Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

The timeline also doesn’t explain the constantly changing geography (looking at you, Death Mountain) and logically how the races co-exist.

Not sure this will be an unpopular opinion, given this is a Nintendo forum, but I am not remotely excited about the forthcoming next generation of consoles. The graphics and processing arms race between Sony and Microsoft has never felt more redundant - all you get is a flashier sound and light show.

Of course, it doesn’t help that we haven’t seen any real thunderbolts in next-gen software yet. I’m sure there will be great games - but how many of them will be great only because the technology has taken another leap forward? Guess we’ll see.

Dillon's Dead Heat Breakers on 3DS needs more attention from gamers.
It was a crime for being a forgotten Nintendo game. No One here ever talking about Dillon's Dead Heat Breakers but me.

I have a really good one that's actually controversial:

Game devs who are on huge teams where they have no real creative input on the final product need to get over internet criticism of their game. And it's rare for me to defend internet criticism, but if you had nothing to do with something people are complaining about, directly or otherwise, then its not about you.

I'm sympathetic to a lot of devs, especially with how poorly treated they can be in these large companies. But that's exactly why this bothers me, the companies sometimes don't deserve for them to really care. But I hear that some people working on Pokemon were upset by Sword and Shield's reaction and I feel bad for them, but they have NOTHING to do with their complaints. Maybe not even the creative people at the head of the game, because its very obvious that the big problems people had with the game were based off of limited time and resources, not because the devs intentionally decided that less Pokemon and dated aesthetic problems were good, actually!

I used to work at Target and I actually did like that job (surprisingly, with all the horror stories about retail I always hear). But I don't feel personally attacked because of recent things I found out about their anti-union stuff, that'd be stupid. And in general, its often just a bad idea to tie yourself that closely to your job, arguably even when you're able to be creative.

@kkslider5552000

I usually agree with you, but in the case of Pokemon Sw/Sh, some of the comments were truly toxic, with people calling GameFreak lazy or a bad developer. To use your Target example, I imagine that would be closer to people criticizing Target for poor retail service, saying "Target employees are lazy and don't care"

I should have mentioned that it's probably also not good to look up fandoms for what you work on if you have nothing to do with creative decisions in the first place. That's not even me justifying it, since even decisions I LOATHED for some games (ME3 original ending, classic example), still get obnoxious, moronic and hyperbolic complaints that no one should waste their time on. The fact that the comments go too far only adds to my point tbh, why would I want devs to deal with that?

I know the common response in any scenario remotely like this that it isn't the devs fault and that's unfair. Correct. Life is unfair. You noticed. But there's no reality you're ending bad online complaints, it's never ever happening, so this is the best thing someone can do for themselves.

And I'd argue having a life beyond your work is just a healthy thing regardless, devs don't need MORE time thinking about their game. Let them live their lives.

I don’t think Sword and Shield were “lazy” at all. They were full-fledged games too.

My unpopular opinion is that Zelda games shouldn't be played for the story. Most Zelda games haven't really had a great story anyway. I see a lot of complaints about BotW's story and personally think that it doesn't really matter. I've had a fun time with the game, even though it wasn't the best. If a Zelda game has a good story, great, I'll take it. If a Zelda game has a story that isn't that great, it won't bother me.

@The-Senate-66 People seem to mix up "story" and "storytelling." Most Zelda game "stories" can be streamlined to "collect the [x number] of [macguffins] to [save the world/defeat bad guy]." Zelda stories typically exist to structure a sequence of set-pieces, bosses, and environments into something that resembles a journey. That's it. Not exactly great literature. And this is why the narrative content of BotW is relegated to flashbacks: the structure of the storytelling needed to be changed to properly accommodate the new style of game design Nintendo was going for.

These games have charming characters, but very little is typically done with them, either. I'd argue the depiction of Princess Zelda in BotW is one of the best in the series in this regard. She has an actual character arc, and, for this series, a decently nuanced portrayal.

@T7Hokage017 Let me guess: the english voice acting for Princess Zelda? It didn't bother me, but a lot of people seem to hate it.

Regarding quantity/quality of story in Zelda games, I don't necessarily think the games need strong central narratives. I would like to see the narrative content in quests be improved upon, though. I'm not asking for TW3-tier quests, but way too many sidequests in BotW devolve into busywork. I think the side-content in Majora's Mask is a great model for how the next Zelda game should improve on BotW's formula.

@Ralizah
I agree with your statement. Because of the new open world style Nintendo hasn't really done in many games before, there had to be some story sacrifices. I also agree with your opinion on Zelda. Since she was shown a lot in the game, she has the most character development, making her depiction great.

As opposed to all the glorious stories of previous Zelda games?

@The-Senate-66 : I don't think any game should be played for the story.

The whole point of games (as far as I am concerned) is the element of interactivity. A great game should enable the player to tell their own story.

I tend to strongly dislike games that are filled with cutscenes. If I wanted to watch a movie, I'd pop in a Blu-ray.

Well let's talk about XC2 then. All in all, I'd rate this game a fat 8.5. But I'm actually not sure why, because the majority of the game is, in my unpopular opinion, actually a f****** load of trash! I'm talking about 90% of the sidequests and a large chunk of the main story content.

Usually a quest will go like this:

Start quest at person Y > go talk to X in a super annoying to reach location > wander around looking for the entrance point for half an hour, already finding yourself to slowly get bored > find the entrance and realize you'll have to change up your entire party to get the required field skills > enter and change your party back in case a battle will come > find out that X is stuck in ice, once again change your entire party up, for the third time in less than 2 minutes just to get the required field skills > free X and change party again for the fourth time in 3 minutes > talk to X > receive 4 entirely new quests just to get items necessary to complete the initial quest > notice that they're vague and don't have markers > try your best, but after wasting hours and just getting bored, Google a guide to be able to even complete it in less than 1,000 hours > go to the first quest/location > battle an enemy & collect item, simple enough > go to the second location > once friggin' again change up your entire party to satisfy required field skills & collect item > swap the f*** back again > go to third location - another obscure unreachable place, wander around and find it after half an hour or give up & Google the entrance point > change up your friggin' team to get the required friggin' field skills to unlock the friggin' item > enemy spawns in a cutscene, preventing you from entering the menu before it initiates combat, beating it takes ages because of the distorted party setup > change party baaaack > go to location 4 > game gives you a break and just lets you collect the item, whoa > return to person X to complete the initial quest > complete the quest after all this work? HAH! I was only telling you half the truth! Go to Nopon Y in Argentum for the other half > Nopon Y tells you Mehmehmeh! ask Nopon Z in Gormott > Nopon Z will only give you the info for 50,000 gold - pay > Mehmehmehmeh! I'm stupid and suffer from dementia! I actually don't know what I was gonna tell you but I won't pay you back anyway! Go ask Nopon X in Morytha! > go to Nopon X, who is in a deep sleep and won't wake up > change up your... ugh... entire... party to get... the required... field skills... field skills... FIELD SKILLS... FIEDLEWF#@$#@$# - Nopon X wakes up > Nopon X gives you location A, where surely you will finally find the object you were aiming for since the beginning > once again restore your party setup, noticing aggression in your button presses and releasing sighs of frustration at this unnecessary, annoying & never ending menu chore > location A proves to be false! Wow! But it has a clue leading towards location B > location B is in a #$%##@$ unreachable place, Google or search around for ages and find that you have to... wel... > FIIIEELDDD SKIILLLSSSSSS > change team BAAACKCKKK > arrive at location B, you find yourself in a huge boss battle, finally some actual fun/gameplay > after winning you get the object > return to person Y and actually complete the quest > wonder what the hell you just did to yourself and why.

The game design is the exact opposite of what it should be. Instead of fun it's actually wildly unfun. These quests are a test of mental sanity. Every step is a nuisance. Every little detail is a chore. A quest is a test of patience, attempting to see how much sh** can be thrown at you before you break and put the game away for a few days/weeks. It's just not fun. It's a game that fails to be fun. It fails at the one thing it should be. So why does it score so good? Even with me?

Because yet I'm so freaking addicted I can't stop putting myself through this. In fact, I got 100% completion yesterday. Why? Why?! I'm sure people here can relate.

Also, are quests in Torna this pathetic? If so, I might stay off it and just start the XC remake next month.

@Sculptor Well, but, no, er, I mean, that’s spot on...

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is like a big puppy that chewed up your slippers and made a mess on your carpet. You know you should be angry with it, but you can’t help but forgive it. Unless you don’t like dogs to begin with (for dogs, read grindy JRPGs leaning heavily on shonen anime tropes).

That said, I never met a single roadblock in XC2 that wasn’t story-gated. I always had enough materials or elements or whatever to get through most things, because I developed a kind of OCD compulsion to pick up everything.

@Sculptor Oh god, I've never read a description of a game so spot on. I loved XC2 but it took me like a year to compete after ditching it several times in desperation. That's the reason I'm hesitant to get the Torna expansion (though I heard people say it's better than the normal game) and I'm completely not sold on the remake. So scared it's gonna be the same grind. lol

@Sculptor, @Dusk, Torna is very sidequest oriented (you have to complete most of them in order to advance the main story even), however unlike the main game you have a set party, so you'll obtain the field skills you'll need just by playing.

@RR529 But how's the entire experience compared to the normal game? are the objectives clearer? How do you customize without binding blades? O:

@Dusk, I'd say most of the sidequests are pretty clear cut & nearby, but it does have it's fair share of more involved ones (the biggest I can think of revolves around smashing green barrels scattered around the game world, which activates near the beginning of the game, but you won't be completing until near the end if you decide to persue it). There's only two Titans in the game though (Gormott, which you should be familiar with if you've already cleared the main game, and is a bit smaller here I believe, and Torna, which is segmented up into smaller, more easily explored regions), so I wouldn't worry too much about getting lost or overwhelmed.

Also, what kind of customization are you talking about?

@Dusk @RR529 Honestly, in terms of both quality and ease of completion, the side-quests in Torna blow the quests from both mainline Xenoblade entries out of the water. They're almost all fun (setting aside the green barrels quest and maybe one or two others), and a lot of them have fun narrative content.

The combat system is so nicely streamlined as well.

I liked Xenoblade 2 a lot in spite of its many flaws, but it's hard to really find much to fault Torna with. Some people don't like how you have to do almost all of the side-quests to beat the game, but if you just think of those "side-quests" as part of the main story content (because, in a way, they kind of are), then it's pretty amazing from beginning to end.

I'm really, really hoping Monolith took a hard look at the quests in the original game when creating the Definitive Edition so as to improve on them.