PS3 Hidden Gems

[brunoafh]

I feel like I definitely posted in one of these threads before, but oh well, I do like this topic.

Hokuto Musou/Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage
Easily one of Koei's best on the PS3, and the best Hokuto no Ken/Fist of the North Star game. That does not mean you need to be a fan of the franchise to enjoy this, although you pretty much do need to be a fan of Musou/Dynasty Warriors gameplay. It is absolutely top notch and imo their best game ever. Certainly a gem, as most of these titles go unnoticed to non-fans. The sequel does not compare, unfortunately.

Nier
A beautiful game with so much to offer. Strangely marketed as some GoW clone by the brilliant minds of SE (here in the US), it pretty much ended up as a failure (not to mention killed the dev studio) and will probably go on to become a gem. It's not even a beat em up though, that whole debacle should be ignored. It's a very well written RPG, with tons of replay value, phenomenal music, great characters, and truckloads of atmosphere and originality. Admittedly the gameplay isn't really amazing, but the gamepay isn't the main draw.

Resonance of Fate
It launched with FF XIII in most regions (go Sega!), and failed. It's a really good game though, with tons of personality and challenge. It's actually pretty steep on the challenge side and caused a lot of rage quitting, but if you enjoy a good challenge, here you go. It has a very quirky almost Suda/Swery thing going on, so fans of that style of Japanese humor should check it out. All around good production values, great music, just all around a solid game that deserved more attention. Better than most of Suda's games this gen, really.

Vanquish
Again, Sega decides to launch it with some other genre juggernaut. It eludes me what game it was, but I think it was a CoD or Gears game. This didn't totally fail though and has been recognized by a lot of publications and fans as a great shooter, but I still think it's gem status. It feels very different among the mile high stack of cover shooters on PS3, and production values are seemingly through the roof. Allegedly it took a very long time to make (compared to the short length), and wow does it show. Would take this over any shooter this gen without blinking. One of Platinum's best so far.

Yakuza 3 & 4
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 26#p692526

Honorable mentions:
Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (super text heavy and niche RPG that most probably don't care about, but to me deserves a mention as it is one of my favorite games of all time and mostly unheard of)
Gundam Senki 0081 (again, mostly unheard of niche game that most don't care about, but is noteworthy as being largely recognized by Gundam fans as one of the best)
Battle Fantasia (an Arc game other than BlazBlue and Guilty Gear, and not-so-surprisingly quite good)

I tried to be pretty selective. There a lot of games I consider borderline. Valkyria Chronicles, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Deadly Premonition, No More Heroes, some other fighters... but I feel like, currently, these aren't hidden gem status. Great games not widely recognized, but still pretty much recognized by a wide audience. 5-10 years down the road though, who knows though.

Can't help but think of Demon's Souls immediately. Man, would be the biggest hidden gem ever if not for Atlus.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Who published From Software games before Atlus picked up Demon's Souls? ASCII?

And I second the Nier pick. Insanely good game.

[brunoafh]

Who published From Software games before Atlus picked up Demon's Souls? ASCII?

Yep. They mostly self publish in Japan, but after Agetec/ASCII, Sony, Sega, and Ubisoft published most of their stuff in other regions. Sony published Demon's Souls in Japan though, and decided that it wouldn't be successful outside Japan.

As usual, they were totally 100% right.