This might be a slightly unusual attempt at a prompt, but might draw some appealing unusual options.
The way it goes: Suggest games, ideally the kind that you believe would have relatively broad appeal. Don’t feel bad about downvotes, but do downvote any game that’s suggested if you have heard of it before (Perhaps, give some special treatment if it was literally your game of the year). This rule is meant to encourage people to post the indie darlings that took some unusual attention and discovery to be aware of and appreciate.
If possible, link to the Steam pages for the games in question, so that anyone interested can quickly take a look at screenshots and reviews. And, as a general tip, anything with over 1000 steam reviews probably doesn’t belong here. While I’d recommend that you only suggest one game per post, at the very most limit it to three.
If I am incorrect about downvotes being inconsequential account-wide, say so and it might be possible to work out a different system.
It is actually a Skyrim mod but basically a complete game that just happens to be built upon Skyrim. It features full professional quality voice acting in German and English, new game systems inspired by the Gothic series, a setting separate from Elder Scrolls, and a story that gets close to the quality of Planescape Torment or Disco Elysium. I can’t recommend it enough.
Ooh I still haven’t tried this. I wonder if it has any issues with Skyrim VR.
It probably works with some tinkering. I would recommend completing it once the way the modders intended since they likely never tested their game with VR in mind.
It takes some fiddling, but it works, and is fantastic!
Hidden and Dangerous
The original was fantastic and v2 built on that. Fantastic 3rd person WW2 tactical shooter. Haven’t seen anything like it in over 20 years since.
Children of a Dead Earth is a tactical space game with n-body Newtonian physics. This means that on the surface it is very similar to something like KSP, you can do things like orbit a Lagrange point. In addition, you can design all the parts of you spacecraft and weaponry down to the materials they use. If you can make a fuel tank made out of aerogel work with the laws of physics, then you can use it. For example, I made a coilgun that fires nukes which was devastating at close range but the low velocity of the nukes made them easy to dodge at long range and without any thrusters, they cannot course correct.
AAAAXY. AAAAXY is a nonlinear 2D puzzle platformer taking place in impossible spaces. You can take a walk on a Möbius strip, try to find the platform with your train at the train station, and play a piano that makes the Shepard tone. It will be a bit confusing at first, but I promise it will eventually get fun.
It’s not on Steam, but it’s available for download on the website for free. Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Also on F-Droid and FlatHub. give it a try im begging you
Solo indie dev mashup of Risk of Rain, Helldivers, Vermintide, etc with its own soul and style of knights with guns. Dev is very active in the discord and takes feedback and actively plays with the small community the game has garnered.
I played the demo on a whim during a next fest expecting a janky joke of a game to laugh at but a decent and fun game caught me by surprise. It’s been improved and updated quite a bit since then.
Ignore that heretical work of The Guild 2/3 et co. Only the ORIGINAL is truly worthy.
Well of Souls was a little primordial mmorpg I got in a 100 games CD a while back. I used to have tons of fun making a custom character from sprites and seeing how far I could get. When I played it never felt mmo ish as it was already pretty empty.
Sadly, it’s not available on PC, but it is available on Nintendo Switch (US eShop page linked above) and PlayStation 4 (and PlayStation 5 through backwards compatibility).
It’s a sci-fi game made by the creators of some games you might’ve heard of in passing (namely Dragon’s Crown, Odin Sphere, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, etc.), Vanillaware. I can’t go into any details about the game itself because of spoilers, but I will say it is quite simply the best and most uniquely told story I have ever seen in a game. It’s a game you have to experience for yourself. You should go into it as blind as possible, too.
I will say the English dub of the game is also surprisingly good, considering it was recorded almost entirely in COVID lockdown. The Atlus West sound engineers (Atlus published the game in the west) must’ve worked some incredible magic to get it to sound as good as it does.
If you liked this I really hope you’ve dug into 1000xRESIST. They’re not super similar but enough so that I think if you liked 13 Sentinels you’d probably like it also
I’ve started playing through it, but I’ve got other games currently that I’m focusing on (currently Trails in the Sky FC, then Persona 3 Reload: The Answer, and then Metaphor ReFantazio).
Ah, a fellow Into the Aether listener perhaps? Or maybe just a big JRPG fan 😁
I gotta check out Trails at some point. The whole tetralogy thing kinda puts me off in the same way Yakuza does but you gotta start somewhere I guess!
Yeah, I’m just a big JRPG fan.
As for the Trails series, I’ve been told that the best place to start is (understandably) the beginning. Play in release order. The first three games are in 2.5D (as opposed to 3D), but they actually hold up really well.
Most people (myself included) will recommend that you use a spoiler-free guide to avoid missing hidden quests and collectibles (such as a book series you’ll collect in its entirety over the course of the first game). I’m using this spoiler-free guide for my playthrough of the first game.
It’s also recommended that you go around talking to every NPC in the town you’re in every now and then. Dialogue updates as the main quest advances and, at times, if you’ve had an interaction with an NPC in (for example) a side quest and that NPC later pops up in the main quest, the NPC will remember that interaction from the side quest. Some NPCs also pop up in later games with their stories continuing (or so I’ve been told).
Almost every single Trails game is also available DRM-free with achievements on GOG. The only one missing is the latest game (which has a “coming soon” page). The series goes on sale on GOG pretty frequently, too.
Also, examine every chest twice: once to open it and once to see the “empty chest” dialogue. The English localizers noticed that, in the Japanese version of the game, instead of having the empty chests call a single line of dialogue multiple times, each chest had its own line to call. (It was the same thing copied and pasted every single time.) So they had some fun with it and made nearly every empty chest have unique dialogue.
Also, just today, during the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 1st, a remake of the first game in full 3D with the modern Trails aesthetic, was announced for a 2025 release worldwide. Though I don’t know how faithful it’ll be to the original game or to its localization. So you could wait for that if you want or just play the original trilogy immediately. But, again, the originals still hold up really well.
Not a pc game but rather on mobile. It’s a really solid fantasy CYOA game and (if you wanted to) play through the next set of story chapters completely for free as long as you meet the achievement requirements. Barring that, buying books (as the game calls it) has a rather fair price. Unfortunately the game is incomplete as the solo developer has sadly passed away, but what is here is great with a decent length since there’s been years of book chapters. Genuinely a hidden gem that I discovered on a whim back early in highschool, and it’s sad that I won’t be able to see the end they envisioned, so with that in mind I’ll be replaying this game again in the near future.
Oh no, the author passed away? I remember enjoying this and wanting to check back later when it was more finished.
The first game I ever completed and the first time I left a review for a game. The music, the atmosphere, the design, everything blew away. It was freeware from back in 2006. Made by a guy called Nifflas. It’s a sidescrolling platformer where you are an intelligent bouncing ball. I still think about it to this day.
Now this is a real oldie but a goodie. Glad to see that it is mostly unknown from the ratio. Obligatory downvote
Oh wow, I never heard of this but I love Knytt Underground by the same developer. You also play as a bouncing ball at least for part of it.
Nexus: the Jupiter incident. It is a now a bit old tactical space combat game with a big focus on the narrative. It’s awesome, but I never see it mentioned anywhere.
Ha, “bit old” indeed.
God how badly do I want to see a remaster/remake. So under rated. With a bit more fleshing out (It’s a pretty short, pretty linear experience) it could easily compete with the mechanics in Homeworld.
Spin Rhythm XD is a highly enjoyable rhythm game where you spin a wheel with two colors and match them with the beats on the game’s rhythm track.Here’s a description from Steam:
Enter the Rhythm Dimension. A homage to classic arcade rhythm games (Guitar Hero, DDR), with a modern aesthetic and soundtrack. Match colours and beats, spin, tap, flick and flow through the juiciest beats in the universe. Supports multiple control styles including MIDI DJ gear on Steam!
Edit: at the time of writing this, I didn’t realize that this game had 3.5K reviews on Steam, but literally nobody I asked knew about the game, so I guess it kinda counts.
Archive.org mirror of the game download
I genuinely have NO clue if this game is known, but i suspect it mostly isn’t.
It’s Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf! It’s kinda like a music video, but it’s a music video game 👉😏
It’s a collaboration between 2000s indie weirdo darling gamedev cactus and Swedish synthpunk band Fucking Werewolf ASSO.
it’s aggressively strange and moderately challenging, but I think it’s just a goddamn delight and maybe you will too.
Megabyte Punch is a side scrolling fighting game where you build your robot with different parts salvaged from fought robots that give you different abilities and powerups.
It is a super fast, casual game that you can bang out in a few nights. It has a pretty good electronic soundtrack, boss fights feel weighty even if they are relatively simple.
One of my favorite games as far as just fun and de-stressing!
D-Day Normandy is a Quake 2 total conversion mod that is a standalone game. Our website is currently reduced to a forum, but we hope to get that back on track soon. The admin is currently unavailable… Anyways, WW2 FPS from around 2000. Class-based, objective or fraglimit (or both in some maps). Runs on everything these days. We have a couple servers worldwide, more info on ddaydev.com.
