What are some of your favorite video games that other people have never heard of?

[Noma9]

Well, I'd like to add a "here, here!" to Ogre Battle and Seiken Densetsu 3. Literally two of my all time favorite games. I'll also add:

- Illusion of Gaia

- Lost Vikings

- Soul Blazer

- Baten Kaitos

- Final Fantasy Legend I/II/III

- Heroes of mana

- Nostalgia

- Radiant Historia

For a certain value of "never heard of", I guess. But I don't know a lot of people talking about most of them. I for real suggest everyone play Radiant Historia though, it's crazy good.

[Masked And Dangerous]

I agree, Radiant Historia is a hidden gem of the Atlus library.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade is a game I've beaten several times. It's just so slick, and the art is orgasmic Vanillaware fair. I'm so sad that I don't have a PS Vita to pick up the enhanced port with all the sidestories.

And the Shin Megami Tensei franchise is one I get weird looks for talking about in real life, unless I'm talking about Persona. It's a real shame, actually, how the original series has been fading steadily since the spin off gained popularity.

[epilepsyduck]

I've got a soft spot for FEDA: The Emblem of Justice, which is basically like a Shining Force game if Shining Force was actually good.

I love most of the games in the SaGa series, too, aside from the mishmash of bad ideas that was Unlimited Saga. I definitely understand why other people don't, though.

[Original Alear]

Snow Bros is also a totally fun Bubble-Bobble-like NES game except I actually enjoy it

Hahahaha Snow Bros! Loved that game. I haven't really played the NES ver though, just the gameboy one.

Maybe I'm mistaken in that, because I think I'm remembering playing it together with my brother before...

Also, I don't think anyone has mentioned Star Control II? I really love that game. I don't think I've really run into anyone on SF who has played it. It's definitely kinda well known, though.

[Skornvorax]

Does anyone know Warlords Battlecry 3? Its a fantastic RTS/RPG game with many great elements in it and its just loads of fun!

Also Majesty 1 and 2, the second one may not be so great but its still a fantastic fantasy sim game that I recommend to everyone

Lets see what else.... I know this isnt unheard off but its been a while since I heard people talking about it... Unreal, from the first one to Tournament 2004, I cannot think of a awesome FPS series that has some classic and different weapons, soundtrack and just fun game, sure Quake was good and all but Unreal is just beatiful in every way...

Also anyone remenbers that Jazz Jackrabbit series ? I freaking love the second one and its soundtrack that.... *sigh* makes me think that the 3rd one was the worst loss in video game history...

Oh and gratz for the people that remenber the Army men series, a classic of my childhood.... except the last one....

[Zera]

My brother and I have fond memories of two PS1 games.

Team Buddies is the first and last "pick up and play" strategy game. Yes, you heard that right.

Ball Breakers is an action game where all characters have steel balls to roll around with instead of legs. There's fighting, racing, collecting, and obstacle courses. The game also has some really cool terrain deformation physics. Making it even more impressive is the fact that it only cost $10!

[Loki Laufeyson]

Kairo

Anodyne

Drakkhen

[DragonLord]

Megaman Battle Network and Megaman Starforce

Now to be fair, people do know about them, but don't KNOW about them. These are both great rpg series, but they get pretty overshadowed, Starforce especially (because the poor game didn't even get it's own Mii costume in Smash 4 DLC...).

I agree, they aren't the most well received series in the Mega Man community, which is a shame, since I think they are both amazing in their own right.

Adding to the topic, a great series from my childhood days was Ty The Tasmanian Tiger. It's one of those classic platformers with a ton of collectables. The game spawned 2 sequels, and the studio behind them came back from the dead in recent years. They want to create a new 3D entry into the series, but they lack the funds that they used to back in the early 2000s. I've heard news about them releasing an HD version of the original game on Steam, so I'll probably get it sometime.

Edited March 13, 2016 by DragonLord

[Irony]

I'm also pretty big on Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, which sort of did the FE dual attack thing before FE did and combined it with juggling

- Radiant Historia

For a certain value of "never heard of", I guess. But I don't know a lot of people talking about most of them. I for real suggest everyone play Radiant Historia though, it's crazy good.

I'm seconding/thirding this, as well as Golden Sun. I'm also going to add Etrian Odyssey to the list: You know a game is obscure when even WORKERS AT SPECIALIST GAMING STORES IN YOUR COUNTRY HAVE NEVER HEARD OF IT! (On the plus side, I might have persuaded one of them to give it a go. Hopefully?)

[solrocknroll]

I'm seconding/thirding this, as well as Golden Sun. I'm also going to add Etrian Odyssey to the list: You know a game is obscure when even WORKERS AT SPECIALIST GAMING STORES IN YOUR COUNTRY HAVE NEVER HEARD OF IT! (On the plus side, I might have persuaded one of them to give it a go. Hopefully?)

I'm pretty sure that Etrian Odyssey is decidedly not obscure though

Atlus is surprising mainstream thanks to SMT and Persona tbh

[Izana]

Baten Kaitos is the first one that comes to mind!

[Noma9]

Baten Kaitos is the first one that comes to mind!

Both it and Origins are really wonderful games. I also find Eternal Wings' voice acting to be So Bad it's Good.

[Knight]

I'm gonna mention Endless Ocean: Blue World again. That game is surprisingly enjoyable for what on face value probably seems like a dumb edutainment game. There is an immense amount of places to explore, stuff to collect, fish to find, sidequests to do and island knick-knacks to buy.

[Star and Moon]

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon seems to be the one Fire Emblem that nobody's ever played. When I played it a lot at school last year, the few people I've come across who actually knew what Fire Emblem was were only familiar with Awakening, or in a few cases the GBA games.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is niche game on a niche console, so you bet nobody's ever heard of it! It's really good though.

Not many people have heard of Earthbound, but the first game of the trilogy Earthbound Beginnings (aka MOTHER) is easily the least well known of the three. People don't give it much credit because most say it's too grindy, frustrating and/or difficult... but I gotta facepalm because honestly MOTHER 3 had it worse yet nobody seems to notice?

Hedgewars is a FOSS clone of the strategy series Worms that I used to play a lot. It's rather unheard of.

Can't think of anything else atm. May edit and add later.

Edited March 14, 2016 by Star and Moon

[Walker]

I've just recently heard of / played Raidiant Historia. Amazing game,, with a better time travel mechanic then Majora's Mask

The unsung hero of RTS games is Command and Conquer Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge. I have never seen this game mentioned or brought up anywhere online, outside of C&C, and everyone there focuses on Tiberium 3 or Generals.

C&C RA2: Yuri's Revenge is not like it's successor in the insanity factor, but is a solid tactical strategy game nonetheless. With mind control.

RA3 too, for that matter. You'd think a RTS where you shrink ray enemy tank to run them over, has a anime girl as a commando, uses genetically engineered bears, and time travel would have more notoriety, but no...

[Zera]

RA3 too, for that matter. You'd think a RTS where you shrink ray enemy tank to run them over, has a anime girl as a commando, uses genetically engineered bears, and time travel would have more notoriety, but no...

What if that's exactly why it doesn't have notoriety?

[King Marth 64]

I wanted to point out for Ikachan, Cave Story, X-Scape, The Mysterious Murasame Castle, Kuru Kuru Kurinin, StarTropics, Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II, Tin Star, and the DigiPen Institute of Technology games were awesome.

I managed to get Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II from the Club Nintendo rewards a while back before they discontinued the service in March 2015 and I did managed to get The Mysterious Murasame Castle and Kuru Kuru Kurinin from the eShop; I managed to play them when they got released in the eShop back then and I did managed to clear Kuru Kuru Kurinin from a few days ago. But, the DigiPen games were pretty awesome for an indie titles made by College Students and I did managed to make three games from the Summer Workshop back in High School.

Ikachan, Cave Story, and X-Scape were pretty good, I managed to beat X-Scape without getting X and I managed to beat Ikachan after downloaded from the Nintendo 3DS eShop and beat the normal route from Cave Story after downloaded from the WiiWare.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is niche game on a niche console, so you bet nobody's ever heard of it! It's really good though.

Not many people have heard of Earthbound, but the first game of the trilogy Earthbound Beginnings is easily the least well known of the three. People don't give it much credit because most say it's too grindy, frustrating and/or difficult...

The Wii U eShop have Xenoblade Chronicles X, EarthBound, and EarthBound Beginnings marked as Best Selling.

Codename Steam

This. Poor. Freakin'. Game!
I think the whole issue with Majora's Mask 3D not being a thing and then later being a thing hurt this game a bit. Now to be honest, I don't own the game. I've just played the demo(but that's because I've never had a job until now, so saving up for this or any game was hard), however, I felt like this a good game...that got overshadowed. I know every one has their preferences and may not like this game's gameplay a whole lot, but I feel like it got greatly overshadowed and it cost it greatly!

I'm pretty sure I did seen like maybe around 100s people playing CodeName: S.T.E.A.M.?

Edited March 15, 2016 by Mike Jones

[secondworld]

Back in the day I had this niche among my friends. I was "the Custom Robo guy". This ridiculously fun multiplayer game on the Game Cube that rivaled even Melee in that aspect, and I was the only one who had it. In fact I never came across anyone else who even knew about it until SF.

[Thane]

Does Ghost Trick count? I feel like Ghost Trick counts.

[Bankai]

Would Bahamut Lagoon count it's SRPG made by Square for the SNES that was only released in Japan.

[Samias]

Baten Kaitos is the first one that comes to mind!

I love this game to pieces. Although some characters were so much easier to use than others (Everyone vs Savyna... the animation speed for Savyna makes it so much harder to use her + limited elements...) and the voice acting + intentional-but-poorly-implemented echo filter were atrocious. Still full of brilliant ideas and a plot with some great hooks, twists and turns.

I find RPG fans generally know and like the first game but the 2nd came out so late in the GCN's life that it was much easier to overlook. I liked the sequel even more though some people are mixed on the giant battle system overhaul. Personally I preferred the faster ATB queued actions-and-combo system of Origins a LOT. Way less dead time than the original even if your deck is more generic. Also the sequel nixed the strange filter on the voices and hired better actors overall.

[Jedi]

Would Bahamut Lagoon count it's SRPG made by Square for the SNES that was only released in Japan.

Same goes for Live-A-Live which is an interesting game as well.

[Noma9]

I love this game to pieces. Although some characters were so much easier to use than others (Everyone vs Savyna... the animation speed for Savyna makes it so much harder to use her + limited elements...) and the voice acting + intentional-but-poorly-implemented echo filter were atrocious. Still full of brilliant ideas and a plot with some great hooks, twists and turns.

I find RPG fans generally know and like the first game but the 2nd came out so late in the GCN's life that it was much easier to overlook. I liked the sequel even more though some people are mixed on the giant battle system overhaul. Personally I preferred the faster ATB queued actions-and-combo system of Origins a LOT. Way less dead time than the original even if your deck is more generic. Also the sequel nixed the strange filter on the voices and hired better actors overall.

Savyna is probably my least used character for exactly that reason. Girlfriend is quick. And I always thought is was a shame about the sequel/prequel. It's a very good game that freakin' no one ever got to play. Personally, I liked the first games deck and battle system better, but ideally I would want a mix of the two-- too bad that will never happen ): If Origins had got around a bit (a lot) more, I think we could have easily had a third game, because Origins was really slick and well done, improving and building on everything the first game gave us.

[Irony]

Does Ghost Trick count? I feel like Ghost Trick counts.

Yes. So much yes. I love this game! :D

[Soapbar]

The unsung hero of RTS games is Command and Conquer Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge. I have never seen this game mentioned or brought up anywhere online, outside of C&C, and everyone there focuses on Tiberium 3 or Generals.

C&C RA2: Yuri's Revenge is not like it's successor in the insanity factor, but is a solid tactical strategy game nonetheless. With mind control.

really?

because any C&C RA3 video I go on, the comments constantly talk about how Red Alert 2 was the pinnacle of the series and how Tiberium Wars and RA3 are the anti-christ in disguise.

Anyways, the Armored Core series comes to mind. It was made by From Software in the days before Dark Souls. All the games have great soundtracks, the mechs feel really good to control and the AC on AC (or NEXT on NEXT if your playing 4/FA) are intense.