Good RPGs, the less known ones, post youre thoughts here

[postulio]

i love RPGs, and i guess so do many of you all, i was wondering, what are some really good lesser-known RPGs. nothing on xbox-ps-gc. thats all pretty popular (and i acutally own almost all the playstation rpgs)

but i was wondering, did you ever play a really nice one that you think is overlooked? for me id like to say Car Battler Joe. its a GBA game where you collect car parts and build custom battle-bot type cars to race and battle your opponents. great fun.

also i thought Landstalker for Genesis was spectacular.

[racecar]

for the ps2 -shadow hearts was kind of overlook a first
as for the 16bit systems
snes-illusion of gaia, robotek, soulblazer(basiclly all of the ENIX games)
note that this is only what i think- among my friends- they don't have any of them in their own collection ,and they usually likes the game after i tell them to try it out(borrow from me)
for the nes rivercity ransom has become a cult hit
as for the psx
saga frontier 2 ,tales of destiny 2 (i prefer 1 over2 ), vandal hearts 2, frontmission 2 (jp),3 , i'll try to exclude imports ...but i'll have to mention- black matrix-

[postulio]

beat all 5 of those, meh. river city was great hehe, not really rpg though. enix has never been less know.

[Jorpho]

I'd suggest Tales of Phantasia, but what with Tales of Symphonia out now, that would seem redundant.

So, how about Live A Live (SNES)? I also have Shining in the Darkness (Genesis) on my list of things to look at sometime. And then there's Anachronox (PC).

But the most original thing I have found in a long time is The Spirit Engine (http://tse.natomic.com), a tidy, amusing, and original freeware PC game.

[The Brown Eye]

I liked Tales of Destiny, Guardian's Crusade, and Alundra. Alundra is hard though, and Guardian's Crusade is very easy. Give them a shot.

[postulio]

those sound great, i never heard of that snes game Live a Live. seriously gonna check that out. you all should try car battler joke, if you can find it. its pretty fun.

[Azazel]

Faria was pretty good and challenging on the NES.

[Daria]

If Shadow Hearts is considered overlooked, the orginal Koudelka for PSX is downright obscure.

Anyway... some of my favorite RPGs include:
Star Tropics (nes)
Magic of Sheherazade (nes)
Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom (nes)
Crystalis (nes)
Dragon Quest 5 (t-sfc)
Dragon View (snes)
Wonder Project J (*t-sfc)
Madou Monogatari (t-sfc)
Shadowrun (genesis)
Shining in the Darkness (genesis)
Pirates! Gold! (genesis)
New Horizon (genesis)
Alundra (psx)
Koudelka (psx)
Rhapsody (psx)
Vandal Hearts (psx)
Tales of Destiny 2 (psx)
Persona 2 (psx)
Dragon Warrior VII (psx)
Shadow Madness (psx)


Others I've enjoyed that aren't necessarily "the best" and some that don't even come close:
Legend of the Ghost Lion (nes)
Inindo (snes)
Guardian's Crusade (psx)
Traysia (genesis)
CIMA: The Enemy (gba)
Vay (sega cd)
Azure Dreams (psx)
Silver (Dreamcast)
Light Crusader (genesis)
Solstice (nes)
Monstania (t-snes)
Paladin's Quest (snes)


*t-sfc stands for translated Super Famicom. Cause it sucks when people list them as snes and then you leave the thread thinking you can actually buy a copy of the game.

[Nez]

Ugh stay away from Vay and Silver I hatted them.

[Daria]

Can't say I can defend Silver, I know it's not a great game but trhen if I enjoyed it I'm sure others will too. All I can say is check out some reviews and form your own opinion based on your tastes.

Vay on the other hand, well... it's a tough game. Battles are hard as hell, and after every boss battle you'll really feel like you've accomplished something. It's a great RPG for those who love a challenge. The story it's self isn't anything memerable but I feel Working Designs really injected the game with a lot of personality. The characters who otherwise would have become faceless sprites like so many 16 bit heros become real to you as you play them although not to the same degree as the cast from Lunar. Course if WD just isn't your thing then this might become a turn off.

Also wanted to add that Defenders of Oasis (GameGear) is a great game too. I knew I'd forget something. :P

[-hellvin-]

Crystal Warriors for the game gear. Quite overlooked and fun RPG. More strategy based though.

My other pick is Betrayal At Krondor for the PC. Pretty old and nasty graphics but the story for the game was written by a great fantasy novelist so it has a damn good story and the gameplay is quite intriguing.

[Fuyukaze]

Great Greed for the GB. It was a very fun RPG that had a very interesting and different type of ending. How many other RPGs let you choose who you marry? Could be the princess, could be the queen! Could be the king as well! If only for that alone, I wish I had it.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Believe it or not, there's already a "50 greatest RPGs" thread going - here's the link:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1557 :D

[tom]

The Magic Candle from Mindcraft on C-64, very overlooked, very excellent.

Other excellent XE/C64/Apple II titles:

Wizards Crown (SSI)
Gemstone Healer and Gemstone Warrior (SSI)
Exodus (Ultima III) (Origin)
Feary Tale Adventure (microillusions?)

[Sylentwulf]

Believe it or not, there's already a "50 greatest RPGs" thread going - here's the link:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1557 :D

I doubt any of those are lesser known/obscure though, heh.

[Lemmy Kilmister]

Treasure hunter G,Emerald Dragon and the Tengai makyou series are all quite good, and worth atleast a look. Plus if action rpg's count, I would like to give a thumbs up to Crystalis.

[EnemyZero]

Crystalis was an excelent nes game, much zelda-ish, but i loved it...and id have to say both vandal hearts games....when i mention strategy RPG's people usually say oh like FF tactics? I personally thought vandal hearts was a much better series...and i cant wait till its ressurection on DS ^_^

[maxlords]

If you liked Landstalker...try Dark Savior for the Saturn!

Others I recommend...the more obscure ones:

PC:
Wasteland (freeware at the Underdogs now)
Fallout and Fallout 2 (sequels to Wasteland)
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel (later released for consoles)
Septerra Core: Legacy of The Creator (AWESOME RPG)
X-Com: UFO Defense (Saw a PSX release, but better on the PC)
X-Com: Terror From the Deep (Saw a PAL PSX release only)
System Shock (a hybrid FPS/RPG, much like Deus Ex but way earlier)
System Shock 2 (same as above, but about the same time as Deus Ex)

NES:
Guardian Legend

River City Ransom

SNES:
Brainlord

Equinox (not really an RPG but overlooked!)

Paladin's Quest

Genesis:
Gauntlet 4 (it has a neat RPGish Quest mode that no one knows about I think)

Shadowrun (most people play the SNES one which is different)

Star Control (straight strategy but GREAT!)

Starflight (long and involved, but very cool)

Warsong (best strategy game on the Genesis...better than the Shining Forces IMO!)

Saturn:
Dark Savior (sequel to Landstalker)

Magic Knight Rayearth (way more fun than it looks)

Shining the Holy Ark (sequel to Shining in the Darkness, GREAT and ignored!)

DC:
Armada (RPG aspects...reminds me a LITTLE of Star Control 2, but not nearly
as story oriented, seems no one plays Armada!)

PS1:
Saiyuki: Journey West (classic Chinese story turned into an RPG...very good!)

Vandal Hearts 1 and 2 (though 2 is VERY hard and odd)

Koudelka (strategy/RPG much like Arc the Lad for battles, set in WWI)

Persona (AWESOME game...first US Shin Megami Tensei...anthough it's
gaining notoriety from the new game that just came out)

Thousand Arms (the ONLY Dating Sim/RPG ever to be translated to the US)

Wild ARMs (great sci-fi/wild west RPG series..the first one was completely
ignored and REALLY good, 2nd one is AWFUL)

Alundra (dark creepy action/RPG, VERY good, very ignored...and AVOID the
completely unrelated and horrible sequel!)

PS2:
Shadow Hearts (I think no one but me played it when it came out...it's
GOOD, from the makers of Koudelka and way better. Also now garnering
acclaim due to the sequel that was just released. A year ago, if you
mentioned it, people said "what's that?)

Wild Arms 3 (stylized Wild West/sci-fi RPG...very good!)

Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land (dark and creepy first person dungeon
crawler...fairly scarce too)

Road Trip (hey...it's a Choro Q game! But no one bought it... Very fun
RPG/car racing game with talking cars!)

GBA:
Car Battler Joe (great demolition derby/RPG but has a lousy ending :()

Boktai (did anyone else like it? The sunlight using monster hunting game
that reminds me of Landstalker...sequel is coming soon!)

CIMA: The Enemy (strategy/puzzle game...very odd)

Zone of the Enders: Fist of Mars (an early release GBA strategy game...very
very good tho, and neat battles!)

I can't think of ANY for GC or XBox, and I know there's tons for PC that I didn't bother to list. TONS! Just keep your eyes open...you'll find em.

[izret101]

Arcana SNES
Illusions of Gaia SNES
Lufia 2 Rise of Sinistrals SNES
Mario RPG SNES
Legend of Legaia PS

Those are some ones i think are really good that I personally don't here many people talk about. Especially Arcana.

[Aussie2B]

*t-sfc stands for translated Super Famicom. Cause it sucks when people list them as snes and then you leave the thread thinking you can actually buy a copy of the game.

But you can actually buy copies of the games. There's many eBay right now as we speak. ;)

Anyway, I'd argue that many RPGs on PlayStation and the current systems were not popular or well-known in the slightest, but since the topic creator wants old stuff, here are some obscure titles (including some Zelda-style adventure games):

EGG: Elemental Gimmick Gear (Dreamcast)
Hybrid Heaven (N64)
Drakkhen (SNES - it's really pretty fun, honest!)
Brain Lord (SNES)
Arcana (SNES)
Super Hydlide (Genesis - ditto what I said for Drakkhen)
Landstalker (Genesis - I question if it really deserves to be called unknown and unpopular, but eh, here it is anyway.)
Beyond Oasis (Genesis - ditto what I said for Landstalker)
Quest: Brian's Journey (GBC - it's better than the N64 game!)
Legend of The River King (GB - you know you wanna try a fishing RPG)
Willow (NES)

So there go, the most obscure yet still at least somewhat good older titles I could think of. Sadly, most of them aren't even real RPGs, just Zelda-style adventure games). I think most US-released traditional RPGs of that time have become popular to some extent just because the US didn't get many back then. However, if you're open to Japanese suggestions, I can name several really obscure titles that are GREAT fun (but most don't have fan translations, so you're either on your own or you can use an FAQ).

[Ze_ro]

In my opinion, RPG's were always better on the computer. I don't know what it was, but somehow they just lost it on consoles. So here's some of my favorites:

Dungeon Master - The classic first-person dungeon crawl. Great level design, great atmosphere, and a very usable interface.

Wasteland - The grand daddy of post-apocalyptic RPG's. Fallout is sort of the sequel to this, but the original is pure class. Great storyline and tons of sidequests and other stuff to do in the game. You actually build up the skills of your characters by having them learn to pick locks or fly helicopters or heal wounds. No magic, just guns.

The Dark Heart of Uukrul - Yeah, the name is messed up, but trust me, it's probably one of the top unknown RPG's out there. Do yourself a favor and get it from The Underdogs and install it on a computer and give it a try. It's mostly first-person, with combat going into an overhead view (Sort of like the old Gold box SSI games, although the combat feels a lot more like Ultima 4 or 5). The game has extremely clever puzzles, and gives you almost limitless freedom of action (ie, I picked up a scrap of cloth, and amung the choices I was given I could even decide to eat the cloth or cast it into the air).

Ultima Series - A lot of you probably know Ultima quite well, but in my opinion, it's easily become an underdog. Forget all this nonsense MMORPG stuff and go back to the REAL single player Ultimas. Specifically, III, IV, V, VI, and VII (There are two Ultima VII's, both of which are great). Ultima I and II are alright, but a little archaic, and Ultima VIII and IX got a little crummy. There are also two spinoff series, the "Worlds of Ultima" series (One of which has you in the jungle fighting dinosaurs, and the other of which has you travel to Mars) and the Ultima Underworld series, which is all 3D. The hallmarks of the Ultima series have always been an excellent, engrossing storyline, clever dungeon puzzles (especially in IV and V), side quests and non-linear gameplay. At the very least, everyone here should be able to say that they've played through Ultima IV at least once. Having to actually show attributes like humility and spirituality to win a game is still very unique in the genre. Some of these games are available for the NES and SNES, but don't even bother with those ones, they're far too watered down. (By the way, if you decide you want to try Ultima VII, look into Exult (http://exult.sf.net). The original doesn't play nicely with modern computers).

Neuromancer - The original cyberpunk RPG, based on Gibson's novels. Some would probably call this more of an adventure game than an RPG, but if you just think of "upgrading your softs" as gaining experience, then you're right there. The graphics on this one will look very primitive, but it's a quality play. It's really unfortunate that they never ported this one to the NES, or it would have been an instant cult classic around here.

SSI's Gold Box AD&D Games - Like Ultima, this is another series that USED to be very popular, but has fallen by the wayside. There were quite a few of these including "Curse of the Azure Bonds", "Pools of Radiance", "Gateway to the Savage Frontier", "Secret of the Silver Blades", "Champions/Death Knights/Dark Queen of Krynn", and even two Buck Rogers themed games "Matrix Cubed" and "Countdown to Doomsday", but the best (and most recent) of which was probably "Pools of Darkness". All these games are based on the real AD&D rules and mythos, so if you used to play D&D in your basement, then you should be right at home here. You create a band of 7 adventurers and set off on a quest to rid the world of whatever evil monster has shown up most recently. The games are always non-linear, allowing you to go to pretty much whatever town you want to whenever you want to. I still remember playing Pools of Darkness and stepping through a dimensional portal that transported me onto the body of the (enormous) sleeping god Moander... I had to adventure across his body, fighting animated pieces of Moander that were under the command of Tanetal. Eventually you had to make your way into Moander's heart to fight Tanetal, who would cause Moander's heart to beat, thus pushing you into a different room. Incidentally, this series was also one of the first to let you transfer your party from previous games. The idea was that (like in real D&D role playing) you'd take your party of adventurers through each new adventure as it came along. You get to keep your stats and your stuff, thus making the whole series into one giant epic adventure! (actually, there are really TWO series, the Forgotten Realms games and the Dragonlance games which are NOT interchangable since they take place in different universes, but that's getting a little complicated for now). Incidentally, there is also a product known as "Unlimited Adventures" that SSI released, which is the engine that all these games used, but lets you create your own RPG using the same rules, in case that sounds like your kinda bag.

If PC gaming isn't your thing, then the only console RPG I've played in recent history that I would consider underrated would have to be:

Record of Lodoss War (Dreamcast) - This game plays very much like Diablo, but I have to say that it's probably one of my favorite console RPG's of all time. There is tons of stuff to do, you eventually get an entire village working for you, you enscribe enchantments on your weapons and armor that eventually make you ridiculously powerful and you hack and slash your way through most of the game. Very enjoyable. The game is supposedly based on an anime series, but other than the name, there seems to be very little japanese content in here at all (I've always preferred the American style RPG's over Japanese style).

--Zero

[Ze_ro]

Oh wait! I can't believe I forgot to mention...

Nethack (http://www.nethack.org) - This game is a direct decendant of Rogue, the original dungeon crawl that's been around for at least 30 years on Unix mainframes. Nethack has almost non-existant graphics (If this bothers you, check out Falcon's Eye (http://falconseye.sourceforge.net/) or noeGNUd (http://noegnud.sourceforge.net/), which both add some interesting graphical abilities to Nethack, including 3D displays if you wish. Frankly, I prefer the simplicity of the ASCII display), but what Nethack lacks in graphics, it certainly makes up for in depth! In Nethack, your task (as ordained by your god) is to decent into the depths of Gehennom and retrieve the Amulet of Yendor. Once you have it, you must make your way to the Astral Planes where you can offer it to your deity. Along the way you'll encounter some unique entities such as Dispater, Juiblex, Asmodeus, Vlad the Impaler and Medusa, you'll sack an underground castle, raid the Gnomish Mines, solve Sokoban, take a character-dependant quest, find weapons such as Sting, Excalibur and Mjollnir. You'll steal from shops, sacrifice dead monsters to your god, tame monsters and keep them as pets, eat monsters to gain their abilities and much, much, much more. Basically, anything that you think you should be able to do in the game, you CAN do. The game is also extremely difficult... in all the years I've played it, I don't think I've even made it a quarter of the way through, but I still enjoyed every bit of it.

--Zero

[Promophile]

Everyone on this board should check out Jade Coccoon 2 for the PS2. It was WAYYYYYY overlooked, and is VERY fun.

[Nuadha]

There was a game for the C64 where you played a collection of Greek Heroes helping Heracles/Hercules complte the twelve quests for Hera. I remember playing it for hours and hours back in the day. The best part is that each character could move indepentently around the map, so you could (and had to) split the group up. You had a certain amount of time to complete the quests in and it was hard (maybe impossible.....I never beat it).

It was called Age of Adventure: Return of Heracles.

[DDCecil]

My 2 RPGs: Doomsday Dream Legend 1 and 2 for Megazeux (PC Game Maker). I wanted to make a game with more emphasis in exploring and finding stuff than a story, and came up with these. I'm working on a remake right now (Which will be humorous/tragic and make fun of all the RPG cliches)...

http://img77.exs.cx/img77/332/ddl1.jpg

http://img77.exs.cx/img77/539/ddl1-2.jpg

http://img77.exs.cx/img77/549/ddl2.jpg

[izret101]

Everyone on this board should check out Jade Coccoon 2 for the PS2. It was WAYYYYYY overlooked, and is VERY fun.

I thought this was supposed to be another one of those huge selling revolutionary games?
I almost picked it up today but I didn't have enough cash on me,

[Jorpho]

Treasure hunter G

Ugh. The graphics were great, and the battle system was cool (if not necessarily exploited to its full potential), but it was quite linear and stale in all other respects. Still, it's much better than the first two Breath of Fire games.


My 2 RPGs: Doomsday Dream Legend 1 and 2 for Megazeux (PC Game Maker). I wanted to make a game with more emphasis in exploring and finding stuff than a story, and came up with these. I'm working on a remake right now (Which will be humorous/tragic and make fun of all the RPG cliches)...

Ah, Megazeux. I maintain that Bernard the Bard was thoroughly awesome, but then, that's not an RPG. Come to think of it, though, Smiley RPG was quite fun, and it was great satire, too.

[postulio]

its scary how much i agree with maxlords' list. i played EVERY game there, except for a couple for the playstation i didnt even know of. which is great since its more stufff to collect into my ps rpg set.

as for Ze_ro, i agree, but PC and Console RPGs are not really the same genre. an RPG as it was meant to be played, started on the computer, using bits and pieces from desktop RPGs. the console games where never really rpgs, just adventure games (an early game responsible for giving them the name of RPGs is Quest for the rings for Odyssey2, since it came with a real RPG game board, while the electronic game part was a classic top down adventure)

as console games got more complex, adventure games with complex stories and tiny PC RPG elements (such as xp and equipment) began being called RPGs.

as it stand right now, PC RPGs that didnt change at all, case in point: Neverwinter Nights, Fallout series, Arcanum as true RPGs, while the Final Fantasy Series, and just about every other console RPG, is little more than a really deep adventure game. its ok though, they are still great.

interestingly enough, Xbox has some true RPGs, KOTOR, Fable and Morrowind (which is really a pc game).

the biggest difference between PC and Console RPGs, is choice. RPGs were created to give the player a role to play, whichever role the player chose, be it good or bad, 99% of all PC RPGs follow this formula. Where as 1% of console RPGs do.

again, this isnt flaming consoel RPGs, they are fun, in their own little way, but thats why some people feel the PC is a better breeding ground for RPGs, because of the games already there, and how they are made. those who believe consoel RPGs are better, well they are just mistaken in their view of an "rpg".

/end rant

[Promophile]

Everyone on this board should check out Jade Coccoon 2 for the PS2. It was WAYYYYYY overlooked, and is VERY fun.

I thought this was supposed to be another one of those huge selling revolutionary games?
I almost picked it up today but I didn't have enough cash on me,

I haven't really heard ANYTHING about it being a big seller. It is a pretty awesome game though, alot like Azure Dreams on the PSX, another FREAKING AWESOME overlooked game.

[izret101]

Everyone on this board should check out Jade Coccoon 2 for the PS2. It was WAYYYYYY overlooked, and is VERY fun.

I thought this was supposed to be another one of those huge selling revolutionary games?
I almost picked it up today but I didn't have enough cash on me,

I haven't really heard ANYTHING about it being a big seller. It is a pretty awesome game though, alot like Azure Dreams on the PSX, another FREAKING AWESOME overlooked game.

Maybe i got that impression because i am signed up to like 100 different newsletters.

I have never heard of Azure Dreams before.
I like threads like this. I get ideas for what to shop for. :D

[Lemmy Kilmister]

I have never heard of Azure Dreams before.
I like threads like this. I get ideas for what to shop for. :D

Yeah check it out it's not bad. Their is also a gameboy color game

[Jorpho]

Oh, I forgot to mention Taskmaker and Tomb of the Taskmaker, two vaguely Roguelike games (I guess) for the Macintosh. Entertaining diversions, the both of them, and they run quite nicely under Basilisk II and other Mac emulators. You can get 'em at Underdogs.

[Daria]

Everyone on this board should check out Jade Coccoon 2 for the PS2. It was WAYYYYYY overlooked, and is VERY fun.

I thought this was supposed to be another one of those huge selling revolutionary games?
I almost picked it up today but I didn't have enough cash on me,

I haven't really heard ANYTHING about it being a big seller. It is a pretty awesome game though, alot like Azure Dreams on the PSX, another FREAKING AWESOME overlooked game.

Maybe i got that impression because i am signed up to like 100 different newsletters.

I have never heard of Azure Dreams before.
I like threads like this. I get ideas for what to shop for. :D

Just be forewarned, Azure Dreams is electronic masochism in it's purest form. Even if you hate the game chances are you'll refuse to put it down.

The game will beat you into the broken shell of a gamer and you'll continually crawl back for more. It's just that hard.

Have fun. (:

[Promophile]

Everyone on this board should check out Jade Coccoon 2 for the PS2. It was WAYYYYYY overlooked, and is VERY fun.

I thought this was supposed to be another one of those huge selling revolutionary games?
I almost picked it up today but I didn't have enough cash on me,

I haven't really heard ANYTHING about it being a big seller. It is a pretty awesome game though, alot like Azure Dreams on the PSX, another FREAKING AWESOME overlooked game.

Maybe i got that impression because i am signed up to like 100 different newsletters.

I have never heard of Azure Dreams before.
I like threads like this. I get ideas for what to shop for. :D

Just be forewarned, Azure Dreams is electronic masochism in it's purest form. Even if you hate the game chances are you'll refuse to put it down.

The game will beat you into the broken shell of a gamer and you'll continually crawl back for more. It's just that hard.

Have fun. (:

pishaw its not that hard LOL . I haven't played the GB color version but I heard it sucked. Pick up the PSX version first. You can get it pretty cheap since its so overlooked. If more people knew about it I'm certain you would be paying Suikoden II prices.

[The Brown Eye]

Grab a 3DO and Guardian War, Lucienne's Quest, and Star Control II.