Virtual SEA
Games from Southeast Asia
When you browse the Steam catalogue, especially the “indie section”, you’ll get quickly overwhelmed by the number of roguelikes available. As another game in that genre, is Dungeon Souls from the Philippines really worth your time?
Pamali, which means abstinence, prohibition or things that should not be done at a certain place or time because they can cause evil.
Simulacra: Pipe Dreams is another found-phone-game and a successor to Simulacra as well as Sara Is Missing from Kaigan Games. All games have in common that they simulate a phone in your phone. This idea, which can also be found in several other mobile games like A Normal Lost Phone, helps to get more involved into the game – the immersion rises. So, also this spin-off of Simulacra feels and behaves like a phone of a nameless person or like “your” phone.
Who’s the main protagonist in the Harry Potter universe? Harry himself may be a good guess, he-who-must-not-be-named would make the best antagonist. Honestly, isn’t Hogwarts, the magical school, and home to all of Harry’s adventures the secret star? A school for magical kids with secrets everywhere, astonishing architecture and a curriculum that makes every other study look like boring chores. And then Hogwarts is lead by one of the most characteristic figures of all time: Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts. Ever since, players all around the world have been waiting to become the head of magical school themselves. And here comes “Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story” to fill this gap.
To sum it up, WanderjahR is a really hard game with nearly no story and a main focus on the new gameplay approach. If you can deal witch this and won’t back off when the enemies feel overpowered and unbearable – or you are used to this from soulslike or roguelike games–, then you should give it a try. Otherwise you should just … “walk away”.
Cat Quest could easily be mistaken as a standard casual game at first. Its game mechanics are simple, and the story isn’t very deep. Yet, it achieves to bridge the gap between casual and hardcore RPGs in a very satisfying way through challenging fights, a motivating leveling system and charming characters. Drawing inspiration from older Zelda titles and the aforementioned Skyrim, it delivers an entertaining little adventure that will keep you busy for a few hours and make you laugh a lot along the way.
All in all, “Jump, Step, Step” is a charming little game, which offers challenges for both puzzle lovers and more casual players. And of course, there’s Bob the bot. Bob is great.
In ‘Home Sweet Home’, we have to think of ways to survive, by being stealthy, hiding from evil spirits and also solving some puzzles. The storyline is unique, and I think it’s one of the freshest story-lines I’ve ever played in Asian horror games.
Legion Tale is a turn-based RPG with tactical encounters and quick-time-events (QTEs). It tells a common fantasy story about a kingdom divided by war, an outside aggressor that is both evil and ugly and of course a hero who will save the world.
The Letter is a visual novel made by Filipino studio Yang Yang Mobile and it takes the consequences of such a chain letter very seriously. The game is inspired by Japanese and Korean ghost stories such as The Grudge or The Ring, so players might have an idea what to expect already.
Steam Greenlight is dead! After almost 5 years, Valve closes down its community driven publishing system in favour of a new system, called Steam Direct, with the goal to increase the quality of the published games and to avoid fraud. Steam Direct will go live June 13th, which still gives us some time to take a look at the most recent – and last- contributions from Southeast East Asian game developers. This time, we have a wide variety of games from Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines. Let’s hope we will still see some of these games on Steam later!
Overall, Orbiz is a good debut game and a fun past-time with friends who like a challenging retro experience. Good zombie hunting!
In its core mechanics, Multishop Tycoon Deluxe is a mix between notorious idle clickers and casual managing games. As the manager of an uprising street food company, your goal is to become the most successful tycoon in a fictional city.
Sairento VR by indie developers Mixed Realms and Swag Soft from Singapore tries to challenge the market with its own take on first-person action in virtual reality.
Five years after Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken, independent developer studio Ratloop Asia from Singapore returns with their sequel Rocketbirds 2: Evolution. Like its predecessor, Rocketbirds 2 is a 2d shooter spiced up with over-the-top action and cheesy humour.
Stellar Stars is a multiplayer rogue-lite set in a 2d sci-fi world. It offers various game modes and challenging gameplay.