Best underrated rpgs you enjoyed to the bitter end...

[Weavus]

Breath of Fire 4 tried to be Breath of Fire 3 and failed. Breath of fire 3 was underrated because it was overall better than FFVII and very few saw it.

EDIT: Skies of Arcadia was also ftw. SLOW as all hell, but genius.

[Vinen]

Breath of Fire 4 tried to be Breath of Fire 3 and failed. Breath of fire 3 was underrated because it was overall better than FFVII and very few saw it.

EDIT: Skies of Arcadia was also ftw. SLOW as all hell, but genius.

Breath of Fire III failed due to loading times... Great Game.. but god waiting that long for each random battle sucked. ESP when random battles were so common.

[Ramor]

BoF3 was an incredible game, haven't played it in so long though I'd say it's not underrated just, unfortunately, underplayed like so many great RPGs.

T'is true, they really don't make them like that anymore ='(

[Weavus]

but god waiting that long for each random battle sucked.

I'm playing the game right now and I can tell you the load times that you speak of are non-existent.


Another underrated game: Mystic Quest!

[Kaylia]

Breath of Fire 4 tried to be Breath of Fire 3 and failed. Breath of fire 3 was underrated because it was overall better than FFVII and very few saw it.

EDIT: Skies of Arcadia was also ftw. SLOW as all hell, but genius.

Breath of Fire III failed due to loading times... Great Game.. but god waiting that long for each random battle sucked. ESP when random battles were so common.

Better than ff7? On what aspect? Music? Graphic? Maybe, but BoF was released a lot later. Story? Light hearted story for the most part of the game vs relatively complex character development and backstory. Gameplay? Hard to argue either way. Dragon system was pretty damn fun, but I dont remember much beside that. There was no minigame beside fishing that I can remember

[Weavus]

Breath of Fire 4 tried to be Breath of Fire 3 and failed. Breath of fire 3 was underrated because it was overall better than FFVII and very few saw it.

EDIT: Skies of Arcadia was also ftw. SLOW as all hell, but genius.

Breath of Fire III failed due to loading times... Great Game.. but god waiting that long for each random battle sucked. ESP when random battles were so common.

Better than ff7? On what aspect? Music? Graphic? Maybe, but BoF was released a lot later. Story? Light hearted story for the most part of the game vs relatively complex character development and backstory. Gameplay? Hard to argue either way. Dragon system was pretty damn fun, but I dont remember much beside that. There was no minigame beside fishing that I can remember

The story of BoF3 wasn't as lighthearted as you think. Considering it challenges religion and all. Not to say that FFVII was a bad story. One was philosophical and the other was psychological. I liked FFVII, don't get me wrong. BoF3 just had some elements which I liked. Namely the mood/tone the music created for the game, Straight leveling (completely customizable characters are not ftw anymore), Myrmidon and Rei.

[Kaelan]

You state that underrated means a game is better than most people give it credit for, and I agree. However, you then say that underplayed games weren't huge sales hits, but still were widely recognized to be great games. That is false. You do not have the majority of people agreeing a game is good if it doesn't sell, because a majority of people have thus not, in fact, played the game. You have a minority of people calling the game good, with a majority of people ignoring the game completely. Simply because positive comments exist about a game does not mean that the unspoken majority, that is, the vast amount of consumers who neither comment on the game nor buy it, are irrelevant to a games popularity.

This is either my fault for unintentionally skipping a couple words when I was typing or yours for analyzing each and every word too much. Either way, I suppose I should have put it more clearly. I'm not saying underplayed games necessarily have anything to do with being good. I was talking specifically about games like Okami(games considered to be good), and that they aren't underrated based on the opinion of the majority of people who bought them, just underplayed. I didn't say (or at least didn't mean to say) that all underplayed games are good.

As far as the majority versus the minority - that's only true in the world of buisness, and that only somewhat has to do with how good the game actually is, there are plenty of other things that influence it by just as much and sometimes, even more . If the game doesn't sell terribly well, but the gaming-oriented part of the media as a whole praises the game, do the strong collective opinions of the media count for less than the average consumer's lack thereof? Is it not possible the game could have sold little because of low exposure, bad marketing, bad timing or any other of dozens of problems that it could have encountered that have nothing to do with the actual gameplay quality?

You're also going overboard with the "a game becomes good if anyone praises it" bit. I guess I also should have reworded the underrated part to be "a game is underrated if it is better than most people who played it give it credit for". You're lumping a lot of people together when considering a nontrivial amount of people who didn't buy it did so because they didn't like it. It's practically impossible to determine who avoided buying because they didn't like what they saw and who did so for any number of other possible reasons, so I find it a lot better to ignore them and only consider the people who actually bought the game. If a game sells only moderately, but the overwhelming majority of buyers give positive feedback on it and it receives widespread positive critical acclaim, I can't consider that underrated based on the lack of opinion of people who didn't buy it for who knows what reason.

Xenosaga: Episode 3 was, in my opinion, a very underrated game in that I thought it featured an absolutely amazing story with respectable gameplay. It garnered fairly poor sales, and had only a muodest critical reception. The fact that people on these forums also enjoyed the game doesn't somehow make it less underrated, only that theres a consensus among gamers that it should have done much better with consumers.

That's a bad example for the argument though, because I do agree with you: even though I think Xenosaga could have been better, it still is a good solid game that got less praise than I think it deserved.

I'll put it a different way. Deus EX has received more positive criticism and awards than you could ever possibly shake a stick at and is considered by many to be the best game they've ever played. And yet, while it sold reasonably well, it was not nearly around the numbers of games like Madden 08 or Pokemon Diamond/Pearl which, while solid games, aren't considered to be anywhere on the same level in terms of overall quality. A very large portion of your average american consumer (the one buying the two aforementioned games) has never even heard of Deus Ex. Should we then, by your reasoning, call Deus Ex underrated?

Breath of Fire 4 tried to be Breath of Fire 3 and failed. Breath of fire 3 was underrated because it was overall better than FFVII and very few saw it.

EDIT: Skies of Arcadia was also ftw. SLOW as all hell, but genius.

Breath of Fire III failed due to loading times... Great Game.. but god waiting that long for each random battle sucked. ESP when random battles were so common.

Better than ff7? On what aspect? Music? Graphic? Maybe, but BoF was released a lot later. Story? Light hearted story for the most part of the game vs relatively complex character development and backstory. Gameplay? Hard to argue either way. Dragon system was pretty damn fun, but I dont remember much beside that. There was no minigame beside fishing that I can remember

I don't think I could ever even try to compare FFVII to BoFIII because, considering how much I've enjoyed both of them, either way I decided I'd feel like I'm doing a disservice to one of them

[Sasarai]

Breath of Fire 4 tried to be Breath of Fire 3 and failed. Breath of fire 3 was underrated because it was overall better than FFVII and very few saw it.

That's exactly why Breath of Fire 4 was underrated. As much as I like 3, it was lacking on a few areas, especially character development, story and progression. Breath of Fire 4 improved on these things alot. Of course theres things I prefer about 3 too (dragon genes, better fishing, less annoying Nina) but 4 was still an excellent game that is overlooked way too often.

Final Fantasy VII is and always will be massively overrated, but I do think it was better overall than Breath of Fire 3 (not as fun though).

[Exoduso]

Radiata Stories. Yes it's underrated, people don't even know it exists, however I really enjoyed it.

[Zarath]

Radiata Stories. Yes it's underrated, people don't even know it exists, however I really enjoyed it.

I personally couldn't get into it for some odd reason o_O; even though I've probably played worse...

On the whole underrated thing; the meaning of the word is very loosely defined by everyone, and it's really just best kept as something that should be personally defined. There are games out there obviously that can be easily classified as overrated/underrated, like EA's rampant sports game franchise, but at the same time the majority of games considered overrated/underrated is at best a gray area.

In the end it all comes to personal opinion and really is something that is not defined by public opinion but rather your own perceptions, opinion on games, and definition of the term(s), which may or may not sway with popular opinion. Like take for example Phantasy Star 2, I personally consider the game way too overrated for it's own good and really don't understand the appeal it has to players that have played it (well that's a lie I kinda see it but eh... that aside), though generally it's a rarely played RPG at the same time highly praised by people but for me I consider the game boring, tedious and down right not very fun. Is Phantasy Star 2 overrated, underrated, underplayed or overplayed? It's all really based on the person's own definitions and understanding, because just like any other opinionated subject there isn't anything clear cut about it.

All in all, plain and simple is that one man's opinion isn't going to be the same as the next guy. So best not to try to think logically and clear cut about it, cause you'll only end up troubling yourself.

Oh and how can I forget about Skies of Arcadia =S

[Sasarai]

Radiata Stories is awesome, though I think alot of the piss take characters and dialogue can put people off. Personally I think it's a gem.

[Weavus]

As much as I like 3, it was lacking on a few areas, especially character development, story and progression.

How could you say BoF3 didn't have any of that? The story was great. I will admit that the way it rolled out was a bit atypical, but there was one. I wont bore you with explanations, but I have to disagree strongly and say it had all of those. Which were quite well done, I might add.

Was Parasite Eve mentioned yet? Ogre Battle Tactics?

[Sespira]

Sword of Vermilion on Sega Genesis.

[Pacha]

I think Shadowrun for SNES is still the best RPG I've ever played.

[Yangsing]

Destiny of an Emperor

[Vinen]

Destiny of an Emperor

wow, i have that lol. Forgot it even existed.

[Koyangi]

Parasite Eve 1,2, Legend of Legaia 2(<3 the insane dmg from the teamup combos), and Vagrant Story <3<3<3

[Kachi]

I don't keep up with popular opinion too well, but Okage seemed to get very little attention, but a very charming game.

And of course, Quest 64 (sark)

[ronin sparthos]

-Legend of Legaia / Legaia 2: Duel Saga - Both underrated games for the times they came out.
-Golden Sun
-Legend of Dragoon - a gem. Kickass RPG for the time and easily on par with a FF game.
-Valkryie Profile 2 - so many people dont know this gem even exists, fantastic game with a steep learning curve.
-Final Fantasy Tactics (pre-Rerelease) was highly underrated. Pity it came out when FF7 did because it got outshadowed by it. Still one of the most underrated Final Fantasies but easily one of the best.

I never really though of Tales of Symphonia as underrated... it was a pretty kickass game for Gamecube, definately one of the best RPGs for that console. It was redone for PS2 later iirc...

[killerx]

Legend of Dragoon and Breath of Fire 3, games i so miss!