Really Obscure RPGs

[ghostdog]

15. Mistmare - alternative history of medieval Europe destroyed by magical fog

I rented it back in the day. All I can remember is that it was p. crappy.

I'm very interested in Prince of Qin - is it more of a Chinese Baldur's Gate or Chinese party based Diablo? What's the combat, real time or RTwP?

I was gonna play Torment but then I was watching a wuxia movie and remembered that I had never finished Prince of Qin, so I re-installed it.

How is Prince of Qin? I've never heard too much talk about it, so always assumed it was just a Diablo II clone with an eastern setting.

It feels like a mixture between diablo Divine Divinity and Baldur's gate, since you can have party members and you can pause the game to give commands. Even of it has some diablo likeness, this game is definitely a crpg. It takes place in an interesting Chinese historical-fantasy setting. If you can look past the dodgy translation and some hilarious voice acting, you'll find a pretty good game that has been criminally overlooked.

Spoiler

 

[Grauken]

I guess then you can also play New centurions, although I haven't yet myself.

I may be blind, but is there any download link on that website, I can only find the Realmz demo

 

[Cael]

Demon's Winter.

Awesome game, kickass cover art, love the atmosphere!
Was one of the first games I ever got for my C64. I played the DOS version somewhat recently, and I felt the game held up.

Unique skill/ability advancement. Haven't found one that is close since.

Unfortunately, though, it isn't very balanced race-wise, so you end up with basically one elf (for the detect magic) and 4 humans most of the time.

 

[almondblight]

I guess then you can also play New centurions, although I haven't yet myself.

There's actually a bunch of RPGs that came out for the Mac in the 90's that are pretty obscure (since they came out for the Mac in the 90's).

Cythera is probably one of the better known ones (a couple people here have played it):

Spoiler

Apparently the guy who made it made a first person RPG called Theldrow a decade earlier.

Realmz is another one that a couple of people have played, but it seems like most have just played the included City of Bywater scenario. Realmz was like NWN in which the big draw was user created scenarios (that was the plan with New Centurions as well, though it never seemed to take off). A lot of the user scenarios were sold commercially, but this Reddit thread makes it look like a lot of the registration codes have since been released.

Odyssey: Legend of Nemesis is another one that was well received by those who played it:

Spoiler

Jeff Vogel was influenced by it, IIRC. Interestingly enough, there's actually another well received 90's Mac RPG named Odyssey.

Scarab of Ra is a fun game, it's something of a lunch break roguelike with no combat. Pillars of Garendall, TaskMaker, and Atlas: Gift of the Aramai might be worth checking out too, though I don't know much about them.

 

[V_K]

Pillars of Garendall [...] might be worth checking out too

Nope.

 

[Kron]

Is Necromina: Trap of Darkness known around here?
It's not really an RPG, more like a sort of crappy isometric multiplayer arena thing, but still curious.

Also had some decent metal/acoustic music.

 

[Baron Dupek]

@up
it's from the same people who made Inquisitor (2009/2012), some people like for some redeeming values but overall - ok game but nothing fancy.

As for other games....
Devil Whiskey
Restricted Area
That freeware Czech RPG Brady Skalsomething
GROM - Terror in Tibet (something in the Indiana Jones spirit)
Demise (Ascension, Rise of Ku'Tan) (biggest dungeon crawler, it take hundred(s) of hours to reach final level, if you manage it).
Swords and Sorcery

Another War was followed by another game based on "How I Unleashed World War II" but wasn't that good.

I bought that Gorasul game in boxed edition on release.
It was a mistake.

IIRC you can write answers to the puzzles on higher difficulties but translation to other languages made it impossible to pass them even if you know the answers from english guides.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Lots of great suggestions in this thread. I'll check out Prince of Qin very soon. And search for the other titles too.

In the meantime I can provide some more obscure titles:

Seal of Evil - the prequel to Prince of Qin. Hack & slash

Spoiler

Ancient Evil and expansion: The Curse of the Snake Cult

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Pillars of Garendall - have already been mentioned by almondblight, but I'll add a screenshot for those curious.

Spoiler

As for those mentioned by MotherMachinae:

Devil Whiskey - a tribute to Bard's Tale series; not so obscure!

Spoiler

Restricted Area - science fiction hack & slash

Spoiler

GROM - Terror in Tibet

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Demise, Ascension and Rise of Ku'Tan, enourmous dungeon crawlers

Spoiler

Sword and Sorcery - a tribute to Might and Magic series?

Spoiler

 

[deama]

What about Evil Islands? I ejoyed the first half of it a lot.

Spoiler

 

[Darth Roxor]

mentioning GROM without linking to the coolest LP ever makes roxorowski sad

 

[Lord_Potato]

mentioning GROM without linking to the coolest LP ever makes roxorowski sad

So, how good is the game Darth Roxor? Worth the time put into the LP?

 

[TT1]

Restricted Area looks good. I´ll try.

 

[Tigranes]

GROM was a great LP that nevertheless gave me no desire to play it myself

 

[Darth Roxor]

So, how good is the game Darth Roxor?

it's the best game

 

[Lord_Potato]

What about Evil Islands? I ejoyed the first half of it a lot.

Spoiler

And what about the second half? Was it a drag?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Also zwanzig_zwoelf is practically cheating on the obscurity thing.

You're just jealous about me finding and playing them before you did.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Restricted Area looks good. I´ll try.

You're in for a threat. I played some mediocre or bad game but Restricted Area simply pushed me off with how terrible it was. There are better action games with RPG elements, like Alien/Zombie Shooter for example.

What about Evil Islands? I ejoyed the first half of it a lot.

And what about the second half? Was it a drag?

Well, if you pump up DEX, use spear and put healing runes in every armor part and weapon - you become unstoppable. But without it - game is hard.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

The title Lamentation Sword is cool as fuck, and makes me think of one of my favorite Arnuld lines: Mongol general: "Conan! What is best in life?" Conan: "To crush your enemies! To see them driven before you! And to hear the lamentation of their women!"

 

[deama]

What about Evil Islands? I ejoyed the first half of it a lot.

Spoiler

And what about the second half? Was it a drag?

It was basically too much of the same stuff, story started turning into what I didn't like, and the ending was disappointing.

Spoiler

I would instead prefer it if the MC would just decide to settle in the starting island and would become the chieftain of the tribe there. The game should have then turned into a more of a RTS/RPG hybrid cause at the last part of the first half, the island starts getting invaded by technologicaly superior enemies, they could have made it so that you become the chieftain and defend your tribe via RTS elements or stuff like that. If they couldn't do the RTS stuff then it'd still turn out better than what it is now.

Basically a giant missed oppotunity in my opinion.

 

[Serus]

What about Evil Islands? I ejoyed the first half of it a lot.

Spoiler

It's only half-obscure (obscure-ish ?) i'd say. At least around a prestigious place like Codex. I remember at least one thread where it was discussed and probably a few more where it was at least mentioned in passing. Too lazy to look for those threads though.

 

[agentorange]

Evil's Doom

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Paradise Cracked

Don't. Just don't. You will spend your whole time staring at the "Movement beyond visual range" screen, because the whole game is turn based, not only the combat. And waiting for the NPCs to move takes aeons. Oh and the main hero is a hacker whos name is Hacker.

Also talking to NPCs and selecting dialogue options consumes AP as far as I remember.
Sounds like a codexian wet dream turned into a nightmare.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

What about Evil Islands? I ejoyed the first half of it a lot.

Spoiler

It's only half-obscure (obscure-ish ?) i'd say. At least around a prestigious place like Codex. I remember at least one thread where it was discussed and probably a few more where it was at least mentioned in passing. Too lazy to look for those threads though.

https://af.gog.com/game/evil_islands?as=1649904300
It's actually sold somewhere, unlike most of the other stuff on this thread.

 

[Citizen]

I guess now I just have to try it.

 

[Serus]

Evil's Doom

Yes, this one i remember. Originally made in the 1990s by some devs from Croatia but finished much, much later if memory serves.
A dungeon crawler but with multiple dungeons. What is interesting about it - it is fantasy of curse but with a bit of rarely seen in games Robart Howard/heroic fantasy/Conanesque elements (as opposed to Tolkien-esque fantasy).
It's also Amiga 1200 only but CAN be made to run flawlessly on emulator from what I remember (I only played a bit of it so I can't guarantee that part).
Overall - it was playable if memory serves. Don't expect another Grimoire but if you like the genre and have spare time, it's worth checking.