Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

People feel like they need something to blame other than themselves. It's an easier road than acknowledging that they themselves are the ignorant idiot.

It would be like someone blaming a bad single vehicle accident that happened nearby on the vehicle itself. There were five teens/young adults inside, and the vehicle ran off the road and flipped over. The driver and front passenger both died, everyone else had critical injuries. The true problem? They were all drunk, and none were wearing seatbelts.

I agree with you that smartphones are a privilege versus a necessity. I didn't have my first cell phone until I was sixteen, and it was pretty basic, lol. My parents made it clear that if I wanted a smartphone, it would be out of my own pocket.

@CreamyDream: Don't worry, your argument came across correctly. I'm well aware that the stupidity comes from those who shouldn't be wielding a smartphone to begin with as they obviously can't handle the privilege/responsibility.

Sliding puzzles from the Layton games are great.

Which ones are those?

@CanisWolfred

I see many people saying they hate them.

@Vinny Oh god, NO! They're my worst nightmare! I always try to do Layton games without using a single hintcoin, but whenever any of these puzzles come along, I end up sliding the pieces aimlessly for half an hour, and then give up and purchase all of the hints in frustration! They are the only puzzle type in layton games that I actively dread

My only problem with that particular puzzle is that I can't tell if you're allowed to move any blocks where the ball has to end. If so, that puzzle is easy enough that I could solve it just by looking at it. Otherwise, I don't see any possible solutions, unless you're allow to remove a block entirely. :/

tbh, Layton sliding puzzles are still vastly better than sliding puzzles in most other video games.

anyone ever play Avalon Code? Most annoying part of that game was probably the bizarre decision to have sliding puzzles. I think you had to solve them to get some sort of rare items or something similar to that...

I can't be doing with generic puzzles in video games. There's an infinite amount of puzzles in books etc that are more accessible and cheaper than a video game.

If you're going to put a puzzle in a video game build it out of the environment of the game and make it relevant to the context of the game where it appears.

I played one Layton game and it did my head in. 'Here's a short story, and some random puzzles - see how we've combined interactivity with story telling and puzzles', except that you haven't combined them, you've just mixed them up in a tedious mess.

So it was no more Layton for me after that.

@gcunit Despite me hating the Layton sliding puzzles, the overall games are absolute masterpieces. Just out of curiosity, what Layton game did you play?

@BranJ0 Curious Village. I played it to the end of the story, but couldn't be bothered go back for the puzzles I'd missed. As I understand it, it's the first in the series, and the series improved after that, but the tedium of clicking all over the screen to find the item that triggered the next unrelated puzzle was too much for me. Unless they changed the basic gameplay after Curious Village then I don't think you can interest me in them, but I'm happy for you to explain to me why they're masterpieces in your opinion.

@gcunit Layton is literally a Puzzle Book with a story. While I get what you're saying, your earlier statement pretty proved why the series is successful as it is. At the very least making the puzzles "built out of the environment" would go against the very point of the game. Even the hunt 'n' peck gameplay is yet another callback to the children's puzzle books that it plays homage to (though the name escapes me. I wanna say "Where's Waldo?" but I think that's more where the Hint Coins are coming from. There's another one kinda like that, though, but I haven't looked at any of those particular books since I was in Elementary School...).

Don't get me wrong, I agree that a more organic design is preferable, even Ideal for video game puzzles - I honestly only have Curious Village, because even if the other games have better stories and/or puzzles, I don't feel the need to play through any of the sequels, since the series scratches such a specific itch, and I personally don't get that itch very often.

Finally, an excuse to post this video:

@gcunit Ah, I thought it might be the Curious Village, because I completely understand where you're coming from with that game. It's the only Layton game I haven't replayed since I did not find it that appealing, and for all of the reasons which you give.

The reason why I love the layton games is mainly to do with the storyline. Curious Village was very lacking in that regard, since it felt like they created all the puzzles and the crafted a rather weak storyline around that. However, all of the other games are different to this, and the plots are all suitably epic, with lots of plot twists, very well written characters, and are all surprisingly emotional.

If I were to recommend a game for you to give Layton another go, it would be Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask on 3DS. It's the second game in the Layton prequel trilogy (think of it like Layton's "attack of the clones" if you like star wars - the 5th released, but the 2nd chronologically), but the first in the prequel trilogy is probably the second worst layton game after curious village, and the only plot lines that carry on from that is that Layton now has an assistant called Emmy, and apprentice called Luke, and the villain of that game was a guy called Descole who wore a disguise (won't say who he disguised as due to spoilers). The miracle mask is the game that shows just why I love Layton so much, from the insane storyline (and the cutscenes that go with it), the fantastic music, brilliant characters, and so much more. They have also taken out all of the random tapping around environments: you have a small magnifying glass that turns orange when an area of interest is under it, usually a puzzle or a hint coin, so you never spend long in one environment frantically searching ever pixel.

There are obviously still puzzles. That is a given. So if you don't like puzzles at all, the game just isn't for you. But they are paced much better in later layton games, like Miracle Mask, so it feels like the puzzles are a break from the story, rather than the other way round in curious village, where you did puzzle after puzzle after puzzle until you finally got a tiny bit more of the already frankly barebones story. There is still the occasional "solve this puzzle to get past this door" in the miracle mask, but nowhere near as many as in curious village, with most of the puzzles having at least some relevance to the game or environment at hand.

So, after that essay, I hope you can see why I love the layton games so much. I would strongly recommend you play through miracle mask before casting judgement on the series, the layton games are a really great and charming bunch of titles.

@BranJ0 Thanks for taking the time to write it down. You make a good case for trying Miracle Mask, so I will, though i can't say when due to the size of my backlog

@BranJ0 @gcunit Same, including the backlog part. Except the part about it being story-connected also sucks away a decent amount of motivation. If they ever release collection packs, though, then I will totally give the series another look. At the very least, I already admire it after the first game.

This isn't really an unpopular "opinion", more just something I do that's probably unpopular. I make my own story/timelines for games.

As a kid, during the 4th of July, me & my bro (and all of our cousins) pretended our fireworks were our armies, and we were fighting against the oppressive "parent regimes" (most symbolized by the tank wars, and snapper/popper wars).

Well, to this day (as a twenty-something year old), everytime I play a game with a heavy militaristic element (Ace Combat, Call of Duty, Halo, etc.), I pretend I'm playing as a soldier in "my" army (or sometimes my bro's army, if the game's story covers two fronts) fighting against my dad's army, lol.

I also have my own made up seperate timelines for Mario & Smash Bros, games...

Back in 2014, HAL said they would love to make a 3D Kirby game and in Planet Robobot there's a 3D minigame. There's still hope for a 3D Kirby!

You guys are making it really, really hard for me to resist Planet Robobot...and it's not like it needed the help. But I gotta go light on frivilous purchases for the next 3 months, and I'm already lamenting the deluge we're getting in September...

Yes you can. Kirby sucks