Really Obscure RPGs

[KeighnMcDeath]

Mixed genre of boomer+platformer doesn't equal RPG but this one hit my cache today. Oh, I'm a fan of both.

 

[Skdursh]

Mixed genre of boomer+platformer doesn't equal RPG but this one hit my cache today. Oh, I'm a fan of both.

Doesn't really fit here (I think there is a thread specifically for DOOM wads/mods), but I have played this before and it's really quite good. The only thing that rivals my RPG collection in sheer quantity is probably my DOOM collection. I just took a look and a rough guess says I have somewhere around 6-7k WADs, TCs and modifications in my DOOM folder. If you want to play something that better tackles being an "RPG" in DOOM format, check out Ascension https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=63102 and their earlier release Inquisitor 3D https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=54380.

Bonus: A really well done TC that turns DOOM II into S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. Was never completed, but there is a lot there to like. You'll probably struggle with learning the controls and a few other things if you don't speak Russian though. http://i.iddqd.ru/viewtopic.php?t=1003

 

[Whisper]

rutracker has a version,don't know if it is working tho

Edit:If you want i could download it and upload it on megaup or some other data site.

The RuTracker torrent has been dead for years. I seeded it for a little while for another Codex user sometime last year. You can also find it over at https://www.myabandonware.com/game/arcatera-the-dark-brotherhood-dt8 or https://www.old-games.com/download/9001/arcatera-the-dark-brotherhood, but Old-Games has really poor download speeds and people have reported some issues with the MyAbandonware release in the past (although I tested it and it seemed fine).

I am waiting for Codex Lets Play of Arcatera.

 

[fantadomat]

rutracker has a version,don't know if it is working tho

Edit:If you want i could download it and upload it on megaup or some other data site.

The RuTracker torrent has been dead for years. I seeded it for a little while for another Codex user sometime last year. You can also find it over at https://www.myabandonware.com/game/arcatera-the-dark-brotherhood-dt8 or https://www.old-games.com/download/9001/arcatera-the-dark-brotherhood, but Old-Games has really poor download speeds and people have reported some issues with the MyAbandonware release in the past (although I tested it and it seemed fine).

Ahhh i downloaded it without a problem.

 

[jebsmoker]

rutracker has a version,don't know if it is working tho

Edit:If you want i could download it and upload it on megaup or some other data site.

The RuTracker torrent has been dead for years. I seeded it for a little while for another Codex user sometime last year. You can also find it over at https://www.myabandonware.com/game/arcatera-the-dark-brotherhood-dt8 or https://www.old-games.com/download/9001/arcatera-the-dark-brotherhood, but Old-Games has really poor download speeds and people have reported some issues with the MyAbandonware release in the past (although I tested it and it seemed fine).

you can download it here, but you need to make a 4shared account

https://www.legendsworld.net/adventure/game/2619

 

[AdolfSatan]

Got a bit busy but here I am. So, about that Candice DeBébé game... It's shit, but not for the reasons you'd expect. Outsider art is fascinating, something about decoding the thought process of a mind following its own set of rules is very rewarding —there's a reason for prosper's legendary status in here after all—, and properly fleshed-out, even manufactured (i.e. not made by actual autists) imitations will be great (think of stuff like Myst, psx's LSD, or the Codex Seraphinianus).

So where does Candice stand with relation to all of this? A phony's work and nothing more. It's a simple game deliberately made ugly and bizarre for the lulz. Many half-assed developers seek credibility by covering their games in retro graphics and what not, here the creator decided to coat himself in a cloak of irony. Avoid it not because it's bad but because it's dishonest.

 

[Fowyr]

Was it here already?

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Was it here already?

I started to look at other games by that company. Not an easy game to get. These certainly aren't on myabandonware.

 

[Fowyr]

I started to look at other games by that company. Not an easy game to get. These certainly aren't on myabandonware.

I like that mobygames put in the list game of some one-man company. It's Finnish Postal for the Amiga.

Damage: The Sadistic Butchering of Humanity

Damage is a violent game about the character Michael Modelcitizen. He was the perfect human who had everything but found out that it wasn’t enough, so he became crazy. You take control of Michael Modelcitizen and start the game with only a simple baseball bat inside his flat. Once outside you can walk around the huge city killing people (including old ladies and children), stealing better weapons and narcotics. By using different narcotics it is possible to enhance the strength of Michael’s body.

Watch out for the police and the military, they will try to stop you and don’t expect your baseball bat to make any impact on their equipment. If you are good enough maybe you will make it to the atom bomb in the end.

p. metal.

 

[Lord_Potato]

There is a PC version too: https://store.steampowered.com/app/544220/Damage_Sadistic_Butchering_of_Humanity/

Though it's been stuck in early access for several years now, so propably won't be completed.

 

[jebsmoker]

someone in a sainttimmy discord told me that this game is good, but i'll draw my own conclusions once i play it. the.. numerous spelling mistakes are somewhat of a turnoff, but this does look better than most zero-budget RPG Maker games

 

[Bad Sector]

I started to look at other games by that company. Not an easy game to get. These certainly aren't on myabandonware.

Crystal Interactive was basically a very low budget publisher that was hunting indie game developers back when nobody else was paying attention to them - and they most likely published everything they could get their hands on. I was contacted myself while i was still in high school to publish some Space Invaders clone i had made (that at the time i uploaded to download.com) - though that never happened because i told them i was working on a better remake that used DirectX for graphics (that i never finished, as usual :-P). I do know some people who were burned by them though (like never getting royalties and such) and they ended up getting a very bad reputation. I know of a case where another publisher that had a similar name renamed themselves to avoid being associated with Crystal Interactive (there is an old interview about them), though AFAIK those only ended up releasing a single game - which got a Steam re-release some time in recent years (i know of that side because i interviewed one of the developers back before it was released for some gaming site i was making with a few friends - IIRC it was originally developed for Amiga but ported to Windows at some point - funny enough, i never ended up played the game after it was released, perhaps i should get it from Steam one of these days).

 

[JarlFrank]

My journey through the ENTIRE RPG catalogue on Steam is not at an end yet! Behold, more stuff!

Majestic Trials is an interesting-looking roguelike where you play a wizard who has to go through several trials in order to be accepted into the wizard order.


Evolution of Ages: Settlements is a weird game. It feels kinda like a city builder mixed with Civilization-like age progression and heavy RPG elements, where every citizen of your civilization has his/her own skills that go up with use and you can forge equipment for them and send them out on dungeon crawls. I bought this during the last sale and it's pretty fun. Very rough around the edges but very unique.


Beast Agenda 2030 is a cyberpunk action-RPG focused on hacking and stealth, with a weird artstyle and a definite "some weirdo on crack made this" vibe. Looks cool.


Fantasy Monarch is an RPG where you go from adventurer to ruler.


Enemy is a weird tactical RPG with a voxel engine. It's kinda like XCom combat except you play as characters from video game worlds and have to fight through various different video game themed areas. The landscape is destructible because voxels, which is cool.

 

[jebsmoker]

settlements looks like *my* kind of autism. fantasy monarch looks intriguing.. but it seems it has been abandoned despite the fact that it still has some teething issues going on

edit:

if you can look past the fact that Settlements looks like someone's advanced visual basic class final project, it's good

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Bone Town? Lordy.

 

[JarlFrank]

settlements looks like *my* kind of autism. fantasy monarch looks intriguing.. but it seems it has been abandoned despite the fact that it still has some teething issues going on

It hasn't, the dev just has some personal problems. He was diagnosed with narcolepsy last year, which causes him to spontaneously fall asleep randomly during the day, especially when he has to focus on something, so programming is pretty hard with that condition.
Thanks to hospitals being focused on dealing with chinavirus-related shit, his treatment has been postponed several times. He plans to continue working on the game but he won't be able to do so before the hospital finally deals with his problem.

Source:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/704640/discussions/0/3109143313943700939/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/704640/discussions/0/3005549744947408843/

 

[JarlFrank]

My explorations of the Steam catalogue continue!

Here are some more finds. Still sorting by price, I now left the really cheap stuff behind and reached the 15-20 euro tier. Finally there's less RPG Maker trash to sift through, but there's still plenty of really weird obscure one-man-team crap.

Beraltors is a metroidvania with RPG elements and a hand-drawn artstyle. It's... uh... just watch the trailer. It tells you all you need to know. Charmingly weird.


Wait what?! This looks to be some kind of open world sci-fi RPG with space exploration and planetary expeditions... made in RPG Maker??!? Some of those interface elements and the font are familiar to me, they're definitely RPG Maker stock assets, but everything else looks absolutely not RPG Maker at all. Impressive.


This is a cheaper game I probably haven't posted before, because it's been in my library before I started this Steam catalogue deep dive. It's a tactical RPG with turn based combat in a voxel world with partially destructible environments. Recommended, especially for the price.


Now this isn't really an RPG, nor is it on Steam (or GoG, or itch, or anywhere else really... you can find a free download of it though) but it's pretty cool for being a DOS game made in 2000. It's a first person exploration-focused dungeon crawl. Very obscure, very cool. I may have posted this in this thread before and forgotten about it, I dunno. If I did, forgive the doublepost.

Get it here: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/desperabis-8t7

Don't even ask me how I find this shit because I don't know it myself.

 

[V_K]

Spiders that squeal like pigs when they die?

 

[Lord_Potato]

You're doing good work JarlFrank ! Keep those fine obscurities coming!

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Now this isn't really an RPG, nor is it on Steam (or GoG, or itch, or anywhere else really... you can find a free download of it though) but it's pretty cool for being a DOS game made in 2000. It's a first person exploration-focused dungeon crawl. Very obscure, very cool. I may have posted this in this thread before and forgotten about it, I dunno. If I did, forgive the doublepost.

That intro theme is pretty rad, is that actually original for the game? Seems more effort than I usually see in freeware games. (assuming it was originally freeware)

Don't even ask me how I find this shit because I don't know it myself.

Obviously you randomly look through sites that catalog games. Is it really a mystery? I do that too but I rarely find any interesting RPGs for this thread, mostly shootan games.

 

[JarlFrank]

Now this isn't really an RPG, nor is it on Steam (or GoG, or itch, or anywhere else really... you can find a free download of it though) but it's pretty cool for being a DOS game made in 2000. It's a first person exploration-focused dungeon crawl. Very obscure, very cool. I may have posted this in this thread before and forgotten about it, I dunno. If I did, forgive the doublepost.

That intro theme is pretty rad, is that actually original for the game? Seems more effort than I usually see in freeware games. (assuming it was originally freeware)

The intro theme was originally composed by a 1970s German medieval rock band (who pretty much invented modern medieval rock). I know that because I have their album which contains this song. It's Merseburger Zaubersprüche by the band Ougenweide.


The theme song of that game is a different recording though, there's differences in the voices and instruments, so it has to be a cover. The credits screen of the game says the music is by "Menestrels" but searching for that only gives me articles about medieval minstrels. It's a too generic name to be able to find a band with it. Searching for "Menestrels medieval band" and other variations didn't help much either. Maybe it was one of those smaller local bands that usually play at renfaires, and the dev knew them and had them record some music for him?

 

[The Red Knight]

The theme song of that game is a different recording though, there's differences in the voices and instruments, so it has to be a cover. The credits screen of the game says the music is by "Menestrels" but searching for that only gives me articles about medieval minstrels. It's a too generic name to be able to find a band with it. Searching for "Menestrels medieval band" and other variations didn't help much either. Maybe it was one of those smaller local bands that usually play at renfaires, and the dev knew them and had them record some music for him?

Maybe you can dig further from here:

Interesse an der CD der Gruppe Menestrels (Ausschnitte sind in Desperabis zu hören, wenn ihr MUSIK.ZIP runtergeladen habt)?
Dann nehmt Kontakt mit Jan Schaper auf!

(from the links page on the archive.org version of desperabis.axxs.de; a students band, judging by the email address?)

Maybe it's this guy and you could contact him about it?

 

[Darth Canoli]

This is a cheaper game I probably haven't posted before, because it's been in my library before I started this Steam catalogue deep dive. It's a tactical RPG with turn based combat in a voxel world with partially destructible environments. Recommended, especially for the price.

Just checked it and one review said: "a shame there isn't some randomly generated quests and dungeons ..."
And of course, it makes me want to buy it in spite of the lego design.
Also, the game was released in 2015 and there's still updates (last one in january).

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Now this isn't really an RPG, nor is it on Steam (or GoG, or itch, or anywhere else really... you can find a free download of it though) but it's pretty cool for being a DOS game made in 2000. It's a first person exploration-focused dungeon crawl. Very obscure, very cool. I may have posted this in this thread before and forgotten about it, I dunno. If I did, forgive the doublepost.

Get it here: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/desperabis-8t7

Don't even ask me how I find this shit because I don't know it myself.

I just recently began replaying this game when I found it coincidentially on an abandonware website. I remembered it from back in the early 2000ies. I find it a very pleasurable experience with some nice gameplay ideas and good atmosphere. It's a bit difficult to run it with an acceptable framerate however - I tried many different DOSBox-configurations, installed it in PCem and Qemu (with Windows 98) but had no real success.

 

[Darth Canoli]

I found Tactics Maiden Remastered.



It comes from a long line of mobile tactical games and i can feel the disgust already but according to the fanboys, mechanism improved gradually and the dev released this on on PC.

Graphics aren't fantastic but are serviceable, i find them just fine.
The engine is good, everything is fast, you're not going to stare at a loading screen for half an hour either.
The UI is good, you'll need some practice to get used to the right click and left click though.

Character dev is good, you get some skill points each level up (only got to level 3 seems like it's +2 every level and +1 on level 1) but skills and classes are quite good and really unique (arcane archer, a kind of valkyrie, a lot of different rogues and assassins, a mage with life drain incremently increasing his max HP over and over again for the duration of the combat ...)

Encounter design is alright, it's not two blocks facing each other, could be better but could be way worse.
Each mission has a classic mode or an epic one, you get the choice on every mission start.

Combat is actually interesting and tough, some mission variety, like an escort one where the merchant you escort just follows the road at a regular pace so he's easy to follow and protect.
Half the combat are about capturing tents and towers though, tents allow you to spawn units up to the map limit, towers add +1 to that limit, it's a bit tiring but it's not bad once you get used to it, also, units act as soon as they're spawned so, if you crush the enemy but he still has a tent, brace yourself for the shitstorm.

I prefer the few missions without tents and tower mechanism but even with them, it's alright, really, it's way better than most recent AAA games.

Edit: Actually, you really get used to deal with the constant reinforcements and adapt your strategy to stay out of harm's way until you can capture a tent, secure the area and then move on to the next target, be it another tent or a pillar.

Here's my Warlock:

Going to the capital city in order to plead his cause before the Queen, i just saved a boar attacked by wolves, giant spiders and a couple of bears and now, i can recruit him: