I don't see people mention Cross Codes often and no one has mentioned here yet so I think it's "lesser known".
It's one of the games I got. I'm 20 hours in and the game is amazing so far.
The game can be pretty challenging sometimes so I'm not sure if it's for everyone. I'd describe the game as a MMORPG but without the MMO. It has a lot less grinding than a MMO and a lot more puzzles.
I saw some people compare it to Zelda but I feel like that's only accurate for some aspects.
Oh one game I forgot to include is Ghost Trick. It's so lesser known I forgot about it.
This game is amazing. It's by the creators of Phoenix Wright and it was originally made for the DS back in 2010. It was a commercial failure because Capcom didn't advertise it at all and since it's released it's been pretty obscure. It was only ported to PC this year.
I think this is a game you should go in blind. I highly recommend this game.
Not sure how well known it is, but on a friend's recommendation I bought Cassette Beasts. I just got a second hand Steam Deck and it's a fun combination. It's basically a Pokemon-like game, but with its own charm. Instead of pokeballs you record monsters with cassette tapes. It's quite a goofy game and I'm enjoying it so far.
If you do get it for the Steam Deck, you should play it with compatibility mode set to Proton 8, because then it somehow uses 40% less battery or something.
I didnāt get it during the sale, but Cocoon. Such a fun little puzzle game with great art direction. Itās well worth its price tag despite being a fairly short game.
Tunic is on my list and Iāll probably pick it up later this week.
Not related, but OP, if you get the chance I recommend at least trying out Project Wingman in VR with joysticks.
Holy shit, was it a transcendent experience.
I beat the campaign with a controller on a monitor my first time around, but on my second playthrough I played it in VR and I found there is nothing like looking for bogeys and tracking them by peeking around your cockpit.
More related to the prompt, but if anyone wants a recommend:
I just beat both Pentiment and Return of the Obra Dinn and both were truly the historical detective / mystery games that I've waited so long for.
Go into both completely blind and report back.
I guarantee you, that you will not be disappointed.
I already own the game so this is more of a reccomendation.
Civ6 is only Ā£5 right now and all the dlc only costs Ā£20 in the bundle. It's an easy game to reccomend for anyone who is even a little interested in strategy games.
Someone mentioned SpaceBourne 2 in another thread the other day, so I checked the reviews which made it sound like a pretty good game and it was on sale so I bought it.
Mechanically, it's awesome. Polish wise... It needs work. Text-to-speech voice overs (which I hope are placeholders because they are jarring as fuck), kind of a mishmash of aesthetic design that makes me think the assets are merely freebies on the Unreal store, just missing that general pizazz that shows off the quality.
Not that it takes away from the fun, which is the most important part. The best way to even describe the game is "Mount & Blade in space." It combines some of the best aspects of Elite Dangerous, X3/X4, NMS, and Stellaris into its own thing, and it is super cool to play if not look at (though the crazy set piece things in the MQ are super fucking cool; like being eaten by a space kraken and then escaping in a smaller ship while avoiding thousands of little squiddy things, and they're actually there not like some BS particle effect or optical illusion).
I got This is the Police a while back but finally installed it. Surprisingly engaging given how it forces you to be a corrupt and shitty cop to survive. Feels like copaganda, but thankfully I can separate fiction from reality.
I bought the old homeworld games. I remember really enjoying them way back when, and the third game finally comes out in 24 so I thought I'd give them a play through to catch up. Still good.
Only buy a couple or so games a year these days, been really enjoying an arena fighting game I came across a little while ago. Only just started putting a few hours into it but always appreciate a game that makes you have to work on skill to progress.
I bought Touhou Artificial Dreams In Arcadia during the October sale and it is a bit of a hidden gem for fans of the old SMT JRPG games on SNES. I also picked up Lunacid but have not got that far in it, but it seems like a strong revival of the classic Kings Field games.
For less than $5 CAD, I picked up Maiden & Spell, an excessively cute sidescrolling shooter a la R-Type, except it's a levelless boss rush with Story and Versus modes. It's got a very Touhou aesthetic (i.e. rather than spaceships or dragons or something, everyone is cute girls).
Story mode is basically a Touhou boss rush, where your character fights 4 monster girls and 2 out of the other 3 human girls, with no level in-between, it's just bosses. There's a threadbare but acceptable story linking them, with each playable character giving a different perspective on the same story, and then there being an epilogue chapter and a bonus extra boss. Story mode has 4 difficulties, the easiest of which is called Cute Mode and is basically unloseable, so even if you've never played a game like this, you can give it a go.
Versus mode is basically a 1v1 fighting game. You and one friend each pick one of the 8 girls and do bullet hells at each other until you see who wins. It's not complex, but it is kind of tactically deep.
The same author is currently working on a sequel, Rabbit & Steel, a very similar game except rather than a versus battler, it's a coop roguelike inspired by MMO raid mechanics. A sneak-peek demo with online multiplayer is available, and it's really fun!
Probably not much this time. I don't think Dredge really falls under lesser known, but I might pick that up. I'll probably get House Flipper 2 - the first one was one of my go-tos for destressing, so I'm hoping the sequel will fill the same niche. Otherwise, I've either bought most of what I've been looking at in previous sales or played it on gamepass/ea play.
Can someone help me remember the name of a certain game? I heard about it in an LTT video. Apparently it's a really cheap 8(+?)-player Steam game that is a sort of magic/wizard free-for-all game that's lots of fun with little strategy. I've been racking my brain trying to remember the name of it.
I'm not sure if it's on sale but I'll just keep talking about Revita because it's such a succinct rogue like that blends hollow knight and TBOI very well.
UBoat - itās a u boat game / simulator of sorts. Complex, slow game play as you stalk convoys, set up for the ambush, then escape the destroyers hunting your uboat.
I picked up Sociable Soccer 24 for the steam deck as I just wanted a simple football game and FIFA doesnāt really work.
Pretty good game, the controls can be a bit weird at times but enjoying it for the easy pickup and play style.
I already owned it, but Banished is on sale for $6.50. I have played so many hours of this game and can't get enough! Once I get bored of my existing setup, I just start over with a new village.