Games that have a esoteric Vibes

[kanesha]

reminds me of Dark Souls

I remember it being hard, and having unique but somewhat clunky gameplay, so pretty close.

 

[fake-kun]

That Serial Experiments Lain game for the PlayStation.

 

[dropsmegamega]

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.

It's nice to see Garage appreciated more. I played the fantranslation of the original pc game when it released, it's the most beautiful and unique fishing game of all time!!

 

[freebie#47]

I could think of many, but I'll choose Scorn. If you haven't played it, DON'T. Everything about the game is either weird or just janky.

 

[RebelofDaNeonGod]

Germs

Iru...

Acid

Rampo

 

[Ícaro Oliveira Santos]

Compared to the rest of the Zelda series, the atmosphere of Majora's Mask is incredibly bizarre and surreal.

 

[IJustWantFeelSomething]

Morrowind man, just Morrowind. It's so unique and weird that a common meme is that one of the main writer was high as balls while making the setting and lore. And people actually believe it because it's considered a logical explanation as to why Morrowind is the way it is.

 

[Ícaro Oliveira Santos]

The First Drakengard is by far Yoko Taro's most bizarre work, it has a much more esoteric atmosphere compared to Yoko Taro's other games and has by far one of the most bizarre endings I've ever seen in a video game.

 

[dropsmegamega]

View attachment 14268The First Drakengard is by far Yoko Taro's most bizarre work, it has a much more esoteric atmosphere compared to Yoko Taro's other games and has by far one of the most bizarre endings I've ever seen in a video game.

My first Taro game. Not sure if I would call it esoteric, more like apocalyptic. I would also not be exaggerating if I said it has one of the most disturbing and insane soundtracks out of all games I've ever played.

 

[spectresfrommercury]

elemetnal gearbolt easily that one

 

[ZengarZombolt]

Kinda related to Yoko Taro, Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere was a game the CEO of Cavia was the director of. and you can see the lines form Ace 3 > DG > Neir


For most of the game it's a cyberpunk dystopia story about companies with militaries. but if you dig long and hard you get to the Ending E path. At one point you have to fight in the internet. and that's not the crazy parts.

SUPER NOTICE! All this esoteric Internet battles and the horrors are in the Japanese release. when this game came out in the west (both America and Europe) they ripped out Every piece of story it had, cutscenes dialogue everything. if you want to try it, get one of the two fan translations. both are fine. I think one is on the Repo at that.

 

[TurnARyu]

ITS A CRIME WHAT LOCALIZATION DID TO ELETROSPHERE

 

[Virtuafighter]

Suda51 games are wonderful in creating those amazing surreal worlds.

 

[Ícaro Oliveira Santos]

 

[Somnia]

Sentinel Returns for the PS1 just popped into my head! Played it last year and it is this mind-boggling puzzle game that's really tough to describe but absolutely enthralling if you experience it yourself. You're more or less building these towers - called synthoids/robots - out of the energy you get from crystal trees. Your goal is to reach the Sentinel at the highest point of the level, but you can only build synthoids or absorb trees that are at the same altitude or lower. You're essentially entering a level, looking around for trees to absord and then stacking synthoids until you reach the Sentinel and destroy it. Meanwhile, the Sentinel is constantly looking for you by surveying the level (think the eye of Sauron). If it sees you it will slowly drain your energy, so you have to think on your feet.

One fun fact is that the music was composed by John Carpenter of The Thing and Halloween fame! That's how I had found out about it since I'm a fan of his and went on a binge of listening to his music last year.

Minimalist in its presentation and utterly unique in its mechanics. Highly recommend giving it a shot sometime!

 

[tuuko]

Window Sill is a cool little point and click thing with a really unique style. Its not really a game with characters or gameplay but it has a [[[really]]] nice atmosphere. I found it cos I saw this cool snake thing and google reverse image searched it and it was exactly what I expected.


Fear & Hunger and its sequal blew up on YT a little while ago (largely for its shock value) but its probably the closest you can get to the dictionary definition of esoteric. Lots of the lore and story is lifted from gnosticism (and berserk lol) but its all tied together in a cool painterly style that is unlike anything else you can find in games rn.

P.S. Make sure to check the content warning if u dont know anything about funger. It can get pretty WILD. Aside from that, i'd recommend going in blind if you've managed to miss it. Trial and error is a big factor in the game too - a lot of ppl dont like that so its worth a mention.


Figured I'd also shout out Dujanah since 3 is the magic number. I've only played a little bit but it was really interesting! Kinda like Yume Nikki but not really - weird though!! Can't really vouch too hard cos I haven't finished it but it really seemed like there was something deeper too it. Its all claymation and kinds stopmotion-y; feels very hand-made if you like that sort of thing. It has something to do with WAR, i think, but it looks like it touches on a lot of themes.

 

[hazys]

The most "esoteric" games imo are mid-late 90s adventures from Japan. They're so poorly-documented in English and have such particular art styles. Some, like Popol Maya and Pantos Story, have been added recently.

Others I'd add would be:

• Doki Oki
• Garage: Bad Dream Adventure
• Zeddas: Horror Tour
• Kowloon's Gate
• Despiria
• Shizuku
• Yellow Brick Road II
• Gadget: Invention, Travel & Adventure
• Wonderful Everyday: Down the Rabbit-hole
• Drowned God
• Galerians
• Hellnight
• Eastern Mind / Chu-Teng
• Tokyo Wakusei Planetokio

 

[homesforgnomes]

I see somebody already posted Baroque. I played the PS2 version back in the day and I can confirm it fits. I hear the Saturn version is better but I have yet to play it.

Another one is Napple Tale, though it's more dreamlike than nightmarish. If you like Kirby or Klonoa, I recommend it.

 

[Somnia]

An odd and very personal pick, but Heavy Gear for the PC always felt super mysterious and ominous to me as a kid. Despite missions usually only requiring you to engage with small chunks of a level that are right in front of you, you could technically avoid engaging with the mission entirely and just pick a direction, engage your wheels at max power and zoom off for what felt like an eternity. The low polygon count, generally ambient music and minimal use of objects like rocks trees to help give levels a better sense of place made exploring feel terrifying to me as a kid. Any mission that took place at night just elevated that sense that if I go too far off the beaten path, something was going to get me. This was not helped by the fact that on occasion if you went far enough in one direction you would indeed find tiny, clearly unfinished minibases entirely detached from the world and yet sometimes had working turret defenses or mechs defending them. No matter how much it would make me tense up I was always compelled to keep scouring every map to its edges just in case there was something fantastical off in the distance. It's that kind of bizarre fascination that mainly exists in the mind of a child. Wish I still had the patience and innocence that allowed me to enjoy just walking around levels aimlessly for hours because /maybe something cool is out there/.

Heavy Gear 2 maintains some level of mysteriousness in its atmosphere, but the music was far more bombastic and the graphics engine allowed for far more detail which stops you from filling in the lack of detail with your own sense of dread.

 

[Korova]

OFF, Dark Messiah (Hellnight), SMT 3, F.E.A.R, Final Fantasy Tactics and Overblood (for some reason).

 

[NoctemDead]

Baroque for the Saturn/PS1 (I played the PS1 version)
Shadow Tower

More modern/indie games:
Disillusion
Babbdi (free and worth about an hour of exploration)
Disco Elysium, in a way that takes hours to become apparent
Signalis
Death Stranding
Dread Delusion and Lunacid are supposed to cater to this vibe very well, but I haven't gotten to playing them yet

 

[TurnARyu]

Baroque for the Saturn/PS1 (I played the PS1 version)
Shadow Tower

More modern/indie games:
Disillusion
Babbdi (free and worth about an hour of exploration)
Disco Elysium, in a way that takes hours to become apparent
Signalis
Death Stranding
Dread Delusion and Lunacid are supposed to cater to this vibe very well, but I haven't gotten to playing them yet

I was waiting for days to someone mentioned disillusion! Its so great

Post automatically merged: Jan 23, 2025

Wow guys the list already has 91 games!
Thank everyone so far! I discovery so many new gens that i never have heard of!

 

[Hikari.EXE]

Honestly surprised there was a single mention of Shadow Tower in this thread.

Anyways, here's my recommendation:

It is a Shadow Tower game, but I'd argue that Abyss has a way more esoteric vibe to it than it's PS1 counter part, it's grimmier and more depressing. Good game, will make you upset.

 

[NoctemDead]

I was waiting for days to someone mentioned disillusion! Its so great

There is a sequel out now, Disillusion ST. I haven't played it yet. I've heard mixed things about it, apparently it's more RNG dependent than the first one. But, it might scratch that itch for you.

If you're open to super indie WIP, there's this demo from the person who's working on the LSD: Revamped project right now. I greatly enjoyed it. Few hours of gameplay here:

Vignettes: The Dream City [DEMO] by Figglewatts

Surreal dungeon crawler RPG set in the city you keep seeing in your dreams.

figglewatts.itch.io

They have a whole jam for LSD-like games on Itch. https://itch.io/jam/lsdjam-2023/entries .Hypnagogia was another fun one I played that ended up being turned into a full game on Steam (haven't played the full release yet)

I also just remembered another Steam demo I played which was super fever dream territory, on the darker/scarier side. Complete "WTF am I playing" game but really enjoyed the aspect of figuring out what to do since there is no immediate indication of an objective or even any human language in the game. Once again, about an hour worth of gameplay for me.

Navicula Meatus on Steam

A dark and surreal puzzle adventure set in a decaying town where veins pulse through ruined structures and the night hums with unfamiliar life.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Koreandr]

Spoiler: Torment

Spoiler: Tides of Numenera

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