Underrated RPG developers

[BoneSnapDeez]

We all know about Square and Enix... and Square Enix. But let's list some fantastic developers that may have flown under everyone's radar. Here's a few of my picks:

Nihon Falcom - Probably my favorite developer of all time. Responsible for some fantastic games (and series) such as: Ys, The Legend of Heroes, Dragon Slayer, Brandish, Zwei!!, and Popful Mail. If you like JRPGs in the least bit, you need to check out some Falcom titles.

Microcabin - Criminally under-appreciated. Developed the two best games on the 3DO: Lucienne's Quest and Guardian War. Also developed Mystaria: The Realms of Lore (Saturn) and the phenomenal Xak series of action-RPGs.

Produce - Gave us The 7th Saga and Mystic Ark, two of the best (and most unique) JRPGs for the SNES/Super Famicom.

Troika Games - This Western developer released a "trilogy" of three of the most essential CRPG titles (Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, The Temple of Elemental Evil, & Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines) before shutting down in 2005.

Anyway those are my choices - who are some of your faves?

[Menegrothx]

Damn, you already mentioned Troika. Most developers that I can think of only did a few games or one series (like FTL Games' legendary Dungeon Master), or are well respected by gamers but are underrated when considering how much praise many developers that are more widely recognized by casual gamers get. For example Black Isle Studios and Nippon Ichi Software vs Obsidian/Bethesda and SE/Namco. Do those count?

I guess you could say that Looking Glass Studios as an RPG developer is underrated. They are more widely recognized for the ground breaking 3D, immersion and FP(S) innovations in their games, but Ultima Underworld and System Shock were very innovative 3D FP ARPGs, and with out System Shock and Thief there wouldn't be Deus Ex.

Maybe Westwood Studios too? They are mainly known for Command & Conquer. That's the problem, I think quite many developers that I think of also did platformers, action games, adventure games etc so they weren't pure RPG developers.

Microcabin - Criminally under-appreciated. Developed the two best games on the 3DO: Lucienne's Quest and Guardian War. Also developed Mystaria: The Realms of Lore (Saturn) and the phenomenal Xak series of action-RPGs.

That's not saying much though

[SirPsycho]

Troika Games - This Western developer released a "trilogy" of three of the most essential CRPG titles (Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, The Temple of Elemental Evil, & Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines) before shutting down in 2005.

Troika is pretty awesome despite how buggy their games were (and still are). If you're doubting how great the PC RPG market was in the late 90's-early 2000's then just know that Troika was formed when some people from Black Isle Studios broke away to form Troika while the seminal classic Fallout 2 was in production.

Just let that sink in. Black Isle's B-Team ended up outdoing most AAA studios that have ever existed.

EDIT: Also at Menegrothx, you can't forget about Looking Glass' most influential and commercially successful release for the overall RPG world, Ultima Underworld. Back when that game came out they were still known as Blue Sky Productions, and Looking Glass as we know it came to be when BSP and Lerner Research merged.

Ultima Underworld was produced by the legendary Warren Spector (Ultima VI & VII, Deus Ex, Thief, etc. etc.)

[prfsnl_gmr]

Camelot Software Planning - They gave us all of the classic Shining Force games, all of the Golden Sun games, and the sublime Mario Golf (GBC), the best - and perhaps only - golf/RPG hybrid.

EDIT: They also gave us Beyond the Beyond (PS1) for what its worth...

[BoneSnapDeez]

Camelot Software Planning - They gave us all of the classic Shining Force games, all of the Golden Sun games, and the sublime Mario Golf (GBC), the best - and perhaps only - golf/RPG hybrid.

A golf RPG! I am intrigued.

That reminds me, World Court Tennis on TurboGrafx-16 has an RPG mode. Great game.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Camelot Software Planning - They gave us all of the classic Shining Force games, all of the Golden Sun games, and the sublime Mario Golf (GBC), the best - and perhaps only - golf/RPG hybrid.

A golf RPG! I am intrigued.

That reminds me, World Court Tennis on TurboGrafx-16 has an RPG mode. Great game.

For someone who loves both golf games and RPGS, I expected you to have it. You must pick it up. It is fantastic and relatively inexpensive.

[BoneSnapDeez]

My GBC collection is pitifully small (I never owned one while they were new), but I'll certainly add it to my wishlist.

[SirPsycho]

Isn't there a Famicom game that is a hybrid RPG and sports game? I can't remember if its golf, baseball, or tennis. I'm leaning on tennis though for some reason.

[Ack]

I see you guys are unaware of Pangya, the golf MMORPG.

[Xeogred]

Monolith Soft. Don't care what people say, I've loved and enjoyed all the Xeno's, though they've never been blockbusters. Now only half of Monolith Soft's stuff barely even makes it overseas (blame Nintendo maybe?). I think it's obvious most of this team were the ones responsible for the Chrono games too, the similarities are very apparent. Looks like Nintendo (US) is kicking themselves in the butt for not treating Xenoblade respectably and are putting a bigger spotlight on the next Xeno game, so I hope it's one that finally does really well for them and thus rightfully allows them to buy the rights to Xenogears so they can do a full on remake with maximum production values while putting Square Enix out of business. I can dream...

Regardless, I guess this team survives the times no matter what and many must respect or enjoy working under Tetsuya Takahashi since he continually seems to hold a lot of power and direction in their titles.

Also a shout out to Quest / Matsuno's teams (Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, FFT, Vagrant Story, etc), the team behind the old Suikoden's, and Quintet for making insanely weird and awesome SNES games (Actraiser, Terranigma, etc).