Topic: Games you recently DROPPED

Been playing Onimusha Dawn of Dreams again on PS2. I remember playing it when it initially released and kind of screwed myself over because I essentially played the game wrong. There's one main character, Soki, and four playable partner characters you can choose to bring on missions with you. I really didn't care about the partner characters, so I just poured most of my XP into levelling up Soki. However there's a sequence in the final act of the game in which you have to fight four bosses in a row with an individual partner. My party members were so under levelled it made these fights virtually impossible, so I ended up just dropping the game at that point.

Fast forward to today, and seeing as I recently replayed the previous three Onimushas I thought, you know what, I'm gonna give Dawn of Dreams another go, but actually bother to level my partners this time. And so I did, and got to the aforementioned boss marathon. It was still an absolute slog, but I got through it this time. Made it all the way to the second to last boss fight, which was epic as hell, they really should've ended the game there. Beat that boss, and got to the true final, final boss, and oh my god it sucks. It's one of those boss fights where you have to do a sequence of things in order to actually damage the boss, and only in a very limited window in which you just barely chip away at his health. Incredible frustrating, and I could probably do it if I really tried, but at this point, I just don't have the patience. There are good elements to this game, but it remains my least favourite in the series.

Ship of Fools

Even though this game gave a really good first impression, it struggles to run on the Switch. The procedural generation of enemies causes severe framerate dips. As I was playing with a friend the game soft-locked because of those dips. Mildly tragic, we were having a good time up until then.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 Remaster. To be clear it's the Xbox Series X version. I grew up playing the original on the PS2 and is indeed one of my favorite games of all time. The remake is beautifully done and a great remaster. The problem is me sadly. I guess playing it for along as I did on PS2 I just cant for whatever reason make things work the the Xbox controller. The face buttons on an Xbox controller are just to close to each other unlike the PS controllers. As a result I just cant get combo or tricks to work and after a while my hand just cramps up due to the fact that I have to do this weird claw thing with my hand to be able to press the buttons.

So untill either I can use a Playstation controller on my Xbox which isnt going to happen or this game goes on sale for PS4, I will be dropping this game.

@Tasuki They're not the cheapest - probably similar to a new controller to be honest - but Brooke do a product called the Wingman for the Xbox consoles that allows various PlayStation controllers (and others) to be used on Xbox consoles. I haven't used the Xbox ones TBH, but I've got a different model for the PS3 that allows me to use the Series X controller or 8bitdo as my PS3 controllers don't work so well any more.

@dmcc0 I will have to check that out sometime. I mean to be honest I would have to pay for a copy of THPS3+4 on PS4 if I went that route.

Always Sometimes Monsters

A game about choice and consequence. Basically an 8-bit walking simulator with a whole bunch of foul language. I'm not in the mood for this right now. Skip.

Under Defeat

There's too much funk going on with this vertical shmup. Your attack angle can be altered by about ten degrees left or right. If you move in either direction, your ship's attack angle will adjust slightly in that direction, and if you fire before that angle resets...you can lock it in for as long as you attack. This can help you deal with enemies who only attack downward, but then you're left to struggle against all the other enemies that attack from any direction. It's off-putting.

The dual stick control option fixes this to an extent, but that control method doesn't feel great either.

The game only allows limited lives and limited continues. It's such a bad holdover from the arcade cabinet days. If I own a copy of a home console port of an arcade game, have the decency to give me access to unlimited lives and/or continues. Let me brute force my way to rolling the developer credits. Nope, I got to stage two and that's probably as far as I'll ever get for my $35.

I know, git gud. But I play video games for the art and spectacle, not for a challenge.

Speaking of spectacle, there's a severe lack of it here. Lots of bland green and grey, whether it's your ship model, the enemy ship models, the background, etc. The weapon options your ship gets are boring, as you're forced to cease attacking in order to charge your weapon options, which goes against the grain for the shmup genre, where all-out-action is suppose to be a genre hallmark. In addition to that, your ship's attack is weak, making some enemy mobs feel like damage sponges.

And lastly, your bombs don't even clear the screen of enemies.

How did we get from RayStorm (which is pretty great) to this...travesty? Shockingly underwhelming.

Feel like I'm gonna have to drop Fantasian Neo Dimension. It's a real shame as I feel it has a lot going for it, but they just make it unnecessarily difficult/obtuse in the second half; boss battles are an endurance test in trial and error (I've glanced at a couple of walkthroughs, but by the looks of it I feel like I'd need to play the game with them constantly open, which just isn't fun for me), and the Dimengion mechanic (while a great idea in itself) just makes having to battle up to 40 enemies to clean it out an absolute slog. It's at the point where I'm squeaking through boss encounters now but instead of a feeling of achievement, all I feel is relief that it's over.

Donkey Kong Bananza's Post Game. I'm just not feeling it. Maybe it's because as much as I loved the game, the game was very overwhelming to the brain. Each new layer was a strange combination of "this is awesome I can't wait to explore this area!" and "oh man there's just too much in every direction possible". The idea of going back to each layer (and sublayer) just feels like the biggest overwhelming chore. I don't care for completing the 'rehearsals' either. Not feeling it. With my gaming time being so limited at times it stresses me out to dedicate precious hours to a collect-a-thon. I tried to force myself to go back and start collecting and I was grinding my teeth the whole time. I had to remind myself that gaming is supposed to be fun and relaxing, not the other way around for any reason. What excited me was the thought of going back to the backlog. That's what I'm gonna do!

@Ganner 1,000 bananas is too many bananas. I probably won't get them all either. No need to 100% just to 100%. For me the game is great but I also agree it's kind of overwhelming. I've been playing it slowly in smaller sessions so I don't explode my brain.

@Ganner @FishyS Same for me, I went just as long as it was still fun (though including a large portion of the post-game). But I also almost never play a game to 100% and still consider them finshed once I reach the main game's ending.
And now Kirby awaits!

@FishyS @jfp I got about 650 bananas and that feels like I got my money's worth. I don't always 100% a game unless I'm just having a non-stop blast doing it. It's a case by case basis. For example, I got all the collectables and skills unlocked in Sifu because I just had a blast living out that 'male power fantasy' of being in my own revenge kung fu movie . Took a long time with a high ceiling of a learning curve but I just couldn't get enough. Same experience when I played Everspace. It gave me excuse to keep going back into it. But going back in Bananza feels more like a chore than I thought it would be. In Mario Odyssey did all the post game moons and had a blast. But I remember I played that while furloughed during the pandemic! I had soooo much time for games!

Try telling that to DK

I had to drop Forsaken 64 (NSO). I tried. I really tried but the game makes me so damn motion sick! No different than it did to me when I rented it a few times from Blockbuster back in 1998. I got the first 2 levels done and couldn't do it anymore. I have to take Dramamine when I go to theme parks, and I considered taking it when playing this game but that's so lame if I have to do that! To add insult to injury I realized the game doesn't naturally save. I'd have to use the "save state" feature to keep my progress because it doesn't recognize there's "no N64 memory cart" inserted. The realization of having to redo those first 2 levels again made me even more sick, so I said "f#ck this".

Believe it or not I actually did enjoy playing those first 2 levels. I had the intention of finally completing the game over 25 years later (similar to how I beat 'Blast Corps' on the NSO last year) but if it requires me going through Dramamine like Skittles and trying not to lose my stomach, sadly I have to throw in the towel. Perhaps I'll try again sometime.

Think It might be time to give up on silksong. I've put in only about 7 or 8 hrs and still in act 1, and feel like im barely making progress with each playthrough. I almost never have Rosarie beads to buy maps or benches since I die so often. I think its just one of those games ill never be good at and will just waste my time unfortunately. Nothing against the game itself, its just a me problem. Too little time on my hands to keep playing the same route over and over again just to keep dying and inching forward a smidge.

@NintendoByNature I've been hearing a fair bit of similar opinion about Silksong, in that it pushes the limit of difficulty just enough as to become unenjoyable. I'm quite wary about going on in on Hollow Knight; does it suffer from the same level of impenetrability?

@Andee it's just relentless in some parts for me. Even basic enemies, ESPECIALLY flying enemies, are a royal pain and cause death if you're not extra careful. Some flying enemies have that frustrating design where they back up as you lunge toward them. So you can either short it and they'll attack you, or you'll overshoot it and run into them. Again, probably a me problem, but im just not in the mood to replay the same route over and over and over again. Im not that good or patient of a gamer to do so.

As of today, as mentioned in the Games You Are Playing This Weekend, I have dropped Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket. I've already uninstalled the app. Not because I dislike it, but because those few minutes to collect the cards every day really eat into my time after a while. There are too many better things for me to be doing, and so many games on my Switch, and soon to be Switch 2 and PS4 that will be more interesting to spend time on, even though I have good memories of getting some great cards. Also, if I ever feel like going back to TCG Pocket in a few years (if it hasn't been discontinued), my Nintendo Account is still connected to it. But at least for the foreseeable future, I have dropped it with no regrets 😃. Also, because of my semi-recent decision to get some more consoles, I will not be playing Pokémon Champions like I originally intended.

Gave up on Hogwarts Legacy (Switch 2). I got it mainly because A) It seemed like such a steal going through the library exploit and B) I felt it would be a good spooky game for October. I told some friends I'd play it after I had already bought it and they said I probably wouldn't like it. They were right. The game felt like a walking simulator with some simplistic combat sprinkled in and I did not enjoy what I played. Now I'm looking for something else spooky to play for the end of October.

Donkey Kong Bananza. I wish I saw a fraction of what others see. The camera is most often inside geometry, but it doesn't really matter because all you do is smash *****.

Ghost of Yotei. Now, this one I might return to at some point — but it's more of the same with slight improvements when it comes to gameplay. Gorgeous visuals. Completely unnecessary waste of time on gimmick-based minigames, akin to a console release title. The touch pad isn't that cool — and Sucker Punch should know this. Story is also worse, as it's just a poorly paced version of what we've seen a million times. Atsu is a very boring protagonist, and the connection Jin had to Tsushima, as well as the narrative weight of him weighing his "samurai honor" vs. the "Ghost ways" is completely absent and not replaced with... anything. I think GoT's story was good, but not great. Yotei takes two steps back.

And a minor nitpick is the choice of location. Given that it's set in 1603, the presence of classic Japanese influences should be way less prominent, and the setting should be very Ainu-heavy — which it's not. It feels like the game should have placed the story elsewhere when they don't lean into that (which would've been unique and interesting).

It's very good — but for someone who's already played Tsushima... why bother?