Most underrated games of all time?

[Sigmatism]

Seiken Densetsu 3 or Secret of Mana 2 if you will
Dark Cloud 1 and 2
Star Wars Republic Commando, first time i've ever seen an AI act in a good way when it comes to FPS
Forgot to mention Metroid: Other M, i can understand why some people hate it, but i loved it. Best Metroid game since Metroid Prime 1

Omg Dark Cloud! I totally forgot about that game. So good!

[Felya]

Omg Dark Cloud! I totally forgot about that game. So good!

It wasn't under rated. It's one of the games that set the high expectations of level 5 studios, which lead them to even develope one of the Dragon Quest games for Square/Enix. It's one of the bet rated RPGs of it's generation. Ni No Kuni lives up to the expectations, if you have yet to play it.

As for the topic, Monster Rancher and it's first sequel...

[Unrecognizable]

Not sure if it was underrated or not, but Killer 7 for gamecube was a good time. Weird movement sequence, but definitely one of my more played GC games

[Ridlyblade]

Dark Cloud 2 was an amazing game that didn't seem to get much in the way of praise when it was released, but had a good story and a great gameplay system. Not sure what overshadowed it when it was released, but it just sneaked onto shelves.

And since I haven't seen these mentioned Atelier Iris 1-3. Great stories, great crafting, dialogue that didn't take itself seriously between characters at times you would expected characters to kinda act that way (just finished a side quest and resting at the Main chars house type stuff), just an overall great game. Granted you don't really see much talk about the current Atelier (or the two Mana Khemia) games either, but those are also equally amazing just in a different way.

[Deleted]

Gotta go with Heroes of Newerth.
Not many people play it compared to LoL and DotA2 but for me it's by far the best MOBA and I enjoy playing it a lot.
The game takes a lot more skill than LoL and a bit more skill than DotA2 imo due to the faster gameplay and due to how the jungle, item, hero and map/creep mechanics work compared to LoL. It's a great competitive game and I love the engine of that game, it feels smooth and the game has a lot of addons to customize the UI etc just like WoW.

But once you started with LoL, I guess most people don't touch HoN because it's too hard for them.

[Mithfir]

Anyone who has played it knows its Square's best story and close to the best RPG it has ever made.

If Xenogears had a final fantasy type budget, the 2nd cd would have been completely fleshed out and it would be considered the greatest rpg of all time. It's even rumored that FF8 stole money from Xenogears budget.



Even as it stands now, Xenogears, despite being pretty linear, still lasts around 75 hours of gametime and has more story to tell than a Metal Gear Solid game. Try and squeeze that amount of gameplay from current RPGs.

I must agree. Excellent game. It was re-released as a greatest hits if I remember.

Don't think anyone else mentioned it, so I'll add Odin Sphere to the list.

[Sj]

The original Valkyrie Profile was a pretty great game. Not sure if I would call it underrated since those that did play it held it in high regard, but it was just so darn hard to find after a while.

[Mechazod]

Anything made by Vanillaware: Princess Crown, Odin Sphere, GrimGrimoire, Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Sin and Punishment on the N64 and Star Successor on the Wii

also on the N64: Lode Runner 3D, Snowboard Kids 1&2, Doom 64/Hexen 64/Duke Nukem 64, Killer Instinct Gold, Road Rash 64, Shadow Gate 64, Roadsters (not the PS1 version)

RPGs: Okage: Shadow King on the PS2, Xenogears, ChronoCross, Guardian's Crusade and Shadow Madness on the PS1, Anachronox on the PC and the Dragon Quest/Warrior Monsters series which to me is far superior to Pokemon

Evil Zone on the PS1, God Hand on the PS2, Impossible Creatures on the PC, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: The Manhattan Project on the NES (when compared to TMNT4), Wild Guns on the SNES, Albert Odyssey on the Saturn, a lot of the old stuff eGames made for the PC before they pretty much just started releasing only hidden object shitfest casual games all the time, Pirates Plundarrr for the Wii (its pretty much Castle Crashers with pirates with a cover and title that makes you think its going to be shovelware), the Klonoa series, Virtua Quest on PS2 and GCN, Armed and Dangerous on the PC and X-Box, Giants: Citizen Kabuto on PS2 and PC and Shadow Warrior on the PC which is a spin-off type game to Duke Nukem 3D with a lot of the game elements and game play but with a stereotypical asian setting, the main character would of been perfect if they had added co-op to Duke Nukem Forever

now a days pretty much anything that SNK made

Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Kameo, Viva Pinata and yes even Banjo-Kazzoie: Nuts & Bolts. They may not be what we were expecting/wanting from Rare, but when played by themselves they are all perfectly fine games. At least they were making some unique games rather then now a days when they seem to only be working on Kinect sports shit.

overshadowed by Capcom's main SF entries: Street Fighter EX series, Darkstalkers series, Saturday Night Slam Masters/Ring of Destruction series, Cyberbots, Red Earth, Rival Schools and Power Stone (don't care to much for Star Gladiator but I suppose that too)

Most of the libraries for the Wii and the original X-Box are actually pretty good if you know what to look for with a few really good hidden gems and unique games

some games that the rest of the world seems to hate, but I think are great for what they offer are: Eat Lead, X-Blades, Jurassic The Hunted and Duke Nukem Forever. Sure maybe not as full price retail games, but if they had been released at a cheaper price (some were) I think they would of been perfectly fine bits of entertainment.

But for me probably the biggest underrated game of recent years has got to be Metroid: Other M. I seriously can not understand the hate for this game outside of maybe the story and dialogue and to me at least all that stuff was very minor. It was one of the few Wii games up to that point that I really liked the motion controls for, being able to quickly switch from 3rd person to a more accurate first person mode. Other M was EXACTLY how I imagined the series would have evolved if a Metroid game had been released on the N64 and hadn't gone the FPS route. For me Other M is far more entertaining then the Prime series (which I enjoy but not as much). It really ticks me off that everyone hated the game since we will probably never see another game in the series with a similar 3D mixed with 2D game play.

[wariofan1]

Most of the games I love gets the recognizion they deserve, but if there's one I actually liked but I hardly see mentioned, it has to be Ufouria for the NES. It was only released in Europe, which might be the reason, but heck, it has a world that rivals that of Metroid's in size, you can switch between 4 different characters where each has their respective advantage, and overall it just has a nice flow.

But for me probably the biggest underrated game of recent years has got to be Metroid: Other M. I seriously can not understand the hate for this game outside of maybe the story and dialogue and to me at least all that stuff was very minor. It was one of the few Wii games up to that point that I really liked the motion controls for, being able to quickly switch from 3rd person to a more accurate first person mode. Other M was EXACTLY how I imagined the series would have evolved if a Metroid game had been released on the N64 and hadn't gone the FPS route. For me Other M is far more entertaining then the Prime series (which I enjoy but not as much). It really ticks me off that everyone hated the game since we will probably never see another game in the series with a similar 3D mixed with 2D game play.

Metroid: Other M's big turnoff was without a doubt the dialog and the story, it's so unbearable to listen to. Other than that I don't like how they messed with Ridley's comeback, made Nightmare look like a duck and sound like a baby, and further butchered other enemies. The second worst thing about it is probably that you aren't alone, it really takes away from the Metroid atmosphere of being alone, with the galactic federation constantly following you, or you tracing them down. In short, all of the game's problems came from Sakamoto, who is oh so proud of the story. I also absolutely despise those scenes where you have to point at a specific spot for some time to progress, really put a big stop to the otherwise action-packed gameplay.

It did however have some good points too. The boss battles were very cool and innovative. The gameplay, even if it sometimes felt more like Ninja Gaiden than Metroid, was pretty exciting and fast paced, and I think they did a good job integrating the Metroid things in, like with wall jumping and morph balling, even if speed boosting felt odd. It was cool to see tons of new enemies reappear, and the Metroid Queen being the last boss was so cool, also Phantoon's reappearance post-credits was a nice surprise. We only needed Kraid, and we'd set to go. The music was for the most part also pretty cool, some of it was pretty forgettable, but some of it really hit the spot.

I do still think the game has more minuses than pluses though, but the sad fact is that it was mostly the story that fucked it all up, it's just so stupid, corny and whiny, and it would have been at least a good game if it didn't have that aspect to it.

[grandpab]

I'm not sure it's really underrated as much as it's unknown or underplayed, but Uniracers was one of my favorite games on SNES. It's definitely one of the games I played the most back then.

Just before I made this post I googled the game. Turns out Nintendo got sued by Pixar for making the unicycle "too similar" to a design Pixar owned. They sold the initial 300k copies they produced and that was all they were allowed to sell.

[McNeil]

Has anyone ever played these games?





Plays a little like Pokemon, but it has a much better story going. And Medabots are just awesome. I played the Rokusho version myself, my favorite Medabot

[Mechazod]

Has anyone ever played these games?

Plays a little like Pokemon, but it has a much better story going. And Medabots are just awesome. I played the Rokusho version myself, my favorite Medabot

I was thinking of picking those up when a lot of stores were getting rid of their GBA games, but I passed on them since I knew they were licensed games (or is the anime based on the games series?). I had a feeling though that they were actually decent, but for some reason never went back to get them, may have to keep an eye out for them along with two other licensed property games for the system im looking for (a Lilo & Stitch game that plays like Metal Slug and a Harry Potter turn based RPG).


Daaaamn guess I was wrong, Medabots was a game series originally, now I feel stupid and depressed for not getting them when I could of. I think I remember making the same mistake with the Monster Rancher series originally.

[Cat1337]

Jet Force Gemini: The Rare game that people never played, really great game with probably some of the best soundtracks I've heard.

Dino Crisis: A really great survival horror that was completely ignored because it was seen as "Resident Evil with Dinosaurs", but I actually enjoyed this game quite a bit.

Silent Hill 3: Despite how much I love Silent Hill 2, I loved the third game the most. I don't anyone IRL who has played the series sadly.

The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask: I'm always surprised by the amount of people that skipped over this game simply because it wasn't part of the "main story".

[Insonia]

Bloody Roar (all of them) - played it first when i was about 10 most badass game ever.

it's a pretty standard fighting game till...........you turned in a number of of different animals (character dependent) and visciously murdering the crap out of your opponent

[Farath]

My vote goes to Star Ocean: Till the End of Time for PS2. Great gameplay, lots of extra content after the initial story has ended, very good battle system and the item creation system are some of the pro's. Cons would definitely be poor voice acting and as with many SE games, although you have the ability to skip them, cut scenes through the roof.

[Digglett]

RPGs: Okage: Shadow King on the PS2

I respect you a lot for just mentioning this game.

[Mechazod]

This game is everything Sonic R should of been. It gave a real sense of speeding through an obstacle course on foot, there are different character types that have unique traits like being able to glide from a jump or deal more damage to other racers, there were boss race levels akin to Diddy Kong Racing and the game in general didn't really have any noticeable slow down. Plus from what I remember you could unlock Gex as a secret character. A really fun game that showed off some of the Xbox's early original IPs along with Whacked, Raze's Hell and Kung Fu Chaos.


In recent years I have heard some people refer to this game negatively, and I will admit the first time I played it when it came out I wasn't that interested. However a few months back I went and played through it again and it really grew on me. The combat is kind of bizarre, but grows on you (if not fairly broken). You have a party of four characters and combat takes place in real time. When you enter a battle you sort of become locked into the area like as if it was an arena. The four characters are split in half for how their combat works. Two of the characters, a sword wielder and a melee attacker, fight in a 3rd person perspective sort of like God of War and other action games, you string together a series of different combos with different buttons and need to dodge enemy attacks. The other two characters, a magic user and a gun wielder, are instead controlled as if the game was a first person shooter. That's where the game is fairly broken. Unless you can dodge really well as the melee attackers you will keep dieing and really the easiest, if not longer way to kill enemies is to just switch to the FPS characters and attack from range. The idea of mixing these two game plays I thought was really cool, but just didn't work out to well in actual execution, if a co-op mode would have been added this game would have been AMAZING. When controlling one character the other three are A.I. controlled and you can give them orders like draw an enemies attention or flee from them which can add some tactics to the fights. You also have a talent progression system for each character that lets you add new unique abilities to each character, for example the gun user can learn an attack that will weaken an enemies resistance while another can learn to summon a spirit wolf to fight along side your group, mixing these abilities together and switching between each character during major boss fights is fairly fast paced and fun. I loved the setting and back story of the game and the whole idea behind the game play was great in theory and I would love to see a better update to it.


A game everyone seems to think is a rip-off of Crash Bandicoot, and while yes the game play style is similar that is really the only similarity. Your character uses the positive and negative sides of a magnet in his body to interact with various elements of the world and its mastering this that lets you beat the levels. For example there may be a pipe that only the positive side of your magnet can attach to while another platform may require you to use the force of the opposite attraction to bounce away.


I got this game totally on a whim having never heard of it or seen it before then and I am glad I did. The game is essentially a Metroidvania style action-adventure exploration game where you control a mech suit on an alien world trying to find your comrade. The game world is a blend of platforming in a 3D perspective world, but sort of done like a classic 2D game with you looking only from one direction the whole time and being able to switch the direction the screen is facing to see where to go.


This game is amazing. Its actually a continuation of the Metal Max RPG series, but from what I remember this was the first one released in 3D and outside of Japan. The game is an open-world non-linear turn based RPG taking place in a devastated wasteland of the future with themes and style taken from movies like Mad Max. Your character puts together a small band of soldier and travels the world in customizable tanks and other mobile weapons in order to complete bounty missions of killing out of control robots and mutants. The game is very humorous and bizarre in places and reminds me of a open-world continuation of the Mother series. I don't think I have ever seen anyone ever mention this game anywhere.


A combination of a click & point adventure game and a decent amount of mini-games that has you exploring an apartment building invaded by cartoon characters. I have my copy of this, but haven't played it in years. I remember it being fairly fun and one of the more memorable mini-games was a parody of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. I have no doubt this game was overshadowed later in years by the far more popular Toon Struck also released on the PC, but would be awesome to see the two released together as a double pack.

[Sorrior]

Definitely not the most underrated, but I find these games didn't receive the attention they deserve.

LOL i'd just been thinking of bringing up Mystical Ninja. An awesome game...Seriously underrated game.

[breadisfunny]

dragon warrior franchise 1-3.
also vigilante 8
and aidyn chronicles.

[TheFNK]

Loved this game. Battle system was outstanding and a great soundtrack. But when I mention it as one of the best RPG's ever no one takes me seriously