Games you have never heard of that are really good?

i got the idea for this thread when my aunt got drunk yesterday (lol sucker) and let slip that she got me a game for 7 dollars for PSP called Kingdom of Paradise.

I <3 games so i got excited and google'd for oogles about it and... it seems super rare. It is almost as old as i am (big suprise right) but it never really seems like a lot of people have played it but the people that have 8 out of 10 think it is a great game and one of the best action RPGs on the PSP.

it is exciting for me because i do not have a action RPG on my psp yet and I am not sure if i have ever even played one before ;o

so the question is asked... what rare games that are actually really good and deserve to be played by way more people? discuss =D


~Betsy~

Definitely Earthbound. One of the best game of all time IMO.

Freelancer. Best PC game ever in terms of raw gameplay.
And easily the best space sim of all time.

Saga Frontier 1 & 2. Love the art style.

I played Panzer Dragoon Saga when I was younger as the Sega Saturn Magazine gave out the first disc for free as a demo. I read that in Europe and America they only intended to release 6,000 copies which wasn't enough to cover the pre-orders. They increased that number to 30,000 and the game now sells for upwards for £200 on ebay.

Quite a bit of fun too.

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Originally Posted by NeoExdeath

Definitely Earthbound. One of the best game of all time IMO.

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I'm going to have to agree. For the longest time I did not know how a game could be so good but yet have so few people even know of its existence. It seems more people are aware of it and have played it now then 10 years ago, so maybe it is not as rare anymore. It is a wonderful game and brings back a lot of fond memories.

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Originally Posted by Elskidor

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Originally Posted by NeoExdeath

Definitely Earthbound. One of the best game of all time IMO.

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I'm going to have to agree. For the longest time I did not know how a game could be so good but yet have so few people even know of its existence. It seems more people are aware of it and have played it now then 10 years ago, so maybe it is not as rare anymore. It is a wonderful game and brings back a lot of fond memories.

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I'm guessing the emulating community has helped with that.

Brave Fencer Musashi
Tail Concerto
Intelligent Qube
Poy Poy
Fur Fighters: Viggo's Revenge
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory


These are all awesome games I don't hear talked about too often. I'm having more difficulty thinking of games like this in the current generation, though. I feel like back in the day there were so many more games that were under the radar and still had a chance to be good. I guess the cost and resources required to develop a modern game are much higher than they used to be so there aren't as many random diamonds in the rough.

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Originally Posted by Elskidor

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Originally Posted by NeoExdeath

Definitely Earthbound. One of the best game of all time IMO.

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I'm going to have to agree. For the longest time I did not know how a game could be so good but yet have so few people even know of its existence. It seems more people are aware of it and have played it now then 10 years ago, so maybe it is not as rare anymore. It is a wonderful game and brings back a lot of fond memories.

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Nintendo didn't market it properly.

From the puke-scented scratch and sniff stickers, to the game's official motto (which was, "this game stinks!") it was pretty much doomed. That, and Nintendo had no prior experience with RPGs, other than the first Mother game.

There were plenty of great unknown games on the PSP especially. There was a Kingdom of Paradise 2, which was Japan-only, I believe. It was even better. There was also Crimsongem Saga, which was another good RPG. The Death Jr. games were great too.

If I've never heard of it, how can I know if it's any good or not!

The Little Big Adventure games. They're great 90s adventure games with amazing characters and stuff.

(They're not related to Little Big Planet by the way)

Ghost Trick
Last Ranker
Ys (entire series)
Legend of Heroes (6 onwards)

Ghost Trick is a puzzle game/visual novel by the creators of Ace Attorney. You've just been killed, and as your ghost, you only have one night to solve the mystery of your own murder. This game has one of the best stories and some of the most mind-blowing plot twists I have ever seen.

Last Ranker is an awesome and highly unique Imageepoch RPG. Unsurprisingly, it was never localized. It has a very atypical (but good!) battle system and a somewhat unusual method of progression as well. It also has an incredible soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura.

Ys is a bit more well-known, due to the fact that Steam has given it some exposure. Nevertheless, it's still a pretty obscure series, and I feel it really deserves more recognition (as do all of Falcom's games).

Legend of Heroes is another series by Falcom. Unlike Ys, which focuses on intense action-RPG gameplay, Legend of Heroes focuses on story, character development and world-building. The series was pretty good through the first five games, with the exception of the horrible PSP ports of 3-5, which suffered a huge downgrade to the battle system. Bandai's localization didn't do them any favors either, as they were numbered and released in the wrong order and featured possibly the worst translation to ever exist. (I didn't have eaten a unusual today!) However, the sixth game, Sora no Kiseki, was excellent, and received an excellent localization by XSeed that didn't ruin anything. You may know it as Trails in the Sky. It even spawned its own series, which continued with Sora no Kiseki SC, Sora no Kiseki the 3rd, Zero no Kiseki, Ao no Kiseki, Sen no Kiseki, and Nayuta no Kiseki. Unfortunately, none of these have been localized yet, but they are all fantastic RPGs that deserve far more recognition than they get.

Some excellent replies in this topic, Freelancer and the two Little Big Adventure games (particularly the second one) are absolute must-have titles.

Grim Fandango is apparently quite rare, so that came to mind straight away. It's made by the same guys who do the Monkey Island stuff, so you know what you're getting with that one.

I've also got an RPG on the Playstation called Blaze & Blade, the game itself is awful but it's immense fun as a co-op game. More RPGs need to have this feature, it's something that make Secret of Mana one of my all-time favourites as well.

I suppose Eternal Darkness can qualify. It's so rare it's actually worth one hundred dollars on Amazon brand new. It's a survivor horror game with a pretty cool story and a sanity meter where things really start to go nuts the lower it gets. It even scared my cousin once because it said his memory card was erased. It's available for the Gamecube.

Another is Evil Zone. A fighting game heavily inspired by Japanese anime and is a fun fighter as well as having a good story and characters whose histories connect for the original Sony PlayStation.

I've actually borrowed a copy of Eternal Darkness to play. It doesn't really seem scary at all from the beginning, but I can see the sanity stuff really messing with me.

Populous 3 aka Populous: The Beginning, a PC game from 1998. It was a bit hard to find even when I bought it in early 2000's. Unlike other Populous games, you aren't a god, you're just a shaman. Terraforming was very satisfying. As was creating a tornado or volcano directly in the middle of someone else's village. Supposedly you can get the game now from here but I don't know if this is legit, and it probably isn't legal.

Populous: The Beginning is available on GOG.com, for anyone who is interested. x}

Both of these have already been mentioned but:
Ghost Trick on the DS and Eternal Darkness of GameCube.

Clannad.

You can make an argument about how much of a game a visual novel actually is, but it's underappreciated on this side of the globe either way. Probably because it never actually reached it... and the only way to play it is to (*cough*) import (*cough*) it all the way from Japan and patch it in English. But it's so damn worth it.

I only just discovered it in mid-October and I can say, without a doubt in my mind, that it has my favorite story and cast of characters to date (quite skillfully took that away from Final Fantasy). I got to know it through the anime culture, but well, turns out the original visual novel is superior, go figure. Although I don't regret having seen the animated series beforehand.

It's about 40-60 hours long, depending on your reading speed and whether or not you use guides / how good you are at making the right choices. It's an amazing experience. It also has one of my all-time favorite soundtracks, on par with some Final Fantasy soundtracks.

I am disappointed and have a formal complaint. I have heard of more than half of the games mentioned in this thread.

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Originally Posted by Jinx

If I've never heard of it, how can I know if it's any good or not!

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i guess i should have said games that you had never heard of :x

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Originally Posted by Ghosteses

i got the idea for this thread when my aunt got drunk yesterday (lol sucker) and let slip that she got me a game for 7 dollars for PSP called Kingdom of Paradise.

I <3 games so i got excited and google'd for oogles about it and... it seems super rare. It is almost as old as i am (big suprise right) but it never really seems like a lot of people have played it but the people that have 8 out of 10 think it is a great game and one of the best action RPGs on the PSP.

it is exciting for me because i do not have a action RPG on my psp yet and I am not sure if i have ever even played one before ;o

so the question is asked... what rare games that are actually really good and deserve to be played by way more people? discuss =D


~Betsy~

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I played a ton of this game until I got stuck and waited too long to look up hints or walkthroughs and lost interest. But until then it was surprisingly good for an older lower budget game. Everyone compared it to Jade Empire, which was a well received game that BioWare did before Mass Effect when they wanted to finally do their own IP after doing a bunch of super high quality licensed games

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Originally Posted by Mister Adequate

The Little Big Adventure games. They're great 90s adventure games with amazing characters and stuff.

(They're not related to Little Big Planet by the way)

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Here the second one was called Twinsen's Odyssey. ​I really enjoyed that game when it came out! Ah the 90's... Full of gems.

Chulips: I bought this on a whim in a double-pack from SEARS. I really didn't expect much from it. The game paired with it: Falling Stars is one I mention in the worst games possible thread.

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Originally Posted by Ghosteses

i got the idea for this thread when my aunt got drunk yesterday (lol sucker) and let slip that she got me a game for 7 dollars for PSP called Kingdom of Paradise.

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I've heard of KoP. I heard it got generally negative reviews for simplicity (graphics, gameplay, story, etc.), I've never played it because I never picked up a lot of games for PSP (luckily, since my PSP broke). I did own Dissidia and Final Fantasy I&II and Dungeon Maker. Now the only game I own is Crisis Core which remains the only reason I want to get a replacement PSP.

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Originally Posted by Vyk

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Originally Posted by Ghosteses

i got the idea for this thread when my aunt got drunk yesterday (lol sucker) and let slip that she got me a game for 7 dollars for PSP called Kingdom of Paradise.

I <3 games so i got excited and google'd for oogles about it and... it seems super rare. It is almost as old as i am (big suprise right) but it never really seems like a lot of people have played it but the people that have 8 out of 10 think it is a great game and one of the best action RPGs on the PSP.

it is exciting for me because i do not have a action RPG on my psp yet and I am not sure if i have ever even played one before ;o

so the question is asked... what rare games that are actually really good and deserve to be played by way more people? discuss =D


~Betsy~

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I played a ton of this game until I got stuck and waited too long to look up hints or walkthroughs and lost interest. But until then it was surprisingly good for an older lower budget game. Everyone compared it to Jade Empire, which was a well received game that BioWare did before Mass Effect when they wanted to finally do their own IP after doing a bunch of super high quality licensed games

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might be off topic but i am going to look up jade empire now! i guess i have not been able to tell the game is lower budget yet but... that might be because it is so old compared to the newer games i have played xD

i just beat the first boss finally today. it took a bit to figure things out and the camera is different then i thought it would be (i was thinking it would be more like zelda)

but it does not ruin the game.

none skippable cut scenes on a portable game though? why! :x at least you can speed through them! xD

Apparently this "Final Fantasy" is pretty good.

Most DOS games


Like Commander Keen, Jazz Jackrabbit ( even though Game Grumps did a episode on it ) Monster Mash & more.

Ghostses, just to let you know in case you fall into the same trap I did: I don't think they teach you this, but it's important to know that in order to block, you hold the attack button. I got stuck in a hard fight for a long time until I finally looked that up

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._-_box_art.jpg
one of the last games made by Shiny Entertainment, Sacrifice was before its time and deserves more attention.

The voice acting is incredible, the music is beautiful, the setting is breathtaking, and the characters and creatures are unique. I love this game despite only beating it once, final boss is damn intense. Get the game off of GOG already!

Old DOS games. I'll take Scorched Earth over those Worms games any day. Monuments of Mars made for a fun platformer as well.

As for something newer, but a little more heard of, Guitaroo Man is a simple, but very fun and silly music rhythm game. And Rez is always fun for a spin.

Gitaroo Man is amazing. Rez isn't unknown, come on man!

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Originally Posted by Vyk

Ghostses, just to let you know in case you fall into the same trap I did: I don't think they teach you this, but it's important to know that in order to block, you hold the attack button. I got stuck in a hard fight for a long time until I finally looked that up

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yeah i read about the controls in the manual luckily =D

i guess i saw different reviews because the ones i read said the graphics are pretty good but this was back in... *checks box* 2005 xD

as for the story :x i am not sure really. i will actually look for more reviews of it though =D

oh and i guess jade empire is on computer and stuff =D neat! ^^

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Originally Posted by Mirage

Gitaroo Man is amazing. Rez isn't unknown, come on man!

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That's why I said they were a little more heard of. Rez NEVER gets the recognition it deserves. Do we as a gamer culture knows about it? Absolutely. But try to strike up a conversation at a Gamestop or somewhere about it. Most of the time you'll hear, "What the s*** is Rez?"

>>> My FF1 hack of course.. totally unheard of :monster:..:luca:

I'm picking a game that I imagine a decent number of people here have heard of or played, not to mention is actually got great reviews across the board, but for some reason it generally slipped by unnoticed and it's a tragedy it didn't get the sequel it deserved because it was smegging magnificent:

Star Wars: Republic Commando.

A solid tactical FPS with tight controls and a surprisingly engaging story. The main characters were all grand fellows, due largely to the fact that they are clones. ;)

RIP Sev? :(