Under-rated gamesFollow

Ok, we had the thread about the over-rates games, but how about the under-rated games? These are games that you think are amazing, and should have beaten out some of the "hype-monsters" of their day, but for whatever reason, were mostly ignored. These can be, and oftentimes are, games that got some praise, but in your opinion should have been huge. Also, why do you think it ended up being under-rated?

Mine:

Okami (PS2): While this game did get some attention, and some great scores from reviewers, I think its sales mostly fell flat. Personally, I think this game is much more fun then any of the modern Zelda games and is visually amazing, even on the older PS2. I think that it just came too late in the PS2's life. If it was around in the first few years of the PS2, before the current-gen systems were released, I think it would have been a defining game for the system. The wii version is on a current system, granted, but now the game is in its 2nd iteration, and it just won't make the splash it probably could have if it had premiered on Wii or come out on PS2 several years ago.

Ico (PS2): I think this was actually kind of the predecessor to Shadow of the Colossus, another under-rated game. I honestly don't think people were ready for a game of this depth when it came out in the opening months of the PS2's life, and it was quickly lost in the batch of glitzy, shallow graphicfests that were some of the first games to hit the system.

Edited, Aug 3rd 2008 8:03am by dacypher

I am still holding hope that Nintendo will eventually port Mother 3 to the U.S.

i heard of a translation awhile back, wonder if its near completion yet.

Can't have a thread like this without mentioning Legend of Dragoon. Well, maybe you can, but I can't. Also, I'll admit I used to be an Armored Core fanatic.

I actually have this sitting under my TV right now. I was told it was wonderful, and had never even heard of it. It is on my "to-play" list. I was also told Chrono Cross is awesome.

I never finished legend of dragoon, it is amazingly fun though. My biggest problem is I'll take a massive break from playing it and I insist upon myself that I must restart from the beginning.

Grandia Xtreme for the playstation 2.

It lacks the story and character development which grandia games are loved for, but makes up for it 10 fold in terms of gameplay. I honestly can't recall playing a better dungeon crawler rpg on the ps2.

Edited, Aug 5th 2008 6:09pm by Kayne

NBA street 2 on PS2 (i think its that one, its got the black due with an afro dunking on the front. I personally hate all basketball games but NBA Jam from the Super Nintendo and this was actually a very good game.

SSX 3 on the cube. It was better then the second one but for some reason got very little hype. Probably because it was a game cube thing.

No, but it's basically the Halo of rpgs.

Shadow of the Colossus was the last game that I can remember that I rated higher than 9, but not quite a 10. TO give some perspective I rate halo at a 6.7




I cry over Chrono Cross. Allegory and I have had this discussion before, and while I no longer hate the game for the sort of anti-nostalgia that it effects, I still detest it for various reasons. First reason

You will not understand the story. It is extremely @#%^ing complicated dealing with times warps, planeshifts (ala large portions of earth timeshifting), living planets, alternate dimensions, the "chrono trigger" (wtfever the hell that is; it Trigger, it was an egg. IN cross it's... something? What is the chrono trigger supposed to be some multiply realizable functional state?!,) timelines changing, some weird *** reptiles history world and lavos is... nowhere to be found really, nor is anything in the preceeding game. Except they were supposed to be, and got cut out at the last damn minute.

I exaggerate, but only slightly.

I could go on, with specifics, but I don't want to spoil anything for you and I used the most vague terminology I could. The point is that you should know what you're getting into, and that the story is ultimately good, literary, extremely valuable as art and even social commentary, and (in my opinion) should have been a book.

Edited, Aug 10th 2008 3:57am by Pensive

dont know if it would count as underrated, but it certainly is overlooked.

the beutiful 2d graphics and the fact that its differant than most other rpgs, id say makes it one of the best on the ps1.

Suikoden (and all it's sequels), Legend of dragoon, you guys are making me want to go on an Ebay shopping spree (I've already been thinking about getting the original Suikoden, as it was one of the first RPG's I played (first was FFVII) and I absolutely loved it.)

Dunno if it was under-rated (probably was) but I think Shining force and Shining force 2 are fantastic games.
Some of the only RPG/Strategy games I have been able to stand.

Ok, I looked up Shining Force I and II on Gamespot...
both were just under 9 from gamespot, and just over 9 for user reviews.

And I saw that they're now available on Wii Virtual Console, which might add to the decision of getting one (Or I could just download an emulator, as I tend to use some gameshark codes after playing through the game at least 10 times)

Maybe this is kind of strange, but I actually remember this game being reviewed in Gamepro waaaay back then. It scored a perfect 5 across the board. Excellent game for the time, and also one of the only "super hard" platformers that was actually fun all the way through. For the time it was a very hard game, but today things like Ninja Gaiden would make it cry lol.



I completely agree that Lunar was an amazing game, but I would actually say the truely underrated bunch in the Lunar series was Lunar 1 and 2 on Sega CD, where I originally played them way back in 1995. Lunar 1 was the first RPG I ever played, and I had bought in on accident thinking it would be adventure game like Zelda. At first I was somewhat upset about it, but I quickly got into it, and it was the first game that I played non-stop from beginning to end. I have more nostalgia and fond memories of Lunar on Sega CD than any other game (including any single Final Fantasy game). Since the Sega CD mostly bombed here due to the huge push for "Full Motion Video" games like Nighttrap, a few gems snuck by most of America and Europe. Besides Lunar, two other great games were Vay (another RPG by Working Designs) and Popful Mail (a anime-styled side-scrolling adventure game similar to Zelda 2 on the NES, except with a cute story, humor and tons of character).

I was absolutely floored when I saw that both Lunars were being re-released on the PS1. I quickly got both of them, and love them to this day.

Quick facts about Lunar that I read in the original strategy guide for the Sega CD (first strategy guide I ever bought, and I still have it lol):

*In Japan, Lunar was DEFINITELY not an under-rated game. Lunar 1 sold 85% as many copies as there were Mega CDs (Sega CD's name in Japan) in Japan at the time. That meant that every Mega CD owner had an 85% of owning Lunar. That record has never been beaten by any other non-pack-in-game to date.

*Lunar began production in 1989 for the Turbo Grafix-16, since there was word they would be getting a CD system soon. The animated cutscenes proved too much for it, though, and it was scrapped until the Sega CD was released.