Atypical RPG recommendations?

[MrChester]

I'm talking shit like weird RPG RTS Vpet hybrids like Digimon World. I'm talking Survival-horror RPG hybrids like Parasite Eve and Sweet Home. I'm talking crazy deck-builder based RPGs like Arcana Seal of Rimsala and Wild Card for the Wonderswan.

I love all sorts of videogames and I'm on an RPG high rn. I'm looking for some mechanics I've never seen before. I don't wanna see any 50+ hour, standard ass turn-based jrpgs that take 8 hours to introduce a magic spell that's just called "fireball".

Drop your suggestions and a small description or blurb would be much appreciated :)

 

[Eclipse14]

Baten Kaitos and Lost Kingdoms, both on the GameCube.
They're card-based RPGs and among the few on the system. GameCube didn't have much in that genre.

 

[χKai]

Xenogears?

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Hybrid RPGs? No problem

Horror RPGs:

-Koudelka (PS1) + Shadow Hearts 1 and 2 (PS2): Shadow Hearts in particular has a weird clock like mechanic for it's turn based battles
-Baroque (Saturn/PS1/PS2/Wii): Horror RPG + Roguelike, a lot of items with different effects to help you traverse the giant nerve tower
-World of Horror (PC and newer consoles)
-Off (PC, soon to get a remake for modern consoles)


Arena Fighter RPG:

-Custom Robo franchise (N64-DS): It's like RPG Armored Core, its insane this never took off



SHMUP RPGs:

-Undertale: not surprising that Undertale and Deltarune are kind of the only ones to do this type of combination
-Star Trader (X68000): The first of it's kind, but the combination of being JP only, releasing on an unpopular computer (X68000), being from a developer that's only now starting to take off from Ys (Nihon Falcom), and being crazy unknown means that this was never localized and it will be a while before it's fan translated



Gallery shooter RPG:

-Black Rock Shooter (PSP): Self explanatory, gallery shooter RPG mix



Beat em up RPG:

-literally every Yakuza game
-Sleeping Dogs


Dungeon Crawlers with a bit of freedom in movesets and classes:

-Etrian Odyssey franchise (DS/3DS/PC/Switch): Many different options to choose from (typically 7 classes). Can pick their portrait, name, which moves they'll start out with with the 3 skill points they get for free, the team name, a team of up to 5 (slot 6 doesn't actually exist, it's just there for a few moves and maneuvers to move the party around in the fight), and Etrian Odyssey V, the 1-3 HD remasters and possibly Nexus, the ability to change skin/hair/eye/etc color plus the voice. It's biggest downside is that the games are rough when it comes to getting EXP for benched members because of the 5 slot limitation, so it's recommended to go for Etrian Odyssey III (where there's a skill to address that very thing), Etrian Odyssey V (there's an item that also addresses that thing, but it's not obtained until floor 5 of Stratum 1), or the HD Remasters (adds a new difficulty called Picnic that can be used for easier grinding)

-The Dark Spire (DS): Etrian Odyssey minus the portraits. You don't see your characters at all, you gotta imagine them like you would in a D&D round.

-7th Dragon franchise (DS/PSP): Was Etrian Odyssey's sister series for a while so there's a lot of similarities. Most weren't localized, but fans translated them.

-Class of Heroes duology (PSP): I know nothing about these games

-Mary Skelter franchise (PS Vita/PS4/PC): I will not spoil myself on these games



Horror themed Monster Catcher:

-MegaTen franchise: Come on, this wasn't a surprise either. Type affinity, buffs, debuffs, items and smart strategy will get you through many boss fights, especially Nocturne onwards. Persona is a bit more lenient on you, but they're still SMT games, don't underestimate them either. Unique because good luck finding a non Atlus RPG focusing on normally insignificant shit like buffs and debuffs.


Category of it's own:

-Ore no Shikabane o Kete Yuke, or Oreshika (PS1/PSP): RPG all about sending your entire lineage into battle to eventually fell a demon who cursed the entire bloodline with a lifespan of like 3 years
-Ihatovo Monogatari (SNES): Barely even an RPG, it's more a life sim/puzzle game
-R Type Command (PSP): An SRPG spinoff of a SHMUP? IDK this game is weird
-Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 (MSX/PC-98/Genesis/SNES/PC Engine/Game Gear/Saturn): Dungeon crawlers with the distinct selling point of not having a centralised combat system, instead relying on combos like Street Fighter to execute different attacks. I don't know anything about what's in the most recent entry though, no one's really talked about it on Youtube either.



Whatever the fuck is going on with Mother:

-Earthbound (SNES): rolling HP bar that guarantees your survival against fatal attacks if you're quick enough
-Mother 3 (GBA): unique Nintendo patented rhythm game like system where hitting enemies to the music will net you an up to 16 hit combo
Mother 1 is a typical RPG, ignore

 

[χKai]

Shenmue

 

[fake-kun]

Mega Man Battle Network/Mega Man Star Force games.

 

[WesternYokai]

The Sonic one on DS

 

[moonbits]

RESONANCE OF FATE​

 

[ATenderLad]

I don't wanna see any 50+ hour, standard ass turn-based jrpgs that take 8 hours to introduce a magic spell that's just called "fireball".

Now all I want is a game where a protagonist travels down thirty miles of bad road, finds love and loss, unearths the hidden, echoing chambers of the world (and themselves), and in the final confrontation with their foil/existential nemesis they reveal a profound sense of enlightenment, personified by their mastery of the devastating Fireball.

On topic, have you played Dragon Quest Vagrant Story? I feel like I've talked about it a lot on here, but it's pretty singular as PSX games went. It's...you know what, I'll just link to the last bit I wrote on it.

Vagrant Story a Playstation 1 game from the year 2000

yeah it's not too hard to figure out. It can just kind of be a pain in the ass at times. vagrant story's pretty great as long as you can enter the right mindset to engage with its menuing. the graphics are extremely good, but so is the cinematography. every sydney scene just has killer...

retrogametalk.com

 

[Stare best girl]

Panzer Dragoon Saga(but first, play Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon II Zwei as Saga is a sequel to Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon II Zwei is a prequel to Panzer Dragoon)

 

[Felipe]

Treasure Hunter G on SNES, if you dont mind the translation which REALLY needs some fixing you'll probably like it. I finished it with this translation years ago. I hope someone will fix it so i can play it again decently this time.

You can find the game patched here.

 

[MrChester]

Hybrid RPGs? No problem

Horror RPGs:

-Koudelka (PS1) + Shadow Hearts 1 and 2 (PS2): Shadow Hearts in particular has a weird clock like mechanic for it's turn based battles
-Baroque (Saturn/PS1/PS2/Wii): Horror RPG + Roguelike, a lot of items with different effects to help you traverse the giant nerve tower
-World of Horror (PC and newer consoles)
-Off (PC, soon to get a remake for modern consoles)


Arena Fighter RPG:

-Custom Robo franchise (N64-DS): It's like RPG Armored Core, its insane this never took off



SHMUP RPGs:

-Undertale: not surprising that Undertale and Deltarune are kind of the only ones to do this type of combination
-Star Trader (X68000): The first of it's kind, but the combination of being JP only, releasing on an unpopular computer (X68000), being from a developer that's only now starting to take off from Ys (Nihon Falcom), and being crazy unknown means that this was never localized and it will be a while before it's fan translated



Gallery shooter RPG:

-Black Rock Shooter (PSP): Self explanatory, gallery shooter RPG mix



Beat em up RPG:

-literally every Yakuza game
-Sleeping Dogs


Dungeon Crawlers with a bit of freedom in movesets and classes:

-Etrian Odyssey franchise (DS/3DS/PC/Switch): Many different options to choose from (typically 7 classes). Can pick their portrait, name, which moves they'll start out with with the 3 skill points they get for free, the team name, a team of up to 5 (slot 6 doesn't actually exist, it's just there for a few moves and maneuvers to move the party around in the fight), and Etrian Odyssey V, the 1-3 HD remasters and possibly Nexus, the ability to change skin/hair/eye/etc color plus the voice. It's biggest downside is that the games are rough when it comes to getting EXP for benched members because of the 5 slot limitation, so it's recommended to go for Etrian Odyssey III (where there's a skill to address that very thing), Etrian Odyssey V (there's an item that also addresses that thing, but it's not obtained until floor 5 of Stratum 1), or the HD Remasters (adds a new difficulty called Picnic that can be used for easier grinding)

-The Dark Spire (DS): Etrian Odyssey minus the portraits. You don't see your characters at all, you gotta imagine them like you would in a D&D round.

-7th Dragon franchise (DS/PSP): Was Etrian Odyssey's sister series for a while so there's a lot of similarities. Most weren't localized, but fans translated them.

-Class of Heroes duology (PSP): I know nothing about these games

-Mary Skelter franchise (PS Vita/PS4/PC): I will not spoil myself on these games



Horror themed Monster Catcher:

-MegaTen franchise: Come on, this wasn't a surprise either. Type affinity, buffs, debuffs, items and smart strategy will get you through many boss fights, especially Nocturne onwards. Persona is a bit more lenient on you, but they're still SMT games, don't underestimate them either. Unique because good luck finding a non Atlus RPG focusing on normally insignificant shit like buffs and debuffs.


Category of it's own:

-Ore no Shikabane o Kete Yuke, or Oreshika (PS1/PSP): RPG all about sending your entire lineage into battle to eventually fell a demon who cursed the entire bloodline with a lifespan of like 3 years
-Ihatovo Monogatari (SNES): Barely even an RPG, it's more a life sim/puzzle game
-R Type Command (PSP): An SRPG spinoff of a SHMUP? IDK this game is weird
-Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 (MSX/PC-98/Genesis/SNES/PC Engine/Game Gear/Saturn): Dungeon crawlers with the distinct selling point of not having a centralised combat system, instead relying on combos like Street Fighter to execute different attacks. I don't know anything about what's in the most recent entry though, no one's really talked about it on Youtube either.



Whatever the fuck is going on with Mother:

-Earthbound (SNES): rolling HP bar that guarantees your survival against fatal attacks if you're quick enough
-Mother 3 (GBA): unique Nintendo patented rhythm game like system where hitting enemies to the music will net you an up to 16 hit combo
Mother 1 is a typical RPG, ignore

My man thinks he's getting paid by the word... Thank you!
Some awesome stuff here - a load I'm aware of, a load I've already played, and lots more I know nothing about that really piqued my interest. Honestly I'm just using the mention of Baroque as an excuse to say this but I played it recently for a few hours and I thought the vibe was awesome but the game itself was just alright. The game gets a lot of recognition though so I can't help but feel like I'm missing something? Like are people just really taken aback by the vibe or is there more to it that I'm missing? I reconfigured the controls to play more like and FPS and I kinda felt like I was just walking over to guys and smacking them

Obviously I can't reply to everyone but all your suggestions so far are really good! I'm stoked to try some of these out myself!

 

[solnK!]

Panzer Dragoon Saga (Altough you should play the other games first)

 

[Sfjeov]

Knights in the Nightmare features bullet-hell
There's also Yggdra Union but you've already heard about deck-builders rpgs

 

[drizzes]

Vagrant Story for the PS1

 

[Gershyn]

I will never stop recommending the SaGa series it is such a weird idiosyncratic take on the jrpg format.

 

[Sinmenon]

My literal first thought is to go to the Koudelka and Shadow Hearts rabbit hole

Koudelka (PSx) is a mix between JRPG and Survival Horror. The developers travelled to UK to take pictures for the textures and inspiration, record the walking sounds, and even bought an absurd amount of books for research back in the 90s when there wasn't so much information readily available online.
There is this Romani girl named Koudelka whose powers attract her to a mysterious monastery in Wales. In there, she meets an adventurer guy named Edward who was about to be killed by a monster, and a priest named James. The place is littered with evil spirits and all sorts of dangers.

Shadow Hearts (PS2) is closer to a traditional JRPG. The graphics might look a bit underwhelming (it was released one week before Final Fantasy X), but apparently it started as a PSx game.
You start with this dude named Yuri, who is a rude prick who sneaked into a train because a voice in his head said it would be interesting. In the train, there was this girl named Alice who was kidnapped by some people and was being transported to the East when a mysterious gentleman wearing a top hat summoned a mini-demon and started killing everyone and wanted the girl. It was when Yuri decided to kidnap her instead and then they go on their own adventure. Oh, and Yuri can turn into monsters after absorbing evil spirits.

Shadow Hearts Covenant (PS2) is the sequel to the previous game and it picks up a few months after it ends. Yuri is...well, at a crossroads in his life, and then he gets cursed. If he fails to deal with the curse, his very soul will die. We also see some old familiar faces from the previous game.

Shadow Hearts From the New World (PS2) has a far more colorful and upbeat visual, and a seemly unrelated story. Johnny Garland is a kid with a self-entitled detective agency and he is hired to check a disappearance and everything goes south.

 

[MrChester]

Knights in the Nightmare features bullet-hell
There's also Yggdra Union but you've already heard about deck-builders rpgs

I'm well aware of Sting.
Tbh when I realised I didn't mention any of their games I was secretly waiting to see how long it would take for someone to suggest one that wasn't Baroque. What a rad dev team

 

[Amakuchi]

I would recommend Eternal Ring, a dungeon crawler that focuses on fusing magic rings to gain stronger spells. Evergrace is more of an action RPG where you level up via gear, and Tecmo's Deception, another action RPG where you kill your enemies by setting up traps. Lastly the Madou Monogatari series, which is another dungeon crawler, but its goal was to streamline things. As such, a lot of status effects, critical hits and player conditions are determined by character dialogue.

 

[Cantarella]

I don't think I've ever seen the spell system in Treasure of the Rudras anywhere else. Typing in a word to make a spell, adding prefixes/suffixes to modify it in different ways. The game gives you several spell words you're 'supposed' to use but people figured out how to make brutally strong/efficient stuff out of random characters.

Everything in The World Ends with You is honestly still pretty fresh.

 

[Sinmenon]

I just realized that we never asked if you got a system preference. Ops?

Some PC ones (and coincidentally, both starting with A)

Arcanum Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is a CRPG a la Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, but it is...well, a steampunk setting. Someone blew up the airship you were in and a dying gnome asks you to take a ring to a place and contact someone to prevent some evil force, and it has some nice plot twists. Oh, and it is also from the people who made Fallout 1 and 2. The thing about this system is that you need to do a balancing act: you see, in this world, magic and technology are very opposed. If you level up your magic, anything technology like guns or even trains will fail around you. If you level up your technology, you'll have trouble dealing with magic. So while it is a somewhat traditional CRPG, you need to take into consideration how you are going to tackle your build.

Arx Fatalis I mentioned it in a thread about Oblivion-like games, but the tl;dr is that the entire game takes place underground because the world's surface is inhospitable. The melee combat is what you'd expect, but the magic system? You learn runes (and you better write them down), and you actually do the gestures with your mouse.

 

[MrChester]

I don't think I've ever seen the spell system in Treasure of the Rudras anywhere else. Typing in a word to make a spell, adding prefixes/suffixes to modify it in different ways. The game gives you several spell words you're 'supposed' to use but people figured out how to make brutally strong/efficient stuff out of random characters.

Everything in The World Ends with You is honestly still pretty fresh.

That sounds really sick. I thought at first you were gonna describe a system like in the 'Sorcery!' series but that sounds really intriguing.

I just realized that we never asked if you got a system preference. Ops?

Some PC ones (and coincidentally, both starting with A)

Arcanum Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

No system preference - if it looks good and can actually be played I'll find a way.

Oh and Arcanum! I wasn't aware of the game itself, but someone described the magic system to me once (for reference for something else) and I thought it sounded neat and wanted to know more. Never knew it was the classic FO guys. The duality between Tech and Magic sounds like the duality between Typhon and Human in Prey, but in Prey I always wanted a little more from the concept

 

[Sinmenon]

No system preference - if it looks good and can actually be played I'll find a way.

Oh and Arcanum! I wasn't aware of the game itself, but someone described the magic system to me once (for reference for something else) and I thought it sounded neat and wanted to know more. Never knew it was the classic FO guys. The duality between Tech and Magic sounds like the duality between Typhon and Human in Prey, but in Prey I always wanted a little more from the concept

This game clearly has some Dungeons and Dragons influences; there are elves and dwarves, for example. I tried to describe the plot as vaguely as possible to avoid spoilers, but there are some pretty cool plot twists, like a complete deconstruction of the "chosen one" thing.
Because it was a Timothy Cain game, there are also some very shocking quests with bleak outcomes. And, technically speaking, it is possible to do a 100% pacifist run if you know what to do.
While it doesn't hit the same things as the typhon and human in Prey, but it does bring some nice moments of reflection and profound realization; not a lot is exactly as it seems.

 

[Cantarella]

Treasure of the Rudras is a pretty wild ride all around. Highly recommend. Its 'lore' is VERY similar to what's going on in a massively popular series that came 10+ years later, and you will not be able to guess which one.

I've been playing a.... dragonball z game lately. Super Saiya Densetsu for the snes. I should lead off by saying that if you don't like dragonball, ignore the rest of this text. Wouldn't recommend this to someone who doesn't care about the series. It's... questionably programmed and the fan translation is iffy, but it's kind of amazing that it holds together at all. Battle system is card-based card with multiple items that manipulate cards/stats.

That isn't why it strikes me as atypical though, although the battle system is pretty unique. It's following the storyline of an anime, and normally such games are kinda strict, (this one is too in how you're 'supposed' to approach some major battles) but this one has a huge amount of variables and events that can play out in different ways. Like, depending on how you do in a certain minigame, Goku can arrive to the battle with Nappa and Vegeta either really early or really late. I think there's 7+ different 'times' he can show up. You can take Vegeta out before he turns into a monkey, all of the Z-fighters can survive and go to Namek, and you can even keep someone in Captain Ginyu's body after he does his body-switch technique. That last one's a glitch though. Oh, and like I said, the Z-fighters can survive, but they can also die at any time. And if they die, they're gone forever.

It's hard to describe, but basically it feels fairly unique in how 'loose' it feels, especially for an anime game. There's just a path the player can walk that's wider than normal, closer to a crpg than a jrpg.