I feel like everyone kind of forgot about Puzzle Agent (and its sequel), but they are some of my favorite PC adventure games. The game is basically Professor Layton set in Fargo, with a touch of Twin Peaks thrown in. The story can be both funny and tense and there are some actually frightening moments sprinkled in as well. I highly recommend it.
6 Likes
Pinball machines are pretty slept on with a wide variety of possible mechanics and play fields there are some truly awesome ones out there.
Now Iām sad again there arenāt many around where I live!
Shadow Complex has died down in popularity since itās release, but I think itās still one of the best Metroidvanias of all time.
1 Like
I suppose Nier, but maybe things are different now that Nier Automata is a thing? Itās always amusing (read: irritating) to see a former hater whoās never actually played it themselves suddenly do a complete 180 on a franchise.
I mean, even Patrick chose to believe the haters, and now heās writing articles on Nier/Drakengard lore? Wut?
Anyway, thatās certainly the big one for me.
6 Likes
Darklands. Itās a 1992 RPG set in the historic Holy Roman Empire with dragons and cults and stuff. Outside of hardcore CRPG circles, you almost never hear about this game despite its groundbreaking mechanics and fascinating systems.
It had an influence on the recent Pillars of Eternity with those chose your own adventure style screens that let you used items and skills based on your inventory/stats.In fact, you can hear me yelling in the PAX South PoE panel when Josh Sawyer name drops Darklands. My friends were so embarrassed.
1 Like
I think Witcher 3 is highly underrated and slept on even today. I was thoroughly surprised when I found out almost all my friends havenāt played it.
Vexx was h u g e l y slept on imo
One of my favorite GameCube-era platformers
1 Like
Videoball. One of my favorite competitive games ever and NO ONE bought it. Really disappointing. Come to think of it, anything made by Action Button: 10x8, Tuffy the Corgi and the Tower of Bones, Ziggurat (maybe less so).
3 Likes
Salt and Sanctuary is a solid shout. If you think of Dark Souls as the evolution of 2D Metroidvanias into 3D plus RPG elements, Salt and Sanctuary is everything learned from Dark Souls and itās ilk transposed back into 2D. Which isnāt to say itās just ā2D Dark Soulsā like itās written off as way too often, itās very much itās own thing, though if I was to compare it to any entry in the Souls series Iād probably say Dark Souls 2. It has that same sense of adventure that comes from seeing small parts of different kingdomsā stories, the same sense of excitement upon entering somewhere new and knowing nothing about it. And itās framed in a narrative that stands apart from other games of the genre, while still using some of the better-known tropes to great effect.
It plays really damn well too, satisfying and varied combat and loads of fun weapon types, coupled with platforming that gets super interesting with different environmental stuff I wonāt spoil. Environments look gorgeous, and while characters look a bit like potatoes at first the style grew on me. Love my potato people. And it has in-built challenge runs too, which is 100% my jam. Wish there was a reward for finishing them beyond personal pride, feels like there might as well be if youāre integrating them into the game. Not that I mind too much, one of them locks your weapon to a frying pan.
Iāve been craving a switch port for ages now. Hopefully Nintendo drops that weird āno portsā thing they told the Axiom Verge folks.
1 Like
Legend of Legaia
Its a very well done PS1 era JRPG made by the same studio as the Wild Arms games. Its most defining feature was a pretty innovative battle system that operates off of fighting game style inputs. It has really good visuals for the time and the story is really fleshed out and honestly kinda captivating despite being full of JRPG tropes to death and the music is also extremely good. It was released right before FF8 so it got lost in that rush and never sold as well as it probably should have.
The summons are some of the most impressive shit on the PS1
3 Likes
Thomas Was Alone is one of my absolutely favorite games and it didnāt get the press it deserves.
Iām not sure if the new DMC counts. It was super fantastic, and I know people liked it, but the fact that it didnāt do well enough to warrant a sequel is a crime.
Rayman Origins + Legends
4 Likes
Really want to go back and play this. I played it when I was 8 or 9 and it terrified me. That game had some extremely graphic stuff for being rated E (or K/A? I forget which was the standard at the time)
1 Like
Man, I didnāt play a whole lot of it, but I watched my brother play through all of it when it first came out. Psi-Ops was a crazy game that had some really fun stuff you could do with the psychic powers and things in the environment. I donāt remember there being a lot of games that allowed you to do as much as that game did with telekinesis for the time.
You think a game thatās received hundreds of GOTY awards and likely sold well over 10 million copies is slept-on?
Fair play if you believe it still deserves more credit, thatās not for me to decide, but I really donāt think it qualifies for this.
Hell yeah, the Shadow Hearts games are sooo good. I was going to post them here but you beat me to it. I never hear anyone talk about them.
EDIT: Oh wait, From the New World was a hot garbage dumpster fire, it was so bad I forgot it was even a Shadow Hearts game. The first two are great though.
2 Likes
The original NieR has my vote here, though as has been mentioned, the widescale opinion may be different than it once was. Flawed for sure, but one of the best stories in gaming.
Another one that stands out is Galerians on PSX - took the survival horror gameplay of Silent Hill/RE and turned it into a violent psychic thriller that presented some very eerie imagery. I was obsessed with it when it came out and it seriously creeped me out.
4 Likes
I like any forum topic that allows me to talk about how Steambot Chronocles is actually the best video game ever made.
But it really is, you get the cozy, charming characters and atmosphere of Persona 4 coupled with ridiculously customizable steampunk mech combat, with a huge breadth of side activities and bizzare one-off quests that are up there with the best Yakuza side quests
On top of all of that, the game is a fully featured rhythm game which is my favorite game genre, since the narrative is you being recruited into a traveling band you collect instruments and the songs in the game changes based on what you choose to play, and the mini game is different per instrument.
I honestly cannot reccommend this game enough, and I find that absolutely no one has played it which is a huge shame. The localization by atlus as well is phenomenal. It is, no shit, my favorite video game ever.
2 Likes
Yeah, the thing people first remember about HoD is the extremely graphic deaths that can happen to the player character, who is a child. Some are more cartoonish than others, but theyāre all still horrifying (and great).
2 Likes
Oh, I had no idea it bombed, I loved that game. I have a feeling the cutscenes and general production value might not seem as impressive as it did back in the day, so Iām not sure if I should ever go back to it.
Also, was that game ever hard as hell.
1 Like
Freedom Force and itās sequel are the best superhero games Iāve played outside of Arkham Asylum.
Theyāre mission based, real time, isometric RPGs with a physics-driven combat system that leads to a lot of improvisation and unpredictable moments.
One of my favorite emergent moments in games was when I had Minuteman (the main character) pick up and throw a car at a flying super villain. At the same time, the villain used a projectile attack on Minuteman. Now, most of the time, the car and projectile would have simply sailed past each other, but they just so happened to collide in mid-air, causing an explosion that sent Minuteman slamming backwards into a nearby building, and the villain, who was above the explosion, flying halfway across the map to his death. It was such a perfect āSuperhero Momentā captured by the mechanics.
1 Like
