Games you like, but are never talked about

[Glongpre]

I would say Golden Sun and Spyro are pretty well known. At least, Golden Sun is always brought up in underrated games lists. Spyro was pretty popular during it's heyday.

Spyro's well known, but the criteria of the thread was "never talked about" rather than "forgotten" (there'd be a lot of overlap, but not 100% between those two categories). I included Spyro because I rarely see him talked about in isolation. He may be brought up as part of a discussion about Skylanders, but rarely in isolation.

My point was more about no one knowing the game, but you having fond memories. For example, you could probably name drop Marathon and how it was a great shooter, and no one would know what you are talking about. But if you name drop Spyro, I bet lots of people would remember that it's a game where you play as a dragon. You feel me?

 

[Recusant]

Lots. Lots and lots. Off the top of my head:
-Arcanum (Troika's other game). Granted, it was as well-balanced as the cameraman on the new Battlestar Galactica, the attempt to go either turn-based or real time left both underperforming, and the AI was dumb as toast. But the setting was interesting, the mechanics (balance issues aside) had great potential, and it actually felt like an epic, rip-roaring adventure.
-Anachronox (the other Ion Storm game). A weird sci-fi setting, a memorable cast of characters, and a sense of humor both offbeat and deadpan. What's not to like? Well, the fact that the game as designed was too long and had to be cut in half, leading to a cliffhanger ending for a sequel that never came. Tom Hall said in 2010 that if nothing else happens, in ten years he'd put the rest of the story up on his site for closure, so at least there's that (I for one intend to hold him to it).
-Archimedean Dynasty. Post-apocalyptic Wing Commander with submarines instead of starfighters. I have no idea why this didn't take off.
-Terra Nova (proof that my annoyance extends past the letter A). This was a Looking Glass game. Looking Glass didn't make bad games. But even amongst their fans, few have heard about this one.
-Emperor of the Fading Suns. The AI sucked, okay? I'll be the first to admit that. But the reason it sucked was that this game was complicated. It had actual depth to the strategy, and was the kind of game you could sink your mental teeth into for hours and hours and hours- and this long before Dwarf Fortress and Crusader Kings; Paradox wouldn't even be founded for a few years. The first review I read of it was griping about it's "stratospheric learning curve", and I knew I had to check it out. And is it discussed? Well, I lost the disks somewhere along the line, but I still have the manual. That's the only reason I know I didn't dream it. Even more obnoxiously, it's not available anywhere. The developer is still in business, and still independent; you'd think GOG would be all over it. But no.

 

[gsilver]

I very rarely hear people talk about Hawken, but it's easily my favorite FPS of all time.
...It doesn't help that the PC version hasn't been updated in a long time and the console versions are stuttery messes, though. The PC version is still great.

And Freedom Planet deserves way more notice than it gets, though I've seen a slowly increasing amount of buzz around it. Maybe the PS4 port (and the sequel) will bring it into the spotlight. The best 2D action game, ever (IMO), and I've played a lot of games in the genre (massive Genesis Sonic/Treasure fan).

 

[gsilver]

Lots. Lots and lots. Off the top of my head:
-Arcanum (Troika's other game). Granted, it was as well-balanced as the cameraman on the new Battlestar Galactica, the attempt to go either turn-based or real time left both underperforming, and the AI was dumb as toast. But the setting was interesting, the mechanics (balance issues aside) had great potential, and it actually felt like an epic, rip-roaring adventure.
-Anachronox (the other Ion Storm game). A weird sci-fi setting, a memorable cast of characters, and a sense of humor both offbeat and deadpan. What's not to like? Well, the fact that the game as designed was too long and had to be cut in half, leading to a cliffhanger ending for a sequel that never came. Tom Hall said in 2010 that if nothing else happens, in ten years he'd put the rest of the story up on his site for closure, so at least there's that (I for one intend to hold him to it).
-Archimedean Dynasty. Post-apocalyptic Wing Commander with submarines instead of starfighters. I have no idea why this didn't take off.
-Terra Nova (proof that my annoyance extends past the letter A). This was a Looking Glass game. Looking Glass didn't make bad games. But even amongst their fans, few have heard about this one.
-Emperor of the Fading Suns. The AI sucked, okay? I'll be the first to admit that. But the reason it sucked was that this game was complicated. It had actual depth to the strategy, and was the kind of game you could sink your mental teeth into for hours and hours and hours- and this long before Dwarf Fortress and Crusader Kings; Paradox wouldn't even be founded for a few years. The first review I read of it was griping about it's "stratospheric learning curve", and I knew I had to check it out. And is it discussed? Well, I lost the disks somewhere along the line, but I still have the manual. That's the only reason I know I didn't dream it. Even more obnoxiously, it's not available anywhere. The developer is still in business, and still independent; you'd think GOG would be all over it. But no.

Aside from Emperor of the Fading Suns, which I've never heard of, all of those were games that I tried to get into, but wasn't able to. Kinda ironic.

 

[Avnger]

Spoiler

I had never even heard of this game until last year, but man I did find myself enjoying it.

This was lauded as being one of the "reasons to get a Wii U" awhile back. I'm surprised you hadn't seen it mentioned before.

-Army Men (I was always under the assumption that this was something people grew up with back in the day - guess I was wrong)

I absolutely loved Army Men back in the day. The PC versions were a blast, and the Sarges Heroes spin-offs on the N64 were some of my, my brother's, and my friends' favorite local-MP games when they came out.

 

[iwinatlife]

And there's also:

Spoiler

Made by the same company that would later do the Skylanders games.

Spoiler

I know people talk about the Tactics franchise, but not to the extent of the main series and not certainly the GBA version.

I played both of those quite a bit
Fond memories of the first.that game was hard as far as I remember. always played the girl because double jump op. that was one of the classic platformers because if you died to many times you hard reset to level 1.I also vaguely remember turning into a dragon.

Not So much with Tactics Advanced. Just not as good as tactics classic. too easy, and simultaneously too frustrating...Fucking laws.

 

[Palpatin93]

THIS:

Spoiler

I know people talk about the Tactics franchise, but not to the extent of the main series and not certainly the GBA version.

How long has it been since I saw someone mentioning my all-time favourite GBA game?
I must have sunk something around 500+ hours into this. I think the only turn-based tactics game I had known before this was Advance Wars. Seeing my characters grow, get stronger and get cool new stuff and abilities and JOBS motivated my 11-year old-ish self beyond belief.
I pretty much 100% completed that game. Except maybe the link cable missions... didn't have many opportunities to do those.

I was thrilled to see there was a sequel for the DS. It was fun as well, but nowhere near as good. The main quest felt like one of the longer side quest of the other game...
Quite a while later I discovered that there was an 'original' FFTactics for the PS2, and that people regarded it as highly superior. Took me a while to get an emulator working, finnicky as all hell, but then I had a blast playing it. Stopped at a ridiculously hard main story fight that would have forced me to grind levels for quite a while... and now I'm mainly using my laptop. To play it again I'd have to start up my old computer AND try to get the emulator working again. Maybe someday.

EDIT: I've also read about Tactics Ogre, the spiritual predecessor. Appearently there's even a GBA game... but hard to get for a good price X) maybe I can dig it up at some Used Games store... my GBA SP should still be working.

 

[iwinatlife]

How long has it been since I saw someone mentioning my all-time favourite GBA game?
I must have sunk something around 500+ hours into this. I think the only turn-based tactics game I had known before this was Advance Wars. Seeing my characters grow, get stronger and get cool new stuff and abilities and JOBS motivated my 11-year old-ish self beyond belief.
I pretty much 100% completed that game. Except maybe the link cable missions... didn't have many opportunities to do those.

I was thrilled to see there was a sequel for the DS. It was fun as well, but nowhere near as good. The main quest felt like one of the longer side quest of the other game...
Quite a while later I discovered that there was an 'original' FFTactics for the PS2, and that people regarded it as highly superior. Took me a while to get an emulator working, finnicky as all hell, but then I had a blast playing it. Stopped at a ridiculously hard main story fight that would have forced me to grind levels for quite a while... and now I'm mainly using my laptop. To play it again I'd have to start up my old computer AND try to get the emulator working again. Maybe someday.

EDIT: I've also read about Tactics Ogre, the spiritual predecessor. Appearently there's even a GBA game... but hard to get for a good price X) maybe I can dig it up at some Used Games store... my GBA SP should still be working.

For FFT it is a PS1 game and that is usually easier to set up lower power and what not.

 

[Palpatin93]

For FFT it is a PS1 game and that is usually easier to set up lower power and what not.

Ah, right, misremembered. The emulator was hard to set up anyway. At some point I had to just bear the occasional sound glitch because it wasn't going to get any better.

 

[Xorph]

Expand and Thoth were a couple of minimalist indie games (a reflex puzzle game and a twin-stick shooter respectively) that were both in humble bundles, but were busy being overshadowed by the big-name games of each bundle.

They were both absolutely fantastic and ended up being my personal highlight of each bundle.

 

[Lufia Erim]

Anyone remember Fear effect on the Ps1? I was talking to a guy at work about it,the other day. Seriously that game was awsome. It was something special at the time. Plus the main character was female and a lesbian, hows that for progression?

 

[gsilver]

For FFT it is a PS1 game and that is usually easier to set up lower power and what not.

Ah, right, misremembered. The emulator was hard to set up anyway. At some point I had to just bear the occasional sound glitch because it wasn't going to get any better.

If you have a PS3 or Vita, the game is easily available digitally.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Shadow of Rome (PS2) That one just fell off the face of the Earth, despite it having some of the most visceral and satisfying combat I've seen on a console to this day...

TIGERSHARK - It's Ace Combat, WITH SUBS!

On a similar note, Warship Gunner, especially 2. Ace Combat with naval warships. Pure anime-physics, story, and character, but the fun of building your own ship (or sub!) from the ground up sets it over with me.

 

[Tanis]

@Smithnikov:
O.M.G!
Another person that knows the Navel Ops. series?!??!

 

[Sonmi]

Summon Night Swordcraft Story 1 and 2 were nice little RPGs for the GBA, I've yet to talk to someone who played them and enjoyed them as I did.

 

[iwinatlife]

Summon Night Swordcraft Story 1 and 2 were nice little RPGs for the GBA, I've yet to talk to someone who played them and enjoyed them as I did.

I remember briefly playing one of those on my phone couldnt quite get into it makes me wanna go find it again.

 

[Recusant]

Lots. Lots and lots. Off the top of my head:
-Arcanum (Troika's other game). Granted, it was as well-balanced as the cameraman on the new Battlestar Galactica, the attempt to go either turn-based or real time left both underperforming, and the AI was dumb as toast. But the setting was interesting, the mechanics (balance issues aside) had great potential, and it actually felt like an epic, rip-roaring adventure.
-Anachronox (the other Ion Storm game). A weird sci-fi setting, a memorable cast of characters, and a sense of humor both offbeat and deadpan. What's not to like? Well, the fact that the game as designed was too long and had to be cut in half, leading to a cliffhanger ending for a sequel that never came. Tom Hall said in 2010 that if nothing else happens, in ten years he'd put the rest of the story up on his site for closure, so at least there's that (I for one intend to hold him to it).
-Archimedean Dynasty. Post-apocalyptic Wing Commander with submarines instead of starfighters. I have no idea why this didn't take off.
-Terra Nova (proof that my annoyance extends past the letter A). This was a Looking Glass game. Looking Glass didn't make bad games. But even amongst their fans, few have heard about this one.
-Emperor of the Fading Suns. The AI sucked, okay? I'll be the first to admit that. But the reason it sucked was that this game was complicated. It had actual depth to the strategy, and was the kind of game you could sink your mental teeth into for hours and hours and hours- and this long before Dwarf Fortress and Crusader Kings; Paradox wouldn't even be founded for a few years. The first review I read of it was griping about it's "stratospheric learning curve", and I knew I had to check it out. And is it discussed? Well, I lost the disks somewhere along the line, but I still have the manual. That's the only reason I know I didn't dream it. Even more obnoxiously, it's not available anywhere. The developer is still in business, and still independent; you'd think GOG would be all over it. But no.

Aside from Emperor of the Fading Suns, which I've never heard of, all of those were games that I tried to get into, but wasn't able to. Kinda ironic.

Ironic? Not at all; they all have notable flaws. Granted, that's true of pretty much everything; it's all down to matters of taste. Nothing wrong with not enjoying or even disliking any or all of them.

 

[Padwolf]

Harvest Moon and Rune Factory. They are like soap operas, but even better. No one seems to want to talk about them as indepth as I do

 

[Creator002]

Murdered: Soul Suspect.
Fairly recent example, but I didn't even know it existed until I saw it on sale as part of Games for Gold in 2015. I know it got low scores and isn't very good gameplay-wise, but I still enjoy playing it now and then. Nobody else seems to have heard about it though.

 

[BrawlMan]

Odin Sphere. There's been some name dropping now and then because of the recent HD release. But in the 10 years since the original game I have yet to see anybody actually discuss the story, characters or the game(play) on any level of relevance (not to mention the beauty of the game, which is one of those 2D pseudo hand-drawn Vanillaware titles). I think it has a pretty good story, and told in a pretty clever way too, and some very interesting characters. But I guess because it came out in a time of generational upheaval - a PS2 game released in 2007 - it was mostly ignored.

I talked about it a couple of times during the summer, it was either about the story or gameplay mechanics. You still have a point though. I saw reviews for this back in the day, but didn't get it. Not because of the art style, but due to me playing so many other games at the time. Though looking at the original mode, the combat has aged horribly. Thank God, Vanillaware revamped the gameplay to be more like Muramasa or Dragon's Crown.

-Army Men (I was always under the assumption that this was something people grew up with back in the day - guess I was wrong)

-Golden Sun (very popular within its fanbase, very obscure outside it)

-Marathon (completely overshadowed by Doom, and mostly forgotten)

-Spyro the Dragon (though I guess being held hostage by Skylanders doesn't help)

With the exception of Marathon, I knew about both of those games when they came out. I played Spyro 1 back then, and that was all the time I had with the series. Marathon I didn't know about until 2005, Golden Sun wasn't my thing, and Army Men I never really liked nor cared for. Wasn't that an exclusive to the 3DO at first? I know later titles were ported to the PS1, Saturn, and N64, but the series switched developers and the sequels got worse. That might explain why you don't hear people talk about, unless you group up in that era.

Gungrave and its sequel Overdose. The game got some buzz went it first came out, because Nightintow (author and artist of Trigun fame) worked on the art style and story scenario for the game. Critics hated the first games for being too short and easy (irony!) at a $50.00 price tag, though that could be fixed by playing the hardest mode. Fans were more acceptable of the game. When Overdose came out, some of those same critics complained about it being too long and hard at a $20.00 price tag. You can't just please everyone. Fans loved Overdose, yet most prefer the original.

For those who don't know what the games are, imagine Devil May Cry without the melee combat and puzzles, and more focus on arcade style shooting. There is an exception in Overdose as one character is strictly a melee fighter with barely any ranged attacks. The art style for both games are amazing with the use of cel-shading. This was back when after Jet Set Radio released, almost everyone and their mother was going for that art style. While is still kinda remembered, a lot of new gamers don't know about unless they watched the anime adaption, that came later, first. In fact, even back in 2005, many fans were introduced to Gungrave by watching the anime on G4TV first, and then played the games. I knew about the games when they came out, but did not play both of them until 2007. I missed out on that one, but I got them both for a cheep price, in mint condition.