When the Overrated is actually Underrated, and Vice-Versa

Have you ever seen those games that some claim to be underrated, or overrated, but they do it so much it ends up looking the complete oposite?

Like for example, I see LOTS of people say Okami is underrated, although I always see it highly praised and such, and barely see anybody actually "underrating" it. I have a copy of the game, I personally don't think it lives up to the hype, not to say it's a bad game, it is great, but people who claim it's underrated praise it so much, and so many people do it, that it doesn't really live up to my expectations.

And COD, although I do dislike the series anyway, I don't see how people can call it overrated when SO MANY PEOPLE say it's a bad series, I know most are people who dislike FPS's or dislike "Realistic Warfare"-kind of games, but I still find it hard to see it as overrated with so much hate on the series.

Do you guys know any other cases where you think this happens?

Have you ever seen those games that some claim to be underrated, or overrated, but they do it so much it ends up looking the complete oposite?

Like for example, I see LOTS of people say Okami is underrated, although I always see it highly praised and such, and barely see anybody actually "underrating" it. I have a copy of the game, I personally don't think it lives up to the hype, not to say it's a bad game, it is great, but people who claim it's underrated praise it so much, and so many people do it, that it doesn't really live up to my expectations.

And COD, although I do dislike the series anyway, I don't see how people can call it overrated when SO MANY PEOPLE say it's a bad series, I know most are people who dislike FPS's or dislike "Realistic Warfare"-kind of games, but I still find it hard to see it as overrated with so much hate on the series.

Do you guys know any other cases where you think this happens?

Dudersaper

Final Fantasy VII isdefinitely underrated if you take into account all of the people who hate it for being popular.

Have you ever seen those games that some claim to be underrated, or overrated, but they do it so much it ends up looking the complete oposite?

Like for example, I see LOTS of people say Okami is underrated, although I always see it highly praised and such, and barely see anybody actually "underrating" it. I have a copy of the game, I personally don't think it lives up to the hype, not to say it's a bad game, it is great, but people who claim it's underrated praise it so much, and so many people do it, that it doesn't really live up to my expectations.

And COD, although I do dislike the series anyway, I don't see how people can call it overrated when SO MANY PEOPLE say it's a bad series, I know most are people who dislike FPS's or dislike "Realistic Warfare"-kind of games, but I still find it hard to see it as overrated with so much hate on the series.

Do you guys know any other cases where you think this happens?

Dudersaper

yep, a good example is the dreamcast, originally it was very underrated, but now it's become overrated, seriously it's not as good as some people claim it to be

I think people are simply missing two words to add when referring to overrated/underrated games and that is the terms "critically" and "commercially"

Okami is critically seen as a fantastic game but commercially it is underrated.

Of course that isn't always the case, contrary to popular belief, the CoD games are both critically and commercially successful so when people say they think it is overrated they mean either three things, it sold too well or it is rated by critics too highly and/or conversely they could mean both together.

Hm... I can't tihnk of anything off the top of my head.

BTW, Okami is one of the greatest games ever played.

Most of the time, when someone says a game is underrated, I tihnk they mean that it had sales that were poor.

Oh I agree it's a great game, I was just expecting to be more impressed by it.Dudersaper

IDK, I was really impressed by it, it's one of my favorite games ever. I thought everything about the game was amazing. That's just me.

Final Fantasy VII isdefinitely underrated if you take into account all of the people who hate it for being popular.

Evillordexdeath

I believe FF7 had 4 sequels/prequels. The cellphone game, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, and Advent Children. Not to mention the cameos in Kingdom Hearts (shouldn't count but thats 1), Ehergeiz, and whatever else they showed up in.

Edit: Most of the people who hate it are also still fans of the game, like me. We just hate the fanbase.

yep, a good example is the dreamcast, originally it was very underrated, but now it's become overrated, seriously it's not as good as some people claim it to be

rilpas

Yeah, the Dreamcast has become some sort of a legend these days, everybody loves it. The fact that it was SEGA's last console most likely propelled it to popularity over the years, but the DC did indeed have the best launch line up ever, being one of the extremely few consoles to have a great launch line up (as you know, most suck). It was also way ahead of its time.

Important to make distinctions between critics, user scores, and sales.

People will say something is overrated because critics or the community like it and they don't, or because it sells well despite their negative feelings.

People will say something is underrated because critics or the community dislike it and they do, or because it sold poorly despite their positive feelings.

In the case of Okami, many felt it rivalled other big Action\Adventure contenders like Zelda, yet Clover was shut not long after it was released and for awhile it seemed it might be abandoned. In any case it certainly isn't the sort of breakthrough success that gets non-gamers playing games.

In the case of Call of Duty, it continually sells better than ANY other game and scores quite well with critics. While I personally feel its a quality example of an arcadey shooter, I certainly don't think its perpetually the BEST game on the shelves as its sales imply, nor always deserving of AAA or near AAA scores. It has been the sort of breathrough success that gets non-gamers playing games.

It's a really tough call. I always like to look at video games on a micro-level instead of a macro-level. If I like the game I couldn't care less whether its overrated or underrated. However, it would be naive to say that I am completely unaffected by how the overall society views a video game.

Alright, flame shield ready. I think God Hand is possibly a bit overrated. I admit I'm not very good at and it's because it feels and plays more like a straight fighting game than a brawler --and I don't enjoy fighters much-- so I found myself losing interest barely halfway through. I agree that it resolves the camera issues that plague most brawlers, but that sort of thing never bothered me much in the genre anyway.

I could say FFVII was paradoxically underrated, but I would be lying. It doesn't deserve all the over-the-top hate it gets from RPG fans and I thoroughly enjoyed the game myself, but there are definite weaknesses to the characters and story and I suppose the game is a touch on the easy side.

I think Twilight Princess is underrated just because of the ridiculous praise its recent successor got and how everybody is now saying it's such an improvement. I couldn't disagree more. TP is not the best or most original game in the series, but the overworld was interesting, the soundtrack good, the enemies were varied, the combat was fun and, most importantly, it was immersive. Skyward Sword disappoints on all counts.

I think people are simply missing two words to add when referring to overrated/underrated games and that is the terms "critically" and "commercially"

Okami is critically seen as a fantastic game but commercially it is underrated.

Of course that isn't always the case, contrary to popular belief, the CoD games are both critically and commercially successful so when people say they think it is overrated they mean either three things, it sold too well or it is rated by critics too highly and/or conversely they could mean both together.

greenskittles

Correct. It depends on an individual's perspective. Stating that a game is commercially underated is very easy to argue. There are factual numbers that can back those claims. However, claiming a title is critically underated is much more difficult to prove. For instance, I would argue that Nier is a critically underrated title that didn't get the attention that it deserves, but that's a claim based on personal tastes and from my own experiences. For all I know, in the real world, there a lot of reviewers and people in general who enjoyed the game that I'm unaware of.

Final Fantasy VII isdefinitely underrated if you take into account all of the people who hate it for being popular.

Evillordexdeath

We do not hate it for being popular...

FF8 is the better game and sold more but where are its spin offs.

FF7 is very overrated.

I find Final Fantasy 7 & 8 whilst good games werent as good as everyone makes them out to be.

I find Final Fantasy 7 & 8 whilst good games werent as good as everyone makes them out to be.

jwn25

FF9 is talked about alot more.

FF8 is like the outcast of the PS1 games which is crazy imo considering how it sold the most and thus is objectively the more successful game.

FF7 basically was really similar but inferior towards 6 in the sense they have similar themes and settings.

FF8 tried something new and the school theme while not my favorite was great for the game. The character models are proportioned the most realistic in FF too imo.

FF9 was charming but FF8 takes the cake as the best FF on psone.