Unpopular Opinion Thread

[taterchimp]

Breath of the Wild was a chore to play through. The weapon durability, exploring the open world with limited stamina, the lackluster shrines, 4 'meh' dungeons, and an ubisoft collect-a-thon to get hearts and weapons all make me not want to go back to it. No unique items that you get from dungeons, just the main ones that you are forced to get an hour into the game.
I hope the next one has a way to repair weapons at the very least. It was well thought out, but playing it isn't enjoyable.

 

[RiffRaff]

GTA5 is one of the worst games I've ever played and I'm angry at myself for playing it to the end. In fact, I've never really liked a GTA game besides Chinatown Wars. Don't know why I keep playing them. Guess I just want to play them so I can bitch about how overrated the series is.

 

[✨ Matt ✨]

Games like Call of Duty and Ubisoft open world games and mobile games are just fine, and the people who play them are just as much gamers as anyone else because not everything has to be for hardcore-MLG-serious-business-highbrow-super-gamers.

 

[RiffRaff]

Games like Call of Duty and Ubisoft open world games and mobile games are just fine, and the people who play them are just as much gamers as anyone else because not everything has to be for hardcore-MLG-serious-business-highbrow-super-gamers.

Agreed. Though the problem I have with mobile game and any game in general that does it is the shitty, predatory micro-transaction bullshit. At one point, many moons ago, mobile games were fun. The first versions of Angry Birds was a great time. Then the bullshit began and mobile games ain't gonna recover from it sadly. There's definitely a lot of quality experiences on the platform, such a shame the bullshit ruined the credibility of the platform.
Butt yeah, if you like something go enjoy the shit out of it!

 

[Spaceloaf]

The Witcher 3 is not a great game. It's a mediocre game with great writing.

The combat is simplistic and janky. Even on Death March difficulty I was able to make it through the whole game just hitting attack->dodge->attack->dodge over and over. I eventually started taking quests that were 10+ levels above me just to see if I could beat them, and it turns out I could. I think I was able to get to around 15 levels below the recommended before I finally got stuck.

Which brings me to my next point, there is usually no real reward in most quests or exploration other than seeing where the story goes. Since you are not allowed to use equipment that is higher level than you, taking on any challenge just results in getting equipment you can't use. Even worse, that equipment never becomes useful because by the time you reach a high enough level to use it, you already have Witcher gear from 4 levels ago which surpasses it. By the end of the game I had a ridiculous collection of weapons and armor that I never even used once.

Along with that, since you're stuck using weapons at your level, fighting enemies higher than you becomes aggressively tedious. The damage that you deal out becomes severely limited to the point that you will lose all of your weapon durability on a single enemy because it takes so many hits to kill. This is the same kind of naked level-gating that games like Assassin's Creed Odyssey use. You progress is artificially gated not by interesting challenges, but just by making the enemies so tedious to defeat that you'd rather not go through the hassle.

To me those factors basically defeat the appeal of exploring an open world, because there isn't any compelling gameplay or exploration to be found, just artificial level-gating and useless equipment.

The only thing that saved it for me was the writing, and even there I am referring specifically to the side quests and DLC. The main story was a snooze-fest for me. Geralt is the most boring character in the whole game world; I would have preferred to be any other character but him.

tldr, TW3 has so many flaws that I don't see how anyone can claim that its one of the greatest RPGs of all time. It doesn't mean that people can't enjoy it (I loved FF7:R even though it is a flawed game), but objectively I think it has legitimate design issues.

 

[Vadicta]

Altoids tins aren't that great for holding human eyeballs. Like, some people have big eyes, so it makes me worry they'll pop when I go to clasp the lid. Also, that tin gets so hot sometimes they melt, and you're left with nothing but a puddle of bubbling goo if you accidentally leave it in the car for too long.

I still think a ziploc bag and a small cooler are the way to go. I know it's not terribly convenient having a two-piece solution, but I don't want the trophies from all the skulls I spent hours hollowing out to go to waste.

 

[Dr. Mel]

It's not that writing in video games can't be good, it's just that writing in video games isn't good.

Some games have deep moments, some games are technical marvels, some games are like art installations and their experience outside or beyond the writing are very good and effective in the special ways that make games a unique artform. But no one has written a script for a game that's anything more than a Hollywood summer movie or a middlebrow indie film.

Why? I don't think this industry attracts good writing talent. It's been attracting better writing talent as years have gone on, but due to the complex technical nature of game production and how script writers are often also game developers wearing multiple hats you're not getting standout writing. You're also constantly compromising the writing in inartful ways to fit the budgetary, time, and technical constraints of the medium and that talent of editing hasn't been cultivated at all. That took cinema a long time to get to, to get people who know what a compromised vision is and how to navigate that while preserving itself as best as possible.

Another reason why? Market demand -- it's the same reason why dumb action movies are big. The market currently wants pretty much what it's currently getting. To step outside of that is a risk.

And here's not what I'm saying: that dumb action movies or games are for dumb people, that a game you enjoy with bad writing shouldn't be enjoyed even for its writing, that games are an inferior medium to others like movies or books. For the record.

 

[Xeo]

Breath of the Wild was a chore to play through. The weapon durability, exploring the open world with limited stamina, the lackluster shrines, 4 'meh' dungeons, and an ubisoft collect-a-thon to get hearts and weapons all make me not want to go back to it. No unique items that you get from dungeons, just the main ones that you are forced to get an hour into the game.
I hope the next one has a way to repair weapons at the very least. It was well thought out, but playing it isn't enjoyable.

This summed up my thoughts on the game as well. We're a rare breed. I don't dislike the game though, there are things I genuinely liked about it. But overall, yes, it's an absolute chore to play. I also think it's the first Zelda game I've played that not only doesn't have an excellent soundtrack, but in fact it has a pretty lousy one.

Now, that said...
I didn't like Nier Automata much. Yeah, 2B's ass is nice, but the gameplay is repetitive, the environments are bland as hell, the sidequests are boring as hell and the big ending that everyone lost their minds over is a plot device I saw coming in one form or another and have seen the idea done better in other media. The plot is all over the place and comes off pretentious as hell in thinking it's this awesomely profound, life changing experience when in reality it felt like overwrought, convoluted typical anime weeb shit. This is of course to me, of course.

 

[taterchimp]

This summed up my thoughts on the game as well. We're a rare breed. I don't dislike the game though, there are things I genuinely liked about it. But overall, yes, it's an absolute chore to play. I also think it's the first Zelda game I've played that not only doesn't have an excellent soundtrack, but in fact it has a pretty lousy one.

Now, that said...
I didn't like Nier Automata much. Yeah, 2B's ass is nice, but the gameplay is repetitive, the environments are bland as hell, the sidequests are boring as hell and the big ending that everyone lost their minds over is a plot device I saw coming in one form or another and have seen the idea done better in other media. The plot is all over the place and comes off pretentious as hell in thinking it's this awesomely profound, life changing experience when in reality it felt like overwrought, convoluted typical anime weeb shit. This is of course to me, of course.

Compared to the first Nier, Automata is a pile of butt pretending to be more important than it is. I loved the first one despite its jank, then they took all the jank and all the good stuff out, too. While I'm at it, I haven't liked a single Platinum game's gameplay, and generally see them as a negative when attached to a game. Same for Double Fine.

 

[Xeo]

Compared to the first Nier, Automata is a pile of butt pretending to be more important than it is. I loved the first one despite its jank, then they took all the jank and all the good stuff out, too. While I'm at it, I haven't liked a single Platinum game's gameplay, and generally see them as a negative when attached to a game. Same for Double Fine.

JEEZ LOUISE! Are we twins!? I feel the EXACT same way about all of that! No joke.

 

[Turbokill]

At times I loved Final Fantasy VII Remake, thanks to the cutscenes and character work, but a lot of the time I found the combat to be an utterly unfun chore which undermined the rest of the game. Sometimes I feel like I understand why, and other times I don't.

It's not hard, it's not too easy... it just, feels too rigid? I dunno, but from what I played, I am absolutely unwilling to spend upwards of $180 to see this remake to the finish. (Assuming $60 per game) I'm also not sure that I enjoyed a single one of the boss fights and yet when I tried the demo I thought, "Oh, this feels cool."

The game is an enigma to me.

 

[RiffRaff]

It's not that writing in video games can't be good, it's just that writing in video games isn't good.

Some games have deep moments, some games are technical marvels, some games are like art installations and their experience outside or beyond the writing are very good and effective in the special ways that make games a unique artform. But no one has written a script for a game that's anything more than a Hollywood summer movie or a middlebrow indie film.

Why? I don't think this industry attracts good writing talent. It's been attracting better writing talent as years have gone on, but due to the complex technical nature of game production and how script writers are often also game developers wearing multiple hats you're not getting standout writing. You're also constantly compromising the writing in inartful ways to fit the budgetary, time, and technical constraints of the medium and that talent of editing hasn't been cultivated at all. That took cinema a long time to get to, to get people who know what a compromised vision is and how to navigate that while preserving itself as best as possible.

Another reason why? Market demand -- it's the same reason why dumb action movies are big. The market currently wants pretty much what it's currently getting. To step outside of that is a risk.

And here's not what I'm saying: that dumb action movies or games are for dumb people, that a game you enjoy with bad writing shouldn't be enjoyed even for its writing, that games are an inferior medium to others like movies or books. For the record.

Curiosity: What do you think about the writing in games like Planescape and Disco Elysium?

 

[RiffRaff]

Compared to the first Nier, Automata is a pile of butt pretending to be more important than it is. I loved the first one despite its jank, then they took all the jank and all the good stuff out, too. While I'm at it, I haven't liked a single Platinum game's gameplay, and generally see them as a negative when attached to a game. Same for Double Fine.

I agree with you on Double Fine. Psychonauts was fun if overrated and Broken Age was enjoyable but quite a letdown in the end. I've played a few more of their games and they never rise above 'meh' for me.
Love Platinum tho'. Nimble, dodge based gameplay fits my personal playstyle very well. I always make dexterity heavy builds when a game gives the the chance. Love my glass cannons.

 

[Slimybearreturnsv866.5]

While God Of War has some potetional good ideas for a story I just found it a chore one of the most boring games and umeorable games I have ever tried.One of the first games that I just gave up on 8 hours in and said no I am not playing this any more

Horizon Zero Dawn similarly could be intresting but the boring characters,main character with God awful boring voice acting and the tedious generic open worl bita of the game which makes up most of it makes the game very boring.

GtaV has crap writting that steers into twitter meme like terriorty that just gets annoying. World is crap too its just a load of fancy textured rectangles for its building.

So far the writting looks awful in Cybperpunk 2077 and I did love the Witcher 3.

Rockstar needs to go away from open world games considering how crap their gunplay is and just the genreal mission design for them and go back to making games something like Max Payne 3.

 

[Vincentdante]

Oh boy I've been saving my spiciest take for a thread such as this!

The Fate/Stay Night visual novel is overrated and the (UFOtable) Anime adaptations are just as good.

Many argue you need to know Shirous internal monologue to understand why he's a dumbass. I argue that is irrelevant because his dumbassery is well explained anyway. I was once shown a video arguing why it's important to know what Shirou was thinking when he copied Archers swords, but I summarized that video as 30 minutes of being told "he made them because he thought they looked pretty." What wonderful insight and well worth an 80 hour playthrough just to understand that right?

I'm not saying it's a bad game I'm saying it is VERY overrated.

 

[taterchimp]

I agree with you on Double Fine. Psychonauts was fun if overrated and Broken Age was enjoyable but quite a letdown in the end. I've played a few more of their games and they never rise above 'meh' for me.
Love Platinum tho'. Nimble, dodge based gameplay fits my personal playstyle very well. I always make dexterity heavy builds when a game gives the the chance. Love my glass cannons.

Yeah, once you figure out that 'ultimate donut technique' is the dodge mechanic of the game, and grind enough money to buy it then you can finally play it like any other action game, except your have 100 moves but you will only ever use seven.

 

[modern_moron]

Not sure where this community stands on Sekiro, but I thought it was mediocre output from Fromsoft.

Too many dropped inputs. One-note combat.

Special attacks and other unlockable skills are gimmicky and have no real use outside of a mob or two right after unlocking them (looking at you, Loaded Axe)

Story felt lacking. Fairly strong beginning and end, but the middle parts are mostly muddled.

 

[Xeo]

Not sure where this community stands on Sekiro, but I thought it was mediocre output from Fromsoft.

Too many dropped inputs. One-note combat.

Special attacks and other unlockable skills are gimmicky and have no real use outside of a mob or two right after unlocking them (looking at you, Loaded Axe)

Story felt lacking. Fairly strong beginning and end, but the middle parts are mostly muddled.

I'm the opposite on this one. I LOVED Sekiro. But I dunno what the rest of the community feels for it.

 

[modern_moron]

I'm the opposite on this one. I LOVED Sekiro. But I dunno what the rest of the community feels for it.

I wanted to love it it, and in a way I kind of did because I got the Plat (the hard way. no save scumming), but it just never quite scratched the itch I was looking for.

I think the damage sponge enemies and outrageous poise damage in NG+ cycles is what killed a lot of my enjoyment. Fighting the ninja dude minibosses became a chore.

 

[Xeo]

I wanted to love it it, and in a way I kind of did because I got the Plat (the hard way. no save scumming), but it just never quite scratched the itch I was looking for.

I think the damage sponge enemies and outrageous poise damage in NG+ cycles is what killed a lot of my enjoyment. Fighting the ninja dude minibosses became a chore.

I expected a Souls version of Tenchu with a bit of samurai action from it, I got that. But it sounds like what you might have been looking for in it might be fulfilled by Ghost of Tsushima. Are you excited for that one?