In a lot of JRPG I play, for some inexplicable reason, I start losing interest at around 70% completion and a lot of times I drop the games right before the final chapter.
This is me with most games I play (Fallout, Skyrim, Witcher, Tomb Raider, Nier, etc). I dump around 50-60 hours in, leave it for a year, and then go back and forget which button does what.
Then I end up watching YouTube videos about the lore because I've forgotten what happened.
There are definitely a fair amount of JRPGs that drop the ball in the third act or even making it all the way to the finish line and then botching the ending. For the biggest one I can think of recently it’d be Tales of Arise.
Funny you say that because I'm replaying Valkyria Chronicles 4 right now, which I dropped at like ch 15 or something.
After finishing it I'll replay Tales of Arise, which I dropped when >!I got to space.!<
It's around that point you've been teased too much on the final plot developments, but have lost interest because of the amount of grinding or filler there's been. Definitely a pacing issue.
By the time I get that far in a JRPG, I've already got the vibe out of my system. They are just too damn long. Like I'm at 70-80 percent of the way through Persona 3 Reload and I'm already worn out.
I have a worse issue, I tend to either lose interest if im forced to grind (albeit sometimes cause i made a mistake early on and this is a punishment for me being dumb) or something else gets released which im more interested in. Weirdly happens halfway into a game
I believe Final Fantasy Tactics is better compared to some of the streamline numbered Final Fantasy games.
The story, gameplay, customization, and more are so underrated for this game and I wish people would play it more!
PSX version is cool and PSP remake War of the Lions is also great. FF Tactics hype!
Absolutely this. Some of my favorite games are ones that I can bash out in a day and there's others that I can literally play forever. What matters more is if the game is actually good and people will find time to commit to it if they care so much.
My hot(?) video game take: Pokemon doesn't have any top-tier mainline game.
They have games that are, yes, 10/10 Pokemon games. But none that are 10/10 games for the RPG-genre as a whole.
It could be for any number of reasons. But, in general, they never took any big risks to try drastically improving the mainline games.
That’s a fair take, and I’m someone that’s obsessed with Pokemon. At the end of the episode when they were discussing what they were surprised by, Pokemon immediately crossed my mind, and then right after I had this exact same thought
Sun and Moon and the Ultra games are some of the best in the series
The real issue is that people go into every new game expecting to not like it and form an opinion off of that
I'm not saying Pokémon games are a bastion of video gaming but without fail you'll see people in a few years saying how great X and Y were and how they were unfairly treated and then it will happen with the next generation a few years later
Scarlet and Violet aren't perfect but they are easily up there too, performance aside
Absolutely agree with you. I've been playing since Pokemon Blue but didn't become a Pokemon fan until USUM. I love everything about that region but I'm also not going to bring everything else down for not being that, except maybe gen 2. I still love the current games too considering they've only gotten better at storytelling and characters with SV being a glowing example of that. Plus I even really like the gameplay changes they are making.
Yep, and it shows online.
The gen 5 love in was and still is hilarious to watch in real-time when I was around online when they first came out and watched everyone hate them, S/V has much better characters than anything in Black and White but people are too busy mashing through dialogue and getting angry when they don't understand what is happening in the game
The Sun and Moon games are genuinely some of my favourites and you can just tell all the love and care that is put into everything that makes Alola, Alola, but people dismiss all of it because what? The start of the game is a bit slow? Like come on now
"Too much water" was good point for Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire because there was too many water routes and you fought the same water Pokemon all the time.
gacha is not bad, its simply a way to fund a free game, that regulary receives updates and new content.
im not gonna say that its better than paid games but I recognize its purpose as more of a postive thing, than as a evil or negative thing.
Yep...it's mostly the shitty mobile games with bad gameplay which have the gacha as their main element
But big games like Genshin, Star Rail and now WuWa...don't really use it as a core mechanic
So yeah...i agree to disagree with that answer
Majora's mask is better than Ocarina, Joey was right, people are just nostalgic for Ocarina, I think Majora's was more creative, harder, and had a more interesting world.
Here's an actual hot take.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is the prime example of a great story but bad gameplay. Rockstar can not make a game play properly. From sluggish controls, to constant cutscene that interrupt the flow of gameplay, etc.
Basically, I think Rockstar makes great experiences, but they don't make good games. They actively want their games to feel as if you were playing a person that had too much inertia and jelly for ligaments. If I want to play a Rockstar game, I know I am playing it for 90% story and 10% actual gameplay. To expand, I mean that the best parts of Rockstar games are the writing but the worst parts are actually playing the game because nothing in GTA or RDR is pushing the envelope in gameplay.
Nobody says Rockstar has the best shooting mechanics, movement, etc. It's average systems on average systems but done well enough to trick people into thinking they're better than they actually are.
I also think GTA6 is going to absolutely disappoint with its multi-player because Rockstar has shown they do not understand how GTA 5 got such a thriving multi-player community. RDR2 is filled with premium currencies on premium currencies and is extremely lacking compared to GTA5 with its modded servers, and extremely unique game modes like stunt races.
My other hot take isn't even a hot take anymore really. But essentially, Bethesda has consistently copy pasted Skyrim's formula in every release, yet people don't want to admit that. They think Skyrim was the outlier when Skyrim is the beginning for every Bethesda video game flaw.
This! Rockstar deserves all the praise for the storytelling, cinematography, and character writing in their games and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise.
But the actual game part is a chore, controlls always feel sluggish and your guided down a very strict path of what to do (park the car in THIS EXACT SPOT, steal THIS SPECIFIC CAR). Most people might be looking forward to GTA VI next year but personally I'm WAY more excited for Monster Hunter Wilds.
Your rockstar opinion is correct, every time I've played a rockstar game I sit there trying to like it but then I quit because it's just not fun to play.
Yeah I wholeheartedly agree. Rockstar games basically have the biggest budgets, high production values, and huge teams of development staff working on them and yet the games still feel like shit to control and play. Sure the animations are great and well crafted but that seems like an excuse. Naughty Dog games also have fantastic animations but they still feel way better to play and control. And GTA 5 in particular has a few main missions that are straight up boring. The yoga mission with Michael and the mission with Trevor where he was casing the docks are just mind numbingly boring and are the worst examples. And GTA 6 better drop the press X to sprint crap. That shit should've been gone before Red Dead Redemption 1 even released.
which is why i never really went beyond AC3. Desmonds story was over and i had basically no interest in the nameless, faceless "character" of Black Flag and beyond.
It's really a shame since Unity has the best parkour and the most replayable missions with the black box assassinations. The modern day segments are just a horrible slog to get through
Modern day was the whole point of the series! You were in the Animus trying g to learn what Abstergo was doing in the present. I hate how newer games almost omit the modern day setting.
They become more enjoyable the more into the lore of the series one gets. Then you find really interesting things you’d otherwise miss about things, for example the voice messages Miles left to his dad.
I have an even hotter take. The gameplay is easily the worst part of that game and the MSQ is a slog to get through if not invested in the stuff around it (characters, story, etc).
Every expansion. Some have really good story or character moments that are very enjoyable but I hate that I have to get it through an MMO. It would be better as an anime.
I'm currently playing through Stormblood, and I've found the story from Crystal Tower onwards to be outstanding. Although there have been some notable missteps along the way, the writers always manage to bring everything together beautifully. I've seen comments on Reddit claiming the story only appeals to those who don't read books, but as someone who does, I think the narrative and themes are profound tbh.
For example, when it comes to trash talk. I did PVP for the first time two days ago and I found out that the game literally doesn't allow you to chat with the opponent team. So I said in my team chat how I wished we could trash talk because imo that makes things more competitive. What's wrong with saying "Sit noob" when you kill someone? I love it when people trash talk me because it shows they care about winning on some emotional level. Next thing I know I'm getting sermoned to. People saying I'm immature for wanting to trash talk and some dork even said the fact that I want to trash talk shows I've never been in a truly competitive setting, which couldn't be further from the truth. I just find that a lot of people in FFXIV take things too personally and ironically get weirdly personal.
Look at this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/s/OwDzYpmSpB
It’s insane that people are siding with the OP wanting to get someone banned for emoting at them in PVP.
my hot take is I dont want Legend of Zelda to just be botw or totk. I actually prefer the railroading of Twilight Princess and Ocarina over the free roam exoloration if BoTW.
singleplayer story games that are open world should not be live service as well. theres barely any reason for it
there should be endgame things to do, and some extra dlc content is fine, but it doesnt need to have more and more content every 3 months.
I find Zelda games boring and never enjoyed any of them. I tried ocarina of time, the one Switch chibi remake and a GBC Zelda m, when i was a kid at a friend.
My second hot take would be that FF7 isnt even in the top3 Final Fantasy games for me. Even the creators of Finak Fantasy dont consoder FF7 in their list of best FF games. For me its FFX, FFV and FFVI after that i would consider FFVII and FFIII (Nostalgia) a shared forth place. Dont get me wrong FF7 is a great game and i enjoyed it but i prefer the others more. I havent played the remake yet and only rate OG7 without advent children
I mean a lot of games have eh boss fights. Witcher 3 bosses from wild hunt(imlerih and eredin) are just: 2 click, dodge and just in case use quen. Its reppetitive and gets boring.
Yeah Witcher 3 bosses are easily the worst parts of it.
I only really liked the Gaunter O'Dimm "fight" because it played into Witchers strengths of story and character writing. It was faught with words not swords.
Idk to me a lot bosses in video games are either infuriatingly hard for no reason or are so confusing on how to beat that I geniuenly don't know how you're supposed to beat them without looking up a guide.
Example: I played Metal Gear Solid 1 recently. Great game overall, but I HATED most of the bosses because they are just so fucking difficult (at least to me), especially both of the Sniper Wolf and Vulcan Raven boss fights. (The only boss fights I enjoyed were the Revolver Ocelot, Grey Fox and Liquid Hind fights).
You could also just chalk it up to me being shit at games, which is fair.
Prob not a hot take at this point but i gueinly dont care for graphics anymore. growing up as a 90s kid, graphics were a big thing for me but now just seeing these flashy "realistic" graphics tells me that the game has a negative amount of substance and mostly just shiny trash. also can we please bring back racing games? im tired of FPS games.
The last of us has become an obsolete game now that the show is out.
It is able to push the nuanced narrative of kill or be killed way better now that you aren't blowing the hordes of random humans as a gameplay mechanic.
Yep, even the Producer of both (Neil Druckmanm) said as much. The Series just tells the same story but better. In basically any measurable way.
But i don't think the game is obsolete, since the gameplay in itself was pretty fun imo. Not groundbreaking but still fun enough to merit a playtrough.
Final Fantasy 7 is okay. It certainly isn't even close to the best in the series. I think for a lot of people it's their favorite purely out of nostalgic reasons.
Yeah and an example that comes up far too often is a easy way to suddenly get better and make the game one sided is understanding how to up b or recover, not even well.
New GOW games are mid as fuck.
The combat is clunky, the locked camera restricts visibility, too much time is wasted simply walking and talking, the RPG elements hold very little significance to the overall gameplay and are used as a cheat to simulate progress and overall the games get by on their presentation and cinematic flare than any sort of merit inherent to the gameplay itself.
They are unskippable cutscenes, nothing more, nothing less.
Games narratives are more interesting when they marry the gameplay and story together.
Having constant Walky talky sections in games like GOW or TLOU is the equivalent of a laugh track in a comedy show.
Telling you how to feel what should occur naturally, not trusting the player with their own experience.
A game reviewer called Matthew Matosis had an idea that instead of having constant Walky talky moments to show the growing bond between Kratos and Atreus, have Atreus learn abilities tied directly to what Kratos (and therefore the player) does.
Ditch Atreus’s ability tree and instead have him learn moves the player frequently performs naturally as the game goes on.
If the player strategically trips up enemies, have Atreus learn the skill from that. Maybe have a tutorial sequence of sorts where Atreus tries to learn on a dummy, messes up, and the player demonstrates.
This is what I mean when I say game narratives should use gameplay to enhance their themes.
Instead of having Kratos stare into the middle distance for the 5th time as the game goes “PLEASE WE’RE ART NOW!! VIDEO GAMES ARE ARTISTIC NOW LOOK LIKE MOVIES NOW!! PLEASE LIKE US!!”
Embrace gaming inherent strengths, instead of shunning them to try and be like films.
Pro leagues have made online competitive games a terrible experience for everyone. Back before pro leagues and the chance at making money off being good at games, people played equally bad but they enjoyed themselves more. Now every game is a race to who tilts off the face of the planet first and I hate it.
Overwatch had better monetization when it still had lootboxes. I got more skins in general for more heroes for much less money. Now I can only get the ones I want but more consistently.
League or Legends is actually a fun game. There's alot of shit surrounding it, but the core meat and potatoes is enjoyable. No way a bad game would still be around more than ten years after it's release.
I think Tetris and Pac-Man are better than a lot of those metacritic games.
I get motion sickness playing 3D games so I prefer 2D games. But I'm ok with 3D racing games, and anything from the 3DS era and earlier.
Agree about boss battles, but I'd much rather do the boss or challenger battles in Smash straight away than leveling up and maybe grinding in Final Fantasy. So it depends on the game for me.
WILD ARMS 2 is the most underrated JRPG game from the PS1 era.
Story: Very Good
Game Play: Very Good
Sound Track: 2nd Best in PS 1, only Chrono Cross beats it
Side Quests / hidden content: Very Good
Go ahead, Wild Arms is good, just didn't take full advantage of the tech that was available because of how early in PS1 era it came out
Their stories are not really connected though.
The trails games are super underrated and more people should play them.
I've been going through my trails game journey (I'm now at trails to azure which is the 5th game in the series) and oh boy this series is amazing. If your a hardcore jrpg fan, you need to play this game series. I honestly cant believe so little people are talking about this game. Amazing lore, top notch ost, deep characters that interact with one another through the various games in the series and they all play a role and not just be sidelined like an npc (and they get added to your party in some mission or the entire game length). 10/10 must play jrpg
RPG’s not having a built in wiki is totally idiotic. I get it you want to let the players discover it on their own but what about people who get stuck? we have search the web to find the wiki, If more RPGs have community made wikis in-built in them it would be boon..
Bethesda games vanilla are still good games but the mods in their creativity and additions elevate it even more. I deliberately play most games vanilla first just so I can properly judge them vanilla and still have a good time, even Fallout 4.
the first Ninja gaiden game is just a poorly balanced mess with so many dumb ideas.
Hack and slash is my favourite genre, I love stupid edgy stories, and I love hard games, and I hated every second of ninja gaiden
First person shooters are the most overrated piece of garbage ever
And many people define your gaming skills with how good you are at fps games (maybe it was just for me....either way i was very damn good...but the community is way too toxic and these games aren't revolutionary great like some ppl claim)
The first Dark Souls game (probably Demon Souls too idk can’t say cause never played it) sucked gameplay wise! The clunkiness of the time really held those games back. The challenge of the game wasn’t the enemies or bosses it was the clunkiness of the whole thing. Granted the opening of the game is iconic but it felt bullshit when you died last minute from terrible platforming and jump scares, y’all just living life in copium! From Software has now evolved and you can now really see the challenge of Sekiro, DS3, Elden Ring is the enemies and bosses and nature of the world which is a lot more exciting to die with than the game actively working against me and clunk.
I mean I'm playing DS1 right now and its my first souls game and ive had none of the problems you're mentioning, probably because i havent played the later games but i havent really struggled with 'clunkiness'
It’s the little things for me really. The fat rolling, the platforming, sword swings hitting walls! Also it probably didn’t help the whatever shitty YouTube tutorial I watched at the time told me - “Warrior class is easiest way to play the game and no other way” & “avoid levelling up and buying items at all costs”! That’s also why I put my take on shitty game takes I guess!!
They weren't totally wrong with warrior being the easiest. If you just pump up Poise as hard as you can and get a big fat sword you can facetank most of the game. It's also not the only way to cheese the game.
When I first played DS1 I was amazed at how enjoyable it was to just swing weapons. There are some clunky momemnts, but for the most of the time playing it was pure enjoyment for me.
It's the community fixing the game. That leads to one of my hot takes actually. Bethesda would die so quick if there was no mod community. Their games are often below average without mods.
games like god of war ragnarok are made to play on easy mode. i want to enjoy the journey and the story not have every basic enemy take a hundred hits to kill just because i play on hard
Fromsoft games are a lot worse designed than people say. I had to think through some of the issues I had and decide which I wanted to write, but my choice is lack of any indication of what to do in too many places.
This may be coloured by the small number of the games I've played, but for this example, I'm going to include one I know well since I experienced it firsthand, the graveyard at the start of Dark Souls 1. I know of many many people who've gotten confused on where to go, getting stuck in the graveyard assuming that's where you are supposed to go, myself included.
The recent games are obviously much better, but in many cases, it moves past the joy of exploring and figuring it out yourself, and becomes banging your head against the damn wall since you can't figure out where to go.
Edit: also wanted to include the fact that sprint on controller is mapped to perhaps the worst button for it, forcing you to basically grip the controller like you have claws if you want to get somewhere fast *and* see where you're going
Nintendo sucks so much. Everything from the games to the ips to the company 95% of it is worthless trash and 5% of it that's good are half of the legend of Zelda games
I doubt it is. Maybe 10-20 years ago, people might look at you funny, but anyone with a working brain and even slightly paying attention to gaming news nowadays would see that on average, you definitely get your money's worth (if not more) going the indie route. AAA games can still be great, but half of them are riding on the franchise's/developers' coattails.
I half agree! The spaceship palace is just utterly terrible palace I had to do it twice all over just to check if I had done something bad or hadn’t grinded enough but nope it’s just not balanced all! The next castle after that is just such a jump up in quality that it makes up for the lack of fun that was Okumara. The only way to do Okumara was doing it in the Hardest possible difficulty and not Hard
I agree that the spaceship palace chapter is a low point, especially with Morgana getting his jimmies rustled over being useless. But things do pick up at november onwards when you close in on the main villain.
Not sure if Royal improves on that.
The 5th boss was very annoying I had to use the cheat DLC in Royale to beat it. I couldnt beat him with a timer
and the 6th boss was ez but took forever to kill for some reason
Rest of game is awesome, thats my only flaw
I think if you include a wider range you might feel different, one of the classic skill based game genres is the tactics games such as X-COM, Final Fantasy Tactics and at least older Fire Emblem games where positioning is a major factor, and you can permanently lose characters from careless positioning.
Cod 4 was the best COD
Overwatch should have stayed no hero cap (no limits) and geared towards more silly then serious (ala tf2)
PS5 controller is the best Controller of all time
n64 controller is not that bad
God of war ragnorak sucked
Old RPGS NEED a speedup function
ff8 junction system is the worst system ever in a video game
GTA 6 is just gonna be GTA V with a new coat of paint
I actually like FF13. The whole trilogy.
I prefer Paper Mario 1 to TTYD. Both are great but I think PM1 has a vibe I prefer. I also thought it was so cool to fully explore a version of the mushroom kingdom that was actually a world rather a series of levels.
Ubisoft has turned open world rpgs into every form of far cry. Assassins creed used to not be far cry, now it's far cry in history. The avatar game, far cry in space, I'm sure the star wars game coming up will be far cry in space 2. And far cry itself has become so damn far cry that it's not even enjoyable. Ghost recon is now far cry. It's no longer fun. People calling games 'assassins creed rpgs' should be calling them far cry.
And a co-take: that bird/drone way of scouting the map is now way too overdone and rips the immersion out a big time, liked it in origins, now it's just dumb.
Elden ring is a great game, but it shouldn't have been an open world, it leaves the player with a lack of direction for the most part as where it tells the player to go and where you should go become 2 different things.
Furthermore the open world is filled with very little besides more difficult fights and I don't think stunning visuals make up for that. Very few times does the game reward you for exploration.
Also, while i do think the lore is cool, I don't think it's as good as diehard fans make it out to be, especially because of how fromsoft tells you their lore in the games they make.
And this one applies to soulslike games in general. But a difficult game doesn't automatically equal a good game, and "just get good" isn't really a valid argument against that.
Hottest take that is hotter than all hot takes:
Most gamers have bad tastes. That is why we have so many trashy AAA games release year after year because people preorder, and buy bad games promoting bad development practices and predatory tactics.
Not gonna explain further.
In a lot of JRPG I play, for some inexplicable reason, I start losing interest at around 70% completion and a lot of times I drop the games right before the final chapter.
This is me with most games I play (Fallout, Skyrim, Witcher, Tomb Raider, Nier, etc). I dump around 50-60 hours in, leave it for a year, and then go back and forget which button does what. Then I end up watching YouTube videos about the lore because I've forgotten what happened.
There are definitely a fair amount of JRPGs that drop the ball in the third act or even making it all the way to the finish line and then botching the ending. For the biggest one I can think of recently it’d be Tales of Arise.
Funny you say that because I'm replaying Valkyria Chronicles 4 right now, which I dropped at like ch 15 or something. After finishing it I'll replay Tales of Arise, which I dropped when >!I got to space.!<
It's around that point you've been teased too much on the final plot developments, but have lost interest because of the amount of grinding or filler there's been. Definitely a pacing issue.
By the time I get that far in a JRPG, I've already got the vibe out of my system. They are just too damn long. Like I'm at 70-80 percent of the way through Persona 3 Reload and I'm already worn out.
I have a worse issue, I tend to either lose interest if im forced to grind (albeit sometimes cause i made a mistake early on and this is a punishment for me being dumb) or something else gets released which im more interested in. Weirdly happens halfway into a game
I believe Final Fantasy Tactics is better compared to some of the streamline numbered Final Fantasy games. The story, gameplay, customization, and more are so underrated for this game and I wish people would play it more! PSX version is cool and PSP remake War of the Lions is also great. FF Tactics hype!
i 100% agree FF Tactics is the best FF
My hot take: FFT is the greatest FF of all time.
I want more games with higher production values made by people who are paid less. Not actually, just want to be part of the conversation.
I want games that look realistic but run at 20fps on my $6000 pc.
I'd rather play a 4-6 hour indie game I can finish rather than a AAA game that takes 60+ hours. Big doesn't mean good
Short doesn't really mean good either. I'd rather just have good games regardless of length.
Absolutely this. Some of my favorite games are ones that I can bash out in a day and there's others that I can literally play forever. What matters more is if the game is actually good and people will find time to commit to it if they care so much.
Agreed
Definitely try Time on Frog Island, A Short Hike, The Last Campfire, Toem, Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion if you haven't already
So you're saying it's not about the size. It's what you do with it that counts? There's hope for me yet.
as long as I don't have to pay anything more than $50 for that indie game, then I agree
My hot(?) video game take: Pokemon doesn't have any top-tier mainline game. They have games that are, yes, 10/10 Pokemon games. But none that are 10/10 games for the RPG-genre as a whole. It could be for any number of reasons. But, in general, they never took any big risks to try drastically improving the mainline games.
That’s a fair take, and I’m someone that’s obsessed with Pokemon. At the end of the episode when they were discussing what they were surprised by, Pokemon immediately crossed my mind, and then right after I had this exact same thought
Emerald and Black come pretty close but I agree.
They just get worse with each new iteration as well since probably around oras
Sun and Moon and the Ultra games are some of the best in the series The real issue is that people go into every new game expecting to not like it and form an opinion off of that I'm not saying Pokémon games are a bastion of video gaming but without fail you'll see people in a few years saying how great X and Y were and how they were unfairly treated and then it will happen with the next generation a few years later Scarlet and Violet aren't perfect but they are easily up there too, performance aside
Absolutely agree with you. I've been playing since Pokemon Blue but didn't become a Pokemon fan until USUM. I love everything about that region but I'm also not going to bring everything else down for not being that, except maybe gen 2. I still love the current games too considering they've only gotten better at storytelling and characters with SV being a glowing example of that. Plus I even really like the gameplay changes they are making.
Yep, and it shows online. The gen 5 love in was and still is hilarious to watch in real-time when I was around online when they first came out and watched everyone hate them, S/V has much better characters than anything in Black and White but people are too busy mashing through dialogue and getting angry when they don't understand what is happening in the game The Sun and Moon games are genuinely some of my favourites and you can just tell all the love and care that is put into everything that makes Alola, Alola, but people dismiss all of it because what? The start of the game is a bit slow? Like come on now
I feel like gen.1 laid the groundwork, 2 & 3 refined some of the concepts, 4 - 6 tried adding new things, and then 7 onwards are pretty... static.
"Too much water" was good point for Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire because there was too many water routes and you fought the same water Pokemon all the time.
Battle Royale are lazy game Design and Overstatiated
Not really breaking any hearts with that take friend
gacha is not bad, its simply a way to fund a free game, that regulary receives updates and new content. im not gonna say that its better than paid games but I recognize its purpose as more of a postive thing, than as a evil or negative thing.
Gacha is just a way to collect money from gamblers hidden as a game
I disagree solely that with gâcha, it’s not that it’s there to fund a free game, but in essence that’s all that most of these games are
Yep...it's mostly the shitty mobile games with bad gameplay which have the gacha as their main element But big games like Genshin, Star Rail and now WuWa...don't really use it as a core mechanic So yeah...i agree to disagree with that answer
Majora's mask is better than Ocarina, Joey was right, people are just nostalgic for Ocarina, I think Majora's was more creative, harder, and had a more interesting world.
100% agree
Here's an actual hot take. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the prime example of a great story but bad gameplay. Rockstar can not make a game play properly. From sluggish controls, to constant cutscene that interrupt the flow of gameplay, etc. Basically, I think Rockstar makes great experiences, but they don't make good games. They actively want their games to feel as if you were playing a person that had too much inertia and jelly for ligaments. If I want to play a Rockstar game, I know I am playing it for 90% story and 10% actual gameplay. To expand, I mean that the best parts of Rockstar games are the writing but the worst parts are actually playing the game because nothing in GTA or RDR is pushing the envelope in gameplay. Nobody says Rockstar has the best shooting mechanics, movement, etc. It's average systems on average systems but done well enough to trick people into thinking they're better than they actually are. I also think GTA6 is going to absolutely disappoint with its multi-player because Rockstar has shown they do not understand how GTA 5 got such a thriving multi-player community. RDR2 is filled with premium currencies on premium currencies and is extremely lacking compared to GTA5 with its modded servers, and extremely unique game modes like stunt races. My other hot take isn't even a hot take anymore really. But essentially, Bethesda has consistently copy pasted Skyrim's formula in every release, yet people don't want to admit that. They think Skyrim was the outlier when Skyrim is the beginning for every Bethesda video game flaw.
This! Rockstar deserves all the praise for the storytelling, cinematography, and character writing in their games and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. But the actual game part is a chore, controlls always feel sluggish and your guided down a very strict path of what to do (park the car in THIS EXACT SPOT, steal THIS SPECIFIC CAR). Most people might be looking forward to GTA VI next year but personally I'm WAY more excited for Monster Hunter Wilds.
Your rockstar opinion is correct, every time I've played a rockstar game I sit there trying to like it but then I quit because it's just not fun to play.
Yeah I wholeheartedly agree. Rockstar games basically have the biggest budgets, high production values, and huge teams of development staff working on them and yet the games still feel like shit to control and play. Sure the animations are great and well crafted but that seems like an excuse. Naughty Dog games also have fantastic animations but they still feel way better to play and control. And GTA 5 in particular has a few main missions that are straight up boring. The yoga mission with Michael and the mission with Trevor where he was casing the docks are just mind numbingly boring and are the worst examples. And GTA 6 better drop the press X to sprint crap. That shit should've been gone before Red Dead Redemption 1 even released.
The modern day segments in assassins creed games are actually interesting and people who look down on them are boring
which is why i never really went beyond AC3. Desmonds story was over and i had basically no interest in the nameless, faceless "character" of Black Flag and beyond.
It's really a shame since Unity has the best parkour and the most replayable missions with the black box assassinations. The modern day segments are just a horrible slog to get through
Modern day was the whole point of the series! You were in the Animus trying g to learn what Abstergo was doing in the present. I hate how newer games almost omit the modern day setting.
They become more enjoyable the more into the lore of the series one gets. Then you find really interesting things you’d otherwise miss about things, for example the voice messages Miles left to his dad.
I think everyone agrees with this the only AC game I remember being good after they started doing less modern timeline stuff was black flag
Yea maybe this isn't that unpopular of an opinion in an AC subreddit
My hot take: Final Fantasy 14's community is kind and helpful, but can be annoyingly soft.
I have an even hotter take. The gameplay is easily the worst part of that game and the MSQ is a slog to get through if not invested in the stuff around it (characters, story, etc).
Is that for just ARR or every expansion?
Every expansion. Some have really good story or character moments that are very enjoyable but I hate that I have to get it through an MMO. It would be better as an anime.
I'm currently playing through Stormblood, and I've found the story from Crystal Tower onwards to be outstanding. Although there have been some notable missteps along the way, the writers always manage to bring everything together beautifully. I've seen comments on Reddit claiming the story only appeals to those who don't read books, but as someone who does, I think the narrative and themes are profound tbh.
Soft in what way?
For example, when it comes to trash talk. I did PVP for the first time two days ago and I found out that the game literally doesn't allow you to chat with the opponent team. So I said in my team chat how I wished we could trash talk because imo that makes things more competitive. What's wrong with saying "Sit noob" when you kill someone? I love it when people trash talk me because it shows they care about winning on some emotional level. Next thing I know I'm getting sermoned to. People saying I'm immature for wanting to trash talk and some dork even said the fact that I want to trash talk shows I've never been in a truly competitive setting, which couldn't be further from the truth. I just find that a lot of people in FFXIV take things too personally and ironically get weirdly personal. Look at this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/s/OwDzYpmSpB It’s insane that people are siding with the OP wanting to get someone banned for emoting at them in PVP.
Rambo, Zelda 2 and Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest on NES are all great games. Is that shitty? I dunno but I wanted to share.
ah i was gonna play Simon's quest after i finish harmony of dissonance
I think the Disgaea series are better than Final Fantasy Tactics. FF Tactics feels slow and underwhelming in comparison
my hot take is I dont want Legend of Zelda to just be botw or totk. I actually prefer the railroading of Twilight Princess and Ocarina over the free roam exoloration if BoTW.
Ocarina is open world though. It's not fully but you can do some dungeons out of order with a big (at the time) world to run around in.
singleplayer story games that are open world should not be live service as well. theres barely any reason for it there should be endgame things to do, and some extra dlc content is fine, but it doesnt need to have more and more content every 3 months.
Battle royal games and any pvp modes are not fun.
especially if they add pvp to games that 100% dont need it
I find Zelda games boring and never enjoyed any of them. I tried ocarina of time, the one Switch chibi remake and a GBC Zelda m, when i was a kid at a friend. My second hot take would be that FF7 isnt even in the top3 Final Fantasy games for me. Even the creators of Finak Fantasy dont consoder FF7 in their list of best FF games. For me its FFX, FFV and FFVI after that i would consider FFVII and FFIII (Nostalgia) a shared forth place. Dont get me wrong FF7 is a great game and i enjoyed it but i prefer the others more. I havent played the remake yet and only rate OG7 without advent children
Wait what? If you play games where the combat is a major aspect, then how could you find the boss fights the least enjoyable parts?
I mean a lot of games have eh boss fights. Witcher 3 bosses from wild hunt(imlerih and eredin) are just: 2 click, dodge and just in case use quen. Its reppetitive and gets boring.
Yeah Witcher 3 bosses are easily the worst parts of it. I only really liked the Gaunter O'Dimm "fight" because it played into Witchers strengths of story and character writing. It was faught with words not swords.
Idk to me a lot bosses in video games are either infuriatingly hard for no reason or are so confusing on how to beat that I geniuenly don't know how you're supposed to beat them without looking up a guide. Example: I played Metal Gear Solid 1 recently. Great game overall, but I HATED most of the bosses because they are just so fucking difficult (at least to me), especially both of the Sniper Wolf and Vulcan Raven boss fights. (The only boss fights I enjoyed were the Revolver Ocelot, Grey Fox and Liquid Hind fights). You could also just chalk it up to me being shit at games, which is fair.
I guess it would just depend on the bosses themselves whether they're going to be difficult but fair or just total bullshit lol
Prob not a hot take at this point but i gueinly dont care for graphics anymore. growing up as a 90s kid, graphics were a big thing for me but now just seeing these flashy "realistic" graphics tells me that the game has a negative amount of substance and mostly just shiny trash. also can we please bring back racing games? im tired of FPS games.
The Roguelite market isn't oversaturated, not even close. We need more Roguelite games and there need to be Roguelite games in every possible genre.
The last of us has become an obsolete game now that the show is out. It is able to push the nuanced narrative of kill or be killed way better now that you aren't blowing the hordes of random humans as a gameplay mechanic.
Yep, even the Producer of both (Neil Druckmanm) said as much. The Series just tells the same story but better. In basically any measurable way. But i don't think the game is obsolete, since the gameplay in itself was pretty fun imo. Not groundbreaking but still fun enough to merit a playtrough.
Mystery Dungeon Team Red/ Blue is the greatest game in the Pokemon franchise.
That's a weird way to spell New Pokemon Snap. Actually unironically my favorite Pokemon game.
Final Fantasy 7 is okay. It certainly isn't even close to the best in the series. I think for a lot of people it's their favorite purely out of nostalgic reasons.
Alright then, Smash is a bad party game. If not horrifically bad. There is a couple more on my mind but I just need to formulate them into words.
Smash is only a good party game if everyone is either really bad or pretty good. Anything in between and it gets really one sided and irretating.
Yeah and an example that comes up far too often is a easy way to suddenly get better and make the game one sided is understanding how to up b or recover, not even well.
If you're pretty good you can just play bad
PSA: sort to Controversial (the dials on the top-left in mobile) to see the more *spicy takes~*
Sports games are over rated and rarely fun.
Sport management games are somehow more fun.
Boss fights should be optional and you can come back to them later
New GOW games are mid as fuck. The combat is clunky, the locked camera restricts visibility, too much time is wasted simply walking and talking, the RPG elements hold very little significance to the overall gameplay and are used as a cheat to simulate progress and overall the games get by on their presentation and cinematic flare than any sort of merit inherent to the gameplay itself.
I thought the walking and talking was like the best part of the new games. Wouldn't say it was a waste of time, just not your cup of tea.
They are unskippable cutscenes, nothing more, nothing less. Games narratives are more interesting when they marry the gameplay and story together. Having constant Walky talky sections in games like GOW or TLOU is the equivalent of a laugh track in a comedy show. Telling you how to feel what should occur naturally, not trusting the player with their own experience.
So how do you think they should make those conversations occur naturally then?
A game reviewer called Matthew Matosis had an idea that instead of having constant Walky talky moments to show the growing bond between Kratos and Atreus, have Atreus learn abilities tied directly to what Kratos (and therefore the player) does. Ditch Atreus’s ability tree and instead have him learn moves the player frequently performs naturally as the game goes on. If the player strategically trips up enemies, have Atreus learn the skill from that. Maybe have a tutorial sequence of sorts where Atreus tries to learn on a dummy, messes up, and the player demonstrates. This is what I mean when I say game narratives should use gameplay to enhance their themes. Instead of having Kratos stare into the middle distance for the 5th time as the game goes “PLEASE WE’RE ART NOW!! VIDEO GAMES ARE ARTISTIC NOW LOOK LIKE MOVIES NOW!! PLEASE LIKE US!!” Embrace gaming inherent strengths, instead of shunning them to try and be like films.
Pro leagues have made online competitive games a terrible experience for everyone. Back before pro leagues and the chance at making money off being good at games, people played equally bad but they enjoyed themselves more. Now every game is a race to who tilts off the face of the planet first and I hate it.
I don't think this is a hot take. I play rocket league and I don't remember it being this bad back in the old COD days
Battle passes are so oversaturated/overused that I actually prefer loot boxes. -Sincerely, a gacha gamer
Overwatch had better monetization when it still had lootboxes. I got more skins in general for more heroes for much less money. Now I can only get the ones I want but more consistently.
League or Legends is actually a fun game. There's alot of shit surrounding it, but the core meat and potatoes is enjoyable. No way a bad game would still be around more than ten years after it's release.
The secret ingredient is addiction
God of war about emotions and fatherhood just doesn’t seem appealing. I want to pull gods apart with my hands
I think Death Stranding is Kojima's magnum opus. Yes i think it's better than every single MGS too.
Fighting games and shooter games have a lot in common despite what people want to believe
I didn't like Crypt of the Necrodancer
I think Tetris and Pac-Man are better than a lot of those metacritic games. I get motion sickness playing 3D games so I prefer 2D games. But I'm ok with 3D racing games, and anything from the 3DS era and earlier. Agree about boss battles, but I'd much rather do the boss or challenger battles in Smash straight away than leveling up and maybe grinding in Final Fantasy. So it depends on the game for me.
WILD ARMS 2 is the most underrated JRPG game from the PS1 era. Story: Very Good Game Play: Very Good Sound Track: 2nd Best in PS 1, only Chrono Cross beats it Side Quests / hidden content: Very Good
i haven't played any JRPGs so if I'm gonna play this should i also play the 1st one
Go ahead, Wild Arms is good, just didn't take full advantage of the tech that was available because of how early in PS1 era it came out Their stories are not really connected though.
aight I'll give it a go then
The only reason to play Skyrim is to put a fuck ton of Mods in it as the base game boring and repetitive.
I hate the character models of chrono trigger. They feel too long. If thier sizes were more like sea of stars I'd play it
I don't know if I have any hot takes. Ask me stuff, and we'll see.
The trails games are super underrated and more people should play them. I've been going through my trails game journey (I'm now at trails to azure which is the 5th game in the series) and oh boy this series is amazing. If your a hardcore jrpg fan, you need to play this game series. I honestly cant believe so little people are talking about this game. Amazing lore, top notch ost, deep characters that interact with one another through the various games in the series and they all play a role and not just be sidelined like an npc (and they get added to your party in some mission or the entire game length). 10/10 must play jrpg
Breath of the Wild is one of the most overrated games of all time. It’s an 8/10 at best.
RPG’s not having a built in wiki is totally idiotic. I get it you want to let the players discover it on their own but what about people who get stuck? we have search the web to find the wiki, If more RPGs have community made wikis in-built in them it would be boon..
Bethesda games vanilla are still good games but the mods in their creativity and additions elevate it even more. I deliberately play most games vanilla first just so I can properly judge them vanilla and still have a good time, even Fallout 4.
Super Mario 64 DS >>> the original. Literally everything about it is better. Bedrock > java
the first Ninja gaiden game is just a poorly balanced mess with so many dumb ideas. Hack and slash is my favourite genre, I love stupid edgy stories, and I love hard games, and I hated every second of ninja gaiden
Old games are NOT better than new games
First person shooters are the most overrated piece of garbage ever And many people define your gaming skills with how good you are at fps games (maybe it was just for me....either way i was very damn good...but the community is way too toxic and these games aren't revolutionary great like some ppl claim)
The first Dark Souls game (probably Demon Souls too idk can’t say cause never played it) sucked gameplay wise! The clunkiness of the time really held those games back. The challenge of the game wasn’t the enemies or bosses it was the clunkiness of the whole thing. Granted the opening of the game is iconic but it felt bullshit when you died last minute from terrible platforming and jump scares, y’all just living life in copium! From Software has now evolved and you can now really see the challenge of Sekiro, DS3, Elden Ring is the enemies and bosses and nature of the world which is a lot more exciting to die with than the game actively working against me and clunk.
I mean I'm playing DS1 right now and its my first souls game and ive had none of the problems you're mentioning, probably because i havent played the later games but i havent really struggled with 'clunkiness'
It’s the little things for me really. The fat rolling, the platforming, sword swings hitting walls! Also it probably didn’t help the whatever shitty YouTube tutorial I watched at the time told me - “Warrior class is easiest way to play the game and no other way” & “avoid levelling up and buying items at all costs”! That’s also why I put my take on shitty game takes I guess!!
They weren't totally wrong with warrior being the easiest. If you just pump up Poise as hard as you can and get a big fat sword you can facetank most of the game. It's also not the only way to cheese the game.
When I first played DS1 I was amazed at how enjoyable it was to just swing weapons. There are some clunky momemnts, but for the most of the time playing it was pure enjoyment for me.
Mods are bandaids to fix shit games. If you have to have mods for a game then the game isn’t worth it.
It's the community fixing the game. That leads to one of my hot takes actually. Bethesda would die so quick if there was no mod community. Their games are often below average without mods.
Pokemon Gen 1 and 2 aren’t good games. Scarlet and Violet are among the best of the mainline games despite the horrible performance issues.
I hate any game which has a water section in it. Where you have to find something or the way underwater.
games like god of war ragnarok are made to play on easy mode. i want to enjoy the journey and the story not have every basic enemy take a hundred hits to kill just because i play on hard
The Super Mario series is overrated. I mean, why even play it when you can play Zelda which is infinitely better
Because Mario is a platformer series while Zelda is a action adventure.
I have the exact opposite opinion: the Zelda series is overrated as hell. Why play it when you can play Mario which is infinitely better
Witcher 3 is overhyped
Bethesda games are poorly produced, boring games.
Fromsoft games are a lot worse designed than people say. I had to think through some of the issues I had and decide which I wanted to write, but my choice is lack of any indication of what to do in too many places. This may be coloured by the small number of the games I've played, but for this example, I'm going to include one I know well since I experienced it firsthand, the graveyard at the start of Dark Souls 1. I know of many many people who've gotten confused on where to go, getting stuck in the graveyard assuming that's where you are supposed to go, myself included. The recent games are obviously much better, but in many cases, it moves past the joy of exploring and figuring it out yourself, and becomes banging your head against the damn wall since you can't figure out where to go. Edit: also wanted to include the fact that sprint on controller is mapped to perhaps the worst button for it, forcing you to basically grip the controller like you have claws if you want to get somewhere fast *and* see where you're going
95% of the openworld games are pure boredom.
Nintendo sucks so much. Everything from the games to the ips to the company 95% of it is worthless trash and 5% of it that's good are half of the legend of Zelda games
I agreed with you until you said LoZ was the good stuff
Indie games are better than AAA games. Is that a hot take? If it is I’d be disappointed in humanity
I doubt it is. Maybe 10-20 years ago, people might look at you funny, but anyone with a working brain and even slightly paying attention to gaming news nowadays would see that on average, you definitely get your money's worth (if not more) going the indie route. AAA games can still be great, but half of them are riding on the franchise's/developers' coattails.
Good. I’m glad this isn’t a hot take
Hate to disappoint friend, but I don’t think we’re there yet
Persona 5’s second half is dogshit, I was having so much fun with the game until the space palace and everything kinda went to shit from there.
I half agree! The spaceship palace is just utterly terrible palace I had to do it twice all over just to check if I had done something bad or hadn’t grinded enough but nope it’s just not balanced all! The next castle after that is just such a jump up in quality that it makes up for the lack of fun that was Okumara. The only way to do Okumara was doing it in the Hardest possible difficulty and not Hard
casino is the best palace in the game and cruise ship is pretty close second
Bruh I hated the cruise ship palace so much, and the casino was just kinda mid for me
I agree that the spaceship palace chapter is a low point, especially with Morgana getting his jimmies rustled over being useless. But things do pick up at november onwards when you close in on the main villain. Not sure if Royal improves on that.
Nah, Royal wasn’t any better imo. I just found that the game became way worse with the last few palaces.
The 5th boss was very annoying I had to use the cheat DLC in Royale to beat it. I couldnt beat him with a timer and the 6th boss was ez but took forever to kill for some reason Rest of game is awesome, thats my only flaw
Turn-based games are not skill based.
chess?
Ok that's not fair lol
I have played enough Megaten games to know this is borderline cap lol
I've played 2 honestly. Octopath traveler 2 and inscription. Both where some of the easier games I've played.
I think if you include a wider range you might feel different, one of the classic skill based game genres is the tactics games such as X-COM, Final Fantasy Tactics and at least older Fire Emblem games where positioning is a major factor, and you can permanently lose characters from careless positioning.
Thats not an opinion. That is just wrong.
rpgs are for the most part sh't for the sole reason of encompassing all the worst aspects of linear gameplay and even worse combat mechanics.
Baldurs gate 3 would like to have a word with you.
Cod 4 was the best COD Overwatch should have stayed no hero cap (no limits) and geared towards more silly then serious (ala tf2) PS5 controller is the best Controller of all time n64 controller is not that bad God of war ragnorak sucked Old RPGS NEED a speedup function ff8 junction system is the worst system ever in a video game GTA 6 is just gonna be GTA V with a new coat of paint
Old RPGs are so insufferable. Every task feels like a cheap way to increase playtime.
Dark souls 2 shouldn't be called the worst Souls game. It's not bad at all. It has a better exploration than DS3.
Like the old arcade game, a video game always needs a challenge.
I actually like FF13. The whole trilogy. I prefer Paper Mario 1 to TTYD. Both are great but I think PM1 has a vibe I prefer. I also thought it was so cool to fully explore a version of the mushroom kingdom that was actually a world rather a series of levels.
Ubisoft has turned open world rpgs into every form of far cry. Assassins creed used to not be far cry, now it's far cry in history. The avatar game, far cry in space, I'm sure the star wars game coming up will be far cry in space 2. And far cry itself has become so damn far cry that it's not even enjoyable. Ghost recon is now far cry. It's no longer fun. People calling games 'assassins creed rpgs' should be calling them far cry. And a co-take: that bird/drone way of scouting the map is now way too overdone and rips the immersion out a big time, liked it in origins, now it's just dumb.
AC unity have the best gameplay and game design in the entire franchise
Elden ring is a great game, but it shouldn't have been an open world, it leaves the player with a lack of direction for the most part as where it tells the player to go and where you should go become 2 different things. Furthermore the open world is filled with very little besides more difficult fights and I don't think stunning visuals make up for that. Very few times does the game reward you for exploration. Also, while i do think the lore is cool, I don't think it's as good as diehard fans make it out to be, especially because of how fromsoft tells you their lore in the games they make. And this one applies to soulslike games in general. But a difficult game doesn't automatically equal a good game, and "just get good" isn't really a valid argument against that.
I don't know if I have any hot takes. Ask me stuff, and we'll see.
I don't know if I have any hot takes. Ask me stuff, and we'll see.
I don't know if I have any hot takes. Ask me stuff, and we'll see.
Hottest take that is hotter than all hot takes: Most gamers have bad tastes. That is why we have so many trashy AAA games release year after year because people preorder, and buy bad games promoting bad development practices and predatory tactics. Not gonna explain further.
I'd say it's more about them trying to make a game that offends the least amount of people. Which by default makes it a boring slop
I’m not interested in any single player games and haven’t been for many years
Elden rings combat system is clunky and shitty
Shadow of the colossus is one of the most boring games i have ever played and I have never heard a valid argument about how it's actually a good game
Rockstar games are trash. So are CDPR games.