What popular or critically acclaimed games do you dislike?

[null]

This is a question I've had on my mind for a while now, especially since I've gotten back into the Zelda series recently (after taking a lengthy break since I put in 130+ hours into BotW). There are games that are generally recognized as being great, amazing, or even the best of all time (Super Mario 64, FFVII, Ocarina of Time, Resident Evil 2, Metroid Prime, etc.), but I'm sure there are some who either don't love or genuinely dislike some of these games. For me, it's Ocarina of TIme. I've played it, beaten it, and it just didn't do anything for me. I can recognize how incredible it was for its time (haha), but there is essentially nothing that it does that later Zelda games didn't do better. The story is okay, the gameplay is fairly clunky and tedious at this point (even on 3DS), and the dungeons are some of my least favorite in the 3D titles. The only part of the game that I really do love is the soundtrack. While I don't have the advantage of having played this when it first came out, I also don't have nostalgia to blind me from its faults. It's just not a game that I particularly liked or enjoyed.

So, what game(s) have you had this kind of experience with? Where you saw the hype, read the reviews, heard it be lauded as an experience to beat all others and expected to have a great time, but just didn't?

[Yexin]

none, as i only buy games i'm almost certain i'll love

those few i bought and didn't really like aren't exactly critically acclaimed or popular (FE Fates and Tokyo Mirage Sessions)

as for 3H, i like it, but i think it's very overrated and praised for things that are not worthy of praise imo

Edited June 24, 2020 by Yexin

[Lightcosmo]

FFVII. This game's story wasn't interesting at all, the gameplay wasn't amazing, either. And then there's Cloud, ah, yes. He's so boring.

That's probably about it, I just really dislike FFVII.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Final Fantasy XII- Sorry, it was disappointing, and I wanted to love it. I don't hate it, but Xenoblade is better. If I played XII at release, I would probably like it a lot more. But now, I see so many little faults.

Final Fantasy Tactics- Admittedly I never finished this b/c too hard and slow, and only read an LP online for the rest. But how is its plot legendary?

Suikoden II- You don't play this for gameplay, and the narrative died with glorious Luca Blight.

Octopath Traveler- It isn't bad, but I prefer Bravely. The Break system is rough to me. I cheesed everyone's final chapters with the hidden jobs because I didn't want to deal with difficulty anymore, I kinda sorta regret buying this.

Tales of Vesperia- The plot has no direction at all, it wastes its potential. Of the characters, Yuri is the only great one, and he alone saves the narrative too. Most of the characters weren't fun to use in combat either I felt.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Anacybele]

Most notable for me are Zelda: The Wind Waker and Zelda: Majora's Mask. I did like TWW's graphics and characters, but the sailing was boring, the dungeons were boring, and I didn't think much of anything else in it was spectacular either. I also thought the game was super easy.

As for Majora's Mask, Clock Town was done well, but I hate the three day system and there was too much focus on sidequests in this game. It left the main campaign too short and uninteresting and I prefer more dungeons and stuff. I don't dislike sidequests, I just don't want them to take away from the main story and all and I felt that they did so in this game. I also didn't like any of the dungeons or other overworld areas except for Ikana Canyon and its Stone Tower Temple.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Anacybele

[DragonFlames]

My game like this has to be Persona 4 Golden. It is widely considered to be the best Persona game, but I just don't see it.

Having started my venture into the Persona series with Persona 5, a game that I still think is an absolute fantastic experience, I went ahead and wanted to try older games in that series. I saw Persona 4 Golden was available on the Vita, so I decided to get it since I've heard many good things about it, even after the release of Persona 5 (stuff like "best Persona game" etc.). And what I got was... alright? It certainly didn't deliver on the hype. The murder mystery premise is interesting, yes, and the main story is engaging enough, but it's nothing ground-breaking and certainly not worthy of being touted as some kind of Holy Grail of gaming.
The basic gameplay loop is fine, too, it's SMT gameplay, there is little to be done wrong about that.
What really killed the game for me, however, were the annoying main characters. There are two good ones in there, the rest are just plain terrible, especially Yosuke and Teddie, who are probably among the worst characters ever conceived in fiction.
Not to mention the dungeons are just awful. Not Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey Redux awful in that they rely on every one of my most hated "puzzle" aspects in games (i.e. teleporters, sliding, pitfall traps that make you fall through floors, sometimes every single one of these at once) to be longer than they by all rights should be, but that they're so incredibly bland and boring-looking. Not to mention that each dungeon is just the same series of same-y corridors with a different coat of paint smeared over them.

This, along with the aforementioned SMT Strange Journey Redux, taught me the lesson that if you have played newer games in an Atlus franchise, but not old ones, going back to those old ones is a terrible idea.

Needless to say, I couldn't bring myself to finish the thing and I regret spending money on it.

[Fabulously Olivier]

FFX

I. Hate. Tidus.

 

Kingdom Hearts franchise

The map design is positively riddled with "how was I supposed to know to do that" scenarios. The story is a mess. Sora is unlikeable. The forced gummi ship travel sections kill my momentum. And the Little Mermaid/Frozen stages are so awful.

 

Red Dead Redemption 2

Actually, fuck all Rockstar games. They obsess over little details and end up being slow, overly animated, boring slogs with bad combat.

[Reality]

Final Fantasy 6 - I didn't really give it a fair chance since I played it entirely in the dubious 2 player mode. But I think it has some of the worst combat balance, and the melodrama at all times got me to stop taking it seriously. even though I was initially invested. I started thinking that "the bad guy Really Wins" thing was more tacky than clever or whatever.

Final Fantasy Tactics - I really wanted to like it because it shares designers with Ogre Battle... but it's all over the breadth>depth gameplay problem that I hate.... the potential of reclassing is abused, the story has the typical thing of the era of falling apart when the (promising and interesting) political stuff gets forgotten to setup a supernatural big bad. It's an experience that you don't complain about AS you are playing it, but makes you really think of how you could have been playing a much snappier TRPG for more fun looking back.

Secret of Mana / Seiken Deiketsu 3- I actually love Seiken Deiketsu 1 (Final Fantasy Adventure) It's a big achievement for the original GB. SoM has great music and background design but the boss design (the first temple has that jump from offscreen guy, etc) and full screen pausing magic(and even normal items from inventory) just really offends me and makes me dislike the game.

Tales of Phantasia -  I played Tales of Symphonia first, and was told that the original game was also a cult-classic that pioneered the gameplay style.... I really love the opening sequence of Phantasia and a lot of the mid-game charatherization…. but compared to Symphonia (and later Tales of Games) it is unplayably easy.. Phantasia would give enemies some protection(Invicibility frames) after knockdown, but back in this first game you REALLY could just keep mashing with your sword and keep anyone from the first fights with bugs to the final bosses stunlocked. 

Fire Emblem 4: Genaology of the Holy War - I don't really consider this game popular per se, but in the context of this forum I guess it is.

Borderlands 2 - Hated this game, hated it's loot system, mostly hated it's charathers. I played through to level 50 at the encouragement of some multiplayer friends but I refused to buy any of the DLCs and put me through it the 9 more times it would take me to get to OP 8 or whatever.

Gucamalee - I don't even know why but this game rubbed me the wrong way. Definitely not difficulty, because I played through the entire Hard mode using the glass cannon costume you get from hell. I guess maybe I felt like the platforming sections combined traditional platforming with "Runner-style" platforming. It's too far removed for me to remember things.

I gave minor negative reviews for Cuphead, Into the Breach, but I like them both... Cuphead because I felt like the charge shot (really all of the shots) felt like it made the time trial's time goals too easy and seemingly the game was designed for 100% pea shooter use.... Into the Breach because, while fun, I thought I won too much and removing randomness to make a puzzle-tactics game kind of went too far (good game but so far from FTL)

 

[Lightcosmo]

15 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Final Fantasy Tactics- Admittedly I never finished this b/c too hard and slow, and only read an LP online for the rest. But how is its plot legendary?

I think the dark tone that it has really makes it engaging for a lot of people.

I personally thought it's story was much better than A1 and A2, the latter being the worst of the three.

Edited June 24, 2020 by lightcosmo

[Caster]

Breath of the Wild.
I honestly feel it just took away everything I like about Zelda, and yes, I have played Zelda 1, and I like it quite a bit.
I don't enjoy the weapon mechanics, I don't enjoy the more atmospheric soundtrack, I don't enjoy the open world that I feel is very barren for the most part.
This is probably my bias against open world games, since I don't enjoy them very much, but still. Not a fan of the game.
Despite supposed to feel like going back to a feeling similar feeling as Zelda 1, it just didn't feel like Zelda at all to me. I can't bring myself to beat it since I don't enjoy it.

I don't feel like this is the most fair, since I've only played some of the 1st game, and I have seen gameplay of the other games. But Kingdom Hearts. I don't really understand why, but there is something I inherently dislike about the gameplay, compared to every other type of action-type rpg. I really don't enjoy it very much. And I also am not a huge fan of Disney, so that part of it does nothing for me, and I think the story of this series is dumb and it's writing bugs me on a personal level. I've just come to the conclusion I don't like the don't want to play these games, so I'm not going to continue.

[Samz707]

18 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

 

 

Red Dead Redemption 2

Actually, fuck all Rockstar games. They obsess over little details and end up being slow, overly animated, boring slogs with bad combat.

Yeah I get you, I miss the PS2 Era GTA games because they at least let you get to the point of the admittingly kinda shallow gameplay that worked as a "sum of it's parts" thing but nowadays you have to sit through a ton of cutscenes and a massively long open world just to get to the actual missions.

Tomb Raider 2013: You took an action adventure game with exploration and turned it into an incredibly linear cover shooter that's incredibly edgy.

Max Payne 3: You took a fast paced John Woo game and you made it a cover shooter with constant cutscenes where Max gets in a specific bit of cover and automatically alerts everyone in the room to his presence because I guess we can't have a video game where the player actually gets to make choices in how to start a fight.

Fire Emblem Awakening; I don't think it teaches how to play FE well, I don't think the characters/story are good (Infact the Shepards come off as frankly horrible people who are arguably worse than some evil characters in previous games which makes it impossible to actually want to see any of them survive.), it's message of "friendship" is undercut by the real Meta being Robin Emblem and actually done worse than other games in the same series and just in general, I don't really like it, at all, it's the worst FE game I've ever played easily as it simply doesn't provide even acceptable gameplay or story, if it does something, it does it medicore at best or downright awful. 

Modern X-com: They took most of the strategy out and replaced it with even more luck-based elements/restrictive game design, I love not being able to shoot down a wall unless I can lock on to a dude on the other side, I love not being able to shoot explosives in the environment intentionally unless I waste an explosive (Which I can only carry one, because inventory items are now one per soldier because they took out the actual inventory system.) and I totally don't hate how, instead of calculating a chance to hit per bullet, now entire bursts of gunfire are now a single chance to hit, it pretty much dumbs down/removes everything I actually liked about Classic X-com.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Samz707

[BergelomeuSantos]

Since most of the bad games I played are stuff like freaking Scooby Doo games, I'll make a solo one:

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

I love Ogre Battle Saga, I like War of the Lions and most of the other similar games. Hell, I even really enjoy FFTA2!

But gods, I can't like FFTA at all. This game feels so goddamn slow and unfun. Now, you might notice I'm kinda of contradicting here because the other games I listed aren't exactly fast either, but there's something else to FFTA. It feels like a chore. Everything feels like a chore, to be honest. The combat, the menus, maybe even the dialogue. I honestly can relate to the MC more than no one by WANTING TO GET OUT OF THERE.

[Lightcosmo]

Just now, BergelomeuSantos said:

But gods, I can't like FFTA at all. This game feels so goddamn slow and unfun. Now, you might notice I'm kinda of contradicting here because the other games I listed aren't exactly fast either, but there's something else to FFTA. It feels like a chore. Everything feels like a chore, to be honest. The combat, the menus, maybe even the dialogue. I honestly can relate to the MC more than no one by WANTING TO GET OUT OF THERE.

This is how I kinda feel about the story. But in another sense, I like how his friend that makes up the world, wishes that the bullies were dead.

[Interdimensional Observer]

10 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

I think the dark tone that it has really makes it engaging for a lot of people.

I personally thought it's story was much better than A1 and A2, the latter being the worst of the three.

Oh, I'm not defending FFTA or FFTA2, but as an above poster put it, the game pulls a fast one on you. Interesting politics turns into generic demon crystals.

Overall, I think FF could afford to ditch crystals and summons altogether. A franchise that proclaims to be sophisticated and deep should no longer be bound to so dated a role-playing trope as shiny rocks. Dragon Quest never tries to be not-old-fashioned, so its continual "Chosen One" schtick doesn't impede it in the same way. Not that FF will inevitably get better without crystals and summons, it can still be botched, but its one step in a good direction I think.  

[null]

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

Most notable for me are Zelda: The Wind Waker and Zelda: Majora's Mask. I did like TWW's graphics and characters, but the sailing was boring, the dungeons were boring, and I didn't think much of anything else in it was spectacular either. I also thought the game was super easy.

1 hour ago, Caster said:

Breath of the Wild.
I honestly feel it just took away everything I like about Zelda, and yes, I have played Zelda 1, and I like it quite a bit.
I don't enjoy the weapon mechanics, I don't enjoy the more atmospheric soundtrack, I don't enjoy the open world that I feel is very barren for the most part.
This is probably my bias against open world games, since I don't enjoy them very much, but still. Not a fan of the game.
Despite supposed to feel like going back to a feeling similar feeling as Zelda 1, it just didn't feel like Zelda at all to me. I can't bring myself to beat it since I don't enjoy it.

I can understand both these perspectives. WW is tied with BotW as my favorite Zelda game but I also know that what I loved about both those games is largely a matter of taste. For me, story and exploration are what make Zelda so compelling and dungeons aren't that important in comparison (I also love Skyward Sword for this reason, except for the exploration part). But I also get why a lot of Zelda fans want better dungeons and a more traditional progression system in the future because it's more rewarding and engaging for them.

2 hours ago, Yexin said:

as for 3H, i like it, but i think it's very overrated and praised for things that are not worthy of praise imo

Yeah, as much as I do like 3H, it feels unpolished as well as a bit unfinished to me.

Edited June 24, 2020 by twilitfalchion

[BergelomeuSantos]

9 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

This is how I kinda feel about the story. But in another sense, I like how his friend that makes up the world, wishes that the bullies were dead.

This summarizes well what I think about the story of the game...well, not exactly about the bullies being dead, I guess.

While overall I think it's ''okay'' enough, the game will drag it into more chores 'cause it gotta have Story Missions like a normal game and that means combat.

Reading it online made me appreciate it way more.

[Anacybele]

12 minutes ago, twilitfalchion said:

dungeons aren't that important in comparison

I can't agree with this. Dungeons have been more of a staple to the Zelda series than exploration. Literally every main game has dungeons, but some games have little exploration. The one thing about BotW that disappointed me is its dungeons. They felt underwhelming and like an after-thought. Otherwise, I do enjoy the game, but the lacking in dungeons is a glaring flaw imo. Dungeons and story are the most important things in Zelda.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Anacybele

[null]

3 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

I can't agree with this. Dungeons have been more of a staple to the Zelda series than exploration. Literally every main game has dungeons, but some games have far less exploration than others. The one thing about BotW that disappointed me is its dungeons. They felt underwhelming and like an after-thought. Otherwise, I do enjoy the game, but the lacking in dungeons is a glaring flaw imo. Dungeons and story are the most important things in Zelda.

Well, that may be true of you, but it's not of me. What is important to one person in Zelda is not as important to others. If dungeons were what defined Zelda, then I don't think Breath of the Wild would be as popular as it is. Shrines also functioned as a sort of mini-dungeon, which was enjoyable for me, but I can understand if it wasn't for you.

[Anacybele]

2 minutes ago, twilitfalchion said:

Well, that may be true of you, but it's not of me. What is important to one person in Zelda is not as important to others. If dungeons were what defined Zelda, then I don't think Breath of the Wild would be as popular as it is. Shrines also functioned as a sort of mini-dungeon, which was enjoyable for me, but I can understand if it wasn't for you.

But it's not an opinion, it's a fact that dungeons are a staple and important.

[Michelaar]

FFVII as someone said earlier. The remake as well. I don't really like how they're splitting it up into two parts, but thats neither here nor there. I don't find the story or characters that interesting and both Cloud and Sephiroth annoy me.

Kingdom Hearts in general gets ruined by the stories that are confusing to a staggering degree.

[null]

2 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

But it's not an opinion, it's a fact that dungeons are a staple and important.

Actually, it is an opinion. A staple, no, because they've been in every Zelda game (IIRC). But to say that dungeons are important is subjective. You may prefer a greater focus on dungeons, but the existence of games like WW and BotW would be good reason to believe that dungeons are not always the priority for the devs.

[Shrimpica]

Borderlands 2

Well, dislike might be a bit much, but the only reason i enjoyed it was the company i had and friends i played with while playing it. The game itself is kinda eh? Tries to be wacky and memey while being basically a loot hunting game. 

 

Elibe Fire Emblem games

FE6/7 are probably my least fav. game in the whole series (especially 6), yet when i entered the fanbase at first everyone seems to be loving them. Having played 3DS, Jugdral and Tellius games before them, the GBA games were basic and boring in comparison. Going from FE5 to FE6 was especially bad, es FE6 removed everything i loved from FE5 while made everything i hated even worse. Map design in those 2 games aren't any good, either.

 

Dragon Quest

Too traditional. Might be why people like it though.

 

Tales of Vesperia

The Combat was ugh, bad. This whole 2D fightung with 3D mode thing i couldn't get into, at all. Not to mention it was quite clunky and unsmooth as well.

 

Trails of Cold Steel saga

Some of you might know that i am one of the Trails fans around here. Trails in the Sky Trilogy are basically my fav. games in existence. Cold Steel is pushing me into dropping the series, sadly. Newcomers seem to like it alot and it's popular among them and what sold the most, yet for me how i think about it is how old FE gamers think about Awakening and Fates (And Cold Steel generally is very divisive amongst older fans). I don't even recognize the series i used to love anymore. Only reason i am holding into it is that i loved Sky trilogy and the small shimmer of hope that next Saga will return to it's roots again.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Shrimperor

[Diovani Bressan]

9 minutes ago, twilitfalchion said:

Well, that may be true of you, but it's not of me. What is important to one person in Zelda is not as important to others. If dungeons were what defined Zelda, then I don't think Breath of the Wild would be as popular as it is. Shrines also functioned as a sort of mini-dungeon, which was enjoyable for me, but I can understand if it wasn't for you.

I didn't miss the big dungeons in BotW because the Shrines are pretty fun.

BotW is probably my favorite Zelda because of the exploration part.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Diovani Bressan

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, twilitfalchion said:

Actually, it is an opinion. A staple, no, because they've been in every Zelda game (IIRC). But to say that dungeons are important is subjective. You may prefer a greater focus on dungeons, but the existence of games like WW and BotW would be good reason to believe that dungeons are not always the priority for the devs.

TWW still had more dungeons than BotW and MM. And BotW and MM still had more dungeons than some games had exploration. But we're not going to agree here, it looks like, so I guess agree to disagree.

2 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Elibe Fire Emblem games

FE6/7 are probably my least fav. game in the whole series (especially 6), yet when i entered the fanbase at first everyone seems to be loving them. Having played 3DS, Jugdral and Tellius games before them, the GBA games were basic and boring in comparison. Going from FE5 to FE6 was especially bad, es FE6 removed everything i loved from FE5 while made everything i hated even worse. Map design in those 2 games aren't any good, either.

I've never played FE6, but I dislike FE7 as well, actually. And being Elibe is partly why I don't have any interest in FE6 in the first place (the other is that what I've seen of the story and characters don't interest me enough). But FE7 bored me for the most part. I DID play it after Tellius, but the same holds true for Sacred Stones which I did enjoy, so it isn't just Elibe being more primitive.

[Yexin]

12 minutes ago, Michelaar said:

I don't really like how they're splitting it up into two parts

it's much more likely that FFVII Remake will be released in more than 2 parts actually

 

anyway, more on topic, the Tales of Series a whole: i absolutely hate it, i simply have nothing good to say about those games, and i've bought a lot of them since i was so sure i'd have loved them (Abyss, Xillia 1 and 2, Symphonia, Zestiria)