Some "Obscure" Video Games I Recommend 

How many of these did you guys already know about/had played in the past? Let me know right here on this comment some of your favorite "obscure" games. Love yall

Loom is one of the reasons I got into the game industry. Years later I was out in LA working with some voice actresses, and afterward I was talking with the voice producer we had met, and she told me her first title in the industry was Loom as a temp and that was her start in the industry, and I got to tell her how Loom was one of the things that shaped me as a kid and as a developer and thanked her for her work as we both were tearing up. Definitely made it a weird dinner for the rest of our dev group! It is one of my all time favorites and will always hold a special place in my heart. I often sneak little references to Loom in many of the things I've helped make, or even my personal projects. Thanks for highlighting it!

Troika deserved so much better than they ended up getting. ToEE, Arcanum, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines are all beloved games with dedicated communities to this day.

Custom Robo Arena for the DS went hard as a kid. You control a little robot in a tabletop diorama thing, and you gotta clean it with a little ring, and apparently there's a criminal gang that uses illegal military grade robo parts for the tiny toy sized robots. That's what I faintly remember

I would like to reccomend you a RTS game made by THQ Nordic called Impossible Creatures, i don't know how obscure it actually is, but people don't talk about it enough, the main gimmick is that you can make an army of animals to fight with, except your animals are made of animal fusions, you can take 2 animals and mix and match their bodyparts to create a frankenstein version of both, and use them to muster an army, there's a lot of animals to pick and choose and you can just get lost on the beast creation process The RTS part was fun enough too, the campaign honestly speaking was kind of slow if i remember it, but that was probably just me being too impatient to unlock more tech and animals, which you had to go out and collect their DNA The game is currently availible both on Steam and GOG with all patches and extra content, and people have made some mods for it too, there's a very cool one with dinosaurs that i found recently and may give it a try

Holy- FUTURE TACTICS? For most of my life now, I would occasionally think about that game from my childhood, but could never remember the name. It's like a nostalgic fever dream hearing Ghostcharm acknowledge it existed.

LOOM is one of those games I used to watch my dad play, and I pretty much started hyperventilating upon seeing it again. I'm so, so happy that it's on Steam (even if that's imperfect) because I'm not tech-savvy enough to rig up these old games myself . . .

Highly recommend Sega Saturn games. Super underrated system and has a ton of great games that are easy to pickup and play. I'll recommend a few games with a paragraph for each, so safe to say big wall o text incoming. Panzer Dragoon I & II - Starting with one that actually got some recognition with a cool remake recently. Contrary to what it sounds like, it's an on-rails shooter in which you ride a dragon and shoot stuff. That's literally it and it's fun as hell. Like most Sega games, it has tons of enemies, explosions, and is easy to pick up and play. There are limited continues, so keep that in mind if you're using some kind of emulation. You can also play the remake on Switch, which I haven't played but I highly recommend anyway since it might be our chance to see more remake goodness from Sega. Bulk Slash - Do you like mechs? I like mechs. Play as one in third-person and blast and shoot stuff. Tons of high-quality sprites and animation by Hudson, so expect detailed anime stuff. Levels are in 3d and are pretty open. You can even fly around if you want. Exploring is recommended as you'll find pilots who need assistance and give you new abilities. Pretty self explanatory, and goddamn is it satisfying to shoot things. Saturn Bomberman - Holy Homberman, it's Bomberman. You probably get the gist: place a bomb and kill some dudes, but try not to get killed by your own bombs. Tons of cool powerups, including the then-new Dinosaur helpers, who give you an extra hit as well as various abilities such as jumping over stuff. Why should you care? Because this is a Bomberman game that supports TEN PLAYERS. This can also be done through emulation, just make sure to activate your multiplayer adapter in whatever core you're using. Even the single player is tons of fun, and can also be done with 2 players. Grab some friends and have a BLAST. Fighters Megamix - The Saturn's Smash Bros., a crossover fighter with Fighting Vipers and Virtua Fighter with tons of unlockables from other Sega games like Virtua Cop and Daytona USA (YES you can play as the car). People will talk about the insane skill ceiling, but simply starting this game couldn't be simpler: you have a block button, a punch, and a kick. That's it. Don't stress about the learning curve, just grab friends and have fun like you do in Smash, because this is an amazing game for goofballs. Did I mention you can play as characters from Sonic: The Fighters? Legend of Oasis - A prequel to Beyond Oasis on Mega Drive, you play through an Arabian-style overhead setting with a sword, solving puzzles and fighting stuff like big bad bosses and big dumb knights with various techniques. It's mostly like Link to the Past, but unique to this game are Elementals, spirits that follow you around and do various things like heal you or burn fellas. Another game that's pretty simple to understand and play. It's also called Legend of Thor 2 in Europe. Astal - Short artsy single-player platformer. Play through a fairy-tale story as a little kid with super strength and a bird companion. Interesting bird mechanics changes per stage. Co-op allows the 2nd player to be the bird. JP version recommended since the USA version has limited continues and an alternate intro without lyrics. Understanding Japanese is not required, as it's yet another game that's easy to understand how to play and the story is pretty simple despite having a lot of talking in the intro. Policenauts - Before Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima made some sweet cinematic adventure games. This one in particular features detail-rich anime cutscenes taking place in a future scifi world in which you are an astronaut awoken from cryosleep and now must work as a detective in LA. The rest of the story is incredible, but I'll say no more as it's best played blind. Has been on a few systems in Japan, but has unfortunately never seen an international release. Fans have picked up the slack, as the best port of this game is on Saturn with fan translation. Panzer Dragoon: Saga - Goddamn does this game tickle my pickle. Set to compete against Final Fantasy VII, it's Panzer Dragoon as an RPG. Tons of story and cutscenes with voices, it pushes the technical prowess of the Saturn to its limits and is a technical marvel. Rare and expensive, this cult classic can sell for upwards of $1000 complete in box. Someone in the comments of a longplay I found said it's the best game they've never played, and I can't say I disagree with that.

About Magic: The Gathering - Battlegrounds, you say there is always emulation, but the game actually does exist on PC! I played it for ungodly amounts of hours as a kid, and I even still have it on my laptop for whenever I'm out traveling and need a small game to pass the time in an airport or whatever. I really do hope they one day remaster it or do this idea again but more refined.

Holy sweet baby batman..you have no idea how long I've been looking for the game Silver. I have a single memory of the game, sort of like a screenshot in my mind, of a friend playing it on PC so many years ago. I could never find out which game it was. I tried searching for it by describing this image I had of the game on google and stuff like that, but never found it. Over the years whenever that memory came up I always tried to figure out which game it was but always in vain. I was just casually listening to this wonderful video while working, and when I glanced at the screen my jaw dropped as I instantly recognized the game as the same "screenshot" in my mind. Crazy stuff! Thank you and awesome video!

One game that i's call obscure is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle's: My Life as a Darklord, which takes the Tower Defense genre VERY literally! It's a shame it was a WiiWare exclusive, but that only makes my Wii all the more valuable! Also could you do a Villianpedia on the Overlords from the Overlord videogame series?

Drakan: Order of the Flame was a somewhat janky "Tomb Raider" clone, except you had swords, magic and a fucking Dragon! Little Big Adventure 2 was a tank-controlled adventure of Twinsen where you help him save his planet from an alien invasion that initially look friendly, but there is more to their diplomatic smiles.

Three. You hit me with three deep cuts here. First was Loom, which I remember watching my """adoptive dad""" play on a cobbled together scrap computer, it was running DOS from what I think was an original disc (like, to install the OS with) and Loom was loaded in the same way. Second was Goblin Commander, which I actually own/owned a copy of on GC, and even played a little bit of. I'd never played an RTS before, and I was young and not too patient for it's very alien (to me) gameplay, so I never got far, but I DID play it. And third is I-Ninja, a game truly near and dear to my heart, though unfortunately, one I never 100 percented (a few of the special challenges were just too friggin hard for me, like the one hit rock-em sock-em robots challenge, egg head something or other I think). Really nice hearing somebody talk about them, even if it's basically just because of the feeling of that DiCaprio meme (the TV pointing one).

One available RPG I'd recommend is Sudeki it's a British made game that is unique. Also the shopkeeper Kamo is best character. Another game is Brute force a 4 character tactical third person shooter. Then there's Kingdom under fire.

Some of my old obscure favorites include the likes of Hellsinker, Ashes 2063, Little Fighter 2, DX Ball 2, Dragonshard, Digital Devil Saga, AirXonix, Shinobi Ps2, Hinokakera, Kings Bounty the Legend, Ar Tonelico 2, Splosion Man, Hydro Thunder, Soul Nomad and some more I can't quite think of at the top of my head.

I really dig this video, this topic has always been one near and dear to my heart and I gotta give you kudos for experimenting outside of what you're more well known for. Keep it up! Also I have a few "obscure" picks of my own, I'd love to see you cover any of these if you did a follow up! Or just recommendations for anyone in the comments looking for more weird games like I am right now lol. 1: Stonekeep: Though it's pretty well known as one of the last classic PC dungeon crawlers and a big dud for Interplay in the late 90's, neither of those things are talked about much anymore. But I have fond memories of the goofy FMV, the wild interface and inventory system, and even the spin-off novel that was supposed to come out along with the sequel. Deserved better for sure. 2: Psi-ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy: A super edgy PS2/Xbox early 2000's stealth/shooter by midway with the added wrinkle of playing a protagonist with psychic abilities. It should be more well known if only for the fact that it had fully physics based gameplay a while before Half Life 2, and having a cheesy music video that's *very* era appropriate. 3: Blood Will Tell: A PS2 action game based on the manga "Dororo" by Tezuka Osamu. Obviously a product of it's time in that it's heavily inspired by DMC, but it has a lot going for it that I think made it but ahead of it's time as well. Not the least of which is the source material it's adapting, playing as a dude who has lost most of his body parts to fifty different fiends and uses a bunch of prosthetic weapons to get them back, like samurai swords attached to his arms, or a freaking cannon hidden in his false leg. On par with God Hand for underrated action games for me. 4: Lost Odyssey: A JRPG that was meant to be Microsoft's answer to Final Fantasy along with Blue Dragon and Enchanted Arms. Probably the least obscure item on this list of mine but still crazily underrated. Nobuo Uematsu himself on the soundtrack, and some of the best character work I've ever seen in a video game with the in-game novellas called the "Thousand Years of Dreams." Criminally underrated and trapped on the 360, what a shame. 5: Zax the Alien Hunter: Definitely the most obscure game I can think of off the top of my head. A strange little story-based top down shooter on the PC from around 2000. Crash-land on the planet of a primitive alien species and rescue them from a Borg-like robot overlord that's capturing them and turning them into cyborg slaves. The graphics are what sticks out in my memory, animated sprites made of high-poly models over pre-rendered backgrounds, like Diablo or Donkey Kong Country. Fun as heck to run around and blast nerds with the different guns you can craft from materials you find along the way. And your ship even has a holographic AI personality that is somehow alien Marilyn Monroe. A real wild ride from a time when games were just different. Holy crap, didn't mean to type a novel. Anyway take care and happy gaming!

Obscure game suggestion: Robot Alchemic Drive for the PS2 It's a giant mech game where you fend off an alien kaiju invasion, and I call it the anime version of Pacific Rim because it's one of the few games to really capture the SHEER SIZE of controlling a giant mech. Everything is slow and ominous and powerful in the best way! But there's a twist where you control it from the outside, so you are constantly swapping from the mech to the pilot as you scramble around the city for a good vantage point that won't also put you in danger. The mechanics are surprisingly in-depth as you directly control each limb on the mech, there's lots of customization and super moves to unlock, the story branches and changes based on how well you protect the city... one of my all-time favorite games, it really deserves a modern look.

I've played Septerra Core, I always thought that's where valve got its inspiration for Alyx's robot friend Dog in Half Life 2 since there is a robot dog creature companion very similar to him in SC .

If you're a big fan of Gladius and also enjoy boardgames or the table top experience, I highly recommend looking into the two Hoplomachus titles from Chip Theory Games. Gladius was the direct inspiration when making the series, and they live up to the video game. One of the releases is a fully solitaire experience called Hoplomachus: Victorum, each run of the game you're selecting a hero character and building up a troop of gladiators, and then make your way through three acts of defeating the big bad's champions and then finally taking on the boss on Mt. Vesuvius. The second title is called Hoplomachus: Remastered, which is a collection of nearly all the original Hoplomachus games that were Chop Theory's first games with entirely new art and balanced so you can interchange things with Victorum and vice versus. Remastered focuses more on larger arena one off skirmishes, either PvP or PvE, with multiple game modes for all, and two different arenas with different mechanics. They're both large lifestyle games, built around replayability and high production value. I can't recommend them enough if you enjoy both Gladius and table top gaming.

I'm not sure if this game could be considered obscure, but definitely Sacrifice. I don't think I have heard anyone talk about it and it is honestly one of my favorite games. Also, it has Tim Curry so it is a must. ALSO WHEEL OF TIME FPS MENTIONED!!

11:29 Septerra Core being like "We have Midgar at home."

As a guy Currently streaming Wizardry 1-2-3 translated snes version and a DND game alternating I have to say I can totally appreciate the first several games on the list. Yeah some obscure titles on here, and I'll even admit I don't know them all, heck for the first time in my life I don't know half of them, and in the community I deal with usually comes to me for the obscure stuff. 50 points for you and a hat tip.

::30 seconds into a musing about the unique nature of obscurity in gaming:: Narration " . . . some random forgotten Sega Saturn Shoot em' up . . . " Me: "OH MAN SHIPPU MAHOU DAISAKUSEN!" If that's not a recipe for an instant follow, I don't know what is. Love me some Raizing/Eighting stuff. Ask any of my friends and they'll tell you that my dream is to have an Armed Police Batrider cabinet at my wake. Resonance of Fate, Loom, Scrapland, PS2 Rygar, Puppeteer . . . . some real killers on here. Excellent taste.

Man this video made me think of these old adventure games I played when I was younger that sparked my love for story-based games. They were part of this "100 games" collections from the walmart computer games section but makes me really want to revisit them and see how well they hold up to what I remember. All of these seemed really charming and interesting. I think I played the series of unfortunate events game when I was younger and might still have the game somewhere with my old games!

23:55 Marg Simpson Also you showed in in the video so I thought you was going to mention it. The OG Digimon World was one of my favorite games growing up. Maybe it was because I lived in nowhere Appalachia Ohio, but even back then it seemed obscure. No one else in my class of 59 kids had heard of it. The only place that sold games was wal mart 45 minutes away, they didnt have it. There was a video safari (rental) about 20 minutes away that had the game. I rented it several times, until they let me buy it because no one else ever rented it lol

why u so Chill

The sheer validation i felt when I-Ninja was mentioned lol I rememeber playing that game for hours and hours as a kid on the ps2, and i never got tired of it. THERES A GIANT MECH FIGHT AT THE END LIKE CMON?!! Im glad that lil kid me at least kinda understood what was cool, cause that game is still so much fun today. I remember my oldest sister gettin it for me for a bday, it was like $5 at gamestop or somethin, and i played that thing until it stopped workin, genuinely. I also didnt have a memory stick at the time so i had to redo the entire game every time the ps2 turned off, but i didnt care. It was that game, sly cooper, and some weird duck driving game where youre on a moped and theres an aligator thats unsettling lol

Whenever I see videos about obscure video games, I always get sad when people don't mention Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, it's a action/platformer with some puzzles in there, it's similar to The Last Guardian, it's cute, and I love it. 10/10 would recommend

Man, Rygar and I Ninja really took me back. I played those games so much as a child. One of my favorite obscure games of all time is Arx Fatalis. Classic Arkane Studios. If only we could get another.

Praise be, another GhostCharm video. Blessed day.

The only one of these that I was already familiar with was Loom, and I wholeheartedly agree with that recommendation, in fact, if I had to pick a top 5 obscure games to recommend, Loom would probably be in that list. The others would be: Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure; a DOS platformer by Apogee (the creators of Duke Nukem and Commander Keen). Cosmo is one of the most unique and original games of its era, with monsters and environments creative enough to rival anything that even heavy hitters like Mario and Sonic could come up with (although there are a small handful of creatures that are straight-up rip-offs of others, though even most of those have their own unique spin to them). Overall, the game is vibrant and whimsical and very solidly designed (plus having a banger-filled soundtrack, including a cover of ZZ Top's 'Tush' on the main menu), yet despite being (in my opinion) better in pretty much every way than Apogee's other platformers, it's one of the least known of them. Volgarr the Viking; a brutally hard indie hack-and-slash-platformer (I think released about 10-ish years ago), Volgarr is all about dying over and over to understand and master every little nuance of every mechanic and puzzling out how to use them as efficiently as possible to overcome the challenges thrown at you (a gameplay loop at the core of many other greats like Dark Souls and many tactics games). Blue Wish Resurrection+ is an indie bullet hell game (there's a non 'plus' version, but it has fewer features and an inferior soundtrack imo, which is important because BWR+'s OST is phenomenal); if you've ever been interested in the genre, this is the one I recommend; it's got enough settings to make it relatively newbie-friendly while still having some incredible challenge for more hardcore players. The main thing though is it's an example of just all the basic stuff of the genre done to absolute perfection; it captures the best of the core bullet-hell gameplay loop, the controls are tight and flawless, the score system is not so complex that you can't figure it out on your own (an issue common in the genre), and the visuals are perhaps a little odd looking, but are some of the most readable the genre has too offer. And finally, Megaman X Command Mission. This lesser known spin-off of the Megaman X series is a JRPG on the Gamecube and (I think) PS2; the story is kind of generic at best, the graphics are decent, the music is awesome, and the voice acting is hysterically bad; but the real draw is the battle system. It's honestly one of the best turn-based JRPG battle systems ever made; it takes many of the elements from FFX and adds a few systems on top to make it much more strategic (especially when it comes to tactical synergy between party members, which, in my opinion, is the real unique value that turn-based battle systems have over real-time, but is sadly kind of glossed over in many RPGs).

Nice video ! Here is my list for people reading the comments : Galleon (Original XBox) - This is a action-adventure game that has quite some problems : kind of ugly, weird controls, lack of polish in some aspects, and pretty bad audio with ton of stock sound effects. However, beneath the surface, this game is really nice for various reasons : It has a very good level design. You get to visit seven different and huge islands in this game, all of which have their own gimmicks, and your goal is pretty much always to get to a certain point of these islands. Your character can do many things to accomplish this : run super fast, jump super high, climb some walls, freely swim and slide on walls, and if there are enemies around fight using some sort of martial art. While I said the game is kind of ugly, the levels themselves look super good thanks to their cartonny style. The most important aspect of this game however is without a doubt the controls. They are kind of weird, but once you get used to them they feel natural : unlike most other platformers, your character can either move "safely" or "quicly". Basically, if your are walking, your character will never fall off a cliff, but instead take a safe path to get to the direction you are looking at. If you were to run however, your character would fall off that same cliff, unless of course you decided to jump over a gap for example. It's not a game for everybody, but I'm sure it is a game many don't know about. Star wars : Jedi Knight - Dark Forces 2 AND Jedi Knight 3 - Jedi Academy (PC) - Don't really know if I can say those games are THAT obscure. But honestly, not many people have played them at the end of the day. Dark Forces 2 has an excellent level design, possibly one of the best I've ever seen : the game really wants you to explore these impressive, gigantic maps to find secret areas, which in turn allow you to have even better force powers. I think one of my favourite moment in this game was when I ended up on the ledge of a extremly high imperial building, with wind sometimes pushing me to my death. Jedi Academy on the other hand, has a worse level design, but is the perfect game if you ever want to feel powerful. Ligthsaber combat is excellent, and throwing people in lava while choking them with force powers is a mood. (I ommited Jedi Outcast, because I think it had a pretty mediocre level design unlike it predecessor, and has a slightly less good lightsaber combat than it's successor, but if you like both these games I mentioned you might want to try it out) Streets of Rogue (PC) - Don't really know if it's obscure, but it's just great. It's basically a roguelike where you can choose a character based on his profession (for example : soldier, doctor, drug-dealer, vampire, gorilla... yeah) and based on the character you picked, you will be thrown in a generated map with some goals to achieve (soldiers must blow up stuff, doctors must heal people, drug dealers must sell drugs, etc...), with each character having its own quirk (a doctor cannot kill people, rich boy must always be on drugs, gorillas are hated by everyone except other gorillas...). It's very chaotic, but also very fun, and there is multiplayer too ! A sequel is also in the workings. X-morph defense (PC) - When I look at the cover art of this game, I am under the impression that I am going to play a chinese knock-off of comand and conquer. In reality, this game is a tower-defense with three interesting twists : firstly, you actually play the bad guys, as in aliens invading Earth and draining it of its energy. Also, you get to play as a small alien ship hovering on top of the entire map, and you can shoot the incoming troops (not really unique, but not many tower defense games do that either). And last but not least, you actually determine where enemies will come from. Not by selecting where they will spawn or whatever, this is predetermined, rather, you can place blockades on their path so that they have to take another one, the only condition being that they need at least one path to get to you. And if you can't place any barricades because of your lack of energy... You can DESTROY buildings so that they FALL on their path. You can throw a bomb at the base of a building so that it falls on the road. You can blow up a bridge so that they can't take it anymore, nor take the road beneath it. In fact, you can blow absolutely anything in this game, and it always remain visually impressive. I have plenty of other games, but I don't really know if I can say they are obscure enough or good enough to be recommended...

"As your character takes more damage, they become less useful, which makes sense" From a realism perspective that makes quite a bit of sense, but I think for a lot of games, the opposite actually makes for a better game. Characters having limit break style abilities that activate when you're at low health, or have a bar that has to fill up via taking damage etc. allow for last-minute comebacks and more interesting opportunities for the player, rather than them potentially getting to a point where they may as well just give up because their characters are all damaged, and things are only going to get worse as they get even weaker. Systems that *reduce* the options a player has, or lead to negative outcomes for the player, have to be carefully weighed in order to ensure that they're only there to balance the game and provide a decent challenge. In this case, I don't think sufficient extra fun or (interesting) challenge is added to warrant including it in a game like this; it's like the dual of just increasing the health of enemies/bosses in order to provide "challenge" without doing anything else meaningful.

I remember playing Silver on a demo disk I had on the dreamcast and Rygar on a demo disk I had for the PS2! Shadow of Rome was amazing, I wish that got a sequel, I remember playing through that twice!

Xanadu Next is such a gem. I wish they'd remaster it, as that 2016 re-release on Steam and GOG has a plethora of issues on modern hardware, especially Windows 11. Another two I wanna mention are Umihara Kawase, specifically the first game (original release on the SNES, it's also available on Steam), and Meadow, from the same studio that made the Shelter games.

I Ninja seems like someone’s reinterpretation of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. That first person mech sequence gives it away. Looks great tho. I don’t usually go for videos like this but I think you got a pretty cool list here. Also, being probably a little older than you I was surprised to hear of the 2000s as the golden age, I would think of the 80s with the NES and insane arcade scene, but it actually makes a lot of sense we’re still riding out what was set up in the 2000s

some "obscure" video games i recommend (all of them are on Steam): 1) 8Doors: Arum's Afterlife Adventure 2) Astronite 3) Cave Crawler 4) Chessplosion 5) Dadish 6) Dadish 2 7) Donut County 8) Fireboy & Watergirl: Elements 9) Grapple Dog 10) Jet Kave Adventure 11) Just Shapes & Beats 12) Maptroid: Worlds 13) Open World Game: the Open World Game 14) Sir Whoopass: Immortal Death 15) Skator Gator 16) Snail Bob 2: Tiny Troubles 17) Spaceship for Newbies 18) Spoiler Alert 19) SteamWorld Heist 20) Swallow the Sea 21) They Always Run 22) Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion 23) Will You Snail? 24) Yoku's Island Express

Gonna leave an obscure platformer here for some lucky scrollers; a little Kickstarter-era indie title called “Freedom Planet.” To sum it up, Shovel Knight is to the Super NES as Freedom Planet is to the Sega Genesis. It plays like Sonic 2 mixed with Mega Man X and Gunstar Heroes, has gorgeous pixel art, three playable characters, and a thermite soundtrack that fires on all cylinders until the credits roll. It even got a banger sequel in 2022 that outdoes the original in basically every way, but I’d recommend playing the original too it’s a jam and a half!

9:36 WOOOOO! Septerra Core! The first RPG I ever played, and damn was it memorable. No walkthroughs, no hints, a hot summer, and tons of cheeseburgers, trying to play through it with my friend. One of my defining life experiences as a teen.

Two games that are never talked about, both have an *amazing* soundtrack and aesthetics, and have stuck with me forever since I played them: - Critters For Sale - Umurangi Generation

Oh my good Jesus lord, a second person that remembers Future Tactics!

One obscure video game I'd love to see covered is Oddworld. A criminally underrated series with a lot of charm to it

One of my all time favorite video games that's obscure is Jade Cocoon 2 on PS2. I rarely hear anyone mention it. And it's such a fun and interesting game about merging monsters with a cool rotational battle system. Highly recommend it!

I remember playing a series of unfortunate events on my GameCube, and for whatever reason it wouldn't work with my normal controller in some areas, but it worked with my turbo controller. It was weird stuff like the hover shoes being impossibly slow with a regular controller, but not with the turbo controller, but I still really enjoyed that game

Also reminded me that I rented Goblin Commander for PS2 from a Hollywood video when I was a kid (8 as for rygar the creator of God Of War was asked about it and said it was inspired by devil may cry and he hadn't even heard of rygar before people brought his attention to it

Dark Cloud. I maxed out the play time counter and still didn't do everything. 15/10

Kinda want you to do a villainpedia on AM, the AI from the short story "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" and the video game of the same name. There's a bit more lore in the video game, but both versions should be analyzed to get the full picture of the character. This character was the inspiration of many ai villains in later franchises.

I'm gonna use this as a chance to shill some of my own favorites; Ender Lilies, Omori, Unsighted, and One Step From Eden. Yes, they're all relatively modern indies and yes, none of them are particularly obscure (except Unsighted, that one's definitely not as well known, please play it.), but they're some big stand-outs in recent years that I adore to no end. Also, Breath of Fire 3 is my favorite RPG that I feel every RPG-enjoyer shoulder experience. I would kill for a QoL remaster of that game ;-;

i-ninja is GOATED...

Babe wake up, Ghostcharm just posted another banger.

>List of obscure game recommendations >I've only heard of 4: Septerra, RoF, Loom, Lovely Planet Congratulations on making an obscure games list with actually obscure games! Definitely gonna try some of these, especially Septerra Core - I have it in my Steam library yet never played. This vid got me to finally get around to it.

Once upon a time, my mom won a free video game at a trade fair. She didn't want it, so she let me pick it. We went to this dude's house and picked from five boxes on his kitchen table. The game? Entomorph: Plague of the Darkfall. A weird game about people living with giant bugs. Action adventure, light RPG elements, and very simple gameplay. Had a rockin' soundtrack and is still one of my nostalgic favourites. Never heard anyone talk about it.

Dont know how obscure this game is, But Solatorobo on the nintendo ds holds a special place in my heart. Gameplay is nothing special, but the world building and characters in this game is amazing. It made me get all the world design books of this game and i love them dearly.

Pirates: The Black Buccaneer was an adventure "hack and slash" (iirc) game where you play as a shipwrecked pirate and get this amulet of The Black Buccaneer where you'd enter a "rage" mode to transform into him. A lot like God of War but Pirates. It was on PS2 and it's heavily likely that this is just nostalgia talking but, idk, something about fighting as the Buccaneer was so cool as a kid. Always did want that necklace amulet.

18:20 I absolutely adore cases where people who wrote old books were old nerds who loved videogames and put effort into making games out of their own stories. I mean off the top of my head I can only think of this one and I have no mouth and I must scream, but it's still always a thrill to hear about

Charlie the Duck, Asterix & Obelix XXL, Hegemony Gold: Wars of the Ancient Greece, Oriental Empires, Granny in Paradise, Sven XXX, Vedelm: The Golden Horde, Asterix & Obelix: Mega Madness, Dragon Fist 3, Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 2: Pacific Theater, Neighbors From Hell, Enigma, Sea Dog 2 (alt. title: Pirates of the Carribean), Armed with Wings, Larry and the Gnomes, Plazma Burst 2: Forward to the Past, Commander: The Great War

I may add to these in the future: - Atomic Runner: Sega genesis arcade platformer that was basically and endless runner before they were cool. Fun and challenging with great graphics and music - Gore Ultimate Soldier: Old and somewhat janky boomer shooter with tons of weapons with primary/secondary fire, a localized armor system and goofy enemies - Sonny 1,2: turn based rpg flash game, fully combat focused, with a great emphasis on strategy. Both the originals and the reboot are great imo

Septerra Core! Clearly a forgotten one, nice to see it mentioned! That was the very first game I bought on GOG back in 2010. I have it in the back of my head to revisit it someday, loved the world and ambiance, very original. Loom wasn't overlooked at the time. Back then adventure games were a way bigger part of gaming than now, and any Sierra or Lucas Art release couldn't possibly go under the radar. Loom was seen as the very different, poetic one, a unique game. Too short unfortunately but yeah, so worth playing even today. Thanks for this very well made list, good not to hear about the same games again for once. And for sure this is the golden age of entertainment!

I guess I am just that old. I remember seeing previews for Scrapland and I remember when the game eventually came out. I played Septerra Core a bit when it came out and tried playing Temple of Elemental Evil, but it was soo buggy that it was unplayable on my system. Cool list. I'll have to go check these out on Steam. Very weird to hear about this as the Golden age of gaming, but it was probably my favourite Era - before DLC, mobile gatcha games and games as a service. Also a time when graphics weren't good enough to be convincing, but could spark your imagination. The simpler graphics made games far more readable as to what the play space was. A lot of modern games I struggle with because they try to be realistic - masking the underlying game systems.

man, goblin commander was so cool. What a good video, very nostalgic. Didn't know most of these, might even play a few. Septerra Core's art reminds me of SaGa Frontier and was quite the gem to me. It had like 8 different main characters to pick from and you could find the others in world. Pretty sure it's only a little obscure though, it did get a remaster in the last year or so. I don't know if it's obscure either but Devil Survivor was one of my favorite games that no one but me has seemed to play (based on people I've met, it was an ATLUS title so of course it has fans)

GOBLIN COMMANDER! My brother rented for me from a blockbuster when I was kid. I knew it was a real game! I couldn't remember the name or much of anything but it was an RTS. I was like 5 tbf. The memories are flooding back! WOW! Voodo Vince is certified hood classic! idk what's up with the era of gaming having the most ball torturous final bosses tho. Idk maybe that's just what I felt because the last time I played it I was 10. I remember clenching my teeth and collapsing into goo after beating it. There was some AOE attack or super accurate tracking or something absolutely painful. Good memories there. Gotta cop the remaster.

I have a few: Cave Noire a Japanese only Game boy game from 1991, Void Stranger on steam, and probably the hardest puzzle games ever made: La Mulana 1 and 2. It's not as obscure anymore but World of Horror as well. I'm also a huge nihon falcom fan surprised you didn't mention Ys or Brandish.

Obscure hidden gems I recommend: 1. Lost Technology (play lizardman faction, then human faction) 2. Odin Sphere (if you like smash bros, you will love this) 3. Death's Gambit (story rivaling Chrono Trigger and Deus Ex 1) 4. Zer0Ranger (the ultimate plot twist, shootemup?) And if you somehow love fire emblem, Tear Ring Saga (it has the best localization of any game in existence)

Thanks for the recommendations: I would recommend you: RPG: Arcanum Adventure: That Cat Lady Strategy: 5D chess with multiverse and time travel Action: Cold Fear FPS: Nosferatu Wrath of Malechi

Oh man, if you ever can find it, and your into that kinda generic high fantasy 90s DOS RPGs, then you absolutely should play Betrayal at Krondor if you ever get the opportunity. It's actually a canon entry in Raymond E. Feist's Krondor series of books, but even with the author's input, the story isn't anything groundbreaking. The gameplay however is actually a really fun RPG that feels like it's underlying systems are very rooted in D&D. The game plays from a kind of first person super low texture 3d view when on the world map, and cuts into a tactical turn based kind of 3d field map for combat. What really blew me away as a kid were the more realistic elements like needing good and rest that would usually end up being a chore and annoying in most games, but somehow they manage to be just intrusive enough to be interesting while not so burdensome that they run the momentum and fun of a gameplay session. Like I never thought that a game where you are required to keep enough good for your party on hand would benefit from said food spoiling after so long preventing you from just loading up all at once, but somehow it works by keeping your pack space less cluttered while also encouraging exploration. Like, in hindsight it's not the most technically innovative game, even for it's time, but it's definitely worth a play through, I think anyone who can appreciate these old games would be impressed.

Late to the party, but 100% on Resonance of Fate. I actually got it on release and I remember no one knowing what the hell it was. Setting was incredible, loved how the map system worked and how ridiculous the weapon upgrading worked. The clothing customization was a nice touch too. As far as obscure games I loved. The Kenka Bancho games on PSP. A series of beat em ups based on Japanese school gangs. Brainless fun, kind of a cross between Yakuza, Godhand and River City Ransom.

Not forgotten. Lesser seen by the newer generation who don't take the time to go through the crap to find these. Some of my lesser known faves: Diggles: the Myth of Fenris (PC) Dokapon Kingdom (Wii) Baroque (PS2) Trapt (PS2) Heavenly Sword (PS3) Tokyo Jungle (PS3) Gitaroo Man Lives! (PSP) Fragile Dreams - Farewell Ruins of the Moon (Wii) Calling (Wii) Knights in the Nightmare (DS) Monster Hunter Diary: Poka Poka Airou Village DX (3DS) Netstorm (PC) Shadowgate (NES) Dark Messiah Might and Magic (PC) Dragon's Breath (Atari ST) Jazz Jackrabbit (both) (PC) Comix Zone (Sega Genesis) Gene Wars (PC) Hungry Ghosts (PS2) Gatcha Force (GameCube)

Septerracore, despite all its flaws, Is still one of my favorite RPGs ever. You didn't mention the tarot card system that was a blast! Gladius was infamous where I'm from. The official Xbox magazine released a demo back then, that was so difficult that If you could record yourself beating the demo and sent them proof, you'd win a full copy of the game. I did manage to beat it, but there were no smartphones available back then... MTG Battlegrounds was one of my favorites. The local multiplayer was also a nice touch! However, my parents' house meta ended up revolving around who could Counter Spell the other more efficientely haha

Other obscure games I played in the past but were not in the video Malice Technomage Return of Eternity Knight's Apprentice ~ Memorick's Adventures Jazz Jackrabbit 2 TSF Summoner Hopefully I'm not the only one that remembers these :) Especially Technomage, I remember revisiting the game throughout my childhood for years, eventually finishing it.

I gotta know... Can I like a video more than once? Because this one deserves it. I didn't know half of these and 90% of what I played as a kid ended up as either abandonware or hard to recall memories! I've tried searching for several games that i either imagined or they're so obscure they're now lost forever so these well elaborated videos are a gem! Great work!

I picked up Temple of Elemental Evil for $6, after accidentally discovering (and obsessing over) Baldur's Gate 2 via a demo on the dvd for that crappy 90's Dungeons and Dragons movie. Managed to get all the other Forgotten Realms games (outside BG2) for anywhere between 50 cents to $10; all of them new and in boxes. TOEE is a fun but difficult game. A Series of Unfortunate Events was a fun game. Got it on sale for, like, $1 in Walmart. Contrast is such a unique game. It definitely needs to be checked out by others; I love the art!

I’m so glad you mentioned Xanadu Next! Another great thing about it is the exploration. I hate to draw the comparison, but it's very “Souls-like” (or would it be King's Field-like?) in how you constantly open up shortcuts to previous areas, with plenty of side routes and secrets to find. But one thing that I absolutely hate, and which I feel I should warn everyone about, is an enemy near the end. It has an attack which drains your XP. The monsters actually level you down, and if you save your game afterwards, well… I hope you like grinding.

2:09 And the ever-rising stats and levels. Glad Energy Breaker got translated, super famicom was the only nintendo console i ever owned back in early 2000 but that's been sold away ages ago so i hope it has a stable emulator, i usually don't go for games older than ps2 era but might make an exception for this one, i love SRPGS. Thanks for featuring Xanadu Next, by the way, it's one of the most underrated Falcom games along with the Brandish series. Never knew it was ported to a bloody nokia, either, wild.

I have only played Xanadu Next of these games. Assuming you put cheat engine to get a lot of keys (it's what gets it from 10/10 to 0/10 otherwise), the game is a masterpiece. It dwarfs diablo and all its clones. It has the best combat of its genre. The gameloop is solid, and every area *naturally* connects to the hub. Reaching the hub from an area, you get the same feel as reaching Firelink Shrine again. Edit: The postgame is insane, yet it's optional. Its an expansion added on top, and I won't spoil exactly, but imagine castlevania symphony of the night where the entire dungeon is reversed. But better. You must master the combat system to master the game.

Thanks for making this video! I love looking back through games i missed and thinking, “how did i miss this!!!” Haha. I hope someone would make an entire channel series out of finding retro/obscure games.

I actuallt happened across a copy of Gladius for the PS2 while I was out of state last weekend. I would have looked right past it if I hadn't watched your video. I bought it, unopened/unused, and popped it into my PS2 for the first time today. I can definitely see myself getting lost in this one. Thanks man!

Played Shadow of Rome on the PS2 back in 2005. The gameplay was hard but it was satisfying getting better weapons after performing combos in the gladiatorial sections. The crowd's bloodthirst is insatiable.

For fans of Septerra Core, I'd also recommend Cosmic Star Heroine! It has a similar vibe, sort of cyberpunky blend of western and eastern aesthetics in a turn-based RPG (even has a timer system). I think it's closer to anime though, very clearly inspired by a mix of Phantasy Star and classic 80s sci-fi and cyberpunk anime like Cyber City. It's great fun!

I'll always remember Folklore, a PS3 launch title. I haven't played it since then, but I remember, in the final boss fight, standing on my couch in excitement. Maybe that's because it was the first time I played a game with motion controls, but I think they were used in an interesting way. It was criticized for being repetitive (you play as two separate characters, who often retread familiar levels), and it was jokingly called "Folkemon" because you would capture creatures to use in battle after you defeated them, but I didn't care about any of that. Gotta see if I can find my copy.

Cool list, I kinda rolled my eyes at the title (randomly got this vid recommended) because I've seen videos recommending supposedly obscure games and they're usually made by someone who's played AAA hit games all their life and thinks they're being original when they end up recommending critically acclaimed and well known indies like Crosscode, Inscryption or hell, even Outer Wilds. I genuinely hadn't even heard about most of these

Goblin Commander was my thing growing up, so many late nights playing it with my friend at his house, I was stoked to see it on this list as I rarely run into people who know what it is.

I never thought that I'd see that game ever again. So it's called "Scrapland" huh. My dad used to play that game a bit on PC when I was 6 or so. It looked so interesting, but I forgot the name. The only phrase I remembered was "I built myself", and some vague scenery of flying ships and robots living in a city.

Operencia is really good! The devs took a break from pinball games and made a sleeper dungeon crawler hit! There's actually a VR mode that's pretty cool and I played bunch of the game in VR. Nothing too fancy but it's cool seeing the monsters in 3d and it feels very immersive to play it that way.

I've heard of Silver, Temple of Elemental Evil, Septerra Core, and The Wheel of Time games. I don't think Temple of Elemental Evil or Septerra Core are that obscure, they're just old so the people that knew of them are mostly out of the scene (be them deceased, no longer gaming, turning into some casual mobile gamer- which has a very depressing rate of occurring I found) or just don't talk about these games to others because they aren't current and debatably aren't even like 10/10 must-plays. I specifically played Silver. I really loved the soundtrack; or at the least certain tracks from the soundtrack. It's on RU-vid so I recommend people take a listen. I'm guessing Nox and Rise of the Triad aren't at-all obscure enough (I'd say they're much less obscure than any on this list at least), but I do love those games a lot and I do think they are lesser-known.

Goblin Commander at 31:35 gave me a crazy flashback to seeing my brothers play it like 15 years ago. Every time I tried searching for it i just got the "Goblins Must Die" series, so I'm glad i didnt just make this game up

SO happy to see Gladius on this list. My best friend and I spent most of high school playing that game off and on, and it's on my short list of games to track down and actually complete. We always started on the 'easy' mode because Nordic mythos > Roman mythos for both of is, to the point we mostly forgot the Roman side existed. Fungus Among Us is pretty fun to abuse, btw.

A game series I thoroughly recommend despite it being a mobile game at one point is the infinity blade series. It came out in 2010, actually prior to the original dark souls, believe it or not. It’s a rhythm action game where you attempt to dethrone a despotic king that just doesn’t seem to die. The game has solid graphics for the time especially considering mobile games, interesting and engaging combat, an excellent story and narrative you have to uncover yourself, and has extremely unique weapon designs and character designs. You can emulate the first game for free and it’s a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Just hoping infinity blade 2 and 3 can be released on a free emulator soon as those were my favorites

My contribution to this list. I don't know if it is obscure or not. But when I was younger, I remember playing Space Station Silicon Valley to completion and loved it. Seeing that Magic, the Gathering game sparked a long dormant synapse up in my brain area. I recall playin that now!

I got I Ninja from a neighbor who was moving as a kid. I have fond memories of just replaying the giant robot level for hours, struggling in the shoot the ships mission in bom bay (I would've been 5 or 6) trying to test the limits of the places I could explore and who could forget the humor. The master rightfully always being annoyed at you still makes me smile thinking about it.

Man, I did not expect to see a Series of Unfortunate Events game on this list. I loved that book series when I was in elementary school, and I remember playing its games on my Gameboy Advance. This is an awesome video and a great list!

Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars is my toss out for obscure action platformers. A perfectly edgy Wii game about a civil war between tribes of mushroom dudes where you got to take various tiny household objects and construct your weapons with different move sets and damage types for different types of enemies. It was like game of thrones to 9 year old me

I played the Unfortunate Events game as a kid, I think I was about 9, but lost it before finishing it. As I got older, a lot of games would always remind me of it. I think if I played it now I'd be like "how the hell did I get this so conflated in my head with Dishonored?" Also, if you're a millennial nerd from Austin, there's like an 80% chance you know one of Loom's composer's kids. Never met the man himself, but EVERYONE knows one of his kids.

I remember every moment I’ve ever had with I-Ninja, from playing the demo at GameCrazy, to sweating while rollin around on eyeball, to drawing what we thought would be cool new sword upgrades. Awesome game. “Want some more? C’mon, have some more.”

8:26 Oh, that explains a lot XD It would have caught my eye that a character is named Jóska (that's like the dumbest possible name ever in hungarian) It's always a treat to discover little droplet of our little homeland scattered around the world xd. Oh, and now i understand why it's Operencia, (which is supposed to be pronounced with a long "o" btw, like Ohperencia) In hungaryan, at the start of every folktale, you usually say "Even beyond the sea of Operencia where... " And this usually goes on with some bisare images of what is it there, or what else the story is set beyond, like the land of giants, or the glass mountains.

In a video like this, I expected to recognize several of the games on this list, but to my surprise, every single one was new to me! Not only that, the clear enthusiasm you have for each game you spoke about convinced me to finish a 53 minute video about games I knew nothing about. I have a few new games to add to my "To Play" list! Thanks Ghostcharm! You done good 👍

I remember playing 'I Ninja' as a child and i had completely forgotten its name over the years and i couldn't rent it out either. Thx for unlocking such a hidden memory

Some of my favorite obscure ones (at least nowadays) would be the Quest for Glory series, FAR: Lone Sails, Bleak Faith: Forsaken, Spider for PS1

It's hard for me to know if something obscure or not, as I still learn about games from somewhere, so it gotta be not obscure, right? But, I will try still. One of those is actually two: Dao Jian Feng Mo Lu, aka Blade & Sword in the west. An early Chinese take on Diablo that doesn't use equipment, but instead allows to insert gems into your default equipment to make it better, and instead of sprawling skill trees of Diablo II or learneable magics of Diablo, it instead has 4 lines of specialized skills with 3 basic and one Ultimate, learned through learning the previous 3 and used by first gaining Power meter to 1000 and then drawing an associated symbol by holding Alt and pressing Mouse 1. It also has manual Blocking, evasion, and you can jump for Mana! First game had 3 playable characters, second has 4 in base and 5th secret one is unlocked through file manipulation/console commands, I forgot. The other I want to mention is RELICS, specifically it's remake and the sequel to a remake. It's... Weird and only came out in Japan, but it's so cool. You are a ghost/spirit that interacts with the world by posessing other things and it's an adventure game that looks very much like Diablo II, i highly recommend to watch it on RU-vid yourself first.

Loom might have been my gateway into PC games. Saw a friend's dad playing it, and it fascinated me. It's stuck with me for over 30 years. It's like a good book. Cannot recommend it enough. A lot of the others are going on my backlog list as I've never played them, but Septerra Core... I *had* Septerra Core. I might still have the disc. But I never beat it. I will now rectify that.

21:50 bro I knew that name sounded familiar. In the monkey island game one of the first characters you talk to actually talks about Loom and how it's a great game and you should play it lol