Under Appreciated or Obscure Games

[JuicieJ]

Sorry to get off topic, I can't actually take this line of reasoning seriously. Poor game design is needing to take time and practice what you've learned and what is available to you?

That's not even what I said. Dark Souls requires you to practice mandatory skills just to LEARN them. It doesn't teach them to you and then have you practice them. Again, it's like the Monster Hunter franchise in that regard. It does have tutorials, as Koosh said, but as he also said, you have to hunt them down and they're not very specific.

I also said that's the only thing that's poorly-designed. Everything else is excellent.

 

[Ventus]

I dunno. From Software really didn't intend for me to do things like this: [Dark Souls] Dem Jumps - YouTube

I don't know...that looks pretty reasonable to me (not within the realm of realism of course). There are so many games where tiny "exploits" like those are done - and the developers actually encouraged them after being notified. :I

That's not even what I said. Dark Souls requires you to practice mandatory skills just to LEARN them. It doesn't teach them to you and then have you practice them. Again, it's like the Monster Hunter franchise in that regard. It does have tutorials, as Koosh said, but as he also said, you have to hunt them down and they're not very specific.

I also said that's the only thing that's poorly-designed. Everything else is excellent.

What's wrong with teaching yourself? Games are not like 2013, meaning that teachers do not exist bar ourselves. If we cannot pick up tools and put them together to make something genius, then we must simply move on. There's nothing bad about that; and in fact it encourages creative minds to play. :yes:

That is basically the brunt of Dark Souls' criticism: people don't like games where they're left in the dark. It's the same with the original Legend of Zelda.

 

[Lucia]

That's not even what I said. Dark Souls requires you to practice mandatory skills just to LEARN them. It doesn't teach them to you and then have you practice them. Again, it's like the Monster Hunter franchise in that regard. It does have tutorials, as Koosh said, but as he also said, you have to hunt them down and they're not very specific.

I also said that's the only thing that's poorly-designed. Everything else is excellent.

Oooh, okay! But to be fair, there's tons of games with little hidden blips of helpful advice that you may not discover on your own.

 

[Mercedes]

Well, if you want a list of under-appreciated games, just look at the Indie scene. So many small Indie games get over-looked because of the £0.00 they put towards marketing and it's a crime, really. I'm at least happy Steam and Greenlight are giving them the attention they deserve, and it's nice to see articles on the big news sites about stuff like Don't Starve. But I'd say they're still a very under-appreciated corner of the market when Indie games are really innovating and being creative.

 

[JuicieJ]

Oooh, okay! But to be fair, there's tons of games with little hidden blips of helpful advice that you may not discover on your own.

Yes, but most of them aren't very good. *looks at Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*

 

[Blue Star]

Star Ocean is incredibly under-appreciated as a series. People don't even know it exists. When they see boxart, they say "damn isn't that Final Fantasy?" which, as a SO fan myself, is a bit harsh. The series boasts incredibly replayable combat in all iterations (except The Last Hope...suupid Blindside mechanic and lack of Fury Gauge!!1one). Sure, the space opera theme is a bit jarring and the story non-sensical at best, but it's still one of the better JRPG series out there in my opinion. Within SO, the most criminally 'obscure' title is Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Garnering some negative reception thanks to the buggy first release in Japan, it got panned by even North Americans who later hated the game for the story (plot twist was a bit out of the blue I admit). Even in spite of that, though, there have been whole crews dedicated to one thing and one thing only: obtaining 285 Battle Trophies. Yes, BATTLE TROPHIES - things you do in battle for rewards. Gosh, the amount of content in SO3 is amazing yet no one cares about it!

I've always been interested in the SO series, since one of the people that went into it was from the Tales team, and I used to love the Tales games. How are SO 1,2, and 4? I tried 3 and didn't like it (I played it around the same time I played Tales of Symphonia... not a great move in retrospect), but I've heard the others are pretty good.

 

[Dan]

I believe this game is rather obscure compared to some other Spiderman games, are Spiderman games even appreciated that much?
Anyway I really enjoyed this game, I love the cell-shading and comic book art style. Playing as both Spidey and venom was great. I'm no comic book reader but this game takes place in the ultimate universe which I'm sure some comic book readers really appreciated this in turn of the normal Spiderman universe we get, hell even I enjoyed the different spin on things. I would definitely gives this game a look at.

 

[MW7]

I really love the game Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon for the N64. It was released after Super Mario 64 but before Ocarina of Time, and it borrows a ton of elements from both the Mario and Zelda series. I sometimes think it's practically the first 3d Zelda game because so many things are similar. The game revolves around completing dungeons and gaining new abilities and items to traverse the world. However, there's a decent amount of platforming mixed in so it feels like Mario too. It wasn't super popular with critics because mechanically the game is not as smooth as Mario or Zelda, and the game is very Japanese so some of the translated jokes sound bizarre (and there's a laugh track which seems weird). Overall the game is basically a below average Zelda game which means it's freaking incredible compared to most games.

 

[Ventus]

I've always been interested in the SO series, since one of the people that went into it was from the Tales team, and I used to love the Tales games. How are SO 1,2, and 4? I tried 3 and didn't like it (I played it around the same time I played Tales of Symphonia... not a great move in retrospect), but I've heard the others are pretty good.

I don't actually know much about SO1 or 2 except that they're better on PSP (First Departure and Second Evolution), but SO4/The Last Hope is a pretty decent game. The gameplay in my opinion gets a little old because it eventually boils down to spamming attacks more than juggling (thanks a lot to the Rush Gauge)...but the graphics are great, the story is somewhat decent, and the music is pretty great. I know, that's not saying much...but it really takes for you to try it out. Available for Xbox360 and PlayStation3.

 

[ILU]

Does Eternal Darkness count? Not a lot of people know about it.... or knew about it, I should say, now that it's gonna have a spiritual successor. Freaky game. A lot of games have succeeded in terrifying me, but only Eternal Darkness has truly made me question my sanity.

There's also Enslaved which is a beautiful and awesomely fun game. Feels like Zelda, but in the future. Kinda. It's good.

 

[Ventus]

Do obscure titles work if they were obscure to you? If so, I REALLY have to recommend Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Mind you, I'm only playing the demo but it feels like a VERY fresh FPS. And check this snazzy lines out:

TIRED OF TUTORIALS? UPGRADE NOW TO KOBAYASHI TUTORIAL PREMIUM AND LET US PLAY THE GAME FOR YOU!

PRESS (X) TO MAKE THESE PATRONIZING SCREENS GO AWAY

I mean, games that tell you that tutorials suck...are very few and far between. I love this demo for that. It's <3

 

[Lucia]

Far Cry 3 itself was amazingly successful and Blood Dragon is out and out amazing for just being a FPS that wants to be FUN and succeeds. They're thinking about making a sequel as long as they get enough support and the sales keep up.

For 15 dollars for a game such as that, it's quite a steal! I really wish more big-time companies would make quality small games like this because they can be really wonderful. It shows you don't have to be indie to make some cool and unique.

 

[JuicieJ]

Blood Dragon is the pinnacle of stupid, crazy fun, but... it's gotten a LOT of attention. I don't see how it can be considered obscure.

 

[Lucia]

Don't worry. I'm still trying to figure out the Call of Duty recommendation on the first page.

 

[Ventus]

Don't worry. I'm still trying to figure out the Call of Duty recommendation on the first page.

CoD is definitely under-appreciated...people pan it simply because it's popular; Zelda was once like this, you know. I mean, yes, the series is very uniform between releases, but people are *****ing about the series when their beloved Zelda does the exact same thing! The difference is that COD sells like hotcakes and Zelda procures a menial 3 million or so. (seriously, CoDBO2 360 Y2D is 12 million units -- the PS3 version is 10 million units)