Jessica's Top 12 Solo Games to Relive the 80s

0:00 hey everyone I'm Jessica and I am so excited to talk about a fantastic topic today and that is the80s and some board games and RPGs in the solo realm that remind me of that time love the80s and these are games that sort of get across that sort of childlike sense of wonder and going on adventures in your own backyard and finding cool stuff out there stuff like The Goonies and ET The Never Ending Story there's tons of movies out there really with children as sort of that Central character and just going back and being able to go on all these cool Ventures out into the world and just discovering all this cool stuff and those stories you might ask why can I talk about the 80s and the reason mhm yeah that's me Circa 1980s I was around back then with this goofy look on my face and I'm here with a different goofy look on my face where I at everything now what are you going to do and the reason that I am doing this video partially because I love the 80s but also because I work for pencil first games and right now we have the siblings trouble expanded deluxe edition on Kickstarter and this one is fantastic for going on adventures as kids uh and just exploring telling stories there's so much cool stuff in this one and I enjoy it it is not necessarily for solo but I love telling stories about it to

1:30 myself and just seeing those really cool things that happen so check it out if you haven't already so let's get into some of these games and RPGs that remind me of this fantastic time period up first I will bring in here the cruso crew and this is a really interesting system where you actually have a grab a couple of these you have a map that is out there to explore where you kind of pick your destination and it is kind of like one of those old school not quite Game books um it is a game book in a sense but the cool thing about this is there are actually four different game books here and they all are for a different character so you'll go through and you know explore but each book is a little different because each of these kids has a unique ability and it's really fun because these are like those also it kind of has like a wear's Waldo which I think was kind of ' 80s I associate it with the 80s so I'm going to go with it but there are puzzles to work on and solve there are hidden numbers to look at um and it's a really cool book and system that works really really nicely I enjoy it solo although you can play it with multiple people um all going through the adventure together and it's just it's fun it's quick I like exploring it because it is I find something new every time because I'm pretty terrible at these types of

3:01 puzzles but but I get there um but that one it's really unique um and there are also in this graphic novel line from Van Ryder games lots of other ones that kind of get across that same sense of exploration and Adventure but this one I think definitely feels like it's 80s style Adventures um just for me at least going on these islands and you're playing as kids kind of just finding stuff really really cool stuff if we get into the RPG realm I'll kind of bump back and forth here this one is an interesting one it is titled top 10 games you can play in your head by yourself which may sound a little funky but it's not it's really cool um this one this is actually a newer book but it kind of has like an old style this looks 80s to me definitely gets that across I talk about solo journaling RPGs a lot where you will write down you know you have prompts you keep a journal you keep it going this one is actually like that minus the journal and minus having to do anything you play this in your head and what's cool about this is you are just using your imagination and you do whatever you want so there are all different types of modules that you can go through it's a little bit like guided meditation in a way so not going to be for everybody I tried this once to start out though to see if it was for me and there's like a quick exercise you do where you're you kind of like picture a house or a room that you create create you go in it you come out and then

4:32 there's an idea where you have your Shadow Self goes in there and takes something away and you need to figure out what's missing and I said what in the world am I doing what is this but it was actually pretty funny because it's me and After figuring out that this was a complete failure I was like wait it's myself I stole the door didn't I and that was it that was the solution to my little imaginary RPG we don't know what's going on with me but I have a lot of fun in life so that's that's all that matters so for Here solo games and random stuff from Jessica another game that is totally 80s at least for me is actually Fort which might seem like a different one because you're not really coming up with Adventures but Fort is about having sort of a clubhouse with different kids that come by and it's you know the gameplay is definitely not about creating stories but the artwork is fantastic I love having the idea of just like bringing in different kids who all have cool names it's not like you know standard first names they all sort of have nicknames um that come in there your resources are like pizza and toys and I still have to get it I mean I have it I haven't played with it yet but there is an expansion that includes dogs and cats fantastic stuff and that one just this one just really feels like being a kid and having fun with sort of that uh the clubhouse that you would have um and just really

6:02 fun things that you can do with your resources and building up your fort and doing all that this one I don't see it that often but there is an unofficial solo variant out there that I really like and that's really fun to play cool stuff what else ah yes threadbear a stitch Punk RPG this is like Toy Story before there was Toy Story and for me in the 80s I know this is not kids but I played with toys all the time stuffed animals they went on adventures and that's kind of like what this one is about it's sort of I believe the tagline is yes play a broken toy in a broken world there's no humans anymore it's toys that's it and they are exploring and going around the world it has all types of cool ideas where are some of the I mean they give you ideas for um different characters that you could Creator play as including socks and yes stealthy elephant if you know me I love elephants and I just work those into my random board game posts but just really fun different characters that you can play as and again you're playing as stuffed animals which to me feels like 80s you know this is these are not fancy toys this there's no electronics going on nobody's beeping or bopping or anything it's just toys let's see another cool RPG this one you can you is

7:33 supposed to be played in a group but you can play any RPG solo is girl underground and this one is about sort of a Coming of Age story about a child who is exploring and kind of has some characters that come in along the way I think the back of it explains it perfectly it's inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Labyrinth The Wizard of Oz Spirited Away and things in that realm which definitely feels 80s to me um and that just having that idea of having a child sort of experiencing all this cool stuff um and coming up with a story and you know she's got her she's got her friends along but just having that sense of cool stuff that you're finding along the way with these companions is a really nice adventure to go a little bit off to the side here in terms of something that's 80s but maybe not 80s children uh let's go with hunted I think you pronounced that what Kobayashi Tower yeah what is this this is Die Hard which is definitely 80s it is an argument whether or not it's a Christmas movie but it is most assuredly an 80s movie and that is exactly what this is there is a tower it plays out exactly as you would expect die hard to play out um it's very interesting I will say and totally 80s because yeah it's Die Hard um and you know you get you get the artwork that kind of reminds you of that a little bit without it being exactly

9:05 like die hard but this one is exactly Die Hard in many ways go 80s uh another one that reminds me of the 80s is ruama and this one is a really nice RPG this one is very much devoid of violence you have all types of creatures that you come across but you play as a traveler who is typically a younger person uh not always but typically so again it gets across that idea of children and playing as kids um and you just kind of explore the countryside you're going on adventures and just figuring out what's out there it is a very lengthy book that I love because it has so much cool stuff in here about the lore the artwork is awesome because this is a world inhabited by dragons um which is just cool there's a drag that goes along with everything you can find all different things out there um but the artwork is great and just gets across that sense of these fun adventures um very cozy and very nonviolent so sort of like Slice of Life which may not necessarily be 80s but I'm going to say it is what else is there here we go here's a cool one far away this one is more kind of like science fiction where you go on these missions and you set up this really interesting Map and find these

10:35 creatures that do different things and they're totally different species um and you're working to complete these different objectives and explore out there and there's so many unexpected things that happen but this one I think in a way reminds me of ET at least especially because there's just so many things that can happen so many surprises awesome things to come across and it's a really fun game filled with some humor too um I've had a lot of fun playing through it and I actually need to continue some of the missions I haven't finished the entire campaign yet but it is just it's really fun um and just figuring out what's out there and finding it and setting up the map every time is just so much fun I love it what else under the floorboards this is another RPG that I have played solo I actually played it like literally out where I had some of my little animal figures or Calico Critters who went around the house and kind of acted this out um but this one is a cool one about sort of exploring you're a very tiny tiny little person um kind of like the borrowers um just sort of going out there and exploring in the you know in a regular house and using different items um to figure out problems like a a coin can be a shield and stuff like that um but that really gets across that that sense of Wonderman and adventure and just shrinking down in size and looking at the world from a different

12:05 perspective it's it's really really fun um and I enjoyed it a lot when I played it I definitely need to do it again and you can again you can have multiple characters that play through this that's what I usually do with solo RPGs just gives a lot more stuff I know it adds a lot of upkeep but I enjoy it for those stories and how everyone's connected and this one definitely need to play that again sometime soon what else here's a good one Quest Lings RPG this one I actually had the opportunity to play as a play by Forum uh a little while ago and it was great what this is is you are playing as kids who are just ordinary kids going about their business in their town I think there's a nice map at the back here um of you know all the just the standard places that you would go around but you have your hero form that you actually transform into um so you know let's they have I love the illustrations they're so colorful and different um let's not get glare but there's you know there's different kids and then they have their hero forms that they transform into and you do all other different types of stuff and just go on cool adventures in your town um and all of those places just kind of transform into a magical place uh depending on what type of form you're in and it's very easy to get into it's a quick one um a great introduction to RPGs and you know there's not a lot

13:38 of upkeep there's not a lot of tracking of all these different stats um but it's just you know very very fun like you know you get the school which will transform into the Wizard's Tower and you have objectives you're working towards but really it's about telling that story and going on these cool Adventures as kids finally that's right my favorite arguably I usually don't pick favorites in these videos I just present a list but I'm going to say these might be my favorites why the movies that they're based on that's right Labyrinth the adventure game and the Dark Crystal the adventure game these are awesome do you can you get any more 80s than this um I still have yet to do The Dark Crystal but I have run a game of Labyrinth and this is so cool you go through the actual Labyrinth like from the movie there are different areas to explore and different things that can happen and it's random so you don't know exactly what areas you're going to go across but you kind of playing out the movie and it ends ultimately with meeting jarth I mean spoiler alert but not really this is this is an ' 80s movie come on I love it and yes this is a little bit tricky to play solo because there are some puzzles that have answers in there but it is a fantastic setting at least to set an

15:08 adventure in and I I can't get enough of it the cool thing though is that the Dark Crystal one is actually different in that you are not necessarily playing out the um plot of the movie or the TV series that arguably was cancelled way too soon that's another story but this one is more of an open world concept or I mean I don't know if I would necessarily call it a Sandbox style but instead of having a set path sort of in The Labyrinth one you actually have just the whole world that you can explore and go to you keep track of time so there are cool things that can happen um events that you may come across and yes you play through it and you reach the end I'm just trying to find I don't know what happened to my little map but there's there's a whole map there's a whole world world that you can explore and things that happen and this one I think is probably better in terms of playing solo just because it's not a set pattern um and there's not necessarily those puzzles that have Solutions but I love it so there we go a flashback to the 80s with me who yes once again alive in the 80s so I can talk about the 80s but yes so many cool games and if you you have any games or RPGs that remind you of the 80s feel free to share those in the comments I loved that time period I love the games that get across that sense of Discovery and just really

16:40 cool adventures and if there are more out there which I'm sure there are I would love to hear about him so as always thanks so much for watching and take care bye