The best obscure games you know of

Ones that are so good they baffle you as to why they aren't better known

@pikachewbacca: perhaps you've never seen FMV games back in those days...some Japan-only games have such notoriety for being weird,one of them is this type, as of now the most obscure games are from the JRPGs..go with Criminal Girls: Invite Only*,or Catherine*,or whatevs...most games involving the otaku culture(say it's ecchi) are considered obscure,let alone some people.

if I have to filter the games,I only think it's either Criminal Girls: Invite Only* or Catherine*

*=I don't have these games,but I've seen and heard about it

Probably NIER. The story is full of levels of interpretation. It can be seen as a tragic story between two sides fighting for what they believe is right, or it can be seen as a critique on videogame level design, as well as criticism on japanese cliches.

Amnesia Machine for pigs 2. I hope it's obscure enough for you.

Odama. It's a samurai, war, pinball game that you play with your voice.

I never got the voice to work correctly. THANKS ODAMA!!!!

I have a lot of obscure games in my collection, although I wouldn't call a lot of them "good" so much as "interesting". Along the same lines as Odama with it's voice control is a game called "Lifeline" which is a survival horror game in which you -don't- play the protagonist of the story. Instead, you play someone trapped in the control room of this space station and you use voice commands to order Rio (the main character) about. It was a PS2 game, and the voice control worked as well as you would expect so it was borderline unplayable, but it was a really cool idea.

I have a lot of rare games, but they aren't necessarily obscure. Steel Battalion is one you don't see around that much, but most people have at least heard of it.

-Byshop

Recettear is hands down, one of my favorites RPG on the PC, this game is so fun, charming, challenging, funny and addictive, i just love it, but its kind of niche so very few people know this game.

Einhander is one of the best on rails shooters of the PS1, developed by Square Enix, it has a great vibe, with all the techno stuff and the music, and while the graphics are kind of dated i still think it holds up pretty well, sadly most people thinks FF when it comes to Square Enix.

@madsnakehhh: Recettear is a good example. Fun and really unique game, but not well known. Einhander is great but in the schmups community it's pretty well known.

-Byshop

Serena - Free game on Steam. It's a very short experience, lasting about an hour or so. It's best quality is the inviting story and narrative.

Deadly Premonition - It's kind of janky both in visuals and controls but overall a good game. It's a murder mystery with supernatural elements. You freely explore a town while the mystery unravels. The exploration is similar to Shenmue while the combat is like Resident Evil 4.

Ballistyx

It's hard because the topic just changes to "mention and old game you used to like" as if there was some indy game on Steam that I think is good, it will of got the publicity and no longer be obscure. Since the topic maker was talking about lesser known games and not a game that's just weird.

I suppose it will have to be some Japanese game from one of there very specific genres, but I don't touch those so I'm out.

@Byshop: Oh i see, honeslty everytime i talk to PS1 owners, they never seem to know Einhander, but of course, we are far from schmups fans, that's why i've seen this game as a niche title.

I think Vanquish went pretty undernoticed, and it was good,

I'm playing one right now that I kind of love. It's called Abarenbou Princess. It is sadly Japan only for the PS2, although I'm not sure why. It reminds me of Okage: The Shadow King and some other quirky RPGs that got ported over.

The Movies, NOLF 1&2, Metro Last Light, Tycoon games, Tower of Guns, on the top of my head but there are plenty of games i love that i sometimes wonder why the ..... its not more popular.

At the risk of making an awful pun, I actually enjoyed the "Obscure" games.

http://www.gamespot.com/obscure-2005/

Off-brand survival horror back when there was a huge shortage of games in the genre. Featured perm-death for each of your teen characters and if you lost all of them the game was over.

-Byshop

I was thinking that as well but it was well known enough to get a sequel.

Bulletstorm was one of the best shooters of last gen but almost nobody played it. It also didn't get much publicity and the demo was AWFUL but it was a great game in terms of mechanics, ignore the silly story and just play it and you will have a blast.

This game is pure fun. Find a way to play.

No One Lives Forever and S2:Silent Storm

For me Its Torn i think its so good but dosent have that much exposure but its a great browser game its immersive, fun its like a rly good life simulator

heres a link if you wanna check it out

[url=https://www.torn.com/2166773]Torn-City - Massively multiplayer online text based RPG[/url]

I feel like the Boktai games never really got the recognition they deserved.

Starbound

It's basically Terraria in space but with more emphasis on exploration. Like if No Man's Sky were 2D and had content. Really fun game with a really nice soundtrack but hardly anyone I talk to has even heard of it.

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