Expanding our knowledge of certain genres

[ommadawnyawn2]

Thought we could have a thread for recommendations on what else to play in genres we haven't explored that much of yet. 

Genres I want to brush up on and what I liked so far:
Rhythm/Music:
Elite Beat Agents (NDS)
Guitar Hero (PS2)

Construction & Management Sim/City Building Sim:
SimCity 2000 (PC)
SimCity 3000 Unlimited (PC)
Dungeon Keeper (PC)
Dungeon Keeper 2 (PC)

Third Person Shooter/TPS:
Vanquish (PS3)
Wild Guns (SNES) - Gallery Shooter/2.5D TPS
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (PC) - TPS/FPS/Action Platformer w/ AA elements
Blood Bros. (ARC) - Gallery Shooter/Fixed Shooter/2.5D TPS
Bulk Slash (SAT, 1997) - Mech-based

Also decent: Zone of the Enders, Mega Man Legends and Tron Bonne

RTT/Squad Tactics or Tactical Shooter:
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (PC) - FPS/Squad Tactics
Cannon Fodder (AMI/PC, 1993/MD/SNES, 1994) - RTT/Squad Tactics
General Chaos (MD)

Adventure (Point & Click/Quest Adventure):
Loom (AMI/PC, 1990/FM Towns)
Day of the Tentacle
Monkey Island
King's Quest III (Fan remake)
Beneath a Steel Sky
Snatcher
The Walking Dead: Season 1

Also pretty good but not top tier for me: Grim Fandango, Quest for Glory 1-2
I have a backlog of more retro Adventure games planned out but I'm wondering about what games in the last 10-15 years or so are the best based on my tastes so far? I don't like moon logic or arbitrary puzzles and the controls/interface should be on par with Day of the Tentacle or better. 

[Deleted]

For fans of the Rhythm genre I'd recommend buying a 3DS with these:
Rhythm Paradise Megamix
Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy Curtain Call (and the Dragon Quest game is likely good if you have the ability to play Japanese games)
Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX (probably not everyone's cup of tea mind)
Harmoknight
Bit Trip Saga

And if you really want something else then Rhythm Thief, though I will warn the game is blatantly unpolished and unfinished.

[spanky]

I always thought Shining Force II is a good entry level game for the turned-based strategy RPG genre.

It's fun to play without being as punishing as the Fire Emblem games. There's no permadeath and the game has a Dragon Quest style game over system, meaning you can pretty much keep throwing yourself at each challenge until you conquer it through skill, luck or powerleveling. Also the game isn't as complex something like Tactics Ogre. There is not an overabundance of customization so you're not going to break the game one way or another. This also allows the game to stay consistently challenging and "fair" throughout.

Nice graphics and music. Enjoyable, if typical fantasy RPG story and characters.

The original Shining Force is a good choice too but the sequel is a bit more fair and user friendly IMO.

[ommadawnyawn2]

Agreed, Shining Force II is a great starter pick. Perhaps also Dragon Force though its management aspect is more involved while the battles themselves are pretty simplistic.

There are some nice hacks for the first one, one of them improving the interface a bit. 

Feb 22, 2021 7:50:09 GMT -5 excelsior said:

For fans of the Rhythm genre I'd recommend buying a 3DS with these:
Rhythm Paradise Megamix
Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy Curtain Call (and the Dragon Quest game is likely good if you have the ability to play Japanese games)
Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX (probably not everyone's cup of tea mind)
Harmoknight
Bit Trip Saga

And if you really want something else then Rhythm Thief, though I will warn the game is blatantly unpolished and unfinished.

Hey thanks. I also have Necrodancer via GOG, any thoughts on that one?

Yeah can't say I get the hatsune miku thing, my music tastes are more indie/alternative outside of games but I'm not too picky when it's attached to a good game. 

[Deleted]

ommadawnyawn2 - I can certainly see Miku not fitting many people's musical tastes, however as someone who spent several minutes this afternoon dancing around my kitchen to the Wonder Woman TV theme song, I'm sure you would agree that that music fits well within my capacity for kitsch.

I'm afraid on Crypt of the Necrodancer my only experience is with the demo for the Cadence of Hyrule spinoff, which does feature the same core gameplay. It took me a good fifteen minutes to get to grips with the battle system, but it certainly seemed very interesting. The original Necrodancer is getting a physical release in April, so it'll go on my list, but I doubt I'll get around to picking it up any time soon.

[Bumpyroad]

Feb 22, 2021 7:27:21 GMT -5 ommadawnyawn2 said:

Third Person Shooter/TPS

[ommadawnyawn2]

Parasite Eve huh? Looks pretty fun.

[windfisch]

Adventure/Point and Click:

Primordia (PC) – Beneath a Steel-inspired point and click, but seemingly more polished, featuring robot-only characters. However, I can't speak for the whole game (only 2/3 or so), since I haven't finished it (which is not the game's fault).

Technobabylon (PC) - Another one with classic point and click gameplay: a cyberpunk detective story featuring different character-viewpoints. Not everything worked for me in terms of story development/character motivation and I disliked some puzzles, but overall it was pretty good.

The Darkside Detective (PC) - Point and click, silly supernatural horror with the focus on humor. It’s rather breezy, featuring mostly uncomplicated puzzles and nice, chunky pixel art, but no voice acting.

[Deleted]

I'll second The Darkside Detective. Very light experience and broken into short chapters. Even my partner was able to play through it with no previous experience of point & clicks. Not going to say it's a genre best or anything, but an enjoyable game without the need for a guide.

Thimbleweed Park is another good modern one. A bit harder and the ending is pretty divisive though.

[windfisch]

Another point and clicky:

The Journey Down Trilogy - Really fun, interesting artstyle, based on traditional African masks, kinda similar to what Grim Fandango did. It strikes a good balance between jokes and an intriguing story, featuring likeable main characters. Puzzles somtimes are more of the absurdist nature, but usually pretty easy to figure out. Since you enjoyed Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle, I think this might be for you. I still have a spare Steam-key for 1+2 - if you're interested you can have it.

The same goes for other games on this list (also applies to other members here):
hg101.proboards.com/thread/11318/trading-steam-keys?page=6

Some more titles on the list that might be of interest to you:

Kathy Rain - Thematically a bit heavier than most, maybe a bit Twin Peaks-inspired, classic-style p&c, similar to Wadjet Eye's games (Technobabylon, Primordia). Haven't played much, but seems pretty good.

Oxenfree - Kinda Telltale-like, interactive mystery story. Again, had just a brief sample so far, but the dialogue system here seems very well made and the voice acting also seems excellent. Interesting art-style with a zoomed out, semi-flat view.

Back to the Future - Telltale, haven't played so far.

There are also some Deadalic games like The Whispered World, A New Beginning and Deponia. Those are more of a mixed bag, featuring generally very well-made art, but can be lacking in terms writing and puzzle-design. Deponia's humour is also not everybody's cup of tea (not mine anyway), with an intenionally obnoxious main character and some tasteless jokes. The Whispered World is probably the best of those (also the prettiest), but still suffers from some obtuse puzzles. Some of these also may be buggy, another Deadalic-trait.

Moebius: Empire Rising, Secret Files:Tunguska and Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller are adventures I've never played, Since some people seem to like those, they could potentially be interesting, too.

[protoman85]

How about... Pachinko games?

Irem's PachiPara series numbers 12, 13 and 14 hides their own "PachiPro Fuunroku" games which are made in the Steambot Chronicles engine, and with dialogue choices like in Disaster Report. There's not much gameplay per se, you walk around town talking to people and try to solve a murder mystery(in 12) and there are a few minigames (in 12 and 13), otherwise it's Pachinko which is boring as hell, but you need to do it occasionally to proceed in the story, or just to get money(pachinko balls are currency). PachiPara 8-11 also has Fuunroku games, three of which that are connected in story, but those are top-down affairs which aren't as cool as 4, 5 and 6 (in 12, 13 and 14... confused yet?).

[ZenithianHero]

As somebody who wanted to get into that roguelike/lite indie scene I found Mana Spark and Enter the Gungeon entry points for different reasons.

Mana Spark's trap system helped me learn to pace myself and think about how to tackle crowds. It is also not that deep of a game, so the learning curve wasn't all bad.
Gungeon is content/item rich without overwhelming me but I found the game fun and flexible too. It is a good pick among the popular and polished titles.

EDIT: Hades is another great newcomer title. It offers plenty of ways to upgrade your character permanently and it is well paced in story thanks to NPCs updating their dialogue often between runs.

[spanky]

Hades is a pretty great, accessible roguelike.

I will second The Walking Dead for point and click adventure games. My wife, who doesn't like video games, is squeamish around violent media and absolutely hates zombie shit...watched me play through the entire first TWD game and was really into it.

[ZenithianHero]

spanky Yeah no sooner I checked out for the day I was like "I forgot Hades" but didn't feel like correcting myself until now. And it is one of my favorite Switch games as well.

While Mana Spark and Gungeon is more the type to start mostly from scratch, Hades works well for those who want to see character progression. Every failed run still nets you a small victory. Hades is a rouge that respects your time and efforts in a way that resonates with all audiences. The game also provides new story/dialogue changes that reflects your previous run making the game less stale after your many attempts.

[Deleted]

Feb 22, 2021 7:27:21 GMT -5 ommadawnyawn2 said:

Thought we could have a thread for recommendations on what else to play in genres we haven't explored that much of yet. 


Third Person Shooter/TPS:
Wild Guns (SNES) - Gallery Shooter/2.5D TPS
Blood Bros. (ARC) - Gallery Shooter/Fixed Shooter/2.5D TPS

Going back to the OP, I really enjoy gallery shooters like this. Alligator Hunt is a nice one I played recently. You initially control a player character and in subsequent stages play as a spaceship. It's really quite hard though and runs too long for me.