I’ve had a great time playing some of the ‘smaller’ games lately: Dredge (adore this game so much), Dave the Diver, Cloudpunk, Stray, Octopath II, Observer.
What else would I like? That aren’t roguelikes or crafting-building games (don’t hate me, I tried to love Subnautica…as a diver I should love it, but the genre just isn’t for me!).
Would love any suggestions!
Outerwilds is a beautiful game and quite short, try to go in as blind as possible. It’s space archaeology.
Gris is an art game that’s about 3hrs long. Very pretty, very zen.
Into the breach, is a puzzle game (chess vibes) where you are time travellers saving the world from insect aliens. has a long time to beat, but play sessions are fairly short. I think it’s a great game for when you are taking short breaks between something else. it might be a tad too on the roguelike side for you, but it’s primarily about solving puzzles.
Carrion is a puzzle-horror game that took me about 5hrs to beat, it’s extremely satisfying
Nauticrawl is a very esoteric game, you pilot a sub at the bottom of the ocean and have to learn from scratch how to pilot it. If you like doing stuff with no instructions you’ll enjoy it.
Not for broadcast is a shortish (~20hrs) game where you control a live action broadcast and get points for how well you do cuts… or censor people
Superliminal is a 3hr puzzle game that plays with size and perspective.
I LOVE NOT FOR BROADCAST! I was there when it was just episode one. I really need to finish it but I haven’t found the time
Second Gris. Makes a big impact for a small game.
A short Hike: It’s a pretty short relaxing game. Low stake, no stress.
Chained Echoes: I don’t know how long Octopath 2 is, I only finished the first game, but since you mentioned it you may like this one. It’s a turn based rpg, but there is basically no grind. Your party is fully heal between each fights. It’s quite respectful of a player’s time in that way.
I knew that I was going to enjoy A Short Hike before I played it. What I didn’t expect was how much I enjoyed it. There’s so much more there than I anticipated and some of it is really lovely.
A Short Hike only took me around two hours to finish but those were some of the finest two hours I’ve experienced.
Please consider WanderSong. It’s a small game and was made with so much love. Games can have a huge variety of plots and environments. But the vast majority of games, regardless of what they are about, are actually about victory. You’re a space dwarf mining for minerals, but the game is all about mastery and winning. You’re a dragon-kin with magic shouts, but every quest is about achieving a victory over a challenge. And so on.
I would say that WanderSong is not a game about victory. It’s a game about happiness. The character, the mechanics, the plot, the environments; they all serve first to explore the meaning of happiness. There’s nothing else quite like it. You can find it here.
Just want to emphasize how wonderful of a game Wandersong is. Nothing in your list makes me point and go “if they liked X, they’ll like Wandersong”, but it’s just a really good smaller-y game. Heavily story driven, with a little bit of puzzle-platforming. I have 10.4 hours of playtime in it on Steam, so including some AFK time and some post-game fucking about, it’s probably a 6-8 hour play.
Wandersong is firmly in my “recommend to anyone” Steam list.
How far did you get into Subnautica and what turned you off about it? I understand it’s not for everyone. It can be a little bit obtuse in the way it gates your progress behind radio transmissions, and if you don’t find the right blueprints your journey can be made much harder or easier respectively. I’ve been replaying it recently and I can see how it’d be hard to get into. One thing to note is that as you advance a lot of the annoyances of finding food, water & power to upkeep everything get eased through different technologies, so you slowly get more freedom from the grind, and the story is worth seeing to the end. In fact every new tech makes the game easier and faster and opens up the world that much more, either by making it easier to traverse long distances or go deeper, or carry more, etc. The early game is slow and frustrating in comparison.
I could cosign a bunch of suggestions already, but Outer Wilds is one of my favourite games of all time. I’ll try to explain it without any spoilers: It doesn’t gate your progress behind anything but your own curiosity and acquired knowledge. It also gives you a sense of freedom that you get from fully simulated physical movement in space. It is also deeply emotional and if you’re halfway to the end wondering, “How could they possibly stick the landing on this and end it well?” the answer is just trust, omg it’s so good. You can’t really experience it twice - it’s designed such that when you possess the right knowledge, you can finish the game extremely quickly, but also to do so you must truly understand and master the ideas you are being taught - so you can only experience it again by watching blind let’s plays. I’ve watched 4 so far and each one was a moving experience watching the person go through their own process of understanding over many, many hours.
If you like platformers, Teslagrad is a beautifully illustrated and impeccably designed metroidvania which I’ve played through many times. All the story is delivered through puppet shows rendered within the levels themselves and gorgeous collectible cards. They’ve just released a remastered version with a number of QoL changes that I’ll be playing again, and the sequel is out. I believe they’re still available in a Fanatical bundle right now.
The metroidvania that got me into the genre is actually a free game by the maker of Celeste, from many years ago. It’s called AnUntitledStory and I’ve played it through many times. Some quite hard platforming challenges but the whole aesthetic is extremely cute, and as you’d imagine from the dev of Celeste the controls are crisp and precise.
Hollow Knight is another incredible metroidvania/souls like. You play as a bug in the ruins of an ancient civilisation of bugs and it is quite haunting. Again, amazing aesthetic.
And if you want something chill instead, I’d go with Spiritfarer. You build your boat and travel the spirit world helping souls on their journey to the afterlife, except each soul is unique and has their own personal needs and closure you help them achieve before they’re ready to pass. Most importantly you can pet your cat whenever you want, which every game should have.
Wow, thank you so much for this! So much in this I wanted to see, I really appreciate the time you took!
I adore diving. I actually moved around the world for 11 months to teach diving after my PADI IDC. So you’d think Subnautica would be tailor-made for me.
It just didn’t really explain what I needed to do. I don’t need my hand held in games, but by the time I figured out what I needed, the realization was a whole lot of upkeep and ‘menial tasks’ to progress. If that makes sense. I couldn’t pass the early game to get to the story and progress. This is all on me, but I never enjoyed Minecraft, so that whole genre is maybe not for me. I wish I did, it looks so lovely.
Abzu though, that was amazing!
I’ve got Outer Wilds downloading right now. I keep reading and seeing comments and posts telling me how much I’ll love it, so I have to have faith (like Dutch kept telling me -_-), thanks for reminding me about this one. It seems quirky and to have its own style, I think I’ll like this!
(P.s. is Spiritfarer harrowingly sad? I see a lot that this game needs a box of tissues and a teddy bear nearby when playing through, that’s why I haven’t jumped to it yet!)
Outer Wilds is a masterpiece, but based on this comment about Subnautica, be warned that it also doesn’t make clear what you’re supposed to do. Unlike Subnautica though, there are no menial tasks to keep up with once you figure it out.
Just don’t be afraid to check a walkthrough to give you a boost if you need it (but also don’t rely on one, the joy of exploration and discovery is the best part!).
Ooh enjoy! Outer Wilds is one of my favourite things, ever.
Counter-point to ConstableJelly (they’re not wrong, play however you enjoy, this is just my opinion) - DO avoid guides even when stuck.
The whole game is about figuring things out, looking at the info you have from different angles, or heading out in brand new directions to see if any new discoveries will tie in with where you’re stuck. Looking something up will rob you of that discovery and maybe other ones that tie in to it.
There’s a great subreddit for the game that is set up with very specific rules to avoid spoilers. You can ask questions there, and people will expertly nudge you in the right direction based on what you’ve already discovered and figured out. There are communities here also but I don’t think they’re set up in quite the same way yet (especially as spoiler tags are not reliable in Lemmy yet across different apps etc)
You can definitely do it without resorting to any of the above, but if you get so stuck you’re going to drop the game, I’d say ask in that subreddit. Or, feel free to DM me! I’ll help you without ruining anything as best as I can.
I mean, fair enough. If you don’t like grind then Subnautica isn’t going to be for you. A lot of these grindy games I use as podcast games - I listen to stuff while I’m doing the boring bits, then when shit gets real I pause the sound to focus.
Again, you can get past some of the grind, but if you don’t enjoy the process to get to that point it’s maybe not worth it. Even once the worst grind is gone… I mean there’s still grind. The actual story is pretty fascinating, it’s all about conservation and responsible stewardship and working with the ecosystem and not against it. Oh and also you’re virtually a slave in a hypercapitalist company town structure.
Anyway, I think Spiritfarer is very bittersweet, although I would consider myself very at peace with the concept of death, so I understand others may feel differently. If you’re a big crier it will definitely do that for you. A big theme is letting people go when it’s their time. I played it on a week when I was particularly sick and didn’t have the energy to do something more active, and it was the perfect thing for that time for me. I personally think it’s very wholesome and healing in many ways. The ambience is very soothing, you spend time tending your gardens on the ship and keeping everybody happy whilst you travel. One of the things they sometimes need is hugs. It never feels like a grind imho, but again I’m happy with minecrafty/subnautica type games. I have to admit I haven’t finished it, it was very much an experience limited to that time I was sick, which is weird. I’ll have to try it again.
Have you heard of Hardspace: Shipbreaker? If anything it’s the opposite of a crafting-building game, it’s a disassembly game! It’s set in space and has a nice plot about corporate greed. And you have to manage your oxygen in space, so arguably it’s like diving, haha.
Another game I liked that’s made by a small studio is Carrion. You play as a The Thing-esque monster that has to kill, grow, and solve different puzzles to escape the lab it was created in. Very gory but fun.
Hard space: Shipbreaker was my go to comfort game for a long time. Dive in, cut some walls, and toss some junk. Just perfect.
Really glad you both suggested this game!
Am having an absolute blast playing!!!
Steamworld games?
I haven’t beat all of them but Dig 1 and 2 are definitely way shorter than I wanted (I’d pay full price for an endless mode DLC lol).
Except Hades, Supergiant games aren’t super long. Bastion and Transistor are decent, and Pyre might be a little longer but is pretty unique.
I’m interpreting your list of games as semi-casual with a strong unique flavor. The messenger is a little harder than the others but still not super long.
I tried Hades! I loved the art and the world, but the idea of progressing only a little each time and dying (often) was a turn off to me.
The world they made though? Amazing! Thanks for these suggestions, I’ll check them all out!
I really enjoyed playing Hades, but I just didn’t have the skills or patience to progress at the pace I wanted. So (after realizing that being prideful about difficulty settings in my hobbies that i do to have fun is a dumb way to live), I turned on God Mode. You get extra stacks of damage resistance every time you die, capping at like 80% or something, and you can turn it on and off as needed. After that, I was having so much more fun, and the rate of progression was much better for me. I felt like I was finally playing the game that everyone else was loving so much.
Steamworld Heist is an incredible twist on a turn-based tactics game, just by adding a tiny element of skill to your aiming. It gave my twitch-reflex monkey brain just enough dopamine to engage in the turn based gameplay that usually turns me off, and I had an incredible time.
Creeper World 4 is fun and not terribly long. It is basically a tower defense game, but instead of guarding a set path toy build towers to defend against, then push back, physics simulator liquid that kills whatever it touches.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, you play a small group of ninjas (and a samurai) in a top down stealth game. Takes place in feudal Japan and you assassinate your way through the plot.
Superhot. FPS with a weird plot about VR and a rogue computer program. The gimmick is if you stop moving, time stops around you (almost), allowing you to slow down and plan.
Lastly and is a game called Soccer Kids Alpha. It is literally the alpha version of the game so it is SUPER short. It is a turn based soccer game, but without the grid based system that some other games use. The alpha is great and we’ll worth the very short time it takes to finish
This might not be exactly what you’re looking for (as it can be a little rogue-like), but it’s a game that when I looked for similar things, led me to Dredge: Sunless Sea
You’re a ship captain trying to survive in Victorian era London, after London was stolen by bats and taken to the shores of the Unterzee, an underground sea filled with some very strange creatures, people and locations. This means exploring and finding new trade routes or ways to survive while uncovering the stories of the islands you find, those of your crew, and the larger world.
There’s a sequel, Sunless Skies, where you command a space going train exploring the heavens. It’s a bit easier and has some good quality of life improvements, but I prefer the setting of Seas.
Since you named Octopath Travellers 2, I’ll recommend Cosmic Star Heroine. It’s an old school turn-based indie JRPG that’s charming, fun and short. As a matter of fact all games by Zeboyd fit that description.
hypnospace outlaw is a great puzzle game with some excellent world building. it literally feels just like old internet days. and the music is fantastic “ready to shave” is a legit amazing song, even if its a prog parody about a man shaving
Haven’t played observer, but the aesthetic and horror aspect remind me of SOMA.
If you want something more action focused with a cyberpunk aesthetic, I can’t recommend Distance enough. (If you need a pitch: racing game with horror and your car can fly). I also just started playing Severed Steel and I’m enjoying it a lot so far.
I will also concur with the other person who recommended Outer Wilds. Don’t look up anything about it, go in as blind as possible, and try to see it through to the end. You will not regret it.
I wanted to love Soma, I tried playing twice now. I live for the ocean, so this should be right up my alley. But to be fair I never passed the apartment at the start.
I reaaaaally should stick with it and try again. Thanks for reminding me of my shame!
Observation is one I really enjoyed. Mild puzzling, tension but not really the sort that kills you, and a fun, mind-bending story. Also the title track is just amazing.
I’d like to recommend Pentiment. Narrative-driven game set in the Middle Ages, or rather at the end of the Middle Ages. It has an interesting story and according to some historians it’s historically accurate. I loved the story, the setting, the art…
Watch a review or something and give it a try if you find it of your liking.
Procession to Calavry is a point-and-click adventure game tagged as “medieval” and “dark comedy” which is spot on.
The Longing is a pretty experimental game about waiting. You can win the game by waiting 400 hours, or you can go for one of the alternative endings, all of them needing a lot of waiting around.
Return of the Obra Dinn is a game you should take your time in. Explore. Ponder. Explore. Ponder. It has been compared to filling in crosswords.
Ittle Dew is a puzzle game with a Zelda-ish style and cute punk comedy presentation.
One Finger Death Punch 2 makes you feel the way super cool martial arts fights scenes look.
