Really Obscure RPGs

[jebsmoker]

here's an interesting one that requires you to bust out your gog (or steam) copy of Quake 2: Dawn of Darkness

i'll let the overview from its moddb page do the talking:

Dawn of Darkness was an excellent RPG/adventure/action game that was dumped by Ward Six Entertainment in 1999. It's not well-known, but it is a real gem, so make sure you play it.

Dawn Of Darkness takes place in a long vanished world of mighty forgotten empires and magic. It is the tale of a once revered Lucitanian warlord, Roarke The Merciless, caught between his obligations to his family, his empire and his honor.

You are Roarke the Merciless, imprisoned in the captured Manawyd monastary by an army from the Cheitan Empire who have attacked the village you have lived in. Roarke is an elite fighter, if perhaps a little out of practice since his days as one of Lucitan's greatest warlords. You begin playing armed with only the dagger Roarke had hidden in his boot, you must escape and find Sylmaril. How you do this is up to you. The game is played with basically the most of the same controls as Quake 2, except for the new commands and items bindings we've added.

Dawn of Darkness is a complete Total Conversion, including all-new weapons, bad guys, maps, textures, models, etc. There is even a new inventory system, and a character dialogue system where you can talk to anyone.

Weapons include a dagger and sword which you use by attacking while moving the mouse in the direction you wish to swing. Each weapon also has an alternate attack mode which do things like punch, block, etc. You can also get a bow, crossbow, pistol, blunderbuss, even a shovel. Some weapons have magical properties, like the sword which goes into Bloodlust mode when you're particularily lethal, and you can decapitate enemies.

Quake II 3.20 is required.

you can download it here: https://www.moddb.com/mods/dawn-of-darkness1/downloads/dawn-of-darkness-v515-full-file

and here's some screenshots:

 

[The Red Knight]

Looking for the prosperous Halflings and NPC packs for Tales of Trolls & Treasures:
https://web.archive.org/web/20080804150103/http://www.rpg-project.com/pages/down.htm
The game's download works, and the first three packs can be downloaded by using the 2006 captures (2008 ones appear to be broken). Halflings link redirects to some democracy forum and there's only the broken 2008 capture of NPCs.

Installer + working packs zipped for convenience: http://www.mediafire.com/file/45ajuoxtvh31b8t/totutrpg.zip/file

I haven't done it, but grabbing an earlier version of the game might be good too for archivization purposes - seems like they intended to overhaul stat rolls and they're fixed/removed in the most recent version:

Also some screenshots in the Screenshots thread

 

[octavius]

Looks interesting.
Is it any fun to actually play? Or is it more fun for would-be-Cleves?

 

[The Red Knight]

Played only like 10 mins so not sure.

- the installation went smoothly; launching the game for the first time with class packs unpacks them for several minutes (each file launches a new unpacker command prompt window that steals focus from whatever window you were viewing so forget about browsing Codex as it unpacks)
- RTwP party hack&slash
- you create four characters (name, race, gender, class, no additional customization)
- men and women reportedly have attribute differences
- you need portrait packs to unlock classes for a given race (without the missing pack halflings can only be assassins of both genders + a female druid)
- can't choose the same combination twice (e.g. two halfling female assassins)
- targetting items/npcs/opponents is awkward/unintuitive (you have to click on the feet; JarlFrank ) but there is a key to highlight loot diablo 2-style
- there is a key for running so moving around is ok (the fighter NPC you can optionally recruit in town seems to lack running animation and so will drag behind the running party if you let him join)
- you control one character at a time (AI takes over other party members), but you can switch between them at any time, modify their behavior with some AI sliders in char sheets, and there are follow/attack/target buttons for group moving
- conjurer seems to lack offensive spells at the beginning so I just watched other party members fight (they seem to use potions when wounded and/or spells on their own too)
- according to in-game descriptions, conjurers and magicians have four tiers of class changes (conjurers are 1st tier and go to the 3rd one, magicians are 2nd and miss on conjurer's spells but can level into 4th class with powerful magic)
- the map seems to be static in the example scenario (you start with no weapons next to three hostile skeletons, and there's a town/camp to the north), but the loot drops are randomized
- the starting town has a blacksmith selling weapons + some guy selling potions (didn't have enough gold for anything), a recruitable NPC, some captain NPC I didn't bother reading the dialogue of, and some mage NPC who will give you a quest once you levelup
- the font may take some time getting used to (the ant-sized first page of the character creation is nigh-unreadable but it's better elsewhere)
- eventually crashed after a few fights but no idea why (like, whether it was something I did, a bugged script or OS compatibility issue)
- it's an alpha version so the scenario is probably unfinished
- no idea if it works at all in win10 and/or 64bit OSes
- I'd say it's playable but don't expect anything substantial + I have high tolerance to jankiness so your mileage may vary

If you want higher chances of having fun, SCOURGE and Hale are better bets (or RuneSword 2, but it's ridden with bugs)

 

[Naraya]

I don't think this has been posted here before:

http://www.dzikosoft.com/games/lod.html

Also uuuuh what the actual fuck:

http://www.dzikosoft.com/rpg-xls/info.html

This is a goldmine.

Welcome to Excel Games Library, a part of DzikoSoft GMEXCEL Project.
Here you can find one hundred cool Excel games for your enjoyment and study: http://www.dzikosoft.com/gmexcel/library.html

 

[InD_ImaginE]

I kinda forget a game name so I am asking here in hope somebody remember:

1. It is/was on Steam Early Access

2. It is turn based RPG

3. he setting is seemingly modern world post apocalypse? Or zombies? Not sure (Not Dead State)

4. There are some base building element IIRC?

kinda vague I know, I think there a Codex thread about the game too, but it fell off the radar and I want to check whether the game is finished or not

 

[Abu Antar]

I kinda forget a game name so I am asking here in hope somebody remember:

1. It is/was on Steam Early Access

2. It is turn based RPG

3. he setting is seemingly modern world post apocalypse? Or zombies? Not sure (Not Dead State)

4. There are some base building element IIRC?

kinda vague I know, I think there a Codex thread about the game too, but it fell off the radar and I want to check whether the game is finished or not

Dead Age II?

 

[InD_ImaginE]

I kinda forget a game name so I am asking here in hope somebody remember:

1. It is/was on Steam Early Access

2. It is turn based RPG

3. he setting is seemingly modern world post apocalypse? Or zombies? Not sure (Not Dead State)

4. There are some base building element IIRC?

kinda vague I know, I think there a Codex thread about the game too, but it fell off the radar and I want to check whether the game is finished or not

Dead Age II?

No, the combat is grid based/AP based turn based iirc. What I remember on the Steam Page screenshot was suburbuan setting, you have dialogue like you would in Fallout/Dead Stage

 

[Nortar]

Dead Age II?

No, the combat is grid based/AP based turn based iirc. What I remember on the Steam Page screenshot was suburbuan setting, you have dialogue like you would in Fallout/Dead Stage

Urban Strife?

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Dead Age II?

No, the combat is grid based/AP based turn based iirc. What I remember on the Steam Page screenshot was suburbuan setting, you have dialogue like you would in Fallout/Dead Stage

Urban Strife?

No, this is too new. I remember they game has been released in EA.

 

[Inconceivable]

No, the combat is grid based/AP based turn based iirc. What I remember on the Steam Page screenshot was suburbuan setting, you have dialogue like you would in Fallout/Dead Stage

ATOM RPG?
It's a pretty good, Russian Fallout clone. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The biggest complaint I could give is that you can't control party members in the turn-based combat.

Currently the sequel "Trudograd" is on Steam Early Access.

 

[Baron Dupek]

I kinda forget a game name so I am asking here in hope somebody remember:

1. It is/was on Steam Early Access

2. It is turn based RPG

3. he setting is seemingly modern world post apocalypse? Or zombies? Not sure (Not Dead State)

4. There are some base building element IIRC?

kinda vague I know, I think there a Codex thread about the game too, but it fell off the radar and I want to check whether the game is finished or not

was that some kind of ArmorGames-like games?

 

[InD_ImaginE]

I kinda forget a game name so I am asking here in hope somebody remember:

1. It is/was on Steam Early Access

2. It is turn based RPG

3. he setting is seemingly modern world post apocalypse? Or zombies? Not sure (Not Dead State)

4. There are some base building element IIRC?

kinda vague I know, I think there a Codex thread about the game too, but it fell off the radar and I want to check whether the game is finished or not

was that some kind of ArmorGames-like games?

Yeah this is pretty similar. But I am still pretty sure that the game I remembered is already released :/

Oh well :/

 

[Skdursh]

I kinda forget a game name so I am asking here in hope somebody remember:

1. It is/was on Steam Early Access

2. It is turn based RPG

3. he setting is seemingly modern world post apocalypse? Or zombies? Not sure (Not Dead State)

4. There are some base building element IIRC?

kinda vague I know, I think there a Codex thread about the game too, but it fell off the radar and I want to check whether the game is finished or not

was that some kind of ArmorGames-like games?

Watch the full video. The company apparently became quite scummy with really predatory pay-to-win stuff. It's also just a great video besides that because Ross is the best.

 

[Tavernking]

I kinda forget a game name so I am asking here in hope somebody remember:

1. It is/was on Steam Early Access

2. It is turn based RPG

3. he setting is seemingly modern world post apocalypse? Or zombies? Not sure (Not Dead State)

4. There are some base building element IIRC?

kinda vague I know, I think there a Codex thread about the game too, but it fell off the radar and I want to check whether the game is finished or not

was that some kind of ArmorGames-like games?

Watch the full video. The company apparently became quite scummy with really predatory pay-to-win stuff. It's also just a great video besides that because Ross is the best.

Fun fact: I'm actually a character in the 3rd The Last Stand game.

 

[Darth Canoli]

was that some kind of ArmorGames-like games?

The first Last stand were action games.
Dead Zone was a little bit more interesting with scavenge missions, base building & defense, raids, some MMO mechanism which were not too bad, like guilds and raids.
You could exchange some weapons and resources through your guild.
And in the end, modding some old version of very long ranged rifles became the end of it because no base layout could do anything about the increased range and cheesy tactics.

Still, a mix of this and Fallout 1 could make a very good Dead State Clone.

But that's probably not what's happening here, looks like they came back to the action model.

Edit : i realize i missed the point of the discussion. Oh well ...
InD_ImaginE is it not ATOM RPG ? (you didn't answer to the previous message about it)

 

[Arrowgrab]

There's a game I played a bit back in the... I guess early or mid 90s. Maybe someone here can tell me the title (though I suspect it's not quite as really obscure as some other titles in here). Here's what I remember:

- A fantasy blobber with 4 characters and an orthogonal map.
- Distributed with a shareware scheme. The first episode was free, you could buy the second and third. I THINK that the actual game data for the paid episodes might have been already included in the shareware version, and you only needed a code to unlock it.
- The first episode had quite a lot of content in the outdoors overworld as opposed to dungeons, maybe even the majority of the material.
- You started in a village which was far from safe, as there were (humanoid?) monsters roaming the streets. IIRC the village probably also had services, and you could enter buildings.
- There was an automap, and the gameworld outside the village (an island) fit onto a 2*2 grid of automap pages.
- The first episode revolved around getting to another island (to the north?), but you could only get there by finding some underground tunnels that led there beneath the sea. At the end of the tunnels, there was a teleport that asked for a code and took you to episode 2. A nice touch was that if you stood in the right spot on the Episode 1 island and looked north at the right time of day (IIRC there was a day-night cycle), you could actually just about see the edge of the other island across the water.
- Characters could wield a melee and a ranged weapon. The first ranged weapons you could get were slings. When you used them (IIRC there was an "attack all" or "volley" button), the graphics of the slingshots flying towards the enemy were somewhat hilariously oversized compared to their surroundings.
- Magic weapons had a colourful outline around their icons. IIRC, weapons could break.
- The island was scattered with "test areas", 1*1 cell locations. Each displayed a special image when you entered, and each allowed you to test one specific attribute or skill - if a character's relevant stat was higher than a specific limit (which the game didn't reveal), you automatically won the test and received some reward.
- IIRC, you could control your characters' development by manually distibuting skill points whenever you leveled up.

Does this ring a bell for anyone?

 

[V_K]

Shareware blobber with 4 characters sounds kinda like Yendorian Tales 2 or 3, but I don't remember anything about these games' plots.
Does this pic ring a bell?

 

[Arrowgrab]

Shareware blobber with 4 characters sounds kinda like Yendorian Tales 2 or 3, but I don't remember anything about these games' plots.
Does this pic ring a bell?

Gosh, you know, that looks very much like what I remember! It probably IS what I'm looking for. Thanks!

 

[jebsmoker]

i found this out of boredom somehow:

https://www.richardsgamestudio.com/games.html#me

screens -

i am both intrigued and terrified

 

[Lord_Potato]

There is a free demo!

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

i found this out of boredom somehow:

https://www.richardsgamestudio.com/games.html#me

screens -

i am both intrigued and terrified

Looks interesting. I try the demo today. By the way: The game is € 14.95 on the website but just USD 7.50 on itch.io.

edit: Eternal loading times and significant performance issues on my rig. I explored the world, fell in a river, wasn't able to get out again and I uninstalled it.

 

[jebsmoker]

7.50 USD on itch.io? really? huh

 

[rohand]

That *is* obscure, congrats

 

[mondblut]

Shareware blobber with 4 characters sounds kinda like Yendorian Tales 2 or 3, but I don't remember anything about these games' plots.
Does this pic ring a bell?

Gosh, you know, that looks very much like what I remember! It probably IS what I'm looking for. Thanks!

The tunnel to another island and the magic items outline nail it.