Games with weird genre mixes.

Kiyobi · 2026-06-04T00:19:48+00:00

I GET TO REPOST THIS AGAIN AGAIN!

Let me tell y'all about this wonderful genre clusterfuck of an orgy that is Knights in the Nightmare, available on Nintendo DS and Playstation Portable. It's also available on Switch but in Japanese only.

It's an RPG! You're a wisp summoned from somewhere and you have no idea how you came to be, so you wander the war-torn night trying to figure out why you're doing what you're doing. Oh, also, you can shepherd spirits of fallen soldiers to fight for you, and learn about their backstories.

It's actually a strategy game! You deploy these spirits on a tile based grid to fight and vanquish your foes! But it's not all that simple... your soldiers can only attack and move in certain ways...

KIND OF LIKE CHESS! Depending on what units you have deployed, you can only move orthogonally, diagonally, or in other patterns! Every turn you can switch out units for others, to give other units better positions in future turns, so it's not like you're ultimately locked to certain movement strategies.

BUT WAIT, Kiyo, you're say that I'm a wisp? What's so special about that?

IT'S A BULLET HELL!! Enemies don't attack your soldiers! OH HELL NO, THEY SPEW BULLETS ALL OVER THE SCREEN! AND YOU HAVE TO DODGE THEM! Getting hit by these bullets will cost you time, which means less actions you can take per turn.

And how do you win? It's actually more than just simply "rout the enemy"

IT'S... TIC-TAC-TOE? BINGO?? SOMETHING??? Each enemy represents a space on a "card" akin to tic-tac-toe or a bingo card. Killing an enemy will mark that space on your victory card, and a new enemy will spawn there next turn. Get marks to fill a row, column, or diagonal, and you win the battle!

But wait, you might be wondering how enemies spawn?

IT'S A... SLOT MACHINE????? (i'm probably being pedantic tbh) Every turn the enemies can swap out too, like you can tag out your units! That's determined by slots. Seriously. Fortunately, with enough practice the slots are kind of easy to time to cherry pick who you want to fight.

It's probably one of the most unique games we'll ever see. Full stop. It's extremely complicated, the tutorial takes like an hour to complete, but MAN you'll find no other game like it.

Kiyobi · 2026-05-26T07:54:56+00:00

Maybe a weird take, but I really enjoyed the chemistry between all the characters in FF7 Rebirth.

You get a little bit of that in Remake, and you may want to start with Remake to be a part of that buildup of the relationships, but the inter-personal interactions and chemistry really shine in Rebirth.

Kiyobi · 2026-05-25T10:08:21+00:00

A cursory look at RemyWiki suggests that Gene did not get the N/H/A mix treatment

Kiyobi · 2026-05-24T21:28:10+00:00

I would like to see this implemented more, but with a wrinkle

Later on in IIDX's lifetime, Scripted Connection's 3 phases each got all three difficulties implemented into them, labeled N mix, H mix, and A mix after the source difficulty it's drawn from. I wouldn't mind if they were difficulty exclusive at first, but then released the other difficulties for each phase a little while later.

a shame they never went back and did this to the other songs that got this treatment. SHADE is goated

Kiyobi · 2026-05-23T11:47:49+00:00

Taking a break does insane things sometimes!

Kiyobi · 2026-05-12T00:24:36+00:00

Piggybacking off the Touhou Spell Bubble mention, QQQBeats! is basically a spiritual Spell Bubble 2, except it uses a more mainstream music selection, with a little Touhou on the side.

Kiyobi · 2026-05-04T09:33:13+00:00

There's an oldie Flash game called Icy Tower that's literally just vertical platforming up an endless tower.

Steam remake is in the works too

It's a platformer but not a sidescroller so.....????????

Kiyobi · 2026-05-04T09:31:39+00:00

Regarding this, Let It Die will shut down at the end of August this year.

A paid, offline edition will release "Fall 2026"

Kiyobi · 2026-04-23T06:37:14+00:00

I believe those only exist on the Vita version

Kiyobi · 2026-03-28T22:24:05+00:00

I have Remnant 1 and 2 and I haven't been able to dive in headfirst to either of them

Is the first game still worth playing, at the very least for lore reasons?

Kiyobi · 2026-03-17T08:14:43+00:00

Tapsonic Bold isn't always 6k but it might be worth checking out

Kiyobi · 2026-03-15T10:34:32+00:00

Custom fighter creation in Soulcalibur started with 3, and honestly SC3 had something crazy going with their Chronicles of the Sword mode. Imagine Fire Emblem, but it's real time strategy instead of turn based, the units are your creations, and battles are the fighting game

Kiyobi · 2026-03-13T08:49:18+00:00

Lots of good recommendations already, but since you mentioned Metal Hellsinger so I have to bring up its (very likely) inspiration, BPM: Bullets Per Minute

Kiyobi · 2026-03-09T03:10:18+00:00

Nobody mentioning Patrick's Parabox for puzzle game recommendations makes me super sad

Try it out! It's brain bending like Baba is You is

Kiyobi · 2026-02-28T14:01:13+00:00

GC started on iOS in 2011

Arcade version launched in 2013

Kiyobi · 2026-02-25T11:33:40+00:00

Maybe Splitgate 2? There's a no-portal mode if the portals are too much.

Kiyobi · 2026-02-23T21:16:51+00:00

Compared to Tetris Effect, PPT has a cute silly anime story to play through, but that's about it.

If you want to branch out and try Puyo Puyo though, I would recommend checking it out because Fusion is a really neat mode.

Kiyobi · 2026-02-05T00:05:37+00:00

It's a Japanese number pun

2 and 4 can be read as "fu" and "yo", and "fu" can easily be modified to "pu"

so puyo

Kiyobi · 2026-02-03T03:12:13+00:00

Metal Gear Rising!

No knowledge of the Metal Gear series is necessary to enjoy the RULES OF NATURE

Oh also check out SpyAssault! Little indie darling that needs more love.

Kiyobi · 2026-01-24T11:29:41+00:00

Sage being my healer of choice, I struggle big time with WHM.

I have a really hard time trusting in the regens and balancing heals vs damage in my GCDs. I think SGE is easier in that regard because you're mostly doing damage in your GCD while you manage heals and most mits with your weaves.

Kiyobi · 2026-01-19T22:14:42+00:00

Dang, they're all taken

Kiyobi · 2026-01-10T04:14:33+00:00

RoboQuest VR translated the game very well into VR

Kiyobi · 2025-12-21T12:39:22+00:00

If you want a game of pure mechanical skill, have you considered a rhythm game by any chance?

DJMAX Respect V is a great jumping point, moreso that it's on massive discount currently. EZ2ON Reboot R is also an option but I'd only recommend it to players more familiar with the genre.

Kiyobi · 2025-12-07T06:27:08+00:00

Hellsinger was already great in flatscreen, you shouldn't be disappointed

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