It's already been mentioned, but i'd pitch in with Night in the Woods too, amazing indie-game with some of the same themes as LiS and Oxenfree.
Telltale games has already been mentioned multiple times, and I believe that because of their episodic nature and "choices have consequences", but story wise they differ. I'd still recommend them, even though I've only played The Wolf Among Us, and watched LPs of the Walking Dead seasons. In case of TWD i feel like season 1 was the best, and its been going weirdly downhill since. They've announced that season 4 is gonna be the last, and I'm kinda excited to see how they're gonna finish this story.
LiS also have a prequel made by Deck Nine called Before the Storm, which has 2 out of 3 or 4 episodes out at this time, you probably know about it, but I just wanna mention it in case you have missed it.
Other indie games that are not really like LiS, that I can recommend would be
Journey, you might've heard about it. It's for PS3 and PS4, and it's probably one of my favourite games. It takes a couple hours to finish, but I personally feel like it got replay value. It's the kind of game I wip out once in a while when I got a couple hours to kill and just wanna have a good time. You get to play with a stranger who may or may not have played the game before, and you just get to go on this journey together. Maybe your partner knows where all the secrets are and wants to show you, or maybe you're two new players who get to explore this world together for the first time. Idk how to explain it, but it always leaves me with such a good feeling once I've played through Journey with 1 or more amazing partners.
I haven't played ABZÛ yet, but it's made by a guy who also worked on Journey, and the soundtrack is made by the same composer who made the awesome OST for Journey, and it looks amazing imo.
I feel like I gotta recommend Playdead's Limbo and Inside, just because of the slim sliver of national pride I got in me. They're dark sidescroller platform games with each their own little story. Check them out if you want to
Unravel is also a really beautiful sidescroll platform game where you play as a little yarn being travelling through the Swedish nature collecting memories. It got this really specific atmosphere of a Swedish countryside home that I haven't experienced since I was a child and watched Pettson och Findus. I haven't finished Unravel myself, so I actually don't know how much it got in terms of story, but I do wanna recommend it solely based on it's aesthetic and game mechanics.
Undertale. Probably heard of it, still wanna recommend it. |