A thread on 5ch asking users to name “obscure but fun RPGs” quickly filled up with a flood of beloved titles — Momotaro Densetsu (Legend of Momotaro), Chrono Trigger, Metal Max, and more. But early on, pushback arrived: “Chrono and Momotaro Densetsu aren’t exactly obscure.” From there the thread evolved into a debate over the gap between personal nostalgia-based “obscurity” and actual sales-chart popularity. Hidden gems like Far East of Eden, Glory of Heracles, and Linda Cube kept getting tossed out too, with opinions splitting depending on which console people actually owned back in the day.
What people said
1AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:25
Mario RPG (Super Mario RPG)
2AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:26
Famicom Jump, though…
3AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:27
Lacroan Heroes
4AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:27
Chrono and Momotaro Densetsu aren't exactly obscure though
5AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:29
What even counts as 'obscure,' anyway?
6AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:31
Red Arremer: Ghosts 'n Goblins Gaiden
7AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:34
Momotaro Densetsu Gaiden was a good time
9AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:35
Chrono Cross, obviously
10AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:44
Glory of Heracles III
11AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:44
Jaseiken Necromancer
12AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:46
Chrono and Mario RPG are both super mainstream, c'mon
13AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:47
Momotetsu started out as basically a spinoff, but it blew past the original in popularity so hard that younger folks probably have no clue the Momotaro series even started with Momotaro Densetsu
14AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:54
Lagrange Point was great
15AnonymousOct 9, 2026 11:55
Fine, I get why a new Momoden game never panned out, but why didn't they even give us a remake?
16AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:02
GBA's 'Space Mission Choco Vader: Invaders from Outer Space'
17AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:04
Maimu (NEC PC-98 MS-DOS version)
18AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:05
If stuff like this counts as obscure, you could throw Megami Tensei in there too
19AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:07
Linda Cube and Over My Dead Body — I think it's the same creator behind both, but the worldbuilding in each was fantastic
20AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:08
Sweet Home
21AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:10
Minerva Ton Saga — walkthrough for 'Revival of Lagon'
22AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:10
I got completely hooked on the PC Engine version of Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes
25AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:12
Think it was Metal Max 2 — there was something called the 'Love Machine.' Wonder if that shows up in other entries in the series too
27AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:13
PC Engine — World Tennis, RPG Mode
29AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:13
Grandia's opening still gets me hyped — wasn't that the inspiration for Attack on Titan?
34AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:17
Front Mission 5: Scars~
38AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:22
The Super Famicom game I'm planning to play once I finish my current one is Marvelous
39AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:23
Lol, your taste is leaning hard into Kim-ou territory (a famously obscure-retro-game-obsessed figure)
40AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:29
If you're gonna call something 'obscure,' you'd better be bringing up stuff like Dark Half or The Last Battle
41AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:36
The Manjimaru game was fun — PC Engine, right? Something along those lines anyway
48AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:47
Re: #41
That's pretty much mainstream though? There's even a Far East of Eden Collection on PSP. My favorite in that series is Fuun Kabuki Den.
43AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:39
Famicom Jump, which I found being dumped in a bargain bin for 100 yen
44AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:40
Glory of Heracles was every bit as high-quality as Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy
46AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:42
Sea Fantasy — a fishing RPG
47AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:43
Borderline on whether it counts as obscure, but Lufia (Estpolis Denki), and also Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner
49AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:49
Bastard on PS1 — I remember enjoying it, but I've forgotten the details
50AnonymousOct 9, 2026 12:51
Square's Tom Sawyer — it really is a classic though
51AnonymousOct 9, 2026 13:01
Re: #48
Oh, that's the one, Far East of Eden. So it really is mainstream. No idea why I even picked it up myself, but nobody around me was playing it, so I always figured I was some kind of weirdo for liking it
56AnonymousOct 9, 2026 13:28
Re: #51
Far East of Eden was the flagship RPG of the PC Engine — you probably just didn't have any PC Engine owners around you
55AnonymousOct 9, 2026 13:16
Western game nerds got blindsided once they discovered Tom Sawyer's intense racist depictions of Black people sometime in the 2000s — guess that's exactly why it never got released overseas
60AnonymousOct 9, 2026 13:41
You know that company behind the famous, now-premium-priced witch side-scrolling shooter, 'Magical' whatever-it-was-called — they also put out a Game Boy Color RPG that, even back then, ran on a 'retro Famicom-style' concept and it was great. Difficulty was low too, so you could clear it fast
63AnonymousOct 9, 2026 13:43
Suikoden II, and Tenshi no Uta 2: Datenshi no Sentaku (Angel's Poem 2: Choice of the Fallen Angel)
Background and the real debate here
What split the thread was the definition of “obscure” itself. Momotaro Densetsu and Chrono Trigger were massive sellers by the numbers, but to the people who brought them up, they were personal memories of having no one around to play with. Far East of Eden is the textbook case: it was the flagship title of the PC Engine and plenty successful in sales terms, but because the PC Engine itself sold far fewer units than the Famicom or Super Famicom, the lingering feeling was simply “hardly anyone I knew owned one” — leading one poster to assume for years that liking it made them an oddball. There was also the observation that Momotaro Densetsu got overshadowed by its own spinoff, Momotetsu, so thoroughly that younger fans today may not even realize the series originated there. The thread’s real undercurrent: “obscurity” isn’t about a game’s quality — it’s a relative feeling shaped by when you played it, what hardware you owned, and who was around you at the time.
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