Most underrated RPG's in your book?

Self explanatory title

My choice is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, more explicitly, the Game Boy Color version. As a Potter fan, the story follows J.K Rowling's original source material closer than the other versions on consoles and PC (not including the LEGO games for obvious reasons), hell, it was closer than even the movies, and I think being an RPG helped with that because the platformers (PC/PSOne) and Zelda clones (PS2/GameCube/XBOX) took almost too many liberties in the story department, making me want to check out the other two RPG's in the franchise (Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone GBC and Prisoner of Azkaban GBA). And as an RPG, it's just a solid turn based game all around.

Though back then, if you knew anyone else into Potter, even by playing the games, they're more likely to mention the games on the console and/or PC, which is why I feel this one is my choice for must underrated RPG.

What are yours?

If we talk about "oscure" games ... maybe Recettear An Item Shop's Tale ... is a very simple yet fun and charming game... it truly got me entertaining for quite some time.

@nintendoboy16:

Hyperdimension Neptunia. These rpg's are alot of fun and have really well crafted and funny characters. The games are a mix of your old school dungeon crawlers with Sailor Moon. And they always have a robust cast of awesome voice actors fully dubbed in English.

Atelier rpg's. These games are like a very chill and laid back version of Final Fantasy. The production value is surprisingly good with fascinating worlds to explore. But the storylines very rarely get serious. These games are more about sitting back and salvage resources to craft items for your adventure. It doesn't sound like much fun on paper but it gets pretty addictive after a while. The best part about the storylines is that they're all connected. So you can recruit various main protagonists from old games. Also, all the games are fully dubbed in English.

Robotrek on the SNES

Seiken Densetsu III aka Secret of Mana 2 since it never got out of Japan

Mario & Luigi games. They tend to score well by critics, but very few here talk about them. The first and third games are already being graphically-enhanced for the 3DS.

Ah crap another mario

Dragon Age 2. In many ways the best game in the series. Yet many passed.

Two Worlds 2. The unique magic system, the world setting and unique locale and a decent levelling system made this a good RPG game nobody talks about. Yeah is a bit clunky and the story is mundane but its positives make this a good game

Lost Odyssey. I know it has a loyal following but no where near enough people talk about it.

Kotor II, as some people still seem to be under the impression the first is better.

Disgusting.

One of the best RPGs I've ever played is Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. This game never makes it in people's top 10 RPG lists and is rarely even mentioned. This makes me feel the game is underrated, despite having fantastic review scores. It's very sad that Nintendo themselves didn't understand why it's awesome and began to destroy the Paper Mario series.

Golden Sun. One of my all time favourites. Affraid we won’t see another installment.

@adamosmaki: I actually really enjoyed Two worlds 2 and managed to get 100% completion.

Hybrid Heaven on the Nintendo 64

Grandia 2

@Sgt_Crow: I loved the first 2, but thought the third game was pretty bad.

Tyranny

Final Fantasy 7.

Blue Reflection. Great characters and story, easy but deep and satisfying battle system, and beautiful soundtrack and visuals. It's got some minor issues but I can easily look over them, and it'd definitely be one of my favourite games. I really want a sequel or at least a Switch port.

Underrated? Hmmmm...

Legend of Legaia and Alpha Protocol are wildly different in every facet except both being underrated. Two fabulous RPG’s.

@princessgomez92:

Did you ever finish Blue Reflections? I got 10 hours in but I got bored of it. I just wanna know if it picks up later on.

The legend of heroes franchise; definitely don't have the renown they deserve.

You made my day by mentioning Recettear.

Yup. I really want a sequel to this game.

Dragon's Dogma

@nintendoboy16: Saga Frontier 2 has some of the best combat and art style, and was an huge improvement over the first. Final Fantasy 8 is just criminaly underrated

Shining Force 2. I just don't know how the series got forgotten. Sega, get on it.

I beat it, took me over 30 hours and did a bunch of side stuff. I also started a second playthrough on hard. They do introduce new mechanics to the battle system as you progress. If you didn't like the first ten hours though, you probably won't like the rest of it.

Legend of Dragoon

Bards Tale 4

Seriously one of the best games ever made.

I absolutely love the way each battle is set up with a staged performance. Each of the locations in the game is unique and all offer a twist on the game play. Glitzville is my favorite area and is maybe one of the most creative sections of an RPG ever. I can't say enough good things about this game.

I want to just say: Best Mario game. Best Gamecube game. Best use of a 2D character in a 3D world. Easy top 10 RPGs for me. And yes, the last good entry in the 'Mario RPG' franchise, sadly.

Oh what the hell, I'm gonna fire it up. Thanks for helping me figure out what to do with my Sunday.

@uninspiredcup: the second would've been better if they actually finished the game... To me, the first is a giant...

Obsidian did way better with gameplay mechanics though.

*long pause to reflect on independent Bioware......... *

Sigh.... I miss them.

Did you check it out with the Restoration mod?

The long, massive opening of Kotor 2 is pretty bad, but I much prefer it's story and Kreia is just, an amazing character.

Unfortunately even the Restore mod doesn't really fix the abrupt ending. Which was suppose to lead on to you (the player) and Revan in far out space dealing with the "real" Sith in the third game.

@pyro1245: lol, np mate. Seriously need to replay it myself.

@uninspiredcup: I've never played it moddes, but that's a game I would go back and play again if I knew the ending wasn't gonna catch me off guard like that!

@DocSanchez: SF2 a thousand times YES!

Shining Force 2 is one of the *very few* games that I would call a "perfect" game.. Everything about the game was a love letter to the Genesis and it's fans and is one of my top games of all time, period.

Yeah there are people that love it and know of it, but given just *how* good it is, it does not receive half the recognition it deserves.

Alpha Protocol. A really good RPG that came out around the time of the Mass Effect series and the Fallout revival. Got a bad rep for its bugs and for its shooting mechanics behaving like a RPG instead of a shooter.

Actually a really good RPG and for me it filled that Deus Ex void until Human Revolution was released.

pretty much everything Phirana Bytes makes (Risen series, Elex)

Just about every 16 - 128 bit RPG Sega ever made, underrated by Sega I mean and left to die and while i'm a Sega fanboy I can say for shame Sega for shame.

Shining Force 2 or Baten Kaitos 1.

It is a shame that Paper Mario games after The Thousand Year Door never have the critical acclaim that the early titles have. Interesting that while developer Intelligent Systems has kept the Fire Emblem franchise from death with Awakening several years back, it is unable to keep the Paper Mario series from decline.

Baten Katios and Lost Kingdom, both on the Game Cube.

valkyria chronicles 4 kotor jade empire tales of graces F blue dragoon lost odyssey last story tales of xillia

It is because...

-It doesn't feel like a Star Wars hate piece (what people also said about the Disney films, particularly Last Jedi)

-Rushed to hell and back (and don't give me that "lost content" excuse, as ProJared says "You can polish a turd until it shines, but then it's a shiny turd!", even though KOTOR II is hardly bad)

Oddly, I have more playtime on it than I do Civ III... something is wrong with me.

KOTOR 2 big masterpiece. Last Jedi pink hair woman SJW nonsense with reddit users leading the empire.

Suikoden I and II

The first game is great and the sequel is a masterpiece. It is imo, the best jrpg on the PS1, unfortunately it was overshadowed by FFVIII at the time

Panzer Dragoon Saga, it's G.O.A.T tier.

Another one would be DBZ: Legendary Super Warriors, on the Game Boy Color. For a Dragon Ball game, it's pretty damn challenging, but fun nonetheless.

Xenogears. Not enough people played it.

People always tend to gravitate towards originals. I gotta agree with you though. More options and seemed like your decisions carried a bit more weight than the 1st. Everything was more polished in general. I need to replay both again.

is what they say.

Meanwhile, they're the most unique of all mario games.