Your Most Underrated Game?

[Grandpriest]

What's one of your most underrated games you own?  For me, I'd say Wild Arms 3 is one of the most actual underrated games.  You can't even find a review of it on Youtube, unless you're okay with someone recording the TV while they talk for 8 minutes.

Wild Arms 3 is an excellent JRPG for the PS2, featuring a strong cast of likable characters and a fun turn-based battle system.  

One of the main reasons I adore this game is because of the main lead.  The cover character, Virginia, is a strong female character that has incredible and valuable presence throughout the story, one where she grows and becomes stronger.  The fact that she's a female is also never used for cheap jokes or sexual fan service on the game's part, something that is to be highly commended for games back in the day when such a thing was pretty much unthinkable.

The story, music, gameplay, and art style are all very good.  The game still looks, sounds, and plays great, even today.  The story is interesting, featuring several lengthy arcs that tell the story within a pleasant pace.  

Basically, if you find it and are into JRPGs, give it a look-see.  

[Dr. Doggo]

should be in Three Frags but the modmobile will be here soon

as for underrated games i would say uuuh

Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction for PC

[Zerig]

I was gonna say King of Dragon Pass

but it's on Steam now apparently and everyone loves it

used to be underrated though

 

[Ayattar]

Earth 2140, 2150 and 2160. All better than Star Craft equivalents... All ignored because of lack of funds for marketing.

[Summercat]

I don't think any of my favorite games are underrated. Not as well known, maybe, but I'm not that hipster except that I played the original Europa Universalis and liked it

[yell0wf0x]

Valkyria Chronicles was pretty underrated.

Also Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Sure it didnt have the best story in any final fanatsy game ever. And sure it became quite a chore to do side quests since instead of being optional, it became mandatory. And sure FFXIII and FFXIII-2 were pretty much forgettable, and not to mention was pretty bad. But LR:FFXIII had one thing going for it. The combat was really good. It had the refinement of XIII's battle system, and honestly i think it nailed it pretty well. Its got the fast paced action of Action RPGs and strategical combat of ATB based FF games.

[Onnes]

I have no idea about most underrated. I don't even know whether to define underrated in terms of sales or in term of prestige -- everyone now thinks Looking Glass was one of the best studios ever, but their sales record was fairly disappointing.

I think I'll just add Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising. It was a fairly innovative Strategy / Action hybrid that never seemed to pick up much recognition.

[GarthTheWereWolf]

Tomba. Love that game <; So glad I have a copy of it.

[Zerig]

also Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines

I think that's underrated, outside certain internet communities

top game though

[Dr. Doggo]

also Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines

I think that's underrated, outside certain internet communities

top game though

I only played it once and nowhere near completion

really cool though

fuck the spoopy ghost mansion

[yell0wf0x]

Tomba. Love that game <; So glad I have a copy of it.

I remember playing that back in day! Fun times.

[DevilishlyHandsome49]

The Order 1886. Got so much unneeded hate, its ridiculous. Game was perfectly fine. Not the best but it was pretty damn good and my opinion. Could've improved upon itself with a sequel, but nope. Thanks to the hate bandwagon in the gaming community, the game didn't make enough to warrant a sequel

[Zerig]

I only played it once and nowhere near completion

really cool though

fuck the spoopy ghost mansion

go finish it

if you didn't have the WESP patch go download it, then finish it

also fuck ghosts, you're a vampire, they aren't shit

[Ayattar]

I played the original Europa Universalis and liked it

How is that being hipster?
I think most of the gamers who enjoyer later Paradox titles player EU 1  and EU 2. And least judging by the people I know.

If you're searching for an underrated Paradox Entertainment game, then you should go for Victoria.

[Summercat]

How is that being hipster?I think most of the gamers who enjoyer later Paradox titles player EU 1  and EU 2. And least judging by the people I know.

If you're searching for an underrated Paradox Entertainment game, then you should go for Victoria.

I actually didn't play Vicky until Revolutions came out. I love Victoria 2, and hope that they can make a decent Victoria 3. Hell, I stole the Pop and Invention system from Victoria for a game I'm trying [and failing] to develop. 

[Signy]

Light Crusader has always been an old favorite. 

[DrGravitas]

The Order 1886. Got so much unneeded hate, its ridiculous. Game was perfectly fine. Not the best but it was pretty damn good and my opinion. Could've improved upon itself with a sequel, but nope. Thanks to the hate bandwagon in the gaming community, the game didn't make enough to warrant a sequel

I loved the art book for this one! But, no PS4, so no gamin'

 

Hmm... most underrated game? I can't think of much, really. Tri: Of Friendship and Madness has much of what I love in an aesthetic sense and eerily contains many ideas identical to ones of my own. But then, perhaps I'm merely just not very creative/original. Still, it doesn't seem to get much attention and doesn't have a great rating on Steam. Maybe it's just because it's a puzzle game.

Oh, I know! the American soundtrack for Sonic CD is underrated! I like it better than the Japanese one

[PastryOfApathy]

U.N. Squadron (AKA Area 88) on the SNES. Literally one of the best side-scrolling shooters ever made and I still have my copy ready to go whenever I wanna shoot some mofos. Seriously I love this game to death.

Oh and it has some of the best music like ever.
 

[Vae]

The Guardian Legend for NES. It's withstood being my favorite game for 24 years or whatever.
You like Zelda 1? Here's Zelda 1 in space, with guns, with shmup sections.
They give you a life bar (unlike the one-hit deaths of most shootemups), and infinite continues, but it's far from an easy game.

Also La Mulana.
Huge exploration / puzzle / treasure-gathering platforming game, that's pretty fucking difficult, and actually makes you think. Makes you think to the point where I'd actually recommend consulting a guide along the way, since you can screw yourself out of certain upgrades without being extensively careful.
Also a bunch of callbacks to classic games (especially in the original, free version, which is available for PC if you go looking for it).
And that's not even getting into Hell Temple. (Fuck Hell Temple.)

[GarthTheWereWolf]

Ah! Another awesome series was Shadow Hearts 1 and 2. Super underrated jrpg with really neat setting, cool story line, and awesome characters. There's something extremely satisfying about having main characters that eat gods and smack the shit out of people with a bible for their default attack.

[Hewge]

Assault Android Cactus

Endless Legend

Styx: Master of Shadows

Nekro

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

Stretch Panic.

[Luca]

Motherfucking F T L

[Summercat]

Chrono Trigger.

Yes, it's well known and well loved and ITS STILL UNDERRATED TO ME.

And Master of Orion 2/SMAC. Two of the perfect TBS games.

[Signy]

Styx: Master of Shadows

Styx is a fantastic stealth game, and I hear there's a sequel in the works.

[Sidhenearlahi]

Evil Genius. An old Dungeon Keeper-esque base builder game that has you playing the role of a very Bond villain style caricature supervillain trying to take over the world. Super colourful, great sense of humour, perhaps a little too simple in its mechanics, but I still think it was fantastic. I'd love to see a revamp of the concept in the future but I just don't know if it did well enough to ever warrant a second glance by most developers.

[Zerig]

The Order 1886. Got so much unneeded hate, its ridiculous. Game was perfectly fine. Not the best but it was pretty damn good and my opinion. Could've improved upon itself with a sequel, but nope. Thanks to the hate bandwagon in the gaming community, the game didn't make enough to warrant a sequel

this thread is about videogames, not movies

[LazerMaster5]

The Crew is a great cruising game with a robust roster of cars. Star Fox Assault is a lot of fun, even with its major flaws. Codename: S.T.E.A.M. Sold very poorly and had mixed critical reception, but it is downright brilliant. Dead Island is fun for if you want to beat the tar out of a bunch of zombies using an electrified axe.

[Vaer]

Totally:

and

and 

Edited September 27, 2015 by Vaer

[DevilishlyHandsome49]

Thrillville. That series so deserved some next gen treatment.

 

[Charrio]

 

This game made me cry so hard at the end

[ChaosCalix]

Tomba. Love that game <; So glad I have a copy of it.

Yessss. I only ever played the second one, to be fair, but I loved it.
My disk stopped working, but thankfully I backed up an image of it so I can still emulate my copy when I like.

As for me? Well.. a lot of games I really like aren't "Underrated", really, but some of them are kinda just... unpopular. Like they did really well critically, but flopped commercially. Spec Ops: The Line, Armored Core 4/4A/VD, Vanquish, S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat.. My mind is blanking on more games right now.

As for things actually disliked? Hah, there's a LOT I can pick from. I tend to like less popular games for some reason. Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, Dead Space 3 (which gets enough flak to qualify here imo), Hitman: Absolution (same as DS3), DmC: Devil May Cry, Anno 2070 (gets HUGE flak for U-Play and U-Play alone)

There's also some mobile and flash games. Because mobile games get laughed at on the merit of their platform alone, and flash games are 99% crap, so the 1% are often overlooked, or looked down on by "serious gamers".

[Clove Darkwave]

I'm going to cast my vote for Cel Damage on the Gamecube. It was a game in a similar vein to Vigilante 8 but so much more fun.

I'd have said the Serious Sam series, but in some circles they are very highly respected games.

[Naesaki]

I've felt Baten Kaitos has been a bit underrated, it was a really good duology but with it being put on the Gamecub albeit an awesome console its lifespan was very minimal, it never really got a chance to shine.

Also Eternal Sonata, I really would have liked more games in this series, going over different artists from history, think it could have been really interesting and the art style was exceptionally beautiful.

[Dr. Doggo]

Evil Genius. An old Dungeon Keeper-esque base builder game that has you playing the role of a very Bond villain style caricature supervillain trying to take over the world. Super colourful, great sense of humour, perhaps a little too simple in its mechanics, but I still think it was fantastic. I'd love to see a revamp of the concept in the future but I just don't know if it did well enough to ever warrant a second glance by most developers.

I USED TO PLAY THAT SHIT ALL THE TIME

[KyryK]

Valkyria Chronicles was pretty underrated.

Valkyria was bloody amazing. I still remember some of my squad member's personality traits, Homer the masochistic engineer, that over the top gay lancer, think he was called Max, those brother/sister Shocktroopers and that characters could have traits like hay fever or racism that would give them debuffs under certain conditions. The masochistic guy got a damage bonus or something when he was at half health for instance. These were just optional side characters too, every one was fleshed out to a certain degree and evidently they were memorable. I'm glad i got through the game without a single squad member getting killed, less glad i stopped playing on the last mission.

I'm not sure if it's underrated but Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was a brilliant JRPG with a decent combat system and a fairly unique story (sci fi/medieval combo) with some very good twists. And of course i've got to mention the Disgaea series. Isometric turn based strategy games with a brilliant sense of humour. In the thrid game you played an 18000 year old demon that was an honour student because he's never gone to school and the delinquents were people that always did their homework and went to class on time. Add power rangers, prinnys, patricide, fourth wall breaking and having to fight hot sauce obsessed versions of yourself in your brain in an effort to destroy your own memories you have a fantastically unique and memorable game, it's just brilliant and anyone that likes JRPGs should find a copy.

[Naesaki]

Valkyria was bloody amazing. I still remember some of my squad member's personality traits, Homer the masochistic engineer, that over the top gay lancer, think he was called Max, those brother/sister Shocktroopers and that characters could have traits like hay fever or racism that would give them debuffs under certain conditions. The masochistic guy got a damage bonus or something when he was at half health for instance. These were just optional side characters too, every one was fleshed out to a certain degree and evidently they were memorable. I'm glad i got through the game without a single squad member getting killed, less glad i stopped playing on the last mission.

I'm not sure if it's underrated but Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was a brilliant JRPG with a decent combat system and a fairly unique story (sci fi/medieval combo) with some very good twists. And of course i've got to mention the Disgaea series. Isometric turn based strategy games with a brilliant sense of humour. In the thrid game you played an 18000 year old demon that was an honour student because he's never gone to school and the delinquents were people that always did their homework and went to class on time. Add power rangers, prinnys, patricide, fourth wall breaking and having to fight hot sauce obsessed versions of yourself in your brain in an effort to destroy your own memories you have a fantastically unique and memorable game, it's just brilliant and anyone that likes JRPGs should find a copy.

I love the Disgaea series and Star Ocean : Till the End of Time is one of my all time favourites, I also really enjoyed the 2nd one on psp, the Valkyria Chronicle anime diverges a bit but it does flesh out some of the side characters and that side dlc mission with that girl with the grey hair wants to be an idol that was a fun thing in the game.

[Sarcastic Coffeecup]

NecroVision.

It all starts innocent enough with you shooting WW1 germans, BUT THEN HELL ARRIVES.

[KyryK]

I love the Disgaea series and Star Ocean : Till the End of Time is one of my all time favourites, I also really enjoyed the 2nd one on psp, the Valkyria Chronicle anime diverges a bit but it does flesh out some of the side characters and that side dlc mission with that girl with the grey hair wants to be an idol that was a fun thing in the game.

Fantasic, you've got some taste dood. I haven't played Star Ocean in years, really need to get a copy and show some love to my poor neglected ps2. Same with Okami. You talking about the second Valkyria? I never played it because i don't get on with handhelds. It's like with the first Monster Hunter, released on ps2 but didn't do too well due to it's poor online capabilities. It would be fantastic if they brought that series back to consoles/pc, the only reason i don't play it is because of the DS.

[Naesaki]

Fantasic, you've got some taste dood. I haven't played Star Ocean in years, really need to get a copy and show some love to my poor neglected ps2. Same with Okami. You talking about the second Valkyria? I never played it because i don't get on with handhelds. It's like with the first Monster Hunter, released on ps2 but didn't do too well due to it's poor online capabilities. It would be fantastic if they brought that series back to consoles/pc, the only reason i don't play it is because of the DS.

I remember her name now, Edy Nelson she was in the first Valkyria Chronicles one

[KyryK]

I remember her name now, Edy Nelson she was in the first Valkyria Chronicles one

Ah, just had to look her up on a wiki. I don't think i would have used her much because of her debuffs and i don't really remember her. She seems...kinda annoying. Damn this is bringing back good memories, shame i can't justify the price of Valkyria on Steam atm.

[Grandpriest]

Chrono Trigger.

Yes, it's well known and well loved and ITS STILL UNDERRATED TO ME.

And Master of Orion 2/SMAC. Two of the perfect TBS games.

That game is the opposite of underrated, though. lol

[Summercat]

That game is the opposite of underrated, though. lol

And I still feel it is not highly rated enough.

Although at the time I was effectively drunk from lack of sleep, lack of food, and awake only through listening the Chrono Trigger soundtrack.

[ChaosCalix]

And I still feel it is not highly rated enough.

Although at the time I was effectively drunk from lack of sleep, lack of food, and awake only through listening the Chrono Trigger soundtrack.

To be fair, I have yet to play it and have no intention to play it any time soon, so there! Not highly rated enough

[Summercat]

To be fair, I have yet to play it and have no intention to play it any time soon, so there! Not highly rated enough

Shit, man. If you're anywhere near San Diego I'm tempted to find my SNES and my copy of Chrono Trigger, drive to your house, and MAKE YOU PLAY IT YOU HEATHEN.

[Kaedal]

Alpha Protocol by Obsidian. James Bond meets Alias meets Splinter Cell. If it had only gotten a bit more time in  development, a bit more funding and some better exposure, it might have spawned a sequel. Still, the game was fantastic and memorable, with some really sweet choices and a tolerable storyline.

[Summercat]

For The Glory is a narativest version of Europa Universalis 2, that also addresses a lot of bugs and imbalances from the base game.

[Zytan]

Total Annihilation, fairly certain it was the first RTS that had projectiles yet I never hear hide nor hair of it except for comparisons to Planetary Annihilation (ugh).  If you want an incredible RTS and can stomach modding it for a higher res/suck it up and play vanilla then I definitely recommend it.

[Kinare]

I dunno yo, I've got a lot of games that aren't necessarily popular titles, but I don't think it's because they're underrated, just indie games tend to not get noticed as much. I guess since Hewge mentioned it, Endless Legend counts. =p Also Dungeon of the Endless, love both of those games to death. They both have really good reviews tho, so I don't think they're underrated personally, just not all that popular.

[yell0wf0x]

I don't hear about it that much so I guess ye could say it's quite underrated. But legend of dragoon was one of the rpgs I really liked. I honestly don't remember much of it now since it's been so long since I last played it but I enjoyed the game's story and gameplay quite well. I should prolly try grabbing this on the psn and replay it for old times sake.