What are some obscure but groundbreaking and innovative games that deserve way more recognition?

[Skeetos]

I appreciate all responses tbc but I do feel like some of these are REALLY stretching the definition of obscure lol. I meant games even most big gamer nerds wouldn't know.

That's about the most obscure I know. You ever play Leisure Suit Larry 1 lol? definitely paved the way for Gaben to start not caring about what gets put on Steam these days lol.

 

[Samatonic]

I remember a game on Xbox 360 that was obscure and innovative for me .

Anyone remember this ?

 

[Skeetos]

I remember a game on Xbox 360 that was obscure and innovative for me .

Anyone remember this ?

I don't, but the cover looks fire. Have to check it out

 

[Samatonic]

I don't, but the cover looks fire. Have to check it out

The main character could not die, like he gets chopped off, blown up, stuff like that and survives, each limb could be blown off and reused again.

Another game like this, though not quite similar, had similar mechanics .

 

[Skeetos]

The main character could not die, like he gets chopped off, blown up, stuff like that and survives, each limb could be blown off and reused again.

Another game like this, though not quite similar, had similar mechanics .

Oh dude. This game is awesome. I got it for free over Xbox gold back in the day. People definitely have to try this one.

 

[Samatonic]

Any other games you played on Xbox 360 or the Original ?

 

[Mago]

That's about the most obscure I know. You ever play Leisure Suit Larry 1 lol? definitely paved the way for Gaben to start not caring about what gets put on Steam these days lol.

Kill Switch I actually don't think ive heard of, so I wasn't meaning you when I posted that lol. I do think I remember there being an N64 game with a cover shooting mechanic though, I actually thought that was what you were talking about when I first glanced.

A Leisure Suit Larry is a classic series. Ive never played the first one though. I played a bit of Leather Goddesses of Phobos, I never got far though. Thats text based but an early sex comedy classic.

 

[Seigen]

Sacrifice.

Madalore did a nice review of it.

 

[Skeetos]

Kill Switch I actually don't think ive heard of, so I wasn't meaning you when I posted that lol. I do think I remember there being an N64 game with a cover shooting mechanic though, I actually thought that was what you were talking about when I first glanced.

A Leisure Suit Larry is a classic series. Ive never played the first one though. I played a bit of Leather Goddesses of Phobos, I never got far though. Thats text based but an early sex comedy classic.

Oh, no offense meant. I was just trying to joke around. I'm a bit drunk tonight so

 

[Mago]

Oh, no offense meant. I was just trying to joke around. I'm a bit drunk tonight so

All good!

 

[CG4R12I4N]

Anyone who actually played this game would know how great the battle gameplay system is.

 

[NemissaFotia]

Hunter is definitely one that deserves more recognition. An open-world 3D action game where you can travel in vehicles such as boats, helicopters and jeeps and complete missions. On the Amiga. In 1991.

It's extremely impressive. I recommend giving it a try.

 

[thanonyx]

Battle Arena Toshinden

It was the first 3D weapons based fighting game and it's really a shame that the series just fizzled out. After the 90s it just disappeared. It had one game on the Wii but it flopped HARD and it has almost nothing to do with the previous games. The first 3 games were really popular in the latter half of the 90s and it's a shame that the series is all but forgotten.

 

[Leon]

Phantasy star 2 innovated a few things that are used in rpg's today, namely the darker tone of the game was a first for the time.
Phantasy star 1 while archaic did innovate a couple of things with it's battle system but i forget what atm.

Dragon Slayer: Largely forgotten as one of the earliest action RPG series. There were spin-off games (Legend of Heroes series), with spin-offs to the spin-off (Trails series) that also got spin offs, but the original series has been mostly forgotten, mostly in favor of the Trails series.

Dragon slayer is often considered the first japanese action rpg, so it definitely deserves more credit.

 

[Mago]

View attachment 35341
Hunter is definitely one that deserves more recognition. An open-world 3D action game where you can travel in vehicles such as boats, helicopters and jeeps and complete missions. On the Amiga. In 1991.

It's extremely impressive. I recommend giving it a try.

Been wanting to play this! I'm not sure how similar they are but theres another Amiga game from 1989 called Midwinter thats open world and has vehicles. Its first person though.

Post automatically merged: Mar 2, 2025

Phantasy star 2 innovated a few things that are used in rpg's today, namely the darker tone of the game was a first for the time.
Phantasy star 1 while archaic did innovate a couple of things with it's battle system but i forget what atm.

Dragon slayer is often considered the first japanese action rpg, so it definitely deserves more credit.

I need to play the first two Phantasy Stars, I only played the fourth. I'm not sure what you mean by the darker tone being a first for the time though? I know there were several earlier Jrpgs with a darker tone at the time, I havent played them but there was Last Armageddon, Digan no Maseki, and La place no ma.

 

[Leon]

Been wanting to play this! I'm not sure how similar they are but theres another Amiga game from 1989 called Midwinter thats open world and has vehicles. Its first person though.

Post automatically merged: Mar 2, 2025

I need to play the first two Phantasy Stars, I only played the fourth. I'm not sure what you mean by the darker tone being a first for the time though? I know there were several earlier Jrpgs with a darker tone at the time, I havent played them but there was Last Armageddon, Digan no Maseki, and La place no ma.

I may be misremembering but i also forgot sweet home as well.
Though it did innovate a few things other than that, though i guess in a way it was innovative for the us with it's darker tone as those games were never released outside of japan i think.

 

[Skeetos]

Honestly I feel like games such as LSD Dream Emulator paved the way for these new indie titles coming out with funky, stylized graphics and such.

 

[Mago]

I may be misremembering but i also forgot sweet home as well.
Though it did innovate a few things other than that, though i guess in a way it was innovative for the us with it's darker tone as those games were never released outside of japan i think.

Yeah true we didn't get the darker JRPGs at the time, at least I don't think. Sweet Home was too graphic for an NES release over here. There were some dark Wrpgs at the time like Ultima 5 and Wasteland though.

Post automatically merged: Mar 2, 2025

Honestly I feel like games such as LSD Dream Emulator paved the way for these new indie titles coming out with funky, stylized graphics and such.

LSD I definitely think has been influential, or maybe Osamu Sato in general. Eastern Minds is a classic as well. Synergy was also doing weird fascinating art games around that time, though I don't think they're as well known.

 

[Ikagura]

Dragon's Dream: perhaps the very first online RPG game on console ever created (predating Phantasy Star Online by three years).

Psycho Soldier for being the first game featuring a vocalised song

 

[RebelofDaNeonGod]

They're not obscure games by any means nowadays (thanks Iron Pineapple for missing the point of the games), but Shadow Tower Abyss along with King's Field 4 are truly the pinnacles of FPS dungeon crawlers, especially Shadow Tower Abyss. As Don Quixote loses his mind thrashing against the horrors of reality, finding solace in fantastical realms of dragons, wenches, and false mistresses, the player character descends into slow encroaching madness, a world of twisted branches, unknowable darkness, crooked bones and limbs, desolation, isolation, a world hidden from the gaze of God. A vision of death and depravity from Comte de Lautremont. A gnarled, malformed monument of the nebulous space above come crashing down into our blue marble. Shrinking away from the Sun's incandescence, it finds strength in the dirt, in the flesh of the Earth. A nameless man falls deep into this beast, a guide worships on his knees. The last light of the known world above dies out as this young man is swallowed whole into this antediluvian dark, thick and impenetrable. The sounds of creatures beyond human imagination lurk around every corner, inside every crevice, every crack. May it please Heaven that the reader, emboldened and become of a sudden momentary ferocious like what he is playing, may trace in safety his pathway through the desolate morass of these gloomy and poisonous halls. For unless he is able to bring to his playing a rigorous logic and a spiritual tension equal at least to his distrust, the deadly emanations of this game will imbibe his soul as sugar absorbs water. That is until you take like ten steps forward in the dark and get your soft little baby head crushed by an instant kill statue that comes at you faster than a New York minute. Thank you, FromSoftware, it's like a slap from an abusive lover, thank you. I'm hooked already with what this game is putting down. I always loved and preferred FromSoftware's pre-Demon's Souls output (exception to Armored Core which only got better with time) and this is no exception. I want you to understand that I have been playing this game off and on since 2018, I only beat it November of last year. Every time I would go through it, I would stop somewhere around the Scouring Rush area. About 4 times, I dropped Shadow Tower Abyss. Most would assume that a bad sign for this game. Complete opposite, I would start it up, forget where I was and just easily and happily restart the game. It is THAT easy to pick up and go. The combat is just so MEATY, I fucking adore it and the pacing it has. It's not lumbering, it doesn't feel like molasses, it's not fast and hyper. It's methodical and precise, every swing lands with a wet thud, a squelching stab, or a gushing slice. Dismember these rancid little creatures as you make your way through this god forsaken tower. Pick up memories and last moments of those before you, dried blood splatter on knife handles, hastily don some old armor, trying to ignore the deep gouges on the chest of it. Keep your hands from shaking as you try to land a bullet in between the eyes of some godless thing lurching towards you. There is rarely any music to calm you or frighten you. All that is there is you, the dead silence and the rustling of grass behind you, the plodding footsteps of something in the deep dark, screeches and moans from beyond the veil. Make friends with the walls and floors, every beautiful brick, every gorgeous rock, every swaying blade op grass as the wind caresses your skin and brushes your hair past you. Stare a little too long at Auriel/Rurufon. Let the arms of Shadow Tower Abyss wrap around you and lose yourself in it. Until it just gives you a fucking assault rifle, an uzi and a fucking rocket launcher and you begin blasting knees off and disintegrating little demon creatures into dust. I love you, Shadow Tower Abyss.

Fuck the Dense Fog area though.

 

[King Koopa's iconKing Koopa]

This came out four years before Spore.

 

[FTLOTG]

Segas Virtual On is the first 3D game with a lock on system which certainly inspired Tomb Raider, Mega Man Legends and Zelda 64.

 

[Mago]

Segas Virtual On is the first 3D game with a lock on system which certainly inspired Tomb Raider, Mega Man Legends and Zelda 64.

I hate that people still act like Oot was the first game to come up with this idea and just came up with it out of nowhere.

 

[FTLOTG]

I hate that people still act like Oot was the first game to come up with this idea and just came up with it out of nowhere.

I know what you mean. I don't view it as much of an achievement, the idea seems pretty obvious when you think of how loose and free 3D games are - players are going to want to re-orientate and Sega just made a mechanic of it.

The way it's blown out of proportion seems forced when it comes to Zelda 64's case.

 

[Ikagura]

I hate that people still act like Oot was the first game to come up with this idea and just came up with it out of nowhere.

While it wasn't the first I still think that Ocarina of Time as a video game changed the entire paradigm of how you make an adventure and how combat in 3D could be made.

Of course VirtualOn had it first but it was a much more simple arcade game compared to OoT so it was much more developed.

It's like how Resident Evil redefined horror game despite that Sweet Home and Alone in the Dark were the two inspirations for it.

I totally understand people saying that Ocarina of Time is one of the best game ever made or how it revolutionised gaming as a whole.