What niche RPGs are you particularly fond of? Can be a newer game or an older RPG that never became a cult classic.

Let's exclude BG3, Witcher and well known classics like FO1/FO2, Ultima and so on.

Here is my list:

HammerHelm - This is an RPG and first person city-builder hybrid. Pretty unique combination, the city-building complements the RPG elements by allowing you to develop your character and deal with world events. Story elements were relatively generic. Don't let the cartoony graphics fool you, the combat is actually moderately challenging (although no where near as hard as the next game on this list).

Underrail - A post-apocalyptic CRPG, albeit everyone is living underground, clearly inspired by Fallout 1/2. You can eventually reach the "top" subway levels, but you never get to go topside (you do go pretty deep underground though). One of the expansions is set in a giant underground Sea (inspired by the Black Sea).

Cool, unique world-building, but writing isn't that great. Key characters feel like quest dispensers and/or cardboard cut-outs. Quests for the most part are somewhat generic although there are one or two really well written quests. I like how magic-style skills are implemented in a scifi manner in the game world.

Very good combat (lot's of unique playstyles), although it's very hard and it's easy to soft-lock yourself if you don't follow a build guide. I found the final boss to be tedious. Depending on certain choice that you make (you can't leave the final area once you get there, albeit its expansive), the ending can be extremely hard, to the point that I don't even know how people beat with choices that ramp up the difficult. Final area has a cool dynamic code system (unique code per every playthough) that actually requires some thought (if you figure it out, you get a nice support bonus in the final battle).

Space Wreck - A post-apocalyptic space RPG. Pretty compelling and unique story. It felt very immersive and kept me interested in finding out more about the world.

I like the stylized UI and general visual style. That being said, the game would benefit from more asset variety. I feel the lofi style pushes people away from the game (ignore it, it's a great experience).

Lot's of freedom to complete objectives in different ways. Has a very well fleshed out roleplaying element, but unfortunately I've only completed the game with one character. Although I could see how novel quest solutions (and story beats) open with characters with a different specialization. I am surprised it is not more popular.

Consortium - I didn't actually finish this title, only have 7 hours in it. It's an RPG/FPS hybrid, with the FPS component being terrible (and I am one of those people that thinks the combat in OG Deus Ex is fine and dislikes modern, overly polished console-style FPS combat). It's very text heavy though and you have to do a lot of reading of logs and articles. The text leverages the "show, don't tell" philosophy, it hints at things but even after ~7 hours, the core game narrative wasn't really clear (and I wanted to find out more). Even in ~7 hours that I played, I got really immersed into the world and it was clear it offered something relatively unique. I've been meaning to finish this, should probably do re-install it. :)

As you can see from the screenshot below, the visual are not that good.

For older games, I only know of the cult classics. To be honest, I don't find older (pre mid to late 90s) RPGs that interesting. They tend to be very combat focused, often with a generic fantasy setting (Might & Magic is one example that stands out though).