So, this may or may not have been inspired by a similar series of Youtube videos >_>, but we should list some really good obscure games. Preferably keeping it especially obscure, like Persona, Earthbound and Fire Emblem might be a little fringe, but they're well known enough that most people are at least aware of them. Feel free to list whatever (I mean, obscurity is somewhat relative after all), but I think a good rule of thumb is games you would actually be surprised to see somebody else list.

Starting off

Rocket, Robot on Wheels
A novel 3d platformer that was somewhat lost in the glut of them during the N64 era. It has pretty satisfying puzzles and just the right amount of difficulty. The physics can be a little wonky, but I think that was a side effect of it doing something cool with its physics engine (I forget, but I swear seeing something about it being one of the first games to have one or something like that).

Demon's Crest
Not sure if this one counts, since I think it's part of the Ghosts N Ghouls series, but I haven't really seen anybody talk about it. A sidescrolling platformer for the SNES, it has you take the role of Firebrand, a gargoyle who rebelled against the demons. It's fairly straightforward in terms of figuring out what to do, but the execution side of things can be pretty brutal at times, though it never feels unfair. Explore all the nooks and crannies of each level to find different powers, as well as scrolls and bottles used to store helpful spells and potions. I especially love how it gives you unrestricted flight (Well sort of, you can hover forever, but once you get the Air Crest you can actually ascend), without trivializing the difficulty.

God Hand
Like River City Ransom, except in 3d, and totally ridiculous. Has a scaling challenge level (The better you do, the harder the game gets and vice versa), and is just totally over the top in the best way. For example, you get a bunch of super moves called Roulette Moves that you ahve limited uses of. One of them knocks enemies into the sky. If it deals enough damage to kill them, they disappear in an anime twinkle instead of flying back down to earth.

Dragon Warrior Monsters
While the Dragon Warrior series certainly isn't obscure, this spinoff seems to have flown under most people's radar. It's kind of like Dragon Warrior mixed with Pokemon, basically you recruit a team of three monsters to fight for you, and you can breed them with other monsters to make entirely new monsters that inherit their parents' moves, and then you can eventually breed those monsters to create even better monsters. In battle you can give your monsters specific commands, but they might not obey, or you can just tell them to fight a certain way and leave it up to them. Also it has the best capture mechanic ever. You basically just fight as normal, but monsters might join your party after the fight if they like you enough. You get them to like you by throwing meat at them during the fight.

Skies of Arcadia
Probably the least obscure one on my list, might be pushing the boundaries, but screw you, it's my list. Also it's my favorite game, so I kind of had to. If playing as an air pirate doesn't sell you, then I don't know what else to tell you, but it's an RPG with a pretty unique combat system (Possibly the only RPG that I can't think of another game to be like "Oh, so it's kinda like Shin Megami Tensei?"), and lets you explore the world, discovering new locations, hunting bounties, and even engaging in airship battles.

oh man I remember Demon's Crest. that was good. I played DWM a long time ago too, but I tried to get into it again recently and couldn't. for additions, Soulblazer is a top-down adventure/slasher game for the SNES with a really neat world-building mechanic that's kind of a precursor to the Dark Cloud games. (which probably deserve to be on this list too.) the story's a bit cheesy and weird, but the gameplay's a lot of fun without ever being irritatingly difficult.

Deathsmiles

One of my favorite bullethells of all time, Deathsmiles and Deathsmile 2X were both on XBOX360, and with the ONE soon getting backwards compatability I get to recommend them again.

Einhänder



This was by far my favorite PS1 game, and for some reason I find a lot of people passed it over and never played it. It's a side-scrolling shooter on rails where after destroying an enemy, you can try to catch their weapons as they fall from the explosion, and if you do catch it, you can equip it. The weaponry is pretty standard with basic machine guns, spreaders and energy swords, but the gameplay was quite challenging. The funny thing was saving, which only saved which guns you've unlocked. It didn't save your progress. You had three lives and ten continues (basically - 30 lives) to finish the game in one sitting, or you had to start all over the next time.

~SE++

I have a real hard time believing this. Fire Emblem especially, with recent releases from Nintendo.

I don't think I've played any games that would be considered obscure or unknown, though.

Fire Emblem isn't fringe.

I've been getting back into recently, though kinda went on hiatus until I get around to picking up a second gameboy so I can do some fancy breeding.

Yeah, probably not anymore (And Earthbound is on VC now, so ), but I'm old and they were kind of obscure back in the day.

Castle of the Winds



An old and frankly terrible PC RPG with single sprites per creature / character and probably the most confusing inventory system I ever recall trying to use. But it was one of the first RPGs I ever got to experience, and I found it in a discount bin of Ocean State Job Lots, a chain of stores I'm pretty sure died out in the 90's. While looking back on how horrible it was, there is still a sense of nostalgia since it was probably the reason I played loads more RPGs later in life. There's been a few projects to restore it and update it for modern PC, though I haven't tried to replay it.

~SE++

cookie and cream is an intense co-op platformer for ps2
alundra is a beautiful zeldalike for ps1
lunar is a little less obscure but it is a jrpg for a plethora of consoles that has been remade a billion times. the gameplay is fairly generic but the cast, storyline, and atmosphere are unique and great.
eversion is a cute horror platformer for pc that doesn't take much time to complete but has a masterful atmosphere

Oh man, I played he crap out of Lunar Legend for GBA. Had one of the best scenes ever too.


And Lunar 2, the king of feelies. Most games are like "Preorder at Gamestop for this eraser." Lunar 2 was like "Nah bro, just buy the game and you get a map and a pendant and a nice manual and one of the developers will personally pick out a kitten and bring it to your house for you to love forever."


What are you talking about, Eversion is just a saccharine cutesy platformer

I have heard of some of these.

Well if you've interacted with me at all, you've heard of Skies of Arcadia. I mean, I may not have mentioned it, but it's just a static effect that grants "Has heard of Skies of Arcadia" to anybody I meet .

One of my all-time favorites, though I've experienced it through the Gamecube enhanced remake (Skies of Arcadia: Legends).


I'll add Lost Kingdoms and Lost Kingdoms II to the list. Both are very good games. Lost Kingdoms is flawed in a lot of ways, but the sequel fixes basically all the problems I had with the first and introduces more cool stuff on top of that. They're sort of RPGs, but your combat ability is in the form of a customizable deck of cards, consisting of attacks and summons derived in large part from the monsters you'll face.

I played Demon's Crest and Skies. Also Earthbound, and a few of the Lunar games. All really fun. I played Lost Kingdoms and it was fun too.

I enjoyed Syndicate on the PC as a kid, Fallout: Tactics, Lufia: Rise of the Sinistrals (I think that counts, although Lufia 2 got fairly big), Azure Dreams, Dragonseeds.

I THINK the RTS PC game I enjoyed was Lords of Magic, but pics on Google image don't look quite how I remember them.

If we're talking old school. NES: Spelunker on the NES was awesome when I was home with the Chicken Pox. That Tank game that was similar to Bomberman was an old favourite. My all time favourite NES game was The Battle of Olympus!

There were two really cool board games I haven't seen anywhere else but my buddy's house too, I'll ask him about it. We used to go over specifically to play those games they were so much fun.

Actually that's the one I played too (Picked it up at the old used game store for 15 bucks, which was pretty rad), but I think it's basically the same, aside from removing some sidequest thing that involved the Dreamcast memory card.



Oh man, I forgot about Lost Kingdoms. Only tried a demo of the second one, mostly because I still need to beat the **** of a final boss in the first one, but it bugged me how battles just took place on the overworld now, especially given how often I instinctively pushed a button and ended up wasting a card. But yeah, played the hell out of that game as a kid.



Was it 1313 Dead End Drive? Because I remember that game being pretty nifty. Though I doubt it'd hold up to modern board games, but I've been half tempted to see if I can track it down anyway .

Oh man, if we're including board games:

221B Baker Street



Basically Clue done with a Sherlock Holmes twist. There were several stories, and depending on which one, there were different clues in different locations. It was a blast to play, even though eventually you'd complete all the stories and they'd start repeating. Probably one of the fondest memories of playing a game with my father before he started to drink heavily.

~SE++

Ok, one of the board games was Omega Virus. My friend hasnt gotten back to me about the other one and its harder to search for. All I remember is you moved around a dungeon, fought monsters, and got treasure. How many of those could there be?

Dungeons of dredmor, a rougelike rpg with its own special flavor, very comedic and silly, and although the game itself is kinda dead, there's a good community of modders. Ever wanted to be a vegan vampire? Well now you can. Also you drink alcohol to refuel your mana.

Ok, I THINK the other game was The New Dungeon: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2301/new-dungeon So maybe it wasnt very unknown.

Here's a link to The Omega Virus: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3086/omega-virus

I've had the design for a videogame in my head for years, and when I first saw Rocket, Robot on Wheels I realized that was as close as anybody had come to making my vision real. Thanks for reminding me about that game.

Well, here's a review I wrote on Steam for Enemy Mind:
If you've been looking for an old school shooter with puzzle-like mechanics and an engrossing plot- Oh who are we kidding? Nobody thought a game like this would come out. But it has, and yes, it is awesome.
For you shoot 'em up fans out there, Enemy Mind plays like the love child of R-Type and G Darius. The perfect blend of frentic action, deep thinking and mind control.
What's mind is yours. Play as a psychic entity capable of commandeering a huge variety of vessels from two sides in a space war. Hop from ship to ship, controlling everything from fighter craft, missle platforms, laser squids, inanimate asteroids and ramming drill ships to proximity mines and even segments of the giant boss enemies.
So yes, buy Enemy Mind. It's great.