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Really Obscure RPGs

Iznaliu

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 28, 2016
Messages
3,686
If I'm thinking of the right game, this is often cited as one of the worst RPGs of all time.

There's presumably good reasons why some of these games are obscure (though others were presumably just unlucky).
 

Lord_Potato

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 24, 2017
Messages
10,025
Location
Free City of Warsaw
Ok, maybe I'm scrapping the bottom of the barrel here, but here goes another pack of games obscure as it gets:

Borderzone - postapo, single character or party of up to 5
pc-61148-21439325549.jpg

Heath, the Unchosen Path - obviously a Diablo clone. Or is it?
Heath_The_Unchosen_Path_2.jpg

Legend: Hand of God - another hack & slash
legend-hand-of-god-limit_5978.jpg

Neverend - western take on Final Fantasy style game
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Requital - a Russian witcher/Russian shovelware
Requital%20Experience.jpg
 

mondblut

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
22,242
Location
Ingrija
If what you're looking for is a good, obscure RPG in a nice setting then you should try Jewel of Arabia : Dreamers. It takes place in an Arabian Nights setting, focuses on exploration first and foremost, in a fully open world or so, and has everything you could expect such as party creation and turn-based combat. It uses a keyboard-based dialog system and in particular you'll hunt keywords to get quests...
The full game is long, with a big world to explore and there are definitely some cool moments, for example you can enter the story of a storyteller. The game makes good use of the setting, it never steps aside from it, there are many (mechanical as narrative) little things here and there that I won't spoil and the main story is nice.
The class system is cool, they're not classic. Besides they are a couple of actually strong items to look for (according new spell levels and reducing MP consumption for some level of magic and such).
The game is not perfect, there are some boring quests, combat is above average but it's not excellent ; exploration is great though, and you can probably do most things in any order provided you're strong enough. Overall it's a very good game.
You need an old mac emulator to play it. Just play the shareware version, then if you like it as much as I did then look for an activation code and go on, the game is big, in particular although I completed it I only got the 4 first levels of spells over 7 (you get these via items) so there are certainly many things, quests especially, I haven't solved.
JoACombat.gif

Looks a carbon copy of Realmz, down to the font.

Would, if had a pc port, but probably not worth the hassle with mac emulation.
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

Graverobber Foundation
Developer
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Messages
3,106
Location
デゼニランド
Almost forgot.

26. Hiouden - Maou Tachi tono Chikai II
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4754_51dde4faebdc5.png

This gives off a Celtic Tales vibe. Any human tongue versions? Or is that in truth as bad as JRPGs are supposed to be?
The first game is available in English (only for SNES iirc), but I didn't get around to playing it yet.
The one I linked is only available in Japanese or Chinese from what I've managed to find and I didn't get very far because of that.

What's really impressive is that the interface can be moved and rearranged in any desired way (keep in mind it's a DOS game), which is a nice touch.
 

Baron Dupek

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
1,870,843
What about Hammer&Sickles? Does that count too? Being a spy behind enemy lines in Cold War (?) was nice yet people forgot about it.

Brady Skalsomething
Brany Skeldadu, mayhap?

That one is pretty good. 7 mages is basically its sequel, as I understand.
Gates of Skeldal / Brany Skeldalu - yep, that one.

And forgot about Deep Shadows' games, but they're not that good, only Boiling Point - Road to Hell might have some interesting parts but that's it.
On the contrary - I rather play them and not Skyrim or any Bethesda trash. Because Beth crap have no redeeming or interesting parts whatsoever so whatever.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,487
Location
Djibouti
Another obscure shitgame that was added to a potato gaming mag once is Dispel. It's a Korean (I think?) Diablo clone. All I remember about it is that it wasn't very good and that it had a gamebreaking bug when you met some kind of Obi Wan Kenobi lookalike.

102040375.jpg


^ that fucking Napoleon painting, what the hell :lol:
 

Jasede

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
24,793
Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
What about Hammer&Sickles? Does that count too? Being a spy behind enemy lines in Cold War (?) was nice yet people forgot about it.

Brady Skalsomething
Brany Skeldadu, mayhap?

That one is pretty good. 7 mages is basically its sequel, as I understand.
Gates of Skeldal / Brany Skeldalu - yep, that one.

And forgot about Deep Shadows' games, but they're not that good, only Boiling Point - Road to Hell might have some interesting parts but that's it.
On the contrary - I rather play them and not Skyrim or any Bethesda trash. Because Beth crap have no redeeming or interesting parts whatsoever so whatever.
It would ordinarily count but, fapfap, due to our highly monocle nature it's a game most of us here know. (Hammer&Sickle)
 

V_K

Arcane
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
7,714
Location
at a Nowhere near you
Well, first, let me finally shamelessly plug the obscure indies thread - it doesn't get more obscure than that! Hope I'll get to updating it sometime this year.

Second, some obscure non-indies that weren't mentioned yet:

Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern
A decent-ish RPG/(Action-)Adventure aside from the clunky early 2000s camera.
2285.jpg

Clans
Bascially, same shit as Dragonfire: Well of Souls only on smaller scale and somewhat less shitty (not by much).
70397-clans-screenshot.jpg

Magic and Mayhem
I might be wrong on the obscurity of that one - it's a Julian Gollop game after all - but I don't see it being talked about all that much here. It's a nice wizard duels style RPG/RTS hybrid with great level design and tons of charm.
283201-magic-mayhem-windows-screenshot-the-forces-of-nature-can-be.jpg

Runesword 2
A Realmz-like RPG construction kit. Came with a short introductory adventure, and had a few decent (but equally short) fan-made modules. Had a nice magic system where both your party and opponents had to rely on the same pool of runes to cast spells.
It went open-source some years later, but right now I don't know whether it's still being maintained, or even whether you can download a working version anywhere.
rs1-pic2.jpg
 

Lord_Potato

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 24, 2017
Messages
10,025
Location
Free City of Warsaw
Another obscure shitgame that was added to a potato gaming mag once is Dispel. It's a Korean (I think?) Diablo clone. All I remember about it is that it wasn't very good and that it had a gamebreaking bug when you met some kind of Obi Wan Kenobi lookalike.

102040375.jpg


^ that fucking Napoleon painting, what the hell :lol:

This room must be the pinnacle of art design! And interior decoration.
 

ghostdog

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
11,086
Well I think, Prelude to Darkness hasn't yet been mentioned and it's probably by far the best of the games that have been mentioned here. I suppose since it has its own forum here it's not that obscure in the codex, but still, it should be mentioned as a hidden gem that almost no one knows outside the codex.

ss7_b.jpg


459480-pyrrhic-tales-prelude-to-darkness-windows-screenshot-dialogue.jpg
 

Lord_Potato

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 24, 2017
Messages
10,025
Location
Free City of Warsaw

Of the ones mentioned there, I decided to try out Spells of Gold and Beltion. Not that it's easy to find them :)
If you need help for spells of gold tell me ;) .

I managed to trace Spells of Gold, but thanks for help :)

Well I think, Prelude to Darkness hasn't yet been mentioned and it's probably by far the best of the games that have been mentioned here. I suppose since it has its own forum here it's not that obscure in the codex, but still, it should be mentioned as a hidden gem that almost no one knows outside the codex.

ss7_b.jpg


459480-pyrrhic-tales-prelude-to-darkness-windows-screenshot-dialogue.jpg

Yeah, I did not consider Prelude to Darkness obscure. It's worthy of mention and reccomendation though. Although maybe not the final version of the game, but rather the one before - less buggy...
 

V_K

Arcane
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
7,714
Location
at a Nowhere near you
Spells of Gold reminded me of another Eastern European export:

Gods: Lands of Infinity
Surprisingly for a 2007 game, it's a turn-based blobber with elements of economic strategy and booooobs. Not bad combat, but level design is rather uninspired. Peculiarly, being mechanically a dungeon crawler, like all blobbers, this one doesn't have a single dungeon in literal sense, nor any other indoor locations.
gods_lands_of_infinity-30.jpg
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
37,177
Location
Bulgaria
Spells of Gold reminded me of another Eastern European export:

Gods: Lands of Infinity
Surprisingly for a 2007 game, it's a turn-based blobber with elements of economic strategy and booooobs. Not bad combat, but level design is rather uninspired. Peculiarly, being mechanically a dungeon crawler, like all blobbers, this one doesn't have a single dungeon in literal sense, nor any other indoor locations.
gods_lands_of_infinity-30.jpg
And this reminds me of "Hard to be a god" . It is pretty ok rpg.
maxresdefault.jpg
71.png
 

Fowyr

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
7,671
I played only Blind Justice and Paradise Cracked from all mentioned games. PtD and Grimoire are not obscure indeed, at least in the enlightened halls of RPG Codex.

Some games are not really obscure, just obscure or even obscurish. :M


First part was closer to King's Bounty, but second is DM clone
Rings_of_Medusa_2_-_The_Return_of_Medusa-5.jpg


Moraff's Revenge
Moraffs_Revenge-2.jpg


Don't Go Alone, finished it, fair and square. One of the most retarded endings for the dungeon crawler ever. Dungeon just resets.
Dont_Go_Alone-1.jpg


The Walls of Bratock
Screenshot-2.png


Psionics. Short and fun game.
566307-psionics-dos-screenshot-combat.png


Spellcraft: Aspects of Valour
Great, but pretty repetitive game. Fun magic system.
Screenshot-7.png


Xenomorph. Great ideas, sometimes not so great implementation.
Xenomorph-4.jpg

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/xenomorph.110407/

Federation Quest, Spacewrecked, B.S.S Jane Seymour. Three names, one game with great ideas and options. Destroy floors, make your own robots, repair ship systems... Evade atrocious user interface and overall mediocrity. :M
Federation_Quest_1_-_B_S_S__Jane_Seymour-4.jpg


Ancients
Ancients_I_-_Death_Watch-3.jpg


Infernal Tome
The_Infernal_Tome-1.jpg


Ruins of Cawdor
Many know about and played Shadow of Yserbius and Fates of Twinion, but these games had third part, recently finally made playable offline.

Ruins_of_Cawdor-1.jpg


Revolt of Don's Knigths
Revolt_of_Dons_Knights-5.jpg


If you will check this site you will will find a lot of obscure games.
 

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