LogFAQs > #977426707

57. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGcL4bcCbSU

ok so this one doesn't actually match the name of the tier, it didn't change the way I experienced games. But Oxenfree did, and Oxenfree II is a very good sequel even if it doesn't quite hit the highs of the original. This weird, creepy dimensional horror is just very appealing.

56. Chants of Sennaar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__hzPH3tcvA

This sort of problem-solving type of game seems to be slowly becoming more prominent in the indie a scene and I love to see it. Chants of Sennaar's main goal is to become a translator for several five different communities of people, each with an entirely different symbol-based language, none of which your character is familiar with. The order in which you navigate each community is open-ended, and you can pick up little bits of context in the way people talk to you, the symbols you see on signs, etc. The most exciting thing is when you can start to decipher how the design of a symbol can explain what type of word it denotes. For example, one language might use a vertical | symbol to suggest the word is a type of person, other languages might have recurring bits of symbols indicating verbs or adjectives or locations. One language uses repeated nouns to indicate plurality (ex. "man man" instead of "men") while others will have entirely different words or symbols to show the same thing. The only thing holding the game back from cracking the top 50 is some entirely unnecessary stealth sections that just distract from the language learning.

55. Deaths Door
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjnEg3ucXpc

I believe this is the last indie game I finished before creating this topic. Death's Door admittedly plays like a pretty standard isometric action-adventure. You've got your melee, your magic/ranged, your dodge rolls, etc. It's challenging but maybe nothing all that new for the genre. It feels kind of like an isometric Metroidvania. It falls into a very nice level of challenge; it's very difficult without ever getting into the zone that it becomes exhausting to try to continue. Where Death's Door succeeds the most is in its lore, as you play as a crow working as essentially one of many beaurecratic grim reapers under the leadership of the Lord of Doors, a godlike being that controls teleportation, allowing the death crows to collect their soul. You're tasked with collecting the souls of ancient and giants to access the door of True Death, and it's all just effortlessly cool and intriguing.