On Paradox Interactive & Atlus and "unknown" companies.

[Frission]

I rather like the games that Paradox offers like Mount&Blade and it's a shame that the company isn't that appreciated. Ditto for Atlus. I think I like them more than the far more well known EA and Activision.

The interesting bit though was that I only learned of them very recently. They were nowhere near the winner for the best game company of the year on the escapist ever and apart from a blip time to time are off the radar. Why is that the case?

Is there any such good games or relatively obscure companies that the community could recommend or share?

 

[Zaik]

Well, I know some people tend to be a bit put off by the way they sell what amounts to expansion packs to Mount & Blade as standalone full games. Not to mention mods from one version of the game don't work on other versions for I have no clue what reason, probably just so that people will buy all of them.

 

[zidine100]

*deleted, id rather not be a dick and try and contradict this thread and all*

 

[80Maxwell08]

Well on Steam go find Ys The Oath in Felghana, Ys Origins and Divinity 2 the Dragon Knight Saga.

The Ys series is made by Nihon Falcom and recently they had a deal with XSEED to localize a few of their games over here. Honestly I would say look at XSEED as well since they bring over a lot of awesome games.

Divinity 2 is made by Larian Studios who are also making Dragon Commander and Divinity Original Sin. On GOG there is the other 2 entries in the Divinity series, Divine Divinity and Beyond Divinity.

I can easily recommend these companies since they make/localize over really great games. Also please buy the Ys games they are really good and I want to see more of them come over here. Also I wonder what it would be like if they could afford to make them bigger.

EDIT: I brought up the games first because I figure the evidence would show my point better than words.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Paradox didn't create Mount & Blade. Taleworlds raised money directly from the community to fund it's development.

 

[Deshin]

They're only unknown because they don't throw literally millions at the industry to advertise and buy reviews. The plus side to that though is that they don't need to sell 5 million copies of Persona 4 or else the series can't be affordable.

 

[VanTesla]

I rather like the games that Paradox offers like Mount&Blade and it's a shame that the company isn't that appreciated. Ditto for Atlus. I think I like them more than the far more well known EA and Activision.

The interesting bit though was that I only learned of them very recently. They were nowhere near the winner for the best game company of the year on the escapist ever and apart from a blip time to time are off the radar. Why is that the case?

Is there any such good games or relatively obscure companies that the community could recommend or share?

I love Atlus for brining me Shin Megami Tensei series of games and how all of them are top notch and the only good japanese role playing game out there for me. Makes me wish they would have a collection for the PC and I hope Persona 4 Golden comes out on the PSN network or steam sooner or later. The musics, story, and characters range from decent to awesome! I also Enjoy how many of them can be controversal in taboo subjects like religion and not denouncing it as bad or good at the same time, also much of it having to do with the psychological aspects of the human psyche. Heck on average most of the have bitter sweet endings with P4 being the exception for two of it's endings being all good. Atlus and Shin Magami Tensei series do deserve more attention in my opinion, but hopefuly not to the point it would corrupt the development with greed.

 

[MammothBlade]

I love both ATLUS and Paradox, they're probably my two most favourite developers. They both have some level of fan loyalty, and aren't known for selling out. Not to say there aren't complaints but such companies tend to have a more two-way relationship with their "core". They also operate below the radar of moral guardians and can approach subject matter with some intellectual freedom.

I rather like the games that Paradox offers like Mount&Blade and it's a shame that the company isn't that appreciated. Ditto for Atlus. I think I like them more than the far more well known EA and Activision.

The interesting bit though was that I only learned of them very recently. They were nowhere near the winner for the best game company of the year on the escapist ever and apart from a blip time to time are off the radar. Why is that the case?

Is there any such good games or relatively obscure companies that the community could recommend or share?

I also enjoy how many of them can be controversal in taboo subjects like religion and not denouncing it as bad or good at the same time, also much of it having to do with the psychological aspects of the human psyche.

Exactly this, and I think it applies to Paradox too, in the potential for implied video game cruelty in strategy games, and the way they don't tone down anything (barring censoring the swastika) in order to make their works more politically correct or to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

 

[Sam Eskenazi]

Do bare in mind that M&B is actually developed by Taleworlds, a Turkish husband and wife team who grew thanks to donations and investments from the gaming community. Paradox merely published it.

Paradox has their OWN line of games that are truely excellent, and I wholly agree with you. Crusader Kings 2 is simply fantastic, and is constantly being expanded and patched with new design features, which is pretty damn awesome.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

Well, I know some people tend to be a bit put off by the way they sell what amounts to expansion packs to Mount & Blade as standalone full games.

Well considering for them a full price game is 15-20 dollars, which is the price to pay for most expansion packs of other games, I'd say it's pretty fair.

OT: I wouldn't call paradox really unknown, they're pretty popular. I haven't been disappointed by a single paradox game yet, (Although Gettysburg looks terrible, and magicka multiplayer was a ***** to get working :/) and I've put a ton of time into their games. Sure they're not huge, but I wouldn't call them tiny.

They should have less buggy games though

 

[Fractral]

Atlus is pretty big as far as I'm aware. Not to the point that your 'average' teenage gamer will have heard of them, but still pretty popular nonetheless. It probably has something to do with them being Japanese developers, and making mainly japanese style games.
I have heard of paradox, but never played any of their games. Mount and Blade looked pretty cool though, but I never got round to buying it.

 

[Eleuthera]

Paradox makes or publishes some of my favourite games. They're always buggy as hell when they're just released though. I've started waiting at least 6 months before buying them.

Don't think I've ever played any Atlus games.

 

[Squilookle]

Well, I know some people tend to be a bit put off by the way they sell what amounts to expansion packs to Mount & Blade as standalone full games

.

Oh, come on. Warband was so much bigger and feature packed than M&B- It was essentially Mount and Blade 2.0. And even then, they only sold it for $30! Even if it had been just an expansion pack, that price would have been competitive.

Not to mention mods from one version of the game don't work on other versions for I have no clue what reason, probably just so that people will buy all of them.

Okay, first of all, the developers don't make the mods, they are made by the community. Secondly, later games have improved capabilities and better code, which generally does not work with the older code that mods for other games works on. This is a universal truth across just about every game series ever made. Pinning this on Mount and Blade as if to say it only happens there is ridiculous, and the idea that it is intentional so that people will buy each version is equally ridiculous. Generally in such cases, the better mods that are still in development upgrade to the better game, and the need for the older games fade away.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I just never hang all my bells on one company because I can not with a straight face point to anyone and say "they do everything right".

I do like Paradox and one of my favorite games is Magicka (came out as a $15 game with a huge campaign, co-op, and multiplayer), but then they went completely DLC crazy and if you bought everything as it came out the total would be over $60...
And does the total feature 4x the starting content? Not even fucking close, and some of it is actually pretty damn bad.