I've recently finished the whole Xenosaga series and was impressed by it. Even more than by FF 16 (which was... cutscenes and a few good boss fights). This got me thinking: what else are old games that don't get enough recognition? I'm not talking about the Oceanhorns (which was boring tbh) or Hollow Knifhts, which everyone knows about. More like hidden gems you picked up "because" and liked it. In my case this was Blue Fire, a platformer that mixes Celeste's movement and 3D space. Other games I really enjoyed were

Valiant Hearts (WWI point and click)

Light Matter (3D puzzle game)

Cloudbuilt (a fast mirrors edge)

I'm more than happy to read some of your recommendations!

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[–] Carnelian@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Crosscode! To me it’s the ultimate hidden gem, as I hardly see people talking about it but most of the people who do play it go on to rate it as one of their favorite games. Especially if you like story focussed action-rpgs, I bet you’ll dig it. It’s also got somewhat of a zelda element with puzzles and dungeons

[–] Penta@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

My favourite game!

[–] Aielman15@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

I played it on gamepass, then bought the Collector's Edition simply because I wanted to give some money to the devs, and then bought it again on Xbox with the DLC just to have an excuse to play it again.

It's a wonderful game choke full of content (especially if you like the collect-a-thon aspect of the game), the combat system is amazing, and there are tons of skills available across four different branches for each of the four+1 elements, which means it never overstays its welcome because there's always something new to unlock and play with. But most of all, I loved having a game that isn't afraid of giving you hard puzzles without a companion or an annoying thinking voice explaining everything to you before you even had a chance to look at the damn thing.

It immediately became one of my favourite games ever, and it's a shame that not enough people even know of its existence.

[–] simple@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago

It’s also got somewhat of a zelda element with puzzles

Bit of an understatement. The game has a LOT of puzzles. A bit too many of them IMO, most of which are not optional and bring the game to a halt. The rest of the game is S tier but I could never bring myself to play hours of back-to-back puzzles in dungeons.