[Grinchy]

I'll start with Teardown

Just about every voxel you see can be destroyed if you have the weapons and ammo to do so. And everything reacts with realistic physics. This is a puzzle game where you're handed a list of objectives, you venture out into an open area, and you write the script yourself.

"How the fuck do they expect me to trip that alarm and then make it all the way across to the exit vehicle in 20 seconds?" There will be nothing telling you how. That's for you to figure out. And I love that!

Did you upgrade your ammo count for wooden boards? Ok, then start making ramps that let you run to the roof. That's how you'll make it across the map faster. Blow a hole through that wall and use the 3rd floor of that building to get across. Drive that car into the back of the huge semi truck and then drive the truck if you need both of those objects at the same time. Can't remember the route you planned out? Use the spray paint can to paint yourself a GPS line. Figure it out, fucker!

This is one of my favorite games and I think it really helped that I attempted to clear every objective on my first try on each level (there were a few I could not complete on the first time). And when I finished up my platinum run, it ended with a bang

 

[DonDonDonPata]

Teardown is a great pick. My youngest son has played it more than anyone else in the family, easily over 100 hours since launch by himself.

One of my picks is The Last Spell. I'm a long time Disgaea fan and this is one of the very few grid based RPGs that comes close in quality.



A run is about 2-3 hours so it strikes a great balance between the crunchy long-term planning of a 4x strategy game (hours and hours) and a typical Disgaea or FF Tactics battle (15-30 minutes). The roguelike elements don't feel like they screw you, and mowing down huge grids of monsters is always fun. The soundtrack is a banger too

 

[Grinchy]

Teardown is a great pick. My youngest son has played it more than anyone else in the family, easily over 100 hours since launch by himself.

One of my picks is The Last Spell. I'm a long time Disgaea fan and this is one of the very few grid based RPGs that comes close in quality.



A run is about 2-3 hours so it strikes a great balance between the crunchy long-term planning of a 4x strategy game (hours and hours) and a typical Disgaea or FF Tactics battle (15-30 minutes). The roguelike elements don't feel like they screw you, and mowing down huge grids of monsters is always fun. The soundtrack is a banger too

Very interesting. I have only played Disgaea 3 but I was hooked to it like crazy at the time so that's a good comparison for me to see being made.

 

[HE1NZ]

Teardown is pretty cool.

I think my favorite lesser known game is Pentiment.

 

[Grinchy]

Another one that comes to mind is Humanity

I can't seem to stay away from a good puzzle game that does things differently and executes the formula just right. I played this game probably 85% in VR and it was just great to zone out to the weird tone and atmosphere.

There are some pretty tough levels in this if you're going for full level completions, but none of them felt unfair or overly obtuse to where you'd have zero chance without a guide. I wish I grabbed the limited run of the physical copy...

 

[Asmonius]

Brotato, Halls of Torment and Death Must Die - my favorite Vampire Survivors clones. DMD is still in early access but the former two have a crazy amount of content to play.
Orcs Must Die 3 - Entire series is very slept on, but it's a great fusion of third-person shooting and tower defense. OMD3 is easily the best in the series in terms of map design and variety of traps and enemies.
The Last Faith - The Blasphemous series is much better known, but this Bloodborne-inspired Metroidvania is easily the closest indie offering to it. Still need to play more builds but it's got excellent boss fights.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Sadly didn't get as much support as the Monster Hunter games, but it still scratches the same itch. Every character being a totally unique playstyle gives it a ton of depth.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R - The original PS1 game definitely flew under most people's radars, but this remake is the best thing Square Enix has produced in a VERY long time. Do recommend playing the first game's remaster since there's some strong connections between the games.
Ruined King: A League of Legends Story - If you're familiar with Battle Chasers: Nightwar, this is essentially the same kind of RPG by the same developer (Airship Syndicate). Much more interesting combat mechanics, and really approachable even if you don't care about League.
The Forgotten City - Originally a Skyrim mod, this got spun out into a really solid standalone title. A few wonky characters, but the premise is absolutely brilliant and one of a kind.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - Ended up being a sales bomb after the mediocre Avengers title from Eidos/Square Enix, this game came closest to scratching the Mass Effect itch. Average combat, but the story and characters are way better than you would expect.
Monster Sanctuary - Very solid indie Pokemon clone with 3v3 combat. Plays more like a Metroidvania, but the team building and combat depth makes it stand on its own two legs.
Children of Morta - Just over 5 years old, but an excellent indie co-op action RPG. Has a surprisingly compelling narrative, and every character feeling so distinct gives it more replay value than you would expect.

 

[Zefah]

Probably Halls of Torment.

 

[teezzy]

 

[Alcedor]

Kaze and the Wild Masks - Really great Donkey Kong Country Clone. Plays more like them then the games from Retro Studios do.



Midnight Fight Express - Great beat 'em up with really raw feeling, 3D motion-captured combat. Some people say it feels very John Wick

Narita Boy - 80s inspired, 2d, Hack n slash with some light platforming. Some people lump it in with metroidvanias, but it's a very linear experience with actual stages. The draw of the game is the heavy 80s inspired visuals and audio with some heavy Tron vibes. It would be easy to call it style over substance, but the combat is good, the bosses are great, and the game does some nice world building. Great soundtrack too.

Nobody Saves the World - A quirky, funny, 2d, top down, action RPG with an emphasis on your character morphing into different creatures and things. Drinkbox Studios is one of the most consistent indie studios. They haven't made a bad game yet.

Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth - A solid metroidvania with some definite Symphony of the Night inspiration. It's got a neat polarity based magic system and physics based archery. It's a good licensed game for Lodoss War fans.

The Pathless - An open world game with secrets to find and puzzles that revolve around archery skills and working together with a pet bird. There's some random stealth sections where a giant entity shows up in the environment and you have to hide from it. The game has a cool art style, some epic boss fights, and some nice fast paced, momentum based movement as well as gliding abilities that help you navigate the open world quickly. There's no mini map, so you have this "spirit vision" thing you utilize to help find important things in the environment. This helps the game feel more immersive. A lot of the developers worked on Flower, Journey, and Abzu.



UnMetal - A funny, 2d indie stealth game that kind of parodies Metal Gear.

Chained echoes - A pretty awesome 2d, indie JRPG that pays homage to the classics while incorporating some nice modern ideas and quality of life improvements. It's got a lot of optional content for completionists or achievement/trophy hunters, rewards making smart choices at various points in the story or playing through parts of the game in an exceptional way, has a pretty cool combat system, and some pretty neat boss battles including one where you're on a mine cart and have to not only focus on the boss but changing the direction of the mine cart at regular intervals. There are TONS of indie rpgs inspired by 8-bit/16-bit classics, but this one has some fun ideas and is REALLY polished. Great characters too.



Xuan Yuan Sword 7 - Western style RPG (ala something like Knights of the Old Republic) but with an Asian setting. You don't find a lot of Chinese inspired RPGs, so it makes this stand out.



This next one is a bit over 5 years, but it's very overlooked and underappreciated:

Super Daryl Deluxe - I love this game for having such a unique voice. It feels like a game that only the people who made it could have made it. It's funny and quirky. It's a 2d mix of rpg, hack n slash, and platforming with just a tiny bit of metroidvania flavor. The gameplay is fun enough, but man play this for the writing, the characters, the dialog, and the humor. The game feels like something that could have been on Adult Swim or something like that where you get sort of alternative flavored cartoons. For an indie game, it's got some cool voice acting, animated cut scenes, and music and I like the art style for the characters. This game is the embodiment of indie, in that is has such a unique flavor.



Here's some free fan games:

Mega Man X8 16-bit - A 16-bit adaptation of MM X8 focused primarily on X as the playable character (though mods make Zero and Axel playable). It really feels like you're playing the old SNES MM X games. Almost feels like an alternate universe MM X4, where that game was simply released as another SNES game focused solely on X.

Avengers: United Battle Force - Technically a demo, but feels like a complete game. This is basically a waaaaaaaaaay better version of the Avengers Arcade game with more playable characters and different levels and enemies.

There's some cool Sonic fan games too, but maybe I'll save those for another time. I will mention Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit though, a remix of a Sonic Game Gear game.

 

[Alcedor]

Space Otter Charlie

What Lies in the Multiverse

Signalis

Flynn: Son of Crimson

Dex


Forget about River City Girls and forget about Scott Pilgrim, because THIS exists. River City Saga:Three Kingdoms. I think it recently got a sequel too

 

[BlackDow]

The touryst doesnt get enough love.

Oh shit is is older than five years

Does Prodeus have love ? I love that.
Arise on switch is within the five year period that is a great great game.

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

Space Haven is kind of fun.



It's kind of a "Rimworld in Space", with sprinkles of FTL. Build ship, move sector to sector, gather resources, trade, fight off pirates and rogue bots, clear out derelicts, build new ships, and so on.
Not as complex as Rimworld on the character psychology and relations side, nor the emergent storytelling aspect. But adds spaceship integrity management and other elements of !!FUN!! (if you know Dwarf Fortress you know what that means) to compensate.

Ship to ship combat is mostly static like FTL, you can't actually move around except by warping out and re-entering in a different spot on the map. You have no sight of unfriendly ships' or unexplored derelicts' internals, but can use sensors to peek into places if you want to cause damage to specific areas. Boarding action is a valid form of attack. Also asteroids are a menace to anything unshielded, and point defense is hilariously inadequate against bigger rocks.

Overall it's pretty neat. The campaign does give you things to do besides surviving, and repeatedly salvaging high-tech items is a surprisingly valid way of accelerating progress to new technologies, even if the tech tree is relatively sparse at the moment.

 

[Eneru]

I would say Astalon - Tears of the earth



It's a metroidvania with lovely characters and great art. the games length was imo perfect and the score was great too. You can switch between three characters (later more) each one with different abilities. Liked the boss fights and story all around. I have to play it again tbh.

 

[Dreamlord]

Loved Gunpoint when I played it ages ago.

 

[LtGoose]

Goodbye Volcano High

 

[Phunkydiabetic]

Prodeus and Teardown instantly come to mind for me. Ive attempted to discuss this with people at the jobsite and no one has even heard of those games. Youre missing out people!

 

[Eneru]

Loved Gunpoint when I played it ages ago.

bought. it's one sale for 1,75€.

Thanks!

 

[Zeta Dragoon]

Even if AAA is fucked, I think this thread shows indie and A/AA is still doing pretty good.

Yeah I'll second that Halls of Torment is insane.

 

[teezzy]

Kaze and the Wild Masks - Really great Donkey Kong Country Clone. Plays more like them then the games from Retro Studios do.

Never knew it was a DKC clone, id always assumed it had more Sonic in its blood (never played)

 

[Alcedor]

Never knew it was a DKC clone, id always assumed it had more Sonic in its blood (never played)

Well it does have some pretty crazy running stages that are pretty fast paced, might be some Sonic influence there. However, most levels play similar to DKC

Loved Gunpoint when I played it ages ago.

I think Gunpoint inspired this game

I would say Astalon - Tears of the earth



It's a metroidvania with lovely characters and great art. the games length was imo perfect and the score was great too. You can switch between three characters (later more) each one with different abilities. Liked the boss fights and story all around. I have to play it again tbh.

It really nails that 8-bit vibe. I like the way the game incorporates death into the gameplay and story.

 

[teezzy]

I would say Astalon - Tears of the earth



It's a metroidvania with lovely characters and great art. the games length was imo perfect and the score was great too. You can switch between three characters (later more) each one with different abilities. Liked the boss fights and story all around. I have to play it again tbh.

Know @Erdrick was a huuuge fan of this one here

 

[Dreamlord]

I think Gunpoint inspired this game

Yep, it did inspire it. But I found Gunpoint much more fun than Ronin.

 

[DonDonDonPata]

Only for big brains yakub.jpg

 

[Erdrick]

I would say Astalon - Tears of the earth



It's a metroidvania with lovely characters and great art. the games length was imo perfect and the score was great too. You can switch between three characters (later more) each one with different abilities. Liked the boss fights and story all around. I have to play it again tbh.

Honestly... One if my favourite games I played back in 2021. Enjoyed every moment with it. I should look into what else this team has done...

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

Yep, it did inspire it. But I found Gunpoint much more fun than Ronin.

There was also Heat Signature, though it's much older than five years by now.

 

[Dreamlord]

There was also Heat Signature, though it's much older than five years by now.

Yep, same dev as Gunpoint. I quite liked it, but haven't spent much time with it.

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

Yep, same dev as Gunpoint. I quite liked it, but haven't spent much time with it.

I haven't spent that much time with it either, only some 20 hours. It's really good, but I sort of wish there was a deeper game on the layer beyond missions. The whole name, heat signature, comes from the fact that your pod (most of them at least) emits a heat signature, which prevents you from approaching your targets willy-nilly. But that notion is then never used - you're only ever detected if you fly close to ship windows, and avoiding those detection arcs is too easy to matter. Your target never flies in formation with escorts, you never have to really exert yourself for a stealth approach, etc. The entire game is focused on the mission aspect, which is fine but makes the rest of the game feel incomplete.

I'd have kinda liked it to be more like Shadowrun, is what I'm saying. So that there's a bigger world with more than just random ships flying randomly from featureless station to featureless station, that you have to navigate to execute your mission. As it is, there's precious few interesting things you can do. Like hijacking a random smuggler ship and using its guns to blast the target ship in half, safely retrieving the extraction target from the drifting piece. As long as the mission doesn't say you can't trigger any alarms, everything goes.

 

[Spiders]

Star Renegades Roguelite cranked up JRPG-combat game



Devil Blade Reboot One of the most fun and gorgeous shooters around



Lunistice pure 3D platforming joy before the genre all went collectathon



Donut Dodo single screen games have nothing to hide behind and Donut Dodo nails it's gameplay perfectly

 

[bork]

VALFARIS VALFARIS VALFARIS

 

[Spiders]

VALFARIS VALFARIS VALFARIS

Valfaris: Mecha Therion is on sale for $6 on Switch! Just picked it up today!

 

[bork]

Prodeus and Teardown instantly come to mind for me. Ive attempted to discuss this with people at the jobsite and no one has even heard of those games. Youre missing out people!

Did I recommend Prodeus to you I dont remember but yea that game is badass.

Valfaris: Mecha Therion is on sale for $6 on Switch! Just picked it up today!

Hell yea dude i just grabbed it on sale too. Played first few levels and it's great so far. Different but great.

 

[Phunkydiabetic]

Did I recommend Prodeus to you I dont remember but yea that game is badass.



Hell yea dude i just grabbed it on sale too. Played first few levels and it's great so far. Different but great.

Yezzir. That game was dope.

 

[Kvally]

This was 6 years ago, and I don't recall it making much traction, but Immortals Fenyx Rising was a super fun addicting game.

 

[DonDonDonPata]

This was 6 years ago, and I don't recall it making much traction, but Immortals Fenyx Rising was a super fun addicting game.

Yeah that game was a great "alternate" to breath of the wild. Lots of similar features and a fun theme. Solid control. Funny dialogue and tone. The fact that it wasn't so serious was a bonus imo when so many open world games are.

 

[Kvally]

Yeah that game was a great "alternate" to breath of the wild. Lots of similar features and a fun theme. Solid control. Funny dialogue and tone. The fact that it wasn't so serious was a bonus imo when so many open world games are.

The puzzles sold me as well. Maybe not the hardest puzzles for some people out there, but they gave me a challenge. And yes, I did cheat on a couple of them from Youtube, but I did most of them without help.

 

[Grinchy]

VALFARIS VALFARIS VALFARIS

I keep "shopping lists" at various retailers so I can quickly see if physical games I want are on sale. This game has been on my lists for so fucking long lol. And every year or so I see it and think "wtf was that game and why is it on my list??"

Then I watch a trailer that I've seen 4 times already and think "Oh yeah that shit looks awesome" but I still have never bought it.

 

[Alcedor]

I have played a little bit of Valfaris. It's a heavy metal infused Contra style game. It's a bit hard from what I recall. The same developer did Slain Back from Hell, a heavy metal infused side scrolling platformer that also was kind of hard. The dark, hyper metal atmospheres are the selling points of these games I think. If you think killing bad guys while listening to a Slayer album is cool, you'll probably dig these games. These games are like basically playing through a heavy metal album.


Immortals Fenyx Rising has a nice, quirky sense of humor and is fun for Greek mythology buffs. I've played a little bit of the game and I've played a little bit of Breath of the Wild, I actually found Immortals Fenyx Rising to be the more accessible and more engaging game personally. I wanted to play more of it. Breath of the Wild lost my interest quickly so I find the comparisons between the two games a bit odd.

 

[Grinchy]

I would say Astalon - Tears of the earth



It's a metroidvania with lovely characters and great art. the games length was imo perfect and the score was great too. You can switch between three characters (later more) each one with different abilities. Liked the boss fights and story all around. I have to play it again tbh.

Man, that video has me kinda sold on that. Considering going Switch for it to play it on the Switch 2...

 

[Spiders]

I have played a little bit of Valfaris. It's a heavy metal infused Contra style game. It's a bit hard from what I recall. The same developer did Slain Back from Hell, a heavy metal infused side scrolling platformer that also was kind of hard. The dark, hyper metal atmospheres are the selling points of these games I think. If you think killing bad guys while listening to a Slayer album is cool, you'll probably dig these games. These games are like basically playing through a heavy metal album

Hard in the sense you can't press right and win, but the checkpoint system means you have unlimited tries to get a section down… but you will have to get the section down.
It was definitely an adjustment from the modern coddling and "quick respawn" trend, but it ended up being the trial by fire my soft gamer brain needed to go balls deep into challenging retro and arcade games.

The unapologetic. unironic metal aesthetic is so good! Slain wasn't my favorite but I loved this and Mecha Therion so I'll definitely be Day 1 for this dev and Slain 2.

 

[Alcedor]

The vibe of Slain and Valfaris reminds me a bit of these games