Rare Games That You May Have Played

[Loki Laufeyson]

Alundra and Breath of Fire seem to count these days.

Whoa...

[Lord Raven]

It didn't have much in the way of standing out, the story could've been fleshed out more I think, but it was pretty good overall.

Shadow Hearts fleshes it out and I believe the item descriptions give you a very good idea of how Nemeton's history if you go through it... However, it doesn't need to go into too much depth than it did; they explain Koudelka's backstory, Edward is kinda basic, and James' goals. There's not much more to talk about.

I dunno, I guess not all RPGs necessarily need a lot of depth and backstory either...

Edited November 18, 2014 by Lord Raven

[Naglfar94]

Interesting looking game there I never heard of that one till now it looks good and from what you described has a great deep story I like me a good story heh thanks for sharing that.

How many of you guys have heard of the Shadow Hearts series? They're a JRPG series.


Let me tell you a bit about them. It all started with a game called Koudelka - I'll dub it "Shadow Hearts 0" - about a gypsy woman named Koudelka Iasant who stumbled upon a monastery where rituals have occurred to revive the dead. She pairs up with a dude named Edward Plunkett, a british fellow, who thought he could find beautiful women and riches upon riches there as well as Bishop James O'Flaherty.

Turns out the monastery is filled with ghosts, zombies, Eldritch horrors, Lovecraft references, and a strange old shaman named Roger Bacon. Everyone in the party basically hates each other until the halfway point, each member of the party are brutally sarcastic with one another (including the fact that Koudelka doesn't warn Edward about some poisoned food that some sketchy old couple provides them). The gameplay was clunky, but the cutscenes and voice acting were way ahead of their time in quality.



Shadow Hearts follows Yuri Hyuga, half russian half japanese man who has a voice in his head telling him to protect a woman named Alice who he saved in a train from a dude named Roger Bacon... who doesn't appear to be the same Roger Bacon as Koudelka. Yuri himself is rough around the edges - and not in the same sense as anime anti-heroes. He is a Harmonixer, so he can fuse with demons that arise due to malice obtained from the monsters that he defeats, which threaten to envelope his soul. This fear lingers in his head, that they'll consume him and turn him irrevocably into a demon (which is what happened to many Harmonixers). The sequel follows off the bad ending and shows how Yuri is coping with the way the previous game ended, and at this point he is one of those guys that has a sarcastic front but has basically almost entirely given up on life, so a bunch of the game is self-searching all while trying to stop Rasputin from leveling the country of Russia and also trying to stop Tsar Nicholas' bastard son.

I'd like to mention, Shadow Hearts takes place 6 months before World War I and Shadow Hearts: Covenant takes place during the heat of the war. You meet the entire royal family of Russia well before the Bolshevik revolution, and Anastasia Romanov is a playable character.

I'll also take this time to point out that both games have some very very very strange enemy designs... It also has a sick-nasty original sound track.

Shadow Hearts: From the New World is an entirely new cast of characters and it takes place in the Americas. The Americas aren't exaggerated at this point, and it takes places around a year before the Great Depression. The main characters are a New Yorker named Johnny Garland (who mysteriously wears jeans way before their invention) and a native american woman named Shania, dealing with the aftermath of one of the major events of Shadow Hearts: Covenant (namely the release of a large amount of Malice into the world at once). You engage in bootlegging, teaming up with Al Capone against prohibition, visiting Alcatraz, and dealing with various things in South America. America is not portrayed as this patriotic place like it seems in other Japanese media, it is portrayed quite fairly (also colorful, but that's a result of the game taking more of a turn towards the quirky rather than the horror/surreal/occultish elements).

It also has a very odd sense of humor...

man festival (exactly as macho and over the top as it sounds)
"that is one giant pussy" (safe for work)
there's a sidequest where you have to do favors for some dead people who couldn't rest in peace... one person said her biggest regret was that she died on the toilet without having anything to wipe with. The goal is to give her tissues (which you only really get if you whiff on the lottery in the game) so she can wipe herself from beyond the grave.
All the torture scenes have one where you can have the tortured character act like a masochist ("oh dehuai, you're so sexy, give it to me" for the innocent priest's daughter that you control in the first game)



It's also among the most emotional games I've played. The beginning of the second game has very little of that quirky humor, and it is very dark, and I don't want to go into it because it'll spoil the very very tragic ending of the first game. A lot of NPCs die and no villain in this game was truly evil - the entire struggle is about whether or not the ends justify the means, and the villains fight more for the ends and the protagonists fight for all those who suffer as a means to achieve those ends. You feel bad for every antagonist by the end of the game.

This remains one of the most powerful scenes I've seen in a video game. Also a very realistic portrayal of Japanese imperialism around that time.

[Naglfar94]

*ba-dum tisss*

Seriously though. I've played the tiniest bit of SNES Nage Libre, and I've always wanted to play the Athena arcade game (I love the character-both goddess Athena and Athena Asamiya- in KoF, Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, etc.)

I've played a few obscure games in my day. The Langrisser series might be considered "rare", but I don't know if it's the best example. I would definitely love to see the games get more exposure, though.

Oh you have played a bit of Nage Libre? Great to see someone else who has played a bit of it it is a pretty darn good game i played and finished it many times i wish I knew how to read Japanese better so I could understand all they are saying I would like to know more of the dialogue. And Athena arcade version is wonderful and the music is great it is just bloody hard! argh hardest game I have ever played.

I like the Athena games though is really too bad they are so few and hard to come by :( I would love to play more games with either Goddess Athena or Athena Asamiya in them.

[Gemma]

I know that feel. My Japanese is alright, but most of the complex stuff eludes me. Seemed really interesting from what I played, though. I really liked the clothes changing battle mechanic, and the game has a cute and lighthearted style, which I really enjoy.

I had no idea Athena was so hard. I guess it is SNK though. :V

Let me think... There's the Psycho Soldier arcade game, and then Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life which seems... different...

(And as far as fighting games go) in addition to Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, Goddess Athena is in SNK vs Capcom Chaos as well.

I'll just leave this here :3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4y13vnGXec

Edited November 18, 2014 by Gemma

[MacLovin]

does playing an actual original phantasy star [ or w/e the name of the game with opa opa is] arcade cabinet count?

[Original Alear]

Alundra and Breath of Fire seem to count these days.

Whoa...

The Breath of Fire series, or #1 in specific?

EDIT-I have never seen anyone mention Dragon Quarter's existence, but then again I've never asked if anybody has played it.

Edited November 18, 2014 by Severlan

[Loki Laufeyson]

The Breath of Fire series, or #1 in specific?

EDIT-I have never seen anyone mention Dragon Quarter's existence, but then again I've never asked if anybody has played it.

The series in general. And yeah DQ definitely is a rarity. I havent even played that one and ive played them all. /shrug

[Ein]

My brother has a bunch of rare games. Or at least games that seem rare. Like Suikoden 1 and 2. Or are they just exceedingly expensive.

[Naglfar94]

Ah you are in the same boat as me eh? when it comes to Japanese language yeah I am still learning Kanji is so hard and forming complete sentences I can`t do yet I can only read and identify katakana and hiragana and a handful of kanji... I can`t completely read large sentences yet in Japanese.

Yes the cloths changing system is awesome in Nage libre I love it too I think they affect stats in battle by a minor amount like for example I have seen the winter coat give somewhat higher defense in battle. Ah! I played Psycho Soldier before I liked it a lot! it is not nearly as hard as Athena Arcade though my gosh that game is brutal but fun as for Athena Awakening from an Ordnary Life ehhh... I am not sure what that game is like I don`t know if I should play it or not...

I know that feel. My Japanese is alright, but most of the complex stuff eludes me. Seemed really interesting from what I played, though. I really liked the clothes changing battle mechanic, and the game has a cute and lighthearted style, which I really enjoy.

I had no idea Athena was so hard. I guess it is SNK though. :V

Let me think... There's the Psycho Soldier arcade game, and then Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life which seems... different...

(And as far as fighting games go) in addition to Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, Goddess Athena is in SNK vs Capcom Chaos as well.

I'll just leave this here :3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4y13vnGXec

does playing an actual original phantasy star [ or w/e the name of the game with opa opa is] arcade cabinet count?

Yes that counts too and wow it is on an arcade cabinet too!? cool!

[Dagon]

Well price doesn't always determine the rarity of the game I think. For instance if you look at the price of FF VII for the black strip originals it can go into the $300s. Now it's probably cheaper though. Wow looking at ebay they have them pretty cheap. About 5 years ago I could only find $80+ copies that were mint condition.

Very expensive despite people having copies of it. It depends on the form you get it in (digital & physical). I have a greatest hits version of FF VII which is significantly cheaper than the black original one. Still expensive but not quite as expensive as the original. And if it is wrapped it becomes even more expensive.

Goldensun I would argue is mildly hard to find. Back when they sold used GBA games you could occasionally find it. The persona/smt games used to be hard to find but when it started gaining popularity they became very easy. Suikoden has been hard to find since they've taken out. Romancing Saga is also decently hard to find.

Edited November 21, 2014 by Dagon

[Original Alear]

Oh, I've also played and beaten Gitaroo Man, which I'm pretty sure is rare or was at some point. Just the PS2 version, not the PSP one.

[Elieson]

Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark"...

Oh wait, Rare games, not games made by RARE

Langrisser probably is the rarest one i can think of right now

[fengaridotdll]

Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber

My mom found it when helping my younger sister find and throw out random old clothes of hers and they found it, along with Pokemon Stadium 2

I still need to get to playing it though, we only recently found our N64 controllers and we need to hook it up to our TV when we get a chance

[Superbus]

As an older gamer who doesn't sell much, I have a treasure trove of "rare" games that I can play. I also am surrounded by a local group of retro game stores who used to sponsor content on my old site, so I'm in good shape if they pick up anything else, although saving for a house, wedding, etc. hurt my ability to spend money on old video games.

Looking back, the "rarest" game I've played recently? Probably Albert Odyssey for the Saturn, which is going for about $75 nowadays on the third-hand market.

I did just pick up the original Mother on eBay for $35.

[Gemma]

Ah you are in the same boat as me eh? when it comes to Japanese language yeah I am still learning Kanji is so hard and forming complete sentences I can`t do yet I can only read and identify katakana and hiragana and a handful of kanji... I can`t completely read large sentences yet in Japanese.

Yes the cloths changing system is awesome in Nage libre I love it too I think they affect stats in battle by a minor amount like for example I have seen the winter coat give somewhat higher defense in battle. Ah! I played Psycho Soldier before I liked it a lot! it is not nearly as hard as Athena Arcade though my gosh that game is brutal but fun as for Athena Awakening from an Ordnary Life ehhh... I am not sure what that game is like I don`t know if I should play it or not...

Work hard learning those Kanji! Also yeah, I wouldn't bother playing that other Athena game unless you're really curious. I just listed it as a technicality :P Like I said, I haven't played it, but it doesn't look like the greatest game by any means.

Langrisser probably is the rarest one i can think of right now

Elie.

We totally need to change our title to "Descendants of the Shining Light Duo"

[Starman]

i never played these, but i have heard of fighting games like Fighting Layer, Power Instinct, and Breakers Revenge

both games with, what i heard, with pretty tight controls, a pretty rad soundtrack and a pretty cool design choice for stuff like their characters, stages among other things.

Power Instinct probably really isn't that rare though, since it is somewhat of a well known franchise in Japan

Fighting Layer though is really rare. Only arcade release. Only in Japan

thank god for ROMs >u>

[Knight]

I have a Zelda Collector's, PoR, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Xenoblade and Radiant Dawn. I hear these range from pretty uncommon to very rare so...

[Elieson]

Oh! Does Ehrgeiz count?

[Original Alear]

Oh! Does Ehrgeiz count?

Hahaha, oh my god, Ehrgeiz. I think my bro might've sold that game...but I remember it well.

[Ethlyn]

Anyone ever heard of Boktai by any chance? If so, please, friend me! :D

[Elieson]

Well, The Sun is in My Hands!

[Original Alear]

Anyone ever heard of Boktai by any chance? If so, please, friend me! :D

I think lunar knights is related to boktai? I played until the final dungeon (or what I think was the final dungeon), then stopped for some reason and never finished.

[Ethlyn]

Well, The Sun is in My Hands!

...I think Sara-sama and I will get along just fiiiiine...O3O

...Sara-sama is the taiyou to my ankoku...O3O

(Thank you for the friending~ <3)

I think lunar knights is related to boktai? I played until the final dungeon (or what I think was the final dungeon), then stopped for some reason and never finished.

That would be Boktai DS. It...Is an okay game at best. I prefer the GBA ones over it vastly in terms of everything pretty much. (What have you done with my Django and Sabata, K-Konami...TT~TT!)

[sirmola]

I have the zelda collecter's edition (got it for 50 bucks when the game cube was still current) For reference it contains the 2 nes zeldas and the 2 n64 zeldas, plus a history of zelda video and a demo for "the windwaker". I belive that all 4 are direct emulation of the originals (no master quest here). I have some other old stuff but most of it is not rare per se.