[Terry]

Hey - seeing as it's so quiet around here, I thought it might be nice to start a thread to talk about new indie RPGs as they come up - or even just talk about old ones that you're only getting around to. Feel free to reply to talk about any indie RPG you've played recently and whether or not you think it's any good. I'll start.

I just came across a new RPG that I thought people around here might like - it's called Final Vision, and it looks like it's only been out for a week or so.

Here's a few screenshots.



It's a rather nice platform/RPG hybrid - a combination I love, seeing as they're my two favourite genres. The graphics are lovely and the music is nice, but unfortunately the plot isn't really that great, so far as I can see. It's definitely worth a look though, even if only to see how well the game combines the two genres.
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[RampantCoyote]

I guess I'll have to post this in the next indie RPG news roundup. Have you played it much? What did you think? And is it as much of a FF fan-game as some of the comments made it sound?
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[Terry]

I've finished it twice, and it's not bad - though it has some serious flaws. It's extremely buggy, and although a lot of surface things are nice, it's completely shallow. Worth checking out, but it's more of a proof of concept of the genre slicing than it is a fully developed idea.

As for whether it's much of a FF fan game - yes. Very much so. On top of the classes and items and summons and so on, it actually features "cameos" from a tonne of FF characters for no apparent reason. It also uses sound effects from FF, and the battle victory fanfare for levelling up.

I posted it over at indygamer blogspot, and comments were generally negative - though it seems a lot of people were interested enough in the concept to check it out for themselves.

To summarise, I guess it's one of those games that's bad mostly because some things worked really well, but it should have been a whole lot better. It'll be interesting to see what the creator comes up with next.
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[BadMrBox]

I've downloaded and tested it a bit (only defeated the eastside rebels) and it doesn't seem too bad. The menu controls are crap though. I'm gonna play it 'til I finish it still.
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[Terry]

I guess one unintended consequence of that lackluster summary is that your expectations might be suitably low enough for you to actually enjoy it, heh.

Right, enough of that. Here's an RPG I played recently that I really did like. It's been out for months, but I only got around to it the other day.

It's called Exit Fate.







It's a new RPG by Origami (the guy who made Last Scenario). Right now it's far from finished, but what's there gets everything right - It's got a clever and original battle system, a fairly good plot (though it's a bit laboured in places), and the strategy battle mini game looks really promising (though you don't see a lot of it in the demo). This demo is only about an hour long though, so I guess it's too early to form a solid opinion yet.

Anyone else played any RPGs lately?
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http://www.distractionware.com

[RampantCoyote]

Well, if you haven't heard of Depths of Peril yet ... I've been raving about it the last month or so. The demo lets you go up to level 7 or so. I actually "won" (beating the other factions and going to a new world, not finishing the storyline) in the demo, which was kinda nice, though it was a pretty hard battle against one of the factions.



I affiliate the game, so maybe I am being a capitalistic pig-dog here promoting it. But I was evangelizing it weeks before then, so my if my motives are impure, my praise is not. I was not expecting much from it - it looked like Just Another Diablo Clone. But after playing through it, I was pretty impressed with its depth. The whole faction system and dynamic quest thing really changes the feel of the entire game.

Depths of Peril
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[RampantCoyote]

Also, Scorpia has a review of the recently-released Geneforge 4 if you are interested in that. It's definitely more western old-school RPG, but some of us actually prefer the wRPGs :) (Well, marginally, in my case... I like both).
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[Terry]

I have tried so hard with the Avernum and Geneforge games, but I just can't seem to get into them. However, I was a huge fan of Exile II: Crystal Souls, so I guess I'll give this one a shot too.

Depth of Peril doesn't really look like my sorta thing, but considering you've given it such a warm recommendation, I'll give it a try :)
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http://www.distractionware.com

[RampantCoyote]

This thread should be stickied.

Okay - here's another new-ish one:

First off is Parhedros: The Tunnels of Sethir. It's a 3D, old-school RPG with mature content. Nude faeries and dryads and stuff, some classic artwork used as textures, some conversations of a sexual nature, etc. Nothing too explicit, according to the FAQ. It's a little bit roguelike, with randomly constructed dungeons each time you play,

Parhedros: The Tunnels of Sethir


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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[Terry]

Yeah, I wasn't sure whether to sticky this or not. There didn't seem to be any interest in the idea aside from you, so I thought I'd unsticky it. Now I'm not sure. It's pretty quiet around here these days anyway, so it's not like it matters all that much :)

That game looks really interesting - I'm downloading it now. Will add it to my list of new games to check out (which still includes Depths of Peril, btw, heh). Got a bit sidetracked recently with Yahtzee's new game.
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http://www.distractionware.com

[RampantCoyote]

Well, I'm posting these things as I accumulate them on my Indie RPG News Roundups at Tales of the Rampant Coyote, but this would be a good resource too.

Rarely hurts to get the message out on more than one vector.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[Hajo]

I think this thread is a good idea. Although I'm not actively looking for RPGs on my own usually, due to my limited time. So I can't contribute much. But the more I like the idea, having an easy way to find new RPGs :)

[BadMrBox]

Yes, the initiative for this thread is great.
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[Terry]

Well, I'll resticky it then :P

One that I haven't played much of yet, but which seems quite promising is Eschalon: Book I. The author has been posting updates here (see that thread in the link), but it appears to be a mostly "unmanned" account used to spread word about the game :P Well, whatever. Lots about the game looks interesting, but opinions on the game seem to be mixed - evidently all the gameplay elements are great, but it's let down by the story. Having only played half an hour of it I can't really say if that's true or not. There's some interesting opinions about it over at this TIGSource thread.



Also, Jeff Vogel's Avernum 5 is out. If you've got a mac and you're a fan of the series, it's probably worth checking out. Unfortunately I'll have to wait until February for the PC port myself.


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[Ashtoreth]