Games you have never heard of that are really good?

[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~

[NeoExdeath]

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

[Hollycat]

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

[escobert]

Saga Frontier 1 & 2. Love the art style.

[Dat Matt]

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.

[Elskidor]

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

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.

[escobert]

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

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.

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

[I Took the Red Pill]

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.

[Polnareff]

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

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.

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.

[Jinx]

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

[Madame 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)

[Reta]

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.

[AssassinDX]

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.

[Ayen]

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.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

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.