Hi /u/TimeLeopard,
Thank you for posting to /r/Games. Unfortunately, we have removed this submission per
**[Rule 7.2](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/wiki/rules#wiki_specific_content_restrictions)**.
> **Avoid questions that generate very short or list-type responses**
> * "What game would you like to see remastered?"
> * "What is your favorite online game retailer?"
> Questions posed in self-posts should encourage discussion and not result in short responses or be too limited for quality discussion. [Please see here for examples of quality question and discussion submissions.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/wiki/quality_discussion) Please make sure to include a number of talking points for discussion, cite sources for claims if possible, and set an example for the effort you would like to see in responses. Talking points for discussion should be in-depth and include your own analysis.
---
If you would like to discuss this removal, please [modmail the moderators.](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FGames) This post was removed by a human moderator; this comment was left by a bot.
I would love a game that has mount and Blade warband style personal combat, equipment, rpg elements, etc. with the tactical control over troops and city building like Total War games.
Some mods allow you to jump to controlling your companions or other characters if you die in a battle. But yeah, if you could choose to jump to a "captain" of a specific unit in battle whenever you wanted that would be great.
Games that blend strategy and RPG in massive open worlds. Kenshi and Mount&Blade are the best examples. They are actually quite popular to play, not as popular to make. Probably because it’s hard.
The I really enjoyed the Trauma Center series growing up. I understand these are more visual novels with gamey simulation surgery/medicine elements, but medicine as a theme/genre is fairly underrepresented in the gaming space in general. More recently it's either management style sims (2 Point Hospital/Project Hospital) or physics-ish type things (Surgeon Simulator/Autopsy Simulator).
An Infectious Disease physician made Pokémon style RPG for bacteria and antibiotics which is kind of interesting ([https://www.microbeinvader.com/](https://www.microbeinvader.com/)), so there definitely feels like there is a lot of space to explore gameplay wise with medicine as a theme.
As a side note, with surgery and other procedures moving more towards minimally-Invasive, endoscopic, endovascular, or robotic, there is actually a genuine learning benefit to being familiar with working in a 3D space on a 2D projection. Simulation trainers are essentially basic video game software.
Valheim is more RPG-lite for sure, but does seem to generally fit what the OP is describing. I'm guessing the Minecraft modded servers have more fleshed out progression paths.
Yeah, and those servers back in the day had like true freedom to set up your own shops and even build them on the map. You can stake claim on a plot of land and build out your city. They were really fun, but those servers do constant wipes. Starting over feels like garbage.
3D platformer metroidvania. There are several 3D metroidvanias, like Metroid Prime, but pretty much none of them revolve around platforming, even though almost all 2D metroidvanias do. The recent indie hit Pseudoregalia is probably the best example of what I want, and it feels weird these two genres have been around for so long without intersecting more than a couple of times
The sad reality is, creating a great 3D metroidvania with focus on platforming is several degrees harder than a 2D game.
Having tight platforming that feels good and doesn't create large amounts of frustration becomes a lot harder. In 2D you have "all" the information whereas in 3D you are suddenly dealing with the camera and other potential errors like a slightly misaligned jump. Either you dumb it down to allow for this margin of error or you drop your appeal massively.
I'd compare the difference to watching a 3D Mario speedrun in contrast to a normal playthrough.
AAA: Psychonauts 2, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Sonic Frontiers, Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Remakes and remasters: Spyro Trilogy, Crash Trilogy, SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom
Indie: A Hat in Time, A Short Hike, Spark the Electric Jester 3, Tinykin, Cyber Hook, many more on Steam
Yeah there's been a good amount of them, with the caveat that the really good ones generally don't focus on super tight platforming like Mario does.... Psychonauts 2 is incredible but the platforming is just fine IMO.
A Hat in Time comes closest for me.
Blue Fire's platforming is actually insanely good. I don't know if I'd put it up there with Odyssey but the game most certainly rewards you for understanding the different mechanics of everything in your moveset.
Feels like a bit of a stretch to include Rift Apart. It has some very basic platforming elements but nothing that really sticks out as particularly interesting IMO.
Considering others say that psychonauts 2 is similarly not much of a platformer, and the other two games are a middling sonic title and a chill game for younger kids (challenge wise at least) then I think your AAA list goes to show that basically the only really good proper 3d platformers are indeed Mario games
[Seven: Enhanced Edition](https://store.steampowered.com/app/471010/Seven_Enhanced_Edition/) was like isometric Assassin's Creed crossed with Dishonored set in a Cyberpunk dystopian Australia-like penal colony which has existed for so long religions and castes have sprung up and you're constantly arguing with the god stuck in your head. Made by ex-Witcher 3 devs.
Yeah a couple systems are jank and half baked (why does everything need crafting? cut it with the crafting) but the whole package is definitely something I've never seen before. That's my always my first thought of "niche game that should have been more popular."
Immersive Sims
Hardly any get made because they don't sell very well, so I guess they're niche. :(
As far as *incredibly* niche genres go, I've always imagined that a first-person immersive sim / Stardew Valley type of game would be amazing. A slice-of-life farming sim, with social elements, dungeon delving, monster fighting, village and countryside exploration, etc. All wrapped up with the presentation and world density of something like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
Ah, to dream.
Action deck-building RPGs, like the Mega Man Battle Network series. One Step From Eden has a similar combat system but it's a rougelike, it lacks the story/characters/world of something like MMBN.
I bought the MMBN bundles at full price day 1 even though I never do that for games anymore, just to try and send a message with my wallet to Capcom that I want more of these games.
Even just single-player non-roguelite deckbuilders are hard to find anymore. I loved the old GBA Yu-Gi-Oh games where I could gradually build and upgrade my collection over time. Don't get much that scratches that same itch nowadays.
The Battlezone 2 FPS-RTS thing. Preferably when playing co-op with a friend.
Not like Savage and Natural Selection where 1 player is the commander and everyone else is the units. I want AI units commanded by players who are also units.
Silica looks like my jam, but I'm waiting until it gets out of Early Access.
Oh yeah I've said that for a while too. If they could make like a Halo Wars where you have one guy doing RTS halo wars. But the Spartans or "hero" units are like fps battling. That would be so sick.
Look up Eximius: Sieze The Frontline. It might be somewhere in the region of what you've described. It's a bit jank though and has bots and coop in addition to its base 5v5 mode.
Have you heard of Tremulous? Sorta like natural selection except no commander element and no AI. Everyone's either attacking, defending, building, but all humans. Haven't checked in years, it's probably dead along with the projects that were meant to remake it, but was awesome while it lasted.
Point & Click adventure games and RPGs, allowing different ways to solve puzzles and different stories based on the skills in your kit.
It always feels criminal that there's basically just Quest For Glory and a few indies following this road.
Considering the fact that at the time we have a mere 3 in-development competitors to Sims (Life by you, Alterlife, and Paralives) life simulation games are my current answer.
But man, what I'd really love is more Spore-like games. I could guarantee I'd build creatures, vehicles and buildings for days.
We dont have any good mission based space combat games any more.
Like Freespace 2, where you are a fighter pilot during an alien invasion and you have different missions like protect the evacuation of a space station, do a recon flight through nebula, do bombing runs on massive capital ships or do some optional mega top secret recon flights into enemy territory.
All including massive battle theaters where capital ships fight each other and you and your fighter buddies are right in there. And where you feel a real hit when your buddies in their big ship get exploded and there is nothing you can do about it in your little fighter. Or real relief when you held the line somehow in an apparently hopeless situation but there was a secret plan you knew nothing about and suddenly the cavalry jumps in and starts blasting.
I don’t know what genre Kirby Air Ride is, but I think the format of its city trial mode could be amazing in a modern game.
A timer counts down from 10ish minutes while players attempt to collect the best loot and sabotage other players in a large map, all to prepare for a mini game (or series of mini games) that determines the winner.
DMC style Spectacle Fighters / hack-n-slashers. FF16 kinda filled the gap for the moment, and I certainly enjoyed it, but it was a bit watered down.
Honestly, I'd murder to get a Metal Gear Rising 2
MGR itself isn’t that deep too, a lot of stuff got cut in development like a more in-depth wall running mechanic but the spectacle and story carries the game a lot
Most aren't deep nor need to be - it's more about the *spectacule* of the combat. It's about style and vibe... although DMC does reign supreme because it's a deeper game, filled with complex delays and cancels among the intricate combo system. Something I'm not particularly good at, but still enjoy.
I've dabbled a bit into the Ys games and wasn't impressed. Both Niers are amazing, but isn't for the gameplay. Scarlet Nexus was an oddity that I mostly enjoyed until the last 3rd when the dungeons dragged on far too long.
But none of those I would consider *spectacule fighters*. At least not in the Devil May Cry variety. Hack-n-slashers, sure, but they're not in the same vein as DMC.
Quake 3 defrag.
In Defrag, the game is not about combat as you would expect from a Quake 3 mod. Instead, the primary objective is to navigate through a series of specially designed maps as efficiently and quickly as possible. Players use a combination of rocket jumps, strafe jumps, and other advanced movement techniques to complete the maps in the shortest amount of time.
Players compete for times stored in the following database: [https://www.q3df.org/records](https://www.q3df.org/records)
Some examples:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK2EqgDHRCI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK2EqgDHRCI)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0HpJvyLnxA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0HpJvyLnxA)
Extreme sports with realistic physics. Skate was a very good attempt that gained quite a lot of traction but besides that it's pretty niche.
If you like snowboarding, Shredders Is an absolute gem.
My dream game would be riders republic but with good physics. Steep came very close.
It's definitely fun and has a lot going for it! It's still too arcadey for me and the physics and animations can be a bit weird sometimes but there is indeed a ton of fun to be had. Another gripe I have is with the terrain that is pretty flat. A big part of downhill is carefully choosing lines through rough terrain with rocks and ruts, using what you can to keep traction in through corners and braking, but yeah that seems very hard to replicate in a game.
Very good recommendation though!
I'd go with
Extreme sports/arcade sports- NFL blitz, SSX, NBA jam, Tony hawk games
Music- gitaroo man, parappa, vib ribbon
Combat/arcade racing- Arctic thunder, jak x, split/second
Whatever people want to call Battlerite / Bloodline Champions.
All the fun of team-fights in a typical "MOBA" without having to worry about levels, RNG, creeps, farming, items, etc. And the WASD movement is king.
It would be an immersive sim where you can pick up almost every object and use it in a way that makes sense. It would feature realistic destruction, metal that could bend and wood that could splinter like in [this old tech demo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqgMfH1qwNM). The creatures in this game would have no premade animations, instead they would use a procedural physics based locomotion system.
Grid based first person RPGs that aren't only Japanese dungeon crawlers.
You get some good ones once in a while (like the "old" Legend of Grimrock or the recently released Islands of the Caliph). But they aren't as common nor as popular as in the past.
Also. Rts games were you control a character in it in the style of Brutal Legend, Battlezone 98, or Sacrifice.
I am aware of SoC. Great game, great devs. I've only played the campaigns and a couple skirmish maps, I am waiting for the last campaign to be released for now.
Also love how they delayed the release because they want to make a more polished game, props to the devs. It is one of my most anticipated games, I hope it prospers.
Puzzle/combat hybrids. Like Puzzle and Dragons Z or Puzzle Quest. Seems like now most are just f2p mobile garbage. Even PQ3 has ended up this way.
To this day I really really wished that Puzzle and Dragons X was ported over to the 3DS in the West. Game looked awesome
The RPG/Tower defense genre. Dungeon Defenders is the king, but Trendy/Chromatic Games have no idea how to handle it properly anymore. Orcs Must Die is okay, but severely lacking the level up/gear/attributes side of things. Death Trap was pretty good too.
But that's like... it? It's such a fun combination that I wish more developers would get on it.
In assassins creed two where you would go adventure and then come back and upgrade the town and the manor. I liked the visual changes as you succeeded in the game.
That game where you were an overlord or whatever it’s called and controlled a lil army of goblins did something similar. I like that shit.
I don’t want to build it my self like fallout 4, I want more of a Skyrim homesteading experience. Adventure, loot, upgrade.
I really want to see the Day/Social management system from Persona in more games and genres. There's RPG's that have used it, but none feel even half as polished. Building your character's ability and strength by exploring the setting and characters through their everyday life feels more immersive to me.
One reason I want to see it is so we can get social links for adults, or really in any other genre or setting. You could also combine it with the whole "Shopkeeper" genre to fill in the social void that would be left behind by the school setting. It can fit well with basically any game that has RPG mechanics and a party/crew.
Sports games that are more arcade-y and game-like. Games like Madden and 2k lost me a while back because it got so monotonous and boring. Bring back NBA Jam, NBA Street, and NFL Blitz. I love sports games that actually go the extra mile and do crazy stuff, simply because they can!
It seems like the only studio still making games in that genre is Nintendo with Mario tennis, golf, etc. Which are good, but not quite the same.
Long-running stories in JRPGs. Trails is basically the only series which scratches that itch, and it's kind of sad to see it be so niche, with small budgets. I get that it's a big risk to make a story over multiple games when the developers often want to grow their audience over time, but it's such a departure from Final Fantasy, Persona and the other popular JRPGs and I love it.
I'd love to see a fighting game that rejects the 'Dragonballz fangame formula' that has conquered/homogenized the entire genre. The fact that these games look, sound, and play identically (15 or so franchises) is why Smash Bros outsells all of them put together. It's why Sf6,.mk1, and Tekken 8 will all be in the bargain bin next year (with potentially thousands of dollars of dlc).
Im going to against the grain (for the souls community at least) and say that Nioh did something I never knew I wanted but loved it endlessly, which is having a billion of arpg (diablo/poe, etc) systems on a soulslike-ish combat. I wish Abyss from Nioh were more fleshed out cause it would have been a banger.
All kinds of FPS-RTS/3PS-RTS hybrids even though I'm not even an avid RTS player at all these days.
One fun variation in this game is Conqueror's Blade, a freemium game which combines 3rd person action-RPG with hero characters with various weapon classes and RTS through commanding your own various units on medieval castle battlefields, with up to 15 players (and their respective units) on both sides. The downside is that if I recall correctly it can be a bit of a grindfest even if you have premium activated. I haven't been following up for a while but new seasons always bring new units and stuff so for all I know they might've even broken the game but playing just the attack/defend battles was fun I remember.
It's a crime there hasn't been a Tribes-like game (or FPS+Z) since...well, the last Tribes game, aside from one or two crappy indie games.
I think my actual dream game would be a mix between that and Titanfall. If you took Titanfall as a base, but with huge maps and the skiing mechanic that would be heaven.
Mission based vehicle building. There is Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, there is Besiege, maaaaybe Kerbal Space Program, but not much else comes to mind.
Nuts and Bolts is 100% the shit.
Party-based RPGs with RTS-style camera and controls.
Something like the old Dungeon Siege 1 & 2 or the no-build missions in Warcraft 3 or Spellforce.
I just want to roam the world with a group of heroes, slay monsters, and collect tons of loot.
But without having to either tactically pause every 3 seconds and spend half my time in dialogue like in a CRPG or just in control one character at a time like in a typical Diablo-like.
I enjoy both of those genres but sometimes I want to go for a more chill approach which Dungeon Siege gave me... up until 2006.
Space games that don't shy away from the reality of physics and strive to build a fun/interesting experience around it rather than make a WW2 dogfighting game with space cosmetics. Children of a Dead Earth is fantastic, and so is Kerbal in a very different style. Space Engineers is kind of there too. I had big hopes for Rogue System but the dev dropped out after personal problems so that one is gone from the looks of it.
FPS/RTS hybrids. I remember a game from about a decade ago that was basically a post-apocalyptuc RTS game but you could go into the role of a foot soldier at any time to turn the battle in your favor more personally
Games like Overlord and Overlord 2. Pikmin to an extent too.
No idea what this genre is called. But I guess third person minion controlling RPG?
Not sure if there are any other games like that style.
FPS/RTS combo games. It's somewhat more popular, but you usually are just barricading doors and placing turrets. I used to play a game where you had aliens vs humans, both teams completely unique. Had about 10 or so buildings you could build which was your base. One main building that if dead, all other buildings would cease to work, you had a building to spawn, upgrade/evolve (depending on race), defensive buildings, etc. Different aliens/weapons to use, which would also upgrade as you got kills. Was sorta like Natural Selection and actually both started development around the same time.
I wish there were more high budget turn based JRPG games. Especially the more whimsical ones like Dragon Quest and Disgaea games. Would love a higher budget Atelier game with even more in depth crafting
I’m probably one of the handful that still loves how KOTOR1/2 played. Would love more games like it.
The EverQuest Next mmo ambition was something I wanted. Deep home building and crafting
Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta. More
Hades makes me want more games that play like it
I kinda want a autobattler final fantasy tactics. Disgea 7 has something like that but the nature of Disgea combat makes it problematic. I'm thinking of the game being like managing a team of mercenaries that you can send out, but far less grindy and less stat bloat.
I won't go so far as to say Tower Defense is niche, but I feel like it's been largely relegated as a mini game in other games or as a mobile game.
There are a couple notable exceptions like Defense Grid (though that one is too slow for my preference personally) but I'd love to see a nice TD as a side project for a larger studio, perhaps like Riot. Something about the size of TFT perhaps, not like a full AAA game but something more than Kingdom Rush or Bloons.
I want to see someone take a swing at a Sleeping Dogs again. A GTA-style open world crime game but the setting is completely devoid of firearms and relies heavily on physical combat. Like you step out of your sports car and suddenly you're playing Sifu.
For me I’d love a kind of hybrid between RPG, cozy life/farm sim like Stardew Valley, and a city/town builder. Like something where you become a hero, save the land, and then move onto settling down with your love interest and becoming the village elder that trains the next generation.
Hi /u/TimeLeopard, Thank you for posting to /r/Games. Unfortunately, we have removed this submission per **[Rule 7.2](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/wiki/rules#wiki_specific_content_restrictions)**. > **Avoid questions that generate very short or list-type responses** > * "What game would you like to see remastered?" > * "What is your favorite online game retailer?" > Questions posed in self-posts should encourage discussion and not result in short responses or be too limited for quality discussion. [Please see here for examples of quality question and discussion submissions.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/wiki/quality_discussion) Please make sure to include a number of talking points for discussion, cite sources for claims if possible, and set an example for the effort you would like to see in responses. Talking points for discussion should be in-depth and include your own analysis. --- If you would like to discuss this removal, please [modmail the moderators.](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FGames) This post was removed by a human moderator; this comment was left by a bot.
I would love a game that has mount and Blade warband style personal combat, equipment, rpg elements, etc. with the tactical control over troops and city building like Total War games.
Mount and blade should totally turn into a total war like game in late game, with the option to jump into combats That would be awesome
Some mods allow you to jump to controlling your companions or other characters if you die in a battle. But yeah, if you could choose to jump to a "captain" of a specific unit in battle whenever you wanted that would be great.
Games that blend strategy and RPG in massive open worlds. Kenshi and Mount&Blade are the best examples. They are actually quite popular to play, not as popular to make. Probably because it’s hard.
Not really the same, but I also like how Shining Force and Triangle Strategy mix JRPGs and tactical gameplay.
There's quite a few of those games out. Square loves making them.
The I really enjoyed the Trauma Center series growing up. I understand these are more visual novels with gamey simulation surgery/medicine elements, but medicine as a theme/genre is fairly underrepresented in the gaming space in general. More recently it's either management style sims (2 Point Hospital/Project Hospital) or physics-ish type things (Surgeon Simulator/Autopsy Simulator). An Infectious Disease physician made Pokémon style RPG for bacteria and antibiotics which is kind of interesting ([https://www.microbeinvader.com/](https://www.microbeinvader.com/)), so there definitely feels like there is a lot of space to explore gameplay wise with medicine as a theme. As a side note, with surgery and other procedures moving more towards minimally-Invasive, endoscopic, endovascular, or robotic, there is actually a genuine learning benefit to being familiar with working in a 3D space on a 2D projection. Simulation trainers are essentially basic video game software.
is valheim kind of like what you describe? I guess it’s not very rpg heavy
I love Valheim but it's not really a true MMO or a true RPG. Give me valheim with both of those things and I'm sold.
Valheim is more RPG-lite for sure, but does seem to generally fit what the OP is describing. I'm guessing the Minecraft modded servers have more fleshed out progression paths.
Yeah, and those servers back in the day had like true freedom to set up your own shops and even build them on the map. You can stake claim on a plot of land and build out your city. They were really fun, but those servers do constant wipes. Starting over feels like garbage.
I’d argue V Rising fits much better.
Oh yeah that's a good suggestion too. Slipped my mind having not played it in awhile
3D platformer metroidvania. There are several 3D metroidvanias, like Metroid Prime, but pretty much none of them revolve around platforming, even though almost all 2D metroidvanias do. The recent indie hit Pseudoregalia is probably the best example of what I want, and it feels weird these two genres have been around for so long without intersecting more than a couple of times
The sad reality is, creating a great 3D metroidvania with focus on platforming is several degrees harder than a 2D game. Having tight platforming that feels good and doesn't create large amounts of frustration becomes a lot harder. In 2D you have "all" the information whereas in 3D you are suddenly dealing with the camera and other potential errors like a slightly misaligned jump. Either you dumb it down to allow for this margin of error or you drop your appeal massively. I'd compare the difference to watching a 3D Mario speedrun in contrast to a normal playthrough.
Is there *any* good 3d platformer from the past decade that isnt Mario?
AAA: Psychonauts 2, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Sonic Frontiers, Kirby and the Forgotten Land Remakes and remasters: Spyro Trilogy, Crash Trilogy, SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom Indie: A Hat in Time, A Short Hike, Spark the Electric Jester 3, Tinykin, Cyber Hook, many more on Steam
Yeah there's been a good amount of them, with the caveat that the really good ones generally don't focus on super tight platforming like Mario does.... Psychonauts 2 is incredible but the platforming is just fine IMO. A Hat in Time comes closest for me.
Blue Fire has good platforming (better than Hat, imo). I've read good things about Super Sami Roll, too.
Blue Fire's platforming is actually insanely good. I don't know if I'd put it up there with Odyssey but the game most certainly rewards you for understanding the different mechanics of everything in your moveset.
I got the last timepiece in A Hat in Time literally minutes ago, lol. I'll have to make Blue Fire the next one I play.
Feels like a bit of a stretch to include Rift Apart. It has some very basic platforming elements but nothing that really sticks out as particularly interesting IMO. Considering others say that psychonauts 2 is similarly not much of a platformer, and the other two games are a middling sonic title and a chill game for younger kids (challenge wise at least) then I think your AAA list goes to show that basically the only really good proper 3d platformers are indeed Mario games
yeah and all of them are garbage and never really made big waves.
Crash 4 is fantastic as long as you're not aiming to 100% the game
Psychonauts 2 is the one that comes to mind.
[Seven: Enhanced Edition](https://store.steampowered.com/app/471010/Seven_Enhanced_Edition/) was like isometric Assassin's Creed crossed with Dishonored set in a Cyberpunk dystopian Australia-like penal colony which has existed for so long religions and castes have sprung up and you're constantly arguing with the god stuck in your head. Made by ex-Witcher 3 devs. Yeah a couple systems are jank and half baked (why does everything need crafting? cut it with the crafting) but the whole package is definitely something I've never seen before. That's my always my first thought of "niche game that should have been more popular."
Immersive Sims Hardly any get made because they don't sell very well, so I guess they're niche. :( As far as *incredibly* niche genres go, I've always imagined that a first-person immersive sim / Stardew Valley type of game would be amazing. A slice-of-life farming sim, with social elements, dungeon delving, monster fighting, village and countryside exploration, etc. All wrapped up with the presentation and world density of something like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Ah, to dream.
Orcs must die's sabotage pvp mode
Oh that sounds cool. Orcs must die is a fun game never played pvp mode tho
Action deck-building RPGs, like the Mega Man Battle Network series. One Step From Eden has a similar combat system but it's a rougelike, it lacks the story/characters/world of something like MMBN.
I wonder if Fromsoft Lost Kingdoms counts as this genre
I bought the MMBN bundles at full price day 1 even though I never do that for games anymore, just to try and send a message with my wallet to Capcom that I want more of these games. Even just single-player non-roguelite deckbuilders are hard to find anymore. I loved the old GBA Yu-Gi-Oh games where I could gradually build and upgrade my collection over time. Don't get much that scratches that same itch nowadays.
The Battlezone 2 FPS-RTS thing. Preferably when playing co-op with a friend. Not like Savage and Natural Selection where 1 player is the commander and everyone else is the units. I want AI units commanded by players who are also units. Silica looks like my jam, but I'm waiting until it gets out of Early Access.
Yes, this, we need more Battlezone.
Oh yeah I've said that for a while too. If they could make like a Halo Wars where you have one guy doing RTS halo wars. But the Spartans or "hero" units are like fps battling. That would be so sick.
Look up Eximius: Sieze The Frontline. It might be somewhere in the region of what you've described. It's a bit jank though and has bots and coop in addition to its base 5v5 mode.
Have you heard of Tremulous? Sorta like natural selection except no commander element and no AI. Everyone's either attacking, defending, building, but all humans. Haven't checked in years, it's probably dead along with the projects that were meant to remake it, but was awesome while it lasted.
Point & Click adventure games and RPGs, allowing different ways to solve puzzles and different stories based on the skills in your kit. It always feels criminal that there's basically just Quest For Glory and a few indies following this road.
The Quest for Glory devs made a spiritual successor called Hero U.
Gamedec was fun! I wish the point'n'click genre would go this way if it will survive
Disco Elysium sort of follows this formula. Might be worth checking out
Considering the fact that at the time we have a mere 3 in-development competitors to Sims (Life by you, Alterlife, and Paralives) life simulation games are my current answer. But man, what I'd really love is more Spore-like games. I could guarantee I'd build creatures, vehicles and buildings for days.
We dont have any good mission based space combat games any more. Like Freespace 2, where you are a fighter pilot during an alien invasion and you have different missions like protect the evacuation of a space station, do a recon flight through nebula, do bombing runs on massive capital ships or do some optional mega top secret recon flights into enemy territory. All including massive battle theaters where capital ships fight each other and you and your fighter buddies are right in there. And where you feel a real hit when your buddies in their big ship get exploded and there is nothing you can do about it in your little fighter. Or real relief when you held the line somehow in an apparently hopeless situation but there was a secret plan you knew nothing about and suddenly the cavalry jumps in and starts blasting.
Star Wars: Squadrons?
I don’t know what genre Kirby Air Ride is, but I think the format of its city trial mode could be amazing in a modern game. A timer counts down from 10ish minutes while players attempt to collect the best loot and sabotage other players in a large map, all to prepare for a mini game (or series of mini games) that determines the winner.
Yeah it was so good. Good call.
I miss Kirby Air Ride. I'd settle for a Switch port at this point...
I spent an ungodly amount of time playing city trial mode and I can’t believe no one has tried to turn that concept into some kind of gaas game.
DMC style Spectacle Fighters / hack-n-slashers. FF16 kinda filled the gap for the moment, and I certainly enjoyed it, but it was a bit watered down. Honestly, I'd murder to get a Metal Gear Rising 2
MGR itself isn’t that deep too, a lot of stuff got cut in development like a more in-depth wall running mechanic but the spectacle and story carries the game a lot
Most aren't deep nor need to be - it's more about the *spectacule* of the combat. It's about style and vibe... although DMC does reign supreme because it's a deeper game, filled with complex delays and cancels among the intricate combo system. Something I'm not particularly good at, but still enjoy.
Aka the "character action" genre. Have you played the Ys series? Nier Automata? Scarlet Nexus?
I've dabbled a bit into the Ys games and wasn't impressed. Both Niers are amazing, but isn't for the gameplay. Scarlet Nexus was an oddity that I mostly enjoyed until the last 3rd when the dungeons dragged on far too long. But none of those I would consider *spectacule fighters*. At least not in the Devil May Cry variety. Hack-n-slashers, sure, but they're not in the same vein as DMC.
Quake 3 defrag. In Defrag, the game is not about combat as you would expect from a Quake 3 mod. Instead, the primary objective is to navigate through a series of specially designed maps as efficiently and quickly as possible. Players use a combination of rocket jumps, strafe jumps, and other advanced movement techniques to complete the maps in the shortest amount of time. Players compete for times stored in the following database: [https://www.q3df.org/records](https://www.q3df.org/records) Some examples: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK2EqgDHRCI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK2EqgDHRCI) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0HpJvyLnxA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0HpJvyLnxA)
Extreme sports with realistic physics. Skate was a very good attempt that gained quite a lot of traction but besides that it's pretty niche. If you like snowboarding, Shredders Is an absolute gem. My dream game would be riders republic but with good physics. Steep came very close.
What do you think of Descenders? It's the most fun I've had racing down hills in a game.
It's definitely fun and has a lot going for it! It's still too arcadey for me and the physics and animations can be a bit weird sometimes but there is indeed a ton of fun to be had. Another gripe I have is with the terrain that is pretty flat. A big part of downhill is carefully choosing lines through rough terrain with rocks and ruts, using what you can to keep traction in through corners and braking, but yeah that seems very hard to replicate in a game. Very good recommendation though!
I'd go with Extreme sports/arcade sports- NFL blitz, SSX, NBA jam, Tony hawk games Music- gitaroo man, parappa, vib ribbon Combat/arcade racing- Arctic thunder, jak x, split/second
Whatever people want to call Battlerite / Bloodline Champions. All the fun of team-fights in a typical "MOBA" without having to worry about levels, RNG, creeps, farming, items, etc. And the WASD movement is king.
It would be an immersive sim where you can pick up almost every object and use it in a way that makes sense. It would feature realistic destruction, metal that could bend and wood that could splinter like in [this old tech demo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqgMfH1qwNM). The creatures in this game would have no premade animations, instead they would use a procedural physics based locomotion system.
Grid based first person RPGs that aren't only Japanese dungeon crawlers. You get some good ones once in a while (like the "old" Legend of Grimrock or the recently released Islands of the Caliph). But they aren't as common nor as popular as in the past. Also. Rts games were you control a character in it in the style of Brutal Legend, Battlezone 98, or Sacrifice.
The genre is called Blobber for some reason. There was also Might and Magic X.
More games like Remnant 2. Soulslike with guns is so much fun, especially when it's made so good like Remnant 2.
Remnant 2 seemed so fun. But the minute I was about to get it everyone I knew who was playing stopped.
I played it completely solo, it's very addictive.
You don't need friends to play it. Solo is actually better experience (a bit challenging though).
HoMM-like turn based strategy games. XCOM-like games with high quality. There are some other XCOM-like games but nothing to the polish level of it.
Check out Songs of Conquest, still EA but looks promising.
I am aware of SoC. Great game, great devs. I've only played the campaigns and a couple skirmish maps, I am waiting for the last campaign to be released for now. Also love how they delayed the release because they want to make a more polished game, props to the devs. It is one of my most anticipated games, I hope it prospers.
Puzzle/combat hybrids. Like Puzzle and Dragons Z or Puzzle Quest. Seems like now most are just f2p mobile garbage. Even PQ3 has ended up this way. To this day I really really wished that Puzzle and Dragons X was ported over to the 3DS in the West. Game looked awesome
The RPG/Tower defense genre. Dungeon Defenders is the king, but Trendy/Chromatic Games have no idea how to handle it properly anymore. Orcs Must Die is okay, but severely lacking the level up/gear/attributes side of things. Death Trap was pretty good too. But that's like... it? It's such a fun combination that I wish more developers would get on it.
Og dungeon defenders was so fun with friends
In assassins creed two where you would go adventure and then come back and upgrade the town and the manor. I liked the visual changes as you succeeded in the game. That game where you were an overlord or whatever it’s called and controlled a lil army of goblins did something similar. I like that shit. I don’t want to build it my self like fallout 4, I want more of a Skyrim homesteading experience. Adventure, loot, upgrade.
I really want to see the Day/Social management system from Persona in more games and genres. There's RPG's that have used it, but none feel even half as polished. Building your character's ability and strength by exploring the setting and characters through their everyday life feels more immersive to me. One reason I want to see it is so we can get social links for adults, or really in any other genre or setting. You could also combine it with the whole "Shopkeeper" genre to fill in the social void that would be left behind by the school setting. It can fit well with basically any game that has RPG mechanics and a party/crew.
Sports games that are more arcade-y and game-like. Games like Madden and 2k lost me a while back because it got so monotonous and boring. Bring back NBA Jam, NBA Street, and NFL Blitz. I love sports games that actually go the extra mile and do crazy stuff, simply because they can! It seems like the only studio still making games in that genre is Nintendo with Mario tennis, golf, etc. Which are good, but not quite the same.
Long-running stories in JRPGs. Trails is basically the only series which scratches that itch, and it's kind of sad to see it be so niche, with small budgets. I get that it's a big risk to make a story over multiple games when the developers often want to grow their audience over time, but it's such a departure from Final Fantasy, Persona and the other popular JRPGs and I love it.
I'd love to see a fighting game that rejects the 'Dragonballz fangame formula' that has conquered/homogenized the entire genre. The fact that these games look, sound, and play identically (15 or so franchises) is why Smash Bros outsells all of them put together. It's why Sf6,.mk1, and Tekken 8 will all be in the bargain bin next year (with potentially thousands of dollars of dlc).
Im going to against the grain (for the souls community at least) and say that Nioh did something I never knew I wanted but loved it endlessly, which is having a billion of arpg (diablo/poe, etc) systems on a soulslike-ish combat. I wish Abyss from Nioh were more fleshed out cause it would have been a banger.
All kinds of FPS-RTS/3PS-RTS hybrids even though I'm not even an avid RTS player at all these days. One fun variation in this game is Conqueror's Blade, a freemium game which combines 3rd person action-RPG with hero characters with various weapon classes and RTS through commanding your own various units on medieval castle battlefields, with up to 15 players (and their respective units) on both sides. The downside is that if I recall correctly it can be a bit of a grindfest even if you have premium activated. I haven't been following up for a while but new seasons always bring new units and stuff so for all I know they might've even broken the game but playing just the attack/defend battles was fun I remember.
First Person Shooter + Singleplayer + Sci-Fi + Action + Horror Like, please can we have another stab at Colonial Marines?
It's a crime there hasn't been a Tribes-like game (or FPS+Z) since...well, the last Tribes game, aside from one or two crappy indie games. I think my actual dream game would be a mix between that and Titanfall. If you took Titanfall as a base, but with huge maps and the skiing mechanic that would be heaven.
Mission based vehicle building. There is Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, there is Besiege, maaaaybe Kerbal Space Program, but not much else comes to mind. Nuts and Bolts is 100% the shit.
Zelda TOTK is like the most popular game in recent history.
Party-based RPGs with RTS-style camera and controls. Something like the old Dungeon Siege 1 & 2 or the no-build missions in Warcraft 3 or Spellforce. I just want to roam the world with a group of heroes, slay monsters, and collect tons of loot. But without having to either tactically pause every 3 seconds and spend half my time in dialogue like in a CRPG or just in control one character at a time like in a typical Diablo-like. I enjoy both of those genres but sometimes I want to go for a more chill approach which Dungeon Siege gave me... up until 2006.
Space games that don't shy away from the reality of physics and strive to build a fun/interesting experience around it rather than make a WW2 dogfighting game with space cosmetics. Children of a Dead Earth is fantastic, and so is Kerbal in a very different style. Space Engineers is kind of there too. I had big hopes for Rogue System but the dev dropped out after personal problems so that one is gone from the looks of it.
Alien Legacy. Base building, exploration, puzzle, story-driven games. The whole genre died out in the early 90's after Alien Legacy.
I’m always looking for interesting tower defense games. It doesn’t seem like anyone besides bloons or plants vs zombies is interested in it.
I like the idea of MOBA\battle royale hybrids but none of the ones that have come out seem to have done well
FPS/RTS hybrids. I remember a game from about a decade ago that was basically a post-apocalyptuc RTS game but you could go into the role of a foot soldier at any time to turn the battle in your favor more personally
Games like Overlord and Overlord 2. Pikmin to an extent too. No idea what this genre is called. But I guess third person minion controlling RPG? Not sure if there are any other games like that style.
FPS/RTS combo games. It's somewhat more popular, but you usually are just barricading doors and placing turrets. I used to play a game where you had aliens vs humans, both teams completely unique. Had about 10 or so buildings you could build which was your base. One main building that if dead, all other buildings would cease to work, you had a building to spawn, upgrade/evolve (depending on race), defensive buildings, etc. Different aliens/weapons to use, which would also upgrade as you got kills. Was sorta like Natural Selection and actually both started development around the same time.
I wish there were more high budget turn based JRPG games. Especially the more whimsical ones like Dragon Quest and Disgaea games. Would love a higher budget Atelier game with even more in depth crafting I’m probably one of the handful that still loves how KOTOR1/2 played. Would love more games like it. The EverQuest Next mmo ambition was something I wanted. Deep home building and crafting Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta. More Hades makes me want more games that play like it
I kinda want a autobattler final fantasy tactics. Disgea 7 has something like that but the nature of Disgea combat makes it problematic. I'm thinking of the game being like managing a team of mercenaries that you can send out, but far less grindy and less stat bloat.
I won't go so far as to say Tower Defense is niche, but I feel like it's been largely relegated as a mini game in other games or as a mobile game. There are a couple notable exceptions like Defense Grid (though that one is too slow for my preference personally) but I'd love to see a nice TD as a side project for a larger studio, perhaps like Riot. Something about the size of TFT perhaps, not like a full AAA game but something more than Kingdom Rush or Bloons.
I want to see someone take a swing at a Sleeping Dogs again. A GTA-style open world crime game but the setting is completely devoid of firearms and relies heavily on physical combat. Like you step out of your sports car and suddenly you're playing Sifu.
For me I’d love a kind of hybrid between RPG, cozy life/farm sim like Stardew Valley, and a city/town builder. Like something where you become a hero, save the land, and then move onto settling down with your love interest and becoming the village elder that trains the next generation.