Lets talk about some Indies

[v1rus]

I luv me sum indies, very, very much. Heck, there are even periods in my life where I only play what you may consider the stereotypical indie games. But this forum, for some reason, doesnt have an actual mega-thread or an equivalent of it devoted to indies, which is why I feel the discussion always falls short, even tho there seems to be a good number of great indie games around, and shitton of Codexers into them.

Now, I just beat The Messenger, and fuck me, that was an awesome ride. Enjoyed the art, music, silly plot, but most of all, that "jump, attack, you can jump again now bro" mechanic and all insanity that came out of it. Controls were also quite tight, and the game felt incredibly fluid. Now, Im seriously wondering what should I be playing next, shitton of big names I havent checked otu yet. Bastion, Owlboy, Hollow Knight....

Spoiler

Fez

 

[Grauken]

What I played of the Messenger I found pretty weak, level design was subpar, difficulty not well balanced and overall a far cry from a good Ninja Gaiden like game

Also the self-aware and 4th-wall breaking narrative was pure shit, I don't understand why creators do that

Ps. play Hollow Knight next, its the best (Bastion is ok, but far from great, haven't played Owlboy yet)

 

[v1rus]

What I played of the Messenger I found pretty weak, level design was subpar, difficulty not well balanced and overall a far cry from a good Ninja Gaiden like game

Also the self-aware and 4th-wall breaking narrative was pure shit, I don't understand why creators do that

How far you made it? Did it turn into metroidvania?

4th-wall breaking narratives are mostly shit, and usually serve to substitute actual plot, probably cause the writers couldnt come up with it. But, I did find this one funny, with enough concrete plot details and ideas to hold on to, and most importantly, near very end of the game

Spoiler

it gets very personal

Spoiler

he does one of his usual story thingies, about a boy who hid in a well and made up stories, but didnt want to share them. then he goes on in length how people tried to get him out the well, but failed, because of his fear of rejectment, anxiety and all that. In the end, they managed to do so, and the game does a very brief "special thanks to_____, this game wouldnt exist without you"

I know it sounds silly, perhaps pathetic, but it moved me, very much. Its not easy sharing that kind of stuff.

That aside, plot aint the reason for that game, thats for sure. Difficulty truly was meh, up untill you reach Tower of Time (30% game) or so, imho, then the game progressive gets far more challenging. Some of those areas, and especially green emblem thingies, were tough as hell. This does not apply to bosses tho sadly, they are all pushovers, but, eh.

Level design gets way fucking better when teh game becomes metroidvania, since it reveals a whole new layer of depth in that design imho. Those areas that require you use multiple time portals were bloody well designed imho.

Now, i dont know much about ninja gaiden games, but which ones would you recommend me as the high points?

Tried Hollowed Knight once actually, game seems majestic, but not kinda in the mood for that style. Something cheerful-looking should hit home atm.

 

[Grauken]

If you never played it, my go to game would be Ninja Gaiden 3, I loved that game on the NES.

Maybe I have to go back to it, seems I didn't play far enough (Messenger)

the upcoming Cyber Shadow looks good



Blazing Chrome if you're more into Contra-likes (their other games are good too, Oniken is a bit like Ninja Gaiden, but rough around the edges, Odallus is a pretty good Metroidvania-type game)



Bushiden looks like a mix of Shinobi and metroidvania, I hope this one will be good



If you want to play something now, here's a Ghosts n' Goblin-like



Then there's Shovel Knight, Flinthook is somewhat fun, Dead Cells, Celeste and lots of others

 

[Agame]

Tried Hollowed Knight once actually, game seems majestic, but not kinda in the mood for that style.

Its fantastic, well worth checking out when your in the mood. Im not even that much of an indie/platformer fan and Hollow Knight really grabbed me by the nutsack and wouldnt let go.

I also enjoyed Rainworld, but its probably not the game for everyone as its heavy on atmosphere/exploration with a character that cannot fight very well (at least for the start).

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Fez

FEZ is not bad. The guy who made might have been a bitch but the game itself is cool. The more advanced puzzles are pretty complex.

If you like Metroidvania games, you might be interested in Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon which was directed by Koji Igarashi - it's like Castlevania 1/3.
And this summer he will also release Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon which is like Symphony of the Night.

 

[v1rus]

FEZ is not bad. The guy who made might have been a bitch but the game itself is cool. The more advanced puzzles are pretty complex.

Yeah, it def looks interesting, but i had to make a bit fun of the typical codex "hes shit, his work is shit" mentality.

I def like metroidvanias, but I o open to well, any interesting indie concepts. Maybe some Zeldaclone would hit the sweet spot atm.

Now, would you recommend jumping in Bloodstainted straight away, or revisiting some older Castlevania games (its been 10 years since SotN, and even more for others), so I could appreciate the development more?

 

[DJOGamer PT]

The older Castlevania are definitively worth anyone's time. And if you know what you are doing you can beat them in a afternoon's time.
I would say play Curse of the Moon first since you never played it, then revisit the older games for comparison. Specially Castlevania 3 since that's the one Curse of the Moon is more similar.

 

[v1rus]

I beat Ori and the Blind Forest. A bit too short, but truly beautiful, in every sense of the word.

 

[Silentstorm]

There are quite a few metroidvanias on Steam, a lot actually, i have a soft spot for Momodora:Reverie Under The Moonlight for some reason even though i know it's not the best game ever.

The Shantae series is pretty good though i was quite a bit dissapointed with Half-Genie Hero, La-Mulana is hard but most of that comes from the puzzles.

As for one strangely good metroidvania, i would say Rabi-Ribi fits the bill:

It's hella anime, the main character has a fanservice as hell design, but it has a lot of content, it's fun to play, has a good soundtrack and the developer is strangely really damn dedicated to this game, like, it's not just DLC, since i bought the game in 2016 i swear i have seen this game get update after update just adding stuff, translations and the like, so if one wants to play a Metroidvania with a decent developer who doesn't abandon games and listens to their players, then Rabi-Ribi, the game about a bunny being turned into a human dressed as a bunny girl strangely enough fits that bill.

 

[Silentstorm]

Can i mention some more?

Remember Alien Crush, Devil Crush and just about any pinball game with Crush in the title?

Well, then this is the game for you, yes, it's still in early acess in a way, but it's pratically the whole game already, a big table with various sections that reminds one of metal covers, various missions, monsters and just about plain addictive and fun, plus, it has a cool mechanic that is specifically designed to help players not lose their balls, tilting, in that the game allows you to essentially tilt the table in any direction to make the ball move, only you can't use it all the time to be fair so you have to be careful with it, it's a simple mechanic, but it really adds to the fun.

This game has no right being as fun and as addictive as it is, for God's sake, it's not a complex game and it only has two buttons, but wow, this game just makes you feel like the most powerful fighter that has ever walked the Earth when playing it, it's pratically "Awesome, the game!" and it works really well.

Another Early Acess game though it feels like it's going to be completed soon, it's pratically the closest thing to Deus EX roguelite ever, in that the game puts you on a city, gives you some objectives, and you can fullfill them in various ways, add custom characters, various classes and the fact that the final mission is to end the president which you can do by either killing him, winning the new election by having played as a good guy or bribing people like the mob to help you, and other things you can do, but who the hell does elections when you play as a ninja that can turn invisible, backstab the president, steal his clothes and then go to a podium and declare yourself the new president?

 

[Tigranes]

Hollow Knight is great.

 

[Farewell into the night]

I didn't like Hollow Knight for some reason, but Owlboy was nice. Haven't finished both.

Heroine's Quest is a good indie game, that I can recommend. The rest of the games aren't really for me.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Just been dicking around with this today 'cause of the Humble bundle. Probably (Remains to be seen) not worth it at $12, but it's surprisingly enjoyable so far. Kind of an adventure/puzzle game with C&C where you get to live the internet-dream and jack off while watching a guy crossdress unaware he's being observed. The adventure/puzzle aspect is by watching your cameras you can click on things (Lines/words in dialog, objects on the screen) and they get added to your notebook, and then you use your notebook to in-game Google things to dig up more information, which can lead to phone numbers, addresses, email/chat addresses, etc. Then you can either break the golden rule and "Feed the monkeys" by interacting with them (Blackmail them, warn them what's going on, etc) or try to keep on trucking without breaking the rule. You also have to earn enough money to keep yourself fed and alive, have to sleep occasionally, have to pay rent, and have to buy access to more cameras on a schedule. Have to keep a lot of plates spinning at once since it starts ramping up relatively quickly, and even though your cameras will blink an activity light during some moments, some stuff will transpire that won't trigger the light and you'll just have to see it and go to that camera on your own.

Haven't played near enough to give it a decent overall rating but it's pretty unique and kinda cool. After I post this I'm gonna see if there's a thread floating around in the adventure subforum.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

To throw a followup post on that, just beat the game and got the "Best" (Maybe?) general ending, though it appears the end for a lot of the cameras/stories can go different ways. Took 3 hours to get through, so even as sorta neat as it is it's pretty goddamn easy and short for $12. Still, it was a fun experience and I may dick around with it again just to see if I can do things differently and/or figure out some of the stories I didn't dig in to much. Probably worth it during a deep sale or in a bundle if that sounds up your alley.

 

[Terenty]

Rain World.
I cant praise it enough. Its actually one of the best games ever made imho, that can stay proudly among all time classics. Absolutely amazing AI and the best example of emergent systems driven gameplay

The graphics, animation and music is straight up of AAA quality, im serious

 

[pakoito]

A Hat in Time is budget Mario Odyssey, or maybe more Mario64. The biggest enemy is the camera tho.

 

[Pharad]

My personal favorite is Hollow Knight, however, I've read a blog post not long ago and got excited about some of the new indies coming out. Here's the post: https://www.eneba.com/blog/best-indie-games-to-be-released-in-2019/

Do you guys know if any of those games are out already? Or at least release dates?

 

[Silentstorm]

Found a curious one, an indie game that goes back to the NES era that actually looks like it could be on a NES...because it's a homebrew NES game that has actual cartridges being sold and the developer just randomly decide to also port the game to PC:

Seems fun, and it has multiplayer for 4 players on all systems, not only that, but buying the Steam version outright gives you the rom just in case you would rather play it on an emulator in your system of choice(or PC...but why do that when you have the PC version already) rather than the PC.

 

[v1rus]

Started Hollow Knight.

Im so split on this game. I mean, I love it, but its sooo full of stuff. Contrary to most metroidvanias, I never know where Ive been, and where Im going, not to mention what I have missed.

Im in deepannoyingplace right now, discovered those three baddies and all that.

Its probably just the fact that Im just realizing how the game works - Ill prolly claim its really fucking good once i complete it, and figure all this shit.