Hot takes

[WolfOfPersia]

my last hot take is that souls like as a genre kinda sucks, there is no story no lore is just some dude interpreting random shit for 3 hours and make absolutely no sense, gameplay is not "it's hard get gud scrub", it's actually "the game is janky and we didn't polish it like any other action games", fromsoft games only got boosted to stardom because games got easier and easier and these one were harder and people made a whole personality out of playing these "hard" games and start calling themselves hardcore game chads but they can't even handle a single retro game like mega man for example without save states and rewind function, the only soulslikes with good or decent gameplay mechanics are the ones that can almost be categorized in other genres entirely like nioh and star wars jedi series, the only old fashion souls like game with engaging mechanic is lies of p because of fun parry system that works like any other good action game and duel focused bosses, elden ring was only bearable for me because of the open world felt like a 3d refined version of a castlevania game and I can play it how ever I like and start killing enemies in any order that I want, and last but not least bloodborne is overrated as hell and lies of p is way better than bloodborne, at least I didn't turn into a freakin tentacle hentai monster in the true ending of lies of p
I don't care if I get hate, I said what I said

 

[Glimbo]

Are you perhaps talking about Zelda Faces of Evil?

lol no.
I know you're joking but to be more specific it's Minish Cap.

 

[Raidou Kuzunoha]

Hottest take I have, apparently - Castlevania 64 and Legacy of darkness weren't that bad, critics are just mean :'(

 

[OWG]

Also Need for Speed Unbound is better than most of the Black Box Need for Speed games (not Most Wanted or Carbon tho) and all of the pre-Black Box games, also that game's soundtrack is way better than people say it is and even if I don't personally enjoy most of the music in the game due to my genre preferences it still fits the game as perfectly as anything in Most Wanted fits that game

i know this is the "hot takes" thread but this is such a wrong take its insane
not only do the ghost games/criterion nfs games handle like dogshit(B2D is simply worse, im sorry) but they are also just completely butchered downstream versions of the blackbox games in every regard, remember stuff like car setup and body kits actually affecting aero? its all gone now! enjoy the dogshit licensed music(tbf even in the blackbox days it was mostly garbage LOL), horrible physics and awful integration with internet "car culture"(i fucking hate this shit) influencers!

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

 

[moonbits]

It's not even related to old games but here it goes: I find it absolutely asinine that Baldurs Gate 3 wins game of the year fully knowing that game was in Early Access for 3 years. Thats like someone taking the exam home while the others had to answer it right there. Mind you I find that game to be an excellent RPG but all the accolades and journalism it created forgot about its early access state. "If u make good game u become successful:))" like no shot Larian, you basically had no rush, no deadlines.

 

[boglin]

GTA 3 is the pinnacle of the series, the other games have varying strengths and weaknesses but none of them have that same classic charm.

 

[sandogma sandogma]

Ever since Street Fighter 4 incorporated Ultra Combos (the special move that stops control of the game where you're forced to watch a 5 second scene), other fighting games have adopted this mechanic and have made fighting games worse as a result. In Street Fighter 6, the Critical Arts can be as long as 10 seconds!
Sure they are really cool to see the first few times, but afterwards they become extremely repetitive. They could at very least have a variety of camera angles or something to mix it up but nope, you are going to watch the same thing every round ?
And while I realize that this type of thing has been around for a lot longer, such as Desperation Moves in Art of Fighting, which was sort of the precursor to all this, those moves weren't nearly as long and felt more like an actual super move than a 10 second animation you were forced to watch.

 

[ZombieFish]

Online multiplayer rots brains like meth. Couch multiplayer could have saved a generation of incels. Also Sonic was always bad.

 

[E0N]

The Last of Us (also Uncharted to some extent) did an irrepairable damage to gaming and send a wrong message to the industry. The whole PS4 generation was full of cinematic bullshit "games" with little to no gameplay. The current Sony that we are seeing is also the result of that game's success. They abandoned making fun gameplay focused games and started pumping $100mil+ movies. It's like they forgot that we play games not watch them. On hindsight I feel it would have been better if TLoU never happened.

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Online multiplayer rots brains like meth. Couch multiplayer could have saved a generation of incels. Also Sonic was always bad.

 

[Zemus]

On the GBA and DS (https://retrogametalk.com/threads/gba-vs-ds.2107/):

One is the definition of perfection in game systems, with even the Switch being an inferior imitation. When a GBA version of a game releases, you know it will be the most polished and best-sounding version. If you're playing a GBA exclusive, it has one of the widest and most varied libraries to choose from. As the good apples here show, 240 * 160 is the ideal resolution for gaming; any interface that can't fit on that has something to improve. Any system that feels worse in your hands does, too.

Not having a light of any kind was sheer stupidity, but that's why we got the SP and why you can easily order the original backlit in 2024.

But...enter the DS. How do you make the GBA better? Can you? Turned out the answer was yes, and the addition of a second screen is still mind-boggingly brilliant. The touch function is a slight downside, but thankfully it uses a stylus and developers stopped obsessing with it after a year or two. The image of its closed silver clamshell is pure divine providence. Put a GBA SP next to it and let the eternal procession of its library absolve you for eternity.

No winner here, not even a tie, just two incredible victories, arguably three.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

feel this way about Doom 3, too. Not that any of these games are bad, but Quake has clearly set the precedent for all id games past 1995.

@Gorse nyo, my internet was so fucking dead I can’t even hit the fucking reply button so I’m pinging you in this bizarre way. Sorry :/
Anyways I tried replying to you earlier but not only did my internet die, but I physically died and passed out irl. I’m a ghost nya x.x
Anyways now onto my actual reply: Gorse, how did you play Doom 3? It’s one of the darkest games out there, it’s so dark…. I can’t see a thing x.x

 

[ObscureJigglypuff]

- I have no idea why but my exp with The Last of Us was dying inside me through all this years, to the point that i feel like if it's a really bad game. One thing i didn't like from the start is the fact that the story doesn't have somewhat of original elements.

- Metal Gear 4 is shit, really sorry for Hideo.

- From FF9 onwards the franchise is kind of dead, like half dead or somenthing. Then, from FF12 onwards is REAAAAAALLY DEAD...
Despite that i'll give another shot only to FFX. FFX-2 and 12.

- I think i said it before but Assassin's Creed formula is worse than Putin on Bikini.

- Whathever games made for "modern audiences" is a pain in the ass.

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

- I have no idea why but my exp with The Last of Us was dying inside me through all this years, to the point that i feel like if it's a really bad game. One thing i didn't like from the start is the fact that the story doesn't have somewhat of original elements.

- Metal Gear 4 is shit, really sorry for Hideo.

- From FF9 onwards the franchise is kind of dead, like half dead or somenthing. Then, from FF12 onwards is REAAAAAALLY DEAD...
Despite that i'll give another shot only to FFX. FFX-2 and 12.

- I think i said it before but Assassin's Creed formula is worse than Putin on Bikini.

- Whathever games made for "modern audiences" is a pain in the ass.

9 is quite possibly my favorite final fantasy.

 

[Deleted member 20081]

99% of (Singleplayer)games are way to easy and that has been the case for something like 25 years by now. To beat them requires nothing more than time and no respect for that time.
Zelda is a especially bad case of this. Ever since A Link to the Past in 1991 the games are braindead easy even if you use Master Quest/Second Quest.

Games don't actually age, their (technical) novelty just wears of. Being the first (popular) representative of a (new) genre or the only/first representative on a (new) console makes even a bad/mediocre games sell/review well.
Battle Arena Toshinden is a good example were the game was always mediocre and only sold/reviewed well because it was the first 3D Fighter to release on the PlayStation.
Other examples would be GTA 3, Medal of Honor (1999) or the first Command and Conquer.

 

[sandogma sandogma]

9 is quite possibly my favorite final fantasy.

I agree. I considered FF9 to be a great homage to the 16-bit era Final Fantasy games, which I also love. I do agree with ObscureJigglypuff that the franchise has lost its way in later installments once Square went all in on action and ditched the turn based systems entirely.
I'm happy for those who enjoy the FF7 remakes and FF15/16 real time combat, but to me Final Fantasy was always a turn based game and there were other Square franchises that explored real time combat.

I see a lot of discourse regarding this topic and I often read rebuttals that mention the fact that the Final Fantasy games always made changes to their battle system. But while that is true, the foundation of every battle system was always turn based, whether it was traditional (ff1-3), active-time battle (FF4-9), conditional turn based battle (FFX-X2), active dimension battle (FF12) or command synergy battle (FF13+), all these innovative battle systems are designed from a turn based strategy mechanic.

Honestly, I feel Atlus has done a better job than Square with showing how turn based combat can still be fresh and innovative with their Press-Turn System and Once More System found in Shin Megami Tensei series, Persona series and now Metaphor: Refantazio.

 

[VampireLord1024VampireLord1024's icon]

I don't have any hot or cold takes, but are pancakes alright?

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

I don't have any hot or cold takes, but are pancakes alright?

Naw man, we overwhelmingly voted waffles.

 

[Cu-Neo]

Online Multiplayer modes in single player games are one the most unnecessary things ever created.

 

[VampireLord1024VampireLord1024's icon]

Naw man, we overwhelmingly voted waffles.

View attachment 8490

And French toast?

 

[OWG]

Online Multiplayer modes in single player games are one the most unnecessary things ever created.

i would agree with this but in the early to mid 2000s devs were actually making some very imaginative and creative online multiplayer modes for their singleplayer games, one that comes to mind is the spies vs mercs mode in the older splinter cell games as it was really cool and properly integrated stealth into a multiplayer environment... sadly ubisoft had to pull out the "noobifier" for later entries!

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Hottest take I have, apparently - Castlevania 64 and Legacy of darkness weren't that bad, critics are just mean :'(

I have heard great things about Legacy of Darkness... apparently it was a conscious effort by the company to improve the game based on the feedback they got from the first game. I can't never fault them for that, if true.

 

[RageBurner]

Mega Man 5 is one of the worst Mega Man games to ever exist and Mega Man 6 is better than it in every single way.

Here, I said it.

Hmm? this is a hot take? from where I'm standing it's objective fact, haha.

Post automatically merged: Jan 4, 2025

And here's a few of my hot takes:

- PS2 Castlevanias are good.

- Crossover fighting games like MVC2 and 3 are all flash and no substance.

- Sonic 3 is better than Sonic 2 despite the latter being more famous.

- Streets of Rage is better than Final Fight.

- Top Gear/Racer 1 is the only good one.

- The Megadrive/Genesis fightpad is much better than the SNES controller.

- Mainline SMT is better than Persona. (I'm getting flamed for this but I'll never change my mind).

- The 3D push during the 5th console generation was a mistake.

- Very few 3D Mario games are actually fun.

- 3D Sonic games never got it right, some just fail slightly less hard.

- Without Rare, the N64 would be nowhere as beloved as it ended up becoming.

- Character action games like Bayonetta are formulaic and boring, and lease their life on wow factor, protagonist charisma or both.

 

[Deleted member 20081]

I agree. I considered FF9 to be a great homage to the 16-bit era Final Fantasy games, which I also love. I do agree with ObscureJigglypuff that the franchise has lost its way in later installments once Square went all in on action and ditched the turn based systems entirely.

I think that Final Fantasy declining popularity hasn't much to do with gameplay changes. This sounds insane, I know, but the popularity of FF-Games from FF7 onwards was always rooted in two other things:

1. Its technical spectacle like its CGI sequences
2. Its coming of age story about teenagers characters discovering themselves, falling in love and saving the world
3. FF7 specific the huge marketing push that Sony made for Square, which Square could not and still cannot do on its own

If you go back and look at how Sony marketed FF7 in the west be it in trailers, magazine adverts or even on the back of the game box they always show scenes from the CGI trailers or impressive background renders iE technical spectacle. The most you ever see of gameplay is a 5 second clip that shows a summon attack which is also just technical spectacle.
Beyond that technical spectacle used to lure in customers what then made people actually fall in love with the game were its story and characters but again not its gameplay.

Now why is FF popularity in decline?

To go back to Point 1 remember how, in the 1990s, Square would create a new graphical benchmark with every FF game. Back then no one could even come close to Squares CGI-cutscenes.
That really isn't the case nowadays, a lot of companies are as good or even better when it comes to creating beatufiul grahpics, and technical spectacle in general is a far less of good lure just based on how similarly good graphics from 10 years ago look to good graphics today. Compare that to how much graphics improved in the 2 years between FF7 and FF8 and then again 2 years later with FF10.

Without that technical spectacle and huge marketing push made possible by Sony to help lure in younger customers and make them long term fans, FF is mostly stuck with the remnants of its millennial fanbase that FF7 created. That fanbase has been and will only continue to lose members just from people aging out (FF7 is 28 years old after all thou I would say that process already started with FF12 and accelerated hard with FF13) and losing interested in FFs coming of age stories which most people have already experienced multiple times by now just via the FF franchise and cannot relate to as well anymore since they themselves are middle aged adults by now.

Obviously a new break out hit ala Persona 5 could create a younger hardcore following and I think that FF 16 producer had the right idea when he said that: ‘‘it would be good to look to the future and bring in a younger generation, with more youthful sensibilities, to make a new [Final Fantasy] with challenges that suit todays world’’.