What game in a series do you feel is overlooked and enjoy that isn't the common favorite?

For me it's the Silent Hill series part 2 seems to be the favorite that the die hard fans love but for me it's not. Shattered Memories is my favorite it originally came out on the WII. I have the PS2 version that came out a month after. The story and psychology of the game along with the snowy atmosphere just always stuck with me all these years later I still go back to it time from time it's easily my favorite in the series. So what is your game that isn't the common favorite of a series?

Age of Empire 3 for me. Seems like it gets pegged as the black sheep of the family, but imo its the best game in the series.

Front Mission 4. Lots of people hate it because it didn't play like FM 3 but for me it was two steps forward than its predecessor, which was a Final Fantasy Tactics in FM skin. Sadly it was nail in the coffin for FM series which the fifth game, Scars of War never make its way to the west due to poor sales and mediocre reviews of the fourth.

Suikoden IV also a black sheep to the entire Suikoden franchise but I liked it better than previous 3. While I can't give any logical explanations on why people hated it but I think they just hate the "island hopping" theme of the game. They prefer a static castle with cross-country adventure instead of a ship that sails in a vast ocean.

Heroes of Might and Magic IV. Most people don't like it because of the active role (and near the end of the game overpowering role) of the main heroes. Personally It's my favorite of all the HOMM games

FFVIII. idk why it gets so much hate but it's my favorite Final Fantasy game hands down.

Overlooked is debateable, usually sequels only exist because a game at least gathered some form of following. With that Bayonetta 2 based on sales. On two platforms didn't even scratch a million copies sold. Two of those purchases are mine lol. Platinum would be long gone if NieR: Automata didn't become the success it was. Despite being an inferior product. 2B is good marketing material I suppose.

But for an actual overlooked game one that comes to mind is O.T.K Games The Vagrant

Mentioned this since beta back in 2016 and one could clearly hear the crickets lol. The reason is clear however, P.C. players don't care for these kinds of games.

The Vagrant is after all heavily inspired by Vanillawares Odin Sphere and Dragon's Crown. And while I think those games are ultimately better than this games final build in 2018. It is a solid game for a developers first project, and has enough content for its low asking price.

O.T.K are currently working on PROJECT: I.S.S, and hinted at console ports of The Vagrant, I wish the team better success.

Resident Evil 6, while not my favorite game in the series it is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite, gets a lot of hate, and although I do get people who feel it is not "resident evil" enough, I enjoyed it a ton

Agreed, 8 gets a lot of hate and I never understood why. It is not my favorite game in the series but I definitely liked it more than 7.

@pook99: FFVIII and FFX are my favorites. I don't think any other FF's can compare

i actually really quite enjoyed the first r6lv.

it reminds me of crysis 2 a bit in that, yes it was reduced in scope for consoles from a pc centric predecessor (or "dumbed down" if you're that way inclined), but what was left was still mechanically very good and still required a degree of tactical thinking which made it enjoyable enough to play. i'd choose those two over most of the linear, on rails, qte laden arcade or cinematic style console shooters out there

Medal of Honor Pacific Assault

this series has some classic entries, and this is probably my second favorite after Allied Assault. the campaign is a great adventure where you go through the entire game with the same squad from boot-camp to the end and you grow a bit attached to the characters.

2004 was a year with some really big FPS games released and I think this one got overshadowed.

I'm pretty sure its aged terribly but at the time I loved it

The Master System version of Sonic The Hedgehog. Many people haven't played it or assume from the title it's a port of the Genesis game.

Totally different game, prefer it over the Genesis version.

I enjoyed Suikoden 4 and Suikoden Tactics.

One that comes to mind is Sonic Unleashed. It honestly wasn't that bad imo. (This is coming from someone who isn't a hardcore Sonic fan though.)

Gta 4, BioShock Infinite and uncharted 3.

@warmblur: Shattered Memories is, in fact, a masterpiece in many ways when it comes to its storytelling and sound track. Fantastic game, just not the one people were expecting. It's basically an entirely self contained story and has no connection to any other game in the series, which I think turned a lot of people off from it.

On topic, Dragon Quest IX. It was the first game in the series I played, and from an objective stand point it's probably not the best (that would be VIII), but I have put around 200 hours into it, which is rare for me. Just bursting at the seems with content and the random dungeons in the post game go a long way toward my enjoyment of it.

Super Mario Sunshine, Bioshock Infinite.

Ridge Racer 6. Best of the franchise imo and it doesn’t get the respect it deserves.

Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm for the PS2. The Xbox games were superior in almost every aspect, but the PS2 console exclusive is a great addition to the franchise and is the last of the original titles before the sequels and Advanced changed the tone of the franchise forever.

Tales of Symphonia Dawn of New World is the one for me. It is probably the most hated game in the series. But I loved it. I loved the antagonist, the gameplay was much faster than Symphonia 1, the monster taming was great, the game also discarded the boring open world from the first game.

@Yams1980: I prefer Chrono Cross over Chrono Trigger too but I do admit that it's a masterpiece. I also liked X-2 when it was new and I was able to play it right after FFX. I have no desire to replay it, though lol

Onimusha 2.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI is a black sheep or dark horse of Civilization series. Most of its haters are hardcore fans of fifth game who claimed that sixth one focused too much on economy and less on warfare. They also hate the district system which used too much land. For example most players prefer building their cities on small islands for defense bonus against enemy land units but districts prevented that.

While not a series to begin with but Harebrained Schemes' Battletech got lots of hate from Mechwarrior fans and people who hates turn-based strategy in general. Some says its graphics aren't impressive such as "human-sized mechs with liliputian pilots".

Lost Odyssey is probably one of the most underrated games imo.

Dragon Age: Inquisition. Honestly, it's the best in the entire series. Great characters, a decent story, really well-designed maps, great cross-class combinations during fights, and excellent writing and music. Just a solid game all around, and yet people hate on it. Not sure why.

Legacy of Kain series.. After the 1st or 2nd Soul Reaver games. Nobody cared on Blood Omen 2 or Defiance anymore.

GTA 2 and

GTA Chinatown Wars

I clocked in so much time in both of these great games. No one seems to talk about them anymore and there isn’t an easy modern way to play either of them outside of emulation. It’s a shame. Would buy both on my Switch or PC in a heart beat.

Sort of a lot of them... it seems there are veery few popular franchises and many potentially interesting things out there....

Max Payne I guess maybe... no I never played it enough probably... someone I think had it like in those kiosks at hte store and it's like yeah I can see this being really cool but people forget it ever existed IMO.

I really like Silent Hill: the Room. It's my second favorite in the franchise, but I felt it got more negativity from the SH community than it deserved.

FEAR 2 is the best FEAR. Not even close. So as someone who plays both multiplayer and singleplayer, when I sit down with an sp campaign, I'm looking more for atmosphere and pacing. A certain level of AI, but I'm not going to freak out if the robots are idiots, because what kind of person tests their shooter mettle against a robot anyway? FEAR was a lot like Condemned in that Monolith was still learning and felt like campaign quality was tied to quantity...longer levels, more enemies, etc. And then in both FEAR2 and Condemned 2 you can see them growing to the point where they begin to understand it's more about keeping shit tight and shutting up when you run out of things to say, rather than just dragging a level off into oblivion in a silly pursuit of getting your campaign to the 10 hour mark.

ME Andromeda. Don't get the hate, but then i didn't get the love for the original 3. The first game had potential, but it had potential precisely because of its emphasis on abilities. ME2 and 3 were garbage cover shooters with powers relegated to ammo alteration, having largely no effect on armored/shielded enemies otherwise. In addition powers became much more similar- a great example is the engineer skills becoming like fireball tossing into enemy health bars rather than the control-based effects of the original game. In the first game I could actually push objects into enemies to kill them...why did we get away from that rather than exploring it? The game went Gears of War when it should have went Psi-ops. It was like Bioware was saying " people are too stupid for class mechanics." Andromeda, while it drops the ball on its narrative, was a return to the powers are actually important era of the franchise and had much more entertaining combat because of it...which is like 90% of the game. The power system still suffered from some of the enforced-simplicity of the previous two games, but you could still see the devs waking up a bit from previously bad choices.

DMC by Ninja Theory. So maybe the combat wasn't as tight, but it was solid. But more importantly it illustrated to me how much I could enjoy the franchise when you subtract the cringe factor. I quit DMC3 because of cringe...in particular the missile riding....it's like Dr. Strangelove meets lead paint.

MotoGP 10/11. Motorcycle enthusiasts HATE this game, and the studio that made it went bankrupt shortly afterward. I love it, more than even Tourist Trophy from Polyphony, but I'm also not really a motorcycle enthusiast.

I also like Twisted Metal 4 and 2012 better than Black, so maybe you should just ignore my opinion on anything.

-Chrono Cross (Liked it more than Trigger which places me in the minority I'm sure)

-Super Mario Sunshine (I remember how much hate it got back in 02-03 yet it still remains my favorite Mario game many years later)

-Demon Souls (I put in more hours into this game than Darks Souls 1-3 and Bloodborne combined)

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. I loved that game. Not sure if it's actually overlooked or just my bad taste in games.