Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@FishyS I suppose, and to each their own of course. I'm not really arguing anything trying to prove myself right, because it is subjective at the end of the day. Rather, I'm just trying to present a different way I looked at it while playing, and could maybe help others enjoy the game more as well.

I just don't wanna hear another thing about Zelda from anyone until the next big one comes out. Like, Zelda discourse was already pretty tiring but Breath/Tears made it feel more repetitive, people bringing up the same points over and over with nothing new to add, with people just settling into pre and post Breath camps - like how the Sonic fandom does it.

@Bigmanfan That's totally fair, you had a well argued case, although I admit (with my own strong personal biases) when I read it I thought that I don't personally associate 'must get over mental hurdle for a super basic aspect of the game (and not everyone gets over it)' with 'good game design'. But given how popular the game was I am fine to admit I'm probably wrong.

Personally I never had a favorite weapon, I just hated it when a weapon broke in the middle of a battle and all I could do was walk away (or just sort of be soft-locked if it was inside a shrine which required weapons and I now had none). Or even just repeatedly swapping weapons during a battle was just annoying. It made combat not fun for me. There are many games which encourage you to explore and get better weapons in a variety of ways and BotW chose... one option from the several most common. Is it the best possible method? I don't personally think so, but it's good that some people like yourself actively like it and it's clear it wasn't a deal-breaker for most.

And sorry if I came across as snappish... I don't have many pet peeves in gaming, but my hatred of weapon breakage in BotW is near the top 😆 Right below the nigh non-functional d-pad on the pro controller 😝 (I love my pro controller but it literally can't play some games simply because of the d-pad).

Sorry 😆

@FishyS don't worry, it's nothing personal.

@N00BiSH There are only so many unpopular opinions so they tend to cycle 😆 I mean... there are zillions but they ironically have to be semi popular unpopular opinions about popular well known games to get any discourse. If someone comes in and says some random eShop game has the best combat system ever created there will likely be silence in reply.

@FishyS This is true. Such is life.

@N00BiSH I mean you don't have to respond to any of it if you don't want to see it. It's going to keep happening until the next game comes out and brings people the same situation. Just like any other series that takes things in a different direction from what the original games had. Animal Crossing is always going to have discourse around it now due to the direction New Horizons took. They'll be damned if they keep the new formula for the series, and also damned if they get rid of it for the original formula. Same applies to Zelda.

That makes me wonder what the new controversy will be when the new game comes out 😆 I wonder why people are so much more heated about some series. There are infinite things about e.g. Kirby one could argue about and have different opinions about but it seems far less common than in some series.

@FishyS I feel like part of it will be the old fans (group I'm in) not liking the new game because it'll be more aimed to the newer fans who started with New Horizons. That, and the update model being abysmal again.

For some, it's just because they live on rage and discourse(see: a good chunk of the Sonic fandom). For others it's a desire to see improvement when they feel part of a franchise isn't at its best. Both just tend to intersect a lot either intentionally or unintentionally.

There's no pleasing everyone is the problem. As a fan of both Pokemon and Sonic I've come to accept this for a while now. With the former in particular I see a lot of ideas online on how to "improve" the series that I personally think would push it in the wrong direction.

And no series is exempt from this. It still amazes me that any fan of 3D Mario can dislike Mario Odyssey, but each to their own I guess. And Zelda has split the fanbase on pretty much every entry since Majora's Mask from what I can remember, although the overwhelming feedback has generally been positive (as there aren't really any "bad" Zelda games).

I probably should have read through more of the posts in this thread before posting my own... sorry for that. I didn't mean to bring up much heat about it, I genuinely had a kind of realization as I was going through the games in the series in my head and thinking "would I rank this higher or lower than BotW"? And I was a bit surprised by where I would rank it. Which is still hard to come to terms with as Zelda is one of my favourite franchises and they've been doubling down on what made Breath of the Wild so popular.

@VoidofLight I haven't yet played enough of Tears of the Kingdom, but I have seen points similar to yours around and I probably would agree with some of them as I am terrible at doing the constructions and I prefer tighter puzzles. I also don't think that take about Tears of the Kingdom is as unpopular as the same one about Breath of the Wild. I think TotK was always more divisive and derivative and didn't get the near universal appraise that BotW got.

As for the other points about weapon durability... my sentiments are pretty much the same as those expressed by @FishyS. I personally also didn't feel that the game was constantly providing me with stronger weapons as I went along... I noticed I would avoid, later in the game, fighting weak enemies because I didn't want to lose my now stronger weapons. I also avoided using my best weapons pretty much at all as it was very deflating to see them break and get stuck with weaker weapons again. I didn't mind tools breaking in Animal Crossing, for instance. I just think things weren't well implemented in BotW.

The type of discussion you started is literally what this thread is for so don't worry about it. It often gets a little heated but it's all fun and games so hopefully it rarely gets heated enough to make anyone feel bad. And no one is expected to go back and read all 633 pages to see if a topic has been discussed before 😅 Even though topics repeat somewhat the precise perspective of a new person is usually at least a little different so I still find it interesting personally.

@FishyS Thanks, that's reassuring Though Breath of the Wild having been mentioned should have been an easy guess. Well, I suppose there's no harm done, and I got to air out some of my opinions on it. On the flipside, I have recently beaten Skyward Sword HD and I think that game gets too much hate and is actually a pretty good Zelda game. That might be another unpopular opinion haha.

I think the best Sonic games are generally widely agreed upon outside of specific people online whose entire hyperfixation became less acclaimed Sonic games.

Except Sonic Unleashed that everyone loves because they don't replay the night time stages after their first playthrough, I assume. (also because it runs better on newer hardware AFAIK)

I guess Sonic is slightly different than the likes of Mario and Zelda in that the average quality is much lower, even amongst the "good" games. Unless you're Sonic 2, 3+K, or Mania, even the most praised Sonic games have very clear flaws, e.g. I can totally understand why people might not like Sonic Adventures 1 and 2, and Unleashed as you point out. I do agree also that there's a very vocal portion of people who insist e.g. Shadow the Hedgehog is an underrated classic.

Off the top of my head the most "hit-or-miss" games that come to mind are CD, Heroes and Colors. I personally love Heroes (despite its flaws) but can't stand the other two.

I mean, I think the problem is actually more common with other series in that handheld exclusive games are comparatively neglected. Sonic Advance 2 and Rush Adventure are nearly peak Sonic tbh. (also Rush Adventure was by miles, the better ocean exploring DS game of note in 2007)

Also I'm consistently stunned by Colors backlash. It's entire existence was based on being an unironically great 3D Sonic, at last. I understand why in hindsight to an extent, but the 15 hours I put into it in 2011 were better than all my nostalgia for Adventure 2, my first Sonic game.

Funny, I don't really care for Heroes, but CD and Colors(specifically the DS version) are probably two of my favorites in the series. Their strengths outweigh their flaws and I feel they hit the right spot for me in terms of presentation, tone and gameplay.

@N00BiSH Haha this is why we have the unpopular opinions thread!

I personally find the opposite. For Colors, I don't particularly like the stylistic direction they went in (both visually and musically), I dislike the Wisps and I hate how the game is mostly short stages that are largely 2D. I very much disagree with @kkslider5552000 about it being an "unironically great 3D Sonic" - it's barely even a 3D Sonic IMO. I see why people like it - it was a competent game after a bunch of missteps from Sonic Team - but for me it went completely in the wrong direction.

For CD, while I appreciate the improved visual fidelity that the Sega CD offered, I think the stages are too visually busy and, while I like the use of colour, I don't find any of the environments to be particularly interesting or memorable. I also can't stand the level design and don't really like the time travel mechanic. The music is good though but I feel a tad overrated.

For Heroes - I just love the underlying mechanics, and the first few stages are some of the best in 3D Sonic history. It is however really let down by its later stages and some general jank in the gameplay though, so totally understand if people don't like it. Shame they never revisited the concept.

@kkslider5552000 I think the handheld games are another discussion, and I do agree they're often neglected. Off the top of my head it doesn't seem there's a consensus on any of them - maybe Advance and Rush are particularly highly regarded?