Top 10 BEST Upcoming Indie JRPGs

[@XionSteel]

Yes, inject all of this into my veins, turn-based is my jam. Most of this i already have wish listed so can't wait for any of them to come out, especially quartet since i recently finished Shadows of Adam and if its similar in feel then i know what to expect.

[@SomethingClassic]

Thank you! Quartet is expanded off of Shadows of Adam's AP system, but with instant swapping and a lot more diversity in skills and gear. Hoping to make a followup that is bigger and better than SoA in every way!

[@leonidesbabanto1585]

@@SomethingClassic I love the swapping mechanic! It's also in Chained Echoes and I really liked that aspect of it. It really opens up tactics and strategy when you have more options in battle. I just hope that the battles scale up as well in difficulty, since the expanded strategies that you have makes battle easier. And I love the storytelling with Octopath Traveler, so the game's premise is right up my alley.

[@Vik1919]

Alzara seems so stylish and it has an ancient India theme to it. Definitely excited for it. Also for Forge of the Fae.

[@SeaSerpentLevi]

Oh my god they are all so cute ALL OF THEM, I LOVE THIS ERA OF INDIE GAMES SO MUCH 😭😭

[@crowravencorvenrow]

Forge of the Fae and Quartet in particular have my interest, and I backed Sacrifire on kickstarter. Thanks for introducing me to the former two!

[@monog0n]

I'm very excited for Beastieball and honestly I think its biggest selling point is that it's by the same team behind Wandersong and Chicory

[@MarvinConman]

Forge of the Fae and Bloomtown tickle my fancy, I love that art style :3

[@mementomori502]

Sacrifire's combat system honestly reminds me of star ocean. Pretty nice!

[@Aramakie98]

I have both Sea of Stars and Chained Echoes in my library now thanks to your recommendation, Best Indie Games. Keep those wonderful snapshot videos and recommendations coming our way!

[@NadDew]

Chained Echoes is a great game but short, i really wanted more. Sea of Stars is mediocre at best the characters are bland the story is meh. it's my personal opinion though people seem to like both equally

[@TheDecatonkeil]

Wow, that's a lot of eye candy! I know sooner or later I will be getting most if not all of these. Let's hope I actually have the time to play them! I'm glad we left behind the ultra-minimalistic pixelart of the early indies and went the route of Owlboy, Chained Echoes and Blasphemous, the way we remember SNES, GBA l, NEO GEO, CPS and PSX 2D graphics looking. It's a graphic style that will never not look good and be synonymous with video game culture.

[@rafaelcalmon2858]

Tbh, while the pixel art does remind me of Chrono Trigger, the non-ATB combat flow in Forge of the Fae reminds me more of Super Mario RPG. Either way, it's exactly the kind of stuff I crave from that era of games.

[@zennvirus7980]

I'd say... more like Breath of Fire 2. The isometric battle screen with the enemies on the top left and the party in the bottom right is SNES BoF.

[@csidesummit]

The Demo for My Familiar was hilarious and fun. Been on my wishlist since. Also, first time I heard your name was Clement!

[@Smatticus]

Don't comment much, but I'm super excited for Beastieball - backed the kickstarter immediately (after seeing the Haikyuu manga in the background of the announce video) and keeping up to date with the development. The demo is fun on Steam deck too :)

[@NoTengoStand]

I greatly enjoyed the Quartet Demo

[@TylerMireMusic]

Thank you :)

[@PyranoStudios]

Always love JRPGs ^_^ I'm working on a grid based sci-fi one, a tiny bit similar to Kingdoms of the Dump.

[@Nope-ity-nope-nope]

I know it's the wrong genre but PLEASE! Nightmare Kart releases TOMORROW!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!!! - F - R - E - E -

[@commentarytalk1446]

You gotta hand it to TB RPG genre: Sumptuous art, music, drama-story, some more crunchy cerebral combat all wrapped up in the full Epic experience! Can't go wrong with most of these and the best are often the best of the best indie games! Sacrifire - The first one captures the eye with the art and throw-back to 90s RPGs mixing sci-fi and fantasy and looks like the dev really poured everything into this from all those previous efforts.

[@xrykuio6465]

You should really play Athenian Rhapsody its a breath of fresh air as an indie rpg!

[@Maplefoxx-vl2ew]

is it? cuz i am playing it after i finish up Animal Well and then Nine Sols after

[@ClemmyGames]

So many good games this month

[@xrykuio6465]

@@Maplefoxx-vl2ew its really good, it has lots of replay value and its not a walk in the park :)

[@xrykuio6465]

@@ClemmyGames this one is a mix of everything, rage, story, character building, secrets! And lots of small side content and secrets!

[@СурьмаЛамантин]

❤

[@Madkingstoe]

My Familiar looks fantastic! Very creative and unique, but also well implemented. It reminds me of Earthbound meets a Ralph Bakshi film like Fritz the Cat. I added it to my wishlist and look forward to learning more about it.

[@soulechelon2643]

These all look really interesting but I'm definitely taking a closer look at My Familiar. Very unique and I'm curious about its premise. Edit: Okay, ALL of these games are very unique. Wow. Indies are really doing the job triple A's are afraid to. Wishlist is gonna get a couple of games bigger that's for sure.

[@pedropinheiro9393]

insanely good video

[@ClemmyGames]

thanks!

[@litjellyfish]

What baffles me is how some game can have great pixel art and then throw up UI that is in totally different style and resolution. It’s like the main devs have no art direction clue and have contracted out different parts to different people and then pull it all together. Poor those artists when they see how their great pixel art work is being trashed 😢

[@JDLupus]

You: "Beastieball comes from the developer of Wanderso-" Me: "WISHLISTED AND FOLLOWED."

[@ChintzyInk]

Yo Clemmy! Thanks for all the hard work you put into the video! It was great getting to sponsor such a dope list of upcoming indies. Been an honor, sir 🫡

[@Mister_Sato]

The mention of Vagrant Story is something I take very seriously. Count me in for SacriFire.

[@MikatianaRPG]

Runa has such a beautiful animation style! I am defo looking forward to playing it one day. Also, thanks for the vid, it's interesting to learn of new interesting games.

[@texus835]

My Familiar has Potential, it will probably be great Beastiball too. Runa and Bloomtown I think are on my list as well Hymn of the earless god, at least during the demo half of the characters I think you could play just to felt a bit boring. It might be just a demo thing

[@endrgar]

Pixel ar Jrpg, this is amazing, this is needed, we need more, more, more. There are so many high-quality projects in this style, it makes me happy, but I want more.

[@Skimmer951]

Happy to see many of my wishlists being here. Im very interested in sacrifire (I have played regalia before from the studio and it was also quite charming so I do have faith) Im also very hyped for Bloomtown, tried the demo and really liked both the pixelart and potential story and Beastieball looks like a delight and such a fun take on the monster tamer genre.

[@RussPet84]

For Deltarune, it's going to be quite a while before it's fully finished. Supposedly 7 chapters in total, Tobyfox is working on Chapters 3 and 4 for release atm, though from recent newsletters I wouldn't expect a 2024 release. But he's surprised us before! Supposedly chapter 3 is nearly complete and work in earnest on chapter 4 is pressing ahead

[@CristianMartinezcrismarpe]

All the games are wonderful, I write them down😊

[@pushkar000]

Hard not to be excited for all of these titles!

[@McWolke92]

are there any jrpgs with puzzles like the old school jrpgs like the tales of series? loved the dungeons with puzzles and the mana ring stuff.

[@FabbInRedd]

Water Soccer Non-Depressed Cloud Strife: "AHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

[@dariusnoelwilliams4084]

Didnt enjoy sea of stars but omg chained echoes one my top 5 games on switch

[@JorgeVinoRodriguez]

Day 3 of asking Clemmy to play Eclipse Breaker

[@user-gy1xp5fg3b]

These were all wishlisted!

[@k0lpA]

1:30 crystals in an RPG ? Preposterous Jokes aside, forge of the fae looks really good

[@senditall152]

I mean.... my avatar should give away that I like or at least used to like turn based JRPGs.

[@FiggsNeughton]

I wonder if Luke Wacholtz, who made The Way for rpg maker so long ago, had anything to do with Quartet. He wrote their previous game, Shadows of Adam, but apparently it was nowhere near as good as The Way.

[@visia.sounds]

as much as i love these, the thing i hate the most is that you gotta wait sometimes for years and years for them to be released. i know - these are mostly small teams, i get that. but announcing them so early while you still gotta wait for years is a terrible thing and makes me not want to play the game. secrets of grindea is a perfect example where it got "announced" and "early access" was released years before, by the time the full game was out - i wasnt interested anymore. PS: i know that other people think differently and thats totally fine. just saying that there are also people / minds like mine that really dislike the early announcements. the long wait will ruin the games release eventually. a year is fine whatsoever. but seeing for example alzara having a 2026 window, that probably will get pushed back several times - im not really into it by then anymore most likely

[@claireglory]

after the release of eiyuden chronicle. it seems a lot of the game dev have stolen their code and made their life easier.

[@texus835]

It doesn't look to special, but it has something, ....I guess I can keep an eye on kingdom of the dump, the longer it went, the more it looked like something.

[@RydioRC]

i'd expected quartet to have launched and i missed it, it's still in development? Wao development is hard.

[@ClemmyGames]

It's been awhile!

[@SomethingClassic]

We're still in active development! Closing in on the final two chapters!

[@jds1421]

The only thing I'd suggest is removing the title of the game and its systems at least halfway through describing the game, as It covers up some GUI / User interface of these games and I'd like to see underneath it! Thank you anyways! Subscribed.

[@galvanicmass]

Ps2 atelier iris reminds of sacrifier.....pixel art I mean.

[@OtakuUnderground92]

Sacrifire needs to fix that frame rate

[@lunarpizza3778]

Idk why I thought this video was going to be xcom likes lol

[@O___Z]

HI bro i need games 32bit for very old laptop can you do a video about that

[@texellation]

"Xenoblade, but science fantasy" So... just Xenoblade then?

[@sanji1259]

dude 4Q 2025...dont!! please but good games

[@eproductions5115]

chained echoes was leagues better than the mediocre sea of stars

[@NeoYgdrassyl]

I was wondering, is there even a possibility to do a NSFW top at some point? I am impressed by the quality of some of the adult games on steam and I said for no particular reason...

[@ClemmyGames]

Will probably get demonetized

[@beakyfree7023]

aaaaha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaa

[@drezworthy]

Undertale was overrated. I mean, I played it to completion but I never really caught its bug so to speak and the thought of another game in the same style simply doesn't appeal to me. Sorry to write a negative comment but just thought I'd express it.

[@mcbruh9229]

in your opinion.

[@Frustratedartist2]

That's not true, Undertale is a great game, it may not be a gift sent to us by god (Toby Fox), like some people think, but it was revolutionary. It's a pioneer of thinking outside the box in indie games which inspired many other developers and players. Combine that with a captivating story and great humour, and you got yourself some well-deserved appreciation (even if, again, it's just a 20 hours minigame based rpg).

[@ralphfi9591]

I think overrated is the wrong word here. The word or phrase you're looking for, may be "one of a kind". Cuz it gives an experience that can't be replicated by other games. Maybe deltarune can provide that. It's made by Toby Fox. But I can't say for sure since I haven't played it.

[@drezworthy]

@@ralphfi9591 It's def creatively unique and I am well aware my take away is not in the majority.

[@OtakuUnderground92]

Careful, you can’t call anything overrated nowadays. 😑

[@MrHarry1227]

RUna and Alzara are the only ones that interset me. I hate when modern colsoles/PC have to use such shitty graphics for the rest of them.

[@guillepankeke2844]

Please not too many rpg maker games.

[@2exx]

7 pixelgames *puke*

[@garmfilf2789]

These are all just JRPGs. Wish more devs delved into CRPG instead.

[@kot-duott]

J"RPG"s are not RPGs. They don't involve role-playing.

[@sfbsfb]

Personally, I agree that RPG is a widely misused term - but another part of me is resigned to accept that language evolves over time. So, one could argued that (given widespread use) the term RPG has come to have an additional meaning within the video game space. I have similarly conflicted feelings about the term “puzzle game “. Part of me believes that (for example) Tetris-style games are not puzzles to be solved. Rather, they are games involving geometric shapes, some degree of spatial or logical thinking, etc. on the other hand, another part of me sees that most people understand what the term “puzzle game “means these days. In the end, it truly is a semantic debate - and probably not an especially important one.

[@kot-duott]

@@sfbsfb Tetris is arcade, not puzzle. These tags are a matter of functionality and convenience, not only a semantic debate. When I click "isometric RPG" in Steam, I want a list that includes Pathfinder, not Diablo.

[@armelior4610]

I used to think so too, but nowadays "RPG" just means some kind of character progression so at this point we just have to just accept than the term has lost any relevant meaning or use as a tag when browsing, since so many games have some stat progression, loot and/or crafting now.

[@kot-duott]

​@@armelior4610 I'm not accepting shit and keeping on as an RPG purist :)

[@sfbsfb]

@@kot-duott Totally fair point, there certainly is functionality and convenience associated with these labels, in terms of categories and tags. That said - in practical terms, I don’t know how one person (or a few people) can “enforce” or even widely influence so many people who have other ideas about terminology. Especially the younger ones who have no living memory of early role-playing games. I’m old enough, I remember tabletop D&D. Lots of people never knew that, and only know things like Final Fantasy or whatever. Ultimately - I think you’re right, but I also think “resistance is futile” vs. the masses who have been habituated to think otherwise. Also, good point classifying Tetris as arcade. Really fits in terms of real-time action, short play cycle, skill-based play, etc. Though I don’t know if Mr. Pajitnov had an arcade in mind, while he was working his government job & came up with Terri’s during his down time. Not. Sure if arcades were even widespread in the Soviet Union back then. Does make for a great arcade game though!