End of Realms

End of Realms

It is an old school RPG where the player continually decides between two to three locations where the main character should go to. At each location certain or uncertain events take place. The narrative itself is set in stone when certain events are triggered or certain conditions are met at various locations. The game is heavy on combat and randomness.

The game works with three main stats (fortitude, defense and magic) that are purely dependent on gear and acquired passive skills. Passive and active skills can be found randomly or are unlocked when certain not foretold events are triggered. As a new player it can be a bit difficult to understand these mechanics which have not been disclosed. Usually there is some sort of logic in it. If for example you want to wear heavier armor, you need passive armor skills. It then could be worth it to try to collect armor and wear as heavy defensive armor as possible to boost such stats. If you would like to unlock more mage skills or play as a rogue, then it can perhaps be worth it to experiment more with those skills in the hope of unlocking more of those. There is significant experimentation required to unlock a lot of skills and thus enable various viable builds. It is unlikely that you’ll unlock all the skills, find all of the rarest equipment or all of the crafting recipes on a single playthrough.

Real player with 24.8 hrs in game


Read More: Best CRPG Indie Games.


A fantastic game!!!!!!

Easy to learn - harder to finish I guess.

I’m running it in a window 2560 x 1440 using Lossless Scaling - a program you can find in the Steam Shop.

Real player with 4.6 hrs in game

End of Realms on Steam

Gimle: Archlikvake Saga

Gimle: Archlikvake Saga

Ragnarok has come …

On the ruins of the old world destroyed after the clash of gods and giants, Gimle is created - the place where humanity was reborn. The New World was described in the prophecies as free of wars, hunger and suffering. For thousand years it has been struggling with the forces of evil for an unknown reason. Meanwhile, another disturbing threat is coming - death will be only the beginning of the suffering of the fallen. Norse warrior Brand arises as the last hope of mankind - will he stand up to the fight and uncover the mystery of an unfulfilled prophecy?

Gimle is an isometric RPG inspired by the classics of the genre, enriched with beautiful pixelated graphics.

Begin your journey!

Explore the dark world of Gimle based on Norse mythology. Discover forest thickets and mountain trails, explore evil-ridden towns and villages, and mysterious tombs full of dangerous underground tunnels.

Defeat your enemies!

Master the dynamic combat system and face the threats of the New World using a wide variety of weapons - swords, spears, axes, bows and much more!

Tame the mighty power!

Learn unique abilities that are so much more than ordinary magic. Use your powerful gift and solve the mystery of an unfulfilled prophecy.

Collect unique items!

Use the possibility of gathering resources and trading, get powerful items and artifacts that will prove useful during your journey through the Dark Lands.

Improve your skills!

Become the legend of the Viking world! Achieve mastery in many areas through an extensive system of statistics, science and attributes.

Write the story of the New World!

Experience a ravaged world full of difficult, ambiguous choices and face their significant consequences.


Read More: Best CRPG Action Games.


Gimle: Archlikvake Saga on Steam

Violent Witches: the Vindicator

Violent Witches: the Vindicator

This game is in a serious need of visual and translation polish, especially for the price. Nice ideas but needs a better team

Real player with 0.8 hrs in game


Read More: Best CRPG 2D Platformer Games.


Notice: Review sponsored by HLF studio.

Despite needing a bit of visual polishing and translation improvements, the game is pretty good. It has a solid story, enemies, collectible items, upgradeable weapons / powers, and more. In the game, you play as Frank during the witch trials era (where you could be hung for witchcraft for having a single mole), possibly somewhere around the Salem trials period, as Frank, who as a boy witnessed his sister’s death at the hands of a witch as a result of being forced to flee the city after being accused of being a witch. After growing up, he became a witch hunter. Unfortunately, every “witch” he kills is innocent and wrongfully accused of being a witch, so he becomes depressed. After meeting a real witch, he becomes allies with her and she gives him the strength he needs to hunt real witches in the form of 3 gemstones.

Real player with 0.4 hrs in game

Violent Witches: the Vindicator on Steam

ZLO

ZLO

Go in search of the ultimate evil!

Cast out evil spirits with the word of God and the cross.

Prepare for the horror that lurks in this forest and uncover the mystery of the priest protagonist.

Psychological horror inspired by the Silent Hill series and movies like The Exorcist, The Blair Witch Project and many others.

Zlo is a story-driven horror adventure game.

  • Collect notes;

  • Exorcise evil spirits;

  • Explore atmospheric locations;

ZLO on Steam

Drova - Teaser

Drova - Teaser

This game has a lot of potential! The story shines though - it isn’t (at this stage at least) too complex. I very much enjoyed the action RPG style. Moving through the darkness was one of the best mechanics, along with the medicinal plant harvesting (and too much medicinal plant = toxic).

The two things I thought were potential issues were: 1. More than once, a location is described in terms that aren’t helpful. I just had to look in the general vicinity, but if it describes a location further away, this could be bad). 2. It seemed difficult to run and change weapons - possiblky part of that was due to the “ready weapon” graphics are barely different from the “weapon away” graphics. This is super simple to change, so I’m not all that concerned about this.

Real player with 3.1 hrs in game

Free-to-try, and fun. :) I’ll give the teaser a 6/10 nostalgia rating for following in Gothic’s footsteps.

Overall, the interface is polished; the combat, while a bit fiddly, isn’t quite as clunky as Gothic 1’s. :) The ether mechanic is a bit odd, as is the resource you gain for hitting enemies while not getting hit.

The setting in the teaser is not so immediately captivating as Gothic’s, but the monster progression does have some of the Gothic feel.

Curious to see where this goes. :)

Real player with 2.8 hrs in game

Drova - Teaser on Steam

Red Embrace: Paradisus

Red Embrace: Paradisus

1999—Las Vegas, NV.

When you wake up on an unfamiliar couch, your skin cold and your heart silent in your chest, everything feels like a dream.

It’s all a blur. You remember an invitation, a strange figure, the sharp teeth sinking into your throat…and a blinding flash of light. Blood splattering against the walls.

What happened? Who turned you? What strange powers did they awaken inside your body?

Dive into the underworld of Sin City as a newly reborn vampire—and reveal a sinister truth beneath the glittering neon lights.

Red Embrace: Paradisus is an immersive vampire sim/narrative RPG. Inspired by Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Disco Elysium, and the Shadowrun series, RE:P seeks to create a dark, fully story-driven (no combat) vampire experience with branching narrative and multiple endings.

We also aim to present a world with diverse characters and identities, as well as implementing inclusive options to make RE:P enjoyable for as many players as possible.

  • Design your character

    Customize your name, pronouns, appearance, and vampire house

  • Choose your personality traits and skills

    Become a shy hacker, a ripped pacifist, a seductive empath, or anything in between

  • Explore Las Vegas

    Prowl the lurid depths of Sin City, including casinos, clubs, skyscrapers, and your very own rat-occupied motel room

  • Uncover terrible secrets

    Rescue vampires from a horrifying psychoplague or submit to higher machinations

  • Dark romance

    Find (optional, potentially doomed) love beyond death

  • Earn a reputation

    Learn the stories of your fellow nightstalkers, make friends and enemies, and ally with a faction (or go at it alone)

  • The classic CRPG experience

    Gather experience, money, and pick up everything that isn’t nailed down

Planned Accessibility Features: Closed Captions, OpenDyslexic font option, screen reader, font resizing

Writing, Design, GUI: Adrian L. (Dovah)

Programming, Management: Nikita H. (Gamma)

Portrait and CG Art: sh0d03

Red Embrace: Paradisus on Steam

SKALD: Against the Black Priory

SKALD: Against the Black Priory

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1609100/Skald_Against_the_Black_Priory__the_Prologue

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1712620/SKALD_Against_the_Black_Priory_Original_Soundtrack_Vol_I/

You drag yourself from the black tides, across the corpses of drowned men, and onto the unwelcoming, craggy shoreline. Gulls cry overhead and the stink of seaweed fills your nose. By some miracle you have made it to Idra. It will take all your skill to survive and unravel the eldritch mysteries of the Black Priory. Pray your sanity holds.

About the Game

‘Skald: Against the Black Priory’ is an old-school roleplaying game that combines modern design and a fully realised narrative with authentic 8-bit looks and charms.

Delve into a dark fantasy world, full of tragic heroes, violent deaths and Lovecraftian, cosmic horror. Explore an engaging, branching story mixed with rich exploration and crunchy, tactical, turn-based combat that will seem familiar yet innovative to RPG fans, old and new.

Do you have what it takes to lead a company of broken heroes from the tainted shores of Idra to the gates of the Black Priory - and beyond?

Features

Lovingly crafted retro-style art:

  • Experience a richly illustrated world of authentic pixel art using thousands of hand-drawn tiles and images

  • A palette inspired by the legendary Commodore 64 computer.

  • Optional CRT filter for that authentic old-school experience.

Deep character creation:

  • Build your main character and recruit a party from among a dozen diverse characters, each with their own skill-set, agenda and personality.

  • Choose from a dozen classes and backgrounds as well as heaps of feats, spells and equipment as you take your party from level 1 to 20.

Crunchy tactical combat:

  • Engage in challenging, fast-paced, turn- and grid-based combat.

  • Play it your way, with fully customizable difficulty and feedback settings. Or hit ‘auto-resolve’, lean back, and (hopefully) watch your party cleave a bloody path through their foes.

A richly detailed, living world:

  • Explore the vast expanse of Freymark and the Outer Isles and watch your actions spell doom or salvation for the region.

  • Focus on the rich, branching narrative… Or live the life of a mercenary and explore varied sidequests and encounters - the plot will wait for you.

  • Manage your party as you make camp, recruit hirelings, travel by land and sea, and interact with powerful factions and their visions for the world.

Become part of a fantastic community:

  • Skald was made possible by crowdfunding and already has a large, passionate and welcoming community that can’t wait to meet you.

  • By joining Skald’s Early Access you’ll have a direct line to the developer, get sneak peaks and give feedback on forthcoming plans and help shape the game into a modern classic.

  • We will publish the powerful tools used to create the game in an effort to support and encourage modding and content creation once the game has fully launched.

The Story of Skald: A Dream Come True

Skald is the dream-project of a lone Norwegian developer, AL.

AL missed the thrill of delving into grand, immersive games such as ‘Ultima’, ‘Magic Candle’, ‘Wasteland’ and the Gold Box series. When he noticed the lack of newer roleplaying games that combined the classic (early 90s) charm with more modern game design he decided to take matters into his own hands.

AL set to work crafting the game of his dreams.

A highly successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaign with 700 backers, and a fast-growing community of passionate fans proves he made the right call.

Collaborators

Despite being a one-man company, Scape-IT has been able to collaborate with some amazingly talented people in creating SKALD:

Danny Salfield Wadeson is a UK-based writer & narrative designer who has worked on BAFTA and TGA nominated narrative games such as Roki, Backbone and Duelyst

Twitter: @MadQuills

John Henderson is an experienced fine artist and illustrator and is also a teacher of Art. Whether using dip pen, oil paint or pixels, John’s work is easily recognizable as being highly atmospheric as well as lovingly created. Having worked on many publications and indie gaming projects he is also currently busy with his own project, Wild Wood for the C64.

Twitter: @JohnHen65953721

Scott Hartill UK based artist and game designer. More interested in pixels than anything else. Currently busy developing a PS1 style survival horror in his spare time.

Twitter : @cluly

Torgeir Fjereide is a Norwegian artist and illustrator. He loves painting mythological and medieval scenes and he’ll take any excuse to paint a bearded man.

Twitter: @TheBrushOfThor

Post Horn Public Relations is a pro-bono initiative created to support talented developers.

Twitter: @horn_pr

Rachael A Edwards hails from England and spends most of her days writing fantasy novels about morally grey characters in worlds filled with mythology, corruption and magic. An avid gamer, Rachael’s love for storytelling began at a young age. She is currently working on a YA fantasy novel and is represented by Rena Rossner of The Deborah Harris Agency.

Twitter: @RachaelAWrites

MementoMoree (formerly known as Paolo Pomes) has been creating art since his late teenage years. Proficient in most types of art, from pencil & paper to highly detailed 4k textures, he’s found solace and pleasure in the retro pixel art!

Twitter: @MementoMoree

Marco Pedrana is a digital and traditional art vagrant. He started as draftsman in advertising and comics, went on in illustration, then painting, then conceptual art. He doubled back on videogame design with Aeon of Sands, creating its graphic, story, and sfx. Lately he freelances as a 3D generalist for indie game and cinema productions.

He focuses on narrative art, regardless of the medium or scope.

Twitter: @marcopedrana

Romanus Surt is the main guy at Graverobber Foundation, the developer behind Das Geisterschiff and Der Geisterturm. He does music for SKALD.

Twitter: @surt_r

Edwin Montgomery is a composer and sound designer for games, films and performance. A long-time RPG obsessive, he wrote the soundtrack for inXile’s remastered 30th anniversary version of “Wasteland”. He has created music and sounds for a variety of fantasy game worlds, including Warhammer 40,000, Game of Thrones and Neverwinter. Edwin does sound design for SKALD.

Twitter: @edwinmyshkin

SKALD: Against the Black Priory on Steam

Xangel

Xangel

As the largest economy of mankind, Naya launched the angel coming plan to transform human genes. The project failed. Naya was occupied by the crazy gene scientist Longli. As a former executive of Naya, grace began to fight crime. This work is a third person shooting game. The player plays the protagonist grace, sneaks into Naya and starts fighting. The attack method is a machine gun that can be fired repeatedly, Laser grenade, laser sword chopping, lightsaber sprint, players can complete their mission in a single line plot.

Xangel on Steam

Ancient Enemy

Ancient Enemy

No other words can describe this game other than amazing.

I already adore solitaire, and this game’s take on it showed me a perspective of which I thought I’d never see. In fact, I feel the trailer doesn’t do the game justice, because while it looks like a slow and boring game of solitaire, it actually is a game filled with bits of satisfaction when you get a great hand and are able to do half the enemy’s health in a single hit. I also love how they managed to create a build system, that while not complex and mostly interchangeable, does allow certain styles of play. For example, mine started as careful defense followed by a counterattack in the right moment, but evolved into creating enormous combos and decimating each enemy before they could even touch me. For example, I beat the final boss without taking a single hit. Spells are overpowered only if you play your cards right (pun intended), and enemies remain a threat while still being bearable and enjoyable. The difficulty scaling is very slow and steady, so none of the fights I faced felt like complete BS, while still being challenging victories (mainly in the pursuit of more stars). As of this review, I beat Relaxed mode in 10 hours.

Real player with 18.2 hrs in game

**Please check and join my curators page :

Critical Happens **

I beat the game and now i can make a full review of it.

The game is ok, with a good progression (maybe in the end you become too powerful) and

and an easy difficulty. Basically combining the cards in increasing or decreasing value and following the colors you build combos for more powerful moves and defenses.

There are also consumable items that honestly, of all that I had, I used only bombs and life potions and I was very good with it. There are also cards with extra powers that influence the combat cards and equipment cards, that like the consumables, there are only 4 or 5 that really have an interesting advantage, the rest is rubbish.

Real player with 14.3 hrs in game

Ancient Enemy on Steam

Cathedral

Cathedral

Take part in an atmospheric sci-fi horror game and stay alive in the last stronghold, the Cathedral. Arise, develop your character, gear up, fight soulless enemies and face the mighty Baron.

The Setting

Fighting continues. The power is exercised by associated rival Barons. Their Union is relentlessly growing and wants to colonize surrounding planets.

Whereas expeditionary forces are successively occupying other planet-states located in the same orbit. Inevitably, Independent Nations are beginning to recoil from the growing onslaught. Moreover, the fact that Neuropium supersedes souls and humanity is fading away does not help.

The emerging resistance needs a leader.

The Gameplay

The Cathedral is the last bastion, the shelter. Initially, your goal is survive and look for fuel cells for the Protector. But, the Baron’s envoys know that the game is at a higher stake than you may initially believe.

Moreover, the asylum hides its own secrets. Discover them, develop your character, fight off the inevitable invasion and gain influence over the course of history.

Be the Legend of Space.

Cathedral on Steam