Indie RPGs with great experimental storytelling

It is often said that it is very difficult to take risks for AAA games. There are tight budgets, trying to please shareholders, and legions of rabid fans. This can sometimes result in very traditional releases that play it extremely safe.

However indie developers have a lot of freedom in this regard. They can pursue a completely original, outlandish idea, and the risk often pays off when the creativity strikes a chord with fans. Indie RPGs, in particular, aren't afraid to take their storytelling in curious, experimental directions, and they're all the better for it. These great titles have given their plots a huge impact for that reason.

Disco Elysium

Twists and turns of the player's own making

In many RPGs, the player is tasked with making important decisions at key points in the story, then dealing with whatever the consequences may be. Disco ElysiumMore than that, the storytelling is very creative. As detective Harry Du Bois, they choose who they interact with, the dialogue choices they make, whether or not they want to embrace karaoke, and how the story unfolds as a result. Depending on the skills you invest in, different options will be available (or more likely to succeed/fail). Dungeons and Dragons-esque skill checks), which will completely shape the progression of the plot.

If the player has invested in the Inland Empire, for example, they will engage in supernatural influences, allowing them to discover secret passages or creatures that they would otherwise not have known about. It allows Du Bois' reclaimed tie to talk to him, and has some great dialogue of its own. In this simple title, one character creation can completely change the entire direction of the story, and for this reason fans will usually play through the game multiple times. This can be a completely different experience, as there's essentially no way to hit every single sidestory in a single playthrough.

stronghold

The narrator watches the child's every move

strongholdThe first title from Supergiant Games Patal and Hades 2 Fame, instantly defined the studio as a creator of unique and amazing games. In their 2011 debut, Supergiant presents the story of Kid, a young man who wakes up to a world ravaged by disaster. A safe haven known as a Bastion can be the key to survival if a child is able to pick it up and gather the pieces needed to run again.

In this devastated world, he soon meets the game's narrator, whom the players eventually come to know as Rox. He remains in Basson's center for most of the game's events, but continues to narrate (in Logan Cunningham's dulcet tones). He leaves no stone unturned. Many of the child's actions become directly part of the developing story. If, for example, fans pause a level to break some devastating scenes in search of hidden loot, the narrator will comment “Cade stops to let off some steam” or similar. When choosing a weapon loadout, he will comment on specific combinations; Perhaps noting that the child seems to have a penchant for explosives, the weapons are chosen. It's quite subtle, but it does wonders for immersion, encourages players to experiment, and is a testament to the developer's incredible attention to detail.

Undertale

An unforgettable story, however you choose to approach it

Undertale One of the most creative RPGs in recent years, and a wonderful exploration of what a lone developer can achieve. 100+ hours on this scale is not epic Personality 5 RoyalMaybe, but neither should you expect it to happen. What it is, though, is a title that surprises at every turn, that will test players and allow them to experiment and transform the story in their own way.

Generally, in RPGs, battles are the main part of leveling characters and so on, but the likes of random battles have no effect on the story itself. Here, though, the plot and its final outcome are intrinsically tied to the player's approach to battles. Famously, you can choose to kill every enemy you see or just skip all of them, and the development of those encounters, as well as the ending of the game, will change completely as a result. I like it a lot Disco ElysiumFans have unprecedented control over the storytelling and will surely want to go straight back, taking a different approach to see things differently. Great pixel art, too.

Citizen Sleeper

The roll of the dice shapes your destiny

Like Dungeons and Dragons As players will know all too well, the fate of an adventure can depend entirely on a simple dice roll. It can completely miss a party member due to an otherwise-lethal attack, for example, thus saving a quest at a crucial moment. The addition of this element of chance is not popular with everyone, but it certainly adds excitement and tension. In a different parallel Disco Elysium, Citizen Sleeper Also embraces the dice-rolling mechanic. It's a unique anachronism in this futuristic, cyberpunk world, but it works well.

Player agency is at the forefront of this 2022 title, in which story threads introduced and explored depend heavily on decisions made and activities invested. A sleeper's life is unimaginably challenging, and it's shaped by the player's choices. Through the watch, they can also monitor (among many other things) the progress of certain friendships and the impact they have on the overarching story. What's so fascinating about this game is the sheer level of influence fans can have on the proceedings, but it's always tempered by the chance element of the dice roll.

Hylix

What is actually happening? You decide

At times, the less straightforward and linear the game's story, the more players find themselves invested in it. For example, the Soulsborne games leave a lot of horrors to be explained, telling their stories largely through brief cutscenes and vague notes left around the environment. As a result, fans continue to enjoy sharing new insights and theories, keeping such games in discourse. Hylics are an under-appreciated example of this concept, but one definitely worthy of exploration.

The 2015 Adventures of Mason Lindroth Hylix Very traditional in some ways, but completely unique in others. NPC speech allows us to glean almost anything, and so it's all about context clues and determining whatever is possible about the strange world in which the player finds himself. Artistically, there's nothing quite like Hylics, and although the basics of its storytelling revolve around the party's battle against Gibby, an entity that is apparently the king of the moon, another reference is hard to come by. It makes the experience even more interesting as it embraces turn-based battles, vehicular travel between areas, and other classic RPG mainstays while carving out its own unique story space.