Quirky Indie RPGs - Depression is optional

[Vecr]

I haven't played Sea of Stars. I eventually will, but I could see its problems miles away. The problems, as it often happens, stem from The Fandom. The French-Canadian guy, as befits an autist, had a whole autistic homebrew setting in mind, and awesome highlights from that settings (mostly the giant purple worm) made it into The Messenger. Fictional worlds are only fascinating when you don't see the bottom, cleverly hidden by >implications, environmental storytelling, item descriptions n sheet. But "fans" on DIscord immediately started lovebombing the French-Canadian guy demanding to see the bottom (duuuuuud we luuuuurve ur worldbuilding its so deeeeep we want to know alllllll), and he delivered.

Oh well. So this is a 180 from The Messenger. Nigga probably took some creative writing classes.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean here, I'm quoting from a video review of Sea of Stars. Yes, the game does it pretty badly, but I don't think the suggestion of the reviewer is any better.

 

[LucasSomething]

A little while ago I was trying to find a non-linear jrpg and stumbled across Crystal Project.

I think it's become my new favourite jrpg of all time. It was made by one guy and as far as I know all the art and music are just freely available assets but it's actually a fairly unique and pretty awesome game.

There's pretty much no story. You start with a party of adventurers and your only guidance is to adventure and find crystals. The world is fun to explore. There's a fair bit of platforming that takes a bit of getting used to and can be a bit frustrating at first, but once you get the hang of it. The entire world is explorable but the game uses metroidvania style ability gating in the form of mounts that increase your jumping or allow you to swim or fly to reach new areas. Like those games, there's a ton of sequence breaks that can be done that pretty much allow you to explore the game however you want once you know what you're doing.

Combat is turn-based with no random encounters. Status effects actually play a pretty large role compared to say final fantasy games and the fights feel more strategic.and require a bit more thinking than just mashing your strongest attack over and over.

The game has a job system similar to final fantasy 5's, though expanded. The job system, while fun, does suffer from the same thing a lot of job systems do where some of the jobs and abilities feel pretty useless but overall I think the system was fairly well done and it's fun to play around with different combinations of jobs and abilities.

The game's everything I always wanted from a jrpg. The story's light and the game doesn't take itself seriously, exploration is mostly unguided and open, the gameplay mechanics are fun. I really wish there were more jrpgs like this out there.

My brother recommended my this years ago and it sucks how it's one of those "amazing games that i have no desire to finish".

The level design is godlike and comically vertical, exploration is rewarded with classes and requires actual platforming skill, combat is full of depth and very tightly balanced, customization and progression is incredibly fun, it's a true open world with a fuckton of secrets and sequence break, has randomizer built in by default etc.

But the story doesnt exist. I think there an implication of isekai elements and evil and that's it. I know it sounds gay but i play rpgs to see what happens next so i dont feel like reopening the game to spend 3 hours searching a new cristal.

It's also a DENSE game, with a fuckton of content. My brother who finished FF 1->5 remasters loved but not even he finished it. Otherwise there are some things i dont like, like how Classes have these filler shitty skills or seem designed to be used as combo fodder, or how Agro is tied to your damage, and how missing one jump or passage can lead to never finding a crystal or zone.

In a way, it's like the polar opposite of a "quirky rpg" and we need more rpgs like this so i hope it's sucessful (released on switch recently) and inspires more devs.

btw i did play the Illusion Carnival demo for 30 minutes, and it's badly optmized and very loud, i did not finish it cause i got stuck on a "puzzle boss" and i didnt like the game loop, that isnt rpg at all but also not paper mario-esque either.



So in this game you're explicitly referred a lost soul stuck in limbo, but return or pass on you must get through Confettia aka the illusion carnival. But before being allowed in they give you a hat, that happens to be a paper hat that is extremely powerful because it has "no color" thus has the power to dispell illusions with "Orikerd". At the start you 're guided by Deliriini and later meet another person named demetria, and Delirini says we cant die but we cant escape either.


(This girl is clearly the artist's favourite as she has a ton of portraits.


This game is chinese and it becomes clear by some awkward deliviries but the localization is fine and has some flair to each character, who are all clearly quirky. The game is clearly carried by it's art, which i can only describe as a circus fueled acid trip. There are constant glitch effects and camera tricks like hard zooming away or foward.




(A lot of eye and moth imagery)

It comes to the point the game actually becomes hard to watch, even if it's better in motion. We also meet Evil moth delirini that is super glitchy version that wants to eat us and says there is an entity named Abnormal (the giant eyes) that wants to eat us too because our paper is delicious.




At the same time this is a "strong start" it's also way too heavy charged. There is no room to breath at all at the start other than one pause to get a few healing items.

And now the gameplay. Okay, so first of all this is effectively a "bullet hell" game with some light puzzles in between.

You technically do 3 things:

1-Paper mario dash: Very spamable and i think shrinks your hitbox, you're gonna press this alot to dodge or run.

2-Orikerd: You hold E to charge an aura around you, then release and you'll purify any dolls or marked objects with a BIG FUCKING FLASH AND LOUD NOISE. You have to do this over and over fast.

3-Examine things with a star on them and an inventory with food items that you buy with... tickets money? You also answer a few questions with your funny, nice or jerkish answers.

The "bullet hell" does not feel good because there is zero feel that response when you get hit, shit just touches you and you start bleeding without i-frames. I also hate the "combat" because it's loud and bright as fuck to use orikerd. I did not like the first "puzzle boss" cause i was supposed to hear the npc voice to find her but i had no clue cause there is no VA (she was hidden behind the wheel of fortune). I watched a bit more on youtube and the next puzzle is a math calc multiplying boxes in the enviroment.

So this game is like, an acid trip rollercoaster, linear with a few breaks for conversations/puzzles and tense top down running around dashing between bullets and charge attacking nearby enemies. I like the character designs but i dont like how extremelly polluted the enviroment is, as if there is only tones of red and yellow the whole game.

Fun fact, the game actually got a sudden boost out of nowhere on youtube, passing +60k views in 1 or 2 days and reaching 100k. I think youtube must've thought it was Digital circus related or something lol.

Also also, here is another quirky indie rpg i found, Keylocker. In a world where music is illegal, this rebel will free everyone by singing or something.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1325040/Keylocker__Turn_Based_Cyberpunk_Action/

#DEEP #WeLiveInASociety

 

[IamnottheNSA]

I can't believe no one even mentioned CWC Adult Chronicles.

 

[X Prime]

But the story doesnt exist. I think there an implication of isekai elements and evil and that's it. I know it sounds gay but i play rpgs to see what happens next so i dont feel like reopening the game to spend 3 hours searching a new cristal.

You should try a game called Wooden Ocean. It's sort of like that but it does have a story.

 

[LucasSomething]

I forgot to mention but the Keylocker game has a demo, i checked it and it's really short, just the "prologue", but i think it's a really weak start. You watch some drawings of the MC (bobo) doing a show and then police invades and put her to jail where the game starts. Then a hacker friend of ours tells us to pick a class and fight our way out.


(you can change a few hair colors and main colors)

There are 4 classes that have 2 different attacks each, the game divides them in hard/easy/normal but it's not explained how. I picked hacker cause it looked funny but my appearence doesnt change. My two attacks were simple foward beam and wide slash.

We then escape jail and fight with bunch of guards with pyramid heads and smiley faces. They're supposed to be a mix of cultist and cop and anyone who opposes is both criminal and sinner but they dont feel threatning at all because they're portrayed as funny wacky dudes spinning around.


Look at this fun guy! His face is all like <|=3

And this is probably my main issue with the game, i genuinely can't tell if it's serious or not. The opressive government has banned music because music generates eletric energy, and without music they control all energy and therefore the world. Everyone talks about how they hate the COPS but at the same time, the COPS are quirky dudes who are upset you interrpted their soap opera watching.


(Is this ironic??? Cause this is the only joke i found funny)

The MC will see an ad for handcuffs while in jail and say "How can they show me ads for cuffs while in jail! That is NOT RIGHT!" and i dont know if i'm supposed to believe her or not. The mc also talks to much and kills me on the inside.

*some random dude hanging on a ledge*
bobo: Hang in there hanged man! For help will not come! Death will definitely come tho.

Tax evader: Are you crazy?!
Bobo: Heh, i have a percentage of crazyness, i cant deny! I even went to PRISON!

She also finds this jukebox bot and says she can't force him to follow her cause that would be but she already gave him a name and "orders" him to choose.


(is this a joke??)

But the main issue with the demo is that there is no fucking music at all other than this light rain and metallic background noise, while you fight extremely simple fights. This makes sense because background music only starts after you escape prison and find the jukebox bot but it's an awful first impression.

Combat is gridbased like battlenetwork, you have 2 equipable attack + 2 equipable skills with different areas and hp/mp plus atributes focused on hp/mp/special atk and def. The most impressive thing is how they happen in the overworld and the grid is defined by the place the fight started.

(steam page pic cause i didnt screenshot combat)

But the jail is a terrible first zone. You basically switch blows with a dozen of the cops with no music. The other thing is that this game actually has timed inputs (OH NO) like a paper mario game that really damn tight. My attacks were simple timed press and i realize this is where the "easy" part means (other classes have harder/longer minigames). You also time to dodge and if you press right when the enemy flashes you dodge damage completely, trivializing any challenge once i got good at it. A few enemies have counter stances that trigger a counter if you attack them, but the counter can be avoided you simply attack from a safe space.

The final fight of the demo ads an extra layer with different methods, like on enemy will attack and a bar will appear on top of them where i must press Z when it reaches the white part. The other will have a bar that shows directions that i must press in order to perfect this. This sounds fine but the problem is that this shit appears on the enemy and not on me so i kept eating shit waiting waiting for an attack animation.

tl;dr: I didnt like it... I feel like there is potential to escalate combat depth but the minigames kill any real chance of strategy cause you're immortal if you're good at them (i dont think they add anything tbh). It's not as pretentious as it looks but that's not conveyed well through the marketing, and the humor makes the plot hard to care. The start also happens too fast, with Bobo going to jail and then escaping it very easily.

I just dont care for our hero, i want the funny cops to win tbh.

 

[Grub]

But the story doesnt exist. I think there an implication of isekai elements and evil and that's it. I know it sounds gay but i play rpgs to see what happens next so i dont feel like reopening the game to spend 3 hours searching a new cristal.

That's one of my favourite things about it. I find most RPG stories tiring. A lot of them are just not that great. Like they're the kind of stories where if they were in book form they'd be in the 99¢ bargain bin section.

Otherwise there are some things i dont like, like how Classes have these filler shitty skills or seem designed to be used as combo fodder

The class system definitely needs a bit of work. My biggest peeve with the class system is the combo system. It's a great idea to be able to mix and match class abilities but in practice most combos are not super viable or practical and some abilities seem pretty specific to a certain class or playstyle that isn't usable with other classes.

 

[LucasSomething]

That's one of my favourite things about it. I find most RPG stories tiring. A lot of them are just not that great. Like they're the kind of stories where if they were in book form they'd be in the 99¢ bargain bin section.

The class system definitely needs a bit of work. My biggest peeve with the class system is the combo system. It's a great idea to be able to mix and match class abilities but in practice most combos are not super viable or practical and some abilities seem pretty specific to a certain class or playstyle that isn't usable with other classes.

You're right that most of them are bad, but i think gamers in general have very specific double standards for videogame stories. Normies say that games dont need good writing at all but they also equate "good game writing" with "cinema" or explicitly political. You always know which game is getting Best narrative on the game awards (the only exception was Her Story).

Indie rpgs dont even have professional writers so people dont take them seriously from the start. I think Felvidek is well written and the characters carry the game but it would never "win awards". I played some badly written games on this thread and they're bad in different ways, so i always find something insightful in them. Ofc i still have my own standards but i think the minimum an rpg needs is to keep the player curious enough about what happens next. Long Gone Days had awful story AND gameplay but i somehow finished it while i couldnt stand undertale yellow.

And yeah, one other thing i dont like in cristal project are the weapon requirements. The Archer class has free skills so you'd think it's a good secondary but nope, it only works with a bow and scales with AGI so it's severely limiting. There are also too many stats (atk x dex x agi, spirit x mind) that only serve to split your scalings and limit your choices further.

 

[Grub]

You're right that most of them are bad, but i think gamers in general have very specific double standards for videogame stories. Normies say that games dont need good writing at all but they also equate "good game writing" with "cinema" or explicitly political. You always know which game is getting Best narrative on the game awards (the only exception was Her Story).

The problem is, a lot of rpgs, especially jrpgs, force you to play through the game in such a way that you're basically playing through the narrative in a linear, story book manner. Especially ps2 RPGs, holy fuck were those bad for that. I remember renting Xenosaga 2 and popping it in and spending like maybe 20 minutes actually playing over like 3 or 4 hours on the game, the rest of the time was spent watching cutscenes like a movie. If a game is presenting their story as a linear piece of media, then they'll be compared to similar types of media, books and movies. This isn't just rpgs. Any linear, story focussed game is going to be compared that way.

Indie rpgs dont even have professional writers so people dont take them seriously from the start. I think Felvidek is well written and the characters carry the game but it would never "win awards".

Indie rpgs and their quirky don't take themselves seriously so they're bad on purpose shit is a whole other issue.

I played some badly written games on this thread and they're bad in different ways, so i always find something insightful in them. Ofc i still have my own standards but i think the minimum an rpg needs is to keep the player curious enough about what happens next. Long Gone Days had awful story AND gameplay but i somehow finished it while i couldnt stand undertale yellow.

I play games to play games. I don't really give a fuck what motivates the little pixels on my screen apart from the buttons I press and the decisions I make in the game. That's why I liked Dark Souls. I know some kind of story in there. Something about dead people and some ancient kingdom with immortal kings who thought they were gods and some dragon dudes wanted me to ring some bells or some shit. I dunno, I don't give a fuck, I just wanna explore the dead kingdom and kill monsters and shit and all the little story tidbits you find are just a bonus.

And yeah, one other thing i dont like in cristal project are the weapon requirements. The Archer class has free skills so you'd think it's a good secondary but nope, it only works with a bow and scales with AGI so it's severely limiting. There are also too many stats (atk x dex x agi, spirit x mind) that only serve to split your scalings and limit your choices further.

The rogue was bad for that too. All the rogue abilities required you to be the bottom threat. Pairing it with pretty much any other class made it useless.

 

[Sparky Lurker]

Evoland 3: t3h PeNgU1N oF d00m launch tailer:

 

[Señora Airi]

Also also, here is another quirky indie rpg i found, Keylocker. In a world where music is illegal, this rebel will free everyone by singing or something.

So an RPG that heavily takes from 2112?

 

[BlueCandles]

Evoland 3: t3h PeNgU1N oF d00m launch tailer:

Wow that looks like the absolute worst thing ever.

 

[Coolio55]

Evoland 3: t3h PeNgU1N oF d00m launch tailer:

Lucas already mentioned that one IIRC.
I tried watching a playthrough but nothing interesting happened so I just called it quits.

 

[LucasSomething]

The problem is, a lot of rpgs, especially jrpgs, force you to play through the game in such a way that you're basically playing through the narrative in a linear, story book manner. If a game is presenting their story as a linear piece of media, then they'll be compared to similar types of media, books and movies. This isn't just rpgs. Any linear, story focussed game is going to be compared that way.

I get what you mean but thats the problem. I think games can't be compared to other forms of art because they're an interactive medium with exclusive "rules". A movie or book is going to be the same for every person but a game experience can be wildly different. Movies and books dont have optional sidequests, audio logs, branching paths or fail states. A videogame can convey story elements in a way only a game can.

Ofc what you say is still truth because rpg writing is 99% of the time trying to be book-like fantasy epics, but even if we take game stories in a vaacum, we have different standards we don't admit due to gameplay compromises. Last of us 2, GoW ragnarok, RDR2, all games with terrible ludonarrative dissonance and get away for being "cinematic". It's a cycle of games, gamers and critics telling each other that games have to be like movies/books to be "art" and it's not going to change anytime soon.

Indie rpgs and their quirky don't take themselves seriously so they're bad on purpose shit is a whole other issue.

Not all indie games are written equally and you're dismissing them right now for being "quirky indie" like i said lol. I'll admit their bad reputation is mostly earned tho.

I play games to play games. I don't really give a fuck what motivates the little pixels on my screen apart from the buttons I press and the decisions I make in the game.

That's fair and completely valid, i certainly skipped the story of many games i only liked the gameplay, like Celeste, and i certainly dont give a fuck about dark souls story either.

But it's interesting how only videgames have to be designed and written with this in mind isnt it? Games can be art but foremost they HAVE to be "toys". I do think games should be good toys first but nowadays it's rare for a longer arcadey game to hold me all the way. I wonder if i'm just "too old"...

Lucas already mentioned that one IIRC.
I tried watching a playthrough but nothing interesting happened so I just called it quits.

I actually didnt? I did know about Athenian but i dont think i talked about on this thread. I watched a demo playthought on alpha beta gamer long ago and it looked just as LOL SO RANDOM cringe as the trailer so i dismissed it.

I think the main issue with Athenian rhapsody is that it's clearly trying to be "Undertale ON DrUgS!?" which isnt as funny or clever as it sounds. If it's just trying to be a funny absurdist rpg then it's failing. If it's attempting to be meta satire then it's also failing (unless it can pull a godlike swerve later).

Even if the gameplay looks okay, i cant stand how hypercolorful and tiktok-y it looks. Which sucks cause like, i didnt mind Atlas Wept and that looked way worse but i guess i gave it a pass cause it felt more inspired?

Anyways, here is another rpg with minigames that released a while ago with so little fanfare no one posted here. It's apparently not that good with only 40~ reviews, probably cause the name and designs "speak for themselves".

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1740230/Furquest/

 

[Grub]

I get what you mean but thats the problem. I think games can't be compared to other forms of art because they're an interactive medium with exclusive "rules". A movie or book is going to be the same for every person but a game experience can be wildly different. Movies and books dont have optional sidequests, audio logs, branching paths or fail states. A videogame can convey story elements in a way only a game can.

Well, choose your own adventure books exist and have those things, but I get what you mean. What you're talking about is my issue with most story heavy games. They don't do this:

Movies and books dont have optional sidequests, audio logs, branching paths or fail states. A videogame can convey story elements in a way only a game can.

In a way that suits video games. Take something like Final Fantasy X or the Uncharted games. There's side quests and optional shit, they don't really matter to the main story and sure your experience playing might be slightly different to someone else's, but the story the game's telling you will be mostly the same. The story in those kinds of games seems to be the primary focus and the gameplay mostly exists to get you from story beat to story beat. They might have gameplay in there, but it's not part of the story, it's there to move the story along.

Compare that to something like Dark Souls or Hollow Knight where there is a story, it is actually pretty in depth, but you have to play the game to figure it out and as you play the game, you're actually part of the story and how you play the game will affect how the story plays out in a natural way, not through some gimmicky dialog selection or some such a thing. Whether their stories are good or not, the way they present them takes full advantage of the fact that the medium is a video game.

But it's interesting how only videgames have to be designed and written with this in mind isnt it? Games can be art but foremost they HAVE to be "toys". I do think games should be good toys first but nowadays it's rare for a longer arcadey game to hold me all the way. I wonder if i'm just "too old"...

Well, I mean, it's kind of in the name isn't it? Video game. Most of the games I've heard called art to be tend not to be the greatest games. It is what it is. I'm not saying shit that tries to be art or that wants to tell a story first and foremost shouldn't exist or can't call themselves videogames or whatever, I just don't think they're that great at being games, not that that's even a bad thing, they're not trying to be games, they're using the medium of video games to tell a story or be a piece of art, there's nothing wrong with that, I just don't find those kinds of video games very appealing any more.

I've played lots of them over the years, I just don't find the stories in most games worth the time investment it takes to play games like that any more. If I'm going to spend some time playing a video game I'd like to have fun or challenge myself, not just zone out and be spoon fed some story while occasionally clicking some buttons to trigger QTEs.

Not all indie games are written equally and you're dismissing them right now for being "quirky indie" like i said lol. I'll admit their bad reputation is mostly earned tho.

I really haven't looked through many. I remember playing one called You Have to Win the Game or something like that that was pretty fun though. If I remember right it was a bit like Pokemon or shin megami tensei or something with some kind of monster catching maybe. When I'm in the mood to play something rpgish I usually play a roguelike or something like Nethack or CataclysmDDA. I've always preferred the more number crunchy/strategy, actual gameplay side of RPGs to the story.

Even with JRPGs, my favourite final fantasy games are 1 and 5 because the stories weren't really that important and the first one was mostly about resource management in dungeons and the 5th one had the job system thing going on. My all time favourite JRPG is actually Lufia 2 on the SNES because of those awesome Zelda style dungeons. I know there's a few more of them out there but I wish more jrpgs had dungeons with actual puzzles and shit like that. It also had a pretty fun roguelike dungeon area that was sort of separate from the rest of the game but the way it was done was pretty cool and makes me wish there were more roguelikes done that way.

I'd be open to indie RPGs that are more gameplay focused than story focused, the few I have played were pretty fun. It's just, the idea of sifting through the indie rpg steam list for a minority among a shit ton of rpgmaker games doesn't sound very appealing.

 

[Sparky Lurker]

Fear and Hippies Kickstarter:

 

[Sparky Lurker]

Quirky Indie SRPGs:
Food Emblem Kickstarter:

Orcs the Breach Kickstarter:

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Fear and Hippies Kickstarter:

Looks like a complete ripoff of Termina, though probably more on the lines of Persona 4 where you beat inner demons rather than kill the others.

Food Emblem Kickstarter:

You know what genre works well with Roguelike? One where every fight takes half an hour. The whole genre of roguelikes seems to be made for trannies with too much free time. Also ugly ass art.

Orcs the Breach Kickstarter:

These days the only evil race allowed is white humans. Everything else is "misunderstood ruffians".

 

[Sparky Lurker]

The Typing of the Beholder:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1885110/Cryptmaster/

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I don't know why, but I'm listening to (probably) tranny talk about a game that may be the peak of edgy quirky games.

It's a combination of a lot of infamous practices:
* Awful awful art, with awful awful colouring, especially the character portraits. Nearly every scene in the video is vomit inducing and the enemy designs look more like random drawings.
* Ridiculous "elements" like Cancer and Carbon.
* Plot that is way too complicated to have a point. Including overused ones like suggested time loop and "the player is a deus ex machine".
* Bad writing, at least in the scenes in the video with too much curse words.

Hopefully there will be a YouTuber that will rip this game a new pozzhole.

 

[X Prime]

I mentioned Wooden Ocean before. It's just kind of batshit. You're supposed to kind of try and piece together what's happening through a bunch of babble. There is an underlying implication that the main character is a troon but maybe they aren't, it's really not clear.

The problem is that the solo dev does not appear to be pretending to be "le quirky" and they actually are kind of nuts.