Islands of the Caliph similar games & best alternatives

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Islands of the Caliph

PC (Microsoft Windows) • 2023

Should you play it?

Islands of the Caliph is an old-school inspired action RPG based on Middle Eastern folklore and Islamic spiritual tradition. A KEYBOARD ONLY 1980s style Dungeon Crawler with an open world.

What works
  • Unique islamic and middle eastern setting
  • Immersive exploration and worldbuilding
  • Atmospheric music and pixel art
  • Old-school dungeon crawler gameplay
  • Meaningful quest consequences and replayability
Things to keep in mind
  • Keyboard-only controls with clunky inventory management
  • Single save slot with punishing autosave on death
  • Tedious backtracking and repetitive fetch quests
  • Minimal character progression and combat depth
  • Some bugs and unclear quest guidance

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feel the closest overall

  • Little Big Adventure

  • Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas

  • Super Chibi Knight

  • Steel Seed

  • Rogue Port - Blue Nightmare

  • 蛊婆 Lady in Tomb

  • Dread Delusion

  • Shattered Divinities

  • Venetica - Gold Edition
Hidden Gems

Less popular games with surprisingly high similarity

  • Little Big Adventure

  • Steel Seed

  • Rogue Port - Blue Nightmare
If you liked…

Recommendations by what you enjoyed most

  • Exploration

    Cloudheim
  • Escapism

    Conan Exiles Enhanced
  • Value

    DEATH IN UNISON

Similarity map

Explore nearby similar games and see why they’re close.

How to use the graph
Similarity map

Each dot is a game. They are arranged from the same motivation profile as in the “Why this game works” section below. Closer dots usually mean more similar reasons to play (exploration, competition, relaxation, etc.)—not that one game is “better” than another.

  • Purple star: this page’s game — everything on the map is relative to it.
  • Coloured chips: click to highlight games that mainly differ on that motivation; click again to reset.
  • Dotted line: link between this page’s game and the one selected for comparison.
  • Hover a dot for a screenshot preview, score, and top score gaps; click to compare in the panel on the right.
  • Scroll or double-click the chart to zoom out and see more games.

Why don’t the axes read like a score? This view uses t-SNE: it only keeps who is close to whom. The scales are not “good to bad” or hours played—they separate groups on the map. Read distance between dots, not the axis numbers (hidden on purpose).

Islands of the Caliph: Broadly representative of its motivational profile, with a few distinct shifts. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Expression, Fellowship, Cooperation, Competition. Here, the score leans higher than usual among comparable games on Exploration, Continuation, Health.

Why this game works

A motivational profile of the game, with the closest similar game for each player motivation.

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  • Competence

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  • Competition

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  • Continuation

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  • Creativity

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  • Domination

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  • Escapism

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    "Immersive world and survival gameplay provide strong escape from real life"

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  • Expectation

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  • Expression

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  • Fantasy

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    "Fantasy elements like magic, mythical enemies, and medieval setting provide imaginative fiction experience."

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  • Fellowship

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  • Growth

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  • Health

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    "Sedentary gameplay with some survival elements; no physical activity or rehab aspects."

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  • Idle

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  • Intimacy

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  • Relaxation

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Last update: 12/07/2026