The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (Part 1 + 2) are really the first ones that come to mind for me. They reignited some of the feeling of excitement I have for JRPGs, where you become deeply invested in the struggles of the characters and enjoy every last “Big damn heroes” moment and sudden twist they pull out. The villains in those games are pathetically irredeemable, a far cry from some of the better written ones, but their amazing quality is in forcing out the most dramatic possible circumstances from the characters. Combat keeps its pace and was generally enjoyable for me, plus it had an XP catchup/slowdown system that stopped the game from ever feeling too grindy.
Funny thing is, I personally bear no recommendations for any games in that series beyond those two. They are, to my mind, a testament to good singular stories that leave the opportunity for future ones - even if those follow-ons didn’t click with me.
For Metroidvania style, Aquaria is one I don’t see mentioned much. I got it in one of the classic Humble Bundles, and it had a LOT more content than I was expecting for an indie game. Many different abilities to gather, a soundtrack and appearance that all blended together so well, and even optional bosses hidden in the waters.
And then, it comes up every so often to divisive opinions, but there’s plenty of shooter players that still need to try Spec Ops: The Line. It’s not terribly well-done in terms of gameplay, but tells a very compelling story about heroism and violence - even if it is NOT the one you hope to see. Much of the controversy over the game’s ranking has to do with how much it offers freedom of choice - but I’ve always felt that freedom of choice starts in the type of adventures you choose to play. You see the assault rifles on the cover. You’re planning for this.
Trails in the Sky‘s story is so goated, it‘s in my top 5 favorite stories. The combat wasn‘t my cup of tea, but I managed to get through without any bigger problems, I forgot how though lol
Cataclysm dark days ahead is to zombie survival what doom is to demon shooting or monster hunter is to monster hunting. Project zomboid? Can’t even play that garbage now. Cataclysm actually gives you the reigns. Out in the wild? Use the very deep crafting system to go from practically neolithic to the iron age out of a cabin you found . Not strong enough to take on dozens of zombies you’ve attracted raiding a city? Climb a drain pipe and run across the roof tops. Tired of living out of a run down cabin you found? Build an in depth base with it’s own power grid or build your own car. Or train.
Rain world is one of the best games ever, reaching the highest point in that game is an experience everyone should feel.
Lunacid is an old school dungeon crawler with vibes that are completely immaculate.
Kenshi is a genre all it’s own. Be a wuxia style master of whatever style of combat you like most (I’m partial to martial arts and punching off limbs), build up your base, create an army, and go to war against the holy nation.
Cassette Beasts is a monster tamer that is full of charm, had the best soundtrack of any game last year, and had great gameplay to boot. Comparing it to Pokemon (because duh), the type match ups matter so much more due to a reactive system that can change up gameplay instead of just altering damage. the fact that it went unnoticed last year is a crime!
Crosscode! To me it’s the ultimate hidden gem, as I hardly see people talking about it but most of the people who do play it go on to rate it as one of their favorite games. Especially if you like story focussed action-rpgs, I bet you’ll dig it. It’s also got somewhat of a zelda element with puzzles and dungeons
It’s also got somewhat of a zelda element with puzzles
Bit of an understatement. The game has a LOT of puzzles. A bit too many of them IMO, most of which are not optional and bring the game to a halt. The rest of the game is S tier but I could never bring myself to play hours of back-to-back puzzles in dungeons.
I played it on gamepass, then bought the Collector’s Edition simply because I wanted to give some money to the devs, and then bought it again on Xbox with the DLC just to have an excuse to play it again.
It’s a wonderful game choke full of content (especially if you like the collect-a-thon aspect of the game), the combat system is amazing, and there are tons of skills available across four different branches for each of the four+1 elements, which means it never overstays its welcome because there’s always something new to unlock and play with. But most of all, I loved having a game that isn’t afraid of giving you hard puzzles without a companion or an annoying thinking voice explaining everything to you before you even had a chance to look at the damn thing.
It immediately became one of my favourite games ever, and it’s a shame that not enough people even know of its existence.
Steam groups are simply a way of finding others to play games with online. The group doesn’t need to be game specific and could involve whatever game the members wanted.
I myself can’t really do shooters / twitch gaming so I hear you!
Hol up! I fucking loved Humankind - I dunno why people hate on it. I think if you play it without expectations of playing Civ then it’s a great game in it’s own right. It’s got some neat features and cool gameplay mechanics. It’s also got a nice clean UI.
Civ may have more depth but it’s on it’s 6th iteration and it’s UI is still a confusing mess.
Yeah I’d chalk this up to you getting it for free haha. I ended up dropping $40 on it, and honestly, it felt like the game was trying to be all things to all people.
Oh no. There’s an American with a stupid name called “Forthewyn”. WTF does that even mean?
Oh god he’s from “Masachooshits” or whatever it’s called. Can we kick that guy? I hate Americans. They shoot people for no reason and their king is a talking citrus fruit.
Nope we need to ban that guy. I’m not even sure Americans have electricity. It’s all horses and oil lamps on ranches.
“All I really need to tell you is that one of the weapons shoots shurikens and lightning. I wish I had made that up. It shoots shurikens and lightning! This gun could only be cooler if it had tits and was on fire.”
It’s a cheesy Doom-like game from the Quake 2/3 era
Xenosaga 2 was the first game I went to GameStop and bought on release day. It wasn’t big enough for a midnight release so I just got there at opening. I still think about that game often and would love a remake. KOSMOS was a great character and the antagonists were great across the board.
The game for me that I loved but never hear about is the 2d platformer Thomas Was Alone. Really fun gameplay and a fun little story that was gripping, especially considering you’re just playing a bunch of different shapes.
It seems so and I wasn’t aware it would be this bad :(
When I click the link it doesn’t even take me to the darksouls sublemmy, but rather asks me if I want to open my email client. I guess that’s the reason for all the downvotes.
Hey guys, so after a long break due to a mix of building a new PC, exams, work, and a bunch of other stuff I am finally going back to try and complete my first ever Dark Souls 1 playthrough. Problem is, I’m a bit lost on what I was doing. I have a checklist in my note app for each boss I’ve killed, so maybe someone could guide me on what I should probably be doing based on that:
I played Red Steel for the first time recently, it was not good. I can see how the motion controls would have been really cool as a lot of people’s first ever experience of them, but yeah, it hadn’t aged well!
I searched this thread for Gothic II and it was nowhere to be found. This brilliant masterpiece is even getting snubbed from lists of games getting snubbed. It really should be more known. This is a game that makes (no offense) OP’s Fable look like baby’s first RPG. Incredible world building, expert progression, meaningful choices, an entirely skill-based combat system that is basically a proto Dark Souls, so many clever touches everywhere. It’s so well designed, it’s one of few RPGs that credibly crosses into immersive sim territory - that’s how well its systems are connected.
I’m admittedly a bit biased, because I played Gothic II first, but I’m still curious as to why you prefer it over its sequel. In my opinion at least, the second game is a considerable step up.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne