Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@Sunsy If I had to pick a game franchise that has one of the most toxic youtube cultures, it probably has to be the pokemon fandom, since poketubers are uber influential, and all pretty much check the boxes I despise. Some bigger ones have cult-like fanbases as well. Poketubers just generally overhype the games, make promises that the devs never made, and then get mad when the devs don’t do exactly what was “promised”…

The only poketuber I really like is Tyranitartube, since even after getting big, he still has hope for the series itself, and doesn’t fall into the usual trap.

But yeah, generally good gaming youtubers are hard to find.

@VoidofLight @Sunsy I think there a loads of great gaming (not necessarily Nintendo) Youtubers out there that aren't so click-baity. Namely, Scott the Woz, Austin Eruption, AntDude, SomecallmeJohnny, Pelvic Gaming, Tarks Gauntlet, RelaxAlax, Clemps, Caddicarus... I guess a common theme with them is that many of them look more at a back-catalog of games, rather than try to jump on everything current and trendy.

To be honest, I'm getting pretty sick of gaming news and hype culture in general. I barely even give the articles on this site more than a passing glance these days.

@Sunsy Have you tried Splash Dash (LS Mark)? He has quite a refreshing take on everything Sonic IMO.

@VoidofLight I was really unaware how Pokemon YouTubers were since I don't usually look at them. Then again, I've always been a casual fan of Pokemon, I like it, but I tend to follow games like Sonic and Mario more.

@Buizel I usually like to keep up with the news, but with rumors, I just wait until something is confirmed officially. With YouTube, they always seem to treat them as if it's going to happen. Still remember the Nintendo 64 Classic Edition picture being tossed around.

Making note, I've heard of LS Mark before, didn't know he started a dedicated Sonic channel. My problem is, whenever I look up a game, most of the time everyone seems to share the same opinion. If there is any differing opinions, like saying something positive about a widely disliked game, it gets drowned out by the more popular videos, making finding a different viewpoint harder.

I'll say this on the matter, people are allowed to change their opinions as time goes by. An example for me being my thoughts about Breath of the Wild. Infinite replay value, and I loved it unconditionally when it came out but it doesn't have the same Zelda game feel, and I'm fully comfortable saying I don't like it as a Zelda game.

I also didn't like FFXVI's look at first but when I looked at the Stranger of Paradise trailer I changed my mind almost instantly.

@TheJGG This happens to me alot as well, so I might play a game two or three times to make surer I'm not just wrapped up in the newness.

@TheJGG @Snatcher Indeed, this does happen to me too. Sometimes I'll find a game I played years ago, and sometimes I see if my thoughts on it change or not while I'm playing.

I always like going back to play older games I've played years ago.

I mean the problem here is that most of the good gaming Youtubers do (sometimes long) videos on odder and more out there gaming ideas (well things beyond just "is game good or bad?!" at least) in well edited, informative videos. And if you're not looking for that, you'll largely run into ok to meh to bad content. Admittedly, I also don't watch these channels enough, so I'm part of the problem but they're often some of the better stuff I watch on Youtube.

Like I remember this one video that was just an hour going over the history of speedrunning a single Mario Kart 64 course, and it was really good. There's no reason that should be an enjoyable use of my time, and yet it was.

Personally, these kind of videos always end up being great, even if they are on the niche side. I enjoyed videos talking about the Satellaview since it is an interesting piece of Nintendo and online gaming history, or a lesser known game being talked about. They're not as common as a news/rumors video or why a game is good or bad.

Sometimes looking up a series I like often results in "is this game good or bad" videos. When opinions tend to be the same, it does make me wonder "is this genuinely how they feel, or is it for clicks, or how will they feel if someone had a different opinion on the game?"

@kkslider5552000 Those are alright, but I mostly mean like.. gaming news, and opinions/reviews. It's hard to usually find good ones who actually talk about news anymore.. without forcing their own delusions into it.

@Snatcher Exactly. Often times I’d realise I was hyping up a game a bit, but other times I may have under appreciated it. Skyward Sword was weird, I loved it because it had dungeons but at the same time the dungeons were easy. Not challenging at all. Compared to Breath of the Wild’s though, I’ll take it.

@Sunsy Yep. I do that a lot. Especially games I played as a child, to see if the psychological lionising was earned or if it was just that, lionising. Ocarina of Time was much better than I thought, and conversely a game like Dora the Explorer was much worse.

I’m actually doing it a lot more thanks to the PS5 Director’s Cut editions that are coming out now. I’ve replayed Final Fantasy VII Remake, plus No Man’s Sky, and soon Ghost of Tsushima and Death Stranding. FF7 had a few tedious sections but was as enjoyable as I remember thankfully.

@TheJGG Yep, after playing mario odyssey For idk like 50 hours I noticed it wasn't the hottest perfect game I thought it was.

@TheJGG Neat, I always like to revisit games, and sometimes I do see if I feel like I did playing it years ago, or if my opinion changes. Though I wasn't talking about replaying a game and seeing if you have a different opinion on it. I think we all do that.

I was more or less thinking how people on YouTube tend to have the same opinions. For example, watching multiple videos on one game, and they all have the same take or it's similar. Just wanted to clear that up.

(TLOZ fan here)

I basically hate Zelda in BOTW.

She had such cool motivations and interests... She could've been badass! But she's this high-pitched ultra-feminine blonde that feels like she's about to fall and shatter like glass all the time and that to me feels like a lost opportunity, she could've been so AMAZING and cool and a strong character, I would've wanted to play as her instead of Link, but... no. Weak-looking stereotypical blond girly girl. She doesn't speak or act like she's weak, she's actually pretty brave and smart... It just pisses me off that she looks and sounds like she is. I feel she was designed to appeal to males like a waifu, and I feel completely out of the loop, when I know with those characteristics I COULD have liked her. Well... I'll always have Tetra.

(Note, just in case: I'm a woman.)

Unpopular opinion, I know. It's what you're here for, right?

@inenai I actually think that Zelda in BOTW has a very interesting character that suffers from a serious lack of utilisation. You could expand this criticism to the entire narrative as a whole because it almost entirely takes place before the player has any involvement.

I wouldn't say that Zelda is weak, the background details and lore make it very clear that the divine or magical part of her royal bloodline is running thin, diluting but she does her best despite it. It's quite clear from the battle scene that she is finally able to tap into that power, it's what saves Link and keeps Ganon at bay for over a hundred years. That dilemma of her weakened bloodline, pressure to be like her exalted ancestors and desire to be her own person isn't especially original but it is well done in the few glimpses we get of her, which makes me hopeful we do see her in action in the sequel.

But you're completely right, she could be amazing and might still be. Let's hope they do a better job with her in the next one.

@inenai While I wouldn't say I HATE Zelda in BoTW, I will admit she is my least favorite of the 3D Zelda games. In general, I feel like the story and characters in BoTW are a step down compared to most other Zelda's.

@inenai While BotW Zelda is probably not my favorite incarnation of her, I don't think her design appeals to the male fantasy at all, or that she's useless. She's a pretty decent character, but doesn't get a chance to actually shine at all due to the way that BotW's main story presents itself.

If BotW were a linear Zelda title, with her and Link traveling around Hyrule together, and she were to get more moments for her character.. it would've been better. Instead, we were presented with a memory system, which has disjointed moments that mean very little.

Also, you act like being feminine is bad, or that women can't be feminine while being badass.. when that's clearly untrue. Velvet from tales of Berseria is fairly feminine, but yet is a total badass in terms of her character, with her being able to relocate her own shoulder on a rock. I would say Zelda in BotW is pretty badass for containing a monstrosity for over 100 years, confining it to the castle so that it doesn't kill everyone in Hyrule.

Zelda has actual struggles and interests in BotW.. but again it just mostly comes down to the game not spending much time with her character, or showing actual growth or development. You just get bits and pieces that are chopped up. This is why people so badly wanted a prequel to BotW that actually told the story of what happened 100 years prior, as a bunch of people can't really say they liked the champions or Zelda that much. Instead we got Age of Calamity, so we sadly won't know what the original story was like.

If you were to watch all the cut scenes from BOTW, in a sensible order I'd think that it's totally Zelda's story. She's the only character of any significance who experiences growth to overcome adversity. The rest are just heroic archetypes of one form or another who don't change.

The problem comes in that just playing the game won't do that, and it's entirely possible to finish it without seeing the entirety of the story including one particular scene that's at the end of an optional quest line. So, you just get occasional clips of her failing and getting very angry and frustrated with it, so that's the overwhelming impression of her character that you're likely to walk away with.

@VoidofLight Male fantasy? who said that? That was like the last thing that popped into my head.

@Snatcher Kind of implied that by saying she was Waifu material in terms of design.

IMO BotW's Zelda, despite the structure of the narrative, is one of the only characters in this series who gets a proper, satisfying character arc. Despite how little of it there is, it's funny how much better that game is at the narrative stuff when it pops up than pretty much any of the linear Zelda games.

WAY better orchestrated than Tetra's arc (which is kinda the opposite, actually: she goes from competent to almost entirely useless, which is the opposite of empowerment, lol).

@VoidofLight I've always liked the subtle reversal of Zelda holding Calamity Ganon captive. You still have to "save the princess" in that game, but the small shift in focus makes it way less troubling.