Beyond good and evil
suikoden 2 and 3
xenogears
Shin Magami Tensai: Nocturne

UM..Let me think,

Advent Rising Anyone..God i wish they would finish up that trilogy

"Underappreciated" is always impossible to judge but here are some I didn't see listed above:

Crusader: No Remorse
Syndicate
Warsong (Genesis)

fsanch:
Definitely Earthbound for the SNES, which snuck in in the midst of all the Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger stuff to create a solid RPG experience.

Earthbound actually has a pretty solid cult following. The same with Beyond Good and Evil, which was mentioned by another poster. Neither were really commercial successes, but so many gamers will cite them as great that I don't know if "underappreciated" is really the right descriptor to apply. ;)

My answer to this thread would be, without a shred of a shadow of a doubt, Ogre Battle for the SNES. Amazing game that very few people have played.

Also, out of all the SNES RPGs out there, the one people always forget to mention is Illusion of Gaia, and I think it might be my favorite of the bunch.

Baten Kaitos Origins. I didn't even have to think about this one. Arguably the best RPG I've ever played.

- Amazing graphics, sound, and voice acting
- Original yet fun battle system
- Best storyline I've ever seen in a game
- Downright hilarious character interactions
- Tons of sidequests
Need I go on?

Stubbs The Zombie maybe? I don't remember many people ever playing that one. But is was the most fun I've had with my xbox in a good ol' age. Damn people of Punchbowl, teach you to... be alive I guess?

HSIAMetalKing:

Jak 2 and 3-- The Jak series doesn't get nearly enough credit for its awesomeness.

Jak gets plenty of credit. Especially compared to the Sly Cooper games, which are the real hidden gem of PS2 platforming.

I'm gonna have to second Blayze with his choice of Metal Fatigue. Custom units, and multilevel combat is always fun.

earthworm jim (megadrive/genesis)

cant front on it, even by todays standards

Excellent, Wcay. It's good to see a fellow Fatiguer here. It was always fun to crush one of those Neuropa mechs into the ground with the might of stolen Rimtech technology.

I can't believe I forgot about Soul Blazer, Terranigma and Illusion of Gaia, though. Bridge Builder was good fun too, especially when I was able to explain away why I was on it in school with the simple phrase "It's educational."

Monster Hunter Freedom 2 for the PSP. I also thought Demon's Crest for the SNES was very underlooked (perhaps because it was in the final days of the 16 bit era).

Star Control 2 ~~

It's freeware as The Ur-Quan Masters now. It's a sort of adventure game with fighting gameish battles. Each ship has a different way of fighting, and you only fight one enemy ship at a time. If there are several ships you fight them consecutively.

Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders
Pschonauts
Gladius
Freedom Fighters
Sacrifice
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Rise of Nations
Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel without a Pulse

Freelancer
Fahrenheit
Hi-Octane + Expansion
Interstate 76
Jagged Alliance 2
Scrapland
Stubbs the Zombie
Shadowrun (SNES)
Z - by the Bitmap Brothers
and although this might stir up some controversy: Kane & Lynch (despite it's many flaws I really enjoy the singleplayer)

I would have to ay Baten Kaitos (Origins and Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean) for Gamecube. Truly revolutionary!

Stubbs. How could I have forgotten my dear, dear Stubbs. Not a perfect game, but damn good.

As for the Marathon freeware, browse to trilogyrelease.bungie.org (deliberately not linkified to avoid t3h Google-bomb, don't add "www" anywhere) and make certain to read the directions provided; the emulator's good, but it is an emulator and does take some setting up.

-- Steve

Incommunicado:
Freelancer
Fahrenheit
Hi-Octane + Expansion
Interstate 76
Jagged Alliance 2
Scrapland
Stubbs the Zombie
Shadowrun (SNES)
Z - by the Bitmap Brothers
and although this might stir up some controversy: Kane & Lynch (despite it's many flaws I really enjoy the singleplayer)

Totally agree with the highlighted.

Freelancer I think gets a lot of criticism cause it's a sequel to something that never "lived up" to the fans anticipation for it.

Hi-Octane I only had the demo for when I was young, but it was such a lot of fun. Like Wipeout, only playable for me :)

Jagged Alliance 2 lost a lot of character for me. It wasn't as pretty or unique as the first, but it added a gritty level to the action (sci-fi mode off, for the love of god!!!!) and the map aspect was a lot better in my opinion.

Z. I loved it, but it was just too hard for me. I loved watching my brother play it though. We had the huge special edition box that came with a keyring and t-shirt and whatnot.

There's a Jowood published game called Chaser. A compelling story-driven FPS. Sure, you needed to patch it before you could install install it, but for me it was definitely worth the trouble. I think I'm much more forgiving of flawed games from small companies than I am with this years blockbuster releases.

Silent Storm.

Hi everyone, I'm new and this is my first forum post - have to say, nice to go on a gaming forum that doesn't descend into nerd rage or console wars.
Anyway, on-topic, No One Lives Forever is one of my favourite games ever, and still one of the best First Person Shooters I've played. That it only got one sequel is criminal. Given the scope, variety, and surprising length of the game I'm hoping (perhaps in vain) that it'll get the next-gen treatment. Nonetheless, it doesn't deserve the tumble into obscurity it suffered from

I second the vote for the Suikoden series but I would add 1 and 5 on there too.
Onimusha series
Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2
Power Stone 1 and 2
Xenosaga

- Abe's Odyssey and the rest of the Oddworld games always felt criminally underappreciated as a whole.

- Psychonauts

- Star Wars: Masters of the Tera Kasi. Always got killed by reviews, etc, but absolutely loved a fighting game with lighsabers and force powers.

josh797:

Anton P. Nym:
Off the top of my head...

Psychonauts wasn't underrated, but I guess it comes in as underappreciated due to its sales. Hopefully it'll get a renaissance with the XBox Classics thing.

Marathon, as it's largely forgotten outside of Mac and die-hard fan circles. A bit dusty, but still a fun shooter even on low-grade hardware and the storyline is great. It's got a freeware version now, too, that works on PC as well as Mac... pity so few know about that.

-- Steve

where can i get that freeware, im interested in playing it.

The freeware version is at http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/
A port of Marathon 2 is also available for download for the XBox 360, but for me personally the controls just don't feel right. And it's not free.

Tales of synthonia (GC)

One of the best rpg's ever!

Body Harvest

Buck Bumble

Glover

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon

Those were classics. I get all nostalgic thinking about them.

brute force the co-op on that was so fun 2 play with m8s that is until they dont let you respawn because they think they can take the enemys all by themselvs

Second Sight- one of the most grasping games I had ever played.
Freedom Fighters- Repetative but fun.

Dues Ex Invisable War. why did people hate it? its my fave game next to baldures gate. OK so the AI has trouble walking around corners and think dead bodys are the normal, but hay thats justy funny.

Abbadiel:
Sanitarium...

Seconded. During my first year of college my roommate bought this game, but I promptly stole it, and most of the time it was in my computer rather than his.

Jade Empire seems to be Bioware's least appreciated RPG, but I really enjoyed it.

Someone mention Deathrow for the Xbox for a change.
Oh I just did. Well it was good.

Battlezone was by far the most fun I've ever had in FPS or RTS gaming.

If it got better publicity (like not being called Battlezone [who the hell buys remakes?], for one), and better post-launch support/patching/tweaking, I think people would be running Windows 98 systems explicitly to play that game today.

Marathon, Psychonauts, Battlezone (The PC FPSRTS version, not the Atari one), Indigo Prophecy, and System Shock 2.

HSIAMetalKing:
Armored Core 4-- I lurved that game, and was hoping to enjoy zillions of hours of frantic online robot-on-robot action. But no one plays online, so my awesome AC and I are all alone.

Oh hey, another Armored Core player! Gimme your Gamertag (Mine's VT 316), we should set up a match sometime.

Anarchemitis:
Star Wars Battlefront
Red Alert 2
Any Sim City Game that isn't Societys or 4.

I love Battlefront too, but RA2 and the simcity games never seemed especially underappreciated.

Dectilon:
Star Control 2 ~~

It's freeware as The Ur-Quan Masters now. It's a sort of adventure game with fighting gameish battles. Each ship has a different way of fighting, and you only fight one enemy ship at a time. If there are several ships you fight them consecutively.

YES

Star Control 2 is sheer awesomeness. Especially the Spathi.

Three games come to mind....

Myst
A-fricken-mazing. Everyone hates it because if they go without viciously killing something for eight nanoseconds their balls will explode. It's a great game, think of it like you were ACTUALLY there. Then you might want to play.
Supreme Commander
Best RTS EVER! I seem to be alone in that assumption.
Battlefield 2142
great multiplayer, but everyone that plays is either a grizzled Battlefield 2 vet or a total noob. Is there something in between??

greygelgoog:

josh797:

Anton P. Nym:
Off the top of my head...

Psychonauts wasn't underrated, but I guess it comes in as underappreciated due to its sales. Hopefully it'll get a renaissance with the XBox Classics thing.

Marathon, as it's largely forgotten outside of Mac and die-hard fan circles. A bit dusty, but still a fun shooter even on low-grade hardware and the storyline is great. It's got a freeware version now, too, that works on PC as well as Mac... pity so few know about that.

-- Steve

where can i get that freeware, im interested in playing it.

The freeware version is at http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/
A port of Marathon 2 is also available for download for the XBox 360, but for me personally the controls just don't feel right. And it's not free.

Actually, go to source.bungie.org/get/. It's easy sauce to set up, the page it's on has some cool extras, and it only takes a minute to download.

KurtDunn:
Battlezone was by far the most fun I've ever had in FPS or RTS gaming.

If it got better publicity (like not being called Battlezone [who the hell buys remakes?], for one), and better post-launch support/patching/tweaking, I think people would be running Windows 98 systems explicitly to play that game today.

Actually, with a few fanmade patches, it's quite easy to run on XP. I highly recommend this game to anyone willing to track down a copy.

Thief: Deadly Shadows
Clive Barker's Jericho
PuzzleQuest: Challenge of the Warlords

Anarchemitis:
Sim Tower. Who still like Sim Tower except me?

I'm so alone.

:(

I preferred Yoot tower

10 Dollar Bagel:
Tales of synthonia (GC)

One of the best rpg's ever!

Tales of Symphonia.

Yeah, it was a great RPG.