Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@dionysos283 I didn’t play the Switch version, but I feel like your criticism of this game is on point. I didn’t feel like the game really put you into the mind of this character all that well. The puzzles where you have to line up the runes were supposed to mirror Senua’s mental state, but they didn’t feel that way. They felt like silly gameplay interludes that were more annoying than intriguing. The combat felt like God of War lite, without any unique embellishments.

There were two sections worthy of mention though. That boss fight in total darkness was suitably terrifying, mainly because you didn’t feel like you were in total control of the situation. I’d say the game works best when it throws you for a loop and makes you feel uncomfortable. Most of the time it’s stuff you’ve feel like you’ve seen in other AAA games though.

I would also say the ending has a good emotional payoff, but it can’t really redeem the overall mundane final hour.

Animal Crossing: NH and Zelda: BotW are the biggest disappointments of this generation of consoles.

The more I see games using item degradation as a game mechanic the less I like it.

I think you just don't like those types of games. They are both solid and I don't care for Animal Crossing and I have yet to really get into BotW. If you judge the games just on item degradation you should probably look a little deeper. Item degradation is common in a lot of games.

Not sure these are unpopular opinions around these parts of the internet, but here goes:

• Brawl is the second best Smash game, above Melee but below Ultimate
• Super Mario works best within linear levels
• Most Rare games are highly overrated

I think the first two are self-explanatory but I'd like to give a bit more insight into my third "unpopular opinion". First off, I'm not saying they're bad games, far from it, but they're so often loaded with praise that I feel people tend to forget the things that weren't so great about them. From DKC's way too tough difficulty, the endless collect-a-thon madness in their 3D platformers in which you have to go back-and-forth with different power-ups or characters padding the game out for way too long, the horrible controls in Conker's Bad Fur Day, the need to save every single NPC in Jet Force Gemini,... I honestly could go on.

I've never played a single Rare game that didn't seriously bother me at some aspect of it to the point I couldn't enjoy the game to its fullest. Again, they're far from bad, but I believe too many people are looking at these games with rose-tinted glasses.

Can't speak for Animal Crossing but for Zelda I think weapon durability isn't so bad, and it's actually a clever progression system. It subtly ensures that you can’t ravage a camp full of silver enemies right off the bat. But as you go, you’ll gradually get better and better weapons to destroy them easily. Weapons come and go but if you were to take a screenshot of your weapon inventory once a week throughout your entire playthrough, it would improve continuously. This is basically how it works in all other Zelda games. Durability also forces more strategy, as you must decide whether to use your good weapons on this fight or to save them for a tougher one later on. The power-up inventory in Super Mario Bros. 3 (of all places) used this mechanic well and makes for a deeper gameplay experience.

To get an idea of how game-breaking an infinite durability sword would be, one need only complete the Trial of the Sword to fully upgrade the Master Sword. The fully-upgraded Master Sword can still break (in which case it needs to recharge) but it lasts an incredibly long time. You can easily take out any boss or enemy camp with it, multiple guardians, etc and it's more powerful than all but a select few weapons. Once you've unlocked it, you'll rarely use anything else. But it's an "Infinity + 1 sword" that only the best players can use, usually unlocked mid-late game. That is to say, it's so hard to get that if you're good enough to do so, there's no way in hell you'd even need it because you're bound to be swimming in royal/royal guard/savage lynel weapons anyway. If everyone that finished the Great Plateau were awarded a much weaker weapon (say, 1/4 as much damage) with similar durability ("Decayed Master Sword" or "Apprentice Sword"), it would defeat the purpose of most other weapons and mess up the progression system (as bosses and enemies would be much easier to defeat early on).

Yeah, weapon durability is a good thing in Breath of the Wild. It can be annoying at times, but if weapons didn't break then you'd just find a good one then use that for the whole game, which would make the combat a lot less varied.

Hmm, I think you'd naturally replace weapons with better ones .... While most of the decent ones seemed similar enough to each other they didn't really make combat different Perhaps they should have made weapons rather more durable & not provided so many of them?

@Anti-Matter I agree with that. I can understand the charm, especially for kids, but that's something that has always been frustrating with AC....it's a video game that expects you to plan your life around it. That doesn't work after age 8 or so.... I'm surprised they haven't included some way to make it suit people's lives more. I get that it's partly the design but.....it basically means the only time I ever see my island is at night, I miss most daytime events, most special events, and then when I do have time to play, I have to wait another day for resource respawn. ACNH added a ton of further irritation, but that's one thing that's always been an issue for AC.

@kkslider5552000 One party member and one slave buddy. But the overall structure of the game is much more "game-like" than the somewhat chaotic quest system of "go to the following 5 floors of the 20 floor dungeon you already played through 4 times and touch more tiles." Though the difficulty can also have ultra frustrating spikes.

@Magician Item degradation is controversial but very functional in BotW. Because items are everywhere, it's no big deal to just keep an inventory and keep switching them around, and it gives lots of chances to try lots of things. Once you get the Master Sword, a lot of that stops being as important anyway. Item degradation in ACNH on the other hand obliterates the fun, chill, play world where everything is so much more perfect than in real life. "#$@ it the HDMI switch broke AGAIN!?!? I just replaced that @#@# thing twice in 3 years!!!" gets transcribed into gameplay, now with 300% more resource grinding.

@BruceCM That would just become a Diablo-like system and you'd need tons of varied loot. BotW keeps things elegant and simple where the complexity kind of comes from how you just do to it rather than "TP-ing to Town and spending half an hour comparing numbers"

Huh? Why would you need tons of varied loot for my suggestion .... ? Less weapons, that last longer. Simple!

@BruceCM
I agree with you. The durability on weapons is way too short in BotW and I never liked the execution of it in BotW.

While not a bad concept, there are numerous ways to improve it. First of all, I'd increase the durability of each weapon by at least a factor of two. Secondly, I'd give a clear indication on how long your weapon is going to last. And finally, I'd make it possible to fix weapons outside of combat.

It would erase a lot of frustration if you ask me.

Devils third whas the best game and most fun game what released on the Wii U.
I think I clocked in over 700 hours the multiplayer whas so amazing, and the story way over the top.

3D sonic games are more fun then the 2D ones.

Yeah, it didn't ruin the game for me, or anything, since there always were plenty of weapons, @Shulkalot but it was a bit of a pain.... I got the hang of throwing them at enemies when they were getting weak, though

I think more games should have options to play them in a "vegan" way. Where for example cooking and crafting can be entirely done without animal products, as in real life. I'm thinking of Far Cry series and Assassin's Creed series now, for example. I don't want to have to kill 10 tigers or harpoon 5 whales to their death (or buy the skins) in order to get an upgrade to a pouch to hold some ammo, only to then unlock the next upgrade requiring double the amount of even more specific animals. And I'm sure many people that eat animals in real life even dislike whaling and other forms of hunting, and know that they'd easily (and much safer than hunting tigers and whales, and in reality with much less work and specific knowledge and tools required) be able to craft something to hold some equipment from palm leafs or whatever.

Also, the monster in Carrion isn't necessarily "the bad guy" (the humans are definitely not "innocent"), the Wii was a great primary console with plenty of diverse and great games, and Playstation 1 and 2 controllers are awful. I'm sure there's a lot more, as I tend to have some pretty unpopular opinions.

@Shambo Yours is probably the most Unpopular gaming opinion I have ever heard/seen

But judging from your avatar picture and your profile I guess you are a hardcore vegan so it makes sense for you to demand such games.

@Shambo My girlfriend is vegan and she hates it when people says stuff like that as it ends up with people generalizing all vegans as a bunch of nutters forcing their values onto others.

@jump Can you tell me what part made me seem like a "nutter"? These game mechanics just make zero sense, and are absolutely not enjoyable to people who have fought and took great risks for animal rights and animal freedom throughout, well, over 16 years now, causing some severe ptsd in some cases. Some of my very best friends are "just animals", as a child some of my best friends were butchered, literally forced a knife in their throat, and I was literally forced to join in eating them - which I refused obviously. I walked in on a good friend of mine that happened to be a lamb, being decapitated and gutted. And they tried to make me eat him! How am I the "nutter", how am I forcing my ideas? And how did I do any of that in the original post, by just wishing games would give other options than forcing players to either be handicapped for the entire game, of have to do stuff that makes them dislike their own protagonist? People will generalise every group they're not part of regardless, anyway. Even mentioning the word "vegan" when being asked if you have any dietary preferences (while veganism isn't about a diet), gets you all the same reactions. Being quiet about it doesn't help a living soul from ending up dead in a supermarket refrigerator. I've heard plenty of times that speaking up has negative effects, but the same people always ask among vegans how we cope with meat eating family. While I don't have meat eating family anymore.

@Zuljaras I did hear some people complain about these things, probably less so than I do though, but then again, most of my friends are vegan as well, or at least don't like to see animals hurt minding their own business. It's mostly stuff like "why does eating meat restore double the amount of health that eating a bunch of bananas does?", which in my experience makes zero sense because I got over several health issues by living on raw fruits for two years (including protein imbalance in my blood, not kidding, and the more obvious one of being overweight before and tiring very quickly, in contrast with starting boxing and physical training just to get rid of my energy). Now I live with a couple of rescued animals in a forest.
But of course the real issue in video games is indeed that I have a hard time spending a whole game with a protagonist that has such different ideologies and moral standpoints from my own. If a game had its players shooting random dogs or cats and eat them, or clubbing seals for "materials", more people would probably agree it's not a nice thing to do. If a protagonist has a trait which to you as a player is not done, it's hard to enjoy the experience (but sometimes I can get over it, simply by accepting that the protagonist is a character I don't HAVE to like, or definitely don't have to agree with on everything. It's not me, it's a character in a story, one that I just happen to control (and can mostly steer away from doing what I wouldn't do). I mean, I played countless shooters, but I couldn't even aim an empty gun at a real living being in real life if a loaded gun was pointed at me.

@Shambo I am sorry but such ideologies should be discussed in forums that are FOR them. This is gaming community and "vegan" and such things should NOT affect gaming AT ALL.

That is like me an atheist to say "I am uncomfortable playing games with religious content!" or "My protagonist is a religious person and I do not like it!".

Also can you imagine a fantasy game where you gather faux leather? It is impossible.

I think people in general seem to have difficulty in seperating themselves from the media and fiction they consume.

@Zuljaras which would be perfectly within your "god given" rights
no seriously, if it did make you uncomfortable, which is less of an unpopular opinion than it may seem, as religious signs are often censored in games in certain regions, it would be nice to have the option, no? If there's a game about crusading, where you're actually expected to control a crusader killings "heathens", I'm sure you can imagine you wouldn't very much relate with the character you're supposed to relate to, let alone performing those actions. I imagine you and me both probably wouldn't play that game. Many things that have far less impact on real lives are flat out censored in video games, such as the age of certain characters, their clothes, or even the gender. Some people are arguably taking things too far looking for racism and sexism in media these days, and finding things to be offended about to the point of altering history because "more women should be on the battlefield in, well, Battlefield". But I'm not saying I want all of it altered as if it never happened, there is definitely a point to be made for historical correctness or credibility at least for example, but even then most censoring doesn't mind that, as with some WW2 games censoring swastikas for example. And I'm certainly not advocating for censorship either. I'm saying that I want the option to not have to do it more often, as with BotW for example, I never hunted in that game, and cooked vegan.
As for fantasy games, in certain settings, especially far removed from realism or on the contrary, where some form of "credibility" has to be maintained even in a fantasy setting resembling a real time period, I can overlook it. But, for example, when I was interested in how Red Dead Redemption 2 turned out, and saw many reviews going on and on about how realistic the hunting was (and what a chore it seemed even), I just knew I'm not touching that game.
When I played Minit, I was very much surprised to see a "vegan mode" option, even if it only changed one line in the game ("hamburgers" into "veggie burgers" I think it was), and was used to unlock another mode in an alternate way. It's a funny thing, of little impact, like the option to change the direction toilet paper rolls are mounted in Thimbleweed Park, but one that for obvious reasons speaks to me personally way more. Or the loading screen text in Snake Pass, "did you know that Noodle is a vegetarian?". In Xenoblade Chronicles X there was a mission to "cull" some nests of some basically harmless creatures, and just as I was about to say "screw this, I'm not doing it", the game actually gave the option to not murder a nest of newborns, and just report back pretending you did it. I'm sure you can imagine it's just nice for someone like me to see these things.