Re: 20 Great rpg games
I agree about Dragon Slave & Prison being great games, and notoriously underrated.
There are tons more (released and probably under-rated, or not as known as they should) games which spring instantly to my mind, among those that I've played : "othERs", "lilim union", "naedoko dungeon chronicle", the "ani/twin/saki quest" games, "monochrome quest", "redinaito saga", "maiden-snow eve", "magica", "lessica's chan adventure diary", "haru-uru", "orc strike", the "bounty hunters" games, etc., etc. (I am sure I'm forgetting some).
About translated games being necessarily good games though, I have to say that it's a more subjective statement, and therefore questionable (at least to me).
If it's true that popular games have the highest chance to get translated, great games can remain under the radar because of technical issues (for example, Wolf games seem harder to translate than RPG maker games, and even among RPG maker games, XP/2k games seem to be easier to translate than VX or ACE ones).
On the other hand, even pretty bad games can get a translation if it caters to someone's interests. Without criticizing the talent or the decision of the translator, I have to wonder how
Sangeki of Gear for example can get a translation before much more "deserving" games. Except maybe the art, the game has no redeeming qualities in my eyes : the girl is dumber than a rock, it's ultra-linear, the story is cringe-inducingly bad, the gameplay is meh at best, but hey... I'll probably get off-topic here, and I don't want that. Again, this is my opinion, and even if I strongly dislike the game, I am grateful towards the translator, for something is always better than nothing.
If I have time, I'd like to contribute more to this thread. It's a good idea to have one beside the "translated games" one, so that people don't waste their time downloading crap, or can check it for suggestions, and potential translators could get motivated/petitioned to look into these lesser known games too.
This thread will probably need to be better organized (separated in genres, engines, etc.?), and have some kind of "rules" or at least be monitored, to be any useful on the long run.