Games you initially hated but ended up growing on you?

[demons-souls]

Resident Evil 5. Might be one of my favs nowadays

 

[steamMachinehead]

Bloodborne and the Wonderful 101 are both games that I bounced off of HARD when I first played them. Bb ended up being the first FromSoft game I ever beat, and I consider W101 one of my top games now.

 

[CRTRebel]

There are games that when I was young I always snubbed for a simple matter (or rather stupid, if you will) of dislike. One of these was definitely Vagrant Story, which at the time of its release I found boring and overly complicated especially in terms of inventory management and combat. Rediscovered a few years later it has undoubtedly become one of my favorite action-rpg, both in terms of the compelling and dark storyline, the absolutely masterful character design and the game backdrops...

 

[Cu-Neo]

Call me crazy but after I got the platinum trophy for DMC 2. I found a lot of things that I liked (the extra costumes that you can see in the cutcenes and the games runs very well). Is still a mediocre game but it's was fun speedruning the already short stages. Also the final boss theme is so good

 

[Skeetos]

Gears of War. I played the original one back like three years after it came out when I got my first 360. I was 8 years old and stupid and didn't get it. Kept going back to Halo and COD: World at War. Then way later on around 2017 when my best friend wanted to play it after the series went backwards comp on Xbox One we played through the entire series up to that point. It's one of my favorite shooter series these days.

 

[OmegaKatanaXIII]

Oh, what a situation! hopefully you were able to ask your friend to lend it to you again or got to play it to the finish somehow.

It was a wonderful experience but the sad thing when I asked him to borrow it again he broke the game in a fit of rage trying to defeat a boss. Thats what I remembered and being disappointed by it but thanks to emulation and steam I can play the game again.

 

[moonbits]

Perfect Dark Zero ain't that bad after you tweak some controls/analogue acceleration.

 

[Dyne]

Dark Souls. I couldnt get the hang of it the first time I played and quit in frustration.
I tried it again like a year and a half later and for some reason everything just clicked.
Its one of my favorite series now.

 

[Parasite_Steve]

Call me crazy but after I got the platinum trophy for DMC 2. I found a lot of things that I liked (the extra costumes that you can see in the cutcenes and the games runs very well). Is still a mediocre game but it's was fun speedruning the already short stages. Also the final boss theme is so good

I'd go so far to call DMC2 underrated. It is flawed in ways the original and the sequels weren't but there's just something about its style, gameplay and visuals that I find very appealing. I kinda prefer it over DMC3 in a way. While that was the superior game in almost every way it also felt like it was made with very safe decisions only. I take the failed interesting prequel over the successful but expected one.

 

[Ikagura]

Personally I didnt like Ys The Ark of Napishtim at all and yes it was the psp port but overtime I began to love the music for the game as well as the gameplay but gotten stuck as well returning it to a friend because he was kind enough to let me borrow it.

Ark is quite rough for being the first 3D entry in the franchise. I'm glad the Steam version added the feather to teleport instead of having to walk all the way from one area to another if you forgot to take an important item.


As for me:

• SNES F-zero: Yes you heard it correctly. I just could barely stand the bumper car physics so I ended up not playing it that much (I was much more fan of X) until I discovered the braking techniques and to let go the engine in turns. I ended up loving even Maximum Velocity and the Satellaview games.
• Sonic 3D Blast: I know this episode is generally hated by the fanbase and I was also annoyed by having to search for the Flickies all around the levels just to be able to go to the next one but then I ended up replaying the game in 2018-2019 and memorising the layout made it easier to me (and the levels were getting more linear as the game progressed). I think the Director's Cut romhack that I played right after made me appreciate the game more (but to the point I had no reasons to come back to the original).

 

[Yousef]

I won’t lie that there’s a healthy number of games like that for me. But the one I’ve had the most emotional journey has got to be dark souls.

See, you’re not obligated to enjoy the same things that other people do. That’s just a given fact of life. Problem is, being a dumb 16 year old means you’re likely gonna ignore that fact and think your opinion needs to align with others. So imagine how annoyed I was when i just could not get into dark souls like my brother have.

I gave it as many second chances I could. This went on from 2016 to almost all the way through to I think 2021? Everything that could’ve been said to persuade me to like DS was likely already said, so I’m not sure if the “wrong impression” explanation can apply here. Five years is more than enough time to figure out you approached things incorrectly, and more than enough time to solidify your stance on something.

But to somewhat humor that argument, I do actually think I fixated too hard on beating the games instead of having fun. That was my first big miss steak, if you’re not facing fun, then why bother?

But it obviously took more than to convince me. A lot more in fact. How much more? Simple, me having one of the worst nights in my life during 2021. I can’t really say what happened cuz it was kinda dark, but I really needed something and weirdly enough, I found Dark Souls III title theme really soothing…

I used to hate this theme. I found it repetitive and uninteresting but during that night, where I desperately needed something to cheer me up, it hit me in my core. And that was the first seed planted.

Now I firmly begun to like dark souls, but see, to call myself a fan, I needed to beat one of the damn games first. So this was another hurdle.

Luckily, it didn’t actually take that long. I had DS1 on my switch so I could play it any time and within practically a week, my first DS game was beaten and I not only firmly and truly became a fan, but I gained a virtual companion I can comfortably claim may have improved my life for the better and broadened my horizons.

And that’s how I became the fresh Prince of Bel-air.

 

[RageBurner]

Ark is quite rough for being the first 3D entry in the franchise. I'm glad the Steam version added the feather to teleport instead of having to walk all the way from one area to another if you forgot to take an important item.


As for me:

• SNES F-zero: Yes you heard it correctly. I just could barely stand the bumper car physics so I ended up not playing it that much (I was much more fan of X) until I discovered the braking techniques and to let go the engine in turns. I ended up loving even Maximum Velocity and the Satellaview games.
• Sonic 3D Blast: I know this episode is generally hated by the fanbase and I was also annoyed by having to search for the Flickies all around the levels just to be able to go to the next one but then I ended up replaying the game in 2018-2019 and memorising the layout made it easier to me (and the levels were getting more linear as the game progressed). I think the Director's Cut romhack that I played right after made me appreciate the game more (but to the point I had no reasons to come back to the original).

I totally get both of your points. I never liked SNES mode 7 effects and 2D F-Zero relies on it heavily. I have a hard time discerning the tracks at a distance because everything is flat, by necessity. That said, F-Zero Climax on the GBA has much better track definition and that one I enjoy immensely.

As for Sonc 3D Blast, I can only fond a modicum of enjoyment in it using the hack that removes the requirement to find Flickies at all.

 

[Ikagura]

I totally get both of your points. I never liked SNES mode 7 effects and 2D F-Zero relies on it heavily. I have a hard time discerning the tracks at a distance because everything is flat, by necessity. That said, F-Zero Climax on the GBA has much better track definition and that one I enjoy immensely.

As for Sonc 3D Blast, I can only fond a modicum of enjoyment in it using the hack that removes the requirement to find Flickies at all.

Mode 7 was surely impressive for its time but objectively most games weren't using it that well and the rare exceptions also ran less smoothly.

I'd rather play a purely 2D game with good parallaxes on the SNES and Genesis over faux-fancy Mode 7 effects.

Shame that there wasn't a remake of the original F-zero on the GBA like Mario World had on it.

The "No Flickies" hack is interesting (and should've been a cheat code for DX) even if it defeats the point of the spinoff (after all it wasn't a mainline platforming game). I still think it's more bearable when you learn the level design (like in the original 2D entries) but losing these birds when being hit is too punishing.

I think on Saturn and PC there's a map and they were also easier to handle (the special stages on Saturn were quite good).

As usual Sega always added gimmicks to their 3D Sonic games since day one.

 

[Pop]

Fighting games period (absolutely miserable for me), but I actually had Soul Calibur 2 as a kid...

I just started playing it again the other day on a whim. At this point it's really refreshing to have to practice at a game. The frustration's actually working as a motivator this time around; curious how things can flip like that eh?

The atmosphere of the games, character backstories, and the fact that single player isn't neglected is fantastic; looking foward to trying #3 after this.

**bonus answer: FFXII. Rented it once as a kid, broke my brain, forgot about it for almost 20 years; one of my favourites now XD**

 

[Darklink]

I hated Zelda 2 as a kid. I played it on my Gamecube via the Zelda Collection.

Which, to be honest, is a horrid way to play that game lol. Between the lack of any kind of QoL features, and the option of playing an NES game with a joy stick, or the GCN's horrid dpad, it was not a great time.

As a late-teen I started messing around with the game again on 3DS, and came around to really like it once the combat clicked for me. Now I've beaten the OG, Redux, and the fan PC remake of it at least twice each.

 

[philthyweeb]

Dark Souls II. 

I love soulsborne games. When i first played Dark Souls 1, I enjoyed it from start to finish. But with ds2, i have this weird love/hate relationship with it...
I wouldnt normally hate it if it wasnt cuz i lost my save file TWICE at the LATE GAME (purely bad luck, computer needed to be formatted), so i had to play through it almost 3 times just for my first playthrough. I knew about its reputation compared to its 2 siblings but it was still a dark souls game, so i decided that I'd only play it once for the experience. Who knew I'd have to replay from the beginning twice.

The difficulty feels all over the place. Where i would describe ds1 as "challenging", ds2 feels "frustrating".

•Leveling up barely improves your stats
•Boss runbacks, enemies are much harder to run past.
•I think enemy count is fine, its just they're always too densely packed together that you'll almost always get ganged on. Ds1 had enemy spam spots too but they weren't THIS common.
•ADP
•Slower animations (yeah slower than ds1, but smoother tho )

All these things aren't inherently bad, but they make the early to mid game unusually annoying to play. But then at the late game where im prepared for hard challenges it becomes awfully easy. The difficulty bumps back up in the dlcs tho, which are the best parts of the game imo.

But recently, replaying the game again this year, I've been appreciating many things that i just didn't pay attention before. Ds2 fixes many problems with the first game, many quality of life fixes, balances to the game, new game mechanics. Some notable points i can think of are-

•Pretty much every weapon is viable
•Huge weapon and armor variety
•BEST FASHION SOULS HANDS DOWN
•Power stancing
•Bonfire Ascetics
•Respec'ing stats
•Actually good NG+
•Beautiful graphics, i think it doesnt get mentioned often but ds2 looks better than ds3 in every way. The game is beautiful
•Optimization. Another thing that needs more credit in this present UE5 age; this game is optimized ASF, even my 2012 laptop with an hd 4000 can run it smoothly.
•Myriad of quality of life and technical improvements that were essential to the game that weren't present in ds1.
•the ds2 community is really wholesome.

I still think its the weaker of the 3 but not by any large means. It has its problems, but so does ds1 and ds3. It serves well as a sequel and also has many game mechanics that make it unique and better in parts. I would've ranked it up with ds1 if only it had a bit more lore and a more interconnected world. But i suppose it did have a troubled development. Many amazing ideas were scrapped, a shame really.

But all in all, i don't think it's a "bad game" as its called around. It's not a "worth playing atleast once" game either, it has as much replayability as all the other souls games if not more. It is as much Dark Souls as the other two, and shouldn't be skipped (unless i suppose you did try it and actually dislike playing it, then i guess i understand)

Post automatically merged: Dec 5, 2024

on a shorter note,
Tactical RPGs, they were always hard for me to get into. They just never appealed to me. Always seemed like a drag to play. But after actually playing through some fire emblem and final fantasy tactics advance, it finally clicked. They are incredibly fun. Much more strategic than traditional turn based rpgs too. My favorite one is probably Advance Wars.

 

[Ikagura]

I hated Zelda 2 as a kid. I played it on my Gamecube via the Zelda Collection.

Which, to be honest, is a horrid way to play that game lol. Between the lack of any kind of QoL features, and the option of playing an NES game with a joy stick, or the GCN's horrid dpad, it was not a great time.

As a late-teen I started messing around with the game again on 3DS, and came around to really like it once the combat clicked for me. Now I've beaten the OG, Redux, and the fan PC remake of it at least twice each.

Same here! I ended up doing the game on the NSO with a guide and I kinda liked it aside from two tricky places.

The Collector's Edition is perfect to play the N64 Zelda games but objectively you needed that SNES shaped Hori Pad to enjoy the NES games the best.

The GC pad is perfect for Smash, Mario Sunshine or even Metroid Prime but 2D side scrollers aren't made for that kind...


I'd still play Wonder Boy III/Monster World over this game.

 

[RetroLaw]

Call me crazy but after I got the platinum trophy for DMC 2. I found a lot of things that I liked (the extra costumes that you can see in the cutcenes and the games runs very well). Is still a mediocre game but it's was fun speedruning the already short stages. Also the final boss theme is so good

Nah, it's objectively a mediocre game, but there is still quite a lot of fun to find there, and I enjoyed re playing it on the Switch.
Jet Li movies were starting to get popular in France (well at least for the niche audience of Hong Kong movies), and running on the walls was pretty satisfying, made you feel like a wu-xia movie character.
I also really like Lucia's design.

 

[Opapete]

Kind of a odd one but I absolutely hated driver 2, not because of framerate issues or that, but because i simply sucked balls.
Came back later in life to try it again and I found it much more fun, although the framerate was still a bummer, at least until we got the redriver recomp.

 

[OmegaKatanaXIII]

Fighting games period (absolutely miserable for me), but I actually had Soul Calibur 2 as a kid...

I just started playing it again the other day on a whim. At this point it's really refreshing to have to practice at a game. The frustration's actually working as a motivator this time around; curious how things can flip like that eh?

The atmosphere of the games, character backstories, and the fact that single player isn't neglected is fantastic; looking foward to trying #3 after this.

**bonus answer: FFXII. Rented it once as a kid, broke my brain, forgot about it for almost 20 years; one of my favourites now XD**

I tried playing FFXII let me say i wasnt used to the mmo like gameplay and the gambit system overwhelmed me completely.

 

[CaptainGreedEye]

Use to hate Fighting games has a kid. I hated them Because I Had Bad reaction time and thought You had to have a College degree in the games move list and Character in order to get anything out of them to be flashy.
Overtime I took and interest in anime fighter design and Lore to the point it mad me wanna by the old guilty gear game, just to see if I can find something in the old ways of gaming to try to get in to it. I was getting over whelmed at the part were I was fighting testament and was about to throw in the towel and get a refund, until YouTube recommend me a video about why I was bad at fighting game and why I should not be so hard on my self. This not only help me learn the basic a little bit, but Have a new perspective on fighting games. it also help me get into souls like games and roguelikes'.
I was able to use my new found knowledge to either use skill or aggressively ape my way through Tricky characters. However when it came to Justice... Had use a little soul like trial error Before I got the hang of it.
After that I begin to see games I don't normally like in a new different way, some I started to play and some I keep avoiding after playing cause it was not my thing. But This help Me realize you can get into any genre of gaming when you take a little effort to understand it.

 

[ConanTheDestroyer]

I wasn't too fond of the first Assassin's Creed when I first played it. Started the series with AC 2 and loved it. However the repetitive missions of AC 1 really turned me off from the game and I never finished it. Played through the series again few years later and found myself loving it the second time around. The story was great and the character of Altair had great development throughout the game. It has the best atmosphere of any game in the series( it's much more grim than some of the later games). It's repetitive missions are still an annoyance though. It's not my favourite AC but it's definitely up there.

 

[Bakuma1997]

I hated Zelda 2 as a kid. I played it on my Gamecube via the Zelda Collection.

Which, to be honest, is a horrid way to play that game lol. Between the lack of any kind of QoL features, and the option of playing an NES game with a joy stick, or the GCN's horrid dpad, it was not a great time.

As a late-teen I started messing around with the game again on 3DS, and came around to really like it once the combat clicked for me. Now I've beaten the OG, Redux, and the fan PC remake of it at least twice each.

Same here, i only beat it out of compromise to not let it waste on my CGN collection, now that i have Redux and more patience for challenges, i love it

 

[CellRising]

For me it was the souls series I got frustrated with 1 and started 2 by hating it.

To preface I was told to not look up the wiki until after beating the game for a completely blind play through, and will say it definitely elevated my experience despite the frustrations I will never forget these games.

When Elden Ring came out all of my friends were playing it and talking about how good it was and saying it was the best of the series so much to the point I folded and bought it. after killing Margit and the Tree sentinel I got a rush like no other it made me understand why people love soulslikes. After getting 80% though I had a friend help me finish the game he later told me to play the Souls Trilogy

Playing Dark Souls 1 after Elden Ring gave me a similar but foreign feeling it was hard to get used to especially having shield kick and jump attack mixed in with normal button combos. Everything was getting better for me until I got cursed(permanently half's health) in the depths and frustrated I quit. I went back and Elden Ring to beat it again and doing that reignited my passion to challenge the trilogy again. And my retry was successful I beat it and linked the fire so I moved onto Dark souls 2.

Going into Dark Souls 2 I had the worst frame of mind, as out of everything I had heard about the Souls Trilogy in passing I only heard negative things about it. It also didn't help that all of my friends who like Dark Souls mentioned that they didn't like it when I brought it up in conversation. So when I actually got around to playing it I started by hating it for more than a third into my first run. By the time I got to the gutter I stopped and realized under all the hate I actually was starting to enjoy the game. By the time I beat the final boss I started saying that I like Dark Souls 2. Which was good cause I wouldn't have made it through the DLC and fought the 3 best and 3 worst bosses in the game if I hated it. After beating Dark Souls 3 I even came back and replayed Dark Souls 2 again. Now every so otfen I get called back to Drangleic to replay it again I love Dark Souls 2 so much even if its an unpolished diamond.

I won't talk about Dark Souls 3 because I loved it from the start and that's not what this discussion is about.

 

[RageBurner]

For me it was the souls series I got frustrated with 1 and started 2 by hating it.

To preface I was told to not look up the wiki until after beating the game for a completely blind play through, and will say it definitely elevated my experience despite the frustrations I will never forget these games.

When Elden Ring came out all of my friends were playing it and talking about how good it was and saying it was the best of the series so much to the point I folded and bought it. after killing Margit and the Tree sentinel I got a rush like no other it made me understand why people love soulslikes. After getting 80% though I had a friend help me finish the game he later told me to play the Souls Trilogy

Playing Dark Souls 1 after Elden Ring gave me a similar but foreign feeling it was hard to get used to especially having shield kick and jump attack mixed in with normal button combos. Everything was getting better for me until I got cursed(permanently half's health) in the depths and frustrated I quit. I went back and Elden Ring to beat it again and doing that reignited my passion to challenge the trilogy again. And my retry was successful I beat it and linked the fire so I moved onto Dark souls 2.

Going into Dark Souls 2 I had the worst frame of mind, as out of everything I had heard about the Souls Trilogy in passing I only heard negative things about it. It also didn't help that all of my friends who like Dark Souls mentioned that they didn't like it when I brought it up in conversation. So when I actually got around to playing it I started by hating it for more than a third into my first run. By the time I got to the gutter I stopped and realized under all the hate I actually was starting to enjoy the game. By the time I beat the final boss I started saying that I like Dark Souls 2. Which was good cause I wouldn't have made it through the DLC and fought the 3 best and 3 worst bosses in the game if I hated it. After beating Dark Souls 3 I even came back and replayed Dark Souls 2 again. Now every so otfen I get called back to Drangleic to replay it again I love Dark Souls 2 so much even if its an unpolished diamond.

I won't talk about Dark Souls 3 because I loved it from the start and that's not what this discussion is about.

That's an amazing story. I'm not that experienced with Soulslikes but I have enough tolerance/patience to play DS1 (though I haven't finished yet) and 3 (ditto), but no amount of resilience would make me suffer through DS2 with its... odd design quirks, to put it kindly.