Good games that went under the radar or didn't sell very well

Which games do you think deserved more attention or sales than they actually received?

My personal choice is Radiata Stories which didn't sell well outside of Japan at all. There was nothing new or radical about it, but it was a fun game with a lot of style.

Binary Domain is actually a pretty good game and completely didn't sell well. Talking about recent games, Syndicate completely tanked while Asura's Wrath which is not even a game did poorly but outsold it by a factor of x4 basically.

Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise. It did little beyond refining and expanding the original but I don't really know what else you'd want to do to a game like that.

I would kill for a VP3.

I have been playing Alice: Madness Returns over the last week. Its really good, I was really surprised. But most of all the art is just crazy good. Everybody should play that game.

Valkyria Chronicles was pretty awesome and I am not usually into Japanese games at all. The character attitudes grated with me sometimes (we're being invaded, YAY!) but other than that the game was hella solid.

Alpha Protocol. Better than the turd that Mass Effect became.

Alpha protocol better than Mass Effect...I've heard it all now.

Image sizes reflect awesome game to sales ratio.

@Davvyk said:

Alpha protocol better than Mass Effect...I've heard it all now.

Hell hath no fury like a gamer scorned..

@Davvyk: Mass Effect still unfortunately has better combat though. I do agree Alpha Protocol had some great things going for it.

Wizardry 8, certainly. While it's known and highly regarded today, it didn't sell in 2001 and forced Sir-Tech to close down. Also, SiN Episodes. I want Episode 2 of that.

GOD HAND GODDAMMIT!

But seriously, that game is pretty good. But it was in the bargain bins within a month of coming out.

Also speaking of games made by Clover, Okami. But I think that game sold much better than God Hand.

@fuzzybunny566: The quick look of Raskulls was great. I love how into it they get towards the end.

Planescape Torement and System Shock 2. I suspect alot of people played System Shock 2. They just didn't pay for it. Which is why pc gaming is in the state it's in now.

Arx Fatalis.

I don't know how much it sold, but I think this game is highly underrated.

@Davvyk said:

Alpha protocol better than Mass Effect...I've heard it all now.

I much preferred Alpha Protocol to any of the Mass Effect games. It's called opinion.

I'm pretty sure I tried arcanum and the graphics were so poor I didn't stick with it. They were like snes era graphics on a 2001 computer game.

@AlexW00d said:

@Davvyk said:

Alpha protocol better than Mass Effect...I've heard it all now.

I much preferred Alpha Protocol to any of the Mass Effect games. It's called opinion.

I'v heard alot of people claim Alpha Protocol is better. Most of them basically people who don't seal clap what the gaming media tell them to think.

Phantom Dust, Lost Odyssey (my favorite JRPG this gen) & Bayonetta.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock: Instead, they seal clap to the opposite. Still clapping seals either way.

@sickVisionz said:

@whyareyoucrouchingspock: Instead, they seal clap to the opposite. Still clapping seals either way.

This seems to either be a incredibly profound point or an incredibly obtuse one.

Shadows of the Damned, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and Rayman: Origin for example.

@Davvyk said:

Alpha protocol better than Mass Effect...I've heard it all now.

It really really was in my opinion. It's one of the only games I've ever played that handled choice and repercussions well and made me give a damn about the decisions I made.

There's a hell of a lot of games that fit this description so I'm gonna just look at my shelf and pick one... Metro 2033, brilliant game, it sold reasonably but should have done better and most people I talk to seem to think it's just another mediocre FPS, on the contrary, it's one of the most atmospheric singleplayer experiences I have had in some time, a great game. I'd also obviously agree with people saying Alpha Protocol, I hate using stupid opinion-centric words like 'underrated' but in this case I'll make an exception, AP is the most underrated game of this generation.

Okami, Shadows of the Damned, Vanquish, Resonance of Fate. Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. It always depresses me that Okami sold poorly and Capcom closed down Clover shortly afterwards, that game is seriously one of my all time favorite games and I think it's better than any Zelda game ever made.

Not sure how it was not mentioned here. Beyond Good and Evil

It was released by Ubisoft right around the same time as about 5 other releases by them. It also had pretty much no advertising, opposed to the other games (XIII, Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia) which had everything from magazine ads to TV commercials.

It's like Ubisoft hates Michael Ancel.

Vanquish, Bayonetta, Shadows of the damned, Enslaved, Lost Odyssey, pretty much everything from developers outside the US and France borders?

Lost Odyssey is an interesting one since it's a Japanese developed JRPG which sold far better outside of Japan, although it still didn't sell nearly as well as it deserves.

@Valkyr said:

Vanquish, Bayonetta, Shadows of the damned, Journey, Lost Odyssey, pretty much everything from developers outside the US and France borders?

......Journey is the fastest selling PSN game ever

Recently played through Vanquish, really good game that had some fun mechanics.

I really dug magnacarta 2, I'm pretty sure it didnt do all that great. The story was wack but i really liked the combat.

Last time I heard, Shadows of the Damned had only sold around 35,000 copies.

@JazGalaxy said:

I'm pretty sure I tried arcanum and the graphics were so poor I didn't stick with it. They were like snes era graphics on a 2001 computer game.

Yes. Because graphics are everything, in every game ever.

That game is fantastic. I'm sorry you missed out.

The big one for me was Resonance of Fate. I thought it was a brilliant game that really brought a unique and awesome combat style. Most people I recommend it to have never even heard of it, which is a damn shame.

Haunting Ground!

Binary Domain, Nier, Alpha Protocol, Resonance of Fate, most SMT games

@MaxOpower said:

I have been playing Alice: Madness Returns over the last week. Its really good, I was really surprised. But most of all the art is just crazy good. Everybody should play that game.

This a millions times. One of the best games I played last year.

Bionic Commando (the 2009 one) is a fantastic game that sold really badly. There's a lot of really cool stuff about that game, it's not perfect, but once you've gotten the initially awkward swinging down and don't try to play it like a shooter by experimenting with the arm that game is a hell of a lot of fun.

oh, and Vanquish!

• Nier
• Heavenly Sword
• Shadows of the Damned

Valkyria Chronicles

@Valkyr said:

Vanquish, Bayonetta, Shadows of the damned, Journey, Lost Odyssey, pretty much everything from developers outside the US and France borders?

Yeah. I mean those Rockstar North boys from Scotland sure do games that are continually overlooked!

@GunslingerPanda: While I agree that Mass Effect as a franchise has been pulled in opposite directions by developer and publisher to the detriment of the series, I still contend that Mass Effect is a better game than Alpha Protocol. Alpha Protocol is pretty rad, but did not take enough cues from Deus Ex to be effective.

That being said:

El Shaddai is amazing and no one played it :(

Folklore. I'm making it my life's mission to never let the gaming world forget about that game.

Valkyria Chronicles is another one which sucks because the first one is probably my favorite game of all time. Bayonetta and Lost Odyssey are two other great examples. And I haven't played it, but Rayman Origins didn't too well. I still think it's disgusting what Ubisort tried to do with that and BGE2 and that whole thing, but that's a story for another day. I saw someone mention Journey which doesn't make any sense because didn't it just break the record for fastest selling PSN/SEN game?...

@IndieFinch said:

The big one for me was Resonance of Fate. I thought it was a brilliant game that really brought a unique and awesome combat style. Most people I recommend it to have never even heard of it, which is a damn shame.

"Hey guys, let's release our big budget amazing console RPG exactly 1 week after Final Fantasy XIII comes out, the most well known JRPG franchise outside of Pokemon in the west that's been hyped up for 6 E3s and on top of that this game is a new IP."

Whoever the shit at Sega thought that was a good idea needs to be fired. At the very least they could of released it a week before FF13. Such an amazing game lost in the shadow of the FF13 fiasco.

Little King's Story. By far my favorite Wii game.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, a game that just came and went, passed through the airwaves. I hadn't found out about it if it wasn't for some of the word of mouth and the critical reactions. It's a game not without its flaws, from obtrusive color-coding and choppy framerate, but had it sold well, it could only have gotten better with the supposed lessons learned. Nevertheless, the two characters at the core of this tale were so well releazed and their dynamic had so much potential for great story telling in future installments -- a shame, for sure. Really looking forward to what these guys do next, not to mention Andy Serkis' next stab at headlining a game.

@Echo said:

Haunting Ground!

2nd.

@whyareyoucrouchingspock said:

people who don't seal clap

What in the hells does this mean?

@efman said:

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, a game that just came and went, passed through the airwaves. I hadn't found out about it if it wasn't for some of the word of mouth and the critical reactions. It's a game not without its flaws, from obtrusive color-coding and choppy framerate, but had it sold well, it could only have gotten better with the supposed lessons learned. Nevertheless, the two characters at the core of this tale were so well releazed and their dynamic had so much potential for great story telling in future installments -- a shame, for sure. Really looking forward to what these guys do next, not to mention Andy Serkis' next stab at headlining a game.

I loved Enslaved and I wish it had done better business, but on the other hand imagine what a sequel would be like... that ending wasn't going anywhere pleasant!