Crysalis for Famicom/NES

I like this really old game called Skyrim, I like to cast the spells

Quest 64 / Holy Magic Century / Eltale Monsters is a bad game that nobody played, except for me, and I absolutely love it. It was my third favorite game on the N64 behind Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64. I still play this game via emulation every now and then, maybe once a year or so.

This guy also played it and wrote an LPArchive story that contains all the lore this game should have had included in it. If you already know and like the game, this is an incredible read, highly recommend. If you don’t like the game this might arguably be a better way to experience it than playing it.

There are also a few YouTube videos on it for those inclined, I’ll leave finding those as an exercise for the reader.

Legend of Legaia. It’s a JRPG from the PS1 golden era, which was completely overshadowed by larger releases like FF7 and Legend of Dragoon. And when I say “completely overshadowed” I mean that the first time I played through it, it didn’t even have a GameFAQs listing.

Nowadays it has a sort of cult classic following, because the combat system was pretty unique and the plot line is surprisingly long for only being one disc.

The American version of the game is apparently much harder than other versions for some reason; They decided to slash the exp and gold drop rates across the board, then bumped them back up for the European release. So the American version is extremely grindy in comparison.

Depends on how you’re defining “obscure” and “retro”.

If by “retro” you mean SNES, Genesis, NES etc… the game I was super into for a time was Xevious. A pretty simple top-down space shooter/bomber that for some reason I remember getting absolutely obsessed with completing. It wasn’t even a particularly good game. It was repetitive, and when you DID reach the end it just started all over again. But for some reason I played the absolute shit out of it.

If you move “retro” up to the PS1 era, my favourite seemingly forgotten games of all time are the Colony Wars series (Colony Wars, Colony Wars: Vengeance, Colony Wars: Red Sun) Great story lines and a super fun conceit where in the second game, you’re playing as the now-defeated enemy of the first game, rebuilding after their loss.

I loved playing a game called Zeliard when I was a kid. I never hear it talked about, but think it could be pretty fun even today for people willing to tolerate 30 year old PC platformers.

I haven’t played it in a long time, though, so maybe I’m forgetting some terrible aspect of it. Should try and dig that up…

“Magic & Mayhem” - https://www.bestoldgames.net/de/magic-and-mayhem

It’s not super obscure, but I think I’d have to go with Star Tropics. Gameplay wise it’s very similar to Zelda, but the setting and story is more like EarthBound. Interestingly the game is a first-party Nintendo game that has never been released in Japan despite being developed there. Another thing is that it’s been almost completely ignored by Smash Bros. I think it got a mention in Brawl’s chronicle, but that’s it. Even Ultimate forgot about it despite having all kinds of deep cuts among the spirits.

Disney Princess is a very underrated gba game and that’s the hill I will die on.

Is The Last Blade obscure or just old?

Maybe not obscure but certainly underrated - Civilization II :Test of Time. You get regular Civ2 plus fantasy and sci fi versions. Sci fi version felt like budget Alpha Centauri

Is a game like Vib-ribbon or Devil Dice considered obscure? Because those would probably be tied for my choice.

Gorillas.bas

Not sure if it is considered particularly obscure, but mine would be Rock n’ Roll Racing on SNES. The game was like an improved RC Pro Am from the NES with vehicular combat and a great metal/rock soundtrack (hence the name).

Quarantine the killer taxi game including the australian alternative rock soundtrack https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarantine_(video_game)