Back in the 90s I barely played PC Games, because so few existed that appealed to my tastes. There were exceptions of course, Torment, Fallout 1 and 2, Baulder’s Gate, Icewind Dale, King’s Quest (and other Sierra titles), Ever 17 (and anything else by Hirameki International), Petz, Black and White, Creatures, Graduation 95, and a handful of other gems that weren’t available on my consoles.
But largely, console gaming was the highlight of my childhood. That’s where all the anime games or JRPGs or story rich games were, especially in the 16 and 32 bit eras, which still remain my favorite gaming period of all time. Genesis, Sega CD, SNES, Saturn, PS1, PS2, and Dreamcast, the majority of my favorite games, still to this day, lived on one of those great consoles.
But nowadays, I barely play console games anymore. Occasionally there may be an exclusive that catches my eye, such as Persona 5 on PS4, or Tokyo Mirage Sessions on the Wii U. I even bought a Wii U just for that game in fact.
But now, so many games are cross platform, and so many people like me, who grew up in the 16 and 32 bit eras are making their own indie games now such as To the Moon, Always Sometimes Monsters, Rakuten, Undertale, etc. This completely changes the gaming landscape. Now PC is by and far my preferred gaming “platform” of choice.
And where once, JRPGs reigned on Consoles, they now thrive on the PC or even on mobile devices, and in the past 5 years we’ve seen a huge explosion of visual novels and Otome games as well on both PC and mobile – and barely any of those have been released (at least in English) on consoles.
Where once the PC had almost no games that appealed to my tastes, now suddenly, more and more each year, I find the PC to offer so many games I want to play that I don’t have the time, nor money, to possibly play them all! I have over 700 steam games already (and a handful on Origin, and about 50 more on GOG, and then of course my old CDs from the 90s which have yet to get released digitally.) And that’s not taking into account the PC’s ability to emulate the console games I own (probably around 300+ games there too). And emulation is perfectly legal as long as you own the original games, which I still do.
This puts the number of games I can play on my PC right now today, without buying a single thing, at well over 1,000 games! — How many of those games I’ve actually played, is probably around 25%, and how many I’ve beaten to completion / all endings etc, is probably like 5%. lol. But the point is, there has never been a better time to play girl games on your PC. If you’re a girl, there’s plenty of games that you should check out on PC. This wasn’t the case 20 years ago; my how the landscape has changed!
Here is a list of games due out in 2018 that are on my radar! I’ve selected these games for one of the following reasons: Decisions Matter, Branching Plot, Multiple Endings, Cute/Kawaii Graphics, Excellent Story, Innovating (or at least really fun) Gameplay, and Customization. If you look for the same qualities in your games, check out the list below. Warning, it’s long.
This list is not in any order – largely it’s sorted by release date, because that’s how I was browsing the games while researching this post.
Sea Dogs
Our first recommendation reminds me of Horizons New Dawn, one of my all time favorite super nintendo games.
Sorcery Jokers
This visual Novel Has Some Beautiful Graphics
Til the Dawn, Waiting
This looks sad, and also features animals, a powerful combination to tug at any heart strings
Franky the Bumwalker
Super cute and colorful adventure game that probably doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Dragon Cliff
This indie RPG features an extesnive crafting system and city building aspects as well as cute retro graphics.
Stunt Corgi VR
If you’re lucky enough to have a VR headset you might like this title that lets you create obstacle courses and watch a cute corgi try to navigate the courses you create.
Project Bits
If you like rhythm games, you might like this one with cute anime artwork. Plus it’s free to play.
The Mind Hero
An anime visual novel where you help 8 different characters overcome their trauma. It aims to teach psychology inside a video game. It’s also free and features a comic book style.
Katyusha
This looks to be a very emotionally engaging and beautiful pixel retro style RPG. The developers have said that the game uses real-life world war 2 letters that were written by soldiers to their families.
Battletech
The ability to customize everything about your mechs and the appeal of mecha genres from decades of anime such as macross, robotech, go lion, voltron, evangelion, gundamn, etc, make this appeal to me, despite the more dark realistic graphics. The gameplay looks fantastic. And who doesn’t love giant robots?
In The Valley of Gods
Explore pyramids in this narrative adventure.
Villages
This game aims to balance the skills and economy of its players so that they are forced to work together. Sounds promising. Let’s see how that works once the game releases.
Grow Bot
This just looks so utterly adorable!
Boyfriend Dungeon
With a name like Boyfriend Dungeon, how could this not make our list? It’s an otome dating sim and hack n slash RPG adventure, where the boys are weapons.
The Iron Oath
I am beyond excited for this game! True, it doesn’t have the visual aesthetic that I like, but nearly everything about the gameplay appeals to me greatly! Decisions matter, the guild management sounds fun, every character has a back story. Characters die / perma death, you recruit new characters, I’m ready to play this awesome looking tactical RPG.
Living the Deal
Business Management and Life Simulation Game. This one is high on my wishlist (despite how hideously ugly the characters look lol).
Wolf Gang
Play as cute wolves chasing cute sheep in a game which promises unlockable content and character customization.
Freedom Planet 2
Furrie fans and fans of old school Sonic games still love the original Freedom Planet, and soon the wait is over for the much anticipated sequel.
The Forgettable Dungeon
Co-op Action RPG that you can play with up to 15 friends.
Next Up Hero
This MMORPG has some unique gameplay features, such as no healing, except for when you die. When you die, you come back as an “avenger” and can heal other players, until you decide to take over one of their corpses and rejoin the fray. When you die, someone can also take over your character. So don’t get too attached.
Leilani’s Island
This super colorful platformer looks like a lot of fun and has a great brightly colored retro style.
Sentou Gakuen: Revival
This is an MMORPG Visual Novel. All of the characters in the novel are other players just like you. Not sure how that will work out, but it’s innovative and different – that’s for sure. And that alone makes me curious enough to want to play this one.
Dungeon of Zaar
Dungeon of Zaar has a great style, and some fun looking gameplay mechanics including pvp and local multiplayer.
Wytchwood
Wytchwood looks absolutely beautiful and the crafting and exploration gameplay mechanics really appeal to me as well.
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
They promise that choices will truly matter in this RPG inspired by D&D and featuring pirates on the high seas.
Cyberdimension Neptunia 4
A new Neptunia game, because why not? I love the cute graphics and silly nonsense storylines of these games.
Jenny LeClue
I love the handdrawn artstyle here. But what I love even more is that decisions and choices matter and “permanently” influence other “characters” (by that I think the Devs mean in sequels or episodic content that will be created.) The Devs also say that “The goal is for everything to be interactive, to reward players who poke and prod at every last item and object with insight, secrets, and humor.” Which fits my playstyle anyways. Exploration is often my favorite part of gameplay.
Tunic
They don’t have much information available. But you play as a fox in a colorful world.
Transference
This is a VR game although it’s not listed as requiring a VR headset to play so that remains to be seen. If I’m able to play without a VR Headset (because I don’t own one yet), I’m going to be all over this game. It has a deep “psychological” story. Your choices matter. The Devs say “The choices you make from every angle ripple through time and space, as you learn their story.” – I’m extremely interested in this game – maybe even enough to break down and buy a VR headset if it requires one.
Skull & Bones
This must be the year of pirate games. This is the 3rd such game to make my list. You start out very low, and then recruit your own gang of pirates and customize everything about your ship, as you grow your infamousy and riches. You can play alone or with up to 5 players.
Donut Country
This somehow reminds me of Katamari, except instead of rolling things up, you’re a hole and you swallow things, and the more things you swallow the bigger your hole gets, allowing you to swallow even larger things. I love Katamari, so I suspect I’ll love this game too. The cute colorful graphics also appeal to me.
Wattam
Speaking of Katamari, here is a new game from Katamari’s creator. In this game you explode everywhere. The bigger your explosion, the more friends who come to play. The graphics are super cute, things like frying pans, bacons, eggs, poo, etc all with cute little anime faces drawn on. It’s very colorful. And there’s nothing else like it.
Darksiders III
If you’re a fan of the first 2 Darksiders games, the 3rd installment is due out in 2018.
Lost in Harmony
They’re hailing this as the first musical runner – but I don’t think it is, because I distinctly remember a game on PC a few years ago that let you run to any MP3 on your PC. But well regardless of if it’s first or not, it looks fun. You can create your own levels, as well as customize your characters.
Just Us
Animal breeding, farming, crafting, fishing, foraging, and probably a pretty deep philosophical story about a couple questioning if they’re the only people left in the world after a catastrophic event.
Lost in Bardo
Pretty looking pixel game with a philosophical story and puzzle solving gameplay.
Jengo
A gorgeous looking point n click adventure paying hommage to many 90s retro games.
Chiffa 2
Play as a cute little fox trying to save his best friend, a chicken, from a big bad wolf.
OSM Old School Musical
The crazy looking chaotic gameplay and colorful retro graphics make this rhythm game stand out from the rest
Orcish Inn
Very cute survival game in which you farm, build, and manage a tavern.
College Days
Visual Novel with some very pretty artwork.
Astrologaster
Interesting concept for a game, you cast and interpret astrology charts as a doctor to answer your patient’s questions. I’m kinda interested in astrology (especially numerology (not necessarily related to this game just as an aside)) so my interest in this title is piqued by sheer curiosity. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game about astrology before.
Village Monsters
Animal Crossing clone, looks cute, fun, and relaxing.
Where Cards Fall
This looks fun, and seems to have a fairly decent story about childhood memories shaping our perspectives as adults.
Alone Without Her
A story where your choices matter about a man who survives while his wife dies in an experiment that would freeze them for 1,000 years. The concept sounds similar to Passengers, which I saw last year and rather liked, so I’ll probably enjoy this story too.
Miracle Mia
This game looks very colorful and cute.
Cursed Lands
For the first time in any Winter Wolves game you can sleep with more than one love interest. The devs say – However, they also caution you to be ready to deal with the consequences of that decision. You can bluff and intimidate enemies in this RPG / Dating sim hybrid.
Fault Silence the Pendant
Takes place 5 years before the events in Fault Milestone One
Xaiga Wars
Visual Novel with Very Cute Graphics
A Near Dawn
A Psychological Visual Novel / Point n Click adventure with full voice acting and multiple endings.
Unto The End
This game looks both beautiful and challenging, and it also features choices and consequences that change the story of the game.
Once Upon a Coma
I love the art style of this game. I’m betting the truth at the end of the story is also pretty sad.
Broken Reality
Colorful Adventure Game which is set in a parody world based on the 1990s internet. Cut ads with your katana, collect likes to upgrade your social media accounts to reach new worlds, purchase upgrades, and make new friends. The Devs promise a game with no violence as well.
We the Revolution
Fun looking political simulator based on the French revolution.
Dodgeball Rising
Cute looking anime style multiplayer dogeball game
Riverbond
Gorgeous looking little voxel game with lots to explore and collect
Kitten Super Adventure
I actually promoted this game awhile back I’m excited because it looks to combine Spyro with Adorable kittens.
Mineko’s Night Market
Play as a cute girl, in a cute Japanese inspired world, full of cats! Extensive crafting system, fun mini games, and a market where you can sell anything you make or find. I’m definitely picking this game up!
Indivisible
From the dev team that brought you Skullgirls comes a new 2D adventure, with music provided by the composer of Secret of Mana.
The Eldritch Zookeeper
Raise horrible monsters in this simulation game inspired by Themepark World and Dungeon Keeper
Battle of the Bands
Another visual novel game. This one doesn’t look terribly good to me, but I will play it before passing judgement.
Spoxel
Looks quite similar to Terraria. I love Terraria… but I wonder what this game has that will differ enough from Terraria to make me want to purchase yet another minecraft clone.
Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass
Colorful little RPG with an Adult Story
The Gardens Between
Beautiful puzzle game with time travel and nostalgia.
Knights and Bikes
This charming adventure game is full of nostalgia and looks fun, especially in multiplayer. It’s from the creator of Little Big Planet and Tearaway Unfolded which I loved both of those games, so I have pretty high hopes for this one as well.
Rainswept
Love, Relationships, and unresolved trauma? Sign me up for that. 🙂 This looks to have a fairly deep and depressing story.
Booth
I have a feeling this game will play like Papers Please or Beholder. You work in a food inspection booth, how you react to NPCs determines your fate and changes the story and endings.
Futurust
A hand-drawn point n click adventure game about robots.
My Girlfriend
A visual novel in a highschool setting with cute girls.
Ciel Fledge
Basically Princess Maker – Which I have reviewed here. I need more Princess Maker in my life, so heck yeah, I’ll be buying this.
The Luckless Seven
Visual Novel that differentiates itself from the rest with an innovative card game system.
The Last Night
Absolutely beautiful looking scifi game.
Echo Tokyo
Dark Visual Novel set in a dystopian Tokyo
Tiny Thor
Colorful looking retro platformer where you throw Thor’s hammer to attack your foes.
City Game Studio
Manage your own gaming company
Prehistoric Kingdom
Jurassic Park simulator anyone?
The Adventure Pals
Cute Comical and Colorful little platformer
Deiland
Anime sandbox game with farming and quest mechanics similar to Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon
Warped Reality
Cyberpunk Visual Novel with truly lovely anime inspired artwork
Ooblets
OMG I almost forgot about this game. I remember when it was first announced, and now, the wait is almost over, as it will launch some time in 2018
Reality Raiders
Perhaps inspired by Secret of Evermore and Chrono Trigger, this little indie RPG lets you travel through different periods in the past to understand your present and shape your future.
Mystic Destinies Echoes
This visual novel has a somewhat realistic painterly style and takes place in Atlantis.
Snares of Ruin
6 Romanceable Ladies. You can form platonic or romantic relationships. How you interact with them determines the flow of the story.
Detective Case and Clown Bot: The Express Killer
This point n click has cartoon-network or simpsons esque animation. It probably doesn’t take itself too seriously either.
Beavers Be Damned
Cute 2 player Co-Op game where you play as cute beavers avoiding crazy obstacles as you try to build your dam.
GNOG
Adorable colorful puzzle game that takes place inside monsters’ heads. Seems to have an emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving. My only concern is it may be quite short as it only has 9 levels.
I Saw Her Standing There
Colorful kinda abstract looking action/puzzle game with over 300 levels to explore. The devs say that their game is “about love, death, and pancakes”.
Wonder Wickets
Colorful and Cute Miniature Golf game.
Dab on Em Haters
Celebrity Vlogger Simulation with cute pixel graphics – Caution this one has explicit insults and hate speech, but that’s kinda the point of the game. Pick which topics to vlog about, then respond to your comments. The goal is to like positive comments while “dabbing” negative comments. (Do you know how old this game makes me feel? I thought dabbing was a thing kids do with their arms for selfie pics, that some football player started. Since when did Dabbing become a negative word? lol. I’m too old for this game. lol.)
CasinoRPG
I actually mentioned this game in a roundup of Casino Simulation Games – It used to be a web browser based game, and now it’s coming to Steam. I don’t know what if any improvements or changes have been made between versions. It’s a city building simulation that lets you build, run, and play in your own casino.
Midnight Quest
Very cute looking point n click adventure game.
Heroes of Arzar
Cute, free anime collectible card game
Meanwhile
Well, I had never heard of this comic or the author, Jason Shiga, until just now. The art style kinda reminds me of the Oatmeal. Apparently this comic creator incorporates puzzles and choose your own adventure elements into his comic books (maybe similar to the goosebump novels I read as a kid back in the 90s? lol). I’m curious to check this game, and some of his comics, out now.
Love Story: The Beach Cottage
I usually don’t play hidden object games – I know a lot of girls love them, it’s just never been my cup of tea. But this one sounds intrigueing because of the sad story. A woman very late in her life (50+) returns to a beach home to execute her deceased father’s final will. She hasn’t been back in this house for over 40 years, and she will relive memories of her first lost love and become stronger in the process.
Survived By
This is an MMO Bullet Hell Game with Permadeath. After you die, you come back a little bit stronger as one of your descendants. It says there are different descendants to collect. Might be interesting, although probably also very frustrating too.
I Love My Brother
While many readers will be put off by the nature of this story being such a taboo subject, I’ve included it in the list anyways for a few different reasons. 1.) It’s a visual novel. 2.) You play as Beth (a girl) 3.) This makes it an Otome Game. 4.) It’s a game told by reading entries in Beth’s Journal 5.) The journal is full of cute colorful stickers, beautiful handwriting, and other charming graphics. 6.) The story doesn’t bother me that much. Some of my favorite Korean Dramas have that incest component, such as 90 Days Time to Love and Autumn in my Heart. 7.) Little Sister Kana is one of the greatest visual novels of all time. 8.) If the game handles the story tastefully, and doesn’t make it just a raunchy taboo fantasy, there’s potential here for a very sweet and sad love story (such as in the games and Kdramas I’ve mentioned above). 9.) For all of those reasons I will give this game a shot.
Sister’s Love
I can’t tell if this game is the same as the one above or not. It also is about a brother and sister in love. Different names though. It’s also told through a journal, although the stickers and graphics in the journal look different. In this one they have a more mature/romantic look, and in the other a more bright colorful cheery innocent look. Anyways it’s included for the same reasons as the above.
Maze of Adventures
The retro style colorful graphics in this puzzle game look quite cute.
Lunch Truck Tycoon 2
Open World Simulation Game that lets you manage a food truck. I want some street tacos now lol.
Nantucket
I don’t really approve of hunting whales and dolphins (IRL), but the game sounds fun anyways. Loosely based on Moby Dick, this game allows you to customize your ship and crew as you sail around the world to hunt Moby Dick, in what they call a whaling strategy game.
Ascendant Hearts
Humorous Parody Visual Novel with some lovely graphics that pokes fun at itself as well as the genre.
Dude, Stop
I don’t really know if there’s any point to this game lol. People seem to think it’s funny. At least the developer thinks he is funny. Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. But it’s strange, and dares to be different, so it earned a spot on our list anyways. The point of the game is to do the opposite of whatever the developer (narrator) tells you to do, or not, it’s up to you. His narration changes as you play depending on your choices. Make him angry and he will yell at you.
Cicadas
I really love the artwork in this visual novel. Cicadas are annoying though. I distinctly remember hating that sound effect in other visual novels (I think Tsukihime used them? I can’t recall which novel it was now, but it talked about it being hot in the summer and the cicadas hissing. And it had this horrible cicada sound effect and no background music at this part, and it drove me crazy.) — Anyways here’s another visual novel with probably more equally annoying cicada buzzing sound effects. PS: I always thought Cicadas were a Japanese thing – until last summer when I heard them in real life, here in Western Pennsylvania. They apparently only come up from their burrows once every 17 years – Thank god because they are annoying AF. And I have a phobia about insects. — I’ll still play this beautiful visual novel, despite my fear and loathing of Cicadas (or insects in general lol).
My Big Sister
I kinda feel like this game is trying too hard to be dark and edgy and “cool”. The character you play as is a 12 year old girl (although the devs can’t seem to decide if she’s 8 or 12 as they make reference to her being 8 as well). She tries to rescue her 19 year old sister after they are both kidnapped. The graphics are cute, but the writing looks like trash. How many 12 year olds cuss like sailors? They say she has a sarcastic playful attitude and that she’s not as scared as her big sister – but still, that seems too much. This game’s script looks terrible and that’s just from the screenshots and trailer. Random explicit words for no reason at all do not make your game more “adult” or “dark” or “edgy” or “cool”. In fact, it kinda makes your game the opposite of those things. Of course, occasionally well timed explicit words can add to the feelings/emotions of a story. But when there’s 3 or 4 expletives used within a 6 sentence paragraph, that’s way too many. Which is a shame, because the graphics and actual gameplay look very nice.
Spring Breeze
Chinese Visual Novel (with English subtitles) where you date twin sisters and experience university life in China. I feel this translation and writing may be subpar, but the graphics are really pretty, so depending on the price, it may still be worth checking out. Sounds short. 10 scenes, and only 2 endings.
Tale of Toast
Very cute looking free-to-play MMORPG. It promises to not be pay-to-win as the only micro-transactional items will be things like transferring to another server or buying cosmetic only items such as pets and costumes (that do not grant stat bonuses). It has optional PVP and procedurely generated dungeons. It uses a classless system and includes crafting and exploration.
FEN: Prologue
Survival game that has you dumpster diving for resources. Cute pixel graphics and a procedurely generated world.
As an aside, there’s another game, simply called FEN that will release at the end of the month as well.
Foxus
Beautiful game where you play as a fox, doing things foxes do, hunting rabbits, exploring the forests, etc. It reminds me a lot of Shelter 1 and 2 (dunno if it’s by the same dev team, or just inspired by such games though).
Skelattack
Play as an adorable skeleton and his best friend, a cute little bat in this rogue like, where monsters in the dungeons are friendly and human invaders are the enemy.
Talk to Saki
An idle visual novel game, where time passes in real time. You type questions to Saki using keywords, and check in on her every day. New conversations happen each day.
(as an aside, there’s also a game called Talk to Aya that came out about 2 months ago and is $1.99 on steam. Aya is more “my type” because she reminds me of myself. While Saki is very athletic and outdoorsy, Aya is an indoors type who loves manga.)
The Pirate’s Fate
Over 300 choices that matter with 45 different romances in this gorgeously animated furrie game.
Stage Fright
This game meshes together 2 very different genres, rhythm and horror game. The better you play, the harder the game tries to scare you and the more difficult the game becomes.
MatchyGotchy
Adorable Colorful Virtual Pet Game
The Red Strings Club
Interact with customers as a bartender with a story presenting moral dilemmas and decisions about happiness and the means to obtain it.
The Scent of Summer
Virtual Reality Game (VR Headset Required) where you walk home with a cute anime girl.
Iconoclasts
Cute platformer with a heart wrenching story.
Staxel
Adorable anime voxel farming game, similar to Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley
Lost Sphear
From the creators of I am Setsuna
OK K.O.! Let’s Play Heroes
Super cute and colorful game based on the cartoon network show of the same name.
My Time at Portia
Seems to pay hommage to Rune Factory, Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, Atelier, Mana Khemia, and other similar gaming series
Wildlife Park Remastered Gold
Includes remastered versions of Wildlife Park and Wildlife Creatures. You can train, breed, research, and catch various animal species.
Zweii The Arges Adventure
Beautiful looking humorous JRPG from XSEED with tons of minigames and a leveling system that involves eating or hoarding and trading food for better food.
Legrand Legacy: Tale of the Fatebounds
This beautiful looking indie RPG pays homage to many great 90s and early 2k RPGs. It includes minigames, crafting, and city building aspects as well as traditional turn based RPG combat.
Luvocious
3 games in one. The first is a dating sim/visual novel. The second is more of a traditional JRPG/Dungeon Crawler. The final one is a scifi setting with gun based gameplay. Each with an anime and retro feeling.
Dead in Vinland
I’m already sold just by this feature right here “Build your community of up to 14 playable characters. Meaningful choices will alter the relationships in your team and the story. Expect romances, hatred and betrayals!” – But in addition to that, it has a huge world with over 150 maps to explore and more than 150 items to craft as well.
Onmyoji
Very colorful and beautiful strategy game set around the characters and stories within Japanese folklore.
Dust and Salt
Decisions matter in this narrative adventure game
Egypt Old Kingdom
City Building and Political Simulation in Ancient Egypt.
Celeste
Beautiful little platformer with plenty of secrets and mysteries to unravel.
Grisaia Phantom Trigger 4
The story that began with Fruit of Grisaia continues in this new installment
Timber Tennis
Cute and colorful pixelart in an online or local multiplayer tennis game.
My Life as a Maiden
Cute looking visual novel where you play as the only boy (disguised as a girl) at an all girl’s school. (This theme is done to death in these games, but the nice artwork may be enough to make this one worth picking up as well.)
Melancholy Republic
Decisions matter as you take the role of a young heroine trying to run the country after her father’s assassination in this JRPG inspired indie game with an excellent soundtrack performed by a live orchestra.
Ultimate Arena: Showdown
The graphics look a bit crude, but the game seems wacky and different, and fun, and does feature large amounts of character customization.
Clumsy Knights
Very cute little indie RPG with an extensive crafting system
YumeCore
This looks cute and colorful, although a bit nonsensical and crazy.
Make Sail
Build Sailboats, sail to other islands to gather materials to make better sailboats, and rinse and repeat.
Slave Story
Cute anime style game where you play an indie game maker and interact with a cute anime girl.
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine
A collection of short stories from authors all over North America
Minotaur
Point n click game with nice anime style artwork and dark story.
Soul Saga
Gorgeous looking indie game inspired by classic JRPGs
Mhakna Gramura and Fairy Bells
This is by the same author as Fault Milestone One and apparently, at one point, these visual novels were all books? Hundreds of years ago? Like in real life? I was not aware of that. This is a kinetic novel meaning there are no choices, no branching plots, and only 1 ending. However it is beautiful and part of a very popular series of visual novels. The story is mentioned in several of the games, but only recently has the full text been discovered because the book is hundreds of years old. This makes it kind of an interesting way to preserve history.
Fatal Twelve
Another very beautiful looking visual novel with female protagonist.
Bacon May Die
Very colorful brawler game with cute little pigs. Customize your pig and fight off hoards of bacon hungry zombies. It looks cute and has a good sense of humor as well.
Serment – Contract with a devil
Indie tactical RPG and Dating Sim hybrid with lots of cute anime girls.
Final Fantasy 12 Zodiac Age
A remake of FFXII with a few new gameplay mechanics.
Foto Flash
This may be similar to Sonicomi which I reviewed here.
CHUCHEL
Cute funny little puzzle adventure game with adorable characters.
Startup Freak
This game lets you simulate many aspects of building a startup conmpany, from designing your office, hiring team members, researching and developing new products
Into the Breach
Interesting looking strategy/simulation game with mechs and time travel.
Mulaka
Action RPG with gameplay similar to Zelda and based on ancient Mexican lore.
Scythe
Boardgame with strong focus on faction choice and strategy.
RPG in a Box
If you’re looking to create your own games, RPG in a Box may be an alternative to the popular RPG Maker series.
Guardians of Arcadia
A very cute anime indie game inspired by classic JRPGs
Shots Fired
Explore with your cellphone, take photos for buzzfeed (fuzzbeed), and avenge your wife and daughter (and reclaim your tv) in this pixel based action adventure game.
Episicava
Anime styled episodic visual novel
Toe Jam & Earl: Back in the Groove
The original games on Sega Genesis are some of my favorite childhood memories. Days and weeks on end spent playing with my best friend.
Griftlands
It seems decisions matter quite a bit in this cartoon style indie RPG
Omina Mortis
I like the concept of this game, which is basically a visual novel in story book format; however, it is clear English is not their first language. Their steam store description needs help, and if that’s any indication as to the quality of the writing within the actual game, this game may be nearly unplayable. For example the description says: “In Omnia Mortis you will be confused by a tangle on the edge of mystic and action detective that will be fully solved only after multiple passing the game.” – I’m already confused just by reading this description LOL. I get that they meant to indicate it has multiple endings, or “only after passing the game multiple times” or “only after multiple play throughs” but “only after multiple passing the game” sounds really awkward and incorrect as a native English speaker… and I’m still not sure what they’re trying to say with “on the edge of mystic and action detective” – What does that even mean? — Concept seems good – but they really need to hire some English language play testers and proofreaders. Hopefully with enough proofreading and playtesting, this will end up to be a nice game.
A Song in the Void
This seems far too short, clocking in around 6 hours of gameplay, but it seems innovative by the fact that every aspect found within the game reacts and grows with the music.
Earthlock
Inspired by Retro RPGs of the late 90s, Earthlock looks like a great upcoming indie game. You can also grow trees to bring kittens into the world which sounds pretty cute.
Moonlighter
Cute pixel RPG with procedurely generated dungeons and shop keeping elements
Rain or Shine
Very cute looking VR game that requires a VR headset
DragonFangz
A challenging rogue-like dungeon crawler with adorable anime graphics
Love Bites
Visual novel about vampires. Appears to have 2 playable characters (1 male and 1 female) and 4 romance options (2 male and 2 female)
Into Oblivion
A drinking simulator where you mix and drink virtual drinks with other players and bet who will get sick first to earn coins to get new items from the shops to customize your characters.
Prisma and the Masquerade
Absolutely gorgeous looking platformer with a female protagonist and orchestra soundtrack.
Long Gone Days
Awesome looking visual novel with shooter elements and gorgeous anime artwork.
Samurai Forge
A collectible card game with an interactive story that changes according to players’ decisions
Swordart Online Fatal Bullet
A Multiplayer game based on the famous Swordart Online anime.
Marie’s Room
Seems to have an interesting story about childhood friendship, perhaps with a few twists and some drama. A bit of mystery too.
Movie Studio Tycoon
Select a genre, choose your script, hire and train directors and actors, compete with other studios to win awards.
Orwell Ignorance is Strength
This political thriller aims to warn us about how we give and how others use our private and personal information and how such information can be misinterpreted and to what lengths people or our governments will go to to protect us from perceived threats within this information.
Parkasaurus
Colorful Cute Dinosaur “Jurrasic Park” Simulation game where you travel back in time to collect dinosaur eggs, and switch to first person to handle dinosaur rampages.
The Swords of Ditto
I love the graphical style of this cute little indie Co-op RPG.
One Helluva Day
Another interactive fiction game where English is clearly not their native language. Hopefully the game will be proofread and play tested sufficiently because judging from the steam description, the creators struggle with English grammar. Aside from questionable writing and formating, the concept of the game looks promising. You play as a business owner trying to save his failing company, as well as trying to save the world. There are multiple endings, and you can either work together to help other characters, or take advantage of them to achieve your goals. How you work with others, determines which endings you receive.
Monmusu
Adorable anime graphics in this free to play game.
Secret of Mana
Remake of one of the best SNES games of my childhood.
Detective Gallo
Humorous point n click adventure game with a cartoon duck as the hero.
Austen Translation
This solo or multiplayer rogue like marriage simulation borrows heavily from various visual novel mechanics
Speed Dating for Ghosts
Cute looking dating simulator by a former Bioware developer.
Roguemance
A roguelike pixel game that pokes fun at relationship drama
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Story heavy open world historical RPG with player choices and consequences.
The Longest Five Minutes
Humorous pixel RPG where the main character has amnesia right before the final boss fight.
Wandersong
Colorful cute indie game where you play as a traveling bard.
Crossing Souls
Colorful retro inspired game set in 1980s California
The Seven Districts of Sin
Short cute visual novel with some nice anime artwork and 9 different endings to discover.
A Case of Distrust
Play as a female detective in this 1920s visual novel.
Catmaze
Cute indie anime pixel sidescrolling adventure game.
Monster Garden
Cute, very short (1 hour per play through) game with multiple paths and multiple endings with over 15 monsters to meet. You can’t meet them all on a single play through which adds some replay value, despite still being a short experience.
The Painter’s Playground
Create or collect 2D artwork and trade it in an online marketplace with other players
Card Crawl
Dungeon Crawler played with a deck of cards. Solitaire like gameplay with deckbuilding mechanics.
Opus Rocket of Whispers
Indie hand-drawn painterly styled game with an emotional post-apocalyptic storyline.
Feudal Alloy
Cute looking indie action RPG with robots.
The Forbidden Arts
Anime style action platform adventure game.
We Were Here Too
Emotionally charged Co-Op adventure game
Minion Forest
Adorable monster raising game