Obligatory Poll
I don't know most of the games you mentioned... but have a bump.
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I feel contractually obligated to shill Flying Red Barrel for a bullet hell recommendation. It's a little five-stage shmup in a Porco Rosso-esque setting with big chunky sprites and the best mechanic I've seen in the genre (not that I've played many, I admit). You have your regular shots, but also rockets, which are earned from coins you get from defeating enemies. Rockets leave lasting explosions when they hit enemies, which destroy enemy bullets and do a hefty chunk of damage. Firing rockets also builds your multiplier, which increases the number of coins enemies drop, which increases the number of rockets you can fire, and the cycle continues until you're showering in a rain of gold while obliterating everything in your path. It's great! Because of the need to fuel your rockets, boss fights are multi-part affairs with segmented aircraft that you systematically destroy piece by piece.
The OTHER really cool thing about FRB is that how you choose to progress through the game changes the dialogue and some of the encounters. Sparing an enemy or shooting down a plane without destroying it may affect what comes later. For example, letting the miniboss go in the first stage will shorten the boss fight at the end of the level, but shooting him down adds an encounter just before the boss as well. It's kind of like a small-scale Star Fox. There are eighteen epilogues you can get depending on how you play the game.
Unfortunately, it's not on Steam. You can still buy it from Amazon, though!
There are other orange_juice shmups on steam, at least. Check out QP Shooting: Dangerous/Xmas Shooting: Scramble (more traditional bullet hells with multiple formations for your shots) and Suguri/Sora (bullet hell + action games where you dash through bullets).
frb still the best tho
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I just really love OpenWorld games where I can drive around or walk around and interact with a lot of things.
This mostly comes from growing up with GTA San Andreas, driving those long distances between missions.
Sadly I have yet to play a game that is not easily seen as a "GTA ripoff" in any sort of way.
Definitely buying Submerged during its current sale though, so I'm looking forward to no driving and shooting. :)
As for your questions, I can't really answer them as I don't really know these games.
I only know that La Tale is kinda like Maplestory, played both shortly and preferred the first.
Best of luck with finding more games for you to love.
Personally I always search for tags on Steam, or look up games directly to view the "similiar" tab underneath.
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Wow, thats a ton of shmups! Only ones I've played are Astebreed (which was.. alright, but I felt like it was missing something) and the supercharged robo vulkaiser one which was pretty fun if short lived. Thanks for all the recs.
Marvel Heroes looks interesting, but it sounds like the latest patch kinda killed the movement aspect of it, which is what I really love in an arpg. Still, you're right, it is free so may give it a go!
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For a good aRPG, maybe Torchlight 2?
Titan Quest is also well loved and it's on sale really cheap right now.
The Diablo 3 free version is very limited access to the 1st chapter of the game, with a level cap, and the game only gets more interesting at higher level and with the expansion content.
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I've played Torchlight 2, its way way into my backlog as is Titan Quest, along with all the other arpgs I mentioned.
I should probably give Diablo 3 a proper go if it ever goes on sale, I suppose.
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It was on sale the whole of January to celebrate Diablo 1 turning 20. It was still 10€/$ for the base game and another 10$/€ for the expansion.
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+1 for Titan Quest. You choose 2 skill trees out of 9 to define your character's abilities. Lots of interesting choices. IIRC you can respec at a price, too. Check out some combos in this character build guide: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=757889284. Don't let it languish in your backlog!
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Since you like PoE so much, there is a mod for Torchlight 2 called Path of Torchlight.
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Q2.a bit like Maplestory:
Rogue Legacy comes to mind. It's not really full-blown RPG, but there is persistent progression until infinity, and the randomized elements borrowed from Rogue will keep the grind interesting for a while. Random maps are also all but guaranteed to have at least one tower-like path in them for the verticality-effect
There may also be other metroid-vanias with higher emphasis on RPG elements, those would be the best bets I think.
Q4: Bullet Hell hidden gems:
rRootate - Download for free here: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/rr_e.html. Boss rush game, 4 gameplay modes based on genre staples Psyvariar, Ikaruga, Gigawing & Donpachi.
I'd plug Crimzon Clover, but you already mentioned that. Hell, I'll plug it anyway as it's the first on my list of "things that are better than Devil Daggers".
The Gundemonium series is interesting too, as is the Alltynex series
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I hurt for you friend, 'cause I suffer from the same type of emotions when I play games of today; They're simply not up to scratch because they do not rock my world as games of old used to do. And not because they are worse, they are actually (overall) better in all aspects, it's just as you said: 'the game just wasn't as fun as you remember it and so nothing else you find will be'. It's actually not only that your memories are pink-tinted, we are also older and maturer, games doesn't have the same impact on our psyches anymore, even though some try really hard.
And I'm terrible sorry, I don't have any suggestions for you as we seem to have completely different tastes, but I can say this: If you ever come over to the shooter side and want some of that good ole' feelings, try the Bioshock series. The first one is aged now, but damn it set a high bar, and the the other two just built from that. Yeah, I know; not your type of game, but it's the best I can do for now.
Good luck compadre, hope you find that magic again!
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Nostalgia's a powerful thing, sadly.
and honestly, I don't mind shooters. I really need to give the bioshock series a go one day.
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Yes you do! Accept my friend request on Steam, got a little something for you...
EDIT: Enjoy!
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Devil Daggers isn't bullet hell. How could you of all people say that? ;_;
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grim dawn maybe for rpg like path of exile / diablo II (there's no more games like path of exile)
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I think that Rogue Legacy has everything you want. It's a platformer, with RPG elements, lots of good grinding, emphasis on action, and pretty bullet-hellish in the harder difficulty.
Also. Have you tried Sunless Sea? It's not for everyone, but it's a really nice RPG-ish, Roguelite-ish, grind-as-fuck, with a strong emphasis on exploration and deep narrative.
Dust: an Elisian Tail, kind of an action platformer with RPG elements. Beautiful art and story
In the bullet hell shooter department:
Crimzon Clover: World Ignition is pretty nice
And finally:
Tyrian 2000 - Awesome classic, and it's free on GOG :)
https://www.gog.com/game/tyrian_2000
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I've never played the games you mentioned, sorry for that. :(
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To answer your last question:
Jamestown!
Absolutely one of the best bullet hells on steam.
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Tricky questions and i'd love to help you find your type of game.
I'm very found of platformers myself, and some that i've liked the most were free on the interwebs. Check Newgrounds.com, it's the best source for 2D platformers, and i'm sure you'll find some good shmups there too.
As for games about Irish and Welsh mythology, 'id love to know as well if any exists !
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Unfortunately, I'm not qualified to answer your questions as I haven't even heard of most of the games you mentioned (and haven't yet played the rest).
But I'll say this. My perfect games are the classic LucasArts point-and-click adventures. Almost all of them (except The Dig, which is good but far from perfect). Most of them are on Steam now and there's a couple more on GOG, with the extremely notable exception of Full Throttle.
And man, they haven't aged a bit.
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Haven't played your mentioned games, so I can't really compare them. But thanks for the GA and have a bump!
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Yes I'm happy that I found the prefect game for me, it's Nuclear Throne. Since that time, Nuclear Throne is the definition of how a game should be for me. About the question 4, if you searching for a bullet hell, not that starship bullet hell type, but action, rogue-lite, dungeon crawler + bullet hell, then go with Nuclear Throne, Enter the Gungeon, you will not be disappointed.
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- don't think so
never played mabinogi or maplestory so can't help you here
but thanks for GA
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4 - I really like Bullet Heaven series, there's one on steam, Bullet Heaven 2
There's many option like reduce glow effect, etc2
For demo, try flash version first on kongregate ^^
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You guys ever thought about what'd be the perfect game to you? Not in terms of story or theme or art style, but in terms of gameplay, what you'd LOVE to sit down and play? Have any of you ever found your 'perfect' game? I mean, Fallout New Vegas is to me, the defining western RPG, but I have other 'perfect' games I'm after.
The first is, well, I love Path of Exile a lot. I love how fluid it plays, I love the gradual build up in your character's power, I ADORE the unique weapons (Between borderlands, path of exile and my general love for MMOs, I've realised I'm just a sucker for shiny loot). The problem is, I'm a bit burned out. I'll be picking it up again next league for sure, but I crave something else..
I've tried Grim Dawn, but it felt really... heavy? Like I was walking through mud or something. It wasn't smooth like PoE felt. I've tried Victor Vran, and that was a lot smoother and honestly pretty fun, but I found myself also bored quickly. Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing didnt grab me at all. Diablo 3? Too expensive, honestly, but otherwise I tried it cus it's free now and I still feel very meh about it.
So, question 1: are there any decent action rpgs that offer something even slightly close to the depth of Path of Exile without feeling so heavy or sluggish?
Second is - don't laugh - Maplestory. 11 Year old me LOVED maplestory. A platformer type game, with RPG elements? Absolutely awesome. The problem is, well, you know what maplestory's like I'm sure. I've tried plenty of private servers, they may not be kosher to talk about on here but I'll just say that you've seen one fan-made naruto job you've seen them all.
What I liked about maplestory, besides the grinding (god I'm a sucker for mindless grinding too), was the movement. It was unique being 2D and all about vertical movement. I've not really found much that was truly 2D and like Maplestory. Platformers, sure, plenty of platformers out there but those aren't a lot like RPGs, yknow? They're more "ok do this level, then this one, then this one".
I'm not looking for a maplestory clone, theres plenty out there. I didn't really enjoy the multiplayer aspect of the MMO. I'm also not looking for a sidescrolling beat-em-up. I've tried Mother Russia Bleeds and A) I suck at it and B) the whole moving in and out of the foreground - basically 3d with a 2d camera - is not what I'm after. One thing that came close is Aces Wild but again it's still a bit on the fighting game side rather than the grindy rpg side.
anyway, question 2: A 2D rpg sorta game with a lot of emphasis on vertical movement and or grinding? Sorta like maplestory without all the bad bits of maplestory (bar the grinding, bc some people think thats a bad thing and I can't blame them)
Third, and really I kind of already know the answer to this and it's 'the game just wasn't as fun as you remember it and so nothing else you find will be' is Mabinogi. I loved mabinogi for whole other reasons. It was like Harvest Moon, almost, with a bit of combat and a lot of life roleplaying. There's Black Desert Online, which came close but in the end was just too.. messy. Then there's stardew valley which, ok it's nothing like it but it's a relaxing farming game, but I just can't enjoy it for some reason. It's weird, but Stardew Valley I found super stressful to play!
Quick question 3 then: Are there any games similar to Mabinogi (if you've played it)? and question 3a, sorta related but not really - what I loved abt Mabinogi was its focus on Welsh and Irish mythology. Are there any other games out there with a focus on those two mythologies?
and lastly, a short question 4: are there any hidden gems of the 'bullet hell' genre out there? Would love to get into Touhou but goddamn some of them are hard to find and install and you need to mess around with your computer to get them to run properly. I love Mushihimesama, am waiting patiently for a sale on dondonpachi and I do like other smaller bullet hell shmups like Crimzon Clover and Ubermosh, but are there any others worth it to scratch that itch?
And whew, if you read all of that text, thanks, I guess! If you give a decent reply, I'll lob you onto my whitelist, as a little sweetener for clicking on this.
EDIT: as an extra extra sweetener, here's a giveaway. There is definitely no hidden giveaway on it, so don't look for it ;)
https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/Q88EL/ubermoshblack
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