Capitalism:

Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale

I adore this games concept. It takes the common NPC seen in these little RPG adventures, the shopkeeper, and puts you in their shoes. You're father has a big debt to pay off and you now have to sell items out of your house to help pay it off before the deadline.

You lay the items out and then have to haggle your way to a profit. Finding the line of when to haggle and how much is the key to success and I failed miserably. I never did beat this game, but I haven't beaten many games on this list and that won't stop me from telling you to play them. I think the concept alone is enough of a reason to check it out.

The game does have combat as well. You can hire an adventurer to go with you into a dungeon and fight enemies for treasure. I like how you hire someone from the Adventurers Guild, just another cool concept as a typical game would have you play as the character being hired instead all the time. I also like how dungeons are high risk high reward. If they die then you lose most of what you gather and essentially just wasted the day.

It's just a cool concept and a nice change of pace from how a game set in these typical fantasy settings would go. You aren't some savior of the world, but just a shopkeeper trying to pay off debt.

Spooky Games:

Yuppie Psycho

Do you want a game about a corporate building being haunted by dark forces and being a badass fighting your way through it all? That's Control. You just want Control.

Unlike Control which bored me to death after a while. Yuppie Psycho is about a haunted corporate building, but you play a new lowly worker who's been tasked with something far above his pay grade. Brian Pasternack is a new hire who's in way over his head. What should have been a normal corporate jobs turns into a witch hunt, literally.

You aren't a badass and will have to sneak your way to victory, uncovering the buildings hidden secrets along the way. For me that's part of why this works over Control as a effective story. You're kind of a fucking nobody who has to be extra careful and is reluctant to even do this. Far more relatable honestly.

The joy of this game comes from exploring this building and uncovering the secrets and horrors. Each floor is unique and this game gets creative with the corporate horror vibe. I love some of the designs of things and how it blends comedy and horror together. It also has branching paths and even limited save slots which seemed frustrating at first, but wasn't really a big deal. Not saving every chance you can really adds to the tension when sneaking around.

It's not a true horror intense experience, but as someone who is a baby with horror I found a lot of genuine tense moments. It's a real indie gem.

The Complex: Found Footage

Kane Pixels backrooms videos are honestly pretty fucking great. I'm not usually a fan of horror at all, but there's something about these videos that just work for me. Then pgWave decided to make a video game creating the experience of exploring these kinds of spaces.

This is a creepy game where you slowly move through liminal spaces and just sort of get lost in it. There's no jumpscares or anything intense happening, but as a baby with horror this game was tense to go through for me. Honestly I appreciate it's not a more traditional horror game with a monster or something. Just dropped in a space that's inherently unsettling and leaving it up to you to explore.

If you have a free night and want to get lost exploring spaces only games could deliver then play it. It's literally free.

Games Where You Gotta Go Fast:

Distance

This game fucks. I actually remember when playing the first version of this game back when it was a student project. Students at DigiPen made a game called Nitronic Rush and it was (maybe still is?) available to download for free from the schools website. That game fucks and they announced a proper full game called Distance and it was one of the rare instances I actually bought a early access game.

Distance is a car game about going fast as fuck. The levels don't put you against anyone and instead just getting to the end is the challenge in itself. You have a boost that can overheat, a jump, and even wings when needed. The levels will require you to weave in and out of oncoming danger. They have jumps where you'll need to turn the car 90 or 180 degrees to land on a new track. All while giving you a wonderful sense of speed and accomplishment when you pull things off right.

It's not a easy game either and levels will get challenging. There's a ton of levels and challenges and if you get sucked into the gameplay then there's a lot to keep you there. This game seeks to deliver the thrill of going fast in a dangerous track where everything is out to kill you, and making it to the end. There's really not much more to say. It has a specific vision and fully realizes it.

Games Where You Trust the Heart of the Cards:

Foretales:

This game is very unique and nothing quite like what I've played before. The entire game is card based. Each of the characters have their own decks that are all mixed together in your hand. You have 4 resources you can collect, gold, food, fame, and infamy. You can get item cards as well. The board has various location cards you need to move through to move the story along. What's unique about this is the cards can be used in battle or on locations.

It's hard to really go into details how this all works, but you don't have a separate hand or anything for when combat begins.

Some cards have uses in locations and battles and others don't, but there all mixed together which adds to you planning ahead and making the best choice. You can use a eavesdrop card near a guard post to get a juicy secret which can be used for blackmail later. You can forage for food and obviously a forest will give you more then a mine shaft. There's a lot of really cool little interactions and creativity put into this systems that's just to complicated to type out and explain.

One thing I can get into is the best feature of combat. The fact that you can get through it without fighting or with less fighting then needed. Those 4 resources can be used in locations for story or optional reasons, but they can also be used in combat pacify enemies. Bandits can be bribed with gold or food for example. Fame and infamy can be used as well in certain circumstances. They are a constantly growing resource that always have uses. I'm sure it's possible to do a full pacifist run, though I imagine it would be difficult.

The game also has multiple paths for the story to go and lots of optional stuff. Multiple characters to use down the line but only 3 party members so there's more choice as well. Also everyone's an anthropomorphic animal because why not.

I just like how it's a card based game that's not just a battle between opponents or a roguelike or how cards are typically used in video games. If nothing else this game should be played for it's game design alone. If you want a really unique interactive story experience entirely dictated by cards then this is about the only game I know of like it.

One Step From Eden

I'm very bad at this game. So bad I still have never beaten it once. It's really fun all the same though.

It's a deckbuilding roguelike set on a grid. As the formula goes you fight your way through, choosing your path, collecting cards, and seeing if you can win. In my case that's a no.

The game is set on a grid where you have to manage what spells you currently have, dodging enemies, and somehow making sense of the chaos. You can unlock other characters that have their own unique mechanics to help freshen things up. Also the game just throws you in the deep end and lets you learn through playing. No tutorial or anything, just have at it.

If you're itching for a roguelike that's very fucking challenging then enjoy.

Inscryption

This is another game I expect many others to know about, but if not then honestly just play it.

It's a rougelike card game set in a wonderfully crafted creepy setting. You're alone in some mysterious persons shack forced to play a really well designed card game. Of course if it was just that I'd not be recommending it.

The mechanics are well thought out and slowly learning the mechanics feels nice. You will fail, a lot, as is the case for roguelikes, but keep at it. The game is filled with secrets and puzzles and mysteries that you'll just have to figure out for yourself.

Much like with Outer Wilds way back at the top, I don't want to say much more. If you have somehow not played this or don't know anything about it then you should.

Tainted Grail: Conquest

This is still the only proper deck-building roguelike in the same vein as Slay the Spire. While I haven't played much of that and honestly couldn't get into it, this game I did.

It was described to me as Slay the Spire meets Dark Souls by some poor soul who's brain is forever lost in soulslike hell. In reality it's just a cool deck building game where you fight creepy monsters and slowly build up the village to make each run easier. There's characters to find and NPC quest you can make little progressions on each run. It's just enough story and context to give this game a sense or purpose and progression outside collecting cards.

What added more replayability to me beyond the quest was having 9 classes to work with. In truth it's really 3 broad classes with 3 variations on those broader class types. You have the fighter, archer, and summoner as the broad classes. They use similar cards, but their strategies vary with each subclass. A summoner is more about making their summons powerful, bloodmages use their own life to summon minions that get stronger and die on their own, and necromancers sacrifice their minions to turn into a Lich. The fighter and archer subclasses are as varied and it's a good way to use similar cards across different playstyles.

I had a lot of fun with this one. It's a fun deck building game.

Thinking Games:

Manifold Garden:

I love the space this game takes place in. This is the shit only games can truly deliver on. The world is basically always looping. Each level repeats in all directions when your in open space. If you fall anywhere, you'll be ok. You can just fall endlessly even, it's very mesmerising and freeing once you get used to the fact that you can just jump off anywhere, and even needed to solve the level sometimes.

The other fun mechanic the puzzles primarily revolve around is the ability to walk on any surface and change gravity as you do it. Essentially you turn the wall into the new floor and is the main mechanic for puzzles in enclosed spaces. This game uses blocks of various colors and the simple task of putting them in the right slot is made complicated by having to altar gravity and matching them up. There's other mechanics introduced of course, but you'll need to discover those yourself.

The game can be beaten in a day give or take your skill at puzzles. I appreciate that it doesn't overstay it's welcome and uses it's mechanics in interesting ways. Also this reminds me I still need to play Antichamber someday.

If you like exploring spaces only games can deliver on or puzzles then this is the game for you.

FEZ

FEZ! This is such a fun interesting little game. It's probably well known given who the creator is, but if you haven't checked this out before, then you should.

The trailer makes it appear to be more a platformer then a puzzle game and that's half right. Similar to another game on this list, FEZ goes much deeper then a mere platformer. It has some esoteric puzzles. As I understand (could be wrong) one puzzle still hasn't been solved legitimately, but had to be brute forced and even now the community has no concrete answers on how you were supposed to get the solution.

The good news is the harder puzzles aren't technically required to just finish the game. You could still enjoy this as a fun platformer. The way the world works is you see the game world on a 2D plane. Like any other 2D platformer. However, the world itself is in 3D and you can switch the perspective to change where platforms and other things are. It's really fun moving about this world and in a sense each level is it's own puzzle to figure out how to get through it with these mechanics.

I highly recommend this game.

Thinking Games for DJ's

FRACT OSC

This is another game I would be shocked if anyone knew about. No one talks about this game ever and I don't even remember how I found out about it wayyyy back in college. This is also the oldest game on here I've played. I haven't touched this is years, but know I enjoyed it a lot.

What i remember is it's filled with music based puzzles. I also remember being very fucking confused and having to look shit up, but the real joy is just the vibe. Everything makes sound and the whole game revolves around music. I slowly explored as much as I could and just took it all in. It's a fun space to be in and I'm a sucker for being dropped in a unusual place only games can delivery on.

If you don't know shit about music production like me you might have a hard time or maybe I was just a fucking idiot and needed help. Either way I still recommend this to everyone.

Vibing with the Beat Games:

Sayonara Wild Hearts

This is basically a interactive album. It's a rhythm game that's not to difficult, which is good as this is more about the flow and vibe. There's not much more to say about it. It will take an hour and every bit is lovely. It's a visual and auditory feast that has some clever ideas packed in. I think everyone should experience it.

Soundodger+

This game won't be on the Steam store for much longer sadly. Warner Bros being shitty and taking cool shit down. I haven't played any other of the Adult Swim games that are being taken down, but I encourage you to find the list and get anything interesting while you still can.

The game itself is a fun little bullet hell rhythm game. The song plays and you are a circle in the middle of larger circle. Obstacles are thrown out into the middle timed to the music and you simply have to dodged them. I don't remember it being to hard, but I know there are community levels and I just have to assume those are going to be tough.

It's a cool game to vibe to and it's going to be gone soon. Don't miss your chance to get it.

Artsy Games That I Don't Know Where Else To Put Them:

The Beginner's Guide

This a narrative experience about the relationship between the narrator and the game dev who's games are being played. That may not sound like the most interesting premise, but trust me it's very engaging. This game has a unsettling feeling underneath it all and it's really hard to go into more without just spoiling things.

The actual game is you going through a series of small little games made by a Dev named Coda as the narrator Davey speaks to you about various things relating to the game and Coda himself. It's explores a character who's frankly caught up in a unhealthy obsession with someone else and quite the journey.

It will only take a hour and half to get through and I think it's worth a playthrough if you like narratives only video games can deliver on.

The Static Speaks My Name

This is the shortest game on this list. It's also the most depressing. If you struggle with dark thoughts and depression and really need something happy to distract you, then do not play this little free game.

It's a sad and unsettling little experience that has a lot of room for interpretation. I'm a fan of little strange pieces of art like this and if this sounds interesting to you then it's free. Check it out.

Minimalist City Builder Games:

ISLANDERS

This such a cute game. It's a simple city builder where the goal is to keep building things correctly and move on to another island. You start on a randomly generated island and are given a set of buildings and a number to reach. Buildings will get bonuses based on whats near them and as you unlock more buildings the number to reach gets higher.

That's really it. It's easy to understand and a nice little relaxing game about building a cool island town. Pretty cheap and pretty fun.

Multi Genre:

The Hex

This is multi genre because it quite literally has many different gameplay modes packed in it. A bunch of old video game characters stay at a Tavern where a murder may take place. It's a murder mystery! Also so much more.

In truth it's a narrative video game about exploring these characters past lives and revealing a larger narrative underneath it all. This was made by Daniel Mullens who's latest game I recommended earlier. Much like Inscryption, this game slowly draws you into it's setting and drop feeds you it's secrets slowly.

The Hex was pleasantly surprising as I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. It's worth playing.

That's it. That's the list. Over 50 more games to add to your Steam library which means over 50 more games you'll get to, eventually.

#video games #Steam #indie games #Steam Sale #Gaming

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zerbu · 1 year ago

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Project Squealer BIG REVEAL

Calling all mystery buffs, adventure seekers, and gumshoe wannabes!

I am developing MY OWN INDIE GAME under the working title PROJECT SQUEALER! In this action-packed adventure RPG game, a disease called Laughter Pox has plagued the town, and it's up to three kid detectives to investigate!

These days, I'm mostly known for making mods for The Sims 4, but I've been interested in game development as far back as 2009. In fact, I originally bought The Sims 3 for PC back in 2012 as a tool to plan out characters and worlds, before becoming hooked on the gameplay. For a long time, The Sims was my main creative outlet, but I was still coming up with game ideas in the background.

Skip ahead to mid 2016: while playing with my Go to School mod, I needed to create some child characters to fill the school with. I created two rival teams of kid detectives, and came up backstories and mysteries for them to solve. I ended up liking these characters far more than any other characters I had created. They felt like my creative masterpiece, begging for something bigger than just creations made in a character creator.

That's when "Project Squealer" started brewing in my brain. This indie RPG wasn't just some vague idea; I was developing full-blown stories, environments, and gameplay planned for my kid detectives. I also had the perfect art style in my head. Emphasis on in my head.

Turns out, bringing my dream art style to life was way harder than I thought. So hard, in fact, that I spent the next few years learning how to create art. It took until 2020 to finally have character and environment art that could (almost) pass for pro-level game stuff. Not only that, the project was undergoing what indie devs refer to as scope creep. I kept adding more and more ideas to the design doc, making the game more complex and pushing the release date even further into the future. In 2018, I even decided to move from 2D to 3D, and switched engines from MonoGame to Unity (and later to Unreal Engine 5 in 2023).

Now, it's 2024, and I'm finally, finally ready to announce what I've been working on for the past 6 years!

Project Squealer is the working title for my own indie game about a team of three kid detectives: Orlo (middle), Von (left) and Zoros (right). Together, they go on adventures and solve mysteries… or at least they would, if they weren't constantly having their business stolen by a rival detective team.

In this action-packed adventure game, a mysterious disease known as Laughter Pox has plagued the town, causing people to laugh hysterically. Where is it coming from? How can it be cured? It's up to our detectives to find out! If they can convince others to trust them with such an important mission, that is!

Project Squealer uses a hybrid of 2D and 3D graphics to create a 2D cartoon look with full 3D movement. Characters and some organic objects are 2D sprites that move with the camera. Most environments, objects and buildings are 3D, but have texture-based outlines to give it a 2D look.

The game features a variety of different quests, characters, abilities, enemies, locations, weapons and items. In addition to the main storyline, you can help out NPCs by performing "errands" for them, which will unlock cool rewards and even side missions.

Unlike many RPG games, Project Squealer won't include a character level system, because I want the player to be able to progress using their own skill, not by grinding levels. One of the game's main design philosophies is that there are few, if any, permanent upgrades. Weapons will eventually break, status effects that make your stronger will eventually expire, etc.

Project Squealer is still in relatively early development. I plan to post more information, screenshots, and eventually even videos, as it gets closer to release. Follow my Twitter for quicker updates: https://twitter.com/ZerbuTabek

Your support and feedback is welcome, and will help improve the game!

#gamedev #game development #indie games #unreal engine #indie game dev

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miautastic-games-blog · 2 months ago

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Just a small project i´ve been working on

Inglés/English

When I found out that the G5 series of My Little Pony had been cancelled, I had a nostalgic attack and decided to watch the Friendship is Magic series again, taking advantage of the fact that it is complete on YouTube, to refresh my memory and then watch the "complete" G5, something I haven't done yet because I don't have the money to pay for Netflix and I don´t want to risk with a pirate site to watch the movie :P. The thing is that while I was watching the series at some point I got the idea that the adventures of Twilight and friends would fit very well in an RPG style game, so I started digging around the fandom to see what kind of fangames I could find (don't even get me started on official mobile games, I'm against the business model of those kinds of games), but the thing is that, apart from some horror games like those of Princess Luna or the one of Applebloom in the town without cutie marks, some MMOs, the games based on the Fallout Equestria fanfic and that filthy game with Trixie, I didn't find anything that resembled the idea I had in mind (Don't get me wrong, a lot of those games look really fun, especially "that one") so I said to myself "Hey, what if I made that game?".

With this idea in mind I started to fantasize about what this videogame would be like and I had the idea of making it in clickteam fusion, the same engine that the classic FNaF games are made in, a saga of which I am a fan, so I started to learn about the particularities of this software and to design prototypes for some mechanics that I want to include, such as a mission system and an inventory. What you see in the video is a practically finished version of a character customization system, which has several options so you can create the pony that best suits your personal tastes.

After much thought I decided to call this project "MLP: Harmony is Magic". As I already implied this is a fangame so it does not have the official license nor the support of Hasbro (hopefully not their wrath either). It will be inspired by G4, which includes the main series, the comics both canonical and non-canonical, some information taken from the books, and content related to Equestria Girls. In "Harmony is magic" you will take on the role of a pony who, along with his five friends, must face threats that will put the fate of Equestria in peril and overcome trials in which their friendship will be challenged. Explore this magical kingdom to meet and help its inhabitants and fight in turn-based combats against monsters such as Manticores, Little and Big Dippers, Vampire Ponies, Changelings and others that endanger the peace of the little equines, with the help of an enigmatic being that will not last long when it comes to lending its strength to restore harmony: the Tree.

I still have many things to work on, for example in the aesthetic section of the game, which I can tell it will be in a minimalist pixel-art style to resemble the aesthetic of the series. I also have to polish some mechanics and finish designing others, such as the special powers of each pony race or a cutie mark´s skills system inspired by Pokémon. When I have something more to show, I will return with another post; In the meantime, be happy, learn about friendship, drink water and whatever.

Meow.

=================================================Español/Spanish:

Cuando me enteré que habían cancelado la serie de la G5 de My Little Pony, tuve un ataque de nostalgia y decidí volver a ver la serie de La Magia de la Amistad aprovechando que esta completa en YouTube para refrescar mi memoria y luego ver "completa" la G5, cosa que no he hecho por el momento porque no tengo plata para pagar Netflix ni ganas de meterme en un sitio pirata para ver la película :P. El caso es que mientras miraba la serie en algún momento se me ocurrió la idea de que las aventuras de Twilight y amigas encajarían muy bien en un juego estilo RPG, así que me puse a hurgar en el fandom a ver que fangames podía encontrar (ni me hablen de los juegos para móviles oficiales, estoy en contra del modelo de negocio de esa clase de juegos), pero el caso es que, aparte de algunos juegos de terror como esos de la Princesa Luna o el de Applebloom en el pueblo sin cutie mark, algunos MMO, los juegos basados en el fanfic de Fallout Equestria y ese juego cochino con Trixie, no encontré nada que se pareciera a la idea que yo tenia en mente (no me malinterpreten, muchos de esos juegos se ven muy divertidos, sobre todo "ese") así que me dije "Oye, ¿y si yo hiciera ese juego?".

Con esta idea en mente me puse a fantasear sobre como sería dicho videojuego y tuve la idea de hacerlo en clickteam fusion, el mismo motor en el que están hechos los juegos clásicos de FNaF, saga de la cual soy fanático, así que me puse a aprender sobre las particularidades de este software y a diseñar prototipos para algunas mecánicas que quiero incluir, como un sistema de misiones y un inventario. Lo que se ve en el video es una versión prácticamente finalizada de un sistema de personalización de personaje, el cual cuenta con varias opciones para que puedas crear el pony que más se ajuste a tus gustos personales.

Tras mucho pensar me decidí a llamar a este proyecto como "MLP: Harmony is Magic". Como ya di a entender esto es un fangame por lo que no cuenta con la licencia oficial ni mucho menos con el apoyo de Hasbro (esperemos que tampoco con su ira). Este estará inspirado en la G4, lo que incluye la serie principal, los comics tanto los canónicos como los canónicos, alguna información extraída de los libros, y el contenido relacionado con Equestria Girls. En "Harmony is magic" asumirás el rol de un pony que junto a sus cinco amigos deberán enfrentarse a amenazas que pondrán en jaque el destino de Equestria y superar pruebas en los que su amistad se verá desafiada. Explora este mágico reino para conocer y ayudar a sus habitantes y lucha en combates por turnos contra monstruos como Mantícoras, Osas Menores y Mayores, Ponis Vampiro, Cambiantes y demás que pongan en peligro la paz de los pequeños equinos, con la ayuda de un enigmático ser que no durará a la hora de prestar su fuerza para restaurar la armonía: el Árbol.

Aún tengo muchas cosas en las que trabajar, por ejemplo en el apartado gráfico y estético del juego, que ya les adelanto que será con un estilo pixel-art minimalista para parecerse a la serie. También debo pulir algunas mecánicas y terminar de diseñar otras, como los poderes especiales de cada raza de pony o el sistema de habilidades inspirado en el de Pokémon constituido por las cutie marks. Cuando tenga algo más que mostrar volveré con otra publicación; mientras tanto sean felices, aprendan sobre la amistad, beban agua y que se yo.

Miau.

(Por cierto, si bien soy latino me decidí a hacer este juego 100% en inglés para ir manejando mejor el idioma y todo eso)

#mlp #mlp fim #mlpfim #mlp g4 #mlp g5 #fangame #mlp fangame #friendship is magic #my little pony #my litte pony friendship is magic #miautastic games #harmony is magic

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riddlerosehearts · 1 year ago

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headcanons for idia/vil, my most beloved underrated ship 💙💜

after the STYX incident idia wants to thank vil for saving him from falling into the underworld, but gets too nervous to say anything every time he tries to bring it up. he's terrified of saying or doing something wrong, since if he embarrasses himself he won't be able to just reset like in a video game

he realizes during a gaming session with yuu and some of their other friends at ramshackle dorm that part of why he gets so nervous is because he's had a crush on vil ever since the day vil saved him

he decides that he is not ever going to confess this to vil, because obviously vil would never date an F-tier guy like him when he could get with practically anyone he wanted, but he'll still have to thank him for saving his life

and then when he finally gets up the courage to do so... it ends with vil confessing to idia and idia is half-convinced he's been teleported into some kind of strange dating sim based on a movie vil starred in, with himself as a romanceable NPC, without him realizing it

but nope, he's still in the real world and vil just?? genuinely likes him?? vil's confession gives idia the courage to tell him he likes him back, and they start dating.

vil is just as happy as idia is to stay in and not do anything fancy for dates. he's often incredibly busy and constantly in the public eye, after all, so he cherishes getting to just have nice, simple movie nights with his boyfriend beside him

sometimes vil will come over while idia is gaming and not even say anything, he'll just cuddle up beside him or sit right in his lap. of course, he tries to take a peek at what game idia is playing first, because you do not mess him up in one of his online multiplayer games. but 9 times out of 10 idia loves this and will gladly let vil tell him about his day before launching into an explanation of what he's been doing in the game.

vil obviously inspires idia to take better care of himself, and helps him feel less anxious and self-concious, but idia does a lot for vil too! idia helps vil relax and unwind and get to just be a normal teenager sometimes, instead of always having to be the vil schoenheit, world famous celebrity

idia admires how hardworking, talented, and intelligent vil is and vil absolutely loves how passionate and perceptive idia is, and how driven he can be when he really puts his mind to something.

vil thinks idia's hair is beautiful, and loves to play with it or style it while idia talks. he's a bit nervous to do so at first, but idia assures him that the flames won't hurt him

vil also loves being flirty and complimenting/teasing idia just to see if he can get his hair to turn pink. he succeeds nearly every time.

sometimes when idia is playing games that don't have voice acting (like pokemon for example), he and vil will have fun together by doing their own voice acting. if they're hanging out at ramshackle, yuu and grim and their other friends join the cast! but idia always makes sure vil gets to voice protagonists or other heroic characters

almost anytime these two have a movie night or a gaming session it ends with them having long, spirited discussions and debates about the media. they'll talk about the techniques and inspirations that went into creating it (and you just know idia knows so. much. trivia. he probably collects all of the art/making of books for his favorite media), about theories and headcanons, what they like and dislike about it, just... anything

vil loves talking with idia about costume design and analyzing the fashion styles of fictional worlds. he is gravely offended by many of the fashion choices in the RPGs idia plays

idia often catches himself infodumping to vil about his favorite anime, games, and other media and gets embarrassed and suddenly just stops. vil pretty much always says something like "why did you stop there? it was just getting interesting" or tells him to keep going. sometimes he'll even give idia a kiss on the cheek to encourage him. he doesn't always understand what idia is talking about, but he genuinely enjoys hearing him talk about the things he loves.

this is basically canon already, but vil absolutely loves ortho. which is good, because ortho loves him right back and idia would never date someone who didn't have his little brother's stamp of approval.

idia often thinks it's almost unbelievable that he even gets to have vil in his life, like they're in some kind of fairytale-inspired shoujo anime. vil thinks idia needs to wake up and realize that he's not the only one who feels so lucky.

#twisted wonderland #vil schoenheit #idia shroud #vildia #(is what i mainly call this anyway)#vil x idia #idia x vil #vilidia #idiavil #aaaa i feel a little silly posting all this because hardly ANYONE else ships this #but if people happen to actually like this post #then i will make another one because i'm insane about them and have so many more headcanons i could share

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smash-64 · 1 month ago

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2024 Game of the Year Countdown #6: The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak Nintendo Switch, 2024

Big surprise, another Trails game! As we continue on this long Trails journey (2024 is the 20th anniversary of the long-running and continuous plot of the Trails universe), developer Nihon Falcom has continually adjusted to the evolving world of video games, and they have been successful in giving us fun JRPG experiences that feel familiar, but also bring something new to the table. Trails Through Daybreak, however, brings significantly more new things than any previous game.

First of all, Falcom introduced their new game engine, which was developed in-house. It’s not significantly different from what they used in Reverie, but it definitely brings a little more fluidity to movements and subtlety to the experience in a graphical sense. I gather that there must have been at least some level of difficulty that Falcom had when working with the past engine, as Reverie saw notable slowdown in areas with lots of activity, and few areas were very large. Daybreak, however, has a few downright massive areas that blew me away when I first started exploring. This new, in-house engine must have been a joy to work with for the developers because it seems like nothing was lost when it comes to how the game plays and runs.

Falcom also did a complete overhaul of the combat system and…it’s not my favorite. I got used to it, but I prefer the older style. Is it still turn based? Yes. Movement during turn-based combat is enhanced (as you couldn’t previously both move AND act unless you were attacking), and the game essentially forces you to engage with the action-rpg gameplay before initiating a regular, turn-based battle. The action gameplay is average at best, but I felt like it was mainly just button mashing for a few seconds until the enemy is stunned, which we could do with one well placed hit in previous games. It’s also kind of difficult to parse the turn order since they made a really weird display where icons slide toward the center. This kind of sucks because it’s not immediately apparent who is next, and I feel like the developers knew this since they added a separate button that numbers the icons. Why not just give us a single line like we’ve had since 2004?

I’m a bit disappointed that this looks like the future for the series, since combat is so integral to the entire experience of a Trails game, but I do at least like that we can toggle the difficulty of the field battles separately from the regular combat. I turned the field battle difficulty down, since it was more of a slog, while keeping the regular combat on Hard. Like I said, I got used to the new style of the regular fights, but I just don’t prefer this field combat at all.

The fact that Trails is such a long-running series means that we are bound to have numerous returning characters in every game, and fans of the series love this aspect. It’s actually one of my favorite things about the franchise, so I was thrilled to see who was coming back and what sort of impact they’d have on the story. However, this aspect has also made it increasingly difficult for new fans to get into the series, and Daybreak does not exactly do anything to change this. While first introductions can seem surface level enough for new fans to not feel left out, it doesn’t take long for that feeling to go away. I can’t see how a new fan would be able to jump in and enjoy the game without peppering friends and forums for info about why Zin and Walter know each other, what all these past events in Erebonia and Crossbell were, and why Renne knows EVERYONE. I’m disappointed that they keep marketing these games as “great starting points” when they are very clearly only “the first game in a new arc of the ongoing story.” I know that we’re 11 games in now, but Falcom needs to keep that in mind when writing these stories if they want fans to be able to jump in late.

The new cast of characters didn’t immediately endear themselves to me, if I’m honest. Van feels kind of like Rean, since he’s a softy, but now he’s got a bit of sass. Agnes is not too different from Elie in the Crossbell arc. Feri feels like a slightly more focused CS1 Fie. I don’t find much interesting or redeeming about Aaron at all. Perhaps we’ve gotten to the point where there are just so many characters in the Trails universe that all the tropes have been used already and we’re bound to see recycled versions, Idk. I am significantly more interested in returning characters than any of the new ones.

Except for Judith Lanster, who has stolen my heart.

She’s cute, capable, and her voice actress absolutely crushed it. Her and Walter’s VA, who is actually the original VA from Trails in the Sky SC on PSP, were standouts in this game.

Renne and Rixia are two fan favorite characters who return for Daybreak, but for being in the opening sequence, Rixia shows up all of one time in the first 75 hours of the game. And she was literally only hired muscle. Renne, on the other hand, shows up constantly, which I was pretty excited about. She’s my all time #2 favorite character, so I will always love to see her. However, like many others, I do kind of question her inclusion. It’s great to see her doing new things and generally enjoying herself, but I’m slightly annoyed that they decided to retroactively connect her to Van and give him a not-insignificant amount of credit for helping her between the stories of Sky the 3rd and Zero. In a way, this lessens the impact that Estelle, Joshua, and Tita had on her when she turned away from the Society. Perhaps not, and I’m just salty because my other two favorite characters have some thunder stolen from them both off-screen and retroactively. Idk.

I’ve seen a few people claiming that having Renne around at all is weird because her story is done, which I disagree with wholeheartedly. If anything, having her around shows how far she’s come and how much she’s overcome. She hasn’t been broken by her past, stands strong in her new convictions, and she is thriving while making her own decisions. This is the sort of character other series would kill to have!

I would say, however, that the storytelling of Daybreak falters a bit when compared with past entries in the series. While we do, finally, have the inclusion of numerous actual deaths in the story, something fans have complained about for years since it definitely destroys any real tension or stakes when we already know no one is ever going to die, only one of the deaths even kind of impacts us as players or the team at large. A few deaths end up being important to team members, but it’s usually just the newest one, and since we’ve only just met them, we have yet to really understand them or empathize with their situation. Other deaths end up being completely inconsequential, and none happen directly to team members. A few times, I found myself saying, out loud, “Who cares?”

The thing that Trails in the Sky FC and Trails of Cold Steel 1 did well was use the entire first game to build a strong party and make them all important to us. When the grand finale came around, or sequel games for that matter, we were all invested and knew each character intimately. The big personal stories and emotional scenes actually hit us hard and we cared about them. Daybreak introduces characters and either tries to make us care about them too quickly, or completely forgoes any development for too long, which leads to many of the characters’ reactions feeling overblown or out of place. Yes, by the end of the game, it does feel like we truly have a tight-knit crew, and I hope that pays off in subsequent games, but it was a bit of a bumpy road to get there when compared with previous entries.

The game also keeps a lot from us and asks us to just accept it. Van turns into a black demon with big hair in the gosh darn PROLOGUE, and no one ever really questions it when it comes back at the finale of each chapter. At least Rean’s classmates were concerned when he kept activating Ogre Mode in Cold Steel. Everyone in Daybreak just kinda blinks and says “Well that was weird, but you kicked some ass, Van!” I guess the supernatural has graduated from being extraordinary to just a regular Tuesday in the Trails-verse.

Falcom is well known for consistently good video game music, and while Daybreak is adequate, I didn’t come across too many highlights. I can’t honestly name more than a few tracks that I’d go out of my way to listen to or add to playlists. The direction is also a bit off, with many tracks being replayed over and over again for scenes that call for different emotions. It was strange because I didn’t find many of the songs particularly versatile in that regard. This is a good soundtrack to play in the background while you’re doing other things, however.

The two tracks that really stood out to me were Diabolic Howl and Resonance of Ray. I generally like to listen to a soundtrack when I start playing a game, so I’ve heard all the tracks by the time I come across them in-game. Diabolic Howl very clearly brings back the melody of Fateful Confrontation, a Trails in the Sky battle track for when you fight Enforcers of Ouroboros. However, this track doesn’t play when you fight an Enforcer, so I’m left confused at the inclusion of the musical motif. And Resonance of Ray is honestly a fantastic tune, I just wonder why they chose it for the final dungeon and not the final battle, as I think it builds very nicely as a battle track.

I know it sounds like I’m really ripping into this game, but I had a good time playing it. I did put 120 hours into it and it was essentially the only game I played for half of the summer. The ending did a great job of showing that the cast had grown close and meant a lot to each other, which was really satisfying. And I was thrilled to finally see Calvard, as well as the numerous returning characters. I hope that Daybreak 2 builds upon what they’ve established in this game.

However, if you’ve never played a Trails game and are interested in starting the series, I have to recommend trying Trails in the Sky or Trails of Cold Steel instead.

#trails through daybreak #kuro no kiseki #falcom #Nihon falcom #goty #game of the year countdown

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clowngames · 6 months ago

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This is a dangerous question.

How would you build a House spin off game for the PlayStation II or Xbox 360 that would be nostalgic to people who were born in 1994.

So this is interesting, because the TellTale style would be great for House, if you ignore the way the dialogue selection would mess with the pacing of a House episode - but that wasn't popularized until the PS3 era, so we'd have to get more basic.

My first impulse is to ask what we want out of a House tie-in video game and answer that with "it should feel like an episode (or multiple) of House." House has a solid formula, which is:

Patient comes in with a problem.

House and co. try to treat it as they try and figure it out.

Patient gets worse, sometimes in direct response to treatments.

These often manifest as new symptoms, which House and co. can use to get a more accurate reading.

By the end, they figure it out, and most of the time the patient doesn't even die.

This is the same narrative arc as Wordle, so we know it can be replicated in a game. So maybe we start with a more complicated version of Wordle, where there are a bunch of illnesses a patient has and each respond differently to treatments, which give us clues we can use to get closer to the answer. If the patient dies at any point then we've lost the case.

This is a pretty good start but it's missing that PS2 late millennial gamer element.

It's tempting to add, like, platforming between the patient and the pills and call it a day, but House himself is famously not great on his feet. It's better to lean the other way and move more toward RPG mechanics. We want mechanics that value analysis and planning better than reaction and execution; that's more compatible with the spirit of House MD anyway.

But turn-based combat is really not the vibe. At most a conversation simulator where enemy HP is their patience for House's bullshit and when it reaches 0 they give in and do what he wants. I still don't love it.

What if instead it was a game where you got to decide what House, Cameron, Chase and Foreman spent their hour doing, each hour in the case. On the main menu during this selection is House's board of symptoms, and there's a menu where you can go through the file in more detail and see how the case is going. This style of gameplay would allow for extra menu options for "Deal with Cuddy," or rest mechanics that require that characters spend a certain amount of time a day sleeping. You could have a series of stats that determine each character's specialization which makes them more suited for certain tasks but still able to do any other if the others are unavailable.

Since actually having a mental glossary of every condition in the world is beyond the expectations of a given player, each character can come up with options to pursue in response to symptoms appearing, and maybe a Creativity stat can be tied to how quickly they come up with options. Naturally, all of their stats need to be able to be raised through practice.

Also I don't think the death of a patient should represent a fail-state for this game. Patients do die sometimes in House, and while there are long-term consequences on the wellbeing of the doctors when it happens they don't lose their jobs over it... until they do. I think the punishments for losing a case should be devastating enough that players want to avoid it - like maybe lose enough patients and a major actor quits - but it's not a run ender.

Instead, the campaign tracks how well you do across several patients, and gives you one of several endings based on the decisions you've made and your success rate. Of course there need to be some random elements so you can't just memorize the diseases, but this encourages multiple playthroughs.

In short, the ideal House MD video game is a Princess Maker.

#asks #house md #game design #yes I know this genre was way more popular on the ps1 but this fits the best

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skysometric · 1 year ago

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why, thank you for asking! i've been thinking it through for the last few days, i just wanted to make sure my answer was all written and ready to go first. all... checks notes... 4,000 words of it.

ICYMI, last week i sent asks to a bunch of my friends with a simple question: "what's your favorite game you played this year?" as i hoped, y'all gave a bunch of EXCELLENT answers, all of which i reblogged on my side blog @autumatically! (if you didn't get an ask like this and you want to join in, ping me – i sent too many asks to keep track of and i probably just forgot to send one your way!)

of course i wanted to answer this myself, but i wanted to write about more than just one game! and when i sat down to write, i just kept going, and going, and going...

so we're splitting this up! every day this week, i'll be counting down my top 5 games that i played in 2023. not all of these are games that i've streamed, and only one of them has shown up on anyone else's lists so far, so i'm really excited to reminisce and share my experiences this year 💖

maybe you'll even find a new game to try out? i'm certainly really excited to dig through y'alls lists and try some of the ones i missed out on this year!

to kick things off, let's start with:

Honorable Mentions

two games came out this year that i would probably put in my top 5, no competition. so why didn't i? because i didn't actually play them!

see, as much as i love to play video games, oftentimes i also like to watch them just as much. this has always been great for games that i never intended to play in the first place, like the Final Fantasies and Fortnites of our day… but lately it's also let me take turns with my partner on who plays which new releases.

in fact, for both of the games i'm about to list, i watched my partner play them in full and i've watched no less than two separate people stream them as well. which means, with all that oversaturation, it's probably gonna be a while before i play them myself…

either way! here's my top two games that i didn't play in 2023.

Pizza Tower

this one likely needs no introduction! Wario Land 4 is one of my favorite games of all time, and the way Pizza Tower extends those basic concepts is a masterclass of game design. the moveset is perfectly geared toward accessible speed tech, the level layouts are top notch, the different forms are unique and funny, the art style is GORGEOUS, the combo system adds incredible replay value and pushes the player to their limits…

honestly the only thing stopping me from playing this right now is that the levels are too fresh in my mind, and i'd like a little time to let those memories fade before i dive back in and experience everything in a wave of nostalgia. seeing so much of the game already was totally worth it, though – i had the distinct pleasure of watching my partner learn how to P Rank most of the levels, and the simple joy of watching her build up her skills is one of my standout memories of 2023. proud of you, love!

god, Pizza Tower is a perfect slice of video game. i can't WAIT to play it myself!

Super Mario RPG

as a young kid, i always wanted a physical copy of this game. i could never justify it, though, because i already owned it on Wii Virtual Console, and it was one of the more expensive SNES games i had my eye on… a whole $40 in 2007 money! fast forward to the modern day, and not only do i no longer have easy access to that old Wii copy, but a physical cart now goes for like $90???

blessedly, along comes the Switch remake. i still can't believe this exists – it's a perfect remake in every way, shape, and form! the sprite-based animations are lovingly recreated, the battle system is rebalanced in fun ways, and the music is PERFECTLY re-arranged. even the dialog, which i expected to be completely retranslated… it's smoothed over, but mostly unchanged! the original game's unabashed weirdness and charm is fully intact, and i did NOT expect that out of modern Nintendo.

this is one that i didn't mind watching others play; Super Mario RPG is all about the vibe, and this remake captures that vibe perfectly. i'm excited to play it myself once it's had time to settle! but, for now, i'm perfectly content just vibing with others~

#gaming #writing #top 5 games 2023 #pizza tower #super mario rpg #2023 year in review #year in review

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dangan-kagura · 11 months ago

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Things I Wanted to Include for My V3 Rewrite - Part 1

So if you’ve been to my AO3 and read my fanfic Alternative Danganronpa VE, I’ve gotten as far as Chapter 4 Daily Life where everyone arrives at the Virtual World. Since I haven’t had any motivation in wanting to continue writing it, I decided to make a series of posts that’ll narrate the things I wanted to include that’ll probably never happen. I'll try to highlight some of the most important things.

To briefly recap, my OC has been placed as the leader of the group so that everyone can work together in order to find another hint about the outside world.

Now here’s the new stuff, as soon as they start heading east to where the chapel is, they suddenly get warped into a battle with Monokuma-like enemies.

The scene then plays out like a turn-based RPG and after winning the battle, they start to think that the Virtual World feels like an RPG.

My OC complains about the idea as he ends up saying that he doesn’t like the RPG genre and abandons the group and returns to the mansion.

When he arrives at the phone, he thinks back to the dream he had where he remembers Miu saying that saying your name on the phone will return you to the real world. But it doesn’t work. Kirumi then walks in asking if he is ok and if he wants to talk. My OC gets embarrassed out of concern that Kirumi wouldn’t understand him, but gently explains that he doesn’t like the RPG genre because he’s bad at the genre and is bothered by the amount of peer pressure surrounding the genre’s popularity. Kirumi assures him that things will work out however, and the two of them walk back to the group.

When they return, my OC suggests that Kirumi should take the lead. Because he got Kirumi’s motive video, he wants to see if Kirumi has any leadership skills, but Kirumi doesn't remember anything about being the leader of a country. So Kirumi ends up being the party leader.

When the group arrives at the chapel, at one point, I think I had an idea that someone in the group pushes that big thing at the end of the hall (sorry, I don’t know what it’s called) and in doing so reveals a secret underground passage.

The group then proceeds in a play style similar to Despair Dungeon: Monokuma’s Test.

It’s that bonus mode in V3 that plays similar to Final Fantasy. Anyways, after a series of turn-based battles from random enemies...

The group eventually faces the dungeon boss.

I had an idea for a scene where my OC tries to chicken out of the fight thinking that everyone is destined to lose. Kaede and Kirumi however stop him from running away and tell him to man-up or something and fight the boss anyway.

After defeating the boss, well, I haven’t had any ideas as to what they get for a reward, but it goes like this. The group keeps hearing a voice say the same thing over and over again. Something like a female computer voice saying, “There is an error! There is an error! There is an error! There is an error!” and then the screen just goes black like how a TV turns off. The group then wakes up back in the computer room alive.

No murders have taken place yet.

That was an idea I had in mind, they go to the Virtual World for the first time, but afterwards there are no murders, and everyone is confused as to why what they just saw as they left the Virtual World has to do with the outside world.

I’ve written that the group would also get a Flashback Light as a reward. In the original game, the group doesn’t get another Flashback Light until Chapter 5 after Kokichi showed everyone the outside world. Although I’m thinking that it probably would’ve been better if they got another Flashback Light in Chapter 5 after discovering the new locations in the school.

I think I had an idea for a scene where my OC looks in his pocket to find something like a flashdrive. He realizes that this is actually the reward they got for defeating the dungeon boss and that the flashdrive contains more info about the outside world. My OC suggests that Keebo should be the one to hold on to it. Keebo agrees and takes the flashdrive.

Monokuma would then tell the group that they have to go back to the Virtual World tomorrow to find more clues. My OC however complains that he doesn’t want to go back because he didn’t like how the Virtual World plays similar to an RPG.

I think towards the end of this scene, I wanted to include a scene where...

Kaito starts to vomit blood before the fourth trial.

Like you know the scene after the fourth trial where Kaito pukes blood? I wanted him to do so before the start of the fourth trial. Just like in the original, Maki is the most worried one in the group and everyone starts questioning why Kaito is suddenly vomiting blood. Kirumi is also worried and asks if she could help, but Kaito refuses to get help from Kirumi and goes back to his room to rest.

I’ll explain what happens next in Part 2.

#danganronpa #ndrv3 #fanfic #fan fiction #danganronpa fanfic #rewrite #danganronpa rewrite #blog #kaito momota

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felassan · 2 years ago

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Mac Walters recently did a video interview with Ploppy54 Gaming:

"We got to spend an hour chatting to Mac Walters lead writer of Mass Effect 2 & 3, where we talk about Life the Universe and of course Mass Effect".

Some cliff notes from this for accessibility, under the cut due to length -

Mac mentioned that he found working on ME1 exhilarating. They were creating a new IP for the first time, were innovative and the team was great. There was also the tension of creating something which you don't know if people were going to like or not.

An early concept for ME2 was the idea of 'The Dirty Dozen'. This was the case before the roster went from 12 characters to 10 + 2 in DLC. Also in the early discussions was the idea of the Suicide Mission. Mac explained that you can see that the story, plot and narrative in ME2 are really starting to drive the direction of the product right off the bat.

When developing ME2, the devs knew that some of the features and systems in ME1 were clunky and they wanted to improve on these in ME2. The leap between ME1 and ME2 is bigger than the leap between ME2 and ME3 because there were a lot of things in ME1 that the devs never really achieved the first time around. This was due to factors such as it being a new IP, a new team, and their first time in a new engine, so during the development of ME1, the team were figuring everything out. On ME2, now that they had that under their belts, they understood the engine, the team knew each other better, and their tools were more robust and mature. This afforded them the ability/freedom to explore certain things, like they did with the combat.

Genre-wise, they knew they wanted it to be an action RPG. Back in the day, there were not a lot of things like that in the shooter space. Near the end of ME1 development, they started to bring in dev staff who had more experience in the shooter space. They wanted to let them run with this in ME2, which is why we see evolutions in ME2 combat. There was debate on the team and in the community on this, for example about the switch to heat sinks, but ultimately they wanted to go where the fun was.

The devs found that they were trying to do two things in ME1, bring in an action element while still being an RPG. They discovered that these two things fight each other a lot, so as they went forward with the franchise it was clear to them that they had to sort of double down on what they imagined the gameplay to be, back away from some of the more traditional RPG elements and focus on the action first and foremost. Mac talked on this being an evolution and devs seeking improvement. He also highlighted that BioWare had not really done action gameplay before, having previously put out turn-based/isometric-style games - the devs were flexing new muscles here.

ME1 was developed over 4.5 years approx. The ME2 timeline was a lot shorter. It was developed in just over 2 years approx. Hence, there was a lot of rapid decision-making on ME2. The devs would find something they liked, go with it and not look back during the development of ME2.

There was originally a lot more of Kai Leng in ME3 (a few more Kai Leng appearances). Mac can't remember why these got cut, but it was likely just due to clarity and time reasons.

Not being able to romance Liara, Ash and Kaidan in ME2 was intentional. The devs wanted to have a 'middle act' where these characters were distant to Shepard and doing their own thing, and then them coming back in the third act, where there would be different relationship options with them if Shepard had stayed 'true' to them during the course of ME2.

On ME3, there was talk during development of having Jack and Miranda be squadmates, but ultimately this sort of desire became really challenging simply due to how big ME3 is under the hood in terms of things like number of assets and number of dialogue lines. ME3 is as big as ME1 and ME2 combined. It's a very wide game with a lot of options. When doing the Suicide Mission in ME2, where every character can live or die, the devs knew that they "would pay the price for that decision one day". But they thought it was a great idea for a mission/concept so went ahead with it. It just wasn't possible to have every character prominent or as a squadmate in every subsequent game.

If you look at the number of permutations from all the choice points in the MET, it gets up into millions and millions.

On MELE, there were things that the devs wanted to fix about the MET that they knew they would not be able to.

Part of the intention with Okeer in ME2 was to really sell the player on Okeer and then do this sort of 'bait and switch' with Grunt.

Tuchanka was written by John Dombrow.

Mac said that when he wrote Garrus in ME1, it never crossed his mind to think of him as a romance option, and that what he wrote was a buddy cop scenario. After release of ME1, there was a fairly vocal outcry of 'when do we get to romance Garrus?'. This was the same for Tali. So the devs wanted to make that possible. Also on the topic of why Garrus and Tali are companions in ME2, Mac said that with the ME2 Dirty Dozen concept, they knew that in ME1 they had created six compelling characters outside of Shepard. With that concept the ask was to create twelve more for ME2, who were equally as compelling and meaningful. This is where the devs eventually said, 'no, we should include some of the original cast in ME2', because they felt that the task of creating 12 full new characters would be too high/hard to achieve.

On the process of writing loyalty missions, Mac remembers the team having a lot of conversations about how players really enjoyed some of the smaller missions you can do for Wrex, Garrus etc in ME1. The devs wanted to lean into that. The loyalty missions were actually meant to be short things, but ended up being much bigger and much more involved than originally intended. The devs also ended up doubling down on the idea that ME2 especially was a game about the characters themselves and the in-game team together. The devs realized that in order for players to really connect with 12/10+2 characters and at least have some sense of feeling for them, they would need to really devote some time to the characters.

On ME2, a big thing that Mac pitched for was that he really wanted a mission where it would be guaranteed that one of the squadmates would be with the player throughout. This is because whenever they write dialogue, banter dialogue especially, they write it like, 'here are the twelve options that you could have, and the twelve responses', and that due to this it tends to be fairly generic and the player ends up not learning a lot about each individual character. So there was a push to have these missions where they could guarantee that a squadmate was with Shepard throughout, so the banter could be much more focused on that character. Also, the devs knew that they wanted ME2 to be a darker middle part of the story, so the character acquisition missions were a bit more darker/serious. Due to that they wanted an opportunity where the player could have meaningful missions with their own flavors, to give a bit of a breath, that would be focused around the personality of whichever squadmate Shepard was working with. This gives the player the opportunity to do something other than 'saving the universe' for a change.

Mac talked of how in ME1, Garrus was tough and rugged outside but was clearly internally conflicted with a lot of things. He wanted to be hardline but wasn't convinced of this, wasn't solid in this conviction. In ME1, Shepard can give Garrus moral advice. For ME2 the idea for this with Garrus was "let's see this through in action now, not just in words". This is what a lot of the expression in Garrus' ME2 loyalty mission was about, like, "how far can we actually push Garrus towards this?" Garrus idolizes Shepard and looks up to them, so he will start to lean whichever way they said they thought he should lean in.

The interviewers asked Mac about the dark energy plot. He said that one of the things that the devs did with ME was: they knew there was the Reaper cycle and that the Reapers had a purpose and a reason for coming back. But for quite a while, through ME1 and part of ME2, the devs intentionally maintained competing theories of what that purpose/reason was. Dark energy was one of these theories that they maintained. At the time they did not want to commit to any one of the theories yet, for a few reasons. For example, "it's more mysterious if you don't know. What if we answered that question at the end of ME1 and people didn't like it?" So they maintained these multiple threads and would "gut-check" against these, i.e. if they were changing the main plot or story at any point, they would say, 'does this still work with the multiple theories that we have?'

Another one of the theories was the AI singularity idea (AI advancing and overtaking organics at some point in the future, with dire consequences). Mac said that he wasn't sure why they eventually specifically moved away from the dark energy theory, but that it was one of those evolutions where "we planted some seeds, we didn't necessarily feel that they were leading in the specific right direction that we wanted to, and then when it came time to actually write ME3 it was like, okay, now's the time, we've gotta answer it. I remember us having so many meetings about the reasons and the motivations [of the Reapers] and what was actually happening in the universe. I suspect it was just a matter of, it was the one that most of us sort've aligned around". Another factor in this decision was cultural influences irl. Even at the time in 2010 there was a burbling up of some AI stuff becoming a reality and people considering, what does this actually mean for us? This started to influence the devs and shape some of their storytelling in the MET.

The geth are another example of this sort of evolution. In ME1 they were intentionally designed to be something like Stormtroopers, basically faceless mooks that the player would mow down without question/care. This was intentional as the devs didn't want to burden the player early on with having to figure out the political system, like who is good, who is bad, is it kind of gray, etc. But once that was established, in subsequent games, the devs were like "ok, we can introduce new enemies to take that place, now what do we do with the geth?" Legion was written to provide a perspective that would allow the player to empathize with the geth, and then from that point onwards the devs wanted to keep the geth in a realm more like the rachni - i.e. 'good? bad? misunderstood? not sure?'

The interviewers also asked Mac about the possibility of a sequel to Jade Empire. He said that up until literally the day he left BioWare the devs were talking about a sequel, especially after the success of MELE. Mac had been trying to convince people to do a proper reboot, a re-envisioning of Jade Empire, as had others at the studio. He thinks that there is a lot about the original game that should stay in the past, but that it was a rich world which has more to do in it and more to explore. One of his pitches was "Imagine if all the magic carried forward and it was modern times, ancient Chinese magic in a kind of Harry Potter-esque nature in our times". He hopes that one day someone at BioWare goes "Yeah, we'll do it".

(pls note it's always best to listen to quotes and information segments in full and in their original context)

[source and watch link for full video]

#bioware #mass effect #video games #long post #longpost #garrus vakarian #best boy #jade empire

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todayimgonnaplay · 1 year ago

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Today I'm Gonna Play: Lost Dimension

I saw a video by The Gaming Shelf on hidden gems and this title popped up. I love the death/survival game genre like Zero Escape, Danganronpa, Your Turn To Die, etc. so this was right up my alley.

The game introduces a cast of about 11 characters working a part of a government task force who have special abilities called Gifts, ranging from magnetism to pyrokinises to support based abilities like healing who are stuck in a tower forced to climb up as part of a death game. However, for each section of the tower you climb up, you're forced to go through the death game segment called ''Judgement'', in which you find out there is a traitor within the group each time, and vote them out to be executed. The protagonist in particular, has the ability to predict the future, and therefore has the ability to find out who the traitor is. The main goal is to ensure that people vote for the traitor in order to suceed. This is by developing relationships with the other characters.

In concept, a lot of this sounds very exciting, and there are some interesting executions. Death games normally have a set ''culprit'' to execute decided by the author, but this game has it randomized. Yup! Every time you start a new game, the traitors will always be different, so you have to be careful with who you decide to vote out! How does this affect the overall gameplay? The relationship system allows you to interact with your comrades, getting to know them more and earning their affinity. This helps you influence votes. The other feature of finding traitors is the Vision system, which shows a prediction chart of who's likely to be the traitor while also playing a minigame sequence. The game isn't just about deducting traitors in visual novel style (as usual for this genre), but also incorporates a tactical RPG component as well. Each member has special abilities and range of movement, and if they die, the rest can inherit their abilities. This aspect was my favourite, trying out different combinations and abilities, as well as having back attacks and multiple assists in the same range. It also gave me the opportunity to be more emotionally attached to characters I found useful, hoping they wouldn't be the traitor.

However, the game is not without its faults. The plot is interesting but dialogue falls flat. Characters are mostly trope-y, so it was hard to get too invested in them. The minigame sequence in the vision system is veeery boring as it's the literal definition of being a walking simulator. I don't think people would complain about games like Life Is Strange or Firewatch being that if they saw this. But thankfully the sequence is short. Character designs are okay but nothing to write home about, and the music is alright, bearable enough to stay in my head as an earworm after a session but in a good way. I also don't want to spoil this aspect so I will be vague, the game's plot doesn't seem to follow itself properly despite emphasizing it so much.

Overall, I think it's a game worth trying for its randomized feature and TRPG element. I do hope a successor of sorts comes out of this because it definitely holds some potential.

youtube

#Lost Dimension #tactical role playing game #trpg #tactical rpg #Lancarse #Atlus #Furyu #NIS America #game analysis #game review #anime games

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thatndginger · 1 year ago

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Hi, K! If the characters from Shapeshifter and/or War Witch were party companions in an RPG video game, what sort of actions or gifts would gain their approval?

(This STS ask is totally not based on me playing BG3 nonstop for the past week.)

Someone else who fell into the BG3 rabbit hole! Don’t even get me started on the wizard-fighter build I’ve been testing in that game to surprising success….

I’m gonna go even further with this and give the characters DnD-style classes/subclasses because why not ^.^

Shapeshifter Kerr - Rogue, Inquisitive archetype. Give him interesting types of alcohol or snacks, or a really good bowl of stew. Approves of fucking with authority figures, helping those who don’t have the power to help themselves, and doing things that are probably stupid but very funny. Warrick - Bard, College of Glamour. Give him artist supplies - paints or charcoal and sketchbooks. If you chose to deface public property in funny ways (draw a mustache on that famous portrait, paint a mural of dicks on the city hall, etc) you’d gain a lot of approval. Also approves of helping children and acting against authority figures. Jay - Cleric, Twilight domain. Give her seeds or cuttings from unique plants, books about botanical research or interesting specimens, and different types of tea. Approves of helping others, but unless she knows the person being helped, it is a very small amount of approval. Beating up or generally being a dick to city guards and soldiers nets a concerning amount of approval.

War Witch Mari - Sorcerer, Divine Soul origin. Gift her textbooks. Straight up textbooks. Prefers history and magical texts, but will take just about anything. Approves of actions that uncover arcane secrets or new spells, even if they might be illegal. Also gains a little bit of approval from judging the more egregious of fashion crimes. Jon - Fighter, Battle Master archetype. Give him anything dealing with military history or new tech that could be used as a weapon. Also likes being given a good bit of armor. Approves of any actions taken to tactically approach a fight, or at the very least think through one’s actions before jumping into one. Has a soft spot for helping orphans and street urchins. Nate - Wizard, School of Evocation. Give him shiny things. Bright, gaudy things that show off wealth and hopefully also have some arcane purpose. Approves of turning down the chance to help people unless you get something in return (but only if you don’t have Mari in the party. He’s neutral about it if she’s present), and approaching fights with as much magical firepower as possible in the shock-and-awe approach.

#storyteller saturdays

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monriatitans · 4 months ago

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youtube

Let's Play Some Demos! - Part 5

Welcome to Part 5 of Let’s Play Some Demos | LPSD! In sum, these videos and streams aim to introduce gamers to, usually, Indie games! For this episode, I, once again, looked through my Steam Wishlist to see who had demos available. For those who are new, the purpose of this video series is to provide commentary and feedback on the games for educational purposes.

Today, I played demos for 4 games:

All-Star Fruit Racing A high-speed multiplayer racer with a unique power-up system! Combine different juices for a range of attacking and defensive abilities. Drift through looping bends. Soar over monumental jumps, and defy gravity around tubular tracks in an explosively colorful racer!

Indivisible Indivisible is a hand drawn action RPG platformer from Lab Zero, creators of the critically acclaimed Skullgirls! Set in a huge fantasy world, Indivisible tells the story of Ajna, a fearless girl with a rebellious streak who sets out on a quest to save everything she knows from being destroyed.

SaGa Emerald Beyond FORGE YOUR OWN TALE The latest standalone entry in the SaGa franchise, SaGa Emerald Beyond, brings together the very best elements of the beloved series to offer each player their own unique gameplay experience.

Visions of Mana Explore a world of elemental spirits and adventure in the latest Mana action-RPG. The protagonist Val and his childhood friend Hinna, the newly appointed Alm of Fire, set off on a journey to the Mana Tree.

All links above are to the games’ Steam pages.

The verdict? All-Star Fruit Racing and SaGa Emerald Beyond were removed from my wishlist, to my dismay. Fruit Racing crashed 3 times; not much else needs to be said. SaGa, however, wasn’t fun. It looked great, visually, and it had an interesting start, but once I started being able to do things, it went downhill. The music was better than I expected it to be; too bad I had the volume so low. The Timeline mechanic reminded me of Othercide, which made me smile, but that was about it. I was NOT expecting the Scottish accents. If the game depended upon my having prior knowledge to enjoy it, I missed that. The art style was excellent! The animations were smooth! The game looks gorgeous! How they did their turn-based combat, however, left much to be desired. My favorite one was Visions of Mana, to my surprise. It reminded me a LOT of Final Fantasy XV, which makes sense since they’re both Square Enix games. One would expect some familiar elements. The character banter was fun to listen to; the combat was intuitive until the camera got annoying. PUPPY MOUNTS! Anyway, the art style was consistent; if there’s a name for it, I forgot, but the art style was realistic enough to be believable while also being stylized enough to be unique and fun. One thing that annoyed me, but probably shouldn’t have since I wasn’t familiar with the series, was all the exposition in the beginning. It probably had to do with the voice acting being meh. I’ve already forgotten the character’s names, except for Val, the protagonist, but I do remember thinking whoever voiced the Kitty Cat, whose name I regret not remembering because he holds a dagger in his tail when he fights, was trying too hard. I LOVE that game regardless. It’s one of a handful of games I’ve played that made me WANT to explore! Indivisible was a close second, despite the fact it pissed me off in the end. It was trying to introduce how to flee a battle, but, no matter what I did, fleeing didn’t happen, which forced me to end the demo early. However, I was having a BLAST up until that point! Once I got a hang of the combat system, mostly, I was grooving! I had trouble figuring out which party member was being attacked so I could block the attacks, but it didn’t stop me from wishing there were more games like it! When playing with a controller, each party member was attached to a particular button. All you had to do to make them attack was press a button. There was no menu or anything to sort through, just a slight alteration of a turn-based combat system. As their attack recharged, you could press the button once you were able and could either have a couple people attacking or have a barrage of attacks rained down on the enemy! It was SO MUCH FUN to watch! Fun art style, and nice, little touches with the animations! I DEFINITELY want this one! Despite the fact it showed up in the video as a tiny rectangle even though I made it full screen.

And that’s it for Part 5! If this series of videos is something you’re interested in, don’t forget to hit the Subscribe and/or Follow button!

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“Let’s Play Some Demos!” Playlist

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The Sunday, October 20, and 633rd, Artist Shout-Out goes to FestivalOfRavens! Check them out here!

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TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – Welcome Gamers! 1:19 – Artist Shout-Out 3:25 – Demos’ Intro 3:48 – All-Star Fruit Racing 8:21 – Indivisible – Don’t know what’s going on with the small rectangle 44:05 – Be Right Back 1:20:36 – SaGa Emerald Beyond 1:58:31 – Visions of Mana 4:13:38 – Mini Critique 4:17:54 – Thank You/Closing 4:19:02 – Rendezvous Point Bookshop Plug 4:21:14 – Farewell

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MORE INFO & TO SUPPORT – MonriaTitans Summarized – Rendezvous Point Bookshop – Artist Shout-Outs Criteria – Throne Wishlist – #SubOffTwitch – YouTube – Rumble – Odysee– Twitch

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bellmo15-blog · 8 months ago

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The One Game Genre I Struggle With The Most

Well this sure as hell won’t be a super hot thing for me to post or anything! Then again, when is anything I say that isn’t satirical NOT a hot take?

I play A LOT of video games. And I play a lot of different kinds of video games since I think it’s important to try different kinds of games and different types of genres of games and if you’ve seen the games I usually talk about or even just the pics I’ve commissioned which usually tend to have characters or other aspects tied to various games I really like then that should be obvious. So you can imagen how hard is it for me to admit that there is actually one specific type of game that I struggle with the most. Not struggle playing or anything, not even struggle to get my hands on but struggle to get really invested in and what that one is might actually surprise some of you. Turn based JRPGs.

Yeah, out of all games, slower turn based JRPG styled games are the ones I have the most inconsistent experiences with. And obviously this isn’t me saying ALL RPG’s are something I struggle with, far from it. Fallout New Vegas, Skyrim, Undertale and Indivisable are all RPG games that are, at least at the time of me writing this, in my top 25 favourite games of all time. Not to mention me actually enjoying God of War 2018 and Ragnarock which were more like RPG’s than the original games as well as how I actually do enjoy the RPG Assassin’s Creed games much to the confusion of like every die hard AC fan and I would really love to play Mass Effect one day when I get the chance. Hell I’ve even played Mega Man Legends for the first time recently since it’s something I have had an interest in and oh boy, those controls have NOT aged very well! And of course there’s a bunch of games I’ve played which have RPG elements in them that I've also enjoyed.

No, rather it's the slower classic turn based style of RPG’s I tend to struggle with the most. Why? Well it’s mostly due a combination of personal experience with certain games that use this formula, real life factors and maybe because of what I use to mainly play growing up.

To be fair, there have been JRPGs I’ve played that I have really, really loved. In fact at the start of this year alone I played Super Mario RPG for the first time via the Switch remake and actually really enjoyed it but that’s mainly because I had a REALLY shitty start to this year which lead to me not really being in the best emotional state and this game helped a lot mentally for me. I mentioned my top 25 favourite games of all time before and there are actually at least 2 turn based JRPG’s on that list. Persona 5 and Pokemon Moon although with how Undertale’s gameplay is structured and maybe Indivisble I could probably count those in this category two though I'm still torn on if I'd consider the latter truly turn based or not.

Persona 5 I brought back in 2018 while I was on a holiday overseas in Hawaii for a second time and since the PlayStation 4 wasn’t region locked, thank Arecus, I decided to buy this game for when I got back home to Austraila. Yeah, I probably could of brought something for my Switch instead since that also isn’t region locked and I brought that with me on this trip but there was nothing out at the time I really wanted for my Switch anyway and Smash Ultimate was still six months away at that time. Actually, in general there wasn’t a whole lot I desperately wanted to play back in 2018 since I felt like I had cleared up my backlog of games I REALLY wanted to play. So with nothing else to do I played Persona 5 when I got home and when I did, I got REALLY into it. Like I spent that whole week playing nothing but Persona 5 since I wouldn’t be starting my job I finally managed to get for at least another week. I loved pretty much everything about this game from the story to the characters (well except for fucking Morgana the little shit) and the way the persona system worked. Granted, I spent less time with game after a while but I still loved it and had a great experience with it. I was a little heart broken though that this game was how I found out that even though PlayStation 4 game disks were not region locked, DLC was. Because I brought all the DLC for this game and none of it would install onto my NTSC copy meaning I had to essentially buy the game again but making sure it was the PAL version just so I could use those DLC costumes. *Sigh.*

Then there’s Pokemon. Not just one game in particular but the whole franchise I really like. Yeah, Sun and Moon are my favourites and for good reason two but my love for this franchise never actually started with this game like admittedly a lot of my favourite games in a lot of my favourite franchises. It actually began with Heart Gold and Soul Silver in 2010. I was just starting high school this year and I do feel like that does play some part in why I was so into this game back then because I was 13 at this point in my life while going though a bit of a rough transitional period and had a lot of time on my hands when I wasn’t doing school work and had a lot more patience two. And also admittedly my Nintendo hyperfixation I had at the time thanks to Super Smash Bros Brawl. Or maybe it was because this game came packaged with the Poke Walker which I used to death back then. Or maybe it’s because the whole concept of Pokemon was capturing all different kinds of monsters and using them in battles all of whom had different weakness and strengths and designs. I think this is the reason I’ve stuck with Pokemon for so long, all the different Pokemon you can get in these games and how no one run of the same game will ever be the same especially if you give yourself a self imposed challenge like not using any items or using only Pokemon of one specific type. Which is ironic considering, fun fact, this wasn’t even my ACTUAL first Pokemon game. That was Mystery Dungeon Explores of Time which was a completely different game gameplay wise to the mainline series. That’s also probably the reason I gravied towards Persona 5 so much since your able to use different personas in battle some of which are enemies you can convert to your side.

So yeah, slower JRPG’s have been some really great games and experiences I’ve gone though. But also some have been experiences I’ve lost interest in pretty quickly. Which ones in particular? Well, here’s some of them.

Final Fantasy VI: This is only one of several Final Fantasy titles you’re going to see here that I’ve fallen out of pretty quickly during my own playtime with. Although this one does have a bit of a special place in my heart since it was one of the only games I ever managed to get on the Wii Shop Channel back when that was still a thing. And I admit, I did actually get a decent bit into the game up until past the boss fight with the train and haven’t even played it since then. 12 years ago!

The Original Version of Final Fantasy VII: This was one of the many games an old friend of our family left for us after he sadly passed away in the late 2000’s along with his PlayStation 1 and his slim PlayStation 2 which is actually the reason why I have both a fat and slim PS2. And I tried several times also in 2012 to play this game for long sessions yet the farthest I’ve ever managed to get before going “Well, guess I’ll go play *insert literally any other game I enjoy more here* instead” was Shinra HQ. On Disk 1!

Final Fantasy VIII: Pretty much the same story as VII. One of the many PS1 games left to me by an old family friend only this one I booted up even less number of times than VII and didn’t even get as far either. I got up to when they send you to that island for that massive battle because apparently in this universe it’s perfectly okay to send child soldiers into a fight since the Geneva Convention is more of a suggestion. Or maybe it doesn’t even exist. Honestly, with how people believe Squal is actually dead for the remainder of the game beyond the first disk and the rest of the game is just a dream anything’s possible!

Final Fantasy X: Okay there is actually a bit of a funny story behind this one in particular. I actually once played this game as a really young child at a friends but never actually knew what the game was and it was during the part really early on on the ship after you meat everyone. It wasn’t until a few years ago after the game got re-released I tried it and got to that point I realized I had actually played this as a child and never knew it… And also dropped the game AT that exact point childhood me originally played it.

South Park the Stick of Truth: It really sucks I gotta put this game in particular here considering I actually really like South Park anyway, it’s one of the few Adult Animated shows that has been running for decades at this point I actually still enjoy when I do catch an episode, but I brought this game back in 2016 and got an hour in before dropping it and haven’t played it since then.

Dragon Quest XI: I managed to play this via the demo that was released on the Nintendo eShop back in 2019 which let’s you play the first 10 hours for free and I mainly played this because Hero was being added to Smash Ultimate and I’m kinda glad I did play this via the demo because only three hours into this game and I started to fall out of it.

Earthbound: When you consider what Earthbound is and how it was the direct inspiration for one of my favourite RPG's of all time anyway I should love this one! Like I should adore this one actually! But honestly, even before I got the means the means to play it, even before the game that was inspired by it was even a thing, just one look online at how Earthbound played and how it wasn't that different from most other RPG's from this time was enough to tell this wasn't for me and even when I did get an SNES Mini which had Earthbound installed on it guess how much time I spent in it compared to literally anything else that's on this thing? Yeah, not a lot.

Paper Mario: Speaking of turn based RPG's I want to love, this is another one I REALLY wanted to love because I love the Mario franchise and I did have such a good experience with Super Mario RPG especially since I did actually have Super Paper Mario growing up and the Thousand Year Door remake was only a few weeks away when I decided to start playing this. But I got four hours into this and up to the second star spirit before dropping the game entirely and focusing on Kirby 64 which I also started playing at this time. And most of that was because of how even though I liked the combat system at first, I started to feel like I was just going though the motions after a while. Jump on these enemies, don’t jump on these ones because they hurt you, use the hammer on these ones, use your sentient bomb waifu to kamakazie herself for the really hard ones and literally pray to God to restore FP.

Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door: And spoiler alert, my experience with Thousand Year Door wasn’t any better either. In fact, this time it took me only an hour of playing to realize I still wasn’t as into it as I wish I was and I didn’t want to feel like I was forcing myself to continue just because everyone goes on about how it’s the “greatest game of all time." Yeah, the Paper Mario fandom hyping this thing up as if it’s literally God’s gift to Earth probably didn’t help my experience either. Which sucks that that likely does play a part in this because I normally REALLY fucking hate when people use a games fandom or the fact that the game has any sort of popularity at all to trash it because that’s a really unfair way to judge a game you haven’t even played yourself like with how people tried pulling that shit with Five Night At Freddy’s or Undertale when they first came out. But with how much people love putting this game on such a high pedestal ignoring the fact that even some of my favourite games of all time also aren’t perfect on top of this fandom acting like you killed there dog if you say you don’t enjoy it or even enjoy the later games (especially Sticker Star) then yeah, forgive me for being maybe a little more critical of this game than I’d like to off been.

Paper Mario Sticker Star: Oh hey look, here’s Sticker Star right now! Look, I’m someone who thinks that Sticker Star is grossly over hated to the point where some of the hate comes off as overly cartoonish and childish to me. (One user on Twitter actually buried there copy of Sticker Star in the ground after the TTYD Remake announcement because “Ha ha, this game bad. Good game grow from it” which grow the hell up dude. Just say you don’t like a certain game and that be it.) But as far as actually playing this game goes, I got a few hours in before also dropping it for the same reason I did 64 and TTYD and literally the only reason I even tried this one was because of how everyone goes on about how awful it is and I had to try this for myself! And I’m sorry, but some of you clearly have never played an ACTUAL bad game in your lives if THIS is what you see as one of the worst games of all time and it shows!

Yeah that’s a fair amount of turn based RPG’s to have played and dropped quite early isn't it? So why do I usually struggle to get into a lot of turn based RPG’s? Several reasons.

-I tend to find the combat system in many of these games boring after a while.

-They can be really grindy at times especially ones where EXP isn’t shared with your whole party.

-They can be really slow and take a long time to even finish casually.

The first one is pretty self explanatory. It’s the combat of these games, the thing your going to be doing for a lot of the game and as the name implies, it’s turn based. You take a turn to attack an enemy or to use and item and then it’s their turn to attack you and there are a bunch of other factors to take into consideration like stats, levels and in some cases strengths, weaknesses and immunities on top of getting newer and stronger moves as you level up and some games do shake things up a little such as with the action commands in Paper Mario where pressing the button at the right time during an animation leads to a stronger attack or pressing it during an enemy attack letting you takes less to no damage. Considering how much you have to take into consideration when playing these kinds of games I should love this style of combat. When you know what you’re doing you feel really smart and like a tactical genius and that is satisfying.

But for me personally, it’s just not as engaging as I’d like it to be. Most of the time it feels less like “Oh shit, we got a battle on our hands! This is going to be intense” and more like “Aww gezz, it’s one of THESE assholes again. Guess I’ll have my guy who knows this attack that is super effective agents this type of enemy deal with this so we can get a move on.” And it probably doesn’t help that a lot of older JRPG’s relied on random encounters where you couldn’t see any enemies on the screen until RNG decides it’s time to for you to fight and you have to spend a minuet dealing with fodder enemies that die in one or two hits or spend several minuets dealing with a stronger one you’re not prepared for and can’t escape from and could likely wipe out your whole party. The reason games like Undertale and Deltarune get away with this for me is because while yes, it mostly being the standard turn based fair when it’s your turn, the game shifts to a bullet hell type game when it’s the enemies turn and each enemy having different kinds of attacks to avoid in these phases which feels a lot more engaging to me than just praying to RNGeesus the next hit doesn't outright kill you or pressing a button at the right time... While still praying to RNGeesus! Plus, unless you’re going for the Genocide route these games are mercifully short anyway so they never over stay there welcome.

It's also probably a result of many of the kinds of games I played growing up anyway. Not counting that one session I had of Final Fantasy X at a friends as a really young child that only lasted five minutes anyway many of the games I played growing up were either platformers where for most of them all you had to do to defeat enemies was just simply jump on them, action games which got straight to the point and had very fast paced combat, shooters which also just got straight to the point but with guns or open world games which gave you so much freedom to do anything you wanted within the games world! I wouldn’t play my first turn-based RPG until I was a teenager and entered high school and even then I still didn’t have much interest in a lot of them. In fact, many of the games I had an interest in though out most of the 2010’s were action RPG's with more involved combat or still mostly platformers, open world and action games as well as my love for the Character Action/Stylish Action genre being re-ignited in the later part of that decade.

Now some may be wondering about Fire Emblem at this point since that is also a slower and more tactical series of games. And this might surprise you, but I don’t really count that series in the same camp as turn based JRPG’s. Yes, these games are turn based but they are more about controlling an army and getting them into the right position to attack and you have to take a lot into consideration such as terrain, the weapon triangle, who to bring into the battle, the durability of your weapons, which classes would be best to use agents what especially your flying units, yeah it sounds wired but Fire Emblem has A LOT more going on in them than most typical turn based RPG’s. And that’s not even counting Casual mode which was introduced in New Mystery of the Emblem and has been in all the games since then making them a lot more accessible to new players. Phoenix mode in Fates was a dumb mode though.

But say I DO find myself enjoying a turn based combat system. Then I’d have another issue to deal with. Grinding. Because you’re not just playing as one character for most of these kinds of games, your controlling several! Which means you need to watch after there own levels and stats and if you don’t spend a while grinding then they won’t be at a high enough level to deal with anything because you didn’t want to spend an hour killing the same enemies for EXP but as a result your party has fallen behind in terms of power level and do you see why this can be a deal breaker for me?

Now to be fair, some turn based RPGs especially modern ones do have EXP be shared with your whole party even if they never actually partook in the battle themselves which usually eliminates the need to grind, thank Palutena! Some people hate that shared EXP is a thing in some games but I’d rather it be like THIS and me actually feeling like I’m getting somewhere rather than wasting hours of my life going on a mass genocide of generic enemies to grind when there are better things I could be doing with my time. This is also the reason why, for as much as I love this series, I have little to no motivation to replay any of the Pokemon games pre X and Y in particular because X and Y made the EXP share a key item that affects your whole party and you get really early in the game instead of it being a held item you only get one off, only affect the inactive Pokemon holding it and you don't get until really late into the game and since EXP being shared with your whole party has remained all the way up to Scarlet and Violet, yeah of course I'd want to replay these particular ones more than the older ones. For as much as I love Heart Gold and Soul Silver and will still hold a lot of nostalgia towards it, do you wanna know when the last time I ever did a full playthrough of that game, including the Kanto post-game and secret boss fight with Red, was? Mid 2015! 9 years ago! And almost five years after my original playthrough two!

And all of this both play a huge factor into the third reason I struggle with slower turn based JRPG styled games, they can be really slow and take a long time to get going! On average these games can take a VERY long time to beat. And I mean VERY long time. Like as in, my original playthough of Persona 5 the total play time managed to get close to 100 hours. Hell, my PS1 copies of Final Fantasy VII and VIII came on three disks which was unheard of for me at the time. And sadly, I don’t have all the time in the world. Most of that is because of me having a job as well as interacting with some of my friends online I’m still surprised I’ve managed to make in the past few years but also because there are other games that either are coming out, are out and I want to play, games I never got to play growing up for various reasons but really want to now that I have the means to play them or games I just haven’t played in a long time and want to again. For as much as I love Persona 5 and still stand by it being one of my favourites of these kinds of RPG’s I’ve played, knowing how long it took me finish the game casually (and Persona 5 Royal takes even longer than the original release) would I really want to go through all of it again when there are other games I’d want to play instead which wouldn’t take as long for me to finish?

So yeah, that’s pretty much everything I wanted to say. My experience with some turn based RPG’s and why I’ve had such an inconsistent experience with them. Which sucks that I do struggle with them so much because a lot of these actually have some really great stories, lore and characters tied to them. But if I’m not enjoying the actual gameplay of these games or they take so long to finish then I’m probably not going to want to see those stories though to the end. I am still really grateful that I tried a lot of these kinds of games out because again, trying new things is important. But if I ever play any RPG then they either have to not take to overly long to finish or have gameplay I actually find engaging. I am fully aware that the Final Fantasy VII remake changes the gameplay from the original’s turn based system into something much more involved and I would be willing to try that one day if I ever get around to it.

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