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[DNAbro]

I just wanted to take a moment and highlight some coming indie games that are heavily inspired by older JRPGs and look pretty high quality and/or have an interesting premise. I've been incredibly excited by all of these and think they deserve some kind of spotlight.


Cosmic Star Heroine by Zeboyd Games

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juKE8FvMky0

3 exotic planets to explore. Aliens. Robots. Magic. Forbidden technology. Ruined Worlds. Ghosts. Long-lost secrets. Conspiracies. A galactic threat. And one brave heroine to make things right. Cosmic Star Heroine is an exciting new RPG from the creators of Cthulhu Saves the World.

Seeing that this game is inspired by Chrono Trigger and has me incredibly excited.

YIIK: A Postmodern RPG by Acck Studios

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpFXydY1K8k

On the afternoon of April 4th 1999 Sammy Pak went missing.

That night, a video of her last known moments was uploaded online.

All of your friends excitedly watched as she is pulled from an elevator by something…. otherworldly. This is a story about what happens when you look for someone who can’t be found… and the strange things you invite into your life when you go to forbidden places.

Key Features:

25 Hour Japanese RPG style campaign!
Journey in the late 90’s, on the eve of the world’s end, in this surreal RPG experience.
Unique combat that blends action based moves, with turn based combat.
Fight complex and epic battles featuring up to eight party members.
Explore and solve six unique dungeons filled with puzzles and traps!
Fully voiced acted campaign featuring voices by Chris Niosi(Kirbopher/Disgaea 5), Clifford Chapin(Attack on Titan), Andrew Fayette (Yuri of Wind), and many more!
Expansive soundtrack including works by Andrew Allanson(Two Brothers), Calum Bowen(Lovely Planet), Toby Fox(Undertale), Hiroki Kikuta(Secret of Mana), and many more!

The music and gameplay that has been shown off look great so far. The gameplay system reminds me of Paper Mario or Mario and Luigi with how involved it is and ample opportunity to make your attacks stronger with well timed button presses.

Omori by Omocat

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erzgjfU271g
EDIT- NEW 2017 TRAILER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV0BST2nifk&feature=youtu.be

OMORI is a surreal psychological horror RPGmaker game. You must travel between two worlds, both welcoming, both concealing the same secrets. Meet new (old) people, fight new (old) enemies, explore your own memories, and uncover some hidden truths along the way (although you wish you hadn't.) When the time comes, you can only choose one.

Which world is more real? You decide, I guess.

Battle Sprite

There should be a new trailer in the coming month so hopefully we can see even more of this game. It's Earthbound inspired horror and it's looking incredibly interesting.

Knuckle Sandwich by Andrew Brophy.

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgENtIMxSTM

Knuckle Sandwich is an RPG about a boy who moves out of home and starts looking for work in a new city. After landing a job at a run-down diner, he accidentally gets wrapped up in a missing persons mystery that involves a local crime gang and a fanatical cult.

Features lively city locations to explore, a turn-based battle system that revolves around eccentric minigames, a macabre storyline and a ridiculously hip soundtrack.

Glitched by En House Studios

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU08GuGJCMY

GLITCHED is a mystery and exploration RPG coming to PC, Mac, and Linux. The game features traditional turn based combat with a little bit of spice but will primarily focus on the story and how you change it. This will be done through the ESSENCE SYSTEM, which will track a player's personality and morality. After a glitch appears in the world of SOREN, our unexpected hero, Gus, will become aware of you- the player. Experience fourth wall breaking shenanigans while making decisions that will shape this world

Expecting it in 2018 but interesting enough to keep eyes on.

Indivisible by Lab Zero

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE6zS6Z9FGQ

Lab Zero is proud to announce our new action/RPG, currently titled Indivisible.

Indivisible is inspired by classics like Valkyrie Profile and Super Metroid, but with the unique character, world, and gameplay depth Lab Zero is known for, and will feature a stunning soundtrack by legendary Japanese game music composer, Hiroki Kikuta.

Only non-turn based one I'm posting cause it looks fantastic.

Any other interesting JRPG inspired indie games that I'm missing? Any of these that you are excited for?

 

[Anno]

Wanna give a shout out to Secrets of Grindea. Currently in Early Access and already a great Secret of Manaish game with fun combat and abilities. Also looks gorgeous.

 

[Com_Raven]

You forgot the best looking one (imho, of course): Battle Chasers. It's a new project from Joe Madueira (who also worked at Vigil on Darksiders) that combines his 90s comic series Battle Chasers with his love for old console jrpgs. And as you can see, style-wise it looks stunning...

http://www.battlechasers.com/game

 

[FloatOn]

all of these look super dope. I've been looking forward to cosmic star heroine for awhile since I'm a huge phantasy star 4 fan.

 

[YianGaruga]

Whoa I was not aware of OMORI. Looks great

 

[Dr. Benton Quest]

Shadows of Adam should be out this year.

 

[Spiritwalker]

Will Smith?

 

[N° 2048]

Cosmic Star Heroine, looking to be my GOTY 2017.

These all look amazing though. Wow. Cheers OP

 

[Newtype-001]

You forgot the best looking one (imho, of course): Battle Chasers

http://www.battlechasers.com/game

Omori and this look cool.
On my radar now

 

[Camel Master]

CrossCode deserves a mention too, its been out for a while but still in Early Access. Love the spritework in this.

 

[TEJ]

You forgot Shiness. French indie rpg designed like a ps2 era rpg. I'm legitimately hyped for that one.

 

[YianGaruga]

I just checked the OMORI Kickstarter and this was the only stretch goal that wasn't met

god dammit

 

[jjasso21]

It's looking good so far. Excited for Battle Chaser, Indivisible and Cosmic Star Heroine. Also why does that cat in one of the indies remind me of Adventure Time?

Edit: excited

 

[Wensih]

OMORI looks real interesting.

 

[OniBarubary]

There are a bunch that have come out that people have found varying levels of enjoyment of such as:

Boot Hill Heroes

Celestian Tales: Old North

Chroma Squad (more like an SRPG/time-sim but eh, it's based on tokusatsu stuff)

Citizens of Earth

Earthlock: Festival of Magic

LISA (which is fucking amazing)

Pier Solar (somewhat disappointing)

---

C-Wars is still coming out (sort of a Megaman Battle Network type gameplay)

Starcrawlers is also coming soon, sci-fi DRPG game


And all that is just idly looking through my Steam list and doesn't count the ones up above or ones still in production that don't have betas or demos I've played. I got binders of jRPG indies.

 

[PantsuJo]

Indivisible looks fucking cool.

 

[#sorrynotsorry]

They aren't really just JRPG-inspired, these games ARE JRPGs.

Looking forward to Battlechasers and Indivisible though.

 

[DNAbro]

You forgot the best looking one (imho, of course): Battle Chasers. It's a new project from Joe Madueira (who also worked at Vigil on Darksiders) that combines his 90s comic series Battle Chasers with his love for old console jrpgs. And as you can see, style-wise it looks stunning...

http://www.battlechasers.com/game

I remember seeing this one before and I guess I forgot about it. Looking pretty damn good.

CrossCode deserves a mention too, its been out for a while but still in Early Access. Love the spritework in this.

Oh wow this looks really good. Surprised I've never heard of it.

Also really glad this is letting people hear about Omori. I've been excited about that game since the Kickstarter came out.

They aren't really just JRPG-inspired, these games ARE JRPGs.

Looking forward to Battlechasers and Indivisible though.

Other than not being made in Japan, it's close enough. I think people get what I mean when I say JRPG-inspired. I'm so happy indie devs are making these type of games with interesting settings besides standard RPG Maker asset world.

 

[Jazzem]

Man, these look super neat. I'll have to try make time for some

 

[Bishop89]

its about god damn time!

 

[mclem]

You forgot the best looking one (imho, of course): Battle Chasers. It's a new project from Joe Madueira (who also worked at Vigil on Darksiders) that combines his 90s comic series Battle Chasers with his love for old console jrpgs. And as you can see, style-wise it looks stunning...

http://www.battlechasers.com/game

Is the mech on the left polygonal while the one on the right an amalgamation of sprites? It kind of looks that way.

Edit: ah, no, looking at the fingers, I think the one on the right is polygonal too, it's just not rotating much on impact.

 

[Mexen]

Gonna +1 Indivisible because I played the demo and it has Valkyrie Profile vibes.

 

[wrowa]

After Undertale's success story, Mother-inspired indie RPGs are the new thing, I guess.

 

[#sorrynotsorry]

Other than not being made in Japan, it's close enough. I think people get what I mean when I say JRPG-inspired. I'm so happy indie devs are making these type of games with interesting settings besides standard RPG Maker asset world.

No they are. And when you call them just inspired, you make them all second class. Don't do that. They have no other home. Call them what they are: JRPGs. Just as much as Final Fantasy ever was.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

you forgot all the indies inspired by souls

 

[purseowner]

Excited for YIIK, CSH, and Omori, but wasn't AQA aware of the others. Great OP!

 

[kswiston]

I am 100% on board for Cosmic Star Heroine.

I might get Indivisible and Battlechasers if reviews are good, but both of those seem like the type of games that will be in a Humble Monthly within a year of release.

 

[DNAbro]

you forgot all the indies inspired by souls

You mean left out on purpose
I kind of consider Soulsborne and everything it has inspired it's own thing.

After Undertale's success story, Mother-inspired indie RPGs are the new thing, I guess.

Other than maybe Glitched, I think the situation is that a lot of the people who grew up with Earthbound/Mother got older and decided to make a game inspired by it. Undertale was just a start.

 

[Syril]

CrossCode deserves a mention too, its been out for a while but still in Early Access. Love the spritework in this.

OMG the demo of this game is so much fun.

 

[SOLDIER]

Not a single one of these has a solid release date, do they?

Spoiler

just like most JRPGs this gen, amirite?

 

[Wolfgunblood Garopa]

Cosmic Star Heroine still pretty high on my mental list. That first screenshot with the cityscape is top tier retro eyecandy.

Crosscode looks like a really solid Ys type game, I have to check that out.

 

[OniBarubary]

After Undertale's success story, Mother-inspired indie RPGs are the new thing, I guess.

The majority of these were successfully Kickstarted before Undertale came out and some before Undertale's own Kickstarter campaign.

 

[Instro]

Had forgotten about a few of these since their kickstarters. Should be a good year.

 

[DNAbro]

Not a single one of these has a solid release date, do they?

Spoiler

just like most JRPGs this gen, amirite?

The top 3 were supposed to be 2016 releases but got delayed.(unless one of them pulls a surprise) But that's every game.
2017 for the top 4 and 2018 for Indivisible and most likely Glitched.

 

[djtiesto]

I await the Limited Run print of Cosmic Star Heroine with baited breath, it's probably the indie game I've been most looking forward to since its announcement. I've played through all of Zeboyd's games since the days of XBLIG (along with "Protect Me Knight" they were the best games on the service) and hearing it's influenced by the godly Phantasy Star series has me salivating. Ditto for Indivisible and the VP inspiration, especially after Exist Archive floundered a bit.

Other games look pretty interesting too but I have a 'wait and see' with indies. Still glad to see people pushing beyond the Mack and Blue inspired RPG Maker spritesheets and "rip off a classic SNES game" story.

 

[DNAbro]

I await the Limited Run print of Cosmic Star Heroine with baited breath, it's probably the indie game I've been most looking forward to since its announcement. I've played through all of Zeboyd's games since the days of XBLIG (along with "Protect Me Knight" they were the best games on the service) and hearing it's influenced by the godly Phantasy Star series has me salivating. Ditto for Indivisible and the VP inspiration, especially after Exist Archive floundered a bit.

Other games look pretty interesting too but I have a 'wait and see' with indies. Still glad to see people pushing beyond the Mack and Blue inspired RPG Maker spritesheets and "rip off a classic SNES game" story.

Yeah I'm super excited for what's coming. I'm really over "standard JRPG fantasy world with no twists". They have to be extremely high quality in order to capture my attention if they go down that route This is general and not just the indie scene. The idea of Tales of or even Dragon Quest just kind of bores me. They are good and can be fun, but I'm not dying to explore those worlds. Maybe I'll get bored of more modern day fantasies if they become over saturated but currently I love all the ideas going into them.

 

[Aeana]

Shadows of Adam should be out this year.

http://igdsunshinemag.com/Mag/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/shadows-of-adam-ss1-large.jpg [img][/QUOTE]

"FINALLY, A RETRO RPG WORTH PLAYING!"


That doesn't seem like a very good pitch for a game that apes dozens of older RPGs and wants to appeal to the people who like them.

 

[Billy_Pilgrim]

Some mighty fine lookin' games up in here.

 

[Miker]

I'm feeling a bit warmer about Cosmic Star Heroine and Indivisible rather than the Earthbound-inspired ones in this list. Maybe it's because I didn't like Earthbound that much, nor did I care much for Undertale. I feel like my capacity to appreciate quirkiness only goes so far. Absolutely can't wait for CSH and Indivisible though.

 

[DNAbro]

"FINALLY, A RETRO RPG WORTH PLAYING!"


That doesn't seem like a very good pitch for a game that apes dozens of older RPGs and wants to appeal to the people who like them.

I laughed at that line cause I didn't see why that's the one that is apparently worth playing. Nothing really noteworthy about it for me.

I'm feeling a bit warmer about Cosmic Star Heroine and Indivisible rather than the Earthbound-inspired ones in this list. Maybe it's because I didn't like Earthbound that much, nor did I care much for Undertale. I feel like my capacity to appreciate quirkiness only goes so far. Absolutely can't wait for CSH and Indivisible though.

The Earthbound-like stuff just happens to be my taste and what flies across my radar. I'm hoping there is even more I haven't heard about and that people post them here.

 

[Pejo]

Thanks for putting this together, OP. Lots of great looking stuff in here that I have to check out. Subscribed!

 

[DMONKUMA]

Battle Chasers and Indivisible are the ones I look forward to play.

 

[CO_Andy]

can't forget this one which will eventually be served a C&D from Ninty

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

Thanks for the thread! Lots of promising Earthbound-style JRPGs that I wasn't aware of coming out.

I laughed at that line cause I didn't see why that's the one that is apparently worth playing. Nothing really noteworthy about it for me.

I love the GBA meets FF:MQ art style they've got going on in that one.

Yeah I'm super excited for what's coming. I'm really over "standard JRPG fantasy world with no twists". They have to be extremely high quality in order to capture my attention if they go down that route This is general and not just the indie scene. The idea of Tales of or even Dragon Quest just kind of bores me. They are good and can be fun, but I'm not dying to explore those worlds. Maybe I'll get bored of more modern day fantasies if they become over saturated but currently I love all the ideas going into them.

Yeah, I really don't understand why 95% of all indie JRPGs go for generic fantasy settings. Not only is that kind of boring, but it's bad business as well - since there are so many of them, it's really hard to stand out. Whereas "JRPG where you play as Cthulhu as a good guy" is a much easier sales pitch.

Although after working on 5 alternate setting JRPGs, I do think making something like Lunar (standard fantasy meets 80/90s anime) would be a fun change of pace. Not sure how I'd be able to market such thing short of actually making a sequel to Lunar though (and even then, most of the fans of the IP have probably moved on, especially after Dragon Song).

 

[BasilZero]

So many games to add to my blackhole of a backlog lol

 

[Stencil]

Whoooa damn, I hadn't the foggiest until this thread. Thanks OP. Some good looking games. I can't wait to try some.

 

[DNAbro]

Thanks for the thread! Lots of promising Earthbound-style JRPGs that I wasn't aware of coming out.



I love the GBA meets FF:MQ art style they've got going on in that one.



Yeah, I really don't understand why 95% of all indie JRPGs go for generic fantasy settings. Not only is that kind of boring, but it's bad business as well - since there are so many of them, it's really hard to stand out. Whereas "JRPG where you play as Cthulhu as a good guy" is a much easier sales pitch.

Although after working on 5 alternate setting JRPGs, I do think making something like Lunar (standard fantasy meets 80/90s anime) would be a fun change of pace. Not sure how I'd be able to market such thing short of actually making a sequel to Lunar though (and even then, most of the fans of the IP have probably moved on, especially after Dragon Song).

No problem. I was trying to figure out what my top 10 most anticipated games were for 2017 and I realized there were a lot of indie JRPGs so I decided to make sure some of them were known to others. Hoping we get to see your game real soon.

And yeah I'm always confused when indie devs(and AAA) create just about anything generic. Like there is literally limitless possibilities of settings and scenarios and there are way too many retreads of ideas. AAA has a huge budget to maybe make some things interesting but indie games don't really have an excuse or the ability to make something generic if they want to get noticed. Zombies as a concept in games are pretty much dead to me unless TLOU2 happens. I'm working on a game right now and trying to make sure it was something that I haven't really seen before was one of the goals at the start.

 

[Aters]

Indivisible looks cool, the others not so much.

 

[Meowster]

Subscribed for the future. Some of these games look really good.

 

[John Kowalski]

There's also that one game Moblets, which looks like it's going to be a monster collecting game.