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Ten Computer RPGs You’ve Never Heard Of

PhantasmaNL

Arcane
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Joined
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1,653
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria
I only know and played Devil Whiskey, which indeed has some kind of weird reversed difficulty curve.
 

Lhynn

Arcane
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
9,824
In every game of Parhedros: TOS you will explore up to 11 of 21 sprawling, danger-filled levels.
I'm so confused... so there's some sort of replay value?
From what ive heard, yup, 11 levels at random among 21 that were made for the game.

I tried the demo, the puzzles are p. hard, the movement is p. ass, the combat is a combatfags nightmare, the setting is actually pretty cool, and the magic system looks interesting.
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
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12,787
interesting Mordor was not on the list

CrRtFa.jpg


Hey! I remember playing that one! I'm sure there are a number of Windows 95 CRPGs that are now more obscure because the technology doesn't allow for people to easily revisit them. DOS games made a resurgence due to the awesome DOSBox program.

Mordor was awesome, actually still is

and you can actually play it in Dosbox, just have to install win 3.1 first
 

tindrli

Arcane
Joined
Jan 5, 2011
Messages
4,465
Location
Dragodol
I dont play it any more. I do play Demise rise of ku tan wich is the same game with graphics and somewhat more content. I do own free DTR version and i dont know if it can be downloaded any more since there was some dispute over rights nevermind. If someone wants it i can upload it somewhere
 
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Grauken

Gourd vibes only
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12,787
I prefer the art direction of Mordor over Demise, just looks better to me
 

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
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In quarantine
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

tindrli

Arcane
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Dragodol
I prefer the art direction of Mordor over Demise, just looks better to me
I must agree on that. Mordor had it all except content and thats mainly the reason i play demise from time to time. I even manage to find that Tea room and forgot where it was
 

jagged-jimmy

Prophet
Joined
Jan 25, 2008
Messages
1,550
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Freeside
Codex 2012
I remember Omega Syndrome (from NMA) and i even tried the demo, i am sure. But i never got te buzz of the release and so it went into obscurity.
Nowadays any game not mentioned on Codex is pretty much shit - so only the ones i see pop up here, i deem worthy.
 

pippin

Guest
However, I imagine some are obscure for a very simple reason... they weren't very good to begin with.
Yeah, a list of good obscure RPGs would be better. (Personally I think there are quite a few, depending on what you enjoy in an RPG.)
I intend of doing one of these in the next weeks... an "Obscure RPGs I found out for the book and are awesome" clickbait article with stuff like ZanZarah, Marauder, Shadowlands and The Return of Heracles, to get some spotlight on the book & review list.

That "Top 15 cancelled RPGs" post I did on the blog got me more traffic in a week than I had in the last 3 months. ;)

ugh.png


This is beautiful
 
Unwanted

Fitz

Unwanted
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I do plan to at least try Parhedros... for research, of course.
It's literally the worst game I have ever played. Dungeon Lords is a brilliant masterpiece in comparison, Dink Smallwood is profound and deep and Mistmare is a gift from the gods worthy of adoration. If you do decide to actually give it a try do post about your experiences on the Codex but I doubt you will manage to pull through. This is the kind of game the redletter media guys would play if the best of the worst was about video games instead of movies. Seriously, this game is so bad it will blow your fucking mind. To even put it on the same list as S&S: Underworld and The Devil Whiskey is insulting, you could take a dump inside the slipcase of one of EA's recent games and mail it to me and it would still be better than this.

To put it succinctly: imagine if JarlFrank made an RPG. This is what the results would be like.
 

DramaticPopcorn

Guest
You can create any character using a SPECIAL rip-off (down to the skills and traits), but the start of the demo is linear as hell, filled with nothing but corridors, empty containers and trash mobs. And you have only a melee weapon and a pistol with very few bullets. Meaning any character that didn't invest in melee WILL suffer in the first area. That's very un-Fallout-ish, and just bad design.

So basically its like the Temple of Trials?

:troll:
BLOWN
L
O
W
NWOLB

THE
H
EHT

FUCK
U
C
KCUF

OUT
U
TUO
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I do plan to at least try Parhedros... for research, of course.
It's literally the worst game I have ever played. Dungeon Lords is a brilliant masterpiece in comparison, Dink Smallwood is profound and deep and Mistmare is a gift from the gods worthy of adoration. If you do decide to actually give it a try do post about your experiences on the Codex but I doubt you will manage to pull through. This is the kind of game the redletter media guys would play if the best of the worst was about video games instead of movies. Seriously, this game is so bad it will blow your fucking mind. To even put it on the same list as S&S: Underworld and The Devil Whiskey is insulting, you could take a dump inside the slipcase of one of EA's recent games and mail it to me and it would still be better than this.

To put it succinctly: imagine if JarlFrank made an RPG. This is what the results would be like.

Challenge accepted!
 
Self-Ejected

Davaris

Self-Ejected
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6,547
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Idiocracy

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
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Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,237
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I think there are also a lot of 'obscure' games that weren't obscure at all in their native countries, they just never got translated to English.
Yeah, Chinese Paladin is one of China's most famous RPGs, yet few even heard about it elsewhere:

B2niFPW.png


Shame really, it's a great game, if you are Crooked Bee can stomach some lengthy maze dungeons.
I coulda sworn you showed me an ingles version of this.
 

Ladonna

Arcane
Joined
Aug 27, 2006
Messages
10,637
Played and enjoyed Swords n Sorcery; Underworld. Devils Whiskey didn't do anything for me though. Strange that Dark Disciples wasn't mentioned (maybe because it is free? Shilling?) or Natuk. I find it hard to believe those two games are less obscure than Swords n Sorcery or Devils Whiskey, both of which I have seen mentioned on mainstream forums.
 

Zetor

Arcane
Joined
Jan 9, 2003
Messages
1,706
Location
Budapest, Hungary
Played and enjoyed Swords n Sorcery; Underworld. Devils Whiskey didn't do anything for me though. Strange that Dark Disciples wasn't mentioned (maybe because it is free? Shilling?) or Natuk. I find it hard to believe those two games are less obscure than Swords n Sorcery or Devils Whiskey, both of which I have seen mentioned on mainstream forums.
FWIW Natuk (and Nahlakh) were pretty well-known / hyped on Usenet back in the day -- about as much as (or even more than) Spiderweb games.
 

ghostdog

Arcane
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Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
11,079
Zetor said:
I think there are also a lot of 'obscure' games that weren't obscure at all in their native countries, they just never got translated to English.
Yeah, Chinese Paladin is one of China's most famous RPGs, yet few even heard about it elsewhere:

B2niFPW.png


Shame really, it's a great game, if you are Crooked Bee can stomach some lengthy maze dungeons.
I coulda sworn you showed me an ingles version of this.
There was definitely one of the early DOS games of that series in UndergreoundGamer and IIRC it was translated in English. I'll search for it when I get home.

Also MisterStone did an LP for one of the series (or pretty similar) and maybe can shed more light on these games.
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
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28,237
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Zetor said:
I think there are also a lot of 'obscure' games that weren't obscure at all in their native countries, they just never got translated to English.
Yeah, Chinese Paladin is one of China's most famous RPGs, yet few even heard about it elsewhere:

B2niFPW.png


Shame really, it's a great game, if you are Crooked Bee can stomach some lengthy maze dungeons.
I coulda sworn you showed me an ingles version of this.
There was definitely one of the early DOS games of that series in UndergreoundGamer and IIRC it was translated in English. I'll search for it when I get home.

Also MisterStone did an LP for one of the series (or pretty similar) and maybe can shed more light on these games.
Yeah found it. felipepepe put on the screenshot thread with links to an english version.
 
In My Safe Space
Joined
Dec 11, 2009
Messages
21,899
Codex 2012
You can create any character using a SPECIAL rip-off (down to the skills and traits), but the start of the demo is linear as hell, filled with nothing but corridors, empty containers and trash mobs. And you have only a melee weapon and a pistol with very few bullets. Meaning any character that didn't invest in melee WILL suffer in the first area. That's very un-Fallout-ish, and just bad design.

So basically its like the Temple of Trials?

:troll:
Not really. In Temple of Trials you just have to kill about 7 ants and do some simple tasks and talk to/fight one guy. You have to kill about 10x as much worms in Omega Syndrome to get through the first dungeon.
 

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
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Joined
May 13, 2009
Messages
27,089
Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
I only "scored" a 3/10 on that list.

I was more interested by felipepepe list of 15 cancelled RPGs, because I may have one from around 1992 that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere since then.

Let me dig it up and get back to you all.
 
Joined
Jan 11, 2015
Messages
627
Location
Seattle, WA
You could probably add Decklin's Demise, Battlespire, Thunderscape, and possibly even Dark Heart of Uukrul or Dungeon Lords to that list by a thread of hair. I am definitely interested in the Underworld mentioned. And the one no longer available. :'(

Legacy is also available from the maker's of Quest iOS, another good game.
 

V_K

Arcane
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
7,714
Location
at a Nowhere near you
Those are fairly well-known, imo. If you're looking for really obscure stuff, try Enchantasy, or WarWizard, or Walls of Bratock, for example (just off the top of my head).
 

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