What is your unpopular video game opinion?

[𝐍𝐲𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥]

Just like the unpopular fire emblem opinions thread, share your unpopular opinions and why you have that opinion, or don't, I can't stop you. Because we already have a thread for unpopular FE opinions, keep anything FE related off this thread, anything else video game related is allowed though.

Edited October 25, 2022 by Kiryu

[Etrurian emperor]

-Apparently Donkey Kong 64 is poorly regarded in some circles. I meanwhile think it was great. I loved the worlds, the gameplay and the many different kong characters. Even the many differently colored collectibles were something I found charming. 

-There's been too much focus on Ganondorf's physical might. Him having sword duels with Link is undeniably epic but he's supposed to be a wizard. 

-I strongly dislike Sephiroth. Like with Cloud Squire Enix apparently didn't get his appeal and instead centered his entire character around his desire to ruin Cloud's day. This makes him an aggressively boring character. FF7 returned Cloud to form by focusing on what an awkward, dorky poser he is and created a very endearing main character as a result. But Sephiroth remained solely motivated by his desire to mess with Cloud. 

-Rex is a great Xenoblade protagonist. Perhaps a bit vanilla but he pulled off his shonen protagonist stick well. More controversially I'd even say his voice actor was mostly great too. Perhaps not when doing screaming Rex, but certainly when doing cocky Rex, happy Rex, sad Rex or any other emotion he's supposed to pull off.

-Tales of Abyss' Van is arguably one of the worst Tales antagonist. Just very confusedly written where the writers intend for him to be a fallen hero and rational actor, but accidentally write a sociopath who's supposed rational beliefs involve destroying the world.

-Sonic having an overarching story was great and its a shame Sega abandoned it in favor of something more episodic. Now, Sonic was hardly the greatest story ever told, but from Adventures 1 to 06 the story and characters were constantly evolving. Knuckles starting Adventures 1 as still hostile to Sonic, not exactly being friends but willing to help in Adventures 2 and having evolved into Sonic's bestie in Heroes was a nice little arc. Same with Shadow who starts out as a complete villain and ends the story as a GUN commander. None of this is all that well written, but it was still charming and a good bit of dumb fun. 

-Cia was a great Zelda character. She looks ridiculous but she's a different sort of antagonist than Ganon, and her overly sassy personality and over the top laugh ensured she was always great fun to have around. 

[Hrothgar777]

Quote

Apparently Donkey Kong 64 is poorly regarded in some circles. I meanwhile think it was great. I loved the worlds, the gameplay and the many different kong characters. Even the many differently colored collectibles were something I found charming. 

 

I agree. That was a fun game back in the day. I wish they could've remade it for the 3DS back when OOT, Majora's Mask, Star Fox 64, and so on were getting the special treatment.

I dropped it sometime during the K-Rool battle, after several prior playthroughs where I didn't get nearly that far, so I understand how long and frustrating it can be. But I think the journey was worth it overall.

[AnonymousSpeed]

3D Zelda games are pretty awful. A lot of aimless wandering, tedious busywork, dull combat, and broken promises. I haven't played Breath of the Wild, though.

Edited October 24, 2022 by AnonymousSpeed
The puzzles are also bad

[Fabulously Olivier]

* Warriors games are good, actually. Are they immaculate, hardcore experiences? No. But they don't have to be. Sometimes, people need the kind of stress relief that comes from mindless, high-octane schlok, and nothing delivers that better.

 

* On the flip side, I don't respect exclusionary game design. I do not like FromSoft games, and their fans are the Rick and Morty fans of gaming.

 

* First person is a trash perspective. It doesn't provide the situational awareness of third or isometric perspectives, it's simply awful at melee combat, and it isn't actually more "immersive." 

 

* Longer times-to-kill are more fun, to a certain point. Twitch gameplay is not fun.

 

* Defensive playstyles/turting should not be discouraged. If you can't find a way to encourage aggression without punishing defensive players, just fucking don't.

 

* The right RPG mechanics make almost everything better.

 

* Sonic was never good.

[Integrity]

baldur's gate is not only quite a bad game, but it is singlehandedly responsible for stunting the growth of the crpg genre for twenty years after its launch

 

bg2 is still really good despite everything tho 

 

E:

2 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

and their fans are the Rick and Morty fans of gaming.

bro this thread is for unpopular opinions, everyone hates fromsoft fans, as they should

Edited October 24, 2022 by Integrity

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

The Settler 5 HoK is the best entry of the bunch, followed by 6. 2, 3 and 4 are just lemming simulators, with AI advantages that make CIV 6 Deity look tame.

Voice Acting is worthless - sitting around for a character to blabber about their backstory for any amount of time is a waste of time.

Being sung at while doing basic exploration is disrupting - music should, if it has to exist at all, be moderate and quiet. Same thing when entering a boss room and I´m suddenly getting jackhammered by a Rammstein concert. Just no.

[Florete]

5 minutes ago, Integrity said:

bro this thread is for unpopular opinions, everyone hates fromsoft fans, as they should

Glad to know you hate me.

[Integrity]

Just now, Florete said:

Glad to know you hate me.

hopefully it's mutual, i have 100% achievements on all 5 dark souls games

[Interdimensional Observer]

5 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

-Apparently Donkey Kong 64 is poorly regarded in some circles. I meanwhile think it was great. I loved the worlds, the gameplay and the many different kong characters. Even the many differently colored collectibles were something I found charming. 

I don't recall having any problems with it in my youth, but then I was a young child when the game came out.

I do find it perhaps a little amazing that the 3D Collectathon genre was declared oversaturated and taken too far after what was slightly more than a mere 3 years. SM64 the inventor/popularizer of the genre was released on June 23, 1996, DK64 the bringer of infamy to the genre, was November 22, 1999. Fame and fads rise and fall real fast in entertainment I suppose.

Speaking of DK64, I did see it mentioned that Nintendo didn't account for a higher frame rate with Pilotwings 64 when putting it on Nintendo Switch Online. Some old games synched certain gameplay aspects of the game to the frame rate, and DK64 does this with some of its minigames. From what I'm aware, certain Golden Bananas will likely require inhuman reaction times on NSO b/c of the emulation service's improved frame rate -unless Nintendo programs in a fix, which if Pilotwings 64 is any indication, it will not do, at least not right away.

5 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

-Cia was a great Zelda character. She looks ridiculous but she's a different sort of antagonist than Ganon, and her overly sassy personality and over the top laugh ensured she was always great fun to have around. 

I'd say she is better with the plague doctor mask on than not. While it is on, she looks splendidly blending a pinch of Warriors-appropriate "realism", while fitting into LoZ as well. Mask off makes her a little more "popular anime" in a way that isn't quite so synchronized with Zelda. Although Cia even so continues to fit better with LoZ than Lana, the HW1 original character who stands out of line from LoZ aesthetically the most. -Yet even then Lana has something of a look that you could accept as "feasible" if Nayru suddenly decided to incarnate herself in a human form ignoring the Oracle of Ages.

Edited October 24, 2022 by Interdimensional Observer

[Florete]

8 minutes ago, Integrity said:

hopefully it's mutual, i have 100% achievements on all 5 dark souls games

Oh, it's mutual all right.

Since I'm here and thinking about it I guess I might as well give my popular-with-fans-but-unpopular-with-everyone-else opinion on FromSoft games.

FromSoft games don't need lower difficulties. This isn't me saying I'm against it; I won't care if From adds them or not. But it's a deliberate, creative decision and if it's how they want to make their games, they have the right to make them that way. Anyone who doesn't like the games as a result can play other games. There are plenty of games out there that I avoid because of one seemingly-simple aspect that I would need to enjoy it properly, and I'm not saying "They need to add this!" because this is the decision they made and if they choose not to add whatever to their game, it's a little disappointing but I've got other games to play and other stuff to do.

On a simpler note, whenever this kind of question is asked the first thing that always comes to mind for me is that I think Ori and the Blind Forest is mediocre at best. Its sequel is good, though it did retain a few of the same issues.

Not sure if this is still common, but people have loved to say that Breath of the Wild isn't a "true" Zelda game, and I think the opposite, I believe BotW is the truest Zelda game we've ever had since the original The Legend of Zelda and is the game the Zelda team has been trying to make ever since.

Smash Ultimate is my least-favorite Smash. Largely for personal reasons, but hey, unpopular opinion.

The Last of Us Part II is better than the first, but gamers weren't ready for it.

Bioshock 2 is the best one.

Donkey Kong Country 3 > Donkey Kong Country 1, but Returns is the worst DKC.

[Integrity]

13 minutes ago, Florete said:

Bioshock 2 is the best one.

i keep meaning to play that. i have the sneaking suspicion from everything i've heard that i (a fromsoft fan [cringe!]) might actually agree with you (a fromsoft fan [cringe!]) on that one

[Lord_Brand]

I like Star Fox Adventures and don't mind that Dinosaur Planet became SFA, I just wish they did more with the concept and DP's characters.

Edited October 24, 2022 by Lord_Brand

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Finally. An outlet for all this built up snark.

• Games have gotten too freaking long. I understand wanting to get your money's worth on a new release, but some of this crap just shouldn't be in the game. Shouldn't distract you from the things that DO work. Or at the very least shouldn't be made mandatory. And I detest when people demand games be reviewed arbitrarily worse for not hitting a 20 hour mark or whatever. 
• I enjoy games with time limits (Majora's Mask, Dead Rising, Persona, Valkyrie Profile, Pikmin), but if I were developing one of them, I would for sure throw in a Casual mode that lets you play at your own pace in a Sandbox state. Because I know time limits are a huge turn off for some gamers who don't want to be stressed out about 'playing the game wrong'. Fear of Missing Out is a natural feeling, and no game should feel like you need a strategy guide dictating your playthrough. It wouldn't be how I would play, but I get these perspectives and don't think their inclusion compromises the game so long as it's a separate mode of play.
• The term Metroidvania bugs me because Symphony of the Night was a full 10 years after the first Metroid, and No Castlevania since has fully outdone that game. Why should they share top billing with Metroid? I'm not even sure Metroid has earned it in the first place. There were "metroid" games before 1987's Metroid, they just didn't become household names with sequelization. Don't name genres around a specific game! I'm looking at you too, Rogue-likes.
• The Devil May Cry series got strictly better with each new entry. 
• Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is the best Tactics RPG of the last ten years. Excluding potentially its sequel (I'm like an hour in atm). 
• Zelda 2 is one of the best NES games ever made. And in a post-Dark Souls world, more people ought to understand that. When people play Shovel Knight and Shantae, do they even understand Zelda 2 is the chief inspiration here?
• Konami may be Konami and Konami is the worst, but these retro collections they've put out are Top Tier. Easily as high quality as what Digital Eclipse has been doing for decades, and the game industry thanks them for their service. Now if only they could aim that work ethic at titles based on licensed properties or released on Playstation. Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, these are franchises that desperately need preservation.
• Nintendo should stop making hardware and go third party already. They spend all this R&D on hardware gimmicks that are dropped after the first year of the system, leaving us with an underpowered platform that every other developer needs to downscale for. The joy con situation is easily as bad as the Red Ring of Death - no official joy cons will still be functioning ten years after they stop building them. The online is still awful. Nintendo's relationship with fans and fan games is the worst in this industry. And their tendency to Hard Reset with each system (redoing their 'Virtual Console' suite from scratch, Doing one and exactly one of each A tier series and Mario spinoff with minimal innovation) is just annoying to keep up with. Nintendo doesn't like pirates? Sell your old games on a website. Piracy is a service issue. But I know they won't because they can make more money reselling those games on each new system.
• JRPGs are worse in the 21st century. You'd think that now that we're past the awkward transition period from 2D to 3D, now that we don't have to work around text limitations, and now that we have localization TEAMS instead of one underpaid dude from Australia that knows Japanese, that the games can only get better. But what are the best JRPGs of the 21st century? 2000 and 2001's Final Fantasy 9 and 10, the last ones made before the Enix merger? Everything is so bloated now. Empty open worlds, Busywork side quests, no role playing opportunities, Scripts that proudly haven't been looked over by a team of editors, Long cutscene strings of character models standing in place doing pre-set emote animations, feeling a need to reiterate every plot detail mere minutes before it becomes relevant so you're never surprised by a new development in the story. 

 

4 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

3D Zelda games are pretty awful. A lot of aimless wandering, tedious busywork, dull combat, and broken promises. I haven't played Breath of the Wild, though.

Breath of the wild is all of them, but swap broken promises for broken weapons. Then add back broken promises. They said my horse would never run into trees, and also removed Wii U Gamepad - specific features so that nobody could point out that was the definitive version. 

3 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

* The right RPG mechanics make almost everything better.

I'm not gleaming what the opinion is here. Better ingredients make a better sandwich - even if it's a type of sandwich you'd never want to eat? Are you saying the pervasion of RPG mechanics in other genres makes them better? Or are you saying that RPGs can "get by" on their mechanics when everything else about them is terrible? 

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Speaking of DK64, I did see it mentioned that Nintendo didn't account for a higher frame rate with Pilotwings 64 when putting it on Nintendo Switch Online. Some old games synched certain gameplay aspects of the game to the frame rate, and DK64 does this with some of its minigames. From what I'm aware, certain Golden Bananas will likely require inhuman reaction times on NSO b/c of the emulation service's improved frame rate -unless Nintendo programs in a fix, which if Pilotwings 64 is any indication, it will not do, at least not right away.

We've already seen these differences in the Wii U VC version. The game indeed runs faster, and I'm pretty sure I've heard of certain golden bananas being strictly harder now that you're not making lag-assisted inputs. 

Interestingly, they did match N64 frame rate in some titles, like Banjo Kazooie. In the Xbox version of the game, Cutscene audio would desync because animations are running faster (ie. no frame drops) compared to the N64 original. But on the Switch version the cutscenes remain synced because of accurate lag. So like everything regarding Switch emulation, it's a case by case basis how much they will end up fucking up. Pilotwings does beg the question about what aspects of the original game warrant preservation. Seeing Pilotwings that way is...kind of cool from the perspective of having grown up with it. A talented engineer can probably create lag where there ought to be some, but players won't know they went to the trouble and incorrectly point it out as a flaw.

25 minutes ago, Florete said:

Bioshock 2 is the best one.

This is not an opinion, this is fact.

[𝐍𝐲𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥]

1 minute ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

I enjoy games with time limits (Majora's Mask, Dead Rising, Persona, Valkyrie Profile, Pikmin), but if I were developing one of them, I would for sure throw in a Casual mode that lets you play at your own pace in a Sandbox state. Because I know time limits are a huge turn off for some gamers who don't want to be stressed out about 'playing the game wrong'. Fear of Missing Out is a natural feeling, and no game should feel like you need a strategy guide dictating your playthrough. It wouldn't be how I would play, but I get these perspectives and don't think their inclusion compromises the game so long as it's a separate mode of play.

I've been playing through Persona 5 Royal this weekend for the first time and this would be great. I'm always worried that I should be doing something else or that I'm missing out by not going to hang out w/ one of my party members because I have to do a palace that day. It would just be great if there was an option for new players that would turn off the time limit so I can go at my own pace, it would make things go so much smoother for me.

[Armchair General]

JRPGs are an dime an dozen, nowadays

[Fabulously Olivier]

15 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Are you saying the pervasion of RPG mechanics in other genres makes them better? 

To a point, yes. Though "the right" is doing a bit of legwork. I'm not necessarily talking about grinding, number crunching, or even levels that can needlessly bloat a game. But RPG mechanics that encourage choice are glorious. Skill trees, gear systems based more in options than stats, learning new powers as you progress, etc.

[lenticular]

• Not all games that I like are objectively good.
• Not all games that I dislike are objectively bad.
• It's OK if other people like different games to me.
• I'm just not the target audience for some games, and that's OK.

[Shrimpica]

• School mechanics need to die. Please, enough with those
• Addendum to above, away with social link/dating/bonding/whatever mechanics. They are just a chore and only serve to overcenteralize the MC. If you have to have such a mechanic, atleast make it FE support system like where i can ship people together and not just MC with everyone else. I hate FE's support system, but it's by far the best one from such systems, and the only one i can tolerate.
• Nothing wrong with fanservice, skin, hot characters and nakedness, aslong as it doesn't get in the way of the game. Internet has become increasingly puritan lately and it sucks. People should stop judging characters just by design.
• Xenoblade got better with each new entry. XBC1 was pretty meh, 2 was good, 3 was great!
• Sacrificing gameplay for story is never good
• Square enix can't make good games Still need to play Triangle strategy to be 100% sure on that
• Nothing wrong with hard games. Devs should stop calling easy mode "Lunatic".
• OST is more important than graphics
• "This is Illegal!" No, this is fiction
• Remakes shouldn't be anywhere near faithful. They should change as much as possible while still retaining the core identity.

[indigoasis]

I can't say I have very many diverging opinions, or very many opinions to begin with for that matter, but I'll share a few.

• Lords of Shadow 1 is a great game. It's really just a Castlevania game in name only, taking certain elements from the main series to bolster itself, but it does so pretty well. At the same time, I can't imagine it not being called a Castlevania game. It's obviously very different from what's expected of the series, probably more akin to God of War than anything else. But I've never played God of War, and as far as I'm concerned, LoS is fantastic on its own merits.
• FFXV is also a great game for what it is. It does get repetitive, the story is almost nowhere to be found until you get funneled into completing the rest of it at a certain point, DLC paywalls suck ass (unless you get Royal/Windows edition), and the combat can be hit or miss. However, I think the combat hits, and it's generally very fun, especially when you swap between weapons and party members. Speaking of the latter, I really like the smaller, more focused party that this game has. It makes for better interpersonal connections between characters, and their banter throughout the game never gets dull. Oh, and the music in this game is utterly exquisite. Apocalypsis Noctis/Aquarius/Magnatus are high up there as some of the best songs I've ever heard from a video game.
  • I also remember someone somewhere saying that Noctis' grown-up design is peak JRPG character design, and I couldn't agree more.
• Minecraft has gotten to the point now that I think it has almost far too much stuff. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and I think the content it does have has improved the game substantially, but I can't help but feel that the simplicity of older versions is more appealing.
• Echoing that last point, games that have too much stuff to do feel bloated. I don't have to interact with all that content, of course, but as someone that feels compelled to fully complete most games to as close to completion as possible, if not exactly 100%, it gets tiring.
  • I think games like Spider-Man PS4 strike a good balance between having plenty to do, but not so much that you can't do it all... but then I do everything and have no real reason to return to it.

[Fabulously Olivier]

A few more points.

 

* Social sim/dating mechanics are desirable in self-contained stories.  But they don't work in a serialized narrative (ie: Trails).

 

* I don't get people who say romance is shoehorned into games. It's literally one of the most basic human drives. It's more unusual for no one to pursue romance, and so-called "celibate heroes" like Ike end up coming across as more unusually stoic.

 

* Atlus is the best JRPG studio. On that note, Persona is better than SMT.

 

* JRPGs have not gotten worse. Square JRPGs have. There's a difference. Square isn't the whole genre or even the best of the genre, many others are putting out bangers, and even Square drops the occassional gem these days.

 

* Xenoblade 1 was great, 2 was mediocre, Torna was what 2 should have been (and I'll have my opinions on 3 next year).

 

* The only looter shooter/brawler to ever be good on launch was Borderlands. Destiny sucked, and Warframe was mediocre. If we treated them the way we treated every other looter since, Borderlands would still be the only one of note. And Anthem deserved the chance at least as much as Destiny did.

 

* When I hear "this game has great mod support," what I actually hear is "the devs released a shitty game, and we fixed it for free."

Edited October 24, 2022 by Fabulously Olivier

[Etrurian emperor]

At the time of Bayonetta 2 I recalled kid sidekick Loki not being very well received. I liked him though and think he blew Cereza out of the water. 

I get why people wouldn't like Loki since he's an overly arrogant brat. But I find that only annoying if the brat in question is allowed to get away with his attitude, and unfortunately for Loki he's stuck with Bayonetta. Her easily and without mercy shooting Loki down whenever he gets uppity made for a funny dynamic, and in their softer moments he nicely helped show off Bayonetta's mom instincts. 

[Capt. Fargus]

6 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

** Defensive playstyles/turting should not be discouraged. If you can't find a way to encourage aggression without punishing defensive players, just fucking don't.

Ive read some of the nitwits who cry about that on here. What do they expect ya to do in a “defend the throne for XX turns” map? 🤔

[ciphertul]

7 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

* Warriors games are good, actually. Are they immaculate, hardcore experiences? No. But they don't have to be. Sometimes, people need the kind of stress relief that comes from mindless, high-octane schlok, and nothing delivers that better.

I agree with this.

7 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

* On the flip side, I don't respect exclusionary game design. I do not like FromSoft games, and their fans are the Rick and Morty fans of gaming.

As lover of the Soulsbourne games, I take insult at this not because of the take itself but because it's pretty true.

I dislike the illusion of romance, either nothing comes of obvious teasing or forced relations.

[Original Alear]

5 hours ago, Integrity said:

baldur's gate is not only quite a bad game, but it is singlehandedly responsible for stunting the growth of the crpg genre for twenty years after its launch

 

bg2 is still really good despite everything tho

Thanks for being so topical, I was considering getting the Baldur's Gate humble bundle and feel guided (tho honestly I don't know if it's still up).

My opinion: I don't really like the Bayonetta games that much. Don't get me wrong, I think the story is pretty charming, I like the voice actors, the graphics and art, and the music is a bit limited (I expect more tracks for battle in a game influenced by the Devil May Cry games) but what is there is good, but the main thing is that there are just way too many combos for me and I don't even know why I need all those combos because all I do is dodge at the right time and I become invincible. I guess that DMC3 onward, there might be something similar in the royal guard mechanic, but I didn't learn how to do that so the games with it weren't trivialized. So this is probably a flawed opinion since I maintain my like of Devil May Cry mostly as a series.

Also, I like the story mode of Etrian Odyssey Untold I and II. Not a lot, it's not the best story to be told in gaming, but I'm glad it's there. I mean, I don't have the imagination to create my own party's stories in Etrian Odyssey, so a little bit of character development and such is  a plus for me in these games. Also I love the Fafnir Knight's theme music when he transforms.

However, if I hadn't already played EO I and II before Untold came out, I'd probably be irritated at the limited party selection for story.