Vagrant Story might not count as "early" but it's one of the best examples of heavy limitations contributing to a distinctive visual style and atmosphere.
Large games have at least one of those: FMVs, pre-rendered backgrounds, voices or CD audio tracks.
VS only has a small intro FMV and none of the rest. The data is mostly low-poly models and nicely crafted textures.
Nightmare Creatures
Soul Reaver
Severance: Blade of Darkness
Rune
Tecmo's Deception / Kagero series
Shadow Tower
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, if medieval Japan with demons can be considered fantasy.
Baroque has more of a fricked up techno-fantasy aesthetic. Was released originally on Sega Saturn, was ported to PS1, but never had a Western release. Was remade for PS2 and Wii, but this version has more of an anime look).
Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness have some decent atmospheric moments.
King's Field / Shadow Tower
Castlevania 64
Shadowman
Nightmare Creatures
Soul Reaver
Dark Earth (related)
Koudelka (mix of JRPG and survival horror, followed by Shadow Hearts series)
Blade of Darkness
Rune
McGee's Alice
Clive Barker's Undying
Arx Fatalis
Dark Vengeance. Not the greatest game, and pretty obscure, but I had fun with it in the past.
Music by Alexander Brandon too, though not his most notable work.
Ecstatica 1 and 2 are pretty interesting.
Ultima Underwear
Shadowgate 64
Vagrant Story might not count as "early" but it's one of the best examples of heavy limitations contributing to a distinctive visual style and atmosphere.
Not OP but I've always wanted to play this and I'll do it today
vagrant story is one of the coolest looking games and it really pains me it is such a chore to play.
I went to download this a couple of days ago and was surprised to see it's only 90mb somehow. I expected it to be a big multi disc game.
Large games have at least one of those: FMVs, pre-rendered backgrounds, voices or CD audio tracks.
VS only has a small intro FMV and none of the rest. The data is mostly low-poly models and nicely crafted textures.
Motherfricking QUAKE
Die by the Sword
Deathtrap Dungeon
Shadow Tower
Dark earth absolutely recommended
French postapoc jank with sovl overload
Finished it back in the day. It was pretty cool, if clunky.
Read a bit about it, sounds cool. Is it on GOG?
Not yet
Castlevania 64
Can be frustrating at times but the atmosphere is killer.
Nightmare Creatures
Soul Reaver
Severance: Blade of Darkness
Rune
Tecmo's Deception / Kagero series
Shadow Tower
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, if medieval Japan with demons can be considered fantasy.
Baroque has more of a fricked up techno-fantasy aesthetic. Was released originally on Sega Saturn, was ported to PS1, but never had a Western release. Was remade for PS2 and Wii, but this version has more of an anime look).
Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness have some decent atmospheric moments.
Forgot Crusaders / Warriors of Might and Magic
>Tecmo's Deception / Kagero series
Looks intriguing, how similar/different is it to King's Field gameplay-wise?
>how similar/different is it to King's Field gameplay-wise?
They are completely different.
Daggerfall
Oh shit bros I feel strange I didn't take my meds today
REEE
>1998
>early 3D
WAAH, PCs COULD DO 3D IN 1864, FRICK OFF CONSOLEgayS AAAAAA
This but unironically. Alternate Reality on Atari 8-bit was the first true 3D fantasy RPG.
Nobody cares.
The 90s is when 3D became mainstream.
The TES one with the wizards tower is supposed to have a pretty depressing tone.
HereticII was a great game. I enjoyed it natively on Linux :3c
Summoner? It's kind of ugly and the character faces look like ghouls that didn't eat in a century
The sequel has big booba after the original was deemed too drab
Too bad it was never ported to PC
Played the PS2 version to death. The load times are burned into my brain
King's Field
King's Field / Shadow Tower
Castlevania 64
Shadowman
Nightmare Creatures
Soul Reaver
Dark Earth (related)
Koudelka (mix of JRPG and survival horror, followed by Shadow Hearts series)
Blade of Darkness
Rune
McGee's Alice
Clive Barker's Undying
Arx Fatalis
>Koudelka
Medieval is really fun. It's a dark comedy fantasy game.
Soul Reaver.
Thief: The Dark Project/Thief Gold
This. Game gives me an old school fantasy vibe like no other
Archangel
Pool of Radiance
Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone
Dungeon Lords
Arx fatalis is great. It also has a pretty good open source engine project which is the best way to play.
Quake
Hexen 2
Heretic 2
Die by the Sword
Blade of Darkness
American McGee's Alice
Clive Barker's Undying
KISS: Psycho Circus
Enclave
2.5D but worth to mention:
Witchaven 1/2
Realms of the Haunting
Daggerfall
Not much to add that others haven't already mentioned, but I'd also include Brightis and Enclave.
Drakan: Order of the Flame
Has no one said Drakengard yet because it's not early enough or just because everyone already knows?
Catacomb.
https://www.gog.com/en/game/catacombs_pack
An ID software game which predates wolfenstein 3d, it was also better.
You can download the shareware game Catacomb abyss for free and run it in dosbox. Give it a chance its actually quite fun.
Rune classic
Thief 1 and 2, Dark Project/Gold especially.
plus the fan missions.
>you live in a timeline where into the shadows never gets released before quake and blows id out of the fricking water
WHY EVEN LIVE
Dark Vengeance. Not the greatest game, and pretty obscure, but I had fun with it in the past.
Music by Alexander Brandon too, though not his most notable work.