Obscure games you wish more people played

[Mr Aids]

An obscure game huh...

How about ObsCure?



I've only ever played the second one, but it was a good co-op horror game. Some combat, but was mostly about puzzle solving.

[Amante]

Oh man, Tomba. I used to have one of the games, I dont remember if it was 1 or 2, probably 2 for the playstation. I randomly lost it in my house when I was younger and lived in New York though. I was so sad that I lost it, I loved that game.

As for games I wish more people played. Shadow of the Colossus is a big one, I know a lot of people played it, but it seems that none of my friends do for some reason. Also, the Splinter Cell games, Chaos Legion and the Baldurs Gate games.

[Nymine]

ET for the atari.

BECAUSE I WANT EEEVVVVEEERRRYYYOOONNNEEE TO KNOW ABOUT HOW BAD IT IS.

Oh god no, why would you wish that on anyone? You can't play it anyway; not to completion. The programming is so bad, you just can't advance. If my brothers and I were bad back when were were kids and had an Atari before the NES, Dad would force us to play that game as punishment. True story.

Also I loved ObsCure! I got it on the WII and forced my friends to play it with me. It was a stick waggling good time(but that still doesn't solve the fact that I'm terrible at horror games).

Hmm hmm, uhm well I have a special place in my heart for Cannon Spike, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Azure Dreams and Plasma Sword: The Nightmare of Bilstein. I didn't have a console, so I was usually bumming around with my friend's Dreamcast.

I did however have access to a computer, so I did quite a bit of computer gaming. I can't remember a lot of the titles, but like every good puzzley PC gamer of the time I played allll the Mysts(are they already obscure? god i feel old. I remember when they were popular as all getout. Me n my friends were all like 'YAY! A game where the bad guys are PUZZLES! A game for us! WHEE!").

There was some game that was like Seven...something that I liked. It was top down, turn based RPG, had a techromanic ninja in it that was just boss and was released around the same time FFVII came to computer so it was pretty much trampled as far as advertising. Seven Sign? Seven Sigil? I know there was a seven in there. I wonder if I can find my old jewel case for that game. Uhm other PC games worth mentioning are Longest Journey, Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption(I nearly killed my computer trying to play that) and the Abe's Oddysey. Ohman. The visuals. The difficulty. If only Lorne Lanning hadn't gone crazy. *sigh*

Fff, I have more but I can't think of anything at the moment.

[FlamingDbag]

Revolt for PS2/64/DC/PC.
I loved that game when I was younger, I love it's theme and I just really liked the game. It's a shame that RC-Revenge pro sucks compared to it, and there were only 3 ever games in the series. I WANT MORE RC CAR RACING GAMES.

Lost Planet.
It's not that obscure, especially around here, but it has some GREAT ideas and unique arcadey style gameplay, grapple hook for the goddamn win. Too bad LP3 will probably never happen.

I swear I'm forgetting a really good one to mention though still...

[Darmanarya]

I liked lost planet 2.
and i wish people played Dark cloud more.

[Seven Rain]

Well, let's see... Time to rummage through my Backloggery. Like I implied with my original post; a LOT of games I enjoy can be considered obscure, so I gotta be a bit selective in which ones I talk about.
First up, PSX games:

Spoiler! :

• For starters, Alundra 2 was an incredibly solid Zelda-esque RPG for the PSX. The graphics are considered by many people to be bad even by PSX standards, and the later dungeons are frustrating and rage-inducing at times but the game is sill fantastic, with a trading sequence, some gambling and plenty of shields and swords to unlock, along with fun gameplay and characters. The story isn't really the best around but I still loved this game to death, and Flint was a fun protagonist. Silent yet heroic, just like Link.
  A lot of people praise the original Alundra but hate on the second, which I think is just ridiculous.
  
• Breath of Fire, (especially my favorite, BoFIII, because lolbiased,) a JRPG series developed by Capcom of all people. The games are great, have fantastic music and stories, and fun characters. I'll always have a soft-spot for BoFIII Ryu, he's one of the cutest, (young Ryu,) and later coolest, (adult Ryu,) JRPG protagonists ever if you ask me, though he got a ton of bonus points for being silent, (except during battle, that is. Hearing young Ryu's voice when he uses a healing spell was the most adorable thing ever.) The transformation system is fantastic and lets you mix and match genes to create different types of Dragons for Ryu to turn into, and the characters and enemies are all done in gorgeous 2D graphics over 3D landscapes and levels. In the world of JRPGs it's easy for certain titles to be lost in the depths of obscurity, so I'm sure I'll be listing quite a few of them here.
  
• Kingsley's Adventure, not much to say about this one. Just a cute and fun Zelda clone for the PSX. Full of dungeons, enemies, puzzles and different weapons to unlock. I had a ton of fun with this, just wish I could find it again. I haven't seen it in a used game store in ages.
  
• Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. I'm not sure how obscure the Klonoa games are but they're just plain amazing. Some of the greatest, cutest platformers on the planet, which manage to beautifully capture the dreamy style the games revolve around.
  
• Threads. Of. Fate. Threads of Fate. THREADS OF FAAAAATE! This is one of my favorite Square games ever along with Brave Fencer Musashi, which is another rather obscure Square game though not as much as ToF.
  Both games are amazing, Musashi is full to the brim with fun collectables and side-quests, along with great boss fights and an addicting gameplay system that allows you to steal enemy powers using the sword "Fusion." It's really as original as it gets.
  Threads of Fate may not have the gameplay depth Musashi has, but it makes up for it with an amazing story, (in fact, the story and characters in Threads of Fate have had a surprisingly big impact on my writing and stories,) great character designs and a gorgeous soundtrack.
  Not to mention Rue's own little gameplay gimmick of transforming into Enemies, though this isn't always terribly useful in a serious battle so it tends to be used only for certain areas/puzzles and general screwing around.
  
  Honorable mentions:
• The Arc the Lad series.
• Dragon Valor
• Omega Boost
• RPG Maker

And now, PS2:

Spoiler! :

• Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed. Now I know Ape Escape itself isn't obscure, but P&P seems to be one of the lesser known and underappreciated titles despite taking both the gameplay and story/characters to a new level. It might be hard to take the story in an Ape Escape game seriously but you might be surprised by P&P. I enjoyed it a lot myself, and even if you can't take the story seriously it's full of humor and the game itself is an excellently-done party game. Not to mention the soundtrack is great, as are the voices, (Crispin Freeman as Specter and Barbara Goodson as Spike = All of my love,) and there are plenty of unlockables to work towards. And then there's also the neat intermissions.
  
• Dark Cloud. I don't want to gush too much about this or I'll be here all day. Totally underappreciated, even compared to the second game, (which irked me a lot due to Max being voiced by Scott Menville... The game was amazing but his voice alone made it hard to enjoy.)
  It's a solid dungeon crawler with addicting town-building and weapon-upgrading systems, with plenty of cute characters and great music.
  Note: Prolonged Toan gameplay will result in an excessive exposure to DAT ASS.
  
• Dual Hearts. A wonderful JRPG for the PS2, which honestly I played so long ago I'm even a bit foggy on a lot of it, but I remember it being full to the brim with trippy dream worlds, fun characters and plenty of weapons to unlock. It was a great game I look forward to picking up again someday.
  
• Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil is the amazing sequel to the first Klonoa. Again, not sure if the Klonoa games are as obscure as they seem but they definitely deserve more attention.
  
• Okage: Shadow King. One of the most charming and adorable RPGs I've ever played, as well as some of the most unique characters. Not much to say about it because it's far from a deep RPG experience but the originality and charm of it all makes it well worth a play.
  
  Honorable mentions:
• I-Ninja
• Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
• S.L.A.I.: Steel Lancer Arena International
• Suikoden III
• Zone of the Enders (I know it's Kojima, but it's surprisingly unheard of. Probably because it's had to live in the shadow of the MGS series.)

Aaaaand PS3:

Spoiler! :

With gaming becoming bigger and bigger in the world and gamers being more vast and numerous even under-appreciated titles these days don't tend to die off into obscurity like some older games do. Nonetheless there are a few I feel are worth mentioning here.

• 3D Dot Game Heroes. This game is practically the living embodiment of obscurity, as it pays loving tribute to the classic RPGs and games that themselves weren't terribly huge outside of Japan. Sure FF and even DQ have made their names in the west but this game doesn't pull any pixelated punches with the obscure references and themes it tosses at you.
  
• Lost Planet 2. One of the most unique TPS games ever made, and one of my all time favorite shooters. LP2 is stuffed full of content, bosses, and that stylish, over-the-top Japanese flair you'd come to expect from the company that brought us games like Devil May Cry, SF and Megaman Zero. (I've always found Zero to be the most over-the-top of the MM series for some reason, *Shrug*) Not to mention the gameplay itself is rather unique for the genre, taking plenty of inspiration from it's bigger, less obscure brother; the Monster Hunter series.
  
• Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes. Remeber that over-the-top DMC-esque style I talked about? Well this time imagine it being injected into the Hack & Slash crowd-obliterating gameplay and Japanese Sengoku Period setting of Samurai Warriors, along with a hefty dose of anime influence. SB is Capcom's more outlandish and outrageous take on the SW series, and if you ask me it turned out amazing. Although Samurai Heroes is actually the third game in the series, it's the first one to properly make it to the US without a butchered translation full of unnecessary changes. Unfortunately there's a good chance that it is also the last, as it's painfully obscure and under-appreciated in the west, who largely doesn't even care for the more mainstream titles of the crowd H&S genre.
  
  Honorable mentions:
• Yakuza 3 and 4.

Before I take a break to later move on to other consoles; THE GAIA TRILOGY!

• Soul Blazer!
• Illusion of Gaia!
• Terranigma!

These amazing SNES classics by Quintet make up a trilogy that I really can't do justice myself. To read about them check out this and this.
Although I've procrastinated putting a real dent in the series, only playing a little ways into each game, they've captured my imagination in a way I haven't felt since I was a kid. Maybe because I missed out on these when I was younger, (same with the SNES Final Fantasies, which I became obsessed with in recent years due to how incredibly nostalgic and imaginative they are despite me missing out on them as a youngster,) but whatever the case, they're amazing games and all well worth a play.

Now then, this took waaaaay too much time so I'm gonna take a break and post more later, but first, responses~

Then there are the Enix developed games for Super Nintendo. It seems most people only look at the Square games, and while they may be the better ones, the Enix games were still very good. My favorites were Terranigma and E.V.O.: The Search for Eden, which are rarely, if ever, talked about.

I loved E.V.O. and look forward to getting around to finishing Terranigma but they were developed by Almanic and Quintet, respectively. (The latter of which developed the amazing Gaia Trilogy, which Terranigma is a part of.)
Enix never developed anything to my knowledge, they were simply a publisher, which is probably the reason Square merged with them after getting big enough.

As for games I wish more people played. Shadow of the Colossus is a big one, I know a lot of people played it, but it seems that none of my friends do for some reason.

I'm gonna play it after I finish Ico. :O

Hmm hmm, uhm well I have a special place in my heart for Cannon Spike, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Azure Dreams and Plasma Sword: The Nightmare of Bilstein.

Yeeeeesss, these are all awesome games/series. I played burned copies of Cannon Spike, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and Plasma Sword on my DC, and played Azure Dreams long ago on my PSX.
I loved Azure Dreams but the protagonist's clown lips bugged me.

I liked lost planet 2.
and i wish people played Dark cloud more.

*High-five*
Nice to see another fan of both these games here.

[RyoSoulreaper]

Speaking of Suikoden......

V. FOREVER V.

I loved that game A LOT. It was my first exposure to the Suikoden franchise and it is awesome.

[Seven Rain]

I still have it sitting on my shelf. After I put a dent in the RPGs I'm in the middle of I'll start it but for now I'm gonna leave it be, haha.

[tveye]

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. I'm not sure how obscure the Klonoa games are but they're just plain amazing. Some of the greatest, cutest platformers on the planet, which manage to beautifully capture the dreamy style the games revolve around.

I love Klonoa! I even have the two on GBA. I'm disappointed that the Wii remake didn't do so well, but, eh...that happens sometimes :/

[H0lyhandgrenade]

I don't know how many people played it, but one of my FAVOURITE games on the ps1 was Monster Rancher 2. I would love to see it re-released... Psp, please!

[Froken Keke]

Then there are the Enix developed games for Super Nintendo. It seems most people only look at the Square games, and while they may be the better ones, the Enix games were still very good. My favorites were Terranigma and E.V.O.: The Search for Eden, which are rarely, if ever, talked about.

I loved E.V.O. and look forward to getting around to finishing Terranigma but they were developed by Almanic and Quintet, respectively. (The latter of which developed the amazing Gaia Trilogy, which Terranigma is a part of.)
Enix never developed anything to my knowledge, they were simply a publisher, which is probably the reason Square merged with them after getting big enough.

I guess I wrote the wrong word, then.

[James-James]

I'm a bit unsure about calling it an obscure game as it was apparently made by the same team behind Psychonauts and that game has a pretty decently-sized devout cult following, but Costume Quest! I bought it in the Steam Sales, along with a dozen or so other games, and it's the only one I've given any attention to as I just do not want to play anything else. It's a very cute and quirky game with a nice aesthetic applied throughout. Apparently it's available on XBOX Live, so if you can spare however much it costs (I doubt it's too expensive), or choose to buy it from steam then do so! I haven't met anybody else who seems to be a fan quite yet.

Just don't look for a Let's Play of it. "Oh hey I'm some dumb idiot and I'm Let's Playing Costume Quest! Watch me read out ALL OF THE TEXT!" Every one of them.

[Mr Aids]

Also I loved ObsCure! I got it on the WII and forced my friends to play it with me. It was a stick waggling good time(but that still doesn't solve the fact that I'm terrible at horror games).

Yay! I played it with my cousins while I was overseas and some friends when I got back to Australia, but my brother wouldn't play it with me. SUCH A COWARD.

Speaking of Suikoden......

V. FOREVER V.

I loved that game A LOT. It was my first exposure to the Suikoden franchise and it is awesome.

I think that's the first (and only) Suikoden I played.

SO MANY CHARACTERS.

[Nymine]

Oh oh! My gosh. I had a brain jolt. The 'seven' something game was Septerra Core! SEPTERRA CORE! Golly I love that game dearly. I can't explain it. I just....do. It was charming. I mean, look at the cover art.

Spoiler! :

Like I said, this was released around the time FFVII made it to PC. I remember thinking even then that the conversation in the art design meeting was something like, "Crap! How do we compete with the stuff out? HOW?? Just look at Cloud! Impossibly spikey hair and a big sword? He's too cool for school. Wait I know! A chick! Yeah! People dig chicks! With BLUE HAIR AND A GIANT TECHNO GUN!! We're geniuses!" In all seriousness though, I like Maya as a lead a lot better. She's sassy.

Also Dino Crisis. Not the third one where it's inexplicably in space, but the one for the PS. It was pretty much Resident Evil, dinosaur addition. Ridiculous fun. I don't even remember why I bought it, just that I did and would beg to play it on my brother's system. They'd then watch and laugh as I shrieked in terror every time something went "BOOGA BOOGA!" and chased me around. I think I was hoping it was just as ridiculous as Turok(which it kind of was, but 3rd person and honestly, better).

[RyoSoulreaper]

Spoiler! :

Like I said, this was released around the time FFVII made it to PC. I remember thinking even then that the conversation in the art design meeting was something like, "Crap! How do we compete with the stuff out? HOW?? Just look at Cloud! Impossibly spikey hair and a big sword? He's too cool for school. Wait I know! A chick! Yeah! People dig chicks! With BLUE HAIR AND A GIANT TECHNO GUN!! We're geniuses!" In all seriousness though, I like Maya as a lead a lot better. She's sassy.

I remember that game! I had lots of fun with it on my PC.