The Vault -- Underappreciated RPG Gems

I'm sure everyone has a slew of RPGs they've played that didn't make a big slash (or at least I'm hopeful). Let's use this thread to open up the vault and spill. Here are mine. I'm sure I'll add more as I remember them.



Release Date: March 22, 2002
Developer: UbiSoft
Consoles; Dreamcast, PS2, PC
Genre: JRPG


The Grandia series features one of the most exciting battle systems in the library of JRPGs. Everything is constantly moving and trade offs need to be made between dishing out damage and canceling enemy actions -- taking into consideration things like distance and attack velocity.

While Grandia 3 carries the most polished version of the battle system, Grandia 2 brings with it loveable characters and a great story. A must play for JRPG fans. (Grandia 1 is available via PSN)




Release Date: April 18, 2002
Developer: Working Designs
Consoles; PSone, PSN
Genre: JRPG


Arc the Lad is a personal favorite of mine. The Collection covers Arc the Lad 1, 2, and 3. All 3 games sport a grid-based battle system, ala Final Fantasy Tactics. It boats an impressively epic story and a wide cast of characters. You meet the "heroes" in the Arc the Lad one and then "Hunters" in Arc the Lad 2. When the two teams collide, the game expands into an enormous universe that is pretty hard to fathom. The ability to catch monsters raises the number of playable characters to 30+, each of which is truly nique and memorable.

A great game, with great characters, and good retro style music. Definitely not for everyone, but certainly worth trying.
















I'll put profiles up for those soon.

I think i tried Last Remnant for a little bit... something was just really off about it for me. I absolutely LOVED the first battle where you fought that roman legion or whatever it was. It was really cool that the enemies were part of a mosaic background. But then the pairing of a hundred different things turned me off.

The battles got boring, the character designs were atrocious, the story moved like paint dries, and I just started really hating it, haha.

Of course, this was also one of those games I played, coming off of my ME1/ME2 binge, so it could've come off a lot worse than it actually was.

quote BrokenKnights

Suikoden
Shadow Hearts: Covenant

These would definitely be the two that I would name. The first one is my favorite series of all time, and Covanant was absolutely amazing.

quote BrokenKnights

GRANDIA 2

Not so much a fan. I played Grandia 2 and Xtreme and although the battle system was awesome, the game didn't offer anything too life changing.

quote BrokenKnights

ARC THE LAD

I've only played Twilight of the Spirits and I agree that it was amazing. Should probably go back and check out the older ones.

quote Spectre

Jade Empire. It received a lot of praise, then as the Xbox phased out and the 360 was released, the game seemed to go unnoticed.

I LOVED Jade Empire! I never got to complete it but I had so much fun with the game for the time that I did have it.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars probably would get my vote for an under appreciated game. I have met a lot of people who never knew about this game or have heard of the game and never played it. I got sooo many people into playing that game. A Mario game made by Square in the SNES games=awesomeness

If it counts as an RPG, Dead Rising (it does have leveling up and skill progression). It's a truly epic game, but it got slammed a lot for "being too hard", and having bad NPC AI. Besides that, the game is one of my all time favorites. I don't think I've ever played a game through as many times as I have Dead Rising. It's really a one-of-its-kind game, and I can't wait for the next in the series.

Another one is STALKER, which has only recently been gaining popularity. It was incredibly buggy upon release (they all were, with the exception of Call of Pripyat, which also happens to be the best in the series), and got slammed for it and kinda flew under the radar. I for one only heard about it sometime around Fallout 3's release. Even now, a lot of people dub it crap because it's too hard for them. If you can manage the difficulty, this game is one of the best you'll ever play.

quote chaotic

If it counts as an RPG, Dead Rising (it does have leveling up and skill progression). It's a truly epic game, but it got slammed a lot for "being too hard", and having bad NPC AI. Besides that, the game is one of my all time favorites. I don't think I've ever played a game through as many times as I have Dead Rising. It's really a one-of-its-kind game, and I can't wait for the next in the series.

I don't see how it's any harder than Demon's Souls. Different type of game yes. Harder? Most likely not. And Demon's Souls is KNOWN for it's difficulty and that fact that the creators are trying to change modern gaming from this spoon feeding shit everyone seems to be doing. I just think that certain people didn't enjoy the game, or it wasn't good to begin with if it's "underappreciated." Because Demon's Souls didn't come out long after Dead Rising, and it might have even came out before. I'm too lazy to check right now, but if Demon's Souls sold well and helped those dev's get "known" then either Dead Rising sucked, it's audience was too narrow or wasn't publicized well enough...

I always think people who say games are "too hard" either don't get far enough in them to actually amount to anything, or the game (In certain aspects) just sucks honestly.

quote theundertakergonzo

but Enchanted Arms

Just Googled this, and I like the look of it.

Another game I would say has stayed under the radar would be:

Divine Divinity 2: Dragon Knight Saga (DKS)

If you played the first (Ego Draconis = ED) then you would know it's "difficulty" and unbalanced game play. This was due to the starting area (First 1 - 15 lvls) were hard, and then after those lvls, the game was incredibly too easy because you entered some Godmode. In DKS, this was fixed, as was a lot of balancing issues in general. Some of the equips you could get at those lvls (1 - 15 in ED) would keep you satisfied till late, almost end game. I have both the games and enjoy DKS on Nightmare, while playing ED on Hard. But I am the type of gamer that enjoys the challenge, whether it makes me rage or not, when I complete it, it's all the better feeling.

I guess another game would be either:

Star Ocean: The Last Hope (SO: TLH)

and

Infinite Undiscovery (IU)

Both are grand JRPG's honestly, I enjoyed them both.

IU will forever be my favorite JRPG just for the fact the characters are adorable, the creation system I loved and the battles weren't boring. Granted, you had to play the "hero" who was the stereotypical whiny ass teen that grows into a "man" and saves the world. I really hate those. >>; And I dislike most games that make you play a certain person. I have come to rely on char cus for 90% of all my games. ;~; It's sad. But the game as a whole, including the story was amazing. If you haven't ever played a JRPG, I'd start with this. It's a solid game.

As for SO: TLH, it's labeled as the "worst Star Ocean." The game is KINDA boring and repetitive after a while, and it's on that FF status with the you seeing the same 10 enemies throughout the entire game, but different colors. ._.' No need for that shit. The game picks up once you get the angel healer Sara. Or it did for me because that is what I enjoyed the most in this game. She has far superior support and healing skills than any other player. But that's me. And she's adorable. :3 Once you "beat" the game though, you go from fighting like, lvl 50 things to fighting lvl 80, which is annoying because there's no warning that is like "Yo, you gon die in here" Would have been nice to ease you into the lvl 80's instead of dropping you off after endgame. AND! Unless you go out of your way to lvl to the 70's by endgame, the game is completely beatable by lvl 50, and I have done so. And the creation system is shit because you can't really create anything of use until you conquer the dungeon that starts it's mobs at lvl 80, so~ It's a good game if you can find it for $20- I wouldn't spend a penny over though. Still underappreciated for what it does give the gamer though.

/longrantpostthingy

quote Twilight

quote chaotic

If it counts as an RPG, Dead Rising (it does have leveling up and skill progression). It's a truly epic game, but it got slammed a lot for "being too hard", and having bad NPC AI. Besides that, the game is one of my all time favorites. I don't think I've ever played a game through as many times as I have Dead Rising. It's really a one-of-its-kind game, and I can't wait for the next in the series.

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I don't see how it's any harder than Demon's Souls. Different type of game yes. Harder? Most likely not. And Demon's Souls is KNOWN for it's difficulty and that fact that the creators are trying to change modern gaming from this spoon feeding shit everyone seems to be doing. I just think that certain people didn't enjoy the game, or it wasn't good to begin with if it's "underappreciated." Because Demon's Souls didn't come out long after Dead Rising, and it might have even came out before. I'm too lazy to check right now, but if Demon's Souls sold well and helped those dev's get "known" then either Dead Rising sucked, it's audience was too narrow or wasn't publicized well enough...

I always think people who say games are "too hard" either don't get far enough in them to actually amount to anything, or the game (In certain aspects) just sucks honestly.

Dead Rising is like 4 years older (Demon's Souls is 2010 right?). Anyways, for a measure of it's difficulty, it takes about 3 playthroughs before your character is strong enough to beat the story. Not to mention you're constantly timed to do side missions and main case missions. Lastly some bosses can kill you instantly (see Cletus the gunshop owner). It's a pretty tough game.

Either way its a really good game, and it got pretty good reviews (think it's at a 90 or something on Metacritic). It just it went under the radar for being too difficult for casual gamers, and it was a 360 exclusive, which is full of casual kids who whine and quit at the first sign of trouble.

Demon's Souls isn't known for it's difficulty. It's known for being difficult and at the same time fair. And it's hardly under appreciated. Maybe a little, but people definitely know what it is.