Retro games that disappointed you the most.

[Deleted-1]

Which retro games have disappointed you the most, the ones you've dreamed of playing for years, only to discover that they don't suit your tastes?

For me, it's Bastard and Macross Scrambled Valkyrie on SFC. I'd been dreaming of playing them ever since I saw photos of them in October 1993. It was only in 2018 that I was able to play them for the first time, and the disappointment was great.

Bastard was magnificent and looked original and impressive to me at the time. It remains a beautiful game for its time, but the gameplay is horribly repetitive and difficult.

As for Macross, I adored the original series and the shmup genre in general, so it appealed to me greatly. Some consider it one of the three best shmups on the SNES/SFC. Frankly, I'd put it somewhere between 7th and 10th. It's not a bad game, but after the 1st level, which I found a little frustrating to play because of the lack of space, the quality seems to deteriorate with each level and the progression lacks variety.

 

[Sayo]

Nights Into Dreams, I had these ridiculous expectations for it as it was often touted as "the crowning jewel of the Saturn" but ultimately by the time I played it, it ended up being a game with a very shallow gameplay loop with some comforting visuals.
I assume it's held in high regard because the Saturn in the west didn't have that many releases and it was promoted by SEGA as that generation's Sonic replacement. There are admittedly far better titles for it like Panzer Dragoon and Cotton 2 which I would play any day over it, what the heck I even prefer Sonic 3D Blast.

 

[Gorse]

Nights Into Dreams

I'm a huge fan of Nights, but I see this opinion online commonly and it's easy to understand. What most people (including SEGA) do a poor job explaining about the game is that, from the ground up, it's an arcade-style point-scoring experience, not a standard "adventure" game like Sonic or Mario where the only goal is to finish the story.

The fun of Nights is in playing the levels over and over again to gradually get faster and better, unlocking new content each time your rank goes up. (That's why some levels only unlock when you get a certain rank in the previous one.) By beating a level faster, you can gain more time during boss battles or even disrupt the pattens of bosses themselves, and by defeating enemies and scoring points, you affect the game's A-Life system and unlock new forms of Nightopians (the little fairies that float around each stage). I also highly recommend exploring as much of each level as Claris or Elliot as you can before getting started with Nights properly, as you'll discover some really neat details and secrets. The game was designed to work in both 2D and 3D, which is a rarity to this day.

I think to really buy into the game's universe, you have to be a fan of A) SEGA arcade games, B) flamboyant theatrical productions like Cirque de Soleil, and C) non-verbal character psychology. The overlap there is razor-thin, and excludes most people who grew up on traditional game narratives where characters yap at each other in-between gameplay chunks (see: all JRPGs), but if you're a weirdo like me who does like all that stuff, it's a really unique and enchanting title. Everything I've written here only applies to the first game, though, because the sequels and spiritual successors all SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Sayo]

I'm a huge fan of Nights, but I see this opinion online commonly and it's easy to understand. What most people (including SEGA) do a poor job explaining about the game is that, from the ground up, it's an arcade-style point-scoring experience, not a standard "adventure" game like Sonic or Mario where the only goal is to finish the story.

The fun of Nights is in playing the levels over and over again to gradually get faster and better, unlocking new content each time your rank goes up. (That's why some levels only unlock when you get a certain rank in the previous one.) By beating a level faster, you can gain more time during boss battles or even disrupt the pattens of bosses themselves, and by defeating enemies and scoring points, you affect the game's A-Life system and unlock new forms of Nightopians (the little fairies that float around each stage). I also highly recommend exploring as much of each level as Claris or Elliot as you can before getting started with Nights properly, as you'll discover some really neat details and secrets. The game was designed to work in both 2D and 3D, which is a rarity to this day.

I think to really buy into the game's universe, you have to be a fan of A) SEGA arcade games, B) flamboyant theatrical productions like Cirque de Soleil, and C) non-verbal character psychology. The overlap there is razor-thin, and excludes most people who grew up on traditional game narratives where characters yap at each other in-between gameplay chunks (see: all JRPGs), but if you're a weirdo like me who does like all that stuff, it's a really unique and enchanting title.

I will admit that I wasn't aware of the depth of the game, since I had built myself up for a different experience than the one I got, I am going to have to keep all of this in mind for my next run, because I definitely need to get more out of it now.
Also, I can totally see the SEGA arcade DNA all over it now, there's a certain Space Harrier and Fantasy Zone feel to it and not merely from a visual standpoint.

because the sequels and spiritual successors all SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have yet to hear a single good thing about the sequels. I assume the remake isn't any better.

 

[Waiting For The Rain]

Final Fantasy Adventure/Seiken Densetsu
I've tried three separate times to get through it. The first time was more or less enjoyable, but when I ran out of keys in a dungeon far away from the nearest store (totally my fault, by the way), I realized I wasn't having enough fun to warrant trudging all the way back to get more.

Since then, I've also tried the Adventures of Mana remake and one more go at the original again and didn't stick with either for long. At its core there's a fun game there, but when I realize there's nothing interesting to find or see around the world like in a Zelda game, and that the RPG elements are so shallow they just boil down to how many enemies you've bothered to kill, I can't be bothered to play it through.

 

[Yukyon]

I loved Jak and Daxter as a kid, I spent hours playing it on a cousin's house but never beat the game; years later I bought all the Jak and Daxter games on PSN, after beating and getting platinum on Jak 1 I went to jak 2 and...
I really tried to like it, I couldn't get myself to play more than probably 5% of the game...

 

[Waffles]

Mario Kart.

I had been hearing about it for decades and just... didn't like it. Like, at all. I'm still not sure what the fuss is all about.

 

[dropsmegamega]

Croc 2. I honestly can't see why anyone would think its better than the first one. Level design is super uninspired and even though they got rid of tank controls, platforming is much harder because Croc moves too fast and imprecise compared to 1 and there's less freedom with the camera movement.

I loved Jak and Daxter as a kid, I spent hours playing it on a cousin's house but never beat the game; years later I bought all the Jak and Daxter games on PSN, after beating and getting platinum on Jak 1 I went to jak 2 and...
I really tried to like it, I couldn't get myself to play more than probably 5% of the game...

It's one of the biggest tone shifts in game series, jak 2 is so edgy and different compared to the first. It's definitely not a game I would recommend, traversing through that GTA inspired open world is painful plus the lack of checkpoints can be extremely frustrating, but despite all that I really enjoyed some of its missions and the cutscenes are very fun as well.

 

[moonbits]

Xenosaga was rather slow, the cheesy anime dialogue/graphics have aged poorly. I did give it a few tries but didn't click.

(I could list a lot of JRPGs here)

 

[stealthRUSH]

Nights: Journey Of Dreams on Wii. The original Sega Saturn game was one of my all-time favorite games ever since I played it on a Kmart kiosk eventually owning it back in '96 (w/ 3D controller bundle). I knew it was developed by Sega Studios USA instead but honestly I was trying to keep an open-mind and it was one of the main reasons why I wanted to own a Nintendo Wii in the first place, I eventually played it and was greatly disappointed..

 

[Inkingsama]

Secret of Mana. Slow and janky as hell. Companions will get stuck with everything, enemies will stun lock you to death and the only way to get decent damage output is by waiting longer and longer for your weapon bar to fill. I can see it as a fun game if you play with a friend but nothing more.

I got tired of the game taking a dump on me by the time i got to the tiger boss, when i got stun locked with the burn attack.

 

[Clippy]

This is gonna be a biggun: Final Fantasy VII.

Let me set the stage: It was around 2004. As a PC guy I stumbled upon Breath of Fire 4 and Final Fantasy VIII. JRPGs were never big outside of consoles (well, until recently I suppose) so it was a pretty new experience for me at the time and I liked it a lot so I decided to ask papa Google for other games in the same vein. Ultimately that was my rabbit hole into emulating pretty much everything under the sun but before that I learned that there were a few native PC ports.

There was one game in particular that everyone raved about - Final Fantasy VII. Pretty much every opinion out there was that it's a mind-blowing, life-changing experience. A 13/10 at least. So I grabbed myself a copy, installed it, launched it... And I hated it with a passion. I hated the character models, I hated how clunky it was, I hated how slow it was, I pretty much hated everything about it.

It's been two decades since then and I can say that the game has grown on me somewhat. I beat it multiple times and I think it's a pretty good game. I can safely say that the hype train soured my initial experience moreso than anything else. Had I played it back when it first came out chances are I'd be singing its praises to high heaven just like the folks who recommended it to me back then.

The way I feel about it now is pretty much the same way I feel about the entire series: Good games worth a playthrough (especially IX) but there are better JRPGs out there. Lunar games blow the 16-bit entries out of the water, Shadow Hearts series does the same to the PS2 era FF.

 

[Yousef]

Surprisingly I could never gravitate towards 2D Mario or Metroid.

 

[Waffles]

Test Drive 4 not only broke my heart, but it danced all over it, too.

I used to gosh over the demo for years.

 

[Darklink]

Let me preface this by saying that I do enjoy this game now. Just that at the time I played it, it massively disappointed me.

So here we have Chrono Trigger. Probably the most over hyped JRPG of all time imo. When I first tried to play it as an early teen, I just did not understand what the hype was even about. Silent Protag, stupid Frog talking like a bad Shakespeare play which was annoying because he was the only character in his time period that talked like that, and the writing was not drawing me in at all.

It wasn't until I played the game on Nintendo DS a few years later that the game clicked with me. The re-translation and the ability to play it portably saved the game for me. Also probably helped that I actually went into the game with much fairer expectations. Because the internet loves to over hype Chrono Trigger, to the point that one would think it's a life changing experience, when it's just a good video game.

I have similar thoughts with other retro greats. Almost always due to the stupid hype circle surrounding such games. Final Fantasy VI, Super Metroid, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Super Mario RPG. As I've gotten older I've come around on most of these games. Not you Super Metroid. I don't think they'll ever be my favorites of their respective series, but I do like most of 'em now.

 

[werewolfgimmick]

I got a lot that I expected to blow me away and become one of my favorites that I ended finding just okay; Ranger X, Parasite Eve, the first two Shin Megami Tensei. But ones I straight up didn't like? The first one that comes to mind is Napple Stort Arsia In Daydream. From the reviews I read I expected an absolute hidden gem from the Dreamcast but I was only met with profoundly boring plataforming and bland writing. Did not get what was great about it at all.
There's also Front Mission Gun Hazard. For a game that lasts 20 hours it lacked any depth or nuance to it's easy and repetitive gameplay that I was told rivaled Assault Suits Valken. Same with the story. Maybe the bar was set too high by me playing Front Mission 2 before, but gosh was the plot cliched and had nothing of substance to say with it's dull and flat characters. I was bummed out as hell, I wanted to love it so bad.

 

[PhrawzT]

stupid Frog talking like a bad Shakespeare play which was annoying because he was the only character in his time period that talked like that

I am huge Chrono Trigger fan, but that always bothered me. Plus he doesn't talk like that during his own flashbacks which only makes it even more confusing.

 

[monochromeorange]

pretty much all oldschool resident evil games especially re2

 

[fake-kun]

Mega Man 2.

I had no expectations for it, and still, it disappointed me with how bland, generic, and just plain poorly designed it was.

 

[Cu-Neo]

Pokémon

I am still triying to like/enjoy the main games (I freaking love Mystery dungeon and Rangers Tho) but no results for now

 

[PhrawzT]

Pokémon

I am still triying to like/enjoy the main games (I freaking love Mystery dungeon and Rangers Tho) but no results for now

I enjoyed the games up to Diamond/Pearl and then lost interest.

 

[MajesticSiN]

Probably Pit Fighter for the snes. I remember renting it and wishing I didn't waste my money.

 

[ATenderLad]

I can remember an awful lot of disappointing returns to Blockbuster in the 90's, but I'm not sure whats what the thread was asking for. If it's an older game that I'd heard about and had to go back to play later in life....Wasteland, probably? I'd beaten Fallout a few times, and was dying to try out the game my friends had said inspired it, but I bounced off that one completely. I think I enjoyed reading the manual more than the game.

(Not the only game that was true of, though. I had...I believe it's Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World on the Sega Genesis, and I adored that manual, with it's map and descriptions of spells, locations, and hints about the world. This might be a different topic though.)

This is gonna be a biggun: Final Fantasy VII.

I can honestly say, you had to be there. There's elements of other games of course, like Jenova being a re-skinned Lavos (my head theory growing up was that FF7 was a sequel to Chrono Trigger originally, just set in the new slightly better future they'd managed to create), and the dynamic with Aeris having been done in Phantasy Star.

....that being said, back then it felt completely new. Like a bright sign of where games were going, FF7's pre-rendered backgrounds and cutscenes showed you a world you simply had to imagine before. (Thre's probably something more to say about how important graphics used to be, it sounds shallow but seeing the imagination rendered like never before was impactful, back when that sort of thing mattered. It's a shallow concern nowadays, I'll admit.)

It was a bit more adult, really ushering in a new adolescent era of games for folks at the time. The whole Don Corneo sequence is crazy juvenile as an adult, but a gender-bending brothel infiltration to fight a pimp? Teenagers and younger kids whose parents had no idea were losing their minds over it.

As a game, it isn't the best in the series, though the characters are still some of the most fleshed out and interesting Squaresoft ever came up with, and the soundtrack still has some all-time video game standards. My biggest complaint back then was that the characters lost their unique mechanical qualities, FF6 and it's array of Tools, Magic, and freaking Street Fighter style inputs to throw kamehameha's had been a lot more fun.

Because the internet loves to over hype Chrono Trigger, to the point that one would think it's a life changing experience, when it's just a good video game.

This bit stuck out to me, it's maybe another thread but isn't that most games? Does anyone have life changing experiences with video games?

Closest I can think of was Metal Gear Solid, it taught me more about nuclear policy and Mutually Assured Destruction than my school did at the time, and really made me wonder if the adults around me had any idea what they were doing.

 

[Leon]

Mine is a doozy, The legend of zelda: ocarina of time, i've still never seen the appeal of it, and it's not because i hate the series or something, i'm actually quite fond of a link to the past as a example, but ocarina of time to me is just a slog.
To a lesser extent the original zelda on the nes as well.

Xenosaga was rather slow, the cheesy anime dialogue/graphics have aged poorly. I did give it a few tries but didn't click.

(I could list a lot of JRPGs here)

Xenosaga episode one sucks as a game, forgetting the rather boring game mechanics for a second, the utter lack of music for large swaiths of the game and alot of the music actually in the game not fitting just hurts the game more, episode 2 imo is far superior to 1 and episode 3 is by far the best of the trilogy, but the slog that is going through xenosaga ep 1 again has prevented me multiple times from going back through the series again, to me xenosaga ep 1's only saving grace is the story, which is only a part of a trilogy and the gameplay is so mediocre and boring that it makes it difficult for me to play through it again.

This is gonna be a biggun: Final Fantasy VII.

Let me set the stage: It was around 2004. As a PC guy I stumbled upon Breath of Fire 4 and Final Fantasy VIII. JRPGs were never big outside of consoles (well, until recently I suppose) so it was a pretty new experience for me at the time and I liked it a lot so I decided to ask papa Google for other games in the same vein. Ultimately that was my rabbit hole into emulating pretty much everything under the sun but before that I learned that there were a few native PC ports.

There was one game in particular that everyone raved about - Final Fantasy VII. Pretty much every opinion out there was that it's a mind-blowing, life-changing experience. A 13/10 at least. So I grabbed myself a copy, installed it, launched it... And I hated it with a passion. I hated the character models, I hated how clunky it was, I hated how slow it was, I pretty much hated everything about it.

It's been two decades since then and I can say that the game has grown on me somewhat. I beat it multiple times and I think it's a pretty good game. I can safely say that the hype train soured my initial experience moreso than anything else. Had I played it back when it first came out chances are I'd be singing its praises to high heaven just like the folks who recommended it to me back then.

The way I feel about it now is pretty much the same way I feel about the entire series: Good games worth a playthrough (especially IX) but there are better JRPGs out there. Lunar games blow the 16-bit entries out of the water, Shadow Hearts series does the same to the PS2 era FF.

Final fantasy 7 IS overrated, flat out, i'm not going to say the game is bad, but i find it inferior to 4 and 6, 6 is a bit overrated as well but no where near as much as 7, i'll be perfectly honest, as a story i find 6, 8 (if you don't mind reading the ingame encyclopedia), 9, 12 and tactics better than 7, gameplay i find 4, 5, 6, 8 to a extent and 9 as superior games gameplay wise, to put it another way, i find half of the series does final fantasy better than it's most noted game, and don't even get me started on the remake series, which i find to be just outright bad.
Fully agree with you on lunar btw being one of the best series in the 16 bit era,, especially the sega cd games, while i still think lunar isn't as good as say, ys 8, some of the trails series games and phantasy star 4, lunar in itself, especially eternal blue is one of the greatest masterpieces to ever come out and one of the most criminally overlooked series at that, i hope the remake/remaster that's coming out next year brings some much needed light to the series, though i doubt it will.

 

[RetroLaw]

Nights Into Dreams, I had these ridiculous expectations for it as it was often touted as "the crowning jewel of the Saturn" but ultimately by the time I played it, it ended up being a game with a very shallow gameplay loop with some comforting visuals.
I assume it's held in high regard because the Saturn in the west didn't have that many releases and it was promoted by SEGA as that generation's Sonic replacement. There are admittedly far better titles for it like Panzer Dragoon and Cotton 2 which I would play any day over it, what the heck I even prefer Sonic 3D Blast.

I love the game but it boils down to finding an optimized path to get points.

Definitively a game that is harder to enjoy if you didn't play it back then. Being the first game I played with an analogue stick also helped.

Mario Kart.

I had been hearing about it for decades and just... didn't like it. Like, at all. I'm still not sure what the fuss is all about.

Mode seven baby !

And balloon fights.

So here we have Chrono Trigger. Probably the most over hyped JRPG of all time imo. When I first tried to play it as an early teen, I just did not understand what the hype was even about. Silent Protag, stupid Frog talking like a bad Shakespeare play which was annoying because he was the only character in his time period that talked like that, and the writing was not drawing me in at all.

I'm trying reaaaallllly hard to not hate you right now