Use my Link to install BLOODLINE for Free: ✅ app.adjust.com/pnm160i_1afrej9 & Get a special starter pack [Available for the next 30 days] What game looks the best to you? Have you even heard about them? Part 1 of this series: ua-cam.com/video/SuO43QPPJdI/v-deo.html Part 3 of this series: ua-cam.com/video/jqNa0rNe1zg/v-deo.html Here are my GoG links: Get Demonicon: cutt.ly/m0IvVKy Get Bound by Flame: cutt.ly/n0IbwBP Get Enclave: cutt.ly/c0IbuSa
Regarding Demonicon, you might try out the Drakensang games. They are set in the same world (The Dark Eye, which is basially German DnD), but much higher quality with more RPG-focused gameplay similar to Dragon Age or Kotor.
I'd like to try Bloodline, but my phone is out of date by several years and even if I got a new phone, my Wi-Fi isn't working. Le sigh, the artstyle is superb. I tend not to like Diablo-like games, but all the other games look fair. Too bad GOG doesn't have Rise of the Argonauts.
Blade of Darkness, spanish Action RPG released on 2001. Four characters, good game design, awesome combat, fantastic moveset, precise hitbox, good lore context, dark medieval setting, every map different. On Steam, GoG and Switch.
I played Enclave in 2002. It wasn't required to beat Light campaign to get access to the Dark side, so i started as a ranged class - assasin and got a blast with the game. It was very fun, so much stuff to do, so many character types: melee damage dealer, tank, mage, ranger with weapon and equipment progression. Every fight was like a little pvp encounter. I remember finishing the game by thrashing a high elf council with sniper arrows. Good times!
There are some very interesting Chinese RPGs from around 2000-2010 that went totally under the Western radar. Recently, a bunch of those were re-released on Steam and GOG. Some examples: - Prince of Qin - Seal of Evil You might want to give those a try.
Rise of Argonauts has a soundtrack by Tyler Bates and to this day remains one of my favorite alongside Deus Ex Human Revolution. I also remember praying for fallen characters once and a while and I really loved that. I really appreciated that because all videogames ever are mkst of the time are murder simulators.
I was a big fan of Rise of the Argonauts. It reminded me of a fantasy Mass Effect. If I remember correctly, the combat was rhythm based, so you needed to time your swings. That may be why the combat felt unresponsive. You had to wait for the animation to finish before pressing attack again.
I think it also had kind of a rock-paper-scissors weapon triangle (like fire emblem) so you needed to switch between sword, spear and mace to counter enemies and avoid being countered. It was definitely a flawed but fun game in my memory.
Enclave is one of my favorite RPG hidden gems. Thank you for covering it, this game absolutely deserves more attention. Have you talked about Blade of Darkness yet? Or maybe Crusaders of Might and Magic? Love your channel. Many of the games you cover here deserve a lot more love than they usually get.
Keep these coming, it is nice to see the obscure games covered. Some more suggestions: Of Orcs and Men, Game of Thrones, Mars: War Logs, Silverfall, Avencast: Rise of the Mage, Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition, How to Survive 1,2, Ember and Vikings: Wolves of Midgard. Enclave is a really good game and I used to play it a lot about 15 years ago (Druid was my favorite), there was also a planned sequel which was unfortunetly scrapped. The next game Starbreeze (a really good developer) made was Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade which recieved a very limited release and I didn't get to play it so I'm curious about it.
I'm very surprised to see that not one, but at least 3 people mentioned Avencast in this comment section. I thought nobody even knew that game existed! I really liked the atmosphere it had especially in the prologue. It's like that game had a soul. Unfortunately, to me the game just started to run thin as it progressed. Also, soul magic in general felt really underwhelming to me, as if all enemies had resistance to it in the 2nd half of the game, but I might just remember it wrong. It was a long time ago. How do you remember that game?
Maaaan, seeing not only Bound by Flame but also Enclave and Loki in the same video really brings back some memories. Encalve will forever be one of my top 5 obscure games. I still come back to it every now and then and finish the whole thing again.
Regarding Demonicon, you might try out the Drakensang games. They are set in the same world (The Dark Eye, which is basially German DnD), but much higher quality with more RPG-focused gameplay similar to Dragon Age or Kotor.
I tried Drakensang recently cause I remembered beating it as a kid and I have no idea how I did it, that game aged terribly and I didnt have the strength to get past first area. Was worth installing it just for that gypsy queen though xD
Love this series! Just a few obscure recommendations: - Mars: Wars Logs - Neopets: Darkest Faerie - Faery: Legends of Avalon - Clash Artifacts of Chaos.
I actually remember enjoying Bound By Flames story, or perhaps it was more the world building. I’d say the devs Spiders are incredibly good at world building and now they’re getting more success it would be nice to see them revisit the universe of Bound By Flame
Ok, a few more suggestions in case there will be more videos like this one: - Restricted Area: Essentially a Diablo-clone with guns, cyberware and so on. Takes place in a post apocalyptic/Cyberpunk setting. Decent soundtrack and atmosphere. Four characters with ok skill trees and a genuinely good, well balanced Attribute system. - Harbinger: Sci-Fi-ARPG. I have only tried the demo, so I can't say much about it, but it seemed interesting enough. - Avencast: Somewhat more action- and movement-focused ARPG. The story isn't great, but I felt the people that wrote it and did the presentation for it had their heart in it. Music was also good and some of the environments were nice as well. Not a lot of replayability as there is essentially only mage and melee mage and two stats that force you down either path. - Dawn of Magic: The so-called Dawn of Magic 2 that is available digitally is really a stand-alone expansion. The original game is superior though as it contains five Acts with unique music and art. There are also some mechanics like alignment having some influence on the story, that are absent in DoM2. There are no classes, just 12 magic schools and these can be combined in a number of ways. Other than that the game is s somewhat strange hybrid of typical ARPG-stuff and some unique features or simply different approach to the usual stuff. Like overly large towns, compact potion pool or a teleport mechanic that everyone gets by default. One of the most unjustly forgotten games I have ever played. Edit: Only Avencast is available digitally.
Harbinger is basically Diablo in space. The problem with it was, there's way too few skills, and you spend WAAAAAAY too long kiting swarms of enemies in tight corridors. There's also very obvious elemental weaknesses system, where each enemy species is *only* vulnerable to a single damage type, and everything else barely scratches them. And you need to figure this out on your own. The game definitely gets point for being creepy. Poor lighting, and swarms of arachnids, with pained groans from the other aliens.. it was all right in that regard. Very inconsequential and confusing story, though. I think you can still buy it off Gamersgate
I played Restricted Area back in the day. It was…serviceable. Avencast is pretty good though. I always wanted to try out Harbinger but could never get it running.
Restricted Area is awful. Its not just repetitive, its SUPER REPETITIVE. It have about 5 enemy models and 10 weapon skins, and they repeated over and over again. Although, I spent only 3 or 5 hours in it back in these days, but alas, even if there is more enemies, weapons and locations, I cant imagine, what patience you need to have to play this piece of trash further. And it come on 3 CDs ! What an irony.
Seeing Enclave made me think of 🐲Drakan: Order of the flame🐲 which would be worth a cover in this type of video. Unfortunately, it's old and kind of forgotten, so I don't know if you can get it anywhere, let alone make it run on a modern system 😞
Drakan: The Ancients' Gates may be the easier one to get. Its the ps2 exclusive sequel. As much as I love "order", I think the sequel is superior in every way. Except the lack of turning bodies to mince meat chunks
Thanks for this video. I have some comments in it's regrad : 1 - Demonicon is called Dark Eye : Demonicon and is part of Dark Eye series 2 - Loki has different starting locations depending on your character. You can even go to Troy 3 - Speaking of Troy, Jason was never accompiend by Achilles but his father Peleus, in the actuall myth
Enclave is actually amazing. Its character differences, level design, and overall combat balance Almost raise it to the AAA category for a time of release. Even the story and cutscenes, being a parody, didn't look that wacky.
Starbreeze really know what there are doing (also did: The Chronicles of Riddick, The Darkness, Brothers: A Tale of two Sons and The Syndicate isn't too bad either). Pitty they haven't made any more fantasy ARPG/Action-Adventure games similar to Enclave (Enclave II was planned but canceled).
Played Enclave about a year ago for the first time, without ever having heard of it (just found it cheap on Kinguin). It's amazing and extremely underrated. Totally worth playing even today, no nostalgia goggles needed.
You should review Enderal! As a Skyrim and Gothic fan, you will love the game! It has an amazing story and improves a lot of aspects regarding progression from Skyrim.
I didn't know people consider Bound by Flame obscure. I really liked it, completed it with different endings, basically you are in a rush to save the world and the demon that possessed you also doesn't want to die, so it offers some very pragmatic shortcuts to saving the world faster. It's up to you if you really want to be this pragmatic or ignore the demon and save the world "your" way
Bound by flame is a good game but not perfect so it flew under the radar for Many 2013 was a very alive time for gaming many good games were coming out so the ppl who did play it some liked it others didn't but basically what I'm saying is if a wider audience would have tried it I think it would be more popular bc no game is perfect after all skyrim has gamebreaking glitches another example of a game that flew under the radar in 2013 was dragons dogma in my opinion its better then skyrim releasing basically at the same time well one year after alot of ppl don't really try many new games unless they hear from a friend it's good or something leaving some games to remain unpopular with smaller fanbases but at the end of the day the most important thing to remember is just bc a game is popular doesn't mean it's better or even good I've played many popular games and just couldn't get into them meanwhile I've had amazing experiences with hidden gems/unpopular games every gamer is different
Funny story, I actually wrote a single comment on a Steam thread for Demonicon about the incestuous aspect of the story where I was basically like "who cares, it's a video game, let em bang each other if they like" and because I'm too lazy to turn it off Steam still frequently notifies me of activity in that thread to this very day. The last comment in that thread was just two days ago, and it's almost 10 years old. I guess people found that aspect of the story more interesting than the game itself :) The sad part is that it was fake incest all along :'(
Yoo Loki was sort of popular in my environment, my cousin bought a nice physical copy of it! It was really cool when I was in middle school, I have a little sentiment for this one. Aztec lady was my fav. Enclave reminds me of Severance: Blade of Darkness, really hard game from my childhood.
Just Discovered your Channel and I love this format and your combination of looking at the games seriously but still making some fun with it. Looking forward to seeing more. :)
Have you played Nox by Westwood? It released around the same time as diablo 2 and was completely overshadowed because of it, but it was a really solid game walking that area between an action rpg like diablo and a more storydriven rpg like baldurs gate. And it had attitude, doing it's own thing. In some ways it reminds me of Outward. Not because of the game itself but because of the place they both held in-between the giants of their era.
I have Enclave on CD, bought it perhaps on the year it came out. I love the game, and really wished it had been continued. It felt like a multiplayer game that got well converted to single player. The music and sound design is highly memorable, and it still looks good, the art direction was to the point! Both campaigns kept things interesting, had unique levels and goals as well as secret OP characters, if you collect all the gold. The game really lacks a sequal.
I don't comment very often on your channel, but I wanna say that I really appreciate those videos. Interesting games and well paced. Would watch more. Take it easy, and happy new year.
Makes me very happy Enclave is nr 1 I played it to death when it came out and never knew anyone else who played it. What a fun little gem!! Great video!
Had kind of forgotten about Rise of the Argonauts, but it does look half-decent. I didn't mind Demonicon, but that's partially because I went in with low expectations and partially since I'm interested in The Dark Eye-setting and there simply aren't many games in that setting. I felt that the plot wasn't all bad. Some sections were relatively interesting, but overall I liked the background lore the most. There is some kind of Lore-skill in the game and from what I remember that actually gets checked much more often than for instance Persuasion. The latter didn't have much of an impact unfortunately. I didn't like it any less than Bound by Flame, though that's probably partially since it's much easier. The character system of Bound by Flame wasn't all that interesting, but the incremental upgrading of equipment and skills was still quite satisfying because of the high difficulty. Every little bit of damage counts, even if you are mostly going with so-called "heavy" style. The main story was honestly worse than for Demonicon in my opinion. It's only saving grace are some of the characters and the fairly entertaining demon buddy. And yeah, it's true that the companions can be very useful in combat. Looking forward to giving it a try as a pure Pyromancer one day.
I've heard about Loki. A gaming magazine I used to buy in mid 2000s wrote about it quite a lot. It was using the Titan Quest engine as far as I remember. Think the magazine gave it a 6/10
Well i was trying to have a late breakfast while watching your video and thanks to your Demonicon review i now have to clean desk and the monitor. 10/10 would recommend!
Holy shit I cant believe you talked about enclave! Its one of my all time favorite games. I finished both campaigns countless times... IMO this game was so far ahead of its time. The system of how the missions are set up is so unique and for some odd reason no other game does it.
Hello, I have an amazing recomendation that nobody knows: FIRE IN THE BEASTLAND - it's an metroidvania with rpg elements, similar to salt and sanctuary, but in a primitive settings, I love this game.
As rough as it is, bound by flame made me come back to it couple times over the years, like a lot of spiders games. Also played Loki, maybe its because i only played the barbarian, but always dropped the game pretty fast. Never heard about enclave before, but that game looks insane for 2003, reminds me of Dark Messiah.
If you checked Enclave, try Knights of the Temple - same studio, probably same engine, newer, yet feel... older? However, atmosphere can be nice. Great video as usual, gotta check Demonicon and Bound by Flame.
I remember seeing Loki on a game magazine but I was already playing Titan Quest so I didn't play it. Now I feel kinda sad for not trying the game, might as well buy it during steam sales to try. Also, excellent video as always!
I discourage you from buying Loki. Played the game when it came out, and it felt okay, then I tried replaying the game around 2012, and it wasn't as good as I remembered it. Not that long ago I saw this game on sale, so naturally I bought it cause I don't have a dvd drive anymore, and my god, the movement of the character is absolutely atrocious, I really don't know how to describe it, other than it's laggy and very unresponsive, absolutely kills the game for me
During the video I asked myself if you know Enclave, and voila, there you covered it :D it was indeed a great game, I played the demo for so long on pc, bought it for xbox later on (more fun on pc, especially the ranged combat), and recently again on steam (didn't feel as smooth as back in the day, but still very cool)
I played Enclave a few years ago and I really liked it for the most part. Unfortunately for some reason the checkpoints weren't working so the last few levels got really frustrating.
Great video! I love Spiders and am always looking for similar mid tier eurojank rpgs so this series has been awesome! I actually tried Enclave ages ago but didn't like the feel of the combat so I just fell off it, but I feel like I should give it another go. Rise of The Argonauts and Demonicon (not for that reason!) look pretty good too so I'll have to give them a try at some point.
I recall getting my hands on Rise of the Argonauts for 3$ from a discount bin like a decade ago. I went in with fairly low expectations only to be blown away by the story. The gameplay is a bit basic though, but not to the point where it ruins the experience. I got Enclave from a schoolmate who found no further use for it even longer ago, and while the save system is archaic, the game itself was amazingly fun and atmospheric. The soundtrack in particular deserves nothing but praise. Excellent video BTW. You might have covered all the notable obscure action-RPGs at this point. I would recommend Archangel from 2002 for PC as a potential candidate for a video. It only saw a limited release even back then and I imagine it would take some tinkering to work on a modern PC (It has no digital re-release and uses DX8 so D3D8to9 and/or DGVoodoo are probably required to make it just work) but it apparently had a unique premise and if I remember correctly the lead is played by Doug Cockle (Witcher)
I absolutely loved Rise of the Argonauts when it came out! You have to consider that this game came out during an era of awkward controls! Almost all of them had weird control layouts with questionable design choices! And Bound by Flame was more than worth the $3.99 I paid for it! And it’s on both Game Pass and PlayStation Plus!
3:39 is a beautiful edit my guy xD You deserve a sub just for that Gotta love some humour mixed in the video so you know you're listening to a fellow human and not a monotone bot
Your content as well as many comments provide some decent rpg choices to try and short yet insightful little reviews. Nice! Have you ever tried Spellforce games? I want more opinions on that game.
Drakensang river of time is one of my favorites rpgs, with a very nice story round based combat and a great design, I would like to a review about that game....
Been playing rpgs since the late 80s and Drakensang has to be one of the most underrated ones for me! I remember after Dragon Age Origins wanting another game that was close to it (since the 2nd game didn't give me that same feeling as Origins did). Ended up loving the Drakensang games, despite them being lesser funded games.
@@KatalistProductionsKozzySasha yeah I played it as a teenager and got really lost in this game, because it felt like going in a adventure. I tried Dragon Age 1 after, but it didn't give me the same feeling....
if you want an amazing one that has long been forgotten, here it is vagrant story, its kinda like an action rpg, but also kinda like turn based. the movement is real time, but when you go to hit an enemy, or the enemy goes to hit you, there will be this target system, kinda like the vats from fallout, and you can aim at the enemy parts you are in reach of. after that you can string a sequence of well timed buttons, that can, if you are good enough, string all the way to kill the enemy... HOWEVER, the more you hit them(or get hit), you will fill your risk gauge, which makes damage you deal and take higher, but at the same time, lower your accuracy. so you gotta manage your risk-reward. also, the game has alot of diferent mechanics, from spells, skills, even converting enemies into temporary allies. there's also a great crafting system, that is simple, but also allow for some really interesting stuff. and its has an amazing story, with great presentation, which many consider to be one of the psx best. its alt square enix at its best.
Enclave was almost perfect, if it just had a few more levels, especially outdoor ones. The graphic´s still beautiful today, it didn´t had to rely on BS like Bloom, HDR, and whatnotelse you clearly hardly recognize ingame. And the OST, splendid. Yes, i can recommend it still nowadays.
I remember Loki being called "Diablo killer", then it came out to low review scores and lukewarm player reception. It's bad, but I can't help but like it. It has some neat ideas, like marking items for selling in inventory, which takes time, but that also regenerates your HP and mana as it starts quickly regenerating when you are standing still. If controls were made a bit more responsive, I feel like it would have some cult following like other games of the era like Sacred or Dungeon Siege.
bound by flame was fun if you want to cheese it you can make a build with daggers poison and traps i made this build when i was doing a run on the highest difficulty for the platinum trophy on ps3 and it made the last boss a joke keep in mind that the last boss at least back then it was a big platinum wall for alot of people
You should check Champions of Norrath and Champions of Norrath: Return to Arms, 2 ARPGs set on the Everquest universe, i had a lot of fun playing when i was younger on ps2
Having finished Bound By Blade two times on the highest difficulty setting, I must warn against investing into the two-handed sword tree. The game would like you to believe that sword is for group fighting and daggers are for stealth but in reality daggers have way higher DPS than the sword. Especially in the late game, when you max-out your dagger tree and start investing into magic. One of the spells there adds a fire buff to your weapon. However, instead of giving you a percentage of your dps as a fire damage, it gives you a flat number. Which means that daggers, which are several times faster than the sword, get way better DPS in comparison to your slow two-handed weapon. Actually, the damage from the sword is so bad that in the late game you find enemies whose health regenerates faster than you can kill them. Moreover, by investing in the sword you strip yourself from the stealth kill mechanic, which means that you will need to fight and kill every enemy in open combat, which takes ages. Funnily enough, as my first playthrough was with the sword, I found myself enjoying the plot and characters way more than the gameplay.
"Actually, the damage from the sword is so bad that in the late game you find enemies whose health regenerates faster than you can kill them." Exactly what happened to me and why I quit the game at the ice gauntlet. It was impossible, at least for me.
@@michaelb2westgaedu I was fortunate enough to have invested into the fire enchant spell just before I got to that part. I had to fight the enemy normally, then when they started to regenerate I would use the fire enchant and It would give me just enough DPS to kill them. Had I invested into any other skill I would have lost the game.
10:12 If I remember correctly, the only 'unique' feature of Loki was that you could dismantle weapons into parts (blades, hilts, ect) and create your own at the forge, but 90% of the time what you found was better what you could ever craft Bound by Flame is great, just the story feel axed near the end. Something something 7 evil generals but when you kill the first one the game skips to the end boss. Also I like that it is one of few existing games that makes the 2h back holster properly without the sheath and making it magically glued to your back. Combat seem to be Witcher 1 inspired with changing stances but have the typical Spider's jank. While we are at Spider's games jank, play the direct Technomancer predecessor, Mars: War Logs. Extreme clunk and a lot of running back and forth with backtracking, but the worldbuilding is a top notch, expanded in Technomancer. Also both Drakensang games that universe is Demonicon is based on, but those are full fledged squad based rpg like Neverwinter nights rather than action rpg.
Hello, have you ever played Demon Stone ? it's a beat em all (with slight RPG elements if i remember) i used to play back in 2005 on XboX, i have a lot of good memories of it
I snagged Bound by Flame day one when it released for PS3. And we were doing fine until the last area, the ice gauntlet. Rage quit and never came back to it, my build was trash and there was no way to save it at that point and I wasn't about to restart.
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What game looks the best to you? Have you even heard about them?
Part 1 of this series:
ua-cam.com/video/SuO43QPPJdI/v-deo.html
Part 3 of this series:
ua-cam.com/video/jqNa0rNe1zg/v-deo.html
Here are my GoG links:
Get Demonicon: cutt.ly/m0IvVKy
Get Bound by Flame: cutt.ly/n0IbwBP
Get Enclave: cutt.ly/c0IbuSa
Regarding Demonicon, you might try out the Drakensang games. They are set in the same world (The Dark Eye, which is basially German DnD), but much higher quality with more RPG-focused gameplay similar to Dragon Age or Kotor.
I'd like to try Bloodline, but my phone is out of date by several years and even if I got a new phone, my Wi-Fi isn't working. Le sigh, the artstyle is superb. I tend not to like Diablo-like games, but all the other games look fair. Too bad GOG doesn't have Rise of the Argonauts.
I will have to decline that offter.
Blade of Darkness, spanish Action RPG released on 2001. Four characters, good game design, awesome combat, fantastic moveset, precise hitbox, good lore context, dark medieval setting, every map different. On Steam, GoG and Switch.
game was epic and still is
I wouldn't call Blade of Darkness an RPG but it is an excellent game
I love that game. Only really liked the barb, the others always felt like they were missing something. Especially the amazon. Cool gameplay ✌️
@@HerrFinsternis bruh knight was perfect
Severance: Blade of Darkness is the Dark souls of my childhood. Great game.
I played Enclave in 2002. It wasn't required to beat Light campaign to get access to the Dark side, so i started as a ranged class - assasin and got a blast with the game. It was very fun, so much stuff to do, so many character types: melee damage dealer, tank, mage, ranger with weapon and equipment progression. Every fight was like a little pvp encounter. I remember finishing the game by thrashing a high elf council with sniper arrows. Good times!
range class was cheese mode. I also chose it
That game was a ball buster. Played it on the OG XBOX back inn the day. Still have it sitting on my shelf.
@@stuartbagley2586 PLay it on PC if you can ;-)
* Better graphics
* More precise shooting
* Maybe there are mods... Maybe even a Community Patch
There are some very interesting Chinese RPGs from around 2000-2010 that went totally under the Western radar. Recently, a bunch of those were re-released on Steam and GOG. Some examples:
- Prince of Qin
- Seal of Evil
You might want to give those a try.
Rise of the Argonauts is one of my favorite games! So underrated.
Rise of the Argonauts is an extremely unnderated game, a hidden gem for sure.
True ❤ "Come Come! Come Come!"
Rise of the Argonauts and Bound by Flame are underrated! 🎉 Great vid bro!
Spiders makes solid games. Lower budget BioWare but still pretty good
I liked Argonauts too!
rise of the argonauts looks like a god of war clone (seems legit, i love gow, so i really want to try the argonaut game :D)
Ones of games of my life ❤
What I like about Demonicon is the main character's unconditional love for his sister.
Man, Enclave is pure nostalgia for me. Played it way back in the day on the OG XBox, and enjoyed every moment of it
Some of my obscure recs; Azure Dreams, Hunter the Reckoning, the third person Mortal Kombat RPGs.
The Demonicon part was hilarious. Bless you guys for recommending it XD
Rise of Argonauts has a soundtrack by Tyler Bates and to this day remains one of my favorite alongside Deus Ex Human Revolution. I also remember praying for fallen characters once and a while and I really loved that. I really appreciated that because all videogames ever are mkst of the time are murder simulators.
I was a big fan of Rise of the Argonauts. It reminded me of a fantasy Mass Effect. If I remember correctly, the combat was rhythm based, so you needed to time your swings. That may be why the combat felt unresponsive. You had to wait for the animation to finish before pressing attack again.
I think it also had kind of a rock-paper-scissors weapon triangle (like fire emblem) so you needed to switch between sword, spear and mace to counter enemies and avoid being countered. It was definitely a flawed but fun game in my memory.
Enclave is one of my favorite RPG hidden gems. Thank you for covering it, this game absolutely deserves more attention.
Have you talked about Blade of Darkness yet? Or maybe Crusaders of Might and Magic?
Love your channel. Many of the games you cover here deserve a lot more love than they usually get.
Keep these coming, it is nice to see the obscure games covered.
Some more suggestions:
Of Orcs and Men, Game of Thrones, Mars: War Logs, Silverfall, Avencast: Rise of the Mage, Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition, How to Survive 1,2, Ember and Vikings: Wolves of Midgard.
Enclave is a really good game and I used to play it a lot about 15 years ago (Druid was my favorite), there was also a planned sequel which was unfortunetly scrapped.
The next game Starbreeze (a really good developer) made was Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade which recieved a very limited release and I didn't get to play it so I'm curious about it.
I'm very surprised to see that not one, but at least 3 people mentioned Avencast in this comment section. I thought nobody even knew that game existed!
I really liked the atmosphere it had especially in the prologue. It's like that game had a soul. Unfortunately, to me the game just started to run thin as it progressed. Also, soul magic in general felt really underwhelming to me, as if all enemies had resistance to it in the 2nd half of the game, but I might just remember it wrong. It was a long time ago. How do you remember that game?
Some more suggestions for this kind of compliation:
- Evil Islands
- Blackguards 1 and 2
- Nox
- Vampire The Masquerade: Redemption
Maaaan, seeing not only Bound by Flame but also Enclave and Loki in the same video really brings back some memories. Encalve will forever be one of my top 5 obscure games. I still come back to it every now and then and finish the whole thing again.
Bound by flame is underrated
Regarding Demonicon, you might try out the Drakensang games. They are set in the same world (The Dark Eye, which is basially German DnD), but much higher quality with more RPG-focused gameplay similar to Dragon Age or Kotor.
I tried Drakensang recently cause I remembered beating it as a kid and I have no idea how I did it, that game aged terribly and I didnt have the strength to get past first area. Was worth installing it just for that gypsy queen though xD
Love this series! Just a few obscure recommendations:
- Mars: Wars Logs
- Neopets: Darkest Faerie
- Faery: Legends of Avalon
- Clash Artifacts of Chaos.
I really hope this becomes a full-on series of videos! :D
I actually remember enjoying Bound By Flames story, or perhaps it was more the world building. I’d say the devs Spiders are incredibly good at world building and now they’re getting more success it would be nice to see them revisit the universe of Bound By Flame
Mars War Logs and The Technomancer are amazing too ❤
@@satyriconguy4126I couldn't get into the technomancer but I liked bound by flame I'm currently enjoying greedfall
Wow, Enclave looks very interesting. I'm gonna try it now. Thank you for making this series.
Ok, a few more suggestions in case there will be more videos like this one:
- Restricted Area: Essentially a Diablo-clone with guns, cyberware and so on. Takes place in a post apocalyptic/Cyberpunk setting. Decent soundtrack and atmosphere. Four characters with ok skill trees and a genuinely good, well balanced Attribute system.
- Harbinger: Sci-Fi-ARPG. I have only tried the demo, so I can't say much about it, but it seemed interesting enough.
- Avencast: Somewhat more action- and movement-focused ARPG. The story isn't great, but I felt the people that wrote it and did the presentation for it had their heart in it. Music was also good and some of the environments were nice as well. Not a lot of replayability as there is essentially only mage and melee mage and two stats that force you down either path.
- Dawn of Magic: The so-called Dawn of Magic 2 that is available digitally is really a stand-alone expansion. The original game is superior though as it contains five Acts with unique music and art. There are also some mechanics like alignment having some influence on the story, that are absent in DoM2. There are no classes, just 12 magic schools and these can be combined in a number of ways. Other than that the game is s somewhat strange hybrid of typical ARPG-stuff and some unique features or simply different approach to the usual stuff. Like overly large towns, compact potion pool or a teleport mechanic that everyone gets by default. One of the most unjustly forgotten games I have ever played.
Edit: Only Avencast is available digitally.
Age of Pirates 2 - Also known as Sea Dogs: City of Abandoned Ships (due to license problems, game was renamed)
Restricted Area was a nice concept, but it really suffered from low enemy variety and high repetition.
Harbinger is basically Diablo in space. The problem with it was, there's way too few skills, and you spend WAAAAAAY too long kiting swarms of enemies in tight corridors. There's also very obvious elemental weaknesses system, where each enemy species is *only* vulnerable to a single damage type, and everything else barely scratches them. And you need to figure this out on your own.
The game definitely gets point for being creepy. Poor lighting, and swarms of arachnids, with pained groans from the other aliens.. it was all right in that regard.
Very inconsequential and confusing story, though.
I think you can still buy it off Gamersgate
I played Restricted Area back in the day. It was…serviceable.
Avencast is pretty good though.
I always wanted to try out Harbinger but could never get it running.
Restricted Area is awful. Its not just repetitive, its SUPER REPETITIVE. It have about 5 enemy models and 10 weapon skins, and they repeated over and over again. Although, I spent only 3 or 5 hours in it back in these days, but alas, even if there is more enemies, weapons and locations, I cant imagine, what patience you need to have to play this piece of trash further.
And it come on 3 CDs ! What an irony.
Seeing Enclave made me think of 🐲Drakan: Order of the flame🐲 which would be worth a cover in this type of video. Unfortunately, it's old and kind of forgotten, so I don't know if you can get it anywhere, let alone make it run on a modern system 😞
Drakan: The Ancients' Gates may be the easier one to get. Its the ps2 exclusive sequel. As much as I love "order", I think the sequel is superior in every way. Except the lack of turning bodies to mince meat chunks
Thanks for this video. I have some comments in it's regrad :
1 - Demonicon is called Dark Eye : Demonicon and is part of Dark Eye series
2 - Loki has different starting locations depending on your character. You can even go to Troy
3 - Speaking of Troy, Jason was never accompiend by Achilles but his father Peleus, in the actuall myth
Enclave is actually amazing.
Its character differences, level design, and overall combat balance Almost raise it to the AAA category for a time of release.
Even the story and cutscenes, being a parody, didn't look that wacky.
Starbreeze really know what there are doing (also did: The Chronicles of Riddick, The Darkness, Brothers: A Tale of two Sons and The Syndicate isn't too bad either).
Pitty they haven't made any more fantasy ARPG/Action-Adventure games similar to Enclave (Enclave II was planned but canceled).
Played Enclave about a year ago for the first time, without ever having heard of it (just found it cheap on Kinguin). It's amazing and extremely underrated. Totally worth playing even today, no nostalgia goggles needed.
You should review Enderal! As a Skyrim and Gothic fan, you will love the game! It has an amazing story and improves a lot of aspects regarding progression from Skyrim.
Seconded!
Fun fact: enderal was actually a Skyrim mod before the devs made a standalone game
@@levisamom5069 its still a mod.
Enderal is a very good game, I replay it every now and then. The original german voicecast and writing is up there with the best of the best.
God, yes! I cant understand why is it so little-known, its a true gem.
Very nice video. Brings back some nostalgic memories from older games i played over 15yrs ago
For the next "forgotten and obscure action RPG" part: Silverfall + DLC (Silverfall Earth Awakening)
I didn't know people consider Bound by Flame obscure. I really liked it, completed it with different endings, basically you are in a rush to save the world and the demon that possessed you also doesn't want to die, so it offers some very pragmatic shortcuts to saving the world faster. It's up to you if you really want to be this pragmatic or ignore the demon and save the world "your" way
Edwen is my favourite ally ❤
Because it is obscure. I never heard anyone mention the game other than there
Loved it
Bound by flame is a good game but not perfect so it flew under the radar for Many 2013 was a very alive time for gaming many good games were coming out so the ppl who did play it some liked it others didn't but basically what I'm saying is if a wider audience would have tried it I think it would be more popular bc no game is perfect after all skyrim has gamebreaking glitches another example of a game that flew under the radar in 2013 was dragons dogma in my opinion its better then skyrim releasing basically at the same time well one year after alot of ppl don't really try many new games unless they hear from a friend it's good or something leaving some games to remain unpopular with smaller fanbases but at the end of the day the most important thing to remember is just bc a game is popular doesn't mean it's better or even good I've played many popular games and just couldn't get into them meanwhile I've had amazing experiences with hidden gems/unpopular games every gamer is different
Those dark catacombs of Enclave filled with werewolves were really a challenge.
Funny story, I actually wrote a single comment on a Steam thread for Demonicon about the incestuous aspect of the story where I was basically like "who cares, it's a video game, let em bang each other if they like" and because I'm too lazy to turn it off Steam still frequently notifies me of activity in that thread to this very day. The last comment in that thread was just two days ago, and it's almost 10 years old. I guess people found that aspect of the story more interesting than the game itself :)
The sad part is that it was fake incest all along :'(
Yoo Loki was sort of popular in my environment, my cousin bought a nice physical copy of it! It was really cool when I was in middle school, I have a little sentiment for this one. Aztec lady was my fav. Enclave reminds me of Severance: Blade of Darkness, really hard game from my childhood.
Just Discovered your Channel and I love this format and your combination of looking at the games seriously but still making some fun with it. Looking forward to seeing more. :)
Shadow of Rome. Such an amazing game I still remember it to this day.
Have you played Nox by Westwood? It released around the same time as diablo 2 and was completely overshadowed because of it, but it was a really solid game walking that area between an action rpg like diablo and a more storydriven rpg like baldurs gate. And it had attitude, doing it's own thing.
In some ways it reminds me of Outward. Not because of the game itself but because of the place they both held in-between the giants of their era.
I had a blast playing Nox
I really liked this video. Great games and your humor and personality really shine through. Keep it up mate!
I love these kind of videos, keep it up !
I have Enclave on CD, bought it perhaps on the year it came out.
I love the game, and really wished it had been continued.
It felt like a multiplayer game that got well converted to single player.
The music and sound design is highly memorable, and it still looks good, the art direction was to the point!
Both campaigns kept things interesting, had unique levels and goals as well as secret OP characters, if you collect all the gold.
The game really lacks a sequal.
I don't comment very often on your channel, but I wanna say that I really appreciate those videos.
Interesting games and well paced. Would watch more.
Take it easy, and happy new year.
I actually wish they had the balls in Demonicon to go through with the incest is wincest lol. Such a crazy game 😂
Makes me very happy Enclave is nr 1 I played it to death when it came out and never knew anyone else who played it. What a fun little gem!! Great video!
Had kind of forgotten about Rise of the Argonauts, but it does look half-decent.
I didn't mind Demonicon, but that's partially because I went in with low expectations and partially since I'm interested in The Dark Eye-setting and there simply aren't many games in that setting. I felt that the plot wasn't all bad. Some sections were relatively interesting, but overall I liked the background lore the most. There is some kind of Lore-skill in the game and from what I remember that actually gets checked much more often than for instance Persuasion. The latter didn't have much of an impact unfortunately. I didn't like it any less than Bound by Flame, though that's probably partially since it's much easier.
The character system of Bound by Flame wasn't all that interesting, but the incremental upgrading of equipment and skills was still quite satisfying because of the high difficulty. Every little bit of damage counts, even if you are mostly going with so-called "heavy" style. The main story was honestly worse than for Demonicon in my opinion. It's only saving grace are some of the characters and the fairly entertaining demon buddy. And yeah, it's true that the companions can be very useful in combat.
Looking forward to giving it a try as a pure Pyromancer one day.
Man that last part of the video saddens me. Would have been awesome to play Enclave on switch or ps4. Hope they can update us on the situation
I'm discovering so many games from you! I'm going through all of these videos. Keep on keeping on. Subscribed!
I played most of these games. I really liked Loki when it released. Prob hasn't aged well, but in it's time, it was great.
I've heard about Loki. A gaming magazine I used to buy in mid 2000s wrote about it quite a lot. It was using the Titan Quest engine as far as I remember. Think the magazine gave it a 6/10
Thank you! I'm definitely going to try Enclave...and play as the huntress since I normally like using a bow in Skyrim etc. 🖤
Well i was trying to have a late breakfast while watching your video and thanks to your Demonicon review i now have to clean desk and the monitor. 10/10 would recommend!
I remember playing Enclave and loving it. Nice to see it get some recognition and love here.
Holy shit I cant believe you talked about enclave! Its one of my all time favorite games. I finished both campaigns countless times... IMO this game was so far ahead of its time.
The system of how the missions are set up is so unique and for some odd reason no other game does it.
Enclave was amazing. Almost makes me want to play again.
Hello, I have an amazing recomendation that nobody knows: FIRE IN THE BEASTLAND - it's an metroidvania with rpg elements, similar to salt and sanctuary, but in a primitive settings, I love this game.
As rough as it is, bound by flame made me come back to it couple times over the years, like a lot of spiders games. Also played Loki, maybe its because i only played the barbarian, but always dropped the game pretty fast. Never heard about enclave before, but that game looks insane for 2003, reminds me of Dark Messiah.
Enlave is pretty good, its a nice surprise to see it on your list 👍
If you checked Enclave, try Knights of the Temple - same studio, probably same engine, newer, yet feel... older? However, atmosphere can be nice.
Great video as usual, gotta check Demonicon and Bound by Flame.
I remember seeing Loki on a game magazine but I was already playing Titan Quest so I didn't play it. Now I feel kinda sad for not trying the game, might as well buy it during steam sales to try. Also, excellent video as always!
Don't be! This game is garbage....
I discourage you from buying Loki. Played the game when it came out, and it felt okay, then I tried replaying the game around 2012, and it wasn't as good as I remembered it. Not that long ago I saw this game on sale, so naturally I bought it cause I don't have a dvd drive anymore, and my god, the movement of the character is absolutely atrocious, I really don't know how to describe it, other than it's laggy and very unresponsive, absolutely kills the game for me
During the video I asked myself if you know Enclave, and voila, there you covered it :D
it was indeed a great game, I played the demo for so long on pc, bought it for xbox later on (more fun on pc, especially the ranged combat), and recently again on steam (didn't feel as smooth as back in the day, but still very cool)
Rise of Argonauts was my guilty pleasure back in the day, i loved the game even if was very clunky
I played Enclave a few years ago and I really liked it for the most part. Unfortunately for some reason the checkpoints weren't working so the last few levels got really frustrating.
You should play Drakan: The Ancients’ Gates on the PS2. It’s definitely an old but amazing hidden gem of an RPG.
Also the previous game, Drakan: Order of the Flame (which is available on PC).
@@Kai-tn4yx Both are insanely underrated yet amazing RPGS
Great video! I love Spiders and am always looking for similar mid tier eurojank rpgs so this series has been awesome!
I actually tried Enclave ages ago but didn't like the feel of the combat so I just fell off it, but I feel like I should give it another go. Rise of The Argonauts and Demonicon (not for that reason!) look pretty good too so I'll have to give them a try at some point.
I recall getting my hands on Rise of the Argonauts for 3$ from a discount bin like a decade ago. I went in with fairly low expectations only to be blown away by the story. The gameplay is a bit basic though, but not to the point where it ruins the experience.
I got Enclave from a schoolmate who found no further use for it even longer ago, and while the save system is archaic, the game itself was amazingly fun and atmospheric. The soundtrack in particular deserves nothing but praise.
Excellent video BTW. You might have covered all the notable obscure action-RPGs at this point. I would recommend Archangel from 2002 for PC as a potential candidate for a video. It only saw a limited release even back then and I imagine it would take some tinkering to work on a modern PC (It has no digital re-release and uses DX8 so D3D8to9 and/or DGVoodoo are probably required to make it just work) but it apparently had a unique premise and if I remember correctly the lead is played by Doug Cockle (Witcher)
Okay, Demonicon looks pretty generic... but that "but I was told you were coming!" joke delivered totally seriously cracked me up! XD
I don't know what I expected, but I'm a bit disappointed that out of 5 games only one seems worth trying. Nevertheless, great job, a very good series!
aww man ive been trying to remember loki for years, thank you so much :D
4:51 Cairon: well that takes all the fun out of it
I'll definitely be adding Demonicon to my wishlist.
I absolutely loved Rise of the Argonauts when it came out! You have to consider that this game came out during an era of awkward controls! Almost all of them had weird control layouts with questionable design choices! And Bound by Flame was more than worth the $3.99 I paid for it! And it’s on both Game Pass and PlayStation Plus!
3:39 is a beautiful edit my guy xD
You deserve a sub just for that
Gotta love some humour mixed in the video so you know you're listening to a fellow human and not a monotone bot
The studio Spiders really is king at making forgotten games, their recent titles like Greedfall seem good though and get quite some praise
I finished bound by flame 2 months ago. I actually enjoyed this game. My main focus was on daggers and stealth.
Your content as well as many comments provide some decent rpg choices to try and short yet insightful little reviews. Nice! Have you ever tried Spellforce games? I want more opinions on that game.
Thanks! A lot of people recommended Spellforce games, so I might check them out in the future.
Drakensang river of time is one of my favorites rpgs, with a very nice story round based combat and a great design, I would like to a review about that game....
Been playing rpgs since the late 80s and Drakensang has to be one of the most underrated ones for me! I remember after Dragon Age Origins wanting another game that was close to it (since the 2nd game didn't give me that same feeling as Origins did). Ended up loving the Drakensang games, despite them being lesser funded games.
@@KatalistProductionsKozzySasha yeah I played it as a teenager and got really lost in this game, because it felt like going in a adventure.
I tried Dragon Age 1 after, but it didn't give me the same feeling....
Damn, love that Arnold Schwarzenegger is making videos about action games, what a legend
if you want an amazing one that has long been forgotten, here it is vagrant story, its kinda like an action rpg, but also kinda like turn based. the movement is real time, but when you go to hit an enemy, or the enemy goes to hit you, there will be this target system, kinda like the vats from fallout, and you can aim at the enemy parts you are in reach of. after that you can string a sequence of well timed buttons, that can, if you are good enough, string all the way to kill the enemy... HOWEVER, the more you hit them(or get hit), you will fill your risk gauge, which makes damage you deal and take higher, but at the same time, lower your accuracy.
so you gotta manage your risk-reward.
also, the game has alot of diferent mechanics, from spells, skills, even converting enemies into temporary allies. there's also a great crafting system, that is simple, but also allow for some really interesting stuff.
and its has an amazing story, with great presentation, which many consider to be one of the psx best. its alt square enix at its best.
Enclave was almost perfect, if it just had a few more levels, especially outdoor ones. The graphic´s still beautiful today, it didn´t had to rely on BS like Bloom, HDR, and whatnotelse you clearly hardly recognize ingame. And the OST, splendid. Yes, i can recommend it still nowadays.
Enclave is a great game! You should also try Avencast if you're after hidden gems.
Honestly, Enclave visuals looks good for 2002 game. Reminds me of the second Tomb Raider trilogy which came out in 2006.
Shadow of Rome. An amazing game.
Enclave sure was good! Have you tried / reviewed Arx Fatalis?
When I was young... Someone gave me the copy of Loki... Countless hours have been lost there
I remember Loki being called "Diablo killer", then it came out to low review scores and lukewarm player reception. It's bad, but I can't help but like it. It has some neat ideas, like marking items for selling in inventory, which takes time, but that also regenerates your HP and mana as it starts quickly regenerating when you are standing still. If controls were made a bit more responsive, I feel like it would have some cult following like other games of the era like Sacred or Dungeon Siege.
Was there ever a "XYZ killer", that actually delivered on that promise?
About the Argonauts, Medea looking fiiine! I'm sold :)
bound by flame was fun if you want to cheese it you can make a build with daggers poison and traps i made this build when i was doing a run on the highest difficulty for the platinum trophy on ps3 and it made the last boss a joke keep in mind that the last boss at least back then it was a big platinum wall for alot of people
You should check Champions of Norrath and Champions of Norrath: Return to Arms, 2 ARPGs set on the Everquest universe, i had a lot of fun playing when i was younger on ps2
Oh god, I remember Enclave. The game crashed so much that I had to replay some levels like 5 or 6 times.
Demonicon segment is BASED AS F. On a serious note Space Siege and entire Dungeon Siege trilogy also games like Blood Magic.
I once saw a review of Enclave that said it was like a Medieval style Max Payne.
For the devs who made Rise of the Argonauts;
Hercules - Roman
Heracles - Greek
Having finished Bound By Blade two times on the highest difficulty setting, I must warn against investing into the two-handed sword tree.
The game would like you to believe that sword is for group fighting and daggers are for stealth but in reality daggers have way higher DPS than the sword. Especially in the late game, when you max-out your dagger tree and start investing into magic. One of the spells there adds a fire buff to your weapon. However, instead of giving you a percentage of your dps as a fire damage, it gives you a flat number. Which means that daggers, which are several times faster than the sword, get way better DPS in comparison to your slow two-handed weapon.
Actually, the damage from the sword is so bad that in the late game you find enemies whose health regenerates faster than you can kill them.
Moreover, by investing in the sword you strip yourself from the stealth kill mechanic, which means that you will need to fight and kill every enemy in open combat, which takes ages.
Funnily enough, as my first playthrough was with the sword, I found myself enjoying the plot and characters way more than the gameplay.
"Actually, the damage from the sword is so bad that in the late game you find enemies whose health regenerates faster than you can kill them." Exactly what happened to me and why I quit the game at the ice gauntlet. It was impossible, at least for me.
@@michaelb2westgaedu I was fortunate enough to have invested into the fire enchant spell just before I got to that part.
I had to fight the enemy normally, then when they started to regenerate I would use the fire enchant and It would give me just enough DPS to kill them.
Had I invested into any other skill I would have lost the game.
Love the accent, content, and your taste keep up the good work boss
10:12 If I remember correctly, the only 'unique' feature of Loki was that you could dismantle weapons into parts (blades, hilts, ect) and create your own at the forge, but 90% of the time what you found was better what you could ever craft
Bound by Flame is great, just the story feel axed near the end. Something something 7 evil generals but when you kill the first one the game skips to the end boss. Also I like that it is one of few existing games that makes the 2h back holster properly without the sheath and making it magically glued to your back. Combat seem to be Witcher 1 inspired with changing stances but have the typical Spider's jank.
While we are at Spider's games jank, play the direct Technomancer predecessor, Mars: War Logs. Extreme clunk and a lot of running back and forth with backtracking, but the worldbuilding is a top notch, expanded in Technomancer.
Also both Drakensang games that universe is Demonicon is based on, but those are full fledged squad based rpg like Neverwinter nights rather than action rpg.
For the most forgotten RPG is “a farewell to dragons”
Yeah, it so forgotten that you can’t download it literally everywhere
Enclave, loved that game. Its similar to Rune classic in many ways in gameplay
Hello, have you ever played Demon Stone ? it's a beat em all (with slight RPG elements if i remember) i used to play back in 2005 on XboX, i have a lot of good memories of it
18:03 Letho was doing some sick shit between witcher 2 and 3.
Do *Dark Messiah of Might and Magic* next. It’s such an underrated game.
I snagged Bound by Flame day one when it released for PS3. And we were doing fine until the last area, the ice gauntlet. Rage quit and never came back to it, my build was trash and there was no way to save it at that point and I wasn't about to restart.