Top 10 indies?

NightmareFarm

NightmareFarm

Member
IMO:

1 - Ghostrunner

2 - Ghostrunner 2

3 - Streets of Rage 4

4 - Hades

5 - Dead Cells

6 - Neon White

7 - Splitgate

8 - Shadow Warrior 3

9 - Rogue Legacy 2

10 - Superhot
 
Fury. A top 100 games of all time list should have it in it.

Journey is really great too, and a perfect game to introduce someone that knows nothing about video games, to video games.
You can be 8 or 80. Simple controls, the art direction is beautiful, and the "hidden" multiplayer feature is awesome.

Also Streets of Rage 4.

But I can't name 10 of them, sorry. I only got into indie games fairly recently.

I want to play Bastion one day. Heard it's good.
 
BaldingAshCrimson said:
Fury. A top 100 games of all time list should have it in it.

Journey is really great too, and a perfect game to introduce someone that knows nothing about video games, to video games.
You can be 8 or 80. Simple controls, the art direction is beautiful, and the "hidden" multiplayer feature is awesome.

Also Streets of Rage 4.

But I can't name 10 of them, sorry. I only got into indie games fairly recently.

I want to play Bastion one day. Heard it's good.
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Streets of Rage 4 was designed by people who know their game design. Pure quality.
 
BaldingAshCrimson said:
Fury. A top 100 games of all time list should have it in it.

Journey is really great too, and a perfect game to introduce someone that knows nothing about video games, to video games.
You can be 8 or 80. Simple controls, the art direction is beautiful, and the "hidden" multiplayer feature is awesome.

Also Streets of Rage 4.

But I can't name 10 of them, sorry. I only got into indie games fairly recently.

I want to play Bastion one day. Heard it's good.
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What makes Fury good?
 
NightmareFarm said:
If you google the companies that produced these games, it shows that they are indie studios.
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I mean, Ghostrunner dev alone is over 50 people, and they even co-developed it with Slipgate Ironworks which is has over 200 employees. Flying Wild Hog (shadow warrior 3) is also a company with hundreds of employees that even develops multiple games at once. I'd put them into AA territory already.

When one speaks of indie, i think of games like Crosscode or Ultrakill which have/had one to three dudes working on them.
 
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1 - Slay the Spire
2 - FTL
3 - Spelunky 2
4 - Crosscode
5 - Monster Train
6 - Vampire Survivors
7 - Inscryption
8 - Valheim
9 - Palworld
10 - Tower Unite
 
Guilty_AI said:
I mean, Ghostrunner dev alone is over 50 people, and they even co-developed it with Slipgate Ironworks which is has over 200 employees. Flying Wild Hog (shadow warrior 3) is also a company with hundreds of employees that even develops multiple games at once. I'd put them into AA territory already.

When one speaks of indie, i think of games like Crosscode or Ultrakill which have/had one to three dudes working on them.
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They are still registered as indie companies.
 
BennyBlanco said:
1 - Slay the Spire
2 - FTL
3 - Spelunky 2
4 - Crosscode
5 - Monster Train
6 - Vampire Survivors
7 - Inscryption
8 - Valheim
9 - Palworld
10 - Tower Unite
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Im so hungry for Palworld as a PS/Switch only. It's everything I wanted pokemon to be in the future when I was like 11-13 yrs old.
 
1. Blasphemous (and its sequel)
2. Dead Cells
3. Pocky and Rocky reshrined
4. Hollow Knight
5. Hyper Light Drifter
6. Axiom Verge
7. Dust: An Elysian Tail
8. Binding of Isaac
9. Limbo
10. Abzu

Honorable mentions

Furi
Oxenfree
Unravel
Steamworld Dig
Spelunky
 
1 - Hollow Knight

(insert massive gap)

2 - The Talos Principle

In no particular order:

Soma

Disco Elysium

Rocket League

Journey

Transistor

Undertale

Virgo vs the Zodiac (very personal choice, because of top music and story)
 
Off the top of my head (in no particular order):
  1. Hades
  2. Hollow Knight
  3. Rogue Legacy 2
  4. Sifu
  5. Neon White
  6. Stray
  7. Journey
  8. Ghostrunner
  9. Rocket League
  10. Celeste
 
Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children
ATOM RPG and ATOM RPG Trudograd
Underrail
Knights of the Chalice 1 and 2
Salt and Sanctuary
Dungeon Rats
Dwarf Run
Dust: An Elysian Tale
Battle Brothers
Caves of Lore

Are just a few examples of overlooked indies.
 
Hard to make a top10 list, but I am sure he would be in top3

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NightmareFarm said:
What makes Fury good?
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The game has a particular vision in mind, and executes that arguably perfectly.

- The pacing is great.

- The gameplay is simple on paper, but in practice is hard to be good at, but getting there is very fun.

- Excellent music.
And the way its implemented in the game, is noteworthy.
It gives you that intensity you need, but also emotion.
Is like listening to Schala's theme in Chrono Trigger. On its own, it's a really pretty song, but you can feel so much history and emotional weight in it, even though you were just introduced to this character, and know nothing about her yet.

- The game is hard but very fair. The rules are the same for you, and the bosses. They obviously just throw a lot more at you, then you do at them. But you are given the movement and tools to respond to those.

- Beautiful art direction.

- Good story.

- The characters really remind me of Metal Gear Solid in a way. They are all very distinct, and all have different feelings about the protagonist.
You even get a "calm demon vs deranged demon" boss fight that is pretty scary.

- And going back to the pacing, the way the developers ordered the characters you fight, was really well thought out too.

Anyway, those are the things I can remember. There's probably more I'm forgetting.

But yeah, I will forever push for this game to be on ANY top 100 games of all time list. Even if I'm just one guy 🤷🏽
 
Guilty_AI said:
You mean because they're independent? By that logic The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Half Life Alyx and Baldurs Gate 3 are all indie games also.
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They are indie, but I agree that's not the spirit of the question.

It's the difference between technically indie versus the indie "vibe".
 
Too many to mention, but Kentucky Route Zero is by far and away my number one.
The atmosphere, story, and characters will remain with me till I die.
Absolutely magical.
 
Steamworld Dig 2

My favorite Indie game and the first metroidvania I played. I spend hours on my Switch playing this game on handheld mode. I got everything in the game and filled up the whole map. I love the mixture of dig dug and using your drill to battle enemies. Finding the new abilities to get me through previously inaccessible areas. Leveling up was a lot of fun too, I spend hours just maxing all my stats. The graphics were amazing, still some of my favorite sprite and 2D environment background designs I seen in a game. This game is a masterpiece and I wish Image And Form would make a Steamworld Dig 3

Eastward

This one was a fun charming adventure with a surprisingly long and great story attached to it. I love all the characters. Each of the characters, enemies, environments, including the 2 characters that I control all have detailed animation. This game has some of the best Pixel Art I seen. I loved exploring every area and made sure to get everything. The game's combat is a ton of fun. The bosses were fun to figure out how to defeat them. Switching from the old man to the girl to get through areas was a great mechanic where I would just have fun getting through those areas. I especially loved all the character including the two mains. I never played any of the Earthbound games, but I'm guessing that's what this game would feel like to people who have played Earthbound. I'm eventually going to play through the DLC too. I just wish there was an actual sequel to the game.

Sea of Stars
I'm usually not a fan of Western Indie RPGs inspired by JRPGs and that's due to the fact, it's always seemed that they are looking down at JRPGs (Looking at you Woke Echoes). This game was a surprise for me. I absolutely loved it. I loved the story, character and world/lore. The gameplay was fantastic and I loved using the timed button attacks. I ended up maxing all my characters. I did everything and my favorite minigame in this game is Wheels. I wish there was more content to that minigame. I would play it for hours if I could. The music I loved, having chiptune feel to it and I was humming it to myself whenever I wasn't playing the game. The graphics are gorgeous, the sprites of your characters, enemies and environments are amazing to look at. Not to mention that the use of lighting to the environments and the characters make the game look even better. The puzzles are fun and not too difficult. I ended up doing everything even getting the True Ending and getting to the secret area in that graveyard which is located by your home base. I hope we get a sequel.


What Remains of Edith Finch

There's an interesting mystery surrounding the plot of the game. Exploring the house and finding these items that give specific memories with sometimes full gameplay segments was fun to experience. It's more of a walking simulator but one of my favorites. The music is phonemical. The graphics are fantastic and I love how finding these items that goes into a family member background ends up sometimes changing the graphical style. The story is excellent and it's a game everyone should experience

Attack of the Friday Monsters A Tokyo Tale

I was reccomanded this game by a friend and it's a digital only 3DS eshop game. It's short and fun but I loved it. It has a slice of life chill feel during the whole game. The game uses prerendered backgrounds, and they were beautiful to look at. I especially loved exploring the town and looking at the details while the Mecha and the Kaiju fights way back in the background. The gameplay is very simple, fetch quests, but I enjoyed my time with it. Wish there was a sequel.

Silence

A Point And Click Adventure game by Daedalic Entertainment. I loved the story and characters. It was fun just figuring how to get through all the environments with the puzzles. Graphically one of the best looking Point And Clicks I seen. Soundtrack was great too. I'm sad that Daedalic had to shut down due to that Gollum game. Their Point And Click Adventure games are fantastic, they should have just stuck to that genre instead of branching out

The Rest Aren't In Order

The Last Case of Benedict Fox

Even though I had my issues with this game, it was still a lot of fun. It was interesting Cosmic Horror aspect throughout it's enviroments, story and characters. Beautiful and detailed. It was fun just finding everything and gaining more and more abilities as I progressed.

Oxenfree

One of the few Walking Simulators I loved. The story, characters, dialogue are all well written. It has a spooky vibe throughout with some nice visuals and music. The Sequel was good too

Bloodstained Ritual of the Night

A fantastic Metriodvania that's made by the guy who invented the genre. Graphically, not my cup of tea, but gameplay wise it is fantastic. I got the best ending and I fully explored the whole castle. I might go back to this since I heard that the developer added lot of new content to it. I hope we get a Bloodstained Ritual of the NIght 2 announcement soon

Child of Light

This game had a magical storybook feeling during my whole playtime. The environments were gorgeous especially the main character with her flowing hair and enemies were interesting and varied. The battle system is like Grandia's battle system. I had lot of fun with the battle system. The plot was great with some interesting twists. The characters were interesting. OST was good. Hope we get a sequel

Forgotten Anne

This one was lot of fun. The game is made by a European Developer. The game has a 2D Cartoon style to it that was really beautiful to look at. It's a platformer with a great story. It had some tough platforming segments but I ended up getting through them. Overall a fun experience that I recommend due to the graphics and story

Night In The Woods

I admit to being turned off by the way it looks but I ended up loving this game. This is another walking simulator but the story and characters are so good. I had a blast just going through the whole game.

To The Moon

This one was another surprise. It hardly has no gameplay but the story and characters are what makes the game so good.


Haven't Finished But Going To Go Back To Game Eventually And Start A New File

Ori And The Blind Forest

I love this game. Graphically the enviroments, enemies, your character, effects and animations are all phenomenal. I loved the gameplay and exploring the environments and trying to get everything. Even the story is fantastic with some detailed animations and some great voice acting with a made up language. The reason why I had to stop playing is that I got stuck in a game breaking glitch where I'm stuck at one area and I can't progress the game at all. I'm eventually going to go back and start a new file and just play from the start
 
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Journey
Night in the Woods
Celeste
What Remains of Edith Finch
Brothers
Yoku's Island Express
SteamWorld Dig 2
Ender Lilies
Ori and the Blind Forest
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
 
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Grildon Tundy said:
They are indie, but I agree that's not the spirit of the question.

It's the difference between technically indie versus the indie "vibe".
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I understand what you mean but even that feels uncertain. Crosscode is definitely an indie game but the game itself has pretty traditional looks and design even if it uses pixel art. Then again octopath also has unique pixel art but that gets treated as an AA.

I think the main problem is that a lot of the modern AA industry grew on the back of the "Indie" moniker. People treat anything that doesnt come from estabilished names as indie, even if the developer is reasonably sizeable.
 
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That's like asking for a top 10 of games, there are thousands spanning decades and all genres, from Cave Story to Warning Forever to Underale to Terraria to Neon White to Spelunky to Spiderweb's CRPGs to Locomalito's best to pretty much all (true and lite too) roguelikes including Dwarf Fortress to trending boomer shooters and imm sims and most great VR games, you could write paragraphs and not even scratch the surface. It's an impossible question, you have to be at best super ignorant like you (given most of the games in your list are so recent but most definitely not better than older or all other stuff) to even attempt to answer it. It's useless & pointless to without at least narrowing it down to a span of months or platform (that isn't PC so doesn't have almost everything ever) or a specific genre/subgenre to get anything beyond a personal, fresh in your mind, far from top, playlist.
 
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Guilty_AI said:
I understand what you mean but even that feels uncertain. Crosscode is definitely an indie game but the game itself has pretty traditional looks and design even if it uses pixel art. Then again octopath also has unique pixel art but that gets treated as an AA.

I think the main problem is that a lot of the modern AA industry grew on the back of the "Indie" moniker. People treat anything that doesnt come from estabilished names as indie, even if the developer is reasonably sizeable.
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Oh, it's definitely uncertain. For me, "indie" is probably a dev team of less than 100, made for under $1M, self-funded. All those are just lines in the sand and other people might have different criteria.
 
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NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt said:
Forgotten Anne

This one was lot of fun. The game is made by a European Developer. The game has a 2D Cartoon style to it that was really beautiful to look at. It's a platformer with a great story. It had some tough platforming segments but I ended up getting through them. Overall a fun experience that I recommend due to the graphics and story
Click to expand...

This is a great game. Beautiful hand drawn graphics and a good story. Unfortunately got delisted on PS4 so I reckon the game will fall even more to obscurity than it already has. Shame, because it's a legit great 2D platformer that every fan of the genre should check out.
 
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Mr Hyde said:
This is a great game. Beautiful hand drawn graphics and a good story. Unfortunately got delisted on PS4 so I reckon the game will fall even more to obscurity than it already has. Shame, because it's a legit great 2D platformer that every fan of the genre should check out.
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Yeah that one was a surprise. I think it was made by a french developer. If I had the space, I would have bought a physical copy of the game
 
  1. Cuphead
  2. Hollow Knight
  3. Axiom Verge
  4. Into The Breach
  5. Shovel Knight
  6. Dead Cells
  7. Super Meat Boy
  8. Hotline Miami
  9. Cave Story
  10. The Witness
Honorable Mention: Fez
 
1. Enter the Gungeon
2. Cuphead
3. Hades
4. Bombrush Cyberfunk
5. Shovel Knight
6. Spelunky
7. Binding of Isaac
8. Terraria
9. Overcooked 2
10. Golf Story

Honorable Mentions:

Bloodstained Curse of the moon 1 and 2 (I liked these much more than Ritual of the Night lol)
Nano Assault Neo
Darkest Dungeon
Risk of Rain (Second one is good too, but I like the first more)
Hotline Miami

Enter the Gungeon is still my top pick and also my favorite rogue-like by a good margin, I have dumped so much time into it and absolutely love that game. The top 5 are mostly a lock for me, but the others could be moved around in ordering or swapped with a couple honorable mentions if I were asked another day. So many good indie titles to choose from. If I had played Ori and its sequel and Hollow Knight I am sure those would probably make the top 10 as well, I just haven't gotten around to them yet.
 
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1. Hollow Knight
2. The Messenger
3. Celeste
4. Hades
5. Sea of Stars
6. Castle Crashers
7. Super Meat Boy
8. Hotline Miami
9. Stardew Valley
10. Fez
 
NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt said:
(...)

Forgotten Anne

This one was lot of fun. The game is made by a European Developer. The game has a 2D Cartoon style to it that was really beautiful to look at. It's a platformer with a great story. It had some tough platforming segments but I ended up getting through them. Overall a fun experience that I recommend due to the graphics and story
(...)
Click to expand...
Mr Hyde said:
This is a great game. Beautiful hand drawn graphics and a good story. Unfortunately got delisted on PS4 so I reckon the game will fall even more to obscurity than it already has. Shame, because it's a legit great 2D platformer that every fan of the genre should check out.
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NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt said:
Yeah that one was a surprise. I think it was made by a french developer. If I had the space, I would have bought a physical copy of the game
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Pardon if this is a bit off-topic; They're not French. You guys ought to write the devs a mail about how you liked the game. I'm sure they'll be grateful and appreciative.
 
I'm not huge into Indies really but off the top of my head with research

1. Yume Nikki
2. Omori
3. The Witch's House
4. Neon White
5. Phasmophobia
6. Umurangi Generation
7. Ib
8. Off
9. Undertale
10. Mad Father
 
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