craving for tb fp dungeon grid blobbers

[SuicideBunny]

having played all the obvious ones (m&m, wiz, jap wiz handheld clones like eo or tds and so on and so forth) i wonder whether there might be any somewhat obscure old/indie/handheld titles i might have missed.
any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Dark Heart of Uukrul 4evar. The best of 'em all imho. The combat isn't blob though, only the exploration.

 

[Elzair]

Dark Heart of Uukrul 4evar. The best of 'em all imho. The combat isn't blob though, only the exploration.

Hell, if we're gonna count that, then any good FRUA module would apply!

 

[Jaesun]

Yeah I was going to say a number of the FRUA modules would be close to what he's looking for.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Well, I was initially going to recommend Centauri Alliance as well, but I guess that may not be what OP is looking for either. Highly recommended anyway.

Apart from that, I dunno. Ambermoon? Spirit of Adventure?

 

[MMXI]

Guys, he asked for blobbers.

Go play Dragon Wars.

 

[Elzair]

Try Legend of Faerghail. Make sure to LP that shit.

 

[MMXI]

Try Legend of Faerghail. Make sure to LP that shit.

A bit of a plain game. Sort of a Bard's Tale rip off but with great graphics and good music. I'd still recommend it if you're starved. Worth playing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE7Hi9UKc6w

 

[SuicideBunny]

Dark Heart of Uukrul, Centauri Alliance, Ambermoon, Spirit of Adventure, Dragon Wars

already know them. if it has a hotu page, especially on the pre-decline "omg underdogs is female" hotu chances are i know and played it.

Try Legend of Faerghail. Make sure to LP that shit.

'cept that one, apparently. gonna try it out later.

A bit of a plain game.

:/

 

[hanssolo]

Fate: Gates of Dawn is pretty excellent.

 

[mondblut]

^ Han shot first

Faerghail is crap. Not only it is able to spawn absolutely any kind of encounter anywhere in the game - like a horde of giants the moment you leave the town for the first time - it also allows to flee from any such encounter AND earn full xp for that (sic!). The game looked charming at first, but once I realized how broken it was, there was no more point in playing it. Why fight if you can run away and reap the same benefits, why explore if you can meet those encounters right at your doorstep?

Indie and handheld, see Legacy by the hungarian Redshift. Undercroft is okayish too.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Not only it is able to spawn absolutely any kind of encounter anywhere in the game - like a horde of giants the moment you leave the town for the first time - it also allows to flee from any such encounter AND earn full xp for that (sic!). The game looked charming at first, but once I realized how broken it was, there was no more point in playing it. Why fight if you can run away and reap the same benefits, why explore if you can meet those encounters right at your doorstep?

those are indeed some pretty inane design fuckups...

Indie and handheld, see Legacy by the hungarian Redshift. Undercroft is okayish too.

not the iphone kind of handheld,more the psp/ds one...
the redshift games look okish but apparently aren't being sold on the pc at the moment. :/

ah well, downloading fate. let's see if this craptop can run an amiga emu.

 

[Norfleet]

Well, if you think about it, SURVIVING the encounter is pretty good experience. You would certainly gain skills through extensive practice in fleeing from monsters, which would certainly amount to progress. This makes no less sense than being able to improve your lockpicking skills by killing 30 ogres. The only difference at the end of the day is that you don't get any loot from outrunning 30 ogres instead of killing them all. You still get plenty of exercise, though.

 

[SuicideBunny]

This makes no less sense than being able to improve your lockpicking skills by killing 30 ogres.

it depends on how it is implemented. rewarding combat in the above way makes sense (from a gameplay, not so much realism pov) since combat consists of many lined up random opportunities that player skill plays an important role in the form of decisions, outfitting and character builds, whereas running away tends to generally be a single random chance which depends on very few statistics or none at all.
the two are only equal(ly senseless) if you have avoidance mechanics that make running away require the same amount of player skill, for example by splitting it into separate steps offering different options dependent on character builds (distract enemies with some illusion spell while sneaking away, use a quick distraction then run the hell away and hide, and so on).

 

[Gragt]

Lightning Warrior Raidy 2

 

[SuicideBunny]

how does it rate as a game if you ignore the hentai porn?

 

[mondblut]

Well, if you think about it, SURVIVING the encounter is pretty good experience.

In a proper game, where your chance to escape is minimal (and ever the less the more dangerous the opposition is) and a failure results in opposition getting a free turn's worth of stomping you into pavement, trying to flee is such a ridiculous risk it deserves to be rewarded on its own, yes.

In Faerghail, on the other hand, I don't remember ever failing an escape attempt. The encounter just poofs and disappears, you get your xp and continue on. The "run" button is effectively the "win" button, sans loot (but nobody drops anything anyway).

 

[MMXI]

Faerghail is crap. Not only it is able to spawn absolutely any kind of encounter anywhere in the game - like a horde of giants the moment you leave the town for the first time - it also allows to flee from any such encounter AND earn full xp for that (sic!). The game looked charming at first, but once I realized how broken it was, there was no more point in playing it. Why fight if you can run away and reap the same benefits, why explore if you can meet those encounters right at your doorstep?.

What version did you play? Because I can tell you that the DOS version doesn't do this. You can run away from almost all random encounters. However, you get zero experience for it. You do get experience if you fight a round or two and then run away, but less than you get if you complete the battle.

 

[made]

You want obscure, I give you obscure:
http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=2655
http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=2919

Pure, low budget dungeon crawling with Bard's Tale-like combat.

 

[mondblut]

What version did you play? Because I can tell you that the DOS version doesn't do this. You can run away from almost all random encounters. However, you get zero experience for it. You do get experience if you fight a round or two and then run away, but less than you get if you complete the battle.

I think I played on Amiga last and longest. Come to think of it, xp for running was probably less than for fighting, but with the amount and deadliness (and slowness) of combat, you'd still level up faster if you just run rather than waste time fighting.

 

[Mortmal]

You want obscure, I give you obscure:
http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=2655
http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=2919

Pure, low budget dungeon crawling with Bard's Tale-like combat.

Thats the spirit do not think pc only, look for rpgs in lemon amiga . Theres quite a few gems there, and fate is something unmatched as far as crawlers go, could place it next to wizardry 7.

 

[mondblut]

You want obscure, I give you obscure:
http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=2655

Their luck they were so obscure, or Westwood would sue their asses off. EOB called and it wants its sewer graphics back.

Come to think of it, RPGs have a long history of ripping off one another's graphics, long before Limbo of the Lost made it in vogue. I remember some crappy spanish ARPG called Rol Crusaders or something, half of its character portraits were stolen from Ishar. And then, curiously, Realmz had a shitload of unit sprites taken from Exile, I dunno, maybe they had some permission, but that doesn't feel likely since they were 2 biggest competitors on mac back in the day.

 

[made]

Dunno, doesn't look like a 1:1 copy, just "heavily inspired by".

Check this out:
http://hol.abime.net/292/screenshot
All unit portraits ripped straight from Marvel comics. Don't think anyone gave a fuck. Maybe folks weren't as anal about copyright as they are now.

 

[MMXI]

I think I played on Amiga last and longest. Come to think of it, xp for running was probably less than for fighting, but with the amount and deadliness (and slowness) of combat, you'd still level up faster if you just run rather than waste time fighting.

No, seriously. You get no experience for running away from combat without fighting. I just tested it and here are the results:

 

[mondblut]

Tested it too, on Amiga (still had it installed). Yeah, I overestimated the issue quite a little bit. You can "talk" to any encounter providing selected character knows the correct language (and all characters will know all languages by the time they leave the town in a properly prepared party) and get 50xp. Even if you fail to talk enemies into leaving you alone, you can just walk away then, still getting those xp. So it's not nearly as appaling as it appeared to me after these years. Still, it's 100% escape from any encounter plus some reward to boot.