This is interesting: general-purpose RPG news site RPGWatch has posted the results of a poll in which they asked people to rank this year’s upcoming crop of RPGs according to which look the most promising. Indie RPGs made quite a strong showing in the poll, taking second (Frayed Knights) and fourth place (Avadon) in the editor’s choice section.

The reader’s choice section was a little less indie-friendly, featuring one indie RPG at third place (Age of Decadence) and two others at ninth and tenth (Frayed Knights and Avadon, respectively).

While it wasn’t quite the indie-centric sweep that some may have wanted, I think this definitely vindicates the view that indie RPGs have a real place in the market. It says something powerful that RPGs produced independently by small teams can compete for fan enthusiasm against games sporting multi-million-dollar budgets.

While I have the presence of mind to remember to do this, I want to share a couple of free (and extremely well-done) jRPG parodies I’ve had the pleasure to experience over the past year.

Super Press Space to Win Action RPG and Sophie Houlden’s The Linear RPG are both scathing critique of jRPG conventions. Both games take modern jRPGs to task for offering up repetitive, mind-numbing battles with no meaningful tactical choices.

While The Linear RPG takes a more insightful look at the overall mechanics and progression of these games, Super PSTW RPG rips apart the narrative tropes of these games with fine-edged precision. Both games are playable in-browser, and I recommend playing them both.

• Title: Arvale: Treasure of Memories Episode 1
• Developer: Jaybot7
• Platforms: Windows
• Price: $5.00

Arvale: Treasure of Memories, Episode 1 is a jRPG by Jaybot7 (Jason Surguine) originally released back in 2009. Created in RPG Maker and using mostly default RPG Maker assets, Arvale is a short game with a silly atmosphere and some amusing dialog. However, the issues with this game’s mechanics are no joke.

Let me tell you a little bit about the world of Arvale. It’s made up of four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Everything Else. (No, really. Everything Else is an element.)

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Here’s wishing you a great new year full of fun and games!

Tired of RPG Maker games? Well, here’s something you don’t see every day, Chauncey: a first-person dungeon delver. That would be Darklight Dungeon, by ZoellerSoft LLC. The screenies and description immediately call to mind old games like Wizardry and Stonekeep.

Darklight Dungeon’s official description is a little lackluster, but the Rampant Games blog has its own description that I will helpfully plagiarize for you here:

It’s an indie first-person dungeon crawler of a definitely old-school western RPG persuasion. It features turn-based, menu-oriented combat; anti-magic zones; square step-based dungeon grids (but with smooth 3D transitions and particle systems); puzzles; trapped chests; exploration; and even *gulp* character aging.

I tried my damnedest to boot up the game and take a screenshot, but Darklight Dungeon doesn’t seem to like my PC very much.

Rather than upload a screenie of an error message here, I’m going to plagiarize Indie Game News by stealing their lovely-looking screenshot. (I could plagiarize the Rampant Games blog again, but I’m saving that for when I post the link to the interview they did with developer Jesse Zoeller. Which I am doing right now.)

You! Have you been hungering for a new RPG Maker game; sitting at home, stroking your goatee, as it were, thinking about your need for 2D anime-style graphics and level grinding?

Well then boy-howdy are you ever in luck! Eridani Games has just released The Witch and the Warrior, a game which (I assume) bears no relation to the seedy romance novel by that name. Which is a shame, actually, because that might have been more interesting than what the game is actually about:

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Thus, rather than tell you that strategy-RPG / western-RPG wunderkind Telepath RPG: Servants of God has just been made available for pre-order, I will use a picture:

Word has it that this is going to be a good’n, but in the spirit of visuals over verbiage, I leave you with a trailer:

Will Swannack writes in with word that he has released a new graphical roguelike by the name of Through. As in, “Will is now Through developing the game,” or “Let’s go adventuring Through this big dungeon,” or “I played Through too much and then I Through up.” Well. Maybe not that last one.

Anyway, here is a gameplay video:

Gameplay video – Indie DB

You can nab the game Through this link, once you’re Through reading this news blurb.

…Through.

Developers SRRN made a curious choice in creating Ash: they built a brand-new jRPG engine natively for the iPhone, then licensed generic RPG Maker sprites from Enterbrain to decorate the thing.

According to this positive review up on RPGFan, however, the original writing really makes the game. It’s $4.99 up on the app store. Here is a trailer:

Don’t ask me how they managed this, but Aldorlea Games has just released a new RPG less than a week after the release of their last RPG. This latest one is called Millennium 3: Cry Wolf. Here is what it’s about:

Marine and her friends are back!
Time is running out for the showdown and the Lords of Mystrock are nastier than ever – but Marine has other priorities!
She has to explore the Eastern part of the world with the hope to find new warriors! But little does she know that she is going to be sidetracked in order to help some of her friends!
What will happen next? Will Jeanne be back? Is Bokden still as elusive as ever? Play and find out!

Millennium 3 is the latest installment of the award-winning Millennium series, featuring 40 quests, 32 secret rooms, up to 11 animals kings and a whooping 20-30 hours of gameplay!

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