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#15.
The Shenmue Series (Dreamcast & XBOX)


This is probably the last "obscure" selection to make the list. I doubt anyone here has played either game in the series.

Shenmue is a very underrated and underplayed series created by Sega. The first game came out exclusively for the Sega Dreamcast back in the late 90's. The second title was released as an XBOX exclusive a few years later. Sega originally intended for this to be a long, succesful series with many installments. Unfortunately, due to the lack of sales and overall hype in the gaming community, the series was scrapped after Shenmue 2, leaving all of the hardcore fans out in the cold.

The first game is set in modern day Japan and revolves around Ryo Hazuki, the son of a martial arts teacher. Ryo returns home one snowy day to find his father's dojo under attack by a man named Lan Di. Lan Di is searching for something called the Mirror. After finding out the location of the mirror, Lan Di kills Ryo's father and leaves Ryo unconscious. When Ryo wakes up, you assume control of him and the game is on!

You must explore your hometown of Sakuragaoka looking for clues of the man who killed your father. Gameplay wise, this is like a mixture of a role playing game and an adventure game. The town you can explore is absolutely gigantic and brimming with people, stores, and stuff to do. Each day goes by very realistically in this game. It starts out in the morning, you wake up, you go out to look for clues. The streets are deserted in the morning, get busier and start bustling in the afternoon, and die down again at night, except in the seedy downtown area. The transition from day to night in this game is seamless. There is so much to do in this game, whether it be making phone calls, collecting items, getting jobs, and even playing real games at the local arcade.

The game plays out like an RPG, except the combat is more like a fighting game. The fighing reminds me a lot of Virtua Fighter. This game also has interactive action cutscenes where a button comes quickly up on the screen, and you have to press the corresponding button on your control. Anyone who has played Resident Evil 4 should be familiar with this concept.

The first game was pretty much revolutionary because it gave you an open ended game set in a huge realistic city. Everything is amazingly detailed, and you can get lost with there being so much to do. For example, in your dojo you can explore every single nook and cranny there is to explore. You can open every drawer, every cabinet, sleep, EVERYTHING. This. coupled with the amazing outside world made this game stunning for the late 90'a. It was one of the first games of it's time.

At the end of the first game, Ryo departs for Hong Kong on his search for Lan Di. He departs on a boat into the sunset, and the credits start to roll. The second game picks up with Ryo getting off of the boat at the Hong Kong harbor. Hong Kong China is even bigger than the city you explored in the first game. The amount of exploring you will do in the second game is MASSIVE. The second title is a lot more to-the-point than the second one. It is faster paced, and has more action. There is even more jobs and things to do, if you can imagine that.

As the second game progresses, the tone changes to a slightly more mystical one. You start to find out that there is more to Lan Di and "The Mirror" than originally meets the eye. The game grabs a hold of you and maked you want to know what will happen next. It even ends with a terrific cliffhanger. Unfortunately, several years later, we still don't know what has happened, and the chances of a Shenmue 3 ever coming out look slim to none. I am deeply offended.

Anyone who has never played these games should really pick them up and give them a try. I have heard that the first game will be released on the Wii Virtual Console. Hopefully this will respark interest in the series and move us toward the Part 3 that I really really want! These are two of the most underrated and fun games of all time. Check 'em out!

#14.
Final Fantasy X (PlayStation2)


For some reason this seems to be a universally disliked Final Fantasy title. However, I love it and consider it my second favorite game in the series.

The story centers around Tidus, a famous blitzball player. When Tidus' home city of Zanarkand is attacked by a massive abomination known as Sin, Tidus is sucked into a large blinding white light. He awakens in a mysterious land, and soon finds himself under attack. He is rescued by a bizarre race of people known as the Al Bhed. After a short period of time with them, he is attacked by Sin once again. Tidus awakens on a beach where he comes face to face with a group of people playing his favorite game: blitzball. Upon talking with them, Tidus finds out that he is actually somehow been sucked thousands of years into the future. The use of machinery is outlawed and Sin terrorizes everybody on the planet.

Tidus embarks on a quest of discovery... a quest to find answers and maybe a way back home. He hooks up with Yuna, a young female Summoner who is on a mission to defeat Sin. Together with her and her party of Guardians, Tidus sets off looking for answers and insights on this mysterious future. This game has many wild twists and plot turns. I won't go too into detail, but the major one is that Sin is actually a manifestation of none other than Tidus' own father!

The graphics in this game are wonderful and vivid. A lot of the areas and environments are stunning to look at. The Farplane and Moonflow, for example. The overall atmosphere of a lot of these environments is very authentic and draws you in like no other. This title also features full on voice acting for the first time in a Final Fantasy game. And it is very well done.

Combat is traditional Final Fantasy fare - turn based and strategic. The way it should be! The random encounters are kind of annoying, and you have to level up a lot in this game. But you have such a fun time doing it, it doesn't really matter.

All in all, I find this one of the best Final Fantasies. If anyone disagrees with me, feel free to do so here! The graphics and cinemas are great, the gameplay is top notch, and most importantly for a FF game, the story is great! Maybe not the deepest story of all time, but still very entertaining and touching at the end. This is a wonderful game.

X-2 was horrible. That is on my worst games list. Suuuuuuch a letdown.