Obscure RPGs that are up there with the best

[Butter]

You know, there's a reason obscure RPGs are obscure -- it's because they're shit.

Hey Templar.

 

[Lilura]

Obscure games can be at most "underrated gems", but being among the best it's just asking too much, there's a reason why they're obscure to begin with and lack of marketing investment or bad release date (dying platform) it's not often the only reason.

J_C's a pleb, anyway. Bad taste in RPGs.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

No fucker other than me ever mentions......

It's flat out fucking brilliant.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Obscure games can be at most "underrated gems", but being among the best it's just asking too much, there's a reason why they're obscure to begin with and lack of marketing investment or bad release date (dying platform) it's not often the only reason.

Prelude to Darkness had a problem with general bugginess, but it was a great game nevertheless.

Teudogar wasn't even buggy, just obscure, made by two German guys, lacking in marketing budget and a big (or any) publisher. Visuals reminescent of 1993, while charming, also did not help in early 2000s. Still, it is a true classic for those few who actually got to play it.

 

[Lilura]

Prelude to Darkness had a problem with general bugginess, but it was a great game nevertheless.

It's not great at all. It's jank. It's not anywhere near up their with the best of its kind. If it was, it wouldn't be obscure. It was relegated to obscurity because it isn't any good. Troika's Arcanum and ToEE were also bug-ridden beyond belief. Guess what? They have cult status. Admiration grows for them with every year that passes. Modders mod them, and bloggers blog about them 20 years subsequent to their inception. People that haven't even played them pretend they have, so they can gain street cred.

 

[V_K]

Didn't we just have another thread just like this?

Ah yes, here we are:
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/good-less-talked-about-rpgs.134020/

And there's also this:
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/most-underrated-rpgs-on-the-codex.134229/

And this: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...serve-more-attention-updated-jan-2020.106945/

 

[Jvegi]

Troika's Arcanum and ToEE were also bug-ridden beyond belief. Guess what? They have cult status. Admiration grows for them with every year that passes. Modders mod them, and bloggers blog about them 20 years subsequent to their inception.

You misspelled Bloodlines.

 

[Lilura]

You misspelled Bloodlines.

Bloodlines is an edgy popamole for hipsters that doesn't deserve its cult status anymore than KotOR II.

 

[V_K]

Lilura apparently cannot differentiate between quality and marketing reach.

 

[J_C]

Obscure games can be at most "underrated gems", but being among the best it's just asking too much, there's a reason why they're obscure to begin with and lack of marketing investment or bad release date (dying platform) it's not often the only reason.

J_C's a pleb, anyway. Bad taste in RPGs.

This hurts, especially from you, because I love all the RPGs which are on your Top RPG list.

 

[Lilura]

Lilura apparently cannot differentiate between quality and marketing reach.

As a rule, what I say is true. Mods aside (this thread isn't about mods), there hasn't been a single obscure RPG that has impressed me to the point where I'd put it on par with the best of the best.

No one has uncovered a single unknown on par with the best of the best.

 

[Avarize]

No fucker other than me ever mentions......

It's flat out fucking brilliant.

By the makers of Saints Row. The decline is real.

 

[azimovhaas8 (Moth)]

J_C, i do not know what exactly you mean by "obscure" and how much you willing to go into Time Spiral back into past - but pre-RPG's games (more of experimental games imitating board roleplaying games in computer variant) that gave life to modern RPG genre been coming from university learning systems (most notorious one is PLATO mainframe) and talented students.

Most of them are obscure due to some of them being forgotten due to age and corrupted code base (some of them been just cleared due to limited space) - but also most of them been immensely popular in the past with some of them even making creators of said games rich and other students playing these games like crazy.

Camelot (1982) is pretty interesting game that i briefly played myself by registering on site emulating and supporting PLATO; in-game economy and equipment are suprisingly good and game is hard, but fun.

https://www.cyber1.org

^^^ Site that can help you with playing Camelot and other PLATO RPG's, but can be slightly unstable.

http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2019/10/game-343-camelot-1982.html

^^^ Found Camelot on site of CRPGaddict, and maybe he can give you some interesting ideas.

Cheers 0/

 

[undecaf]

I’m not sure if it is considered an RPG or adventure (it has stats and combat, but it’s not a game about combat) here, but B.A.T. 2 - The Koshan Conspiracy is a ’92 game that I remember having fun with in my Amiga 500 days.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Developer's head stuck on a sprite. Not unlike that Romero chap in doom 2.

what's with this guy's head size?

 

[Lilura]

Bat II was mainstream. Ads spammed over all the magazines of the day. Old != obscure.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Developer's head stuck on a sprite. Not unlike that Romero chap in doom 2.

what's with this guy's head size?

and in Sanitarium

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I’m not sure if it is considered an RPG or adventure (it has stats and combat, but it’s not a game about combat) here, but B.A.T. 2 - The Koshan Conspiracy is a ’92 game that I remember having fun with in my Amiga 500 days.

View attachment 13800

it...looks decent.

 

[undecaf]

Bat II was mainstream. Ads spammed over all the magazines of the day. Old != obscure.

Could be, but I don’t recall. I didn’t follow international gaming press much at all back then.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Prelude to Darkness had a problem with general bugginess, but it was a great game nevertheless.

It's not great at all. It's jank. It's not anywhere near up their with the best of its kind. If it was, it wouldn't be obscure. It was relegated to obscurity because it isn't any good. Troika's Arcanum and ToEE were also bug-ridden beyond belief. Guess what? They have cult status. Admiration grows for them with every year that passes. Modders mod them, and bloggers blog about them 20 years subsequent to their inception. People that haven't even played them pretend they have, so they can gain street cred.

Troika games usually had at least middle tier publishers behind them, which meant a decent marketing budget and advertisements in main gamer outlets of the time. They also had (except for Arcanum) very attractive visuals, which also did help (and helps until today). And the company basked in the fame of creators of Fallout.

Even with less than satisfying sales, it proved to be a stable foundation for later cult status.

By comparison, Prelude was made by several nobodies with no marketing budget, no publisher, and frankly speaking terrible engine, with outdated visuals, producing gamebreaking bugs with every new patch. Plus it was never really fixed. At certain point the devs no longer cared about their product.

The obscurity was there from beginning. The barrier of entry was much higher (ugly visuals, limited sound, constant ctds). So it got fewer players than Troika games and almost no modders (except for Fowyr who made several great minipatches). And thus eventually it sank into almost complete obscurity, instead of getting a great comeback.

 

[JarlFrank]

Lilura apparently cannot differentiate between quality and marketing reach.

As a rule, what I say is true. Mods aside (this thread isn't about mods), there hasn't been a single obscure RPG that has impressed me to the point where I'd put it on par with the best of the best.

No one has uncovered a single unknown on par with the best of the best.

While I'm a big appreciator of obscure games, I gotta agree with the woman here.

I've dug up plenty of obscure old shit. Mac-exclusives, Russian shovelware, games made by 1 guy in his basement and released on his own website which has been defunct for a decade... there are some good games among them, but none that are on par with the classics.

Good, yes. Up there with the best, no.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Lilura apparently cannot differentiate between quality and marketing reach.

As a rule, what I say is true. Mods aside (this thread isn't about mods), there hasn't been a single obscure RPG that has impressed me to the point where I'd put it on par with the best of the best.

No one has uncovered a single unknown on par with the best of the best.

While I'm a big appreciator of obscure games, I gotta agree with the woman here.

I've dug up plenty of obscure old shit. Mac-exclusives, Russian shovelware, games made by 1 guy in his basement and released on his own website which has been defunct for a decade... there are some good games among them, but none that are on par with the classics.

Good, yes. Up there with the best, no.

I think interest in the forgotten games can be and is the form of soft protest against the modern world of stupidity and console bullshit. Also some people like weird things. Sincere things.

You know, many people dig "Songs in the key of Z" stuff, music from people who never were recognized by society. There is a cult following.

 

[Lilura]

Troika games usually had at least middle tier publishers behind them, which meant a decent marketing budget and advertisements in main gamer outlets of the time. They also had (except for Arcanum) very attractive visuals, which also did help (and helps until today).

Far from helping, publishers hindered Troika. The reason Troika's games are so great -- even with bugs -- is because of their AMBITION, VISION and peerless TALENT. There is no RPG dev on par with Troika's talent outside of Sir-Tech and Looking Glass Studios.

And the company basked in the fame of creators of Fallout.

Which they themselves originated while at Interplay. All credit to them. Not to the publishers, and not to the ungrateful fans.

 

[Krivol]

If you are into DM clones and don't want to fight with emulators:

https://thecompany.pl/gra/Black+Crypt - quite well EoB clone
https://thecompany.pl/gra/Evil's+Doom+1.8 - there is a thread about this on RPG Codex, probably the preattiest game on Amiga

 

[Lilura]

https://thecompany.pl/gra/Black+Crypt - there is a thread about this on RPG Codex, probably the prettiest game on Amiga

What the? Please, just stop.