Games that are great... But can't recommend.

[ImhotepTheSecond]

Basically any visual novel from SCA-JI. Lots of shock content and lots of reading that feels somewhat aimless. You're basically reading a franchise of books that take 1000+ pages to get the point. But once they do, goddamn. Some of the best character writing and theming I've ever seen. Excellent art too

Also any shmup besides Touhou. Mushihimesama and Dodonpachi Saidaioujou are very brutal. Unsurprising that a lot of people put it down right away

 

[Nelson2001 Nelson2001]

Mega Man & Bass.

It's best appreciated when you're already deep into Mega Man.

I played that game in SFC and with patches of 2x damage against enemies and changing characters in the air by pressing select and still the game is hell due to the massive placement of enemies, the lack of energy tanks, the unbalanced damage level and the worst thing is that some enemies deal 8 pts. of damage per contact which is frustrating and the bosses (except for the Jelly Devil, Cold Man, Burner Man and the Monkey which are the only easy bosses in the game) because the rest are difficult but not so much if you have the specific weapon to do more damage but Dynamo Man is the most unfair of all even with the weakness of Holographic Shot and on top of that the bastard boss that recharges the health bar while Rockman & Forte can't because they don't have E-Tanks and it takes time to destroy the regeneration barriers and are 28 times (10 with the charged shot or the special weapon) And even so, this battle is the main reason why many people can't handle the game, even I can't handle the game either, and I'm bad at playing Mega Man games, but that doesn't justify the bad learning curve of the game, even if you're an expert playing this game, the damn game is always going to punish you, and not to mention the GBA version that is worse and with a screen crunch that only hinders the visibility of the game and makes it more difficult than the Super Famicom version.

 

[fake-kun]

I played that game in SFC and with patches of 2x damage against enemies and changing characters in the air by pressing select and still the game is hell due to the massive placement of enemies, the lack of energy tanks, the unbalanced damage level and the worst thing is that some enemies deal 8 pts. of damage per contact which is frustrating and the bosses (except for the Jelly Devil, Cold Man, Burner Man and the Monkey which are the only easy bosses in the game) because the rest are difficult but not so much if you have the specific weapon to do more damage but Dynamo Man is the most unfair of all even with the weakness of Holographic Shot and on top of that the bastard boss that recharges the health bar while Rockman & Forte can't because they don't have E-Tanks and it takes time to destroy the regeneration barriers and are 28 times (10 with the charged shot or the special weapon) And even so, this battle is the main reason why many people can't handle the game, even I can't handle the game either, and I'm bad at playing Mega Man games, but that doesn't justify the bad learning curve of the game, even if you're an expert playing this game, the damn game is always going to punish you, and not to mention the GBA version that is worse and with a screen crunch that only hinders the visibility of the game and makes it more difficult than the Super Famicom version.

Skill issue. /j

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Anything that has more niche appeal, scratches a very personal itch, or caters to a specific taste I suppose. I love janky, crappy PS2 action games for instance, but I generally wouldn't recommend them to someone who isn't like-minded in that regard.

 

[Nelson2001 Nelson2001]

Skill issue. /j

At least I admit that I'm bad at playing Rockman ~ Mega Man games.

 

[C-MS]

I'd probably say The Witness? I love it, but it seems like it's a toss-up whether someone's going to invest the time and end up going, "this game does a lot of cool stuff you wouldn't expect" or play for like an hour and go, "this is just a dumbass maze game, what the hell is wrong with you"

I read a comment in Mandalore Gaming joke review of that game of some weirdo saying something like "The game is moraly blind because is talking about God without any materialst, nihilist or secular voice because those are expensive when BLM implode" or something like that. So yeah, didn't play it and looked artistic and stuff, but probably has a "message" that not even the wokes liked.

 

[Poltergeist]

Europa Universalis 4
Great game, but the learning curve is insane.

 

[Pockets]

Playing the original Monster Hunter online using the private server has genuinely been some of the most fun I've had with a game in the past few years. I DO NOT recommend it to anyone who values their time and sanity.

 

[deceptionfalls]

Ys III: Wanderers from Ys.

It's a pretty nice platformer/rpg game and feels very fun sometimes, but having to grind just so you unlock your full health bar is really lame, and the difficulty spikes up quite a lot later in the game.

I wouldn't say it's completely unrecommendable, since you do have a really forgiving and quite broken save system, but it's probably not something I would recommend to most people because of the difficulty and some of the game
design aspects.

 

[rugal]

the granstream saga its a good and fun game with a really great story
but for 2 reason i do not recoment the game

1 the 2 endings is the worst
non of the 2 endings are good endings.
both endings are bad in different ways

2 as you see in picture 2 the character do not have a face making them look souless
for me this just add more to the game
but for many that the character are faceless is a problem

crash bash this game i do not recomment because its a very hard game with high difficulty
the game levels are so bloody hard in later part of the game
and to get all thropies gems crystals gold relic and platinum relic is a nightmare

 

[Frickinfrik]

crash bash this game i do not recomment because its a very hard game with high difficulty.

Crash Bash makes Mario Party 1 look like a cakewalk in comparison. Also reminds me of the time when Caddicarus went through hell trying to 200% Crash Bash. I did have this game as a kid, but I was blissfully unaware on how extremely difficult and evil Crash Bash truly is. Glad I never attempted at trying to get everything.

 

[Blamhammer]

Shenmue 1 and 2 are great games, but the QTE and timed events can put new players off.

Also if they do enjoy Shenmue 1 and 2, chapter 3 will crush their hopes and dreams.

 

[Adrastia]

Etrian Odyssey is great! Hope you enjoy grinding

I love these games. But they are not for everyone. It's not the type of game you can recommend to just anyone. My favorite part is the mapping. Sometimes I'd get lost in the comfy mapping and labeling the little squares then I notice a FOE. Then I realise I'm probably not gonna live much longer. Time to grind again.

 

[moonbits]

The original Fallout is radioactive to the average gamer. Its a shame because it is an incredible game. I'll have to forever live listening to people say "lolol new vegas best fallout xddd" because nobody plays the first 2.

 

[Darzhgrod]

Deadly Premonition, an incredible game that is not fun to play. I bounced off of it after a few hours but was intrigued enough that I ended up watching supergreatfriend's brilliant playthrough of it on youtube, which was the best way to experience that game.

 

[Moth_Lobster]

can't relate. If I like it i'm telling you to play it. You will suffer with me. This is a threat. You will go bald by 25 but you will like it.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

then I notice a FOE. Then I realise I'm probably not gonna live much longer. Time to grind again.

depending on the game you can kinda just foot it
Especially Etrian Odyssey 2 (where nearly guaranteed escape is its own stat) and Etrian Odyssey 3
If it’s Etrian Odyssey 4, then yeah no sugarcoating it, you’re kinda fucked. You can’t run from shit in 4 for some reason.

 

[Esidemoken]

Almost any game that has fixed/dynamics cameras and/or tank control.
The average gamer today doesn't have the patience or interest in learning to play anything other than OTS.

 

[depes]

Flower, Sun and Rain is one of my favorite games ever. Can't reccomend it at all, it's obtuse, it's tedious and it's gleeful about being tedious.

Also Lobotomy Corporation

 

[Your_Homie_Gale]

I didn't mind playing through Persona 1 but it is hard to recommend for a few key reasons. The first being its encounter rate. Like every 3-5 steps you get into a battle very quickly. The second reason is that unlike a traditional RPG or even like other Megaten games is that the battle system for Persona 1 is really unusual. You're on a grid and all attacks have certain ranges. That will definitely turn off a lot of people even if it is relatively easy to follow because it feels unnecessary and this clearly didn't carry over to later titles. The third reason being that if you want to experience the game how it was meant to be played the PSX port is out of the question. One of the worst localizations ever. But if you recommend the PSP port, the one I played, so many people will want to use the PSX OST mod. Not that it isn't a requirement, but it is hard to recommend a game that has 2 different soundtracks because both are intentional for the game while sounding almost nothing alike. I also like the PSP OST and think it is overhated. That is how I played the game and I think people should experience it with that OST at least once. But that is also part of the problem. The OSTs being different is what makes recommending this game so divisive.

The second game that comes to mind is Mega Man X8 for me. I love this game but how can you recommend a Mega Man game that has more than half of its levels be auto-scrollers? Gameplay wise I think it is the best of the X series but the level design is so lazy that only someone who grew up with it (like me) can tolerate it.

 

[depes]

I didn't mind playing through Persona 1 but it is hard to recommend for a few key reasons. The first being its encounter rate. Like every 3-5 steps you get into a battle very quickly. The second reason is that unlike a traditional RPG or even like other Megaten games is that the battle system for Persona 1 is really unusual. You're on a grid and all attacks have certain ranges. That will definitely turn off a lot of people even if it is relatively easy to follow because it feels unnecessary and this clearly didn't carry over to later titles. The third reason being that if you want to experience the game how it was meant to be played the PSX port is out of the question. One of the worst localizations ever. But if you recommend the PSP port, the one I played, so many people will want to use the PSX OST mod. Not that it isn't a requirement, but the PSP OST is overhated. It is hard to recommend a game that has 2 different soundtracks because both are intentional for the game.

The second game that comes to mind is Mega Man X8 for me. I love this game but how can you recommend a Mega Man game that has more than half of its levels be auto-scrollers? Gameplay wise I think it is the best of the X series but the level design is so lazy that only someone who grew up with it (like me) can tolerate it.

Persona 1 needs the same mindset as the NES/SNES megaten games. The game wants you to build a formation so that you can clear fights quickly using auto, and optimize your team around that. It doesn't really want you to fight every fight manually! Many people try getting into P1 with the P5 mindset and get burnt out before even leaving the school, which is understandable.

 

[Your_Homie_Gale]

Persona 1 needs the same mindset as the NES/SNES megaten games. The game wants you to build a formation so that you can clear fights quickly using auto, and optimize your team around that. It doesn't really want you to fight every fight manually! Many people try getting into P1 with the P5 mindset and get burnt out before even leaving the school, which is understandable.

Maybe that's why I didn't mind it. I played it immediately after finishing SMT if... and I must say I enjoyed P1 a lot more as a result. The battles are thankfully short, like about 30 seconds flat. I would also add Persona 2 Innocent Sin because while I love the story and even like the gameplay, it is really slow on the game speed department; and depending on the port you're either watching the game play itself (PSX) or always mashing the X button (PSP). I have the patience but I know others don't. But to truly enjoy a game's story to the fullest you sometimes have to suffer along with the game.

 

[Moth_Lobster]

I didn't mind playing through Persona 1 but it is hard to recommend for a few key reasons. The first being its encounter rate. Like every 3-5 steps you get into a battle very quickly. The second reason is that unlike a traditional RPG or even like other Megaten games is that the battle system for Persona 1 is really unusual. You're on a grid and all attacks have certain ranges. That will definitely turn off a lot of people even if it is relatively easy to follow because it feels unnecessary and this clearly didn't carry over to later titles. The third reason being that if you want to experience the game how it was meant to be played the PSX port is out of the question. One of the worst localizations ever. But if you recommend the PSP port, the one I played, so many people will want to use the PSX OST mod. Not that it isn't a requirement, but it is hard to recommend a game that has 2 different soundtracks because both are intentional for the game while sounding almost nothing alike. I also like the PSP OST and think it is overhated. That is how I played the game and I think people should experience it with that OST at least once. But that is also part of the problem. The OSTs being different is what makes recommending this game so divisive.

The second game that comes to mind is Mega Man X8 for me. I love this game but how can you recommend a Mega Man game that has more than half of its levels be auto-scrollers? Gameplay wise I think it is the best of the X series but the level design is so lazy that only someone who grew up with it (like me) can tolerate it.

Once Tom's fan translation for the PS1 version drops then we'll be able to play the game with the intended graphics, soundtrack, encounter rate, item drops and all that but until then yeah it's rough that you need to pick between the wonky Revelations translation or the PSP translation

 

[Don Patch]

All recommendations come with a caveat, though, right?
Personally, I'd point out the games anyways and let peeps make up their own minds.

I've been led to games I love that I'd have maybe never picked up or looked at after an "out there" recommendation.

 

[Cardboardtubeknight Cardboardtubeknight]

Games of culture