Temple of The Roguelike Forums
Websites => Off-topic (Locked) => Topic started by: Vanguard on April 16, 2013, 04:02:33 PM
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Hey everyone!
As I'm sure is true for many of you, I don't care for many of the trends in modern gaming. I don't like the emphasis on (bad) storytelling and graphics over depth and originality. I don't like that most games are designed to be so aggressively easy that any player can win with minimal thought or skill. So I have to turn to more obscure titles.
And I was thinking, hey, why don't we all share our best findings?
I'll start with Ys: The Oath in Felghana
This game owns. It's like a way faster paced 2D Zelda, except you don't need a feather to jump. You can jump whenever you want. And halfway in, you gain the ability to DOUBLE JUMP. It's got a great soundtrack, and some of the best boss fights in any game ever made.
It's got light RPG elements. You level up, your stats go up, you get new equipment, new magic, all the basics. You don't get to choose your character build or anything, but honestly the game is better off without that anyway. It's a superb action game, and heavy RPG elements would interfere with that. It has difficulty options ranging from extremely simple to really hard, so you should be able to enjoy it no matter what your skill level is.
It's available in English on the PSP and Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/207320).
So, fellow roguetemple posters, what are your favorite obscure games?
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It's a bit more than ten years ago that I played Below the Root (http://homeoftheunderdogs.net/game.php?id=113) from 1984, so I don't remember the details so well (here's the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Below_the_Root_%28video_game%29)). But I remember it as very captivating, a truly different game. It's a fantasy setting, situated in a psionic/pacifistic/animistic society in the tree tops. Your character can't die, I think, you just play straight through, exploring, following clues, solving puzzles and picking up new powers. The plot and setting and gameplay just got to me, I still remember some scenes and motifs vividly.
As always,
Minotauros
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You mean more obscure than Rogue?
Well I'm going to say my favorite game series is probably Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Not too obscure I guess, but you don't see it mentioned much on English websites. It's a empire strategy game series where you play a ruler in ancient china. You get the standard decisions to make, build economy, invade your neighbors, make treaties, etc...but the real meat of the game is wrangling your generals.
Each general has certain attributes making them better battle commanders, administrators, etc...they each have a nice portrait and a little bit of lore behind their personalities.
So say you are going to invade Dong Zhou, a powerful warlord. You train up your troops, arm them, lay in a good supply of rice and march on his stronghold. His impetuous young warrior, Lu Bu, comes out and challenges your ruler to One on One combat.
"We'll settle this war right here, you and me, no need for more bloodshed." You decline the offer, since Lu Bu is the greatest swordsman ever. Your troops, seeing this, start to desert you due to perceived cowardice.
With your remaining troops you are still able to surround Dong Zhou's fortress and capture him. You also capture Lu Bu...Lu Bu decides to join your cause now that you have shown your prowess on the field of battle.
In the next seige, this time of a the weak intellectual and descendent of Confucious, Kong Rong, Lu Bu proves his worth in battle by slaying one of the enemy generals in a duel. He then betrays your cause and joins Kong Rong, foiling the invasion.
You spend the next 2 hours of game time planning your vengeance.
Yep. Great games.
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Star Control 2. GPL'ed and available to download for free http://sc2.sourceforge.net/.
It's a space adventure game. Typically rates in the top 10 of 'greatest games of all time' rankings, but very few people have heard of it.
Anyhow, the writing is impeccable and the gameplay is riveting. I doubt that it is possible to live a genuinely full life without playing this game through.
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Good suggestions so far! I haven't tried Below the Root or RotTK, but they sound interesting. I can vouch for Star Control 2 though. It's fun, nonlinear, and has writing quality way above what you usually see in games.
My offering for today is Umihara Kawase.
It's a sidescrolling platformer about a young girl with a fishing rod. Its gimmick is that the fishing rod can be used as a grappling hook, and it's the best, most technical grappling hook in any game I've ever seen.
There's not really a narrative to Umihara Kawase. You just go through levels and try to reach the end. It has branching paths, and there are a huge number of places you can only reach once you've mastered some of the more advanced grappling hook techniques, so it's the kind of game that gets bigger as your skill level improves.
Umihara Kawase was released on the Super Famicom (Japanese SNES) and never received an international release. It did get a sequel called Umihara Kawase Shun on the PS1. It's worth checking out as well.
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Hmmm, obscure? It has a bit of a cult following, but you could say it's obscure...
http://yumenikki.wikia.com/
Yume Nikki (Dream Diary) is a story about a shut-in who locks herself in her room and lives most her life in her dreams. Saying much more than that would have spoilers, but it is definitely worth a play through if you like out there games. The goal is to collect all 24 "effects", which are abilities that will help you get further into her dreams.
Note, there's no real fighting or action in the game, it's probably the most surreal game ever made. It is largely an adventure to see what you can find, so enjoy it :) Warning that the back story and scenes tend to get very messed up and dark.
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Hmmm, obscure? It has a bit of a cult following, but you could say it's obscure...
http://yumenikki.wikia.com/
I love Yume Nikki from the bottom of my +5 heart of rogueliking. ;_; I don't know, I find Yume Nikki more sad and beautiful and bizarre than outright disturbing. Yeah, there are plenty of dark and creepy places. I was seriously creeped out by them a lot when I started playing. But it's the dreamworld. Everyone has disturbing dreams once in a while, right? And even in the scary places, there is beauty. I see no need to believe some of the more messed up theories - yes, the dreamworld is probably in some way a reflection of real life, but there's no need to make it more messed up than it already is.
And yes, the ending is just as messed up as the rest of the game. But it's romantic, darnit! I don't know, I just appreciate it in some messed up way. Everyone cries T_T
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It's been a while since I've posted anything here, so today you get an obscure games thread double feature!
First up, we've got Blue Wish Resurrection by x.x. It's a danmaku/bullet hell shooter with four playable ships, five stages, and no gimmicks. It has a few features that make it a good choice for beginners to the genre, and a variety of difficulty options. Its easy difficulty really is easy, its hard difficulty is fiendishly hard, and its normal difficulty is exquisitely normal. It even has one of those super secret true last bosses that are so popular with the kids these days.
If you like BWR, check out the x.x's other games. They're all pretty similar, so if you like one you should like the others. Eden's Aegis in particular gets my recommendation. They're all freeware, and can be found here (http://www004.upp.so-net.ne.jp/x_xgameroom/Works/works.html). If you're having a hard time finding the download link among all the Japanese, the button you're looking for is green and says "Download Now" in English.
Next is Maldita Castilla by Locomalito. Basically, imagine a version of Ghost'n Goblins that isn't ridiculously cheap, and that's what this is. That's not to say it's easy - it's actually pretty tough - but it's a good kind of tough. It features a good number of secrets, and multiple endings depending on what you did, so there's some solid replay value. Like all of Locomalito's games, it's free and can be downloaded at his site (http://www.locomalito.com/index.php). While you're there, I also recommend taking a look at Hydorah, a really nice horizontal shooter.
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I'm a big fan of Locomalito. He's just one guy, and he creates incredibly polished, relatively short action games that tend to tell better, cleaner stories than full-length AAA RPGs. I managed to beat Hydorah and get the secret ending, but Maldita Castilla got the better of me. Spoiler: It was heartbreaking to lose again and again, after all of your comrades die. That second level, where you're all fighting harpies together, really creates this sense of being part of a fragile, heroic effort... and to have to give up after the noble sacrifice of my friends, just awful!
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Agreed Jim.
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I'm a big fan of Locomalito. He's just one guy, and he creates incredibly polished, relatively short action games that tend to tell better, cleaner stories than full-length AAA RPGs. I managed to beat Hydorah and get the secret ending, but Maldita Castilla got the better of me. Spoiler: It was heartbreaking to lose again and again, after all of your comrades die. That second level, where you're all fighting harpies together, really creates this sense of being part of a fragile, heroic effort... and to have to give up after the noble sacrifice of my friends, just awful!
That's why you need to keep going until you get one of the good endings! You can't let Luzfarel get away with that!
By the way, how many of you play shoot em ups? I've gotten into the genre recently, and now I think of them as the roguelike's more actiony sister genre. They both emphasize high skill levels, consistent play, and permanent consequences. Like roguelikes, they tend to focus on gameplay rather than graphics and narrative.
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Oh yeah dude, used to love 'em. Arcade style games and Roguelikes share a ton in common. They are all part of the 'rule based', 'low narrative' and 'permadeath' club. Along with strategy games they make up my trifecta of favorite genres.
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I'm also a huge fan of locomalito. He's one of my favorite game devs of all time. I admire all his games.
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Anyone here play artificial life games/simulations? My partner is a huge fan of AquaZone, what with its surprisingly accurate genetics, but everything since has just been "ooh look at the pretty fishes" without thinking about, you know, biology.
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Anyone here play artificial life games/simulations? My partner is a huge fan of AquaZone, what with its surprisingly accurate genetics, but everything since has just been "ooh look at the pretty fishes" without thinking about, you know, biology.
I wasted way too much (cpu) time in the nineties playing Tierra and Core War. Although there's a definite lack of pretty fishes, generating random programs and watching how they evolve is much like a programmer's fish tank. It's not so much about biology as it is about evolution, but it'll make you think.
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Anyone here play artificial life games/simulations? My partner is a huge fan of AquaZone, what with its surprisingly accurate genetics, but everything since has just been "ooh look at the pretty fishes" without thinking about, you know, biology.
They're both older programs, but I used to enjoy a shareware game called Evolve!, as well as a program/screensaver called Primordial Life. They both had some interesting mechanics paired with genetics.
(here's a bit more info on each: http://www.auntiepixelante.com/?p=859 and http://speciesdevblog.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/to-primordial-life/ )
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Larva Mortus is a pretty cool one I found. It's a horror themed, top-down shooter/dungeon crawl kinda hybrid. It has some light roguelike elements like character progression and randomly generated levels. Kind of a casual game but quite fun. The horror elements are fantastic. http://store.steampowered.com/app/11340/ (http://store.steampowered.com/app/11340/)
Empires & uUngeons is another one wich mixes elements of strategy with very lite roguelike elements. You play campaigns trying to reach an objective. You have to gather resources and build your army. But you also have to go through random dungeons in search of treasure to fund your campaign and gain experience.The original was a generic fantasy themed game, but a sequel/update was made that changes it to a Arabian nights kinda fantasy. http://www.nielsbauergames.com/empiresanddungeons.html (http://www.nielsbauergames.com/empiresanddungeons.html)
Kivi's Underworld is a fun little casual arcade-like dungeon crawl. It's the clicky kind where you click to move and attack. You go on different missions to complete the objectives and try to score the most points by killing enemies, finding secrets, and completing the mission as fast as possible. Made by the same people who did Din's Curse which is a very good Diablo-Like. http://www.soldak.com/Kivis-Underworld/Overview.html (http://www.soldak.com/Kivis-Underworld/Overview.html)
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Some would say that a person who just finished and enjoyed (okay, moderately) Killzone 2 is not qualified to post in this thread, but...oh, well.
Off top of my head/desktop:
- Infinite Space: Tiny, handheld (NDS) space-opera. From Japan. It`s a bizzare mashup of genres: some classic jRPG tropes mixed with more Western take on the Universe. Plenty of quests, ker-razy characters, open gameplay, in-depth ship & fleet customization and so on...plus one of the best soundtracks ever (even on these rubbish speakers)
- Boiling Point: open-world FPS with RPG elements. Made-in-Russia in 2006, it was heavily hyped up as a sort of Far Cry equivalent, only to be destroyed by reviewers after release for being a bug-ridden nightmare and became sort of a running joke. I installed it by accident some years later - and was quite amazed. The game was patched up very well - there are still minor bugs, but nothing game breaking - and the whole package is surprisingly solid and playable. Plus, it`s deliciously oddball at times - from hilarious voiceovers to some quirky design mechanics. Factions work really well, there`s gazillion of missions to do and the game world is really huge. It even got a couple of sequels.
- The Fall: Last Days Of Gaia: Heavy duty CRPG set in a post apocalyptic word. Similarly to Boiling Point it was nigh on unplayable upon release (German-only release, to make it more unaccessible) only to be heavily patched - and fan-translated - in its later life. And it`s rather excellent, if you like this sort of thing. I`d even go as far to say that if you`re still sore about Fallout going 3D and the whole Van Buren business, give this one a go.
- Kenka Bancho: The Badass Rumble - Lawd, I love this PSP game. It`s sort of my teenage dream come true. Basically a 3D brawler set in a open-ish city with tons of things to do, heavy customization, and charm aplenty. And of course, Banchosity - aka Badassness.
- Wazhack: tried it online some time ago and just got the standalone version (5$). It`s one of these rogulike-like-likes (or something) - basically, side-scrolling dungeon crawl with permadeath. As a @-noob I`m not qualified to comment on its underlying mechanics, but it looks okay plus is quite refreshing to see this 2D angle being used. It also has some physics implemented which can be quite amusing - Giant Rats tumble down shafts and other bizarre things happen. You can try browser version here: http://www.wazhack.com/play (http://www.wazhack.com/play)
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No dude...you are totally qualified to post in this thread.
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Is SimLife obscure enough for this thread?
EDIT: Thanks to whoever mentioned Primordial Life, I found Biogenesis now and I think I'm gonna be dead to the world for some time...
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If you think it counts then it does. Post whatever you want, this thread is a No Elitism Zone.
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This is a great thread. I've been searching all over today for obscure games I might have missed through the years. I know I'm new here, but I'd like to add a handful to see if maybe people who like obscure games might get a kick out of them.
Precursors: Pc game not too old. First person RPG with some amazing ideas. Made in Russia and didn't really get a wide release anywhere else. It has a wide variety of activities and jobs your character can do. I've gotten so wrapped up in the side quests I've only ever gotten off the first plane one time.
Xenus/Xenus 2:White Gold: From the same makers as Precursors. This open world game has a ton of ideas that showed up later in games like Just Cause 2 and Far Cry 3. Great First Person RPG's where you battle drug lords and make and break alliances all over the island. Or do what I do and steal a truck and travel around just to see the scenery (watch out for restricted areas though, usually wind up with a destroyed truck).
E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy: Not sure if this is obscure to everyone or just me, but I've just started playing this FPRPG and it is addictive as hell. Great Cyberpunk feel and action packed. There's nothing like hacking all of your opponents before they even see you.
Vampire Hunter D: PS1: This game is an awesome action adventure based on the anime of the same name. It was a great game for it's time.
Berserk Guts Revenge: Dreamcast: Action Adventure: Incredibly bloody game based on the anime.
Record of Lodoss War: Dreamcast: As far as I can tell, this is one of the rarest games ever made for Dreamcast. Amazing RPG from the japanese anime that is actually based on a D&D campaign.
Highlander the Last of the MacLeods: This game is based on the mediocre animated Highlander series and is a real rarity for Atari Jaguar. The game is actually pretty fun with animated cutscenes from the animated tv show.
Veil of Darkness: Early 90's PC game. Really fun isometric pc game about a man who's plane crashes in a backwards european village in the 1930's. Turns out the village is under the domination of a vampire lord.
Dusk of the gods: Another early 90's game. You are an Asgardian trying to prevent Ragnarok in this isometric RPG.
Dragon Lord: Strategy/virtual pet hybrid from the early 90's. Hatch dragon eggs and use potions to alter both the eggs and the dragons to beat two other dragon lords in a brutal strategy game. Nothing more heartbreaking to have your carefully bred and raised dragon bite the dust after he's served you well.
Full Metal Planet: Early 90's game about multiple corporations battling to mine a mineral rich planet. Way more fun than it sounds, but only if you get a couple other people together to compete with you.
Barbarian for Apple 2: Awesome game about arena fighting. Finish him with a spin move and watch the head fly. Then when the goblin cleans out the arena he kicks the head off the screen.
That's the main ones that pop into head so far. Let me know if you guys are interested in anything else I've played through the years
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Good stuff! Welcome to the forums! And please feel free to post more games.
I just remembered that I found a cool game recently too:
Alien Soldier for the Sega Genesis - I think this is the best Treasure game I've ever played. It's a sidescrolling action platformer where you choose a bunch of weapons for your eagle man and then go and kill a bunch of monsters. Most of the game's content is a series of really cool and unique boss fights. The controls are a little hard to get used to, but stick with it. It even has permadeath on the default difficulty.
My favorite part is that you have a dash move where your guy moves across the screen super fast and he's completely invincible while he does it. You can do it whenever you want with no cooldown or anything. Just invincibility whenever you feel like it. But what makes it even cooler is that if you dash while you have full health your guy does a super move where he bursts into flames and does a ton of damage at the cost of a tiny sliver of health. So if you get good at absorbing enemy fire to heal yourself you can keep reusing the super move and shred bosses in seconds. It rules.
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I vaguely remember that. My favorites for the Genesis were Shadowrun, Fatal Labyrinth (Nice Roguelike), Eternal Champions, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tournament Fighters, and Chakan.
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Is Empires & Dungeons free or not? The site's so convoluted and there is the line of "no demo/test restrictions", so?
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You guys seem to like life sims, so here's a cellular automata simulator. It handles bounded and unbounded universes, can calculate generations at insane speeds, and can handle 256 cell states. And it's open source! Golly (http://golly.sourceforge.net).
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Ok, one quick add on here. Betrayal at Krondor. If I remember right it's still a free game (got my copy out of a hardback copy of a Krondor novel.) This RPG got almost no recognition at all when it was released but it was amazing. The gameplay style is a little rough, but the story is incredible especially if you've read the books.
The sequel was pretty nice, but I never got anywhere with it, I think it had a harsh difficulty curve.
Ravenloft Strahds Possession was a great game, a huge jump in tech from the Eye of the Beholder series, and a great horror story to boot. But, it never seemed to get any traction. In this I would also add Ravenloft Stone Prophet and Menzobberanzan. Those were even more advanced in gameplay than the first, but all kind of flew beneath the radar. None of them ever got the recognition of the Eye of the Beholder series or the D&D Gold Box games.
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Oh and one I just noticed one more that is actually in my collection. Wizards and Warriors from 2000. This game is made by the brains behind the Wizardry series of games in an attempt to do another Wizardry game without having to worry about the licensing issues. Anyone who grew up playing the old Wizardry games will feel right at home playing this game. And the best part: it works on many modern pc's.
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I might try that. I've tried to get into the Wizardry series, but haven't stuck with it. Would you say this game is easier to get into than the Wizardry games? If not, what's the best Wizardry to start with?
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Went digging through my games folder today and found saves for Open TTD. A very good remake of the classic game. I should start playing that again. http://www.openttd.org/en/ (http://www.openttd.org/en/)
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I might try that. I've tried to get into the Wizardry series, but haven't stuck with it. Would you say this game is easier to get into than the Wizardry games? If not, what's the best Wizardry to start with?
This would probably be easier to get into since you don't have the history of Wizardry to deal with. It's a good one and done with no back history or continuing games to worry about.
As for the actual Wizardry series I would do the second trilogy if you can get a verion to run on newer systems. 6 - 8 is one cohesive story from beginning to end.
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Just remembered about the most obscure game I ever played. It was an fps called Killing Time. The screwy thing took me forever to find back then. It was a great horror themed shooter with a great story and some interesting fmv sequences.
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Is Empires & Dungeons free or not? The site's so convoluted and there is the line of "no demo/test restrictions", so?
Empires & Dungeons is not free. I do recall there being a demo though of the original around the internet somewhere. I don't think the dev actually sells the original anymore unfortunately. Just the sequel. Which is almost exactly the same but just with a arabian instead of medieval theme.
I second the ravenloft dnd games as well.
Pulseman for the Megadrive is quite fun too. Like Sonic meets megaman.
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I'm frustrated that no one has attempted a remake of the Ravenloft games or a continuation of them. Of course the ownership and licensing for Ravenloft has bounced around so badly the last few years that it would probably have to be a fan community project.