How about under appreciated games?
 

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure for the Playstation, to start with.

A wonderful soundtrack and a great battle system, coupled with loveable characters that anyone can identify with at some point. This game never got its due simply because it came out silently, with no commercials or anything, as Nippon Ichi tends to do things and now no one seems to have played anything but the failed ds remake, in which the songs were left in japanese and weren't all there, and the battle system became horrifyingly bad.

another one, feel free to disagree, is Quest 64.

Bear with me, it was awful, i know. Quest 64 boasted some of the best graphics at the time of its release, as well as it's unique and fun battle system and monsters. The game's story wasn't even a shell, however.

The reason for this, and likely the repetitive soundtrack, is fans were practically beating down nintendo's door for an rpg. So nintendo took which of it's two pet projects, Ocarina of Time and Quest 64, that was slightly ever so to completion and made it a 'game' in all necessities before putting it out to market.

Had fans been patient and grateful for what they had: it would have been a great rpg. Not god tier like OoT, but a great one.

discuss:
Games that never got their due.

NOT:
relatively popular games that didn't win 'game of the year' or something like that.

I want to play it seriously I hear nothing but good things about the game

Vanguard Bandits is the game that comes to mind; it was on the playstation as well and your job was to pilot atacs while choosing your character's destiny (there were 3 destinies to pick from).

Wow, I have Quest 64.......I used to play it all the time as a kid, but I always got stuck at this one part. It's been so long, I don't even remember what it was.
I don't even remember what you did, or how you played or anything.
I do remember the house you started out in, but that's it.

I thought Okami surely could have gotten more appreciation, it was very good.

The Illusion of Gaia, for one. An extremely innovative platform/RPG that rocked my socks.

Also, the legend of Legaia. It's got an awesome battle system, incredible graphics for it's time, and a great story line.

Well, since i'm back on the internet i'd also like to throw in Sonic and the Black Night.

IT IS BY NO MEANS the next Ocarina of Time. It isn't even the next Quest 64. But for all the crap they're putting out these days, (I'm talking to YOU Phantom Hourglass) It is a decent game. Far better than Sonic and the Secret Rings.

Not wonderful, not great, but decent.

@sparky: I heard of that in a gaming magazine once a long time ago. I didn't have a lot of moneys though, so i couldn't try it, and then forgot about it.

Also, Legend of Zelda: Wand of Gameron. Have you heard of it? if not look it up.

Septerra Core. Awesome Rpg and completely underrated!
My favorite Rpg to date

There was this game called Trapgunner by Atlus for the PS1.It was under appreciated but it was fun. I remember catching this one character and sending him flying around the arena.

@shonojo

I remember those games. Those were great weren't they.

another two games i came up with are Phantom Brave and Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne.

There are so many under-appreciated games out there! It's a shame, because these gems are often better than those from popular mainstream series. ;__;

La Pucelle Tactics (PS2): It was a really fun, quirky strategy rpg similar to Disgaea. It wasn't really advertised and there was no hype surrounding it's release, but it was very fun and the story/characters were some of Nippon Ichi's best! It was also very challenging... you couldn't necessarily level your characters up really fast in order to beat some of the optional bosses that came along early on in the storyline. Everyone should play this game, even if it's only to see some of Priere's crazy antics. xD;;

Dewprism/Threads of Fate (PS1): This was one of Squaresoft's very fun, side-scroller action rpgs. It's got some really awesome ideas, such as the ability to play as either of two main characters whose stories then intersect throughout the game. I also think that it laid the foundations for the graphics later used in future Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts games--this was the first game where the cut-scenes would zoom up close to the characters for a more cinematic experience. But my favorite part of this game was definitely the story! It was simplistic, but very heart-wrenching at times, with plently of surprising plot twists.

Suikoden I, II, III (PS1 & PS2): Okay, I guess these games are pretty popular, with a huge cult following, but they're still underrated because they're overshadowed by other rpg series. The storylines in these three games is nothing short of amazing and the characters are very well developed. I especially love the castle system, which allows you to recruit an army of over 100 playable characters and fight a war. But you have to be very careful because you can lose random characters during major battles, which will make you miss out on the special endings!

Klonoa 2 (PS2): This is another great side scroller, with adorable characters and a cute storyline that becomes progressively darker as you progess in the game. The puzzles that you need to solve in the game also get pretty challenging toward the end, which surprised me because this is a little kids game and I kept getting stuck. xD;;

I was a bit disappointed to find out that the original Shadow Hearts game didn't seem to get it's proper recognition. It was kind of hidden away and buried under all the other new release titles that were coming out when the PS2 first launched.

Yeah, Rhapsody sounded like a really beautiful and interesting game, but I've never gotten a chance to play.

Now, I'm really going to throw out a ridiculously old one, from the very first Playstation system, but...

Legend of Mana.

I remember playing it as a kid and just being really happy while playing it. I can't even remember if it was that fantastic, but hey. Fond memories. The map system was just fun and fascinating, and the graphics were gorgeous. They weren't CGI or anything, not like, say, Kingdom Hearts or any of the more modern games. They were just drawin in this beautiful manga style that I adored, and all of the characters were just so interesting to me at the time.

Like I said, it was ages ago when I was a kid. I'd love to play it again, but, unfortunately, just as long ago, my little sister tried to use my Playstation as a piggy bank. Poof. No more playstation, and eventually, thanks to our new Xbox (at the time), our mum got rid of the games... Sigh. A shame. I would really want to play that game again.

I have a newer game.

The Path: First and formost, this is an independent game. Unless you buy it online you can't get it. That is one problem. The second is that it is played differently from most games. You press keys to move and you don't press anything to interact with surroundings. There are no monsters, there are no bosses.

You break the ONLY rule you are given in game and explore a forest to discover the story about each girl you can play as. The game got a lot of bad reviews for being different and some people seem to think it is all about "raep" (it isn't, there is hinting for one girl, but that is it).

It's a game you experience for yourself, you can't judge it until you try. It's only 10 dollars and I have to say it is a better play than most $40 games.

Oh my God, I LOVED La Pucelle Tactics. <3
I had a copy until my ex decided "IT'S NOT DISGAEA, THEREFORE IT SUX," and sold it.
Now I can't find it anywhere.

Oh yes, definitely underrated! The pseudo-3D overland travel was quite innovative at that time, and the story was at par with other RPGs, but it seems like almost nobody ever played it. Which is a shame, it was extremely enjoyable.


Some of my own favourites (mostly old games, since I went from playing games to creating my own some 10 year ago =3 ):

Entomorph
At first the cover kind of threw me off, but since I didn't find anything better that day, I decided to give it a chance - and I have never regretted doing so! It's a very fine RPG, in a way not unlike Japanese RPGs (and I guess this is exactly what kept it from being popular - a vague storyline with lots of parts you were not SUPPOSED to understand until later on - it just wasn't what you expected from a western RPG).

Albion
Most favourite game, ever. I'm still not sure why people think that it had poor gameplay, I just found everything about the game extremely well made.

Intricate characters, a huge world created with an obvious passion for detail, and a storyline that never failed to surprise me. First you start off as commander of a spaceship, just to suddenly be thrown right into a vivid fantasy world. You play the game for hours and think by now you know everything about this world - and, wham, as soon as you leave your hosts all your beliefs get totally thrown over. Ingenious!

And don't let me get started on the graphics... very, very beautiful.

Legend of Faerghail
Another RPG (see a pattern?) I have very fond memories of. Actually, it was my first computer RPG, since at that time I started playing pen&paper RPG.

Of course graphic-wise it doesn't have a lot to brag about (1990...), but the whole gameplay was... challenging, yet far from frustrating. It was rather complex and thanks to it's huge database of enemies, rooms and quests barely repetitive.

Okay, the story wasn't exactly innovative, but then again: 1990 ;)

Those were my thoughts exactly.
I still have my N64 to play Quest64 too.
Lulz, I've yet to beat it.

Okami is a beautiful game. I don't understand why not that many people know of it. Maybe they can't take it seriously? @[email protected];;

I say Resident Evil 0.
And Legend of Dragoon.

Okami is lately getting a lot of attention thanks to the Wii version (which I'm saving up for, currently), even though it was already released last year, so hopefully it won't stay on the under-appreciated list for much longer. Currently it's even one of the best rated Wii games. =3

I heard about that release. :3
It makes more sense too, with using the brush and all. Hopefully alot easier aswell. There have been many times where I'd get so frustrated with some of the techniques, because my shape wasn't good enough. D":

I wonder if they'll ever make a version for the DS. A hand-held would be cool.