Really Obscure RPGs

[Morpheus Kitami]

I plowed through this thread over the last day or so, and there is a reason most of these games are obscure. I played about half of them during the dark times of no real RPGs being released, and they're either terrible or unplayable buggy messes. Prince of Qin is one of the few that I could recommend if you've played all the actual good RPGs already and are looking to kill time. The Fall might be worth plowing through its issues, but it's not some hidden gem underneath. The Infinity Engine and Diablo clones are not worth it even if they're free.

The inner autistic in me still enjoys seeing all these games being tracked down for posterity sake.

Out of curiosity, how many did you play relatively close to completion? I only ask because I've recently had a trend of replaying a bunch of old games, some I thought were shit, some that weren't, and when I actually finished them a good deal ended up turning to be much better or much worse than I thought they were.

 

[FrancoTAU]

I plowed through this thread over the last day or so, and there is a reason most of these games are obscure. I played about half of them during the dark times of no real RPGs being released, and they're either terrible or unplayable buggy messes. Prince of Qin is one of the few that I could recommend if you've played all the actual good RPGs already and are looking to kill time. The Fall might be worth plowing through its issues, but it's not some hidden gem underneath. The Infinity Engine and Diablo clones are not worth it even if they're free.

The inner autistic in me still enjoys seeing all these games being tracked down for posterity sake.

Out of curiosity, how many did you play relatively close to completion? I only ask because I've recently had a trend of replaying a bunch of old games, some I thought were shit, some that weren't, and when I actually finished them a good deal ended up turning to be much better or much worse than I thought they were.

Not too many games here that I'd want to commit 20-40 hours into if I'm hating it after the first couple hours. For the games I actually spent some time playing.

I played Prince of Qin and it was a decent Baldur's Gate style game.

The Fall, I was using some unofficial English translation patch so maybe it's better without. It also crashed a lot on me, but might be better on an older Windows version. Bugs and crashing killed any momentum I had with it.

I don't count them as obscure since they had full distribution in big stores in the US, but Silver and Septerra Core were decent JRPG/Western RPG hybrids that I got pretty far into. The Final Fantasy influence is unmistakable.

Other ones that I quit pretty quickly.
Another War, Baldur's Gate style with frustrating combat and a bad English translation that I didn't see getting better.
Gorasul, another BG style game with nothing good to say about it.
Metalheart, I think this was a shitty Fallout Tactics type of game but all I remember is how buggy it was.
Prelude to Darkness might be a hidden classic, but 2 different versions of this just kept on crashing on me so i never made it past the first city.
Any Diablo clone/Hack & Slash mentioned in this thread, my review was that it's generic, bland and probably buggy. I don't know why I played so many of these. Just go replay Diablo, Titan Quest, Sacred or Beyond Divinity instead.
Pillars of Garendall, it came before but I'd describe it as a really RPG lite version of Eschalon.
Devil Whiskey is one that I should probably retry, it was a decent Bard's Tale clone.

There's a bunch of other's that I played but they were so forgettable that I couldn't even tell you anything about them. The only reason I know I played ones like Avadon, Cops 2170, Evil Island, Hexplore, Armor&Amulets, etc is that it says so in my autistic excel spreadsheet of games that I've played.

I'd love to hear more opinions on Teudogar or Omega Syndrome. For the latter, I know the developer just stopped selling it and you can't even pirate a full copy. It had some good buzz on the codex when it came out though.

 

[Grauken]

'Ruadine' is a single player dungeon-crawling adventure, currently in development and set for release later this year.

This in-browser demo offers a taste of the game's mechanics and takes roughly 10 - 20 minutes to complete. The finished game will be available for purchase as a DRM-free download (Windows), with plans for release via Steam as well as mobile (Android).

CONTROLS : Arrow keys or WASD to move / select combat action, SPACE to confirm / act, CTRL to open menu / use skill.

The game is also fully playable with the mouse! Gamepad support is in the works.

Please note that story elements within the demo are mostly non-existent, but will be implemented during the game's development.

Also, some minor graphical / UI oddities exist in the browser demo, which won't be present in the final version. Particle effects may cause slowdown on some devices.

Enjoy!

https://glasscandlegames.itch.io/ru...4IL73NqklL5rkS1dneA7rBlHKHD5qvEgdiNSA4au2Xa98

This has really annoying QT event-like combat, all corridors are single-spaced, there's no room larger than 1x1 (basically no room at least 2x2 or anything bigger) and the movement feels odd.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Prelude to Darkness might be a hidden classic, but 2 different versions of this just kept on crashing on me so i never made it past the first city.

I'd love to hear more opinions on Teudogar or Omega Syndrome. For the latter, I know the developer just stopped selling it and you can't even pirate a full copy. It had some good buzz on the codex when it came out though.

Here are threads on Prelude to Darkness and Teudogar and the Alliance with Rome. In my signature, you'll find links to reviews of those titles.

There is a new wave of interest in Prelude to Darkness and some of the RPG Codex members are trying to mod it in order to fix some issues, including constant ctds.

As for Omega Syndrome, try here and another thread I recently set up. The game is no longer being sold, true, but good people of RPG Codex managed to unearth a working version. Check the link to the whole package (game, patch, data for registration) here. I am writing the review right now and should submit it to publication by the end of the week.

 

[V_K]

Am I the only one who liked Gorasul?
I mean, it was so many years ago that I might just be remembering it wrong but I don't remember it being the irredeemable shit people seem to imply it is. Certainly nowhere near the Russian RPGs of the time.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Am I the only one who liked Gorasul?
I mean, it was so many years ago that I might just be remembering it wrong but I don't remember it being the irredeemable shit people seem to imply it is. Certainly nowhere near the Russian RPGs of the time.

I think lukaszek is a great fan.

I also played it to completion and in my review, I wrote:

"Gorasul is an uneven experience. Sometimes it charms you, sometimes it irritates you, sometimes it makes you sad for the lost potential and wasted effort. There are really good ideas here (like the companion weapon, which is btw the only "real" companion in the Baldur's Gate sense, one that has a mind of his own, initiates conversations, and has a strongly defined character), but they are buried under a lot of poor design decisions. It can only be honestly reccomended to people craving an infinity engine clone game, who completed all the real infinity engine games 10 times already and do not need the 11th run. Others would probably do best to avoid it."

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Am I the only one who liked Gorasul?

lukaszek

 

[V_K]

It can only be honestly reccomended to people craving an infinity engine clone game, who completed all the real infinity engine games 10 times already and do not need the 11th run.

Funniest thing is, I don't like IE.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Ranarama]

How can Gorasul be considered obscure, it gets mentioned on almost every thread in this forum?

 

[V_K]

Am I the only one who liked Gorasul?

i have no idea how you came to that conclusion, are looking for rpg news on politics forum?

Well, it's not on the top 101...

 

[Lord_Potato]

How can Gorasul be considered obscure, it gets mentioned on almost every thread in this forum?

Yes, it gets mentioned here and there (usually by 1 very specific person). But how many people on this forum of esteemed RPG veterans actually played it?

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Bad Sector]

Never heard of it but it looks interesting so i wishlisted it and i might try it at some point if it comes to GOG.

 

[Skdursh]

As for Omega Syndrome, try here and another thread I recently set up. The game is no longer being sold, true, but good people of RPG Codex managed to unearth a working version. Check the link to the whole package (game, patch, data for registration) here. I am writing the review right now and should submit it to publication by the end of the week.

I've posted about and looked around for Omega Syndrome for years now and essentially gave up on it thinking it was just absolutely lost. It's probably shit, but something about the screenshots for it has always called to me.

As a side-note, I never really realized before just now, but archive.org has an absolute treasure trove of 90's - early 00's DOS RPGs which are almost certainly mostly trash.

Here's a sampling:
City Beneath the Surface
Tower's Lord Baniff's Deciet
Shadowflare: Episode 1
Azalta
The Crusade
War Wizard
DreamScape
Konrad the Warrior
Magebane 2
Stellar Police
Gateway to Another World
Ancients 1 Deathwatch
In the Nocturne

Here's to a night of very low-quality entertainment!

 

[CryptRat]

City Beneath the Surface

This one has cool bloody death animations. It's Dungeon Master without the high interactivity of Dungeon Master or Eye of the Beholder without the spells of Eye of the beholder. That said, I only went down to the 5th floor and the level design did become more and more complex. I got stuck, very likely because I suck, and very less likely because I used a key in the wrong lock, I would not mind but I just don't have a previous save to verify. It's totally possible that it's a good game, with terrible combat but good dungeon, I just can't certify this at that point.

Azalta

Thanks for this one, it seems to tick the right boxes, with party creation and plenty of races and classes especially, and searching for it in the Codex forums seems to trigger the right threads.

War Wizard

This one is mentioned once in a while around the place.

Stellar Police

This one has big party creation. Combat is a such a mess I never took the time to try to get it because it's a shareware version and I did not find the complete version. If the complete version is available somewhere then the game may be worth trying but if not then don't bother.

Ancients 1 Deathwatch

This one plays smooth with actual turn-based combat unlike City Beneath the Surface, but I didn't play for more than a few minutes so far so I don't know about the actual content.

In the Nocturne

It's basically a straigthforward single character RPG Maker game, stats increase independantly "with use" (I can't remember how it works exactly), I don't think it's terrible but I thought the dungeon was too simple with probably not even one secret or anything.

You can also play Maze Quest and get pissed off just as much as I am because the complete version called City Quest does not seem to be available around the internet. Tales of Zuidat is an OK straightforward combat game in my opinion (I recommend rolling at least one mage among the two characters). I think they could have made a little effort with the maps, they did not even try, but the game is what it is and I don't think it's terrible.

 

[V_K]

Thanks for this one, it seems to tick the right boxes, with party creation and plenty of races and classes especially, and searching for it in the Codex forums seems to trigger the right threads.

IIRC it's like early Ultimas in that regard unfortunately - all those races and classes do is affect point distribution between three stats.

 

[The Red Knight]

Shadowflare: Episode 1
Magebane 2

For some unimportant trivia, these two were included in potato pcwk not-gaming magazine (12/2002 and christmas 2003 dvds, respectively). Shadowflare only as a demo (IIRC it's not that bad for some mindless hack&slashing), Magebane as a full/freeware game.


... and Dispel that Roxor mentioned on one of the early pages was from the special 15th anniversary issue of that magazine, in case someone would want to track it down and try with the patch supposedly fixing the game-breaking stuff (even without it, the main quest can be ignored and all three parts of the world with their sidequests completed); don't remember where I put mine. You might want to experience the stunlock horde-of-beholders surprise in one of the innocuous-looking caves in one corners of the world.

Here's the fan site mentioned in the patch's description, Dispel pages in red; the quest solutions appear to be lost to time (though the only difficult one I remember was forgetting in which part of the world one questgiver was and the in-game journal omitting that bit of info), but the FAQ and the merchant goods price list work. Two exploits I remember were that if you temporarily upped your stat above the required one for an item, you could equip and use it without meeting the reqs for it (like equipping a late-game heraldic plate armor as a mage), and that if you let a recruitable companion die they'd turn into a soul orb that you could carry around in your very spacious inventory and resurrect/shuffle them as needed (which was a way to bypass the two companion limit and tedious backtracking to their recruitment locations).

 

[octavius]

How can Gorasul be considered obscure, it gets mentioned on almost every thread in this forum?

Yes, it gets mentioned here and there (usually by 1 very specific person). But how many people on this forum of esteemed RPG veterans actually played it?

Never heard about the game until I saw it mentinoned here on the Codex.
But I will probably give it a try next year, when I should wrap up 2001 on my chronological play list. Evil Islands, another rather obscure Russian CRPG from the same era, was a very pleasant surprise to me. So it wasn't like the Russians were unable to make good games.

 

[V_K]

Gorasul is German though.

 

[Zandig Slaytanic]

As for Omega Syndrome, try here and another thread I recently set up. The game is no longer being sold, true, but good people of RPG Codex managed to unearth a working version. Check the link to the whole package (game, patch, data for registration) here. I am writing the review right now and should submit it to publication by the end of the week.

I've posted about and looked around for Omega Syndrome for years now and essentially gave up on it thinking it was just absolutely lost. It's probably shit, but something about the screenshots for it has always called to me.

As a side-note, I never really realized before just now, but archive.org has an absolute treasure trove of 90's - early 00's DOS RPGs which are almost certainly mostly trash.

Here's a sampling:
City Beneath the Surface
Tower's Lord Baniff's Deciet
Shadowflare: Episode 1
Azalta
The Crusade
War Wizard
DreamScape
Konrad the Warrior
Magebane 2
Stellar Police
Gateway to Another World
Ancients 1 Deathwatch
In the Nocturne

Here's to a night of very low-quality entertainment!

Here are even more obscure RPGs (some of them are on your list already) :
http://games.phatcode.net/dumpbyinput.php?input=RPG&mode=2

Perhaps some may be worth checking out?

 

[octavius]

I'm sure the CRPG Addict would be delighted to learn about that list.

 

[FrancoTAU]

Am I the only one who liked Gorasul?
I mean, it was so many years ago that I might just be remembering it wrong but I don't remember it being the irredeemable shit people seem to imply it is. Certainly nowhere near the Russian RPGs of the time.

It's not Russian shovelware bad, it's more Dungeon Lords level bad. Some interesting ideas, but poorly executed.

 

[Grauken]

Gorasul is German though.

It's the Prussian-Russian axis of jank game design

 

[Skdursh]

Here are even more obscure RPGs (some of them are on your list already) :
http://games.phatcode.net/dumpbyinput.php?input=RPG&mode=2

Perhaps some may be worth checking out?

Possibly, but all the QBASIC RPGs I've come across so far are complete fucking shit, but maybe there is a gem in there somewhere.