Come one, come all! Got a game that’s not AAA (or god forbid AAAA) but you loved anyhow? Welcome to show and tell. Talk about your favorite, why people should play it, and what you love most about it. And yes, I’m aware this may just be end up being 25 comments about stardew valley.

I want to start by recommending Kingdom, a series with relatively simple (but elegant) graphics and side scrolling tower defence style gameplay. It doesn’t sound like much but the presentation encourages this beautiful sense of exploration of mechanics. Amos Roddy did the music, which tells you just how much I love the soundtrack I didn’t even have to look up his name. There are a few games, but I specifically recommend Kingdom: Two Crowns as it includes co-op and has some nice style options (European, Japanese, and more comprehensive Norse DLC that changes more than looks)

If that’s not your speed maybe you’d the better known Stanley Parable. I won’t say much on it as it’s a fantastically written experience I’d recommend to anyone with a pulse. The less you know going into it the better, and it’s very accessible in terms of design because it’s largely a (hilarious and witty) walking simulator.

Finally, I’d recommend the Mount and Blade series. Bannerlord is the most recent but it’s predecessor, Warband is a very loved game too. Essentially this series drops you into a grounded medieval sandbox world as a character you define, then you just go play. Want to be a merchant and make all the money managing a bunch of stores and contending with the unrest and banditry caused by warring kingdom? You can do that. Want to /be/ that bandit raiding caravans? You can. How about the classic Lancelot experience of being a tournament fighting, seige winning, lady wooing, knightly machine? Absolutely. And better yet, when the king shafts you of that territory you really wanted to be granted you can just rebel and become a king in your own right (long term results and stability of your kingdom may vary by circumstance). It’s definitely worth a peek if you haven’t looked at any of the games in the series.

And that’s what I’ve got today. Hope you guys have some fun recommendations, stories and anecdotes for trade!

  • smegEnglish
    4·
    6 months ago
    • Super Hexagon is a very minimal reactions-based arcade-style game that I always find myself coming back to. I’ve only got a few hours in it, but when you usually die after about five seconds that adds up to a lot of attempts.
    • Mini Metro is another very simple arcade game you can play quite quickly, much more gentle than Super Hexagon (right up until your rail network gets overloaded, then it’s panic time).
    • Tinyfolks is a minimal roguelike which I’d describe as a more gentle (in terms of both theme and difficulty) version of Darkest Dungeon. You can complete a run in a few hours but there’s lots of replayability, and you can do the XCOM thing of naming your characters after your friends so it hurts more when they die.
    • Bug Fables is basically just a spiritual successor to Paper Mario TTYD, if you liked that then you’ll like this!
    • The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has got to be one of my favourite games ever. Probably one of the most well-known indie roguelikes, it’s been remade and has three expansions. Even if you’ve played it before I’d strongly recommend getting the Repentance DLC as it adds so much new stuff. Infinitely replayable, ludicrously difficult to master, always enjoyable.

    I’m happy to wax lyrical about any of these if people want more info!