What are your favorite games that nobody's heard of?

[LibraryOgre]

If you were dedicated enough you could grind and grind and grind in the starting areas, and buy the strongest spell in the game(I believe it was the strongest, maybe 2nd, but pretty sure 1st) and then basically be immortal for most of the game as nothing could stand up to it until you were near the end of the game. BUT, if you weren't willing to grind, you didn't have another chance to buy it until about halfway through the game, when you had to come back to the starting area.

Another one for me was Karnov for the NES. You are a fire-breathing circus performer who is battling monsters. Why? I don't remember, it's been far to long since I played, but I've never come across anyone who knows what the hell I'm talking about when I bring the game up, so I'm assuming it was relatively unknown, but supremely fun. I've been tempted to buy a copy from Ebay and play it through(I would say "And see if it holds up to my memory", but I've played dozens of older games that I enjoyed when I was younger, and I still enjoyed them now, so I'm assuming I'm some kind of freak that just doesn't mind extremely dated gameplay/graphics).

It was an INSANE grind, but you'd also level, IIRC, and the game became a walk. I think there was another point to buy it in the future, not just at the main town, but it was also a lot more expensive (and I remember it being of limited use against fast, bouncy, enemies)

[NeoVid]

I still use an avatar from my all-time favorite MOBA, Super Monday Night Combat. It was basically a funnier version of Team Fortress 2 as a MOBA, but without a player base.

[tyckspoon]

Another one for me was Karnov for the NES. You are a fire-breathing circus performer who is battling monsters. Why? I don't remember, it's been far to long since I played, but I've never come across anyone who knows what the hell I'm talking about when I bring the game up, so I'm assuming it was relatively unknown, but supremely fun. I've been tempted to buy a copy from Ebay and play it through(I would say "And see if it holds up to my memory", but I've played dozens of older games that I enjoyed when I was younger, and I still enjoyed them now, so I'm assuming I'm some kind of freak that just doesn't mind extremely dated gameplay/graphics).

I've played that, although IIRC I never got much past the first stage.

[LibraryOgre]

Dusk of the Gods, where you play an Einherjar trying to make sure the Aesir win Ragnarok. Character creation is playing your character's entire life... then you die and the game starts.

[Man_Over_Game]

Dusk of the Gods, where you play an Einherjar trying to make sure the Aesir win Ragnarok. Character creation is playing your character's entire life... then you die and the game starts.

Reminds me of the Valkyrie Profile games.

Speaking of:

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume: A turn-based tactics game for the DS, probably one of the hardest you've ever played in your life. This game is like dialed up to 12 on a 10 point scale. This game takes a turn that's different from the other Valkyrie Profile games, where you are actually a nobody who joins a covenant with the bad guy. You save some people throughout the game, who pledge their lives to you, which grants you LITERALLY POWER OVER THEIR LIVES. Your special ability is that you can unleash the life force in an ally, granting them incredible powers for the remainder of the battle, becoming near invulnerable. They automatically die at the end of the mission, permanently, and you gain the ability to unleash your dead ally's "potential" ability for the rest of the game. The more friends you consume this way, the more powerful you become. Additionally, you're rewarded for overkilling enemies and beating missions as quickly as possible, so there's lots of incentives for killing your friends. The end of the game has a battle between you and the Valkyrie who's been trying to stop you, and every ally who you killed this way has joined the enemy side. If you beat the game on hard mode, and get the perfect ending (meaning you've sacrificed a maximum of 1 friend throughout the entire game), you unlock a special game mode that uses your team to fight through a tower full of difficult enemies and new allies to join your party from the previous Valkyrie Profile games.

[Gray Mage]

Possibly my favorite RPG ever and on the top of the list of my favorite games, Skies of Arcadia: Legends. A fun JRPG about skypirates exploring the world and fighting the evil empire, it seems like a standard JRPG, but it hits every trope just so right, the dialogue and character interactions are so funny and right and the evil empire is not generalised as irredeemably evil that it works very well. Adding a fun elemental rock paper scissors system for magic/attacks and an airship battle system made it be one of the few RPG that I've beaten twice, the second time 100%, not to mention the times I've started a new file to replay the beginning.

[Wookieetank]

Onimusha Series: 3rd person samurai action games for the PS2, where you fight off demons using your Katana and some magic. Has a bit of a Resident evil feel on puzzles and area progression mechanics.

Onimusha Tactics: A decent tactical RPG for the GBA, set in the Onimusha world. Bit of a crossover game where characters and vilians from several of the main games make appearances.

Last World series: Open world RPGs with a large amount of character customization for the PC made with RPG maker. Had a lot of fun searching out all the side areas and optional content on these, there is a lot.

Ara Fell: Another RPG maker game, but gorgeously done. Every area is just swimming in details, and the outdoor areas are just teaming with life. A rather light hearted romp plot wise, but its a lot of fun and the game has a lot of heart.

[The Hellbug]

I still use an avatar from my all-time favorite MOBA, Super Monday Night Combat. It was basically a funnier version of Team Fortress 2 as a MOBA, but without a player base.

I actually really loved Monday Night Combat, but the more MOBA-y sequel just didn't do it for me.

[NeoVid]

I actually really loved Monday Night Combat, but the more MOBA-y sequel just didn't do it for me.

I never got around to playing the original, but even so I kept thinking they shouldn't have been separate games. Might have been better off if they were different modes for the same game instead of splitting dev time and player base. SMNC even added a Turbo mode that copied more of the first game's mechanics, and I had more fun with that mode than the default...

[Potato_Priest]

Card Hunter's campaign is a masterpiece of a game complete with wonderful satire of D&D culture, but sadly it's pretty short and most of the game's development is focused on pvp arena battles.

[LibraryOgre]

Phantasie and Phantasie III.

The evil sorcerer Nikademus is trying to take over the world. The first game has a lot of VERY OBVIOUS Tolkien rip-offs (like the 9 black riders who attack you when you get too close to Nikademus's mountain stronghold... I think you also fight someone named JRR Trollkin, at one point). The 3rd came out a few years later, had updated graphics (still CGA, 'cause we roll old school), and was very much the same sort of game.

Very much a D&D clone, though they put a lot more magic in.

[Sian]

Sengoku Rance - a surprisingly competent Strategy game with a very strong (even if it was deliberately hammy and overplayed) story, hiding under more M+ rated stuff than your average teenager's hidden collection.

If just it had been released in a censored version, then I'd think it could have been quite popular in it's strategy niche.

Also, it got one of the most hilarious soundtracks, with the main theme being a upbeat rock/metal remix of the East German anthem

[Grif]

I'll toss in a few candidates from the RTS genre.

Metal Fatigue - This used to be one of the cult favourites of the genre. However, it's almost impossible to get running on modern systems, and likely dropped off the radar as a result. The premise? You get to command the usual sci-fi assortment of infantry, tanks, and planes... with an added twist of also being able to field giant robots made out of modular parts. Yes, you heard it right, this game lets you live out your Gundam dreams if you had those, though the robots don't actually fly, if I recall correctly, and all battles happen over land. The game even tries to go further with three strategic layers (underground, ground and space), but I think those weren't implemented quite well enough.

Submarine Titans - If you ever wondered why no one took a jab at underwater combat, well, someone actually did. You have a Starcraft-esque system of three factions, with two different resources (not!Minerals and not!Vespene) to collect. As the name suggests, it all takes place underwater, and you command submarines instead of the usual assortment of infantry, tank, planes. It did a decent enough job, with submarines actually being able to move up and down the Z-plane, and there are tactical considerations for that. (You can't fire on anything too high above your current Z-plane, etc).

[Gnoman]

I mentioned this earlier, but Metal Fatigue is on GoG now, and easy to get running.

[T.G. Oskar]

Now that I remember, there's another game I'm sure few or no people have heard of, that it's actually pretty good.

• Dungeons & Dragons Tactics (PSP): I bought a PSP because of Valkyrie Profile, which I never played, but I ended up with a good amount of games for it. This was one of them. D&D Tactics is a pretty interesting take on both the D&D system and tactical games. The game uses the 3.5 rules, with access to all Core classes + two Psionic classes (Psion and Psychic Warrior), plus feats from the PHB and the Expanded Psionics Handbook. The game exists on its own setting, not using Faerun or Eberron or any of the known settings. The story is...bland, at best; you start at low levels, doing some minor quests, but then you learn your main character has Dragon blood in him (or her), and you get assasination attempts. You end up traveling all over the map trying to figure out who's trying to kill you and how that relates to the story between a Green Dragon and a Silver Dragon fighting each other. The game is pretty faithful to the original source, with only some minor caveats. The "tactical" portion is handled in a very unique way; you explore each dungeon or location as if it were a Diablo map, except you have to move each character individually each round. (You can finish a round early, if you need to). In battle, the game plays very much like a D&D battle, with initiative and flanking and specific movement and whatnot. The game even has most of the skills from the game (other than those like Craft and Profession, you get pretty much all of them, including and not limited to Use Magic Device), though their applications may differ. Better yet, there's at least two endings, depending on the alignment your character ends up with, and there's pivotal moments where your main character can change alignment. Despite not being very popular, it's a pretty faithful take on D&D, and it's a shame that it didn't got a sequel or a remaster (I'd love a remaster for the Switch, as long as it's not set in the Forgottten Realms). Oh, and your main character isn't the only one you can craft from scratch; you can create a party of 4, and then complement with a few pre-made characters that you can tweak later on. I finished it three times a long time ago, and I wouldn't mind firing the PSP for another go.

[theMycon]

Having played about 2 hours, I suspect you define "polish" differently from me. Sure, there's a lot of detail, but it's sloppy. It's jarring when the music dead-stops for a half-second then resets every 30 seconds, instead of making a smooth loop. The dialogue is consistently weird enough that I have to remind myself that it's not actually a SNES-era low budget localization. There doesn't seem to be much to interact with (people, some chests). The "spend money to skip this battle" function is nice, but it's useless 90% of the time, when you can just open a chest or talk to someone or go through a door; or if you set any button other than esc to open the status window. And the portraits are often downright horrifying- I think I'll see Fitch's face every time I close my eyes for the rest of my days.

I'm in Chapter 4 now, and... well, what I said about polish still holds, but it gets better.
The faces have gone from "uncanny valley/body horror" to "usually look like ugly humans", the music kinda bobs with a small but noticeable break, and the dialogue is now just a little flat. I'm a little annoyed that my 94% in the first real army battle got a B (I tried 3 times, and it's more about manipulating your AI allies out of suicide than any real tactics), but if the game continues to improve at this rate, I can see why it's so well regarded in the indie games community.

If it stays at this level... well, it's still a decent game, but they REALLY should've given the start a once-over. And I don't spend money on anything but keeping my weapons 1-level-below current for my active party, but I'm still constantly broke. And even that takes grinding to the point where regular battles are free healing/bosses aren't a serious concern. No, I've never bought armor.

[Triaxx]

I'd like to stick MechWarrior Online here, even though it seems fairly popular it's also pretty niche it feels like.

[somedudeguy]

I got so excited to give a good first impression that I posted a similar topic to this without realizing it was already a thing, so I'll just copy over what I already said:

sentinels of the multiverse cooperative superhero card game. It's got a digital release as well. They do a great job of making 'not copyright infringing' versions of popular heroes while still having a unique twist to them. The synergies you can put together with the right team are a joy to behold.

Unloved modern conversion of a Doom 2 mod that got released a couple years ago. Very atmospheric and tense fps/survival horror/roguelike thing. Probably best described as a less polished version of Killing Floor crossed with the ai director mechanics from Left 4 Dead. It's not a great game, but I still have sunk tons of time into it.

WWE: Know Your Role an incredibly niche pro wrestling tabletop rpg based on 3.5 dnd (which was probably not a good design choice). I mention it because it has the most unique combat system I have ever seen, also because it is probably one of the very few explicitly pvp tabletop rpgs out there. Each round all the players decide what move they want to do. They do this by selecting how much damage they want to do, then applying modifiers (knocks target prone, can be used as a pin attempt, is an illegal move that could disqualify you if the ref sees it, etc). Each of these decisions has a 'maneuver modifier' associated with it. After everyone is decided they all roll a d20 and add the maneuver modifier as well as bonuses from stats and levels. Whoever rolls highest has their move go off, so they get the right to narrate what happened that round.

This is turning into a wall of text so just one more quick one. X-Crawl another 3.5 setting. Competitive dungeon crawling is the hottest spectator sport. Your party is a sponsored team of professional crawlers who compete against other teams to clear dungeons fastest while all being broadcast on national tv.

[Beleriphon]

Ditto for Puzzle Quest, because I have that one as well!

Favourite game that nobody's heard of (unless Triaxx pokes his nose into this thread): X3: Terran Conflict. Best single player Elite-style game in existence. The studio behind it (Egosoft) went off the rails a bit with X: Rebirth, but I have hopes they learned their lesson in the upcoming X4.

Puzzle Quest: I have the squeal, and the not quite as good sci-fi one.

And I have all of the X games. Yay Humble Bundles!

[Seto]

Okay, let me throw that in there... Have you guys heard of that new thing called Legend of Zelda? Never? Oh my, you're in for a treat!

How about Pokemon? It's quite niche, but I think it has the potential to make it big.

No, seriously, good job, I'd never heard of any of the games in this thread (well, maybe Dungeon Maker). Admittedly, I'm a casual gamer, and these days when I want to play I look up "classics" I haven't played (recently completed Earthbound) or games that recently made a buzz (Undertale, Cupcake). The most obscure games I've played are probably adaptations of French or Belgian comics, back when I was a kid with a Gameboy Color.
As for those I stumbled upon randomly, I'm bad at determining how well-known they are. For example, I thought Battle for Wesnoth was rather obscure, but then I saw several people mention it on these forums. Or Tower of Heaven - would you say it's well-known? It's certainly sort of a meme.

[tyckspoon]

For example, I thought Battle for Wesnoth was rather obscure, but then I saw several people mention it on these forums..

It's a well-known game among a fairly niche population - turn-based hex strategy isn't exactly a huge market This just happens to be the right kind of place and subforum to run into all the people who already know about it.

[Triaxx]

It's also free, and that's a big draw.

[Aeson]

There's also that it's made well enough that it could be taken for a commercial product.

[Bowman7210]

I'm a bit too lazy to read through this entire thread to see if anyone's heard of this game, but it's an old one for the PS2 called Grafitti Kingdom. The point of the game would be to draw these creaures and use them to fight. It's almost a precurser to Spore. I always loved renting it from the local blockbuster when that was still a thing.

[Wookieetank]

I'm a bit too lazy to read through this entire thread to see if anyone's heard of this game, but it's an old one for the PS2 called Grafitti Kingdom. The point of the game would be to draw these creaures and use them to fight. It's almost a precurser to Spore. I always loved renting it from the local blockbuster when that was still a thing.

Forgot about this one. Its a sort of sequal to Magic Pengel, which was a game with some great ideas, but a terrible rock/paper/scissors battle system. Was very glad that Grafitti Kingdom got rid of that and turned it into an actiony game for the combat.

[sihnfahl]

Who remembers the Legend of Kyrandia series?

[heronbpv]

@sihnfahl
Oh my, I used to play Malcolm's Revenge back in the day, the third game in the series. Couldn't escape the initial island, but man, was it fun to walk around and try things! All the funny interactions! :D

[Psyren]

Mine would be the Otogi series:

These underrated gems come to us from the makers of Dark Souls, and show off their commitment to making Nintendo Hard games long before they became a household name for doing so. Featuring beautiful environments, extensive destructo-physics (100%-ing each level requires you to absolutely trash it), varied mission/enemy types and, in the second title anyway, a rich multi-character storyline with distinct playstyles for each person you used - I can't recommend these games highly enough. Some of the boss fights are Bayonetta levels of ridiculous too.

[GloatingSwine]

Man, I could never get the Moonlight Blade in Otogi. You needed to do a level basically in one giant air combo for it, and I could never quite manage it. Got everything else though.

Didn't play 2 as much.

Be nice if they got those on the Xbox One backwards compatibility, they looked great at the time.

[Majiy]

Magic the Gathering - Battlegrounds

Think the Magic TCG, but in realtime, with some beat-em-up mechanics worked in.

OK in singleplayer, but very fun in multiplayer 1 vs 1 matches.