Games you unexpectedly loved?

[Tonberry]

What are some games you didn't think you would like, but then when you tried them, you ended up loving them?

My biggest personal example is probably Euro Truck Simulator 2. I don't know a single thing about trucks, I don't even have a regular driver's license, and I'm not really into hardcore simulator games at all, but that game was surprisingly fun and relaxing, and running your company was fun. It also helped that it's a perfect "podcast" game to just chill out and play while you're listening to something or watching something on a second monitor.

 

[Waffles]

I think Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit.

I never liked racing games, and this one was given to me after the previous owner didn't like it... which makes it all the more hysterical that I played it so much and so often that I ended up destroying my CD drive due to sheer overuse. I'm actually not kidding.

I could also mention Sonic R in there, since I didn't expect much and loved it.

 

[Auriiya]

Gungriffin blaze
Not much into the future type military games but really got my attention.

 

[Danteh]

I like RTS games but not too much about turn based strategy games you know those games who use hexagons and that kind of stuff they seemed too complicated for me some time ago i tried to play Civilization V and oh lord the first time that i played it was like 3 A.M when i stopped playing it was too adictive and i love it

 

[AtlasM]

Angband (DOS)
At first it was too complicated compared to modern dungeon crawler. I dropped it after a few minutes. Then, I gave it another try a few weeks later. This time without comparing it with other games, because comparison is a thief of joy, they said. I struggled and died quite a bit at first, but the more I played, the easier it was to understand. And since I began to understand, I began to enjoy, and began to like it.

Fast forward to more than a decade later, right now, Angband ended up staying up there in my list of favorite dungeon crawler

 

[Yousef]

Believe it or not, my two favorite franchises of all time, GTA and Musou, are exactly this. I grew up with them and begun doubting my childhood, thinking that i would never enjoy them again because I “grew out of them” but recent emulation playthroughs of them made me fall in love again. I’m grateful that emulation made me reunite with them!

Example 2 would be crash, I was not a huge fan of crash during my adult years, thinking yet again that I “grew out of it” but a convo I had with @Skeetos a few months ago made me reconsider , the way they talked about twinsanity sold me on it so I replayed it and it reignited a flame in me I once lost so I’m quite grateful to Skeetos!

Another example… racing games? I thought I’d hate kart racers, but playing sonic all stars racing made me love them. I believe @RageBurner also likes those sonic racers.
Burnout paradise and midnight club made me fall in love with regular arcade racers though. I think @Cu-Neo also likes midnight club?

Smt is something I thought I’d dislike but I warmed to it quick. My convos with @dropsmegamega validated a lot of my fears about it though but I still like it!

Sorry for the mass ping guys

 

[DunkeyKong]

Metroid games (2D ones), I just didn't like how hidden and confusing some paths are, even with guides.

That was years ago though because now that I come back to it, I almost finished all of the 2D Metroid games (even as far as the NES and the Gameboy one)

 

[Cheela]

I really loved Metal Gear Rising. I gonna be honest i am not that into action/greedy mature graphics/hack and slashes in general. But that game is awesome :3 i now understand why is soo popular and kinda gave me the itch to try some more Hack and slash that i missed.

 

[Auriiya]

Dark savior the story and puzzles kept me playing similar to alundra.

 

[RustySK]

Ys: The Oath in Felghana.

It was my first Ys game and I knew absolutely nothing about the series at the time - I expected a basic, forgettable little action RPG to chew through off and on for a while to fill time.
Instead I got completely absorbed by the super fast-paced combat system and amazing soundtrack and finished it in one long sitting.
I still think that game has some of best pacing ever - every moment feels purposeful and fun and as though you're making progress. All killer, no filler.

 

[bjork]

Phantasy Star Online. I was firmly in that mindset of "this isn't a turn-based, menu-drive Phantasy Star, so it isn't a REAL Phantasy Star" thinking. Which in hindsight, is a shitty way to be about anything before giving it a chance. A friend picked up PSO and I went over to hang out, and asked what he was playing. He told me and I just kinda watched for about 20 minutes or so. Then I said I would be back and he asked where I was going. "To go buy this game." Fast forward to now, I've spent thousands of hours across the various versions of PSO. Love it.

Other ones that I wound up enjoying but didn't hook me in quite the same way, were bundled in with consoles I got. I had a 360 that came with Need for Speed Most Wanted, back in like 07 or so. What a fun game that was. Then when I got an Xbox One, it came with the game for Lego the Movie? I've never seen any of the Lego stuff, but I enjoyed getting all the stuff in that game. Not enough to go play the other Lego games, but it was just the right length with the right amount of collecting to keep me engaged for one trip through.

 

[Hikari.EXE]

The Senrar Kagura series, I tought it was all fanservice games (they are) but I was surprised to find a intricate combat system underneath it all, the fact your character has two states (before transforming and after transforming) really gave the game some form of depth, as you might not want to use your transformation early on since it gives you a full health bar for free.

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Ys. I thought I was in for another Hylide (which I owned a cartridge of), but I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[E0N]

Yakuza series. Always heard that it was a GTA knock off so I thought it would be some cheap game but boy was I so wrong. After playing 0 (and subsequently the whole series) it is now one of my favourite games of all time.

 

[tropicalavera]

Not sure if this exactly meets the criteria of the thread, but...

For reference, when I first played this game as a young teenager - off the back of playing and loving Final Fantasy IX - I did NOT gel with this thing; it lacked the whimsy, the high fantasy, the clear-cut theatrical adventure that I loved in FFIX. In a word, I thought X was 'dull'. And then I was hanging out on the internet in the late 2000s, and hate for this game was abound - clips of Tidus laughing like an alien, complaints about blitzball, and a more general shift in 'gamer' attitudes towards the traditional Japanese RPG overall - with their turn based combat, on-rails narratives, and spiky haired protagonists killing GOD with the power of friendship. They were games to be mocked and hated. And that mixed with my previous impressions to convince me that I too hated the game. Playing previous FF entries only cemented this further - I loved the SNES games that IX was paying homage to, and I got a kick out of the series' early titles on the Famicom with their opressive black screens and pixelated Amano monsters. That's what Final Fantasy was and was always meant to be, and X deserved all the disdain that I held for it.

So imagine my surprise when over a decade later I revisited it on a whim and was floored throughout the entire duration. Turns out all I needed was a lifetime and years of studying post-modernist literary theory between me and the game. Nojima's scenario is so fantastically realised, and is amongst the best deconstructions of not just the JRPG genre, but videogames as a storytelling medium as a whole, that exists. That guy continues to push videogame narratives in wonderful directions - but I don't think his thesis statement will ever be more crystalized as it is here. (but here's hoping!)

 

[Virtuafighter]

I never bothered with visual novels. Both Stein's Gate and Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors were fantastic. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[Cu-Neo]

At first Senran Kagura and Neptunia but I grew up as a person, lose the shame and stayed for the gameplay and characters, Assassin's Creed 1 was other game that I started to love this year, I missed so many things when I played it the first time and now I miss the vision that 2007 Ubisoft Montreal had. DMC 2 is another one, got the platinum in 2020 and I enjoyed doing it more than my failed try in 1.

(Creative trophy name there , also enjoy the 4k quality I was 17 years old when I took it )

 

[kanesha]

Might and Magic Clash of Heroes DS - a Heroes of Might and Magic spinoff with the battle system replaced with a clever match 3 puzzle game and all the strategy pretty much removed, with just a basic carcass of it left (not sure if they did it just for fan service or actually wanted to have it and just didn't meet their deadlines). Sounds like a terrible idea and not at all what I would want as a fan of the mainline games, but it had a compelling story to keep me engaged, and slowly but surely I grew to appreciate the new battle system, and especially after watching a YouTube let's play by Sailor Drew, and seeing how much better she is at it compared to me, I now think it's actually better than the mainline - it has a lot of depth, but it's also very easy to just play and enjoy without thinking too hard about it. If the game actually had the strategy elements as well it would have been the best HOMM game to me, but alas can't have too much of a good thing.

 

[Yousef]

I really loved Metal Gear Rising. I gonna be honest i am not that into action/greedy mature graphics/hack and slashes in general. But that game is awesome :3 i now understand why is soo popular and kinda gave me the itch to try some more Hack and slash that i missed.

STANDING HERE
I’ll probably brainwash you into liking them teehee

 

[Auriiya]

Hyper dimension neptunia is one game series that surprised me and love as an all-time favorite.

 

[Hikari.EXE]

At first Senran Kagura and Neptunia but I grew up as a person, lose the shame and stayed for the gameplay and characters, Assassin's Creed 1 was other game that I started to love this year, I missed so many things when I played it the first time and now I miss the vision that 2007 Ubisoft Montreal had. DMC 2 is another one, got the platinum in 2020 and I enjoyed doing it more than my failed try in 1. View attachment 11435
(Creative trophy name there , also enjoy the 4k quality I was 17 years old when I took it )

Why would you platinum DMC2?

 

[nachito]

Demon's Souls. A friend was really annoying trying to make me play it ( this was before dark souls release) and from what I searched online the gameplay looked pretty bad to me. When I finally gave it a chance it became one of my favorite games.

 

[Cu-Neo]

I think @Cu-Neo also likes midnight club?

I listen to this everyday

 

[Auriiya]

Nightmare creatures.tomb raider meets Resident evil is a way put it haha

 

[Ícaro Oliveira Santos]

I really didn't expect to love these games: