Hidden PS1 "Gems" That Should Stay Hidden

[Dragonsoren]

Paranoia Escape (PS1)

This one makes LSD simulator look like a child's design just looking at those bizarre scenarios and enemies. It is an interesting take for pinball on a very peculiar proposal, but the game is very clumsy to play only if you are quite proficient with the luck you carry when playing even being too short. It fells more like a experimental title with a Japanese rock band that has a lot of this theme and it's a guest in fact on this, but I think it is not worth experience and should have been in just a thesis even with strange soundtrack of the band. Did I say it looks also like Hellraiser on drugs?

 

[Bakuma1997]

C: The Contra Adventure and Contra: Legacy of War, awful sequels to the greatest SNES shooter

 

[Jambhala]

Paranoia Escape (PS1)

This one makes LSD simulator look like a child's design just looking at those bizarre scenarios and enemies. It is an interesting take for pinball on a very peculiar proposal, but the game is very clumsy to play only if you are quite proficient with the luck you carry when playing even being too short. It fells more like a experimental title with a Japanese rock band that has a lot of this theme and it's a guest in fact on this, but I think it is not worth experience and should have been in just a thesis even with strange soundtrack of the band. Did I say it looks also like Hellraiser on drugs?
View attachment 53744

This was made by this really strange artist, Screaming Mad George (a fitting name). This game is an interactive version of his art, you should check out some of it, he's most well known for doing makeup and SFX for movies around the 90s

 

[Botched Mark]

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon SuperS: Shin Shuyaku Soudatsusen. I mean... just look at it....View attachment 53666

I remember the SNES Sailor Moon games looking alright what in God's name is this

 

[Vesthal]

LOL, forgot about this one. I had it stored deep in my brain vault. It is a fairly impressive game visually though, just horrible to play.

I'm probably the only fool who like the king's field series but i also can understand the hate

Post automatically merged: Apr 4, 2025

The Mission for PSX, It's an Action/Puzzle game where you control Soccer player like Figo and Cannavaro fighting Samurai Who stole a important Trophy.

 

[CG4R12I4N]

Post-3 Toshinden game.

Please take that back.
Toshinden Subaru/4 is actually a good game even if it's not a very Toshinden-like game in retrospect. T_T

Also, Hydro Thunder. Not that the game is bad, but it's really only good at the time and the sequels literally ruined everything that was good about it.

 

[Boo Man]

this is my favorite PS1 game to hate

oh and this one

 

[Arklem]

I remember the SNES Sailor Moon games looking alright what in God's name is this

the SNES games weren't exactly perfect gameplay wise but they did look good, in this case i don't know what the hell happened, i guess they wanted to go with more 3d looking visual since it was the all mighty playstation, but instead of trying to make a 3d game they just made terrible low resolution sprites of the 3d models and it ended up looking like a poorly made MUGEN

 

[ThatOneLum]

Hogs of war.

How dare you spit on the name of Rik Mayal like this

 

[DeadVoivod]

Felony 11-79, known in Japan as Runabout is quite bad, I love how the pedestrians run around though
But it's one of those games that is so bad that it's actually great.

 

[NotGodlike]

Alundra 2 just because of how many misunderstood that game. Sure, it's not Alundra 1, but the concept and gameplay is pretty decent enough. It's certainly a very servicable rpg akin to Zelda, and is pretty obscure nowadays

 

[Tonberry]

The first Toshinden was a big hit at the time so it's not hidden at all. It was even hyped as a PS1 killer app. I agree the series isn't good though, and since it barely improved with time everyone stopped caring by the time of 3 and 4, so those are obscure.

That’s fair haha
I just grew up with Toshinden 3 and still find it fun, but tried the other ones as an adult and thought they were horrible in comparison.

 

[UnDubious]

Alundra 2 just because of how many misunderstood that game. Sure, it's not Alundra 1, but the concept and gameplay is pretty decent enough. It's certainly a very servicable rpg akin to Zelda, and is pretty obscure nowadays

I think you misread the thread title, it's about games that are obscure and actually bad, not real hidden gems.
I agree with you that Alundra 2 is good. I was turned off by the goofy cartoony tone initially (I'm guessing they thought Alundra was too dark and depressing and wanted to do a complete 180), but the dungeon design is mostly really good, just like in Alundra and Landstalker.

 

[Ain_Gamer]

Goujin Senki​

I am glad that someone fan translated it, but it's easily the worst PS1 RPG

Outside of RPG, it's probably

Countdown Vampires​

Poor man Resident Evil but the Gun play sucks, everything sucks.

 

[longestseason]

Ah, the irony of making a thread of "hidden 'gems' that should stay hidden" while giving them more exposure...

Kusoge fans keep winning

 

[NotGodlike]

I think you misread the thread title, it's about games that are obscure and actually bad, not real hidden gems.
I agree with you that Alundra 2 is good. I was turned off by the goofy cartoony tone initially (I'm guessing they thought Alundra was too dark and depressing and wanted to do a complete 180), but the dungeon design is mostly really good, just like in Alundra and Landstalker.

Yeah, I initally thought "misunderstood" as "hidden", but that game was still regarded as bad.
But if we're talking very bad, I only can think of PS1's Spectral Tower by Idea Factory. God, that game played absolutely terrible and while the roguelike concept of it was "neat" on paper, in reality it plays like some terrible bootleg rpg game with absurd stuff like random save spots and enemies hitting your inventory items. I'm surprised the devs even managed to go farther after that with stuff like Neptunia, but seeing how those play...
At least the cover art is nice, if albeit misleading

 

[Jambhala]

Felony 11-79, known in Japan as Runabout is quite bad, I love how the pedestrians run around though
But it's one of those games that is so bad that it's actually great.

View attachment 53834

I really enjoyed this one, the long winding tracks with different routes are awesome and very pretty. Plus the damage model isn't half bad.

 

[Superdark500]

Yeah, I initally thought "misunderstood" as "hidden", but that game was still regarded as bad.
But if we're talking very bad, I only can think of PS1's Spectral Tower by Idea Factory. God, that game played absolutely terrible and while the roguelike concept of it was "neat" on paper, in reality it plays like some terrible bootleg rpg game with absurd stuff like random save spots and enemies hitting your inventory items. I'm surprised the devs even managed to go farther after that with stuff like Neptunia, but seeing how those play...
At least the cover art is nice, if albeit misleading

View attachment 53884View attachment 53885

i play a couple of minutes of this "game" and it was not fun at all. i deleted after that.

 

[Hourai]

King's Field. If not for it being attached to FromSoft, i think it should've and would've stayed hidden. View attachment 53724

Disagree. I actually found it enjoyable, with the more methodical combat centered around timing when you swing and watching your opponent to be pretty fun. Preferable to standard action games' combat. It is undeniably the first game made by a business software developer for the launch of a 3D console, but it's quite good if you approach it on its own terms.

For myself...R?MJ is certainly a game that exists. I'm sure the developers had some lofty goals; I just have no idea what they are. It would also be remiss of me to not talk about the official English localization of Ace Combat 3. They blended every single route of AC3JP into one, making the game feel needlessly long. They also stripped out a lot of what made the game so incredible (the writing), making it a far more shallow experience. I'm not sure if people would call it a hidden gem, but I'm guessing this thread is about bad obscure games.

 

[Spyrone]

Hmm... the Germs: The Targeted Town game is one I'd definitely count. It's a very technically impressive game, but the combat is more painful and tedious than King's Field. I also want to mention PO'ed, which is admittedly rather jank and has some floaty controls but I honestly have a soft spot for that one, as I find the enemy designs are incredibly hilarious (the first thing you fight looks like a two-legged vagina monster that attacks via queffing at you) and it has a unique premise amongst FPS games of the time- you aren't a badass space marine or a super spy, but the ship cook on a space ship filled with mercs sent to some bug hunting who winds up the only survivor after the mercs got tweaked on combat stims and died very quickly (at least according to the expository opening text scroll).

 

[solidbatman]

hellnight. whoever it was that told me its a good game... i dislike you.

 

[Bakuma1997]

The Accolade South Park FPS, had it as a kid, only loved it because it was South Park...

In hindsight the fact that i needed cheats to beat the final stages should be a red flag

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

What are some obscure PS1 games that you've found to be absolutely horrible?

I have a handful in mind (I don't want to say them because I'm interested in seeing if anybody else has tried them), but the one that strikes me as one of the worst is the JP exclusive, "C1 - Circuit"
View attachment 53551View attachment 53552
I downloaded this while going down a list of every PS1 racing game, and this one is particularly bad. The car models are incredibly low quality and as far as I'm aware there are only 5 in the game. In addition, forewarned by the outline on the title screen, there's only one track, split into 3 versions, two halves and full track. Once you get into the game and start driving it doesn't get any better.
View attachment 53553View attachment 53555
The handling of the cars is both stiff and slippery at the same time, and as you can see in the screenshots, you cannot stop once you start moving. The slowest you can get the car to go after pressing the gas is 7km/h, and while you're going that slow the car will try to slide diagonally. If you get up to a decent speed, which is strange in itself because the cars are very slow (I believe it's intended for you to upgrade them, but who's gonna do that), the game will throw you a sharp turn and if you hit the wall the car gets tossed very unnaturally, it feels like a bug that was never fixed.

The ONLY positive about the game is that the models + textures of the buildings are actually pretty visually appealing, but they're hard to get a good look at because they randomly pop in and out as you drive past. The same pop-in happens to some sections of the road in your periphery as well, mostly when you drive past intersections.

Looks like the game called "Peak Performance" which is on the ps1 too. And it didnt looked so "Peak" in its "Peformance" graphics-wise and with the gameplay . But atleast the name was cool ... I guess ...

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Disagree. I actually found it enjoyable, with the more methodical combat centered around timing when you swing and watching your opponent to be pretty fun. Preferable to standard action games' combat. It is undeniably the first game made by a business software developer for the launch of a 3D console, but it's quite good if you approach it on its own terms.

For myself...R?MJ is certainly a game that exists. I'm sure the developers had some lofty goals; I just have no idea what they are. It would also be remiss of me to not talk about the official English localization of Ace Combat 3. They blended every single route of AC3JP into one, making the game feel needlessly long. They also stripped out a lot of what made the game so incredible (the writing), making it a far more shallow experience. I'm not sure if people would call it a hidden gem, but I'm guessing this thread is about bad obscure games.

I’m so glad you brought up Ace Combat 3. Just about the worst fate a localized game can receive: it didn’t rock in its home country as far as sales and the devs thought it was the fault of the game and not the competition it was up against, so they butchered it over seas.

It happened to a few other games too across the years, but never as bad as Ace Combat 3.

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

I’m so glad you brought up Ace Combat 3. Just about the worst fate a localized game can receive: it didn’t rock in its home country as far as sales and the devs thought it was the fault of the game and not the competition it was up against, so they butchered it over seas.

It happened to a few other games too across the years, but never as bad as Ace Combat 3.

Yeah . Ace combat 3 was butchered even in europe too and the missions were just thrown with almost no context whatsoever in with some faceless text and thats it.
I saw the japanese cutscenes one time and i didnt believed that it was Ace Combat 3 how it actually was .

I mean there were even Events cut out from the game which made the missions very lively and not so one-sided . Or am i wrong ? Its been a long time since i researched about the game .