Best Fantasy 1990's Games on PC

Avalon: Sacred Crusade

“Beware the schemes of mortal men. For all the shortness of their lives, they lust to leave their mark. Before this hubris, even the Gods can be tumbled.” - Merlin the Outcast

To some, Avalon is an idea, a myth, an ideal, perfection; it is a place outside of time or space, an eternal edifice. To others, it is home. The Avalonians share much with Humanity, but one cannot remain in Avalon for long without becoming something… else. Long ago, in the forgotten age of The Migration, the Covenant was formed: the bridges between realms would be closed.

Their greatest criminals, however, continued to be cast out forever to languish in the mundane realm. Some lived as Oracles, Saints, or Wizards. Others we remember in legends of darkness: Sorcerers, Shapeshifters, Blood-drinkers, scattered across time.

Now though, the realms grow close once again, the veil between them weakening by unknown machinations. The Grail has been stolen, and without it, evils long buried are rising in ever greater numbers. The call to battle has gone out for the first time in this age, and many have answered it. These new defenders of the ancient Covenant must not fail, for the fate of both realms now hangs in the balance.

A Blast From the Past

Return to an era before all stats were homogenized into just health and mana. Avalon: Sacred Crusade takes heavy inspiration from popular RPG titles of the 1990s and features rich character customization that allows you to select your character’s origin, attributes, spells, and equipment.

No easy recoveries or quick wins here. Deal with a classic death penalty system where you drop your items on the ground and need to retrieve them. Experience what it was truly like to play early MMORPGs and graphical MUDs.

You may choose to adventure alone, however, the game features a robust party system which allows up to six players to work together in the same group. For the best experience, bring your friends - or make new ones in the game!

An Authentic Retro Experience

Listen to classic 16-bit Sound Blaster effects while you slash away at pre-rendered 2D sprites. You can experience all of this without the usual hassle of running a retro game on a modern system. Avalon: Sacred Crusade will run on any DirectX 10 capable PC!

A Note To the Community

We are passionate about maintaining a good relationship with our community. We welcome any feedback that you might have involving the game or its development, be it positive or critical. We are running regular community events that you can participate in and earn special achievements. If this interests you, consider joining our discord! https://discord.gg/Bv5MreE8zn

Read More: Best Fantasy Gothic Games.

Avalon: Sacred Crusade on Steam

Return to Krondor

I love the game, but I don’t love the fact that there are fatal mid-game crashes that Steam cannot support (i.e., the “missing .trx file” error) and Activision (the listed game owner) refuses to support due to its age. Why Steam sells a game that has zero support is beyond me. It should either be converted and tested for people using modern operating systems or it should be taken off the store.

– Real player with 56.6 hrs in game

Read More: Best Fantasy Classic Games.

Yeah, I do not know how I feel about the constant crashing cannot get past jahzeera in chapter 1 keeps crashing saying .trx error. I really loved this game when I was a kid and Steam cannot get their crap together for one second why put up a game that does not work?. I tried everything from uninstalling and reinstalling to changing the .ini file with the directory to the tracks folder but no luck.

– Real player with 53.2 hrs in game

Return to Krondor on Steam

Betrayal Collection

I got this as part of a bundle on 90% discount.

In my opinion, even at full price it is worth the money. I have already spent many hours playing these 2 games. Both run perferctly on Windows 10, I had no problem whatsoever.

Betrayal at Krondor is a classic old school RPG, comprised of 9 chapters, a must play for RPG fans. The first 3 chapters and the 6th are open world, the others are limited to a specific part of the general map.

I enjoyed each chapter very much, the skills of the characters (e.g. melee) can be improved by reading relevant books available in numerous shops in various towns, by paying NPCs for lectures or by fighting enemies. Special skills, like haggling or barding can be constantly improved by bying items in shops or by playing the lute in taverns.

– Real player with 217.5 hrs in game

Read More: Best Fantasy Classic Games.

Betrayal at Krondor has some shortcomings. It looks like shit - not even “by today’s standards”, it came out looking like shit, with a horrible 3d world, and ludicrous actors in ren-faire costumes. It’s slow. It has no quest markers, and you have to write down everything you’re told, as there isn’t even a quest journal.

But it allows you to get out there into the wide open world, and do whatever. You want to wander in the entirely wrong direction, and get to the chapter 1 goal by going around the map? You’ll get your shit pushed in, but you’re free to do so.

– Real player with 61.5 hrs in game

Betrayal Collection on Steam

Dragonsphere

As far as third-person graphic adventure games go (from the early years of CD-ROM games), this one is very good. And among the three (pure) adventure games that MPS created, this was definitely the best one.

POSITIVES

Inasmuch as MPS created a relatively unique player interface that is surprisingly easy-to-use, it’s a shame MPS didn’t keep making adventure games. However, in all fairness, starting in 1993, CD-ROM point-and-click adventure-game offerings exploded on the market with a flood of genre-changing titles that were in a league of their own, so I can understand why a computer-game company that didn’t specialize in this type of game would want to bow out.

– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game

I wouldn’t know about you, but I’ve always been a fan of the old school adventure games with rich stories and ridiculously hard puzzles back in the day. Dragonsphere is an old school point & click adventure, originally developed and published by Microprose in 1994, and carries all qualities of its genre from obscure puzzles to incredibly rich narrative.

We take a quick glimpse on the land of Callahach, a medieval realm with high fantasy elements. 20 years ago, the evil sorcerer Sanwe was defeated and sealed into his own tower by the King, young prince Callash and court wizard, Ner-Tom with the usage of the Dragonsphere. 20 years later, the seal begins to wear off and once again, the realm is threatened by Sanwe’s probable release. Prophecies of old call - now King Callash, to finish the battle started 20 years ago. After his coronation, our King decides to take the quest of facing the evil sorcerer and see to his demise once and for all.

– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game

Dragonsphere on Steam

Quest for Glory 1-5

I began writing this as a comment following ‘Love letter to the developers.’ It outgrew the comment box, and this series deserves my full review so here goes (and then some!) Let me start by saying I am a long-time Point ‘n Click Adventure/RPG fan. Quest for Glory was not my first, but it was one of my favorite series! I began with QfG 3: Wages of War. It brought me much enjoyment! (I believe I enjoyed QfG 1+2 & 4 somewhat more though!) QfG 5 was part of the less-well-advised foray of Sierra into CGI animation. It was bold but basically misguided in my view, and I did not play Qf5 or any of the King’s Quest titles past VI (6) since they were effectively different genres (also I understand the writing suffered!) Trivial detail: King’s Quest 5 was actually my first P’n-C Adventure game and I will cherish that one in particular (darn you, Cedric!) alongside several QfG titles, notably 2, close to my heart FOREVER!

– Real player with 65.4 hrs in game

I grew up playing the third game in this series, and it wasn’t until I was about 18 that I was able to track down and play the rest. I immediately properly, wholly loved them. So glad these are finally available on Steam. This is an charming, enchanting series and there’s nothing else quite like it.

The worldbuilding in this series is off the charts. Each entry sees you in a completely different land inspired by real-world mythology (e.g., Egyptian mythology, Slavic folklore, etc.) It rivals anything of today and surpasses most of it. Coming from the current sea of the same tired Tolkien derivatives it’s a breath of fresh air. The individual stories are pretty good, some even great, but as a complete saga this is fantastic. And that’s really the best way to experience it (and the only way to appreciate the genre switched fifth game). So set aside a good chunk of time, and let yourself sink into this marvelous world.

– Real player with 42.6 hrs in game

Quest for Glory 1-5 on Steam

Pamir Saga

“Pamir Saga : Part I - Cursed Legacy” is a game where you can feel the nostalgia of the 1990’s classic JRPG.

Introduction

Pamir opened his eyes at an unknown sanctuary somewhere. He has no choice because he has lost even his memory.

Feature

In the traditional JRPG style of the 1990s, you can enjoy Pamir’s adventure for about 10 hours.
Find 5 unique colleagues to overcome difficult dungeons and face powerful enemies.
Perform requests from various NPCs that visit the sanctuary and earn unique rewards

Notice

The launch date of Pamir Saga has been changed to February 19. We’ve been delayed for another week to provide a better quality game. We are very sorry about your inconvenience.

Pamir Saga on Steam

Sorcerer Knights

What was once a happy land is today a terrible place where sinister beings camp at ease. However, there is still hope for men, as the Sorcerer Knights have returned from their slumber to restore the peace that was once taken from them.

Sorcerer Knights is an original game for 1 or 2 players, of Beat’em up style and inspired by the style of the games classics from the ’90s, but with an updated aesthetic.

The theme of the game is set in a time fantastic where the mighty Sorcerer Knights, formidable heroes who dominate both the skill of the weapons such as powerful magic, they must face numerous hordes of menacing enemies in order to liberate the kingdom from the tyranny of the fearsome Sorcerer KaliXtus.

Fight terrible enemies through a varied fantasy world.
Collect magical items and use them to summon terrible powers.
Play alone or in company.
Sorcerer Kights is a Frenzied action arcade game that keeps you glued to pad.

Sorcerer Knights on Steam

Stonekeep

While not as intricate and complex as the Eye of the Beholder series, nor as vast and grandiose as the Might and Magic series, Stonekeep is surely a great addition to the dungeon-crawler genre.

The motion capture technique still gives a little something extra to the game’s visuals.

Music is on point and follows accordingly.Nothing great but it sets the mood.However, there are some singing faeries midgame that will definitely make your day :)

This game does suffer from a couple of bugs that may halt your progress.So be sure to keep a different save at the start of every level.(You should be doing that anyway)

– Real player with 37.0 hrs in game

One of the best entries in a classic genre that has only recently seen a revival thanks to titles like Legend of Grimrock, and a piece of PC gaming history as one of the first titles to offer support for Windows ‘95.

Stonekeep offers everything one expects from a classic first-person, grid-based action RPG and more. The setting is interesting and well-fleshed out. The cast is full of wonderful and diverse characters – fully voice-acted, quite possibly a first for the genre. There’s even a nice recipe for muffins hidden in the game’s data files.

– Real player with 33.7 hrs in game

Stonekeep on Steam

Blue Barbarian Man