Your most favorite obscure game?

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mysterialize
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Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#31 Post by mysterialize »

Legend of Mana. Oh god, Legend of Mana. I don't think I've ever seen a game more under appreciated and unfairly criticized as that one. The crazy thing is that it's a part of a relatively well known series, best known for the popular SNES game Secret of Mana. It just happened to get close to no love, mainly because it was absolutely nothing like Secret of Mana, despite being part of the series.

Now, I'm not saying that the game is without it's flaws, but there's a few things I can say for certain. For one, it's quite possibly the most beautiful 2-D game ever released. Just look at this:

http://ui08.gamefaqs.com/1159/gfs_50597_1_3.jpg

And this:

http://ui21.gamefaqs.com/1620/gfs_50597_1_11.jpg

And this:

http://www.legendofmana.net/images/scre ... l/ss11.jpg

And pretty much any other screen in the game. The sprite animations are amazingly smooth as well.

It's also one of very few jRPGs to use a completely nonlinear storyline. The game contains three major story routes, as well as several mini-arcs, all of which you can start and complete at pretty much any time. Once you finish one major route, you're given the option to finish the game, but you can also keep going and attempt to finish all three if you wish.

Admittedly though, the gameplay is somewhat lacking, mainly when it comes to battle, but I personally find that perfectly excusable when the rest of the game is as beautiful as it is.

Ba'al

Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#32 Post by Ba'al »

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Last edited by Ba'al on Sun Apr 04, 2010 8:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#33 Post by musical74 »

I think the main problem with Legend of Mana was *departure from Secret of Mana*...it's a great game, a lot of fun, but very different from SOM so people were *ugh, forget it*

It's not obscure per se but it never got a real push (certainly not like a certain Final Fantasy that showed up around the same time!) on the PS1...Wild Arms, the original Wild Arms. Yeah, you had a few cliches (mute progratonist) but is HARD, you spend a lot of time essentially playing catchup to the main foes...and some of the boss fights were *UGH that screws things up!!* but it's charming (even if the Western theme didn't work, was still funny to see) and you REALLY feel for the characters, even the mute one; they show love and compassion and HURT, and how to overcome some DEEP issues...it really is a great game - better than Final Fantasy 7, I think...yeah FF7 had the big push but the story was better in Wild Arms, and, frankly, could relate to the characters in Wild Arms a LOT more than the ones in Final Fantasy 7...good example of this?
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Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#34 Post by LVUER »

musical74 wrote:I think the main problem with Legend of Mana was *departure from Secret of Mana*...it's a great game, a lot of fun, but very different from SOM so people were *ugh, forget it*

It's not obscure per se but it never got a real push (certainly not like a certain Final Fantasy that showed up around the same time!) on the PS1...Wild Arms, the original Wild Arms. Yeah, you had a few cliches (mute progratonist) but is HARD, you spend a lot of time essentially playing catchup to the main foes...and some of the boss fights were *UGH that screws things up!!* but it's charming (even if the Western theme didn't work, was still funny to see) and you REALLY feel for the characters, even the mute one; they show love and compassion and HURT, and how to overcome some DEEP issues...it really is a great game - better than Final Fantasy 7, I think...yeah FF7 had the big push but the story was better in Wild Arms, and, frankly, could relate to the characters in Wild Arms a LOT more than the ones in Final Fantasy 7...good example of this?
When Cecilia risks her life to save Rudy because she realizes she truly cares about him, taking on a demon one on one.
Legend of Mana sure is different from the usual Secret of Mana (though it's supposedly Legend of Mana since the JPN title is Seiken Densetsu and Densetsu means Legend)... Because of the different title, I think it's normal to expect that the game would be different too (kinda like spin-off game, just like the latest PS2 Mana title... forget the title since I hate it).

At first I was go "Meh, this is not a Mana game" but after giving it a chance and played it, I liked it more and more... and now, I love it ^_^ Besides, the 2D art is gorgeous so we should forgive it...

And that reminds me one time when I visited my friends and we play Legend of Mana multiplayer arena. But since I didn't bring my memory card, I was forced to play with his character. And because he used his "main" character, I could only use his "dump" character. The funny is (which makes me proud), his Lv.60 Spear character (with his ultimate weapon, armor, magic, and skills) couldn't beat my Lv.25 Two Hand Sword (one weapon that I don't like very much) with second rate equipments... Guess I was that good, huh ^_^ Oh, and BTW, my weapon of choice in Legend of Mana is Bow.

Wild Arms. It's a good game. One quick glance wouldn't be enough to make you realize its power. I love WA and play every WA game (and I love WA3 most) minus Alter Code and Code FX. Too bad they released it at worst timing possible (hint: FF7). If only they release it a bit sooner or much later... And I don't really agree if WA is better than FF7. But WA just doesn't get enough reward they deserved (it's normal if FF7 is better, just look at the budget difference). FF7 though it's not perfect, it break every standard at that time (and set new standard in RPG world).
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Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#35 Post by majes »

My favorite games that I never hear anyone talk about are Meteos for the DS (Tetris in space!) and the entire Lunar series. I'm actually running a DnD campaign based loosely off of Silver Star Story (though the players don't know that :lol: )

As for other media, my avatar is from a manga/anime series I feel doesn't get enough love, (in the US anyways) Urusei Yatsura.

Ren

Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#36 Post by Ren »

musical74 wrote: It's not obscure per se but it never got a real push (certainly not like a certain Final Fantasy that showed up around the same time!) on the PS1...Wild Arms, the original Wild Arms. Yeah, you had a few cliches (mute progratonist) but is HARD, you spend a lot of time essentially playing catchup to the main foes...and some of the boss fights were *UGH that screws things up!!* but it's charming (even if the Western theme didn't work, was still funny to see) and you REALLY feel for the characters, even the mute one; they show love and compassion and HURT, and how to overcome some DEEP issues...it really is a great game - better than Final Fantasy 7, I think...yeah FF7 had the big push but the story was better in Wild Arms, and, frankly, could relate to the characters in Wild Arms a LOT more than the ones in Final Fantasy 7...good example of this?
When Cecilia risks her life to save Rudy because she realizes she truly cares about him, taking on a demon one on one.
Coincidentally, I bought it the other day because i liked the second one a lot, and I heard the first one was very good. :D

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Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#37 Post by VenusEclipse »

LVUER wrote: Tactics Ogre, yes, I love them too. Though I haven't finished the Black March (since it's in Japanese and I hate the loading times in PSX)... but I have finished the Knight of Lodis (and love it ^_^ ). But compared to Tactics Ogre, I prefer Ogre Battle since it offers real-time strategy, complicated class/battle system and way more endings.
The Ogre Battle series is one of my favorites too, since I played it over and over...about ten times. The strategy and the battling is just fun. It's too bad they don't make them anymore. :( The multiple endings and all the secrets really make it fun. First time through, I didn't even know that you can go back to the older maps to unlock or obtain items to get a better ending. -.- This game is hard yet great. I liked how you can be a girl or a boy in the first game. The class system is interesting too. Doll Mages, I always thought they were female at first.

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Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#38 Post by LVUER »

And it's quite surprising that you'll get different ending from having your level too high ^_^
(HINT: meaning you fight a lot and kill a lot)
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Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#39 Post by RayRayTea »

Not sure these are really that obscure but compared to say Final Fantasy they certainly seem so... here goes my list off the top of my head.

In action games, it's probably Kirby Air Ride. Everybody was complaining that the game is boring, too simple and whatnot while I enjoyed it because it's energetically enthusiastic and fun. Also Kirby is one of my favorite characters so in the end I'm happy I bought this. In any case the game didn't sell well and not many people seem to have played it. Metal Arms: Glitch in the System was also well done and enjoyable.

In RPG lite category From Software's Lost Kingdoms comes to mind first as a relatively obscure... actually there's a good reason why the game is not that well known: it's pretty bad. Still, the card system is well executed and I guess the developers knew this is the only good thing in the whole game so all the horrible "cutscenes" and stuff are thankfully skippable and I played it through twice.

Another game not many people played but I enjoyed a lot is Pac Pix, simple but fun. There were some glitches (the drawing recognition is sometimes a bit glitchy) and later levels got too hard for me but nevertheless it's a game I still play from time to time.
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Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#40 Post by PinkMagus »

I liked Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth (Even though it was retardedly hard), and Kartia... Those were fun. I also liked Terranigma, it would have been popular but it came out when the SNES was pretty much dead... I'm always suprised that Xenogears never got as popular as Xenosaga, and Vagrant Story was an awesomely solid game for the PSX yet most people I talk to never heard of it. Azure Dreams was a dungeon crawler with some romance in it, really fun game.

Ren

Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#41 Post by Ren »

PinkMagus wrote:I liked Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth (Even though it was retardedly hard), and Kartia... Those were fun. I also liked Terranigma, it would have been popular but it came out when the SNES was pretty much dead... I'm always suprised that Xenogears never got as popular as Xenosaga, and Vagrant Story was an awesomely solid game for the PSX yet most people I talk to never heard of it. Azure Dreams was a dungeon crawler with some romance in it, really fun game.
You sir (lady?) don't have many posts here, but you just instantly gained my respect with this post. >:3

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Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#42 Post by LVUER »

PinkMagus wrote:I liked Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth (Even though it was retardedly hard), and Kartia... Those were fun. I also liked Terranigma, it would have been popular but it came out when the SNES was pretty much dead... I'm always suprised that Xenogears never got as popular as Xenosaga, and Vagrant Story was an awesomely solid game for the PSX yet most people I talk to never heard of it. Azure Dreams was a dungeon crawler with some romance in it, really fun game.
Hoshigami is really really hard with really weird system. In the end, you're going to depend a lot on magic (coin) that easily exhaustible and incredibly expensive. Kartia in the other hand, is a decent game.

I really love Terranigma, I play that a lot. And the world map music... it's amazingly beautiful. It's on the par with Chrono/FFVI music (for me at least) ^_^ Too bad the ending is bittersweet (I mean it's still too sad for me)... I cry watching the ending (and hearing the song)...

I don't know if Xenogear isn't popular... I though it was one of the most popular RPG in PS1... and I also thought Xenosaga isn't that popular, considering it lacks the episode 4.

Vagrant Story is a good game, too bad I don't have the chance to finish it. It's very hard and you'll depend a lot on the "dangerous" combo system. Vagrant Story is one of few game where you could never get hit even once if you're really good.

Azure Dreams? I play that game and finished the game... but I heard that you could date the ladies (but never able to date one)?! What happened? The ladies are pretty and I like them (and sexy ^_^ it seems fantasy world, or Azure world don't come with lots of cotton)... too bad the protagonist is far from that. Why he must be Ronald?
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Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#43 Post by Jake »

LVUER wrote: I don't know if Xenogear isn't popular... I though it was one of the most popular RPG in PS1...
Yeah, it was so popular they didn't even bother releasing it in Europe.
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Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#44 Post by PinkMagus »

mysterialize wrote:Legend of Mana. Oh god, Legend of Mana. I don't think I've ever seen a game more under appreciated and unfairly criticized as that one. The crazy thing is that it's a part of a relatively well known series, best known for the popular SNES game Secret of Mana. It just happened to get close to no love, mainly because it was absolutely nothing like Secret of Mana, despite being part of the series.

Now, I'm not saying that the game is without it's flaws, but there's a few things I can say for certain. For one, it's quite possibly the most beautiful 2-D game ever released. Just look at this:

http://ui08.gamefaqs.com/1159/gfs_50597_1_3.jpg

And this:

http://ui21.gamefaqs.com/1620/gfs_50597_1_11.jpg

And this:

http://www.legendofmana.net/images/scre ... l/ss11.jpg

And pretty much any other screen in the game. The sprite animations are amazingly smooth as well.

It's also one of very few jRPGs to use a completely nonlinear storyline. The game contains three major story routes, as well as several mini-arcs, all of which you can start and complete at pretty much any time. Once you finish one major route, you're given the option to finish the game, but you can also keep going and attempt to finish all three if you wish.

Admittedly though, the gameplay is somewhat lacking, mainly when it comes to battle, but I personally find that perfectly excusable when the rest of the game is as beautiful as it is.

Monster Raising was fun, and the replay-abillity was through the roof.

Another game that was never really popular was the Front Mission series.

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Re: Your most favorite obscure game?

#45 Post by mysterialize »

And that reminds me one time when I visited my friends and we play Legend of Mana multiplayer arena. But since I didn't bring my memory card, I was forced to play with his character. And because he used his "main" character, I could only use his "dump" character. The funny is (which makes me proud), his Lv.60 Spear character (with his ultimate weapon, armor, magic, and skills) couldn't beat my Lv.25 Two Hand Sword (one weapon that I don't like very much) with second rate equipments... Guess I was that good, huh ^_^ Oh, and BTW, my weapon of choice in Legend of Mana is Bow.
I personally used the two-handed sword and spear the most. I actually don't think I ever tried the bow... I should do that sometime.
Monster Raising was fun, and the replay-abillity was through the roof.
Monster raising was fun, but it kind of had the flaw of producing absolutely useless party members in the end. It got to the point where I was cheering for my monster pet if it did so much as manage to hit the enemy. The idea was cool though, as well as the other extra features at your house.

The replayability was definitely high up there though. It's one of few games I'll play multiple times after finishing.

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