I've played most of the games on this list. Never played the ninja games or Octopath Traveler 2, though. I love the Shantae series. Pirate's Curse os probably my favorite though. But, Celeste is probably my favorite game here.
Of this list I’ve played Shantae Half Genie Hero and Shovel Knight. Both amazing games in very different ways. I get that retro inspired games tend to be difficult, but a game like Shantae is great and approachable since it isn’t extremely difficult. Other games on this list do intregue me, but the difficulty of some is a bit of a hurdle for me personally.
I completely understand! I actually just tried out the demo for Granblue Fantasy Relink and the accommodations on there for difficulty are incredible! I'm definitely a person who appreciates challenge in a game, but I LOOOOVE that we have so many games REALLY considering accessibility options nowadays!
These are excellent examples of modern games with retro appeal, I especially love Octopath Traveler II and the Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon games. Here are a few more recommendations: Rise of the Third Power - An indie RPG in a retro JRPG style with great writing and combat that has a strong identity of its own. Astalon: Tears of the Earth - An 8-bit style metroidvania with a very interesting death mechanic where dying is beneficial because it takes you to an area where you can spend the orbs you collected to upgraded the abilities of your characters and you still keep your game progress. The Blossom Tales games - 2D top-down action adventure games with Zelda influences and a charming story where kids become characters in fantasy stories their grandfather tells them and they learn life lessons from them. They both have a strong retro appeal and are also great games that kids can play to introduce them to games in this style and indie games in general. Prison City - A retro action platformer in an 8-bit style that is a lot of fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. Wandering Sword - An indie RPG in an HD-2D style set in an Asian-inspired fantasy world full of martial arts action and with a combat system somewhat similar to Live-A-Live. If you are looking for more games that play like the early Castlevania games, I work for a RU-vid channel called I Dream of Indie Games and I'm currently working on a video scheduled to come out early next week that is a list of modern indie games in a classicvania style. We also have a retro channel called I Dream of Retro Games that I also contribute to and we make it a point to include some lesser-known retro games so they get more attention.
Prison City, Rise of the 3rd Power, and Wandering Sword I'd never even heard of! Thank you so much for the tips! I've seen those channels, by the way! Great stuff! Thanks for your content! Astalon and Blossom Tales I own, but I haven't played them yet! I love retro inspired stuff!
@@pixelbrolee Prison City, Rise of the 3rd Power, and Wandering Sword all have reviews on I Dream of Indie Games if you want to learn more about them. Games that have the appeal of retro games and the quality of life improvements and mechanical polish of modern games are some of my favorites to be released in recent years.
Now it makes me hope that what I am doing will be enough to be on a list such as this, but baby steps first, I'm remastering Arena before I get into my own original IP
@@pixelbrolee I'll be sure to share the beta with you whenever I get to that stage, but it honestly depends on me getting a program when grant money comes in lol
I actually thought Shantae was more Retro. 1 game from 2002 then 4 games after 2010 I gotta throw in Omori. You'll get some serious Earthbound vibes with a deep story.
