What are the cult classics of the current gen?

[BrotherRool]

What are the Psychonauts/ICO/Killer7 equivalents of the PS3/360 generation?

There are many famous games from the PS2/Xbox era that no-one bought on first release but overtime their fanbase grew and word of mouth got out about how good those games were and why they needed more attention than they got. I'm curious if in this more connected age that can still happen, and if enough time has passed for us to figure out what they are, so which games deserved more attention this generation?

Indie games obviously complicate this a bit, so try to think of it in terms of what it could reasonably expect. Psychonauts was AA or AAA but it didn't get the sales or renown that many worse AAA games did get. Likewise if a guy made a RPG Maker game that didn't sell as well as CoD, that's not really interesting, but if it didn't do as well as To The Moon, despite being better, than that's worth hearing about

 

[sethisjimmy]

Deadly Premonition is one of if the not the biggest this gen without a doubt. Great game.

One of my favorite games this gen was Catherine, which I'd call borderline cult classic. It sold alright and got decent reviews, but it seemed everyone just sorta forgot about it a week or two after release. Maybe it's just me.

 

[Evonisia]

Everyone loves Alpha Protocol despite it's critical beatings. Maybe Journey is too? All I hear is good things about it.

 

[DarkishFriend]

Deadly Premonition
Catherine
Demon Souls

 

[krazykidd]

I'm going to second Catherine , Alpha protocol and Deadly premonition, and add Alan wake into the mix.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Bayonetta, Condemned, Alpha Protocol, Nier and Deadly Premonition are the ones that immediately spring to mind, personally.

 

[josemlopes]

Viva Pinata, its a rather unique game that many who played it will remember later on.

Crackdown, even at the time of release it was already seen as a classic.

Call Of Duty 4 for the single fact that it was just that great even thought the popularity only exploded with MW2 meaning that most COD fans didnt even played 4 (or COD 2 for that matter). COD 4 now is just like Seinfeld where if you play it now you wont see how ahead of its time it was since everything else after it copied it hard (even the sequels copied 4 to no end).

 

[Maximum Bert]

I am kinda struggling because I am not sure what the criteria is I mean there are games that definitely have cult followings now a lot of indie games for example but even some bigger firms like Atlus and Arc and certainly Nippon Ichi could be considered to have cult followings and each have released awesome games this gen again that could be considered cult classics.

I do think Puppeteer will be considered a cult classic in years to come much like Okami was both are much more than they appear to be on the surface and like many cult games their brilliance cannot be seen until they are experienced which most people dont want to do as they look weird and/or are not in a genre that is hugely popular.

 

[spartandude]

Deamons/Dark Souls
Alpha Protocol
Xcom Enemy Unknown
The Witcher 2 (at a stretch)
Mount and Blade (small but very dedicated following)
any Paradox grand stragety game, ok in terms of the PC market its not cult but it is compared to the industry as a whole.

 

[FoolKiller]

I'm going to second Catherine , Alpha protocol and Deadly premonition, and add Alan wake into the mix.

You ninja'd my Alan Wake contribution. I guess to the current list I will add Ni No Kuni to the mix. For those in the know, its brilliant. And maybe Dishonored. It was fantastic when it came out, was up for GOTY awards, and then vanished.

 

[Fox12]

Anything by Atlas. They make smaller, hardcore, critically acclaimed games for a specific audience. It's not the largest audience in the world, but boy, is that audience satisfied. It helps that JRPG's have been in a rut lately, and their the shining example of how to do business right.

I'm looking at you Square Enix. This is how you make better games with a smaller budget. I hope you took notes after playing Persona. Actually, the whole JRPG industry could learn a few things.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Bioshock is a fairly major one I would of thought... Persona 4, by the looks of it as well.
Maybe Brutal Legend? A stretch, that one.

 

[MrBaskerville]

If DS games count i would say 999 and Infinite Space, and No More Heroes on Wii. On ps3 i'd go with these: Valkyria Chronicles,Yakuza series, Catherine, Shadows of the Damned, Vanquish and Deadly Premonition. That's the ones i view as classic titles that seem to be fairly overlooked in the bigger scheme of things. Other titles that i hate but that still seems to have a kult following is games like Brutal Legend and especially Enslaved, for whatever reason.

I could see all of these games reaching a bigger audience as time goes by, if they are made available in the coming generation, that is.

 

[Trivea]

Bioshock is a fairly major one I would of thought... Persona 4, by the looks of it as well.

P4 came out on the PS2 so I don't think it really counts.

OT: Maybe Monster Hunter, from Tri onwards? Ao Oni, Ib, Witch's House, Corpse Party (Book of Shadows), that lot, perhaps.

 

[Lokoloshe]

Since it hasn't been put out there yet. Valkyria Chronicles, it garnered pretty good reviews and wasn't bought much in the west. Thus its sequels were made for psp and only the second one made its way stateside.

Really good game and a must buy for me if they bring it back for PS4.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

Maybe Brutal Legend? A stretch, that one.

I'm sure there are many like me, obsessed with this game, desperately waiting for news of a sequel or anything to do with the universe created in that game.

Considering it's metal stylings, perhaps Brutal Legend should be referred to as a kvlt classic instead?

 

[synobal]

Legacy of Kain Defiance, though I dunno if it is current generation. I honestly am not sure what other platforms it was released for besides PC.

 

[Strix97]

Not technically on the ps3 or Xbox 360 but the Paradox grand strategy games are cult classics, especially Crusader Kings 2 an the recent Europa Universalis 4 have large devoted fans

 

[INF1NIT3 D00M]

I really enoyed Earth Defense Force 2017. I remember picking it out at Blockbuster, back when there were still Blockbusters around. I hadn't played anything like it before, and I haven't played anything that quite matches it since. It looked and played like something from the Playstation 2 catalog. That's not to say it was an ugly game, but the visuals and UI were very spartan in an endearing sort of way. You picked it up, and immediately you knew you were playing an obscure import.

As far as gameplay, it really was about fighting off an alien invasion. It had an unrivaled sense of scale, in that the smallest enemies were still several times larger than you. As far as invasion forces, those were also several orders of magnitude larger. Every mission involved killing hundreds of giant ants, giant spiders, huge robots, space fighters, and more. At the start, the whole city was pristine and untouched, but with each passing mission the city became more and more damaged. Likewise, the EDF starts with several hundred friendly AI soldiers and tanks, but with each mission you lose men until you're fighting back the apocalypse alone in a completely leveled cityscape. You get to fight a knockoff of godzilla for some variety, then later he comes back as mecha-godzilla, and finally you end up fighting robots resembling up-sized AT-AT walkers. The final boss is the alien mothership itself, the level being several miles in every direction just to accommodate the size of it. The game was simple, but it felt as though I was participating in one of the old cheesy B-movies out of Japan.

There just aren't enough games in which you can start off shooting house-sized insects, chase them into their underground hive with 100+ AI soldiers, get chased out by giant spiders, sprint around the city with a flamethrower burning all the spiders off of the buildings, hide under a freeway overpass during raids by space fighters, kill godzilla for a change of pace, fight off some giant robots straight out of War of the Worlds, fight all the previous enemies at once, fight mechagodzilla, try (and fail) to stop a giant robot that literally walks out of the sea Jaeger-style, watch the city get demolished by giant robots and a huge indestructible robot, blow up that indestructible robot with a newly-acquired super gun, and then finish off the mothership itself.