Necken
This is a rogue-like… a genre I am quite keen on… but what prevents each game from being the same as the last, and enables you to choose one over another, can often be their ‘identity’ … their atmosphere.
Necken is different to many of these games as it is not set in a dark dungeon, but a thick, verdant Swedish Forest, with dappled sunlight and mysteries behind each pixel tree. Accompanying this aesthetic is a peaceful yet somehow foreboding soundtrack … It’s a coupling which truly makes the game unique… but there are also many gameplay choices quite different to the usual dungeon crawlers I’ve played.
– Real player with 24.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Exploration 2D Games.
Great roguelike with hard but rewarding gameplay and looks like a swedish 8bit fairy tale.
The game is set in swedish folklore and will have you running around in a panic looking for wood and dodging gnomes in no-time.
It does a great job of never letting you feel safe and rich on resources and its a constant scramble for materials and survival. Once you’ve chopped all the wood on the level, thats what you have to work with, so inventory management is key. And, as with all roguelikes, once you die, youre back to (almost) square one.
– Real player with 11.5 hrs in game
Paladin Dream
Paladin Dream is a turn based RPG in the style of all the old favorite classics. You play as a Paladin going on a journey to find out the meaning of a dream he has been having repeatedly over the years. He leaves the abbey where he has spent his entire life and heads out to find the reason for his dream.
The game was made with RPG Maker, which I know, can leave you questioning how good it really is. But Paladin Dream is a pleasant surprise. With about five hours of gameplay and original music composed by the creator, Paladin Dream stands out where many RPG Maker games may leave you wonderful what the heck you just spent money on.
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Exploration Turn-Based Tactics Games.
The tag for this game absolutely should have contained RPG Maker. Seemed decent on the surface with story and game play.
Not really my cup of tea, seems extremely short and balance is jacked up. I beat the game, and here is a quick summary:
- decent music, don’t know if it is from rpg maker or they made it
-decent design (art) , don’t know if it is from rpg maker or they made it
Very short game, beat in about 4 hours
-half of that was probably grinding to try to overcome the balance
-level 15 cap
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Aurora - Hidden Colors
Great little RPG, fun story, good graphics worth a sit down and play all the way through once it is finished and has more then one chapter. everyone needs to play this little gem. The only thing i came across was setting it to English had unfinished translations witch is ok for an unfinished game.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Exploration Tactical RPG Games.
Of Blades & Tails
A turn-based RPG that is action-oriented but rewards a thoughtful approach. Discover a fantastic land populated by different animal tribes.
You play Riff, a clever member of the tribe of foxes. A chain of unfortunate events involves you in a quest of vital importance to all the peace-loving creatures of the realm. You will have to leave your home village and explore the world to become strong enough to stand up to evil. (In other words: There will be a storyline but it’s still in the making!)
The game is inspired by classic Hack & Slays like Diablo and turn-based RPGs like Rogue’s Tale or Stoneshard. However there is no permadeath in this game. Your progress is always saved once you enter a new area.
As you explore the land, you’ll gain experience and unlock new abilities. Not all inhabitants will be friendly to you. Some will help you with information, others are only interested in trading, and still others will get in your way.
Improve your equipment and collect useful resources in the environment to have a decisive advantage in battle.
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Turn-based Combat that allows for quick action or strategic planning
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An Open World with lots of places to discover
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A fresh, animalistic setting in a vibrant pixel art look
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Procedural generated dungeons and caves
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A Main Storyline and various side quests
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Classless Character Development with many abilities to unlock
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Equipment of different qualities and Unique Items with special powers
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Hunt giant bugs or gather herbs and other useful resources
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Many Enemy Types with different skills that may require tactical decisions
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Trade with rats and other profit-seeking animals
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… and more to come!
The game is still in early development and more details will follow!
👉 Don’t forget to wishlist - it helps me a lot!
Edge Of Eternity
First of all I would like to say that I am really enjoying this game and would definitely recommend it, I haven’t found a turn based RPG in absolutely ages that I have really enjoyed and usually end up going back to old favourites like FF7.
There are a lot of really good things about this game and I am very surprised that a small team has made a game of such quality, I am 27 hours into it now and I haven’t really encountered any bugs that I am aware of. Nino Kuni 2 was made by a big team and 2 years after it’s release the bugs have not been fixed and at certain points the game is unplayable. No such issues with this game, there are a few small moments where I have experienced a very minor amount of lag but that could just be down to me having everything set to maximum settings to play the game in the best possible quality.
– Real player with 56.1 hrs in game
Let’s keep this short.
The size of the studio, technical qualities of the game or the budged are completely IRRELEVANT to the negative score.
What is arguably the most important part of a RPG?
Story and characters.
Decent characters (some are actually damn good), absolutely UNSATISFYING story.
A lot of great ideas are introduced, none are explored. AT ALL.
There are so many cut corners that you could build another whole table with them.
All the interesting stuff is thrown away to prop up the most cookie cutter, bland, generic, uninspired part of any story.
– Real player with 50.4 hrs in game
Shadow of the Road
Will you choose a disgraced ronin who’s lost his purpose in life, but finds hope in the most unexpected of places? Or perhaps a lost boy, destined to control the lives of many? An avatar of death who lives for love? You will find yourself in all these roles, and more.
The Boshin War is tearing Japan apart as the forces of the Emperor and the Shogunate clash in endless battles of attrition. Neither side will yield, neither will surrender, because they fight for something much more important than land or power – a place in history and the future of the Empire.
This turn-based tactical RPG places you in Japan at the bitter and bloody end of the feudal era. Your enemies are many, from implacable samurai to bizarre yokai from the Ne-no-kuni realm to the relentless steampunk mercenaries of the East Nippon Company, a British trade conglomerate with dubious intentions. Your decisions will directly shape the outcome of the story – stay true to your principles or choose the path of betrayal. Haunt or be haunted. Dispel the encroaching shadows by sword, gun, or spellcraft, or let them consume you. The choice is yours – it always has been, even if you cannot comprehend it yet.
MAIN CHARACTER? NO – A TEAM OF MAIN CHARACTERS
Take on the role of a master strategist and become an entire team of characters with a variety of backgrounds and skills, each with their own motivations, desires, and fears… and set them on the path that best serves you.
DIFFERENT ROADS, DIFFERENT OUTCOMES
In combat and on the road, your every choice will push your characters onto different paths. Your decisions determine who they become and whether they will build new bonds, abandon lifelong friendships or rebuild family ties.
STORY STRATEGIST, COMBAT TACTICIAN
The complex web of your team members’ goals and relationships also influences their battles. Prove that you can take advantage of the strengths – and weaknesses – of your team, for if you fail, your allies will not survive to see the end of the tale.
SHADOW OF THE ROAD
Only one thing is certain: every road you take will cast a shadow upon the lives of many. Choose wisely and discover what lies at the end of your own unique path.
The Moon 2050™
This is a Sci-fi RPG in which the protagonist must save the galaxy from The Evil Professor.
The action-packed story takes place in the future, in the artificially created galaxy of The Moon 2050. At the heart of this galactic system is Black Hole Inc., founded by the eccentric inventor and scientist ‘The Evil Professor’. It was he who became the main reason for the extermination of biological beings and the destruction of planets.
The Professor, ignoring all the laws of the existence of living beings, is obsessed with the idea of creating an ideal form of life; different from the existing ones. But every attempt to create such a super-being always results in failure. He never would have imagined that all his failed experiments would end up inhabiting The Moon 2050.
One day, The Professor fired his weapon of mass extermination of biological beings at the ship on which the protagonist Harry was flying with his partner. Harry was saved, but the co-pilot was not. He disappeared and ended up in Black Hole Inc. for experimentation. Harry, worried about the loss of his partner, finds out the true reason for the loss. Harry decides to wait for the end of the haunting disappearances of biological beings, remembering that his loved ones have already disappeared in a similar way.
The player, controlling the protagonist, Harry, will have to journey to find The Evil Professor and overthrow him and all his cyborgs and robots, destroy all laboratories and generators that power Black Hole Inc., and ultimately destroy the entire evil empire.
The player will have to complete linear tasks and advance through the story saving each character, destroying enemy mobs, and looking for loot in secret places to gain access to other missions.
Flotilla
TL;DR: Great fun for the humor, visual style and tactical combat. Less satisfying for the fact that it’s game over after a set number of jumps and the core gameplay might get boring within a short span of time. If this game attracts your attention I would recommend waiting for a sale unless it really appeals to you.
Flotilla is going to be a hit-or-miss kind of game depending on your tastes, but I recommend it for its unique concept, satisfying core gameplay, and odd sense of humor.
Let’s start with the good points: It’s got a certain vibe and atmosphere that worked for me, both in terms of simplistic visual appeal and the tone of the events that you can encounter during each adventure. I admit that both the graphics and worldbuilding/humor aren’t for everyone.
– Real player with 21.8 hrs in game
Flotilla is a very fascinating take on space exploration. There is no saving, you are the captain, and you are stuck with a fatal disease that will take your life in a predetermine amount of turns. Flotilla offers a lot of real time choices that directly affects your fleet of ships. Some scenarios include saving a group of space-llamas and adding them to your fleet, or destroy them for ship upgrades. The combat is turn based and takes place on a 3D plane; you can command your ship to fly in any direction and fire at enemy ships. With tons of combat choices and flanking decisions your head might explode from strategizing, as a result I can’t recommend this game to strategy noobs. However, if you use to fight alongside Napoleon and George Washington back in the day, I highly recommend this game. Oh ya just play hardcore mode, in normal mode you just end up dead faster from your “disease”. There is virtually no difference in gameplay difficulty by playing in hardcore over normal.
– Real player with 12.5 hrs in game
Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander (LIGHTSPEED EDITION)
Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition is a turn-based combat space simulation R.P.G. both developed and published by Massive Damage, Inc. After a devastating attack by a relentless unknown alien species decimates the New Terran Federation, you are immediately put in command of the starbase Halcyon 6. It’s up to you to rebuild the Federation, make lasting alliances with alien species, gather vital resources and prepare to stop the impending alien invasion that has it’s sights set on Earth. Halcyon 6: Lightspeed Edition includes a number of additional content, optimizations and new updates to the original award winning title, Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander, that vastly improves the overall gameplay experience of the first title. Prepare to take your seat in the commander’s chair for this thrilling spacefaring adventure.
– Real player with 39.3 hrs in game
I was expecting some revival of MOO2.
I started my first game at “Commander level”, expecting to take a quick and severe defeat, but learn enough for an enjoyable second round.
For the first 8 hours, it was fun: build your ships, evolve your captains, oh! there is a tech tree, great! And those aliens, are they friendly or not? Pirates, space travellers, threats, offers.. Excellent!
After 8 hours, I started to realize that:
1/ I did not made any strategic decision, I just clicked randomly on the various “evolution trees”, I did not experience a single defeat.
– Real player with 24.4 hrs in game
HoloFist
HoloFist is a tie-in game for a cartoon that doesn’t exist! A turn based battle game where reaction times matter, with a visual style that attempts to imagine how old school pixel RPGs might look in 3D.
With the help of your colourful ‘Holobuddies’, like Mathmoth, Pieceratops and Pakoon, you travel the island of Fistopia to clear out the haywire robots, toxic Blimes and other dangerous enemies that have overrun the island.
This first game from Edgehog attempts to infuse action into what you would expect from a turn based RPG, using timing based button presses to deal extra damage, or even block incoming attacks.
