Memories of Fireflies
The game is genuinely creepy. It features a good balance between the run and hide, leaving you on your toes, not knowing what to expect next. The visuals are very pretty and the story interesting!
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Puzzle Games.
Indie stealth puzzle platformer + atmospheric + interesting mechanics = Hide, crawl, run, light up as you delve through the mysterious world and evade creatures of all sorts. Controller recommended. Released previously as Fireflies.
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– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
Darkest Valley
CASUAL, CHALLENGING, OR IMPOSSIBLE?
However you want to play, choose your difficulty and hack and slash through 4 story acts. Each playthrough contains pseudo-randomly generated maps, ensuring that every playthrough is different. Hidden challenge bosses, extra magical loot, and comedic stories can be found for those looking!
UNCOVER THE MYSTERY
Journey through a dark fantasy world, as you uncover the strange happenings in the valley. Help your new friends and a town of misfits face off against the looming threat that has followed you from your past.
EMBRACE THE CLASSIC
Darkest Valley is an homage to the many great 2D action RPGs from the last twenty years. The original soundtrack, the visual style, and the story is a meld of our favorite elements from the classic and unforgettable titles in this genre. Relive those experiences in this modern indie creation.
HIGHLY STRATEGIC, POWERFUL BUILDS
Wield customizable weapons and armor with 8 item types and a wide variety of potions. Skills apply weapon hits to enemies with interesting effects, combining with crafted attributes to allow huge customization in the way you attack and defend. Coordinate with your skill tree selections, stat points, and the items you salvage for crafting materials to find the perfect build for your play style.
MANY VERY DIFFERENT WAYS TO PLAY
Choose to be an agile melee fighter, a point and click ranged tank, or a strategic summoner. Build your way across an interconnected skill tree with 5 starting points: Melee, Ranged, Summoning, Defensive, and Passives. Leverage your fast reflexes, careful positioning, or thoughtful planning to defeat the hordes you will encounter.
GROW YOUR POWER WITH MAGICAL SHARDS
There is no grind-based experience system in Darkest Valley. Increase your level and grow your strength by seeking out and finding otherworldly crystals shards that bestow great power upon those who wield them.
FACE MONSTROUS CREATURES
Throughout your journey you will fight against an array of creatures, from at first seemingly harmless slimes to monstrous trees that can walk, to horrors that come from the darkest depths. Dodge traps and find unexpected allies, where danger lurks around every corner.
FAST TRAVEL THROUGH THE MUSHROOM TUNNELS
In Darkest Valley there is little need to backtrack. Each area contains a mysterious enoki-like waypoint that acts as a portal and can be used to instantly teleport you from one area to another. If you die, you can simply teleport back to the latest waypoint and continue on your journey.
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Hack and Slash Games.
Night in Riverager
The developer mentions that there are some mild fantasy violence and also includes topics such as murder and torture; there is none of that in the game.
It’s also rather short, about 10-12 minutes where you talk to your mom and then you leave to fetch her some medicine since she has some sort of illness. When you leave your home, you venture northward to access a bridge to go to your uncle’s home.
You don’t make it. It ends, to me, abruptly. I don’t mind it being short, but I would like to have a bit more closure. At least let me get the medicine…
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Horror Games.
DISCLAIMER: This is a full review, and NOT a first impressions review
Night in Riverager is a game developed by Two Star Games and published by V Publishing
The game offers some nice graphics and a really beautiful aesthetic, although some ugly glitches here and there, it is pleasant all the same
The game does suffer with some repetitiveness at certain areas of the game but a fun game nonetheless
Night in Riverager overall, however, is a fun game to play, yet sometimes repetitive and it does get boring if being played for a long time, but is a really good horror game to play in short bursts!
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
Arthurian Legends
The Greatest Medieval Retro FPS to date…
Okay, so listen, son! This is the most fun, most historically inaccurate, bonkers, no-nonsense, Arthurian slaughter-fest you can ever imagine in videogame format. It’s like if it was made in 1996, before it was lost and forgotten for ages until a young and brave archeologist dug it out from some old crypt in Ireland.
It is highly addicting and rewarding with full of opportunities created by the wide variety of weapons, spells, and items. It’s almost like an immersive sim in terms of how many different ways you can approach an encounter or problem. It is hard but fair, very reminiscent of Blood where you need to adapt quickly to tense situations yet always thread very carefully to succeed.
– Real player with 27.5 hrs in game
This is an excellent game for fans of classic melee FPS games like, yes, Witchaven I & II. It’s absolutely a hoot to play, the secrets are very well hidden, and there’s a real attempt at atmosphere going on. I almost wish it was more like an immersive sim (or at least a step or two towards Hedon) in including notes to read along the way, just because the environments LOOK like they’d have little stories to tell. Excellent work, there.
So, all of that said, let me focus on what needs improvement, starting with one issue/disclaimer.
– Real player with 26.4 hrs in game
GRIME
Spiritual sequel to the DIRT games, Dust games, and all MUDs
Grime is… SUBLIME.
Just in case you need more (but why would you?), here we go…
Am I wild about 2D soulslike games? No. Blasphemous is the odd exception based on its presentation alone. Am I wild about labelling every other action role-playing game and metroidvania a soulslike? Yes.
Grime is distinctly ungrimy. As it admits itself, it’s more surreal, otherworldly, and unearthly. Stone and sand spring forth with anatomical features of faces, eyes, mouths, and hands. They make up the background, your platforms, and your enemies. In contrast, the protagonist has a black hole where their head should be. I can sympathise. That feels like my head most days.
– Real player with 36.9 hrs in game
Well, I guess everyone has to make their first “thumbs down” review after all. Never thought I’d see the day.
I’ll start with the positive first. Graphics are spectacular, even with the limitation of designing everything with a rock motif, levels are incredibly varied and beautiful. The game is filled with rocks, sand, debris, gemstones, then later architecture that mix in all sorts of ways that give flavor to every area in the game.
Background/skyboxes are also no slouch with all the equally gorgeous landscapes, often in open areas that add a sense of vastness and scale to this world.
– Real player with 34.4 hrs in game
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows really took me by surprise, it really did. The game claims to be a RPG but there are very few elements to support that claim, especially given the fact that the story is quite linear and there are no choices for you to make, you’re basically just watching how everything unfolds. That said, there is a lot to say about Masquerada, both good and bad, and I believe it’s a game that went under a lot of people’s radar and I truly believe it deserves a lot more exposure and credit than it has received.
– Real player with 38.5 hrs in game
Once again, this is the type of game where the “Yes” actually means “Yes, but-”, as in “Yes, but only if you like linear story-focused games with lots (and I mean LOTS) of reading”. Let’s get this straight: any mention of this game being an “RPG” is very misleading. There are no choices in the story at all; the protagonist (Cicero) is a defined character with his own personality and backstory, which I don’t think is a bad thing. There is very little exploration, aside from a few tidbits of lore and equipment sprinkled about, and since the game almost never lets you backtrack, it’s easy to lock yourself out of getting a certain lore entry or mask forever if you’re not careful. Pretty much the only RPG-like mechanic is the skills, masks, and enchantments you can pick between, so if you consider XCOM an RPG, then sure, I guess this game counts, too.
– Real player with 27.4 hrs in game
SELINI
SELINI is an emotional 3D single player adventure full of colors, sounds and dreams, played in a side scrolling fashion.
PUZZLES
Time management, memory challenges, observation, resources management and gravity mastering are some of the skills needed to proceed with the story.
Other than that, You can always:
-Collect crystals to unlock doors
-Collect energy for your space-home
-Push and drag objects to access new areas
-Use levers to control abandoned machinery
-Manipulate gravity
-Transform the world
NOSTALGIA
Composed in a retro-futuristic setting, the discrete but penetrating music plays an enormous role for the cocktails of emotions that each area has to offer.
An old radio that plays a forgotten tune of a distant time, or a VHS tape that reveals a hint if the protagonist’s obscure past.
MADE IN GREECE
Search for collectible items in white houses with blue windows or drive an old fishing boat on calm waters, from one fallen little port to another.
SELINI is a game being developed in Greece and inspired by Greece.
Stela
First impression: It has flesh-eating bugs (instead of rats like in Plague Tale) to oversized Gollum and a pyramid-shaped Tet that zaps you into “Oblivion” (movie with the same name)
Well, I’m kinda fond of the atmospheric, minimalistic game that’s has a puzzle/maze element and this one makes no exception. However, this particular puzzle-platformer has a lot to desire compared with other similar games I played before. Visually, Stela is a striking atmospheric game in a side-scrolling format but technically it’s low-poly though enough care has been put into the visuals and environments where they all feel alive.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
B-E-A-UTIFUL! That was the first thing that sprang to mind when I delved into STELA.
From the barren wastelands of fields to the cold and desolate snow-swept landscapes, STELA is absolutely caked in artistic imagery. Everything is designed with a keen eye and attention to detail.
This is particularly important as, much like games such as Limbo and Inside (which this game will no doubt draw comparisons to) there is no dialogue to tell the story. Much of what you gleam of this tale is from the images presented to you. Without spoiling anything, much of what this story entails is told from pillars found throughout the game.
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game
The Judgement of Q
After i tried it, i’m not considering it as a puzzle game only, but also a brainstorming game, where you think through this short trip about the meaning of life and about the truth of it (that’s how i would describe it). Great game from an ambitious developer and i hope there will be more games like this.
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
The judgement of Q is one of those simple games to play when you want to chill, the puzzles are thought provoking, but not frustrating. The soundtrack is soothing and harmonic with the progression of the game. The environment design is the most beautiful aspect of the game, giving the player a sense of discovery and curiosity, that goes along with the narration, which can get somewhat confusing at times, but the game is mostly visual anyway.
There are occasional FPS drops between loading screens, but nothing that will completely upset your experience. It’s an overall calm and relaxing experience with meaningful implications.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
AR-K: The Great Escape
After playing the first 2 episodes I can safely say that this is the best episode so far!!! The developers certainly improved the game quality in both ways: technically and direction-wise. The following points sums up the following:
Pros:
-
Gameplay quality much improved from first 2 episodes
-
Puzzles more interesting
-
Protagonist given more depth in character
-
Story development much more natural
-
Render quality improved
-
This episode is much more bug free than previous 2 episodes
– Real player with 27.8 hrs in game
It’s great when you come to a game and it’s a lot better than you thought it would be. While I enjoyed ar-k 1 and 2 and I do recommend those games to play first, this for me is a lot better - story, graphics, setting. The writing was very good and if you didn’t want to read everything, you didn’t need to click on that character’s bit of conversation but could come back to it if you wanted. I liked the humour, and it was witty in parts. It is the perfect balance of not just a good story which is vital in an adventure game but also good interactive gameplay.
– Real player with 18.4 hrs in game