Kinda like Arx Fatalis story?
Three shareware games -- Two ultima likes(one early, one later) and a Zork-like text adventure.
http://excelsior-rpg.com/default.htm
Searched around on the forum and only found a couple comments about the games.
Can't quite put my finger on why, but I really like that art projection style. Shame there's so few games that used it.
The Excelsior games have an interesting plot
https://oklabsoft.itch.io/lurking-ii-a-madness
Lurking II: A Madness from OKLABSOFT
Classically styled Fantasy Role-Playing Game for Windows
Lurking II presents a dire need for your party of adventurers once more. Several decades of tranquility have passed since the threat of The Immortui was ended and The Necromancer was imprisoned within the orb. But always danger is lurking and a new threat has emerged. One by one, with a peculiar red gleam in their eyes, the people have begun to fall into darkness. Lying, stealing, ranting, harming... even doing murder; 'The Madness' spreads fear and doubt like a magical plague. Deemed by those skilled in leechcraft to be some sort of mystical prion of the soul, your party of adventurers must set out to discover the source of this infection and to find a remedy if they are able. The unexplained coma-like slumber of a young girl named Sparrow is your only clue. Massive exploration, puzzling enigmas, countless in-depth conversations, lost secrets, and harrowing combat in a vast open world await you and your party as you seek answers. But will you prevail in time?
FEATURES:
- Character creation with modifiable skills and attributes.
- 'Paper Doll' style character representation.
- Hundreds of items including clothing, musical instruments, custom forged weapons and armor and various other loot.
- Dozens of magical spells and songs.
- Party of up to 5 interchangeable characters.
- Drop off or pick up PCs during quest at adventurer guilds in towns.
- Tactical turn-based combat.
- Vast 900 x 900 tile over-world map.
- Expansive multi-layer underworld and structure interiors maps.
- Over 500 individually hand-drawn tiles create a diverse and stunning world.
- Beautiful and unique retro pixel art style.
- Nonlinear story progression with completely open world exploration.
- Hundreds of NPCs with extensive keyword-parsed conversations.
- 50+ monsters with unique skills, attacks, and behaviors.
- Plenty of noncritical secrets and hidden areas to find and explore.
- Engaging original musical score.
- In-game mapping function.
- 40-60+ hours of play to complete.
I've played through the first one. It's good. Very Ultima IV/V.
https://cannibalcat.itch.io/bnk
Bludgeons & Krakens is a turn-based, open world RPG in which the player must seek out and destroy, or outwit, the seven Beasts of Destruction threatening the land of Abraxas.
- Keep It Classy (Or Don't). Build your character from one of five classes: Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, or Druid. Play to the strengths of your class or define your own style through mastering weapon skills and magic abilities.
- Explore a Strange World. Quests and secrets abound in every corner of Abraxas. Engage in a variety of side quests with multiple endings, or simply wander the land in search of your fortune.
- Loot the Bodies. Take on hordes of foes in turn-based combat. Sling spells, quaff potions, rend your enemies, and reap the glorious rewards. When your skills are honed, seek out powerful bosses who will truly challenge your abilities.
https://radcodex.itch.io/alvora-tactics
Alvora Tactics is an indie Tactics RPG that combines strategic combat with immersive exploration. Explore and conquer Great Serpent Alvora with your own customizable band of warriors!
Note: When purchased, you will also receive a Steam key on the download page.
- Deep, yet straightforward & easy to understand tactical combat
- Explore a mix of procedural and handcrafted areas full of varied & challenging encounters
- Destructible terrain and elemental interactions – set a jungle ablaze with fire magic, or summon water then electrify it!
- Combine 10 races, 23 classes, 150+ upgrade-able abilities, and 50+ passives to create your ideal party
- Unique fantasy setting; no elves, orcs, or dwarves
- Built using the same engine, mechanics, and setting as the highly-rated Voidspire Tactics
https://oklabsoft.itch.io/lurking
Lurking is a classic RPG inspired by Ultima III.
TRAILER LINK: https://youtu.be/t6dx2SVocWM
- Classless character creation with modifiable skills.
- Build a party of up to five characters.
- Huge (300x300 tile) open world to be explored with nonlinear story progression.
- Beautiful retro pixel scenery that changes with the seasons.
- Additional gigantic multi-level underworld with separate town and battle maps.
- Turn-based combat in the early Ultima style.
- Hundreds of weapons, armor, and special items.
- Dozens of magical spells and songs.
- 40+ hours of game play.
- A fantasy role playing experience reminiscent of the 2D tile based RPGs of the 1980s.
PLOT : A mysterious figure has resurrected three ancient rulers of realms from their long, cold slumbers within their barrows. The barrow wights have taken up residence in the ruins of their former keeps and unleashed legions of undead to wreck havoc upon the lands. The denizens of the land have also become emboldened by the growing shadow of evil and despair. In desperation, the Lord Deciper has issued forth a calling for heroes to come to the aid of the people, and to find a way to thrust back the growing darkness and return the barrow wights to their slumber. But, is all as it seems?
Lurking I: Immortui boasts a huge open world role-playing experience with massive exploration, hundreds of NPCs to converse with, hordes of bloodthirsty foes, dozens of secrets, puzzles, and piles of weapons, armor, and special items. Develop your characters by pursuing the skills you desire for them as they gain experience and level up. Play magical bard songs, cast magical spells, and unravel the mystery of the resurrected barrow wights. No one will guide you through each step. No one will come to your aid in the wild. Accept a challenge that many modern games do not offer and see if you have the wits and perseverance to role-play in the old school style. If you long for the depth of story and challenging quests of the golden era of computer role playing games, Lurking I is for you.
JOURNEY ONWARD!
IMPORTANT: Version 4.0+ of this game involved a complete re-coding of the entire game. It offers many improvements over the original including improved battle and the opportunity to provide builds for MAC and LINUX users. However, data files and save games from previous versions are NOT COMPATIBLE with the new version.
***PLEASE**** If you have played this game, take a few minutes to rate it on the site, leave feedback, and post your experience to your friends and colleagues. We spent a lot of hours making it, and hearing your thoughts is what makes it all worthwhile.
https://oklabsoft.itch.io/vermys
Lurking III: Vermys (In production) will be the next installment in the Lurking series. Features will include full party creation of adventurers with skills, attributes and resistances to develop along the path you choose for each character; a large open low-poly 3d world; OST; outdoor areas, indoor areas, and bewildering areas deep within the earth.
Vermys has now been through several different iterations using different styles, coding languages & tools, and gameplay schemes. I do believe that we have now found the path to the end of this quest. Journey onward!
Find out more by visiting the Vermys page of the OKLABSOFT website.
Oklabsoft Discord: DISCORD
- I can't remember if I'd ever mentioned Reflection of fallen feather. You play as monsters you recruit, combat is simple but the exploration is above average with some thought put into it, it's a small game but I thought the dungeon design was actually pretty good. It's free.
- Ok, Mumu's Pilgrimage is weird since you actually play as a cat girl (it's single character unfortunately and it's a small game). But the game has actually some cool, if limited, gameplay closely inspired by D&D, with open-ended events. It's free.
- Knights of Tartarus is a paid game which is also available on Steam, it is obviously inspired by japanese stuff and mixes Zelda-like exploration and simple turn-based combat. You get combat skills from enemies. Both aspects work but combat is definitely simple, don't expect too much from it :
- Ptolem's Singing Catacombs is a simple dungeon crawler and more of an oddity since it's very short, but it's meant to be playable by blind people, everything is accessible via voiced description.
PicoQuest may have already been mentioned here. It plays like Hero Quest, basically, simple combat, detect traps. It's very simple but there's a free verion containing a good part of the game.
- I've already talked about Cursed 2 in other parts of the forum but it's very good and I highly recommend it, so just in case it's an adventure game similar to Uninvited, with timing-based combat and combat stats to upgrade as you wish on level ups. It's a full length game and it's free and the third episode might get released with year.
- On the same vein, the less visually appealing but very cool otherwise The Implementors' lunch is an adventure game with combat and stats which in this case can sometimes serve a purpose outside combat, nothing exceptional on that front but as an adventure game it's a good game. It's a full length game and it's free and just like the previous game I liked it more than the average recent commercial adventure game I've played.
Orcish Rage is a series of 2 real-time Strategy-RPGs. In the first game you take a series of mission where you control a bunch of heroes followed by units you don't control. You recruit units on the go and clicking on things can unlock things (items which give bonus or new units). The game is cool. The second game is more ambitious, there's a real equipment system for heroes, you get to control several different groups of heroes that you can move on a world map and there's management, you control towns where you build buildings and which can get attacked and the game follows some sort of campaign. Both games are free.
- In Corner Quest each level is a square world map.
- Dead Crowd is a small turn-based party-based game where you walk across zombies.
- Not sure the game has anything to do here but as I'm here Rabbit's Quest is a very good top down Zelda thingie. One of the good point is that it's harder than average but everything is good about it, the puzzles and secrets here and there, the exploration sequences (often as hard as the boss fights, I like that) and the boss fights, highly recommended given you like this sort of things. It's a full length game and it's free.
- Lunarrota is a short, paid, text-based adventure game (with a visible map) where getting strong enough items to kill some enemies are part of the thing and there are some sequences that you can choose to solve in different ways.
