Despite being one of the most popular game genres, indie RPGs seem to be almost completely ignored by the gaming press, even by sites that specialize in indie coverage. Let’s share some of them.
Luxaren Allure
A free but pretty substantial JRPG with a main cast of all queer women and a wistful, yet playful tone reminiscent of Lunar. Great story with enough crunchy combat to keep the gameplay side satisfying. Can be a bit fussy due to the old RPG Maker engine.
Operencia: The Stolen Sun
One of the best dungeon crawlers to come out in recent years. Has an almost perfect mix of story, humor, combat, exploration, and puzzles. Challenging, but still accessible to newcomers, and not overly long. Don’t miss Joska’s hilarious journal entries.
Lords of Xulima
An extremely overlooked RPG that bears a fair resemblance to older Might and Magic titles, but with its own sort of feel. Class and skill balance is a little wonky and it gets a bit repetitive towards the end, but it’s a lengthy and challenging game that kept me engaged all the way through.
Infinite Adventures
Another dungeon crawler that I’ve never heard anyone talk about. Despite the name, this is a handcrafted game, not a roguelike. It’s a heck of a long game with an indie comic book style, and one of the better indie dungeon crawlers I’ve played.
That’s enough for now, but I’ll have more later. Post your finds!
potato flowers in full bloom
this ones a pretty interesting cutesy drpg. enemies are placed staticly in the dungeon, but approaching their tile from different directions changes the layout of enemy rows in combat - giving each fight a sort of puzzle-like sense to it.
earthlock
this ones a bit confusing - it was originally a kickstarter title - the “festival of magic” version out there is the original release from that, but they came back later to work this game into a more polished, QoL improved version that is just called earthlock. It makes parsing reviews kind of odd. overall presentation is good and i think this is fairly contemporary to the quality of like, i am setsuna/lost sphear level stuff.
Loto the Avatar
A free Dragon Quest / Ultima crossover made by my lil bro. The dungeons are a bit much, but it’s a fun micro-RPG that can be finished in a sitting or two.
Afterimage
I’m not sure if this is technically indie or not, but it debuted as a Kickstarter, so I’m counting it. An absolutely massive (40+ hours) Metroidvania RPG, and one of the better ones I’ve played in recent years. Highly open-ended and packed with secrets.
The Quest
I think this was originally a mobile game, but it plays very well on PC. A single-character, turn-based world crawler with a hefty amount of content, though it’s been so long since I played it that I don’t remember a lot of detail. Simple old-school fun, albeit with a dumb sense of humor.
A couple that just came out this week are Dungeon Antiqua and Scarmonde. Coincidentally, they both look a lot like the NES Final Fantasy games. I haven’t played them yet, but this is exactly the kind of JRPG I would be into.
Speaking of which, Final Fantasy ZZ is an excellent hack of FF1. It is totally rebalanced and dramatically more difficult, making it a great challenge and a great way to re-experience the game. It does get a little carried away in a few spots, but is overall well worth your time if you’re an FF1 fan. It also works with the excellent Valkyrie sprite hack (one has to be applied before the other, but I forget which one comes first).