What was the "inflexion" point in a game, where you realized it wasn't as good as you thought?

[Dreamcast_best_VN_console]

With that I mean: A game that made a good impression on you at first. Everything worked; the gameplay was fun, technical aspects were nice, and the game had nothing wrong with it. But one day, you do something, or think about a specific part about it, and it hits you like a truck: A big part of it didn't work nearly as good as you thought.

For me, it 's Tears of the Kingdom. I thought the game was one of the best I've played. Then one friend who wanted the game asked how good the story was, and after telling him how the post-apocalyptic setting didn't work in this new game, I had to explain to him for 30 minutes about everything from Breath of The Wild that seemed to be retconned, or had absolutely no mention about it.

 

[Waffles]

Diablo is that game for me.

It's all great til I kill the first boss, then all my motivation evaporates. I don't even know why... I must have tried it fifty times.

 

[SoulSlappy]

I'd say this is most games that I play (even the ones that I like), but I'd say the most recent example of this was with Mario & Luigi: Brothership. Taking like 8+ hours to get to something resembling a boss battle where previous games'd be at least a good 3rd/half way through their entire runtime didn't bode well at all for the game's pacing... and unfortunately, my suspicions were right! There's a good game somewhere under all that bloat and padding, but I can't say I felt like it justified it's 50 hours of playtime overall.

 

[ciro64]

Some of the bosses in Star Fox Zero. They do everything a Star Fox game supposedly trying to mimic n64 shouldn't do. As Nerrel put it: "It's still fun in n64. You shoot the weak spots until they die." Somehow Zero fails to do that, be it forcing you to switch between two inconvenient views, forcing you into a worse vehicle, tiny weakspots in all-range mode that are hard to hit, the fight dragging for too long, unfitting generic orchestra music, etc

They're not even the lowest point of the game. That would be that stealth mission, but after trying my best to ignore that part and still seeing that the rest of the game was plagued with flaws did it for me.

I beat the game about 3 times, after that, it was no longer replayable. I tried.

Oh, there's Yooka-Laylee too. But I'm too lazy to elaborate on that one. Thankfully they haven't gave up since Replaylee is coming out.

 

[Bonkers225]

Shenmue for sure.

 

[Clippy]

To me in a way it would be Diablo II and every single game that it spawned. Now don't get me wrong, D2 is a great game by all accounts (though I prefer D1 myself) but after you beat the main game you have to contend with the fact that the only thing really left to do is constant grind. Do thousands of Baal runs or whatever for a minuscule chance of upping your damage by 0.1%. Do thousands of cow level runs for a negligible chance of getting that one rune you need for your runeword. Stuff like that just makes my soul wither away. Great game but the post game stops being fun rather quickly. I hear that Blizzard revised drop rates for the remake but I'm not giving them my money to find out, I'm happy slowly making my way through the original with Median XL.

I feel similarly about the Disgaea series. I like it but the vision of grinding for ungodly amounts of time to 100% any of the games just turns me off. I beat the main story and grind a little bit after that but as soon as I stop seeing regular progress I move on without hesitation, remorse or regret.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

After 30 minutes of playing Tenkaichi with my childhoof friend after years of playing budokai tenkaichi 3 we loooked at each other and went "is this game just Whoever Wins Rock Paper Scissor first?"

 

[dedliftjetskii]

Grinding missions in crisis core made me realize how the game is carried by the story

I love the story of crisis core but the combat is just really repetitive, and when you grind the missions out it starts to become monotonous (idk how you spell monotonous)

 

[DunkeyKong]

As you can see, most people have mentioned the "grinding" part and that's why most of us would just not continue to play (it's like chores you know? There's also a thread that have discussed it)

The only games or genre that doesn't gave me that feeling is definitely platformers, because it was actually giving me a challenge and not just "just press the same button until it's dead" thing

 

[Bobmeboi]

mine had to be need for speed most wanted
when I looked at it I thout it was going to be more like Gran Turismo.

 

[Johnadams1811]

I love Sonic Adventure, but i can't consider it the best Sonic game due to many factors, especially Amy and Big's levels

 

[moonbits]

Baldurs Gate 3
Resident Evil 8
Tales of Arise
Horizon Zero Dawn
Splatoon 2

 

[Dreamcast_best_VN_console]

I love Sonic Adventure, but i can't consider it the best Sonic game due to many factors, especially Amy and Big's levels

I think that's most people's inflexion point for that game in particular. I don't remember a lot about SA1, but it's quite obvious that Big's campaign it's a whole different game to what the game was going for in the first half.


I don't remember anything about Amy's campaign though.

 

[tenkaistar]

I'm going to go with the Trails series as whole. It started off so well, and you could say I was obsessed with it for a while. But for a relatively small company to make these massive games, they have to cut corners somewhere, which is the fact that they abuse the shit out of tropes to get through story beats. After hundreds and hundreds of hours in this series, I just couldn't take it anymore (I dropped it at the beginning of CS4).

Cold Steel storytelling can be summed up as: *teleports behind you* heh nothing personal, kid

 

[What's His Face]

Tales of Arise straight-up pissed me off. The opening had almost no story lead-up and barely a character introduction: you straight-up start as a boring masked/faceless guy who can't feel pain (so edgy!) with the blandest (English) voice acting this side of Ambien. Before you know it, you're pulling a flaming sword out from between a stuck-up bitch's tits (or was it her back, I really can't be bothered to remember). Then you go on this world tour, quite literally, and as I'm playing I'm waiting for the game to open-up and give me at least some concept of freedom of movement, like in past Tales games.

NO!

Before you know it you're in the final areas of the game and you have no idea how you even got there. The worst part is that, if the game had been given an overworld (like Tales of Destiny II/Etermia or Vesperia), that entire issue would not have existed. And oh, that story. It just screamed of a "what if" story - as in "What if the King of Inferia (Tales of Eternia) was right about the people of Celestia invading?"...a concept that was just ruined with abysmal execution.

Another awful part is that the game world was set-up similar to Xenoblade 3 - tour a massive continent in a giant circle. In X3 you were still lead in a line from Plot Point A to Plot Point B, but you as the player were allowed to explore each new region (with the only limitation being unable to rock climb) to discover new sub events, find new characters, discover places of interest, etc. ToA? You Follow This Path. You Then Follow This Next Path. You Then Follow Another Path. All Of Which Are The Size Of School Hallways. Yay.

I think the part that made me realize that the reviews were total BS (save the graphics - the game IS pretty) was shortly after the fight with notIfreet. At that point you enter the second verse, same as the first. I held out hope, I really did. I even beat the game. But would it have killed the developers to not copy the game model for Star Ocean: Integrity & Faithlessness in execution?

Post automatically merged: Dec 19, 2024

I'm going to go with the Trails series as whole. It started off so well, and you could say I was obsessed with it for a while. But for a relatively small company to make these massive games, they have to cut corners somewhere, which is the fact that they abuse the shit out of tropes to get through story beats. After hundreds and hundreds of hours in this series, I just couldn't take it anymore (I dropped it at the beginning of CS4).

Cold Steel storytelling can be summed up as: *teleports behind you* heh nothing personal, kid

I'm currently playing the entire series for the first time in a giant run through...I'm thinking that by the time I get to Daybreak II (Currently on Cold Steel 1) the final game of the series will be available in English.

 

[tenkaistar]

I'm currently playing the entire series for the first time in a giant run through...I'm thinking that by the time I get to Daybreak II (Currently on Cold Steel 1) the final game of the series will be available in English.

The localizations have been coming out faster over time, so probably. Maybe when my severe burn out is gone I'll finish the series myself.

 

[RageBurner]

I'd say Disgaea and the games surrounding it. Even though I love the games' art, humor and whimsy, the amount of sheer grind the games expect you to do by the late game made me sputter mid way every time I tried, this coming from a person that loves FFT, TO, Onimusha Tactics, you name it, so yeah.

 

[ObscureJigglypuff]

In my case when i realize that i didn't enjoy the entire Assassin's Creed formula.
The last one i beat was AC III, later i tried to replay the first one and out of the blue got the divine revelation, they were dead to me.

Never touch an AC again in my life.

 

[DunkeyKong]

In my case when i realize that i didn't enjoy the entire Assassin's Creed formula.
The last one i beat was AC III, later i tried to replay the first one and out of the blue got the divine revelation, they were dead to me.

Never touch an AC again in my life.

That reminds me of this (Even I thought Assassin's Creed is good…I used to)

 

[RageBurner]

I only played and enjoyed the very first, it felt genuinely interesting. Never played another since.

 

[Rafa-dono]

Pokémon: I played through Red or Blue (not sure) and then jumped into Gold or Silver (also not sure). I rushed through the game until I got to Fuschia and then I guess it finally landed that I was wasting time getting random packs of numbered attributes to fight other random packs of numbered attributes, and just because. I was rapidly expanding my gaming repertoire (until that point limited to some Atari games, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, and a handful of Mega Drive games like Pocahontas and Sonic 2); I had just discovered JRPGs, probably already finished Chrono Trigger and meybe Final Fantasy VI, and I already missed character depth and development or an overarching and epic plot in Pokémon. I tried Pokémon games later (Ruby and Sapphire, FireRed and LeafGreen) but never went too far into them. I did have a great time playing both TCG games for the GBC though because, to me, Pkm TCG is the best TCG ever, better than Magic The Gathering (minus the lore) and leagues above all others.

Lost Sphear: Chrono Trigger, I Am Setsuna is not. BUT, that game is mostly very good. The endgame and the actual ending really disappointed me but, up to that point, I was having a great time. When I first booted Lost Sphear I thought that they'd get the best in I Am Setsuna and up to eleven, which they did. But they also managed to make all the problems get worse. By the time I noticed that I had either to grind a lot (which you never have to in Chrono Trigger and I didn't have to in I Am Setsuna) or exploit the mechas to trample all the challenges the game threw at me, it lost all of it's already dwindling charm to me. I finished the game, yes, and I kinda feel like giving it another try someday, but I know in my heart it's not worth it. Sadly.

Tales of Phantasia & Tales of Destiny: I wanted to play them in order of (first) release, but I could only find Phantasia in Japanese. I played it for a while (something around 8 hours) until I got stuck and couldn't find where to go or what to do. Then I jumped into Destiny, only to get stuck in one of those four dungeons you have to clear to open the path to the final one. But then I finally found an English translation of Phantasia and played it to the end. It did not impress me half as much as I've hoped, specially because in the mean time I watched the OVAs which I think are so damn much better. Then I restarted Destiny and, already getting tired of the formula, it landed that I don't like games like these (or Star Ocean or Valkyrie Profile), these "actiony turn-based JRPGs" (I like action JRPGs such as .hack// or Rogue Galaxy though). I finished it this time, but it was an even bigger disappointment than Phantasia. And I never touched another Tales of game ever again (I kinda wanted to play From the Abyss but decided against it).

Xenogears: I never had the thing for mechas, but I hoped the game could change it or at least convince me while playing it. It did not. All the mecha fights bored me to death and killed my enjoyment of anything other than exploring. I love the environments in the game, specially Zeboim and that tower everyone hates, but even the normal fights became dreadful. I finished the game, but I'm probably the person with the lowest regards towards it and get into fights all the time for saying so (because people are ridiculous).

 

[Cris_Agev]

I'm going to go with the Trails series as whole. It started off so well, and you could say I was obsessed with it for a while. But for a relatively small company to make these massive games, they have to cut corners somewhere, which is the fact that they abuse the shit out of tropes to get through story beats. After hundreds and hundreds of hours in this series, I just couldn't take it anymore (I dropped it at the beginning of CS4).

Cold Steel storytelling can be summed up as: *teleports behind you* heh nothing personal, kid

This. I wanted to play all the games so I could understand why is everyone so hyped with this franchise. I skipped the 3 Trails games, just watched a extensive summary in youtube; then I jumped to the 2 Crossbell games thinking it'll be cool because we were the police force and your playable characters were adults except just one. Well, the minor acts like an adult and the adults act like kids, and the police force work seems more like a high school trip. I think I had the wrong expectations, nonetheless I forced myself to finish both games. The I jumped to Cold Steel I, surprisingly enough that game was ok, despite the playable characters being high schoolers and having their cringy moments now and then, they were all mature enough. I dropped it all somewhere in the middle of Cold Steel II, IIRC was mostly because I had this strong feeling that they wouldn't dare to kill anybody "important", they teased me from Crossbell arc, tragic accidents happening to secondary characters, showing blood, people raging and screaming... Em no they survived and are fine. There more stuff but that's it, uninstall.

Later I tried Tokyo Xanadu and I was dying of cringe from the beggining with some things of the MC, but again I forced myself almost near the end I think, when I could't take it anymore. This high schooler shouting and ordering the military... yeah, bye. uninstall. From that moment I said to myself no more japanese games with high schoolers saving the world or whatever, I'm too old for this.

 

[Ikagura]

I love Sonic Adventure, but i can't consider it the best Sonic game due to many factors, especially Amy and Big's levels

Amy tried to be more of a survival horror (until you noticed that you could hammer the robot and that levels were short enough aside from Final Egg).

Big's level should've been entirely optional (even if you notice that it becomes much easier after reading the manual).

Gamma managed to up the game with his short but sweet story but it's obvious that the later half of the game got rushed (even Tails' story is 75% the same as Sonic with less levels to travel and the same mini games to do aside from that Sand Hills one)... They should've focused more on Tails and Knuckles than adding too many characters.

 

[Another Iori]

'Genji Days of the Blade' ['Genji 2']:

Everything that made the first chapter on PS2 fantastic, was scaled down and despite the music being all excellent, there wasn't a single memorable new track and all the ones included were recycled from its predecessor.

Not exactly a great way to kick off the seventh generation, but a clear preview of a graphically polished catalog, but that would later prove to be severely lacking in content.

'Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit' and 'J-Stars Victory Versus+':

I’m a big fan of both 'Dragon Ball' and Shueisha’s classic catalog, so when these titles were released, I was pretty excited and they were one of the reasons why I bought a PS3, however, the final experience felt like a cold shower in a winter garden.

Graphically speaking, 'Burst Limit' remains one of the best-looking 'Dragon Ball' games and 'J-Stars' pushed the PS3 to its limits graphically, however, the gameplay offers a truly frigid experience, because every character lacks a distinctive play style, in fact, they all act and can be used in practically the same way (at that moment, it felt like going twenty years back to the first 'Street Fighter' [1987], where Ryu and Ken were the same character with a different design).

'Ryū Ga Gotoku 3' ['Feel like a dragon 3']|'Yakuza 3':

I thought to myself "If I’m going to experiment with a walking simulator of this generation, I want it to be 'Yakuza', because it’s like using an interactive Google Maps" and I must say it kept me hooked for several hours, but then I realized something.

Fundamentally this kind of game is just an adult version of 'Mario Party': where every mini-game isn’t the best possible one on the market, but merely a line in an inventory to pad out the shopping list, but that they aren’t immediately accessible, because you have to reach them after long treks, instead of conveniently selecting them from a menu (that said, at least I grew fond of Kiryu and his story).