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Really Obscure RPGs

Joined
Dec 18, 2022
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Location
Vareš
Codex+ Now Streaming! Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is.
I started playing through Elysian Fields and...well let's just say there's a reason it's obscure. In just 3 screens I stumbled upon 5 random encounters, combat is turn based but has no depth at all, just healing and striking before you yourself get killed, and I was only fighting slimes. For a game that supposedly took months to make, the writing feels like something I would've done when I was 7 years old and that's not an exaggeration. Maybe it gets better, will see, but the intro does not give a good impression. I think I will be able to put together a party eventually. For some reason I have the urge to defeat this game so I will keep going lol
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,567
I started playing through Elysian Fields and...well let's just say there's a reason it's obscure. In just 3 screens I stumbled upon 5 random encounters, combat is turn based but has no depth at all, just healing and striking before you yourself get killed, and I was only fighting slimes. For a game that supposedly took months to make, the writing feels like something I would've done when I was 7 years old and that's not an exaggeration. Maybe it gets better, will see, but the intro does not give a good impression. I think I will be able to put together a party eventually. For some reason I have the urge to defeat this game so I will keep going lol
Well I did complete it a while ago so you don't have to :). And yes there's nothing else, it's a long corridor and I think you eventually control 3? characters, don't take too much time and you'll get to have to use your consumables and barely win at least (I'm not sure you can win if you never ever get back to the last town though'). There are several repositories with these QBasic games (but many are only demos) which don't completely overlap like http://www.petesqbsite.com/downloads/rpg.shtml (the average rating here is hilarious) and https://games.phatcode.net/dumpbyinput.php?input=RPG&mode=2. I don't remember why I stopped playing Dark Ages 1, I think it's a Dragon Quest 1 clone but I completed the sequel (http://www.dk-software.com/da2.html) which is almost OK but combat lacks variety. Dark Phear was reuploaded here by the creator : https://cmcgames.itch.io/darkphear. In The Nocturne seemed to be made with RPG Maker, maybe it should not even be there, the two problems are that you control only one character so combat is not as good as it might be (it's vaguely OK) and exploration is not good, presentation is decent in this one though'. Quest (the second game in the list named this way) could have been a decent Dragon Quest 1 (you control only one character) clone with basic combat but decent exploration but for me interactions with environement stopped working as I entered the first cave I think so I can't play it further and it's likely nobody can. Finally you probably should not try Tower of Fortune because it'll make you sad, what you can play of this one is by far the best I got from these but I'm almost sure you can't get past the first dungeon.
toweroffortune.gif
 

Zariusz

Arbiter
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
1,889
Location
Civitas Schinesghe
Found Gorasul PL
https://archive.org/details/gorasul_pl

Sadly i get black screen on startup, which hangs up my pc so i have to unlog with alt+ctrl+del. Tried fixes from pcgamingwiki and it does not work. :(
Did you got it to work later? On version that i found, i had to use Gorasul_noov.exe instead of Gorasul.exe and then it started. Sadly menu was a bugged mess but you could progress further to character creation, then it crashed on the second page.
fG1PvlC.png
 

lukaszek

the determinator
Patron
Joined
Jan 15, 2015
Messages
12,693
Found Gorasul PL
https://archive.org/details/gorasul_pl

Sadly i get black screen on startup, which hangs up my pc so i have to unlog with alt+ctrl+del. Tried fixes from pcgamingwiki and it does not work. :(
Did you got it to work later? On version that i found, i had to use Gorasul_noov.exe instead of Gorasul.exe and then it started. Sadly menu was a bugged mess but you could progress further to character creation, then it crashed on the second page.
fG1PvlC.png
grabbed it from above source. Win11, installed via gorasul_Instalator.exe
Booted from mounted cd1 afterwards. Menu is ass and see the same. However 'narodziny' takes me fine to character creation and game boots fine(relatively, a lot of flickering around other windows on multi screen setup, but it stabilizes).
However performance is quite bad(10-15fps?). Would need to resolve it, didnt try anything yet. I think I recall same thing from other isometric rpg of past
 

Dorateen

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
4,370
Location
The Crystal Mist Mountains
Finally you probably should not try Tower of Fortune because it'll make you sad, what you can play of this one is by far the best I got from these but I'm almost sure you can't get past the first dungeon.
toweroffortune.gif
I just found this on InternetArchive, and was able to play a little in the browser. Someone needs to complete making Tower of Fortune. What a great MM2 clone.
 
Joined
Sep 26, 2022
Messages
91
I remember hearing about this one Polish Fallout 1 clone made by someone related to The Witcher franchise (one of the composers?). Anyone knows what I'm talking about? This might be hard to find, since I only heard about this game second hand from someone who played it/only heard about it too. It was some kind of post-apocalyptic RPG set in Poland released sometime in the 90s.
 

Lord_Potato

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 24, 2017
Messages
10,041
Location
Free City of Warsaw
Holy shit, look what I found while looking for the aforementioned game: https://www-gry--online-pl.translat...=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=pl&_x_tr_pto=wapp#pc
Not sure if this is the game I was looking for, but it sure is a gem.

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/...-nieznane-przygody-franka-dolasa-dxs#download

weird-wars-the-unknown-episode-of-world-war-ii_38.webp
This is a sequel to Another War which I played and reviewed in this very thread. For some reason (most likely publicity) they tied this one to a popular comedy tv series "How I started WW2", but it also acts as a sequel to the previous game, in which WW2 is already in full swing.
 

Baron Dupek

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
1,870,856
IIRC it's all about finding broken mechanic to breeze through the game. And would be surprised if Dolas adventure was buggy mess.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,159
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Holy shit, look what I found while looking for the aforementioned game: https://www-gry--online-pl.translat...=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=pl&_x_tr_pto=wapp#pc
Not sure if this is the game I was looking for, but it sure is a gem.

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/...-nieznane-przygody-franka-dolasa-dxs#download

weird-wars-the-unknown-episode-of-world-war-ii_38.webp
This is a sequel to Another War which I played and reviewed in this very thread. For some reason (most likely publicity) they tied this one to a popular comedy tv series "How I started WW2", but it also acts as a sequel to the previous game, in which WW2 is already in full swing.
This game had a German and a French translation. The French is available on abandonware sites, as is the original Polish, and Russian.
The German wasn't available anywhere so I bought it on DVD from Amazon (they only had one left in stock!), copied all the DVD's files to my hard drive, and uploaded it on my mediafire. You can get a link by sending me a DM.

It was never translated to English though, so unless you speak Frog, Kraut, or Vodka (west or east) you're shit outta luck.
 

Cyberarmy

Love fool
Patron
Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
8,470
Location
Smyrna - Scalanouva
Divinity: Original Sin 2
I think I tried to play German version of it but I'm not really sure. I played many Euro jank RPGs, tactical games in early 2000s and they really look alike, except horrible looking late X-Coms...
 

Modron

Arcane
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
10,056

dark_savant

Novice
Joined
Aug 25, 2013
Messages
16
Holy shit, look what I found while looking for the aforementioned game: https://www-gry--online-pl.translat...=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=pl&_x_tr_pto=wapp#pc
Not sure if this is the game I was looking for, but it sure is a gem.

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/...-nieznane-przygody-franka-dolasa-dxs#download

weird-wars-the-unknown-episode-of-world-war-ii_38.webp
This is a sequel to Another War which I played and reviewed in this very thread. For some reason (most likely publicity) they tied this one to a popular comedy tv series "How I started WW2", but it also acts as a sequel to the previous game, in which WW2 is already in full swing.
This game had a German and a French translation. The French is available on abandonware sites, as is the original Polish, and Russian.
The German wasn't available anywhere so I bought it on DVD from Amazon (they only had one left in stock!), copied all the DVD's files to my hard drive, and uploaded it on my mediafire. You can get a link by sending me a DM.

It was never translated to English though, so unless you speak Frog, Kraut, or Vodka (west or east) you're shit outta luck.
The full title is Weird War: The Unknown Episode of World War II

There is an English demo available on the net and the game got retail release in German, Polish, French, Italian, Russian and Czech.

Actually it was also fully translated to English but never released due some publishing problems. Fortunately I got the full English release file directly from one of the developers some time ago. The game is perfectly playable on windows 11 machine with full English text and cutscenes with English voice-over.
 

lukaszek

the determinator
Patron
Joined
Jan 15, 2015
Messages
12,693
turns up windows comes with tools that can enable games to be ran with lower directx versions.
Problem is that it can go down to 9, while gorasul wants 8. And 9th doesnt solve fps issues
 

Baron Dupek

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
1,870,856
Randomly stumbled upon this - a "medieval/fantasy" game with sci-fi aesthetics.
And guess what - it's getting re-released. Developed by P.M. Studios (original) and AgeOfGames (Re-release). edit - they're the same studio, but with name changed in the meantime.
Was it worth it?
https://twitter.com/game_obscure
Etrom is an action RPG set in a futuristic medieval dystopia named Syghundia. You play as the eponymous hero Etrom, a former HWD (Human World Defense) soldier who became a fugitive after being summoned by a so-called Astral Essence.


 
Last edited:

vitellus

the irascible
Patron
Joined
Jan 10, 2023
Messages
393
Location
fuck you
Codex+ Now Streaming!
Randomly stumbled upon this - a "medieval/fantasy" game with sci-fi aesthetics.
And guess what - it's getting re-released. Developed by P.M. Studios (original) and AgeOfGames (Re-release). Was it worth it?
https://twitter.com/game_obscure
Etrom is an action RPG set in a futuristic medieval dystopia named Syghundia. You play as the eponymous hero Etrom, a former HWD (Human World Defense) soldier who became a fugitive after being summoned by a so-called Astral Essence.



it looks like what would've been if they made kotor in the vanilla wow engine
 

Bad Sector

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 25, 2012
Messages
2,233
Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I wrote about the demo a bit in the old thread it had. It is buggy but TBH i think it'd be interesting if the bugs were fixed. Or at least judging from the first level where i decided to kill everything on the map despite the game telling me to ignore the enemies and run to the first objective - and then ended up walking in space because of weird bad pathfinding that somehow decided that walking in the sky is the way to walk around obstacles (which, ok, in a way it makes sense, but the idea also needs gravity to work :-P).
 

Lord_Potato

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 24, 2017
Messages
10,041
Location
Free City of Warsaw
I could get Shadow Vault to run on one of my older XP based laptops, but found it very unwelcoming and quickly abandonned it. I guess its one of those that deserved being forgotten.
 

felipepepe

Codex's Heretic
Patron
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
17,278
Location
Terra da Garoa
I spent the past few days exploring some 90s shareware/freeware, there's a lot of cool stuff here: https://www.dosgamesarchive.com/category/role-playing?c=9&page=1 and here : https://dosgames.com/category/role-playing-rpg/1

I couldn't find these on your list, BosanskiSeljak :

Aleshar: The World of Ice (1997)​


Boboli The Mighty Knight (1996)​

Daymare I (1992)​


Dragon Engine (2000)​


Dungeon Explorer (1990)​


The Dungeons of Kairn (1989)​


Joyous Rebel (1996)​


The Kingdom of Syree I-III​


Lords of Doom: Part One: The Black God (1996)​


Mysterious Song (2000)​


Thor's Hammer (1995)​


Tower of Fortune (1998)​


Ultizurk III: The GuildMaster's Quest (1995)​


Winged Warrior (1995)​


Not all look great, but some like Tower of Fortune look very Codex-like:

336j8jV.png
 

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