is it rare? ps1 game

From what I can scrounge up, its rarity appears to do with availability. The PS1 version was only ever released in Europe.

According to wikipedia it first released on PC, where it got some less than great reviews by critics (if it was reviewed at all). And then about half a year later it got a release on playstation, but only in EU.

Largely seen as a "CnC ripoff" from what I can find. Though anywhere that takes user reviews, seem to show them holding the game with higher regards - just over a score of 8 - which combined with the scarcity contributes to the going rate of course.

One reason that makes it rarer than normal: it's European PAL exclusive meaning it was never released in the North American NTSC or Asian NTSC J regions. So, for example the collectors in the North America and Asia are probably willing to pay some extra to get a copy from the Europe.

Also it's common that far less copies of ps1 games have been released in Europe compared to NTSC games. Also due to so many different languages in Europe, sometimes the only PAL version in English can be found from the UK/Ireland. Usually the game disc(s) are the same across Europe, but the case prints and manual might be only in the localized language, but sometimes: for example French version of Final Fantasy VII is in French only, meaning there is no option to play it in English afaik. src: http://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/3vrowx/question_regarding_the_pal_version_for_the/
https://psxdatacenter.com/games/P/F/SCES-00868.html

There are even more NTSC J and NTSC U/C exclusives (like some Squaresoft JRPG classics) that are often very hard to find elsewhere (like in Europe) so buying them from an overseas seller can be the easier and even cheaper option instead trying to find an already imported copy locally.

this is pretty comprehensive archive of data for checking info about different versions of ps1 games:
https://psxdatacenter.com/pal_list.html
https://psxdatacenter.com/ntsc-u_list.html

The wikipedia listing of PS1 games is also quite good for aka titles and release dates (but missing a lot): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_games

Thanks for answers all, i think i'll hold on to it for a while