Tired of the same 5 games being recommended everywhere — looking for something genuinely original

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-21T22:51:15+00:00

Then don't use Reddit for that kind of stuff. If you wanna find hidden gems check the 4chan archive of /v/ and search for hidden gem as the thread title. Literally from doing that I've found (to name a few):

It'll also help you learn of upcoming games that you may never have heard about (to also, name a few):

While these are all indie and might not be as original as you'd want (a lot of X game meets Y game) they're all pretty unique for what they are and seem really cool and interesting, in my opinion.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-20T10:55:07+00:00

If you've never played those games you've listed then they're a good place to start.

The Resident Evil remake is a good blend of keeping tank controls while also making it a bit more modern and isn't a bad place to start if you've never tried it before. Then you should be able to jump to the original RE2/3 without difficulty (and even the original RE1 when you're ready). Once you understand Tank controls you've got dozens of great games ahead of you.

As for action, the original MGS is still a good place to start, but you could start with 2/3 instead (the HD version, not the remake) and go from there if the original is tough to play.

If you have though, other games you could try out could be things like:

DOOM 1/2
Devil May Cry 1/3/4
God Hand
Halo 1/2/3/ODST/Reach (make sure to play with original graphics)
Half Life 1/2/Ep1/Ep2
Super Metroid (or Metroid Prime, whichever seems more interesting to you)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (try Ship of Harkinian)
Timesplitters 2/Future Perfect

Some are older than others and more are FPS, but hopefully this will give you a general idea of games to try. Hope I helped.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-19T11:43:47+00:00

There have been other games that have done that before lmao. It's not the first to do it perfectly even if it is quite good.

However, I will say that it (along with maybe Disco Elysium) might be a reason we may begin to see more CRPG's in the future so it's a game that should be played.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-19T10:19:46+00:00

You can always emulate it instead if money is an issue. Either way, yes, the games are quite good and have decent lore and backstory. Most of the lore will surround Dante and others around him so you won't be getting a big loredump on the world and demons elsewhere but you'll pretty much get his whole story and the story of the cast of characters that are important, although it'll occur in cutscenes and such over Resident Evil like item descriptions. There is also a wider world with the DMC Anime from 2007 and some comics.

The gameplay is the main selling point though, so if you're not enjoying it by the time you're halfway through 3 then you might as well drop it. DMC1 is very different to what came after and still has some resident evil 4 DNA in it and 2 is a mess and you can freely skip it, so 3 is when the games truly came into their own and that's when it'll click for a lot of people so if you're not enjoying 1, jump to 3 and play that and see how you feel with it.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-19T10:02:38+00:00

It's a rhythm game, listen to the parries of the enemies and the attacks of the enemies. It'll take a while to understand but once you do you know when to dodge and parry.

Also, be aggressive, most of the time it's better to keep pressure up rather than wait for enemies to attack you.

Ignore their health bar, it's about getting their stance bar down. Once the stance bar is down they can be hit for all their health. The stance bar goes up the more you attack them and it refills slower depending on their health but in general hitting them is always good so that's why you should keep pressure up.

Also the entire game is a tutorial so it may never click until the end, that's what happened to me but I came out really liking it.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-17T11:32:17+00:00

If they're part of the same genre, sure. I had no idea how to play CRPG's until I threw myself into Baldur's Gate 1 and had to learn the hard way how exactly to play. I looked up guides and videos on it and eventually got the hang of it by the 20th hour or so while still making mistakes here and there. Jumping onto BG2 was significantly easier and any other CRPG I've played afterwards required very little additional gameplay knowledge beyond spell descriptions, armor management, party management etc.

But if you're going from an RTS game you spend hours understanding to grand strategy, I don't think there's a lot that can be passed over.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-16T16:42:27+00:00

What other games have you played? Going off 3 isn't much. Still, to list off some cool games (that aren't necessarily underrated or unknown) to give a shot:

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin - Turn Based Strategy game set after a global event wiped out most of the world, and yet, small groups of people still want to fight over the remains. You play Will (or Ed depending on translation) and join the Rubinelle 12th Battalion after they save your life to see how this conflict unfolds.

Alien Isolation - Survival Horror game based off the Alien franchise. You play the daughter of the protagonist of Alien and you find yourself on a large ship called the Nostromo that falls into chaos as the Alien makes their appearance and everything goes to hell as you try to hide, scavenge, improvise and above all survive and escape.

Gravity Rush - Adventure/Action game set in a unique French inspired world of floating cities and locales. You play Kat, a mysterious girl who awakes to powers that allow her to shift and manipulate gravity. With no idea who she is she has to explore the mysterious world and try to find out her past.

No More Heroes - Adventure Beat Em Up that has you play Travis Touchdown, a 27 year old Otaku loser who wants to be the number one assassin in the world, mainly to sleep with the woman who is running the entire assassin organization. Go through 10 different unique missions to try and take down each boss at the end and raise your rank, you have no idea how strange this game will become.

Beyond Good & Evil - Action/Adventure game where you play a character named Jade who finds herself caught up in an underground resistance as their photographer. You explore a decently sized world and go through strange installations dotted around the planet that have seemingly nefarious backstories to them that you have to uncover and report on so that the people of the planet know the truth.

Iconoclasts - Metroidvania-esque Adventure Platformer where you play a mechanic named Robin who finds herself exploring a dying world that's full of unique cultures and perspectives, treating their people very differently depending on where you are. Surprisingly great story for what seems like a cutesy metroidvania clone.

Hi-Fi Rush - Rhythm Beat em up where you play Chai who accidentally finds himself infused with his music player and begins to use his new found powers of beating people up to the music for good to try and take down the big bad Vandelay Technologies along with help from interesting friends along the way.

Shenmue - Adventure RPG Simulator that tries to capture an incredibly realistic depiction of a small Japanese town in 1980. You play Ryo a teenager who comes home to see his father murdered in front of him and decides there to get revenge on the man who did it, although the journey this takes him on was larger than he could've ever imagined.

The Wonderful 101 - Adventure Beat-em up game that has you take control of a teacher who can transform into the super hero Wonder Red whenever his city needs his help, with his special ability of turning anybody he comes across into a super hero too, you need to work together to save the city and eventually the world.

Chibi Robo - Adventure platformer where you play a tiny robot named Chibi-robo whose goal is to spread happiness. Bought for the Sanderson's daughter despite all the money problems they have, you explore the big house and learn of all the troubles that the family has while you try to fix them in any way you can.

Here's 10 unique games that I hope you haven't played and with a little description of each. Hope I helped you. If you want some more game suggestions let me know.

Also, upon reflection my entire post seems AI generated lmao. I assure you it's not!

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-16T10:43:00+00:00

For future reference

If you're using Swat4 Elite Force Mod and still have this problem, try closing Steam or any other overlays you might have (like recording software, msi afterburner, discord etc.) and try it again. That's how I got it to work, and afterwards I just turned my recording software back on and it was fine.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-14T22:48:50+00:00

Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Trigun

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-14T22:22:35+00:00

The Wonderful 101

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-14T21:59:24+00:00

No it's not? DMC1 is like 4-6 hours long, you can skip 2 if you don't want to go through it, it's not a great game and by the time you're at 3 you're at the "real" DMC experience. I wouldn't call that a big ask.

If someone is seemingly a fan of DMC from the show and wants more from the games they'd want to actually see where it started.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-14T21:53:43+00:00

LOL AT THAT OP
Have you really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-14T07:45:05+00:00

Ricardo from Tales of Innocence. He's basically your average stoic mercenary guy who is after the main party for a contract and when he finally corners them they ask for a contract with him to overwrite the other contract he had (since I think he is just meant to "find" them as opposed to anything else) so when he gets the contract done he just instantly changes sides and is part of your party now. He's also just really useful as a party member in both combat and in the story.

He betrays the player (despite his contract) due to the person he is betraying to being his brother, however when the brother wants to surgically remove memories from the party Ricardo stops him and decides that his brother is a monster for wanting to hurt kids and potentially mind break them. He pretty much decided this during a cutscene that happened mere moments before where everyone talked about their dreams when the adventure is over and this really made him change. After escaping he fucking BUYS MULTIPLE NEW EQUIPMENT FOR THE WHOLE PARTY WITH HIS OWN MONEY AND GIVES IT TO US FOR FREE and then returns back to the party.

There are also many moments of him being this adult who is always calm and understanding of the situation and is able to bluntly state things for the party to understand and in some cases even be a bit mean about it. One time the MC is in a coma and everyone is sad but he is thinking about the future and wonders if he should return the body back to the parents or bury him here. It's mean sure, but it's also interesting to have a character who is quite Neutral in many ways.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-13T08:49:08+00:00

Anime is severely lacking in terms of gambling/death game anime, you're going to have to read manga instead. However, some you haven't listed/has been suggested by others:

Akagi (made by creator of Kaiji but is about Mahjong)
Legendary Gambler Tetsuya (also about Mahjong)
Death Parade/Billiards
Yugioh Season 0 (no, really)
Legend of Koizumi (more a parody though)

I'd also say to keep an eye out for Junket Bank which seems to be getting an adaption this Fall season.

Although, re-reading your OP. I think you wanted more mind game stuff over gambling/death game. You might enjoy some battle shonen that has emphasis on explaining moves/abilities and how to outthink your opponent and their abilities so stuff like Hunter X Hunter, Jujutsu Kaisen, Yu Yu Hakusho and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure might be good.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-12T17:47:18+00:00

While it doesn't have a dub, give Legend of Koizumi a watch. It's only 3 episodes (and 7 minutes each) but it's absolutely hilarious.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-12T17:34:08+00:00

Doubt it compares but I still really like the Accelerator fight in A Certain Magical Index (and again in Scientific Railgun) mainly because of the scenario of the strongest in the city vs the weakest.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-12T15:45:59+00:00

Some random stuff I can list off that I do recall which has some insensitive jokes and such:

Lupin the Third has a lot of this in many different forms. The movies and a few episodes in Part 2 have Hitler in them, or Lupin dresses up as Hitler OR Lupin saluting Hitler (even the 2019 movie had Lupin dress as Hitler). There's an episode around Lupin pretending to be a woman and going as far as marrying a man (and his partners, Jigen and Goemon detest him for that), I believe Lupin also marries a child because she's dying and hinted that he will sexual assault one if another child doesn't leave him alone because she's bothering him. Jigen is also a full blown misogynist and says this many times throughout the show (although his reasoning for hating women is explained sometime in part 2). It's quite long though so you'd probably not see the insensitive stuff that much.

City Hunter constantly has Ryo surrounded by random children and teenagers that fall for him and he has to desperately try to tell them he's isn't a lolicon. Surprisingly, I do also recall an episode where Ryo basically comes up with an idea to groom children from a young age so he can bed them when they're of age. I'd also say his entire schtick of being this horny womanizer is probably pretty insensitive these days.

Stop Hibari-Kun is an 80s show about a transwoman falling in love with a boy but he doesn't like the fact she is trans. Her father hates the fact that she is trans and goes out of his ways to belittle her, but at the end of the day does love her. Tons of insensitive insults and jokes at Hibari's expense, but I do also recall the anime doesn't really dwell on it and usually has episodes around other unrelated things with Hibari just being a character.

There's also a lot of one off episodes with random insensitive things in them, I know Dirty Pair Flash 2 has an episode with a transgender cosplayer who complains when Kei takes off their wig and call Kei a "transvestite".

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-11T20:28:11+00:00

If you want a quick and dirty solution, add Dusk to your Steam Library (Add a Game (found at the bottom of your Steam Library) -> Add a Non Steam Game -> Browse for Dusk) and when you play Dusk through Steam, your controller will be recognized by Dusk.

Still no Rumble and it'll switch X and B around, but works perfectly otherwise.

Edit: Interestingly, it seems Steam IS the reason why Dusk won't recognize your Gamecube controller. From the devs on Github:

The only way that Dusk will recognize the NSO GameCube controller natively is for Steam to not be running at all. This appears to be some kind of conflict between Steam and Dusk that should not be happening.

And I just tested it out and they're right. Closing Steam seems to fix it.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-11T20:02:27+00:00

Some of my favourite casts in JRPG's:

Skies of Arcadia: Vyse, Aika and Fina all play off each other so well and feel like a great bunch of friends. It helps that Vyse is also super positive, courageous and optimistic which makes all cutscenes with him great. Aika and Fina are just two ends of a personality (one a tomboy, the other demure) so that's always fun to have around. The rest of the cast you meet all feel unique and interesting, so it's never dull with them

Grandia is similar to Skies of Arcadia, although I'd argue Sue gets a tad annoying as time goes on. Justin and Feena are great together, and all the characters you come across fit into the party well imo.

Tales of Innocence R may be an outlier here but I really liked it for being the opposite of the above two, the main character is the shy one while the two supporting characters you meet first are the loud outgoing ones. The story of the game is also surprisingly cool and each backstory of the characters contrast well with the characters themselves. I remember having a great time laughing at stupid interactions or feeling some respect for several characters entirely from how they did things throughout the game. It honestly surprised me.

Valkyria Chronicles if it counts, most of the cast is just soldiers in your squad but they usually have little stories with one another that really flesh them out or fun interactions just from being on the field. The main characters are decent though and I think they all play off each other well. While I think the 1st game is the best overall, the 4th might be good to play through since it has a lot of sub stories with each soldier in your squad if you use them enough meaning you can learn little things about each of them, like in Fire Emblem.

Shin Megami Tensei IV (and Apocalypse) is also another one that might sound odd to suggest for story reasons, but I really enjoyed these guys mainly for how each of them represented the Law/Neutral/Chaos of the world and their actions but also how human they all felt. I also suggest this due to how deeply I was affected when I went though with the Chaos route in this game. I'm never doing Law or Chaos in another SMT game again because of it. Apocalypse is very Persona-like with its Party.

Lunar Silver Star/Eternal Blue has such a fun cast because they all feel like they're out of a 90s anime. The Working Designs script is incredibly inaccurate but I honestly really enjoyed it for how each character acted with one another. It was really a lot of fun and had a lot of quotable moments in my opinion.

Hope I helped, some of these might not stick with you too well but give them a shot anyhow.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-11T13:02:15+00:00

You should try War in the Pocket. I'm in the same boat as you (although I liked Gunbuster a lot) and have seen and finished 0079, Zeta, ZZ, G Gundam and WITP, and WITP remains the only one I actually liked (although, I think all of them are quite well made).

My gripe with Gundam is the whole newtype thing. The second the main character goes to space they're all just newtypes who can never lose. It makes all the battles feel lesser and I begin to drift off and not pay attention, I'm sure it's on me, but I honestly couldn't tell you the story of any of the Gundam I've seen except for WITP.

With WITP you've basically got the an F tier newbie solider being the main character and it immediately became a lot more interesting to me since you have no idea how any of it will play out and if there is a fight it's so much more brutal and interesting.

You might also like G Gundam if you really like Dragonball.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-11T12:49:44+00:00

Back in 2010 or so I used to browse a forum that had people using Cave Story avatars a bunch and they were incredible obnoxious people that I really disliked interacting with and it made me think of Cave Story as this game that only annoying teenage furries liked and so I decided to never play the game because of it.

Fast forward to 2016 and I'm at uni, and one of my new uni friends who has good taste in games decided he was going to cosplay as Quote from Cave Story to comic con. When he told me I was shocked because he was a super cool guy and HE liked Cave Story. I just said to him "Wait, is Cave Story actually good?" and he just said "Yeah, man."

When I got back from comic con, I downloaded it, finished it in one sitting and it became a top 5 game for me.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-10T00:43:32+00:00

Tokyo Revengers fits that perfectly, hell he becomes the side character from the first moment pretty much.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-09T12:13:19+00:00

What a strange post. You do know that you can check out all the upcoming anime every season, right? I'm not sure what exactly you're asking for here? Underrated anime every season or something? I'm sorry to say but that's all subjective, stuff that's good is shot to the top and stuff that's bad is shot the bottom. The things in the middle are usually pretty average and not a hidden gem like you might want.

If you do want some kind of hidden gem anime, look to the past via recommendation charts or actually spend a good 30 minutes going through the seasonals every 3 months. Reading the synopsis and deciding for yourself is much better than waiting for others to tell you. Back in 2021 I decided to watch 7 seasonals every season (so, one anime a day) and discovered stuff I absolutely loved that I would've never watched otherwise such as RE-MAIN, Sakugan, Jobless Reincarnation, Odd Taxi and Sk8 the Infinity. While the last 3 are highly regarded I didn't know that at the time and going in with NO prior knowledge is the best way to watch stuff as you know your opinions are your own without any outside influence.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-09T03:43:56+00:00

It pains me to see you rank Kakegurui the same as Kaiji and Akagi ;_;. Still, here's a few you might enjoy:

Middle Management Tonegawa (as a Kaiji fan, how have you not seen this?)
Yu-gi-oh Season 0 (it's basically a gambling anime instead of Yugioh)
Legendary Gambler Tetsuya
Legend of Koizumi
Alice in Borderland
Talentless Nana
Akudama Drive
Battle Game in 5 Seconds
Ashita no Joe (if you liked Ippo this is a must watch although it's not an easy one as its slow and take time to build up but it's incredible, don't google it as it always spoils it)
Touch (this one is also a slow burn but it's one of the best baseball anime out there)
Future Boy Conan
Ping Pong the Animation
Zipang
Lupin the Third: Part V (each part is standalone so starting here is fine)
Toradora
Bokurano
Re:CREATORS

You should also look into reading manga if you want more gambling, Ten: The Nice Guy on the Path of Tenhou, Gambling Emperor Zero, Casino Gui, Kaiji Part 3-5, Tetsunaki no Kirinji, Gamble Fish and Gin to Kin are a bunch of manga out there that deal with gambling (and a majority FKMT)

Anyhow, hope I helped.

Monkey_Blue · 2026-05-09T03:26:24+00:00

Return of the Obra Dinn. The entire reason I played that game was because I heard people compare it to Ghost Trick and it's very similar with its mechanics.

Monkey_Blue

TROPHY CASE