Topic: Games that are overall well regarded/ loved by most that you've tried and ended up not liking

Every so often we decide to take a chance and play a game/ or get into a series / genre that we don't know if we'll like in hopes of broadening our horizons. This thread is in curiosity of what other people's chances were and if they were positive or not.

For example this weekend I decided to take a risk and play team fortress 2 on my pc despite not playing a first person shooter game ever. To say I've fallen in love with 10+ year old game would be an under statement. I'm so glad I took a chance with this game!

The content in the OP does not tally with the thread title.

Changing the last bit of the title to ‘liking/not liking’ would make everything work!

Anyway, I never really got into Metroid Prime, despite its critical reception. The atmosphere just click with me, and I found it all a bit drab and ponderous. I’ve enjoyed some of the 2D Metroids (Fusion/Zero Mission) but couldn’t really get into Dread, either. The controls were slick, but you’re given limited opportunity to flex them unless you take the time to memorise the labyrinth of tunnels in which the game is set. The lithe, acrobatic moveset felt like it was designed for an open, expansive world, but was instead shoved into a cramped, claustrophobic environment because that’s what Metroid is. I also found the music and story a bit grating.

Unfortunately I can’t think of two many examples where I had reservations about a game only to fall madly in love with it — mainly because I don’t but games that I don’t think I’ll like! I’m sure there are games out there that I should take a chance on desire the fact they don’t look appealing… but the chances of liking a game are undoubtably higher if I think it actually looks enjoyable!

Assassin's Creed. Pick one, any one. Gave this franchise so many chances but I just find those games incredibly boring, even tried their most beloved titles, II and Black Flag and they just didn't do it for me

Killzone 2, the franchise as a whole I just do it for me especially given it shares the same library that has the original MW/Black Ops trilogies, among other classic shooters. Even by PS3 exclusive standards you have plenty of better options. I do think Guerilla's talents are better spent on Horizon which I do enjoy. Funny enough, the one game in the series I did enjoy was Killzone Liberation, that weird top-down spin-off. Maybe if they improve the performance in the future in a PS5 remaster, I might give it another chance

RDR used to be this, I didn't find it very interesting when I first played it, but then gave it another chance when it was made BC on the Xbox One and found myself enjoying it much more for some reason. Right now I'm doing a second playthrough on the Switch. Maybe the games above can get some sort of newfound appreciation in the future but we'll see

Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are two games that I have tried to get Into a number of times as I'm a massive Zelda fan but they just don't gel with me.
I spend a few hours messing around with the abilities before getting bored because the open world is so empty and bland.

Dragon Quest 11. People swear its the best JRPG ever made, but it really isn't. If you're a fan of the tried and true stale "Evil Dark Lord casts the world into Darkness and Hero of Light has to save the world from evil!" then this game is probably the best in that regard. For someone who grew up on interesting stories in JRPGs though, it feels like it just falls flat entirely. I was disappointed that I was able to tell outright how the story would end by the time I got halfway through the first act of the game. I always heard Dragon Quest was a good RPG series, but 11 really put me off from wanting to play any of the other mainline games, and thus I stick to spin-offs like Builders.

Stardew Valley seemingly had the opposite effect on me as it does most people - my first couple of hours with it just felt like an absolute chore.

The title and body of the post don't really match. But I'm interpreting this as "popular games that you didn't have much of an interest in, then once you played it you loved it."

The most prominent example for me is Ace Attorney. I was never interested in visual novels. I just thought the concept to be really boring. Why not just read a book or watch a movie? Video games are meant to be utilized for controlling a character and making progress in a world.

But then it got recommended to me on Steam, and once I watched the trailer and saw the "Overwhelmingly positive" rating, I figured I'd give it a shot. I instantly fell in love with it from the first case. It just had such a satisfying gameplay loop with its relatively simple mechanics. Plus, the writing was super tight and witty, the music was insanely catchy, and the art was really nice. Fast-forward a year later, and I've played every single game in the series and consistently replay my favorites. I'm so glad I gave this series a shot because MAN was I missing out.

The other big one is Xenoblade. I've never been much of a JRPG fan, but a friend let me borrow XC:DE around February. I'll admit, I don't love that game. It has some great stuff in it, like the customization, soundtrack, and story, but as a whole, it didn't do a whole lot for me. Just had some very boring stretches of gameplay, and the side quests are pretty much completely skippable. But I thought for the sake of getting a fully informed opinion, I'd give XC2 a try. Now, that one spoke to me a lot more. The soundtrack is godly, the combat is super satisfying, and the story is honestly not that bad. Okay, now I'm starting to understand why people like these. Then I played Torna and was completely floored. I loved every second of that game. Now I'm really feeling it.

And then... Xenoblade 3. As it stands, it's my favorite RPG of all time. I basically wrote an essay on it in the Games You Recently Beat thread. It's such an amazing game that somehow managed to consistently hold my attention for the ~80 or so hours I've played it. I'll still go back to it sometimes just to mess around in the world and do some sidequests, which I very rarely do. I'm really glad I gave these games a shot and stuck with them even though I didn't love the first one.

Resident Evil 4

This game doesn't vibe with me. The game is well regarded as having changed the third person shooter genre. But I don't consider losing your ability to move while aiming down iron sights very "world changing". More like...it's annoying.

Coming off of Max Payne, MDK, and Kill Switch to this? Felt like a step backwards, not forwards.

I'm just gonna go by the thread title. Popular games that I tried, and ended up not liking.

I don't like the Monster Hunter series. I tried getting into a couple of the MH games, but they just did not sit well with me. The controls are overly sluggish, and it takes forever to take down huge monsters... playing it felt like a chore to me.

I also very much dislike Rocket League. I wanted to like it, but that game got incredibly frustrating for me... I get bumped around all over the place like 90% of the time (sometimes I get blown up, too), and those advanced moves that everyone does? I can't pull them off easily, and I can't even be bothered to learn them on YouTube because that game left such a sour taste in my mouth.

I wanted to get into Majora's Mask, but unfortunately, it has not clicked with me. I did make it through the first story part, then I got stuck since all the areas, besides Termina, seem to be blocked off. I don't think I like having to reset to day 1 when the last day is about to end, either. It sucks because I like the Zelda series... I like Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom, but I just couldn't get into Majora's Mask at all.

I'm also with @Buizel on Stardew Valley. I don't know what it is, but that game just didn't grab me... maybe it's because it's more involved than Animal Crossing, which I do like. (I've played New Leaf and New Horizons.) Similarly, I played a bit of Fae Farm via the NSO game trial, and didn't hold my attention for very long.

The big ones for me are Breath of the Wild, Skyrim or any Bethesda open world RPG and Smash Bros.

Breath of the Wild just didn't feel like a Zelda game to me to be honest. The was no story really except go defeat Gannon (or whoever the bad guy was) The World just felt bland and empty and dear God the weapons breaking all the damn time. I don't know if the weaponsmiths of Hyrule just suck at their job or what but having a weapon break after two or three swings and then having to carry a crap load of weapons. Yeah not my idea of a fun or great game.

Skyrim. Similar to Breath of the Wild. I just get board with big open world RPGs, my biggest problem with Skyrim was the overencumbrance. My OCD I am going around grabbing everything I see thinking well I might need it later and thus it means I keep heading back into town to empty my bags only to do the same thing over and over again. Maybe now that I have a PC I might look into the PC version with mods. This also goes for Fallout as well. Love the setting but I end up going nowhere due to the limited bag space.

Super Smash Bros. Never have I been so unimpressed with a game or game series for that matter. When Super Smash Bros came out on N64 I was deep into fighting games, Street Fighter 2, Tekken, Mortal Kombat. So when I heard that Nintendo was doing a Mario style of fighting game I though cool I love Mario style racing in Mario Kart I am sure I would like this game. What I found was a horrible game jumping around from platform to platform trying to knock each other off. A "fighting" game that required no skill. Just mash buttons and hope for the best. Yeah udder garbage. Years later my son wanted to try Smash Bros on the 3DS/Wii U so I got it and tried the series again and same thing as before just better graphics. Never could figure out the hype for the series or even its creator. It's just a below average "fighting" game if you even want to call it that.

@VoidofLight Tou beat me to it! Dragon Quest is overally kinda like that, extremely overrated with the simplest storyline possible. There are good "defeat the evil king/sorcerer/dragon thingy" RPGs but DQ is just... mediocre at best

In terms of games that are well regarded but didn't get into, basically any game that begins and ends with cover shooter. Especially Vanquish a game that sells itself on not being another cover shooter but is.

In terms of games I didn't have much interest in, I got the DS version of Chrono Trigger mostly out of curiosity and fan hype rather than actual interest. The fact that the SNES Final Fantasies were still good on GBA probably helped. But I had been annoyed at the overwhelming hype and found the handful of songs I'd heard from the game to be especially overhyped. So I came into it with the feeling of "cmon, best RPG ever, impress me!"

And then every 3 hours I liked the game more until it, in fact, became one of the best RPGs ever. Still not my favorite JRPG soundtrack though, even if its an 8/10 in that regard. I still prefer some FF/Pokemon/Mario RPG/Tales of soundtracks, even ignoring games I played after it.

Pikmin. It's a series that's always looked intriguing to me but I've just kept trying repeatedly without anything clicking, and 4 was the last straw. I'm still happy for the fans given how successful it's been. Maybe it's just a victim of my backlog or I just don't have the patience but all the chaotic dandori is just not for me.

The Last of Us. Boring sneak around combat. Naughty Dog games might have good stories and graphics but all of their post ps2 games just feel the same. Uncharted and The Last of Us gameplay largely consists of walking around a nice environment and then having to duck behind cover and shoot and duck behind cover and shoot. I wish they’d make something like Jak and Daxter again.

I just can’t see the hype behind Mario 3D world. Thought Land was better in every way.

Cuphead. That game is WAY too hard for me.

Also Minecraft. Without a goal, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.