What are some games that you love, which were developed and released in another country, but have never seemed to have found success outside of their country/region?
(I phrase the question this way, because I know that the escapist readership is largely American, but I'm hoping for the few international or immigrants like myself to come in and talk about their own experiences)
I'll give two examples:
Jurassic Era: Primitive War 2
A Korean PC fantasy RTS, in the vein of the Blizzrd RTSes, set in a hypothetical world where primitive humans, elves, demons, and dinosaurs lived together and beat the crap out of each other. It had four factions: primitive humans, elves (technically subjugated magical beings that separated out from the primitive humans, one of the very few non-Tolkien examples of elves I've seen in fantasy), demons, and mutated dinosaurs, each with their own unique units.
The unique part was that you were able to hunt, letting any combat units kill neutral dinosaurs and level up and acquire meat, finite resources that gradually healed whoever was holding it. Dinosaurs constantly respawned in their respective "hunting grounds", meaning you'd have to take control of hunting grounds in multiplayer if you wanted to have any chance to win. Combine that with solid gameplay, unique factions (primitives could create holdable weapons that powered up their units, in addition to any research upgrade; elves had shitton of mana-based magic; dinosaurs could shapeshift into dinosaurs that allows them to scout and/or ambush the other teams; demons had tanky units and shitton of health-based magic), you had a bitching game.
Did I mention the copious amount of dinosaurs!!!!
Romance of the Three Kingdoms 1-11
The RTS counterpart to the cult-favorite Dynasty Warriors. While it is made by the same company, Koei, I don't think many Americans even know this exists. And they should. Oh they should.
Little background to the uninitiated: Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical novel set in ancient China during the three kingdoms era near the end of the Han dynasty. Think of it as a Chinese Game of Thrones, because it has just about as much political machinations, violence, awesome battle scenes, and fantastic scene-stealers who end up dying.
It's an RTS closer to the Total War series, where you play as a faction in the duration of the historical novel, trying to take over the entirety of China. You develop and manage the cities under your control, conscript and provision an army, recruit and train generals and bureaucrats, and conquer everything you can get your hands on. Apart from the great gameplay, there is the almost perverse hilarity to spitting in the face of canon and create a fan-fic world where your favorite character has defeated your least favorite characters and buddies up with your most favorite characters to kick ancient Chinese ass.
(I phrase the question this way, because I know that the escapist readership is largely American, but I'm hoping for the few international or immigrants like myself to come in and talk about their own experiences)
I'll give two examples:
Jurassic Era: Primitive War 2
A Korean PC fantasy RTS, in the vein of the Blizzrd RTSes, set in a hypothetical world where primitive humans, elves, demons, and dinosaurs lived together and beat the crap out of each other. It had four factions: primitive humans, elves (technically subjugated magical beings that separated out from the primitive humans, one of the very few non-Tolkien examples of elves I've seen in fantasy), demons, and mutated dinosaurs, each with their own unique units.
The unique part was that you were able to hunt, letting any combat units kill neutral dinosaurs and level up and acquire meat, finite resources that gradually healed whoever was holding it. Dinosaurs constantly respawned in their respective "hunting grounds", meaning you'd have to take control of hunting grounds in multiplayer if you wanted to have any chance to win. Combine that with solid gameplay, unique factions (primitives could create holdable weapons that powered up their units, in addition to any research upgrade; elves had shitton of mana-based magic; dinosaurs could shapeshift into dinosaurs that allows them to scout and/or ambush the other teams; demons had tanky units and shitton of health-based magic), you had a bitching game.
Did I mention the copious amount of dinosaurs!!!!
Romance of the Three Kingdoms 1-11
The RTS counterpart to the cult-favorite Dynasty Warriors. While it is made by the same company, Koei, I don't think many Americans even know this exists. And they should. Oh they should.
Little background to the uninitiated: Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical novel set in ancient China during the three kingdoms era near the end of the Han dynasty. Think of it as a Chinese Game of Thrones, because it has just about as much political machinations, violence, awesome battle scenes, and fantastic scene-stealers who end up dying.
It's an RTS closer to the Total War series, where you play as a faction in the duration of the historical novel, trying to take over the entirety of China. You develop and manage the cities under your control, conscript and provision an army, recruit and train generals and bureaucrats, and conquer everything you can get your hands on. Apart from the great gameplay, there is the almost perverse hilarity to spitting in the face of canon and create a fan-fic world where your favorite character has defeated your least favorite characters and buddies up with your most favorite characters to kick ancient Chinese ass.