Topic: Games you recently DROPPED

Why was my comment inappropriate? Was it too spoilery?

Shiren The Wanderer The Mystery Of Serpentcoil Island
This game was a trap. I did expect to lose all of the items, when dying, but I also have to start from level 1. And the game is much harder, than it looks. Seriously what a waste, the game would have been so nice, but I do not play for the pain.

Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon Played this for a couple of hours and just couldn't get past the 3rd level. I generally like 'block-clearing' puzzle games, but the blocks & enemies just go far too fast in this one, to the point you get quickly overwhelmed with no way to recover.

I didn't like the rogue-like element either - the powerups were quite useful, but didn't last long enough and having to constantly watch your health as you cleared enemies was pretty frustrating - I often got caught with enemies surrounding me with no route to a potion to replenish HP. If it was a straight puzzle game with a lower difficulty curve (and no health bar) I think I would've really liked it, but as it stands, it's not for me.

Reminds me that I should actually get around to playing the proper Shovel knight games at some point...

I had to drop Alisa: Developer's Cut recently. As a huge fan of classic Resident Evil I really wanted to love this game, and it certainly nails the atmosphere, but it was the combat that killed it for me. There's a ton of annoying enemies that crawl around on the ground that are nearly impossible to hit without taking damage yourself. I also find there's just a lack of feedback when shooting enemies. In RE when you shoot a zombie, there'll be a big pixelated blood burst and it'll stagger backwards. In Alisa, I felt like I was using a potato gun half the time. I'll probably give it another go at some point, maybe I just need more time to come to grips with the combat system, but I was just getting too frustrated so I had to stop.

Quake 2. I loved it back in the day, playing ,and replaying, the campaign co-op with friends many times. Now more than 25 years later, I feel the level design does not hold up and I'm not enjoying it. I can understand why they added the compass for the remaster.

In contrast, I loved the Quake 1 remaster, even though, back in '96, I dismissed the OG, due to its brown aesthetic. Also, 3D accelerator cards had not yet hit the mainstream, so it didn't look particularly good in software rendering mode.

@Jhena Yeah, that's the difference between a roguelike and a roguelite.

Roguelike = permadeath, restart from zero.

Roguelite = gradual progression for easier subsequent runs.

I couldn't get into PoP: The Lost Crown as much as I was hoping. The gameplay is fluid and polished, but the general pacing just felt like such a slog, from how huge the rooms were to how tanky the enemies were. I couldn't imagine taking the time to backtrack for everything especially since half of the collectibles were these lore items I had zero interest in, and for most of my playtime, I kinda just wanted to play other metroidvanias like Metroid Dread or Hollow Knight instead.

@Magician
Thanks, but to be sure, from now on, before I buy a game, I will check what genre it is. If it is rogue-anything, I will not even consider buying it.

@OldManHermit that's what held me back from buying. I watched SwitchUps review and they went into detail about frustrating moments like that. Or as soon as you come down a set of stairs multiple enemies are gathered and will pounce on you. It sounds fun enough, but that's enough to put me off.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

The gameplay is still fun, if you like Xenoblade. What I do not like, is the world and mood. Xenoblade 2 felt alot more lively, vibrant and pleasant and had many different and interesting citys/ villages. The world feels innocent. The world in 3 feels too much, like doom and gloom and the colonies are really boring. The use of swear words is also bad, I can not remember 2 having those. Maybe this is a more direct translation this time, since I remember animes often having them.

Spoiler about the villains, though I think it is shown pretty early in the game: The alphabet villains love misery so much, they made a movie out of the protagonists journey and sit in a theatre watching it. I heavily dislike misery. When I play a game, I want to feel elevated, especially when I am playing a 100+ hours game, full of grind. Even if there was a group in Mobius consisting of N, I, N, T, E, N, D and O, this would be a movie, I would not want to watch, because I dislike dark and depressing stories.

I really hope, their next game will be much more uplifting, but I think JRPGs are not for me, because they are usually dark and sad... and grindy.

Thankfully Mario exists, so Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, here we gooo!

...

Look I'm not one of those people that bemoans anime fanservice but if you're gonna make me choose one, like...c'mon.

@kkslider5552000
Do you mean the choice between anime fanservice or swear swords? If so, yes anime fanservice is definitely worse. And I did not like it in 2. Easily the worst part of it.

All around, I guess Xenoblade 1 is still my favourite, but I love the world in 2 and the vibe of adventure. And the games do get smoother gameplaywise, with each entry. Well I guess I can not have the best of them all in one game.

I don't know If I posted this on here, but I'm going to pick up klonoa door to phantomile again, it's been years now and I'm revisting games on my ps3 again. And after finally being cuphead after quitting it years ago, I think I have enough patience now to beat it.

Wish me luck guys!

Yeah, I don't think most JRPGs are for you then. A lot of them delve into heavier topic matter, and tend to be more depressive or at least carry themselves with a more serious tone. It's a genre full of narrative-based games, where story takes lead over gameplay most times. I personally loved 3 due to how serious and depressive it is, but I also tend to like more hopeless narratives. One of the games I just beat was Persona 3 Reload. A game which at its core, centers around death.

@VoidofLight
I tried to play Persona 3 FES a few times. The most interesting part about it is, how fast it bored me each time, so I just dropped it. The game starts really interesting and fresh though.

Still thanks for the warning, because I was thinking about getting Reload a few months ago.

And I will not give up on jrpgs in general. I am sure, there will be great stuff with awesome atmosphere, like Terranigma, Secet Of Mana or Final Fantasy 3-10 , from time to time.

Edit: I am interested in Granblue Fantasy Relink.

@waveboy
I remember watching a playthrough, of the original Saturn game of Panzer Dragoon. The game is really something else. The gameplay, the atmosphere, the visuals and the soundtrack, felt unique to me.

Your comment made me want to play the original Klonoa games and the Wii version, to see and feel the difference, for myself. I had a good time with Phantasy Reverie.

I tried the demo for Mario Rabbids: Sparks Of Hope, but not for very long. I just couldn't get into the controls. It looked like Mario, but there was something jarring about not jumping and faster paced. Felt too Clunky for me to deal with. Sure there is a great game in there, but it wasn't grabbing me.

@waveboy Alan wake 2 and dead space remake don't disappoint. Judging by your love for RE, I think you'll get along well with them both. Especially alan wake 2 with its production quality.

Grabbed By The Ghoulies - As like every Rare game, it has aged atrociously and is just a terrible game.

@dmcc0 I totally bounced off Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon too, but went back to it some weeks later and loved it. Once you get your head around it, and work out which special items are worth getting, it’s really not super hard. I ended up beating it with every character. Definitely worth giving another go. Perfect phone game.

@waveboy Nah - I saw that Nitrome were involved with Dig and stayed away! They make respectable mobile games, but they’re basically a solid 7/10 at best.