Mine is the Army Men series. Objectively mediocre games at best but the concept of toy soldiers fighting over our yards and rooms has always been cool to me
Hell yeah, the Army Men games are so dope. Terribly clunky, combat leaves much to be desired, mediocre map layouts but goddamn do I still find them fun. Specifically Sarge’s Heroes, would love a switch port.
Shadow Man. It was definitely shit, but I played it for so many hours. The mood and the scale of it was incredible, but the controls and gameplay were sorely lacking. Even so, I found it incredibly immersive.
i feel like there are two ways to interpret this question. some games are unpopular because they’re widely known, but considered to be not good, but others are merely niche games that never got widespread recognition.
for the former, Mad Max (2015) got mixed reviews and seems to have been generally regarded as MEDIOCRE, but i still keep coming back to it every so often. for the latter, I wanna plug an old PS2 game called Steambot Chronicles, that has never gotten the recognition it deserves. Its a steampunk mech sandbox rpg, and is legit fantastic, but my partner is the only other person i’ve met that has even heard of it.
I’ve heard of it! I just started my latest playthrough, and I was wondering if it ever got any love on Lemmy.
Eternal Card Game - basically an online MTG clone. It’s always been small, and the userbase has been gradually shrinking since it started. I still think it’s a great game though.
Hey, this is awesome to see. I worked on Eternal back before launch.
I thought it was a great digital version of mtg.
Russian Fishing 4. I’m not an IRL angler whatsoever but I love games that lean hard into real gear and simulation (as much as possible in a video game).
Rf4 just has a good chunk of content and feels good. The other fishing games out there are a joke in comparison IMO.
It’s unpopular because of grinds and the fish spawning, but I chalk it up to real life …sometimes, the day isn’t yours right?
The most unpopular/niche game series I’ve really liked is the Princess Maker series. Japanese games which only received official English translations recently, niche genre (life raising sim), some silly fanservicey elements… but it reminded me of playing with dolls when I was younger, and in some ways the Sims series also.
Another series I liked which is much more well known but still has a small presence in the gaming consciousness is Star Fox. Character cameos in the Super Smash Bros series don’t count.
Daaaaaamn, I found a copy of Princess Maker 2 on the internet all the way back in 2002 or so, only years later I found out about the original translation and failed attempt to release it in the USA. I personally love PM2 and should play 3 sometime properly.
The Princess Maker series are now officially available on Steam! Unfortunately the translation quality is quite poor and the unofficial DOS copy of 2 is much better in that regard, but it’s nice to have access to multiple entries in the series now.
they also cut some content which was against steam rules. (underage nudity and such)
Revelations: Persona.
No, the Persona series didn’t start with 3. There were three episodes before it (one 1, and two 2s 🤓 [did I mention the prototype, Shin Megami Tensei: If?]), and Revelations is the Americanized version of the very first Persona, with characters suddenly becoming hamburger-eaters in an American town, and at least one of them doing a reverse Michael Jackson.
Even for the elitists who spit on what the series has become under the direction of Katsura Hashino, Revelations isn’t liked that much, thanks to the localization and the amputated Snow-Queen quest. Nevertheless, I enjoy this game partly for its peculiar 90s charm (dubious localization included; it was the style at the time), and partly because of the qualities that survived the ocean crossing, like the OST and that sweet, grindy hardcore gameplay.
No, the Persona series didn’t start with 3
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Dynasty Warriors, They are my “Dumb fun” game. I usually just turn off my brain and “grind” even though I usually call out every game for grinding or unnecessary combat.
But something about that series makes me pick up every one and waste tens of hours just killing the same-ish soldiers over and over.
Same here. And if they come out with another one I’ll grab it. Although I didn’t play 9 because of bad reviews.
But I did recently replay DW8 Empires yet again. Love it!
I picked up a copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms to read finally.
As someone who invested an embarrassing amount of time into each mainline game since 3, 9 was awful. I think there may have been a decent (musou) game under there, but even several years and patches later it’s rough. The battlefields are empty. The traversal is buggy. The upgrade system is grindy in the least fun way. I don’t want to mine metal in a DW game…
The best musou games in the last 5-10 years have been spinoffs like Hyrule and Fire Emblem. I don’t have much faith in Koei Tecmo releasing a DW game that captures the essence of 3-5 in a modern way.
I recently started 9… and it’s… Yeah It deserved most of the somewhat negative reviews, but it’s still a DW game. I honestly think they should have called it something like Empires. As an open world game it’s interesting and unique but it is a little too open for “DW”. IT feels like a half step in the wrong direction but if they continued on and made “Dynasty Warriors 10 World” with that system and improved it, it could be something pretty unique. Just not as the main line series.
If you haven’t read Romance of the Three Kingdoms you’re in for a treat, I really enjoyed those books quite a bit, especially after being such a fan of the series. Getting more of the back story is great, and the characters are way more interesting.
