Hey everyone, the Steam Summer Sale is in full swing, and I’m here to help give you a buying guide since many of our favorite niche titles are on sale. Because there’s so much to choose from, I’ll try my best to narrow it down by category while pointing out some special deals going on as well. There are some interesting bundles that went up as well, which I’ll start you with since there are some really nice games packaged within.
Bundle Deals
The Metroidvania Bundle, priced at $43.05, offers five excellent platformer/exploration games: Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, Strider, Axiom Verge, Salt and Sanctuary, and Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight. If you’re a fan of this type of game, you owe it to yourself to get these. But if that isn’t enough Metroidvania for you, you can always try Dust: An Elysian Tail, Bunny Must Die , Rabi-Ribi , Castle in the Darkness , or La-Mulana .
There’s also the Summer Sale JRPG Bundle, which nets you Valkyria Chronicles, Tales of Zestiria, Hyperdimension Re;Birth 1, Disgaea PC, and Agarest: Generations of War. While I feel that Agarest is the weakest game of this bunch, I still can’t deny that this is an awesome package for the price of $42.88 that gives you a taste of the kind of JRPGs you can expect to find on Steam. Still craving more JRPGs? Not to worry, all the Ys and Trails games are also on sale, in addition to the rest of the Neptunia series and Fairy Fencer F. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the fantastic Recettear from Carpe Fulgur, Evoland II, and Grandia II: Anniversary Edition. The recently released Stranger of Sword City from NIS America is also on sale.
Action Games
When I think action, I think Dark Souls. While not exactly niche, it’s a satisfying series that gets the adrenaline going, especially during boss fights. I very much enjoyed Dark Souls III on the PC, and I think you will too, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them. If you’re more into hack n’ slash, I would recommend any of the following: RWBY: Grimm Eclipse, Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus (my re-review is here), Way of the Samurai 4, or Killer Is Dead.
Fighting Games
There are many fine fighting games on Steam, with some great ports, and others which are not so great. I’d contend that Ultra Street Fighter IV is a better game than Street Fighter V, but both are on sale and you’ll probably want to pick up V to stay current at least. You also have the very well done Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code, Arcana Heart 3 Love MAX!!!!!, BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend, and last but not least, Koihime Enbu.
Shmups/Bullet Hell
For the masochist in you, there’s a lot of great bullet hell titles to choose from. Playism has you covered here with Astebreed and REVOLVER360 RE:ACTOR, and Degica has three I love, namely Deathsmiles, ESCHATOS, and Mushihimesama. You’ll also want to check out the Suguri games, Sora, and QP Shooting! – Dangerous!! .
Platformers
With an Xbox or DS4 controller in hand, there’s a lot of fun platforming games to play on Steam. Here’s a few that I really enjoyed: Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Drive Edition, DuckTales: Remastered, Freedom Planet, Broforce, and Azure Striker Gunvolt.
Visual Novels
Sekai Project has the lion’s share of visual novels published on Steam, and probably the most titles on sale by a country mile. They even have a Sakura Bundle for $38.71 which has all the Sakura games in it, including the recently released Sakura Dungeon. Now as far as personal recommendations go, I’d have to go with Nekopara vol. 1 (press P for plot!), Lucy – The Eternity She Wished For – , planetarian, and the epic The Fruit of Grisaia.
That’s all from me – is there anything you think I missed or got wrong? Please share your suggestions and recommendations below in the comments.
