Obscure Games Discussion!

[ArlEammon]

Tecmo's Secret of the Stars, Warwind. . . who's heard of either? Not just these two, but other video games are quite obscure. I have discovered some video games based on creating monsters through mixing and matching animal's body parts, and generally I like most of the obscure video games I've played, with Sacrifice possibly being an obscure game, although I know some on GITP have played it.

So what are some Obscure video games you've played and enjoyed.

[Knaight]

I tend towards indie games, but a lot of them are at least relatively well known indie games - e.g. the work of Zachtronics Industries (Codex of Alchemical Engineering, Spacechem, Infinifactory).

Then there's the DROD series, my single favorite series of video games. The trailers don't make them look like much, and the core concept doesn't sound that incredible. The art style is highly functional but otherwise nothing to write home about. What makes them shine is a few things:

The core mechanics are easy - you're a guy with a sword in a room with a grid. Every turn you can move one tile or turn your sword 45 degrees, then the enemies can move one tile (or turn something 45 degrees for the handful that have facing mechanics). If you hit something, it dies (with some exceptions, but there's nothing akin to variable HP). If something hits you, you die.
The roster of puzzle elements are straightforward*, extremely predictable*, and varied.
These are combined brilliantly into puzzles that are genuinely difficult.
The general style of puzzle elements being colorful enemies and interesting room elements is a lot of fun.
The games are hilarious.
The games are broken up into individual rooms which are relatively small, and once a room is dealt with it stays dealt with.


That's the abstract - it's the details that make this work. As just one example, the baseline enemy is a dungeon roach. They try to run straight at you, using the diagonal if you're not in the same row/column as them and it's open, or approaching on the vertical or horizontal if it's blocked. One of the earlier terrain complications is a trapdoor - when you step off it it falls down and is now gone, but most enemies don't cause them to fall. With just these two puzzle elements one of the DROD games made a particularly nasty midgame puzzle involving a ring three trapdoors wide with a bunch of roaches on windy paths one trapdoor wide in the middle of the ring. You need to figure out how to maneuver around the ring to lure all the roaches out without using up so many trapdoor tiles that you trap yourself somewhere. Another puzzle involved trapping two really stupid enemies (golems) on some interior walls in a room, then doing a timed lure to get them going at you from two different directions so that one of them trips a pressure plate that hits the other one with a fire trap - there were other things too, but that's the key part to dealing with that room. Linchpin puzzles are common but not the only type, and the games are amazing. Even more amazing is that the entire series is on GoG for about ten dollars now.

*With the notable exception of one enemy.

[Arcane_Snowman]

Tecmo's Secret of the Stars, Warwind. . . who's heard of either? Not just these two, but other video games are quite obscure. I have discovered some video games based on creating monsters through mixing and matching animal's body parts, and generally I like most of the obscure video games I've played, with Sacrifice possibly being an obscure game, although I know some on GITP have played it.

So what are some Obscure video games you've played and enjoyed.
Sacrifice is an amazing game and so much fun! Doesn't stop it from being relatively obscure though.

Etherlords II is a pretty obscure game as far as I know, but they did get to make the sequel so I suppose it can't have been unsuccessful. I've always had a lot of fun with, it's basically a RPG mixed with a MTG-esque card game, lots of fun and I really enjoyed the mechanics. My favorite deck involved forcing both players to draw cards, and then damaging the enemy for having too many cards in hand.

Freedom Force is a nice little strategic RPG where you play as a team of super heroes, out to save the world.

Legend of Fae is a nice little bejeweled-esque game with a lovely art style.

Then there's the Guild, a management game which revolves around making it big in a major medieval city as one of it's tradesmen, are you going to start out as a robber baron and then expand into money lending? Or do you simply use your alchemical knowledge to get the officials of the city under your sway? One of the really nice things about the game is that your character will advance and then eventually die, but the game doesn't stop there, instead your progeny takes over to fulfill your ambitions.

[ArlEammon]

I bought Artifact Adventure yesterday. I love it. . . anyone have it?

[Greg_S]

I do! I got it a summer sale or two ago. I like it, though I wish it didn't bring in all the old school things that other games have since improved on. The biggest thing that bugs me is finding a new artifact, not knowing what it does, and having to pick which character's going to use it right then and there. I never beat it, but I do want to go back and eventually finish it.

[ArlEammon]

I do! I got it a summer sale or two ago. I like it, though I wish it didn't bring in all the old school things that other games have since improved on. The biggest thing that bugs me is finding a new artifact, not knowing what it does, and having to pick which character's going to use it right then and there. I never beat it, but I do want to go back and eventually finish it.

How far did you get?

[Fri]

I bought Artifact Adventure yesterday. I love it. . . anyone have it?

I have it and I love it. I think I introduced it to some people here last year when they asked about old school rpg. I was about 7 hours on it, but stopped playing for whatever reason, and now I want to continue it but I'm afraid that I might've forgotten everything about it (I made a notepad memo on clues and stuff I want to check, but most likely without context I won't understand any of my scribblngs :smallsigh:)

[ArlEammon]

I have it and I love it. I think I introduced it to some people here last year when they asked about old school rpg. I was about 7 hours on it, but stopped playing for whatever reason, and now I want to continue it but I'm afraid that I might've forgotten everything about it (I made a notepad memo on clues and stuff I want to check, but most likely without context I won't understand any of my scribblngs :smallsigh:)

It's easy to understand but it's almost Nintendo Hard to play.

[Starwulf]

I bought Artifact Adventure yesterday. I love it. . . anyone have it?

I have it, never beat it because I made the mistake of taking the Airship for the initial blessing/gift. It's a mistake because you go around all willy nilly, and it confuses the hell out of you for where you're supposed to go. Died so much early on because I kept wandering into the wrong areas and getting one-shotted. Eventually I just got bored because it was a struggle to stay on task and go where I was supposed to, so I just stopped playing.

[Fri]

Yeah, airship is meant to be for challenge/speedrun. But they never mentioned it. It's similar part of annoyance with how you can't know what any artifact do before you permanently equip it to your party member.

A typical run should be either ordinary starter artifact, or shrine key.

Also a "secret" run is that you can actually have a run with less than 4 party member (or even solo) but with increased starting gold. Which is, there's a slaver at the beginning town and you can sell your party member right at the beginning.

[Mikemical]

This One Right here:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/83/Brave_Fencer_Musashi.jpg

It was the first RPG I ever played, and from the start, it had me hooked. The story, the characters, the combat, the day/night cycle, the different powers you could get from enemies, the collectibles, they all made the game incredibly fun, adequately long, and it's such a shame that it seemingly flew under the radar.

I'm still mad at myself for not buying it off the American PSN store when I had the chance.

[Greg_S]

How far did you get?

Steam says I'm 4 hours in, but I feel like I played more that that. My latest save was a party around level 19, which feels like the start of the midgame, but I'm not sure.

[Starwulf]

Steam says I'm 4 hours in, but I feel like I played more that that. My latest save was a party around level 19, which feels like the start of the midgame, but I'm not sure.

I...don't think so to be honest. I had to load my game up to make sure, but yeah my group is all level 25(7 hours in), and all I can remember of the game is 1/2 to 2/3rds of the world still being to damn tough for me at that level, lol, which is what I'd consider mid-game. I mean, I could survive a fight or two in some of the spots, but after that I'd be pretty much dead, which is a clear sign of "You're not supposed to be here yet". So 19-20 is more "Late beginning-game" I'd say, though that's just me ^^.

On another note, It took me forever to figure out why that guy at the beginning kept offering me gold for my guys. At first I just thought you could re-choose your guy that you sold, Then I thought it was like some kind of secret "If you're X level and agree, your guys will evolve" kinda like in FF with the rats tail. When neither of those turned out to be right, I looked it up and found out he was just a slaver and it was an evil way to do a solo run, LOL.

Then there's that place below the starting town where you can literally just "give up" and end your game permanently, lol. Thank god for the save ability after all that ^^

[ArlEammon]

I...don't think so to be honest. I had to load my game up to make sure, but yeah my group is all level 25(7 hours in), and all I can remember of the game is 1/2 to 2/3rds of the world still being to damn tough for me at that level, lol, which is what I'd consider mid-game. I mean, I could survive a fight or two in some of the spots, but after that I'd be pretty much dead, which is a clear sign of "You're not supposed to be here yet". So 19-20 is more "Late beginning-game" I'd say, though that's just me ^^.

On another note, It took me forever to figure out why that guy at the beginning kept offering me gold for my guys. At first I just thought you could re-choose your guy that you sold, Then I thought it was like some kind of secret "If you're X level and agree, your guys will evolve" kinda like in FF with the rats tail. When neither of those turned out to be right, I looked it up and found out he was just a slaver and it was an evil way to do a solo run, LOL.

Then there's that place below the starting town where you can literally just "give up" and end your game permanently, lol. Thank god for the save ability after all that ^^

I'm trying to get to the boss of that group who kidnapped the village. I'm level 20 now, but I'm still facing a lot of challenge fighting his body guard. Any advice?

[Starwulf]

I'm trying to get to the boss of that group who kidnapped the village. I'm level 20 now, but I'm still facing a lot of challenge fighting his body guard. Any advice?

If it's the one I'm thinking of, don't bother, you aren't strong enough. With airship I have top of line equipment for my guys for my level and he still whupped my arse pretty badly.

[ArlEammon]

If it's the one I'm thinking of, don't bother, you aren't strong enough. With airship I have top of line equipment for my guys for my level and he still whupped my arse pretty badly.

I just did it at level 23. Boy he's rough isn't he?

[Starwulf]

I just did it at level 23. Boy he's rough isn't he?

Grats! Might not be the fight I'm thinking of then, that or you have a better set-up(probably more likely to be honest, as I had no idea what I was doing at character creation, and I don't have a dedicated healer in my group apparently, just some dude that's a destruction type caster with a healer-type artifact bonded to him).

There's a fun(but even tougher fight) that you might be able to do that I couldn't as well. In a town somewhere, there's this retired soldier guy who challenges you to a fight, and if you win you get a pretty kick-ass weapon iirc. I couldn't handle it, but if you managed to beat the guy in that dungeon, then you might be able to handle this guy, the difficulty was only a step-up from that.

My favorite area in the game has another really tough fight involved that's also on par with the above two. You find these two castles that are warring against each other, and you have to find a way into one of them that's a back way, and when you're in, you can fight this bird(I think?) that's guarding an artifact. I lasted a lot longer against it, but it must have had a ton of HP as I never managed to kill it.

On topic topic(lol): Cthulu Saves the World!!! I recently started playing this game on my tablet, and it's a great throwback to old rpg games just like Artifact Adventure, albeit a bit easier, and absolutely hilarious :). It's apparently on Steam as well if someone wants to check it out.

[ArlEammon]

Grats! Might not be the fight I'm thinking of then, that or you have a better set-up(probably more likely to be honest, as I had no idea what I was doing at character creation, and I don't have a dedicated healer in my group apparently, just some dude that's a destruction type caster with a healer-type artifact bonded to him).

There's a fun(but even tougher fight) that you might be able to do that I couldn't as well. In a town somewhere, there's this retired soldier guy who challenges you to a fight, and if you win you get a pretty kick-ass weapon iirc. I couldn't handle it, but if you managed to beat the guy in that dungeon, then you might be able to handle this guy, the difficulty was only a step-up from that.

My favorite area in the game has another really tough fight involved that's also on par with the above two. You find these two castles that are warring against each other, and you have to find a way into one of them that's a back way, and when you're in, you can fight this bird(I think?) that's guarding an artifact. I lasted a lot longer against it, but it must have had a ton of HP as I never managed to kill it.

On topic topic(lol): Cthulu Saves the World!!! I recently started playing this game on my tablet, and it's a great throwback to old rpg games just like Artifact Adventure, albeit a bit easier, and absolutely hilarious :). It's apparently on Steam as well if someone wants to check it out.

Cthulhu saves the world is darling. I love it. :D