1y ago

What are some alternative to soulless videogame franchises?

What I mean is... sometimes people are very loyal to a videogame franchise or a company because they loved a game they released years ago (Silent Hill/Konami with Silent Hill 2, Blizzard/Bethesda with their respective golden eras, some could argue this happens too with Pokémon and Final Fantasy, etc). Ethical/consumer reasons aside to stop supporting certain companies, sometimes some franchises/companies aren't necessarily creating the best examples of games of those specific genres anymore, yet many fans are loyal to them (and a chunk of them also seem to suffer/complain with every new release).

Meanwhile some people that explore less known titles and different niches occasionally pop-up and say stuff like "the last Pokémon games are formulaic and uninspired, there's actually this and that incredible examples of somewhat recent monster collecting games" or "the last FF wasn't actually bad but if you want turn-based RPGs that'll remind you of your old favorite FFs then check Chained Echoes or whatever" or "don't look for something like Silent Hill 2 with Konami, instead I recommend these survival horror games".

So the idea of this thread is for people to recommend alternatives to franchises. Especially if they're standalone instead of other alternative franchises and especially if they're indie (since most of my enjoyment these last few years has been from indies like Roadwarden, Citizen Sleeper, Darkest Dungeon, Celeste, Slay the Spire, Tacoma, Hellblade).

102 comments

Cassette beasts is a great pokemon like with some fun twists and great sounds track
- Coromon has a similar vibe. Such good games.
- Congratulations on your excellent taste!

Let's go with some good non-AAA games that were not sequels and never got one either.
Single player:
Baba is you
Brothers
Mark of the Ninja
SUPERHOT
Vanquish
Better in co-op:
Astroneer
Deep Rock Galactic
Nine Parchments
Outward
Renegade Ops
- Rock and stone, brother!
  
  Rock and Stone!
- SUPERHOT has a sequel
  
  Sustained ! Although I thought SUPERHOT Mind Control Delete was more of a roguelite spinoff than a sequel (did not play it).
- Huh. My siblings and I love the Trine games, and wanted to like Nine Parchments, but found it to be one of the worst games we've ever played. I don't think we could find a single redeeming quality, and it just seemed like a total misstep.
  So seeing it here on this list makes me think maybe there's something that was okay about it? I'm curious what people liked...
  (all the rest of these seem like good games, though, which honestly makes me even more confused about Nine Parchments' inclusion...)
  
  It's okay not to like it of course. As you have seen it's nothing like the Trine games, sharing only a bit of lore with them.
  It's basically a very pretty arena-based top-down shooter reminiscent of Magicka (which I also loved), with a good difficulty curve. There is not much of a story to carry the game forward, so it hinges on whether you like the gameplay and the challenge it offers or not. I for one really enjoyed Nine Parchments, doing multiple runs in single player and co-op with friends (even a "hardcore" one, which we usually never touch).
- Vanquish was beautiful.

Thumper is the best rhythm game I've ever played, and it was made by two ex-harmonix employees who were disappointed by the direction of rock band and similar titles. It throws away all the wish fulfillment and commercial stuff and the result is amazing.
- I can second Thumper. I bought it on a whim, and have since bought it several more times for more devices. It's such a satisfying game to play. I had no idea about the Harmonix connection, but it makes total sense now that you've said it.

I've been thinking a lot about this for the past few years, and have noticed a trend in what games I've found to be actually good.
I noticed three very specific commonalities, and all of them have at least two:
Foreign (Non-American)
Indie
Small studio
Basically all of the good games that I've liked in the past ten years have been at least two of these, and I'm sure if you think about it, the great games you've played have also been this way.
Stop buying big US studio games, their shareholders all require them to maximize their income with really anti-comsumer and predatory designs and practices. You won't have fun, and it'll be expensive.
Go play EDF5 with some friends. It's jank but super fun. 6 is being translated and ported to PC soon.
Raft is great, too.
Talos Principle was fantastic, if not a little melancholy.
And weirdly, Minecraft Java is still good fun. Go check out some of the mod packs like All Of Fabric 6. Host a local server, port forward, play with friends. Literally world-class, free content made by grassroots, passionate developers who do it because they love it.
Valheim was great years ago, and while their development cycle is slow, it's been solid.
But seriously. When somebody refers or suggests a game to you, the first thing you should look at are how they make money, because that is ABSOLUTELY where the industry is at, and has been for a decade now. We used to have centralized talking heads like Total Biscuit who would bring up topics and discussions trying to keep these studios and publishers in their place, but he got taken out too early and now the community is ultra fragmented with no central integrous authority to reference and publishers and studios are out of control with nobody to answer to except investors.
It's like the loss of a union, except it's industry wide.
There are gems out there, but you gotta get past the advertising and learn to smell the bullshit business practices. They don't have to be standard, but remember that gaming has only turned into gambling and Gaming-as-a-Service (GaaS) because credit cards got involved post-purchase as a source of revenue.
Sure, good things come from it, but the trade-offs are entirely insidious and clearly motivating for standardized enshittification. We adults made our own graves by accepting and spending. Sure, even if the money isn't that big of a deal and the content you get might be good, you're voting with your wallet and training a soulless system.
It's ABSOLUTELY a mirror world, just like the media - if you consume, there will be more. Stop buying shit games like Diablo 4. Blizzard can take the hit unfortunately, and if those business practices stopped making as much return as they did, they wouldn't be supportable.
Sure, initial prices would go up, but at least the games wouldn't be ruined with money shops, proprietary currencies, battle passes, and all the other ultra predatory shit that makes them money that ruin gaming.
Reward creators and studios that stick their necks out to make something purely fun, despite their CFO compromising and forcing their developers to implement these practices because otherwise they'd: "be leaving money on the table, and we are a business, after all."
But remember:
Foreign
Indie
Small Studio
These are demographics that are typically more resistant and empowered to make FUN games.
- I have wasted a significant part of my life on two amazing games from (I'm pretty sure) indie developers: Factorio (Wube) and Satisfactory.(Coffee Stain) Both of these games have a lot of depth, and both are stable which is interesting becuase Satisfactory is still Early Access.
  
  Just here to plug Captain of Industry if you like factory games.
- so aren't all indies small? and the non-american thing is just taste.
  Why cant you just say you only like either:
  non american games.
  small studios.
  
  Larian (baldurs gate 3) is massive for being indie. I think where your misconception comes from is the term indie. The term comes with a lot of predetermined expectations and definitions, but in spite of this fact very large studios can be indie.
  Of course it feels weird to label a studio as large as larian indie when compared to the likes of supergiant(hades) or two brothers of bay 12 who created dwarf fortress. None of the three are technically any less indie, but one certainly feels more indie, doesn't it?
  
  Valve is an independent company.

For anyone that likes horror, I can’t recommend Red Candle Games enough.
Detention takes place during the White Terror in Taiwan in the 1960s, and is about a student trying to get out of the school after a typhoon, but it turns into something so much darker and sadder as the story unfolds.
Devotion is probably the best PT-esque horror game out there, taking place in a Taiwanese apartment during three different years in the 80s, and is about a script writer trying to create his “perfect future” while he’s trying to figure out what happened to his young daughter. It is one of, if not the, best domestic horror I’ve ever played. And anyone against censorship should definitely get it, because the game was pulled from Steam because of an art asset that got left in by accident that called Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh, and then GoG said THEY would sell it, but it seems CD Projekt worried China might retaliate and not allow CP2077 to be released in China and backed out a day or two after they said they would carry it (they claimed it was because of “gamer response,” but refused to respond to anyone asking for more details).
Detention, you can get anywhere - it’s even on iOS and Android along with PC, PS Store, and Switch, but Devotion, you can only get from Red Candle’s website, and it is more than worth the $17 bucks: https://shop.redcandlegames.com/
- These look and sound great, thank you!
- I need to go back to Detention. I was really enjoying it but I think something spooked me too close to bedtime and I hadn’t picked it up since.

Although it looks like you're mainly focusing on single player games, Titanfall 2 is a great alternative to Call of Duty. Its movement is insane, it's fanbase isn't toxic and it's actually fun.
- Its single player campaign is well regarded too if relatively short.
  
  Just beat it a few weeks ago, it was a great time. The set pieces are jaw-dropping at times.
  Multiplayer def has a learning curve, but it's fantastic.

Do you have steam? Click on a tag (preferably a more descriptive one, but multiple can be selected on the next screen) of a game you enjoy, but think the soul has been lost from, sort by user review, find something you haven't heard of before, enjoy the next entry in your preferred genre!
Alternatively go to the games store screen, at the bottom, after "more from this developer" is "users who enjoyed this game also enjoy"
Steam makes it very easy to expand your library, like it's their business or something.
Edit to add Missing the point of let's get some community involvement in here rather than turning to our benevolent monopolistic overlords.

~~Crack~~Factorio
Management games like Software INC, Startup Company, Big Ambitions, Sim Airport and SimCasino.
- Don't forget Cities Skylines and the recently released sequel. They're both a lot of fun but for the sequel they really listened to the community. It's a bit of a performance hog. There are performance patches coming but in the interim there area lot of settings one can change to make it run better on lower end hardware.

if you enjoyed diablo 2,grim dawn feels like a spiritual successor to that game specifically, whereas d3 didn't really.
- And if you enjoy Grim Dawn, don't forget Titan Quest. Grim Dawn was meant to be the spiritual successor to that. It's very dated but a great game.
  
  Titan Quest is pretty great with mods
- You mean like it's game where you could rush/grush and mass level, make mfer, farm stuff and make your pvp characters with skill trees and skill synergies?
  
  Yes to all of that. In fact the synergies that you can pull off in GD make you feel godlike.

Outer wilds, tunic, a short hike, fez,
- Tunic was shockingly good. Looks like its for little kids but there is a lot of surprises and neat puzzles tucked away in there. Absolutely worth checking that out
  
  Second this. Tunic is a masterpiece.
- Outer Wilds is amaaaaazing
- a short hike reinvigorated my love for indie games! it's such a beautiful game with a cute little story and fun things to do, and doesn't overstay it's welcome.
- what are these alternitives for?
  
  Yup, I did not answer the question, I just put some personal recommendations

Unless it's something that you are a super uber fan, avoid buying a game before it comes out.
It saves a lot of heartaches and headaches.
Plus, in today's world... why pre order? It's not like a game will run out of copies...
- "When you pre-order a game, you’re just committing to paying for something that some assholes in California haven’t even finished working on yet. You know what you get for pre-ordering a game? A big dick in your mouth." -Eric Cartman, Black Friday

If you want something that feels like Pokémon but was created by someone who isn't just trying to shit out a new game every year, check out Casette Beasts!
- Also if you really just want the same pokemon but better, check out rom hacks. Many of the pokemon community rom hacks are way better than they have any right to be

I haven't played the beta yet but I'm hoping that The Finals, which is made by ex-Dice devs, will be a good alternative to Battlefield and COD. I just miss destructible environments so badly. Bad Company 2 was so so good back in the day.
- Saw an article on that game recently that they're using AI voices in that. I don't think it's for everything, but if you happen to be an opponent to AI, that's something to know. If not, well, carry on 😅
  
  I honestly think it's a good application of AI. It really sets the "tournament" vibe
  
  I mean, you could make an argument that AI announcers have an in-game reason to be a thing.
- I really, really hope that it doesn't get overrun with cheaters like warzone did. I have really high hopes for the game because I'm having a blast with the beta. Not often does a game come along out of nowhere and just tick all the boxes with having such a solid formula. Last game I felt like this with was Alex Legends. Pls devs don't screw this up 🙏

I guess I may suggest my all time favourite RPG. It's Disco Elysium. A brilliantly written and crafted gem. You will find an amazing storyline, crazy dialogues and choices, psychedelic visuals. Such a gem must not be forgotten. What a pity the company almost dissolved after the release and the original authors won't have a part in the sequel.
- why is nobody here saying what the game is an alternative for or what ki d of game play to expect?

I feel like the Sonic franchise's last great game was Adventure 2. There've been a couple good ones since then, but not great.
Anyone got a good replacement?
- Lunistice
  It's relatively short, and there's no chao garden. But it's got a lot of soul. With a sequel on the way.
- Above but the chao garden is required to be in the replacement.
- You could check out Freedom Planet. It didn’t quite do it for me, but it has a decent fanbase

Chrono Trigger
The best game of all time, period.

If you like smash brothers, rivals of aether is really fun and has support for steam workshop.

Any game from Supergiant I would recommend in a heart beat.

My previous comment seemed to miss the point of this thread.
In the spirit of this thread I would love to find an alternative to "Settlers 7, a new kingdom". The simplified combat, the urgency of the tech tree, the all or nothing of trade routes, and the really deep 4x in an RTS elements were friggin amazing, but Ubisoft drm really kept me away from trying any other entries to the series, and they haven't indicated anything new coming out. So where can I guy go to get his settlers fix? If you haven't played settlers 7, and are ignorant of why ubisoft is synonymous with the devil, give it a shot, it's a wonderfully fun experience that I haven't found replicated anywhere else.

The answer to your question is the indie market. Lots of unique ideas, ton of games that are a product of passion and not profit chasing.
My personal recommendation because I don't see it mentioned a lot is Pathologic 2. Product of decades of work and one of my favorite RPGs where every single choice you make does matter. It's a pretty bleak and heavy game that has about a 30 hour runtime and it's really stressful so it's not for everyone but I personally loved it.

For ARPGs if you feel burnt by Diablo IV, I can recommend Path of Exile. Arguably the king of the genre today.
Others mentioned Grim Dawn, which has a bit slower gameplay, but a good choice nonetheless.
If you're looking for indie ARPG, then there's Chronicon. Nice little game that I really want to go back to again.
- Path of exile is great because it doesn't shy away from complexity at all, instead it does the exact opposite, it just goes balls deep. It really make for a very refreshing change to typical AAA games where your intelligence as a player doesn't feel insulted.
- I second Grim Dawn as it's clearly labor of love from the developers and still getting updates. I also like the fact that its not live service like Path of exile meaning that it does not require online connection and can be even be modded.
  It remains to be seen with GGG will do with Path of Exile 1 when they release Path of Exile 2, it would be cool if they would release something like POE Unlimited a premium version of the game that would allow people to play the first game as single player experience, mod it and host their of servers.
  But in this day and age it's much more likely that they'll just force people to move on to their next big thing.
  
  They already said that PoE 1 will stay playable.
  
  An arpg that doesn't require online is actually a negative for me. I'm not going to farm content offline

Stop playing AAA games!

Path of exile is a arpg made by a small studio

If you want to play animal crossing, but only have a PC: try Dinkum. Same gameplay loop, but with a few minor twists and turns. And the setting is Australia. Hence you ride your mu around town, shearing the wool of your pleeps and milking your vombats. Ofcourse you need to defend them from crocos and fire spitting bush devils. But anything you kill can be thrown on the BBQ. And to get rich, you start a fairy bread empire. Exporting millions worth of sugary goodness.
- Didn't the emus already start a war cause of fuckin bogans trying to ride them?
  /j

geometry dash
what are other good monster collecting games
- Nexomon Extinction and Siralim Ultimate are great monster collecting games.
  
  thx
- Also keep a lookout for Beastieball! There's currently a demo available on Steam.
- Casette Beasts is good also.

Maybe I am just getting old but I've started to spend a lot more time with older games and titles that may be rough around the edges but have some unique ideas and actually take some risks with their game mechanics.
One of these games is Outward which has a lot of walking (quick travel is almost non existent) and serviceable combat system that leaves a lot to be desired. However both of these do give the game some flavor that is missing from many modern games now combine this with interesting "death" mechanic where instead of respawning you're thrown in to random scenarios related to the area where you died. Another mechanic is backpack which you'll need to carry any meaningful amount of items and which will limit your movement in battle if you do not drop it with all your items. The way palyer needs to sacrifice health to receive mana is also interesting and how different each mastery tree is is also nice. I do have to admit that I'd like the game a lot more without time limits on quests as they stress really me out.
Another one is Incredible adventures of Van Helsing which is diablo-style ARPG that doesn't take itself too seriously. It took me awhile to understand the games mechanics which lead to bad time initially but once I understood the power-up system, focus on flat elemental damage bonuses instead of percentage based ones and how silly some skills where with power-up the game got me hooked. The dialogue and story is also pretty good for ARPG and fully voice acted.
Third one is Wurm: Unlimited which is basically special version of MMORPG Wurm: Online where players can host their own servers with their own tweaks and mods. While Wurm Online is substriction based mmorpg with very very slow progression most Wurm Unlimited servers are free to play and have quadruple experience modifiers making the game a lot more enjoyable. The game is basically medival fantasy sandbox where players can terraform the world, build all sorts of structures, hunt, farm and even do pvp on pvp servers. While a lot of the game is just pressing buttons and waiting for action timers to pass there's a lot of depth in the game and it can get suprisingly immersive. I do however recommend joining to one of the long lasting servers like Sklotopolis instead of playing the game solo on self-hosted server as the experience is a lot better with small community even if you prefer to do things solo as the world will feel a lot more interactive and a lot less empty.

I've been enjoying peglin quite a bit.
- As an alternative to what?
  
  Pegle

Due process is a fun alternative to rainbow six siege. Unlike siege you actually have to coordinate and play tactically but unfortunately it’s pretty much dead at this point.

Pretty random list off the top of my head:
Hyperlight Drifter, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Ruiner, Grim Dawn, Rime

Currently looking for one to total war after all the revelations.
- Not many alternatives, other than playing older titles with overhaul mods like Divide e Impera
- OOTL.... What revelation?
  
  Enjoy. https://youtu.be/43YY49jizPE?si=bbMdJo6klXb3v0Ky

books
- This really is a good answer.

The solution is slow depletion of title power in order to drive competition. Basically, encourage each others and yourself to explore other games that aim for the same goals as the original property, ideally expanded with some vision of innovation.
For Pokémon, players could likely try out Casette Beasts. For Silent Hill, there are other survival horror properties examining psychological properties of their heroes, like Cry of Fear and The Park.

I don't know what these would really be alternatives to, but I impatiently await every new game from Daniel Mullins Games. Inscryption was a fantastic deck builder and I more than got my monies worth out of it. I also follow Stranga Games pretty closely. Very small developer makes story focused retro style adventure games. No combat at all generally. So if you like a casual experience and that style of game, it might be something to look into.

I just beat furi and loved it.

Beyond All Reason is by far the best current Traditional TA like RTS and it does this being free and open source too!

Last day on earth (mobile top down survival action game with building and gathering) alternatives without the intrusive ads and waiting forever for upgrading and traveling? Preferably on PC.

Play those old good olde games on the nes. Modern games just ignore all the EA games, ubishits, Anything first party, eurojanks, weird woo woo games, anything made by the japs and most non traditional ones like those netflix ones.

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