What are your favorite games that you never see mentioned anywhere?
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Honestly, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.
The remaster got some attention, but it still feels pretty niche for a game made by the Ace Attorney guy. I never felt like it got its "moment" in the same way as, say, Blue Prince.
And yet, from the moment the 15-year-old announcement trailer dropped, I knew it was going to be in "top 5 of all time" territory for me.
Really wish there were more games like this.
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Kinda cheating, since this game (hell, entire series; linking my fave entry) has kind of a cult following in Central/Eastern Europe.
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Urban Terror
When the homie busts out the Urban Terror USB stick at the LAN party
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Cyber Empires (PC), Shadowrun (Genesis), Betrayal at Krondor (PC).
Betrayal at Krondor was amazing. Masterfully written, with fun riddles, and that music chef's kiss
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That sounds great. The kind of game I'd've loved but never had any Sega consoles (and no one really spoke about emulating them) so missed all of it.
If you have an Xbox, by some miracle they have it available, and it's $5. I highly recommend it.
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Did you see the GDQ run of Bullets Per Minute? That's what sold me on the game last year, such a cool game
I did not. I'll have to check that out.
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Kinda cheating, since this game (hell, entire series; linking my fave entry) has kind of a cult following in Central/Eastern Europe.
The video looked cool but for the picture they had to go with the Pixar face??
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Is ReCore really worth the play? It was on my list when it came out, but got very mixed reviews.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I enjoyed it but I've never finished it because it gets repetitive and starts to feel like a grind.
It fits my play style because I game in fits and starts so I've been playing it in chunks.
I liked it enough to go get it for PC after playing it on Xbox GamePass years ago.
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The Thief series. I LOVED the first one especially, Thief the Dark Project. Medieval (low magic fantasy?) stealth shooter. The more valuable you pick up directly translates to what you can buy as a load out for the next level so you're encouraged to explore, though even the low level enemies can kick you ass so you have to be sneaky. Actually great stealth mechanics even for an old game. The world building is amazing, with it's own lore, culture and slang. The plot of the games are also great.
The Kingdom of Loathing is a game I've played almost non-stop since about 2003. Web based and free, it's based off of old text based games. But it's fun. Really fun. And hilarious. The currency is meat. The classes are goofy. Saucerer? Disco bandit? Seal Clubber? A lot of games deal with things like power creep or inflation, or how the heck to get people to actually help pay for it. This game solves problems like these elegantly. The user base is fun and friendly and corporative, there's always new stuff coming out to try, they do a holiday special every year, and all the pictures are crudely drawn stick figures.
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Maximo! Itâs a 3D hack and slash collectathon. Itâs based on the Ghosts and Goblins games. There was a sequel that fell a little short of expectations (got rid of the really fun hub worlds). They were going to do a third game but Capcom canceled it.
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Legend of Legaia. Itâs a JRPG from the PS1 golden era, but it had a relatively small launch and basically zero marketing. It was completely overshadowed by other games like FFVII and Legend of Dragoon. It has a sort of cult classic following now. The story starts off as a fairly basic âworld is awful, kid gets a magic weapon to beat the big evil thingâ type of plot, but has a surprising amount of twists and turns.
The combat system is interesting, and hasnât really been replicated since. You string together a series of small attacks, to make larger super combos.
Fair warning, the US release is significantly harder than the JP and EU versions. For some reason, the devs multiplied all the enemy stats by 1.25, and slashed their exp/gold drop rates by 50% for the US release. So you need to grind twice as long to be properly geared/leveled, and the grinding is 25% more difficult.
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If you have an Xbox, by some miracle they have it available, and it's $5. I highly recommend it.
Alas, also no dedicated gaming device newer than a 3DS.
I am thinking about getting a Steam deck of some kind though. Maybe it'll be playable on that?
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Cyber Empires (PC), Shadowrun (Genesis), Betrayal at Krondor (PC).
Oh man I haven't thought of Cyber Empires in so long. I remember tunneling through walls so my missile bots could obliterate the enemy base.
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Guardian Heroes was an outstanding RPG beat 'em up on Sega Saturn. It had
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a two player co-op storyline with branching choices to get alternate endings
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unlockable characters for a 6-player arena mode
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incredibly unique characters to unlock, spellcasting with
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and a kick ass soundtrack.
Nothing has really scratched the same itch since (yes, I'm aware there's a sequel, but it's terrible).
The anime Uncle From Another World talks about Guardian Heroes a lot. It's a fun show you should chek it out.
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Tactics Ogre. I see people drop Final Fantasy Tactics as the greatest tactics game of all time. Then you always see Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, and Disgaea after. People sleep on Tactics Ogre. It's a mechanically superior game to all of the mentioned. It's story is equally as good as FFT. I think the graphics are better. It's a challenging game from the start. FFT was created with the Tactics Ogre director and lead artist to be a more accessible version of TO. People see 90s golden era Final Fantasy and automatically put FFT on a pedestal. TO is like Undertaker stalking AJ Styles ready to obliterate whatever is in its way.
I've played Tactics Ogre after I've read some accounts of it being described as FFT's spiritual successor, but I must admit I never finished it--not because of the gameplay which is suprisingly deep for its time, but because of my own perfectionism. I didn't let myself just play the game without any guides or overthinking, instead went full "I want the perfect gamesave".|
But yes! what you said is true. FFT is a more accessible successor to Tactics Ogre.
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It's a relatively obscure PS1 game in the horror genre.
The main thing that made it relatively unique among the horror game of the PS1 era is its lack of action mechanics. Itâs essentially a horror dungeon crawler without action mechanics. You can run away or sneak past the invincible enemy, or if you gain a companion, the enemy kills your companion allowing you to run away when caught.
::: spoiler Game mechanics and ending spoilers
Essentially, your companion is your extra life. Different companions also have different abilities. Different endings result from who your companion is, or not having any at the game ending.
Its mechanics is more akin to Clock Towerâfirst person point and click at certain rooms, while being a first-person dungeon crawler in most other areas.
From the wiki article:
The game uses a first-person perspective, very similar to first-person shooter games, only without any means of combat. Throughout the game, players must travel through different areas of The Mesh and beyond, and must solve puzzles to progress to the surface. The player encounters only one type of enemy, and that is the mutating monster called The Hybrid. The only possible way for players to survive is to run away. Any close contact with the enemy will result in the deaths of their companion (and finally themselves). Once the companions are attacked, they are killed off permanently.
:::It is pretty different from the other horror games from the PS1 era, which made it relatively disappointing for those expecting it to be similar to the likes of Resident Evil or even Silent Hill.
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Legend of Legaia. Itâs a JRPG from the PS1 golden era, but it had a relatively small launch and basically zero marketing. It was completely overshadowed by other games like FFVII and Legend of Dragoon. It has a sort of cult classic following now. The story starts off as a fairly basic âworld is awful, kid gets a magic weapon to beat the big evil thingâ type of plot, but has a surprising amount of twists and turns.
The combat system is interesting, and hasnât really been replicated since. You string together a series of small attacks, to make larger super combos.
Fair warning, the US release is significantly harder than the JP and EU versions. For some reason, the devs multiplied all the enemy stats by 1.25, and slashed their exp/gold drop rates by 50% for the US release. So you need to grind twice as long to be properly geared/leveled, and the grinding is 25% more difficult.
When videogame rentals were a thing, developers often intentionally made games unreasonably hard to spur repeat rentals or purchases. My money is on that.
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When videogame rentals were a thing, developers often intentionally made games unreasonably hard to spur repeat rentals or purchases. My money is on that.
Even the EU version is dozens of hours long for a casual play through. The game is surprisingly long for only being one disc; They didnât use a bunch of pre-rendered cutscenes like many of the bigger games did. Those pre-rendered cutscenes take up a lot of disc space, and are why games like Legend of Dragoon and FFVII have multiple discs.
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Escape Velocity and its open-source spiritual successor, Endless Sky.
Never played Escape Velocity, but Endless Sky was fantastic. Both the main quest lines had fantastic stories, especially the first one.
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I enjoyed it but I've never finished it because it gets repetitive and starts to feel like a grind.
It fits my play style because I game in fits and starts so I've been playing it in chunks.
I liked it enough to go get it for PC after playing it on Xbox GamePass years ago.
The grind aspect is the biggest comment I remember reading. Iâll keep it as an option for one day.
