Games you love but nobody else knows about. - Any games that you've played and like, but never heard any online discussion or met anyone who's played it?

[SouthernBitchBob]

Quest for Glory 1-4. I played them as a kid, so there's major nostalgia factor there. They're a neat blend of point and click adventure with RPG elements tied in; think less "use maple syrup on cat hair" and more "I'm a thief so I can sneak around this problem. I'm a mage with a fire spell. I can throw it at goblins or use it to melt ice or light candles or burn ropes." There's monster fighting (implemented with...varying degrees of success) but all your skills also have tons of puzzle solving utility. It also often strikes a great balance between taking itself seriously and cracking good-natured dad jokes right and left (there's a gnome cursed to be a bad comedian. You convince the witch to lift it. She does this by giving you a Good Humor bar, instructing the gnome to eat it.)

Fans loved it enough that they made a *very* faithful VGA remake for the second game, which was previously a text parser only. They even talked to the original creators, got their blessing and design notes, and added a few pieces of cut content.

Most of my nostalgia is for the fourth game though. After you patch the gsmebreaking bugs out, there's little not to love. John Rhys-Davies narrating stupid epitaph poems? Jennifer Hale's first video game credit? Cozy eastern-European autumn atmosphere that should only be enjoyed in a dark room with headphones, a desk lamp, and something hot to drink? Ignore the shitty combat system and embrace the improv actor peasants cracking wise about elephant circuses.

 

[Jeff Boomhauer]

Looney Tunes B-Ball on the SNES. This was before Space Jam.

Edit: Also, the Magical Drop games. Super addicting puzzle battle games.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

Quest for Glory 1-4. I played them as a kid, so there's major nostalgia factor there. They're a neat blend of point and click adventure with RPG elements tied in; think less "use maple syrup on cat hair" and more "I'm a thief so I can sneak around this problem. I'm a mage with a fire spell. I can throw it at goblins or use it to melt ice or light candles or burn ropes." There's monster fighting (implemented with...varying degrees of success) but all your skills also have tons of puzzle solving utility. It also often strikes a great balance between taking itself seriously and cracking good-natured dad jokes right and left (there's a gnome cursed to be a bad comedian. You convince the witch to lift it. She does this by giving you a Good Humor bar, instructing the gnome to eat it.)

Fans loved it enough that they made a *very* faithful VGA remake for the second game, which was previously a text parser only. They even talked to the original creators, got their blessing and design notes, and added a few pieces of cut content.

Most of my nostalgia is for the fourth game though. After you patch the gsmebreaking bugs out, there's little not to love. John Rhys-Davies narrating stupid epitaph poems? Jennifer Hale's first video game credit? Cozy eastern-European autumn atmosphere that should only be enjoyed in a dark room with headphones, a desk lamp, and something hot to drink? Ignore the shitty combat system and embrace the improv actor peasants cracking wise about elephant circuses.

I loved Quest for Glory. Even the fifth one was pretty cool.

There's a spiritual successor, Heroine's Quest, which is implied to star the descendant of the protagonist from QFG in that if you name her after one of the canonical love interests from V she will have the "Ring of Hera" in her starting inventory. Doesn't do anything but pretty cool nod.

IV was the best though. It even has the best music (Necrophage Battle, Katrina's Theme, Mordavia Inn, and that theme tune) and it all has a certain obliqueness to it.

 

[Psyduck]

Sort of a Fire Emblem lite, got a neat little battle system where you attack enemies by moving your units through them, which makes for some unique strategies and battles. You can grind the stages up to improve your skills or learn new ones

Like FE you got branching paths, character convos, promotions and that good shit, unfortunately its kinda short.

The story is not as basic as you'd think. Not award winning but there's a couple memorable moments in there, there's two endings as well, so thats some replayability too.

Not saying it's a FE killer but i find myself coming back to it every now and then

 

[R.A.E.L.]

Lollipop Chainsaw
A Suda 51 classic. I wish this got either remastered for current gen consoles or ported to PC as it's not backwards compatible with Xbox One, and the PS3 version isn't as great apparently.

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I loved Lollipop Chainsaw, it was short but sweet which made it very replayable. Though considering how niche the game is, the fandom was small and died out fast. I’ve been hoping for it to get a sequel; the potential is there.

 

[Antarctic Hellbeast]

I like thrawns revenge/Fall of the Republic.

The Mod team's Leader, Coreyloses, is worthy of a thread by himself. Even has a cringeworthy "shameless advertising" map you can play in the game for Skirmishes that is basically his Youtube channel's logo.

Its a total conversion mod and the closest we are ever going to truly get to a Clone Wars simulator. bigger than forces of corruption and a lot more units. Incorporates everything up to Order 66 at this point.
The thrawn's revenge part is for those who like the EU right up to before the Yuuzhan vong invasion.

Also is the one piece of media that actually tells you who and what the various imperial warlords were versus the EU and disneywars that just shits out anyone and everyone could have been an Imperial Remnant warlord.

 

[whollabongis123]

I love Ace Combat 3 electrosphere. Everybody's touched AC7 at some point but in my opinion AC3 was the best in terms of story and gameplay.

 

[Jeff_the_Thriller]

Jagged Alliance 2 is one of my favorite games but very few people ever heard on it. I have a hard-on for turn-based tactical RPGs with heavy mircomanagement only an autistic could enjoy. There's a new zombie game that is heavily inspired by JA2 called Urban Strife. It's been the only game I've been hyped for since Wasteland 3.

 

[Stasi]

Jagged Alliance 2 is one of my favorite games but very few people ever heard on it. I have a hard-on for turn-based tactical RPGs with heavy mircomanagement only an autistic could enjoy. There's a new zombie game that is heavily inspired by JA2 called Urban Strife. It's been the only game I've been hyped for since Wasteland 3.

I've had JA2 on my to play list for a good 10 years but I'm too scared of how complex it is (or seems to be). Even noob guides online seem super autistic in the level of detail. I've started a few times but usually get overwhelmed a couple of hours in.

One day I will get around to playing it all the way through.

 

[Jeff_the_Thriller]

I've had JA2 on my to play list for a good 10 years but I'm too scared of how complex it is (or seems to be). Even noob guides online seem super autistic in the level of detail. I've started a few times but usually get overwhelmed a couple of hours in.

One day I will get around to playing it all the way through.

The base game is complex but not overly so. There's the 1.17 patch which takes the micro management to another level. A lot of features can be disabled and tweaked. The new LBE inventory system really let's you specialize merc functions but it can be turned off because it is a bit of a pain in the ass. I tried playing with food and water consumption enabled. I had a merc die of dehydration because I forgot to put water from the sector into her inventory. Guess she was to lazy to get the water on her own. I needed to drag and drop it for her. Even vanilla JA2 makes Wasteland 3 look like baby shit.

 

[Nu-13]

The Lufia series.
Apparently the second game, "Rise of the Sinistrals" is regarded as a SNES RPG classic but I hear very little word of it. It's definitely a series I enjoyed, especially the second game. I haven't finished Lufia I Fortress of Doom (SNES) or Ruins of Lore (GBA) yet but they're solid games.
Lufia II got a DS remake by SquareEnix which was called "Curse of the Sinistrals" and is action RPG instead of turn-based. It got mixed reviews but personally for me, playing it as a separate game made it enjoyable. It differs from its original in a number of ways but was still a fun experience.

 

[Night Owl]

Wild Arms series.

Wild West JRPGs are an underused concept.

 

[Dom Cruise]

I liked the game Eggs of Steel on the PS1 as a kid, though I haven't played it since and don't know if it holds up, but that's about as obscure as it gets.

There was also Heart of Darkness on the PS1, another game I liked that seems pretty obscure.

One game I replayed more recently (albeit still a long time ago) is Fur Fighters: Viggo's Revenge on the PS2 (a port of a Dreamcast game), gameplay wise it's ok but it had really fun and creative level themes that stood out from the more typical "ice level, fire level" themes of most platformers at the time and it also had fun characters, it was developed by Bizarre Creations, who are better known for the Project Gotham Racing, but there's another Bizarre Creations game I like called The Club that despite being a real world M rated shooter and not a cartoony platformer reminded me of Fur Fighters in it's surprising level of cleverness in it's levels, where on the official website for the game was a surprising amount of lore for each of the levels, which wasn't conveyed in the game itself, but it's still really cool how much thought they put into it.

Xenosaga, people talk about xenogears or xenoblade but I rarely hear anyone talk about it. If you like watching long cutscenes, convulated anime plot, and interesting world building then this the game for you. It's a trilogy strictly on the PS2, it was never ported on PSN.

Xenosaga seemed like it was pretty popular at the time, so it's weird how forgotten it is today.

 

[Maurice Caine]

Basically yakuza-lite for the PSP, real cool groove.

 

[Overcast]

I liked the game Eggs of Steel on the PS1 as a kid, though I haven't played it since and don't know if it holds up, but that's about as obscure as it gets.

There was also Heart of Darkness on the PS1, another game I liked that seems pretty obscure.

One game I replayed more recently (albeit still a long time ago) is Fur Fighters: Viggo's Revenge on the PS2 (a port of a Dreamcast game), gameplay wise it's ok but it had really fun and creative level themes that stood out from the more typical "ice level, fire level" themes of most platformers at the time and it also had fun characters, it was developed by Bizarre Creations, who are better known for the Project Gotham Racing, but there's another Bizarre Creations game I like called The Club that despite being a real world M rated shooter and not a cartoony platformer reminded me of Fur Fighters in it's surprising level of cleverness in it's levels, where on the official website for the game was a surprising amount of lore for each of the levels, which wasn't conveyed in the game itself, but it's still really cool how much thought they put into it.



Xenosaga seemed like it was pretty popular at the time, so it's weird how forgotten it is today.

I remember loving Eggs of Steel as a kid. I never beat it though.

Anyway, while I haven't finished it yet, Guardian's Crusade for the PS1 seems to be up there for me at the moment. I remember reading about it as a kid, but other than that, I never saw anybody talk about it.

It's a quirky and fun little JRPG where you play as a young knight trying to help this little pink creature with the ability to take on the form of its enemies get back to its mom while accompanied by a nagging fairy and a bunch of living toys that basically serve as magic spells and party members you can summon in battle.

You also have to be on top of raising and training the baby as if you don't command it during battle, let it get KO'd too much or make it fetch too much, he gets pissed at you and starts attacking you randomly during battle. Something I learned the hard way. Feeding it plenty of treats, commanding him during every battle and staying on top of his health makes him much more efficient and he can randomly transform into things that can absolutely obliterate enemies. Supposedly at some point, you can even choose what he transforms into later into the game, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Overall though, I'm absolutely loving it so far and am surprised it flew under my radar for so long. Would definitely recommend it to people.

 

[JamesFargo]

The Lufia series.
Apparently the second game, "Rise of the Sinistrals" is regarded as a SNES RPG classic but I hear very little word of it.

2 had a remake for DS, as you mention. Shaia tags along from the beginning, and he's a carbon copy of Doc Brown.

Technically proficient, but it sank like a stone. Shouldn't have been titled Lufia.

Lufia's legacy is the "Ancient Cave" mini-game. Nowadays, every action RPG has one such mod.

Note: This is not to be confused with randomizer mods. A randomizer uses the story campaign as a template, but changes the order of dungeons and chest contents. Ancient Cave is a dungeon crawler using assets from the story campaign. In other words, AC is standalone.

 

[Nu-13]

2 had a weird remake for the DS. Shaia tags along from the beginning, and he's a carbon copy of Doc Brown. Technically proficient, but a worthless remak. It sank like a stone. Shouldn't have been titled Lufia.

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Lufia's legacy is the "Ancient Cave" mini-game. A surprising number of JRPGs have one such mod.

Note: This is not to be confused with randomizer mods. A randomizer uses the story campaign as a template, but changes the order of dungeons and chest contents. Ancient Cave is a dungeon crawler using assets from the story campaign. In other words, AC is standalone.

Oh yeah Lexis' redesign lol I remember that. And I get what you mean. I personally enjoyed the remake, but more so as a separate game. It's definitely not like the original. Maybe it could work as a spinoff or something.

Also true, the Ancient Cave wasn't carried over in that remake... I forgot since it's been so long since I've played it, that is a disappointment. Even Ruins of Lore has it despite having a very different story compared to the other games in the series.

 

[JamesFargo]

This was an RPG that came out during the days of the Playstation and created with a collaboration of American and Japanese Teams. Sadly this game was overshadowed by Final Fantasy

"If your name isn't Final Fantasy, it doesn't sell." - Capcom on retiring Breath of Fire.

This was true even of the golden age of RPGs. Notice how Lloyd (LoD) has the same appearance and motivations as Sephiroth. It was inescapable.

Anyway: LoD is pretty good by modern standards. It exhibits an even keel of sameness throughout. They didn't blow their wad in Disc 1, like so many games of that era. Rose definitely ranks as one of my favorite RPG heroines.

Xenosaga, people talk about xenogears or xenoblade but I rarely hear anyone talk about it. If you like watching long cutscenes, convulated anime plot, and interesting world building then this the game for you.

Seems like Monolith were banking heavily on the mother-daughter/lesbian dynamic, but the problem with Shion is that she's not heroic in any sense. (KOS-MOS doesn't have any agency on her own, so you're left with Shion as the protagonist.)

While everybody else is trying to investigate Vector Industries, Zohar and so on, Shion only cares about KOS-MOS, which means she will happily throw the others under a bus at the worst of times. Imagine Gaius Baltar with ovaries.

It's unconventional, I'll give it that, so it has a 'cult following.'

Even I'm surprised at how often I go back to Mercenaries (PS2).

It has an unfinished quality which works in the game's favor. Almost everything is scalable, and there are lots of creative ways to break the AI. It takes place in an alternative universe where Juche has these giant, fuck-off missiles and cannons straight out of Cobra Command. Some of them have to be destroyed while on-foot, and the explosions are always gratifying.

The sequel isn't awful, but it's definitely trading down. A pale imitation of Just Cause.