Underrated games...

[RetroLuvr]

I love Ar Tonelico Melody of Elemia

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

-Homura: Easily Taito's most obscure shoot em up without even a (proper) wikipedia page or much info at all. It's an arcade game ported to PS2, and both stayed in Japan

-Thunder Force VI: the only Thunder Force to stay in Japan and also the only Thunder Force to be MID AS ALL HELL. It rehashes a lot of older idea from the previous games to the point there's absolutely nothing really original about it. It especially takes from the predecessor and it shows. Saddest part is that not only was this the last Thunder Force game but the original Thunder Force VI was gonna be way different before the project was cancelled due to Technosoft being bought out by a pachinko company + shutting down due to a merger, EA style

-Odin Sphere: Definitely less underrated now, but be honest how many people know about it? Really beautiful action RPG with a lot of deep combat and crazy combos. People often pass it up for Leifthrasir being the more up to date version, same with Persona 4 Golden to Persona 4.
Odin Sphere (PS2 gameplay)

-Metal Slug (3D): A 3D reboot of Metal Slug that...is quite the game. I recommend playing this only as a novelty, especially after playing all the mainline games first. Matter of fact, go emulate all the Metal Slugs, they're all on PSP (XX is a substitute for 7). You could buy off Steam too but it only has 1-3. And iirc, I think GOG has 4. 5 and 6 are MIA. If there's one good thing to come out of this game's existence, it's this badass GaMetal cover
Out of Control (GaMetal remix)

-Raidou Kuzanoha duology: I know HD exists now but it's already gonna be a glowup from Soulless Army. I hear RK2 is great though.

-Nocturne Maniax Edition: There's a few minor details that HD added or subtracted. I hear HD messed with an ending too. Also this version of Nocturne has a free Dante with it NOT locked behind $15 so yeah

-GrimGrimoire: This is the Vanillaware game even I sometimes forget exists as well. It's a pseudo point and click game which in the PS2 era is very eye catching. The art is gorgeous too (as usual), so play it

-Castlevania: Curse of Darkness/Lament of Innocence: I hear both are really good for 3D Castlevanias, but haven't played them for myself

-Dodonpachi DaiOuJou: This is kinda the best way to play it besides Reincarnation, so good that developers at 5pb tried to plagiarise the code for the Xbox 360 port (and failed)




-Ibara: Arcade port with added music

-Every Atelier game on PS2: They're all pretty good, especially Mana Khemia. There's also a fan translation of the PS2 port of the first two Atelier games ever, if you wanna try those.

-Zone of the Enders 1 & 2

-Ridge Racer V

-Gradius V

-Radirgy Precious

-Twinkle Star Sprites: La Petite Princese

-Shikigami no Shiro II

-Rez

-Xenosaga Episode I-III

-Espgaluda

-R Racing Evolution

-The Red Star: SHMUP based on a graphic novel

-Radiata Stories

-Ar Tonelico I & II

-Virtual On Marz: the last Virtual On game and a pretty fun one

-Suikoden III-V

-Baroque

-Raiden III

-all Psyvariar games

-Haunting Ground

-Gauntlet Dark Legacy

-Dawn of Mana

-Phantasy Star Universe

-Scarface

-Dead or Alive 2

-R Type Final

-Shadow Hearts trilogy

-Fatal Frame I-III

-Kuon

-The Rumble Fish

-Gunbird Special Edition

-Metal Saga

-Dark Cloud 1 & 2

-Gungrave

-Clock Tower 3

-Puyo Puyo Fever 1 & 2

-Rule of Rose

-The Suffering

-Bloody Roar 3 & 4

-Evergrace 1 & 2

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

Dual Hearts

An action adventure game where you go into people's dream to help them work out their problems. You also get a whole bunch of magic weapons as you progress and a sidekick that serves as the game's comic relief.

 

[Graw]

This is probably one of the best rpgs I've ever played. It can be a bit obtuse and tough to get into but it gives a better sense of adventure and exploration than most other rpgs I've played and the combat and party system is really complex and satisfying to mess around with. I would recommend the remaster over the ps2 version though. It's better in every way and there's no downsides to playing it over the original.

 

[Viviana Santos]

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Oh dear
View attachment 50859
...I'll get the list, expect me to take at least 30 minutes to write it all

Thank you very much Icaro for winking because it just so happens I just learned of a Lilo & Stitch spinoff game exclusive to PS2 after watching a video about all of the experiments.

It contains the one and only appearance of Experiment 621 "Chop Suey," who is made canon via the credits for Leroy and Stitch where every experiment was named. Some details of the game are kinda in a retcon hell due to the second movie retconning it only for an episode of the series to retcon that retcon which lmao

It also predates the original film being shown in theatres (and is a prequel to said movie), so there's some interesting Lilo & Stitch lore for you.

 

[stealthRUSH stealthRUSH]

Trapt
Shinobido
Extermination
Under the Skin
Technic Beat
Dark Native Apostle
Heavenly Guardian
Crimson Tears
Spy Fiction
Bombastic

 

[Viviana Santos]

 

[Zerohour2k12]

The Alice Games by American McGee.... would really love to see the 3rd game be made at some point.

 

[_-_AceDragon_-_]

What can I say? I AM a content creator so it leads me to a lot of digging.

Albert Odyssey! Nice. Always thought of this as a hidden gem. Played this many years after it's release. I'm surprised that it wasn't appreciated more when it came out!

Post automatically merged: Apr 5, 2025

I don't care what people said about it, I always thought other Metroid Other M was a decent game in it's own right. People bashed it quite hard despite it being one of the best games for the Wii in my opinion.

 

[Graw]

The art style is atrocious, the camera is kind of janky and it's fairly obtuse but Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song is one of the best rpgs I've ever played as far as gameplay goes.

 

[Cheela Cheela Cheela's icon]

I know Age of Empires is the titan for Microsoft in terms of RTS. But, i really love Rise of Natios and i will die in the hill that is better than Age of empires :3

 

[t3mpt0n]

This game is bonkers!
Suzuki Bakuhatsu (2000) [PSX]

 

[solnK!]

Basically all of the Sega Saturn library, and also two of my favorite games...

 

[neromero]

I never heard anyone talk about Atelier Annie anywhere

 

[Lokgamer]

View attachment 21049

Kagero: Deception 2 is an action strategy game where the player's required to set up traps and activate them at the right time to defeat enemie. It has a branching storyline with mutiple choices that affect the narrative and the game's ending. It's also pretty fun to combo enemies using different types of trap.

View attachment 21050
Bulletstorm is a sci fi firt person shooter that rewards players for killing in creative ways, it was releases in an era when every game tried to be either CoD or Battlefield, but while it took some features from those games, it pretty much broke the FPS mold of the time and gave the player tools to go crazy.

View attachment 21051
I feel like The Finals is too unique not to enjoy the recognition it deserves, a very fast paced objective foccused online first person shooter with completely destructible maps, and I don't mean the destructible elements have pre-set animations that will play once you destroy them, no, all walls and buildings have actual dynamic physics and will crumble in different ways depending on the method used, and this plays a key role in gameplay, it's amazing to see it in action.

View attachment 21052
Silent Hil 4The room was the last game in the Silent Hill series developed by Team Silent, and it tries to break away from many of Silent Hills tropes while still preserving it's identity.

For a AAA horror game it's very experimental and isn't afraid to "hurt" the player with it's punishing game mechanics.

Many criticize this game's unbalanced difficulty due to it's focus on combat and escorting segments, but I'd argue this to be the esiest game in the original 4 if you understand how the game works and what it expects from you. You're supposed to take it slow most of the time, use every tool in your arsenal and adapt, not rush through the game and bruteforce you way to the next check point.

During the escorting segments many people will just run and expect the character they're escorting to keep up when she can't run, many will not give her weapons to prevent her from fighting enemies when she's pretty good at defeating them as long as she's facing only one, many will try to avoid fights when some weapons will literally give the player 100% damage immunity during heavy attacks, plus all the ammunition the game just showers the player with.

Silent Hill 4's biggest flaw is it's failure to ease the player into it's gameplay structure, your first playthrough will probably be miserable because the game just fails to explain stuff to you.


These are a few games I think are underated.

I played bullestorm last year and what great underrated game. More people sould play it.

And Silent Hill 4, the eternal underrated... I mean it's not my favorite Silent Hill, but still a great horror game unfairly criticized for being different. Yes, its gamemeplay sucks but horror factor is excellent.

Post automatically merged: Apr 5, 2025

Great example. Vanquish is an excellent game that more people should play.

Post automatically merged: Apr 5, 2025

Since horror games (along with hack and slash) are my favorites i'm too demanding with these games, and remothered is one of the best horror game I've ever played in recent years. Great atmosphere and story.

Tormente souls is another underrated survival horror. It's a tribute to old horror games (with all the good and bad that entails) but its excellent atmosphere very reminiscent of Silent Hill, makes it whorthwile

Killer is dead, a Suda 51 hack and slash relatively simple, but frenetic. The shell shading art style is wonderful and characters are charismatic.

 

[MadzombieBane]

This game is bonkers!
Suzuki Bakuhatsu (2000) [PSX]
View attachment 54538

now THIS is underrated i thought only like 3 ppl knew abt this

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

With all the games on this thread, I see that truly being underrated means a title you never see anybody talk about. But, it also has different meanings for different people.

For example, while many gamers know the name Virtua Fighter, it remains sadly underappreciated outside of its native region, thanks in no small part to not being the flashiest game on the market. I’m here to tell you: give Virtua Fighter a chance, mainly with games 2 and onward. It’s my favorite fighter to play right now, and I can confirm that 2 still holds up. I’m excited to check out the rest of the series when I can, because that natural footsies gameplay can’t be beat, and it’s community is a truly inviting world of dads and uncles who are more than willing to help you learn the game and improve, learning to do truly cool stuff with your character along the way.

 

[rugal]

thread of fate
hexyz force

 

[PhrawzT]

View attachment 54527
I know Age of Empires is the titan for Microsoft in terms of RTS. But, i really love Rise of Natios and i will die in the hill that is better than Age of empires :3

I loved Rise of Nations and tried desperately to get my friends into it. It loved that idea that if you worked fast enough to advance your technology, you could just nuke the hell out of your opponents while they are still in the Renaissance.

 

[Deleted member 420614]

Dark colony
War wind 1-2
My world my way
the Wizard series

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

LBX: Little Battlers eXperience

It's a game where you get to build and customize your own tiny fighting robot and have it fight other tiny fighting robots! How on Earth did this not practically print money?!

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

With all the games on this thread, I see that truly being underrated means a title you never see anybody talk about. But, it also has different meanings for different people.

Let me surprise you with a game nobody here heard of since most guys here arent big time RTS players underrated RTS is the easiest one to spit out.

1-sudden strike games (literally 0% chance anyone knows it)

2-armies of exigo (i didnt play it but heard its a hidden gem)

 

[solnK!]

LBX: Little Battlers eXperience

It's a game where you get to build and customize your own tiny fighting robot and have it fight other tiny fighting robots! How on Earth did this not practically print money?!

View attachment 55630

Level 5 makes art out of the most crazy ideas

 

[LaserMoose]

The Shiren series is underrated in the roguelike genre. It's mentioned far less than the highly popular titles like Binding of Issac or Hades, yet is also overshadowed by Spike Chunsoft's branded Mystery Dungeon titles, like Chocobo Mystery Dungeon, and especially Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. The limited availability of the series outside of Japan does it no favors, either. Luckily, efforts have been made to translate the earlier games.

That said, Shiren 5 is arguably my favorite title in the Mystery Dungeon franchise.