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The "So Underrated"

Charicific

PkMn Trainer
505
Posts
12
Years
This question popped out while I was playing one of my favorite games, Caesar III/IV . Even though I'm quite crazy about this game, I found out that it isn't really THAT popular at all, in fact, it is so underrated.

So, to develop on this idea, what do you guys think are the most underrated games? What do you really think about them and the way people throw criticism on them?
 

ShinyUmbreon189

VLONE coming soon
1,461
Posts
12
Years
Madden series. Yes, they have gone downhill since idk when but if you know how to play the actual game and know your plays then the game can be very fun.
Black Ops. I don't get why people have given so many bad remarks on this game, I mean it's better than MW2, it doesn't have killstreak stacks, no recoil (weapons have recoil in real life, pick up an assault rifle and tell me it doesn't have recoil!) The only flaw is that sometimes it takes WAY too many bullets to drop someone but still a fun game if you play smart.
I kind of passed the stage of older games and moved on to newer gen and that is my PS3 and that's about all I could think of ATM.
 

machomuu

Stuck in Hot Girl Summer
10,507
Posts
15
Years
Madden series. Yes, they have gone downhill since idk when but if you know how to play the actual game and know your plays then the game can be very fun.
Black Ops. I don't get why people have given so many bad remarks on this game, I mean it's better than MW2, it doesn't have killstreak stacks, no recoil (weapons have recoil in real life, pick up an assault rifle and tell me it doesn't have recoil!) The only flaw is that sometimes it takes WAY too many bullets to drop someone but still a fun game if you play smart.
I kind of passed the stage of older games and moved on to newer gen and that is my PS3 and that's about all I could think of ATM.
Did you seriously just call a CoD title, the most overrated franchise on the planet underrated? Let's look at those ratings that they definitely paid for:
Spoiler:

Those are for Black Ops, they're much higher than they should be. Now, if you mean overlooked, that's a the exact same story told from a different perspective. The core audience goes gaga about CoD (claiming that they're hardcore, for some reason), and Black Ops was no different.
 

Kroso

Sleeping soundly
188
Posts
12
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  • Age 25
  • Seen Dec 22, 2016
The game I-Ninja was buried in a pile of crap(with the exception of some titles) in 2003, and if it was released this generation.... Well, this generation only expectation is FPS and not something new and fresh, so yeah the poor game is underrated.
 
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Plasmette

Master of Mediocrity.
347
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12
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  • Seen Jan 12, 2013
I swear to god if somebody says Gen 3 I'm gonna poke their eye out...
 
18
Posts
11
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  • Seen Dec 28, 2012
Did you seriously just call a CoD title, the most overrated franchise on the planet underrated? Let's look at those ratings that they definitely paid for:

Call Of Duty 1 is actually a really nice game and underrated.

Other than that AOE II (The Conquerors)
 

Seiren

Playing the Spirit's Tune~
32
Posts
11
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  • Age 34
  • Seen May 7, 2013
A lot of the games that are underrated are so because of weaker advertising campaigns or unjustly bad reviews (the Atelier series is an example of the former, and NieR and Resonance of Fate are examples of the latter) and have cult followings, meaning that they're only underrated in the sense that the masses who listen only to what the biased magazines tell them don't know what they're missing out on. Games aren't so much underrated these days as they are just overlooked entirely in favour of something else.

One mainstream game that I do think is quite underrated, surprisingly, is Final Fantasy XII. This is, my opinion, the only FF that actually gets it right: the battle system is involving, the storyline goes beyond the normal poorly scripted romance plot, and overall it's an extremely enjoyable game, yet it's regarded as one of the worst by the FF fandom.
 

machomuu

Stuck in Hot Girl Summer
10,507
Posts
15
Years
Call Of Duty 1 is actually a really nice game and underrated.

Other than that AOE II (The Conquerors)
Call of Duty 1-3 aren't underrated. They're not overrated, but they're certainly not underrated. Growing up when those games first came out, they got a lot of positive reception.

One mainstream game that I do think is quite underrated, surprisingly, is Final Fantasy XII. This is, my opinion, the only FF that actually gets it right: the battle system is involving, the storyline goes beyond the normal poorly scripted romance plot, and overall it's an extremely enjoyable game, yet it's regarded as one of the worst by the FF fandom.
Well, a mainstream game is kind of a contradiction, but there's a reason for why people think that. First:
Spoiler:

Vaan is the most annoying character in the Final Fantasy Franchise. Maybe he's tied with Tidus, but the fact that he's the main character doesn't bode well for the player.

Second, it's not:
Spoiler:

The game is actually loved by many FF fans and had incredible reception, if this game is underrated then I'm a monkey's uncle, and I'm pretty sure I'm not. Pretty sure. If anything, the most underrated game is FFXIII, which mostly gets dumped on because it's different and most people don't give it a chance...even though those same people were clamoring for something different.
 
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Banjora Marxvile

hOI!!!!!! i'm tEMMIE!!
3,496
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  • Age 30
  • Seen yesterday
Underrated games can be critically successful too, just kind of ignored by the consumers. The game I find to be underrated by consumers is the sequel to Banjo Kazooie - Banjo-Tooie. A blend of humour and serious parts make this game just fun to play.

But if we go by underrated by critics as well, I found nothing wrong with Bubsy the Bobcat. Absolutely loved it, even though people didn't really understand that it was fun and very difficult at the same time (I will be honest though, if I ever play this game straight through on my Sega Mega Drive (I refuse to call it Genesis as I am English), I don't think the console will survive the amount of rage I will collect playing it...)
 

ZetaZaku

AEUG Pilot
580
Posts
11
Years
Final Fantasy XIII is definitely underrated. It's not the best FF game, but it's far from what people make it to be. It's basically the same as the older ones, just without pointless backtracking. People call it bad because of it's linearity, but I can't see how it's different from FFX. Why does everyone want all games to be open world? FF is story driven, unlike those open world sandbox games that have a short story and various side quests. If someone wants a fantasy open world, they can play the Elder Scroll series. Post apocalyptic open world game - Fallout series. FThe only difference between XIII and the older ones are cutscenes. Older games didn't have much cutscenes, but had heavy dialogues. FFXIII just puts those dialogues into cutscenes.

I can understand if someone who doesn't like Final Fantasy dismisses the game, but I can't understand Final Fantasy fans who dismiss it.
 

machomuu

Stuck in Hot Girl Summer
10,507
Posts
15
Years
I just want to note that there is a difference between "underrated" and "overlooked". A game that isn't too well known but is still a good game would be "overlooked", "underrated" means that people say it's worse than it actually is (in the same sense, a game could be underrated by the critics and overrated or simply not underrated by the consumer, though that rarely happens, since the core and mainstream gamer usually use the words of critics as law). People often get the two words mixed up.
 
6,318
Posts
17
Years
The recent games in the PES series. To anyone who knows the PES/Fifa franchise they'll know that Fifa has been top dog for a few years now, but since 2010 the PES franchise has actually had major improvements and still gets rated just as badly. The demo for the latest game was released last week and it is a major improvement on any recent football game from either franchise, but everyone is suddenly ridiculously biased to fifa because apparently it's still terrible.

I hate to bring up Saints Row 2 again on here because I feel all of my posts in this forum involve it, but it's the most fun I've ever had in a game and yet I bet the average review is about 10% less than GTA IV which was horribly bland.
 

machomuu

Stuck in Hot Girl Summer
10,507
Posts
15
Years
The recent games in the PES series. To anyone who knows the PES/Fifa franchise they'll know that Fifa has been top dog for a few years now, but since 2010 the PES franchise has actually had major improvements and still gets rated just as badly. The demo for the latest game was released last week and it is a major improvement on any recent football game from either franchise, but everyone is suddenly ridiculously biased to fifa because apparently it's still terrible.

I hate to bring up Saints Row 2 again on here because I feel all of my posts in this forum involve it, but it's the most fun I've ever had in a game and yet I bet the average review is about 10% less than GTA IV which was horribly bland.
I disagree, GTAIV actually had quite a bit to it, there was a crapton to do and the city was detailed, filled with hundreds of personalities and lots of activity. How does that qualify as bland? I mean, I often see SR fans baw about how it's so much better than GTAIV, and I've played them both. Granted, I felt the gameplay for SR2 was stiffer than that of GTAIV, and part of the reason I lost interest so quickly (though I did play quite a bit of it), but I often thing that SR fans just crap on GTAIV because they're coerced by its popularity and simply think violent or insulting thoughts about it because they like one more than the other.
 
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Megaman3007

MTF FTW :)
22
Posts
11
Years
  • Seen Aug 14, 2012
Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers. Yes the controls are wonky but it really is one of the best Wii titles in the latter part of its lifespan. I loved the game and all the side stuff it had to offer. Zack and Wiki was fun too!
 

Pokemon Trainer UV

Attractively foolish
160
Posts
11
Years
1.png



Easily a very underrated game and a really lengthy RPG for the DS. I'm sure that a lot of you have heard of Devil Survivor or the Persona Series, but have you heard of Strange Journey? What this game features is:​

*An 80 hour plus adventure with a really epic story
Heck, I wasn't even done with all of the side quests by the time I hit 80 hours.

*3 Endings based on your Morality by the end of the game

*A Morality System based on choices you make in the story

*Recruit over 300 demons using demon negotiation

*Demon Fusion to create more powerful ones

*Classic RPG gameplay with an added flavor of Demon Co-op

*Animated and very detailed Demon Sprites

*And EPIC MUSIC


Emphasis on the epic music part, just listen to this!:




When I played this game, I found it pretty hard to believe that it was for the DS due to the awesome amount of content in it!


Another underrated game is:

dementium2.jpg



Dementium 2 is a great Horror FPS for the DS. It runs at a smooth 60 FPS, and it has really great graphics!
It isn't as scary as Amnesia or other horror games, but I certainly had a scare while playing it! Give it a rent, since you'll probably finish it in 2 hours.



Another pretty underrated game is Madagascar for the Gamecube. It may be movie based, but I thought it was a marvelous platformer!

But that's for another time... anyways, I hope that you guys give these games a try, as I mentioned above, they are pretty underrated, and not exactly well known. Sorry for the flashy post...
 
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Sydian

fake your death.
33,379
Posts
16
Years
Definitely the Mother/Earthbound series. No matter how many people you hear raving about the series, Earthbound still didn't sell well in it's North American release, which is a crying shame. It was advertised really heavily too. Maybe that hurt it? idek. At least with emulators we have the ability to play Mother as well as the fan translated Mother 3, but...idk there's just nothing that compares to playing it on the console it was intended for, imo.

Also, a very good RPG movie based game is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for GBA. I actually 100%'d the game when I was 12 and it's tons of fun and has some great music. I haven't touched it in years, and maybe I should haha. It's much better than its GCN counterpart though. They're completely different and the GBA is far superior. It's a nice little gem, if you ever happen to run across a copy and you're a fan or HP or RPGs, or even both, you should pick it up.

And ummmm Viva Pinata. It probably looks childish to most people, but it's lots of fun and it's a nice and relaxing game to play. And if you want it to be violent, just make your pinatas eat your other pinatas, let them fight with each other, beat them with your shovel, or don't call the doctor when they get sick! And you can make the worms get busy like crazy, so there's your sexual thrill. lololol
 

MidiMasterShiro

Music Hacker/Composer
31
Posts
11
Years
I'd say the PS2 game "Gungrave." It is a third-person shooter with great story and art by Yasuhiro Naito, the one who responsible for the Trigun manga. I felt that it was a good game, though it suffered in terms of popularity. It's actually a fun and addicting game to play, despite short completion time, which people seem to complain about. I thought the length of the game was quite fitting for the story it had.

Another game series would be Mr. Driller. This series could be viewed as a sequel to the Dig Dug series. It is a fun, creative puzzle game , and it's really addictive. I feel that this series deserved more attention, as it had a good concept different from most puzzle games today.

Dragon Ball Z 2, or Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 is a bit underrated. From what I've seen, people seem to dislike the story mode of the game. I really can't see how one cannot like it if you're a fan of the Dragon Ball manga and games. In my opinion, the story mode was a lot better than the one in DBZ3/B3, where you just fly around and only get character images and speech bubbles for story. I feel that the game is much better than Budokai 1, but people seem to like it more for "nostalgic" reasons.
 

machomuu

Stuck in Hot Girl Summer
10,507
Posts
15
Years
^I've actually been replaying the DBZ 1-3 games lately and I have this to say:

I think that Dragon Ball Z Budokai has some of the best cinematic sequences on the planet. Seriously, it makes you feel as if you're actually watching the show, and more, it has a gripping narrative, great writing, and is only hindered by its length, it's age (if it had been current generation, or at least not 2001-3, it could have done a lot more) and somewhat bland gameplay (it got fleshed out in two, and further in three, but it was still fun). The cinematic and the presentation are just plain astounding, especially for the time; you could feel the anger in the characters, the power of their attacks, and you would be emotionally affected with suspense or fear when the cinematics segue into fights. It's that that makes me truly love the Story Mode in DBZ (oddly enough, when upscaled 4x+ it's revealed that it also has the greatest graphics of the three games, as well as the tenkaichi titles.

Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2, I've never heard anyone knock on the story mode, but that's really what takes me back to it. It's one of the most unique and most inventive story modes in a fighting game, and it was a very bold move on their part. It turns the game into a sort of strategy game, and do to the different events, possibilities, and unlockables, it has high replay value. Then there's the gameplay. It has more moves, and some moves that were previously clones were made their own moves. Plus, the game had more characters and some non-canonical characters thrown in for fun, as well as the introduction of the fusion and absorption systems, and most importantly, button input in various moves (and cel-shaded graphics, which carried into Budokai 3). Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2 will forever hold its place as one of my favorite fighting games in existence.

Budokai 3, this game completely fleshed out the fighting aspects of the Budokai series. It made it so that fighting wasn't so reliant on skills, that way you wouldn't be out of the game if you only had one or two, or no skills. It added teleportation (so to speak), Burst Mode (if that's what it's called), Power Struggles (Honestly, my favorite addition), dodging, and it dismissed most of the replica moves and made them their own. It also added some GT characters without making a GT saga (probably due to the show's low fan reception but SSJ4's high fan reception) and added a few movie characters (most notably, Broly). Sadly, it removed the "analog stick rotation" input and replaced it with a timed button input. Conversely, it was very pretty, and even if Budokai 1 had the best graphics technologically, 3 had the best looking in art style and improvements. It's Story Mode was great, from my PoV, and due to it's being so different from 2's, I don't really compare the two, I just say "play both". It was nonlinear and had a crapton of unlockables, as well as rewards for doing actions done in the show. It also had different endings and different paths, plus the addition of free-movement allowed for a lot of possibilities that they exploited and did well.

...So I guess I'm saying that I don't really think 2 was underrated, but if only because I've never heard of bad reception for it's story (I've heard mostly positive reception).
 

Oryx

CoquettishCat
13,184
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13
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  • Age 31
  • Seen Jan 30, 2015
I would say KH:Chain of Memories is pretty underrated by the crowd that like Kingdom Hearts games. I know that re:coded did worse ratings-wise, but when people are asked what their least favorite entry in the franchise was I most hear Chain of Memories which makes me sad because I really enjoyed it as a game, especially the card-based battle system.

Then again I also have a lot of nostalgia towards it (more than probably any other game in the franchise) so there's that, haha.
 
20
Posts
12
Years
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations due to it not getting much mainstream advertising. The storymode is ok, as you get different story's, and Killer Bee's isnt really a story, just a goof around story mode. It's not the same as the other Ultimate Ninja Storm games as with boss battles, but they have alot more charecters to offer. The newest DBZ game that came out took the boss battles from UNS and put it into their game, fighting Vegeta in his monkey form was awesome.

Another game I think WAS underrated before they got franchised and popularized was the Saints Row series. The first and second one left me wanting more, and they did with The Third, giving it an entire new storyline and city to takeover.

Before that, GTA: San Andreas hands down, best GTA game created. Sure it had the gang takeover thing which is where Saints Row came off, but it also had the biggest map in any GTA series, more missions then any I could think of, and alot more other stuff that was pure genius.

Of course people could say those are overrated, but at the times of their release(SR and GTA: SA) too me they were, and the Naruto games still are, but I can't stand hearing the english dubbed voices as I'm used to the original japanese voices.
 
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