Blindly judging a game by its cover art

[Anacybele]

I'd say the closest I've come to this would be the bunch of random SNES games my brothers had. I tried them based on the tiny covers on the game cartridges, which were basically smaller versions of the boxarts, and most did not appeal to me at all.

The only time I ended up liking a game that I picked up because of the boxart was Soul Calibur II. And it was the GC version, so yes, it was because Link was thrown in your face on it. lol

[omegaxis1]

On 1/9/2018 at 9:03 AM, DragonFlames said:

I bought Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for the Wii because I thought the girl on the cover (Marta, one of the main protagonists) was cute... Best decision I've ever made since it led me to my absolute favourite (J)RPG franchise and game franchise in general. It was also my introduction to action RPGs, which made it a "gateway" for other awesome games like Nights of Azure, Ys VIII, Okami, Shadow of the Colossus etc.

HOLY SHIT! That's exactly how I got drawn in. Though I thought the guy looked cool, but had this partial question on whether Emil was a girl as well. Lucky for me, my guess was right and he was a guy. And after playing that game, I got into all the Tales series and wanna play as many as I can. 

But my heart will always love Emil the most out of all the protagonists, and I genuinely think that Emil should have been in a true sequel, rather than a half baked spin off sequel that he was in. Would have been AWESOME!!!

[DragonFlames]

23 minutes ago, omegaxis1 said:

HOLY SHIT! That's exactly how I got drawn in. Though I thought the guy looked cool, but had this partial question on whether Emil was a girl as well. Lucky for me, my guess was right and he was a guy. And after playing that game, I got into all the Tales series and wanna play as many as I can. 

But my heart will always love Emil the most out of all the protagonists, and I genuinely think that Emil should have been in a true sequel, rather than a half baked spin off sequel that he was in. Would have been AWESOME!!!

I also really like Emil as a protagonist. He's a breath of fresh air after dozens of brave, unrealistically charismatic yet inexplicably stupid heroes (the shounen-hero archetype, basically) and I still peg him as one of the most unique and realistic JRPG protagonists out there, along with Yuri Lowell, Luke fon Fabre and Velvet Crowe, all three of which come from the Tales series, funnily enough.
I know it's an unpopular opinion among the Tales fandom, but I really, really love Dawn of the New World. Maybe even more than the original Symphonia.

[omegaxis1]

1 hour ago, DragonFlames said:

I also really like Emil as a protagonist. He's a breath of fresh air after dozens of brave, unrealistically charismatic yet inexplicably stupid heroes (the shounen-hero archetype, basically) and I still peg him as one of the most unique and realistic JRPG protagonists out there, along with Yuri Lowell, Luke fon Fabre and Velvet Crowe, all three of which come from the Tales series, funnily enough.
I know it's an unpopular opinion among the Tales fandom, but I really, really love Dawn of the New World. Maybe even more than the original Symphonia.

DUDE, how could you forget the magnificence of Johnny Yong Bosch as he goes from timid Emil to badass Ratatosk? XD

And it was later I realized that Johnny was part of my childhood when I watched Power Rangers. 

But yeah, Emil is a very unique case. He doesn't WANT to be a hero or get into fights. But his motivations were not just to help Marta, but because of his vendetta against Lloyd. 

[DragonFlames]

28 minutes ago, omegaxis1 said:

DUDE, how could you forget the magnificence of Johnny Yong Bosch as he goes from timid Emil to badass Ratatosk? XD

And it was later I realized that Johnny was part of my childhood when I watched Power Rangers. 

But yeah, Emil is a very unique case. He doesn't WANT to be a hero or get into fights. But his motivations were not just to help Marta, but because of his vendetta against Lloyd. 

I have not forgotten. JYB is glorious, no doubt. I wish he was still voice acting for games, but I haven't seen any games with him in it lately, which is a crying shame.

More on topic: Has anyone of you ever bought a game they bought because of the box art and liked it more than a game you bought because of reviews / pre-release hype? All the games I listed are such games, that's why I am curious.

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

I also really like Emil as a protagonist. He's a breath of fresh air after dozens of brave, unrealistically charismatic yet inexplicably stupid heroes (the shounen-hero archetype, basically) and I still peg him as one of the most unique and realistic JRPG protagonists out there, along with Yuri Lowell, Luke fon Fabre and Velvet Crowe, all three of which come from the T

Edited January 10, 2018 by Interdimensional Observer

[eclipse]

The story of my journey into SF starts with a big poster.

See, this game called Fire Emblem had just been released.  Front and center was a cute redhead.  My hormone-addled self immediately bought the game.

That's when I discovered that there were even MORE cute guys in the game!  Oh, and the gameplay was fantastic and addicting.

So yeah, the reason why I'm here is because of Fire Emblem's box art.  There's several more games that I've done this for, and I don't regret it!

[ChickenBits]

I can't say I've had bad experiences with game covers (Terrible memory just isn't cutout for this), only average and fantastic. Some of the major ones that I can recall were probably Fire Emblem, Stella Glow, Xenoblade, Persona, Valkyria, Pokemon, and surprisingly Battlefield.

My introduction into Fire Emblem was through finding Sacred Stones at a garage sale. The things I've found with family while randomly coming across a garage sale. Anyways the cover art was captivating but I thought for some odd reason that it would be a free for all fantasy beat 'em up sorta thing. No idea why I got that idea but once I played the game I was pleasantly surprised. I've been in love with Fire Emblem ever since.

Stella Glow is an interesting one because well it was released in the summer of 2015 which was almost three years ago. No reason to have no research behind my very impulsive purchase. Like insanely impulsive, I took one look at it then I'm at home wondering why I got it instead of this other game. My first impressions weren't all that great, I thought it was nothing but a weird hentai game because of all the cute girls on it. Tried it and it's somehow a favorite. I'm honestly wondering why I love this game so much. Fan service everywhere, weird 3-d models, and the battle is kind of clunky. 

Most of my favorites tend to follow similar stories.

Edited January 10, 2018 by ChickenBits

[eclipse]

8 minutes ago, ChickenBits said:

Stella Glow is an interesting one because well it was released in the summer of 2015 which was almost three years ago. No reason to have no research behind my very impulsive purchase. Like insanely impulsive, I took one look at it then I'm at home wondering why I got it instead of this other game. My first impressions weren't all that great, I thought it was nothing but a weird hentai game because of all the cute girls on it. Tried it and it's somehow a favorite. I'm honestly wondering why I love this game so much. Fan service everywhere, weird 3-d models, and the battle is kind of clunky.

The game is surprisingly well-balanced.  Well, except Rusty and Nonoka, they kind of break the game.  However, if you pay attention and actually play to everyone's specialties, it's a ton of fun.

[ChickenBits]

32 minutes ago, eclipse said:

The game is surprisingly well-balanced.  Well, except Rusty and Nonoka, they kind of break the game.  However, if you pay attention and actually play to everyone's specialties, it's a ton of fun.

It truly is fun. The game has it's flaws but I'll always love it. Neat that I've come across someone who also played Stella Glow. 

Edited January 10, 2018 by ChickenBits

[DragonFlames]

18 hours ago, ChickenBits said:

It truly is fun. The game has it's flaws but I'll always love it. Neat that I've come across someone who also played Stella Glow. 

You can add me to that list as well. I absolutely love that game.
Speaking of game breakers in Stella Glow, almost nothing holds a candle to

Lisette's final song, Levia. Not only is it one of the best vocal tracks in the game (in my humble opinion), but it's basically an instant win button, too, since it is a powerful AOE attack followed by three rounds of full HP and SP healing. Popo's song Rusty Key, though only early on, and the girl herself are pretty busted as well.

And let's not forget about

Miss Witch of Destruction, Hilda. Especially her ability to make units move directly after her (she basically saves Mordimort from complete irrelevancy) and her final spell that's basically a Dark Terra Force / Spirit Bomb.