What is your unpopular video game opinion?

[Fabulously Olivier]

I don't think it's an unpopular opinion so much as it is an "unpopular opinion to voice" but detailed user interfaces and quest markers in games became standard because people like them, and they're good.

 

Yeah, you can point at Elden Ring's smash hit sales numbers and say "see people like minimalism," but that's to be expected. The rare good game catering to a niche audience is going to attract that whole audience. The whole audience that likes more guided games is divided between basically all of the games.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Fabulously Olivier

[Etrurian emperor]

While I don't exactly dislike the underground in Tears of the Kingdom I'm of the opinion it generally shouldn't have been present.

The underground is huge. Its a new map the size of Hyrule. But seeing as how every single thing in this gigantic map is completely optional content I wonder if crafting such a giant new map was the best way to spend the game's budget. The later half of Tears of the Kingdom seems honestly kind of rushed so there are a lot of places this budget could have gone to instead of a completely optional area.

[vanguard333]

3 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

While I don't exactly dislike the underground in Tears of the Kingdom I'm of the opinion it generally shouldn't have been present.

The underground is huge. Its a new map the size of Hyrule. But seeing as how every single thing in this gigantic map is completely optional content I wonder if crafting such a giant new map was the best way to spend the game's budget. The later half of Tears of the Kingdom seems honestly kind of rushed so there are a lot of places this budget could have gone to instead of a completely optional area.

Technically, the underground is part of the main quest. The goron dungeon is in the underground and (spoilers)

Spoiler

Finding out where Ganondorf is hiding requires completing the Kohga quests in the underground.

But yeah, the underground does mean that the game has essentially three maps and the ways the underground does tie into the main plot could easily have been done without it. It doesn't help that, while there can be some fun to adventuring in the dark underground looking for lightroots, it just doesn't compare to exploring the sky.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

I dislike cutscenes, especially when they go against gameplay. Bitch, you were just bleeding on the ground, but now I´m losing? Hell no, skip. Xenoblade 2 is a big example, and in BG3  

Spoiler

Dame Aylins

combat performance vs cutscenes performance simply does not add up.  

[lenticular]

15 minutes ago, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

I dislike cutscenes, especially when they go against gameplay. Bitch, you were just bleeding on the ground, but now I´m losing? Hell no, skip. Xenoblade 2 is a big example, and in BG3  

Is that unpopular? Disliking all cutscenes probably is, but I always got the impression that "win in the game, lose in the cutscene" has pretty widespread disdain. Kai Leng in Mass Effect 3 is the one that always comes to mind for me as a particularly bad example.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

3 hours ago, lenticular said:

Is that unpopular? Disliking all cutscenes probably is, but I always got the impression that "win in the game, lose in the cutscene" has pretty widespread disdain. Kai Leng in Mass Effect 3 is the one that always comes to mind for me as a particularly bad example.

eh I think they generally disrupt the flow of the game, unless the game itself is just a slideshow.

Like, play a strategy game campaign, load cutscene, play cutscene where the big bad evil explains their evil plan, load game, continue. SC2 had these small cut ins where the character would talk while you could still just focus on the game. I think I managed to mess myself up in C&C ZH and The Settlers 5 HoK where I triggered a cutscene and I watched my doods dying in the background or got back to a destroyed army.

Same shit with soulslike, might even be interesting the first time, I don´t care to see boss 2nd or 3rd phase phase transition for the next 50 attempts.

And then there´s this weird thing BG3 does, where every character interaction is this weird almost cutscene-in-nature close-up even when just trading, not to mention how awkard the body language and facial expressions are in general - tav always standing around with their arms folded and their brows all kinds of wrinkled - I´m probably misremembering but in D:OS2 you could just go directly to the shop? I think that´s just plain more efficient.

Ah well, high level whinging. 

[Etrurian emperor]

3 hours ago, lenticular said:

Is that unpopular? Disliking all cutscenes probably is, but I always got the impression that "win in the game, lose in the cutscene" has pretty widespread disdain. Kai Leng in Mass Effect 3 is the one that always comes to mind for me as a particularly bad example.

Though with Leng its a curious case that he never quite wins on his own strength. He was getting his ass kicked by a terminally ill patient until the illness kicked in. And with him beating Shepherd I recall it had more to do with Cerberus choppers saving his butt.

[Integrity]

On 8/28/2023 at 9:11 PM, Fabulously Olivier said:

I don't think it's an unpopular opinion so much as it is an "unpopular opinion to voice" but detailed user interfaces and quest markers in games became standard because people like them, and they're good.

stop posting good things you're becoming the best incumbent user of these forums after lenticular

[henrymidfields]

On 8/27/2023 at 3:46 PM, Florete said:

You're allowed your opinion, of course. I'm just explaining why people "treat Whitney of all things as the Pokemon's answer to Kaptain K Rool or a Dark Souls Boss." Because relative to Pokemon's average difficulty, she kinda is.

And what kid likes to do homework, anyway? Fuck homework. I haven't been in school for almost a decade and I'm still holding a grudge against that shit.

Again, that's not my responsibility that people are still acting like snowflakes. Take some personal responsibility.

Edited December 20, 2023 by henrymidfields

[Fabulously Olivier]

Level downscaling is almost always a good thing. All you lose is the illusion of progress because you can't go back and one shot boars. It's the most shallow, meaningless thing to give up. And what you get in return is that all content stays fun and rewarding, forever, playing with friends is seamless, and the game becomes more and more of a retroactive sandbox as you progress further.

 

I'm not even entertaining your arguments that there is "no progression" in a game with level scaling. Nope. You're wrong. You are actually objectively wrong, because you are gaining access to new areas and expanding your options.

[𝐍𝐲𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥]

I don't know if this is really unpopular but I hate boss fights that you absolutely cannot win. Why even let me play if you're going to waste my time on something that I can't even win against? Maybe for story reasons but in that case just make it a cutscene, letting the player take control is just a waste.

[Fabulously Olivier]

2 minutes ago, 𝐍𝐲𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥 said:

I don't know if this is really unpopular but I hate boss fights that you absolutely cannot win. Why even let me play if you're going to waste my time on something that I can't even win against? Maybe for story reasons but in that case just make it a cutscene, letting the player take control is just a waste.

I only find this atrocious if they let you waste consumable items in the fight. That's just bad game design. Unwinnable fights need to bare minimum disable use of any limited resources.

[Hrothgar777]

I feel like this could be remedied if the game made winning optional but gave you a reward (or I guess "Unlocked Achievement" for you Xbox fans) for successfully doing so.

[Florete]

12 hours ago, henrymidfields said:

Again, that's not my responsibility that people are still acting like snowflakes over stuff long ago.

...What?

[vanguard333]

On 9/7/2023 at 1:26 PM, 𝐍𝐲𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥 said:

I don't know if this is really unpopular but I hate boss fights that you absolutely cannot win. Why even let me play if you're going to waste my time on something that I can't even win against? Maybe for story reasons but in that case just make it a cutscene, letting the player take control is just a waste.

In the case of a fight that's unwinnable for story purposes, I'm pretty sure it's for the purpose of immersion; it puts the player in the character's shoes, struggling desperately in a fight they cannot win. In that case, I don't consider it a waste as the point is the experience.

That said, I do think it generally works best when the player knows going in that this is a fight that the player is not going to win, such as in the case of a tragic prequel.

[Florete]

Probably more of a rant than an unpopular opinion.

I can't get into the Xenoblade series at all. I tried Xenoblade 1 way back, got walled at some early boss, and didn't have the motivation to break through it. I recently picked up Xenoblade 3 and made progress fine this time, but cannot bring myself to be invested in the gameplay at all. The weird pseudo turn-based nature of it reminds me of cheap mobile games that mostly expect players to use the auto-battle function instead of actually playing the game (I am also probably bad at it, but I paid attention to all the tutorials so I don't think the result is very much my fault). The story has had some interesting aspects, but still isn't enough to make me want to keep playing.

The bright side is that it's now a series I know I can simply skip, and in this day and age with so many games to play and other media out there, that is unironically a blessing in disguise.

[samthedigital]

5 hours ago, Florete said:

I tried Xenoblade 1 way back, got walled at some early boss, and didn't have the motivation to break through it.

I am a fan of the series, but this is a problem that I have with Xenoblade 1 too. The game punishes you heavily for being underleveled, and the only real solution is to grind.

5 hours ago, Florete said:

The weird pseudo turn-based nature of it reminds me of cheap mobile games that mostly expect players to use the auto-battle function instead of actually playing the game (I am also probably bad at it, but I paid attention to all the tutorials so I don't think the result is very much my fault).

How far into the game did you get? The game feeds you combat mechanics at a glacial pace, and this might be true to some extent. You don't really need to explore anything past the surface level to beat the games. Playing this way makes Xenoblade 2 an absolute slog, but I could go on a huge rant on the games myself despite actually enjoying them.

[Florete]

7 minutes ago, samthedigital said:

How far into the game did you get? The game feeds you combat mechanics at a glacial pace, and this might be true to some extent. You don't really need to explore anything past the surface level to beat the games. Playing this way makes Xenoblade 2 an absolute slog, but I could go on a huge rant on the games myself despite actually enjoying them.

My Switch says I've played "15 hours or more." I don't remember exactly where I was at (It's been a few weeks since I booted it up) but I somewhat recently got the nopon duo able to join fights.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

9 minutes ago, samthedigital said:

Playing this way makes Xenoblade 2 an absolute slog,

-> relatively open game with 1.4 metric fucktons of exploration

-> most important game mechanic introduced in chapter 3

*gunshots*

On 9/7/2023 at 10:13 AM, henrymidfields said:

Again, that's not my responsibility that people are still acting like snowflakes over stuff long ago.

kids with their gawdam skill issues

4 minutes ago, Florete said:

My Switch says I've played "15 hours or more." I don't remember exactly where I was at (It's been a few weeks since I booted it up) but I somewhat recently got the nopon duo able to join fights.

... sounds like middle of chapter 3? I think I got 40 hours of exploring everything  up to the beginning of chapter 4 that didn´t ohko me before having to put it down.

The more confusing thing is giving the player up to 7 characters doing their thing. The screen is only so big.

[Fabulously Olivier]

46 minutes ago, samthedigital said:

Playing this way makes Xenoblade 2 an absolute slog.

Xenoblade 2 is an absolute slog.

[samthedigital]

33 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Xenoblade 2 is an absolute slog.

I rather enjoy it now, but it took some doing because without having a good grasp of the mechanics battles are far too slow.

[Fabulously Olivier]

So, maybe this is a hot take, but Tales of is an incredibly 6/10 to 7/10 franchise. (Zestiria is a 4/10). All of the pre-Arise games have dogshit combat, Arise has a weak story, and most of the Tales games have a bad story and bad combat. 

 

The franchise absolutely could be great if you build on Arise's foundation with a story at least on par with Symphonia/Abyss. But we're not there yet.

Edited September 13, 2023 by Fabulously Olivier

[Zapp Branniglenn]

8 hours ago, Florete said:

The bright side is that it's now a series I know I can simply skip, and in this day and age with so many games to play and other media out there, that is unironically a blessing in disguise.

I can only offer advice regarding Xenoblade 1. If you ever decide to try again on the Switch version, try out Casual Mode. It removes the level scaling and allows you to beat the game with extremely minimal grinding compared to the original, "Classic" mode setting. I don't even think it makes the game any easier beyond this one change, and you can even flip it on mid-playthrough.

However I admire your resolve to quit the game partway through. RPG discussion is held hostage by the "It gets good...20 hours in" crowd when in reality so many of them feel identical at Hour 50 as Hour 5. Our beloved Fire Emblem even. I finished Xenoblades 2 and 3 and all I could think about was how I wasn't getting those hours back. There's good things in those games if you go in with an open mind. But this can be said of 99% of games out there. Take it from someone who's played a thousand of them. Choosing to put down a game, for any reason, takes a level of self-respect that I think is underrated in our gaming culture.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I also don't think Xenoblade Chronicles is super awesome. I liked the first game well enough, it's good, but Xenoblade 2? Zero interest in it. Xenoblade 3? Eh, maybe more interesting than 2, but still doesn't really hook me.

I guess it'd be unpopular to say that I genuinely believe The Last Story is better, lol.

[vanguard333]

On 9/13/2023 at 6:53 AM, Florete said:

Probably more of a rant than an unpopular opinion.

I can't get into the Xenoblade series at all. I tried Xenoblade 1 way back, got walled at some early boss, and didn't have the motivation to break through it. I recently picked up Xenoblade 3 and made progress fine this time, but cannot bring myself to be invested in the gameplay at all. The weird pseudo turn-based nature of it reminds me of cheap mobile games that mostly expect players to use the auto-battle function instead of actually playing the game (I am also probably bad at it, but I paid attention to all the tutorials so I don't think the result is very much my fault). The story has had some interesting aspects, but still isn't enough to make me want to keep playing.

The combat tends to be one of the things that decides whether or not someone ends up enjoying the Xenoblade games.

I played Xenoblade 1, really liked the story, worldbuilding and characters, but the exploration was boring and the MMO-like combat was uninvolving (and the less said about spike damage the better), and I ended up giving up at the fallen arm. I haven't played 2 or 3, but I did play Xenoblade X; in fact, it was the first Xenoblade game that I played and the only one that I was able to finish, as, while the combat was just as uninvolving as 1, Xenoblade X has fantastic exploration and flying mechs.