RF Generation Message Board

What games are your personal favorites that didn't have as much success as they might had deserved?

My personal favorites are XIII and Mashed.

XIII is a comic style first person shooter which featured a nice story and had beautiful visuals by that time

Mashed is a racer alike micro machines and is a huge party game. Theres a sequel available on the current generation consoles called Wrecked: Revenge Revisited

The two Obscure games can be a lot of fun if you can get a buddy to play through them with you.  I wouldn't recommend them in single-player.

The .hack series is pretty fun.  Sure they're collector pieces now, but I feel like many people never actually play these games.  Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits is another RPG that I thought was pretty good but nobody ever talks about.

And while I haven't played them myself, I hear Disaster Report and Raw Danger are hidden gems.

I agree with you on obscure, me and a friend of mine were really stuck in this game for 2-3 hours till we didn't know where to go and were lost for half an hour so we sadly quit it.

Never heard of Raw Danger though.

Came to post these. Two of my favorite games of all time.

Playstation 2 is by far my favorite console, and hidden gems are my bread and butter. I'll post a good list when I'm home and have some time.

I just got XIII at the last trade event at the store. I haven't gotten to play it yet though.

I love the Maximo series as well

I had a ton of fun with Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. Its a pretty common and cheap RPG as well, but you don't see it talked about as often as other PS2 RPGs and its up there among the best.

Haunting Ground is an awesome survival horror game, but it went through a price skyrocket lately and is in the upper echelon of price for the entire system's library now. It plays like Clock Tower, but is more in line with the older Clock Towers than the bland Clock Tower 3 on PS2.

GrimGrimoire is a fun strategy game from Vanillaware, so it has stylish art and is a uniquely fun game to boot!

The Shin Megami Tensei library on PS2 isn't so much of a hidden gem anymore, but back in the system's heyday I rarely saw the series get mentioned.

The heavily photoshopped guy in my avatar comes from Suikoden V, so check that out.

Finally, Tony Hawk's Underground is the best Tony Hawk game ever made. Not a hidden gem at all, but everybody should play this!

Got all excited to try and find a copy of this Mashed game you were talking up only to find out it wasn't released over here :(

And Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 is the best Tony Hawk game ever made ;)

Crabby - Drive to Survive was released in the US, which is the US version of Mashed:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/getinfo.pl?ID=U-072-S-13220-A

Good catch Shadow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ4hit3wkwE

Pretty cool looking game. Never even heard of it until today, now it's definitely on my radar. Thanks OP!

mashed looks like a lot of fun, the gameplay and car physics remind me of the super sprint arcade games:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV979UMjvhI

Sweet! Thanks Ray!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eZ154lt8X8

No problem. It helps that I did the Variation Tie-In in the first place when I did the Region updates for Euro PS2. ;)
I jokingly told my wife that I might as well live in Europe, since the only thing I edit these days is European releases. She's been thinking of moving somewhere in Europe since I mentioned it.  :o

Be careful what you casually mention around people who's decisions effect your life ;)
My beloved told me when we were dating, "I just ask two things.  One, I don't like cold, so please help me avoid that.  Two, I don't like being late."  Yeah.  We moved from Mississippi to Pennsylvania, and had three kids...  strike those requests.


THIS is why I love picking up games I know little about when they're cheap.  I think I picked this up for a buck or two, well worth it.


As for the actual topic, I second GrimGrimoire and raise you an Odin Sphere.  Fantastic game, save for the frame rate.  It doesn't have as much, er, objectionable bounce as Dragon's Crown, and has a fantastic multi-angled story.

Just a casual glance at the collection also offers;

Adventures of Cookie and Cream - a fun co-op offering, always welcome in our home.

Bombastic is a peculiarly named sequel to Devil Dice, one of my favorite puzzlers, and has everything in that game and more.

City Crisis is a nifty pilot-the-helicopter-in-city-emergencies sim.

Culdcept is a fantastic Magic the Gathering meets Monopoly multiplayer game that takes about as much time to complete as an actual Monopoly game

Both Dark Cloud games are good fun

Drakan: The Ancient Gates are what I wanted the Drakenguard games to be

I really liked Dropship: United Peace Force, as you play the titular craft in a sort of support role

PS2 has a decent port of Escape from Monkey Island, and if I need to tell you what that is, you should have a hilarious date with Youtube

Flipnic is a neat game for fellow pinball fans

The Ghost in the Shell game was surprisingly decent IMHO

The Growlanser games on PS2 are tough to find but worth it for SRPG fans; same with Front Mission 4 and Stella Deus.

Both Gungrave games are arcade-y fun

I liked Herdy Gerdy, but that's probably because it's more oddball than fun to play.

I personally liked Jade Cocoon 2 more than the Pokémon games.

Klonoa 2 seems much lesser known than the PSX game

If you liked Disgaea, La Pucelle Tactics is the precursor and pretty decent.  Makai Kingdom, Phantom Brave, and Soul Nomad are also in the same vein.

Many lesser-known RPGs, like Metal Saga, the first Magna Carta, MS Saga, Okagi, Ys: Ark of Napishtim, the Shadow Hearts series, Rogue Galaxy, and Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land have been looked over.

I think I like NeoGeo Battle Coliseum more than most, but I never hear folks talk about it

I thought the port of No One Lives Forever was decent, as was Tribes: Aerial Assault and Half Life (with the Blue Shift add-on!)

There's always Stretch Panic, if you never want your girlfriend to talk to you again...

Everyone seems to forget that PaRappa the Rapper had a fun PS2 sequel.

I still say that the PS2 original Transformers (by Atari, before the movie games,) is the best Transformers game.

Tokobot Plus is an interesting platformer/puzzle game.

And there are many more I'm looking at, but I'm just going to stop for now...

Oh!

The Red Star is a fantastic action game that fits the very definition of a hidden gem.

Actually, my wife and I have discussed moving out of the country for a while. I've brought up Canada, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand in the past - Europe was just the most recent, and their education and health systems would greatly benefit our situation. After the family (between my wife and her mother) has spent > $80k on health care in the past few years in the US, and seeing that it would've only cost ~$2k overseas, we're pretty fed up.

No Gitaroo Man mentions?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjbtmxW3Reo

Shadow Hearts is my all-time favorite RPG series. If you have a chance to play any of the four of them, I suggest you go for it. (I count Koudelka for the PS1 as a Shadow Hearts title). I haven't played the last game yet, but the first two on the PS2 are definitely gems. So many different ways I could describe just how great they are on every level.

I love Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts Covenant- Really great games

Love the .hack series both chapters and I love the anime tie-in

Both Baldar's Gate games and Champions of Norath- You want to play these with someone but they can be fun solo

Radiata Stories- Really wish there had been a stateside sequel

Atelier Iris-This is where the whole Atelier fad began

Dark Cloud-Build houses and other things in a RPG

Gadget Racers-A fun little racer with Micro cars and you can really deck them out with all kinds of fun attachments.

Jade Cocoon 2- If you did not play the first one, a cross between Pokemon and Monster Rancher

La Pucelle:Tactics- A fun strategy based RPG

Rogue Galaxy-Another great level 5 game and one of my favorite games on PS2

Steambot Chronicles- This game to me was a lot of fun, a steam world with robots to build and fight

And talking bout thps i played 2-4 and thug 2 and i loved that jackass theme quite a lot

If they had the storyline of the first with the gameplay and pace of the second, I dare say you would have a top 5 all-time RPG on your hands.

Egbert! and i never even noticed =D also, seconded.

Ace Combat series has it's followers but they were never on my radar. picked them all up a year or two ago and realized i had been missing out on one of the best experiences vidya had to offer.

Bully is not hidden by any means either but it's rarely brought up anymore when talking about rockstar's catalogue. maybe because it was released as the new generation was rolling in but i'd say it's the only other rockstar game on par with san andreas.

Drakengard is easy to underestimate when you don't have Nier to look forward to. game is ugly and below average technically, but held up by a strong directorial hand. it's a wholly unique experience by an auteur who just dgaf.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is pretty good for a cheap tie-in game. probably hit or miss for most people but if you like the series this is worth seeking out.

Grandia II is an early jrpg ported from the dc. series never really got much attention but my memory of it is a bland, predictable story with cam clarke and the voice of the little mermaid that's just servicable enough to spice up your time between epic bossfights with one of the very best turn-based battle engines i've seen in a jrpg. suikoden 3 tried something similar but failed at it.

Kengo: Master of Bushido. "emergent" is the word used nowadays for the fun i had with this one. cheap spiritual successor to bushido blade, it's got a lot of good ideas in there executed kinda poorly and not really tied together in any meaningful way. but it's a great way to waste some time if your imagination can fill in the gaps.

Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories. i hated kh2 and one of the biggest reasons was that it seemed to expect me to know everything that  happened in the un-numbered GBA spinoff. playing this in the HD remix betwen replays of 1 & 2, this is my favorite kingdom hearts by a long shot. i didn't think i'd even be able to stomach the card-system but it turned out to make for an excellent challenge. spent half a day, maybe 20+ retries to beat the final boss and still enjoyed myself.

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. it was a long time ago but i remember having a ton of fun with this one, carrying prisoners around under enemy fire while trying to get to en evac zone. haven't played just cause yet but it looks like a more zany version of this.

Shadow of Memories/Shadow of Destiny is a weird, linear puzzle adventure game trying to be something more. a friend handed it to me at the used games section and we pointed and laughed at the abysmally ugly cover with floating heads. then i picked it up as a joke and also; why not, it's konami. it's hard to get into but i ended up sticking with it for 100% completion and loving the twists and turns the story took. original has a shitty early 2000s dub by nobodies +Charles Martinet, psp version is supposed to be better but i'm getting kinda sick of hearing Yuri Lowenthal in every role ever.

Suikoden V is my favorite Suikoden next to the second one.

Silpheed: The Lost Planet is one of my favorite PS2 games.  It's like Zanac (NES) on steroids.  Definitely worth picking up and playing if you liked Zanac.

Plus, the case is also awesome. One of my favorite PS2 artworks.

Yeah the artwork is pretty cool.  That is what originally got me into this game. It caught my eye, as it stands out among other PS2 games. Plus this game can be purchased for under 10 bucks. SO it's a win-win.

I would also recommend checking out this thread on NeoGaf:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1003732

That's a good one. There's also this:

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/sony/ps2/the-best-undiscovered-playstation-2-ps2-games

and this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmyNU5cK8O4

and this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gxZbVVXqEs