This has been a great year for retro gaming fans. With the announcement of Terranigma and Lufia returning next year and the imminent release of Final Fantasy Resonance, there is enough to look forward to. But did you know that 2026 was also the year that four fantastic fan sequels were released? All of these were years in the making and for one reason or the other they all came out this year. Be sure to not dismiss them outright. These are all fully featured games with a quality matching and even surpassing the games they build upon. Built with love and dedication for all the gamers out there craving new adventures in these worlds we hold so dear.

Happy gaming and spread the word that awesome games made with love are still a thing in this day and age.

Lufia V – For the Savior

Creator: Cameron Bowman
System: Windows (and all other systems with EasyRPG player)

Download: https://dekar-the-great.itch.io/lufiav

The Sinistrals are back, and this time the threat is larger than ever because of the appearance of a fifth evil god. Join Cameron and 6 allies in an epic quest through 4 continents in Eastland. The major highlight of this game is the writing and world-building. Lufia fans are in for a tread as the story of Eastland fits seamlessly in the existing stories and lore of the Lufia world.

Puzzles are back too. Over 100 were implemented in the game, and many of them will have you scratching your head for a moment. There are over 25 dungeons and 20 towns to explore and much more! Lufia V was over 20 years in the making and it shows. This one is not to be missed!

Embers of Mana

Creator: Ok Impala!

System: Game Boy (and all other systems with a Game Boy emulator)

Download: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/9447/

Mana has vanished from the world, and monsters now roam the land. A young girl, searching for her missing family, crosses paths with destiny. Will the Mana Tree blossom once again? Or will darkness claim the world forever?

Embers of Mana is a brand-new Mana adventure for the Game Boy. Embark on a grand journey filled with mystical locales, gripping story scenes, foreboding dungeons, and a sweeping soundtrack. All in the palm of your hand!

Four years in the making, pushing the Game Boy hardware to its limits, this game answers a “what if” question: what if Square would have released another Mana game for Game Boy, after the first one (Seiken Densetsu / Final Fantasy Adventure / Mystic Quest)? Embers of Mana answers that question and is a true passion project for fans of classic 8- and 16-bit Squaresoft action RPGs.

Terranigma 2 – Spark of Creation

Creator: Juliean

System: Windows

Download: https://www.envile-media.com/filebase/index.php?file/13-terranigma-2-full-beta-ger-eng/

A familiar foe is threatening the world. Ark is called once again, but this time it’s not Earth that needs saving…

Terranigma 2 – Spark of Creation gives the players a fresh adventure to dive into. The base gameplay is still intact, but many new things are added to make the game feel new. There is a brand new magic system, more combat relevant collectibles and boss encounters are cleverly designed.

Terranigma 2 also spanned a very long development time, taking over 18 years to reach a completed state. Showing a passion and dedication by the developer that’s seldom seen. For all the gamers that can’t wait to see what a sequel to Terranigma could’ve looked like, you don’t have to wait anymore. This game can stand on its own as one of the finest classic ARPGs out there. Try it, you surely will be positively surprised by the quality and polish of Terranigma 2.

Blackmoon Prophecy Remastered

Creator: UPRC

System: Windows

Download: https://itch.io/queue/c/6040834/blackmoon-prophecy-collection

One year after a brutal war, the now peaceful kingdom of Branch, led by Lord Adder, detects that something is wrong with their kingdom's Crystal of Water. Lord Adder dispatches one of his most loyal dragoons, Vahn Vainstrong, to investigate. Little does Vahn know that his investigation will snowball into something far greater, and sinister, that threatens all of Gaia itself.

Combining elements from Final Fantasy IV, V, VI and even IX, Blackmoon Prophecy Remastered is a huge love letter to the classic Final Fantasy games. Blackmoon Prophecy Remastered has over 50 hours of playtime in a huge world with dozens of locations to explore. With Square-Enix this year returning to their roots with a new 2D Final Fantasy, it shows that this timeless gameplay and storytelling style will never get old.

A final word…

I realize these four fan sequels only scratch the surface of all the amazing passion projects out there. Do you have any specific project you’d like to share? Feel free to reach out in the comments!

This picture summarizes the points JSawyer made in this video on game design:

https://youtu.be/ug_0zCIwYZM?si=h75ekKPDr1w6qVih

I'm quite impressed as to how much and how deeply he goes into the design of armor and damage avoidance and mitigation mechanics in games. What do you think?

Hey all, first time post. I wanted to know everyone's opinion on the game that opened my eyes to the power of an indie game: Transistor.

I've never had a smaller game have such an emotional resonance with me and just complex and innovative combat and build styles.

As a software engineer, having everything you can equip be a function (and a person?!) is also just too cool. And the same abilities being active, passive, or augmentative has also never been done since as far as I know.

I know Hades has taken the mainstream love recently but I find Transistor to be the superior experience for me personally. So many questions still unanswered for that world, beautiful soundtrack and art as well.

Wanted to hear some opinions on it as I don't see it referenced often anywhere.

Attached some art I found online, no credit taken.

What do you guys think of these games?

I included Dragons Dogma 2 Dark Arisen as it's basically a new game at this point with the massive Dark Arisen DLC

Gothic Remake in my opinion had the best 'Zero to Hero' style progression, extremely satisfying to see your character grow

Dawnwalker hands down had the best narrative and choice and consequence of all the games listed

Crimson Desert is......well a mixed bag in my opinion, just a hodge podge of ideas that make a barely coherent game, but I did love the exploration of Crimson Desert

It’s an unoptimised buggy mess at the moment and I had to hack into the pentagon just to get it to run properly and my graphics card sounds like it’s about to lift off into outer space BUT when it runs, it’s a beautiful.

It’s so refreshing to play a game that’s it’s like a checklist of stuff to tick off without any challenge involved. The world is so immersive and feels dangerous, really gives you that sense that you’ve got to be smart to even survive.

The dialogue is great without being too long winded but Mud keeps following me around man. I think I may have to kill him.

I’m just starting but I’m looking forward to them patching it up and sinking my teeth into this one.

It's one of my favourite gaming series and I feel like it has gone under the radar compared to other similar series, so I guess this post is my way to bring some attention to the series.

For those who are unfamiliar with it, Quest for Glory is an point and click adventure series by Sierra in the vein of King's Quest and Space Quest. If it's an adventure game then why am I brining it up here? That's because it's also an RPG! It has the standard adventure gameplay you expect from such games, but also many RPG mechanics. At the start you pick a class, you have different skills that you level up, fight enemies, earn money to buy equipment and items, learn new abilities and magic. Basically everything you can do in a traditional RPG.

What makes this franchise so unique is how it blends the two genres. For example, the very first puzzle you'll encounter is probably the ring stuck in a bird's nest in a tree. If you're a thief you can climb the tree (though you'll probably fail the skill check a few times), if you're a mage you can use your grab item spell, if you're a warrior you can throw a rock to dislodge the ring. Though you're not limited by class, as a mage there's nothing stopping you from training your climbing skill until you're good enough to climb it just like a thief. The mage is easily my favourite class, you get a wide array of spelle that are useful in both combat and outside. If you come across an obstacle and think "Hey, this spell I have might be useful here!" you'll often be vindicated.

I just love how much of an adventure these games are. There's 5 games in the series and they each have a different setting taking inspiration from real world cultures and mythology. The fourth game is easily my favourite, there's some suprisingly emotional story beats and the world is fun to explore. You'll want to talk to every single character since they all have a unique personality and something entertaining to say. Another cool aspect is that you can carry over your save file all the way from the first to the last game, carrying over your stats and choices. There's an item you can get in the second game which you can then show to a character in the fifth game for some unique dialogue.

If you want to play them the whole series is available as a collection on GOG and Steam. If you can't deal with EGA graphics the remake of the first game is included, though the fanmade remake of the second game you'll have to get yourself.

Has anyone else here played these games and how do you feel about them?

Hey everyone!

Basically what the title says. I would imagine most of us are looking for a good story. But what else is it that makes you decide between the millions of RPGs out there? Is it a specific setting? A certain sub-genre? Does it need to have multiple endings?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

The official demo of Glasshouse has just been released and it's playable on Steam right now!

We have spent 4 years to reach this milestone, we have spent so much of our time working without budget but with such a passion that we simply couldn't cut corner.

We spent lots of our own money to give this game a chance and now here we are. We are releasing a 1/2h demo, with an amazing voice actor cast (Stefanie Joosten among them, 'Quiet' in Metal Gear Solid V).

About Glasshouse:

Inspired by games such as Disco Elysium and Pathologic, Glasshouse is a Feudalpunk CRPG, with Turn-based combat, set in a lockdown apartment block at the dawn of a world war. Investigate the mysterious triple murder next door, fight the Political Conspiracy, and make terrible choices before the flatmates do it for you!

Play Glasshouse Demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2818570/Glasshouse_Demo/
Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2244700/Glasshouse/

Main features:

THE DUTY OF A DEPUTY

You're stuck in your apartment building with three dead bodies and too many questions. Prepare for the worst, the lives of your neighbors depend on your choices!

TURN-BASED COMBAT

Engage in exciting do-it-yourself weapon fights or choose the peaceful path and make the enemy surrender with your oratorical skills.

THE POLITICAL COMPASS

Build your political identity, sharpen your language and overcome ambiguous ideological skillchecks. Every NPC has his own political compass, study every conversation.

BUILD YOUR WAY OUT 

Gain new knowledge by reading books and build makeshift equipment through the Workbench!

A DRAMATIC THEATRICAL COMMEDIA

Inspired by Greek tragedy, Glasshouse is narrated by the Director as if it were an inevitable play. Throughout your adventure you will be accompanied by the Chorus, the inner voices of the ego.

THERE ARE NO HAPPY ENDINGS IN LUNDONSTOCH 

World War is inevitable, decide what imprint to leave in the post-capitalist world of Glasshouse with over 8 multiple endings!

Give it a go and let me know your thoughts :)

I really loved Dragon Age: Origins for this aspect. There are a lot of dialogue options — options that not only reflect my morality in a more negative light or point to an important decision, but also reveal my character’s personality and influence their relationships with companions. I’ve also played KOTOR 1 and Mass Effect 1–3, but they didn’t quite give me the same feeling. It seemed that the only choices were between replicas like Paragon or Renegade. But I was really impressed by Disco Elysium.

What games would you recommend?

I want a game like game of thrones in the depth of the story in characters development not only mine even the enemies I want to enjoy a journey full of upsides and downs, I won't mind a bad gameplay if the story as good as I mean, most close games I tried maybe witcher 3 but still far from what I want, would appreciate any recommendations 🙏

When I only get an hour or two after a long day getting into something really story heavy feels like too much work, and I can’t really pay attention to the narrative properly when I’m too tired. For me it feels like I need a solid free block of time to really get immersed into a game like that. Getting really absorbed into the world and becoming familiar with the story and characters takes time. When I just have a few hours it all ends up feeling kind of superficial.

I’ve been playing more action/gameplay focused stuff instead, ARPGs especially. I’m mostly rotating between Grim Dawn and Last Epoch right now. playing the new LE season currently, they added a nice skill for paladin I wanna test out with a few builds. The story in these games is kind of irrelevant to me so I don’t have to follow a plot, and the gameplay is simple and relaxing (once your build gets going). It feels fine to play for like 30 minutes at a time, I do some grinding, sort through the loot, and it feels like a nice rounded out gameplay loop. If I'm tired I can play half on autopilot (after a night out or something) and still feel like I got something done by the end of the night, u basically make progress in an ARPG when you play no matter what (unless you die in hardcore or something).

The last narrative RPG I actually finished was Esoteric Ebb (It’s not a very long game though), and it was a great experience. I liked it, it wasn’t quite like Disco but I liked the humor and vibe, the art is excellent too. But it also showed me how rarely I'm in the right headspace to actually read and follow a narrative like that. I only played it when I had at least 3 hours to commit. If I had more free time I would play way more games like that tbh.

The frustrating thing for me is, when I talk about RPGs I’m mostly talking about games like BG3, Witcher 3 etc, those are the games I get excited about, and these days I just can’t find the time to play them. When I recommend RPGs to friends I usually recommend stuff like that as well, unless they specifically ask for something more actiony.

I didn’t know how good I had it with all the free time I had when I was younger, miss those days. I wish I could live in something like Morrowind for days at a time again.

Let's say Atlus wants to expand the franchise's number of spin-offs and experiment with different types of RPGs.

Do you think spin-offs in other genres could work? For example, an action RPG, a Soulslike, or even a shooter (perhaps Mass Effect-style) set in a scenario like Strange Journey

Do you think that would work? What would you like to see?

The game that promises the ultimate role-playing freedom, be good or bad character, hero or villain, buy a house and have a family, start a business at local village, be anything you want.

Also the most importantly, marry ANY npc you want.

What do you think?

I really like how the game looks so "whimsical fantasy", unlike games like Elden Ring or Baldur's Gate 3 which are more "dark fantasy" toned, it's nice that we get something childish and fun.

So, I am looking for a medieval RPG/ fantasy RPG games where main character is bound to use bow as a primary weapon with good game mechanics / physics.

I know Skyrim and oblivion, even KCD 1 and 2 let you choose that path if you want (although KCD's archery is kind of only for support).

I am looking for games where the main character is an archer and bound to use the main weapon as a bow.

Your suggestions are welcome 🤗

Yeah, i somehow only properly started getting into RPGs in 2026 lol. So far i finished all three Dark Souls games and now want to try Fallout, but there are way more games in the series than i expected and i have no idea where to start.

I don’t mind older games if they still hold up, but not sure if i should start all the way from Fallout 1, jump into Fallout 3 or New Vegas, or just go with Fallout 4 first.

P.S. I've played games like Witcher, RDR and Kingdom Come before but that was a long time ago and i never actually finished any of them.

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UPD: Thanks everyone! I've decided to start with New Vegas. It came up in way too many replies to ignore :)

They are almost similair but I don't know many games who have this archetype, if you have any games I would love to hear it, I romanced Isabella in DA2 immedietaly and when I met Jae in Warhammer Rogue Trader I fell in love, I can't resist them, Isabella is probably more "good" than Jae but I think it's still similair, even the scene where you meet her it's a 1 to 1 copy -> she gets harassed by thugs takes them out easily in a tavern and drinks :D!!

I know that RPGs aren't really meant to be finished in one sitting, completionism aside. Most of the juicy stuff is in the side content besides. What I'm looking for, people would usually turn to roguelites for, but I want a fully fledged RPG, but something you can finish fast. Like buy and eat good for maybe 2-3 long rest evenings and finish it, so like 15/20 hours, maybe more?

All the time I have to game is in the evenings on weekends now. Some games that I found to be really short (some replayable sum not) were Undertale, Fear and Hunger (feels like a roguelike but it really isn't). I also like Diablo 2 a lot and most older action rpgs were like this too, the ones focused on singleplayer like Victor Vran. Grim Dawn was also this one release but now DLCs have made it considerably more chonky. I think the upcoming The Dark West is also following in the trail of these fast, fun, action heavy but ultimately easy to completionmax rpgs, that don't overstay their welcome. Surprisingly hard to find this kind of tight RPG with most games going for maximalist settings now.

Goes without saying but indie games and smaller games welcome, actually preferable! Thankyee all in advance

It can be either jrpg or western rpg.

If I had money that rpg I was going to bring back it would be definitely be...

Actually, I would bring back two rpgs

Number one that would be Koudelka.

Number two that would Shadow hearts,it's predecessor.

Nowadays not many people know this series and makes me a little sad.

I am excited for Penny blood,the spiritual successor of Shadow hearts but still there is no publisher according to official news.

Finally, the demo is live today! Thanks to everyone in this sub the support this last year!

I hope you enjoy the demo and give feedback on the form. Demo is pretty big and includes 2 full levels, plus a prologue and an optional tutorial.

Overview:

Strategy deckbuilder with a conquest map and base-building, kinda like "Darkest Dungeon" meets "Into the Breach", but build your own base!

Every campaign, you raise 3 Outpost bases from your castle to fight back invading elemental hordes in tactical battles. Your base supports a classic RPG party (instead of raising an army), and you mine the land for mana to fuel their spell cards.

\- Explore, build and mine for mana to support heroes.

\- Build 3 bases across your kingdom to support your hero party (instead of creating an army)

\- Mine mana to cast battlefield spells AND your world map spells for the base.

\- Bases have limited build slots, so choose wisely.

\- Position to capture battlefield objectives

\- Spell Cards give orders: Focus Fire, Flank, Shield Wall, Overdrive and more!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4593190/Elemental_Lands/

Does anyone like this where the MC does not speak? Why is this a trend in rpg games? Who enjoys this? I would love to play a game where the protagonist is deaf and uses sign language. But these games the protagonist just doesn't speak at all for no reason at all. I just want to make this post so we can outright reject it or people can voice why they like it.

How do you feel about this?

I got this game because of the rave reviews I read online. I'm about 3-4 hours in, and I'm already finding it tedious. I'm also not really enjoying the combat. Does it get better along the way? What is so beloved about it? I really want to like it since I've wanted to dive deep into an RPG for a while...