help me figure out what I might like on Steam.
July 16, 2013 2:57 PM Subscribe
Looking for game suggestions to buy on Steam.
The summer Steam Sale is going on and I'm interested in obtaining some new games. I've had people tell me that there's more then just action based adventure games and first person shooters, which has generally been my impression of steam until now. I thought that steam catered to "hardcore" gaming.
Specifically I've been told that there are Japanese style rpgs on there. I still can't find any. I don't know if I'm looking wrong or what. What I like about a lot of jrpgs is turn based battle systems. But not strategy turn based. I'm a picky girl, I know.
So here's a list of games I like, to give you an idea of what appeals to me.
Action rpgs that you can beat primarily through button mashing and situational awareness:
Kingdom Hearts series
Tales of Symphonia/Abyss/Vesperia
Okami (I loved the hell out of this game)
The World Ends With You*
Shadow of the Colossus*
*Doesn't fit the button smashing qualification, but the stories/world/uniqueness make up for the increased difficulty.
Turn based RPGs
Final Fantasy series
Ar Tonelico series*
Atelier series*
Paper Mario series
Pokemon flagship titles.
*I also enjoy the alchemy/item combination and collection of these two games.
Casual Games
Animal Crossing (Simulation.. I think? Not sure how you define this series)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Kingdom building/resource gathering)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord (Tower building/defense)
Dungeon Village (Village building/defense)
Lil' Kingdom ("tower" building)
So there you have it, I like turn based rpgs, action games with simple gameplay and compelling stories, alchemy/item combination, collecting, and town creation and defense. I also lean heavily toward more animated styles and away from realistic graphics.
Have at me with the suggestions! Thanks in advance.
The summer Steam Sale is going on and I'm interested in obtaining some new games. I've had people tell me that there's more then just action based adventure games and first person shooters, which has generally been my impression of steam until now. I thought that steam catered to "hardcore" gaming.
Specifically I've been told that there are Japanese style rpgs on there. I still can't find any. I don't know if I'm looking wrong or what. What I like about a lot of jrpgs is turn based battle systems. But not strategy turn based. I'm a picky girl, I know.
So here's a list of games I like, to give you an idea of what appeals to me.
Action rpgs that you can beat primarily through button mashing and situational awareness:
Kingdom Hearts series
Tales of Symphonia/Abyss/Vesperia
Okami (I loved the hell out of this game)
The World Ends With You*
Shadow of the Colossus*
*Doesn't fit the button smashing qualification, but the stories/world/uniqueness make up for the increased difficulty.
Turn based RPGs
Final Fantasy series
Ar Tonelico series*
Atelier series*
Paper Mario series
Pokemon flagship titles.
*I also enjoy the alchemy/item combination and collection of these two games.
Casual Games
Animal Crossing (Simulation.. I think? Not sure how you define this series)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Kingdom building/resource gathering)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord (Tower building/defense)
Dungeon Village (Village building/defense)
Lil' Kingdom ("tower" building)
So there you have it, I like turn based rpgs, action games with simple gameplay and compelling stories, alchemy/item combination, collecting, and town creation and defense. I also lean heavily toward more animated styles and away from realistic graphics.
Have at me with the suggestions! Thanks in advance.
Final Fantasy 7 is on Steam, as of recently, and pretty cheap.
Most JRPGs are console games, as I'm sure you know, and that's a PC port of one.
posted by destructive cactus at 3:20 PM on July 16, 2013
Most JRPGs are console games, as I'm sure you know, and that's a PC port of one.
posted by destructive cactus at 3:20 PM on July 16, 2013
Not specifically aa JRPG, but Bastion is an amazing, creative action RPG with gorgeous, hand-painted looking graphics and a killer story. Highly recommended.
posted by ronofthedead at 3:48 PM on July 16, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by ronofthedead at 3:48 PM on July 16, 2013 [2 favorites]
The Last Remnant - Large Party JRPG
Half Minute Hero - Fantastic JRPG Parody
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale - Action JRPG
posted by Proofs and Refutations at 7:01 PM on July 16, 2013
Half Minute Hero - Fantastic JRPG Parody
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale - Action JRPG
posted by Proofs and Refutations at 7:01 PM on July 16, 2013
Action games with simple gameplay and compelling stories: Bastion and Portal immediately come to mind.
Item combination: It is not very much like the Atelier series, but I like the crafting and exploration in Terraria.
Town creation: I recommend Anno 2070 as a city builder, though it is complex.
Casual: There's many tower defense games. I think Plants vs Zombies is the best in that category.
There are not many JRPGs for PC, unless you count emulators. I have to throw in some console game recommendations, given your list:
Wii - Xenoblade, The Last Story
DS - Radiant Historia
PS2 - Persona 3 and 4
posted by teki at 7:39 PM on July 16, 2013
Item combination: It is not very much like the Atelier series, but I like the crafting and exploration in Terraria.
Town creation: I recommend Anno 2070 as a city builder, though it is complex.
Casual: There's many tower defense games. I think Plants vs Zombies is the best in that category.
There are not many JRPGs for PC, unless you count emulators. I have to throw in some console game recommendations, given your list:
Wii - Xenoblade, The Last Story
DS - Radiant Historia
PS2 - Persona 3 and 4
posted by teki at 7:39 PM on July 16, 2013
Seconding Dust, Bastion, and Half-Minute Hero– all really wonderful.
Penny Arcade's On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series are delightful JRPG homages/parodies. Zeboyd's Cthulhu Saves The World is also a marvelous neo-JRPG.
Waking Mars is a really interesting exploration game. It looks like a platformer, but it's more like Harvest Moon---all about figuring out how different (alien) plants interact. Reus is supposed another interesting planting and building game, though I haven't tried it.
Do you like puzzle games? If so, you might enjoy Puzzle Agent, Superbrothers:Sword & Sworcery (sic) and Windosill. And although Portal looks like a first-person shooter, it's actually a (wonderful) puzzle game.
Are point-and-click adventures in the running? If so, check out Machinarium and Samorost.
Hope this helps! Steam is a great place for indie gaming, so there's a lot of non-"hardcore" stuff out there.
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 8:53 PM on July 16, 2013
Penny Arcade's On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series are delightful JRPG homages/parodies. Zeboyd's Cthulhu Saves The World is also a marvelous neo-JRPG.
Waking Mars is a really interesting exploration game. It looks like a platformer, but it's more like Harvest Moon---all about figuring out how different (alien) plants interact. Reus is supposed another interesting planting and building game, though I haven't tried it.
Do you like puzzle games? If so, you might enjoy Puzzle Agent, Superbrothers:Sword & Sworcery (sic) and Windosill. And although Portal looks like a first-person shooter, it's actually a (wonderful) puzzle game.
Are point-and-click adventures in the running? If so, check out Machinarium and Samorost.
Hope this helps! Steam is a great place for indie gaming, so there's a lot of non-"hardcore" stuff out there.
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 8:53 PM on July 16, 2013
Mark of the Ninja is animated and has a compelling story. It's an action/stealth sidescroller and has great art. It's also one the daily deals right now.
Tropico 4 is a game about running a tropical island. It's a little like SimCity, except with keeping the US/USSR happy.
Jade Empire is a slightly dated wuxia action RPG. The story starts out as a cliche and then becomes really good.
Defense Grid and Orcs Must Die 2 are both tower defense games I really enjoyed. Orcs Must Die is only kind of a tower defence game - you run around as a character onscreen casting spells at monsters but also place traps for them.
posted by squinty at 9:06 PM on July 16, 2013
Tropico 4 is a game about running a tropical island. It's a little like SimCity, except with keeping the US/USSR happy.
Jade Empire is a slightly dated wuxia action RPG. The story starts out as a cliche and then becomes really good.
Defense Grid and Orcs Must Die 2 are both tower defense games I really enjoyed. Orcs Must Die is only kind of a tower defence game - you run around as a character onscreen casting spells at monsters but also place traps for them.
posted by squinty at 9:06 PM on July 16, 2013
Knights of Pen and Paper is fun!
posted by ApathyGirl at 1:02 AM on July 17, 2013
posted by ApathyGirl at 1:02 AM on July 17, 2013
The best button-mashing RPG ever made is Deathspank. Very, very fun!
posted by jbickers at 7:33 AM on July 17, 2013
posted by jbickers at 7:33 AM on July 17, 2013
Torchlight.
The Wanderers of Ys series is on summer sale and has been going on flash/daily sales too.
You might like the Knights of the Old Republic series?
Maybe Dragon Age. Or The Witcher 2.
Dark Souls: PTDE -- although it's the antithesis of casual.
The Last Remnant, mentioned above, is finally marked way down from the high price Steam had on it for years, and is a straight up console port of a rather complex squad-based JRPG.
There are too many variations of tower defense games on Steam to count.
I'd suggest just browsing the indie section (and maybe the casual section too).
During the summer sale, you should put things on your wishlist and watch for daily or flash sales. Then buy what's left at the end.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:07 AM on July 17, 2013
The Wanderers of Ys series is on summer sale and has been going on flash/daily sales too.
You might like the Knights of the Old Republic series?
Maybe Dragon Age. Or The Witcher 2.
Dark Souls: PTDE -- although it's the antithesis of casual.
The Last Remnant, mentioned above, is finally marked way down from the high price Steam had on it for years, and is a straight up console port of a rather complex squad-based JRPG.
There are too many variations of tower defense games on Steam to count.
I'd suggest just browsing the indie section (and maybe the casual section too).
During the summer sale, you should put things on your wishlist and watch for daily or flash sales. Then buy what's left at the end.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:07 AM on July 17, 2013
I loved Okami also. I really enjoyed the Portal games from Steam. I'm a very low volume gamer, so some of these terms are a little foreign to me. With my limited vocabulary, I might describe it as a First Person Shooter/Puzzle game.
posted by Classic Diner at 9:36 AM on July 17, 2013
posted by Classic Diner at 9:36 AM on July 17, 2013
Your taste seems to run similar to mine, so here's a short list of my favorite stuff on Steam:
Dungeon Defenders
Dungeons of Dredmor
Torchlight (II, you can play I but it doesn't really matter)
Recettear (Actually, put this near the top of you list and take a look at the video for it. I almost guarantee you'll love it)
Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII
Bastion
Costume Quest
Little Inferno
posted by Perthuz at 10:31 AM on July 17, 2013
Dungeon Defenders
Dungeons of Dredmor
Torchlight (II, you can play I but it doesn't really matter)
Recettear (Actually, put this near the top of you list and take a look at the video for it. I almost guarantee you'll love it)
Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII
Bastion
Costume Quest
Little Inferno
posted by Perthuz at 10:31 AM on July 17, 2013
Reus is excellent -- I like some similar games to what you list, and Reus is perhaps the best Steam purchase I've made in the last 6 months.
You might consider Terraria, though I just got this and have only played it for a few minutes.
I'm not sure if this fits the bill, but lastly I'd recommend FTL - tons of fun, simple (yet deep) gameplay, and stories within reminiscent of Star Trek episodes.
ETA: Check out DoubleFine's games as well - Costume Quest has already been mentioned, but Stacking is really novel/entertaining, and Psychonauts is awesome.
posted by dryad at 11:04 AM on July 17, 2013
You might consider Terraria, though I just got this and have only played it for a few minutes.
I'm not sure if this fits the bill, but lastly I'd recommend FTL - tons of fun, simple (yet deep) gameplay, and stories within reminiscent of Star Trek episodes.
ETA: Check out DoubleFine's games as well - Costume Quest has already been mentioned, but Stacking is really novel/entertaining, and Psychonauts is awesome.
posted by dryad at 11:04 AM on July 17, 2013
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You want Dust: An Elysian Tail.
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 3:13 PM on July 16, 2013