Games you may not know about....obscure games.

[Gypsy]

Ogre battle is a RPG for the 64. It's a strategy game about a young man caught up in a war. This game is interesting because each decision you make impacts the story and the ending. There are several different endings for a lot of replay value. Post any obscure games you like to play.

I would argue that the Ogre series is not obscure. Also Ogre Battle is a SNES and PS1 game, Ogre Battle 64 is an N64 game.

Anyway, I will be mentioning games that I view as obscure. So obscure in America (as I don't know about their popularity outside this country).

Terra Phantastica: Saturn SRPG, JP only.



Baldr Force (EXE): PS2, Dreamcast, PC all JP only. 2D action/shooting game with a silly plot. Warning: PC version has adult scenes.



Eve Series: Multiple platforms JP only. Detective games. Again pretty sure at least some of the PC versions have adult scenes.



Evil Twin: Cyprien's Chronicles: Really weird dark adventure game for DC. PAL only.



Exodus Guilty Neos: DC JP only. 3 intertwining stories with various gameplay elements. Hard to explain.

Skip into this one a bit. First part is pointless but not many videos of this.



Frame Gride: Mecha action game by From Software. JP DC.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QpdoB4Wsbs

Napple Tale Arsia In Daydream: Absolute gem of an adventure game. JP DC only.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGk3Le8OwKQ

That will do for now.

Edit: Forum seems to have limited how many videos you can put into one post.

[MaslowK]

Not entirely sure how obscure it is though it would seem at least none of my friends had heard of it until I mentioned it, but Landstalker on the Genesis was an awesome action RPG, especially for it's time. I would argue it was the best RPG on the Genesis, but then, I could never really get into the original Phantasy Star series, so who knows, maybe I'm really missing out.

Anyway, yeah. Landstalker. Check it out.

[JKDarkside]

Hey guys. This game was made by the guy who made LSD Dream Simulator and he even used his own head for it.

I win.

[Englebert3rd]

I don't know many others who have played this one, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, but it's a great little third/first person shooter. It's comparable to MDK 2 in terms of humor and the fact that there are three different, uniquely different, campaigns to play through. Multiplayer was also really damn fun. Highly recommended if you enjoyed games like MDK or Armed and Dangerous.

I've played it and own the game. Unfortunately the game comes from a magazine, but has all languages. Wish I could get the boxed edition. But hell if it ain't a fun game, glad you posted about it.

A game I remember is Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure by Apogee, your standard PC platformer but I always loved it and it's pretty much nostalgic. Probably people played it, but I don't see it mentioned much.

[Gypsy]

Not entirely sure how obscure it is though it would seem at least none of my friends had heard of it until I mentioned it, but Landstalker on the Genesis was an awesome action RPG, especially for it's time. I would argue it was the best RPG on the Genesis, but then, I could never really get into the original Phantasy Star series, so who knows, maybe I'm really missing out.

Anyway, yeah. Landstalker. Check it out.

Kick ass game. The same people went on to make Alundra.

[Elin]

(Gypsy already mentioned this one, but since I didn't see his post until I had finished writing mine, I figured I might as well post it anyway~ )

A particular favourite of mine that not nearly enough people know is a game called Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream for the Dreamcast. Billed as an action RPG, it's really more of a 2.5D platformer in the vein of Namco's Klonoa with very light RPG-ish elements and a hub town akin to Sonic Adventure's. The game was heavily marketed at female gamers in Japan (the marketing even made reference to the fact that many of the prominent staff members involved in its development were themselves women), but unlike so many games marketed at girls, it doesn't patronise or feel like a cheap cash in on the perceived sensibilities of female gamers. The world is as colourful and cute as one might expect from a game aimed at a female audience, but it's also quirky, charming and bursting with personality. The game's difficulty is definitely tailored to beginners, but never to the point where the game feels insulting, and it's still loads of fun to play. And contrary to the disgustingly low production values often involved in games aimed at girls, the game is backed up by some beautiful visuals and one of the best game soundtracks I've ever heard. In short, if more games aimed at girls were like Napple Tale, I think there would be a lot more girls playing games.

The story follows a girl named Poach who lives in a small, idyllic country town. On the night of the town's Summer Festival, the biggest festival for miles around and one which nobody in town looks forward to more than Poach herself, she becomes so wrapped up in eating her dinner that she loses track of the time, and soon finds herself running late. Racing toward the town square, she begins to notice that something is amiss. The lights die out, the faces around her lose their definition, and the ice cream cone in her hand explodes in a shower of fireworks. There is a sudden flash of light, and when it subsides, Poach finds herself in an odd, heaven-like environment. A small creature introduces himself as Straynap and tells Poach that he is a "spirit guide", one who claims the souls of those who have reached the end of their mortal lives and leads their spirits to the afterlife. It seems poor Poach has died, and has no choice but to follow Straynap to Napple Town, a strange little community with a heavy dose of cute and a heavier dose of Alice in Wonderland that acts as a midway point between our world and the afterlife. There she will be received and sent on to the next life.

Or not. See it quickly comes out that this Straynap creature made a mistake. That the soul he was sent to claim wasn't that of a girl named Poach, but of a cat named Poche. Unfortunately the damage has been done. Poach's human soul has already dispersed, with its fragments - “petals” as the game calls them - being scattered across the four seasonally themed worlds that connect to Napple Town. And she cannot return to the world of the living until she collects them and pieces her soul back together. So with Straynap in tow, Poach sets off on a journey to collect these petals and return to her human self, bouncing back and forth between the largely 2.5D platforming levels of the seasonal worlds and the RPG / adventure-ish hub of Napple Town.

From a gameplay perspective, the game isn't quite as polished as the aforementioned Klonoa series. The level design isn't always quite as good as it could be, the quirky, fully 3-D boss fights are marred by the fact that they don't become temporarily invincible once they're hit and you can just pummel them to death, and there's a fairly in depth system that allows you to raise creatures to support you in various ways which most players will... never even need to make use of if they don't want to (though you should, because the creatures are cute~). Yet the game is still a lot of fun to play. The controls are tight, the game makes good use of the third dimension despite mostly taking place on linear 2-D planes, and the sheer diversity and beauty of the game's levels makes them a joy to play even if the actual layouts and puzzles underneath could often be better.

What really pushes the game above being a just above par platformer, though, are the aesthetics and the whimsical, dreamlike setting they conjure up. The game is visually quite advanced for the Dreamcast, running on (I believe) the same engine as Skies of Arcadia, and the part Japanese animation part Western fairytale styled art direction is amazing, with some really, really nice season-themed levels, and a central hub town full of adorable characters that feels incredibly warm and alive. The game's soundtrack is better still. Composed by the famous anime and movie composer Yoko Kanno, it sounds like almost no other video game soundtrack I've heard, incorporating a staggering range of styles and influences, and making use of mostly live instruments. It's absolutely perfect for the game's setting and mood, and is simply one of my favourite soundtracks ever. I'm not normally one to praise aesthetics over gameplay, but rarely can I remember a time where a game's setting, music and graphics feel so skillfully interwoven, and where you get such a strong sense of a game's world simply by wandering around listening and watching.

I guess one could level accusations of style over substance at the game being that underneath all the charm and beauty it's just a decent platformer. Still, the setting, music and art style work together to spin a world so unique and memorable that the game winds up being such a joy to play anyway. Unfortunately a combination of the game's short print run and its being generally very well-liked means that second hand copies will normally go for around the same price as a brand new PS3 or 360 game, which has sort of put me off owning a copy 'til now. Still, I most definitely intend to buy a copy someday, as while it's not perfect, it's a game that won my heart and stuck with me over the years like few before it. If you speak Japanese or aren't averse to import gaming, I highly recommend it~!

[Izuna]

ºoº Oshi! Yoko Kanno. (getting it! to give it a try)

[Gypsy]

For anyone that is interested I will be dumping and uploading Napple Tale since there is no copy that I could see on EP except one with Megaupload links.

[Soylent Green]

I've played it and own the game. Unfortunately the game comes from a magazine, but has all languages. Wish I could get the boxed edition. But hell if it ain't a fun game, glad you posted about it.

A game I remember is Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure by Apogee, your standard PC platformer but I always loved it and it's pretty much nostalgic. Probably people played it, but I don't see it mentioned much.

Ah, Apogee. I was a bit of an Apogee fanboy in the early/mid 90's. They had some other great, relatively obscure games like Boppin' (a surprisingly violent puzzle game), and Rise of the Triad (goriest FPS I've played to date). Cosmo's Cosmic made its way into my collection as well, which was just as enjoyable as their other works. Glad to see another old PC gamer on here, we're few and far between.

[treos]

heres 2 of my fave obscures, both for genesis

Body Count (only released in europe as far as i've ever seen), a... rail-shooter? i think thats the sub-genre, but its pretty good but VERY hard without cheating or a proper lightgun. heck, even with a lightgun for genesis it gave me and my uncle a heck of a fight years ago back on sega channel. (i don't own a copy of this one sadly, not that it'd work on a usa genesis anyway)

#2 is jewel master, your standard platformer with a nice system for the weapons/spells (rings), you can use up to 2 rings on each hand for a variety of attacks and stuff... no solid info on this one really. no credits, no cheats, nothing but its still fun (least body count had credits if NOTHING else in the way of solid info)

between the 2 i think someone FINALLY uploaded a guide for jewel master on gamefaqs.com at some point

[Izuna]

For anyone that is interested I will be dumping and uploading Napple Tale since there is no copy that I could see on EP except one with Megaupload links.

Would be nice if you do that Gypso,plus would save me a lot of time trying to find it

[Gypsy]

Aye it's no trouble. I'll have it up next week when I can get to the library again.

[Iamerror]

Yeah, I've heard of the LSD game. I just got the visuals out of my mind. That's a weird game. I figured Orge Battle was obscure, I'm sorry. I know it's on other consoles, I just forgot which ones.

[Gypsy]

No worries. There is Tactics Ogre as well. I would say it's not obscure within the RPG community but that most any RPG is obscure outside of it.

[jasonmaivia]

Densha de Go!
The series haven't been released outside of Japan.
Emuparadise also doesn't have many of the games, especially with Densha de Go! Ryojouhen (Playstation 2) and Densha de Go Professional 2 (Playstation 2) being absent and never listed. I've even requested them for many years, but no one's posted.