Obscure RPGs that are up there with the best

[oldmanpaco]

 

[V_K]

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.

Depends on what you mean by obscure and what you mean by classics.
Personally I enjoyed Dark Heart of Uukrul, Dark Disciplies 2 or Wizards&Warriors (for example) a lot more than anything on the Codext top 10 and find them easily on par with the best of Golden Age RPGs.

 

[Lilura]

Depends on what you mean by obscure and what you mean by classics.
Personally I enjoyed Dark Heart of Uukrul,

Reviewed by Scorpia in mainstream journal.

Dark Disciplies 2

Reviewed by mainstream journals.

Wizards&Warriors

Reviewed even by IGN.

 

[azimovhaas8 (Moth)]

Depends on what you mean by obscure and what you mean by classics.
Personally I enjoyed Dark Heart of Uukrul, Dark Disciplies 2 or Wizards&Warriors (for example) a lot more than anything on the Codext top 10 and find them easily on par with the best of Golden Age RPGs.

Actually, myself played Wizards & Warriors after Might & Magic 6 and been impressed by game, in good way. Game not without some bad and harsh parts - especially in terms of balance (axes, meh), but great creation from David Bradley anyway.

Dark Hearts of Uurkul is game i want to replay in next month (or even this month) - still have great vibes from experience with exploration and clerical way of invoking power. Never played Dark Disciples 2, sadly.

I still do not know how obscure this games *really* are - probably, all of them are reviewed in mainstream media of the time they been published and received at least part of recognition they're worth.

 

[V_K]

Depends on what you mean by obscure and what you mean by classics.
Personally I enjoyed Dark Heart of Uukrul,

Reviewed by Scorpia in mainstream journal.

Because there was no such thing as indie development 30 years ago. Still sold less than 5000 copies.

Dark Disciplies 2

Reviewed by mainstream journals.

You're probably confusing it with something. DD2 is a freeware top-down game from 2009, what interest could mainstream journals have in it?

Wizards&Warriors

Reviewed even by IGN.

Sure, and published by Activision. But as of now, obscure because mostly forgotten.

 

[Harthwain]

Dark Disciplies 2

Reviewed by mainstream journals.

You're probably confusing it with something. DD2 is a freeware top-down game from 2009, what interest could mainstream journals have in it?

He probably thought of Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy?

 

[Fowyr]

I presume that most of not shareware games are not obscure here. After all, everyone knows about masterpieces like Legacy : The Realm of Terror, right?
So, my list:
Aethra Chronicles
Nahlakh
Natuk
Aleshar

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/Black+Crypt - there is a thread about this on RPG Codex, probably the preattiest game on Amiga

Yea, Black Crypt was pretty AF. I've played only a demo back in the day.

 

[toro]

We need three of these threads, becaues as a hungarian saying goes: Three Trianon is the Hungarian Truth!

 

[octavius]

Depends on what you mean by obscure and what you mean by classics.
Personally I enjoyed Dark Heart of Uukrul, Dark Disciplies 2 or Wizards&Warriors (for example) a lot more than anything on the Codext top 10 and find them easily on par with the best of Golden Age RPGs.

I feel the same way about games like Nahlakh, Natuk and Disciples of Steel (the three best tactical CRPGs of the DOS era), as well as Uukrul, and find them superior to at least most of the Codex top 10.

 

[JarlFrank]

Depends on what you mean by obscure and what you mean by classics.
Personally I enjoyed Dark Heart of Uukrul, Dark Disciplies 2 or Wizards&Warriors (for example) a lot more than anything on the Codext top 10 and find them easily on par with the best of Golden Age RPGs.

W&W isn't nearly obscure enough to qualify as obscure for me. Uukrul and Dark Disciples would qualify, yes.

Check the "Really Obscure RPGs" thread pinned here to see what obscure really means

 

[Fowyr]

I feel the same way about games like Nahlakh, Natuk and Disciples of Steel (the three best tactical CRPGs of the DOS era), as well as Uukrul, and find them superior to at least most of the Codex top 10.

Damn, I forgot Disciples of Steel! Great game indeed.

 

[sser]

Transcendence, which is apparently on Steam. It's a sci-fi space sim/RPG from the 90s. Even today mostly completely unknown, though a lot of games in the genre basically use the exact same template.

Difficult question though. I think in general the genre doesn't lend itself to the topic in the same way shooters and especially strategy games do, which have plenty of titles that go unnoticed despite being very good. And there's always the question of definitions; what is 'obscure' and what would be considered a part of the 'best', which is like three discussions wrapped underneath the guise of one question.

 

[Krivol]

I presume that most of not shareware games are not obscure here. After all, everyone knows about masterpieces like Legacy : The Realm of Terror, right?
So, my list:
Aethra Chronicles
Nahlakh
Natuk
Aleshar

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/Black+Crypt - there is a thread about this on RPG Codex, probably the preattiest game on Amiga

Yea, Black Crypt was pretty AF. I've played only a demo back in the day.

Arghh my bad! I was refering to Evil's Doom in second link

https://thecompany.pl/gra/Evil's+Doom+1.8

Original post edited

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

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

It's flat out fucking brilliant.

I've only heared about the first Summoner. Is sequel better than the original?

The combat moved away from RTwP into a full-fledged RT affair (still pauses when you select spells and shit), but it feels more competent.
Some ideas like exploring your palace and investing money into expeditions were pretty cool. Also, the devs decided to crank the weirdness up to 11, which worked for me, but might turn others off.

I wouldn't say the sequel is better than the original -- just different. The only things that I remember disliking are the somewhat bland music (not terrible, just not enough memorable tracks) and sometimes confusing area design.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Wizards&Warriors was already mentioned and that my pick, it was reviewed and had publisher but so what - it is forgotten.
Then Inquisitor, inspired somewhat by Divine Divinity, good to play once in a while but lot of section are massive slogs (orc mines says hello). Magic was great, somewhat weird (more than one spell to cure status effect, and you need other spell to power-up your magic to make them work in the first place). Priest with bows is the only valid class.

King's Field series, especially fourth game - Ancient City. Before FROM got cursed to make Souls-like games for eternity. Decent, nice atmosphere and full of surprises and traps.

This.
Surprised no other action RPG parroted similar combat system, or did anything else than mindless LMB spam+occasional pressing 2-3 buttons for skills/potions.

Never heard about editor, gonna check it later, hope it's not too complicated.
Wonder if anyone made any map/campain for that game but even if they did then these sites are dead, most likely.
At least there is some guide
http://andrasblake.com/files/guides/Revenant.pdf

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

It's flat out fucking brilliant.

I was mentioning this game once in a while, mostly in cases like "why there is no PC version when first game was released primarly on PC?" or "why this sequel have almost nothing in common with the first game, not even story wise?".

Like most console RPGs from that era - bunch of missables that suggest you to buy the guide.
Better combat than first game, that's for sure.

Beat that thing while testing new gamepad and new CPU for emulation. Both passed well.

 

[Lilliput McHammersmith]

Not really obscure, but if you have exhausted the Western RPG market, you might want to look at JRPGs, especially ones inspired by Wizardry. Fire Emblem: Three Houses is more SRPG than anything but it is superb. I have enjoyed what I have played of Persona 4 and SMT: Devil Survivor 2. I recently booted up Shin Megami Tensei 1 for the SNES and it seemed very cool as well.

 

[Falksi]

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

It's flat out fucking brilliant.

Whilst that's good, I think the ending to Summoner 2's even funnier.

 

[Raghar]

Icewind dale II. As long as you are not using INT as dump stat. (Yea, you don't need much INT on IWD 2 characters. But that's the point, why make it too easy?)

 

[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.

Yea, Black Crypt was pretty AF. I've played only a demo back in the day.

Arghh my bad! I was refering to Evil's Doom in second link

https://thecompany.pl/gra/Evil's+Doom+1.8

Original post edited

 

[Dramart]

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

Does this explain why JA2 is so unknown to most gamers?

 

[Fowyr]

Yea, Black Crypt was pretty AF. I've played only a demo back in the day.

Don't be so smug. I stand by my words. Black Crypt is a beautiful game and you are retarded.

 

[Lilliput McHammersmith]

Another lesser known RPG is the 90s DOS Lord of the Rings (the isometric Ultima-looking one, not the 80s CYOA text-parser). I played the hell out of it as a kid, but I never read the manual so I never got out of the Shire.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Legacy - Realm of Terror, horror RPG, probably isn't that well-known due to not getting on 'net stores until recently and being as hard as balls.

 

[Lilura]

Don't be so smug. I stand by my words. Black Crypt is a beautiful game and you are retarded.

 

[Fowyr]

Don't be so smug again, retard.
I've worked with both software and a hardware. Could you say that you repaired A500 motherboard?
Amiga usually is just not my cup of tea. I prefer my 286s and 386s.

I recently tried circumvent bug in the Altered Destiny and run its Amiga version

Can you use standard 5.25" or 3.5" FDD with Amiga or you need set jumpers/solder new terminator resistors like in old times of tinkering with ZX-Spectrums?

How is your idiotic blog, BTW?