Lawless Lands
This is a game that I’ve watched being developed for over a year. I’ve run through the early releases multiple times, checking for typos, looking for bugs, and restarting over and over. I helped work on many of the character sprites and some of the sidequests.
Overview
Many hours of game play and numerous side-quests that complement the main storyline make for an in-depth game and story. The character creation can take some getting used to, but the skills, talents, and customization when leveling works very nicely for creating a hero with the attributes you like.
– Real player with 143.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Character Customization RPG Games.
Lawless Lands is the latest rpg by Corrosive Studios, a small indie dev that makes games that really scratch that exploration RPG itch that few games do. (Closest comparisons are the likes of Fallout 3 and Baldur’s Gate I, in the fun explorative sense, NOT the buggy sense)
A survival dark fantasy RPG, You explore the Large, yet streamlined open world (It has an Overworld, so you aren’t going to waste a ton of time in empty wastes) With light survival mechanics (Just eat and drink things on occasion, it’s not stressful or annoying like so many other survival games) While completing quests for various factions and growing your power/party.
– Real player with 65.7 hrs in game
The Dragon and the Djinn
Everyone knows the story. The young man who came out of nowhere to become the Emir of Ghariba when the previous ruler went missing. The djinn who helped him by granting wishes. The Grand Vizier Jaafar, whose noble birth and political skill placed him in the palace at the Emir’s right hand.
What they don’t know is what happened next - and that’s where you come in.
The Dragon and the Djinn is a 620,000 word interactive epic fantasy novel by Athar Fikry, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
A dragon has appeared, threatening the safety of Ghariba and its new emir’s precarious reign.
You have a destiny. You’re not sure yet what it will be: perhaps you will protect the city, or become the greatest wielder of magic in the land, or gather enormous wealth.
You also have a sister. She believes that it is her destiny to slay the dragon, with a magic sword made by the warrior Iskander who has traveled from a far-off land in search of legendary creatures to fight.
Most importantly of all, you have a djinn, given to you by Jaafar himself. Your djinn will help you achieve your destiny by granting your every wish…or so you hope.
Navigate the politics of palace, court, and city; make allies - or enemies - among the people; all while the dragon soars overhead, threatening Ghariba more with every passing day. To find your way forward, you’ll have to use your magic, your wits, your courage, your faith, and of course, your djinn.
Will you help your sister slay the dragon? Will you try to slay it yourself? Or will you try to befriend it, learning deeper secrets of magic and the city’s past? Or will you simply take advantage of the chaos to make yourself the richest person in Ghariba?
-
Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, or bi; asexual, aromantic, or both; cis or trans.
-
Achieve your destiny as a dragon-slayer, a silver-tongued poet, the protector of the realm, or something even greater
-
Wish for more wishes! (No, sorry, you can’t actually do that.)
-
Secure the reign of the current emir, or scheme to depose him and replace him with another ruler - perhaps even take the throne yourself
-
Fly on a magic carpet
-
Find love with a dragon-slaying warrior, a charming court poet, an idealistic prophet, a lofty priestess, a wealthy noble - or even your djinn!
Be careful what you wish for…
Read More: Best Character Customization RPG Games.
After School Murder Club!!
it may look a bit different but let me tell you: this was the most exciting and fun visual novel game I’ve played in a while and it’s 100% worth trying!
and yes, with 9 hours I’ve only got one ending so far (still gotta get the other one’s!) so.. if you take your time with reading the dialogues, you get a lot for a free (!!) game.
ps. Pain(t)-kun still haunts me in my dreams (and I ain’t complaining)
– Real player with 9.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Character Customization Multiple Endings Games.
I wasn’t sure about this title at first, but I ended up enjoying it in the end.
Apparently this started out as a practice/joke visual novel, and it definitely shows, but it knows what it is: a satirical jab at anime tropes with an overall silly plotline. There are references to popculture and memes throughout. Heck, one of the first things the main character says is “Gotta go fast!”
The artstyle isn’t really anything to write home about. The characters seem to have been made with some kind of anime dress up doll programs, which causes a bit of whiplash when the actually drawn scenes show up thanks to how different they look.
– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game
Blood for Poppies
I remember playing this demo on the COG forum years ago, and I was so excited to see that it’s finally been completed. It didn’t disappoint at all. Even though each playthrough is relatively short, they’ve been enjoyable so far and I like the choices and their impact on the game
The character development is fairly well-done, I especially liked Ashton, Kel, and Poppy. This story avoided the railroading I often see in RPG’s, and I felt like I had a good amount of control over my player character and his personality, feelings, and actions
– Real player with 8.0 hrs in game
Such an honor to play this amazing game just as it launched.
I hope many many more players will find and enjoy this.
This game is especially fitting for you if you like COGs, but don’t want to read a 10.000 words text every time before getting to pick a choice; as the writing is more straightforward and simple than to be expected from stories like this.
After 2 hours I reached my first ending - a fairly satisfying one - and I will keep trying out for more endings. A nice bonus this game has is an ending guide for just a few coins. Genius!
– Real player with 7.7 hrs in game
Interstellar Airgap
Excellent read! The story grabbed me from page 1.
– Real player with 313.6 hrs in game
The Story is interesting but the damn Code is frustating
– Real player with 20.8 hrs in game
Nice to NO you
My Experience
After my first in-game day of choosing whose memory to wipe, I was annoyed. I didn’t feel like the flow of the game made intuitive sense. Initially, you’re choosing which three of the citizens to move forward to the next stage of the process. Then, at the next citizen line-up (after questioning each citizen you’ve sent forward), you’re choosing which two of the citizens to dismiss. I feel like it would make more sense here if you chose a citizen to move forward - in the same fashion you did at the first line-up.
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
The Entire Game in a Nutshell
-
Wait 5 seconds for the people to line up.
-
Read a 3-5 sentence reason for them being there.
-
Pick three to ask 3 questions.
-
Wait 5 seconds per character to walk off screen.
-
Wait five seconds per character to walk to the point you ask questions.
-
Ask three questions, or tell them to get lost.
-
Decide which one you want to wipe reading over the same information as when you first selected them.
-
Wait 5 seconds per character to walk off screen.
-
Wait 10 seconds for the person you picked to be wiped off screen.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Vampire: The Masquerade — Night Road
Before I say anything else, I wanna full disclosure the fact that my total playtime should be taken with a grain of salt as I’ve more than a few times found myself getting distracted by discord blinking, thoughts wandering or even getting lost in links while looking something up while the game stayed up in the background accumulating gametime. That said, the TL;DR is that if this is what we can expect of the future CoG WoD games, then I think the future looks bright and I recommend Night Road. All in all a nice and fun game.
– Real player with 71.9 hrs in game
Vampire the Masquerade: Night Road is a text-based RPG set in the Dark World universe and modern nights period, when Sabbat is destroyed, and Camarilla is weakened by the Second Inquisition. It’s a story about Cainites (vampires) looking for re-establishing themselves in the modern world of everpresent surveillance that not only endangers the Masquerade (the secret code of conduct that dictates hiding the existence of supernatural from mortals), but also their very own survival. The player character is thrown in the tumultuous events that take place in Arizona and Texas around 2020. And, in all this turmoil, the player, a vampire, has to make choices about his loyalties, goals, beliefs, personality, survival and the very future of his kind.
– Real player with 53.4 hrs in game
Doodle Date
Full review at: https://thegamehoard.com/2019/02/12/a-look-at-the-latest-doodle-date-pc/
Doodle Date is a joke you and the game work together to tell. Using the simple design of a dating simulator, the game asks the player to fill in images meant to make that player laugh, the text reactions and situations the images are used for doing a good job of facilitating some funny moments. The plot is quite clearly constructed around the idea of amusing the player rather than giving too much meaning to the events or dating, but it does do some unexpected exploration of the concepts behind one creator drawing a character to life for the purposes of romance. Not really demanding any artistic skill, Doodle Date is an effective skeletal structure for setting up some silly moments, making it a game about having a laugh rather than having some deeply involved dating story or a well developed art platform.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Don’t take these doodles lightly! This VN is killer!
You’re the Creator! You create doodles that pull you into a world of blank pages and dreams that you imagine. Claire is your first drawing and she’s the one who pulls you into this mysterious and new world.
The game starts off as your standard visual novel. You have choices and various endings (3 to be exact). The only difference here is that you get to draw the key points of the game.
I used a tablet to draw and they STILL looked a hot mess. The dialogue is very tongue in cheek and took me by surprise. I have to say, the overall plot towards the end was a huge surprise to me.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Unscripted
Take on your developer dream in Catalina City in Unscripted! Follow the journey of a software developer aspiring to publish their video game into the PackStore’s prestigious arcade while starting a new life in Catalina City, the city for software developers. Reconnect and meet close friends like Zen’no, new peers like Katorin, the Kotlin-loving developer, and possibly new enemies like Christina, an enigmatic Python developer.
Features
-
Discord rich presence integration with each chapter* (opt-in by default)
-
Personalized routes based on choices and story maps (four base routes)
-
Ambient sounds and support for emphasizing sound effects and ambience over music
-
Ability to switch to the Lexend font and variant to increase readability
-
Puzzle mini-game with advanced scripting support
-
Rich notifications and realistic desktop via AliceOS
ACE Academy
Wow. So, this one came in as a complete surprise. I didnt expect much when i bought it, but boy was I wrong.
TL;DR:
Pros:
-
Intriguing Story
-
Good, genuinly funny writing
-
Tons of choices, that also have an impact
-
Unique and likeable characters
-
Fully voice-acted
-
Decent length
-
Nice Artstyle & Soundtrack
Cons:
-
Abrupt, unsatisfying ending
-
Minor: Artwork occasionally gets re-used
In Detail:
Pixelfade. Never heard of that Developer before, nor about the game itself. So I expected a pretty run-of-the-mill Visual Novel…This was not what I got.
– Real player with 61.1 hrs in game
Do I recommend it, even though this is only the first episode? Yes I do.
The scores below are from 1 to 10, 1 being terrible, 5 being average and 10 being excellent. I am confident in this Visual Novel and I think it can be one of the best Western Visual Novels. Keep in mind that the scale I am using is the same that I use to evaluate japanese visual novels (like Grisaia no Kajitsu):
Story: Not rated at the moment (episode 1)
Since this is only the first episode and was pretty much about introductions (and there’s still another girl to be introduced in the next episode), I can’t rate the story. My personal thoughts are that this is going to be a straightforward comedy slice of life romantic visual novel, so I don’t expect any serious developments or mind blows.
– Real player with 28.4 hrs in game