Games that have a esoteric Vibes

[NobodyHere]

“Slay the princess” is super good and such a mind fuck. You can get it on steam for around $23 (Canadian) when not on sale

Haven’t played it yet but what I’ve heard about “Baroque”, it fits the bill

And “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”

 

[Clippy]

Tomb Raider gave me that kind of feeling as well, I think the mapping in the early games is quite pretty and the soundtrack really helps make everything feel .. surreal? I can't quite think of a better word but it definitely had the type of feeling you described to me as well.

The sound effect that sometimes played as you were about to discover a new area or temple along with the camera panning a certain way just made it feel monumental, didn't it?

 

[YuriSukiSan]

The sound effect that sometimes played as you were about to discover a new area or temple along with the camera panning a certain way just made it feel monumental, didn't it?

It did! I think the minimlistic use of the soundtrack helped a lot as well, it gave the areas you explored a very distinct feeling of mystique.

 

[Gorse]

searched "N.U.D.E game" on google. Don't do it boys.

I have a traumatic childhood experience associated with this game! (Assuming you're talking about Natural Ultimate Digital Experiment for the Xbox.) When I was maybe 7 or 8, I'd sometimes sneak downstairs on a weekend in the middle of the night to watch TV without my parents knowing. One night, at like 1:00AM, I stumbled onto some Canadian video game review show where they were discussing import games. The two giggling hosts were like "AND NOW... WE'VE GOT THIS CUH-RAAAAAZY ROBOT GAME FROM JAPAN TO SHOW YOU!"

And the footage I saw, at age 8, in the dead of night, completely alone, was this:

That scene, of the robot girl "waking up" and getting out of her pod, with the top half of her body hanging completely limp until it suddenly becomes erect, with that music in the background, terrified the absolute daylights out of me, and sent me scampering back to my room with the shivers. That footage has never left my mind, and I'm pretty sure it fucked me up permanently, because to this day I find "creepy, zombie-like girl robots" to be just the most stomach-churning thing. (See also my take on Malice@Doll.) I'm pretty sure that girl in N.U.D.E. is meant to be sexy in a submissive fetish-y way, but even seeing that footage now makes my skin crawl. WHY WOULD THEY USE THAT MUSIC!?!?!?!?

This thread is awesome, by the way. I want to play every last one of these games before I die.

 

[Somnia]

Most games from Suda. From Killer7 to Flower, Sun and Rain the studio oozes its own style and atmosphere regardless of the genre or tone they're tackling. One of the few creatives within the industry that is so unmistakable, to the point that you immediately know if he did or didn't have a big part in something that Grasshopper made because the lack of his voice is immediate.

Big fan of point and click games in this regard too. Something about that genre brings out some completely unique vibes you won't get anywhere else in the medium. Harvester, Dark Seed and Machinarium are highlights but my favorites have to be Garage: Bad Dream Adventure, World of Horror and Elation for the Wonder Box 6000

 

[Gorse]

I WAS GOING TO MENTION GARAGE!!! I followed the re-discovery of Garage for almost a decade on places like /vr/ and other obscure gaming forums – seeing scattered screenshots or grainy Let's Play footage of it was like discovering a serial killer's den. For a good while, many people assumed that it was a faked game or some kind of Myst mod, but I always trusted that it was real. As more and more information surfaced, especially the original website, my curiosity just grew deeper – what kind of fucking game was this!? Why did it look like that!? It repulsed me and drew me in with equal power.

When the game finally released on mobile platforms in 2022, I spent every free second I had playing through it right from launch day, and even joined a Discord server that the main developers behind the game were on. (I couldn't help it – I got stuck, and nobody else on the internet could tell me what to do next beyond the people who actually made the game.) It completely blew past every one of my expectations and immediately became one of my favourite titles ever, and what I consider the high peak of the entire point-and-click genre. Fantastic artifact of a game.

 

[Somnia]

I WAS GOING TO MENTION GARAGE!!! I followed the re-discovery of Garage for almost a decade on places like /vr/ and other obscure gaming forums – seeing scattered screenshots or grainy Let's Play footage of it was like discovering a serial killer's den. For a good while, many people assumed that it was a faked game or some kind of Myst mod, but I always trusted that it was real. As more and more information surfaced, especially the original website, my curiosity just grew deeper – what kind of fucking game was this!? Why did it look like that!? It repulsed me and drew me in with equal power.

Sakuba's art is just hypnotizing, to put it bluntly. After discovering Garage back in the day I scoured the internet endlessly for more of his work and it just never disappointed. He is that rare mind that can create something as singular as the designs of Garage or put a traditional yet decidedly bizarre spin on even established IPs like Alice in Wonderland. There's just something about his work that puts it near the peak of surrealism for me, I can't get enough of it! I'd love to get my hands on his other games someday but my god it is impossible to find anything on anything for them, though I'm admittedly shit at googling.

 

[RageBurner]

I'm not sure if it counts, but Ultima 8: Pagan (I'm not going to use Roman numerals... you can't make me! bleh!) left very strong impressions in me.

I was too young then to understand what the game expected of me, but the impression it left me with never waned. The world had a dark palette, the music was foreboding, it really felt like a doomed world that was trying to kill you (and in my case it often succeeded).

 

[Somnia]

I'm not sure if it counts, but Ultima 8: Pagan (I'm not going to use Roman numerals... you can't make me! bleh!) left very strong impressions in me.

I was too young then to understand what the game expected of me, but the impression it left me with never waned. The world had a dark palette, the music was foreboding, it really felt like a doomed world that was trying to kill you (and in my case it often succeeded).

View attachment 12665 View attachment 12666

Technically every game could count so long as it has that esoteric vibe for /someone/. Always fun to hear everyone's personal examples because everyone will always have a couple oddballs in their roster of picks.

 

[RageBurner]

Technically every game could count so long as it has that esoteric vibe for /someone/. Always fun to hear everyone's personal examples because everyone will always have a couple oddballs in their roster of picks.

That's true! I could have cited Alone in the Dark 3, but I barely played that one, and the only thing I can remember about it is the player getting a rotary machinegun (gatling) at some point LOL.

 

[ThatPatrickGuy]

Skimmed through and don't think I saw an Eternal Darkness mention

 

[RageBurner]

Skimmed through and don't think I saw an Eternal Darkness mention
View attachment 12668

Don't know this one, but even the cover art is pretty telling!

 

[Ícaro Oliveira Santos]

Don't know this one, but even the cover art is pretty telling!

Eternal Darkness is one of the best horror games of the sixth generation.

 

[RageBurner]

Eternal Darkness is one of the best horror games of the sixth generation.

Ah, see, horror is not quite my wheelhouse so I wouldn't know it, haha.

 

[prnzo x BOOZE-o ka-BEER-o]

Dr. Chaos for NES. when you enter certain 1P-Adv rooms (as with say, Goonies II) that giant... whatevR monster chases you out of the room from out of the wall? the floor? in a jarring fashion that seems to defy any easy description - then you're out in the hall, n the giant thing moseys on out the door after you n.... even though it moves kinda slow, the thing is so bizarre-lookin that you feel almost like it will suddenly come at you superfast or its head will detach n come after you or somethin lol I regret playin this as a child in the dark with nobody home. apologies if this discomforts anyone.

 

[ThatPatrickGuy]

Eternal Darkness is one of my all time Favs.
I love the way that it's told and how the atmosphere is built, with some of the most interesting ways of getting under your skin.

 

[tenkai star]

The Stanley Parable

 

[RageBurner]

The Stanley Parable

View attachment 12679

That's downright liminal space hell kind of vibes, to be honest.

 

[tenkai star]

That's downright liminal space hell kind of vibes, to be honest.

The games it inspired are definitely just liminal space walking sims, but the meta commentary in TSP really elevates it. Really cool game, totally forgot about it until thinking of an example for this thread

 

[DunkeyKong]

The games it inspired are definitely just liminal space walking sims, but the meta commentary in TSP really elevates it. Really cool game, totally forgot about it until thinking of an example for this thread

Yeah I agree, it's the earliest examples of that before PT and anything other than that

 

[kanesha]

you want a fever dream (and this game genuinely freaks me out) for me that's definitely Zeno Clash. That game is an LSD simulator! It just feels off in a bad way to me and I don't even like mentioning it in my post. (No really I don't like it!)

What do you mean? It's just like disney with cartoon animals

hee hee... hee...

Also got to mention that its gamepllay is just as weird - a first person brawler, how many of those have you seen round and about?

On my part all this NUDE talk reminded me of The Void/Tension, a game where you meet a bunch of naked super models and they are all very eager to tell you about their mean brothers who will mess you up for just looking at them, very realistic actually.

 

[DunkeyKong]

What do you mean? It's just like disney with cartoon animals
View attachment 12667
hee hee... hee...

Also got to mention that its gamepllay is just as weird - a first person brawler, how many of those have you seen round and about?

On my part all this NUDE talk reminded me of The Void, a game where you meet a bunch of naked super models and they are all very eager to tell you about their mean brothers who will mess you up for just looking at them, very realistic actually.
View attachment 12695
View attachment 12696

Bro that looks so interesting, reminds me of Dark Souls and Witcher

Great meme lmao

 

[RageBurner]

What do you mean? It's just like disney with cartoon animals
View attachment 12667
hee hee... hee...

Also got to mention that its gamepllay is just as weird - a first person brawler, how many of those have you seen round and about?

On my part all this NUDE talk reminded me of The Void, a game where you meet a bunch of naked super models and they are all very eager to tell you about their mean brothers who will mess you up for just looking at them, very realistic actually.
View attachment 12695
View attachment 12696

Sometimes I think developers have nightmares/bad trips and come up with this stuff. Also, not enough elephants.

 

[kanesha]

Sometimes I think developers have nightmares/bad trips and come up with this stuff. Also, not enough elephants.

Actually I just dropped one in the elephant thread that came to me from this thread

 

[stealthRUSH]

Dragon Tycoon Edge (1995)

3DO has a few like N.O.B. Neo Organic Bioform, and Immercenary (Prefect World)