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The holiday season is upon us! Therefore you must be looking for an amazing video game for your child, significant other, cousin, sibling, gamer parent (they do exist I assure you), second cousin twice removed, or just for yourself; but you don’t have the 60$ required to buy the must have new MMO, FPS, or RPG. Don’t despair as there are plenty of epic games priced under $25! But you say that you are an avid gamer and have bought every major title (you are hard to please apparently!), well this list will show you 5 amazing games that most likely slipped under your radar.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
The first game on our list, Persona 4 has a legendary status amongst many gamers for its deep character development and was so popular amongst some people who it spawned not only merchandise but also a manga, anime, live stage production(!), and a spin-off fighting game.
Released in 2008 on the Play Station 2, it may be easy to confuse this game with the many other JRPG titles out there, it is on an entirely other level as it delves into the psyches of the characters when the player enters the dreams of them. It can be compared to the likes of Psyconauts and Catherine in this sense. If you let yourself get immersed in this game you will be pleasantly surprised.

The World Ends With You
Released in 2008 on the Nintendo DS, The World Ends With You by Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts team is a masterpiece. The game is centered on a group of deceased Japanese Students who are fighting for the chance to live again in a fictionalized version of the Shibuya shopping district.
If you are a fan of Kingdom Hearts and love it even without the Disney elements, you will love this even more.

Shadow Complex
Shadow Complex is a platform action- adventure game made by Epic Games for Xbox Live Arcade in 2009. While it is not a masterpiece and doesn’t exactly make any massive strides in story or character development, Shadow Complex is fun and challenging. The gameplay can be most associated with Metroid as it copies Metroid’s gameplay in full, but it makes up for this by being a very attractive game that requires little time investment.

 

To the Moon
The Indie title, To the Moon by Freebird Games in 2011 is a new kind of game entirely. I have not played it yet, but from what I hear it is incredible. This game uses gameplay in such a way to tell the story that I’ve heard that it can only be likened to the Scott Pilgrim comics. And for $11 you can’t go wrong!