Games that everyone hate but you love. Or vice versa

[Logi]

SILENT HILL 4 FAN???????????? I AM ONE AS WELL, for me its on par with the other ps2 games

also, of course its not everyone that hates but i feel its a very mixed game in opinions: Death Stranding. It's on my top 5 favorite games ever, i really hope Death stranding 2 lives up to the first game

 

[ciro64]

Castlevania 64. In case you're currently playing a drinking game where you drink every time I mention this game, enjoy your drink.

Hmmm, I wonder if can I be more creative... oh. Wild Woody. Well, I can't say I like playing it cuz it's janky as fuck, but I like all the other aspects of it, the cutscenes, the music, the gimmicks, the surrealism, the crazy woodpecker resembling pencil protagonist... I wish this game received the CD-i Zelda remaster treatment.

 

[RageBurner]

I love Rockman & Forte and will defend it with my life.

Same here. For all intents and purposes it's Mega Man 8 part 2 (even the ROM's header says so).

 

[fake-chan]

Same here. For all intents and purposes it's Mega Man 8 part 2 (even the ROM's header says so).

No, it's Mega Man 8 but actually good.

 

[RageBurner]

No, it's Mega Man 8 but actually good.

LOL I think would be a fair substitute for MM8 if Mega Man himself wasn't so terribly nerfed compared to his MM&B counterpart (not that I really care, I only play as Bass).

 

[bjork]

I don't know how hated it is now, but my favorite Zelda is Zelda 2.

 

[RageBurner]

I don't know how hated it is now, but my favorite Zelda is Zelda 2.

I guess it's more misunderstood than hated? I'm not really a Zelda guy, though.

 

[bjork]

I guess it's more misunderstood than hated? I'm not really a Zelda guy, though.

It seems like in recent years, people have softened up on it and given it more of a chance. It used to be a "get chased on the playground if you said you like it" kind of thing where I went to school.

 

[Danteh]

Duke Nukem Forever.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Resident Evil Survivor (PS1) it could’ve a good game but Capcom botched it up.

 

[ThatPatrickGuy]

the maps are relatively bland and uninspired, but it has this comfy coffee table book feel about it to me, nowadays it's no worse off than a late game marvel movie imo. I liked the take on mage combat they introduced and the story and characters were charming and well embodied. It was a comfort in interesting times and It is a guilty pleasure for me.

 

[DrunkOcelot]

Yakuza: Halloween Special is charming as hell, and a decent shooter to boot

 

[Gordo101]

A game that comes to mind for me is Yoshi's Story for the N64. I know it's a rather simple game, but its art style still holds up really well and it's good stress-free time.

 

[Tzelanit]

Final Fantasy VIII comes to mind as a game that's been unfairly criticized and misunderstood for decades.

Every complaint I've ever heard about this game has stemmed from one of two things. First, it's that "it's not Final Fantasy VII" from Cloud fanboys with no taste, and second that "Drawing magic is stupid." To the people who say the first, I say you're right, and thank goodness for that. To the second, I say that you're playing the game wrong.

The only times you need to use Draw are to grab the handful of GFs from bosses, or if you run across a particularly rare magic from a Draw Point in the world. Outside of that, you should be using a combination of the Card ability and GF/Item refinement to get your magic. I find that the most critical people of the game genuinely don't understand its mechanics because the game doesn't hold your hand or give you pretty colored rocks to play with like they do in VII, and it expects that you experiment and encourages you to break its systems.

The game has a competent story (yes, even including the time compression,) relatable characters, and one of the best designs for mechanics and systems across the whole franchise that encourages freedom and doesn't pigeonhole you into useless stats and narrow builds like so many mediocre JRPGs.

Ben Starr said it best: "Final Fantasy VIII is and always has been an S-tier Final Fantasy game."

 

[χKai]

Final Fantasy VIII comes to mind as a game that's been unfairly criticized and misunderstood for decades.

Every complaint I've ever heard about this game has stemmed from one of two things. First, it's that "it's not Final Fantasy VII" from Cloud fanboys with no taste, and second that "Drawing magic is stupid." To the people who say the first, I say you're right, and thank goodness for that. To the second, I say that you're playing the game wrong.

The only times you need to use Draw are to grab the handful of GFs from bosses, or if you run across a particularly rare magic from a Draw Point in the world. Outside of that, you should be using a combination of the Card ability and GF/Item refinement to get your magic. I find that the most critical people of the game genuinely don't understand its mechanics because the game doesn't hold your hand or give you pretty colored rocks to play with like they do in VII, and it expects that you experiment and encourages you to break its systems.

The game has a competent story (yes, even including the time compression,) relatable characters, and one of the best designs for mechanics and systems across the whole franchise that encourages freedom and doesn't pigeonhole you into useless stats and narrow builds like so many mediocre JRPGs.

Ben Starr said it best: "Final Fantasy VIII is and always has been an S-tier Final Fantasy game."

I would stop and draw magic every time I came across a new one until I had 100 of it, and then junction it to stats or elemental defenses until I have the highest stats I can, and I do this every time.

 

[Tonberry]

Final Fantasy VIII comes to mind as a game that's been unfairly criticized and misunderstood for decades.

Every complaint I've ever heard about this game has stemmed from one of two things. First, it's that "it's not Final Fantasy VII" from Cloud fanboys with no taste, and second that "Drawing magic is stupid." To the people who say the first, I say you're right, and thank goodness for that. To the second, I say that you're playing the game wrong.

The only times you need to use Draw are to grab the handful of GFs from bosses, or if you run across a particularly rare magic from a Draw Point in the world. Outside of that, you should be using a combination of the Card ability and GF/Item refinement to get your magic. I find that the most critical people of the game genuinely don't understand its mechanics because the game doesn't hold your hand or give you pretty colored rocks to play with like they do in VII, and it expects that you experiment and encourages you to break its systems.

The game has a competent story (yes, even including the time compression,) relatable characters, and one of the best designs for mechanics and systems across the whole franchise that encourages freedom and doesn't pigeonhole you into useless stats and narrow builds like so many mediocre JRPGs.

Ben Starr said it best: "Final Fantasy VIII is and always has been an S-tier Final Fantasy game."

I think you're getting hung up on the people that hate it, rather than the more legitimate critiques. There's no point in saying "these people disagree so they're wrong" because that's just doing the same thing back (Your points are all valid, but calling people who prefer another game fanboys isn't really constructive at all).

It probably would've been recieved better (or at least remembered more fondly) if it wasn't so blatantly unfinished/rushed due to its short development time. Junction (for example, as it's the one thing people seem the most angry about) really isn't as dumb a mechanic as people claim, but it's far from perfectly implemented, and even something like a less awful UI (yay gray squares) would have alleviated much of that. I also think GFs and Summons should have been separate mechanics, because the way you're supposed to equip them, yet still have Summonig as a command and having you go through the cutscenes all the time (if you didn't get the mechanics) just feels like spectacle for spectacle's sake, and makes me not want to use them. But hey, it was the height of the polygon wars and Square was known for having the chops to show off.
It's a prime example of "a game that gets better the second time you play it" to me.

It's an interesting game for sure, and definitely overhated even though I'm not a huge fan, it's got a super cool setting and neat ideas and systems, but they really should have given it more time to simmer.

 

[MasterEn]

A game that comes to mind for me is Yoshi's Story for the N64. I know it's a rather simple game, but its art style still holds up really well and it's good stress-free time. View attachment 11907

yoshi games are supposed to be like kirby, animal crossing and harvest moon. fun, relaxing games to play without much stress that anyone can pick up and play; minus the existential horror of those games.

 

[Leon]

Final Fantasy VIII comes to mind as a game that's been unfairly criticized and misunderstood for decades.

Every complaint I've ever heard about this game has stemmed from one of two things. First, it's that "it's not Final Fantasy VII" from Cloud fanboys with no taste, and second that "Drawing magic is stupid." To the people who say the first, I say you're right, and thank goodness for that. To the second, I say that you're playing the game wrong.

The only times you need to use Draw are to grab the handful of GFs from bosses, or if you run across a particularly rare magic from a Draw Point in the world. Outside of that, you should be using a combination of the Card ability and GF/Item refinement to get your magic. I find that the most critical people of the game genuinely don't understand its mechanics because the game doesn't hold your hand or give you pretty colored rocks to play with like they do in VII, and it expects that you experiment and encourages you to break its systems.

The game has a competent story (yes, even including the time compression,) relatable characters, and one of the best designs for mechanics and systems across the whole franchise that encourages freedom and doesn't pigeonhole you into useless stats and narrow builds like so many mediocre JRPGs.

Ben Starr said it best: "Final Fantasy VIII is and always has been an S-tier Final Fantasy game."

I think my point about reading the primer still stands, but the biggest flaw of ff8 is that leveling actively hurts you in the long run, or that so much is literally not told to you about the game ingame.

Remember this was 1998, when alot of people still didn't have internet, so many people bought it expecting it to be the same as older final fantasy games when in reality it was a entirely new take on it, same could be levied at chrono cross if i'm being honest.

I'm saying this as someone who of the three 32 bit era ff's, considers 8 his favorite btw, 8 is hated a bit too much, but there's some legitimately justifiable reasons why it is hated, namely i blame games like final fantasy 8 for why so many games after it have such in-depth tutorials.

 

[Karaswinglet]

I like a lot of "hated" games but one that comes to mind is Dragon Quarter.

At the time, I never played a Breath of fire game or, at least, not having a Ps1 as a child, I never finished one of them as I've just seen friends playing it. I've seen the game taking a lot of hate due to the huge departure in every aspect from the previous games so, being my first game of the franchise, maybe I've seen it in a different light.

First of all, I loved the graphic style: the illustrations and character designs are downright beautiful, right up my alley and fits the gloomy setting so well. The system is quite interesting as it plays more strategically than usual, with strict use of action points, the encounters with enemies that can be far beyond your levels, environments that can make even the more weak enemy a lethal one, saves that are managed mostly by limited objects, an awesome yet fearsome power that can kill you and so on.

Quite the challenging game, maybe even unfair at some points. I can say it was fitting for such a grim, dark settings. Even the most unlikable of characters had such a tragic, bleak backstory and everyone wanted simply to have an objective in life that wasn't just surviving. Very simple characters, quite archetypal ones but I always thought that you don't need hyper complex characters to make a good story. Ryu is one of the lowest in terms of ranking, by birth, in a society that marks you when you come to life, not allowing you to create your future. Nina has her future and humanity taken away. Lin is disillusioned, not believing in people anymore and in a better future. They wander in the dark, trying to climb up to reach the fabled surface.

Very simple story elements, maybe presented with some roughly cut ingredients, yet very fitting for its themes. It was quite the journey, I would love to have time to play it again.

 

[SkoomaCatJesus]

I deeply love the Hydlide games, especially Virtual Hydlide. How, in the age of Dark Souls, can this game not be seen as a sleeper masterpiece is beyond me. I will admit that it suffers from severe slowdown on original hardware, but Virtual Hydlide is genuinely amazing in Mednafen. It is the definitive Demon's Souls of the SEGA Saturn.

P.S.
The soundtrack is unbelievably good and does 'it' better than Demon's Souls.

 

[dr grim]

View attachment 1736851480162.webp

This. Dragon ball ultimate battle 22.

It is known to be not very good, and people have found way better dragon ball games than this. ( Saturn version for ex )

but i still really like it, played it a lot with friends back then. nostalgia speaking here, but yeah.

 

[PrismRed]

Arcade version of Pit-Fighter.
It's jank, it's goofy, it has weird controls, support 3 players, perfect game for a drunk night with friends.
Forget Smash bros, we got Pit-Fighter!

 

[Cyberfriend]

A game that comes to mind for me is Yoshi's Story for the N64. I know it's a rather simple game, but its art style still holds up really well and it's good stress-free time. View attachment 11907

This game was never hated

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

This game was never hated.

Are you sure? I mean I'm not well versed in Yoshi stuff but many Yoshi's Island players were disappointed this was not a proper sequel.

Or that Yoshi never got any full 3D game like Mario.

 

[hazys]

Really happy to see so much love for Dragon Quarter on this board.

I think people dislike Chibi Robo? It's one of my favorite series, apart from Zip-Lash.