Fish and photography, i didn't know Alekon at all, nice list !
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Thank you for more photography games, they are always welcome !
That would be so cool if we could get Pokemon snap released on PC in the future, or game like the hunter but photo-focused !
Fishing theme, i just remember Cat goes fishing
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Hello, i don't know if they will be good or well optimized but 2 other photography games will be released :
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1732910/Photography_Simulator/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1402650/Birding_Simulator_Bird_Photographer/
Birding simulator looks beautiful and has a demo.
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Really interesting list Pete, thanks 😊 A few more for the wishlist!
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Chippy is amazing and the soundtrack is really dope, doesn't get enough love.
Donut County, I love that art style, I honestly thought Ben Esposito was Punches Bears on Twitter because "Punches" was doing something called "Wreckoons" time ago and the graphic style looked really similar but they're not the same person. This is/was Wreckoons proyect:
https://twitter.com/punchesbears/status/1254219597936340992
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I think that Zero Escape: The Nonary Games is not the most underground of games, but it certainly gets overshadowed by games of the same publisher, notably the Danganronpa Series, and more recently, the AI: The Somnium Files series. The Nonary Games is a collection of two visual novels that have some nice puzzles and many great twists. The first one - 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors is the best game I've played all year. Both games' plots are intelligent and unique. 999 is about 15 hours and Virtue's Last Reward (the second game) is around 35.
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Apocryph - An old-school FPS. Short and quite unpolished but has a nice atmosphere and considering the price (was -90% when I bought it) it's worth I try in my opinion.
Asura - A great rougelike, nothing else to say.
Fortified - Coop TPS tower defense game, kinda like Orcs Must Die! or Sanctum. I'd recommend it if it weren't for the broken achievements that the devs can't bother to remove / fix.
Qbeh-1: The Atlas Cube - A puzzle game where you need to place special cubes to progress.
Unloved - A rougelike horror coop FPS. Underrated, unloved... Almost no one plays it, so it's kinda hard to progress since it has big difficulty jumps between difficulty levels.
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It started out as a DOOM 2 mod if I recall correctly
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I'm don't know if these were popular once but maybe you'll find something to your liking below:
The 39 Steps
Blue Fire
Bulb Boy
Costume Quest
Firewatch
Framed
Gris
Leaves
My Brother Rabbit
Papo & Yo
Primordia
Seasons after Fall
The Sexy Brutale
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I think King of Dragon Pass is one of those games.
Not for everbody, true, but for me it was a real hidden gem. The soundtrack was specifically notable.
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Dont know if its concider lesser known. But definitely a good game I also recommend.
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You didn't specify PC games, so.....
DS
Black Sigil:Blade of the Exiled
Though to be fair it wasn't well known because it had quite a few bugs, and random crashes were not exactly uncommon. Still a good game though if you can get past that, very reminiscent of Chrono Trigger.
SNES
Xardion
Cyber Knight
Cyber Knight 2
CK and CK2 were mecha RPGs only ever released in Japan so you'll have to find a translated rom. Well worth playing though.
Sega Genesis
Master of Monsters (there's also a PSX remake which was decent)
Warriors of the Eternal Sun (one of few D&D console RPGs that actually adhere to the D&D rules and aren't just video games loosely based on a D&D setting)
Dark Wizard (very good strategy game on Sega CD)
And the Metal Max games. Most were Japan only titles on NES, SNES, and DS, but there was Metal Saga on PS2 that got an english release.
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Banner of the maid
A wargroove like set in french revolution, not serious tone
Underdog detective
An ancient-China FMV, not as funny as i hoped but still very original
Warring states
A tactical game set in chinese warring states, it's rare and this one is very well made
Astrologaster
A super funny operette where you play a medic/astrologaster, i haven't laugh so much since Broken sword
Overboard
You play a spy who killed her husband on a cruiseboat
Card shark
This one is more recent and more famous, you play a magician with cards tricks
Shigatari
A 3€ samurai game with an annoying music you can turn off but except that maybe one of the best quality/price
(Interesting that Darkest of days is no more sold but still offers a demo.)
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Chinese games look like an untabbed gem to be localized
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I had tried to study Chinese in high school (unfortunately without ever reaching a sufficient level to understand it, it's a lot of memorization).
Fortunately Banner of the maid, Underdog detective and Warring states are all available in english.
But you're absolutely right, most are unknown here and will probably never be localized. Special mention to Faith of Danschant that i bought on a crush when i saw the trailer but that the publisher no longer wants to translate lol. There is hope, a nice player is trying to fansub it !
Tale of wuxia (+40h long) is available in... automated translated english too (it's understandable, it's just that we can feel it's automated), it's an excellent hidden gem for Tactical-RPG fans who like chinese martial arts movies.
And there are these ones too in english that i just started :
Sword and fairy 7 (i almost refunded because of cultural gap, very childish atmosphere)
Xuan-yuan sword 7 (i would tend to prefer this one, it's a sort of 100% noob-friendly nioh-like... i am a noob it's perfect, it slices like butter ! And fighting demons is a more universal theme.
NB. Astrologaster, Card shark and Overboard are from UK. Shigatari is from... i don't know, maybe USA ?
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From my favorite list
https://store.steampowered.com/app/206190/Gunpoint/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/394970/DEADBOLT/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/39200/Dungeon_Siege_II/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/40300/Risen/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/265610/Epic_Battle_Fantasy_4/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/259550/Hero_of_the_Kingdom/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/307340/Platypus/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/751970/Plox_Neon/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/311190/Super_Panda_Adventures/
A bit more popular
https://store.steampowered.com/app/233860/Kenshi/
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if you like platformers you may want to look at gunpoint and deadbolt
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I'd add that Epic Battle Fantasy 3 is also great and completly free
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Thank you for the thread. I was able to add several "new" games to my list. :)
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Dead Rising 1
Spec Ops: The Line
The Darkness 2
Shadow Warrior 2013
Call of Juarez (did not age well but still liked it)
Call of Juarez Bound in Blood
Bully: Scholarship Edition (not sure if considered "lesser known" since it was made by Rockstar)
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Re-volt is officially available on Steam in just a few days, and is already available on GOG
https://store.steampowered.com/app/287310/ReVolt/
https://www.gog.com/en/game/revolt
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Not sure what qualifies as "lesser known", so I've set myself the restriction of ">=2 years old, <1000 reviews"
| Game | Notes |
|---|---|
| Quadrilateral Cowboy - 2016, 709 reviews, 86% positive | Absolutely lovely. First-person hacking like they do in the movies. The programming is very light, if you've used a terminal before (or, hell, even just used Minecraft chat commands), you'll be a master at this. |
| Thrillville: Off the Rails - 2007, 548 reviews, 86% positive | I can't quite explain why this is my favorite theme park builder, I think it's the simplicity that keeps my brain from getting analysis paralysis. A spread of quite competent mini-games helps the game from getting stale. |
| Mothergunship - 2018, 951 reviews, 75% positive | this one makes my dopamine receptors tingle. Do not make the mistake of assuming that this game is rogue-lite, it's not. There's a level generator and you lose the weapons you bring with you on death, that's it. |
| Else Heart.Break() - 2015, 275 reviews, 65% positive | This might not fulfill your "that you'd recommend to anybody" requirement. The stories pacing was a bit weird to me, gaining access to the programming aspects gave me a massive power trip, meanwhile I felt like the story kept treating me as incompetent. The sandbox nature of the game clashes with the story as well, but at the same time it's quite fun to be able to completely break the game. Overall the game feels quite genuine, it has issues, but it's the game the developer wanted to make. I'd recommend it, if slow paced exploration and learning someone else's programming language sounds like fun to you. |
Here are some VR games, in case you have the equipment
| Game | Notes |
|---|---|
| Ultrawings - 2017, 373 reviews, 82% positive | Just a comfy, casual game about flying planes. |
| Budget Cuts 2 - 2019, 350 reviews, 76% positive | Technically breaking my own rule since the first game has 1400 reviews? Still I think they've changed it up enough to make this game be its own thing. You don't need to have played the first one, I also preferred the pacing and gameplay variety of the sequel. |
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Only took me 4 attempts to get the formatting into a barely acceptable state...
If you know how to add line breaks to tables and/or adjust the column widths / colspan, please tell me.
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Not sure what category you are after, racing, fighting, etc. But I find plutocracy https://store.steampowered.com/app/754500/Plutocracy/ pretty fascinating at the moment.
For older things there were plenty good choices, though not sure what you played already and could be wasting time recommending stuff you know/completed like perhaps advent rising,
category:
Business warfare:
capitalism2, plutocracy, tom clancy's ruthless.com
Rpg:
baldurs gate1, arcanum, gothic series, avernum series, darklands, daggerfall unity, star traders frontiers, Risen1 with its awkward controls, sacred fire (note incomplete), knights of the old republic, betrayal at Krondor / Antara, drakensang, septerra core, zanzarah
uncharted waters2 (snes version)
Adventure:
advent rising, monkey island series
Stategic/tactical:
cutthroats(using DxWnd), gangsters, star dynasties, 7kingdoms, kknd, king of dragon pass, phantom doctrine, bladestorm, age of wonders, drox operative, last federation, star trek armada, knights of honor I (2 in dev), lords of midnight, legions of Ashworld, heroes of might and magic series, command and conquer series, master of magic, warsim, dragon commander, renegadeX, imperium galactica 2
platformer:
zeliard, jill of the jungle2, macross (snes)
unknown category
hardwar
can also read over these as I had similar topics once asking for titles I didnt know about where the community helped me find cool stuff.
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/BOBMZ/games-with-espionageinfiltrationspyingsabotage-mechanics
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/GSUNq/list-of-games-with-councils
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Battle Brothers. Go for all DLC bundle when on sale.
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Spec Ops: The Line https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/50300/
The Stanley Parable https://store.steampowered.com/app/221910/The_Stanley_Parable/
Yoku's Island Express https://store.steampowered.com/app/334940/Yokus_Island_Express/
To The Moon https://steamcommunity.com/app/206440
Sleeping Dogs https://store.steampowered.com/app/307690/Sleeping_Dogs_Definitive_Edition/
Mafia II https://store.steampowered.com/app/50130/Mafia_II_Classic/
Bastion https://store.steampowered.com/app/107100/Bastion/
Mirror´s Edge https://store.steampowered.com/app/17410/Mirrors_Edge/
Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers https://store.steampowered.com/app/205910/Tiny_and_Big_Grandpas_Leftovers/
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus https://store.steampowered.com/app/612880/Wolfenstein_II_The_New_Colossus/
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Beat Hazard 2 https://store.steampowered.com/app/618740/Beat_Hazard_2/ A bullet hell that works with your own music! It's really fun.
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I'm not familiar with similar games to what you mentioned, but for lesser-known games... I'm not sure if these are "lesser known" but they have less than 5k reviews. XD I really liked Rusty Lake Hotel (which was given away for free recently!), A Summer's End - Hong Kong 1986, and Simmiland. ^^ One (well, two) of my favorite VNs of all time, Zero Escape: The Nonary Games also has less than 5k reviews but I think it's because it's a port.
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i got a list. i tried to avoid some games that are already popular in my opinion
https://store.steampowered.com/app/9940/Blade_Kitten
an action platformer where you beat enemies and collect items.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/634410/A_Story_Beside
an rpg maker with emotional story like to the moon, but with decision that will change the story
https://store.steampowered.com/app/211360/Offspring_Fling
a difficult platformer game that requires timing to solve, especially if you want to 100% it
https://store.steampowered.com/app/373440/Stargazer
a quest-based rpg maker game with cheerful tone and fantasy
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1479390
an on-rails photography game with some free roam mode included to explore
https://store.steampowered.com/app/203750/Binary_Domain
fps game with a nice topic about robots that resemble humans
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1051580/Skjoldur_Story
zelda+kirby. you can absorb enemies' projectile and explore the area in square-like format similar to old zelda games
https://store.steampowered.com/app/820540/Bloodroots
a game where you pick up anything lying around and hit it to enemy to kill them. enemies mostly die in 1-2 hit, so all you have to do is stack up the combo and keep moving.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1273750/Button_City
a casual and cute game about friendships that revolves around 3 minigames
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1561660/The_Lightbringer/
a 3d platformer game where you collect items and explore the area.
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Hand of fate 1 & 2. I have played many games but have never seen anything like it. It's a board/deck builder/RPG/roguelite/choice-based/text based dungeon crawler hybrid. I absolutely hated the clunky combat, wanted to pull my hair out because of how brutally difficult and unforgiving it is, and cursed the RNG Gods to the heavens, but it kept pulling me back in every day until I finished it.
It's rare for me to enjoy a game so much while hating every aspect of it, then feel a sense of loss after completing it.
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I just finished 1st one played but didn't finish yet 2nd, but i also love so much these ones, what an extraordinary atmosphere !
Unfortunately the studio bankrupted
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Highlands (SRPG)
ICY: Frostbite Edition (Survival RPG)
Vectronom (Rhythm)
Solitairica (Roguelike Cardbattler)
Circa Infinity (Precision Platformer)
Floor Kids (Sport-Rhythm)
Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey Remastered (Word/Spelling)
Pharaoh Rebirth+ (Metrovania) Note, kinda broken if not played in window mode
She Remembered Caterpillars (Puzzle)
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (RPG - Tabletop)
Galaxy of Pen & Paper +1 (RPG)
Riptide GP: Renegade (Racing)
Highrise Heroes: Word Challenge (Word/Boggle)
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows (TRPG)
Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King (Action Adventure - Link clone)
Crookz - The Big Heist (Strategy)
Shardlight (Point and Click Adventure) Any game published by Wadjet Eye really
and finally Valkyria Chronicles 4 (SRPG) I know it is not a sleeper, but I figured if other peeps are gonna promote well known titles, I might as well do the same in the hopes I get VC5 out of it XD
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Hey guys,
I am currently looking for some really good sleeper hits. After finishing Darkest of Days and Freedom Fighters, I'm in the mood for some really good games which didn't get the recognition they deserved.
Of course there's something in for you replying to this thread.
Have a great day!
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