Thread 723980578

Post ones you like, post the recent ones you've played, post the best ones you've played, post the weirdest ones you've played...

Hylics isn't obscure.
Really started to fall in love with Vernal Edge. The game is at a point where it doesn't pull any punches and the bosses become hard. Had to actually stop playing because I was grinding my face on these arena fights.
Yes, it's a pixel Metroidvania, less than 500 reviews.

>>723981442
>Hylics isn't obscure.
Can you read?

>>723981585
Yes, I missed the slash. Sorry for that, have a bump.
You know what's on sale right now? Souldiers. Have this sitting in my wishlist for so long. And I'm utterly confused about the state of the game. Apparently lots of issues have been fixed. Or not? Reviews are still mixed.

>can't browse itch . io by newest games
kek too bad, all the decent stuff is on the front page but i bet it's like a deviantart situation in the back there

>>723981927
just buy it, man. it is 80% off right now.

>>723982190
I was hoping the "free games" section would be that but instead it's just boring good looking but ultimately bland horror games, "totally cutesy harmless silly not horror games haha hehe hoho, is this convincing anyone yet?" games, shitty dating sims and shitty dating sim horror games

Seriously what is it with indies and horror lately? I mean I wouldn't mind if it was good horror but most of the time it just feels like the horror aspect is tacked on for appearances and nothing else
And what IS IT with all the dating-a-psycho-killer games for chicks? It's almost a breath of fresh air when I find a simple fun arcade-esque game that isn't too deep but is at least genuine and straight to the point

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3204020/Juufuutei_Radens_Guide_for_Pixel_Museum/
Picross made by the de facto Picross people.
Also pretty hefty for a Picross title despite only costing $20, being one of the largest games they've made
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3081840/Chrono_Gear_Warden_of_Time/
Game made by the Freedom Planet devs. Easily their best work mechanically and you don't need to know anything about the characters to enjoy the game.

>>723982319
Money isn't the issue, but time.
I'd rather commit my time to a good game.

>>723983046
Eat healthy and exercise to expand your time.

Zombie Night Terror is really underrated and still gets fan levels to this day

what's the formula to make an ipad toddler bait game?

I just beat lunacid, it really draws you in but kind of falls flat after you really level up, found it hard to give a shit about any of the mystery and lore… still would recommend, its unique and comfy

>>723980578 (OP)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2303610/Fragrance_Point/
fun little acid trip with cute aliens

Played all the of the Killer games last summer. Absolutely loved my time with them. The dev is one hell of a virtuoso for writing weird and creative dialogue bits, and BB is a pure cinnamon bun of a girlfailure. Don't know if these can really be considered obscure or not tho.
I've also checked a variety of RPGM games lately. Ruina, The Gray Garden, as well as some of the VIPRPG ones like Half-hour Soldieress. Thought to be honest none of these really caught my attention more that an hour or so. Still looking for cool hidden rpgm gems.
>>723981442
I bought this on sale a few months ago out of curiosity and forgot about it. It looks cool, I need to sit down and actually play it.

>>723984202
>girlfailure
why does this word signal to me to stay away
something about it is just so fundamentally repulsive

>>723984556
The only people who say that word are, in and of themselves, failures. Consequently, it is instinctual for you to want to stay the hell away from those people.

>>723984695
idk i don't think that's it, there's just something about it that makes me think the poster is an annoying teenage girl or a faggot
it's very much 12 year old girl speak, like you could just say "failure" but tacking "girl-" before a normal word is like signaling to my brain that i'm gonna read some stupid shit

>>723980578 (OP)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3659180/_Movie_Theater/
It's a horror walking sim, except instead of reading notes, there are dialogues, so the story is told in a more traditional way. It's pretty good, and cheap.

>>723983913
I saw a pic of these headless statues from Dark Souls and immediately lost all interest.

>>723984556
>>723984695
>>723984827
It's used to try and be cute. If they just said "failure" it'd be an insult but adding the word Girl to it is them forcing you to remember that you're supposed to find it quirky and adorkable in a way that is usually annoying.
You're probably imagining a smelly, filthy, degenerate normalfag woman sat in her smelly room reeking of week old panties, dildos on the floor, period pads stuck to the ceiling, old coffee mugs everywhere as she's rotting away watching tiktok for hours, but she thinks it's cute and she can get away with that sort of behavior because she's a giiiiirl. Silly willy she's no failure, she's a girlfailure theehee, ain't that just cutesy wutesy and precious OwO.

>>723980578 (OP)
i know this little known obscure ibdie game called hollow knight silksong, looks really good but i bet you normies won't be able to appreciate it

>>723985595
(You)

>>723982479
The problem is that there's a really strange microculture festering within free itch horror games that involves pandering to streamers. Devs who don't care about making a good game slap together the shortest, shittiest, buggiest horror game you can imagine just so it gets played by streamers. It doesn't have to be good as long as there's a sick Case-Oh reference that someone can point and laugh at for content. Then, streamers who dont give a shit about making fun streams and just need content flock to these games because they're free and make easy clickbait as long as there's a single jumpscare they can overreact to. Now there's this ugly feedback loop where a dev makes a horrible game in a weekend and they get praised by two-bit streamers who just want to promote themselves, advertising that THIS shit is what streamers want, so more devs want a slice of that fame and make more shitty horror games. If you need proof, go to the comments section of any horror game on itch. It's 95% self-advertising for streams.

>>723985750
I feel like that was true for games of yesteryear during the screamer-streamer era, but now horror games aren't really screamy, and like I said, it's not proper horror either, it's shit like Mouthwashing, a soap opera that pretends to be horror/sci fi, at least all the spooky jumpscary Amnesia clones tried to be horror and it was very clear very quickly that they failed at it
But it's sad to see a really neat looking game with great dark oatmeal art and a cool looking atmosphere and aesthetics and a promise of interesting unexplained supernatural shit, until you find out its not and you don't get to actually see any of it, it's all just some interpersonal drama bullshit

Zoomers have trouble understanding what obscure is. I propose a sub 100 review threshold for the definition (if listed on steam)

>>723984556
>>723984695
>>723984827
Woah, I came to this thread because I wanted to discuss cool niche games, instead I have to deal with nerds like you who derail the thread because I used the "wrong" word. Fucking unreal.
You're no better than people on other sites that get offended when they see the word nigger or faggot.

>>723982479
I know a very good free horror game, but it's only in Japanese. Actually, it has other languages, just no English. And it's made in RPG Maker, I know some people don't like them.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2877030/Midnight_Syndrome/
I liked it so much that I found the dev's store and bought some PDF with art and stuff for 1000 yen and added another 1000 yen as a tip.

>>723986259
No thanks, imo obscurity isn't about how much it sold, something can fall into obscurity later in time or be seen by a lot of people within a niche group and yet be unknown to the general public
Just vaguely use your head, everyone has a different metric anyway and someone will always argue the shit you literally pulled out of your ass isn't obscure

>>723986318
would you be interested in a hardcore roguelite survival game? the kind where you have to manually beat your dislocations into place and avoid looking at corpses to not get depression.
i have to ask this because it's obviously made a by a furfag and you know how this usually goes.

for me, it's Towerclimb

I'll throw in two of my favourite games. Pic is from the first one.

>新説魔法少女
Freely available here: https://www.freem.ne.jp/win/game/16844
Story-heavy SRPG about cute girls fighting off powerful monsters. Sounds trite but it has some of the best character writing I've seen. In gameplay most squares can be traversed, so rather than FE-like chokepoint spam it's more about being aware of attack and movement ranges. Does not have permadeath. Later on you can stall maps to spawn optional bosses if that's your thing. Depending on your reading speed and how much you try to milk maps for exp it can take anywhere upwards of 50 hours, though the average playtime is probably in the 80s or 90s.
An English patch exists here: https://shinmahoutradesp.blogspot.com/
I played in JP myself so I have no clue how good/bad the translation is.

>Distorted Travesty 3
Spriterip action platformer made by one guy in gamemaker. Unfortunately runs at 30 fps, apart from that it has some of the best 2D gameplay in endgame and the final boss (and the powered-up postgame version of the same) is incredible. Quite difficult compared to most games but it doesn't veer into unfair territory. Dialogue and story aren't the strong point, if it's not to your liking just try to endure it. Takes between 60 and 80 hours for most people.
Technically the third game in a series but it's clearly better than the previous two. You can find them easily by searching the name and finding the corresponding blogspot.

>>723983683
>bright, colorful, simple character designs that would be easy for a kid to draw
>some kind of horror element, can be overt or a vague creepypasta sort of undertone
>very basic or virtually nonexistent gameplay, some of these are basically just sensory toys
>on that note constant audio and visual sensory overload is a must

>>723984202
I like her sister more

>>723988601
>>bright, colorful, simple character designs that would be easy for a kid to draw
Doesn't explain many things like FNAF or Skibdi Toilet, the designs in that are muted, weird, complex and non simplistic at all
>>some kind of horror element
That's just the current trend, doesn't explain stuff that had no horror to it like Friday Night Funkin or Among Us
>>very basic or virtually nonexistent gameplay
Some of these games have tons of gameplay but that doesn't matter since kids don't play them, they just watch tubers do it
>>on that note constant audio and visual sensory overload is a must
I guess? But that's vague and can apply to many things, and again, it doesn't apply to others
Baldi's basics has kinda minimal audio, FNAF isn't too intense on the audio either

These seems like good aspects of a formula if you're going out of your way to force an e-toddler meme thing, but it doesn't explain some of the flukes that ended up that way without the devs ever wanting or expecting it

captcha: tkt0k

Minecraft

>>723980578 (OP)
surreal horror game that is also an edutainment game for Japanese kanji
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4059830/Virus_Brain/
yes, it's my own game T_T

>>723989770
Nice
But I don't think I can solve kanji puzzles, anon.

>>723989953
thanks!
don't be scared fren, the game teaches you them and they are simple

>>723989131
Yeah, those are mostly fair points.
I couldn’t really tell you what the commonality between FNAF and Among Us is since I don’t think there is any one singular winning formula and didn’t mean to imply there was.
I also think you are mental for saying Baldi’s Basics has minimal audio.

Iconoclasts is a really fun game, in case someone wants to check it out.

>>723990516
Baldi's has intentionally intense audio but it's not used often, it's not constantly earraping you or has a super memorable earwormy tune, it's mostly quiet with some light sound effects until some cunt shouts in your ear, and then it's bad to quiet

>>723990368
You know, I'll put it into my wishlist.
Won't promise anything, but I'm interested what actual anons create.

>steam is down while I want to put stuff in my wishlist
Fuck you, Gaben.

>>723991065
Works on my machine

Sword of the vagrant (or "the vagrant" on steam) it's a hack and slash game made by a group of chinese dudes trying too hard to be vanillaware. still, the end result is very enjoyable. since the publisher is kind of a dick, the game is always dirt cheap on steam, if any of you guys wanna check it out.

Lil' Gator Game was a fun and short game. If you've played A Short Hike it's basically that but as a 3D platformer instead of isometric. It does have everyone being referred to as "They" even though they're clearly males and females.

What are some games that had a great concept but the execution sucked?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2942700/Seed_of_Heroes/ this is a Vampire Survivors style game but you build a party. I wanted to like it but it just doesn't play very well. You end up losing around the same time every time and you're forced to grind meta progression. The way the game provides you with the weapons in fixed level brackets you're effectively locked into certain types of builds because you can only get weapons maxed while they show up in the pool and they suck if they aren't maxed. Certain weapons go with certain characters and you'd ideally want to get all weapons for a character and I don't even know if that's possible. It had potential but the design is so fucked on so many levels that it gets tedious very quickly.

>>723989770
Would you recommend it for someone with 0 knowlefge of japanese?

>>723992321
>If you've played A Short Hike
I did! Thanks for the advice, I'll proceed to avoid this toss now, shit was terrible

>>723992321
It was cool, but not as good as A Short Hike.
Still, I'm more of a Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip guy. It has exactly my kind of stupid.

>>723992961
Shame, I thought it was quite a nice little game that was only like three hours to 100% and a nice pace breaker.

There's also Garden Story which is like this mix of Zelda and a, I don't know how else to explain it. You wander around, collect items, build up the towns or buy upgrades and slowly advance through each area. It's another game where everyone is referred to as "They" and it drove me insane but gameplay-wise I liked it.

>>723993596
Yeah, A Short Hike was better because by the third group of people you had to convince I thought it was overstaying its welcome. At least the ending was nice. Will keep TTTT in mind if it's like the other two.

>>723994021
>if it's like the other two
To an extent: it, too, is an exploration-focused small-open-world platformer with quests.

>>723992937
absolutely
the kanji are really basic and there's cute Japanese voice acting (no AI) for them
the game is also relatively short, about one hour long

ENA:Dream BBQ was fun, I usually don't like these exploration style games but this one did it for me since the world it let you explore is just so much fun and every character is a joy to look at move and listen to, I guess any genre has its outliers

Chapter 2 never ever though

>>723994682
Well I always wanted to learn japanese so I might as well begin from this. thanks for the recommendation

>>723994684
>ENA:Dream BBQ was fun, I usually don't like these exploration style games
this
>Chapter 2 never ever though
also this :(

>>723986570
>shit you literally pulled out of your ass
OP posted a game thats on every single top 10 rpgs if you liked undertale list for the past decades or so lol. Subjectivity has its limits

>>723996110
But I didn't say anything about Op?
Also OP clearly says "Obscure / Indie" meaning one OR the other?

Are you the one that can't read?

>>723994684
Eh, the trailer for ENA had a lot of stuff that wasn't in chapter 1. It shouldn't take as long as the wait for the first part.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/298180/The_Desolate_Hope
Soulful but janky game by Scott Cawthon from before he made FNAF. It's free and doesn't play like any other game I've seen.

>>723998042
Good point, the core of the game is already developed and everything
But then again it's also a fully animated and voice acted game so that alone takes tons of time

Thank you to the anon who suggested FREAKHUNTER.

It was kinda neat, had a fun afternoon
some of the later levels were more frustrating and trial and errory but still look back on it fondly.
Also the monsters are cute.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2773870/FREAKHUNTER/

>>723996380
Sounds like something a cruelty squad npc would say (also another obscure gem)

>>723999394
Ok, I see you're a little heated about this

you guys remember the game made by a person who ran a wiki and steam group dedicated to christian theory for gay people or whatever and had a mile long list of every fetish not permitted to be discussed in the group which went into detailed about things like being attracted to snakes and bees and being your own dad and shit

>>723980578 (OP)
Demonpact clarice is a fun indie rpgmaker game that not a lot of people talk about. Even though it's a furry game it's actually pretty good and probably one of the more challenging and soulful indie rpgs. Plus it even has cheat codes built into the game something I wish more games of the current year still did.

>>724000617
No but I am also requesting that too now that I've heard about it lmao

>>723981442
Vernal Egde was okay. I didn't like being constantly locked into a pit and forced to fight mobs of enemies. If I were pushed to be a bit more critical about it is that it felt a bit lifeless, something was just missing and i not quite sure what it was. It's not a bad game, just not a great one.

>>723998724
that looks bizarre but I am also intrigued

>>723980578 (OP)
this is probably my favourite indie game
great resident evil-like with its own vibe
filters tanklets who can't manually aim at the start
protip if you get owned melee weapons are no joke and shouldn't be slept on


>>724005807
have fun anon, i bit and had a good time
played with controller

the game goes from action to more puzzler to action and some missions are pretty long until you "get it"

for a game that tells you to appreciate what little time you have left including people you meet this feels like a waste of time.
also am I really supposed to feel bad for the asshole in picrel? Like yeah he is aware that he is going to be erased from existence and yet he chooses to be standoffish towards you.

>>723980578 (OP)
Aquaria is an underwater metroidvania with very pretty graphics.

One of the developers, Alec Holowka, killed himself related to Gamergate.

>>724006525
>this
*Alisa

>>724006891
game is atopes btw. neat existential thing i guess

>>723980578 (OP)
I've been been playing this Runescape clone for the past month, it is pretty solid and well balanced all around to be honest, but it only single player oriented even though you can see other players

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1189290/The_Black_Grimoire_Cursebreaker/

>>723982479
It's not "lately", horror themed narrative experience shit has a been a symbiotic cottage industry so long as people have been trying to get a reputation by just showing crappy games online. Like, it predates youtube. And it's pretty much spawned from the same mechanism as the ancient indie horror movie cottage industry, which as far as I can tell is simply that "people who label themselves 'horror fans' have extremely low standards".

>>723994684
>Chapter 2 never ever though
Nyo...

>>723980578 (OP)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1507580/Enigma_of_Fear/
Probably my favorite indie horror game. Literally impossible to talk about here though.

>People talking about videogames on /v/
Shocking.
Bump for great justice with aquaria.
game is a mixture of symphony of the night and the little mermaid, with horros from the abyss out of fucking nowhere.

>>723986318
Maybe you should be more considerate of the words you use then

>>724009827
looks trans
feel free to shill what's good about it

>>723989770
Looks cool, keep up the good work.

>>723984202
>pure cinnamon bun of a girlfailure
I think you're on the wrong website, bucko

>>723994684
Can I play this if I don't know anything about ENA?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/490230/SWARMRIDERS/

Anything by the dev of Ubermosh, this one is free

>>723994684
I just dont get the impression from ENA that its going to die off like that. once joel "found" ENA so to speak, it felt like he worked with momentum that he didn't have before. But yeah my expectations pre chapter 1 were humble, so what we got really blew me away

>>724006954
Damn, didn't know that.
Game was fucking cool. Still is.

Felvidek is a good game. Its like if KCD was built in RPG maker by the guy who made Hylics

top down immersive sim thats very open-ended and gives you a ton of customization for making different builds and playing the game differently and you can create some wild op shit and its also hard especially in the early game where your options are more limited but its alot of fun and also has one of the best hacking systems ive seen in a game

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1545990/Deadeye_Deepfake_Simulacrum/

>>724015061
Great game but youb shouldn't post fanart and instead post how the actual game looks like given his unique (for the better) looks

>>723994684
>>724014139
https://youtu.be/0d6yBHDvKUw

>>724015370
it finally came out of ea??? holy shit thank you for reminding me about it. im not sure if i would have found out otherwise, and i have the game on my wishlist lol

>>723988216
These are the sorts of recs I always look forward to in threads like this one. The first game sounds right up my alley, thx for sharing anon. Hope it's not too hard.

>>723989770
>You WILL learn japanese....or ELSE
Neat concept

>>724017290
There is a babby-tier difficulty option but you really shouldn't choose that, the early chapters don't work narratively if you just walk over the enemies. Just clearing the maps is generally not too bad, it's only when you try to extract every last exp or go for bonus boss kills that things get dicey.
Hope you have fun, I love every game by this creator I've played so far and he's still making more. Sadly most of them are in an older engine which is significantly worse.

Hack n' slash, side-scrolling platformer about super-powered lesbian lovers torn apart by a fascist regime. You can play as either one of the ladies, and you're given the liberty to be as violent or pacifistic as you want to be. It's pretty short, but it's got some cool set pieces. For the low-price of $1.99, I definitely got my money's worth.

Not the greatest thing ever but Robot wants it All is great collection and can make you kinda nostalgic if you played the original flash releases