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Weirdest Game that you have ever played


ciphertul
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I don’t know about many others but I often like to play games with weird or odd gimmicks and most of the time those are tied to equal weird games. What is the weirdest game or games that you have played?

Edited by ciphertul
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Probably Knights in the Nightmare by Sting. It's a real time RPG game with shmup elements, you control a wisp which acts as your cursor, drag items to knights on the battlefield to initiate attacks, while avoiding bullets fired from the monsters.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/4/2020 at 3:24 PM, avensis said:

For me too it was Knights in the Nightmare, I remember this game is repetitive, a real nightmare. Always the same monsters, scene after scene, the cutscenes are deadly boring

HOW DARE YOU CRITICISE ONE OF THE FOUR BEST SRPGS EVER MADE. But fair enough, it certainly isn't for everyone...


...


...But to continue the thread and to conform to its general theme so far, a lot of classic Sting games make for valid discussion here.

Baroque? It's like any other 1st person ARPG dungeon crawl of the late 90s and early 2000s. Well, except for the really weird post-apocalyptic plot with a psychedelic feel that makes Moonside in Earthbound seem ordinary. Then there's the enemy designs, which are even more bizarre than the story. Not to mention that the PS2/Wii remake allows for third person perspective as well, which makes it even more unusual. Oh, and it's also a roguelike, but with a vitality bar taking the place of a hunger mechanic (although they function more or less the same). So in short, a semi-psychedelic post-apocalyptic first/third-person ARPG roguelike. (I've oversimplified this to the point of doing a disservice to the game, but whatever.) To get a feel for the character designs, the image below is for one of the NPCs in the hub area in the PS1 version. 

Riviera: The Promised Land? There is no free movement, nor is it performed in the more abstract style preferred by SRPGs. Instead all actions and movement are performed by activating triggers, making progression occur in a sort of visual novel style. There are a bunch of quicktime events too (defuse the chest before it explodes, avoid tripping on a banango peel, purify the cursed bones, etc) that may require pressing a button at a certain time, or pressing a button enough times within a set time limit, or pressing buttons in a given sequence within a set amount of time. All enemies are fixed encounters rather than random, and some may or may not appear based on your actions. Describing the battle mechanics are difficult, since they're neither here nor there. They're sort of like traditional turn based RPG battles, although with enough emphasis on the strategic side for the game to become an SRPG hybrid. Only four items can be taken into each battle, and items are the only way to perform any actions at all in battle, be it healing, buffing/debuffing or attacking. Nor are you able to freely select the target of the action, since everything is pseudo-random (e.g. targets enemy with lowest HP, targets closest enemy, selects enemy from random in front/back row, targets ally with lowest HP, etc) that really emphasises the need for good positioning and other SRPG features like a Fire Emblem style durability system for items. Also, there is a battle preparations sequence that first allows you to select a formation, then which units to take into battle, and then which items. To complicate things further, different characters will have different attacks with a single item - Fia will heal allies with a staff, while Cierra would perform a magic attack, while Ein would perform a physical attack, while Serene and Lina can't use it and consequently would just throw it instead, for example. Also, there is an OverSkill bar for the player's team, which builds up upon damaging foes and also when taking damage. Building it up can allow you to change formation by rotating characters or flipping formation (at no cost to the meter) while it can be expended by units who have learned OverSkills, which are completely different to a character's normal skills with the given item. The enemy meanwhile gains a rage bar with three phases, which rises when enemies are attacked and depletes as Wait Time (WT) passes, unless the meter fills completely. Each phase of the bar also dictates the variety of actions that enemies can perform, as upon rising to Rage Mode enemies gain additional attacks (which deplete the meter slightly) and enters Max Mode upon filling up, upon which the next enemy to act will perform a special Break Out attack and reduce the meter back to zero. The base level of the meter also rises as more enemies are defeated in a single battle (two enemies defeated will raise the bar to just under Rage Mode for the duration of the fight). WT dictates the sequence that units will act in, as you can only direct your units when their turn arrives rather than directing them all at once. As for the levelling system, there is no levelling system. There is an experience bar, however, which boosts stats upon being filled, although experience points don't exist either. There is also no currency or any sort of shop system, meaning that items must typically be obtained on the field. 
...That explanation was long, but I definitely butchered it by oversimplifying it, hehehe...

And then Yggdra Union, which has to be the most unique 'pure' SRPG I have ever seen. Battle scenes are like semi-interactive Fire Emblem arena with a bunch of Riviera mechanics thrown in for good measure, and with tactics cards to dictate special abilities in battle as well as all movement. Even more complex than Riviera, so I won't bother trying to explain here.

As people have already mentioned, Knights in the Nightmare. SRPG except only two unit classes can even move, with bullet hell elements. There is no HP system for the playable units, which instead use a 'vitality' stat that depletes every time the unit performs an action, and is only restored by levelling or using the Transoul process, which sacrifices one unit to enhance (or, if unlucky, degrade) another. Once vitality hits zero the unit dies, and you also have permadeath to worry about. Most bosses also have special attacks that target playable units that have materialised, and upon contact causes instant death. Far, far more complicated than both Riviera and Yggdra Union, so much so that the game's tutorial is over 40 minutes long just to cover the basic essentials. Including the optional extras (more 'essential' than 'optional', but whatever) it can easily last for a couple of hours. Since you will have likely forgotten things you will have to go through it over and over until you remember it all off by heart, since you will need it all. Even better, the tutorial was rushed since the devs only realised a couple months before release that it was so unique and complicated that it needed a tutorial, so it was ultimately rushed and lacks really important information, particularly in regard to the loyalty stat, so you still have a few things to figure out. The game also leaves you on your own as to how you put everything the tutorial teaches into practice. The story is also presented in an initially cryptic fashion that includes cutscenes of past events at the end of each chapter (in the early game, these will often regard events shortly before / how the knights you just recruited had died). Grossly oversimplified again!

And then there's Gungnir, which is what happens when you take Tactics Ogre but overcomplicate the mechanics to an extent that has never been seen before or since. In any case, it's the least unique of these.

Also, all of the above except Baroque are the main entries within the Dept Heaven series, a series so bizarre that within the first two games there is in fact no explicit mention that they are even part of a series at all, and are also numbered in an incredibly odd fashion (Officially, they are numbered in order of how unique they are. Episode II is more unique than Episode I, but not as unique as episode IV. Even this doesn't make sense, since Episode IX is the least unique of the lot). To make the numbering even weirder, Episode III was never released, while there no details of Episodes V-VIII have ever been given, if they had ever been conceived before the series died.

Baroque.jpg

Edited by Gleivnir Nights
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