Overrated & Underrated games

[Nightingale]

There's a whole lot of games out there, with many coming out seemingly every second, so it is inevitable that at least some of them get sent to relative -or total- obscurity, despite showing much promise otherwise. Sad but it has always been part of the menu and I don't think it's necessarily gonna change, despite reviewing being opened to pretty much anyone with a working keyboard nowadays (which is not meant as an insult -far from it, actually-, just what it is).

Of course, there's also the complete opposite... you know, games that don't add much to the conversation -and aren't even done that greatly to begin with- that get such high praise, you have to wonder if everyone just got drunk at the same time.

Needless to say, whether a game is over or underrated is entirely a matter of personal opinion, so let us hear yours! What games fall onto those categories for you?

Here's mine:

Overrated: My pick for this one is the original Monkey Island.

When I first got online (at age 14, in the year 2004) Abandonware was still a relatively obscure term and very few communities were built around it at the time (Hispanic and otherwise). So whenever you came across one, you could half-expect LucasFilm's 1990 adventure game title to be the flagship of the whole thing... and no joke, that first place I got into was MI-high, having the forum themed after it, with most of the articles on the article section written on the subject and the theme playing as background music on the home page. Yeah, they went a little overboard.

Naturally, half the forum posts were talking about it as well, which made it nearly mandatory to play thru at least the first one in order to really get into the community (this was before the spoiler tags and spoiler forums were a thing, in glorious PhPBB-based boards).

I grabbed and played a copy of the floppy disk version off the same site (obviously) and, while I did have fun going on and about as Guybrush Threepwood, my general reaction never stopped being: "What? That's it?" Like, I didn't hate the game or anything, I was just vastly unimpressed by it. Later on I picked stuff like Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle -not to mention Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis- to play thru and I was blown away by every single one of them... even Monkey Island 2 was very superior in my mind, yet it wasn't talked over much (not before nor since I joined said community).

I know it is weird to hear someone saying such a classic is overrated, but that was the impression I got from it both as a teen browsing the genre with a 56k dial-up connection and lots of free time to burn and as an adult going back to revisit the past.

Underrated: Laura Bow and the Dagger of Amon-Ra.

I know this game is generally acknowledged as an "ok" one, and has some following around (which I think was a little cut when it got to more people -and especially once the slightly offensive tones and representations of the characters used on it became more well-known-) but I think it deserves much more love than what it ended up getting.

It is just a fun game with some very interesting ideas and tight schedule that really made you feel like you were solving the mystery you were thrown in the middle of. Of course, it being a Sierra game, you will die early and often, which definitely takes a lot off the experience for the most casual players looking for something to just enjoy a slow and rainy night with. And the deaths can be cheap, so don't expect something like Shadow of the Comet here... it's much worse on that regard.

Still, it is a very solid game and I wish it had sold more copies when it came out. It truly deserves it.

What about you?

[King Atem]

Overrated: Fortnite
Yea its fun, but after awhile it becomes repetitive impo.

Underrated: Metroid Prime: Hunterd DS.
So much fun with friends. This is a great game & seems to get over looked.

[Hotspot]

Overrated:
Fornite, PUBG, Final Fantasy 7, Skyrim (It's ok.)

Underrated:
Suikoden, Kya Dark Lineage.

Sly Cooper (Compared to Ratchet & Clank, and Jak)

[Moonface]

I think GTA V is overrated, as it simply isn't as great as a lot of reviews made it out to be. The story is OK at best, but for every good thing GTA V does with its world there's something just as bad to go with it. It's not a bad game, but it isn't as great as it's made out to be.

[Maniakkid25]

Overrated: FF7, All the "Battle Royale" games, EVERY SINGLE SURVIVAL CRAFTING GAME (Minecraft, Subnautica, Ark, Conan Exiles, and on and on), Sk-- you know what, just name a game that's popular right now; I probably hate it or just think it's okay.

F***ING SURVIVAL CRAFTING! THEY EVEN TOOK FALLOUT, THE BASTARDS! I SWEAR TO GOD, I DON'T GET WHY THESE GAMES ARE FUN; THERE'S NOTHING TO FUCKING DO! *continues to rant for about 3 pages*

Underrated: Legend of Dragoon (duh), Baten Kaitos, Majora's Mask, FFX-2 (What? I find it great fun!), DarkSector, Xenosaga, Armored Core series (completely overshadowed by Dark Souls, now...), and a few dozen others that I'm blanking on.

[Karo]

Overrated: FF7, All the "Battle Royale" games, EVERY SINGLE SURVIVAL CRAFTING GAME (Minecraft, Subnautica, Ark, Conan Exiles, and on and on), Sk-- you know what, just name a game that's popular right now; I probably hate it or just think it's okay.

F***ING SURVIVAL CRAFTING! THEY EVEN TOOK FALLOUT, THE BASTARDS! I SWEAR TO GOD, I DON'T GET WHY THESE GAMES ARE FUN; THERE'S NOTHING TO FUCKING DO! *continues to rant for about 3 pages*

Underrated: Legend of Dragoon (duh), Baten Kaitos, Majora's Mask, FFX-2 (What? I find it great fun!), DarkSector, Xenosaga, Armored Core series (completely overshadowed by Dark Souls, now...), and a few dozen others that I'm blanking on.

Interesting Mr. Cricket....do you recall what you stated to the court well...me in private?

Number 3 - Today at 2:42 PM
BTW did you like DST Gorge?
XD
NEW MESSAGES
Maniakkid25 - Today at 2:42 PM
I did, even if I'm not really a fan of the base game

You clearly stated that you either dislike them or they are okay....but you said you like the gorge and it still is part survival crafting!

Therefore Mr. Cricket! CAN YOU EXPLAIN THIS!? (Sorry been playing too much Phoenix Wright )

Silliness aside they definitely aren't for everyone. The problem is they are what popular right now and as long as it popular companies will attempt to profit off that.

Also I don't really think Majora's Mask is underated you know? It a lot of people's favorite Legend of Zelda game...I honestly would say Breath of the wild is a little over rated IMO. Its a great game, but it isn't as amazing as the hype built it up to be.

[Maniakkid25]

You clearly stated that you either dislike them or they are okay....but you said you like the gorge and it still is part survival crafting!

Therefore Mr. Cricket! CAN YOU EXPLAIN THIS!?

I can: YOU ACTUALLY HAVE SOMETHING TO DO!

I think MM get's overshadowed A LOT by OoT since they run on the same engine. Speaking of, I actually think OoT is a little bit overrated. Is it a great game? Yes! It absolutely is! But best game of all-time, as it has been for the past two decades?! I don't really think so.

[Dragon Lord]

Overrated: Every western developed AAA game. Ocarina of Time (absolutely demolished by A Link to the Past and Majora's Mask), Final Fantasy VI and VII (both absolutely demolished by FF Tactics and FFIX). Persona 4 and 5 within the Persona community. Monster Hunter series (God Eater/Toukiden/Freedom Wars >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Monster Hunter). A lot more that I'm forgetting.

Underrated: Too many to list. I'd be typing up the list all night.

[Grungie]

Persona 4 and 5 within the Persona community.

In a way I can see that, but personally, I do think they are mechanically better than P3 in the gameplay department. In P3, the life sim and the dungeon crawling, and then the portions where you fight the story mission bosses feel disjointed in hindsight. They feel loosely connected compared to P4 and 5 which feel more integrated. Though it's a bit hard to tell which Persona game is truly overrated, as it depends on when you jumped in on the scene, and which group of the fanbase you were a part of. I'm part of the 5 people who played the pre-P3 games before it came out, but those are also vastly different from the other three, so they're almost different games. Though it's definitely safe to say that the series increased in popularity with each entry.

To contribute to the thread, here's some of my overrated games:
Final Fantasy VII
Legend of Dragoon
Tales of Symphonia
Star Ocean 3

Excluding Legend of Dragoon, the other three games get massive praise entirely because they were the introductory game for a large portion of their respective fandom rather than a quality jump, or change in gameplay. Legend of Dragoon is a game with a decent battle system that's hidden behind an incredibly generic RPG, and most of the locations in the game have no real rhyme or reason to it besides the developers wanting to shoehorn in tropey dungeons/areas to explore.

[Maniakkid25]

Legend of Dragoon is a game with a decent battle system that's hidden behind an incredibly generic RPG, and most of the locations in the game have no real rhyme or reason to it besides the developers wanting to shoehorn in tropey dungeons/areas to explore.

...See, as much as I love Legend of Dragoon, this I can completely agree with. When you strip away the actual layers of character development they manage, it's actually a pretty generic RPG with a good combat system. It uses a lot of tropes to help bolster the story, yes, but tropes aren't bad. I feel it has a charm to it that I can't help but love, even if I have a full 25 page rant ready to roll with tearing the game to pieces. Because if you love something, you should be prepared to break it on your knee.

[Grungie]

...See, as much as I love Legend of Dragoon, this I can completely agree with. When you strip away the actual layers of character development they manage, it's actually a pretty generic RPG with a good combat system. It uses a lot of tropes to help bolster the story, yes, but tropes aren't bad. I feel it has a charm to it that I can't help but love, even if I have a full 25 page rant ready to roll with tearing the game to pieces. Because if you love something, you should be prepared to break it on your knee.

I never said tropes are bad, my criticism was how the game is really generic and how the different areas are shoehorned in for no real reason.

[Maniakkid25]

I never meant to imply you said that, sorry. I have a terrible way of saying things that sound better in my head but offend somehow. It's why self-deprecation is the only humor I can do any decently. But I do agree that stuff like a volcano coming immediately between a marsh and a rain forest is the type of thing I would have written when I was twelve because it sounded cool at the time. Still, I've always been more of a character buff than a locale buff; it's the reason I love Dark Cloud 2 so much, as nonsense as that plot is.

[Dragon Lord]

I don't really see how you can call Star Ocean 3 overrated. None of the Star Ocean games get the love they deserve. At least in the case with the first three. SO4 and SO5 don't deserve any love, so they are exactly where they should be.

And if we're talking overrated Tales games, Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Graces should be mentioned long before Tales of Symphonia is.

[Grungie]

I don't really see how you can call Star Ocean 3 overrated. None of the Star Ocean games get the love they deserve. At least in the case with the first three. SO4 and SO5 don't deserve any love, so they are exactly where they should be.

And if we're talking overrated Tales games, Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Graces should be mentioned long before Tales of Symphonia is.

Star Ocean 3 and Symphonia are overrated because outside of the hardcore fandom, they're basically treated like the only games that exist in the franchise. I played other games in both franchises and was somewhat disappointed in both of those games when I finally got around to those two. I do know in the Tales fandom, there's a three-way battle between Vesperia, Graces, and Abyss being the best, so Symphonia is over-glorified outside of the fandom, almost entirely because it stuck out like a sore thumb in the Gamecube library.

I haven't gotten far in Graces to give a real comment, but I will say that the beginning where you're a kid is boring as all hell. Abyss is okay, Luke is just one of the most irritating characters I've played in a game.

[lp0 on fire]

Overrated: FF7, All the "Battle Royale" games, EVERY SINGLE SURVIVAL CRAFTING GAME (Minecraft, Subnautica, Ark, Conan Exiles, and on and on), Sk-- you know what, just name a game that's popular right now; I probably hate it or just think it's okay.

F***ING SURVIVAL CRAFTING! THEY EVEN TOOK FALLOUT, THE BASTARDS! I SWEAR TO GOD, I DON'T GET WHY THESE GAMES ARE FUN; THERE'S NOTHING TO FUCKING DO! *continues to rant for about 3 pages*

Seconded.

I don't see the hype of Battle Royal, I just see it as a classic arena shooter Free For All with 1 life that just makes the map smaller over time

I found some fun in minecraft, but that was in creative mode...using it like Lego...

RIP Fallout.