Topic: Games you recently DROPPED

@Pastellioli Ah yeah I did like how all the worlds are connected to each other in some way. That was actually pretty neat. Yeah... I didn't like how slow progression feels, especially later on. I feel like in other games like Super Mario 64, I can get Power Stars at a pretty good rate. But I guess that's just not how Banjo-Tooie rolls, lol. I guess the game wants you to start getting a feel for the worlds, collecting music notes and learning new moves, and then you could try getting more Jiggies. Even so, a lot of them are still pretty hard to get. I played a handful of those timed minigames you've mentioned. And you're right... the game is pretty difficult at times.

Maybe it's all partially because I didn't play it much as a kid, the later worlds after Mayahem Temple are pretty much brand-new to me, haha. There is a certain boss fight that I could see scaring kid me though, lol.

@MarioVillager92 There are about 90 Jiggies in Tooie and so many of them were hard to get, even with the Xbox’s improved controls and performance of the game, and I actually only finished with about 89 of 90 Jiggies because of this terrible mini game near the end of the game. The progression definitely can feel a bit slower at times, cuz the game wants you to explore the worlds a lot, and while I do think the levels are interesting and wonderful, I think that sometimes they are too big, and the backtracking can also be sometimes annoying and having to wait to get a Jiggy until you get a new move later on. The first game did have backtracking, but I think there was only a single instance of it.

The worst out of the timed minigames was this shooting minigame in a level called Grunty Industries, where you had to shoot a lot of these enemies that were blocking multiple air vents around the place while under a time limit, and that one was so frustrating and stressful. I think I maybe wouldn’t have minded a lot of the minigames if they didn’t have such stressful rules and conditions, but I think they did that so it would be more fun and challenging, which it was, but in my opinion, a bad way that leaves you frustrated. I still love Tooie and think it has so much wonder with its characters and worlds, and I don’t mind the more dark and macabre story they had for it, but I just think that its a bit more harder and slower paced than Kazooie.

Borderlands 3. While not a bad game, I just got bored with it. For me the story wasn't as good as 2 and really it just felt like a bunch of fetch quests go here and get this, go to this planet and get this before the bad guys do, now go to this planet etc. There other seem any real motive for you to be doing the stuff besides just get it before the villains do. And the villains OMG I don't know where to start. The Calypso twins personalities seem to just be a wannabe Handsome Jack like they are just trying to hard to be him and that's when they show up. Most of the time they pop up to insult you and mock you but I just don't get a sense of threat from them for me they are more annoying then anything. Handsome Jack had style and was just one of those villains that you loved to hate.

And then my problem is just the story the doesn't seem to be one that I have seen it's just like I said you need to get their before the Twins do. Gameplay wise it's just more Borderlands but really it doesn't feel different from 2 just more or less like DLC for 2. I felt that Pre-sequel added more gameplay variations then 3 did.

I might go back to 3 but more then likely if I get an itch to play Boderlands I will play 2. At this point I think I will just look up a wiki to see the rest of the story before 4.

Tunic... Zelda 1 ain't got s*hit compared to the crypticness of this game. I get to the final boss beat it and the ending is a downer(and predictable). But wait there's some pages from the manual I'm missing. I find the one that tells you the secret of the holy cross. First slap to the face. I could've been collecting all those secrets while exploring before. Now I have to backtrack everywhere. Then I find the page that tells me about the fairies. Second slap to the face. More backtracking. Then I figure out how the puzzle to the biggest secret works. My god flipping the pages and writing it all down takes ages and I'm missing some pages required to do that. Third slap to the face. I'm done. I can't be bothered with the true ending. I expected more story but there wasn't much to it. When I found the second heroe's grave I knew exactly what was going on. I guess a second playthrough with all the information would open up ways to play the game differently but I just don't feel the need to do it.

@Retrodouche Yeah, I never fully finished the game either. It was fun... until it was no longer fun.

Zenith

Just to preface, this game is developed beyond what I would be possible of creating.

That said...this game is bad.

The combat system has no finesse. The load times are frequent and lengthy. The audio design isn't great. And while I appreciate writing that leans towards the rude and crude, it's overused here, it wears out its welcome inside half an hour.

I made it an hour and a half in. Made it out of the starting town. But once I hit the open world exploration portion, woo lawdy. This rough ride only got worse.

Had to drop Metal Slug Tactics which I was really enjoying up until now. There are 4 zones with multiple missions in each zone. The bosses are no joke so taking down one took me a good amount of time to finally beat each. But, after defeat you have to replay each zone, which, is fine size zoned are completed in 3 missions before the boss. My issue is if you lose at any mission in zone 4, you go back to missions 1 of zone 3. For that, I don't have time for it. Very much a waste for me if I'm being honest. Too bad, I was really having a great time.

Well, add Mario Party Jamboree to the list. This is such a frustrating experience because the game does so much well, but does some things so badly that I'm just tired of it. I'm honestly suprised critics didn't mention or review the game lower because of these issues.

All of the games I played had bots in them, in the older games you could tell who was a player and who was a bot and could restart or leave, but now they just give them human names.

The matchmaking has so many specific features that its hard to find a game, hence why they added bots.
The games are minimum 90 minutes, and a lot of that is just waiting around for other players. When your playing with bots it just makes the feeling worse.

The randomness of winning is also frustrating. I won all the mini games but placed last. I tried adjusting the features, but it still didn't help. Maybe that's fun for other people, but not for me.

Games like animal party and fall guys do online party games so much better. The fact that nintendo charges for their online and does it so poorly is ridiculous.

Also Resident Evil 3. Not a bad game, but after playing RE2 and having to flee from mr.x, and the emmi's in metroid, I just don't want to deal with the nemesis. I'm just kind of tired of this type of constant hunting. It's just not fun for me.

@JesseA As for Jamboree reviews, Mario Party always shines most when played with friends/family, whether in-person or online. I think the new game is still very good for that. And the complete unfairness of the series is generally considered a feature rather than a bug since it is supposed to be a silly party game, not an actual competitive game. Fall Guys, for all it's silliness, is much more a competitive racing game rather than a party game. That said, Jamboree does have the new pro rules mode for those who want to try to win via skill rather than complete chance (well, as skill-based as you can get with a dice-based game).

I agree there are a lot of bots but they're easy to spot — they make instantaneous decisions and have various instantaneous events. Ironically the already very long boards take much longer when you play against real people 😆

@JesseA ill say the nemesis chasing sections aren't as ongoing as Mr X chasing sections. He won't stop chasing you, as where Mr x does stop if you get to certain areas. 3 is a much better game than 2 for that reason alone, imo.

Kingdom Hearts III keeps crashing. The game is a disappointment after all. I will play Kingdom Hearts I on my PlayStation 2 instead. It is the best in the series anyway. To be honest I even felt a little bit relieved, when it kept crashing. Now I have a good excuse to play the real classics.

@Dev1024
Yeah, the lore can be confusing but personally I consider only Kingdom Hearts I to be canon, since I do not really care for the lore in videogames, I think that is fine. Nanana Organisation XIII does not exist nanana. I hope that you can beat it, if you want to give it another try someday. I think it is one of the best games.

Thanks for mentioning Brothership, I totally forgot about it. I dropped it too. What a weird game, it is kinda alright but at the same time, it really made me realise, that I am not the target audience of Nintendo anymore, or maybe modern gaming in general.

If you do not mind, I will try to find your impressions and read them.

Pokemon Shield

Picked this up again after playing through Gens 3 and 4 for the millionth time - thought I could do with revisiting something more modern.

Now I will say I enjoyed SwSh on first playthrough, and I'm generally a defender of these games.

But something about Pokemon from Gen 6 onwards really puts me off replaying them. Maybe it's the lack of character in the individual Pokemon from seeing the same 3D models over and over (as opposed to new sprites every game), or how 3D just doesn't capture my imagination like 2D did. Similarly, maybe I'm just less keen on the new Pokemon designs and artistic direction of the series. Maybe it's the staleness of revisiting the same formula (3 starters, 8 badges) in a slightly different context again and again, only now with the games holding your hand so much more / the overabundance of uninteresting cutscenes. Or how the modern mechanics don't resonate with me — way too many Pokemon are thrown at you too early, and the overabundance of EXP makes the building of Pokemon teams feel less personal (I think Tama had a great video about this here). Maybe it's simply nostalgia for Gens 1-4.

Meh, rant over. I think these are actually pretty good games, and had fun with them all on first playthrough (except SuMo). But they just don't have the magic of Gens 1-4 (and to some extent, 5) for me.

I am temporarily dropping M&L Brothership, it's just such a slog to play through. Currently I'm at Fortress Zokett, and with low enemy variety and it not being the final boss area it's so long to get through. And knowing I have more hours to play afterwards it's too long of a game. I wanted really badly to not drop this game but it's far to long.

@Potato-man that too bad they saved the best for last

Does it count if it is a Demo?
I downloaded CAPTAIN TOAD TREASURE TRACKER with a strong view to buy.
Nope. I am good. I thought I would love it because I love Mario Vs. DK, and this was a platform/puzzle type game. Did not do it for me, which is a shame. Runs beautifully, looks lovely, cute and charming, but the demo was enough for me.

@Mana_Knight Of course it counts if it is a demo, moreover, lucky you a demo showed the game isn't for you, right?

Back on topic (and, after reading through my own post, immediately of topic again, haha, sorry for the long introduction to a sort of rant...), so far I have had the privilege to be able to (mostly) pick games I am able to enjoy from the beginning to the end.

Games that (in my opinion) either have a stellar soundtrack (Octopath, I am Setsuna, Zelda, Secret of Mana et cetera), or a focus on great (also non-verbal) story-telling (The Witcher, Triangle Strategy, Half Life, The Last Door, Hellblade, The First Tree, et cetera), or have great atmosphere (Resident Evil, Limbo, Inside, Inmost, Fe, et cetera), or are easy-going or goofy or fun to play co-op (The Inner World, Paper Mario, The Adventure Pals, Ultimate Chicken Horse, Golf Story, West of Loathing, et cetera), or have something interesting to tell (Lydia, Bury me My Love, Florence, Valiant Hearts, et cetera), or challenge me (to a certain extent and in a fun way) intellectually (Professor Layton, Thronebreaker, Tangle Tower, The Bridge, et cetera), or are a real bliss to play gameplay-wise (Furi, Hollow Knight, Metroid, Hyper Light Drifter, Bayonetta, Zelda, et cetera), or completely suck me into a different world (Xenoblade, The Witcher, Dragon's Dogma, The Outer Worlds, Fall-out, Half-Life, Zelda, Divinity Original Sin, et cetera), or combine (luckily most of the games I play) above elements in all sorts of ways.

Games that overall do not tend to focus too much or preferably not at all (I know most games I have mentioned above have these elements in one way or the other in them, but as long as it is not a necessary part of the experience and preferably completely in the background or in a certain designated area in the menu or post-game related or something like that I don't mind) on collectibles and/or repetition.

In short, I prefer games that respect my time (sorry again for the long post, haha), help me colour my world, challenge me in a certain way and/or to a certain extent, but reward (be it either as a means or the ends, or both) me either sensorily, mentally and/or emotionally ...

...unlike "The Pit of 100 Trials" in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door... haha, hahahahahahahaha...(me laughing from insanity...).

I just (consciously) stumbled on this Pit (which I thought maybe was something like the trials in Zelda: The Wind Waker and Breath of the Wild)) because there was a side-quest related to it (otherwise I would have probably never entered at all) so I decided to enter half-way chapter 4 or 5 (with level 18) and found out it was a nice (be it just after 50 floors, for then I finally got more than 1 exp. per battle) way (be it a bit tedious, for the battles aren't that hard in Paper Mario, but everything else is so slow and repetitive...the text, the moves, the speed of the transitions, the music, et cetera, which isn't bad in the game itself, but starts to become a bit annoying when you fight not so hard battle after battle) to combine a few things (doing this side-quest, level-up a bit, earn some coins and trinkets here and there and learn more about my partners and enemies), only to stumble upon the last floor with the immediate realisation that it would be impossible for my current team to defeat what was lurking there in the deep, and yes, having to load a previous file before entering the Pits...all that time (mainly waiting for repetitive music, transitions and text and fairly easy battles to end) wasted, haha...hahahahaha...

I don't like it when games are designed in these kind of ways...and for me this would have been a reason to drop a game completely...be it that a friend of mine (the one that recommended and lend the game to me) keeps on telling me the end of the game is also good and I can just ignore the Pits all together (at least I hope that I do not have to come back here later for the main story, haha), so I will probably pick it up later to finish the main story.

And don't get me wrong, I like a challenge (looking specifically at you Hollow Knight, The Trials in BotW, and the post-game boss in Octopath, which I always do try for a few times just to have a taste of it, but immediately drop if I find out that I am not strong enough and only need to grind to beat it), but this was not a challenge, it was like being stuck as an adult in Kindergarten, doing easy equations which are slowly read to you by an irritating computer-voice with Dora-style questioning sprinkled in, and not being able to continu before everyone else has the correct answer to the question, and then when the test is finally over, they present you with an impossible last question, you fail and the whole test routine starts all over again...

Again, sorry for the long slightly off-topic introduction to a rant, but I dropped Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, mainly because of the "Pit of 100 Trials" which unfortunately shows Paper Mario's bad side for me, but will probably pick it up somewhere in the coming weeks to finish the main story (or else my friend will never leave me alone, haha ).

@Definitely-Not-Leon Indeed! The value of the demo
I think any game that is of a significant length or cost should have one if they can! Really helps.

Interesting, I LOVED the Pit of 100 trials. It was the last 'thing' I did after everything else was complete, so it was a fair breeze with all the best badges and super powered up. The very very last secret boss, not the first one you defeat, is a challenge though.

"In short, I prefer games that respect my time (sorry again for the long post, haha), help me colour my world, challenge me in a certain way and/or to a certain extent, but reward (be it either as a means or the ends, or both) me either sensorily, mentally and/or emotionally ..."

Yes, this makes sense to me. If it goes on and sticks with me in lessons learnt, life, colours my world, as you say, these are ones I like best. Things that stay beyond the initial playthrough. Influence my philosophy, appreciation of the music, inspire me on a creative or spiritual level. I like games that do this. I don't want to play for the sake of playing for the most part.

Secret of Mana was life changing for me, especially as an 8 year old, and everything about the game stuck with me.

Other notable examples, that also help make them some of my fav games of all time, Child of Light, Goemon 64, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Pokemon Blue, and Eternal Darkness.

@Potato-man
Agreed a million times over. I'm surprised I stuck it out, honestly. I had put too much work/time into it in terms of completion, so I decided to just stick out the last 10ish hours.