25 Best PS1 Hidden Gems

"Bushido" is the soul of Japan - an ancient honor code deeply followed by samurai warriors for centuries. Plunge into real world battles across vast 3D environments that you can run, slice and tear through. Sword matches become unbelievably real where one critical blow is the mean difference between death and victory.

Devil Dice is a unique puzzle game, where the player controls a small devil that runs around a grid covered in large dice. The player can both stand atop dice, and stand on the ground (with the dice towering above). When standing on the dice, the player can move from die to die, or can roll a die in the direction he or she runs, revealing a different face as the die rotates. Creating a group of adjacent dice with identical pips—the size of which must be at least the number of pips—causes those dice to slowly sink into the field before disappearing. Chain reactions are possible by adding additional dice to a sinking set. Different types of dice are available in some modes, with different properties to make the game more challenging.

It was originally created by developer Shift on the "homebrew" Yaroze platform, and later turned into a commercial game. Released in 1998, it is one of only a handful of games to make the leap from the Yaroze to commercial release. The game is a million-seller and a demo version was released as a PlayStation Classic game for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable on November 7, 2007.

Galerians is a survival horror game in which the player navigates a 3D character model over pre-rendered backgrounds, using character-related controls similar to those implemented in Alone in the Dark. Items must be collected to unlock new areas and advance the story. Unlike in most other games of the type, the protagonist is unable to use weapons. Rion fully relies on his psychic powers to combat enemies. These powers must be replenished by regularly taking drugs. In addition, Rion has a special meter that throws him into uncontrollable rage when full.

Wild 9 is a 2D platformer with 3D graphics, featuring gameplay similar in vein to the company's Earthworm Jim games. Unique to the game is the The Rig, a weapon the protagonist wields. The Rig functions like an electronic lasso, capable of moving objects as well as carry around and smash enemies, which is often needed to solve puzzles and progress through the game's ten levels. A few stages focus on avoiding obstacles and taking on boss enemies.

The Western release of Final Fantasy VII (released as Final Fantasy VII International in Japan) included additional elements and alterations, such as streamlining of the menu and Materia system, reducing the health of enemies, new visual cues to help with navigation across the world map, and additional cutscenes relating to Cloud's past.

One fine and sunny day in the land that Buddies roam, there was a great and mighty disco in a tent. This tent would bob up and down with the music. All of a sudden, a large, flat, grey, flying THING blocked out the sun (The Great Eclipse) and began to drop crates. These crates were filled with all sorts of goodies such as Uzis and Bazookas. Inevitably, chaos broke out and the buddies became segregated according to color.

Jumping Flash! is a platform video game published by Sony Computer Entertainment and developed by Exact Co., Ltd. and Ultra Co., Ltd for the PlayStation in 1995. The game follows the robotic rabbit named 'Robbit' as he searches for the missing Jet Pods which were scattered by the game's astrophysicist antagonist, Baron Aloha. The game is presented in a first-person perspective, in which Robbit must explore each world to retrieve all the hidden Jet Pods, stop Aloha, and save the world from desolate emptiness.

A legendary tale of betrayal and self-destruction. Abuse derived from the greediness of man. the powers of a magical creature betrayed. Will man realize his mistakes before irreparable damage is done? Armed with a magical ally and the will to survive, lead Vahn and his cohorts to the redemption of man. Pursue a quest to save the world and discover place where legends are born. New combat system bases on fight games. Discover special combinations for more effective attacks. Beautiful realistic graphics with full polygons. 100s of 3D enemies that react with a full range of motion.

The game offers a lot of choice in respect to how individual players wish to play. The main focus of the game is entering the tower and destroying its denizens, collecting treasure and monster eggs to hatch into familiars. Each monster has hidden spells, unique traits, and abilities. Koh can also improve the town, along with decorating his home.

Resident Evil is a survival horror classic in which a group of special forces agents, known as S.T.A.R.S, struggle against hordes of zombies and various other mutants in a mysterious mansion as they try to uncover the truth behind the terrifying infection. The gameplay environment consists of polygonal 3D characters placed over pre-rendered 2D backgrounds. As such, the game relies on pre-determined camera angles for a view of the action instead of a real-time camera like most games. The game is credited for coining the phrase "survival horror" and popularizing the genre.

Threads of Fate is a 1999 action platform video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation console. It revolves around two characters, Rue and Mint, and their quest for a mystical object known only as "the Relic" that has the power to profoundly alter their lives.

Two amazing adventures! Rue is on a quest to revive a lost friend. Mint is seeking power and revenge. Both of them are looking for a powerful relic, but which will be brave and clever enough to reach their goal?

Explore a beautifully rendered 3D world with challenging puzzles, unusual enemies, and unknown dangers.
Play as both characters to encounter two entirely different storylines.
Rue has the ability to shape-shift into the forms of defeated enemies.
Mint can learn and use a wide variety of magic spells.

Koudelka is the precursor (prequel) to Sacnoth's Shadow Hearts series. Shadow Hearts takes place in the Koudelka universe and features various locales and characters from Sacnoth's debut work.

A 3D shoot 'em up by the makers of Gran Turismo and Panzer Dragoon Zwei

Heart of Darkness places players in the role of a child named Andy as he attempts to rescue his dog who has been kidnapped by creatures known as The Dark Souls. The game has about half an hour of storytelling cinematic sequences, thousands of 2D animated frames, and uses pre-rendered background scenery. The game was supervised by game developer Éric Chahi, known for Another World, this time with a team of artists and developers. The game also features an original score by film and television composer Bruce Broughton.

A Game Boy Advance port was announced in 2001 but it was never released.

Adventure into a world of unparalleled depth and danger with SquareSoft's Vagrant Story. In this sweeping dungeon-crawling epic you play as Ashley Riot, a young assassin and spy for the organization known as Riskbreakers. Your goal is to unravel a deep and twisted plot and come to terms with the recent death of your wife and child. If this sounds a bit too cerebral never fear. Your path to recapturing your sense of humanity hinges on the destruction of countless vicious monsters and the exploration of dark and dangerous dungeons. Vagrant Story is awash in gorgeous scenery and features designs from Yasumi Matsuno and Akihiko Yoshida, the acclaimed artists and creators behind Final Fantasy Tactics.

It is grandmother Haruko's birthday. She wants everyone home early for her special day: the day that serves as a reminder that she has been alive for more years than she can remember. Unfortunately, her family has completely forgotten and make up last-minute birthday promises to Haruko. The game begins like any other normal day for the family members - father Taneo, mother Etsuko, daughter Ririka, and son Tsuyoshi - until strings of events stand as obstacles in their way of returning to Haruko's with the presents.

Between the worlds of light and dark lies the world of dreams. A world where the rule of reason loosens its grip. A place where an insidious evil is stealing minds and blackening the hearts of those from the world of light. Grab a weapon and become the dreamwalker Alundra as he struggles to purge the evil Id of an ancient world before it falls to ash.

Explore dungeons, find weapons, solve challenging puzzles, and kick some serious monster butt as you weave between tense reality and nightmarish dreams to save the hapless masses. With a wide cast of characters and scores of challenging puzzles created by the people responsible for Landstalker on the Genesis. Alundra will rob you of precious sleep until you finish!

150 years ago, the legendary warrior known as the Brave Fencer Musashi saved the kingdom of Allucaneet from the evil Wizard of Darkness. Now, his spirit is reincarnated in a young, rather short-tempered boy. Fillet, the princess of Allucaneet, summons the reluctant hero to the palace and gives him the powerful sword Fusion, which he needs to defeat the evil Thirstquencher Empire. It soon turns out that the Empire is after another legendary sword, Lumina, so Musashi's first task is to get it before the bad guys do!..

Brave Fencer Musashi is an action game with strong RPG elements. Controlling Musashi, the player explores the pre-rendered backgrounds from third person view (similarly to Final Fantasy VII), visiting towns, talking to NPCs, etc. There is a day/night cycle in the game, which is manifested in the schedules of NPCs and/or monsters, as well as Musashi's fatigue level, which increases if he doesn't sleep enough. Musashi uses the two swords, Fusion and Lumina, to fight his enemies. The two swords have different properties: while Fusion behaves more or less like a traditional melee weapon, Lumina needs to be imbued with various elemental items in order to unleash powerful attacks.

Crime War is a story mode, following a day in the life of an LAPD X1-Alpha pilot. The story events range from rogue lunatics arming observatories with weapons, to a malfunctioning supercomputer. Players begin in a futuristic Griffith Park, but as they advance through the game they may unlock areas such as Venice Beach, LAX and Long Beach.

Parasite Eve is a survival horror role-playing video game developed and published by SquareSoft (now Square Enix) for the Sony PlayStation console. The game follows the story of Aya Brea, a rookie NYPD officer who becomes embroiled in a series of bizarre and deadly events related to a genetic mutation known as mitochondria. The game combines elements of horror, science fiction, and RPG gameplay, featuring real-time battles, exploration, puzzle-solving, and character development. The game's plot is inspired by the novel of the same name by Hideaki Sena, and its gameplay mechanics were influenced by the Final Fantasy series. Parasite Eve was critically acclaimed upon its release in 1998, and is widely regarded as a classic of the survival horror genre.

Hogs of War is a turn-based tactics game where players take turns controlling individual members of their squad of hogs to engage in combat with the opposition, similar to Worms. Each turn, a player takes control of a single squad member in a third-person perspective to move around the map, including jumping over terrain and swimming over bodies of water, yet can only engage in combat when stationary. Each turn has a set time limit and ends if the timer counts down to zero, the player skips their turn, a weapon or ability is used or if they have accidentally injured themselves such as walking into a mine field or falling from a high surface. Other hazards include bodies of water that, while they can be swam in, is damaging to nearly all types of soldiers and drains health as they swim. If a teammate is knocked into water by an opponent, they will automatically swim to the nearby shore line. While difficult, it is also possible to knock hogs off the map resulting in instant death. If all health is gone and the player is on land, they will fall over with a last comical remark before exploding.

Tomba! is a side-scrolling platformer in which players control Tomba, a wild boy on the search for his grandfather's bangle that was stolen by some evil pigs. Although Tomba is normally restricted to a two-dimensional plane, there are certain points where he can jump or climb onto a new plane. Tomba's main method of attack is to jump on top of enemies to grab them, allowing him to hop around on them before throwing them away. This can also be used to open other objects such as eggs or treasure chests. Tomba is also able to use various projectile weapons such as maces and boomerangs and can swing on branches and poles.

The game is based around a mission system, where the main character's (Tomba's) skills are employed to complete various tasks. Completion of a mission gives a certain amount of adventure points (AP) which are required for AP boxes which contain food (which gives you AP and restores 1 space of vitality) or items, and you may for example need 50,000 AP to open one. AP is also used to gain access to special places or information later in the game. Not all missions are necessary to progress in the game, however, they are required to achieve full completion. There are 130 events (missions) in the game, many of them rely on other events to be completed.

Einhänder is a futuristic side-scrolling shooter featuring explosive visuals, pounding techno music, and simulated 3D gameplay.

Silent Bomber is an old school style game which takes place in the future. You play as a character named Jutah Fate, a genetically engineered man created by the government. You're an expert at using bombs. You start out being able to set only a few bombs at a time, but eventually you can increase the number by collecting E-Chips. It's a fast paced game of blowing things up before they blow you up.