The Top 5 OHRRPGCE Games You've Never Played
A Feature by Aethereal
I'm not sure whether it's due to a changing of the guard, or due to players who have not been exposed to these games, but looking over the recent results of the Top 30, there were a few games that I felt were surprisingly lacking in votes (although not merely absent from the list entirely; these games hardly ever got any votes, period). Like I said before, this could just be due to a changing of the guard (and in actuality it probably is), but I know there are some newer readers out there that haven't played some of the older standout games of the community that the older members were raised and nourished on. A few of these games might not seem like much nowadays, but I assure you, they are all worthy of merit and the status they once held -- and should still hold -- within the community.
If you know me, you know that I strongly favor gameplay over story; if a game has an average (or worse) story, but is incredibly fun to play through, I will probably like that game a lot. Similarly, a boring-to-play game needs to have a truly great story to keep me going. Origin fits into the latter of these two categories. Sure, the graphics are fairly average, the music, although original, is fairly boring (except for a couple of themes), and the gameplay is not unlike that of most RPGs: attack and heal, repeat ad infinitum. What makes Origin so special is the story and the writing. Vidual has created a world and characters that you will want to learn more about. Probably chief among the excellent writing is the introduction given in the form of Covn's war diary on the train at the start of the game. From there, you are thrust into a great, if unfortunately incomplete, story about another war on the horizon.
Vidual has appropriately moved on to novel-writing, which I think is an excellent decision for him. This is one of those games that, like many games with amazing stories and average gameplay, would have probably been better off as a novel. The story here is so good, however, that playing through the game is worth it. Don't expect anything fancy; Origin uses fake plotscripting galore (for those who don't know what that is, it is using NPC functions to simulate plotscripting in a time before it was available) and I'm fairly sure it was before the text box limit was raised, so it crams text into the text boxes ala Memoria. However, it does have a unique boss-death animation (that at one time crashed the engine) and an excellent boss fight at the end of the demo. Again, play it for the story; dealing with the game itself to advance the story is well worth it.
Tremor is another game with amazing writing, although the story is a rather typical horror story. It is also unlike most other OHRRPGCE games you will play. Tremor is done in the style of the old text adventure games like King's Quest and, to keep in the same engine, Missing. However, the actual gameplay itself is like a general RPG in the sense that you walk around, explore tile-based maps, and fight battles, instead of in a game like King's Quest. Almost every single object in the game can be examined and described, which is unreal (and you'll have to do it to progress through the game, too). The game also features first-person perspective battles, which fits the style of the game perfectly; side-view battles would not have fit the atmosphere of the game at all.
One thing that may turn you off about this game is its difficulty level, but if you can get past that, you'll find a highly interesting and amazingly written RPG buried beneath. It's a darn shame we haven't seen more work from Adam Kroeker.
Before Retrogamer was known as Retrogamer, he was known as Tantalus Spade, and before that he was known as Demonheat. Way, way back when, he put out this unassuming-looking game called Santa's Quest, and who would have ever thought that it would become such a popular game in the community. Santa's Quest had everything going for it: excellent gameplay, good graphics (though, admittedly, not as good as what Retrogamer can produce now, or not even as good as the graphics in his Scars of Glory), and a sound Christmas-themed story. However, story was not the focus of the game at all; this game was all about the gameplay.
Santa's Quest had gameplay in the vein of such games as Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. The idea was that you would journey to an area (specifically, an icy countryside with a town) and engage in a mini-game or puzzle of some sort that would reward you with a present. The concept of the story was to find all the presents, much like finding all of the stars or shines in these two Mario games. The minigames were unique and quite good, ranging from a small maze-like and puzzle-filled castle to racing a clone of yourself. They made excellent use of plotscripting, and showed off the power of the (at the time) relatively new tool given to the community.
Santa's Quest is just a nice, fun game to sit back and enjoy. You don't have to worry about fighting enemies and level grinding; instead, you can just enjoy the variety of gameplay it offers. Unfortunately, it isn't that long, with only the one area complete, but it's an excellent way to spend an afternoon.
This may very well be the most surprising exclusion from the Top 30 for me. Perhaps I think Monterey Penguin has aged better than it actually has? Anyway, Monterey Penguin is about a penguin named, you guessed it, Monterey. He has to find stamps to mail himself home after he is mistakenly airlifted from the South Pole to the home of a giant alien eye creature. Monterey Penguin is almost like a second Wandering Hamster; the feel of the game is very similar to that of WH, although Penguin has a much more cohesive story.
You'll also run into a whole lot of colorful characters, ranging from a killer banana to a talking cucumber superhero to a devil-horned-and-tailed Barney to a giant yellow Peep (you know, the Easter candy). It's all quite funny, and quite "Wandering Hamster", but Penguin succeeds and succeeds well because it is able to create a completely separate identity from WH. It doesn't hurt that the game itself is fairly good; the battles are, for the most part, well planned, and plotscripting is used (most notably on the computer, one of the earliest uses of plotscripting in this manner). It is a real shame that this is yet another demo, and was never finished, as it is an OHRRPGCE classic.
I'm pretty sure at least half of the readers have played this game. Yet I am baffled as to why it missed out on the list. Is it because of the recent influx and popularity of joke games that populates the list? Is it because this game requires quite a bit of level grinding to get past its bosses? Or, perhaps, you're one of those people that hasn't played it. The only answer that I think makes any real sense is that people just haven't played it. Well, before Fenrir came along and wowed us with his amazing graphics, White Owl was doing the same thing with his many versions of Fantasy Under A Blue Moon X (FUABMX). There has probably not been an author as hard-working in the history of the community as White Owl. He remade this game three (or four, if you count the unreleased "v5") times, each time redoing the graphics, music, dialogue, everything. And considering the size of this game, it's simply mindblowing how much effort he put into trying to make a good game, and make a good game he did.
Every time a new version of FUABMX was announced, the community was always waiting impatiently, because the FUABMX releases were always groundbreaking, be it in graphics, gameplay, music, or a combination of the above (usually the latter). The biggest weakness the series had is that White Owl never tinkered with plotscripting; every version, even v4 (the most recent and the one you should play, if you haven't played FUABMX), is almost completely devoid of plotscripting (I say almost because v4 does use a speed-adjusting plotscript to permanently set your walk speed to 10). The story is completely text-box driven, but at least the dialogue is highly entertaining. The NPCs are also all worth talking to as well, due to the many amusing things they and your party members have to say.
Fantasy Under A Blue Moon X is, most of all, one of the most polished games ever to grace the community. Slight mention must be given to the gameplay, of course, which is described best as a level-grinding fest, because you'll need the levels and money to get past the battles. Still, in this game, it's all worth it. Here's hoping to White Owl resurfacing at some point and giving us the long awaited "v5".
So there you have it. These are five excellent games that you probably haven't played all of(unless you're an old timer) and should play. You'll see what I mean when I say that these games can easily still compete, and, in my opinion, surpass some of the games that were voted into the Top 30. Honorable mention goes out to Sephy99's Moon Pie: Crumbling Dreams; unfortunately, I wasn't able to write about it because of a consistent crash at an early plot point. Thanks again to JSH for helping me compile this list.