Hello Lemmings!
I’ve recently finished the whole Xenosaga series and was impressed by it. Even more than by FF 16 (which was… cutscenes and a few good boss fights). This got me thinking: what else are old games that don’t get enough recognition? I’m not talking about the Oceanhorns (which was boring tbh) or Hollow Knifhts, which everyone knows about. More like hidden gems you picked up “because” and liked it. In my case this was Blue Fire, a platformer that mixes Celeste’s movement and 3D space. Other games I really enjoyed were
Valiant Hearts (WWI point and click)
Light Matter (3D puzzle game)
Cloudbuilt (a fast mirrors edge)
I’m more than happy to read some of your recommendations!
Crosscode! To me it’s the ultimate hidden gem, as I hardly see people talking about it but most of the people who do play it go on to rate it as one of their favorite games. Especially if you like story focussed action-rpgs, I bet you’ll dig it. It’s also got somewhat of a zelda element with puzzles and dungeons
It’s also got somewhat of a zelda element with puzzles
Bit of an understatement. The game has a LOT of puzzles. A bit too many of them IMO, most of which are not optional and bring the game to a halt. The rest of the game is S tier but I could never bring myself to play hours of back-to-back puzzles in dungeons.
I played it on gamepass, then bought the Collector’s Edition simply because I wanted to give some money to the devs, and then bought it again on Xbox with the DLC just to have an excuse to play it again.
It’s a wonderful game choke full of content (especially if you like the collect-a-thon aspect of the game), the combat system is amazing, and there are tons of skills available across four different branches for each of the four+1 elements, which means it never overstays its welcome because there’s always something new to unlock and play with. But most of all, I loved having a game that isn’t afraid of giving you hard puzzles without a companion or an annoying thinking voice explaining everything to you before you even had a chance to look at the damn thing.
It immediately became one of my favourite games ever, and it’s a shame that not enough people even know of its existence.
Recettear had me glued to my screen out of nowhere, very interesting genre mix
Oh shit! I loved Recettear! I think it’d be a perfect steam deck game but I highly doubt they’ll do the work to make it functional
Oh hey, a fellow Cloudbuilt fan. I didn’t try the new version (Super Cloudbuilt) but I enjoyed playing the original.
Asura’s Wrath gets my vote as a great underlooked/underrated game. It got miffed reviews on release and is unfortunately only exclusive to PS3. It’s essentially a playable anime with ridiculously fun and over the top fights.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/219890/Antichamber/ is a puzzle game that does an amazing job of letting you figure out the weirdest stuff purely by experimentation and interaction.
+1 for Recettear, mentioned in another comment
https://store.steampowered.com/app/530320/Wandersong/ is a game that while not super challenging, does storytelling beautifully. Coping with the world ending by looking despair straight in the eye and remaining whimsical. Not because the character is stupid, but because that is his tool of spreading hope.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/362960/Tyranny/ is a CRPG with genuine hard choices with moral dillemmas and consequences.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/31270/Puzzle_Agent/ has clever puzzles, good art style, and good point-and-click style humor.
Old games? Let me throw Final Fantasy Tactics in the mix. Easily my favorite game of all time and one of the only ones I consistently come back to, despite releasing in 1997.
If you’re not familiar, FFT is a turn-based tactics game which is very different from other mainline FF games in a lot of ways. The story is one of the best, if not the best, in the FF series. For gameplay, you recruit and manage soldiers which progress using a fairly in-depth job system which is also pretty easy to pick up.
I’m sure you could find a PSX emulator of the original but, honestly, I really recommend the updated War of the Lions edition they did for the PSP. It’s been ported to mobile and is actually a great port. My one tip for anyone who tries it is to make multiple save slots in case you find yourself overwhelmed in a story dungeon/encounter.
FFT is probably my all time favorite as well.
The tone, setting, story, art style has remained unmatched in my mind.
Tons have tried to replicate the tactics combat stuff and plenty have succeeded and improved or changed upon that formula, but I don’t think any of them have had that feel to it. Even the other FFT games.
I recently picked up Midnight Suns which, to be very clear is not FFT. However, I will say despite the kind of bad story and corny aspects of it, the actual turn based combat is excellent. I thought I would hate it being card-based but it really grew on me a lot. Definitely scratched the FFT itch.
