Darkest Dungeon sort of scratches the wizardry itch for me. Not the same, but not that far off either.
I had never heard of this and I’m very glad you mentioned it, it looks like something I might really enjoy.
It’s a neglected subgenre :(
I forgot Amberland. It’s more like Might & Magic, which may or may not be your thing. Not bad, although it felt like classes there were wildly imbalanced.
I forgot an older title: Paper Sorceror. It’s not bad, but a little different. You are, uh, maybe an evil wizard trying to escape the dungeon? You’ll pick monsters to be in your party and stuff. It’s pretty good.
As for Wizardry 8. . .patched and with the fan speed patch it’s a far less problematic game than it was on release. But IMO it’s got some issues. The move to a fully 3d world, with monsters cruising around it it, had unpleasant side effects. This could really slow down combats in some areas and in a few specific areas make it impossible to get out of them in some circumstances, although they might have corrected that in a patch. The speed up really helps here but it could still be a little obnoxious. It features Elder Scrolls style enemy scaling and this killed the game for a non trivial amount of people on the various forums I was observing on release. I mean leaving the starter dungeon - which could trick you and cause problems itself, if you stayed overlong - just broke a bunch of people’s wills to continue. It was pretty bad design IMO.
On release I remember fighting this unique alligator monster in a swamp area and I slowed it without thinking. It’s hit reaction animation was so exagerated -and properly slowed down because, you know, it’s under a slow spell - that it was taking minutes to resolve combat rounds. LOL.
It also, for me, committed some sins in terms of design. I Say this as a fan the classic Wizardry “tiered class” system (which hits its peak in Wiz 6/7). But they wanted “all classes to be viable” and as a result they basically gave a ton of steroids to e.g. the Fighter and another class or two and it was pretty lame overall. They also wanted to fix class change abuse but in so doing just made the system less interesting (e.g. they added a lot of hard level requirements to learning spells in different tiers, as opposed to just making it a skill requirement).
That said, it’s still easily recognizably Wizardry 6/7 and has a lot of that going for it and the patches help. The formation system I don’t think quite worked but it was an interesting idea. The last time I poked around in it it felt like it wasn’t running great on Win 10, but I didn’t really get into tweaking. Assuming it runs fine you’ll definitely scratch an itch with it.
@WarpRattler we simul posted earlier. I didn’t realize Sapphire Wings was basically it’s own game (I thought they were calling the remaster Sapphire Wings). That’s interesting. I will buy it.
As I understand it, Saviors of Sapphire Wings itself is a remake of a game that never came out in English.
This is a de facto sequel to Iga-era Castlevanias (Symphony of the Night and all the GBA/DS installments). It’s very good, but does seem misplaced alongside those other games. I don’t think it counts as a blobber, but it does have character stats and inventory management, so it does not seem out of hand to count it as an RPG. But yes, it is very action focused as it’s basically a 2D action platformer.
I’ve never played this one, but I’ve always read good things about it and the developer designed a tennis game I love, so I always enjoy seeing it get brought up.
There is a song in BT4 that lets you bypass most of the puzzles if they’re not your thing. I didn’t use it, so I don’t know exactly which puzzles it doesn’t let you skip, but it’s there. Personally I loved BT4, and it has one of my all-time favorite game soundtracks.
Thanks! The Keep is actually on sale right now (for 2 bucks!) so this is great timing. But it’s really becoming apparent that I should just put Bard’s Tale 4 to the top of the list as I originally intended.
Has anyone brought up Etrian Odyssey yet? Probably my favorite of these in recent years - though they are only on the 3DS for now, I believe the next entry is supposed to be coming to the Switch.
The thread title has PC right there in it, hence the lack of EO.
Jeez, relax. My bad I guess.
Yeah but @Scotch_Lufkin is right to bring it up because Etrian Odyssey is so good it transcends platform restrictions, and I say that as a PC gamer who bought a DS solely to be able to play those games. I guess I may have to get a 3DS for the later ones? Or would it be better to wait for the Switch? But is there any way to do mapping on the Switch?
It has some puzzle stuff, but Infinite Adventures might scratch the combat itch.
I’d say 85% combat, 15% puzzle.
As far as I know there’s been no word of Etrian on Switch since a tiny teaser trailer in July 2018, which people assumed was for a Switch version.
Ah, bummer. Well, something to keep an eye out for, I guess. Thanks for the info, I don’t really follow Nintendo stuff very closely (at least not until the kid’s older…)
Does Alt254 count?
All of the ones on 3DS are excellent! I do recommend them. The newest one is extra cool - it’s the last that will be on the 3DS according to the Devs (I think that’s why everyone assumed the teaser was a Switch title), but it covers all the classes from the series iirc and is just a huge, awesome game that’s the peak of the franchise in every way that I can think of.
EDIT: I have a “Galaxy” themed “New” 3DS but my son scavenged the stylus and power cord out of it, or I’d let you have it. EDIT2: It looks like replacement Stylus and power cable wouldn’t be more than like $15 total, if you do want this DM me where to ship it and it’s yours.
Hadn’t heard itll bundled with Stranger of Sword City, thats a nice value-add, as I don’t have that one.
Grimoire isn’t that bad.
It certainly isn’t good, but the first few hours can be worth the 4$ it goes for on sale… if you can handle the UI and graphics. Don’t expect to finish it (you’ll need a guide) and quit when it stops being fun.
A lot of the things I didn’t love about it were pretty standard with the genre in the late 90s. It intentionally tried to be like them.
I love blobbers and will be back sometime later with a good response to the thread. :)
There’s always Unlimited Adventures mods (FRUA) if you want to play old stuff.
This one is pretty amazing, especially since it’s procedurally generated. Great little game that captures really well some aspects of both M&M and HoMM.
I’ve bought and meant to play Vaporum, but the lack of manual and the huge decision right away hurt my will.
Labyrinth of Refrain that @WarpRattler mentioned is a really cool one, although the minmaxing of collecting ingredients for missions (optional, but i couldn’t resist it) wore me down.
I just go back regularly to Xeen. What a good game.
I wish these were on PC so much.