Topic: Games you recently DROPPED

@Mana_Knight True that, demos should be standard for people to help with their research, though I must admit that I have never played a demo in my life. So far my "inner-radar" has been enough, haha.

And yeah, I should have known better to not keep on going until the very end of the Pits somewhere between chapter 4 and 5, without being properly trained and equipped and moreover without any items when I entered the Pits (so far I haven't really used much items in the main story, so mostly I walk around without any, haha), especially for the enemies after floor 50 I hadn't seen before, haha, and did hit me really hard when I didn't weaken or finish them before they could hit me . For me that was a nice puzzle-like challenge, that is, to figure out how to beat enemies that are tougher than me .

Somewhere I probably just hoped (or maybe even was convinced) that floor 100 would also be a safe zone with a chest in it and a warppipe back to the beginning, but unfortunately that wasn't the case, haha - so for that I still think it wasn't a nice experience at all and in my opinion, not a great choice by the developers, especially because you can almost leisurely (be it that it takes a lot of time due to the kind of slowness of the game itself and me challeging enemies while I was underpowered, haha) clear all the floors until the last floor without much training and items and preparations somewhere halfway throughout the game, but I think it is impossible to beat the last floor without knowing what you are up against (no puzzling skills could have saved me there, haha) , how to build your party and what to bring with you.

In a way it is just as the last (bonus) level in Super Mario 3D World (and there are a lot of other games that do this) where you do not have checkpoints, which results in having to play the first parts of the level over and over again (which become very easy and a bit tedious after a while), while you should in my opinion also be allowed to only try the last part over and over again (so without the first 2 or 3 parts of the level) and then if you really have that craving to finish the level in a single playthrough or as a speedrunner (I know that a lot of people are wired like that) or whatever than you can select that harder option (from the start or after finishing the checkpoint-option first, I don't care, haha, but it should be an option right off the bat, in my opinion).

Having said that, I will probably pick it up somewhere before Christmas to finish this little gem of a game on a much more lovely note, but I will probably not be going to the Pits again, haha .

Thanks for heartfully replying also on the part about my preferences in games (despite my rant, haha). I like to read stories like these from other peoples perspectives, it is also somthing that brings colour to the world . And yeah, Secret of Mana has been doing the same for me ever since my Brother got it for the Snes when I was four. We played it a lot back then and I still play the game every once in a while (something I barely do with games due to the size of my backlog and my love for first experiences) and listen to the music quite often (especially "The Dark Star" and "Spirit of the Night" make me zone out completely). Oohw and I think it also really helped in creating a extra strong bond with my brother that is lasting even till this day. Thanks again, good vibes, good vibes .

Outward

Not the worst game I've played recently, but there are multiple aspects about this experience I don't care for. Strike one, durability. I think it's one of the worst mechanics in video games. Strike two, the combat is stilted, not very elegant. Strike three, there's a weird compromise on voice work. If a character has voiced dialogue, only the first sentence is voiced.

The rest of what they're saying? You'll have to read that. It's very off putting. It would've been better to have zero lines of dialogue voiced.

Rhythm Heaven. While I love the franchise, I've almost 100% Tengoku (with no motivation to continue on my last three perfects), 100% DS (excluding Guitar Lessons Technical Course, it's hard to flick and press R on mobile), Fever lags horribly on emulator, and Megamix is fine except Fan Club lags horribly on Citra for some reason, making it impossible to beat Left-Hand Tower (I beat the first by sheer luck), so now I'm finding other franchises.

Gigantic Army
I don't like to race against the clock in an action/platforming game.

Hentai vs. Evil
Feels like an above-average student project.

Mortal Shell
Probably a fine soulslike...if you play it on a different platform. But the lower framerate on Switch makes this tough experience tougher.

Ugly
I need to come to terms with the fact that I am not good at puzzle games.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership

Just content to make money off of the modern audience. The battles are fun but the rest is pretty boring.

@NeonPizza animal well might be the most overrated game I've played in recent memory. I finished it, but it was annoying in many parts. The only thing keeping me pushing forward was that it was a 7-8 hr game. 2024 was an odd year for me in terms of gaming. I wasn't into some of the "bigger games" that I played last year, with animal well being one of them. Brothership was ok, nothing special. Ttyd was good, but not as good as the original or origami king imo. Crow country was just plain terrible to play because of the controls. Some other games I finished in 2024 that I didn't care for all that much either were hades, ghost trick, and ff 6 pixel remaster. I enjoyed 4 much more. Hoping 2025 is a banger though.

@NintendoByNature Interesting, I absolutely loved Crow Country. I've played through it more than once. I didn't have issue with the controls, besides the aiming being a bit janky, but a lot of the time you can just run around enemies.

I dropped Alisa though, the other RE inspired game that came out last year. I thought the controls were way worse in that one.

@NeonPizza
Pocky & Rocky Reshrined is awesome. I beat the game with every character.

@OldManHermit yea, maybe its just me. I love the RE series but I'm happy they've moved away from tank controls. A game I actually loved was heaven dust which doesn't get the attention it deserves. Haven't played Alisa yet but I will at some point.

@NintendoByNature Ah yes, I've played Heaven Dust 2. It's great. Similar to Crow Country in a lot of ways.

Urgh, I just wrote up a lengthy post about 2 beloved games from the past that I've really struggled to replay so dropped. I'll instead summarise in some bullet points.

Pokemon Crystal

• Replayed Gen 2 many times, however really feel it's lost its lustre on this occasion. Gen 1 has some quirks that I enjoy going back to, but I feel like Gen 2 is simply inferior to HGSS.
• Did power through and got to Red - although my team of ~lv46s wasn't enough for him so I gave up.

Beyond Good and Evil

• Picked this up on the Switch.
• Adored this back in 2015 when I played on XB360 - great setting, characters, music, world and collectables (photography, pearls).
• However, just didn't enjoy playing the game. Many aspects have aged poorly - janky combat, awkward platforming / camera, annoying stealth sections, and interactable objects / solutions to puzzles can be quite difficult to find.

Honestly BG&E is a prime candidate for a remake — all the core components are there to make it fantastic in 2025, just it hasn't aged very well. Not that I trust Ubisoft with a remake — that trailer for BG&E2 looked awful.

Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to drop Pikmin 4. I did at least get a good amount of treasures and rescued people, but I've gotten frustrated with the game on some occasions. Like when I have a lot of Pikmin get destroyed on me for example. I'm not a huge fan of the dandori challenges either. I don't think it's a bad game, I did have some fun with it and I do like the treasure hunting and rescuing aspects of it. But yeah... this is where I reached my limit. Maybe I'm terrible at Pikmin games, but I guess that's just how it is.

Well I can sadly say that I dropped Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Don't get me wrong it's a great game and definitely my GotY for 2024. It really hit that nostalgia vibe with me and really capture the feel of Indy to a T. It's probably the best Indy story since Last Crusade. It's just my game time is very limited and right now Avowed has taken that spot.

I just don't have time for two huge games and right now Avowed just has me hooked unlike any game I have played since WoW. Maybe cause it's a new IP to me (I haven't played Pillars of Eternity) and with Indy I pretty much know how it's going to end. Still though I plan to go back to it at some point but for now I am going to have to let it go.

Legend of zelda skyward sword (wii)

I got stuck on the final boss. Its a bit too nerve racking for me and I dont think the motion controls are helping. But I've had my fun with the game so I feel no need to try and beat it now. Maybe one day...

Legend of zelda: The minish cap

Same reason as skyward sword except the rooms leading up to the final boss are so excessively hard, that I'll always be at my last few hearts by the time I reach the boss (I've only ever reached it one time because of this) Still a good game though.

Been awhile, but I recall finding the final boss fight of Skyward Sword incredibly thrilling. Never been the biggest fan of motion controls, but I think they really shined in that battle. It really put everything you had learned to the test. it was those repeated battles with the imprisoned that really felt like a slog for me.

Take out your bug net during the final fight in Skyward Sword. That will help you. I'm sure of it.

Chained Echoes. Whenever I felt like I was grasping its unique mechanics, it'd introduce a new one and/or change things up entirely.

The lack of codex/index for keeping track of all the characters, countries, and capitals didn't help.

@Ulysses can't say I really disagree with anything you've said. After 30 or so hours, I can firmly say it's my least favorite in the franchise. However I'll just continue through because I'm enjoying the story thus far. And there's really nothing to play until MKW.

I think I've pin pointed my biggest issues. It's side quests overload in this game. And you basically need to do a good chunk of them to be at the recommended level for the next chapter. My other issue is that your party is so fluid. So I'm not feeling as tied to these characters as I did with previous games. Most of them are throwaway characters imo since I can just easily swap them out at any time. Lastly, the fact that skells lose fuel so quickly in battle, and take forever to build fuel back up( assuming you can't afford to refuel them), it's kind of a bummer. So I barely use skells unless necessary.

Idk, it just feels like a bloated game to me when I'm not playing the actual story. I never felt this way with the other 3 games. I loved them all to pieces and I even enjoyed doing some of the side quests. This is just overkill with your map filled with normal and affinity quests.

I've probably mentioned this in this thread before but I got as far as the final boss in Xenoblade X (on Wii U) without too much grinding, but that left me so underlevelled there was no way I could beat it even by lowering the difficulty. I wouldn't mind just doing side quests to level up, especially the affinity quests as they're the best ones, but to unlock them you usually have to be a certain level already AND have a certain affinity level with the relevant character, which takes forever in some cases! And the standard side quests don't usually give you enough XP to be worthwhile. I did like the game overall so I'll pick up the Switch version one day and give it another chance, but it's a shame to hear the grinding hasn't been reduced.