Whats Up everyone welcome back into MoarDotsGaming, I am kind of bored of the main stream games, because lately they are missing something. But that’s a different topic and today we are going to talk about what I think are the 3 MOST UNDER RATED ARPGS!
#1 Dragons Dogma
This game is a RPG masterpiece, its loved by all that played and game missed by many that didn’t get a chance or just didn’t think it would appeal to them. If you enjoyed Skyrim or any kind of action RPG with character customization, fluid combat, gorgeous scenery and cross-skill systems, along with the odd bug here and there you will enjoy Dragons Dogma.
The game’s story is weak and it’s not really it’s strong point, something about a dragon who takes your heart, and now you are looking for stuff to figure out some other things to fight the dragon…. And…. I don’t know…. as you can tell I didn’t pay attention. So if you are in it for the story you may be disappointed.
But besides the story, the RPG elements, character customization and the combat are fantastical, climbing up an ogres back to the top of its head to slash off its tusk never felt so rewarding! All the bigger enemies you fight have some type of weak point or way to kill them. They Chimera for example kill the snake first, to get rid of the poison, also allows you to get in close for melee players, then kill the lion to get rid of the rage and then all that’s is the goat that becomes more defensive. This makes the fight A MILLION TIMES EAISER.
The game has 10 Classes more commonly known as Vocations, you start by picking one of the 4 of the Basic Vocations,
Fighter, your stick and board tank type
Strider an dual wielding bow user
mage, the vanilla spell caster.
Once you pick your class you cannot change it again until you make your way to the main city and change at the INN.
After you reach level 10 you can then choose an advanced vocation. These are Warrior 2H DPS in your face and break bones.
Ranger, focuses mainly on taking out enemies from afar with powerful long bows, snipes and deadly shots to the head.
Ahh the Sorcerer, if you thought magic in Skyrim was great, wait till you summon a tornado that towers the tree lines and sucks up enemies and throws out em out. Fun class to play.
And lastly for you hybrid players out there, you have the hybrid vocations. These are the mix of magic and melee
Mystic Knight an OP paladin of sorts with the ability to enchant and cast homing spells, things cower over this vocation,
Assassin a poison dagger wielding with lots of explosives, you need someone disappeared you hire one of these guys, the last of the hybrid is
Magick Archer who wields a magic bow, so you don’t need to rely on arrows, just good gear, high magic and arrows that home in and explode !
To unlock all the vocations you need to farm and spend vocations points, I recommend unlocking a good amount because you can cross use different abilities that you unlock and give you an advantage while playing a sorcerer after playing a warrior. Tons of build and combinations to try, the class system is a lot of fun.
The game has so much to offer and it’s really one that should not be passed up, the combat alone is one of the games big drawing points and tops Skyrim in that area among others. If you can grab on steam while on sale it’s well worth the play though and subsequent playthroughs because there is a lot you can’t get done on your 1st playthrough. So New Game + is a welcomed treat, plus after you beat it you can go into speed run mode and see how well you do against others that beat it quickly.
So if it’s been on your digital shelf, check it out you won’t be disappointed.
#2 Kingdoms of Amular
Come on you didn’t see this coming? This game is criminally underrated, if you like Fable and Skyrim check off all your boxes because this has it all. Fun and interesting story, amazing combat, fun colorful graphics and a class system that hits home to the old days of WoW with endless more options to be the villain or hero you want to be.
The combat is tons of fun you can be a dual wielding rouge that stealth’s and backstabs or mix it with a mage, that blinks, drops some AOE and slashes their enemies to death. The customization and builds are fun and rewarding. Each weapon you use all has a different feel and the animations are pretty awesome to watch as you fight and dash around the screen.
Along with the neat combat system you will have something called the fate system that you can activate and use it tear your enemies a new one. You build this resource up over time from fighting and once unleashed can make even the most difficult of battles pretty easy. Definitely a power to keep in your back pocket for bosses and large groups of annoying enemies.
It’s been a while and I don’t really remember the story, but the gist, you were killed, you didn’t die and you are marked one of the ones that don’t have a fate. So now you are after some evil power to stop and thwart their plans from ending the world. Basic story but told very well with good voice acting and fun reading to keep you entertained. So if you are a story person, you should get some fun enjoyment.
Kingdoms is a vast game and promotes exploration, taking on the many side quests to level up and see all the nooks and crannies as you play, is a great way to enjoy the game. It can get repetitive and as you level and get better gear the challenge kind of falls to the way side, but the game itself is a gem that for most will stay unearthed and that’s sad.
The better news is, in August the remaster is releasing, its releasing for 39$ USD so if you have never played and started only hearing about it, I would wait out to August and get the revamped version with new combat, visuals and a few other treats. This game is highly underrated and really many others should check it out, so grab it on sale or wait for the remake, either way don’t pass this game up its another diamond in the rough.
# 3 Grim Dawn
The last on our list but one that needs to be covered. Grim Dawn is amazing as it is beautiful and complex, if you need your Diablo II fix and slower paced combat from games like PoE and Diablo III. Look no further, because Grim Dawn is another underrated game that many more people should check it out. It has in the last year or two started to gain more traction but it should be seeing a lot more, because it has tons to offer.
The combat is similar to many of your isometric systems that you play and that’s about where it ends, you get to choose 2 classes eventually and this makes the combinations endless. Want to be a battle mage or that poisons everything and withers things away, or a shaman that uses chain lighting to explode their enemies or how about a necromancer that summons dinosaurs (yeah, I know that last one got your attention).
The class system is amazing, very in depth with lots of complexities that can be quite confusing at times. But the community is awesome and reddit users and the main forums have tons of people willing to help and direct you to resources to help understand the game better so you can make your dino summoning bad ass.
The story is taking place in a dystopian future where humanity is on the brink of extinction and with you who almost died has nothing to lose is put up to the task to rid the world of if is many evils. The story will take you to deserts, mountains, forests and haunted mansions. I never feel like I am looking at the same scenery over and over again. The story is engaging and you feel for the areas that you are trying to help or eventually kill, depending on the choices you make as you play.
On top of the story you have a very fun and engaging loot system, where you feel very rewarded for taking down corrupted and monster totems, fighting rare enemies and beating story bosses. The grind is a lot of fun as you collect your class points and devotions you get from the corrupted totems to build out your dream class and tackle some of the hardest challenges in the game.
Grim Dawn like most ARPGs of its kind have different difficulties starting at normal, veteran, elite and ultimate. I highly recommend new players play on veteran because the difficulty from veteran to elite won’t be as a big a shock if you go straight from normal. On top of these modes it has a fun arena mode that you can play and for more rewards, higher difficulties and bragging rights that you undead T-Rex can solo the bosses in there with no issues. There is also the shattered realms, which is a endless dungeon that gets progressively harder as you go and beat each floor. This is nice break from the other grinding that takes place and if you can get high up in the levels the rewards are very worth it.
Grim Dawn is usually on sale, and with the developers recently dropping the complete edition that has all the DLCs and main Xpacs you can get this usually for 50% off when it’s on sale, 30$ USD for 100+ hours of content is a steal if you ask me. It should be noted you can play with your friends, ONLY if you both have the same versions. So if you have the base game, but your friend has complete edition you can’t join up so be wary of that.
This is by far my favorite Isometric ARPG and it hits all the places when playing, and calls home to that Diablo II grind that DIII couldn’t quench, not to mention it was too colorful… there really was no cow level and that was sad. Grim Dawn doesn’t have one either but it gets everything else right.
Well folks there are the top 3 underrated ARPGs, there are more out there but I really wanted to cover these, because I keep going back to them and enjoying them. So if you never played, never heard of it, or having it sitting on a shelf, I hope this encourages you to give these master pieces a go! If you do end up trying any of these games or have played them, please leave a comment below, I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences about them.
The Brodragons 