Really Obscure RPGs

[ERYFKRAD]

DESPAIR THY EYES

[/spoiler]

Krondor's not that obscure bro.

 

[CptMace]

20. Grimoire : Heralds of the winged exemplar

A game from Australia (!!), apparently made by a single mad man. Looks like a game from the 90's (golden era, anyone ?), I get strong wizardry vibes from it.
Some say it has a story that rivals Bioshock Infinite.

Spoiler

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

DESPAIR THY EYES

Krondor's not that obscure bro.

Should've made a Prosper reference instead.

21. Avalon

22. The Tainted

23. Amika

24. Cybermercs: The Soldiers of the 22nd Century (Alien Slayer / 사이버 먹스)

25. Lamentation Sword (Akuma: Demon Spawn / Toema Jeonseol / 퇴마전설)

 

[V_K]

3. Arcatera, the Dark Brotherhood

Spoiler

This one has good ideas but very lousy and buggy execution. It's basically an RPG/Adventure hybrid where the NPCs follow their agenda independent of the PC, so you could get a bad ending just by waiting too long. Unfortunately (but expectedly), bugs galore and combat is horrible. Only interesting as a curiousity.

5. Icarus, Sanctuary of the Gods

Spoiler

Basically, a tactics game rather than RPG. You just go from battle to battle with some cutscenes/shopping in between. While technically you can develop your characters, there's only one right way to do it, otherwise you end up with unwinnable battles. Not worth it.

12. Blind Justice - not only obscure but also the oldest title of the ones I presented here (1995). I've heard some good things about it, like it has a story that rivals the one of Planescape: Torment, but I'm not sure if it wasn't just some internet trolling...
Show Spoiler

Good luck finding a version that doesn't crash when you try to leave the starting area. I couldn't.

13. Dragonfire the Well of Souls - an RPG from Sweden (!) based on their system Dragons and Demons (!!)
Show Spoiler

It's a very simplistic diablo clone with occasional easy puzzles. Only worth getting if you really want to play as a murderous duck.

15. Mistmare - alternative history of medieval Europe destroyed by magical fog
Show Spoiler

This one is actually not as bad as its reputation, and certainly original in many ways. But very buggy.

16. Vampire Hunters

Spoiler

Shovelwarish RPG/Adventure. Playable, but that's the best thing that can be said about it.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Only worth getting if you really want to play as a murderous duck.

We already have King of Dragon Pass for all our Duck needs.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Almost forgot.

26. Hiouden - Maou Tachi tono Chikai II

 

[Reinhardt]

25. Lamentation Sword (Akuma: Demon Spawn / Toema Jeonseol / 퇴마전설)

Yep. Have this thing too.

Guys, don't make me visit my personal prosperland. My wounds still healing.

 

[Lord_Potato]

DESPAIR THY EYES

Krondor's not that obscure bro.

Should've made a Prosper reference instead.

21. Avalon

22. The Tainted

23. Amika

24. Cybermercs: The Soldiers of the 22nd Century (Alien Slayer / 사이버 먹스)

25. Lamentation Sword (Akuma: Demon Spawn / Toema Jeonseol / 퇴마전설)

Anything good of these titles? Some look interesting (mind you, writing from my phone now, on a little screen even shitty game can look intriguing).

 

[Lord_Potato]

20. Grimoire : Heralds of the winged exemplar

A game from Australia (!!), apparently made by a single mad man. Looks like a game from the 90's (golden era, anyone ?), I get strong wizardry vibes from it.
Some say it has a story that rivals Bioshock Infinite.

Spoiler

Doesn't look like anything to me

 

[Falksi]

Which of these (if any) are.....

1) Any good?

2) Available on Steam?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

27. Rytíři Grálu

28. Hot War

29. Ghost Stories (Liaozhai Zhiyi-zhi Youku Chuanqi / 聊齋誌異之幽谷傳奇)

30. Fancy Angels (夢幻天使)

25. Lamentation Sword (Akuma: Demon Spawn / Toema Jeonseol / 퇴마전설)

Yep. Have this thing too.

Guys, don't make me visit my personal prosperland. My wounds still healing.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Which of these (if any) are.....

1) Any good?

2) Available on Steam?

For what it's worth, most of the ones I mentioned and some others are available on the ISO zone

 

[Grauken]

Damn, that looks great. Probably worth for it divining into Mac emulation.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

DESPAIR THY EYES

Krondor's not that obscure bro.

Should've made a Prosper reference instead.

21. Avalon

22. The Tainted

23. Amika

24. Cybermercs: The Soldiers of the 22nd Century (Alien Slayer / 사이버 먹스)

25. Lamentation Sword (Akuma: Demon Spawn / Toema Jeonseol / 퇴마전설)

Anything good of these titles? Some look interesting (mind you, writing from my phone now, on a little screen even shitty game can look intriguing).

Don't remember much about the first three (iirc Tainted was one of the few RPGs developed in South Africa). Cybermercs was mostly developed by a one-man army, it's more of a cyberpunk-ish Diablo. Lamentation Sword is a nice ARPG if you want to relax and listen to some nice tunes while wreaking havoc.

 

[Serus]

If anyone have played some of those games share your opinions. It would be nice to know, for example, which ones might be potentially playable and which ones are so bad or so badly bugged that can only be of interest as a curiosity. Thanks to everyone who did it already.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

These seem to be obscure because they are foreign and not very good. If I could recommend some foreign, but good games that I have completed and that some may not have heard of I would suggest the following:

1. Prince of Qin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Qin_(video_game)
2. The Legend of Cao Cao: http://kongming.net/legend_of_cao_cao/
3. Fallout 1.5: http://www.resurrection.cz/en/

What's your review of Prince of Qin? I tried playing it but the translation was really really bad, as well as the voice acting, I couldn't stomach it. Should I force myself or?

Archangle

I played that one. Hmm, it's an interesting game, it does some parts kinda well like the atmosphere (at least in the first era). It's more of a light RPG, there are come C&C shinanigans but as far as I can tell, they don't change the main story. I would recommend you play this if you don't know what else to play; the game does drag on at certain parts, especially the end.

[/QUOTE]

We actually have an old RPG Codex review of the game here: http://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=29

I enjoyed the game. I created a mini-review thread on it a few years back: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/thoughts-on-prince-of-qin.88673/

I'll just repost my final thoughts from that thread:

"It took me over 52 hours according to my save file, but if I would have to guess I easily played over 60 when you factor in reloads. Your soft squishy spellcasters can really get their asses handed to them quickly when you're fighting against large groups. At the end of the game, some of my characters would stop engaging the enemy and I didn't always notice. Because of that, I did less damage to the final guy than I should have, which dragged the fight out longer. This resulted in me losing my summoned bear, witch, and strongman before finally taking the boss down. I ended the game at level 48. The funny thing is that I entered the palace at level 40. They send so many men after you towards the last part of the game that my computer started lagging from having to process their movement, and I jumped 7-8 levels for each character. The more men I killed, the quicker my computer was able to process information once more.

The AI can be somewhat stupid. Often I would run away from a blob of enemies, and they would stop chasing me and turn around. I would then turn and kill the stragglers. Wash, rinse, repeat until the force is manageable to take on in a rush. This could even be done in more constrained dungeons. The ability to build your own items was fun, but there was a definite lack of materials. I found countless metal ore and wood to use, but I hardly ever found tendons. There were some locations where you could kill continuously spawning monsters, but for some reason the respawning areas mostly had ogres, which never dropped tendons, hides, or bones. Some balance in regards to raw materials would have been nice. As it was, I mostly could only make weapons for my muscle man and rings for everyone else.

It was a fun game, but a lot of the time spent was due to padding. The ton of random encounters and battles against Qin soldiers became annoyingly repetitive. The support class of the witch should have had a normal distance attack. Those are quibbles, though. I liked the character classes, the lore, the graphics, the music, the unforgiving side quests, and many of the characters. Find and play this if you can, especially if you liked isometric games such as Baldur's Gate and Divine Divinity. Prince of Qin took elements from both."

 

[Jasede]

Hexplore, an RPG/action-adventure game, very strange. I loved the demo.

Der Druidenzirkel, some shitty attic RPG/adventure.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Also zwanzig_zwoelf is practically cheating on the obscurity thing.

 

[CryptRat]

Damn, that looks great. Probably worth for it divining into Mac emulation.

Yes, I think it is worth it if you're interested in the game, I used Basilisk II.
I guess then you can also play New centurions, although I haven't yet myself.

 

[eXalted]

Paradise Cracked

Don't. Just don't. You will spend your whole time staring at the "Movement beyond visual range" screen, because the whole game is turn based, not only the combat. And waiting for the NPCs to move takes aeons. Oh and the main hero is a hacker whos name is Hacker.

 

[Cael]

Demon's Winter.

And this one, although I would consider it a squad tactic game more than RPG:



EDIT: Prophecy: Fall of Trinadon

 

[Scroo]

Great thread

 

[vazha]

I can attest that Hexplore is indeed a very cool & enjoyable rpg/adventure kind of game.

 

[Konjad]

I bought that Gorasul game in boxed edition on release.






It was a mistake.

 

[newtmonkey]

Demon's Winter.

Awesome game, kickass cover art, love the atmosphere!
Was one of the first games I ever got for my C64. I played the DOS version somewhat recently, and I felt the game held up.