Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

Xenoblade 2 had more variety, so it was fine. Xenoblade 1 took far too long to explore

God I love emulation! Sonic Retro just archived their fan hack entries from all their competitions between 2012-2019. It's a fantastic collection. Definitely go check it out if you're into that.

Oh and someone on romhacking just gave Kirby's Dreamland on Gameboy the DX color love Nintendo never did. What a time to be alive

I can't stand new pixel-art. When I'm going through the eshop I could find a game with a cool looking title picture and a really good synopsis but if the gameplay is all made up of pixel art I can't bring myself to even check it out. I love the old SNES and NES games but they used pixel art because that was what they had available at the time. Retro gaming has it's place in my heart but when it comes to the switch I want my games to look the part of a 21st century experience.

@JoeM103 I'm pretty sick of this too. I grew up with the SNES and a lot of those games are timeless to me, but when modern games delibrately have a retro look seems uninspired in most cases.

@JoeM103 I'm with you. It would be nice to filter out all 2d pixel art games Anyone else reading, no offense intended. I still respect 2d pixel art, I've just already gotten my retro gaming out of my system.

Snes? It wasn't that long ago Nintendo was still using pixel art for some of their bigger franchises like Fire Emblem and Pokémon.

When Nintendo does it it's usually a nod to their past. When indie developer #31415926 does it it's usually to communicate to the player a sense of nostalgia (although I suppose that's true for either case). Eh, whatever the reason is it just doesnt do it for me. I completely forgot Fire Emblem had pixel character models in it.

Unpopular Opinion:

Most video games do not get the "choices matter" and "moral dilemma" concepts right. Most games can pretty much be divided into three categories in regards to choices:
1. All options basically mean the same thing, beside 1 or 2 choices throughout (most JRPGs for example).
2. Games with obvious "good" and "evil" choices, usually games that present you with darker paths to take though they are sometimes not obvious. This is a step in the right direction, but it basically boils down to 2 different playstyles. (A lot of Western RPGs like Divinity OS 2, Vampire the Masquerade... heck, even a few of the Bioware games).
3. Those are the worst criminals in my eyes - games that present you with choices that mean nothing. These vary from choices that look like they might mean something, but it doesn't effect anything whatsoever (even sometimes just locks you out of other content) to even bigger ***** who present "moral dilemmas" that seem legit, but with one leading to an obviously positive outcome and one leading to an obviously negative outcome (most games that pride themselves with "choice", ranging from Dragon Age to Witcher) - those choices are basically a roulette - there's nothing to think about or to "live with", as with true moral dilemmas.

I can think of a few instances of great element of choice in modern gaming, one of the most recent ones I remember is in "Sinking City". There's a part which I stumbled upon - after discovering some organization is evil and a guy that works for them is good - on talking to him again, I suddenly had the option to tell him to "run away from this town", never saw him again, but it felt like a great choice that shows player agency. That doesn't mean that a few games don't do choices justice. And even among the culprits I mentioned earlier, they do possess some interesting choices SOMETIMES (for example, any game with romance elements lets you "choose" a companion, slightly different tinged endings and such), but still, the bottom line is:

Games do not really understand "choices" and "moral dilemmas" mean.

@kkslider5552000

I found that Xenoblade was quite well paced up until eryth sea. From then onwards it dragged for me. I think it was a combination of bland sidequests, lack of challenge, lack of new mechanics and the Mechonis areas being less interesting to look at.

I might be coming off like I'm hating on Xenoblade, but I've finished the first 2 and almost finished the 3rd game. I wouldn't spend 300 hours+ on games I don't like. I think the world design is top tier, and the soundtrack is amazing but I'm genuinely struggling to recall one of the sidequests from the original game.

@Dusk I think you're right In most cases. I dislike games that feel like whatever you pick is the wrong answer. Also games where you feel like a bystander who is just choosing whether to smile or look mopey.

The games that I feel did choice well are Fallout New Vegas and Detroit. I also think Silent Hill Shattered Memories was ahead of its time.

The choices in the Telltale Walking Dead games were when I got over that gimmick. It was diminishing returns - at first it feels so purposeful but by the 3rd game I didnt really care. I knew everyone was having basically the same gameplay experience as me.

And Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was great. While I hated the frozen nightmare parts, it didnt stop me from completing it twice.

@Losermagnet @Wargoose I should check that Silent Hill game, is it on Switch?

I really hate the roulette type the most. I remember one instance from the Witcher where there's a wounded soldier that can take shelter with some family...

Anyways, they make it sound like it's a choice that might have drawbacks as taking shelter and not taking shelter both have risks and rewards, but lo and behold - one of them leads to "everyone lives", the other to "everyone dies". There's no indication to what happens - this isn't testing my morals, it's testing my luck.

I'm not sure how unpopular this is, but I'm glad point and click adventure games died as a major genre. They still exist but are not the best sellers they once were. Their major problem is you have to think link the developers in order to proceed. In very few of them is the logical answer the correct one. The reason for this is to pad out the playtime by having you walking around stumped. In one nameless game, I had to use a pinecone as bait to hook a fish. Unfortunately, for reasons that will remain unknown, you could not pick up the five or so good pinecones sitting on a table. I didn't bother waiting around to find out the solution. Uninstalled.
Other famous examples:
Myst IV: The "emulate a bird call you only heard once to scare off a bunch of monkeys" puzzle. I went to walk through on this one, it said "Trial and error".
King's Quest V: Don't pick up the cat at the beginning of the game, get stuck later.
The Longest Journey: The chapter one puzzle involving a rubber ducky.
Gabriel Knight 3: The infamous cat-hair mustache puzzle.
Still Life: The bake cookies puzzle which was not plot related, but there to pad out play time by being obtuse.

@Dusk Unfortunately no. Wii and PS2 exclusive I think. I think it's a pretty pricey game now, too. Definately my favorite non-classic era Silent Hill.

@Wargoose

Those are also valid points.

Tbh, let me double down on my main point. Xenoblade 1 is one of my favorite games literally ever, and I adore its arguably absurd length and I STILL think parts of it should've been changed/cut down/I totally get if people don't like parts of the 2nd half of the game even if I will defend parts of it as some of the most satisfying I've ever played. So if I'll concede that on one of my favorite long games, yeah games are too long too often. Imagine if it had half the sidequests but they were memorable.

Though I should've mentioned that like many things, the worst part about games being long is that it happens too often in games it really shouldn't have because your game has to be too long now if you want to sell it at full price. (people who ignore Luigi's Mansion 3 existing I guess :V) Like either sell a shorter game at 60 or be willing to actually sell a game at a cheaper price, not everything needs to be 60 dollars lol. The idea that games NEED to be long is stupid.

this isn't even getting into the stupid microtransaction 60 dollar multi-players games that want you to play forever, **** those games generally speaking, that trend makes me glad i stuck with nintendo tbh

@kkslider5552000 my issue with most of these modern 'games as service' experiences is they're all so vanilla. Take away the constant updates, and they're not actually that fun to play. It feels like the levelling up is the reason for playing.

Sticker Star isn't bad, just a bit boring.

@Wargoose like what games? I play warzone and as a Game as service type game, the base COD gameplay is way above any others in the BR genre.

@diwdiws I was thinking Destiny, rocket league, fortnite, street fighter V, apex legends, Smite, Mortal Kombat 11, The Sims 4, Animal Crossing. I'm sure there are others. They're all solid games, but are any of them games that you feel happy about playing for 200 hours+ which is what it feels like they're built to do. I end up seeing my playtime on some of these, and end up feeling wow that was a waste of time.

@jump My hatred of new pixel art was fully directed at your profile picture. I'm glad that the message got through. Jk Haha
Are you referring to the FE games on handheld? That kind of backs up my point, they are using some pixel art sprites so that they can fit a much bigger game onto a small cartridge. I think its the pure volume of games on the eshop that have used pixel art that has made me feel this way.