Q: Underrated gems?

Omg Toem looks so cool! I'm def adding it to my list of games to play this year.

One underrated indie rpg I've been playing is SLARPG (Super Lesbian Animal RPG)!!
I've been following the game for about a year or so, back when the demo came out essentially, and it's been such a treat to finally play the full thing. I'm only a couple Acts in right now and there's been a lot of great heartfelt story telling as well as a killer art direction. It was originally a mlp fangame, and while you can tell some of the original elements, it's really unique in where it goes that you don't really notice it. The art also takes some inspiration from Sonic (makes sense with the context of the creator running a STH blog) and it really adds to the colourful vibrant charm.

Gameplay wise it's really fun and addicting, while also not being so grindy or slowing the pacing down. There's optional ways to make the game harder for those who want a challenge, but it puts more emphasis on the story within the game. It's really fun to coordinate your team to create fun and unique combos.

(And obviously it's got a lot of lesbian representation, as well as a lot of general trans+queer rep!)

Oh I have SO much to recommend I literally have a 2000-word list but I'll try and narrow it down

- Literally anything by Chilla's art, they make amazing horror games and are great at making you shit your pants

-Cryptid Farm, it's a spooky web browser farming sim you can play with your friends that I believe is getting a steam release soon

-Frog Detective 1, 2, and 3 I love these games sm they're so cute and extremely well written it's an absolute masterpiece

-The Stanely Parable. OH BOY I COULD GO ON AND ON ABOUT HOW MUCH I FREAKING ADORE THIS GAME IT IS SO GOOD

-Little Missfourtune/Fran Bow, I'm putting these together because they're made by the same lovely dev team if you like Sally Face I think you'll like these

-Bad End theater, you play through some RPG stories in a cute little theatre

-I Frog-ot, a horror ga-I MEAN CUTE AND INNOCENT GAME ABT FROGS :D

-Godly Corp, a wonderful and very frustrating game about working in an intergalactic office job

These are just a few I have so many more I can recommend if you want the whole list or more specific recs just lmk

I love all of these recommendations, I'm definitely going to check some of them out.

Games that I love that I feel are underrated:

-Going Under is just hands down one of my favourite games that's come out recently. It's a dungeon crawler where you fight monsters with a pencil, a laptop or whatever other office supplies are currently closest to you. The characters and humor are great and the gameplay at least for me falls into that sweet spot where it's challenging but not too difficult

-Ikenfell is a cute pixel art turn based rpg about witches. I haven't finished it but so far the story seems interesting. It has multiple LGBTQIA characters which I think is pretty cool. Also the safe points are cats.

-Unpacking is a cozy pixel art game about moving into a new home. The gameplay is literally just unpacking boxes but there is something very interesting about learning about these characters lives via the objects they choose to bring with them when they move. I've replayed this one more times than I can count because it's just oddly satisfying

-Secret Little Haven is a story game about a teenage trans girl in 1999 who spends a lot of time talking to her online friends who she met over a forum for her favorite magical girl show. 

-Donut County is a relatively short physics puzzle game with a really fun story about a hole in the ground swallowing up the town, donuts, friendship and racoons. I've replayed this one three times.

-ABZÛ is a beautiful story game that mostly takes place underwater which makes it very difficult to play for me because deep water is one of the spookiest things in all of existence to me but I've still played it two times so let that speak for itself. Also it was made by the art director of Journey

-The Long Dark is a survival game with a very interesting story mode set in the frozen middle of nowhere after a geomagnetic disaster. What I love about this game is how much space the game gives you to just think. There's a lot of stretches where you'll be walking for just long enough to let the letter you just read really sink in. The game's atmosphere is great.

-Void Bastards is a scifi comic strategy-shooter. I need to preface this by saying I am horrible at this game and can therefore say very little about the later sections of the game because I keep dying. I can however say that the artstyle is incredible and I love how everything is stylized.

That's all the games I can think off of the top of my head, I'll probably remember something I forgot about later so maybe I'll come back and add it

(sorry if I'm accidentally including something that's not technically an indie game. someone got mad at me one time for including Unravel in a list like this a while ago so I feel like I need to put that disclaimer beforehand )