The score of 7/10 for us at NookGaming is the lowest score we classify as “recommended” outright. However, scores often don’t tell the full story given the highly subjective nature of enjoyment, particularly in an audience-dictated medium like video games. There are several different paths that a game can take to arrive at that final score. Sometimes, games like these can be incredible in spots but held back from a higher score by significant noticeable issues or perhaps lacking something. Although these games might carry more of an asterisk behind a stronger recommendation, they are the sort of games where audiences may still find something special beneath its flaws. These are some of our favorite 7s, the ones that outshine their score.
So, as we did with our article on some of our favorite Visual Novels which were given a 7/10 score in a review, we thought it’d be nice to discuss some games that received the score that we feel have something more special about them than a plain recommendation would suggest.
Like with our game of the year lists, this list of our favorite 7s are, of course, very much subjective and limited to titles that we have played extensively.
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Etrian Odyssey HD
I love Etrian Odyssey a whole lot, but the appeal of the very first game admittedly eluded me for a long time. While I find its overall scenario design, plot twists, and isolating atmosphere to be charming, it’s let down by having frustrations that I felt oftentimes didn’t add much. Doubly frustrating in that it does many things that are quite unique when taking the entire franchise into consideration, and ultimately I couldn’t enjoy those things because of baggage like awful UI elements, slow animations in battle, and the map drawing element feeling severely underdeveloped. This feeling remained the same for many years, but my heart finally opened up to it with Etrian Odyssey I HD, as part of Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection.
Etrian Odyssey I HD thankfully walks the best kind of line that a remaster can. It asks all the right questions when implementing new quality of life features, asking what parts of the game are cracks that should be smoothed over and what are curves and edges in a greater sculpt. The game keeps the same quirky balancing of the original and doesn’t make changes that might upset the emotional responses that certain design choices (both good and bad) might yield. Yes, the Medic is still hilariously broken. Yes, there’s still an abhorrent amount of backtracking. You can also bet that the scenario design can still get pretty outrageous, and absolutely none of that has been touched to make it easier or more accommodating.
Now that issues regarding playability and confusing interfaces have been addressed, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Etrian Odyssey I is weird in all the best kinds of ways that codifies it as something the developers at Atlus were having fun with, while still making a statement on the appeal of RPGs. It’s comfortably old-school while still using (at the time) innovative new hardware to meaningfully alter the experience with its map drawing system. It’s got a great sense of atmosphere owed to both its art and level design, and a strong sense of mood backed by equally strong writing that knows when to step down and let the gameplay do the talking. Etrian Odyssey I is not my first, second, third, or fourth pick for my favorite game in the series, but it’s remarkable to see just how much the series got right on its first try.
-Isaiah
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana
Ys: The Oath in Felghana is something of a middle child for the Ys series in several ways. It’s basically in the dead center of the series’s non-sequential order narrative-wise, and it was the second of the three games in its particular “era” of the franchise (releasing after Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim and before the generally more polished and widely heralded Ys Origin). But what cements this particular status is how it’s felt among the playerbase; it’s often seen as a good entry in the series, but seldom anyone’s favorite, usually slotting in the middle of fans’ rankings.
It’s a fully realized remake of 1989’s Ys III, and while a rare example of a remake with a significantly more consistently positive reputation than its basis, aspects of Ys III linger including some of its issues. Given that Ys II was intentionally made to directly follow I and those two games have been consistently paired together, Ys III can sort of be seen as the first true sequel in the series, one with the growing pains of a series trying to put its next foot forward.
Despite the franchise name of Ys, III was the first title to move away from the titular land of Ys, being set in a new region entirely named Felghana, and the attempts to both offer and expand the story are noticeably fairly undercooked. It was a 2D action RPG with a lot of vertical level design and more than its share of jank and frustrating difficulty. Oath in Felghana attempts to effectively be the best version of these aspects, fleshing out the story a bit more and expanding on the level design, while staying true to the original. Unfortunately, this also means its story is still simple and not particularly interesting, and the 3D remade versions of many of the stages still have their frustration to them. The bosses in Oath in Felghana are also still a mixed bag, especially the ones that still use a quasi-2D battle arena.
Still, it’s a pretty good time. The original was notoriously difficult and frustrating, but this remake added difficulty options to open it up to a wider spectrum of players, from series newcomers to thrill-seekers. Every ability and power-up you get in this game feels meaningful and impactful rather than just “number goes up a bit more”. It’s an incredibly briskly paced game, one that rarely wastes a moment, a rarity in the modern RPG landscape (and even among developer Nihon Falcom’s recent catalog). It’s a game that gets better and better as it goes along, leading to one of the series’ better lategames. And good lord, that soundtrack is absolutely exquisite, containing stellar rearrangements all throughout courtesy of the excellent Yukihiro Jindo adapting the already fantastic tunes originally composed by Falcom jdk sound team.
Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana is perhaps the best version of the game available on the market. It includes multiple versions of the Ys III soundtrack, a fast-forward option plus cutscene skips, and also has the voice acting that was missing from the PC version for many years before it was re-added there. It provides the right kind of touch-ups to the game to bring just a bit more life to it. Felghana holds up pretty well to this day as a genuinely good, if flawed, reimagining of a 16-bit era title. If you want an action RPG that has some of the feel of the classics of the genre with some more modern sensibilities, or you just want a game with an excellent soundtrack and a satisfying progression curve, it’s a pretty darn solid option. It’s not the series’s absolute zenith, but every mountain range has its lesser peaks that are still satisfying to climb.
-Rob
Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
Project Zero (aka Fatal Frame in North America and simply Zero in Japan) makes for an already rather polarizing series. With heavy focus on a slow pace, primarily female protagonists, and stories about Japanese ghost tales rather than more broadly appealing horror subjects (e.g., poltergeists and zombies) that you might find in games like Resident Evil. For Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, rather than simply trying to broaden the appeal, Koei Tecmo enlisted the help of the ever quirky and punk Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture. Let’s just say it’s unsurprising this game didn’t get officially released outside of Japan until fifteen years after its original launch.
Pairing a rather niche horror series with an incredibly niche game studio, evil mastermind Suda51 director in tow, may not have been the best move for the franchise at the time. Suda51 just wasn’t the draw the team needed, and condemning the game to the Wii likely did it no favors. Sadly, the game remained an obscurity in the West until following the re-release of Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water, and thanks to a multiplatform release, the world got to truly experience the “lost” Project Zero and Suda horror title that is Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse.
This game is still visually a Nintendo Wii/PlayStation 2 title despite texture work being done on the game. There isn’t quite enough there to “mask” its origins, which would be an issue… if the game didn’t absolutely nail the atmosphere from the get-go and perform some absolute witchcraft with the effects available at the time. Combat is standard for the series, if not a little restricted because of the tight corridors. But hey, it’s a horror game, it’s supposed to be tense!
Another aspect that absolutely shines with this one is the actual mystery and location, in my opinion, are the best of the series. I found the narrative to not only be the strongest aspect of the game but the strongest narrative in the series, an area I felt that was slightly lacking in Maiden of Black Water.
Despite the franchise having beloved entries like Crimson Butterfly, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse will always be my favorite of the series. It’s like a diamond in the rough, where when you wash away the dirt, you have an absolute gem with a phenomenal story and location that just eats away at you. Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse may have been awarded a 7/10 due to a few nagging issues I had with the port and age of the game, but it will always be an excellent experience for me and one of my favorite 7s.
-Andrew
Natsu no Sagashimono ~What We Found That Summer~
Natsu no Sagashimono ~What We Found That Summer~ sends you off to the countryside to experience a summer vacation with a colorful cast of new friends. As the vacation goes on and the shy Natsu comes out of his shell, it’s shown that each of the friendly residents of this small village has more to them than it first seems.
Most of my enjoyment of the game came from just how charming the characters are, the relationships between them, and the funny interactions. The scenes where Natsu gets closer to each of them certainly aren’t bad either, and the pixel art style is also used particularly well here, especially in the animated sections. The more dramatic moments later on are also strong, with perhaps the exception of one route.
While I really enjoyed this game, what held it back was mostly that the gameplay can be somewhat tedious. There’s quite a lot of clicking around to find what’s next or to look for something hidden. The heroine’s stories also sometimes felt a little too rushed near the end.
Natsu no Sagashimono ~What We Found That Summer~ could have done certain things better, but it absolutely nails the important points, especially the feel of living in the countryside and the interactions with the locals. It’s a great example of how much someone can do with RPG Maker MV outside of making a more typical RPG.
-Thomas
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If you are looking for more posts about favorites and games that may not have received the attention they deserve, you may enjoy our look at Some of the Best Overlooked Anime Games.
Been playing games since my papa gave me an NES controller in the early 90’s. I play games of almost all genres, but especially focus role-playing, action, and puzzle-platform games. Also an enjoyer of many niche things ranging from speedrunning to obscure music from all over the world.
