Love-hate games?

[Shin]

Civilisation. It's a game I like in concept but am incredibly inept at playing. It doesn't stop me from coming back though.

[Kirie]

Pokémon games in general. I really love the series and the concept behind the games, but I feel like I have less and less fun with each new release since HGSS (though I did like BW2 better than BW). I know I'm going to buy Pokémon Moon now matter what, but I'm not sure how much I should be looking forward to it.

[Etrurian emperor]

I respect the Crusader king games and the rest of that series a great deal and find it fascinating how much more options they give you for political play then say, a total war game. But i hate how poor the games are at explaining how to to use the very complex mechanics and as a result I'm terrified to actually sit down with the game and play it despite the game offering so much of what I always wanted in a strategy game.

Out of all the Total War games apart from the original Rome I find Shogun Total war II the most polished, balanced and fun to play. The thing that irks me about the game is that the amount of fun you have with a campaign comes with a timer. After you take 13 castles the game forces every other faction, enemy, neutral and allies alike to all gang up on you and I just don't find it fun. Its fake difficulty and takes a lot of micro management to prepare for. Its also not what I want out of a total war game. The ability to freely move to whatever direction you want and make allies and enemies along the way is half of the fun and late game makes it impossible to do so.

I think there are many things to respect Skyward sword for. The story is pretty good and how they managed to sell the relation between Link and Zelda is impressive considering they are dealing with a mute. Ghirahim has that Nergal flair to him in that he's such a good villain because his conflict with the hero is so personal and I found that the motion controls work very well. Those secret realm stuff is also very impressive. Skyward sword offers a lot of interesting things....which makes it a shame that I didn't actually like playing it. The pacing just kills the game for me with its endless amount of fetch quests. I think the moment that defines Skyward sword the most is when you climb a mountain to go to a temple and immediately have to go right back down to search for some items before climbing back up again. That's pretty much the setup for every region you visit and I HATE it.

[Sasori]

Xenoblade Chronicles X is probably my biggest one. I got a good 30 hours in and I did like the game. The battle system is good. It has a lot of resemblance to Xenoblade Chronicles, but it changed things up enough to keep things fresh. It also gives you a gigantic and quite nice looking world to explore.

On the other hand the game has many things that annoyed me to no end. Forced parties, the mute player character, long stretches of exposition while saying nothing of vallue, a weak story, switching targets and changing your party. The giant enemies that are build for Skells are also pretty annoying if they are hostile.

I dropped the game a few weeks ago and i'm now taking a good break on it. My breaking point came at the mission where you have to enter some tainted area and examine a mech. During the trip I was repeatedly killed by a giant scorpion tyrant and there where some other annoyances I came across. So the game respawned me pretty far from my objective and I had to walk the entire way back again. I finally made it and examined the mech after which I was instantly killed when one of the three bosses jumped on me.

This became a bit more of a rant then I originally thought

[secondworld]

Skyward Sword was easily my favorite Zelda when I was playing it. Then I tried to play it again later and uuuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhh I can't. I just can't. It's a shame about those core problems the game has, everything surrounding them is damn good.

Kingdom Hearts 3D is the biggest mixed bag. For everything good in that game there is something bad right around the corner. I love the command deck, obtaining abilities is god awful, imagine if Pokemon Amie was required in order to learn new moves. While not the best in the series, the combat is fun and the new additions are pretty cool, but then there are the many bullshit terrible bosses. The presentation is superb in most all aspects, the story it's presenting is one of the worst in the series.

Kingdom Hearts does dreams and time travel. There is no happy ending to that premise.

I still don't know how I feel about this game.

[Yoshi2398]

Xenoblade Chronicles X is probably my biggest one. I got a good 30 hours in and I did like the game. The battle system is good. It has a lot of resemblance to Xenoblade Chronicles, but it changed things up enough to keep things fresh. It also gives you a gigantic and quite nice looking world to explore.

On the other hand the game has many things that annoyed me to no end. Forced parties, the mute player character, long stretches of exposition while saying nothing of vallue, a weak story, switching targets and changing your party. The giant enemies that are build for Skells are also pretty annoying if they are hostile.

I dropped the game a few weeks ago and i'm now taking a good break on it. My breaking point came at the mission where you have to enter some tainted area and examine a mech. During the trip I was repeatedly killed by a giant scorpion tyrant and there where some other annoyances I came across. So the game respawned me pretty far from my objective and I had to walk the entire way back again. I finally made it and examined the mech after which I was instantly killed when one of the three bosses jumped on me.

This became a bit more of a rant then I originally thought

i can almost agree with you on xenoblade x. whilst i too have enjoyed the game overall and have a large amount of hours already invested it's not something i have any desire to go back to any time soon as i would much rather play the original xenoblade instead as whilst x has some improvements i think by and large the original does everything else better(characters, battle system, story, music,worldbuilding etc).

[animeapple]

Arc Rise Fantasia

its a game i love the story to and the characters are very great.... but the main reason i also hate it is because the game has voice acting thats so bad that you will get a head ache listening to it

the game's localization was handled by Ignition Entertainment which is known for their terrible translations and voice acting

so yeah i love this game... but its so hard to get through it with the voice acting... i had to pretty much mute the audio to get through the game... which i wish i didnt have to

[Noma9]

Arc Rise Fantasia

its a game i love the story to and the characters are very great.... but the main reason i also hate it is because the game has voice acting thats so bad that you will get a head ache listening to it

the game's localization was handled by Ignition Entertainment which is known for their terrible translations and voice acting

so yeah i love this game... but its so hard to get through it with the voice acting... i had to pretty much mute the audio to get through the game... which i wish i didnt have to

Oh man, I just started playing this a little while back and like. . . I really enjoy it from a gameplay stance, but that acting. Good god. I usually don't mind that sort of thing (I mentioned earlier how I enjoy how bad Baten Kaitos' voice acting is), but wow. That was some next level shit. I just turned the volume down and enjoyed myself. Honestly a good game, though.

[Alastor15243]

Oh man, I just started playing this a little while back and like. . . I really enjoy it from a gameplay stance, but that acting. Good god. I usually don't mind that sort of thing (I mentioned earlier how I enjoy how bad Baten Kaitos' voice acting is), but wow. That was some next level shit. I just turned the volume down and enjoyed myself. Honestly a good game, though.

How bad are we talking here? With 0 being not remotely noticeably awkward and 10 being Chaos Wars.

[animeapple]

How bad are we talking here? With 0 being not remotely noticeably awkward and 10 being Chaos Wars.

see for yourself :P

[Alastor15243]

...Yeah that's a solid 7. Not as bad as Chaos Wars, since this seems more like "incompetent people who are trying", rather than Chaos Wars' "incompetent people who aren't trying."

[Tryhard]

The Dynasty Warriors series. In the fact that they could be so much better than they are but are partially ruined by Koei's quick releases. (still manage to be one of the more mindless fun series I can play though)

In continuing with the trend of bad voice acting though not as bad as the above two probably.

Edited March 15, 2016 by Tryhard

[Noma9]

How bad are we talking here? With 0 being not remotely noticeably awkward and 10 being Chaos Wars.

What is this even? How. . . but. . . what? I don't-- I don't understand. Who let this happen!? How did anyone think that was better than just no voice acting at all?

[Tamanoir]

...Yeah that's a solid 7. Not as bad as Chaos Wars, since this seems more like "incompetent people who are trying", rather than Chaos Wars' "incompetent people who aren't trying."

Yeah, that's basically at the level of a french video game dub :

[Alastor15243]

What is this even? How. . . but. . . what? I don't-- I don't understand. Who let this happen!? How did anyone think that was better than just no voice acting at all?

Good old fashioned nepotism, that's what. An executive of the company that localized it used his family members for the voices. Nearly all of the voice actors/actresses have the same last name as the executive, Jenilek.

[Tolvir]

Conception 2. Let me explain why I have the game in the first place, it was a present from my parents. Now they also are gamers so they aren't the type that get these things mixed up, especially since they are the ones that introduced me to the world of games in the first place, but they were at a loss for 3ds games that were good so they asked for a recommendation from the woman at Gamestop, and she recommended this. The combat was fun, even if it was the same as many other jrpgs, I didn't mind the dating sim aspects as it was pretty fun, offered a few good laughs, and the characters' stories weren't too bad. Even the story overall wasn't too bad, but at the same time the premise of the game is one of the creepiest I have seen. It actually took me about 3 times to try and get into the game because of the whole "classmating" being so blatantly an alternative to getting an M or AO rating for having sex in the game. The cutscenes for the "classmating" was one of the worst parts because it was so blatant and ridiculous it was actually a little uncomfortable to watch, but also was hilarious. That and the premise of the star children being a result of that was creepy as well. I think if they removed the classmating premise, and made it where you have to choose one character to form a bond with, and have that bond result in extra abilities or spells would of been cool and explaining it as because of that bond, whether it is platonic or romantic, it forms powers in the individuals when they are close much like Ar No Surge Ode to an Unborn Star (which was fun and a lot less creepy). That would of made for a much less creepy game, but Japan is into some weird shit so :/. Overall though I found the game enjoyable despite its flaws, and have done a few playthroughs with it.

I also want to add Dark Souls series. The game is a lot of fun, and I would actually recommend it to those looking for a good open-world fantasy game that just lets you explore as you want. But at the same time it gets so ridiculous. I understand the game is meant to be difficult, and that is what the main draw to them are, but there are times where it feels like you are watching a 2 year old trying to shove a square through a circular hole, especially with boss fights. I absoutely loved the Pursuer boss as he was difficult at first, but was a blast to fight when you learned his patterns. It was so awesome when on my third run through the game I could beat him in Forest of Fallen Giants when he drops from the large bird for the first time as an "unofficial" boss. At the same time you have bosses like Duke's Dear Freja where you spend 30 minutes alone trying to get to the boss fighting spiders on top of spiders, just so you can go challenge the boss, and have to fight both her and even more spiders. Its the only boss I would say on a first run truly requires a summon because having to balance both fighting her and the adds early in the game is so difficult. And don't even get me started on Fume Knight, the guy has a 90% failure rate for everyone who challenges him. 200 of my overall 350 deaths are thanks to that guy. But I will say once I beat him I wore his armor and wielded his sword like nobodies business.

Edited March 16, 2016 by Tolvir

[Noma9]

Conception 2. Let me explain why I have the game in the first place, it was a present from my parents. Now they also are gamers so they aren't the type that get these things mixed up, especially since they are the ones that introduced me to the world of games in the first place, but they were at a loss for 3ds games that were good so they asked for a recommendation from the woman at Gamestop, and she recommended this. The combat was fun, even if it was the same as many other jrpgs, I didn't mind the dating sim aspects as it was pretty fun, offered a few good laughs, and the characters' stories weren't too bad. Even the story overall wasn't too bad, but at the same time the premise of the game is one of the creepiest I have seen. It actually took me about 3 times to try and get into the game because of the whole "classmating" being so blatantly an alternative to getting an M or AO rating for having sex in the game. The cutscenes for the "classmating" was one of the worst parts because it was so blatant and ridiculous it was actually a little uncomfortable to watch, but also was hilarious. That and the premise of the star children being a result of that was creepy as well. I think if they removed the classmating premise, and made it where you have to choose one character to form a bond with, and have that bond result in extra abilities or spells would of been cool and explaining it as because of that bond, whether it is platonic or romantic, it forms powers in the individuals when they are close much like Ar No Surge Ode to an Unborn Star (which was fun and a lot less creepy). That would of made for a much less creepy game, but Japan is into some weird shit so :/.

Haha, I have that game too.

So I knew only a little about it before buying it at gamestop; I knew it was fanservice-y and very, uh, "anime" in its premise, but I like dungeon crawlers and thought the battles looked fun. So I bring it to the counter and the dude is staring hard at the game like it was a wild animal or something and he goes, "Uh, hey, how about you buy a used version? You can get your money back that way." That was a warning sign. I just said, "Sure!" and didn't really get the hint he was dropping. So fast forward and I'm looking at the file names on my copy and that dude totally sold me his own game, over fifty hours of playtime! He knew.

But yeah, it's some weird shit, but it's all just implied and sort of hilarious in it's own way. The thing I'm most upset about is how un-fun the actual dungeons and battles actually are.

[Tolvir]

Haha, I have that game too.

So I knew only a little about it before buying it at gamestop; I knew it was fanservice-y and very, uh, "anime" in its premise, but I like dungeon crawlers and thought the battles looked fun. So I bring it to the counter and the dude is staring hard at the game like it was a wild animal or something and he goes, "Uh, hey, how about you buy a used version? You can get your money back that way." That was a warning sign. I just said, "Sure!" and didn't really get the hint he was dropping. So fast forward and I'm looking at the file names on my copy and that dude totally sold me his own game, over fifty hours of playtime! He knew.

But yeah, it's some weird shit, but it's all just implied and sort of hilarious in it's own way. The thing I'm most upset about is how un-fun the actual dungeons and battles actually are.

Well he did have 50 hours into it, so it couldn't of been that bad for him. Yeah that was one of the largest disappointments for me was that while I enjoyed the combat and dungeons early on. When you are at endgame in the last dungeon, and you are fighting a reskinned version of what you fought at level 5 with better stats, it gets tedious and boring. That and all the dungeons looked just like each other. I was hoping for some kind of variation, but the dungeons all were the same with a bit of different colors and "themes" based off of which of the 7 deadly sins it was going for (which was another thing I did enjoy). That is one thing I will give the game credit for though is that it never seemed to take itself too seriously, and never tried to be more than what it was.

Edited March 16, 2016 by Tolvir

[Moblin Major General]

The first 3 Legend of Zelda games. I absolutely love this series, but I have problems with the first 3 and the DS duology. Death Mountain doesn't disappoint as a final dungeon, but trying to navigate it is very difficult, and I have yet to find the Red Tunic or Silver Arrows. With The Adventure of Link, it Death Mountain again. No amount of grinding can prepare you for it, and it's only the first 3rd of the game. A Link to the Past is, in my opinion, rather unforgiving. If you have no idea where to find everything, it will kick your ass. The one I hate the most, however, is Phantom Hourglass. I own Spirit Tracks, but haven't played it, so it's love hate until I get around to it. Phantom Hourglass is tedious, boring, unnecessary to the Adult timeline, and HARD (read: unforgiving time limits, backtracking, and a cheating AI final boss). I will not play this game again unless the remake overhauls A LOT.

[Zera]

A Link to the Past is, in my opinion, rather unforgiving. If you have no idea where to find everything, it will kick your ass.

Did you know there's a fortune teller? Just pay a paltry 10 rupees and he'll tell you where to go.

Phantom Hourglass is tedious, boring, unnecessary to the Adult timeline, and HARD (read: unforgiving time limits, backtracking, and a cheating AI final boss). I will not play this game again unless the remake overhauls A LOT.

It's been a while since I played Phantom Hourglass, but I don't remember aaannnyyy of this. Phantom Hourglass was a seriously nice game.

[animeapple]

The first 3 Legend of Zelda games. I absolutely love this series, but I have problems with the first 3 and the DS duology. Death Mountain doesn't disappoint as a final dungeon, but trying to navigate it is very difficult, and I have yet to find the Red Tunic or Silver Arrows. With The Adventure of Link, it Death Mountain again. No amount of grinding can prepare you for it, and it's only the first 3rd of the game. A Link to the Past is, in my opinion, rather unforgiving. If you have no idea where to find everything, it will kick your ass. The one I hate the most, however, is Phantom Hourglass. I own Spirit Tracks, but haven't played it, so it's love hate until I get around to it. Phantom Hourglass is tedious, boring, unnecessary to the Adult timeline, and HARD (read: unforgiving time limits, backtracking, and a cheating AI final boss). I will not play this game again unless the remake overhauls A LOT.

uh.... i had no problems with a link to the past... i have played that game all the way through mulitple times... and yeah there is a hint system in the game via the fortune teller....

my first time playing the game was with the gba version... and on top of that... the different story npcs will tell you where to go and what order the dungeons are in... if you are not reading the game's text thats your own fault

[Zera]

@Hylian Air Force: You should play Kirby's Epic Yarn. It's impossible to get frustrated!

[secondworld]

@Hylian Air Force: You should play Kirby's Epic Yarn. It's impossible to get frustrated!

Well I know of at least one guy who got frustrated that you can't die.

[Zera]

Well I know of at least one guy who got frustrated that you can't die.

Who's that?

[Rapier]

...Yeah that's a solid 7. Not as bad as Chaos Wars, since this seems more like "incompetent people who are trying", rather than Chaos Wars' "incompetent people who aren't trying."

I still think the Megaman ZX Advent dub was the worst I've ever heard. Fortunately, there isn't much dialogue, and the european version has none. Hooray!

Speaking about the Megaman series, yeah, I've never managed to like Battle Network. I tried playing all the games, but the gameplay always bores me. For some reason, I do like Megaman Legends, even if I recognize that it's a really weak game on every aspect.