Under-appreciated Games

A lot of games I really enjoyed I late came to discover that they are not given enough credit. For when I talk to people about them they either say that they never heard of them, or that they don’t think it’s worth trying. This post will talk about flash games that I think deserve more hype than they are given, games that I think gamers would appreciate if they gave it a try :D

Siren: Blood Curse

I know one reason why this game wasn’t given enough attention. It is because it was released on PSN as separated downloadable episodes. I myself didn’t think of giving it a try, until I got a retail (region 3) copy of the game. Sadly, this game didn’t get a region 1 release so the game wasn’t that common. This third person survival horror takes places in Japan where an American TV crew was stuck in a village called Hanuda. During the various chapters/episodes of this game you control all the characters, from a 30 years old Japanese doctor to a 10 years old girl. The presentation of the game is really good, after the end of each episode you get a “preview” of the next episode, just like a TV series (Yes, like Alan Wake!) and the graphics are really pretty, and having detailed environments makes you want to discover more and more. The voice acting is amazing with having Japanese and American voice actors combined. When playing, you defend yourself not only with guns, but with items from the surrounding environment, ranging from a baseball bat to a bowling trophy.

I am not saying the controls are perfect, or the story of the game is so original. I am just saying that this game is capable of giving you a good time, so horror fans, I recommend this game for you! Especially if you are an Asian horror movie fan such as myself.

Folklore

I’m not an RPG fan, but I fell in love with Folklore the moment I played the demo. Maybe because it’s a linear game with a small settings and has a little to do with RPG, or maybe the magic of the game is what made me fall for it. Its story revolves around a girl named Emma, whose mother has died, then after Ellen grew up she received a letter that was supposedly from her mother, telling her that her mother is waiting for her in the realm of the dead “The Netherworld”. You play either as Ellen, or a magazine writer named Keats whose curiosity has dragged him to the Netherworld. By playing with both characters you’ll experience difference prospective of the story.

One of my favorite things about the presentation of the game is the variety of the cutscenes, as you’ll be seeing GCI cutscenes sometimes, and sometimes you’ll be seeing comic-book like pictures in which you read what the characters are saying inside the bubbles, reviews from this game bashed this feature, which I don’t understand! It’s sooooo cute! What I also love about this game is the controls that use the sixaxis power of the PlayStation 3 controller, as you do not collect “orbs” from monsters and “spend” them in a weapons store, you suck the monster itself using the sixaxis controller, and then use the monster itself as a weapon! All you have to do is to assign each button (circle, square, x and triangle) to monsters you want to use and now you’re ready! Smash these four bottoms to battle! You may think about what’s the point of having zillion monsters and that you won’t change what you assigned for the buttons, you’re wrong! You’ll be changing the monsters you are using constantly, because as you progress in the game you’ll face new enemy, and each enemy has a weakness that you have to discover, therefore you’ll be using different monsters to kill different monsters. That also applies to the bosses, at the begging of each boss, you’ll get a page of a book that has a drawing from which you will understand what monsters you have to use to beat this boss!

All in all, this game is magical! The story, the soundtrack, the way it is presented! I love it! I strongly recommend it for fantasy fans :D both games I talked about are old, but are still worth giving a try! I will be talking about more underappreciated games in future posts! :D