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

[Rapier]

I really like ToeJam & Earl. Also, not sure if it is obscure, but the Rune Factory series are also good games that I hardly hear about.

[Sire]

I think I want a bit overboard with "some", but here is a list anyway.

[spoiler=To save space]Ogre Battle Franchise

- Ogre Battle 64 is my top favorite game of all time. I also enjoy the Tactics Ogre (played a translated SNES version) and March of the Black Queen, and I still need to get around to properly completing them. It is a shame that the franchise died off because they moved the team over to Final Fantasy Tactics instead. Ogre Battle should still exist, it has such a cool setting...

Command and Conquer Franchise (including Red Alert)

- I know everyone loves Red Alert 2 to bits, but a part of me still enjoys the old time classic of Red Alert 1. Red Alert 3 was a step in the wrong direction, and C&C 4 killed the series. C&C 3 was all right and I had fun with it while it lasted, but it didn't have the magic of the previous C&C games for me.

- If you happen to like the original Red Alert and Command and Conquer, there's a free remake called OpenRA. There are some differences to the originals, but I find OpenRA to be enjoyable.

- Also, special shoutout to C&C Renegade. I loved Renegade to bits and that was my shooting game for a long time. Now, there's Renegade X, an improved version of Renegade's multiplayer! Yay!

Grandia II

- The story was fun, but the battle system... I love the battle system of Grandia II to bits. Grandia II is probably my second favorite game of all time due to its battle system.

Skies of Arcadia

- This game, words can not describe how amazing this game is. Just play it, pick up Legends if you want to, but I played the original on the Dreamcast.

Xenoblade Chronicles X

- While I'm sure some people may know of it, this game is amazing for what it is. Sure, it has some flaws of its own, but the side quests caught me completely by surprise, especially after hearing the controversies with censorship. One sidequest reminded me of Resident Evil, while another turns a simple expedition into some far, far darker. One sidequest caught me by surpise, I was minding my own business (and was going to meet Hope for a Heart to Heart convo), when all of a sudden I trigger a cutscene and an alien falls out of the sky and goes splat on the concrete. They do not pull punches with the side quests, I tell ye!

Gauntlet Legends and Gauntlet Dark Legacy

- Arcade games at their finest. I loved the N64 version of Legends to bits, and while Dark Legacy adds more stuff, it does change some other things around as well.

X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends 2

- I think I was given these, but these games are also fun both in gameplay and story (especially the first one for story).

Warlords Battlecry

- I think people enjoy 2 and 3 more, but I've only played the first one. The idea of combining an RPG in terms of hero progression and an RTS for the overall gameplay is brilliant. It's a shame they don't do much with the Warlords universe anymore, I still got my Puzzle Quest thing on my DS (even though it seems to be a poor port).

Populous: The Beginning

- While not the original God Sim of previous, Populous: The Beginning was my first Populous game, it was fun to play. Essentially, you play as a tribal shaman who is a leader of a tribe, and you get to cast various spells (including spells that alter the terrain, such as making a land bridge, sinking settlements into the ocean, summoning a volcano, etc.) an an attempt to defeat your enemies.

Battle for Wesnoth

- It's a free turned base strategy game for PC that relies on community development. I'm in the process of making a campaign for it (which is currently on hold), so you can check that out in my signature!

Planetside 2

- My "modern" shooter of choice. The epic scale of battles and the combined warfare of infantry, tanks, and aircraft makes for an amazing game. It is Free to Play, but if you are concerned with BS deaths, you may want to pass on this because you can (and will at some point) be sniped Infiltrators that can use stealth cloaking.

... I can go on and on with this...

Gunpoint

Frozen Synapse

Bastion

Mount and Blade: Warband

Quest 64

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars (not a bad 3DS launch title!)

Kid Icarus: Uprising (Amazing gameplay and fun humor, but I think the aesthetic and controls may put people off)

[Walker]

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.

That's true, but unnecessarily harsh. Tiberium Wars isn't bad. Twilight and Generals 2 is ...

... Sorry, I just blacked out thinking about it.

[InsaneNoire]

Going with Golden Sun. The only person who actually had a conversation with my sister about Golden Sun was our Tech Ed teacher last year.

I would think a lot of people would have heard of that. It's soooo good.

[InsaneNoire]

The first one that came to my mind was Ocean Hunter, which is an arcade shooting game similar to the Jurassic Park arcade game. Apparently, it only exists in a very few arcades around the world, one of which is in Ocean City, NJ.

Also, Ape Escape for the PlayStation was one of my favorite games as a child. I didn't beat it until a few years ago, because I sucked at video games as a child (and still do to this day).

[Azure Sen]

Let's see...Fragile Dreams for the Wii and the games of Suda51's that I've played (No More Heroes 1+2, Killer is Dead, Killer7 and Shadows of the Damned) are the games that immediately come to mind for me. The former was a beautiful and touching exploration of a post-apocalyptic world, and the latter are almost always delightful, gory romps through Suda51's...unique mind.

[Zera]

Let's see...Fragile Dreams for the Wii...a beautiful and touching exploration of a post-apocalyptic world...

That sounds interesting. What is it?

[AnnetheCatDetective]

Rogue Galaxy... Rogue Galaxy was my jam. Not much of a fandom for it that I've seen... but I did love that one.

And from even further back in the day... Cool Spot. A Sega Genesis platformer about the 7 Up logo. On every level it sounds like it should be awful, to adult me, but when I was a kid, oh man... I'd spend all day with that one if you let me.

(also from the PS2 days, I remember falling in love with one called The Bouncer. Again, could never find a real fandom for it. But to this day I can hear the title screen thing in my head when I think of it... and I remember having a bit of a crush on one of the characters, haha)

[Samias]

Rogue Galaxy... Rogue Galaxy was my jam. Not much of a fandom for it that I've seen... but I did love that one.

And from even further back in the day... Cool Spot. A Sega Genesis platformer about the 7 Up logo. On every level it sounds like it should be awful, to adult me, but when I was a kid, oh man... I'd spend all day with that one if you let me.

(also from the PS2 days, I remember falling in love with one called The Bouncer. Again, could never find a real fandom for it. But to this day I can hear the title screen thing in my head when I think of it... and I remember having a bit of a crush on one of the characters, haha)

I honestly think Square should consider remaking The Bouncer. It failed in its time for being so damn short and having such clunky controls but it had really cool ideas go into it and some cool Nomura art. Now that they have better action RPG game engines from KH and FF they could just plop the game into that and then perhaps work on some longer stories in the same universe.

[AnnetheCatDetective]

I honestly think Square should consider remaking The Bouncer. It failed in its time for being so damn short and having such clunky controls but it had really cool ideas go into it and some cool Nomura art. Now that they have better action RPG game engines from KH and FF they could just plop the game into that and then perhaps work on some longer stories in the same universe.

Oh man... yeah, I'd play other stories in that universe for sure. And with how much the main character looks like he belongs in KH, they could capitalize on the fans of that series...

I'd also play through an entire game about Kou.

[Jedi]

Hoping I can get a recording working for Ogre Battle 64 so I can introduce more people to it

I honestly think Square should consider remaking The Bouncer. It failed in its time for being so damn short and having such clunky controls but it had really cool ideas go into it and some cool Nomura art. Now that they have better action RPG game engines from KH and FF they could just plop the game into that and then perhaps work on some longer stories in the same universe.

Seconding this, I love the Bouncer, also speaking of early PS2 games, Dark Cloud was a great game, I've heard rave things about the 2nd, but haven't played it. But the original holds a dear place to me.

Edited April 8, 2016 by Jedi

[Knight Falchion]

Even though they aren't particularly obscure anymore, the Drakengard series and its spin-off series, NieR, are games I enjoy a lot. The worlds and characters are fascinating and well worth exploring if you can stomach the repetitive gameplay, which I can, and NieR's soundtrack is one of the greats.

[saifors]

Digimon World Dawn/Dusk is/are my favourite game(s) of all time, and the only people I know who know it, know it because I told them about it and told them to play it (those that did enjoyed it).

When it comes to games in this series people always talk about World, World 3, Rumble arena and (since recently, because it was just recently released) Cyber Sleuth.

And these two get ignored despite having arguably the best gameplay in the entire series (haven't played Lost Evolution due to the whole no japanese speaking thing, so I can't really compare it).

[Knight Falchion]

Digimon World Dawn/Dusk is/are my favourite game(s) of all time, and the only people I know who know it, know it because I told them about it and told them to play it (those that did enjoyed it).

When it comes to games in this series people always talk about World, World 3, Rumble arena and (since recently, because it was just recently released) Cyber Sleuth.

And these two get ignored despite having arguably the best gameplay in the entire series (haven't played Lost Evolution due to the whole no japanese speaking thing, so I can't really compare it).

All three of the Digimon World games for the DS are pretty great imo, if a bit flawed compared to other games in the same genre. Still, I have a lot of fun with them, and working towards various Mega-level Digimon is very rewarding. It helps that Dusk and Dawn fixed most of the original Digimon World DS's problems, especially in terms of grinding and the difficulty curve. They're definitely the best Digimon games I've personally played, so I agree with you there.

Funny thing is I would never have experienced these games if the original owner of my copy of Digimon World DS hadn't lost it on the bus, lol.

[KFrosty]

Someone asked me this question not too long ago on Facebook, and l will say the same thing here. One of my favorite games of all time is Zen: Intergalactic Ninja for the NES. The story is kind of stupid (You play as an alien who comes to earth to help people recycle), but the gameplay is solid, and it's made by Konami and has stage selection, various gameplay styles, and is even quite fun, yet challenging. I recommend this to anyone who wants an obscure classic that is fun

[Aizenberg]

king arthur's world on the super nintendo.

[Original Alear]

king arthur's world on the super nintendo.

omg i remember that game.

[EricaofRenais]

Phalanx for GBA I loved that game and I am mad at my self for trading it in when I was younger because I really want to play it again. It was a space fighter game with a decent story and had rather interesting level design, I keep hoping to see it on the eshop one day.

[Tessie Spoon]

I rather like the Atelier series. This page explains what it is way better than I could, so there you go.

Though the games keep getting localized in the states, they're even more niche than Fire Emblem was before Awakening. Now, if only Gust would wise up and start porting the series to PC...

[Magical CC]

Anyone here play Kantai Collection? Yeah, one of my less known favorite games....

Edited April 26, 2016 by Magical CC

[Rapier]

Digimon World Dawn/Dusk is/are my favourite game(s) of all time, and the only people I know who know it, know it because I told them about it and told them to play it (those that did enjoyed it).

When it comes to games in this series people always talk about World, World 3, Rumble arena and (since recently, because it was just recently released) Cyber Sleuth.

And these two get ignored despite having arguably the best gameplay in the entire series (haven't played Lost Evolution due to the whole no japanese speaking thing, so I can't really compare it).

I liked both games but I couldn't stand the grinding. No, I dislike having to devolve digimons to be able to advance to another tier, that's a crappy mechanic to incentive grinding. That's too bad, because I liked the premise and the gameplay was fun until it got repetitive and tiresome.

Though the games keep getting localized in the states, they're even more niche than Fire Emblem was before Awakening. Now, if only Gust would wise up and start porting the series to PC...

I was always interested on the Atelier series but lacking a PSP and being PC locked made me miss it. Guess I should try it out with an emulator later (although the same applies to a lot of series)

Edited April 27, 2016 by Rapier

[Aizenberg]

omg i remember that game.

that makes 1 person then lol.

[Lyn]

I've been liking Legend of the River King. It's on virtual console, but doesn't seem to be one of the more played games.

[Noma9]

Digimon World Dawn/Dusk is/are my favourite game(s) of all time, and the only people I know who know it, know it because I told them about it and told them to play it (those that did enjoyed it).

When it comes to games in this series people always talk about World, World 3, Rumble arena and (since recently, because it was just recently released) Cyber Sleuth.

And these two get ignored despite having arguably the best gameplay in the entire series (haven't played Lost Evolution due to the whole no japanese speaking thing, so I can't really compare it).

I love Dawn and Dusk. LOVE. I didn't even know they existed until my brother came up to me one day and said "Hey, I found this in the parking lot at work, do you want it?" and it was Dusk. I would really love another digimon game more similar to these.

[Rapier]

Oh, and I also like Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2. Not sure if it counts, though. IIRC it isn't that well known, and the Summon Night games are mostly Japan exclusive, save for maybe one or two and the Swordcraft Story games.