Your top underrated games

[you]

That game was truely awful. I played it recently from start to end and while it had some humor and was relatively light weight I would not consider it to be 'under-rated'. There are some really good games out there that have not seen much press lets focus on those

I agree with Dez opinion on The Bards Tale from 2004, it was one of the first RPGs i played for the PS2 and i liked how it took the mickey out of RPG cliches, such as killing a wolf dropping gold coins. It used the snowblind engine which is also used on some other good PS2 RPGS such as Xmen legends 2 and Balders Gate: Dark alliance. I think that people who played the original 16bit Bards tale games weren't a fan of the way the name have been used but if you take the name out its a solid action RPG

 

[Zloth]

Most controversial for me would be No Man's Sky. I wasn't very happy with how it ended: I finally filled in my last checkbox of all the achievements I was suppose to do and the reward was… another checklist of the same achievements but harder? Blah. But I definitely enjoyed getting to that point! Got a bunch of fun screenshots from it, too.

I liked Last Remnant far more than the reviews indicate (Metacritic says 66). The battle system really works for me. At first you're at the mercy of random die rolls but, as you learn the game and get stronger, you figure out ways to load those dice. You never get complete control, though, which leads to getting burned, which leads to amazing comebacks after getting burned, which I really like! Plus Squaresoft didn't just give us all the DLC, they actually incorporated it into the game itself. Well done! (It's just a pity you can't use the mouse on the main menu.)

Oh, and X3: Terran Conflict! I don't know if it's right to call it underrated - when the game first showed up and was reviewed it was a mess. Egosoft pulled it together, though, and it became my most played single player game ever. 632 hours on record and Steam wasn't tracking that kind of thing when I started playing! (I just looked and they are still patching the game.)

 

[Deleted User]

Agreed on The Last Remnant. Nice to see some fellow appreciation for dice-rolls and unpredictability in RPGs like that. It's a nice change from the total control types of combat systems of other RPGs.

 

[NewDArt]

Most controversial for me would be No Man's Sky. I wasn't very happy with how it ended: I finally filled in my last checkbox of all the achievements I was suppose to do and the reward was… another checklist of the same achievements but harder? Blah. But I definitely enjoyed getting to that point! Got a bunch of fun screenshots from it, too.

That's definitely controversial

I was lucky in that I expected nothing from the game - because I understood what small indie-team + procedural generation means.

No amount of hype and marketing could change that basic reality for me.

I expected nothing and I got nothing - so that was ok!

I liked Last Remnant far more than the reviews indicate (Metacritic says 66). The battle system really works for me. At first you're at the mercy of random die rolls but, as you learn the game and get stronger, you figure out ways to load those dice. You never get complete control, though, which leads to getting burned, which leads to amazing comebacks after getting burned, which I really like! Plus Squaresoft didn't just give us all the DLC, they actually incorporated it into the game itself. Well done! (It's just a pity you can't use the mouse on the main menu.)

Never played this one. But it's a JRPG, right?

Oh, and X3: Terran Conflict! I don't know if it's right to call it underrated - when the game first showed up and was reviewed it was a mess. Egosoft pulled it together, though, and it became my most played single player game ever. 632 hours on record and Steam wasn't tracking that kind of thing when I started playing! (I just looked and they are still patching the game.)

I think it was received reasonably well, though I can't be sure.

Incidentally, it wasn't too long ago that I tried playing Rebirth again. That game seems to have been improved quite a bit in recent patches.

 

[Acleacius]

It was fairly good, much better than Skyrim. But yeah, its when all the console tendencies started, Morrowind was the last game of theirs made for the PC first.

You really should check out Morroblivion if you haven't had the chance. You can play Morrowind as a mod to Oblivion, both with the same character. Able to travel back and forth or actually travel by land/sea if you have the correct mods. Better still they are doing the same thing to Skyrim atm. So you will be able to play Morrowind and Oblivion as mods in Skyrim, playing all 3 with the same toon. About the only people who should NOT check this out, are Lore Extremists. They probably can't get over the date inconsistencies of playing the same toon.

I agree with many of the names listed previously, just to rename a few: Dungeon Lords, Dead State, Alpha Protocol, The Bard's Tale (2004), Dark Messiah and Darkstone.

Due to recommendations here I'll probably play ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West, thanks.

Underrated?
Wheel of Time, too hard for FPS people, Book people too worried about sacred lore (which didn't get sacrificed) and RPG people not enough choice/character building.

Still too difficult for most people other than Easy Mode. Seriously don't try, if it's your first time or trying again after years, other than Easy. You'll most likely get frustrated and quit, then blame the game.

The good: FPS Magic, extremely good story and acting, especially for 1999. Save often Combat is tough and strategic, there is no Melee and default weapon is difficult to use (short range, odd timing). You have to win the level with the spells you have and can find. There's now a patch fixing in Ingame movies.

Damn, speaking of fixing Ingame movies. I'm one of the few that liked LoLGoD, wonder if Guardians of Destiny ever got a movie fix.

 

[joxer]

Never played this one. But it's a JRPG, right?

It is.
It's a game with super interesting combat system ruined by DA:Bears instatrashmob respawns and obvious cut funding in the middle of development - instead of evolving the story second half of the game is an annoying repetitive filler!
Although ending is good, the whole package is a wasted potential. Metacritic score IMO is too generous. I bought it on some sale for 5 bucks and even that sum feels too much for this grinder.

 

[NewDArt]

It is.
It's a game with super interesting combat system ruined by DA:Bears instatrashmob respawns and obvious cut funding in the middle of development - instead of evolving the story second half of the game is an annoying repetitive filler!
Although ending is good, the whole package is a wasted potential. Metacritic score IMO is too generous. I bought it on some sale for 5 bucks and even that sum feels too much for this grinder.

Yeah, probably not for me.

I've yet to enjoy a JRPG

 

[joxer]

Septerra Core looks probably too dated today (geez, why I never remembered it when there is a thread which games would be great to remake)…
Install Valkyria Chronicles already. On PC. Use K+M. Don't ask what took them so long to put it on PC, it feels like a PC game.

 

[NewDArt]

Septerra Core looks probably too dated today (geez, why I never remembered it when there is a thread which games would be great to remake)…
Install Valkyria Chronicles already.

I played Valkyria Chronicles. I couldn't get past the terrible art style

 

[joxer]

It's not the art style that's terrible. It's your taste.

Others would probably want to know that Attack on Titan season 2 started airing (where, everywhere, hulu, funimation, crunchyroll, etc pick whatever site you like). Me? I'll wait till the season is completed then watch a marathon as usual.

 

[you]

Crise VC is truely a great game. There are two games I played in the past 5 years that totally caught me by surprise. VC and child of light. Both of those games caught me off guard and really enjoyed them.

 

[luj1]

You really should check out Morroblivion if you haven't had the chance. You can play Morrowind as a mod to Oblivion, both with the same character. Able to travel back and forth or actually travel by land/sea if you have the correct mods.

Will check it out at some point.

Dungeon Lords

Honestly, I don't think it's underrated, just that it's really, really, bad. And this is coming from someone who played it at launch.

But then again, considering all the trash we've today, I'd rather play Dungeon Lords than Skyrim or Fallout 4 or Androgaya.

 

[Deleted User]

Brigandine for PS1. Suikoden 1 & 3 as well. But Brigandine especially, which seems to be a relatively unknown grand strategy RPG for the original Playstation. My friends and I had a lot of fun with the multiplayer campaign back then, and the singleplayer campaign is great as well. I'd definitely recommend it if you are into fantasy grand strategy mixed with turn-based combat and RPG elements (stats, loot, "hero" characters and so on.) It also has a story, characters and dialogue, so it's not entirely *just* combat and gameplay.

 

[daveyd]

I've been thinking about giving this a second chance, since there's a deluxe edition out.

But I had much the same reaction to it upon playing it.

I first played Dead State when the "Reanimated" edition came out. The gameplay sometimes gets a bit repetitive, but I enjoyed it a lot overall. I think the mistake I made was trying to take every single NPC into my shelter. The sheer number of people who potentially join your group is insane (and after I completed it I consulted a wiki and seems I even missed a few). I ended up with a bunch of people with redundant skills and no jobs to give them or need to be in the field.

If I ever replay the game I will be far more selective on who I let join the group and not hesitate to kick someone out if they cause trouble or are useless… Or maybe let them get killed in a fight I'd suggest giving DS another shot but keep the number of people down to a manageable level.

The other recent underrated RPG I like is Shadowrun Returns. The game is rather short and too linear but otherwise a very enjoyable RPG (and it shipped with a level editor / mod support for users to make their own adventures which is something that I wish more CRPGs could do!). But a lot of people seemed to have crazy high expectations for the game, whereas others wanted it to be more like the SNES or Genesis games from the 90's (Clearly they're remembering the console ShR with rose-colored glasses as both of those games have severe shortcomings).

Dragonfall and Hong Kong are certainly much better than Returns, though.. I only wish HBS could give "Dead Man's Switch" campaign the Director's Cut treatment with the improvements to combat and permanent companions / party members made in Dragonfall. Anyway, I'm really hoping HBS announces a new SR game after BT is released (most likely with a brand new engine).

 

[SirJames]

I think I'm going to have to go with Ultima 8.

Sure, platforming in an isometric RPG doesn't work very well, but it has still never been done better!

Ultima 8 was actually very immersive and right from the start the decapitation event set a dangerous tone for the world and eating the mushrooms in the forest made you hallucinate which made you cautious when eating anything. Death, mushrooms, necromancy all contributed to make a very different atmosphere from the "OMG you've been sucked into a computer game!" story from more popular prequels.

 

[crpgnut]

I'm playing Silverfall, which is one of my underrated games. I blabbed about it in the What are you playing thread.

It is like a poor man's Arcanum. You have magic versus tech and you really need to choose if you want the best equipment. This gives it some replay value as companions also choose one side or the other. You can turn companions to your way of thinking by doing their questline. I like it, but it's not for everyone.

 

[Zloth]

It's a game with super interesting combat system ruined by DA:Bears instatrashmob respawns and obvious cut funding in the middle of development - instead of evolving the story second half of the game is an annoying repetitive filler!

Yeah, you hate respawns thus you hate many RPGs. (Never mind that it's trivial to avoid most of these fights in LR by simply running past them.) That's expected. But what the Hades are you talking about regarding the story? The first half is the more boring part where the game leads you along, showing you the towns while Rush constantly whines about his sister. The second half is where Rush becomes tolerable and the story starts moving along.

 

[Acleacius]

Will check it out at some point.

Honestly, I don't think it's underrated, just that it's really, really, bad. And this is coming from someone who played it at launch.

But then again, considering all the trash we've today, I'd rather play Dungeon Lords than Skyrim or Fallout 4 or Androgaya.

Did you know Dungeon Lords has been re-released and iirc patched 3 times in the last year?

 

[NewDArt]

If I ever replay the game I will be far more selective on who I let join the group and not hesitate to kick someone out if they cause trouble or are useless… Or maybe let them get killed in a fight I'd suggest giving DS another shot but keep the number of people down to a manageable level.

I'll check it out

The other recent underrated RPG I like is Shadowrun Returns. The game is rather short and too linear but otherwise a very enjoyable RPG (and it shipped with a level editor / mod support for users to make their own adventures which is something that I wish more CRPGs could do!). But a lot of people seemed to have crazy high expectations for the game, whereas others wanted it to be more like the SNES or Genesis games from the 90's (Clearly they're remembering the console ShR with rose-colored glasses as both of those games have severe shortcomings).

Dragonfall and Hong Kong are certainly much better than Returns, though.. I only wish HBS could give "Dead Man's Switch" campaign the Director's Cut treatment with the improvements to combat and permanent companions / party members made in Dragonfall. Anyway, I'm really hoping HBS announces a new SR game after BT is released (most likely with a brand new engine).

I was very underwhelmed by Shadowrun Returns. The story was ok - but I found the gameplay simplistic and mostly boring.

The other games were definitely better - and I enjoyed Dragonfall quite a bit.

Despise the "Matrix" sequences, though - and combat remained grindy and rather dull. But the story and companions were nice.

I did enjoy Hong Kong - but could definitely feel fatigue with the formula towards the end.

I think it's unfortunate they couldn't do better with such a promising setting.

 

[joxer]

Yeah, you hate respawns thus you hate many RPGs. (Never mind that it's trivial to avoid most of these fights in LR by simply running past them.) That's expected. But what the Hades are you talking about regarding the story? The first half is the more boring part where the game leads you along, showing you the towns while Rush constantly whines about his sister. The second half is where Rush becomes tolerable and the story starts moving along.

You can't run past every single grind, especially in dungeons. What's even worse, main and side objectives depend on grind, if you won't grind you won't be able to win something.
I don't hate many RPGs, many with godlike trashmobs keep grinding pretty much irrelevant (FF9 for example where you can progress both main and sidequests without grinding, on the other hand FF10 you have to grind at least at one point to get past a certain mountain boss).
Rush didn't constantly whine in my game, probably because I used japanese VO with subtitles. The second half of the game is Walking Dead season 2. Boring drag-o-rama. What story? There is no story in second half. Just irrelevant filler to make the game artificially longer. I suspect there was a planned huge story content for the second half, but it was not made and is not in the game. Not that it'd save the game completely, but I probably wouldn't call it wasted potential without remorse.