Games you unexpectedly loved?

[Ian Naxieas]

I just mentioned elsewhere that it is one of my top games, but Bloodborne (and by extension all the Soulslike games) did not start out being something I enjoyed. I rented Dark Souls for the 360 shortly after it came out. I fuckin' hated it. I somehow missed the path up to the Undead Burg, so I kept bashing my head on the graveyard before the Catacombs for a couple hours. It did not spark joy in me, so I returned the game the same day and got Soulcalibur V instead.

I decided to give the series another shot with Dark Souls II when it was released, mostly because a friend wanted to play it with me. I made it to the Cardinal Tower bonfire and tried initiating co-op with my friend. Neither of us knew what the fuck we were doing, so after an hour or two of frustration we gave up on trying and that was it for my DS2 campaign.

I gave both DS1 and 2 a few more chances eventually and while I got further, they never clicked with me.

Finally, I got a big bonus at work and decided to splurge on a PS4. I picked up Bloodborne on the behest of a friend and some other games I can't remember for the life of me. I didn't bounce off Bloodborne as hard as DS1 and 2 initially, but eventually I ended up hating it. I gave it a few more chances, still hated it, but a few weeks later I decided to give it one last hurrah and something just clicked. It very quickly grew on me and it wasn't long before I was completely hooked. It was a bit of a rough journey because of my lack of real experience with the Soulslike genre, but I beat it and made many new characters, spending hundreds of hours in it. It was also the first game I ever got the Platinum trophy for.

Afterwards I went back to DS1 and 2 and ended up loving them, got DS3 and the rest of the Soulslikes on release and branched out into other deveoper's Soulslike games too. Remains one of my favorite genres to this day.

 

[Auriiya]

Mugen souls as well... NisA out done themselves.

 

[Tonberry]

Ultimate Doom. I always played games that had violence with a plot but it felt nice to just shoot pixelated army dudes and demons in the face, kind of nostalgic actually, It feels like I'm playing an arcade game minus losing all my money to continue playing ?

Doom is therapeutic like nothing else. I love turning it on and just shutting my brain off and never blinking, mowing down hordes of monsters. Preferably while listening to some classic heavy metal or hard rock. So addictive!

 

[Skeetos]

Had to make sure I didn't post here. I started Yakuza 0 back in 2022. I remember knowing a few people into Yakuza way before it blew up here in the US. I used to make fun of him a lot for playing it because I thought it was wack. I don't talk to that guy anymore for unrelated unfortunate circumstances but one of my best friends back in 2022 bought me Y0 for like 4 bucks and told me it was something he thought I'd like. I played it for like 20 minutes and wasn't really messing with it so put it on the backlog. Like 3 months later I picked it back up after not having anything else to play and now I'm here going into 2025 with the first new game I got being Pirate Yakuza that comes out next month. Yakuza/Like a Dragon has become my second favorite series. I love it's style and charm.

 

[Yousef]

Had to make sure I didn't post here. I started Yakuza 0 back in 2022. I remember knowing a few people into Yakuza way before it blew up here in the US. I used to make fun of him a lot for playing it because I thought it was wack. I don't talk to that guy anymore for unrelated unfortunate circumstances but one of my best friends back in 2022 bought me Y0 for like 4 bucks and told me it was something he thought I'd like. I played it for like 20 minutes and wasn't really messing with it so put it on the backlog. Like 3 months later I picked it back up after not having anything else to play and now I'm here going into 2025 with the first new game I got being Pirate Yakuza that comes out next month. Yakuza/Like a Dragon has become my second favorite series. I love it's style and charm.

That’s interesting, also you triggered my Yakuza nutjob trap card! By mentioning Yakuza, I’ll unnecessarily ramble about it!
Tbh Yakuza was just always part of my life. Met my best friends thanks to it so I’m quite grateful for that. It’s nice you’ve enjoyed the games eventually!

 

[Tonberry]

Had to make sure I didn't post here. I started Yakuza 0 back in 2022. I remember knowing a few people into Yakuza way before it blew up here in the US. I used to make fun of him a lot for playing it because I thought it was wack. I don't talk to that guy anymore for unrelated unfortunate circumstances but one of my best friends back in 2022 bought me Y0 for like 4 bucks and told me it was something he thought I'd like. I played it for like 20 minutes and wasn't really messing with it so put it on the backlog. Like 3 months later I picked it back up after not having anything else to play and now I'm here going into 2025 with the first new game I got being Pirate Yakuza that comes out next month. Yakuza/Like a Dragon has become my second favorite series. I love it's style and charm.

I was like this except for Yakuza 7/Like a Dragon. I had tried earlier games in the series, but they never clicked with me. Not that I didn't like them or anything, I just found the task of playing them daunting and I think I sort of expected them to be more like Shenmue so the fast-paced combat didn't jive with me too good.
But since I love RPGs I was excited for the 7th game from when it was first announced, and I love it to death. Ichiban is like my number one favourite male video game character now. I actually haven't played Infinite Wealth yet, though, but I look forward to when I have the chance.

 

[Skeetos]

I was like this except for Yakuza 7/Like a Dragon. I had tried earlier games in the series, but they never clicked with me. Not that I didn't like them or anything, I just found the task of playing them daunting and I think I sort of expected them to be more like Shenmue so the fast-paced combat didn't jive with me too good.
But since I love RPGs I was excited for the 7th game from when it was first announced, and I love it to death. Ichiban is like my number one favourite male video game character now. I actually haven't played Infinite Wealth yet, though, but I look forward to when I have the chance.

Ichiban is one of my favorites too. Saejima is my all time favorite character in that series though. I really like Beat 'em Ups, and because of that walking scene at the beginning I didn't realize what type of game it was and I was just at a point where I was burned on story games. I'm glad I revisited it though. I love games with technical combat systems like that. Stuff like DMC, Ninja Gaiden, and Sifu.

 

[Anim8rDude Anim8rDude]

Ar tonelico for the PS2. I went into this thinking it was gonna be alright, but after a short time, it sucked me in faster than I think any series ever did. Ar tonelico II and Qoga followed suit.

Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land, also for the PS2. An early game on the system and I expected to have some trouble, but it turned out to be a fantastic experience and is my personal favorite of the PS2's early era.

Bless anyone who's played the Ar Tonelicos. I should almost be ashamed this wasn't the first one I mentioned.

& Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land! Picked this up at a thrift store & was surprised in 2 ways.
A; The disc is that sweet, blue rare PS2 CD, & B; As an Etrian Odyssey fan I was totally digging it, all with some nice art & narrative.

 

[Viviana Santos]

This game was much better than I expected, very surreal and trippy.

 

[Kid Dynamite]

Rock n Roll Racing (snes)