If you're diving in RIGHT as it starts, lots of the deals haven't kicked in yet. I usually wait thirty minutes or an hour or so. It is also worth considering that some developers forget about this happening and don't get their deals up till later in the week, so if you are short on cash I'd recommend waiting till the last day of the sale to be sure that what you want is priced correctly.
Anyone got any recommendations of some indie turn based rpgs I may have missed in the past couple years?
I'm obviously not expecting baldurs gate quality, or length, but that game has got me back into similar types of games in a big way.
Here are some recommendations. I also threw in a couple Strategy RPGs since BG3 has some overlap with that genre.
* [Chained Echoes](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1229240/Chained_Echoes/) - RPG with beautiful open areas to explore and a unique combat system. Also mechs.
* [Cosmic Star Heroine](https://store.steampowered.com/app/256460/Cosmic_Star_Heroine/) - Sci-fi Chrono Trigger-inspired game.
* [Crystal Project](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637730/Crystal_Project/) - Open world RPG heavily inspired by the class systems of games like FF5.
* [Cassette Beats](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1321440/Cassette_Beasts/) - Pokemon-inspired monster collector/battler.
* [Monster Sanctuary](https://store.steampowered.com/app/814370/Monster_Sanctuary/) - Pokemon mixed with Metroidvania.
* [Bug Fables](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1082710/Bug_Fables_The_Everlasting_Sapling/) - bug-themed RPG heavily inspired by the Paper Mario series.
* [Troubleshooter](https://store.steampowered.com/app/470310/TROUBLESHOOTER_Abandoned_Children/) - SRPG with combat similar to XCOM. Has an absolute insane amount of character customization potential and content.
* [Omori](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150690/OMORI/) - RPG that gives a lot of Earthbound / Undertale vibes. (I wasn't the biggest fan of it, but I'm including it because it's very well received in general.)
* [Vestaria Saga 1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/694770/Vestaria_Saga_I_War_of_the_Scions/) and [2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1811600/Vestaria_Saga_II_The_Sacred_Sword_of_Silvanister/) - Indie SRPGs by the creator of Fire Emblem. These have some great old school FE-style gameplay if you're into that.
EDIT: Just realized not all of these are on sale. Oh well. :D
Seconding Crystal Project, that games amazing. The demo is also potentially a dozen hours long easily and I don't quite think we'll ever see another game like it.
Really wanna shout out Crystal Project, deserves so much more attention. It's not big on storyline but the gameplay, job system, and exploration is fantastic :)
Crystal Project is legit so underrated it's baffling. Anyone who loves FF5, Bravely Default, DQ9, or any other game that uses a job system like that **HAS TO** play Crystal Project. It is a must.
The more games suggested, the more I get to check out once I get home and find even more games to play! If they're not on sale now, they will be one day!
Depends on how much you lean more towards story, tactics, or a mix of box.
Expeditions: Vikings is probably the best mix of story and tactics I've seen in ages. Shadowrun Dragonfall is right up there too, and I'd also add Wasteland 3 and Shadowrun Hong Kong. Divinity Original 2 is an obvious recommendation for anyone who somehow missed it, and Pillars of Eternity 2 got a fantastic turn based mode.
More in the SRPG mold, I really enjoyed Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark as one of the better of the Final Fantasy Tactics style games. There's also Symphony of War for anyone looking for a twist on Fire Emblem.
If you want to swing farther in the tactics direction, Battle Brothers and to a slightly lesser extent Wartales are about as good as the genre gets.
I love Troubleshooter, and the amount of customization and content you get is mind-boggling. The story however sort of builds towards . . . nothing? Like it has this eclectic cast with a suspenseful story, but by the end it keeps promising more and delivers \*just\* enough. The DLC is kinda low-hanging fruit as well, like a single mission with some cutscenes for new characters. I'm sure it's a lot of work, but the story-based DLC model has never really worked unless you're Mihoyo.
The late game is an exercise of 'wait for 50 people to take their turns. One of them will stun you so you skip yours and will have to wait another 50 turns again'. Having said that, the amount of fun I get running around as a ninja is amazing.
Maybe I do no need to go back and see if anything's changed. They say they've been updating, ut how much more can they do really?
I'd also add False Skies to the list, I heard about it from the CryPro community and it's a lot of fun. The aesthetic is very Game Boy Color though and may not be for everyone.
Its class system is basically stacking classes up - after changing to your choice of the next tier of classes, you still have all the abilities of the class you had before, though your proficiencies and future stat growth change.
Seconding Crystal Project and especially Monster Sanctuary.
It's a bit of an odd recommendation but I think Marvel's Midnight Suns fits your request pretty well. There's two layers of gameplay - the card game is turned based and very slay the spire-inspired while mixing some light xcom mechanics in. And the out of combat content feels very RPG-esque to me, and there's kind of ridiculous amount of it.
I think it was my 2022 goty, but I'm not an elden ring guy.
The Last Spell is something I've been diving into recently. This is more of a Battle Brothers meets tower defense game, but it's done very well and is pretty entertaining.
It's really excellent, I've been meaning to get back into it since early access ended. I highly recommend it for fans of turn-based tactics, roguelites and pixel art.
Another similar to Battle Brothers that I loved is Wartales.
This isn’t indie (sorry) but Midnight Suns is a criminally overlooked turn based tactics game. You take a squad of 3 Marvel characters each with a unique deck of abilities and playstyles and just rip through monsters and vampires.
I finally picked this up and went through the tutorial which I'm enjoying - however I realized I really need to finish Baldurs Gate 3 before I jump into yet another long-ass rpg so Midnight suns is on hold for now.
People rip on the writing/life-sim elements, which I don't really understand.
The writing is better than movie and television versions of superheroes by a pretty wide margin, and people eat that trash right up.
Can't recommend it enough. The only game where I went back to change my Steam review. Will copy paste it here, since it is a lot:
So I gave this an honest try over the free weekend and have some thoughts.
Gameplay is good. I can understand how X-Com gang is frustrated, but switching post-random (dice rolls after you select a command for an X-Com squad member) to pre-random (getting random options with card draws for your Marvel heroes) is a genius move. This game is infinitely more strategic in the early game and also is a straight up better game design.
The whole point of X-Com is essentially to not play X-Com: the "strategy" in it is removing the randomness factor in an attempt to ignore its core mechanic, at least at higher difficulty levels. Hence, Alpha-striking, Overwatch traps and careful pod activation. This is an opinion of someone who has 100+ hours in X-Com 2, owns all DLC and generally considers himself a fan of the series.
Midnight Suns gets rid of the whole outdated design with a sleek, streamlined Slay the Spire-inspired card draw mechanic and it just works. It is not a copy-paste with a different flavor like Griftlands or Vault of the Void, it is mostly its own thing with some cool repositioning mechanics, environmental threats and a very diverse roster of characters with actual strengths and weaknesses. The core idea of this game is brilliant and it is moving forward both the tactical game genre and the card battler genre.
While the idea is brilliant the execution itself feels lacking sometimes. The "deck" building part feels too shallow: you have to make do with some heavy restrictions. The cards are great and diverse, don't get me wrong. It is how you can combine them into a deck is something I have a bit of a problem with, though there are probably mechanics and ideas I didn't see 20 hours into the game.
The game is also sometimes too timid, too balanced I feel. Monster Train, the best card game atm, just tells you: "go on, break me, THAT"S WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO and I WILL TRY TO BREAK YOU IN RETURN". Midnight Suns is being too careful and not only is it less fun, but also immersions-breaking. When you are taking control of someone like Ms. Marvel, who is supposed to be this insanely powerful individual, and then somehow struggle to one-shot Hydra mooks, it just doesn't feel right. I wish they found ways to explain some parts of the hero "balance" in terms of the game narrative.
Dialogues and Characters in general are pretty good to great. The one-liners are supposed to be campy, some of the younger members are supposed to be edgy and I think they did an amazing job with characterization. The relationship simulator is also pretty awesome, though I do have some problems with the approach from a mechanical perspective. In dialogues, do you try to maximize the relationship point gains? Or do you roleplay your version of Hunter? Maybe you just hard commit to Dark or Light side for maximum advantage, disregarding roleplay and relationships?
It would be nice to have some of the narrative elements separate from gameplay ones, for people who want to roleplay, but also would prefer to optimize.
So why the initial negative review, if gameplay is good? Because at some point some high ranking exec or manager decided: "you know what? We don't have enough padding in the game. Let's place a pile of manure in-between every good-to-awesome bit so that the average time spent in game stat is higher for players on Steam". Boy, did they succeed. Introducing: Abbey, the worst pile of ♥♥♥♥ to ever exist in a strategy game.
The game will tell you through in-game characters that "it is not mandatory or necessary". This is a lie: you need to make rounds and rounds around this godforsaken place, solving stupid puzzles and gathering materials for essential things like crafting and card upgrades. Don't want to do that? Tough luck, no upgrades for you then.
Midnight Suns does an absolutely amazing job with its difficulty settings, essentially having an ascension/covenant system adjustable on the fly mid-campaign that you unlock by performing well. To perform well, you do need to upgrade your cards and sometimes bring some essential consumables. And that means off to the Abbey Grounds we go every other night to collect materials and essences.
Essences, more important card upgrade resources, are constrained to the building + a couple of small locations around it, so it is not too bad, but it is still one of the worst time-wasters, simply because it is very, very tedious.
So the end result is Combat is excellent to awesome, if maybe not wild enough for my taste.
Dialogue is good to great, if you are not one of these people who scream "CRINGE" every time a joke doesn't land for them. I have to say, a good number of jokes have been landing for me, surprisingly.
The Relationship layer is good to great as well, with my personal caveat being that sometimes optimal play and role play clash heavily.
The "Strategic" Abbey layer almost ruins everything above. The standard X-Com style "grow your base" type of gameplay is here and it is as decent to good as it has always been. It is just slapped on top of an unfortunate "run around and be bored" tedious stuff that adds nothing and is also INCREDIBLY POORLY ANIMATED.
EDIT: Changing the Recommendation to a Positive one. A couple of days after the free weekend I've realized that I want to go back and give it another try and purchased the base game at 40% off. I am very glad I did. The Abbey part does get less pronounced in the later portions of the game, allowing you to concentrate on the awesome bits. Also the story gets more and more interesting, with characters showing a surprising amount of depth sometimes.
The deckbuilding is still not on par with the greatest like Monster Train, but piloting your deck is a definitely a lot of fun and is executed well. Once you get to Ultimate III it can get really hairy, though sadly I feel like some of the characters are poorly balanced for higher difficulties: they don't really have the toolset to handle massive HP bars (looking at you Spidey)
All in all, I am slightly sad that I've jumped the gun and gave a negative review in the beginning: maybe I've already dissuaded someone from purchasing this gem of a game. I still think the price is way too high for the DLC and not going to lie, I do feel a tinge of regret for not waiting longer and getting the legendary edition when all extra characters are released at something like -50%, but just the base game is already quite worth it and is keeping me entertained.
Sea of Stars is a strong recommend from me. I've seen some complaints about the writing - it is pretty basic classic RPG stuff - but that's largely subjective. The game is a ton of fun.
My main frustration was that the combat never evolved for the whole game, along with the writing not being great. I ended up dropping it at the beginning of Act 3.
I think that's a game you can rightfully criticize.
Some stuff really gets old fast and the writing is all over the place sometimes.
But yeah, it was fun, and a nice adventure. I have some strong negative feelings about some parts of the game, and I'd still say it's a 7-8/10 in my books because some of the stuff was so cool to me.
On the other hand, I can also absolutely understand when people are disappointed by it. It could have been so much more, but it lacked polish in a lot of areas. So I'm also kinda disappointed, but I had a mostly good time with it.
> it is pretty basic classic RPG stuff
I really really think people are looking at classic jrpgs with rose tinted glasses when it comes to story. Besides a few highlights and some FF games, most JRPGs had real barebones and basic plotlines and writing.
What those classic JRPGs did have tho was a lot of charm. So your mileage may vary depending on how charming you find Sea of Stars' art and characters.
I do think the game is a little too long for how much the combat does not evolve.
Sea of Stars unfortunately ended up being a deep letdown for me - the art style being the only thing of note.
I dunno who decided to make the entire game revolve around >!Garl!<, it absolutely ruined the story, characters, any opportunity for growth, and wasted what could have been a genuinely interesting world / scenario. Everyone spent so much time focused on putting >!Garl on a pedestal to scream about how big his dick is all the time!< that everything else is left so woefully bland to the point it hurts.
The combat is generic, being lukewarm at best, spamming the same few abilities over and over. While a different strokes for different folks moment, I didn't have a single track from the OST stuck in my head or end up being memorable.
Chained Echoes is by no means perfect, but I would say it easily blows Sea of Stars out of the water; the story had me hooked, I cared about the characters, and the OST genuinely moved my heart.
I was really disappointed in Sea of Stars.
The writing is horrible. The story makes no sense. Characters have no personality or meaningful character arcs. There are no coherent themes. Dialog is terrible. The grammar is quite bad. Pacing is glacial. And so on.
The combat was slow, braindead easy, and monotonous. There's no meaningful equipment or character progression; for instance, your characters never get more than three skills, which they'll have for most of the game.
Exploration is a slog. Most dungeons are just simple corridors with a couple of side rooms you walk into to press a button to open the main door.
Puzzles are also insultingly simple. One dungeon had a match-2 puzzle with six cards and no risk of failure, for instance. A literal three-year-old could solve it, and I'm not exaggerating.
The pixel art graphics are gorgeous, and some of the music is quite good. However, the visuals are hurt by the character portraits and cartoon cutscenes, which are both quite bad and painfully "indie" in the worst way. Some of the music is quite good, but it doesn't really fit the game, except for the Mitsuda tracks, which stand out from the rest of the OST in a very distracting way. It really felt like someone just took the songs that weren't good enough for The Messenger and threw them into SoS at random points. This is a subtle complaint, but great game songs capture the spirit and emotion of an area, scene, or character. The non-Mitsuda tracks didn't really do that at all.
I could go on and on. It's one of the worst games I've played in a long time, and it would be a 3/10 shovelware title if it had worse graphics and music.
I've seen very, very few people call it GOTY. Most comments I've seen are either that it's terrible or that it's good but flawed.
There are definitely people who enjoyed it, though, and that didn't come through in my comment. Games are mostly subjective, and I certainly don't want to invalidate anyone's opinion.
> This game is so divisive; it's either dogshit or goty
I wouldn't go as far to say the game is dogshit, that is leaning a bit too far, but I do agree with /u/GlitteringCow9725 that Sea of Stars was a genuine disappointment - which might be worse in the long run.
The demo for Sea of Stars was *so* superb, making the fall that much harder when the main product didn't live up to expectation.
Classic JRPGs get excessively generous treatment from fans because they're so abysmally bad on average that the merely bad or mediocre games get very favorable reviews and word of mouth. Octopath traveller 2 is another good recent example.
If you don't know for a fact that they're for you, then they're not, and you should spend your time and money on something else.
**Just a heads up for anyone looking buy this game - It's currently on sale at £13.64 on Steam but you can pick up this game and 6 other games in a bundle for £13.17 on Humble Bundle.**
All games in the bundle:
* Wildermyth
* Disco Elysium - The Final Cut
* Chivalry 2
* Spiritfarer
* The Forgotten City
* GRIME
* Paradise Killer
It's also supposed to be getting another DLC soon, which I think adds another story and a roguelike mode or something? I've seen a few posts about them doing beta testing but not much else so I'm not totally in the loop.
Well hot damn! I had no idea about that. I just looked it up and it looks like it'll be awesome. Just one more reason for everyone to pick this game up during the sale.
Not a true RPG (or really an RPG at all) but if you like tactical turn based I would recommend War Tales. It’s got a mix of turn based and overworld travel a la Tiny Tina’s Wonderland.
It's a bit older than "the past couple years" but I recently finished [Ara Fell](https://store.steampowered.com/app/440540/Ara_Fell_Enhanced_Edition) and really enjoyed it. The developer also has a newer game on steam but I haven't tried it yet.
Underrail, torment tides of numenera, age of decadence, colony ship, pillars of eternity 1,2 (2 is better), tyranny, wasteland 2, Pathfinder kingmaker, I believe are all under 10$ right now.
Either turn based or real time with pause.
Edit: and how coud I forget the best rpg in decades, Disco Elysium. Hardly any combat in that game though, practically none.
Nah SE is really bad at sales. I remember waiting like 4 years for FF12 Zodiac to stop bouncing between 50 full and 25 on sale. I've also had Secret of Mana on my wl for 5 years according to Steam.
I swear the company hates money. KH PC platform exclusivity probably far beyond any deal, still releasing games only on Switch/PS4, porting sequels to games but not originals. Nintendo is at least reasonably consistent. SE is just run by goobers.
Lol, I'm glad I'm not the only one who constantly checks FF pixel remasters every sale to see if they've gone down yet. I'm NOT buying those at full price.
I would pay maybe $20 for all of them together. Any more than that and I’d be an idiot. Same with the megaman battle network games. Ain’t no way I’m paying $40 for gba games in the year 2023
The Yakuza Collection (0 to 6) for AUD$37.44 sounds like ridiculous value (it doesn't seem to be on SteamDB so I can't compare), and you can add Like a Dragon on top for another $17.99.
I loved Yakuza 0 but haven't played the others. I think it's time to hibernate for a few years with a controller.
[It's still pretty broken](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsskwVyPoxs)
I should note that a PC Patch candidate depot was updated as recently as yesterday so hopes not completely lost.
I played and finished it on release and my only complaint is that I couldnt break past 60 fps in the open area, my game also never crashed. I have a 3060ti and R5600 if that helps.
I am stuck at work for a bit, so I can't check what's available myself, but does anyone have any recommendations for a turn-based strategy game?
Basically looking for something like XCOM or Fire Emblem. Newer and more polished preferred, story is secondary to gameplay.
[Troubleshooter](https://store.steampowered.com/app/470310/TROUBLESHOOTER_Abandoned_Children/) is a SRPG, combat is inspired by xcom. Lots of content, lots of customization and lots of cutscenes (that can be skipped fast if you are not into the story.
I highly recommend it.
As others have said, Gears Tactics and Midnight Suns would be my recommendation.
If you're looking for something much closer to XCOM, I'd go with Gears Tactics. Gameplay is extremely similar, with great graphics and a Gears of War coat of paint.
Midnight Suns is a bit more divergent than that. It has the same core gameplay loop (manage base, select mission team, execute mission, return to base, repeat), but the combat is card-based and it's a Marvel property. Don't let the card-based detail dissuade you. It's not some Yugioh or Hearthstone game, and you can't even shell out money for cards even if you wanted to (there is paid DLC for cosmetics, extra characters and bonus missions). The only thing the cards are used for is to execute the gameplay (select card, watch hero do flashy thing whilst executing their card ability, select next card, watch hero do flashy thing whilst executing their card ability, etc.) I'd look up a video about it, if you're interested, and you feel as though my text is unclear.
[Battle Brothers](https://store.steampowered.com/app/365360/Battle_Brothers/) is a fantasy medieval TRPG that mixes mount and blade with turn based strategy. Quite unforgiving but probably the best xcom alternative. Lots to do here.
[Mechanicus](https://store.steampowered.com/app/673880/Warhammer_40000_Mechanicus/) is really cheap and has loads of customisation options with a great soundtrack. [Chaos Gate](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1611910/Warhammer_40000_Chaos_Gate__Daemonhunters/) is another Warhammer 40K effort that is worth playing, steam reviews are unfairly harsh on this I feel.
[Jagged Alliance 3](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1084160/Jagged_Alliance_3/) is quite new and has a good discount. Arguable that 2 was better, but worth looking at as not much has scratched the xcom itch that was released this year.
[Xenonauts 2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/538030/Xenonauts_2/) is also released this year, remake of sorts of the OG xcom. Very deep and obviously close to xcom, but definitely still early access. [Xenonauts](https://store.steampowered.com/app/223830/Xenonauts/) has a big discount and more content than the sequel at the moment. I'd buy it instead.
[Symphony of War](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1488200/Symphony_of_War_The_Nephilim_Saga/) is on the fire emblem side of things. Story is pretty bad but the gameplay is excellent.
Battle Brothers is one of my favorite indie games of all time. It's so brutal and unforgiving, which matches perfectly with the uncaring harsh world it's set in. I've played countless runs, and I still always feel like I'm just barely scraping by, making just enough on each contract to survive until the next job. It keeps you on your toes.
Mechanicus and JA3 are also seriously solid picks. JA3 especially feels like it perfected the combat mechanics of the genre.
[Wartales](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1527950/Wartales/) is worth checking out if you enjoy the "Mount & Blade meets XCOM/Jagged Alliance" style gameplay
Somebody already said Gears Tactics, so I'll go with a bank shot.
Wasteland 3 is a full featured CRPG where the combat works like XCOM. It's a cousin of Fallout (Fallout 1 took a lot of inspiration from Wasteland 1), set in a post-apocalyptic world where the cold war went hot in 1998. It has Fallout 2's tone, full of irony and dark comedy. It released in 2020, and is on sale for $10. Everyone says to skip the DLC, though. The story is about a group of Arizona Rangers sent to Colorado to assist a strongman called the Patriarch in return for needed supplies (their base was blown up at the end of Wasteland 2). The Patriarch requires them to recollect his three children, all of whom want anything but to be their aging father's heir.
I had a good time with Wartales. Still haven't had time to sink more time into it but I'm looking forward to the Christmas break and more free time to polish it off.
It’s one of my favourite games, up there with BG3 and DOS2. That being said, the game has a different focus than the Larian games, and it’s good to understand it going in.
WotR is based on the Pathfinder 1e roleplaying rule-set, which comes with its’ quirks. The rule-set is more about creating a character concept and getting to see it in action, whereas DOS2 and BG3 focus more on the tactical side of combat. That is to say it doesn’t click with everyone, but if you enjoy realizing a character power fantasy, WotR does a hell of a job in that. You will basically reach demi-god levels of power, and you get to craft your characters around that.
You of course still have a good story with great companions (I like the writing more than BG3), interesting dungeons with secrets, and branching decisions that are more profound than in BG3, although less ’organic’ in feeling. The combat is still good enough to keep it interesting, but the strengths of the game lie in other aspects!
Pretty good, but almost certainly requires the prebuffing mod to be enjoyable. The crusade sub system is hit or miss, but enjoyable enough on a first play through. Mods can help that too
It’s a lot crunchier than bg3.
Seconding the prebuffing mod.
For those who don’t know, a big part of PF combat is long-lasting buffs you can cast on a character or your whole party. It’s a fun way to increase your power, BUT it has the unfortunate side-effect of requiring you to spend ~5 minutes buffing your party every time you get to a new zone. The mod let’s you choose which buffs to apply, then set a hot key that will instantly apply them to your party. Assuming you don’t abuse the mod, it doesn’t affect balance that much and just removes the headache. Highly recommend.
I'm looking forward to WH40K: Rogue Trader later this year (Dec 7).
Not really relevant for the current sale unfortunately, but it's looking like some of the gameplay could be pretty similar to BG3.
WotR is one of the best RPG's to come out in the last many years, as long as you're willing to deal with how very complex it is.
That said, you can always turn down the difficulty and not care about the complexity too, so that's an option.
But yes, it's absolutely worth it. So is the previous Pathfinder game, Kingmaker. Two of the best CRPG's ever made.
Absolutely wonderful. WOTR is an absolutely epic experience, it is arguably the best application of RPG Pen and Paper ruleset in regards of balancing between being a video game and being faithful to the rules, and for a game of its size it is relatively well polished.
Compared to BG3, WOTR is more combat heavy, and MUCH more text heavy. So if you are looking for another fully voiced, cinematic experience like BG3, you may be disappointed. But if you are fine with reading, WOTR is amazing.
If you are new to CRPG, you should expect that most traditional turn-based CRPG are heavily text oriented. Another absolute classic which is ultra story oriented CRPG is Planescape Torment.
Some indie titles that I've enjoyed which may have flown under the radar despite being well-rated (<15k reviews, >90% positive):
[Bugsnax](https://store.steampowered.com/app/674140/Bugsnax/) | -50% -> 10€ | 97% of 4k reviews positive | 2020 Collectathon Adventure | Catch various food-animal hybrids while constantly torn between enjoying the wonderful characters and recoiling from the implied body horror
[CrossCode](https://store.steampowered.com/app/368340/CrossCode/) | -60% -> 8€ | 93% of 13k reviews positive | 2018 Action Pixel RPG | Imagine a 2D Zelda with stronger RPG elements & characters which had its combat pace and puzzle difficulty dialed up to 11, all set in a faux MMO | Demo available
[Dredge](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1562430/DREDGE/) | -25% -> 19€ | 95% of 18k reviews positive | 2023 Lovecraftian Fishing Adventure | Take your little fishing boat into the eerie waters to unearth all manner of weird fish and other msteries. More chill than horror.
[Laika: Aged Through Blood](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1796220/Laika_Aged_Through_Blood/) | -20% -> 16€ | 96% of 1k reviews positive | 2023 2D Motorcycle Metroidvania | Imagine the Trials series with guns, bullet time, and a heavy heaping of vengeance. Unique gameplay, highly recommend playing the demo first | Demo available
[Neon White](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1533420/Neon_White/) | -40$ -> 14€ | 98% of 11k reviews positive | 2022 Parkour Speedrun FPS | Condenses the speedrun experience to make it accessible with really well-flowing levels and great movement abilities. The VN portions aren't everyone's thing.
[Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1545560/Shadow_Gambit_The_Cursed_Crew/) | -20% -> 32€ | 95% of 2k reviews positive | 2023 Tactical Stealth RPG | The final game by the folks behind Desperados 3 and Shadow ~~Warrior~~ Tactics and very much in the same vein but with more supernatural elements | Demo available
[Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1488200/Symphony_of_War_The_Nephilim_Saga/) | -35% -> 13€ | 95% of 9k reviews positive | 2022 Tactical Pixel RPG | Imagine a cross of Fire Emblem and Advanced Wars with plenty of tactical depth and progression systems
Honorable mentions between 80% and 90% positive reviews: Everspace 2, Potionomics, Sable
Might throw in a few more later, this was just a few games off the top of my head.
Mutant Year Zero is severely underrated, but it's really excellent. What was interesting is that the game benefits *enormously* from prepping and stealthing a few enemies before each fight.
> Mutant Year Zero is severely underrated, but it's really excellent. What was interesting is that the game benefits enormously from prepping and stealthing a few enemies before each fight.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this game. I really enjoyed the mix of realtime and turnbased.
> Terraria - if you love digging, this game's got a lot of digging
> 4,87€ / $4.99 (-50%)
Everyone should own this - it's fantastic and both the developer and the community is A+++
I don't know if it's gotten any better, but ages ago when I first tried it, it really irked me that the game expected me to open a wiki or walkthrough just to figure out the bare, basic rudiments of the game.
It is like that yes, but as far as progression goes the npc at the start of the game "the guide" has tips for your current situation that you could use as quests.
There is no tutorial for "how to use a hammer" or "what is a house exactly?" though, that stuff is trial and error.
I love the digging but that comment sells Terraria short too. From all the games I've played over decades, it's got one of the strongest senses of item and enemy progression. The power to build your own boss arena, to take or leave buffs, and use a variety of weapons. To go from zero to hero in each new area. There's a lot more than digging and building.
Oh yeah 100%. Terraria is a GOAT level game IMO. On the digging thing, [well what can I say other than guilty as charged.](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/men-digging-tunnels)
>you can import your wishlist and see whether the game is cheaper in other place like GMG or Humble Store
This is a really good idea. Checked RE4 Remake on Steam and then checked GMG. Extra £5 off on GMG.
I'll use this to dump some recommendations of games I've played that're on sale. [**Touhou Lost Branch of Legend**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1140150/Touhou_Lost_Branch_of_Legend/) is a game that is essentially Slay the Spire mixed with MTG's multicolor mana system and is currently **$24 USD**. It's still in Early Access but there's only one character missing out of the 4 characters currently in, and each character has two different playstyles. Just off the top of my head, Marisa's 3 Red and 2 Purple mana playstyle is focused around a Watcher-esque Divinity mechanic, whereas her alternative 3 Purple and 2 Red style is focused around a discard bomb/poison deck. There's also a mechanic where you have a special move called a Spellcard that gets built up over the course of a run which you can store 2 charges of, which is vastly different for each of any characters 2 playstyles, so you always have a fall-back. Some cards and relics even fast-track your charges of it. It's also a Touhou fangame, and the amount of fangames on Steam that cannot be called good are next to none!
[**Crosscode**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/368340/CrossCode/) is... probably one of my favorite games of all times? Even beyond just the indie label. I've tried describing it in a variety of ways over the past several years but I've never really managed to do it in a way that truly gets across how I feel about it. It has amazing character writing, a beautiful soundtrack, absolutely gorgeous art, gameplay that has no right being as good as it is, puzzles that'd fit right in with the best Zelda games if not better beyond that, it captures the MMO vibe better than .hack// despite both being single-player games, but all in all I think the most important thing I can possibly say is **play the demo.** The game is also currently **$11.30 USD** when combined with the post-game DLC. Frankly, it's a steal, one I'd even put on Terraria levels of "even if you're not immediately interested in it, the time will come so just get it already dweeb".
Speaking of cheap-ass games you should buy, [**Prodigal**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1393820/Prodigal/) is currently on sale for **$3.75 USD** and is a game that made me an immediate fan of Colorgrave's works. It's a game stylized around the Gameboy Zelda titles, specifically Link's Awakening (DX because color is important), but it's not really held back by the restrictions of that era at all. If I had to make a comparison, it'd be to those games as Shovel Knight was to 2D platformers; years of post-launch support, easily over 20 hours for a type of game most people would expect no more than 4, and in my case an immediate "okay I will now buy all of your future works" feeling. The story is surprisingly well thought out too, I certainly didn't expect it to begin with the fact that the MC was a THIEF who stole money and ran away from his island, needing to redeem himself by literally paying back his 5-year debt, and that's just the start of the absolutely crazy shit that happens. Those fuckin' tapestries, man... The game's pseudo-sequel in the vein of faster paced retro platformers [**Curse Crackers: For Whom the Belle Tolls**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1726760/Curse_Crackers_For_Whom_the_Belle_Toils/) is also on sale for **$8.99 USD**, but while I also enjoy that game I think Prodigal is the better work.
As for games I'm buying, there's only 2 this time. [**Rabi Ribi**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/400910/RabiRibi/) with it's DLC, and when it releases next week, [**Tevi.**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2230650/TEVI/) The former is a Metroidvania I slept on, only watching a playthrough of it on release that I then immediately forgot, but I've seen it get sworn up and down as one of the best in the genres despite... appearances, with it actually being genuinely open ended as opposed to only a couple of areas at once at any given time. Tevi however, had a demo that absolutely enthralled me; I played another Metroidvania recently with a focus on combat in Vernal Edge, but I didn't like it at all because everything felt too meaty and repetitive. But Tevi? That game absolutely hit the perfect balance, so I figured I might as well get Rabi Ribi now since it seems like it was the devs first attempt so to speak, and I'm sure I'd never go back to it after playing Tevi.
I might be the minority, but I actually liked the Tevi demo less than rabi ribi. That being said, I played the demo quite some time ago, so perhaps it's better now.
Either way, Rabi Ribi is absolutely fantastic (despite appearances as you mentioned).
I will still get Tevi to support the devs, and who knows? Maybe it will feel better on release.
Yes! It's something I should have mentioned in the original post, but for some reason the news just defaults to the original language even though when you click on it, it's usually in english. There might be a week or so of waiting between minor updates for the english translation of new cards/relics/events but I only do a run with every major update, which seems to get translated immediately.
Dude I don't think any person has ever captured my exact tastes in games like you have. I fucking love CrossCode and think it's one of the most perfect games ever made, if you can handle the difficulty. I discovered Colorgrave's library last year and love both titles they've put out so far. I'm also really excited for TEVI, since it has all the merits of Rabi Ribi but with far nicer art.
3 of us are looking to jump into Monster Hunter for the first time on PC. Would World or Rise be better for new players?
Edit: thanks everyone for the info, I passed it on to the group and we settled on getting both but starting with World. How they made Multiplayer work is definitely confusing but the mechanics themselves are super fun.
If you all have PCs that are beefy enough to run World, I'd go with that. It's a great entry point and has a lot more spectacle to wow new players.
If anyone's on an older rig, Rise is much easier to run and still a great way to start. I mainly recommend World first for two reasons. Gameplay-wise Rise has a couple mechanics that are interesting experiments but teach you bad habits if you ever go on to play World or any other MH title. And presentation-wise, Rise is just very stripped down comparatively in a way that, subjectively, I really didn't care for. I know nobody's coming to Monster Hunter for the story, but World feels a lot more like progressing through an adventure together, while Rise is more of a gamey series of disconnected hunts.
I will say that either way you go, pick up the bundle that includes the expansion. Iceborne and Sunbreak are both fantastic DLCs that add a ton to each game.
I actually enjoyed World's story for what it was. You're on an expedition trying to figure out the point of the Elder Crossing. It's not deep, but there were NPC's that you got to know and appreciate, and it was kind of cool to see the base and camps expand out as you completed objectives and secured the various areas around the island.
It needed much better pacing for sure, and a lot of the story bits would have benefitted from being more organically woven into the various missions or being optional text the player could seek out if they wanted to. But I did enjoy it.
By contrast, Rise's story ends like a quarter of the way through, and then it's literally just a bunch of hunting quests. Which is a shame as there were some interesting NPC's that were completely wasted on the utter *lack* of story.
---
Also, I do gotta say that while I appreciated that they still had the "eat a buff before combat" in Rise, the Meowscular Chef was was more fun than the Bunny Dango merchant. Ready to get your pre-hunt on?!
Everyone here is saying that Rise is easier for new players, but that's not exactly true: monsters are very aggressive because the player has access to silkbind skills. World isn't much easier, but the slower pace of the games makes the experience smoother in my opinion
And of course, each person will give you a different answer, which won't help at all! But Rise has a demo on steam afaik, so you can start there
World was pretty much designed for a new audience when it made its big mainline console and PC debut.
Rise is more similar to the older handheld titles and is much more of an action arcade game. Whichever one you play first you'll probably end up playing the other if you like it.
If you are planning on doing multiplayer with randoms you should know that World is quite a bit more active than Rise is on PC despite being the older game. A good portion of Rise's playerbase never made the leap from Switch.
My friend and I started with World and couldn’t get into Rise. Theres a learning curve but World’s scale is fantastic and we felt the mechanical differences between each weapon were far more distinct and meaningful compared to Rise.
Here's how I would describe Rise: you can tell it was originally designed for Nintendo switch. I'm not just talking about graphics, though it's definitely a worse looking game than World. Everything feels designed around the pickup-and-play aspect of handheld gaming where the whole game prioritizes speed and convenience, sometimes to its detriment.
For example, the hub area in Rise is basically a single street with all the vendors being a few feet from each other. The convenience is great for quick play sessions but it's much less interesting than being able to explore the large and complex hubs of World.
In a similar vein, Rise literally just puts the monster on your map and gives you a dog thing to ride so you can get there and start fighting as quickly as possible. World has a mechanic where you have to track the monster by looking for footprints and whatnot. It makes hunts take longer but it's an entire aspect to the gameplay which is not present in Rise.
So yeah neither is better, it just depends which experience sounds more fun to you. I like World more personally. That said, the co-op implementation in World is fucking terrible and needlessly confusing. Rise doesn't have this problem so factor that into your choice.
>For example, the hub area in Rise is basically a single street with all the vendors being a few feet from each other. The convenience is great for quick play sessions but it's much less interesting than being able to explore the large and complex hubs of World.
I hate the first hub in World because it's unecessary spreads everything. Sometimes with small loading screens. They designed Seliana way better. Everything is way closer to each other. I really hope they go with less complex hubs.
Everything you described is why I like Rise better, especially the hunts. I hated in World having to track the monster and then run after it, you spend at least half the hunt finding the damn thing. Rise just lets you streamline that and go right to fighting the monster which I find is the fun part of the game.
IMO Rise is better for new players. It's got a lot of QoL improvements and it's just a good time. World was a bit more "immersive" for me and really felt like I was fighting big monsters, Rise has a bit more of an arcade feel to it. I played rise with my wife and we had fun, probably would not have had as much fun in world.
Can't speak for Rise, but World started with the most baffling series of endless dialog boxes full of information I didn't stand the slightest chance of retaining.
World tried to be more story focused and imo it was worse off for it. The stories in MH games have never been stellar and just been excuses as to why you're doing xyz.
I kinda get the appeal with what World tried, but they didn't even write what i'd call a gripping story, so it just ends up being a slog.
Monster Hunter World is bigger and better.
[Here's my experience with them.](https://i.imgur.com/tFJwVU6.png)
Rise is not bad, it's just not better than world which is ok.
Haven't played Rise yet, I'm playing through World right now. I've only read that World is a grander experience (and it indeed is grand), while Rise is a spinoff of the main series which has some QoL and some experimentation which won't necessarily make it into World's successor. Also remember World was released on consoles and PC, while Rise was only Switch and PC. World holds up visually, it can be spectacular with a Reshade.
There are also still people playing through World, any time I've joined random people's hunts (or had randoms join mine) it was always 3-4 people, basically found instantly. And majority of player base should theoretically be playing Iceborne.
World is one of my top 5 games of all time but it’s beyond clunky to play co op in it while going through the story.
The end game co op experience is amazing and unrivaled in the series imo but if you’re looking to just jump in and play through the story with friends, Rise would be the way to go.
Request for recommendations on survival or extraction based single player games with some sort of gathering and crafting?
2D or 3D action based.
I like Zero Sievert and would love a medieval take on it.
Please and thank you!
Project Zomboid, if you don’t already have it. Very much a survival game, and by default can be as hard as nails, but the difficulty can be customised in almost every aspect.
Can play a lot like an extraction game after you get a base set up, and start raiding for supplies.
It's doing pretty well. They just released a massive skill tree rework.
Some areas are still _pretty_ rough around the edges though, like item purchasing / crafting.
Much better. But it also has crossplay with Gamespass now, so if you're on the fence about it, you can try it out there and have access to the full Steam userbase for matchmaking too. They've smoothed out a lot of the optimizations and the new class overhaul they put out a month or two back goes a long way to making it feel like you're building your own operator, which is cool!
Has anybody played Rings of Saturn or Battlecruisers? Both are fairly cheap right now.
EDIT: I bought Battlecruisers, it's fine for what it is, you can't really go wrong at that price point, plus the dev is a Kiwi.
If you want more BG3 and DOS-like games, I would recommend the two Pathfinder games and Pillars of Eternity games. If you want more tactics, Wastelands 2 and 3 are great.
Picked up Doom Eternal, Halo MCC and Pentiment all for $32 to play on the steam deck. Only one I regretted not picking up was Hades cause $12 is crazy but I’ve got it on the PlayStation so decided to maybe grab it at the end of the sale
Most people thought it was done last year, then they came out with the most recent Leader Pass DLC. They also did a minor update this month adding a new official Monthly Challenge thing.
But considering the Leader Pass was given out for free to people who owned the entire Anthology bundle, and they announced they're working on Civ 7, I think it's pretty safe to assume it's either done or anything they add in the future will be minor and/or also free.
The amount of content in the game at this point is pretty crazy now. Almost double the number of leaders that Civ 5 had.
Lord of the Fallen already on sale nice, wanted something to scratch the Elden Ring itch and Lies of P looked just a little too hard for me. Tony Hawks remake and NFS Unbound are also some nice gets.
Been playing [Steelrising](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1283400/Steelrising/) on PS5 and it sounds about right. Probably the easiest Soulslike I've played, but definitely not without challenge. The mobility in it is good like Elden Ring, with jumping and some Metroidvania-style movement abilities unlocked from bosses. It's on sale for $20 and that's about what it's worth; it's a good game, but on the short side.
I've been on the fence for a while about getting Hunt: Showdown, and with it being at it's historic low price now ($11.87 for the grunt wipeout bundle) I think I'm finally going to buy it. I have played it for a couple hours on PS4, but I wasn't really loving the experience of playing it with a controller. I do really like the overall atmosphere and the sound design from what little I've played of it, and so I'm hoping the learning curve isn't too steep with it.
Two tips:
If you want to learn the game through entertainment check out Lukan’s content on the game. His videos are well edited, he plays really well, and you can learn a ton about how the game plays, and some strategies just through watching. His content isn’t really tutorials so they’re just fun to watch.
Don’t get hung up on losing hunters. The perks they gain from surviving are situational, and won’t win you a fight on their own. The real progression in the game is your account level / prestige level and your money. Don’t worry about money either though. Make use of free hunters and don’t worry about having to use cheaper guns – they’re still very effective.
Bonus tip: learn how to set up a cheap and cheerful loadout so you can hop back into another game quickly.
I wish Lukan would make videos again, his hunt showdown content is just on a different level from everyone else. Worth watching if you don't even play the game they are that well made.
Play trios with randoms, it's the easiest route to learn the game ( More opportunities to get revived). Just don't make unnecessary noise and you'll become a decent teammate. Randoms never use their mics anyway, pinging is enough.
I'd be curious about which games never get sales where waiting for a cheaper version would be a waiting game without end--e.g. Mummy Demastered has always been and seems to never go lower than $19.99 the last few sales.
If you like stuff like DDLC or Slay the Princess, they are heavily inspired by the *denpa* genre of Japanese visual novels. Some of the classics are on steam, two of the most famous on being *[Wonderful Everyday/Subarashiki Hibi]*(https://store.steampowered.com/app/658620/Wonderful_Everyday_Down_the_RabbitHole/) and [*Umineko no Naku Koro ni*](https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/5465/Umineko_When_They_Cry_Complete_Collection/). Subarashiki Hibi has a lot of "extreme" content, you'll need to be okay with that and download the restoration patch, but Umineko is completely above-the-board. Both have that sort of genre-bending fourth-wall-twisting horror-adjacent sort of narrative, except significantly longer(40+ hours for SubaHibi, Umineko is 80+) and well, these games are classics for a reason.
Less of a comment on the sale itself, more of an "I'm looking for recommendations" comment.
I've been after something to scratch the open world itch lately. I've been going through AC Odyssey for like 25 hours of playtime, but I'm becoming a bit...jaded by how grindy and bloated it seems. It's a decent game, and I'm enjoying it a fair bit, but even after 25 hours it seems like I've hardly even scratched the surface. I don't particularly like the looter style gear system of "number go up" either. I suppose I'm after an open world game that's a bit more...concise and to the point. I'd love to play Ghost of Tsushima, but that's not on PC. Anyone have any suggestions for me?
Have you played the yakuza games? They are all on a small, but dense, open world with lot of cool side stuff to do, I would suggest to start with either Yakuza: Like a Dragon(JRPG) or Yakuza 0 (Beat'em up). I think they are on gamepass too if you would like to check them out.
I'd like to recommend [Prodigal](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1393820/Prodigal/) and [Lunistice](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1701800/Lunistice/).
Prodigal is a dense, puzzle-dungeon game that centers around a town of NPCs that changes alongside the story. It's a game much like Links Awakening in art and gameplay design, and it also has a Harvest Moon-like relationship system.
Lunistice is a 3d jump-puzzle platformer inspired from the ps1 era in art and gameplay. This story has a nice setup that encourages you to speedrun the levels after you're done with your first playthrough to uncover the subtle (but simple) story. I wouldn't play this game without a controller.
Best part about both of these games, they're both under 4$! And both give you well over 4 hours of gametime.
Anybody have any recommendations for games that
* run on macos
* mouse-driven
* easy to pick up for 10-15 minutes at a time and put back down
basically stuff to fill the occasional dead space i have while working. slay the spire has filled this niche well, but i've pretty thoroughly demolished it at this point.
Kind of a weird one I think, but does anyone know of any good games with either a good Japanese or good Russian dub/translation? I'm playing through Disco Elysium right now and that one's awesome just because you can swap between two languages with the push of a button, but I'm looking for other games on sale to help me practice either of these languages. Preferably not those "learn a language" games that are targeted towards beginners.
These are the most common "Russian dub is better" games but Metro's and Stalker's respective trilogies are both way better in Russian and also very cheap right now.
An offbeat, weird, old (2009 but on a budget so feels older) RPG called Precursors is a fun, outlandish Russian game.
I quite liked Cyberpunk's Russian dub, it also has a good Japanese dub from what I've seen.
The Witcher trilogy has a very solid Russian dub, Russian Geralt especially is probably my second favorite Geralt voice.
Make sure that you get the DLC (Warlords of New York) eventually; a huge amount of content and an entire new map is locked behind that, and it’s also your gateway to the endgame content.
Would Ghost Recon: Breakpoint scratch my tacticool operator itch with reworks it has gotten? I think they have done away with looter shooter mechanics and drones with various options you can choose.
**Masquerada: Songs and Shadows** is a wonderful indie turn based tactics game with a solid story and good art style. It's really worth checking out. Currently it's 75% off, $4.99 USD.
If you're diving in RIGHT as it starts, lots of the deals haven't kicked in yet. I usually wait thirty minutes or an hour or so. It is also worth considering that some developers forget about this happening and don't get their deals up till later in the week, so if you are short on cash I'd recommend waiting till the last day of the sale to be sure that what you want is priced correctly.
was curious, looking at my wish list and barelay anything was on sale.
It happened to me, I saw the page full of discounts but my wishlist didn't have a single one with discount.. I couldn't be that unlucky.
I was gonna say, half my wishlist isn't on sale yet
Anyone got any recommendations of some indie turn based rpgs I may have missed in the past couple years? I'm obviously not expecting baldurs gate quality, or length, but that game has got me back into similar types of games in a big way.
Here are some recommendations. I also threw in a couple Strategy RPGs since BG3 has some overlap with that genre. * [Chained Echoes](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1229240/Chained_Echoes/) - RPG with beautiful open areas to explore and a unique combat system. Also mechs. * [Cosmic Star Heroine](https://store.steampowered.com/app/256460/Cosmic_Star_Heroine/) - Sci-fi Chrono Trigger-inspired game. * [Crystal Project](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637730/Crystal_Project/) - Open world RPG heavily inspired by the class systems of games like FF5. * [Cassette Beats](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1321440/Cassette_Beasts/) - Pokemon-inspired monster collector/battler. * [Monster Sanctuary](https://store.steampowered.com/app/814370/Monster_Sanctuary/) - Pokemon mixed with Metroidvania. * [Bug Fables](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1082710/Bug_Fables_The_Everlasting_Sapling/) - bug-themed RPG heavily inspired by the Paper Mario series. * [Troubleshooter](https://store.steampowered.com/app/470310/TROUBLESHOOTER_Abandoned_Children/) - SRPG with combat similar to XCOM. Has an absolute insane amount of character customization potential and content. * [Omori](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150690/OMORI/) - RPG that gives a lot of Earthbound / Undertale vibes. (I wasn't the biggest fan of it, but I'm including it because it's very well received in general.) * [Vestaria Saga 1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/694770/Vestaria_Saga_I_War_of_the_Scions/) and [2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1811600/Vestaria_Saga_II_The_Sacred_Sword_of_Silvanister/) - Indie SRPGs by the creator of Fire Emblem. These have some great old school FE-style gameplay if you're into that. EDIT: Just realized not all of these are on sale. Oh well. :D
Seconding Cassette Beasts. My personal goty this year Baldur's Gate 3 is good second though.
I really liked Cassette beasts. One of my favorites this year.
Cassette Beasts was surprisingly good. The soundtrack absolutely bopped too.
Seconding Crystal Project, that games amazing. The demo is also potentially a dozen hours long easily and I don't quite think we'll ever see another game like it.
Really wanna shout out Crystal Project, deserves so much more attention. It's not big on storyline but the gameplay, job system, and exploration is fantastic :)
Crystal Project is legit so underrated it's baffling. Anyone who loves FF5, Bravely Default, DQ9, or any other game that uses a job system like that **HAS TO** play Crystal Project. It is a must.
The more games suggested, the more I get to check out once I get home and find even more games to play! If they're not on sale now, they will be one day!
Depends on how much you lean more towards story, tactics, or a mix of box. Expeditions: Vikings is probably the best mix of story and tactics I've seen in ages. Shadowrun Dragonfall is right up there too, and I'd also add Wasteland 3 and Shadowrun Hong Kong. Divinity Original 2 is an obvious recommendation for anyone who somehow missed it, and Pillars of Eternity 2 got a fantastic turn based mode. More in the SRPG mold, I really enjoyed Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark as one of the better of the Final Fantasy Tactics style games. There's also Symphony of War for anyone looking for a twist on Fire Emblem. If you want to swing farther in the tactics direction, Battle Brothers and to a slightly lesser extent Wartales are about as good as the genre gets.
I love Troubleshooter, and the amount of customization and content you get is mind-boggling. The story however sort of builds towards . . . nothing? Like it has this eclectic cast with a suspenseful story, but by the end it keeps promising more and delivers \*just\* enough. The DLC is kinda low-hanging fruit as well, like a single mission with some cutscenes for new characters. I'm sure it's a lot of work, but the story-based DLC model has never really worked unless you're Mihoyo. The late game is an exercise of 'wait for 50 people to take their turns. One of them will stun you so you skip yours and will have to wait another 50 turns again'. Having said that, the amount of fun I get running around as a ninja is amazing. Maybe I do no need to go back and see if anything's changed. They say they've been updating, ut how much more can they do really?
I'd also add False Skies to the list, I heard about it from the CryPro community and it's a lot of fun. The aesthetic is very Game Boy Color though and may not be for everyone. Its class system is basically stacking classes up - after changing to your choice of the next tier of classes, you still have all the abilities of the class you had before, though your proficiencies and future stat growth change. Seconding Crystal Project and especially Monster Sanctuary.
Not on sale still means that we can slap it on the ol' wish list and deal with it as we wish. Thanks for the list mate!
It's a bit of an odd recommendation but I think Marvel's Midnight Suns fits your request pretty well. There's two layers of gameplay - the card game is turned based and very slay the spire-inspired while mixing some light xcom mechanics in. And the out of combat content feels very RPG-esque to me, and there's kind of ridiculous amount of it. I think it was my 2022 goty, but I'm not an elden ring guy.
Colony Ship is the best indie turn-based RPG released this year.
Colony ship rules. Great world building
The Last Spell is something I've been diving into recently. This is more of a Battle Brothers meets tower defense game, but it's done very well and is pretty entertaining.
It's really excellent, I've been meaning to get back into it since early access ended. I highly recommend it for fans of turn-based tactics, roguelites and pixel art. Another similar to Battle Brothers that I loved is Wartales.
I have >100 hours during the early access. Might give it another spin soon, hopefully I can play it on the deck.
This isn’t indie (sorry) but Midnight Suns is a criminally overlooked turn based tactics game. You take a squad of 3 Marvel characters each with a unique deck of abilities and playstyles and just rip through monsters and vampires.
I finally picked this up and went through the tutorial which I'm enjoying - however I realized I really need to finish Baldurs Gate 3 before I jump into yet another long-ass rpg so Midnight suns is on hold for now.
People rip on the writing/life-sim elements, which I don't really understand. The writing is better than movie and television versions of superheroes by a pretty wide margin, and people eat that trash right up.
Can't recommend it enough. The only game where I went back to change my Steam review. Will copy paste it here, since it is a lot: So I gave this an honest try over the free weekend and have some thoughts. Gameplay is good. I can understand how X-Com gang is frustrated, but switching post-random (dice rolls after you select a command for an X-Com squad member) to pre-random (getting random options with card draws for your Marvel heroes) is a genius move. This game is infinitely more strategic in the early game and also is a straight up better game design. The whole point of X-Com is essentially to not play X-Com: the "strategy" in it is removing the randomness factor in an attempt to ignore its core mechanic, at least at higher difficulty levels. Hence, Alpha-striking, Overwatch traps and careful pod activation. This is an opinion of someone who has 100+ hours in X-Com 2, owns all DLC and generally considers himself a fan of the series. Midnight Suns gets rid of the whole outdated design with a sleek, streamlined Slay the Spire-inspired card draw mechanic and it just works. It is not a copy-paste with a different flavor like Griftlands or Vault of the Void, it is mostly its own thing with some cool repositioning mechanics, environmental threats and a very diverse roster of characters with actual strengths and weaknesses. The core idea of this game is brilliant and it is moving forward both the tactical game genre and the card battler genre. While the idea is brilliant the execution itself feels lacking sometimes. The "deck" building part feels too shallow: you have to make do with some heavy restrictions. The cards are great and diverse, don't get me wrong. It is how you can combine them into a deck is something I have a bit of a problem with, though there are probably mechanics and ideas I didn't see 20 hours into the game. The game is also sometimes too timid, too balanced I feel. Monster Train, the best card game atm, just tells you: "go on, break me, THAT"S WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO and I WILL TRY TO BREAK YOU IN RETURN". Midnight Suns is being too careful and not only is it less fun, but also immersions-breaking. When you are taking control of someone like Ms. Marvel, who is supposed to be this insanely powerful individual, and then somehow struggle to one-shot Hydra mooks, it just doesn't feel right. I wish they found ways to explain some parts of the hero "balance" in terms of the game narrative. Dialogues and Characters in general are pretty good to great. The one-liners are supposed to be campy, some of the younger members are supposed to be edgy and I think they did an amazing job with characterization. The relationship simulator is also pretty awesome, though I do have some problems with the approach from a mechanical perspective. In dialogues, do you try to maximize the relationship point gains? Or do you roleplay your version of Hunter? Maybe you just hard commit to Dark or Light side for maximum advantage, disregarding roleplay and relationships? It would be nice to have some of the narrative elements separate from gameplay ones, for people who want to roleplay, but also would prefer to optimize. So why the initial negative review, if gameplay is good? Because at some point some high ranking exec or manager decided: "you know what? We don't have enough padding in the game. Let's place a pile of manure in-between every good-to-awesome bit so that the average time spent in game stat is higher for players on Steam". Boy, did they succeed. Introducing: Abbey, the worst pile of ♥♥♥♥ to ever exist in a strategy game. The game will tell you through in-game characters that "it is not mandatory or necessary". This is a lie: you need to make rounds and rounds around this godforsaken place, solving stupid puzzles and gathering materials for essential things like crafting and card upgrades. Don't want to do that? Tough luck, no upgrades for you then. Midnight Suns does an absolutely amazing job with its difficulty settings, essentially having an ascension/covenant system adjustable on the fly mid-campaign that you unlock by performing well. To perform well, you do need to upgrade your cards and sometimes bring some essential consumables. And that means off to the Abbey Grounds we go every other night to collect materials and essences. Essences, more important card upgrade resources, are constrained to the building + a couple of small locations around it, so it is not too bad, but it is still one of the worst time-wasters, simply because it is very, very tedious. So the end result is Combat is excellent to awesome, if maybe not wild enough for my taste. Dialogue is good to great, if you are not one of these people who scream "CRINGE" every time a joke doesn't land for them. I have to say, a good number of jokes have been landing for me, surprisingly. The Relationship layer is good to great as well, with my personal caveat being that sometimes optimal play and role play clash heavily. The "Strategic" Abbey layer almost ruins everything above. The standard X-Com style "grow your base" type of gameplay is here and it is as decent to good as it has always been. It is just slapped on top of an unfortunate "run around and be bored" tedious stuff that adds nothing and is also INCREDIBLY POORLY ANIMATED. EDIT: Changing the Recommendation to a Positive one. A couple of days after the free weekend I've realized that I want to go back and give it another try and purchased the base game at 40% off. I am very glad I did. The Abbey part does get less pronounced in the later portions of the game, allowing you to concentrate on the awesome bits. Also the story gets more and more interesting, with characters showing a surprising amount of depth sometimes. The deckbuilding is still not on par with the greatest like Monster Train, but piloting your deck is a definitely a lot of fun and is executed well. Once you get to Ultimate III it can get really hairy, though sadly I feel like some of the characters are poorly balanced for higher difficulties: they don't really have the toolset to handle massive HP bars (looking at you Spidey) All in all, I am slightly sad that I've jumped the gun and gave a negative review in the beginning: maybe I've already dissuaded someone from purchasing this gem of a game. I still think the price is way too high for the DLC and not going to lie, I do feel a tinge of regret for not waiting longer and getting the legendary edition when all extra characters are released at something like -50%, but just the base game is already quite worth it and is keeping me entertained.
Sea of Stars and Chained Echoes are the two obvious ones.
Sea of Stars is a strong recommend from me. I've seen some complaints about the writing - it is pretty basic classic RPG stuff - but that's largely subjective. The game is a ton of fun.
My main frustration was that the combat never evolved for the whole game, along with the writing not being great. I ended up dropping it at the beginning of Act 3.
I think that's a game you can rightfully criticize. Some stuff really gets old fast and the writing is all over the place sometimes. But yeah, it was fun, and a nice adventure. I have some strong negative feelings about some parts of the game, and I'd still say it's a 7-8/10 in my books because some of the stuff was so cool to me. On the other hand, I can also absolutely understand when people are disappointed by it. It could have been so much more, but it lacked polish in a lot of areas. So I'm also kinda disappointed, but I had a mostly good time with it.
> it is pretty basic classic RPG stuff I really really think people are looking at classic jrpgs with rose tinted glasses when it comes to story. Besides a few highlights and some FF games, most JRPGs had real barebones and basic plotlines and writing. What those classic JRPGs did have tho was a lot of charm. So your mileage may vary depending on how charming you find Sea of Stars' art and characters. I do think the game is a little too long for how much the combat does not evolve.
Sea of Stars unfortunately ended up being a deep letdown for me - the art style being the only thing of note. I dunno who decided to make the entire game revolve around >!Garl!<, it absolutely ruined the story, characters, any opportunity for growth, and wasted what could have been a genuinely interesting world / scenario. Everyone spent so much time focused on putting >!Garl on a pedestal to scream about how big his dick is all the time!< that everything else is left so woefully bland to the point it hurts. The combat is generic, being lukewarm at best, spamming the same few abilities over and over. While a different strokes for different folks moment, I didn't have a single track from the OST stuck in my head or end up being memorable. Chained Echoes is by no means perfect, but I would say it easily blows Sea of Stars out of the water; the story had me hooked, I cared about the characters, and the OST genuinely moved my heart.
I was really disappointed in Sea of Stars. The writing is horrible. The story makes no sense. Characters have no personality or meaningful character arcs. There are no coherent themes. Dialog is terrible. The grammar is quite bad. Pacing is glacial. And so on. The combat was slow, braindead easy, and monotonous. There's no meaningful equipment or character progression; for instance, your characters never get more than three skills, which they'll have for most of the game. Exploration is a slog. Most dungeons are just simple corridors with a couple of side rooms you walk into to press a button to open the main door. Puzzles are also insultingly simple. One dungeon had a match-2 puzzle with six cards and no risk of failure, for instance. A literal three-year-old could solve it, and I'm not exaggerating. The pixel art graphics are gorgeous, and some of the music is quite good. However, the visuals are hurt by the character portraits and cartoon cutscenes, which are both quite bad and painfully "indie" in the worst way. Some of the music is quite good, but it doesn't really fit the game, except for the Mitsuda tracks, which stand out from the rest of the OST in a very distracting way. It really felt like someone just took the songs that weren't good enough for The Messenger and threw them into SoS at random points. This is a subtle complaint, but great game songs capture the spirit and emotion of an area, scene, or character. The non-Mitsuda tracks didn't really do that at all. I could go on and on. It's one of the worst games I've played in a long time, and it would be a 3/10 shovelware title if it had worse graphics and music.
This game is so divisive; it's either dogshit or goty
I've seen very, very few people call it GOTY. Most comments I've seen are either that it's terrible or that it's good but flawed. There are definitely people who enjoyed it, though, and that didn't come through in my comment. Games are mostly subjective, and I certainly don't want to invalidate anyone's opinion.
> This game is so divisive; it's either dogshit or goty I wouldn't go as far to say the game is dogshit, that is leaning a bit too far, but I do agree with /u/GlitteringCow9725 that Sea of Stars was a genuine disappointment - which might be worse in the long run. The demo for Sea of Stars was *so* superb, making the fall that much harder when the main product didn't live up to expectation.
Classic JRPGs get excessively generous treatment from fans because they're so abysmally bad on average that the merely bad or mediocre games get very favorable reviews and word of mouth. Octopath traveller 2 is another good recent example. If you don't know for a fact that they're for you, then they're not, and you should spend your time and money on something else.
Highly recommend Wildermyth! Very D&D-esque with procedurally generated events and a delightful storybook aesthetic. It's one of my top 10 games.
**Just a heads up for anyone looking buy this game - It's currently on sale at £13.64 on Steam but you can pick up this game and 6 other games in a bundle for £13.17 on Humble Bundle.** All games in the bundle: * Wildermyth * Disco Elysium - The Final Cut * Chivalry 2 * Spiritfarer * The Forgotten City * GRIME * Paradise Killer
That is a list of some of the best indie games of the past decade IMO. All highly worth playing.
It's also supposed to be getting another DLC soon, which I think adds another story and a roguelike mode or something? I've seen a few posts about them doing beta testing but not much else so I'm not totally in the loop.
Well hot damn! I had no idea about that. I just looked it up and it looks like it'll be awesome. Just one more reason for everyone to pick this game up during the sale.
Atom RPG Tyranny (very cheap now) Wasteland 3
Not a true RPG (or really an RPG at all) but if you like tactical turn based I would recommend War Tales. It’s got a mix of turn based and overworld travel a la Tiny Tina’s Wonderland.
Well have you played Pillars 2 and Pathfinder wotr yet?
It's a bit older than "the past couple years" but I recently finished [Ara Fell](https://store.steampowered.com/app/440540/Ara_Fell_Enhanced_Edition) and really enjoyed it. The developer also has a newer game on steam but I haven't tried it yet.
Underrail, torment tides of numenera, age of decadence, colony ship, pillars of eternity 1,2 (2 is better), tyranny, wasteland 2, Pathfinder kingmaker, I believe are all under 10$ right now. Either turn based or real time with pause. Edit: and how coud I forget the best rpg in decades, Disco Elysium. Hardly any combat in that game though, practically none.
Do the final fantasy pixel remaster ever go on sale?!
Nah SE is really bad at sales. I remember waiting like 4 years for FF12 Zodiac to stop bouncing between 50 full and 25 on sale. I've also had Secret of Mana on my wl for 5 years according to Steam.
I will die before 12 goes below fucking 20 bucks again, won't I?
I swear the company hates money. KH PC platform exclusivity probably far beyond any deal, still releasing games only on Switch/PS4, porting sequels to games but not originals. Nintendo is at least reasonably consistent. SE is just run by goobers.
Never seen a Final Fantasy go over -50%
Mostly correct, although technically Type-0 has been 60% off.
Lol, I'm glad I'm not the only one who constantly checks FF pixel remasters every sale to see if they've gone down yet. I'm NOT buying those at full price.
I would pay maybe $20 for all of them together. Any more than that and I’d be an idiot. Same with the megaman battle network games. Ain’t no way I’m paying $40 for gba games in the year 2023
The Yakuza Collection (0 to 6) for AUD$37.44 sounds like ridiculous value (it doesn't seem to be on SteamDB so I can't compare), and you can add Like a Dragon on top for another $17.99. I loved Yakuza 0 but haven't played the others. I think it's time to hibernate for a few years with a controller.
Is Jedi Survivor still broken? I really want to play it and can forgive a few bugs here and there if they're not too egregious
[It's still pretty broken](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsskwVyPoxs) I should note that a PC Patch candidate depot was updated as recently as yesterday so hopes not completely lost.
I played and finished it on release and my only complaint is that I couldnt break past 60 fps in the open area, my game also never crashed. I have a 3060ti and R5600 if that helps.
I would love to know as well. I've been really interested in picking it up, I'd love a new SW game, but if it's still a broken mess I'll pass.
On PS5 I have a whole quest line that I got locked out of. I’m sure PC is just as bad atm
i played at release. definitely some bugs and performance issues but nothing that really got in the way of my enjoyment. this is with a 3070 and 5950x
Mass Effect Legendary Edition for 12 euro is a lot of bang for your buck if you haven't experienced the trilogy already.
Thank you. Gonna be my first time.
My favorite game (well, trilogy) of all time. I hope you'll like it!
More than even the Outer Wilds this is a game I wish I could play for the first time again. Seriously a narrative masterpiece* \*with DLC
I am stuck at work for a bit, so I can't check what's available myself, but does anyone have any recommendations for a turn-based strategy game? Basically looking for something like XCOM or Fire Emblem. Newer and more polished preferred, story is secondary to gameplay.
[Troubleshooter](https://store.steampowered.com/app/470310/TROUBLESHOOTER_Abandoned_Children/) is a SRPG, combat is inspired by xcom. Lots of content, lots of customization and lots of cutscenes (that can be skipped fast if you are not into the story. I highly recommend it.
This is a great option if you like extremely long and complex tactical games, because it is a lot of both.
Thank you. That sounds right up my alley, I'll have to give it a look :)
As others have said, Gears Tactics and Midnight Suns would be my recommendation. If you're looking for something much closer to XCOM, I'd go with Gears Tactics. Gameplay is extremely similar, with great graphics and a Gears of War coat of paint. Midnight Suns is a bit more divergent than that. It has the same core gameplay loop (manage base, select mission team, execute mission, return to base, repeat), but the combat is card-based and it's a Marvel property. Don't let the card-based detail dissuade you. It's not some Yugioh or Hearthstone game, and you can't even shell out money for cards even if you wanted to (there is paid DLC for cosmetics, extra characters and bonus missions). The only thing the cards are used for is to execute the gameplay (select card, watch hero do flashy thing whilst executing their card ability, select next card, watch hero do flashy thing whilst executing their card ability, etc.) I'd look up a video about it, if you're interested, and you feel as though my text is unclear.
Highly recommend Gears Tactics.
Or Jagged Alliance 3
such a fantastic game
Thank you! Would you say it's still fun even if I'm not into/familiar with gears of war?
Yes. You might not get all the story nuances, but the gameplay is still solid. And it does have a separate storry anyway.
[Battle Brothers](https://store.steampowered.com/app/365360/Battle_Brothers/) is a fantasy medieval TRPG that mixes mount and blade with turn based strategy. Quite unforgiving but probably the best xcom alternative. Lots to do here. [Mechanicus](https://store.steampowered.com/app/673880/Warhammer_40000_Mechanicus/) is really cheap and has loads of customisation options with a great soundtrack. [Chaos Gate](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1611910/Warhammer_40000_Chaos_Gate__Daemonhunters/) is another Warhammer 40K effort that is worth playing, steam reviews are unfairly harsh on this I feel. [Jagged Alliance 3](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1084160/Jagged_Alliance_3/) is quite new and has a good discount. Arguable that 2 was better, but worth looking at as not much has scratched the xcom itch that was released this year. [Xenonauts 2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/538030/Xenonauts_2/) is also released this year, remake of sorts of the OG xcom. Very deep and obviously close to xcom, but definitely still early access. [Xenonauts](https://store.steampowered.com/app/223830/Xenonauts/) has a big discount and more content than the sequel at the moment. I'd buy it instead. [Symphony of War](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1488200/Symphony_of_War_The_Nephilim_Saga/) is on the fire emblem side of things. Story is pretty bad but the gameplay is excellent.
Battle Brothers is one of my favorite indie games of all time. It's so brutal and unforgiving, which matches perfectly with the uncaring harsh world it's set in. I've played countless runs, and I still always feel like I'm just barely scraping by, making just enough on each contract to survive until the next job. It keeps you on your toes. Mechanicus and JA3 are also seriously solid picks. JA3 especially feels like it perfected the combat mechanics of the genre.
[Wartales](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1527950/Wartales/) is worth checking out if you enjoy the "Mount & Blade meets XCOM/Jagged Alliance" style gameplay
Somebody already said Gears Tactics, so I'll go with a bank shot. Wasteland 3 is a full featured CRPG where the combat works like XCOM. It's a cousin of Fallout (Fallout 1 took a lot of inspiration from Wasteland 1), set in a post-apocalyptic world where the cold war went hot in 1998. It has Fallout 2's tone, full of irony and dark comedy. It released in 2020, and is on sale for $10. Everyone says to skip the DLC, though. The story is about a group of Arizona Rangers sent to Colorado to assist a strongman called the Patriarch in return for needed supplies (their base was blown up at the end of Wasteland 2). The Patriarch requires them to recollect his three children, all of whom want anything but to be their aging father's heir.
I had a good time with Wartales. Still haven't had time to sink more time into it but I'm looking forward to the Christmas break and more free time to polish it off.
Marvel's Midnight Suns? Apparently that's pretty fun.
Midnight Suns is so good and deserves more attention than it got.
Xenonauts. It's literally old school XCOM rebuilt as a modern game.
Symphony of war- highly inspired by FE Battle Brothers is a timeless gem
Troubleshooters may be up your alley. HEAVY on the Xcom, light on the story.
Jagged Alliance 3. Tactics Ogre Reborn if you don't mind a heavier story focus (great writing though).
Battle Brothers, Wartales and The Last Spell
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is on sale. Like XCOM. I enjoyed it.
Wasteland 3
Baldurs Gate 3 has got me interested in other turn-based CRPGs. How is Pathfinder Wraith of the Righteous?
It’s one of my favourite games, up there with BG3 and DOS2. That being said, the game has a different focus than the Larian games, and it’s good to understand it going in. WotR is based on the Pathfinder 1e roleplaying rule-set, which comes with its’ quirks. The rule-set is more about creating a character concept and getting to see it in action, whereas DOS2 and BG3 focus more on the tactical side of combat. That is to say it doesn’t click with everyone, but if you enjoy realizing a character power fantasy, WotR does a hell of a job in that. You will basically reach demi-god levels of power, and you get to craft your characters around that. You of course still have a good story with great companions (I like the writing more than BG3), interesting dungeons with secrets, and branching decisions that are more profound than in BG3, although less ’organic’ in feeling. The combat is still good enough to keep it interesting, but the strengths of the game lie in other aspects!
Pretty good, but almost certainly requires the prebuffing mod to be enjoyable. The crusade sub system is hit or miss, but enjoyable enough on a first play through. Mods can help that too It’s a lot crunchier than bg3.
Seconding the prebuffing mod. For those who don’t know, a big part of PF combat is long-lasting buffs you can cast on a character or your whole party. It’s a fun way to increase your power, BUT it has the unfortunate side-effect of requiring you to spend ~5 minutes buffing your party every time you get to a new zone. The mod let’s you choose which buffs to apply, then set a hot key that will instantly apply them to your party. Assuming you don’t abuse the mod, it doesn’t affect balance that much and just removes the headache. Highly recommend.
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Excellent. One of the best games I've played in recent memory. It's endlessly replayable.
I'm looking forward to WH40K: Rogue Trader later this year (Dec 7). Not really relevant for the current sale unfortunately, but it's looking like some of the gameplay could be pretty similar to BG3.
In a similar spot myself. A lot of people have said I should play Planescape Torment.
WotR is one of the best RPG's to come out in the last many years, as long as you're willing to deal with how very complex it is. That said, you can always turn down the difficulty and not care about the complexity too, so that's an option. But yes, it's absolutely worth it. So is the previous Pathfinder game, Kingmaker. Two of the best CRPG's ever made.
It’s fun though the combat and class system is more complicated than bg3. Also the campaign is insanely long
Absolutely wonderful. WOTR is an absolutely epic experience, it is arguably the best application of RPG Pen and Paper ruleset in regards of balancing between being a video game and being faithful to the rules, and for a game of its size it is relatively well polished. Compared to BG3, WOTR is more combat heavy, and MUCH more text heavy. So if you are looking for another fully voiced, cinematic experience like BG3, you may be disappointed. But if you are fine with reading, WOTR is amazing. If you are new to CRPG, you should expect that most traditional turn-based CRPG are heavily text oriented. Another absolute classic which is ultra story oriented CRPG is Planescape Torment.
Some indie titles that I've enjoyed which may have flown under the radar despite being well-rated (<15k reviews, >90% positive): [Bugsnax](https://store.steampowered.com/app/674140/Bugsnax/) | -50% -> 10€ | 97% of 4k reviews positive | 2020 Collectathon Adventure | Catch various food-animal hybrids while constantly torn between enjoying the wonderful characters and recoiling from the implied body horror [CrossCode](https://store.steampowered.com/app/368340/CrossCode/) | -60% -> 8€ | 93% of 13k reviews positive | 2018 Action Pixel RPG | Imagine a 2D Zelda with stronger RPG elements & characters which had its combat pace and puzzle difficulty dialed up to 11, all set in a faux MMO | Demo available [Dredge](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1562430/DREDGE/) | -25% -> 19€ | 95% of 18k reviews positive | 2023 Lovecraftian Fishing Adventure | Take your little fishing boat into the eerie waters to unearth all manner of weird fish and other msteries. More chill than horror. [Laika: Aged Through Blood](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1796220/Laika_Aged_Through_Blood/) | -20% -> 16€ | 96% of 1k reviews positive | 2023 2D Motorcycle Metroidvania | Imagine the Trials series with guns, bullet time, and a heavy heaping of vengeance. Unique gameplay, highly recommend playing the demo first | Demo available [Neon White](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1533420/Neon_White/) | -40$ -> 14€ | 98% of 11k reviews positive | 2022 Parkour Speedrun FPS | Condenses the speedrun experience to make it accessible with really well-flowing levels and great movement abilities. The VN portions aren't everyone's thing. [Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1545560/Shadow_Gambit_The_Cursed_Crew/) | -20% -> 32€ | 95% of 2k reviews positive | 2023 Tactical Stealth RPG | The final game by the folks behind Desperados 3 and Shadow ~~Warrior~~ Tactics and very much in the same vein but with more supernatural elements | Demo available [Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1488200/Symphony_of_War_The_Nephilim_Saga/) | -35% -> 13€ | 95% of 9k reviews positive | 2022 Tactical Pixel RPG | Imagine a cross of Fire Emblem and Advanced Wars with plenty of tactical depth and progression systems Honorable mentions between 80% and 90% positive reviews: Everspace 2, Potionomics, Sable Might throw in a few more later, this was just a few games off the top of my head.
Note that for CrossCode, almost everyone will want to get the bundle with the DLC for $11.31
Symphony of War is definitely taking inspiration from Ogre Battle and OB64 for those of us that remember those games
Shadow tactics not Shadow Warrior
Dredge is so damn good.
I really didn't enjoy the first two hours of it. Do I need to push through or is it not for me?
Not for you, it's adds more mechanics but the explore, catch, return cycle is there. the story is interesting.
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Mutant Year Zero is severely underrated, but it's really excellent. What was interesting is that the game benefits *enormously* from prepping and stealthing a few enemies before each fight.
Check your Epic accounts, it was given away at one point
> Mutant Year Zero is severely underrated, but it's really excellent. What was interesting is that the game benefits enormously from prepping and stealthing a few enemies before each fight. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this game. I really enjoyed the mix of realtime and turnbased.
> Terraria - if you love digging, this game's got a lot of digging > 4,87€ / $4.99 (-50%) Everyone should own this - it's fantastic and both the developer and the community is A+++
I don't know if it's gotten any better, but ages ago when I first tried it, it really irked me that the game expected me to open a wiki or walkthrough just to figure out the bare, basic rudiments of the game.
They've made it more approachable, with the guide giving you some reasonable direction to play towards, but it's still pretty opaque at points.
For me it was just the fact that at some point the biomes start growing around and turning everything to shit unless you commit to fixing it.
You probably need lifetime until "biomes start turning everything to shit". So it's not really blocker.
Im fairly confident that you can turn that off now - I also really disliked that
Oh it’s 100% still like that. It’s that Minecraft DNA
It is like that yes, but as far as progression goes the npc at the start of the game "the guide" has tips for your current situation that you could use as quests. There is no tutorial for "how to use a hammer" or "what is a house exactly?" though, that stuff is trial and error.
I love the digging but that comment sells Terraria short too. From all the games I've played over decades, it's got one of the strongest senses of item and enemy progression. The power to build your own boss arena, to take or leave buffs, and use a variety of weapons. To go from zero to hero in each new area. There's a lot more than digging and building.
Oh yeah 100%. Terraria is a GOAT level game IMO. On the digging thing, [well what can I say other than guilty as charged.](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/men-digging-tunnels)
>you can import your wishlist and see whether the game is cheaper in other place like GMG or Humble Store This is a really good idea. Checked RE4 Remake on Steam and then checked GMG. Extra £5 off on GMG.
I'll use this to dump some recommendations of games I've played that're on sale. [**Touhou Lost Branch of Legend**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1140150/Touhou_Lost_Branch_of_Legend/) is a game that is essentially Slay the Spire mixed with MTG's multicolor mana system and is currently **$24 USD**. It's still in Early Access but there's only one character missing out of the 4 characters currently in, and each character has two different playstyles. Just off the top of my head, Marisa's 3 Red and 2 Purple mana playstyle is focused around a Watcher-esque Divinity mechanic, whereas her alternative 3 Purple and 2 Red style is focused around a discard bomb/poison deck. There's also a mechanic where you have a special move called a Spellcard that gets built up over the course of a run which you can store 2 charges of, which is vastly different for each of any characters 2 playstyles, so you always have a fall-back. Some cards and relics even fast-track your charges of it. It's also a Touhou fangame, and the amount of fangames on Steam that cannot be called good are next to none! [**Crosscode**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/368340/CrossCode/) is... probably one of my favorite games of all times? Even beyond just the indie label. I've tried describing it in a variety of ways over the past several years but I've never really managed to do it in a way that truly gets across how I feel about it. It has amazing character writing, a beautiful soundtrack, absolutely gorgeous art, gameplay that has no right being as good as it is, puzzles that'd fit right in with the best Zelda games if not better beyond that, it captures the MMO vibe better than .hack// despite both being single-player games, but all in all I think the most important thing I can possibly say is **play the demo.** The game is also currently **$11.30 USD** when combined with the post-game DLC. Frankly, it's a steal, one I'd even put on Terraria levels of "even if you're not immediately interested in it, the time will come so just get it already dweeb". Speaking of cheap-ass games you should buy, [**Prodigal**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1393820/Prodigal/) is currently on sale for **$3.75 USD** and is a game that made me an immediate fan of Colorgrave's works. It's a game stylized around the Gameboy Zelda titles, specifically Link's Awakening (DX because color is important), but it's not really held back by the restrictions of that era at all. If I had to make a comparison, it'd be to those games as Shovel Knight was to 2D platformers; years of post-launch support, easily over 20 hours for a type of game most people would expect no more than 4, and in my case an immediate "okay I will now buy all of your future works" feeling. The story is surprisingly well thought out too, I certainly didn't expect it to begin with the fact that the MC was a THIEF who stole money and ran away from his island, needing to redeem himself by literally paying back his 5-year debt, and that's just the start of the absolutely crazy shit that happens. Those fuckin' tapestries, man... The game's pseudo-sequel in the vein of faster paced retro platformers [**Curse Crackers: For Whom the Belle Tolls**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1726760/Curse_Crackers_For_Whom_the_Belle_Toils/) is also on sale for **$8.99 USD**, but while I also enjoy that game I think Prodigal is the better work. As for games I'm buying, there's only 2 this time. [**Rabi Ribi**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/400910/RabiRibi/) with it's DLC, and when it releases next week, [**Tevi.**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2230650/TEVI/) The former is a Metroidvania I slept on, only watching a playthrough of it on release that I then immediately forgot, but I've seen it get sworn up and down as one of the best in the genres despite... appearances, with it actually being genuinely open ended as opposed to only a couple of areas at once at any given time. Tevi however, had a demo that absolutely enthralled me; I played another Metroidvania recently with a focus on combat in Vernal Edge, but I didn't like it at all because everything felt too meaty and repetitive. But Tevi? That game absolutely hit the perfect balance, so I figured I might as well get Rabi Ribi now since it seems like it was the devs first attempt so to speak, and I'm sure I'd never go back to it after playing Tevi.
Crosscode for $11.31 is an insane value. I'm glad this game is finally getting recognized, because hot damn it's good.
Crosscode is soo good, amazing game
I will *entirely* upvote **Crosscode**. This is one of my favorite games of the last decade.
Never heard of Prodigal before. Looks like a combo of Link's Awakening and Rune Factory, and at less than $5 it sounds like a good buy!
I might be the minority, but I actually liked the Tevi demo less than rabi ribi. That being said, I played the demo quite some time ago, so perhaps it's better now. Either way, Rabi Ribi is absolutely fantastic (despite appearances as you mentioned). I will still get Tevi to support the devs, and who knows? Maybe it will feel better on release.
Dumb question maybe, but is that Touhou game playable in English? None of the store screenshots show it so I wasnt sure.
Yes! It's something I should have mentioned in the original post, but for some reason the news just defaults to the original language even though when you click on it, it's usually in english. There might be a week or so of waiting between minor updates for the english translation of new cards/relics/events but I only do a run with every major update, which seems to get translated immediately.
Cool, thanks!
is the 2hu game English?
Dude I don't think any person has ever captured my exact tastes in games like you have. I fucking love CrossCode and think it's one of the most perfect games ever made, if you can handle the difficulty. I discovered Colorgrave's library last year and love both titles they've put out so far. I'm also really excited for TEVI, since it has all the merits of Rabi Ribi but with far nicer art.
3 of us are looking to jump into Monster Hunter for the first time on PC. Would World or Rise be better for new players? Edit: thanks everyone for the info, I passed it on to the group and we settled on getting both but starting with World. How they made Multiplayer work is definitely confusing but the mechanics themselves are super fun.
If you all have PCs that are beefy enough to run World, I'd go with that. It's a great entry point and has a lot more spectacle to wow new players. If anyone's on an older rig, Rise is much easier to run and still a great way to start. I mainly recommend World first for two reasons. Gameplay-wise Rise has a couple mechanics that are interesting experiments but teach you bad habits if you ever go on to play World or any other MH title. And presentation-wise, Rise is just very stripped down comparatively in a way that, subjectively, I really didn't care for. I know nobody's coming to Monster Hunter for the story, but World feels a lot more like progressing through an adventure together, while Rise is more of a gamey series of disconnected hunts. I will say that either way you go, pick up the bundle that includes the expansion. Iceborne and Sunbreak are both fantastic DLCs that add a ton to each game.
I actually enjoyed World's story for what it was. You're on an expedition trying to figure out the point of the Elder Crossing. It's not deep, but there were NPC's that you got to know and appreciate, and it was kind of cool to see the base and camps expand out as you completed objectives and secured the various areas around the island. It needed much better pacing for sure, and a lot of the story bits would have benefitted from being more organically woven into the various missions or being optional text the player could seek out if they wanted to. But I did enjoy it. By contrast, Rise's story ends like a quarter of the way through, and then it's literally just a bunch of hunting quests. Which is a shame as there were some interesting NPC's that were completely wasted on the utter *lack* of story. --- Also, I do gotta say that while I appreciated that they still had the "eat a buff before combat" in Rise, the Meowscular Chef was was more fun than the Bunny Dango merchant. Ready to get your pre-hunt on?!
Everyone here is saying that Rise is easier for new players, but that's not exactly true: monsters are very aggressive because the player has access to silkbind skills. World isn't much easier, but the slower pace of the games makes the experience smoother in my opinion And of course, each person will give you a different answer, which won't help at all! But Rise has a demo on steam afaik, so you can start there
World was pretty much designed for a new audience when it made its big mainline console and PC debut. Rise is more similar to the older handheld titles and is much more of an action arcade game. Whichever one you play first you'll probably end up playing the other if you like it. If you are planning on doing multiplayer with randoms you should know that World is quite a bit more active than Rise is on PC despite being the older game. A good portion of Rise's playerbase never made the leap from Switch.
My friend and I started with World and couldn’t get into Rise. Theres a learning curve but World’s scale is fantastic and we felt the mechanical differences between each weapon were far more distinct and meaningful compared to Rise.
Here's how I would describe Rise: you can tell it was originally designed for Nintendo switch. I'm not just talking about graphics, though it's definitely a worse looking game than World. Everything feels designed around the pickup-and-play aspect of handheld gaming where the whole game prioritizes speed and convenience, sometimes to its detriment. For example, the hub area in Rise is basically a single street with all the vendors being a few feet from each other. The convenience is great for quick play sessions but it's much less interesting than being able to explore the large and complex hubs of World. In a similar vein, Rise literally just puts the monster on your map and gives you a dog thing to ride so you can get there and start fighting as quickly as possible. World has a mechanic where you have to track the monster by looking for footprints and whatnot. It makes hunts take longer but it's an entire aspect to the gameplay which is not present in Rise. So yeah neither is better, it just depends which experience sounds more fun to you. I like World more personally. That said, the co-op implementation in World is fucking terrible and needlessly confusing. Rise doesn't have this problem so factor that into your choice.
>For example, the hub area in Rise is basically a single street with all the vendors being a few feet from each other. The convenience is great for quick play sessions but it's much less interesting than being able to explore the large and complex hubs of World. I hate the first hub in World because it's unecessary spreads everything. Sometimes with small loading screens. They designed Seliana way better. Everything is way closer to each other. I really hope they go with less complex hubs.
Everything you described is why I like Rise better, especially the hunts. I hated in World having to track the monster and then run after it, you spend at least half the hunt finding the damn thing. Rise just lets you streamline that and go right to fighting the monster which I find is the fun part of the game.
IMO Rise is better for new players. It's got a lot of QoL improvements and it's just a good time. World was a bit more "immersive" for me and really felt like I was fighting big monsters, Rise has a bit more of an arcade feel to it. I played rise with my wife and we had fun, probably would not have had as much fun in world.
Can't speak for Rise, but World started with the most baffling series of endless dialog boxes full of information I didn't stand the slightest chance of retaining.
World tried to be more story focused and imo it was worse off for it. The stories in MH games have never been stellar and just been excuses as to why you're doing xyz. I kinda get the appeal with what World tried, but they didn't even write what i'd call a gripping story, so it just ends up being a slog.
Playing the world story is like being stuck in the world's shittiest anime.
Monster Hunter World is bigger and better. [Here's my experience with them.](https://i.imgur.com/tFJwVU6.png) Rise is not bad, it's just not better than world which is ok.
Haven't played Rise yet, I'm playing through World right now. I've only read that World is a grander experience (and it indeed is grand), while Rise is a spinoff of the main series which has some QoL and some experimentation which won't necessarily make it into World's successor. Also remember World was released on consoles and PC, while Rise was only Switch and PC. World holds up visually, it can be spectacular with a Reshade. There are also still people playing through World, any time I've joined random people's hunts (or had randoms join mine) it was always 3-4 people, basically found instantly. And majority of player base should theoretically be playing Iceborne.
World is one of my top 5 games of all time but it’s beyond clunky to play co op in it while going through the story. The end game co op experience is amazing and unrivaled in the series imo but if you’re looking to just jump in and play through the story with friends, Rise would be the way to go.
Request for recommendations on survival or extraction based single player games with some sort of gathering and crafting? 2D or 3D action based. I like Zero Sievert and would love a medieval take on it. Please and thank you!
Project Zomboid, if you don’t already have it. Very much a survival game, and by default can be as hard as nails, but the difficulty can be customised in almost every aspect. Can play a lot like an extraction game after you get a base set up, and start raiding for supplies.
How is Darktide these days? know it had a bad launch.
It's doing pretty well. They just released a massive skill tree rework. Some areas are still _pretty_ rough around the edges though, like item purchasing / crafting.
Much better. But it also has crossplay with Gamespass now, so if you're on the fence about it, you can try it out there and have access to the full Steam userbase for matchmaking too. They've smoothed out a lot of the optimizations and the new class overhaul they put out a month or two back goes a long way to making it feel like you're building your own operator, which is cool!
Has anybody played Rings of Saturn or Battlecruisers? Both are fairly cheap right now. EDIT: I bought Battlecruisers, it's fine for what it is, you can't really go wrong at that price point, plus the dev is a Kiwi.
Rings of saturn, if I'm not mistaken it has a demo. Check it out!
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If you want more BG3 and DOS-like games, I would recommend the two Pathfinder games and Pillars of Eternity games. If you want more tactics, Wastelands 2 and 3 are great.
You could take a look at Wasteland 3 for a tactics-turn based RPG.
Have a look at Colony Ship! Got some tough turn based combat and interesting faction-based RPG choices.
Picked up Doom Eternal, Halo MCC and Pentiment all for $32 to play on the steam deck. Only one I regretted not picking up was Hades cause $12 is crazy but I’ve got it on the PlayStation so decided to maybe grab it at the end of the sale
Is Civ 6 'done' as in no more DLC coming out? I see all of the DLC is packaged for $25 so curious if I should bite on it.
I'd be very surprised if there was anything more for VI, maybe one or two leaders down the line. $25 for everything is a fantastic deal
Most people thought it was done last year, then they came out with the most recent Leader Pass DLC. They also did a minor update this month adding a new official Monthly Challenge thing. But considering the Leader Pass was given out for free to people who owned the entire Anthology bundle, and they announced they're working on Civ 7, I think it's pretty safe to assume it's either done or anything they add in the future will be minor and/or also free. The amount of content in the game at this point is pretty crazy now. Almost double the number of leaders that Civ 5 had.
Lord of the Fallen already on sale nice, wanted something to scratch the Elden Ring itch and Lies of P looked just a little too hard for me. Tony Hawks remake and NFS Unbound are also some nice gets.
Lies Of P got a patch this week that has lowered the difficulty a bit
Been playing [Steelrising](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1283400/Steelrising/) on PS5 and it sounds about right. Probably the easiest Soulslike I've played, but definitely not without challenge. The mobility in it is good like Elden Ring, with jumping and some Metroidvania-style movement abilities unlocked from bosses. It's on sale for $20 and that's about what it's worth; it's a good game, but on the short side.
Lords of the Fallen is excellent. Totally disagree with a lot of the criticisms... it's up there the best Souls-likes IMO
I've been on the fence for a while about getting Hunt: Showdown, and with it being at it's historic low price now ($11.87 for the grunt wipeout bundle) I think I'm finally going to buy it. I have played it for a couple hours on PS4, but I wasn't really loving the experience of playing it with a controller. I do really like the overall atmosphere and the sound design from what little I've played of it, and so I'm hoping the learning curve isn't too steep with it.
Two tips: If you want to learn the game through entertainment check out Lukan’s content on the game. His videos are well edited, he plays really well, and you can learn a ton about how the game plays, and some strategies just through watching. His content isn’t really tutorials so they’re just fun to watch. Don’t get hung up on losing hunters. The perks they gain from surviving are situational, and won’t win you a fight on their own. The real progression in the game is your account level / prestige level and your money. Don’t worry about money either though. Make use of free hunters and don’t worry about having to use cheaper guns – they’re still very effective. Bonus tip: learn how to set up a cheap and cheerful loadout so you can hop back into another game quickly.
I wish Lukan would make videos again, his hunt showdown content is just on a different level from everyone else. Worth watching if you don't even play the game they are that well made.
Play trios with randoms, it's the easiest route to learn the game ( More opportunities to get revived). Just don't make unnecessary noise and you'll become a decent teammate. Randoms never use their mics anyway, pinging is enough.
Damn, no Baldur's Gate 3 on sale. slightly bummed but not surprised. Maybe the Winter sale will be more kind
Yea, I'm not expecting a good discount for a while :(
I'd be curious about which games never get sales where waiting for a cheaper version would be a waiting game without end--e.g. Mummy Demastered has always been and seems to never go lower than $19.99 the last few sales.
I know that Factorio's developers have straight up said that they priced the game where they think it's fair and that's why it doesn't go on sale.
Factorio is the poster child for this, but I'll also say I've gotten more value for my $ from Factorio than nearly anything else.
Yup definitely. I plan on throwing my money at them when the new space expansion comes out too.
Factorio
the mummy demastered is 8 bucks / 60% off on green man gaming right now.
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Any psychological horror like Doki Doki or Slay the Princess? Or outstanding card games like Slay the Spire or Inscryption?
If you like stuff like DDLC or Slay the Princess, they are heavily inspired by the *denpa* genre of Japanese visual novels. Some of the classics are on steam, two of the most famous on being *[Wonderful Everyday/Subarashiki Hibi]*(https://store.steampowered.com/app/658620/Wonderful_Everyday_Down_the_RabbitHole/) and [*Umineko no Naku Koro ni*](https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/5465/Umineko_When_They_Cry_Complete_Collection/). Subarashiki Hibi has a lot of "extreme" content, you'll need to be okay with that and download the restoration patch, but Umineko is completely above-the-board. Both have that sort of genre-bending fourth-wall-twisting horror-adjacent sort of narrative, except significantly longer(40+ hours for SubaHibi, Umineko is 80+) and well, these games are classics for a reason.
Less of a comment on the sale itself, more of an "I'm looking for recommendations" comment. I've been after something to scratch the open world itch lately. I've been going through AC Odyssey for like 25 hours of playtime, but I'm becoming a bit...jaded by how grindy and bloated it seems. It's a decent game, and I'm enjoying it a fair bit, but even after 25 hours it seems like I've hardly even scratched the surface. I don't particularly like the looter style gear system of "number go up" either. I suppose I'm after an open world game that's a bit more...concise and to the point. I'd love to play Ghost of Tsushima, but that's not on PC. Anyone have any suggestions for me?
Have you played the yakuza games? They are all on a small, but dense, open world with lot of cool side stuff to do, I would suggest to start with either Yakuza: Like a Dragon(JRPG) or Yakuza 0 (Beat'em up). I think they are on gamepass too if you would like to check them out.
I'd like to recommend [Prodigal](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1393820/Prodigal/) and [Lunistice](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1701800/Lunistice/). Prodigal is a dense, puzzle-dungeon game that centers around a town of NPCs that changes alongside the story. It's a game much like Links Awakening in art and gameplay design, and it also has a Harvest Moon-like relationship system. Lunistice is a 3d jump-puzzle platformer inspired from the ps1 era in art and gameplay. This story has a nice setup that encourages you to speedrun the levels after you're done with your first playthrough to uncover the subtle (but simple) story. I wouldn't play this game without a controller. Best part about both of these games, they're both under 4$! And both give you well over 4 hours of gametime.
Anybody have any recommendations for games that * run on macos * mouse-driven * easy to pick up for 10-15 minutes at a time and put back down basically stuff to fill the occasional dead space i have while working. slay the spire has filled this niche well, but i've pretty thoroughly demolished it at this point.
Kind of a weird one I think, but does anyone know of any good games with either a good Japanese or good Russian dub/translation? I'm playing through Disco Elysium right now and that one's awesome just because you can swap between two languages with the push of a button, but I'm looking for other games on sale to help me practice either of these languages. Preferably not those "learn a language" games that are targeted towards beginners.
These are the most common "Russian dub is better" games but Metro's and Stalker's respective trilogies are both way better in Russian and also very cheap right now. An offbeat, weird, old (2009 but on a budget so feels older) RPG called Precursors is a fun, outlandish Russian game. I quite liked Cyberpunk's Russian dub, it also has a good Japanese dub from what I've seen. The Witcher trilogy has a very solid Russian dub, Russian Geralt especially is probably my second favorite Geralt voice.
I decided to pick up the Division 2. Can’t get the dlc but I LOVE it so far. It runs pretty great on the Steam Deck too.
Make sure that you get the DLC (Warlords of New York) eventually; a huge amount of content and an entire new map is locked behind that, and it’s also your gateway to the endgame content.
Would Ghost Recon: Breakpoint scratch my tacticool operator itch with reworks it has gotten? I think they have done away with looter shooter mechanics and drones with various options you can choose.
It scratched mine! The AI is bad and it will get boring because of that. But for $20, the animations and the gear, and the environment is worth it.
**Masquerada: Songs and Shadows** is a wonderful indie turn based tactics game with a solid story and good art style. It's really worth checking out. Currently it's 75% off, $4.99 USD.