Quirky Indie RPGs - Depression is optional

[Anonitolia]

Review:

https://kiwifarms.st/threads/quirky-indie-rpgs.170876/page-16#post-18721834

Ah, damn, I must be blind. My bad.

 

[Sparky Lurker]

Punchmon Demo:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1870700/The_Edge_of_Allegoria/

 

[Sparky Lurker]

CrossCode nonsequel announcement:

 

[LucasSomething]

I've been playing played ikenfell for a few hours, a certified quirky indie rpg that i still see recommended sometimes, and it's one of the most boring experiences i ever had. Like, i've been using the auto-win battle on 90% of random battles and the game still feels like a slog. I mostly atribute this to 4 main issues

1-Combat requires extremely tight QTE buttons for damage and defending that are mandatory to not get wrecked but the "flow" is too chill so it doesnt match. Once i get it it's too easy and i'd rather just skip.

There is also too much enemy density and EXP never feels worthy but you cant run away cause even 1 point of power is massive (you start doing 2 dmg) and even more hp. You dont get full stat ups on level up so my cast is still below 30 hp despite being like level 10.

The combat is supposed to have "strategy" with the grid you can move and lay traps and shit but there is no MP and enemies dont respawn until you leave the zone so it's a boring trek back to save/heal point every fight.

2-This game has an option to enable content warnigns (lol) and they're hilariously non edgy. Look at this bullshit.


(you wont even show blood then you dont need a trigger warning asshole)

(This non binary teen looks like a gremlin. srsly why is her jaw and ears like that)


("Horror"? more like WELL THAT JUST HAPPENED!)

3-Straight people dont exist in this universe. It raises the question of how humanity survived this long.





Characters are introduced by screaming I AM FUCKING GAAAAAAAAY and its impossible to take this story seriously because it's priorities are obviously fucked. I think there are 3 non binary party members with their pronouns in bio and all of them are different between They, He and ZIR.

4-The story is bad and lame and unfunny and not that quirky

I'm here to search my sister but at the school but it takes like 2 hours to get in the school and then more to find her room but there is a barrier to we find this black nerd kid (The only politically correct black stereotype) who says we must go to the library but the library is locked by an angry face so we must find a professor but the professor is at the end of this dungeon and AAAAAAAAAAAA we do all that and we find the book and it says we need a disguise so i must go to a new dungeon grab my sister's hat AAAAAAA

The story is so disconnected from gameplay that you have to find these crystal balls randomly that show you flashbacks because the game can't convey it's story through player actions i guess. There is a whole lot of implication that Safina (MC's sister) might be evil and i dont give a fuck cause i didnt meet her.

Also, did i mention it's unfunny? Everyone is a lame trope and the only good joke is the black boy having the steal magic (dev secretly racist?)




AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I'll skip every random battle and try to force myself to beat but it's so boring jeezus chroist.

But in some positive news, i tried the demo of this rpgmaker game called Silver Daze and i enjoyed it. It takes place in modern day.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2912770/Silver_Daze/

So like, Pinn is the MC and he'll graduate in 1 month. His girlfriend Kani is breaking up with him and move away so he's sad. His mother ask what job he wants and he's sadder. Then something happens and time freezes while the world is transformed into a twisted glitchy mess. Monsters appear that can be fought with trading cards from their IRL game, down to following the same rules.


(This vanilla-ass straight couple is wholesome and i root for them)

As a quirky rpg i think yall get the idea of what's coming right? Pinn and his friend Geo find their way around the glitch but they realize they dont get tired and they could be there for as long as they want, giving them "more time to think". Pinn doesnt know what to do after graduation and feels even more lost without his tomboy gf.

(hahaha what if we ignored reality and indulged in escapism friendo )

But to my surprise, Pinn meets Kani and tells her they could stay there but she hard disagrees and he changes his mind immediately, saying, he'll do "whatever kani wants". On one hand, i like a game that doesnt waste time on predictable drama on the other i wish the conflict lasted a bit longer, but i wonder if that's the twist. Later on Geo says he would rather not fight the dangerous boss but it might be their only way to escape and Pinn, again, says "I'll do whatever kani wants".

As lighthearted as the design look, it sets this ominous mood where i can't tell if Pinn is a super nice guy or if Pinn doesnt care anymore as long as he spends time with her. He seems like a great person but also one without clear goals or self confidence. Yeah, it's not #Peak shakespeare writing or anything but this is more interesting to me than ikenfell pretending the MC's sister might be evil. For how fast paced the demo is, it convinced me to care for the MC.
Like, cause he feels fucking human and not a walking anime trope. Characters are friendly but still apologize for small things, they feel like actual friends and adults.

We fight a boss and find out all the "wardens" control the place and they want to kidnap Kani for the "master" so whatever plot is she is important. This story can be pretty lame by the end and i'm not saying i want edgy shit (i do) but it's very fast paced so there is no time to get bored.

Combatwise the game is very basic but also very unique. You equip 4 different attacks and all attacks have colors and energy costs. Use the same color as you and it costs half and you regen all mp after fight and 5% every turn which is kinda lame... But here is the deal, everyone has a special attack that is stronger the more close to 50% MP you are and this attack regens 20% so it's your main mp regen.

This creates a bizarre system where you try to juggle MP costs to land on 50% mp for your big attack but even with that you dont have a clean rotation so you either do it again or cycle a different spell. For example, at the start Pinn has 20 mp and an attack that costs 11, so he doest 1 attack and next turn he has 10/20 mp which is 100% drill special and this a perfect strat to kill mobs in two turns.

But here is the fun part, leveling up increases your MP so any strat you made is fucked when you level up. You can use multiples of the same card to up the cost+power and but then you lose a slot. You can switch to a stronger card but if it's too expensive you'll drop below 50 and it's gonna suck. You can keep cheap cards but then it might be weak and you want to kill fast to drop better cards. It's a weirdly genius system that forces you to readapt your strat as you level.

Thankfully battles are 2-3 turns in general if you know what you're doing and level ups are fast so it's a good curve anyway and fun to play. You also can teleport to bedroom from menu so it's never dangerous but its better this way. Overall interesting game i'll look out.

 

[Scarthew]

Depersonalization Not sure if it fits here but its a jrpg with dnd skill checks and branching story paths. The translation is a bit jank but you can always tell what its trying to say (im guessing ai translated). Its very uncanny but im enjoying it.

 

[Sparky Lurker]

Hyper Transistor Mexico launch trailer:

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

undertale
is the most overrated piece of pretentious toss out there and everyone should view it as the pretentious nonsense that actually is if I made a quirky indie RPG it would be race war or have this really funny stupid idea for RPG which is called the extremist you play a party of political extremists from all four quadrants and they have powers based on that sounds really stupid because it is

 

[Gamepads]

ikenfell

I remember that game for basically only having positive reviews initially because it has the SU composer or something.

In general, I don't think it had any traction until it ended up in a bundle, as it was that bland and unremarkable otherwise.

 

[Sparky Lurker]

Patriarchy Trigger announcement:

Steins;Elysium announcement:

 

[Coolio55]

Patriarchy Trigger announcement:

The pixel art looks pretty good but some of it is misaligned and I hate how the UI stuff is the wrong resolution.
I'm also getting a severe aura of "nothing interesting happens" but that's just speculation.

 

[LucasSomething]

so bad news and good news happened.

BAD NEWS: I'm quitting Ikenfell

The best thing i can say about ikenfell is that it made me apreciate Heartbeat, who i'd like to apologize for being so negative.

Heartbeat is generic but it has genuinely standout things. I love seeing new NPC designs. Multiple hard boss fights that got me game overs until i started to think. An addicting mechanic about collecting dozens of monster forms. The mentioned "Lesbian writing" that is fresh and honest instead of pandering to every #lgbt tag.

Ikenfell on the other hand feels painful to get through. Every enemy is a boring animated object and everyone is lame as fuck. Combat is slow and i never feel stronger ever. There is no fun mechanics and the grid system is a chore. The LGBT+++ writing is depressing and souless.

tl;dr: I do not recommend ikenfell.

GOOD NEWS: I found a free game named FRANKEN that is short (30-60 minutes according to the page) and it seems actually fun. Its about you being a knight on a quest to take down hell knight, or at least "mitigate the issue"

https://splendidland.itch.io/franken

(Good writing? In MY quirky indie rpg?)

The game is like dragon quest but more simple. You literally just attack in battle and nothing else lol. It's a battle of atrition but i guess it's fine cause this isnt really about rpg mechanics but about a very linear and scripted story with funny npcs on the way.


(Hell knight appears at the start and beats us. ouch!)


(Funny writing? In MY quirky indie rpg?)

The game is actually kinda funny and i think what helps is that you have a good mix of real npcs, joke npcs and "zany" npcs. You also have the MC play a straight man so it helps jokes land. For example, the inn requires 10 coins but he "Forgot his coin purse" (There is no money or reason to sleep anyway). The pacing is blazingly fast so if you don't like a joke you'll get another one before you can get annoyed.


(Guess what happens 8 seconds after)

(I love the knight's verbose)

The game gatekeeps some paths by requiring proper level or attack power, that you get by exploring other paths. Its very simple really but it gives the idea of progression and of a real jrpg quest. We meet a friend who goes through an entire arc with us that last 1 whole dungeon of like 2 minutes for a dark joke lol.


(this dumb bomb is guarding our airship)

Either way i wont spoil everything, it's effectively a short shitpost game filled with stolen copyrighted mecha anime music but it's also a tight jrpg adventure with some funny jokes so if anyone has 45~ minutes to spare check it out, it's free.

 

[Coolio55]

GOOD NEWS: I found a free game named FRANKEN that is short (30-60 minutes according to the page) and it seems actually fun. Its about you being a knight on a quest to take down hell knight, or at least "mitigate the issue"

Hm. Funny. I recently mentioned that in the Vinesauce thread.
Have you played Megaman Sprite Game? It's the same guy and now he's a team member on DELTARUNE.

Played it and it was actually better than expected. There was a lot of crap but the sprites were nice* and the ending was actually both cool and funny so that helps smooth over a lot of the bad parts.
*At least half of this could be some random PC Engine game

As for my official joke review, the ones that get my thumbs up are:
That dating guy.
That clangers reference
3 man
That hell tower Guardian (although it was more of a "Wow. That was kinda heavy ...in a good way")

A lot of the better humour is subtle game-related stuff like the map design (I like the lion men's tents) or the recontextualized palette swaps.
There were quite a few "this is just the creator's views, not a joke" and "this character is supposed to be a woman???" moments but they didn't bring it down too hard.

Here's an interesting final note: Megaman Sprite Game has long since been disavowed as "too misanthropic" by the creator but a lot of elements seem to be direct nods to it.
Seeing the inside of the hell tower made me audibly groan. This exact thing happens in MMSC.
The moon, pretty much all of the ending. Should I be surprised or not?

Ps. There's an unused sprite if you look in the files (probably intentionally)

 

[LucasSomething]

Have you played Megaman Sprite Game? It's the same guy and now he's a team member on DELTARUNE.

Nope but i watched nitrorad video about it years ago and remember nothing. Would you recommend it for someone with like, zero comic knowledge and only mild megaman experience?

I spotted Franken in a random r/indiegames recommendation thread. I googled a bit and i was going to edit that this dev made the megaman sprite comic game (that i never played) and is now on deltarune, which probably explains the similar humor. They're also have female pronouns on twitter and go by """Samanthuel""" which gives me strong trans vibes.

There were quite a few "this is just the creator's views, not a joke" and "this character is supposed to be a woman???" moments but they didn't bring it down too hard.

You mean the one npc on the tiny island calling it a "libertarian dream" lol? The weird part is that Condor introduces herself as a "cool guy" so i think it's intentional.

Yeah, they're small but still eyebrow raising. I feel like Undertale ruined a generation of indie games with his lgbt portrayals, but this dev learned from Toby and how you can get away with anything as long as you're funny.

I guess ikenfell severely lowered my standards cause i liked most of the jokes and production was fine for a very short 1 person game. I was half expecting the final final boss to be a scorpion lol.

 

[Coolio55]

Nope but i watched nitrorad video about it years ago and remember nothing. Would you recommend it for someone with like, zero comic knowledge and only mild megaman experience?

Yes. The comic is mostly irrelevant (and was half awful tumblr fad references anyway, looking back).
As for the game, the megaman characters are mostly recontextualized to tell exciting moral parables so you only need to vaguely know who everyone is.

And, yeah. The creator trooned out in the years between MMSG and Franken (their main blog was always pretty awful) but... 'Nuff said.

You mean the one npc on the tiny island calling it a "libertarian dream" lol? The weird part is that Condor introduces herself as a "cool guy" so i think it's intentional.

Yeah, they're small but still eyebrow raising. I feel like Undertale ruined a generation of indie games with his lgbt portrayals, but this dev learned from Toby and how you can get away with anything as long as you're funny.

It was more every NPC related to the king spouting out your typical "proletariat rise up, I hate my boss" stuff.
...except for that one guy that wants to kill you because he hates you personally. I appreciate his acceptable moral standards.
You could also feel the sneed from guy on the island though.

There was also plenty of dud lines that just made me shrug but I'll dispense with the criticism. I wanna talk about another thing I liked.
I actyally appreciate how tense it got near the end. That was cool.

Ps. I don't blame all that stuff on Toby Fox. That crap goes waaaay back to the flash game era.
Gone Home was the big offense for me.
...but regardless, it's hard to call it "pandering" if the creator is doing it because they personally like it. There has to be an aspect of social validation.

E: FINAL ADDENDUM:
Franken is actually a pretty good exercise in how effective sound design can be.
Literally the first battle
(COMBAT LOG)
* Coolio55 is placated by the soothing synthpop
* Coolio55: "Mm. Yeah."
* Coolio55: "OK. Let's see where this goes."
and I'm not sure if I'd have been so open minded otherwise.

 

[LucasSomething]

Ps. I don't blame all that stuff on Toby Fox. That crap goes waaaay back to the flash game era.
Gone Home was the big offense for me.
...but regardless, it's hard to call it "pandering" if the creator is doing it because they personally like it. There has to be an aspect of social validation.

I meant Undertale is different because it suceeds in conveying exactly what you said while others don't.

Toby put two gay confessions in undertale (Alphys and the guard bros) and people don't register as pandering because it's actually subversive, funny and (well written) wholesome. It's just a "harmless funny thing toby personally liked". Toby knows that jokes land hander when people don't expect a propaganda.

Other indie devs don't know how to make this type of "harmless funny pandering" cause they can't write with this type of plausible deniability, while franken dev knows.

And since we're talking shitpost games, i want to recommend one of my favourites completely unironically: Barkley shut up and Jam Gaiden.



I'm surprised it wasnt mentioned before sicne it's was true quirky rpg before it was cool. I'm not even american and i never watched a basketball match so i didnt get most references but i still find the game funny, fast and entertaining, with better gameplay and combat than some games i played here.



It's also BIZARRELY WELL WRITTEN AND OVERDRAMATIC, because these devs know a shitpost is funnier when it's played completely straight with no cynical irony. The story is pure bullshit but takes itself serious in an absurdist way that is a joy to watch.

But it's also a great parody of SNES jrpgs and old games with a lot of clever jokes. One of my favourites is when Charles unlocks the b-ball ranch so he can feed b-balls like pokemons (don't do that tho).



It's a free game with some good 6-8? hours of content. The website is dead but i'm sure its avaiable out there somewhere. I think this one works?

https://archive.org/details/Barkley_Shut_Up_and_Jam_Gaiden/Barkley2.png

A bunch of sprites are stolen from Snes games to perfection and songs too, to the point even the "original sound track" has joke names, with one of the boss themes being a blue dragon anime track titled 'jesus christ the guy from deep purple sang this?'.



PS: This game is canon. Play it blind.

 

[Frosted Snowflakes]

Terraforming the Breach announcement:

Trials of Octoroks Demo:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2357380/Tako_no_Himitsu_Ocean_of_Secrets/

Tako no Himitsu: Ocean of Secrets has a drag queen character. And tagged LGBTQ+.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Barkley shut up and Jam Gaiden

Did they ever release the sequel?

 

[The Ultimate Ramotith]

Did they ever release the sequel?

No. He open sourced what he did work, though.

 

[Coolio55]

Did they ever release the sequel?

No. He open sourced what he did work, though.

The art is some of the best spriting I've ever seen but I'm going to preemptively warn you both. The tone is super grimdark and a lot of the content is hard to access unless you fiddle with the code.

 

[Neodanthril]

Adding hearthbound to the list here, it's interesting how everyone forgot about this game considering how much the internet hyped this as "the next Undertale"
View attachment 5322371

Why would anyone remember an unfinished RPG