Indie 2d 8-bits RPGs?

Rhino

Anyone know any good 2d RPGs for PC? Preferable free [legally] and with more "modern" design.

Something like Zelda or Secert of Mana type of "combat" would be nice. (for the orignal Nintendo/super Nintendo).

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8-bit is stretching it some, but there are a fair number of SNES style RPGs around and a few of them are actually playable. There are even 3 or 4 that are actually good.

By modern design what do you mean? ATB? Those are rarer (harder to code) than standard turn based. Think FF4 rather than FF6 and you'll get the feel of most of them.

To start off I would recommend the two best, at least in terms of plot structure, characters, and game design (though both are relatively simple when it comes to combat -- no fancy graphics, think Lufia or older DQ games).

Three The Hard Way

Quite long, it'll probably take at least 30 hours if you just barrel through. A lot of characters to meet, a decent plot with plenty of mystery and many branching story paths. Fair number of secrets as well. Combat is straightforward, though there's no levelling; it uses a Crono Cross like system of stat progression through fighting harder monsters, which helps cut down on the grind. Graphics are quite simple, nothing custom, I don't remember the music, but most of these games use midi rips from other RPGs so whatever, I'm sure it's fine.

The Way

Uses more custom graphics and backgrounds, has a deeper battle system and a more involved story. It's also episodic, with each episode having exponentially more content than the last. There are quite a few different endings depending on the choices you make and how well you do in the different mini-games and side quests, though none of those are required. Be warned, though: the first episode and a half are pretty weak compared to the rest. Tough it out.

If you just want to rape monsters and level up then you could go for the Laxius Power games (google them). They've got nothing much going on for story or graphics, the dialogue is terrible (English isn't even the designer's first language, but I doubt it'd be much better in French), but there's a whole lot of dungeon crawling DQ style content to get through, with each game being longer than the last. And I think the first one takes at least 50 hours to get through.

There's also a fairly decent FF knockoff called Endless Nova. Think more FF7 than anything else, though. It's got the whole space + magic thing going on. Fairly middle of the road in most ways, but not offensiv. It'd be a solid rental game if you compared it to retail products. It also uses the Chrono Cross style character progression, but I think it has ATB combat.

Gandalf_the_Crazed

Like Zelda, you say?

Khavall

Remake of the granddaddy of all adventures

And bonus that it was done entirely by forumers here.