tell ME your favorite game and I’ll make you a recommendation with the caveat that I’m not very confident in my ability here
shoutouts to lpslucasps whose version of this list is the first one I saw and also who is a cool person with great taste in games
My tastes are LIMITED and I haven’t played all that many games I think!!! But damn I’ll do my level best for you. It will of course help if you tell me why! I feel like I pull all my games I play from people here so WE’LL SEE HOW IT GOES lol
My tastes are LIMITED and I haven’t played all that many games I think!!! But damn I’ll do my level best for you. It will of course help if you tell me why! I feel like I pull all my games I play from people here so WE’LL SEE HOW IT GOES lol
37 Games
Archagent
I want to dial specifically into the way you talk about liking how final fantasy 6 leans into the formal elements of opera as a theatrical style and recommend a game I have very hazy memories of from my youth. Chaos Legion is operatic in the sense that the developers explicitly said “this game is an opera, we modeled the format of the story after operas and we made the themes and characters in the style of opera on purpose with that in mind.” It is still a goofy dark fantasy PS2 game but it is one that perhaps highlights the similarities already present between opera’s need to communicate stark morality and big emotions for audiences who typically don’t speak the languages the plays are performed in and anime-influenced JRPGs of a time and place leaning deep into introspection and explosive emotion. Chaos Legion goes so far as to just name it’s characters shit like GUILT and BLASPHEMY while being a weird devil may cry clone where you’re also real time summoning demon guys to fight for you? It’s a cool game. I do not know if it’s good
I want to dial specifically into the way you talk about liking how final fantasy 6 leans into the formal elements of opera as a theatrical style and recommend a game I have very hazy memories of from my youth. Chaos Legion is operatic in the sense that the developers explicitly said “this game is an opera, we modeled the format of the story after operas and we made the themes and characters in the style of opera on purpose with that in mind.” It is still a goofy dark fantasy PS2 game but it is one that perhaps highlights the similarities already present between opera’s need to communicate stark morality and big emotions for audiences who typically don’t speak the languages the plays are performed in and anime-influenced JRPGs of a time and place leaning deep into introspection and explosive emotion. Chaos Legion goes so far as to just name it’s characters shit like GUILT and BLASPHEMY while being a weird devil may cry clone where you’re also real time summoning demon guys to fight for you? It’s a cool game. I do not know if it’s good
JohnHarrelson
I haven’t actually played either of the games you listed yet but if you want an arcadey-feeling game with humanistic themes I FEEL like Omega Factor is a great one to check out? Kind of a combination beat ‘em up/shoot ‘em up game that uses the aesthetic of the 2003 Astro Boy anime to actually mash up stories, characters, and themes from just about every incarnation of AB there had been to that point into a soup of drama that touches on themes of environmentalism, revolution, and metaphysics? It sounds weird to say that about a gameboy advance sidescrolling action game about a guy with a machine gun ass but there you go that’s Tezuka.
This game is really famous for the swings its story takes and if you don’t know them I won’t say here but they’re pretty bold, and the game balloons in scope to incorporate themes and characters from across Tezuka’s body of work. I didn’t know any of that stuff when I played but when I was younger but now that I DO recognize it I can see that what treasure was operating on here was simply another level.
Not the BEST level design in the world but the visuals and music are unmatched, it feels great in the hands, and the package it comes in is just more surprising than you’d ever guess from this sort of thing
I haven’t actually played either of the games you listed yet but if you want an arcadey-feeling game with humanistic themes I FEEL like Omega Factor is a great one to check out? Kind of a combination beat ‘em up/shoot ‘em up game that uses the aesthetic of the 2003 Astro Boy anime to actually mash up stories, characters, and themes from just about every incarnation of AB there had been to that point into a soup of drama that touches on themes of environmentalism, revolution, and metaphysics? It sounds weird to say that about a gameboy advance sidescrolling action game about a guy with a machine gun ass but there you go that’s Tezuka.
This game is really famous for the swings its story takes and if you don’t know them I won’t say here but they’re pretty bold, and the game balloons in scope to incorporate themes and characters from across Tezuka’s body of work. I didn’t know any of that stuff when I played but when I was younger but now that I DO recognize it I can see that what treasure was operating on here was simply another level.
Not the BEST level design in the world but the visuals and music are unmatched, it feels great in the hands, and the package it comes in is just more surprising than you’d ever guess from this sort of thing
lpslucasps
I am picking out your Dark Souls and Metroid Prime choices here to recommend something that is always compared to Dark Souls but is VERY different. Dragon’s Dogma is a lot more immediately fast paced and high octane, its anime bullshit much more openly on its sleeve (not that these things aren’t in dark souls), and its story is on the face of it a lot more straightforward and its characters a lot chattier. It IS a different vibe, deeper in many ways, shallower in others.
The thing that most draws me to Dragon’s Dogma and what I hope will draw you to it is that its world is huge and, as in Metroid, indifferent. It feels less prescribed, less directed to me than souls games often feel, much more an ambient place that would exist without you to exert yourself over it.
There are huge chunks of the map you would never have to touch or visit if you didn’t want to. Mysterious monsters ready to fuck you if you go one step off the beaten path in the wrong direction. And my god, the night time. The day/night cycle is in full effect in this game and nights are so black you can’t see five feet in front of you. Monsters are more powerful, more numerous, and more hostile in the dark, and it’s genuinely frightening.
There are many systems in the game, many interesting people to meet, many solid quests to pursue, many well-designed foes to fell, but the thing that most sticks with me is exploring the world and feeling lonely in it in a game that doesn’t WANT you to feel lonely. It’s really good for that imo
I am picking out your Dark Souls and Metroid Prime choices here to recommend something that is always compared to Dark Souls but is VERY different. Dragon’s Dogma is a lot more immediately fast paced and high octane, its anime bullshit much more openly on its sleeve (not that these things aren’t in dark souls), and its story is on the face of it a lot more straightforward and its characters a lot chattier. It IS a different vibe, deeper in many ways, shallower in others.
The thing that most draws me to Dragon’s Dogma and what I hope will draw you to it is that its world is huge and, as in Metroid, indifferent. It feels less prescribed, less directed to me than souls games often feel, much more an ambient place that would exist without you to exert yourself over it.
There are huge chunks of the map you would never have to touch or visit if you didn’t want to. Mysterious monsters ready to fuck you if you go one step off the beaten path in the wrong direction. And my god, the night time. The day/night cycle is in full effect in this game and nights are so black you can’t see five feet in front of you. Monsters are more powerful, more numerous, and more hostile in the dark, and it’s genuinely frightening.
There are many systems in the game, many interesting people to meet, many solid quests to pursue, many well-designed foes to fell, but the thing that most sticks with me is exploring the world and feeling lonely in it in a game that doesn’t WANT you to feel lonely. It’s really good for that imo
Hunyoshi
I wanted to think of something that could be like a cousin to Final Fantasy IX, which is the only non-mmo FF I haven’t finished yet, but I THINK I saw enough to get this okay.
I think only a handful of the tales games are truly good but Vesperia is the closest in Vibe to what FFIX is laying down. I think it has arguably the best party in its series, with the only character who sucks being an add on in the definitive edition version and even then I think most people like her I’m a grump
It’s a big sprawling story set in a country with a really fleshed out sense of character and politics with lots of players that over the course of three acts tries to cover a lot of philosophical ground like the two main characters’ ongoing argument over the morality of killing people who deserve it when the law can’t or won’t touch them, to the greater place of private organization within a country that runs on a system of nobility, to the grand scale of gods and ecological disaster.
All of that stuff, though, is almost just the lens through which the game chooses to amplify its character writing, which while less introspective than FF9, is similarly focused on questions of identity and self-determination, to a greater and less arbitrary degree than a lot of less thoughtful JRPGs are.
I don’t think anything about these games map 1:1 onto each other but I think if you appreciate one then other has a lot going for it.
Oh this also has sick music and a very sweet central romance do that is also nice for the comparison
I wanted to think of something that could be like a cousin to Final Fantasy IX, which is the only non-mmo FF I haven’t finished yet, but I THINK I saw enough to get this okay.
I think only a handful of the tales games are truly good but Vesperia is the closest in Vibe to what FFIX is laying down. I think it has arguably the best party in its series, with the only character who sucks being an add on in the definitive edition version and even then I think most people like her I’m a grump
It’s a big sprawling story set in a country with a really fleshed out sense of character and politics with lots of players that over the course of three acts tries to cover a lot of philosophical ground like the two main characters’ ongoing argument over the morality of killing people who deserve it when the law can’t or won’t touch them, to the greater place of private organization within a country that runs on a system of nobility, to the grand scale of gods and ecological disaster.
All of that stuff, though, is almost just the lens through which the game chooses to amplify its character writing, which while less introspective than FF9, is similarly focused on questions of identity and self-determination, to a greater and less arbitrary degree than a lot of less thoughtful JRPGs are.
I don’t think anything about these games map 1:1 onto each other but I think if you appreciate one then other has a lot going for it.
Oh this also has sick music and a very sweet central romance do that is also nice for the comparison
SlapOnToast
This is not directly related to Mother 3’s qualities as a game, but the studio that co-developed it, Brownie Brown, has an incredible legacy. Staffed by a lot of heavy hitters from the 90s, these guys were carrying the torch for formally playful and tonally creative RPGs, which I assume is a big part of what got them the Mother gig.
Magical Vacation is their first game as a fresh studio, and it just recently got a complete English fan translation. It’s not precisely the vibe but I think it would be a lot of fun to find the DNA of your favorite game in the developer’s earliest work.
This is not directly related to Mother 3’s qualities as a game, but the studio that co-developed it, Brownie Brown, has an incredible legacy. Staffed by a lot of heavy hitters from the 90s, these guys were carrying the torch for formally playful and tonally creative RPGs, which I assume is a big part of what got them the Mother gig.
Magical Vacation is their first game as a fresh studio, and it just recently got a complete English fan translation. It’s not precisely the vibe but I think it would be a lot of fun to find the DNA of your favorite game in the developer’s earliest work.
SlapOnToast Bonus
When you say “kind of wacky candy-colored comedy game with an idiosyncratic sense of humor and a style you can’t really get anywhere else that uses these aesthetics to deliver occasionally more serious and ambitious thoughts about aspects of our nature and our society and also it’s on the GBA” I cannot help but think first and foremost of the Ace Attorney series, which is nothing like Mother 3, but is also exactly this thing I described. When you say literary this might lean closer to the Perry Mason serial end of the scale than whatever magical realist shit I imagine mother 3 gets up to but if it’s a format of game you’re interested in at all I think they might be a rewarding path to tread for a bit
When you say “kind of wacky candy-colored comedy game with an idiosyncratic sense of humor and a style you can’t really get anywhere else that uses these aesthetics to deliver occasionally more serious and ambitious thoughts about aspects of our nature and our society and also it’s on the GBA” I cannot help but think first and foremost of the Ace Attorney series, which is nothing like Mother 3, but is also exactly this thing I described. When you say literary this might lean closer to the Perry Mason serial end of the scale than whatever magical realist shit I imagine mother 3 gets up to but if it’s a format of game you’re interested in at all I think they might be a rewarding path to tread for a bit
Drax
The first thing that came to mind reading your description of Okami (a game I also really like). A structurally atypical Zelda, with a huge emphasis put on exploring the world outside of the dungeon areas, which are fewer in number and take more of a backseat than usual, similar to Okami’s. The eerie soundtrack also forgoes the typical horns and strings for more traditional Japanese instrumentation used to great effect. While not explicitly based on real world folklore, the game is, similarly to okami, extremely episodic, and really concerned with the cultures and cultural memories of the peoples and groups you encounter in these episodes.
The central action and puzzle-solving mechanic, unique in the series to this game, is a couple dozen equippable masks. Some of them are single use quest items but many are practically useful and three of them tranform you entirely into another creature and give you a whole different set of abilities and way of speaking to people in the world.
The entire ethos of the game is built around the central idea of the fundamental importance of other people in our lives, and of human connection, and this is reflected in the neat of the gameplay; early on you get a notebook that tracks every single NPC in the game world, all of whom are troubled by some shit, and all of the side quests revolve around learning their schedules, their wants, their needs, and just like, helping them out. Sometimes it’s simple and sometimes it’s life changing.
MM is a much darker game than Okami in terms of general mood but it has a radiant beating heart that I think would be really appealing to you based on what you wrote here
The first thing that came to mind reading your description of Okami (a game I also really like). A structurally atypical Zelda, with a huge emphasis put on exploring the world outside of the dungeon areas, which are fewer in number and take more of a backseat than usual, similar to Okami’s. The eerie soundtrack also forgoes the typical horns and strings for more traditional Japanese instrumentation used to great effect. While not explicitly based on real world folklore, the game is, similarly to okami, extremely episodic, and really concerned with the cultures and cultural memories of the peoples and groups you encounter in these episodes.
The central action and puzzle-solving mechanic, unique in the series to this game, is a couple dozen equippable masks. Some of them are single use quest items but many are practically useful and three of them tranform you entirely into another creature and give you a whole different set of abilities and way of speaking to people in the world.
The entire ethos of the game is built around the central idea of the fundamental importance of other people in our lives, and of human connection, and this is reflected in the neat of the gameplay; early on you get a notebook that tracks every single NPC in the game world, all of whom are troubled by some shit, and all of the side quests revolve around learning their schedules, their wants, their needs, and just like, helping them out. Sometimes it’s simple and sometimes it’s life changing.
MM is a much darker game than Okami in terms of general mood but it has a radiant beating heart that I think would be really appealing to you based on what you wrote here
Dwarf man
DAmn I read your comment and I was so fucking excited to hit you with chulip until I saw you had played it lmao
MML is certainly not going to have the emotional punch of that or Earthbound but it does have a genuine passion for the act of living, even if that living comes quietly, in the grass, under a blue sky. There’s a pretty solid dungeon crawler here and you’ll be doing that a fair bit in this gam but the real highlight is the central hub town and its population, who are full of verve and offer a ton of stuff to do, sometime funny, sometimes heartwarming, always reflective of the game’s laid back and positive attitude about community and fraternity. You value that sense of discovery so I don’t want to talk too much about it but the game doesn’t direct you to that stuff, it just trusts that you’re gonna be in love enough with the world to want to explore every nook and cranny of the city and talk to everyone in it, and for me that was definitely true
DAmn I read your comment and I was so fucking excited to hit you with chulip until I saw you had played it lmao
MML is certainly not going to have the emotional punch of that or Earthbound but it does have a genuine passion for the act of living, even if that living comes quietly, in the grass, under a blue sky. There’s a pretty solid dungeon crawler here and you’ll be doing that a fair bit in this gam but the real highlight is the central hub town and its population, who are full of verve and offer a ton of stuff to do, sometime funny, sometimes heartwarming, always reflective of the game’s laid back and positive attitude about community and fraternity. You value that sense of discovery so I don’t want to talk too much about it but the game doesn’t direct you to that stuff, it just trusts that you’re gonna be in love enough with the world to want to explore every nook and cranny of the city and talk to everyone in it, and for me that was definitely true
gruel
You seem to have like FF7 but not played Remake and while it’s not an action game in the style of ninja gaiden or DMC it’s certainly a challenging action game that is mechanically dense and in its later moments demands you to think both strategically and perform reflexively to excel. PLAY IT ON HARD DIFFICULTY AND I THINK YOU WILL FEEL REWARDED.
The game gives you the first four party members from 7, all of whom operate completely differently, each utilizing the atb gauge in unique ways to inform their fighting styles, and the game is at its best when you have a party of three that you can and should be frequently switching active control between. Materia is present and adds another layer to things and I think on hard mode there’s enough challenge to keep it all engaging to the end. Boss fights in particular are almost uniformly great.
Stretching the first like three hours of FF7 into a 20 hour game leads to weird pacing issues but I think the fresh spin and original ideas here are in large part really great interpretations of this story and these characters, I think fans of FF7 should play it and I think people looking for action games with interesting mechanics should play it and I think you’re in the middle of that Venn diagram so hey that’s sick
You seem to have like FF7 but not played Remake and while it’s not an action game in the style of ninja gaiden or DMC it’s certainly a challenging action game that is mechanically dense and in its later moments demands you to think both strategically and perform reflexively to excel. PLAY IT ON HARD DIFFICULTY AND I THINK YOU WILL FEEL REWARDED.
The game gives you the first four party members from 7, all of whom operate completely differently, each utilizing the atb gauge in unique ways to inform their fighting styles, and the game is at its best when you have a party of three that you can and should be frequently switching active control between. Materia is present and adds another layer to things and I think on hard mode there’s enough challenge to keep it all engaging to the end. Boss fights in particular are almost uniformly great.
Stretching the first like three hours of FF7 into a 20 hour game leads to weird pacing issues but I think the fresh spin and original ideas here are in large part really great interpretations of this story and these characters, I think fans of FF7 should play it and I think people looking for action games with interesting mechanics should play it and I think you’re in the middle of that Venn diagram so hey that’s sick
LunaEndlessWitch
This is a design descendent of Moon, sharing some key staff iirc, and while it’s a much MESSIER package I think you will def overcome those frictions in appreciation of its top shelf vibes and peerless aesthetic sensibilities. Contact is always kind of a wild card game to recommend to people but I think you’ll like it!!
This is a design descendent of Moon, sharing some key staff iirc, and while it’s a much MESSIER package I think you will def overcome those frictions in appreciation of its top shelf vibes and peerless aesthetic sensibilities. Contact is always kind of a wild card game to recommend to people but I think you’ll like it!!
Woodaba
Okay so I’m going to take advantage of your trust and our friendship and take a REAL shot in the dark with a game that just came to me from the ether but which I haven’t played since I was like twelve years old so if it actually sucks please forgive me.
This is if I recall correctly kind of a mushy tactics rpg but what is important for you here woodaba is that this game is split into a chapter structure where every chapter you switch between two parties, one made up of humans led by and angsty angry teen boy out for revenge against the monster people who killed his best friend, and the other a party of monster people led by an angsty angry monster guy with devil wings who wants to save his people from their enslavement and also kill all the humans for their prejudice.
Iirc everybody in this game is a very serious teen angster but the monster party members are all incredible looking deviant art ass demon people they rule. I might compare the dialogue in this game to something like dirge of Cerberus or DMC 3? Completely self serious and goofy in the vibe I think you will enjoy.
I don’t particularly remember what HAPPENS in this but I think it’s one of the ps2 games that’s on ps4 and I’ve been wanting to revisit it?? I hope it’s actually good lol
Okay so I’m going to take advantage of your trust and our friendship and take a REAL shot in the dark with a game that just came to me from the ether but which I haven’t played since I was like twelve years old so if it actually sucks please forgive me.
This is if I recall correctly kind of a mushy tactics rpg but what is important for you here woodaba is that this game is split into a chapter structure where every chapter you switch between two parties, one made up of humans led by and angsty angry teen boy out for revenge against the monster people who killed his best friend, and the other a party of monster people led by an angsty angry monster guy with devil wings who wants to save his people from their enslavement and also kill all the humans for their prejudice.
Iirc everybody in this game is a very serious teen angster but the monster party members are all incredible looking deviant art ass demon people they rule. I might compare the dialogue in this game to something like dirge of Cerberus or DMC 3? Completely self serious and goofy in the vibe I think you will enjoy.
I don’t particularly remember what HAPPENS in this but I think it’s one of the ps2 games that’s on ps4 and I’ve been wanting to revisit it?? I hope it’s actually good lol
Heatten
You stumped me pretty badly at first, I thought of a lot of stuff that you have played already, but I turned away from the gameplay and went entirely into “I think xehanort is cool” and buddy let me tell you about a couple of mother fuckers named LIQUID SNAKE and REVOLVER OCELOT.
Metal Gear is not an action game but it IS the kingdom hearts for sweaty people who really like foley work in movies; just as convoluted, just as tonally inconsistent in a charming way, just as willing to dive headfirst into really intense heady ideas it’s ill-equipped to fully reckon with, just as prone to wearing its heart on its sleeve. These games are indulgent and compelling in equal measure and I think they share a LOT of what works about their storytelling with KH, they just also share a lot of what doesn’t work, only expressed differently.
Maybe a left field pick here but idk maybe you’ll like it?? Maybe not! Who can say.
You stumped me pretty badly at first, I thought of a lot of stuff that you have played already, but I turned away from the gameplay and went entirely into “I think xehanort is cool” and buddy let me tell you about a couple of mother fuckers named LIQUID SNAKE and REVOLVER OCELOT.
Metal Gear is not an action game but it IS the kingdom hearts for sweaty people who really like foley work in movies; just as convoluted, just as tonally inconsistent in a charming way, just as willing to dive headfirst into really intense heady ideas it’s ill-equipped to fully reckon with, just as prone to wearing its heart on its sleeve. These games are indulgent and compelling in equal measure and I think they share a LOT of what works about their storytelling with KH, they just also share a lot of what doesn’t work, only expressed differently.
Maybe a left field pick here but idk maybe you’ll like it?? Maybe not! Who can say.
MeowPewterMeow
Friendo you ask and I deliver cool PSX jrpgs unto you. In my quest to always be playing like eight games and never making progress on any of them I am picking slowly at this one, which is I think NIS’s first ever RPG?? And it is very cool. It has a lot of their Go Hard charm and style without a lot of their more overbearing attitude stuff, and being on older hardware means their trademark smooth flash-esque art is articulated through gorgeous sprite work.
This is a JRPG where instead of normal turn based combat every random encounter is a tiny bite sized SRPG on a little bitty grid map? I don’t know that it works but it’s a weird swing.
The BIG thing about this game is that it’s A MUSICAL ADVENTURE and every big emotional moment in it, even in like side quests and stuff, is punctuated by a full voiced bombastic original musical number?? AND the game gives you the option to have these dubbed in English or Japanese??? In 1998 on the PlayStation???? It’s WILD
Friendo you ask and I deliver cool PSX jrpgs unto you. In my quest to always be playing like eight games and never making progress on any of them I am picking slowly at this one, which is I think NIS’s first ever RPG?? And it is very cool. It has a lot of their Go Hard charm and style without a lot of their more overbearing attitude stuff, and being on older hardware means their trademark smooth flash-esque art is articulated through gorgeous sprite work.
This is a JRPG where instead of normal turn based combat every random encounter is a tiny bite sized SRPG on a little bitty grid map? I don’t know that it works but it’s a weird swing.
The BIG thing about this game is that it’s A MUSICAL ADVENTURE and every big emotional moment in it, even in like side quests and stuff, is punctuated by a full voiced bombastic original musical number?? AND the game gives you the option to have these dubbed in English or Japanese??? In 1998 on the PlayStation???? It’s WILD
ConeCvultist
It's playing in distinctly European aesthetic spaces, but being a Japanese developer FromSoft doesn't deny their own sensibilities and a lot of what you like about Silent Hill 4 is present here. Confined mostly to the setting of a long abandoned cruise ship that's populated only by the ghosts of its crew and passengers, you walk slowly through this desolate environment observing their specters quietly act out the moments of their regrets and tragedies. Unlike silent hill 4, Echo Night concerns your efforts to help these people find closure and catharsis, but it is similarly interested in making you a voyeur in an environment that is intermittently and unpredictably hostile. You move slowly, ghosts aren't impeded by the environment in the way you are, and the only thing that wards them off is turning on the lights, which turns every dark room into a childish scramble to get out of the dark. It's got that classic somber FromSoft voice acting and a pitch perfect melancholic tone. I hope you vibe with it!
It's playing in distinctly European aesthetic spaces, but being a Japanese developer FromSoft doesn't deny their own sensibilities and a lot of what you like about Silent Hill 4 is present here. Confined mostly to the setting of a long abandoned cruise ship that's populated only by the ghosts of its crew and passengers, you walk slowly through this desolate environment observing their specters quietly act out the moments of their regrets and tragedies. Unlike silent hill 4, Echo Night concerns your efforts to help these people find closure and catharsis, but it is similarly interested in making you a voyeur in an environment that is intermittently and unpredictably hostile. You move slowly, ghosts aren't impeded by the environment in the way you are, and the only thing that wards them off is turning on the lights, which turns every dark room into a childish scramble to get out of the dark. It's got that classic somber FromSoft voice acting and a pitch perfect melancholic tone. I hope you vibe with it!
Reddish
I am recommending Frog Detective and ALSO its sequel, The Case of the Invisible Wizard and heck probably Frog Detective 3 which is due out any time, because they're all dirt cheap and super short.
While these games don't have the narrative heft that Ace Attorney does in its best moments (ie in the games you cited haha) what they DO have is absolutely stellar humor and visuals which is something that i always appreciate about Ace Attorney and any other game in this genre. In a space absolutely flooded with poe-faced sour guys in raincoats being fucking bummers, which I also enjoy, outright comedy, and GOOD comedy, is always welcome and I am hoping based on your comment that this will resonate with you too!
I am recommending Frog Detective and ALSO its sequel, The Case of the Invisible Wizard and heck probably Frog Detective 3 which is due out any time, because they're all dirt cheap and super short.
While these games don't have the narrative heft that Ace Attorney does in its best moments (ie in the games you cited haha) what they DO have is absolutely stellar humor and visuals which is something that i always appreciate about Ace Attorney and any other game in this genre. In a space absolutely flooded with poe-faced sour guys in raincoats being fucking bummers, which I also enjoy, outright comedy, and GOOD comedy, is always welcome and I am hoping based on your comment that this will resonate with you too!
Speedy
No narrative elements here really, but if you’re into all things sonic and you’re into snappy 3D platformers then I think Toree is really a treat you gotta check out. This game has three playable characters and like nine levels plus a few remixed ones for the low low price of a dollar, really says what it wants to say and calls it. Always mixing things up with structure and mechanics, got that really lovely, soft, late PS1 cartoon graphic style that I just adore, and it really rewards practice and is built for speedrun play. The first one of these was part of a Haunted PS1 Demo Disc but those elements are extremely sparse I would not call this a horror game or a frightening experience, the bits where it comes up are fun and cute.
They’re dirt cheap all the time, they’re super short, they play really well, and they’re on switch and PC!!
No narrative elements here really, but if you’re into all things sonic and you’re into snappy 3D platformers then I think Toree is really a treat you gotta check out. This game has three playable characters and like nine levels plus a few remixed ones for the low low price of a dollar, really says what it wants to say and calls it. Always mixing things up with structure and mechanics, got that really lovely, soft, late PS1 cartoon graphic style that I just adore, and it really rewards practice and is built for speedrun play. The first one of these was part of a Haunted PS1 Demo Disc but those elements are extremely sparse I would not call this a horror game or a frightening experience, the bits where it comes up are fun and cute.
They’re dirt cheap all the time, they’re super short, they play really well, and they’re on switch and PC!!
LS197
I don't think there's a game that REALLY captures the specific aesthetic and vibe of Nocturne outside of like, the other PS2 era SMT games, which you've played, so instead I think maybe Koudelka will be a fun experiment for you.
Kind of a sadder, less wacky precursor to Shadow Hearts, it's more overtly horror themed than Nocturne or DDS and it makes some interesting experimental choices in its gameplay, and I think it makes for an RPG experience that's genuinely unique. It would be cool on the strength of that alone but i think it comes together as a solid play experience on top of that. Plus it's not super long, everybody wins!
I don't think there's a game that REALLY captures the specific aesthetic and vibe of Nocturne outside of like, the other PS2 era SMT games, which you've played, so instead I think maybe Koudelka will be a fun experiment for you.
Kind of a sadder, less wacky precursor to Shadow Hearts, it's more overtly horror themed than Nocturne or DDS and it makes some interesting experimental choices in its gameplay, and I think it makes for an RPG experience that's genuinely unique. It would be cool on the strength of that alone but i think it comes together as a solid play experience on top of that. Plus it's not super long, everybody wins!
FrozenRoy
taking a bit of a swing here because in some ways this seems like kind of what you describe but like...opposite? The dialogue is neither snappy nor especially witty, but i think its metered provincialism has its own charm. The crafting system is not simple lol but it IS the foundation upon which the entire game is built and while it does inform every other aspect of the game in a way no other crafting-based game really does, it's not especially COMPLEX (a wide pool maybe, more than a deep one). YMMV vary on the character designs but I think they're nice, if not the style of anime stuff I personally like. There is a semi-industial world happening here and i think the story that emerges from the setting throughout this game is the best part of it, less the specific story of these characters and more the one of the world at large that threads through this game and its two loosely related sequels. And while nobody is Explicitly Gay, as these things go, there is simply a lot of subtext going on, as these things go. So idk maybe you'll be into it? I saw you played Ryza and my understanding is that is a much more Normal Modern RPG than older Atelier games, but I imagine if you enjoyed that you might be inclined to try one of its ancestors too!
taking a bit of a swing here because in some ways this seems like kind of what you describe but like...opposite? The dialogue is neither snappy nor especially witty, but i think its metered provincialism has its own charm. The crafting system is not simple lol but it IS the foundation upon which the entire game is built and while it does inform every other aspect of the game in a way no other crafting-based game really does, it's not especially COMPLEX (a wide pool maybe, more than a deep one). YMMV vary on the character designs but I think they're nice, if not the style of anime stuff I personally like. There is a semi-industial world happening here and i think the story that emerges from the setting throughout this game is the best part of it, less the specific story of these characters and more the one of the world at large that threads through this game and its two loosely related sequels. And while nobody is Explicitly Gay, as these things go, there is simply a lot of subtext going on, as these things go. So idk maybe you'll be into it? I saw you played Ryza and my understanding is that is a much more Normal Modern RPG than older Atelier games, but I imagine if you enjoyed that you might be inclined to try one of its ancestors too!
HylianBran
I’m not sure what it is you love specifically about KH but looking at the games you have logged (while I understand they’re not exhaustive!) you seem to be much more about action games than RPG ass RPGs so I will split the difference in my KH-likes bag as much as possible and recommend Final Fantasy XV which shares a high level dev lineage with KH and plays like KH’s gangly younger cousin, with way less precision but a lot more breadth to some of the options you’re presented with if you take the time to learn the systems.
On the story and presentation side FFXV is not as achingly adolescent as early KH can be or as goofily operatic as late KH can be but it lands somewhere in the middle, a story of a small group of friends who are technically adults but are on the cusp of the adult world really and truly thrusting itself upon them at the end of this last hurrah together. Unlike a lot of these stories though the game isn’t over after that happens.
It’s a really weird mishmash of mechanics and gameplay styles from chill world exploration to driving to third person ARPG combat to fishing to cooking to photography and it all lends itself to this story of dudes truly rocking in a way they never have before in games and scarcely will again I bet. Something special here if it clicks!
I’m not sure what it is you love specifically about KH but looking at the games you have logged (while I understand they’re not exhaustive!) you seem to be much more about action games than RPG ass RPGs so I will split the difference in my KH-likes bag as much as possible and recommend Final Fantasy XV which shares a high level dev lineage with KH and plays like KH’s gangly younger cousin, with way less precision but a lot more breadth to some of the options you’re presented with if you take the time to learn the systems.
On the story and presentation side FFXV is not as achingly adolescent as early KH can be or as goofily operatic as late KH can be but it lands somewhere in the middle, a story of a small group of friends who are technically adults but are on the cusp of the adult world really and truly thrusting itself upon them at the end of this last hurrah together. Unlike a lot of these stories though the game isn’t over after that happens.
It’s a really weird mishmash of mechanics and gameplay styles from chill world exploration to driving to third person ARPG combat to fishing to cooking to photography and it all lends itself to this story of dudes truly rocking in a way they never have before in games and scarcely will again I bet. Something special here if it clicks!
jeffbackloggd
i don’t really know anything about speedrunning or what makes a good one of those but when you put katamari and mirror’s edge (two games i completely adore) in a sentence together, you have me instantly thinking about games with unique and satisfying movement mechanics, and THAT has me instantly thinking about mother fucking Gravity Rush, an all time great pair of games that have everything going for them, RIP Japan Studio. having the ability to fly SORT OF but it’s entirely based around managing your momentum as you slingshot yourself around the sky, there’s nothing like it.
the mechanics might feel loose and imprecise at first glance but they’re just committed to the evoking a vibe of realism rather than a simulation of it, there’s a great deal of dexterity and precision you can squeeze out of these mechanics and indeed the game will ask you to somthimes via a fairly wide swathe of challenges and it never stopped working for me. love these games to death.
i don’t really know anything about speedrunning or what makes a good one of those but when you put katamari and mirror’s edge (two games i completely adore) in a sentence together, you have me instantly thinking about games with unique and satisfying movement mechanics, and THAT has me instantly thinking about mother fucking Gravity Rush, an all time great pair of games that have everything going for them, RIP Japan Studio. having the ability to fly SORT OF but it’s entirely based around managing your momentum as you slingshot yourself around the sky, there’s nothing like it.
the mechanics might feel loose and imprecise at first glance but they’re just committed to the evoking a vibe of realism rather than a simulation of it, there’s a great deal of dexterity and precision you can squeeze out of these mechanics and indeed the game will ask you to somthimes via a fairly wide swathe of challenges and it never stopped working for me. love these games to death.
justmonika
i love when people ask for moon or mother 3 on here because those games both have lots of key staff members with very prominent clear histories leading them from project to project where you can see exactly how each game’s ideas brought them to the next thing they would make. Chulip’s Moon alumnus is its director, Yoshiro Kimura, who was one of the three main designers on Moon.
I specifically choose Chulip for you though because i think it’s something of a synthesis recommendation between Moon and No More Heroes. there’s the clear structural legacy of moon all over this game - really strict time and resource management as you slowly explore a world that operates on a clockwork schedule, broadening your boundaries as you become familiar with the rhythms of the people you interact with and the activities you practice. in Chulip that’s a sort of shitty rural town in an ambiguously twentieth century-ish Japan, and the thing you’re doing is trying to kiss people to help your character understand love better in the hopes of earning the affections of the girl he has a crush on.
but like No More Heroes, Chulip is a decidedly very cynical game, one that aims to frustrate you, to waste your time, to punish you for not knowing things you couldn’t possibly know. Tedium is a key part of the experience - the core message simply wouldn’t work without it.
Chulip isn’t MEAN-SPIRITED, though, and in fact is a passionate, angry, fiercely loving game - it’s just one that doesn’t believe in looking back on things more romantically than they deserved. one of the all time greats imo
i love when people ask for moon or mother 3 on here because those games both have lots of key staff members with very prominent clear histories leading them from project to project where you can see exactly how each game’s ideas brought them to the next thing they would make. Chulip’s Moon alumnus is its director, Yoshiro Kimura, who was one of the three main designers on Moon.
I specifically choose Chulip for you though because i think it’s something of a synthesis recommendation between Moon and No More Heroes. there’s the clear structural legacy of moon all over this game - really strict time and resource management as you slowly explore a world that operates on a clockwork schedule, broadening your boundaries as you become familiar with the rhythms of the people you interact with and the activities you practice. in Chulip that’s a sort of shitty rural town in an ambiguously twentieth century-ish Japan, and the thing you’re doing is trying to kiss people to help your character understand love better in the hopes of earning the affections of the girl he has a crush on.
but like No More Heroes, Chulip is a decidedly very cynical game, one that aims to frustrate you, to waste your time, to punish you for not knowing things you couldn’t possibly know. Tedium is a key part of the experience - the core message simply wouldn’t work without it.
Chulip isn’t MEAN-SPIRITED, though, and in fact is a passionate, angry, fiercely loving game - it’s just one that doesn’t believe in looking back on things more romantically than they deserved. one of the all time greats imo
Mewtsukki
I have not played SaGa Frontier - my experience with SaGa is limited to the original gameboy entries so far and my understanding is that from the Frontier era and onwards SaGa becomes very different. So looking at your review the game that I thought of first is Live a Live, which is a sick fucking game so I don’t feel bad about not thinking very hard about this one.
Like SaGa, Live a Live is the result of original generation Square old heads getting a little more freedom and a lot less money to make something that they wouldn’t have been allowed to do within the constraints of a more famous or established franchise, and using the relative obscurity to create something equally ambitious to everything Square was really famous for in the 90s, but with a very different flavor from the better-remembered stuff.
Like your extremely cool description of SaGa frontier, Live a Live is a series of several loosely connected character based scenarios that you play through in whatever order you want. each scenario plays out like its own short but full fledged game with its own play gimmicks, character progression systems, stories, parties, everything; the selling point gimmick in live a live is that they each take place in a distinct time throughout human history, from caveman days through the far future.
every time period is both a unique play experience and an overt pastiche of a genre of film - the Old West story sees your character scrambling to help a town fortify itself under a time limit against a gang that’s due to roll into the place in only a few hours, all while the martial hunting you down is breathing down your neck; the space story sees you playing as a little robot guy trying to creep about the ship to avoid an alien monster that’s escaped captivity and is picking off the human crew of your vessel, etc etc.
Despite looking and FEELING like a very traditional Square RPG, only three, MAYBE four of the game’s nine chapters feature the traditional RPG gameplay loop. it’s a really incredible display of how the format can be used to tell all kinds of stories, and the kind of things you can do when “taking influence from film” means really earnestly evaluating how one might best adapt the elements you’re trying to communicate to the strengths of a new medium.
i love it. i haven’t played the recent switch remake but people i trust tell me it’s a very faithful rendition, almost entirely cosmetic. I’m told that the official translation is excellent and the only major change is that they added a big moment to the ending of the game that people seem to love universally. i’ve only played the original version and i think it’s pretty incredible as is so i don’t think there’s a way to go wrong here
I have not played SaGa Frontier - my experience with SaGa is limited to the original gameboy entries so far and my understanding is that from the Frontier era and onwards SaGa becomes very different. So looking at your review the game that I thought of first is Live a Live, which is a sick fucking game so I don’t feel bad about not thinking very hard about this one.
Like SaGa, Live a Live is the result of original generation Square old heads getting a little more freedom and a lot less money to make something that they wouldn’t have been allowed to do within the constraints of a more famous or established franchise, and using the relative obscurity to create something equally ambitious to everything Square was really famous for in the 90s, but with a very different flavor from the better-remembered stuff.
Like your extremely cool description of SaGa frontier, Live a Live is a series of several loosely connected character based scenarios that you play through in whatever order you want. each scenario plays out like its own short but full fledged game with its own play gimmicks, character progression systems, stories, parties, everything; the selling point gimmick in live a live is that they each take place in a distinct time throughout human history, from caveman days through the far future.
every time period is both a unique play experience and an overt pastiche of a genre of film - the Old West story sees your character scrambling to help a town fortify itself under a time limit against a gang that’s due to roll into the place in only a few hours, all while the martial hunting you down is breathing down your neck; the space story sees you playing as a little robot guy trying to creep about the ship to avoid an alien monster that’s escaped captivity and is picking off the human crew of your vessel, etc etc.
Despite looking and FEELING like a very traditional Square RPG, only three, MAYBE four of the game’s nine chapters feature the traditional RPG gameplay loop. it’s a really incredible display of how the format can be used to tell all kinds of stories, and the kind of things you can do when “taking influence from film” means really earnestly evaluating how one might best adapt the elements you’re trying to communicate to the strengths of a new medium.
i love it. i haven’t played the recent switch remake but people i trust tell me it’s a very faithful rendition, almost entirely cosmetic. I’m told that the official translation is excellent and the only major change is that they added a big moment to the ending of the game that people seem to love universally. i’ve only played the original version and i think it’s pretty incredible as is so i don’t think there’s a way to go wrong here
t4tifa
Alright this game is Not Turned Based and i would describe its use of visual metaphor as only MEDIUM good AND the game is probably close to 50 or 60 hours long but hear me out hear me out
I THINK if you like Final Fantasy VII for the sake of it being a really introspective story about characters who insist they are one kind of person as a method of coping with a really horrific stance that the status quo of the world has inflicted upon them and are forced to reckon with the fact that the kind of person they actually are is a better and healthier thing to be, and ALSO for getting to be a cool girl who punches shit, then that is a strong foundation for liking Tales of Berseria.
Maybe also not super dissimilarly from FF7 but portrayed more extremely, TOB's party are explicitly villains in the eyes of the state - undesirable types of people like escaped slaves, convicts, pirates, military deserters. And a lot of them are by their own admission bad people on top of that, selfishly motivated and unscrupulously in pursuit of their personal goals. But they're all aligned against a fascist state whose power comes from quietly victimizing people who might not be missed, and the party are all victims in one way or another of the arms of the state too.
Like a lot of stories it's about realizing and asserting the right to love and be loved, even violently if you have to, but it's at least AS MUCH about asserting every person's right to be a sicko, in a way that I personally find really resonant.
ALSO the main character is in a BARELY SUBTEXTUAL lesbian triad and her name is VELVET CROWE and she fights with punching and kicking like Tifa but also with her BIG FUCK OFF DEMON ARM that also EATS PEOPLE she's so cool. i know i say it in like all of these but this is one of my fave games lol
Alright this game is Not Turned Based and i would describe its use of visual metaphor as only MEDIUM good AND the game is probably close to 50 or 60 hours long but hear me out hear me out
I THINK if you like Final Fantasy VII for the sake of it being a really introspective story about characters who insist they are one kind of person as a method of coping with a really horrific stance that the status quo of the world has inflicted upon them and are forced to reckon with the fact that the kind of person they actually are is a better and healthier thing to be, and ALSO for getting to be a cool girl who punches shit, then that is a strong foundation for liking Tales of Berseria.
Maybe also not super dissimilarly from FF7 but portrayed more extremely, TOB's party are explicitly villains in the eyes of the state - undesirable types of people like escaped slaves, convicts, pirates, military deserters. And a lot of them are by their own admission bad people on top of that, selfishly motivated and unscrupulously in pursuit of their personal goals. But they're all aligned against a fascist state whose power comes from quietly victimizing people who might not be missed, and the party are all victims in one way or another of the arms of the state too.
Like a lot of stories it's about realizing and asserting the right to love and be loved, even violently if you have to, but it's at least AS MUCH about asserting every person's right to be a sicko, in a way that I personally find really resonant.
ALSO the main character is in a BARELY SUBTEXTUAL lesbian triad and her name is VELVET CROWE and she fights with punching and kicking like Tifa but also with her BIG FUCK OFF DEMON ARM that also EATS PEOPLE she's so cool. i know i say it in like all of these but this is one of my fave games lol
faea
this may seem out of left field and i will be the first to admit it doesn't meet a lot of what you like about hypnospace outlaw. A strong voice? NO. Highlighting flawed systems? LIKE A DRAGON LOVES THE SYSTEM. Making you complicit in the system? Well idk i guess maybe this game does not really have a potent ideology it's about cum zombies.
BUT what you say about spending time looking at the unspectacular parts of people's lives, even in the wake of Big Shit - that's the stuff that shines in Dead Souls, and the stuff that I still find myself thinking about all the time even months after finishing it.
This is a game where you're spending most of your time going in and out of the quarantine zone to shoot zombies, and there are a lot of zombie-shooting-based challenges to do if you want, all kinds of arcadey shooting action to partake in. But the entire game is still located in the same map that every Like a Dragon game is, and that includes the Quarantine Zone, which over the course of the story slowly expands to consume more and more of the district - which makes for a larger area to shoot stuff in and a smaller area on the outside, where you do your shopping and eating and regular LAD minigames.
Because in the context of the story the zombie outbreak is being kept secret by the government, all anyone on the outside of the QZ knows is that something BAD is happening behind the giant, hastily-erected walls; people have family trapped in there, friends, they might work in there and now they don't know what to do. But life on the outside has to continue, right? So the stores and restaurants are still open, the civilian dialogue for people you pass in the streets might occasionally discuss the strangeness a couple streets over but it's just as likely to talk about dinner plans or complain about their boss.
But that quarantine zone is expanding all the time, and information can't stay under wraps. Life continues to go on even as things become more desperate, but you can palpably feel the atmosphere changing over the course of the game, and you can feel it yourself, as you're forced to navigate the streets differently to avoid the walls, as your contacts whittle down. But life for people on the outside never quite stops. I think you might appreciate that aspect of this game if you have a way to play it. It's not ABOUT this but it's an everpresent part of it.
this may seem out of left field and i will be the first to admit it doesn't meet a lot of what you like about hypnospace outlaw. A strong voice? NO. Highlighting flawed systems? LIKE A DRAGON LOVES THE SYSTEM. Making you complicit in the system? Well idk i guess maybe this game does not really have a potent ideology it's about cum zombies.
BUT what you say about spending time looking at the unspectacular parts of people's lives, even in the wake of Big Shit - that's the stuff that shines in Dead Souls, and the stuff that I still find myself thinking about all the time even months after finishing it.
This is a game where you're spending most of your time going in and out of the quarantine zone to shoot zombies, and there are a lot of zombie-shooting-based challenges to do if you want, all kinds of arcadey shooting action to partake in. But the entire game is still located in the same map that every Like a Dragon game is, and that includes the Quarantine Zone, which over the course of the story slowly expands to consume more and more of the district - which makes for a larger area to shoot stuff in and a smaller area on the outside, where you do your shopping and eating and regular LAD minigames.
Because in the context of the story the zombie outbreak is being kept secret by the government, all anyone on the outside of the QZ knows is that something BAD is happening behind the giant, hastily-erected walls; people have family trapped in there, friends, they might work in there and now they don't know what to do. But life on the outside has to continue, right? So the stores and restaurants are still open, the civilian dialogue for people you pass in the streets might occasionally discuss the strangeness a couple streets over but it's just as likely to talk about dinner plans or complain about their boss.
But that quarantine zone is expanding all the time, and information can't stay under wraps. Life continues to go on even as things become more desperate, but you can palpably feel the atmosphere changing over the course of the game, and you can feel it yourself, as you're forced to navigate the streets differently to avoid the walls, as your contacts whittle down. But life for people on the outside never quite stops. I think you might appreciate that aspect of this game if you have a way to play it. It's not ABOUT this but it's an everpresent part of it.
aglhrm
This doesn't check ALL your boxes but what it DOES have is
1. clashing art styles
2. cold and distant violence or suggestions of violence
3. i would not say transhumanism in the traditional sense but certainly a thematic emphasis on on the value of bodies and our perceptions of them, and on the worth in and ability to Become Else
this is a more adolescent story than what I imagine the silver case to be, more horror-tinged and directly concerned with the flesh parts of bodies than with the tech side of things, but I think you might get along with the themes and the vibe. I hope so anyway, i do really love this game!
I am really spitballing based on your description too haha, i haven't played the silver case yet but I hope to soon!
This doesn't check ALL your boxes but what it DOES have is
1. clashing art styles
2. cold and distant violence or suggestions of violence
3. i would not say transhumanism in the traditional sense but certainly a thematic emphasis on on the value of bodies and our perceptions of them, and on the worth in and ability to Become Else
this is a more adolescent story than what I imagine the silver case to be, more horror-tinged and directly concerned with the flesh parts of bodies than with the tech side of things, but I think you might get along with the themes and the vibe. I hope so anyway, i do really love this game!
I am really spitballing based on your description too haha, i haven't played the silver case yet but I hope to soon!
Jean_le_Point
I want to focus on here on the stuff you say about Layton’s atmosphere and art and character. FORI doesn’t really have puzzles - if we have to assign it a core genre, it’s a beat ‘em up, but it’s one that is intensely dedicated setting a mood, more than anything else.
Set in 1980s Japan, you play as Ringo himself, the delinquent leader of a small gang that is slowly beginning to drift apart as the end of high school rapidly approaches. The boys are sifting apart for good reason, though - they’re all finding themselves, discovering new interests, unearthing their potential, and it becomes clear early on that the biggest thing holding them back is the culture of their own friend group. everyone sort of starts to realize this except for Ringo.
You have a really wild amount of control over how Ringo spends his time; whether he’s a good student, how serious his interest in reading is, what sorts of games he plays, how often he smokes, who he hangs out with and when and how often, some (but not all) of the fights he gets into. there are constants to his character - he’ll always be an introspective guy who keeps a fair distance from other people and doesn’t like to share how he’s thinking or feeling. the only thing you really don’t have control over is that you can’t solve his ennui.
that’s the rub with this game. it offers the illusion of choice, and you CAN substantially alter the tone of Ringo’s relationships and connections, but you can’t make him figure his shit out. very little of what you can make him do is active for the player, it’s almost always about setting a scene and letting yourself be immersed in that moment.
i think this game requires a degree of patience and a willingness to be an active participant in a different kind of way than most games ask players to be - one who fills in silences with intent and imagination, a collaborative creative spirit. but if you have that there I think this game offers you the tools for something really beautiful about as well as any other game ever has.
I want to focus on here on the stuff you say about Layton’s atmosphere and art and character. FORI doesn’t really have puzzles - if we have to assign it a core genre, it’s a beat ‘em up, but it’s one that is intensely dedicated setting a mood, more than anything else.
Set in 1980s Japan, you play as Ringo himself, the delinquent leader of a small gang that is slowly beginning to drift apart as the end of high school rapidly approaches. The boys are sifting apart for good reason, though - they’re all finding themselves, discovering new interests, unearthing their potential, and it becomes clear early on that the biggest thing holding them back is the culture of their own friend group. everyone sort of starts to realize this except for Ringo.
You have a really wild amount of control over how Ringo spends his time; whether he’s a good student, how serious his interest in reading is, what sorts of games he plays, how often he smokes, who he hangs out with and when and how often, some (but not all) of the fights he gets into. there are constants to his character - he’ll always be an introspective guy who keeps a fair distance from other people and doesn’t like to share how he’s thinking or feeling. the only thing you really don’t have control over is that you can’t solve his ennui.
that’s the rub with this game. it offers the illusion of choice, and you CAN substantially alter the tone of Ringo’s relationships and connections, but you can’t make him figure his shit out. very little of what you can make him do is active for the player, it’s almost always about setting a scene and letting yourself be immersed in that moment.
i think this game requires a degree of patience and a willingness to be an active participant in a different kind of way than most games ask players to be - one who fills in silences with intent and imagination, a collaborative creative spirit. but if you have that there I think this game offers you the tools for something really beautiful about as well as any other game ever has.
AG147
Taking a chance with this one because you FEEL to me like a final fantasy person but you only have the 7s logged so IF you haven’t played Final Fantasy VIII i think you really owe yourself a ride with the most TWEWY ass FF they ever made or are ever likely to make.
it’s about fuckin TEENS who are NOT talkin about their feelings who all have EXTREMELY fucked up brains and are in a situation where they’re being really openly manipulated by a much more powerful force that they have to tacitly go along with despite it being obviously outside their best interests while they try to figure out what’s going on with their own heads and ALSO try desperately to connect to each other emotionally. A game where you really feel that specific, raw nerve ACHE of adolescence coursing through every bit of depressed doubt and awkward stilted flirting and more awkward more stilted rejection and even more awkward even more stilted posturing at what they imagine being cool and being adult in a world that doesn’t intend to let them grow up but expects them to behave that way anyway.
ALSO like twewy it has weird and unique gameplay mechanics that seem really complicated at first glance but actually are very chill to engage with and bust WIDE open if you poke at them even a little bit.
Taking a chance with this one because you FEEL to me like a final fantasy person but you only have the 7s logged so IF you haven’t played Final Fantasy VIII i think you really owe yourself a ride with the most TWEWY ass FF they ever made or are ever likely to make.
it’s about fuckin TEENS who are NOT talkin about their feelings who all have EXTREMELY fucked up brains and are in a situation where they’re being really openly manipulated by a much more powerful force that they have to tacitly go along with despite it being obviously outside their best interests while they try to figure out what’s going on with their own heads and ALSO try desperately to connect to each other emotionally. A game where you really feel that specific, raw nerve ACHE of adolescence coursing through every bit of depressed doubt and awkward stilted flirting and more awkward more stilted rejection and even more awkward even more stilted posturing at what they imagine being cool and being adult in a world that doesn’t intend to let them grow up but expects them to behave that way anyway.
ALSO like twewy it has weird and unique gameplay mechanics that seem really complicated at first glance but actually are very chill to engage with and bust WIDE open if you poke at them even a little bit.
DolorousWithVines
for an indie stat-based deckbuilder VN about being a kid raised in a community building a utopian communist colony on a new planet after ditching the shitty capitalist earth that Looks Like That, I didn’t expect IWATE to swing as hard as it did.
Misery With A Purpose is what we want right? Your colony ship crashes, rather than lands, which makes the whole project a lot dicier from the get go. Food is limited, it’s very difficult to grow more with the hydroponics you brought from earth fucked up in the crash. Local fauna is dangerous. Your character and their peers are little kids and in the early game you’re dealing with kid ass problems but that doesn’t make you or them safe from the problems the community faces. Plagues, government infighting, starvation, the resurgence of capitalist ideology even before a ship full of Earth fascists arrives to take over at gunpoint ten years into your life on the new planet, which makes everything ten times worse.
Your choices, from the classes you spend time at to the jobs you work to the relationships you cultivate (and don’t) and the choices you make within them (and the webs between them - it’s a small colony and all these people have complex shit going on with each other too) DO matter, a lot. there are a ton of ways all kinds of stories can play out in this game, which ends when your character hits age 20. but the game is designed to be played several times. it’s designed with the understanding that your first go is going to be difficult, and frustrating, and miserable, because so much shit is going to ravage your community and it’s going to feel like it comes out of nowhere, or like you have no agency at all because you’re a child in these situations. and that’s true!
on later playthroughs you can solve a lot of problems preemptively but this explicitly depends on you the player remembering that shit is going to go down and preparing ahead of time in ways that are distinctly unnatural. that doesn’t mean there’s no conflict left and indeed doing this stuff opens up a lot of new problems and lets you uncover more complicated, personal, often very dark shit, a lot of it unsolvable. But the game always leaves it up to you to make meaning from these endings, or these stopping points, it’s up to you to decide when you’re satisfied, or tired.
And it’s very hard to shake that first run. i think there’s some really great writing in the way this game portrays things falling apart in both individual scenes and over a long moment in time. that’s not all that’s here in the game and i think the ultimate Purpose behind the misery is, if not optimistic than at least open to the idea of finding some sort of peace, eventually, someday, with the inability to find perfection in a cruel world. and i think that’s cool too.
for an indie stat-based deckbuilder VN about being a kid raised in a community building a utopian communist colony on a new planet after ditching the shitty capitalist earth that Looks Like That, I didn’t expect IWATE to swing as hard as it did.
Misery With A Purpose is what we want right? Your colony ship crashes, rather than lands, which makes the whole project a lot dicier from the get go. Food is limited, it’s very difficult to grow more with the hydroponics you brought from earth fucked up in the crash. Local fauna is dangerous. Your character and their peers are little kids and in the early game you’re dealing with kid ass problems but that doesn’t make you or them safe from the problems the community faces. Plagues, government infighting, starvation, the resurgence of capitalist ideology even before a ship full of Earth fascists arrives to take over at gunpoint ten years into your life on the new planet, which makes everything ten times worse.
Your choices, from the classes you spend time at to the jobs you work to the relationships you cultivate (and don’t) and the choices you make within them (and the webs between them - it’s a small colony and all these people have complex shit going on with each other too) DO matter, a lot. there are a ton of ways all kinds of stories can play out in this game, which ends when your character hits age 20. but the game is designed to be played several times. it’s designed with the understanding that your first go is going to be difficult, and frustrating, and miserable, because so much shit is going to ravage your community and it’s going to feel like it comes out of nowhere, or like you have no agency at all because you’re a child in these situations. and that’s true!
on later playthroughs you can solve a lot of problems preemptively but this explicitly depends on you the player remembering that shit is going to go down and preparing ahead of time in ways that are distinctly unnatural. that doesn’t mean there’s no conflict left and indeed doing this stuff opens up a lot of new problems and lets you uncover more complicated, personal, often very dark shit, a lot of it unsolvable. But the game always leaves it up to you to make meaning from these endings, or these stopping points, it’s up to you to decide when you’re satisfied, or tired.
And it’s very hard to shake that first run. i think there’s some really great writing in the way this game portrays things falling apart in both individual scenes and over a long moment in time. that’s not all that’s here in the game and i think the ultimate Purpose behind the misery is, if not optimistic than at least open to the idea of finding some sort of peace, eventually, someday, with the inability to find perfection in a cruel world. and i think that’s cool too.
fauxscerf
you say to pick between Bungie’s Destiny and Rainworld, two games i know LITERALLY nothing about so I’m basing this off BOTH of these games and what i THINK i know about them: for Destiny i’m drawing on the way everything has a Cool Name and for rainworld i’m pulling on the EXTREMELY thin assumption that it’s a post-apocalypse and possibly that your character is a monster that eats other monsters? which is of course a central tenant of DDS.
i think there’s probably even odds that you’ve played this and its sequel but if you haven’t i think you’d be in for a treat given that you seem to hold Nocturne in high esteem.
it’s got that same Nocturne aesthetic and tonal swag, but leans a lot harder into the grungy sci-fi aspect of SMT where Nocturne more emphasized the moody spiritualism.
DDS takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland called The Junkyard, where six warring tribes wage a kind of never-ending war the way people do in post apocalypses. one day though the routine violence is interrupted by newer, weirder violence, as a bunch of people all over the junkyard get infected with a horrible virus that makes them all transform, werewolf-like, into demonic monsters that can only sustain themselves by cannibalizing each other. This obviously happens to your main characters, the Embryon tribe, who also take in and shelter a mysterious woman who has the power to somewhat regulate their new abilities. things kind of spiral in a lot of wild directions across this game and it’s sequel, which are one narrative really; DDS1 truly feels like it just sort of stops halfway through.
the play is basically just Nocturne again but with extra wrinkles - no more demon recruitment and every character has a transformation mechanic. humans get guns but are generally weak little creatures while monster forms have skills and elemental affinities and eat other demons. you get six guys to work with and acquiring and allocating skills is both easier and much more complex than it was in Nocturne. a lot more to manage but a lot more flexibility.
i really think PS2 era SMT was just hitting, tonally, in a way nobody ever did before and nobody, atlus included, has done since. everything cool about nocturne is here, but a different flavor. i think these games are cool and if you haven’t played them they’re worth at least a look!
you say to pick between Bungie’s Destiny and Rainworld, two games i know LITERALLY nothing about so I’m basing this off BOTH of these games and what i THINK i know about them: for Destiny i’m drawing on the way everything has a Cool Name and for rainworld i’m pulling on the EXTREMELY thin assumption that it’s a post-apocalypse and possibly that your character is a monster that eats other monsters? which is of course a central tenant of DDS.
i think there’s probably even odds that you’ve played this and its sequel but if you haven’t i think you’d be in for a treat given that you seem to hold Nocturne in high esteem.
it’s got that same Nocturne aesthetic and tonal swag, but leans a lot harder into the grungy sci-fi aspect of SMT where Nocturne more emphasized the moody spiritualism.
DDS takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland called The Junkyard, where six warring tribes wage a kind of never-ending war the way people do in post apocalypses. one day though the routine violence is interrupted by newer, weirder violence, as a bunch of people all over the junkyard get infected with a horrible virus that makes them all transform, werewolf-like, into demonic monsters that can only sustain themselves by cannibalizing each other. This obviously happens to your main characters, the Embryon tribe, who also take in and shelter a mysterious woman who has the power to somewhat regulate their new abilities. things kind of spiral in a lot of wild directions across this game and it’s sequel, which are one narrative really; DDS1 truly feels like it just sort of stops halfway through.
the play is basically just Nocturne again but with extra wrinkles - no more demon recruitment and every character has a transformation mechanic. humans get guns but are generally weak little creatures while monster forms have skills and elemental affinities and eat other demons. you get six guys to work with and acquiring and allocating skills is both easier and much more complex than it was in Nocturne. a lot more to manage but a lot more flexibility.
i really think PS2 era SMT was just hitting, tonally, in a way nobody ever did before and nobody, atlus included, has done since. everything cool about nocturne is here, but a different flavor. i think these games are cool and if you haven’t played them they’re worth at least a look!
totolecc
focusing entirely on the narrative feelings that final fantasy XV evokes in you, specifically the coming of age aspect, the part where that game is about bonding with people you’re close to but have semi-informal connections with via camping, and the indistinct vibe of a game encouraging you to linger “in the moment.”
Wide Ocean, Big Jacket is an entirely narratively driven story about a couple in their 30s who take their niece and her boyfriend, who are like 13 years old or something, on an overnight camping trip. Most of the game is just reading through the group’s conversations with each other but these conversations are sprinkled with bits of interactivity - walking around the campsite, fetching food and drinks, going to the nearby lake, doing some birdwatching.
you get different combinations of people in the group hanging out and revealing different sides of themselves to each other in these moments and sometimes that leads to new little threads of their lives opening up to the player and sometimes it’ll just be a conversation about hot dogs. the game never becomes melodramatic or reveals a deeper darkness, even if you occasionally stumble into some tension, or an argument comes up and you can tell it’s not the first or fifth or tenth time it’s happened. it’s truly a snapshot of mundanity, asking you to take in these four lives the same way these guys want to take in the woods and each other’s company for a little while.
there’s certainly a bit of anxiety about coming of age with the kid characters who find themselves in that weird moment in life where the world is starting to treat them like they should know things that they just don’t and they’re trying to figure it out, and i think the game captures the adult side of that experience really well too, with characters in their 30s who don’t have children not really knowing how to handle the conversations that happen naturally when you’re in front of a campfire as a teenager but still fielding them with warmth and sincerity, even if you get to see that they lack for confidence in their own troubles, like anyone does.
really great game i think, and a brief experience. there are extra chapters following side characters from the original story that weren’t released when i played this that i haven’t gone back to yet but i assume they’re good too!
focusing entirely on the narrative feelings that final fantasy XV evokes in you, specifically the coming of age aspect, the part where that game is about bonding with people you’re close to but have semi-informal connections with via camping, and the indistinct vibe of a game encouraging you to linger “in the moment.”
Wide Ocean, Big Jacket is an entirely narratively driven story about a couple in their 30s who take their niece and her boyfriend, who are like 13 years old or something, on an overnight camping trip. Most of the game is just reading through the group’s conversations with each other but these conversations are sprinkled with bits of interactivity - walking around the campsite, fetching food and drinks, going to the nearby lake, doing some birdwatching.
you get different combinations of people in the group hanging out and revealing different sides of themselves to each other in these moments and sometimes that leads to new little threads of their lives opening up to the player and sometimes it’ll just be a conversation about hot dogs. the game never becomes melodramatic or reveals a deeper darkness, even if you occasionally stumble into some tension, or an argument comes up and you can tell it’s not the first or fifth or tenth time it’s happened. it’s truly a snapshot of mundanity, asking you to take in these four lives the same way these guys want to take in the woods and each other’s company for a little while.
there’s certainly a bit of anxiety about coming of age with the kid characters who find themselves in that weird moment in life where the world is starting to treat them like they should know things that they just don’t and they’re trying to figure it out, and i think the game captures the adult side of that experience really well too, with characters in their 30s who don’t have children not really knowing how to handle the conversations that happen naturally when you’re in front of a campfire as a teenager but still fielding them with warmth and sincerity, even if you get to see that they lack for confidence in their own troubles, like anyone does.
really great game i think, and a brief experience. there are extra chapters following side characters from the original story that weren’t released when i played this that i haven’t gone back to yet but i assume they’re good too!
Alviner
i haven’t played mother 3 or Red Dead 2 so forgive me if i’m off base on the content of these games or what you like about them but it SEEMS like you enjoy stuff that is interested in using the format of video games to tell stories about the ways that people in specific and communities at large can by their essential natures deeply fail each other and themselves but also be the things that rebuild each other and lend us the strength to be better right? Yoko Taro is also fascinated by these ideas, and they are in fact the only ideas he ever really makes stories about, but his stories are usually at least Pretty Good. Nier probably lies somewhere in the middle of all that stuff I said earlier in terms of the scale of its scope, its focus on people be communities, and its level of cynicism, but i think that makes it a pretty balanced experience over all, and a good litmus for whether you might find it worthwhile to explore some of Taro’s more challenging stuff like Drakengard or, uh, Drakengard 3. this is probably my personal favorite thing he’s the public face of and I’d recommend the original if you can get your hands on it but most people seem to agree that the remake is somewhere between Acceptably Fine and a Good Reimagining of it that’s distinct enough in voice and narrative intent to exist on its own in conversation so i’m sure that’s a fine way to play it too.
i haven’t played mother 3 or Red Dead 2 so forgive me if i’m off base on the content of these games or what you like about them but it SEEMS like you enjoy stuff that is interested in using the format of video games to tell stories about the ways that people in specific and communities at large can by their essential natures deeply fail each other and themselves but also be the things that rebuild each other and lend us the strength to be better right? Yoko Taro is also fascinated by these ideas, and they are in fact the only ideas he ever really makes stories about, but his stories are usually at least Pretty Good. Nier probably lies somewhere in the middle of all that stuff I said earlier in terms of the scale of its scope, its focus on people be communities, and its level of cynicism, but i think that makes it a pretty balanced experience over all, and a good litmus for whether you might find it worthwhile to explore some of Taro’s more challenging stuff like Drakengard or, uh, Drakengard 3. this is probably my personal favorite thing he’s the public face of and I’d recommend the original if you can get your hands on it but most people seem to agree that the remake is somewhere between Acceptably Fine and a Good Reimagining of it that’s distinct enough in voice and narrative intent to exist on its own in conversation so i’m sure that’s a fine way to play it too.
Podagon
this is a dicey one for me because i’m actually in the middle of this game myself and it’s only the first half of what is expected to be a two-part experience BUT
I have personally been struck by its portrayal of depression in its point of view character, both metaphorically and literally.
Ghosstpia is set in a city in the middle of a seemingly endless ocean of snow that is populated by people who refer to themselves as ghosts - they only exist at night, are painfully melted into a weird goop if they get caught in sunlight only to eventually reappear as if nothing happened, and are seemingly entirely immortal. no one can leave town because of the weird snow desert and no one ever shows up. there’s just a thousand ghosts living out endless lives in a community that only really means as much as they choose to make it mean, given their weird limbo existences.
the main character, Sayako, is completely isolated at the start of the story. she HAS friends but she has been avoiding them. she sleeps through the night when ghosts are awake, and only gets out for a few minutes before the sun comes up. the ghosts don’t have physical needs but most people in town still go through the motions of things like eating and drinking and bathing and stuff to feel a sense of routine and normalcy and personhood, but Sayako does none of these things. it’s suggested at one point by one of her friends that she hasn’t done these things for hundreds of years and it’s unclear if that’s an exaggeration or not. when she does meet up with one of the two people who hang out with her and this woman gives her a hug, Sayako goes on a long monologue in her head about how she is both uncomfortable being touched by someone else but also missing the feeling of being touched, and deeply afraid that expressing either of these feelings will somehow upset or alienate the friend who initiated the hug, so she just says nothing. she’s largely nonverbal or extremely terse in all of her conversations, and is so detached from life at this point that a fog has settled over essentially all of her thoughts and memories.
by the end of the first of five episodes it’s clear that there is more to the Plot of this game than the first episode lets on, but that introductory hour takes things really slow and is careful to soak up that vibe; loneliness and a cold, familiar fear of connection, but also that her friends, even if they’re kind of sick of her being difficult and withdrawn and occasionally actually cruel by their perceptions, are unwilling to let her stew in that alone.
it’s a game that feels like it’s got a really gut understanding of what it feels like to be depressed in a day to day sort of way and i’m very interested to see if they stick a landing on it. i’m very sorry if it turns out that it sucks lol
this is a dicey one for me because i’m actually in the middle of this game myself and it’s only the first half of what is expected to be a two-part experience BUT
I have personally been struck by its portrayal of depression in its point of view character, both metaphorically and literally.
Ghosstpia is set in a city in the middle of a seemingly endless ocean of snow that is populated by people who refer to themselves as ghosts - they only exist at night, are painfully melted into a weird goop if they get caught in sunlight only to eventually reappear as if nothing happened, and are seemingly entirely immortal. no one can leave town because of the weird snow desert and no one ever shows up. there’s just a thousand ghosts living out endless lives in a community that only really means as much as they choose to make it mean, given their weird limbo existences.
the main character, Sayako, is completely isolated at the start of the story. she HAS friends but she has been avoiding them. she sleeps through the night when ghosts are awake, and only gets out for a few minutes before the sun comes up. the ghosts don’t have physical needs but most people in town still go through the motions of things like eating and drinking and bathing and stuff to feel a sense of routine and normalcy and personhood, but Sayako does none of these things. it’s suggested at one point by one of her friends that she hasn’t done these things for hundreds of years and it’s unclear if that’s an exaggeration or not. when she does meet up with one of the two people who hang out with her and this woman gives her a hug, Sayako goes on a long monologue in her head about how she is both uncomfortable being touched by someone else but also missing the feeling of being touched, and deeply afraid that expressing either of these feelings will somehow upset or alienate the friend who initiated the hug, so she just says nothing. she’s largely nonverbal or extremely terse in all of her conversations, and is so detached from life at this point that a fog has settled over essentially all of her thoughts and memories.
by the end of the first of five episodes it’s clear that there is more to the Plot of this game than the first episode lets on, but that introductory hour takes things really slow and is careful to soak up that vibe; loneliness and a cold, familiar fear of connection, but also that her friends, even if they’re kind of sick of her being difficult and withdrawn and occasionally actually cruel by their perceptions, are unwilling to let her stew in that alone.
it’s a game that feels like it’s got a really gut understanding of what it feels like to be depressed in a day to day sort of way and i’m very interested to see if they stick a landing on it. i’m very sorry if it turns out that it sucks lol
CielTeamSix
the moment i finished the first sentence in your comment i knew it was Simon’s Quest and I only became more certain the more I read.
obviously there is the arcadey feel common to all of the NES Castlevanias, but this one is unique in the ways that it leverages nearly every aspect of its experience to enhance its story and atmosphere.
the idea of Simon’s Quest, that despite Dracula’s defeat, his fetid influence continues to plague the country, including by personally cursing Simon himself to wither and die unless he can perform an unholy ritual to bring back the vampire and finish him properly, sets the stage for something meaner and more dour, and the game IS meaner and more dour. darker, more muted colors wash out the screens; dungeons are filled not with challenging enemy placements but frustrating traps; NPCs are openly scornful to you much of the time - you did this to them, after all.
Every single bit of the game enhances the mood. like, my favorite detail is that the giant black bar at the top that has all the player info in it in other Castlevanias is gone here - there’s no HUD, only a health bar, and everything else is relegated to a zelda-style pause screen. This makes the world look bigger and simon look smaller even though his sprite is almost identical to his original one - it feels like the world is more against you now just from that little aesthetic choice and i don’t even know if that’s on purpose! because i’m pretty sure a lot of these choices are on purpose. the endgame having zero enemies and dracula being essentially harmless is a deliberate choice; that’s setting a mood, that’s subverting an expectation to Tell A Story. is it intentional for the directions on where to go next to always be QUITE as cryptic as they are? i doubt it, especially given the famous iffyness of the english text. but i don’t think it has to be intentional to work in the gamer’s favor.
so I think this is the most interesting castlevania i’ve played and one of my very favorite games, for most of the reasons you’ve listed in your comment. i hope you enjoy it if you choose to give it a shot, or to revisit it with this lens in mind if you’ve played it before!
the moment i finished the first sentence in your comment i knew it was Simon’s Quest and I only became more certain the more I read.
obviously there is the arcadey feel common to all of the NES Castlevanias, but this one is unique in the ways that it leverages nearly every aspect of its experience to enhance its story and atmosphere.
the idea of Simon’s Quest, that despite Dracula’s defeat, his fetid influence continues to plague the country, including by personally cursing Simon himself to wither and die unless he can perform an unholy ritual to bring back the vampire and finish him properly, sets the stage for something meaner and more dour, and the game IS meaner and more dour. darker, more muted colors wash out the screens; dungeons are filled not with challenging enemy placements but frustrating traps; NPCs are openly scornful to you much of the time - you did this to them, after all.
Every single bit of the game enhances the mood. like, my favorite detail is that the giant black bar at the top that has all the player info in it in other Castlevanias is gone here - there’s no HUD, only a health bar, and everything else is relegated to a zelda-style pause screen. This makes the world look bigger and simon look smaller even though his sprite is almost identical to his original one - it feels like the world is more against you now just from that little aesthetic choice and i don’t even know if that’s on purpose! because i’m pretty sure a lot of these choices are on purpose. the endgame having zero enemies and dracula being essentially harmless is a deliberate choice; that’s setting a mood, that’s subverting an expectation to Tell A Story. is it intentional for the directions on where to go next to always be QUITE as cryptic as they are? i doubt it, especially given the famous iffyness of the english text. but i don’t think it has to be intentional to work in the gamer’s favor.
so I think this is the most interesting castlevania i’ve played and one of my very favorite games, for most of the reasons you’ve listed in your comment. i hope you enjoy it if you choose to give it a shot, or to revisit it with this lens in mind if you’ve played it before!
DizzySkullKid19
big shoutouts to the ps2 era where fromsoft could alternate between making fifteen armored core games a year and squeezing out a parade of genuinely cool and bizarre rpgs on the side. Forever Kingdom is technically Evergrace 2 but I don’t really think playing Evergrace would help with this experience lol.
Evergrace 1 is perhaps a lonelier and more mysteriously evocative title but overall I think Forever Kingdom hits the vibe threshold that you’re looking for, with considerably more directed flow of content through its still very large areas, a heavier emphasis on npc interaction, and a much richer color grading. If you’re specifically name checking pastoralism then i think there’s going to be an appeal to a lot of the deep greens and golds and the early bloom effects used to complement what is probably From’s boldest and most visually stimulating art style in their history? This stuff is PRESENT in Evergrace 1 but a better command of the PS2 hardware has the devs clearly showing off a bit here in a way that is not nearly as visible in the muted and more natural colors of the original game.
Evergrace’s music is famously incredible, this sick mashup of acoustic strings and polyrhythmic melodies and at the time modern synths, used to lend the game a greater sense of the ethereal, and if anything I think Forever Kingdom pushes that envelope even harder to a degree that it might exit the aesthetic realm you’re asking for here (we have electric guitars and prominent bass on many of the songs now) but i think when it’s all come together it’s only additive.
Forever Kingdom is still a Fromsoft game from before they hit it truly big and it’s not an armored core, so it’s not very polished and the translation has some frustrating quirks and it’s pretty mechanically dense as far as ps2 action rpgs go, but I think if you’re looking for a vibes thing you’d be hard pressed to find something more distinct.
big shoutouts to the ps2 era where fromsoft could alternate between making fifteen armored core games a year and squeezing out a parade of genuinely cool and bizarre rpgs on the side. Forever Kingdom is technically Evergrace 2 but I don’t really think playing Evergrace would help with this experience lol.
Evergrace 1 is perhaps a lonelier and more mysteriously evocative title but overall I think Forever Kingdom hits the vibe threshold that you’re looking for, with considerably more directed flow of content through its still very large areas, a heavier emphasis on npc interaction, and a much richer color grading. If you’re specifically name checking pastoralism then i think there’s going to be an appeal to a lot of the deep greens and golds and the early bloom effects used to complement what is probably From’s boldest and most visually stimulating art style in their history? This stuff is PRESENT in Evergrace 1 but a better command of the PS2 hardware has the devs clearly showing off a bit here in a way that is not nearly as visible in the muted and more natural colors of the original game.
Evergrace’s music is famously incredible, this sick mashup of acoustic strings and polyrhythmic melodies and at the time modern synths, used to lend the game a greater sense of the ethereal, and if anything I think Forever Kingdom pushes that envelope even harder to a degree that it might exit the aesthetic realm you’re asking for here (we have electric guitars and prominent bass on many of the songs now) but i think when it’s all come together it’s only additive.
Forever Kingdom is still a Fromsoft game from before they hit it truly big and it’s not an armored core, so it’s not very polished and the translation has some frustrating quirks and it’s pretty mechanically dense as far as ps2 action rpgs go, but I think if you’re looking for a vibes thing you’d be hard pressed to find something more distinct.
PasokonDeacon
Terranigma is more narratively invested than any early period Falcom action game I’ve played yet but that doesn’t include stuff that is actually from that period like Xanadu Next or Ys Origin so idk if those become more story heavy over time or if that might be a turnoff haha NEVERTHELESS THIS IS THE REC
technically this is the third game in a loose trilogy by developer Quintet who were comprised at the high level by early Ys big shots who left Falcom, but a glance at your profile tells me you prooobably know that already haha.
The reason I recommend Terranigma over Soul Blazer or Illusion of Gaia is because you specifically name drop those PSP era Falcom action games as what you like and Terranigma, despite being an SNES game, is the one of these that is furthest along in design iteration that I would say it feels fast and fluid enough to compare to those. You can really zip around, you have a lot of environmental traversal options and cool, mobile attacks interspersed with your magical capabilities. The level design philosophy will be familiar to you too with the overworld maps and the dungeons mirroring Ys style pretty closely, though I think the art style and sprite art are more interesting here across the board than you usually see in those.
You even have that thing where sometimes you have to go level up five times if you want to have even a chance of hurting the boss you’re stuck on lol but i do think the boss design in this game is very good, lots of unique arenas and mechanics, reminds me a lot of Oath in Felghana.
I do realize that this is BARELY skirting your challenge on what not to recommend lol but i do think this trilogy is very interesting on the whole and this game in particular is really cool for how much closer it feels to me like a game from 2005 than it does any of its contemporaries on the SNES. I hope you like it!
Terranigma is more narratively invested than any early period Falcom action game I’ve played yet but that doesn’t include stuff that is actually from that period like Xanadu Next or Ys Origin so idk if those become more story heavy over time or if that might be a turnoff haha NEVERTHELESS THIS IS THE REC
technically this is the third game in a loose trilogy by developer Quintet who were comprised at the high level by early Ys big shots who left Falcom, but a glance at your profile tells me you prooobably know that already haha.
The reason I recommend Terranigma over Soul Blazer or Illusion of Gaia is because you specifically name drop those PSP era Falcom action games as what you like and Terranigma, despite being an SNES game, is the one of these that is furthest along in design iteration that I would say it feels fast and fluid enough to compare to those. You can really zip around, you have a lot of environmental traversal options and cool, mobile attacks interspersed with your magical capabilities. The level design philosophy will be familiar to you too with the overworld maps and the dungeons mirroring Ys style pretty closely, though I think the art style and sprite art are more interesting here across the board than you usually see in those.
You even have that thing where sometimes you have to go level up five times if you want to have even a chance of hurting the boss you’re stuck on lol but i do think the boss design in this game is very good, lots of unique arenas and mechanics, reminds me a lot of Oath in Felghana.
I do realize that this is BARELY skirting your challenge on what not to recommend lol but i do think this trilogy is very interesting on the whole and this game in particular is really cool for how much closer it feels to me like a game from 2005 than it does any of its contemporaries on the SNES. I hope you like it!
trinity
alright now normally I’m fully with you about short games > than long ones but this list you’ve provided me with and the reasons you’ve given to support the entries on it are such a perfect cocktail that Valkyrie Profile is the first and only game that comes to mind here for me.
Valkyrie Profile sees you playing as a valkyrie tasked with traveling the medieval fantasy world of midgard preparing human souls for the quickly approaching end of the world, which will be violent. Rather than an overarching narrative building to a big climax though, it’s a series of relatively short and self contained chapters that see her visiting cities and towns and isolated parts of this world and glimpsing moments in the, generally speaking, very bleak lives of the people she will aim to recruit to her cause.
Midgard is a cruel place and the stories reflect this - it’s a melancholic game even as the goal of every combat encounter is to chain like 99 hit combos and pop off big ass rpg attacks.
You have a ton of control over how the game plays, from when combat initiates to how characters are customized to the makeup of your increasingly large party to where you’re going most of the time. you’re technically on a timer every chapter but it’s a trick, you’re never ever gonna run out of time, it’s ALL about contributing to the atmosphere.
atmosphere is the name of the game. like Silent Hill and Final Fantasy 7, it’s a game about grief and identity. like Shadow of the Colossus and Elden Ring it’s about being asked to make hard choices in a situation where you don’t have all the context and to trust that there are systems in place for a reason - when clearly things are wrong and will continue to decay because we all know that what we understand to be the state of things is Going to end and it’s going to soon.
A lot of this is expressed via this game’s many complex gameplay systems and it all FEELS very esoteric; there are so many menus, there are so many characters, there are so many weird little choices that add up to either nothing or something huge, there are big endings. And it’s all actually not as bad as it seems, it all actually works a lot more intuitively than you would expect, it is EASY to finish this game on vibes only, but i do think that it is a great game to play with a guide if you aren’t opposed to that sort of thing.
also if you DO give it a try, and I hope you do, Do Not play it on easy mode, it mostly just cuts a ton of content from the game, like many of the characters you can play as an interact with and most of the stuff you can do. Normal will get you by just fine, especially with how easy it is to modulate the difficulty within the game itself.
ALSO ALSO if this sounds genuinely repulsive I haven’t played it yet but the action rpg reimagining of this series Valkyrie Elysium got a mixed reception when it came out a year or two ago but the way I hear it from my fellow VP heads it’s actually a pretty faithful take on the themes and tone of its predecessors, if something like that is more appealing to you.
okay that’s all i hope this is appealing!
alright now normally I’m fully with you about short games > than long ones but this list you’ve provided me with and the reasons you’ve given to support the entries on it are such a perfect cocktail that Valkyrie Profile is the first and only game that comes to mind here for me.
Valkyrie Profile sees you playing as a valkyrie tasked with traveling the medieval fantasy world of midgard preparing human souls for the quickly approaching end of the world, which will be violent. Rather than an overarching narrative building to a big climax though, it’s a series of relatively short and self contained chapters that see her visiting cities and towns and isolated parts of this world and glimpsing moments in the, generally speaking, very bleak lives of the people she will aim to recruit to her cause.
Midgard is a cruel place and the stories reflect this - it’s a melancholic game even as the goal of every combat encounter is to chain like 99 hit combos and pop off big ass rpg attacks.
You have a ton of control over how the game plays, from when combat initiates to how characters are customized to the makeup of your increasingly large party to where you’re going most of the time. you’re technically on a timer every chapter but it’s a trick, you’re never ever gonna run out of time, it’s ALL about contributing to the atmosphere.
atmosphere is the name of the game. like Silent Hill and Final Fantasy 7, it’s a game about grief and identity. like Shadow of the Colossus and Elden Ring it’s about being asked to make hard choices in a situation where you don’t have all the context and to trust that there are systems in place for a reason - when clearly things are wrong and will continue to decay because we all know that what we understand to be the state of things is Going to end and it’s going to soon.
A lot of this is expressed via this game’s many complex gameplay systems and it all FEELS very esoteric; there are so many menus, there are so many characters, there are so many weird little choices that add up to either nothing or something huge, there are big endings. And it’s all actually not as bad as it seems, it all actually works a lot more intuitively than you would expect, it is EASY to finish this game on vibes only, but i do think that it is a great game to play with a guide if you aren’t opposed to that sort of thing.
also if you DO give it a try, and I hope you do, Do Not play it on easy mode, it mostly just cuts a ton of content from the game, like many of the characters you can play as an interact with and most of the stuff you can do. Normal will get you by just fine, especially with how easy it is to modulate the difficulty within the game itself.
ALSO ALSO if this sounds genuinely repulsive I haven’t played it yet but the action rpg reimagining of this series Valkyrie Elysium got a mixed reception when it came out a year or two ago but the way I hear it from my fellow VP heads it’s actually a pretty faithful take on the themes and tone of its predecessors, if something like that is more appealing to you.
okay that’s all i hope this is appealing!
curse
you have really fucked me here buddy because i’m pretty sure you know 500000x more about wizardry type guys than i do AND iirc you are working on a relatively fresh account so i can’t even check what you have logged and know if it’s accurate so here is my stab in the dark!!!!!
is phantasy star very much like wizardry at all?? perhaps not, not much more than all rpgs are Like Wizardry. but what it does have is that specific kind of incredible too-much-detail 8-bit spritework that is so iconic to the master system, with even some cool animation to go with it, and also a really fucking sick setting and story setup with cool cutscenes and a bad bitch swearing to kill the space president (and ending up killing more than one in fact), and most importantly it has incredibly swag approximations of 3D first person perspective dungeons with fluid animations and shit, which are incredibly easy to get lost in but look so much better than anything anybody else trying to do that was doing with similar graphics! very cool game all the way around and like idk maybe 40% of a wizardry. god i hope you haven’t played this lmao
you have really fucked me here buddy because i’m pretty sure you know 500000x more about wizardry type guys than i do AND iirc you are working on a relatively fresh account so i can’t even check what you have logged and know if it’s accurate so here is my stab in the dark!!!!!
is phantasy star very much like wizardry at all?? perhaps not, not much more than all rpgs are Like Wizardry. but what it does have is that specific kind of incredible too-much-detail 8-bit spritework that is so iconic to the master system, with even some cool animation to go with it, and also a really fucking sick setting and story setup with cool cutscenes and a bad bitch swearing to kill the space president (and ending up killing more than one in fact), and most importantly it has incredibly swag approximations of 3D first person perspective dungeons with fluid animations and shit, which are incredibly easy to get lost in but look so much better than anything anybody else trying to do that was doing with similar graphics! very cool game all the way around and like idk maybe 40% of a wizardry. god i hope you haven’t played this lmao
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Ikaruga/Zeroranger - Love arcade sensibilities connected to humanistic themes.
Fuck yeah, let's do this.
My top 5 and why I love it:
- Crusader Kings II: I love how the absurdly complex systems come together to create fascinating, sometimes hilarious, emergent narratives. The fact that it's a more historically genuine (not the same thing as accurate) game than the norm is a plus.
- Super Mario Galaxy 2: I love platformers with tight controls, creative worlds and awesome level design. It doesn't get much better than SMG2.
- Dark Souls III: Although I do enjoy the challenge, the sense of exploration of an hostile and decadent world is unparalleled. I also love the cryptic story that you have to interpret and discover yourself.
- Metroid Prime: Similar to Dark Souls, it's an hostile world that's a joy to explore. But here the world is not so much "decadent" as it is untamed and uncaring about you, who is nothing more than a lonely alien trespassing where you shouldn't be.
- Disco Elysium: Marxism. Also how it's a non-combat focused RPG that uses the traditional mechanics of the genre in interesting, sometimes unexpected ways to conceive its story. But mostly marxism.
My top 5 and why I love it:
- Crusader Kings II: I love how the absurdly complex systems come together to create fascinating, sometimes hilarious, emergent narratives. The fact that it's a more historically genuine (not the same thing as accurate) game than the norm is a plus.
- Super Mario Galaxy 2: I love platformers with tight controls, creative worlds and awesome level design. It doesn't get much better than SMG2.
- Dark Souls III: Although I do enjoy the challenge, the sense of exploration of an hostile and decadent world is unparalleled. I also love the cryptic story that you have to interpret and discover yourself.
- Metroid Prime: Similar to Dark Souls, it's an hostile world that's a joy to explore. But here the world is not so much "decadent" as it is untamed and uncaring about you, who is nothing more than a lonely alien trespassing where you shouldn't be.
- Disco Elysium: Marxism. Also how it's a non-combat focused RPG that uses the traditional mechanics of the genre in interesting, sometimes unexpected ways to conceive its story. But mostly marxism.
Oh, btw, the game doesn't have to be something I haven't played before, feel free to recommend me something to replay.
Thank you very much for this recommendation it seems very cool even if it's not "good"
I stopped reading at "its anime bullshit much more openly on its sleeve" and went on to wishlist the game. Then I came back to read what else you wrote even though I was already fully convinced cause that's basic manners.
Thank you very much!
Thank you very much!
If I were to say a game that puts everything I like in a complete package, it would be Final Fantasy IX. Amazing story, amazing characters, big megalomaniac plot with many twists while being a rollercoaster of emotions, a well-written protagonist, out of this world soundtrack, and a good romance as the icing on the cake. I can go on forever talking about how special this game is to me.
Added! That's one I had been interested in for awhile.
Mother 3! Love the contrast between the cheery Charlie Brown art style and the incredibly bleak, almost literary writing/narrative sensibilities. Really helps that the musical score goes above and beyond complimenting both of these elements, pushing for a quality unmatched on the GBA.
Okami - Honestly, it's the whole package here. The distinct orchestral tunes with traditional Japanese instruments, the cel-shaded sumi-e inspired visuals, the folklore heavy narrative, and the way the Celestial Brush is involved in both combat and puzzle solving and embedded as a story device itself. And of course, the sheer amount of things to do/see/explore and so many opportunities to help others along the way while seeing the fruits of your work and adventure.
I'll copy/paste my comment from @Ipslucasps's post and see the different recs I'll get 👀
Earthbound. For its representation of earth and its societies, human beings and their roles, the playful, light, yet dense, emotional weight of its writing. Also for its player direction being motivated by the player's own volition and desire for exploration by making each dialogue an equally worthwhile and important joke or idea, as opposed to a cutscene or single npc of interest. I think finding nuggets of gold in the people while exploring those places is so fun, it's unpredictable and more valuable than a functionally driven item or treasure.
Earthbound. For its representation of earth and its societies, human beings and their roles, the playful, light, yet dense, emotional weight of its writing. Also for its player direction being motivated by the player's own volition and desire for exploration by making each dialogue an equally worthwhile and important joke or idea, as opposed to a cutscene or single npc of interest. I think finding nuggets of gold in the people while exploring those places is so fun, it's unpredictable and more valuable than a functionally driven item or treasure.
Apologies to everyone if I recommend a game you’ve played, I’m betting from your logs but like I know I haven’t logged every game I’ve played so idk!
Do not worry I have logged every game I have ever played EXCEPT Dino Petz which is not on here
hmm, what have you got for someone who loves Ninja Gaiden Black and needs more mechanically dense action games?
Copying this over directly from the other 🙏🙏🙏
Tough to decide between Moon RPG and Copy Kitty for me ;; so I’ll say those two
I love both of their incredible direction and unironically their ~ludonarrative~ elements to play. Their aesthetic really speaks to me and in Copy Kitty’s sake it’s simply unadulterated fun!!!
Tough to decide between Moon RPG and Copy Kitty for me ;; so I’ll say those two
I love both of their incredible direction and unironically their ~ludonarrative~ elements to play. Their aesthetic really speaks to me and in Copy Kitty’s sake it’s simply unadulterated fun!!!
ina i trust you implicitly to provide me with the sad offbeat teen melodrama i crave (kingdom hearts/final fantasy viii)
since someone already said mother 3, I'm going with kingdom hearts ii final mix. it's peak kh narrative, with some of the highest emotional points, and the game basically starts the whole xehanort's habbit hole. also it has my favorite combat of any videogame, the game that i felt the most "good" playing.
alright friendo given that Final Fantasy 7 is a masterpiece hit me with something from a different series
I never played any Tales games yet, but Vesperia looks extremely interesting, thanks!
Silent Hill 4 is cool because I really like how the horror is more surreal and adjacent to J-Horror than the other Team Silent games. It's all about being a weirdly passive observer floating through someone else's psychic hellscape, thinking your safe at home until the game pulls that rug out from under you and suddenly there's someone phasing through the wall above your fridge. It's a really bizarre and somber horror experience that sticks for me above the other Silent Hills as my favorite.
Just read your description of Majora's Mask; I've known about the game for quite some time now and its praise, just never got into the Zelda games for some reason even though at this point it's been 5 years since I've played Okami. But it might be a good time to finally get into the game, and your comparisons to Okami have convinced me. Thanks for taking the time to do this, I really appreciate it!
Ace Attorney 3 and 4! I love these cute little mystery visual novel adventures. Gathering the evidence alongside the nice character interactions giving levity, they're some of my favorite games for a reason. (I did play Dangan and while I liked it, it wasn't the same vibe lmao)
ive been needing to finish FF7R and this is the convincing i needed.
oh Rhapsody just came out on steam too nice nice
Okay we're caught up for now but like all my lists this is always open; I appreciate how receptive everyone has been in your follow up comments, I'm glad you're excited to play stuff and I hope you all like the games if you do get around to them!
I've always been interested in early FromSoft, but I had no idea Echo Night would check so many boxes for me. Thanks for the rec, I'm definitely gonna check this out at some point!
i really think pre-souls fromsoft is an underappreciated era but ESPECIALLY their ps1and really early ps2 stuff is uniformly just outta this world good imo, i really hope you like it, the echo night games are actually my favorite thing they've done
poyfuh you are so right about pre souls fromsoft. ive been playing evergrace and it is really fun and the music is insanely good.
I mostly like Action Adventure Platformers with a fair amount challenge, unique presentation, and great dialogue and maybe even a bit of story (essentially de Blob 2, Sly Cooper Trilogy and Super Mario Galaxy 2)
https://www.backloggd.com/u/Speedy/list/top-20-favourite-games-of-all-time/
https://www.backloggd.com/u/Speedy/list/favourite-games-of-each-year-since-i-was-born/
https://www.backloggd.com/u/Speedy/list/speedys-games-recommendation-list-/
Here’s a bit more elbaration on the things I love about my preferences in general
https://www.backloggd.com/u/Speedy/list/top-20-favourite-games-of-all-time/
https://www.backloggd.com/u/Speedy/list/favourite-games-of-each-year-since-i-was-born/
https://www.backloggd.com/u/Speedy/list/speedys-games-recommendation-list-/
Here’s a bit more elbaration on the things I love about my preferences in general
SMT III Nocturne is my default answer
Archagent
1 year ago