Death Realm

Death Realm

Game looks beautiful as hell, and combat is silky smooth too.

The TAB menu and some audio stuff are a bit clunky but overall i’d say its really worth a try

Real player with 3.0 hrs in game


Read More: Best Story Rich Souls-like Games.


Pretty good game and graphics, needs more time to develop to make something out of it

Real player with 1.1 hrs in game

Death Realm on Steam

Fear & Fury

Fear & Fury

In Fear & Fury, you play as Simon Shaw. A mechanic, cursed with lycanthropy. You can either relish in, or fight against lycanthropy in the City of The Cursed. Search for a cure amongst vandals, the law and the afflicted by joining forces or clashing with guns and claws. Fear & Fury is a challenging turn-based Tactics RPG. Set in a unique modern dark fantasy world where your crucial choices will shape the story and alter how you play.

  • Give into lycanthropy or reclaim your humanity to decide your fate.

  • Use fear to intimidate and spare your foes or show no mercy.

  • Befriend, fight or negotiate with key characters from The Crimson Vandals, Sentinels and The Cursed - three factions with conflicting ideals.

  • Play in unique turn-based combat encounters in the disturbing streets of Crimson City.

  • Navigate through Crimson City, where you only have one shot at making choices, so make them count.


Read More: Best Story Rich Turn-Based Combat Games.


Fear & Fury on Steam

Order from Caos

Order from Caos

(Note: I will NOT judge this game based on its language. I don’t speak Portuguese, but I certainly understand what it’s like to have English as a second or third language. Just know that it is possible to understand everything that is said in the game, even though some things sound a bit strange to us. I take it as fun to try and figure out what the author initially meant to say in the first place, like a puzzle in a puzzle game!)

This certainly looked like an interesting game, so I decided to check it out! I also wanted to support the Developer since it looked like they put a lot of work into the game. It shows. The atmosphere, music, OST/SFX, and all the goodness are fun to play with and I wasn’t bored once! Sometimes you gotta grind… still wasn’t boring.

Real player with 24.0 hrs in game


Read More: Best Story Rich Emotional Games.


I still did not finish the game, but at the time of this writing, I’m about 15 hours on the story.

I’m really loving it! The story is captivating, the art design is quite charming and the original soundtrack is beautiful to hear.

The combat system is the classic turn-based combat. At this moment I’ve didn’t find any true difficulties (besides not staying low on mana), but it’s still quite challenging (and I’m probably still in the beggining). Trying to learn which type of spell is more effective against each monster was fun. And the spell animations are gorgeous!

Real player with 16.6 hrs in game

Order from Caos on Steam

Tainted Grail: Conquest

Tainted Grail: Conquest

Song: Tainted Grail Artist: Vlakabaka

“Sometimes I feel I’ve got to, run away, i’ve got to, play a chill card game for a run or two

And the love we shaaare for card games is all in d’ere, with 9 classes, lots of deckbuilding and re-play-aability

Some runs might end baaad and some might go well but with this game time seems to goo noo-where

And this Tainted Grail is full of story, voiiiice acted characters in a daark tainted woorld

So taaake Gabens tears awaaay and buyy diz game here, cause you dont want to hear any-moe from mee

Real player with 73.6 hrs in game

It’s very similar to Slay the Spire and Monster Train but you’ll like it more than either of those if you prefer a dark aesthetic. The music and story are also more substantial here than other games in the genre. You get access to 3 classes (basically archer, fighter, invoker) which determine the type of base deck you’ll play. Every class is broken into 3 subclasses (i.e. invokers can be summoners, blood mages, or necromancers) that each have unique passives and a unique subclass ability. It’s honestly pretty remarkable how each subclass feels very distinct from its counterparts.

Real player with 69.4 hrs in game

Tainted Grail: Conquest on Steam

The Guilt and the Shadow

The Guilt and the Shadow

So, this is yet another gloomy indie game about psychological disorders.

There’s little to say about this one. In its own genre it’s probably OK. The visuals are stylish and the sound design is quite awesome.

But the story doesn’t really catch your attention. The monologues and occasional dialogues are quite unnatural. And the gameplay part just plainly sucks. You walk slowly, you need to backtrack the levels all the time, it’s surprisingly hard to find a proper spot to start climbing a ladder. So, all in all, as a game this thing kind of fails.

Real player with 8.5 hrs in game

An emotional experience about the torments of a man plagued by the “guilt” of his mother’s suicide (“shadow”).

Set in a black and white pencil drawn world, the player guides the mentally ill protagonist through a succession of dreams/nightmares.

To advance in the game, we have to solve simple puzzles to unblock passageways or unlock memories.

The pace is slow, giving the time to the player to immerse itself in the dark atmosphere of the game. And the game can be finished in one setting, which I would recommend in order to not lose the connection to the story.

Real player with 5.3 hrs in game

The Guilt and the Shadow on Steam

Chronotopia: Second Skin

Chronotopia: Second Skin

~~~~~~~~ Fairytale princess dies; she gets better. Love in the bargain. ~~~~~~~~

The plan was supposed to be simple, almost ridiculously so.

When her father, driven mad by years of grief, suddenly decided to force her into marrying him, Princess Kionna enlisted the help of her childhood friend. Together, they managed to contact her long-lost fairy godmother. Surely, her powers would save her from this hellish fate. Kionna would be able to escape the castle, a prince charming would find her, and they would live happily ever after.

Alas, magic can only do as much. Things keep spinning out of control. Trapped in an endless nightmare, the princess ceaselessly rewinds time in a race with death itself. Is a happy ending truly waiting for her at the end of the tunnel?

Kionna perfectly encapsulates what you would expect from a fairytale princess. Naive and sheltered, she means to do good but comes across as haughty due to her upbringing.

Unfortunately for Kionna, she cannot rely on others forever. To escape her fate, she will have to learn to fight for herself…

Nahima’s whole world revolves around Kionna. She has been her confidant for as long as she can remember and she is dead set on staying this way.

Deep down, she knows this is impossible but she is not ready to let go. After all, if Kionna truly leaves, she wouldn’t have use for her anymore, would she?

Médeia is not quite the traditional fairy godmother. She makes it abundantly clear she is not interested in becoming Kionna’s magical sidekick. The sooner she helps her, the sooner she can return to the magical realm. And that is all that matters as far as she is concerned.

Or is it? For someone who always appears so unfazed, she seems to care an awful lot…

While life is not as convenient as Kionna had hoped, her dream might not be completely out of her reach. Indeed, there are numerous handsome lords in her vicinity who would make perfectly fine suitors. Could one of them be her Prince Charming?

  • A captivating plot full of unexpected twists and existential dread

  • Over 200 000 words of content with multiple endings (20-30 hours of playtime)

  • 2 GxG (Nahima and Médeia) and 1 GxB (the “Prince”) romances can be chosen at the end of Kionna’s journey

  • Unlockable archives connecting the story to real-life European folklore

  • Several gameplay phases to experience the semi-realistic medieval world in a different light

  • Beautiful artwork, with animated backgrounds and special stained-glass illustrations

  • Frequent use of cinematic shots to make the reading more immersive

  • A full original soundtrack with celtic influences

  • Available in both English and French!

Chronotopia: Second Skin on Steam

Desecration of Wings

Desecration of Wings

HIGHLY RECOMMEND Rating 9/10 (Adult Content, Epic Story, Great Battle Mechanics)

This is another excellent RPG Maker game that I recommend, except that this game has unique adult content. This game also have a very interesting and epic storyline and great battle mechanics which I will explain below.

1. Adult Content

The steam version of this game is the “sanitized” version, where the naughty bits are all censored. However, you can download a patch that will remove the censorship so you can watch the game in its intended form. So, the user can decide to have either the censored or the uncensored version of the game. The story is also interspersed with explicit description of erotic scenes.

Real player with 69.3 hrs in game

So ‘The Last Sovereign’ won me over with Sierra Lee, being able to write a grand epic hours long with a likable protagonist, a harem of badasses, political intrigue and having sex scenes that don’t feel like the main selling point. Now they also made a pair of visual novels about a yandere which isn’t my cup of tea, another RPG and a runner that aren’t released yet and two other RPGs. So here’s one them.

Story:

In a world ruled by a group of Immortals, a prostitute and her daughter get up in an adventure that could lead to the end of the world. Also eldritch horrors and sex.

Real player with 38.0 hrs in game

Desecration of Wings on Steam

Fallen Gods

Fallen Gods

Once, the world was better, the gods greater, the wars over, the end farther. You were born in the Cloudlands during those bright days, one of the Ormfolk, forever young and strong, worshipped by those below for your forefathers’ deeds. But all has gone wrong. Wolves and worse haunt the night, the law holds no sway, and men’s hearts grow hard toward their gods. Fearful of their dwindling shares of souls, your kin turned against each other … and against you. And so you were cast down from the heavens, a fallen god broken upon the bitter earth. Now, you rise, free from death and ready to carve a bloody road back to your rightful home.

Features

Fallen Gods is a narrative “rogue-lite” RPG. You control the titular fallen god, who starts each game with different might, wits, health, and divine powers, and one of several animal familiars and magical artifacts. He has 90 days to win his way back to the Cloudlands, or he will lose his godhood forever. During that time, he must gather and manage a warband of up to five followers, find additional artifacts, and gain soul-strength by performing godly deeds (some kindly, some cruel). The world is full of barrows, caverns, swamps, towns, shrines, villages, castles, and other locations of interest. What you find in these places—what foes you will face in battle, what friends you can make, what dilemmas you must resolve, and what rewards you might win—changes every game. As your understanding of the world and its inhabitants grows, you will discover new strategies and develop new paths to victory, but the way will never be easy.

  • Decisions fit for a (fallen) god. Fallen Gods is about hard choices with fateful consequences. Where should you explore, what should you seek, and who should you trust? The answers are never easy, but the outcomes are always interesting.

  • Never the same story twice. Every game of Fallen Gods casts a different god into a different world, filled with different events, battles, dungeons, towns, and denizens. Even familiar encounters will change depending on your skills, followers, items, resources, and choices.

  • A rich setting inspired by sagas, myths, history, and folklore. The world of Fallen Gods is drawn from the old sources of classic fantasy with modern glosses stripped away, restoring the wonder, terror, and otherworldliness that have been lost. The themes and even language of the game are those of the great sagas.

  • A game of game-changers. The divine skills, animal familiars, human followers, and magical artifacts that you get in Fallen Gods meaningfully expand your options, rather than merely modifying some statistic.

  • Ups and downs. The protagonist of Fallen Gods starts out powerful, and while he can grow mightier, he also faces the danger of losing the strength and assets he’s gained. Weathering setbacks and taking calculated risks is the key to victory. For a fallen god, even death can be endured.

Fallen Gods on Steam

Necore Tower - Redux Edition

Necore Tower - Redux Edition

What an awesome experience! Very cool retro game. Very well designed and very well written. The sounds are awesome.

Very, very well executed!

Well done.

Real player with 3.7 hrs in game

This is a very cool game by a very passionate and talented developer.

Great art and atmosphere with a deep story.

The way Necore is setup and designed, climbing up through the towers levels, keeps you playing more and more to see what’s next and revel the story as your progress.

I highly recommend you play it!

Real player with 2.0 hrs in game

Necore Tower - Redux Edition on Steam

Fallstreak: Requiem for my Homeland

Fallstreak: Requiem for my Homeland

Humanity has tapped into the very power of possibility and has doomed itself in the process. The MC is a child soldier tasked with fighting a war over scraps, and a chance for a few humans to survive advancing armageddon. This VN is a vicious look at war, love and human ambition. There are waifus, war crimes, well written scif-fi and extreme violence. Although there are certainly better looking visual novels, the character designs are appealing and the music is surprisingly good. There are even genuinely comedic moments in all of the grim dark (An old man’s joke about painting his wife’s canvas comes to mind). Of course those happy moments are a set up for an absolutely brutal series of events that will leave you feeling hollow at the end of it. Best $5 I’ve spent all year.

Real player with 3.1 hrs in game

Rather than being a sequel to the original game, this game is the prequel. It explains alot of what happens in the original game.

While definitely shorter than the one before it, the writing, sound design, CG’s, etc. are still very good, if not better. Taking the brutal and gut wrenching descriptions of gore on a whole nother level (coming from my mind). The OST’s of this VN is amazing, perhaps at times better than the original one. While I am sad that this one doesn’t have as much gameplay to offer as the first Fallstreak, it is still a masterpiece. A diamond in the rough, just waiting to be found. Was it well worth the 4 euros I spent on it? Very. If you are reading this to see if you should buy this or not, then let me say that. This game isn’t a requirement, but if you enjoyed the first Fallstreak as much as I did then it is well worth the price.

Real player with 2.8 hrs in game

Fallstreak: Requiem for my Homeland on Steam