Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

I agree, but only in the context of trying to find most of the moons. Trying to explore the samey buildings and alleys to find all the things was really obnoxious after a while.

I think that level is the best example of both the highs and lows of the game.

As someone whose favorite genre is JRPGs, I feel like I've been falling out of love with them lately because I'm just not a fan of the modern take on the genre. I'm a big fan of classics like FF (mostly IV-VII, but I had fun with what I played of all of the first seven and a couple others after that point), Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, Pokemon, and the likes, and I personally get the feeling that the genre has shifted very far from what made me love those games. I love turn-based RPGs, but it seems like these days, most JRPG fans and developers just don't see them as relevant anymore. As such, most big RPGs now are either flashy action RPGs or turn-based RPGs that also have a VERY heavy focus on either being much more story/text-heavy or mixing in other genres (Light novel, social/dating sim, things like that). You still get the occasional Dragon Quest XI or Octopath (both of which are among my absolute favorite games of the last decade, with DQXI being in my top 3 of all time), but it seems like most developers/publishers are just pushing for more actiony games or social sims and it's kind of turned me off from the genre lately. There are some more action-focused RPGs I've liked lately (Xenoblade is my favorite series of all time, and I enjoyed what I played of Nier: Automata), but I personally can't stand the super text-heavy/social simulator RPGs. I know Fire Emblem: Three Houses is generally praised as the best in the series, but while I thought the actual battles and customization options were fantastic, I thought the monastery segments were a tedious slog and the high school setting just felt like IS was trying to hop on the bandwagon and I personally can't stand the high school stuff (Those days are behind me and I don't want to revisit them with virtual characters). I had fun with 3H, but it's easily my least favorite of the FEs I've played (which is 3H and the 3DS entries so far) and I'd say it's just good rather than great. Aside from Sea of Stars and Eiyuden Chronicle, there really aren't any currently announced RPGs I'm really excited for, which is disappointing as someone who's loved this genre ever since I first played Pokemon Silver.

On a similar note, I can't stand visual novels either. I liked what I played of the Ace Attorney series (And I'd like to get to the others in the future), but I have no interest in playing any other VNs personally.

For a more positive one, I loved Xenoblade X to death (It's my favorite game of all time) and I feel like it got a lot more hate than it deserved. It reviewed well, but I've always seen it heavily criticized by series fans for focusing much more on exploration and combat than the story. It wasn't meant to be a very story-heavy RPG and I personally think it's unfair for people to judge it as if that was its goal, it's an incredible journey with deep combat options and an engaging open world to explore and I love it for that (I also enjoyed the story, it's not as deep as the other entries but I think the main story, sidequests, and exploration all contribute to a fantastically built world). I also don't think the soundtrack is anywhere near as bad as a lot of other fans say; it's not as consistently fantastic as 1 or 2 in that regard, but it has some of the best tracks in the series in my opinion (Uncontrollable, Sylvalum Night, In the Forest, and Theme X/The Way are a few examples). Unfortunately, I don't think Monolith or the fans really care about it enough for it to get a second chance through a port or a sequel (And Takahashi himself said it would cost too much).

@VIIIAxel I'd play a sequel to Xenoblade X. I liked the first ones beginning a lot. It felt very grounded. Exploring new locations etc. I think the Skells could have been better. In my opinion they should have felt significantly different to fighting on foot.

I do struggle with monolithsofts characters and villains. I just think their strengths are in world design, they seem to struggle with telling a coherent story or creating characters I actually care about. I think their games would improve significantly, if they simply had villains with a clear motivation. They've got a habit of revealing the true villain, or their true motivation in the closing moments of a 100 hour game. Xenoblade 2 was the pinnacle of this for me, I remember my wife asking me what the game was about after I'd been playing for 50 hours. I had absolutely no idea lol.

@iKhan I felt like A Hat in Time was more of a mixed bag, personally. I thought Mafia Town was pretty mediocre and wasn't a great first impression for the game. The Battle of the Birds chapter was also pretty mixed, with the DJ Grooves sections feeling kind of uninspired while The Conductor sections were fairly interesting and had some fun moments.

Subcon Forest and Alpine Skyline are where the game really shined for me. Subcon Forest had the most interesting and varied Acts and was a really fun playground to explore. It also ended with an amazing boss battle. Alpine Skylines had the best platforming in the game. There wasn't a lot of story segments, it was just a pure platforming experience and it felt great.

Then the game goes downhill from here. The final boss was super disappointing, especially after what we got in Subcon Forest. The Arctic Cruise is a total nightmare to navigate and is easily the worst area in the game for me, which is weird for me because I usually love levels like that. Nyakuza Metro was alright, but it felt very similar throughout, and almost felt like they had run out of creative ideas.

If I were to go back to A Hat in Time, I would only do it for Subcon Forest and Alpine Skylines.

@VIIIAxel What would you describe as "too text heavy"? Persona 5 does have a ton of text, but there are plenty of other modern turn-based JRPGs out there that I think have about as much text as some of the games you listed, the 3DS has plenty of them if you haven't tried yet. There's the Etrian Odyssey series (not text heavy at all), Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, SMT 4 and SMT 4 Apocalypse, Bravely Default/Bravely Second, and The Alliance Alive, just to name a few. The Switch will also be getting SMT 5 and Bravely Default II soon. A lot of JRPGs have diverged into different paths/sub-genres, but I don't think traditional turn based JRPGs will ever die out completely.

In terms of visual novels, there are sort of two main categories. There's pure visual novels (Clannad, Steins;Gate) and then visual novels with some gameplay elements mixed in (Phoenix Wright, Professor Layton, Zero Escape, Danganronpa, Ghost Trick). If you enjoyed Phoenix Wright, you could try some of the others with a mixture of gameplay elements. The Danganronpa series has a pretty similar formula (story -> murder -> investigation -> trial), although it does have some minor "dating sim" elements thrown in which you might not like. I'd recommend the Zero Escape series, it has escape room segments mixed in, so if you've ever tried an escape room in real life and enjoyed it you'd probably enjoy this series. If you'd prefer not to try other VNs that's fine too, just figured I'd give some suggestions.

I enjoyed Xenoblade X but it's undeniably a game that's got a lot of rough edges, and it looks like it had to be finished off a bit of a rush despite its lengthy time in development overall.

The HUD is terrible with all that tiny text that's practically unreadable when playing on the pad, there's a distinct lack of tutorials with you having to consult the digital manual just to find out a lot of the basics, the character faces look like they're made out of plastic, Lin's cooking looks like it was drawn by someone for their first digital art lesson, and what on Mira were they smoking when they wrote that post-credits cut scene?

That said, I thought the Skell combat worked fine and it feels distinct enough from on foot for me. The big plus is that you gain the ability to perform a very quick takedown on a lot of high level enemies without having to go into the Ghostwalker/Overdrive/Potential stacking builds, which are only needed for superbosses and other very bulky enemies. While being able to engage enemies at longer range with beams and missiles might seem more realistic, the game mechanics just don't suit it, with the constantly respawning enemies and the relative ease of being able to run away. Ah well, it's an RPG not a flight sim.

So far as a sequel goes, I'd think that there's no chance. Even if the game had been a massive hit, Monolith set 1 and 2 in distinct universes (even if there's something of a common multiverse) so further games will probably continue that trend. The best we could hope for is a Switch port with a bonus epilogue in the fashion of Future Connected. With the healthy sales of 2 and DE there seems a decent chance that Nintendo would make the money available for that though, and maybe they could fix some of the shortcomings that I mentioned in the second paragraph while they were at it.

To me I'd described Xenoblade X as just a very weird take on the genre. JRPGs are so overly focused on a central narrative in my experience that having one where the focus is just to rebuild society via side content and the "main story" is more of an afterthought feels like one of the craziest, least traditional games in the genre. And there's a number of other things in the game that are so not what I'm used to from the genre. I think its one of the game's biggest strengths and weaknesses.

So to me, I feel like a lot of it was less because of development reasons and more because they did some weird things in that game, and some of them just didn't work out as well as you would hope for.

@Cynas

Different strokes I guess. I'd agree Mafia town is the weakest, but I thought it was just okay at it's worst. Battle of the Birds might actually be my favorite chapter. Even the Conductor levels, in particular The Big Parade, where really interesting to me.

Sunshine has so many flops in my eyes. I also wasn't a big fan of the sheer number of red coin levels in the game.

I thought that was exaggerated at first, but then I went back and counted and you're right. 24 red coin shines, one more than the base game of Mario 64 and only three less than the 150 star remake. And then there's the 24 blue coin shines. It really is that bad.

@Euler there was almost no original courses. If you do the math:

24 red coin levels +
24 blue coin sprites +
10 secret stages +
10 Boss fight shines =
68 unoriginal shines. More then half the game is unoriginal

@Apportal I wouldn't go quite that far. The boss fights aren't that bad, and the secret levels (while bland and sometimes cheap) were at least original.

Shooting the boar is completely optional, and there is a lot of other stuff to do in the game.

Nope, you don't need any raw meat at all. Any recipe with hot peppers will give you the necessary cold protection. Getting the coat from the old man requires a specific meal, but there are other ways to get it.

I think bird meat is good for that recipe too.

I'm not sure though. It's been a while.

You're good friend, it's totally alright to have conflicting opinions on a particular topic.

There are definitely some real obstacles in a lot of these games to the fun factor and the pedigree, unfortunately, doesn't always erase those uneven spots. Indeed this is the right place to post any gripes you may have. Hopefully the right answer will lead you closer to the fun you're in search of.

Was that an unpopular opinion? I read the original post and thought they were just stuck in the game.

Why is someone offended that they got reasonable advice about the game they're playing?

@Wargoose The strength of xc2s story is, really, that there are no villains. Everyone has a realistic motivation. Everyone is trying to make things "better" from their own perspective. None of them are truly wrong. Most of them are victims of either their own choices, choices they were caught up in, guilt over accidents and hard choices they made in a war.... Nature/life itself. There was no really power hungry cackling madman.... The character closest to that only really came to that point by ultimately trying to do good in a world that doesn't tolerate good, and after looking behind the curtain realized there's nothing to salvage.... A view somewhat shared by the motivations of some of the heroes as well.

Xc2 is one of the deepest stories because there isn't a force of good or a force of evil specifically but people and groups torn by unfortunate circumstances all handling it at odds with each other. One character stands as the "mastermind" but that character acted out of despair rather than any kind if personal or ideological gain. It's a cool story that way.

@kkslider5552000 because internet.

I love all the ports (particularly 6th & 7th gen games) that the Switch is getting, and am stoked for Super Mario 3D All Stars.

While I love new games (who doesn't), I really started following gaming during the 6th gen, and it's a real treat to play all these games that were the talk of the town back in the day that I never got to play due to limited funds as a kid (Katamari Damacy, the Devil May Cry's, Onimusha, etc.), plus some old favorites (Okami, FFX) with an HD coat of paint.

I'd love it if all the big Japanese companies each set up a studio that does nothing other than give their 6th/7th gen games an HD lick of paint/minor tweaks, and churned one out every month or two (this could serve really well for Konami, who seems to want to dip their toes back into gaming, but has had mixed results).

I agree. I didn't like the idea at first, but I'm getting more used to it now. Love the idea.