When people think of fantasy games, they often envision RPGs like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt or, well, Final Fantasy; however, fantasy games cover way more than just RPGs, as they can be fantastic settings in platformers like Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, or action-adventure games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
All of those examples are masterpieces, but they are well-known. What about some fantasy games that come close to greatness, but because they weren't perfect, a lot of fans didn't get to them? Astalon: Tears of the Earth, The Last Story, Battle Chasers: Nightwar, and more are waiting to be revisited, so let's go through why.
Astalon: Tears Of The Earth
Three Heroes, One Destiny
Astalon: Tears of the Earth is a 2D Metroidvania where players can swap between three different heroes at campfires, which serve as checkpoints in the castle. Arias is a standard warrior with a sword and shield, Kyuli has a bow, and Algus is a wizard. There are advantages and disadvantages to each character, like having stronger defense with Arias over Algus’s glass cannon archetype. It plays well, the music is great, and the 8-bit aesthetics are a fun throwback to the NES era, and it’s still around.
Battle Chasers: Nightwar
A 90s Comic Returns
Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a turn-based RPG based on a comic from the late 90s and early 2000s that was left on a cliffhanger. Regardless of whether players read the comic or not, it’s a simple enough fantasy plot to follow, involving warriors, magic, and monsters. It may not be much narratively, but the art design is impeccable with its big, bulky characters and heavily drawn lines. The combat design is simple, yet enjoyable, and the inclusion of a world map was novel at the time of its release, serving as a throwback to old-school RPGs that can be played in a few different ways.
Bloodstained: Curse Of The Moon
Old-School Castlevania Reborn
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is another homage to the 8-bit era, but this one plays like the more linear NES Castlevania games. Specifically, it’s modeled after Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse, which lets players swap between multiple characters. In Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, players can swap between a katana wielder, two different styles of mages, and a whip cracker. Unlike the NES Castlevania games, this homage actually plays well, as does its successor on nearly any platform players choose.
Overshadowed by its bigger sibling, Ritual of the Night, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon was somewhat treated like a nice little bonus. ROTN is fantastic and deserves all the praise in the world, but Curse of the Moon is far more than just a side dish to the main course. It is a fully fleshed out game and a great celebration of the genre's roots.
Boktai: The Sun Is In Your Hand
Go Outside, Touch Grass
Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand was a vampire-hunting top-down action game released for the GBA with one strange gimmick: the cartridge had a solar panel attached. By charging up in sunlight, players could effectively kill their enemies better.
The big bosses of each area were vampires, which required players to literally drag them out of their castles, in their coffins, and expose them to sunlight to finish the job. It was a process, but it was still a cool novelty for the GBA that is still great to play, provided players still had their GBA kicking around.
Champions of Norrath: Realms Of EverQuest
Diablo For The PS2
Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest was one of many Diablo-style top-down action RPGs of the 2000s. This was an exclusive for the PS2, along with its sequel, which spun off from the EverQuest MMO. It is still sadly exclusive to the PS2, which is one reason why it’s more forgotten than most. Regardless of its legacy, players can still have a blast hacking and slashing all manner of monsters and undead creatures with the various classes. They can gather loot, level up, and either play alone or with friends in couch co-op.
Although not especially novel by the genre's modern standards, Champions of Norrath was a polished and addictive dungeon crawler that was tailor-made for consoles. It didn't have the reach of Diablo, but it more than deserves to be remembered as a minor classic.
Read the full article on GameRant
This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.
