I bet you’ve heard that at least once, or even be the one saying that. I can never understand how highly rated and objectively liked works aren’t very well-known. It makes sense if it’s a niche work, but sometimes niche works blow people away so much it becomes a household name.
Take Gravity Falls, for example. It’s a very smartly written story full of mysteries, and people tend to overlook the red herrings sprinkled throughout the episodes. Its fandom is DEDICATED. Just look up ‘Bill Cipher tattoo’ and see how many people has that iconic character tattooed on them.
But then there’s Over the Garden Walls. It’s a story full of mysteries and subtleties as well, with just as much red herrings. Their art style are also very similar, but with OTGW in a more vintage flavour. Yet you only see its name mentioned a couple of times, and that’s it.
Another example is Undertale. If you spend any amount of time on the internet, you would hear its name being chanted like a prayer, and the fan arts of Sans just EVERYWHERE. It has a very unique story and gameplay, one that is vaguely similar to EarthBound.
And then you have OFF. I literally have never heard of it until a YouTube artist made a fan art on it. Again, it has a very unique story and gameplay, which is also very similar to EarthBound. And yet it doesn’t have people talking about it like Undertale.
People who've watched/played the underrated franchises are in love with it, but somehow they never really blow up.
What do you think caused such a disparity? Is it because the franchise wasn’t advertised enough? Is it because they were displayed on different mediums (GF was aired in Disney and OTGW in Cartoon Networks, UT is in Steam but OFF isn’t)? Is it just pure luck?
Let me know your opinions!