That underrated, forgotten gem of a game.

[THEMILKMAN]

I have to say it every time these topics come around: Rule of Rose.
The gameplay is a steaming pile of ass but my god does everything else about it make it all worth it. If you have a creative bone in your body then I recommend playing this game ASAP.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

The Void - Has a bit of an intriguing story, "combat" mechanics are weird but understandable, teaches one how to gather, plant and use the game's semi-renewable resource (color) wisely. Also contains a lot of sexy naked women that stretch, dance or move around seductively (with the exception of three) when fed their preferred color.

 

[Schadrach]

- the Legacy of Kain series, a vampire, time travel, still a better love story than twilight platformer and adventure, because of the story and the characters

It is sad that they'll never make an eighth one and finish the series, especially since the major pieces of the plot arc for it are all right in front of them.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

Not necessarily forgotten: But Arcanum is one of the greatest RPGs ever. Superb dialogue and voice acting. A very big story line that can play out many different ways. And a very modular character creation system that allows you to play as very diverse and interesting characters. A human who talks his way out of most situations and is good at convincing other people to fight for him. A ugly as shit halfling who is extremely quick with a blade. The retarded half-ogre who people trick into doing quests for them. The genius half-ogre scientist who is as strong as he is brilliant.

Giants: Citizen Kabuto:
You play as a drunk alien British mercenary, a naked water chick, and a huge fucking dinosaur like thing. What's not to love?
A game that never seems to take itself to seriously (SEE: Most lines of dialogue in the game), some great game play that differs from each storyline (or creature class), plus some really fun run and kill game play, and you've got an over looked gem.

Agreed(although the girl is only topless in European versions, in the US she wears a bra.) The dialogue is hilarious and the gameplay fun and diverse.

 

[Schadrach]

I have to say it every time these topics come around: Rule of Rose.
The gameplay is a steaming pile of ass but my god does everything else about it make it all worth it. If you have a creative bone in your body then I recommend playing this game ASAP.

What's really sad is I've either played, or have in some obscure part of my backlog, every game mentioned in this thread. Rule of Rose is on the backlog right in front of "second half of the .hack games". Steambot Chronicles is right in front of it.

I apparently have a taste for obscure games. I even played Princess Tomato in Salad Kingdom on NES, since my old rental rule in junior high was "since it's 4 games for a weekend for $3.49, I'll get two I know will be good, one that probably will be, and one that I've never heard of." That rental place had basically every game that those collector's lists put in the top 100 rarest NES, SNES, and Genesis games. It's sad that it burned down (though it didn't take much -- they were also the main supplier of alcohol to a small college town).

 

[MorganL4]

I absolutely adored Cell Damage.... It's entire point was to explore this new thing called cell shading ( yeah I said "new") You got in cars that had horrible steering and drove around as cartoon creatures in a looneytoon-esce environment and killed each other the way looney tunes do ( hammers rockets buzz saws) and the crap driving was made okay because as a cartoon you expected to have crap driving control. get 3 friends and play that, you won't stop laughing...

 

[SirDoom]

Chromehounds for the 360, before the servers got shut down.

There was no multiplayer game I loved more than chromehounds at the time. It not only encouraged teamwork, it forced it. You couldn't just go in treating the game as a deathmatch either. If you go run off on your own without communicating with your team, it didn't end well for you. I guess that's why it never really picked up traction. It was something special, but something that was incompatible with the typical xbox live gamer.

The only real downside I see is that the single player was nothing more than a tutorial for the online part of the game, and the online part of the game is no more. So now all that's left is a handful of short missions with only a tiny fraction of the mech parts available to you. The disc isn't really worth putting in the console anymore. Such a sad way to go.

 

[Vladimir Eremeyev]

ALFA ANTITERROR
Best tactical turn-based game EVER you never heard about.
And it's even has hot seat mode!

It's the the Operation Flashpoint of the turn-based genre.
Really hardcore, to the max, with literally everything to account for.

 

[Verkula]

Gregory Horror Show. Im gonna have to replay it soon since i have already forgoten most of the things in it, but i remember wanting a sequel badly after i first finished it.

 

[RoyalWelsh]

I would like to mention the 'Winter Voices' episodes. It didn't have great review scores and didn't sell particularly well but it has it's cult following.

For people who wants to know what the game is all about;

http://www.wintervoices.com/game

The company went bankrupt but one of the developers who worked on it now bought the rights to the game and is currently bug testing with the community. When that's finished it should be back on Steam. I, for one, cannot wait.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1023

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I'd have to go with Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. I do not actually know a single other person in real life who has ever owned it (as far as I am aware). It was and pretty much still is, the only game to give you decent psychic powers that are actually fun to use. The story was atrocious, but the game-play was some of the best.

I'm with you there! Those really were the most fun powers in a game... and the bosses were well thought out! Yes... story was crap, but that wasn't what you played it for!

OT: I will add 2 of my own games that I rarely find others who have played...

The first is Little Big Adventure 2. To avoid going off on one again, I will copy an old post I did from another thread:

Spoiler: Little Big Adventure loving... or why I would be Twinsen over any other game character...

This guy... Twinsen from Little Big Adventure...​

Spoiler: Why? Well...

First of all check out his cool sword!

Not only that... he got the girl! Not only that but he kept her for an enire 2nd game AND she didn't get kidnapped in the second game! NO CLICHE! They have a kid too... that's why she is preggers in that pic!

Why else would I be him? Well...

I'd have a MAGIC BALL!
This ball uses his magic power to bounce and damage the enemies... Not only that... but at it's max level, it's flaming!

​

He also gets to ride a flying dinosaur... yes, it's Dinofly:

Not only that... he talks!

He has a wizards licence:

and a laser gun, a jet pack and a racing car!!

Finally... not only is he the savior of the world... twice... but he also has a crazy casual relationship with god... (Sendel) Noone else can talk to her... but the kids all do crazy songs and dances for her... but Twinsen just chills out and has a chat from time to time!

Yes... life would be fantastic on Twinsun...! Friends with a talking turtle, the queen of the Mosquebees (mosquito/bee, not anything to do with islamic worship! ) and annihalator of the 3 little pigs!

The final little gem that would make me want to be Twinsen is that I would have the PERFECT mouth for a Kit Kat Chunky... and we all know that they are the best choccy bars in the WORLD!

The other game I would choose I think is actually more popular than I think it is... I only think it is underrated because, again, I have only met a couple of people who have played it... but it is The Adventures of Alundra on the PS1! That was a fantastic game, challenging, great story and vrey fun! Definitely worth playing by all!

 

[RubyT]

Sweet Jesus! A fellow fan of Gothic! You have also spared others the pain of me bringing up this series once more!

And another "hooray!" for Gothic from me. Best RPG ever. Light on the RP-part, quirky on combat. If you need your RPG to come with a complex Alchemy system and stats that warrant weeks of research, you would be disappointed. But if you cherish a game with a beautiful open world to discover, very interesting and unique characters and a tight (albeit standard) story, you were served well.

It's sad that visually, Gothic is one of the worst ageing games of all time.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. If you have never played it you are going yourself a grave injustice.

This and also Gotcha Force for the Gamecube. Shame they never carry on with the Metal Arms as the ending did made room a possible sequel.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Phantom Crash on the Xbox would be my first pick. The original disk doesn't even work on the X360.
Custom mech game, story and music are generally praised by anyone who's played it, during fights there's an emphasis on stealth and evasion rather then trying to out-damage and out-tank your enemies.
Maybe it's nostalgia talking, it surely can't be as awesome as I remember it...

A better known pick would be God Eater, specifically God Eater Burst on the PSP.
It's kinda well known, but too many people dismiss it as "baby Monster Hunter" because it has similar (if not a little more limited) gameplay and a linear story.
Customization and upgrades are the largest focus, not only do you create and tinker with your own blades/guns, but the customization goes right down into making your own bullets.

GOB, the only reason why I miss my psp ):

 

[StraightToHeck]

I'm not quite sure how "underrated" this game is, but, Skies of Arcadia/Skies of Arcadia Legends for the Dreamcast/Gamecube respectively.

A JRPG which took the phrases "airship" and "sky pirate" to their logical extremes, did so with almost ZERO angst, got excellent reviews, and no one bought the damn thing.

Seeing as how SEGA's in the habit of re-releasing Dreamcast games on XBLA nowadays, I'd welcome a re-visit to this game, which, under the new circumstances, would finally get the audience it deserves.

 

[47_Ronin]

Archimedean Dynasty - still waiting for proper sequels.

Holy crap yes!
I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to hump your leg.

Hump away friend. That game is so awesome, it makes you want to hump strangers. Enough said.


captcha: hear hear. I could swear the machine takes notes on our conversations....

/edit:

I'm not quite sure how "underrated" this game is, but, Skies of Arcadia/Skies of Arcadia Legends for the Dreamcast/Gamecube respectively.

A JRPG which took the phrases "airship" and "sky pirate" to their logical extremes, did so with almost ZERO angst, got excellent reviews, and no one bought the damn thing.

Seeing as how SEGA's in the habit of re-releasing Dreamcast games on XBLA nowadays, I'd welcome a re-visit to this game, which, under the new circumstances, would finally get the audience it deserves.

Yes, yes, yes to all of it. Grandia II was also pretty decent for that matter.

 

[anthony87]

Just gonna go ahead and quote m'self here....

My game is one that I've mentioned once or twice around these parts.

Ronin Blade, otherwise known as Soul of the Samurai in America was an action adventure game on the PS1, developed by Konami. It had a few elements that were Survival Horror-esque in nature, such as a similar control scheme to that used in the Resident Evil games and its fair share of gruesome monsters.

From the start the player chooses to be either a young male ronin named Kotaro or a teenage female ninja named Lin (Rin). From then on he or she travels through prerendered levels, killing enemies and fulfilling their mission.
The combat system is quite detailed, and will take a while to get used to. However, when mastered, it is relatively easy for Lin and Kotaro to dispatch multiple enemies quickly from different directions, while simultaneously avoiding the enemies thrusts and swipes. There is a single attack button, but combined with different directional buttons pressed in different combinations and held down for various intervals. There are different attack speeds which correlate to the weight of the equipped weapon, and this is displayed on the sword's 'check' window (also displayed is the sword's length and sharpness, and a brief description of the blade).

Each character has their own story and boss fights, however they cross paths often and come together at the end of the game. The true final boss of the game was unlocked. by playing though as one character, loading the completed save file and then starting as the second character from that save file.

It really was one of my favourite PS1 games. It was short but it was one of those games that I could pick up and play over and over again. As for my favourite thing about the game....


DAT SOUNDTRACK!!!!

That one right there is the best boss fight music for one of the best boss fights in the game.

EDIT: My avatar....she breaks T_T

 

[MidnightSt]

Planescape: Torment

always.
I know, it's not really "unknown", but not nearly enough people know it, and those who do usually don't appreciate it by far as much as it deserves.

 

[Blade1130]

Only one that comes to mind is Gotcha Force on the GameCube. Its story is basically Transformers, but instead of giant robots, they're small toys. Yeah, kinda weird there. But it is an awesome beat-em-up / fighting (it's kinda unique in genre) controlling a bunch of different toy robots and doing battle with one another.

Sadly, I have never heard anyone else even mention this game. So very very sad...

 

[Syzygy23]

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. If you have never played it you are going yourself a grave injustice.

You're my new best friend here. MA was the first shooter I ever played, and it set my standards high early before anything mediocre could ruin my perception of quality.