Really Obscure RPGs

[Darth Canoli]

To this day... IMMORTAL is the one game I was most disappointed at.

Do you mean The immortal? Or something else, there's a couple of "immortal" games out there.
The immortal was good back in the days and i didn't replay it recently nor do i want to but it probably didn't age well.

One thing i noticed on itch.io recently when i decided to check what modern (if indie) stuff can still run on my ~2004 era retro PC is that pretty much 90% of games that also provide demos are adult/nsfw games.

(btw about half of the demos i tried worked fine while pretty much nothing made with Unity worked)

This, i check it once a year or so and up until recently, there was 40/50% of garbage/demos made by pre-schoolers but last autumn, 50% of the games at least were adult/deviant games that were confined in the dark corners of the web 10 years ago.

So, it's harder to find anything remotely decent on itchi.o and i'm not sure i'll keep digging in the years to come.

 

[Bad Sector]

Old Unity versions stuff should be at least somewhat playable on ancient hardware/32bit OSes (maybe after tinkering with the quality settings and launch commands), but all the newer/more featured games tend to use newer versions that are leakier and with various compatibility-breaking bugs.

Yeah old stuff is playable fine, but my "experiment" was for running newer stuff (released the last couple of years or so), so i ignored the old stuff. Also i am running 64bit Windows 7 on it, it is an Athlon64 X2 - one of the first x86 64bit CPUs, but still mostly compatible . Though probably the newer Unity versions use some instruction that isn't supported as the games crash instantly on startup.

Though i did find a couple of games that didn't crash (ironically, one used PS1-like retro graphics that normally this PC should be able to do fine, but the framerate was like 2fps :-P) so it might also have to do with some configuration or something. Dunno, i'm not really into Unity TBH.

FWIW Jef Vogel's latest game works fine (or at least the demo does).

So, it's harder to find anything remotely decent on itchi.o and i'm not sure i'll keep digging in the years to come.

AFAIK there is a hacky way to disable a single tag by adding "?exclude=tg.tagname" but it doesn't persist across pages and cannot be combined with other tags... and there are games under "adult, porn, hentai, lewd". Though now that i notice, there is a setting in the profile to show NSFW content (perhaps i enabled it at some point). Leafo mentioned at some point that he'll implement proper tag exclusion, so that will help.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

My bad... this The Immortal

Why is it all of these old real time 3/4 view real time games play like ass? This one even went into combat mode but tbh... it sucks worse than Hillsfar which sucks worse than Knight games. I did love its graphical deaths though (maybe I just sucked at the game).



vs

Eh... ok Maybe not hillsfar.

and I still like Knight Games

(tedious as it was so my nostalgia fogged my brain).

 

[CryptRat]

I'm trying to keep a list of RPGs available on itch.io, but I'm not focusing only on what's not also available on Steam, and what I would recommend are games we talk about here, namely Lurking and Lurking II (must plays if you like open world exploration and keyword dialogs), Bludgeons and Krakens (a single character, turn-based, open world game, with free character progression and an emphasis on fun combat), Gates of Integrity (a Bard's Tale clone), Towers of twilight (a big procedural RPG, with plenty of things to do and where your enemies also assault castles, combat is classic turn-based although' it's disturbing at first because basic attacks are automatically repeated), Battle of esturia (a party-based, turn-based one).

Other possibility relevant games, either smaller games or games that I've not finished nor played enough to judge, could include ASCII Dungeon (a classic crawler), Shadow over the twelve lands (a crawler with pregenerated characters), Myrkvidr (an Ultima thing made with RPG Maker), Escape from greyrock (a classic RPG maker game but with important story choices), Hollow (inspired by the japanese game Laplace's Demon), The curse of svaltfen (an Ultima thing but I've not played it), Minima and Anteform (I've only played the first one, which is an Ultima thing), Pioneers (an age of discovery RPG, which is on hold but let's hope the enthusiasm of the players will eventually make the guy work again on it), Interstellar rising (a space CYOA-exploration game which crashes).

It's possibly the best place to find Legerdemain (not exactly Ultima, not exactly a roguelike either although' in practice you definitely lose your save because you forgot to resave after reloading) and FastCrawl (it's a game where you launch small games, it gives you a party and a small dungeon and let's go). Not sure about Excelsior and Excelsior II and about Realms of Quest games (fourth one is there too, fifth is, I think, not).

Finally I like to shill for Evowok Breeder, a pokemon kind of things so definitely not for everyone here but I think it's pretty good, Cosmodog is a turn-based exploration game which I think is great but not really with RPG progression, and RydenWood is another exploration game which is possibly vaguely relevant here but is not big on RPG progression either. Its sequel, RydenWood : Deeper than before, that I have not played, seems to have replaced a handcrafted world with procedural ones.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

That's some hot stuff CryptRat! I know many of these games from my own digs but some were totally unknown to me. Thanks!

 

[JarlFrank]

More results from my Steam catalogue diving:

The Qaedon Wars has been in my library for a while, played it more than a year ago and had fun with it. It plays like Panzer General but every unit is a D&D style character with individual stats and equipment. Very cool.


The same developer is now working on a short D&D style adventure, with the plan of making more and allowing the player to import his party into future adventures. Looking cool (but not released yet):


I don't even know whether this qualifies as a proper RPG, but the player character is a barefoot woman so of course I consider it to be a game of interest


Diablo-ish RPG with multiplayer and a map editor for making your own levels. Looks pretty decent.


I think this is based on an old flash game. Post-apoc RPG with trading and shit. Pretty cool.

 

[JarlFrank]

Found some more!

A Front Too Far is an open world WW2 FPS with RPG elements, think STALKER in WW2. You play as an American paratrooper in Normandy behind enemy lines and have to perform sabotage missions etc. Very janky but that's to be expected from a one-man effort.


Recounter is a party-based roguelike with hex-based turn-based combat. Potentially good.


SFD is another party-based roguelike. I bought that during the last sale and it's pretty fun. Imagine something like Tactics Ogre but it's a roguelike. Decent for killing some time.


Dinosystem is a survival RPG on a dinosaur island. Better than most survival games and decent RPG mechanics.


Of Gods and Men: The Daybreak Empire is a strategy RPG with tactical combat similar to the Fire Emblem games and a story-driven world conquest campaign. Nothing spectactular but the battles are fun.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Found some more!

SFD is another party-based roguelike. I bought that during the last sale and it's pretty fun. Imagine something like Tactics Ogre but it's a roguelike. Decent for killing some time.

It's more than decent, it's GOOD!

There's already a thread about SFD.

 

[The Red Knight]

https://deadgenre.itch.io/daybreakempire - Of Gods and Men is free on itch and the comments imply it's not different from the steam version, but back when I tried to play it I dropped it quickly because of the twitchy QTE attack system thing so I don't know for sure.

https://iceyp.itch.io/the-qaedon-wars-the-story-begins - if you somehow don't want, or miss, the current steam discount, the itch.io version comes with both a standalone installer and a steam key

https://morloc.itch.io/recounter (more screenshots here: https://rencounter.en.aptoide.com/app ) - this appears to be either a different project with oddly the same name, or a prototype of sorts (and isn't a roguelike); the installer comes with some surveyware asking you about your household, and there's some affiliate program added to the game's directory independent from installer's settings; the combat in this thing does appear to be a simpler version of what's in the steam trailer (single hex move with an option to run farther, aimed body part attack, strong attack with lower chance to hit, and defend command to restore stamina), so they might be related after all (and if so ignore this and just go for the steam version instead); unity

https://gamejolt.com/games/bloodmoon/532572 - and there's a completely different blood moon game on gamejolt, that's an early development srpg

https://www.reddit.com/r/Caravaneer2/comments/htjoog/play_caravaneer_2_offline_with_dlc/ - you can play the flash version of Caravaneer 2 with this; while it tells you to download 500 GB of ALL THE FLASH GAMES (I assume the first Caravaneer game is in there too), the also-provided download of ~30 MB of game files seems to work fine if put into a standalone flash player (assuming you did grab one somewhen in the past years to play some offline-download-only flash games, though adobe appears to still offer the latest v32 for download), but I haven't checked if the standalone player supports and/or needs any tinkering to make the separate DLC swf files work.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/sfd-sigma-finite-dungeon-a-roguelike-tactical-rpg-hybrid.126200/ - codex thread on SFD

Also maybe this might interest someone:
https://zuurix.itch.io/light-of-the-locked-world - hipster artstyle, high amounts of cheese in narration, hit-and-run action combat, and likely lots of crafting, but it seems to take some inspirations from Gothic: the interesting parts are the persistent world, factions (stealing or attacking friendlies will eventually make everyone in the faction attack you, wearing some faction's colors may make others not willing to talk with you, etc.), enemies drop equipment and run away from you if severely wounded, but will revert back to suicidal last stand if near death (on one hand nice if you don't want to murderhobo, but of course you want to murderhobo and that makes chasing them around a hassle), the lootable/harvestable crafting resources and merchant inventories are finite, NPCs hostile to each other will fight (and if they manage to kill someone or trigger the loot drop, they will pick up some stuff for themselves), arrows sometimes can be retrieved from where they hit, some places do look nice despite the artstyle, and the ambient music is very nice and cozy.

 

[Darth Canoli]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Caravaneer2/comments/htjoog/play_caravaneer_2_offline_with_dlc/ - you can play the flash version of Caravaneer 2 with this; while it tells you to download 500 GB of ALL THE FLASH GAMES (I assume the first Caravaneer game is in there too), the also-provided download of ~30 MB of game files seems to work fine if put into a standalone flash player (assuming you did grab one somewhen in the past years to play some offline-download-only flash games, though adobe appears to still offer the latest v32 for download), but I haven't checked if the standalone player supports and/or needs any tinkering to make the separate DLC swf files work.

You can still play it on Kongregate with Chrome + SuperNova extension (i didn't try)

Caravaneer 2

Caravaneer

They're probably still on Armor Games too.

Steam Caravaneer 2 version says it includes 4 DLC which are probably not available on Kong/ArmorGames.
I played them both extensively a while back, they were very good for free games, i guess it's worth buying them for 5€ or rather on sale if you're not sure.

 

[The Red Knight]

You can still play it on Kongregate with Chrome + SuperNova extension (i didn't try)

Yes, but the DLCs (as minor as they seem to be) were only available through the dev's website, and it's an offline alternative that you can add to your obsessive hoard of games that's future-proofed from online services dying. Any flash content that wasn't taken offline also still works if your flash version is from before the kill switch got added (or you google for methods on how to edit it out). Though in the long run if the flash sites persist then the actively-maintained 3rd party solutions would be a better option indeed.

 

[octavius]

JarlFrank must be


A gazillion games have been made, yet he scours the steamiest pits of the interwebs for more.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Dungeon Thief. This is not quite an rpg as no real inventory and you can't kill the thieves (i don't believe). Pity it wasn't developed into an rpg.


edit...look others.
DUNGEON 1987

whoa...


This game looks like it runs better than RED CRYSTAL (though i get hydlide vibes)


lordy, 11 raw rpg pages of some games already covered but a lot of ascii games and more there. A lot of shareware as well with the full program either non-existent or just never uploaded.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

JarlFrank must be


A gazillion games have been made, yet he scours the steamiest pits of the interwebs for more.

Did those people just get vaporized?

 

[Whisper]

Of all things mention ITT I became really interested in Arcatera: The Dark Brotherhood (the aesthetics of what I see on screenshots is awesome). Trying to find the working version.

Really great game.

 

[fantadomat]

Of all things mention ITT I became really interested in Arcatera: The Dark Brotherhood (the aesthetics of what I see on screenshots is awesome). Trying to find the working version.

Really great game.

rutracker has a version,don't know if it is working tho

Edit:If you want i could download it and upload it on megaup or some other data site.

 

[Whisper]

Not sure are these really that obscure, but two dungeon crawlers for Amiga seems to be forgotten by and large.

Knightmare, based on the bong kids show, released 1992:

Crystal Dragon, released 1994:

I haven't played Knightmare, but I played Crystal Dragon in the late 90s, and it didn't leave much of an impression.

Finished Crystal Dragon, was really fun. Highly recommend.

 

[Skdursh]

rutracker has a version,don't know if it is working tho

Edit:If you want i could download it and upload it on megaup or some other data site.

The RuTracker torrent has been dead for years. I seeded it for a little while for another Codex user sometime last year. You can also find it over at https://www.myabandonware.com/game/arcatera-the-dark-brotherhood-dt8 or https://www.old-games.com/download/9001/arcatera-the-dark-brotherhood, but Old-Games has really poor download speeds and people have reported some issues with the MyAbandonware release in the past (although I tested it and it seemed fine).

 

[Verylittlefishes]

The RuTracker torrent has been dead for years. I seeded it for a little while for another Codex user sometime last year. You can also find it over at https://www.myabandonware.com/game/arcatera-the-dark-brotherhood-dt8 or https://www.old-games.com/download/9001/arcatera-the-dark-brotherhood, but Old-Games has really poor download speeds and people have reported some issues with the MyAbandonware release in the past (although I tested it and it seemed fine).

I think I tried every existing version, nothing works after the intro.

 

[Bigg Boss]

Jagged Alliance 2 is this really obscure RPG I know.

 

[Consul]

Another obscure shitgame that was added to a potato gaming mag once is Dispel. It's a Korean (I think?) Diablo clone. All I remember about it is that it wasn't very good and that it had a gamebreaking bug when you met some kind of Obi Wan Kenobi lookalike.

^ that fucking Napoleon painting, what the hell

I remember playing this back in the day as a child. This was probably my first rpg, I was blown away by the fact that you had dialog choices and the open world. I didn't know how to heal for most of the game (you had to put herbs and potions on the belt seen on the UI). Becuase of that, I couldn't afford being hit in the combat too many times so I picked bow as my weapon of choice and kited my way to victory. Yet, despite that, I still put points into strength instead of agility because I wanted to wear plate armor to look cool, even though I had no use of it . For some time now I've been thinking about coming back to this game to finally finish it. I remember that my version was crashing when certain progress in the game was made, I also got it from the magazine Roxor spoke of. Is anybody aware if the game can be even finished? As a child, I had some good memories of it.

 

[The Red Knight]

Is anybody aware if the game can be even finished? As a child, I had some good memories of it.

This patch supposedly fixes game-breaking main quest stuff (though personally I don't remember any mountain-related crashes and instead for me it always crashed early in the main plot when trying to talk to some bishop-pope character in the snowy region (might have been after finishing some undead-slaying catacomb plot dungeon?). AFAIK it was never released outside of potato and korea, so that heavily reduced its chances for 3rd party fan support. I tried to play it again 1-2 years ago (I also have fond, hack&slashy memories of it) but didn't get far because I'm too old for the sluggish walking speed it has, especially in relation to how big the game world is and how much walking I remember.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/really-obscure-rpgs.119370/page-35#post-7030079 - here's what I managed to dig up on the game that's still available online

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Mixed genre of boomer+platformer doesn't equal RPG but this one hit my cache today. Oh, I'm a fan of both.

 

[Skdursh]

Mixed genre of boomer+platformer doesn't equal RPG but this one hit my cache today. Oh, I'm a fan of both.

Doesn't really fit here (I think there is a thread specifically for DOOM wads/mods), but I have played this before and it's really quite good. The only thing that rivals my RPG collection in sheer quantity is probably my DOOM collection. I just took a look and a rough guess says I have somewhere around 6-7k WADs, TCs and modifications in my DOOM folder. If you want to play something that better tackles being an "RPG" in DOOM format, check out Ascension https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=63102 and their earlier release Inquisitor 3D https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=54380.

Bonus: A really well done TC that turns DOOM II into S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. Was never completed, but there is a lot there to like. You'll probably struggle with learning the controls and a few other things if you don't speak Russian though. http://i.iddqd.ru/viewtopic.php?t=1003

 

[Whisper]

rutracker has a version,don't know if it is working tho

Edit:If you want i could download it and upload it on megaup or some other data site.

The RuTracker torrent has been dead for years. I seeded it for a little while for another Codex user sometime last year. You can also find it over at https://www.myabandonware.com/game/arcatera-the-dark-brotherhood-dt8 or https://www.old-games.com/download/9001/arcatera-the-dark-brotherhood, but Old-Games has really poor download speeds and people have reported some issues with the MyAbandonware release in the past (although I tested it and it seemed fine).

I am waiting for Codex Lets Play of Arcatera.