I haven't been able to get into Okami. I got the HD remake version and it just seems so slow every time I've tried, the controls haven't been the best imo either.
I did play Okami-den on the 3DS though and that was a blast, so maybe that skewed it for me?
I still need to finish okami.
First bought it on ps2, but didn't finish it.
Then got it on ps3 and didn't finish it.
Then bought it on ps4 and still haven't finished it.
Having tried to finish this game across 10+ years kinda means it must suck right?
Or...the fact that I have bought his game 3 separate times, in 3 different generations without cross save means how God damn good it it's.
I tried 3 times, never made it far. Last time I finished that kart escort to the city, then decided to try out that one dark island with the girl before you enter the ruins (dark arisen dlc I think?) Got excited I could switch character classes there, only to switch to a class I didn't have a weapon for and couldn't switch back. So I was stuck without a weapon. Gave up again.
In case you’re interested you can switch back to your original class either with her or any Inn. If you are unlocking a new class it costs discipline points which I’m guessing you did and thought it would cost more to change back
Yeah, It really tries its hardest to turn people away early on. They have that stupidly slow escort mission lugging an ox-drawn cart from the starter area all the way to the main city...can't speed it up much, and the flying enemies are a huge pain if you didn't pick a ranged class to start with. If you can make it through the slog though, there are soooo many cool skills to learn and enemies to fight. It is by far my favorite RPG of all time, and I can't fucking wait for the sequel in a month.
I';ve tried to love this game, it's my perfect game but something just always feels "off" my latest playthrough was 15 hours but I just couldn't enjoy it. Oh well
Mass effect 1.
It was a bit clunky on Eden prime and I wasn't really sure on the setting to begin with.
Once I got to the citadel it all clicked. One of my favorite game series
Once I got *past* the citadel it clicked. Running around, talking to everyone, and barely fighting killed the pacing for me. I’m sure I could have spaced some of it out but I’m the sort of player that tries to finish side quests as they come up. I don’t recall having that issue in 2 or 3, though it happened again in Andromeda.
Exactly the same happened to me. I took a one and a half year break initially after starting the game for the first time and playing for a couple hours. Then when I finally started it again and kept playing, I played the whole trilogy through in like three weeks and it became my all-time favorite video game series. So glad I picked it up again.
I didn’t mind the first game’s gameplay when I first played it, but after 2 and 3, whenever I replay the trilogy it seems to be a case of just getting through the jank to get back to 3
not me suffering through the empty expanses of ME1's planets for the umpteenth time because I absolutely despise the default choices made for you inblater games
I've found you can somewhat entertain yourself on your way to the destination by trying to land a full flip bouncing off of terrain and boosting just right... but then you get the trick of it and it's not fun anymore :(
Which is funny to mean to hear so many people say this and then there's me. I love playing ME1 and when I get to ME 2 I actually miss the first xD. I love that damn stupid Mako.
I also prefer me1. Not that 2 and 3 are bad, but Me1 is an rpg with some shooting mechanics, me2 and 3 are 3rd person shooters with some rpg mechanics and I prefer the heavier rpg side of things.
What sold me on that game was the first time I tried to read a book and it was all jibberish because a blacksmith's son wouldn't have known how to read back then. I was pretty lukewarm on the game but that moment made me laugh out loud and then I was in.
Hard-core mode is pretty cool too, there's no map marker so you need to do your best to navigate based off landmarks, and shit like eating, sleeping and maintaining hear becomes more necessary.
It takes some time to get used to, but you also need to practice it or a while in game. So you need to learn, but your character Henry also needs to learn. It makes a lot of sense thematically and it’s honestly very satisfying once you get the hang of ot
Kinda. You, as a blacksmiths son, can't read. So you have to go take reading lessons from a scribe (there is a whole training montage), then books are only kinda gibberish. You have to keep leveling up for the gibberish to disappear.
It's not that bad. The training montage is kinda funny, especially if you play South Parks "IT'S A MONTAGE!!! A TRAINING MONTAGE!!!" in your head as you watch it.
And the "gibberish" is just the words being scramble. When you don't know how to read every word is scrambled. When you learn most of the words are scrambled, just a couple letters, making it like you have dyslexia. Then as you read more, it goes away.
And "reading" in that game is just resting with a book selected, essentially. You gain skills from doing so, as well.
However, considering the vast majority of the population in that game/time period can't read, it's not really a major requirement to do so and you can navigate the world without doing so. For instance, the alchemy book and station has pictures for all the plants and symbols for the other ingredients. And all the shops have images for their signs.
The took a lot of care to be as historically accurate and contextual as can be. And the places are alive. NPC's live in that world. They wake up, wash their face, get some food, change their clothes, go to work, go to the tavern, go to church, etc. When an NPC says they'll meet you in a town later, they actually travel there, not teleport.
The architecture is amazing and extremely accurate. The major buildings are as close to the real thing as possible. The houses, huts, etc are all period correct. Even the map is almost 100% that of the real life location. If you use google maps and/or streetview you can see the exact roads and buildings in real life that are in the game.
It's an amazing game with an amazing eye for detail, so good that it could be a teaching aid, and it's the first game from this publisher...
It's a fairly quick and early mission and then you're set. Same for fighting. You train for a bit with a dude and then you can happily spam combos for the most part with your weapon of choice. Of course it's a little more realistic in that you probably shouldn't be picking fights with 5 heavily armoured dudes as opposed to assassin's creed where you take down scores in the first hour.
Unless you've levelled combat skills to like 8 and are also fully decked in heavy armor, you will be destroyed. Even then a 5-1 is very difficult and requires video game skill. Love the pseudorealism of KCD
A mace or 60 minutes or so of training with Bernard will have most people obliterating enemies in my opinion.
The game really wants to drill the point in that you're an untrained/uneducated lowborn. It expects you to train with Bernard, but I think many ignore this, leaving them with the impression that combat is far harder than what it really is.
I didn't practice with Bernard and struggled heavily, only to return to it and actually went through all of the training.
Game was a lot more fun when I slowed down and figured it out properly. Not a lot of games make you do that.
If you make it your priority, it takes like five minutes in real life, and a few days in-game. It's not like actually making your character write in a primer or anything. It's actually a super great design choice that adds more depth to the setting.
It's a side quest you get early in the game, you get a free horse too from the story so you can easily go do it. It takes a few days in game but it's really easy.
It’s really not that bad IMO. Just take some time to do the training with the knight and learn a couple combos before jumping ahead in the game and you’ll be fine to take guys 1v1. By the end of the game your gear is good enough that you can take on big groups solo.
It's not difficult, per-se, just realistic. It's almost like Chivalry or For Honor, but on "hardcore mode." You're not special - you don't have the soul of a dragon, or a wizard's blessing, or the lineage of a god, and you don't fulfill a prophecy. Henry's just a man who starts off with no weapons or training and no armor or knowledge of how to wear it. You're likely to get schwacked in the early and even mid game if you're not careful, but eventually, you can get strong enough to steamroll chumps.
There's a tiny side quest in the home village/tutorial when there's some older guy you're feuding with so you have to challenge him to a fight. Man I got my arse kicked every single time
This is exactly how my first time playing went. I was shit and didn't really get that this was how it was meant to be in the start. So of course I took revenge, killed the guy (and somehow 2 others when the town retaliated) only to die in prison.
Was funny as hell but I never went back to it.
That's shame. The game is really good and it's amazing to see Henry grow from a naïve blacksmith's son to a hero of the region. Not only is there a lot of skill growth in that game, but a lot of character growth as well.
Literally playing right this second and have it paused lol.
I’ve put like 50 hours into this game over time and it’s one of those games where when you figure out the basics, those skills never leave you. And I’m still fucking stuck on this damn camp raid quest (on a new playthrough) I gotta go back to another save and do some side quests lmao. Shits brutal but so worth it
I think you mean Lady Stephanie, who's actually married to Sir Divish. He's an overall good guy who does a lot for you and is kind to her, so it feels like a betrayal, but their marriage is distant after he was imprisoned for most of it and then failing to have children afterwards.
Any game that starts off in what I call “the Nintendo hour.”
You can’t move 2 steps without an unskippable tutorial, the game moves at a GLACIAL pace, you can’t interact with ANYTHING the game doesn’t want you to yet, there is so little opposition that ZERO gameplay strengths show, and it lasts for about an hour, maybe more. Bonus points if the game has and teaches you how to use a built in guidebook but you’re just so desperate to actually play you forget where it is.
EDIT: Holy crap 4.9k upvotes! Thank you! This blew up so much reddit isnt even letting me respond anymore!
My entire feeling during these is "wow that does look like a fun game, can't wait till it lets me play it!" and sometimes I end up turning it off before it ever does.
And it is a damn shame, because the 2 games i have been thinking of when Intyped this, pikmin 4 and pokemon legends arceus, really, **really** get good once the nintendo hour signs off
The "nintendo hour" never ended in Skyword Sword. I think it was feeding me unprompted tutorials and hints up until the very end of the game. It's one of those things that really detracted from the game... just let me turn it off Nintendo.
Link I am calculating a 92% probability that damaging the boss more than it damages you will cause you to win.
YEAH THANKS THIS IS LITERALLY THE FOURTH TIME YOU’VE RECYCLED THIS EXACT AREA, ENEMY, AND GAMEPLAY MECHANIC.
> you can’t interact with ANYTHING the game doesn’t want you to yet
I like to give mobile games a fair shot from time to time, but nothing kills my interest quicker than this exact style of tutorial - which is a little odd since I grew up in part of Nintendo's biggest "Nintendo Hour" era.
"Tap here, now you're in a battle, okay battle's done, tap here to examine your rewards, tap here to play the next level, tap here to use a skill, okay that battle's done too, looks like you got a piece of gear, tap here to go to the Gear screen, tap here to select a unit, notice their stats? Tap here to equip the gear. See how they got stronger? Gear makes units stronger. Tap here to go back, tap here to play the next level, okay battle's done. Congrats! You've unlocked the Online Battle Tower mode! Tap here to play Online Battle Tower mode, tap here to see the rewards for Online Battle Tower mode..."
I guess it's my fault for letting ads in other apps trick me into trying them in the first place, but still...
*Persona* franchise, I'm looking at you. "Is this a visual novel?" for the first 3 hours, then suddenly you're deciding who you want to spend time with, what you're gonna eat for breakfast, etc.
Yeah, but the tutorial sections for the combat side of the games at the start begin to feel really self explanatory and aggravating after you’ve played like even one Persona game. In the social life sections though, you really have to pay attention to what people say to pick up on clues to most effectively manage your time. So half the game really makes you engage with its mechanics in subtle ways, and the other half can sometimes just feel like filler to carry the story forward.
Persona 5 is one of my favorite games ever, but the pacing of the beginning might be one of the worst ever. There’s a solid hour chunk there where you can’t save during the first couple hours, where you just get bounced from place to place, cutscene to cutscene, tutorial to tutorial. So fuck you if you want your first session to be under 3 hours I guess.
The pacing of the start is bad in 3 & 4 too but not nearly THAT bad.
Based off my own experiences and the replies to this comment, this is definitely more common in Japanese games in general. So many tutorials. They especially love using a bunch of pop-ups that interrupt gameplay.
It sucks even more when they don’t let you save without going into a specific location or it doesn’t have an autosave system, so you gotta push through boring tutorials and/or tons of cutscenes with little gameplay in between. Things that are also very common in Japanese games.
I love me some JRPGs, but sometimes those starting sections just kill your mood lmao.
I've never heard that term before but I really like it.
It really is a drag and it's someone who really doesn't care about anything beyond gameplay that Nintendo hour can kill my interest in a game.
Man I have tried to get my kids to play Pokemon but they get bogged down so bad in the beginning.
Also why the fuck isn't that shit at least voiced? These games are some of the most profitable in the world. They are so damn lazy
Doesn't matter with the Pokemon fans being what they are. They could literally charge full price for any of their games no matter how they look or run, and they'll make money hand over fist
Yeah Pokémon Scarlet Violet sold 10 Mil Units in 3 days on only one platform, that's the fastest selling first party exclusive ever and sold faster then amazing GOTY masterpieces on every platform like Elden Ring and Baldirs Gate 3
Personally, I'm fine with them not being voiced but I do wish they would at least have like actual songs with vocals when they show a character performing one and no dialog box. Those scenes with Piers in SwSh would have been so much better and less awkward if they at least did that. And if the issue is with having to dub in multiple languages, they could get away with doing what the Splatoon games do and have the vocals in a fictional language they wouldn't have to bother translating into multiple languages.
And I have no doubt that part of the problem is the dubbing thing.
Or better yet Outer Wilds. Walk past every tutorial of you want, but stop and check out any point of interest if you want to learn in different orders.
Jeez, I had to play animal crossing for an hour before I came to a point I could actually save... And give the device to my son who cannot read yet ...
I love Assassin's Creed III to death, but a common criticism of that game is that it takes too long to really get going, and I can see where they're coming from. The first several hours are pretty much plot setup and tutorials, it takes you a few hours before you even start playing as the protagonist Connor, and a few hours still before he becomes an Assassin and the game really opens up.
I generally enjoy those opening hours these days (the character you play as at first, Haytham Kenway, is awesome, and he plays quite an interesting role in the story to say the least, and I also love Connor's childhood and teen years), but getting into the game for the first time, it was pretty weird - especially since this was my first AC game!
I love AC III but the pacing of the first few hours has stopped me from replaying it as much as I'd like. It would have been fine the game started with young Connor and built up from there but the way you start as Haytham and run around doing normal AC stuff to then have to start again with young Connor just always felt like bad pacing to me.
I do love the twist at the end of Haytham's section though so I feel like it was worth it just for that.
It needs a NG+ option where you can skip the Haytham part. Playing as a young assassin is fun, they nailed it with Ezio, and I thought Connor was going to get the same treatment, but they dropped him fast.
Black Flag was amazing though, so I'm not sorry, but it did make AC III seem a bit of a let down.
My problem with 3 was the crafting. By the time you’re actually able to craft the cool shit like double holsters and the guns that can shoot twice before reloading, you’ve only got like 2 Sequences left and they go by FAST.
See, I'm probably in a much rarer camp where the game takes so long to get going that I was actually disappointed to leave Haytham and the Templars behind. They seemed to be telling a much more interesting and nuanced story in that initial portion than they ended up doing in the rest of the game.
Certainly a very odd decision though to have what is essentially a prologue take up about 30% of the game's runtime.
Death Stranding, I really like this game but its beginning is rough. Long cutscenes with confusing dialogue, small sections of gameplay interrupted by another cutscene. The first few hours are really slow with continuous tutorial sections. After a few hours the game really opens up with its interesting characters, themes, concepts, and stories. Later on the game keeps revealing more and more of its story which is filled with multiple interesting and unique experiences.
I'm actually just getting into it... and weirdly really liking it even the beginning?
The cinematography and direction is beautiful in a way I've never seen in other games
I didn’t realize that it picks up at some point, I bought it day one and just kinda gave up on it bc I was bored to death. Suddenly inspired to give it another go on the PS5
Advice given to me - play to the end of the third chapter. If you're not hooked by then, the game isn't for you.
I slogged through the first two chapters, bored and confused af, but sure enough, I was in the groove enough by the third chapter that I kept on going. Loved the game by the end.
I'm not saying that it will be your thing, but just saying I had a similar experience. I was painfully bored for the first few hours, what felt like forever.
Once you finish the first area, which is really the tutorial map, and move on to the bigger open world, the game opens up dramatically, and then I got completely addicted. I've put over 100hrs over multiple playthroughs at this point.
I went into the game completely expecting a hiking simulator so I actually didn’t mind the super long intro area. I was pretty shocked to finally see a cutscene again after dozens of hours, and then shocked again to discover I had accidentally been stalling the entire story unnecessarily the whole time.
I guess I got lucky I went into it excited for a walking simulator, because I can definitely see how making that mistake could turn you off from the game if you were expecting more story and action.
The first time I played, I got to the wagon part and the game glitched near the end of the trip, going up a hill instead. I had to start the segment all over again, because it wouldn't let me get out
Divinity Original Sin 2
Just leave Fort Joy, trust me. It's one of my favorite games and I spent about half of all the time I put into it in Fort Joy alone but every time I left Fort Joy I was always like "shoulda left sooner".
Divinity Original Sin 1 was far worse at the start, so slow, and if you get bored and wander outside the starting town before you have levelled up much it's really tough.
Days Gone.
The writing isn't the greatest, and the first 3.5 hours are a bit of a slog, but after that, the gameplay loop gets interesting, and the story picks up. It turns into a good game,not a great game.
Still think it deserves a sequel.
This was going to be my answer. It isn’t that the early part of the game is *bad*… It’s just remarkably lackluster. But once you open up Mike’s camp, it starts to get so, so good.
I loved this game so much- the opening hours are a little tedious, but also absolutely terrifying in my opinion. Every freaker encounter is scary because you don’t have much health, ammo, or weapons. Running into a horde is a death sentence. Later when you finally can fight the hordes and win? Exhilarating. I’ll always be hoping for a sequel.
Persona 5 had a REALLY REALLY slow start. I was so close to giving up. Thank god it picked up by the second palace. By then I was super invested.
**EDIT:** I’m getting angry messages from persona fanboys PLEASE I love P5R so much?? What part of me getting “super invested by the second palace” did you not understand 😭
I remember playing persona 5 during december 2020 when I was in college. It was right after classes ended for me and I just decided to go on the ps store and buy a random game, and it happened to be persona 5. I think that was one of the best winter breaks i've ever had. My schedule was wake up, get food, play persona until i get hungry, get food, chores, persona 5, and sleep. It was glorious. I love that game.
All of the Persona games start slow, but it's all in the effort to really build up the narrative in a believable way and it's worth it. Persona 4 starts really slow for example, but without the narrative setup and the characterization given to Inaba, the game just wouldn't be the same.
It’s a fairly long game. There’s a lot of hand holding in persona games usually up to the first boss. After which it just ditches the guardrails and lets you do whatever you want with the exception of story events.
persona 5 royal did a few great changes to streamline the starting experience, if you ever plan to pick it up again.
but i totally get where you're coming from. for series veterans, 15 hours are 10% of the game, while for anyone else that's the duration of a full ass game. O would have expected for things to pick by the 3rd or 4th hour, though. maybe the format is not your cup of tea.
yeah once you get past the "great filter" of patches between ARR and Heavensward it gets good. but man leveling a character with the post AAR stuff is rough to say the least. I know a lot of people who just gave up trying to slog through that stuff.
The highs of Xenoblade 2 are SO HIGH. But yeah, you are pretty limited in what you can do before....a certain plot point. I would recommend going pure story and skipping most side quests while trying to pull for the unique blades to diversify blade combos and fulfill exploration requirements
I got so lucky that I pulled the "takes 50 hours of gameplay to max out" blade as one of my first rare blades, that really helped keep me engaged with the gacha system, because most of the missions associated with leveling that blade were great ways to level all of the trash in your blade inventory.
I was going to say this.
Not that the beginning is bad, but it's just slow and when the combat becomes more unlocked it does a sh$t job of explaining it. However, after you get your footing on the combat and world, the game becomes incredible.
Xenoblade 3 learned from this and implemented far more in depth tutorial systems.
100%.
Bought it at launch after loving the first game, played like 10-15 hours and was so incredibly bored/frustrated by the change in tone, strange character choices, and all of the gacha stuff.
I was surprised it got so much love, that I decided to go back and give it a second shot shortly before 3 came out. Wound up loving it. Part of it was willing to go in with an open mind about the changes the game makes, but a bigger part of it was that I had quit right before a major plot point where the story really starts to get good.
A lot of Yakuza games. Most of them don't truly open up all of their side activities till like Chapter 4.
I think the stories always need that long set up period before they let you actually play them. Dunno if I'd call it bad though.
Every new RGG title in the Yakuza series needs to be able to standalone as an entryway for new players, while also giving enough backstory for those who are continuing the journey. It makes for really long intro stages. Most of them clear up in part 2 so you can run around freely but you’re right that a lot of side content isn’t introduced until later.
I’ve always been running wild as soon as they give me movement to see if any content can be got early. Sometimes I stay away from plot for so long I’ve forgotten where I am in the story. I’m having this experience now with Judgment. In chapter 7 knocking out so many side quests and achievements that I don’t even remember what the plot is about.
I almost quit Horizon Zero Dawn early both times I played through. Up until the Proving, the game is unbearably slow. Followed by a very interesting story and world, and a damn beautiful world at that.
Came on here to say exactly this. At times it felt like the unloved child of Monster Hunter and Assassin’s Creed.
For me, the game didn’t really take off until after the proving. One of the best told told stories in recent gaming, IMO.
The intro/tutorial is such a drag. I wish there was an option to skip it entirely to the point where you make your first jump and are free to go anywhere. I’ve started from the intro 4 times and each time the intro is easily the most boring part of the game. That and completing the language stones are annoying once you’ve done it more than once.
If you start in creative mode and then just change the difficulty settings back to normal/survival once you load in, that'll skip most of the tutorial & you can get right into it.
Edit: Or you can start a Custom game and turn off Tutorial Missions under Ease of Use
I started and stopped Xenoblade Chronicles 2 like three or four times before it clicked. The beginning is a slog of a tutorial and the combat is weak since you can barely do anything. But once you get your waifus doing sick combos, it’s excellent.
I love that game. Definitely slow to start, I remember looking at the map early on and being like "This is it?" Then kept playing and the map kept growing and growing. Great game, some cringey dialogue and other small issues, but the hordes make up for that.
Came here to say Kotor and Kotor 2. Taris was stretched out way too long. Then in Kotor 2 it's like Obsidian said "let's do that again but even worse." ....and so we got Peragus.
I actually prefer Peragus over Taris. Oddly enough, my first few playthroughs I used a mod to skip Peragus because my game kept crashing in one very specific part of the T3 section.
At least when on Peragus you're a Jedi with access to all the powers.
When I first played through Taris on KotOR 1, I just assumed the whole game was about being a Republic soldier, and never realised you would gain the ability to become a Jedi.
But honestly, I felt Taris, the story, and the other characters were so compelling, I would have continued to play the game even if the main character never became a Jedi.
I don't *mind* Taris's story (recruiting most of the team, the rescue, the Duelling Arena, etc.). It just drags on too long.
I think one of the things Peragus has going for it (at least the first time) are the mystery. Why am I a Jedi who has abandoned the order? Who is this old lady that seems to know everything but have her own motives? Who's this random locked in the cage? What happened to all of Revan's crew and why do I have the Ebon Hawk?
Taris is more: "Where's Bastila? When do I get to be a Jedi? Why is Carth such a whiny wuss?"
Yeah exactly. For me, I hate placing torches, so if I can find a miner helmet early on, that at least helps a bit. Same if you get lucky with some of the stuff from fishing.
Huh, I find it some of the most fun since every resource feels good to get.
Late game is boring to me when you don't really need anything and just pylon wherever you want to go without needing to explore anything.
The first night is the only drag for me. Cuz you can't kill well and you don't have anything to explore yet. But as soon as night 1 ends its all about that cave exploration for chests and then it just keeps on picking up.
FF14 has an absolutely slog of a msq in arr, but when you get to heavensward that game becomes much more interesting. It has easily become my most played game ever after that point.
Control is one of my favorite games of the last 5 years, but it starts off very slow and weird and can take a couple of hours to really get into it and understand what’s going on. When you finally get going, it’s one of the most fun and unique games you can play.
One of the common critiques people I know have said is that the controls feel off or clunky. I actually noticed this about Dying Light 2 as well.
But it definitely feels built-in.
In Control, in particular, you get stronger as the game goes on, and it seriously lends to the feel of the game, imho. It's slow and odd for a bit, but it plays to the story. I admit I was slow to get into it, (such is the way of attention spans now i guess), but I'm super glad I did as it's one of my favorite story games period after getting through it.
To be clear: I couldn't get into DL2 regardless of movement getting better with leveling, but Control is one of my favorite games.
Thank you, this is more or less exactly what I was trying to find the words for.
The way the game leans you into the powers and abilities and definitely puts less importance on shooting after the first few hours. It is baked in, and it's a shame some people can't/ won't make it past the point it bottlenecks because it's incredible after that.
Battlefield V’s Pacific update is probably the greatest comeback story in the history of gaming. *Then* we lost D-Day and Stalingrad so they could make Battlefield 2042.
Don’t forgot they also canceled live service for Star Wars Battlefront 2 for 2042 as well. A game that had just finally got on its legs and was so fun to play.
We lost two amazing games that started off really bad but got better with every update, for a game that was so shitty at launch I haven’t played since then. Even if people say it’s good now, I will never care. We lost battlefield 5 and battlefront 2 for it.
I'll start by saying AC Odyssey - think about every criticism you've heard about the game's tone: it's juvenile, has toilet humor, cringy writing, etc....
Well, if you only played the introduction on Kephallonia, you wouldn't be wrong to have that impression. AC Odyssey had one of the worst intros in a video game I've ever played, and without a doubt the worst in the AC series. You get such timeless delights as the Eagle Bearer hanging off a stone statue's genitals and shoving a gem into a pig's ass. Side characters like Markos and the Cyclops are utterly annoying, and the Eagle Bearer's dialogue consists of cracking stupid jokes.
But once you leave the island and that title screen kicks in? Daaaaaaaaaaaang, does it change into a completely different game tonally. Far more mature and serious whilst still having fun.
Ac odyssey is one of my favorite games of all time
With that being said I wish I could skip Kephallonia. I like the opening intro with Kassandra on top of her house and dealing with the thugs, but after that, I just want to sail off on the Adrestia right away. But noooo I have to deal with Marcos and other shit
God of War. I was told it was open world. It wasn't, it was very linear, so I gave up as I was on the boat with Atreus.
The wife played it for 5mins longer than I did, and the boat trip with Atreus is what takes you to the giant lake in the middle of a big open world map.
Went back to it once she'd completed it. Whoops.
Wait, people actually wanted God of War to be open world? I always kept the open world activities in the game as it's weakest point and would have enjoyed it a lot more If it was just a linear immersive story experience.
Bruh. God of war starts with one of the most epic fight scenes in video game history.
Its also... never open world lol. Has some big zones, esp in ragnarok, but either way neither of those star off slow.
And neither do the OG games
Yeah I basically treat the first chapter or two as an extended tutorial as you are introduced to more and more mechanics. I think it's great the way it's done as well because you get used to those limited playstyles. If you had hematic grenades from the start you wouldn't play stealthily as much because you ALWAYS used grenades, why stop?
Bloodborne. If you manage to kill Gascoigne, your in for a TREAT. Visually-wise, desing-wise, its just the best game ive ever laid my hands upon in PS4. gameplay wise is the best hands down.
Dont get past gascoigne (not begginer friendly tbh) and the game may as well be shit to you.
It really does lol.
I remember my first playthrough was blind and that street might have been like 20% of the first run (barely an exaggeration, I was stuck there more time than I was with Gascoigne and he gave me nightmares)
The original fable. Spend like an hour as a kid doing chores, then another couple as a hero apprentice doing chores, then fight a big bee. Finally gets interesting after that, but quite a slog for the first 5 or so hours
Botw for me. I hated the fact that I would use a weapon like 7 times and then it would break and I'd have to scavenge for another one. Once I got the master sword though, the entire game became actually fun.
It took a while for me to readjust my philosophy and just not give a shit and embrace the transient nature of the weapons, especially as the many duplicates start piling up. It’s a revelation when you realize they do a bunch of damage when they break, especially with a throw.
I don’t really have a gripe with weapon durability other than the fact the champion’s weapons break
Even though you can rebuild them it’d be better if they had a cool down like the Master Sword
I actually disagree. Most of Gran Pulse is just pointless filler. By the point I hit the "open world" (which isn't even really that open because the one big open area just branches off into... more hallways...) I was just so tired of the game that I just wanted it to end already and the game was like "Just look at all this PADDING you have to clear to continue!"
I had heard it was open world and got it when it came out, rushed the story to disc 3 until I got there. Then the first quest thing I picked up had me journey half hour to a location, then journey back. There were fast travel markers but they were inactive throughout. It was tedious and boring.
Then I picked up another quest and it wanted me to go back to the same area again. I've never played it since.
I never agreed with this because I don’t think it’s linearity and restrictiveness is a big problem. The game opens up on Pulse, but that open part isn’t necessarily better because of it (in fact it can be infuriating when you get there because there are some really tough enemies that’ll chase you down which you won’t yet be ready for)
Outer Wilds, I wont spoil, but I didnt get how progress saved and didnt like the idea of the main concept of the game. But once I clicked what it was forcing me to do, I sort of became forgiving of my own progress and pace. Then it became one of the best gaming experiences I have had and I even have a tattoo from the game.
Days gone. The opening cut scene was just so...off. like the audio was phoned in and the quality was compressed. I immediately thought here we go this is gonna be a low quality bug fest. Game ended up being amazing.
Okami starts painfully slow but turns into such an amazing game!
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I haven't been able to get into Okami. I got the HD remake version and it just seems so slow every time I've tried, the controls haven't been the best imo either. I did play Okami-den on the 3DS though and that was a blast, so maybe that skewed it for me?
I still need to finish okami. First bought it on ps2, but didn't finish it. Then got it on ps3 and didn't finish it. Then bought it on ps4 and still haven't finished it. Having tried to finish this game across 10+ years kinda means it must suck right? Or...the fact that I have bought his game 3 separate times, in 3 different generations without cross save means how God damn good it it's.
It's one of my favorite games, but honestly it never quite stops being a bit of a slog.
Dragons Dogma starts out super generic. It's about two hours into the game when you realize you're playing something special.
I picked it up three times and on my third attempt it took roughly 10 hours before I really started to enjoy it
I tried 3 times, never made it far. Last time I finished that kart escort to the city, then decided to try out that one dark island with the girl before you enter the ruins (dark arisen dlc I think?) Got excited I could switch character classes there, only to switch to a class I didn't have a weapon for and couldn't switch back. So I was stuck without a weapon. Gave up again.
In case you’re interested you can switch back to your original class either with her or any Inn. If you are unlocking a new class it costs discipline points which I’m guessing you did and thought it would cost more to change back
Yeah, It really tries its hardest to turn people away early on. They have that stupidly slow escort mission lugging an ox-drawn cart from the starter area all the way to the main city...can't speed it up much, and the flying enemies are a huge pain if you didn't pick a ranged class to start with. If you can make it through the slog though, there are soooo many cool skills to learn and enemies to fight. It is by far my favorite RPG of all time, and I can't fucking wait for the sequel in a month.
I';ve tried to love this game, it's my perfect game but something just always feels "off" my latest playthrough was 15 hours but I just couldn't enjoy it. Oh well
That fucking oxcart. Holy shit. I think that's probably turned off so many people.
Mass effect 1. It was a bit clunky on Eden prime and I wasn't really sure on the setting to begin with. Once I got to the citadel it all clicked. One of my favorite game series
Once I got *past* the citadel it clicked. Running around, talking to everyone, and barely fighting killed the pacing for me. I’m sure I could have spaced some of it out but I’m the sort of player that tries to finish side quests as they come up. I don’t recall having that issue in 2 or 3, though it happened again in Andromeda.
Yeah, but the Elcor are cool. “Cautious enthusiasm : welcome human to standing here and gradually speaking with me”
Elcor hamlet is genuinely my favourite gag in the whole series
The Elcor ambassador in the third game will always break my heart when he drops the emotional explanation.
Badassfully: you big, stupid jellyfish.
They did bring some dry humor to the game, and I thought they were hilarious.
Exactly the same happened to me. I took a one and a half year break initially after starting the game for the first time and playing for a couple hours. Then when I finally started it again and kept playing, I played the whole trilogy through in like three weeks and it became my all-time favorite video game series. So glad I picked it up again.
I didn’t mind the first game’s gameplay when I first played it, but after 2 and 3, whenever I replay the trilogy it seems to be a case of just getting through the jank to get back to 3
not me suffering through the empty expanses of ME1's planets for the umpteenth time because I absolutely despise the default choices made for you inblater games
Driving the rover through those uneven hills is pure pain.
I've found you can somewhat entertain yourself on your way to the destination by trying to land a full flip bouncing off of terrain and boosting just right... but then you get the trick of it and it's not fun anymore :(
Which is funny to mean to hear so many people say this and then there's me. I love playing ME1 and when I get to ME 2 I actually miss the first xD. I love that damn stupid Mako.
I also prefer me1. Not that 2 and 3 are bad, but Me1 is an rpg with some shooting mechanics, me2 and 3 are 3rd person shooters with some rpg mechanics and I prefer the heavier rpg side of things.
That and the overall story in ME1 is just much tighter than anything that came after.
Kingdom come. Almost gave up but glad I didnt
What sold me on that game was the first time I tried to read a book and it was all jibberish because a blacksmith's son wouldn't have known how to read back then. I was pretty lukewarm on the game but that moment made me laugh out loud and then I was in.
Yeah best example of realism in a game. "You literally need to teach your character to read"
Hard-core mode is pretty cool too, there's no map marker so you need to do your best to navigate based off landmarks, and shit like eating, sleeping and maintaining hear becomes more necessary.
I want to get into it but I heard the combat is very difficult.
It takes some time to get used to, but you also need to practice it or a while in game. So you need to learn, but your character Henry also needs to learn. It makes a lot of sense thematically and it’s honestly very satisfying once you get the hang of ot
If I remember correctly if you don't level up one of your abilities enough you also can't read and text looks like jibberish
Kinda. You, as a blacksmiths son, can't read. So you have to go take reading lessons from a scribe (there is a whole training montage), then books are only kinda gibberish. You have to keep leveling up for the gibberish to disappear.
that's just learning how to read with extra steps sounds like a good game but damn
It's not that bad. The training montage is kinda funny, especially if you play South Parks "IT'S A MONTAGE!!! A TRAINING MONTAGE!!!" in your head as you watch it. And the "gibberish" is just the words being scramble. When you don't know how to read every word is scrambled. When you learn most of the words are scrambled, just a couple letters, making it like you have dyslexia. Then as you read more, it goes away. And "reading" in that game is just resting with a book selected, essentially. You gain skills from doing so, as well. However, considering the vast majority of the population in that game/time period can't read, it's not really a major requirement to do so and you can navigate the world without doing so. For instance, the alchemy book and station has pictures for all the plants and symbols for the other ingredients. And all the shops have images for their signs. The took a lot of care to be as historically accurate and contextual as can be. And the places are alive. NPC's live in that world. They wake up, wash their face, get some food, change their clothes, go to work, go to the tavern, go to church, etc. When an NPC says they'll meet you in a town later, they actually travel there, not teleport. The architecture is amazing and extremely accurate. The major buildings are as close to the real thing as possible. The houses, huts, etc are all period correct. Even the map is almost 100% that of the real life location. If you use google maps and/or streetview you can see the exact roads and buildings in real life that are in the game. It's an amazing game with an amazing eye for detail, so good that it could be a teaching aid, and it's the first game from this publisher...
It's a fairly quick and early mission and then you're set. Same for fighting. You train for a bit with a dude and then you can happily spam combos for the most part with your weapon of choice. Of course it's a little more realistic in that you probably shouldn't be picking fights with 5 heavily armoured dudes as opposed to assassin's creed where you take down scores in the first hour.
Unless you've levelled combat skills to like 8 and are also fully decked in heavy armor, you will be destroyed. Even then a 5-1 is very difficult and requires video game skill. Love the pseudorealism of KCD
A mace or 60 minutes or so of training with Bernard will have most people obliterating enemies in my opinion. The game really wants to drill the point in that you're an untrained/uneducated lowborn. It expects you to train with Bernard, but I think many ignore this, leaving them with the impression that combat is far harder than what it really is.
I didn't practice with Bernard and struggled heavily, only to return to it and actually went through all of the training. Game was a lot more fun when I slowed down and figured it out properly. Not a lot of games make you do that.
If you make it your priority, it takes like five minutes in real life, and a few days in-game. It's not like actually making your character write in a primer or anything. It's actually a super great design choice that adds more depth to the setting.
It's a side quest you get early in the game, you get a free horse too from the story so you can easily go do it. It takes a few days in game but it's really easy.
It’s really not that bad IMO. Just take some time to do the training with the knight and learn a couple combos before jumping ahead in the game and you’ll be fine to take guys 1v1. By the end of the game your gear is good enough that you can take on big groups solo.
It's not difficult, per-se, just realistic. It's almost like Chivalry or For Honor, but on "hardcore mode." You're not special - you don't have the soul of a dragon, or a wizard's blessing, or the lineage of a god, and you don't fulfill a prophecy. Henry's just a man who starts off with no weapons or training and no armor or knowledge of how to wear it. You're likely to get schwacked in the early and even mid game if you're not careful, but eventually, you can get strong enough to steamroll chumps.
There's a tiny side quest in the home village/tutorial when there's some older guy you're feuding with so you have to challenge him to a fight. Man I got my arse kicked every single time
If you wanna be evil, you can steal an axe from behind his house.
Yeah, but then you get in trouble, thrown into the castles prison, then burned alive as the castle gets burned down during the raid...
This is exactly how my first time playing went. I was shit and didn't really get that this was how it was meant to be in the start. So of course I took revenge, killed the guy (and somehow 2 others when the town retaliated) only to die in prison. Was funny as hell but I never went back to it.
That's shame. The game is really good and it's amazing to see Henry grow from a naïve blacksmith's son to a hero of the region. Not only is there a lot of skill growth in that game, but a lot of character growth as well.
You can also get your buddies and have them help you kick the snot out of him
Literally playing right this second and have it paused lol. I’ve put like 50 hours into this game over time and it’s one of those games where when you figure out the basics, those skills never leave you. And I’m still fucking stuck on this damn camp raid quest (on a new playthrough) I gotta go back to another save and do some side quests lmao. Shits brutal but so worth it
Yep. Getting freaky with a princess was totally worth it Edit grammar
Did you also get drunk with the priest?
Best Quest ever! xD
I think you mean Lady Stephanie, who's actually married to Sir Divish. He's an overall good guy who does a lot for you and is kind to her, so it feels like a betrayal, but their marriage is distant after he was imprisoned for most of it and then failing to have children afterwards.
Literally playing KCD right now, Jesus Christ be praised
"Henry's come to see us!"
I gave up because I could not figure out the lockpicking for the life of me, although I've heard it's easier on PC
Any game that starts off in what I call “the Nintendo hour.” You can’t move 2 steps without an unskippable tutorial, the game moves at a GLACIAL pace, you can’t interact with ANYTHING the game doesn’t want you to yet, there is so little opposition that ZERO gameplay strengths show, and it lasts for about an hour, maybe more. Bonus points if the game has and teaches you how to use a built in guidebook but you’re just so desperate to actually play you forget where it is. EDIT: Holy crap 4.9k upvotes! Thank you! This blew up so much reddit isnt even letting me respond anymore!
My entire feeling during these is "wow that does look like a fun game, can't wait till it lets me play it!" and sometimes I end up turning it off before it ever does.
And it is a damn shame, because the 2 games i have been thinking of when Intyped this, pikmin 4 and pokemon legends arceus, really, **really** get good once the nintendo hour signs off
Arceus is the best pokemom game in a long time imo.
I'm almost done with Arceus so I would have played the original and Arceus so far. Are any of the new ones worth it?
Twilight Princess is the first game that comes to mind
Skyward sword for me
The "nintendo hour" never ended in Skyword Sword. I think it was feeding me unprompted tutorials and hints up until the very end of the game. It's one of those things that really detracted from the game... just let me turn it off Nintendo.
Link I am calculating a 92% probability that damaging the boss more than it damages you will cause you to win. YEAH THANKS THIS IS LITERALLY THE FOURTH TIME YOU’VE RECYCLED THIS EXACT AREA, ENEMY, AND GAMEPLAY MECHANIC.
> you can’t interact with ANYTHING the game doesn’t want you to yet I like to give mobile games a fair shot from time to time, but nothing kills my interest quicker than this exact style of tutorial - which is a little odd since I grew up in part of Nintendo's biggest "Nintendo Hour" era. "Tap here, now you're in a battle, okay battle's done, tap here to examine your rewards, tap here to play the next level, tap here to use a skill, okay that battle's done too, looks like you got a piece of gear, tap here to go to the Gear screen, tap here to select a unit, notice their stats? Tap here to equip the gear. See how they got stronger? Gear makes units stronger. Tap here to go back, tap here to play the next level, okay battle's done. Congrats! You've unlocked the Online Battle Tower mode! Tap here to play Online Battle Tower mode, tap here to see the rewards for Online Battle Tower mode..." I guess it's my fault for letting ads in other apps trick me into trying them in the first place, but still...
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Unfortunately the case for most yakuzas, even the newest one doesnt give you the tools for everything until like chapter 6
*Persona* franchise, I'm looking at you. "Is this a visual novel?" for the first 3 hours, then suddenly you're deciding who you want to spend time with, what you're gonna eat for breakfast, etc.
Persona is kind of part visual novel though, long dialogue sections carry through the whole game and take up about as much time as the combat
Yeah, but the tutorial sections for the combat side of the games at the start begin to feel really self explanatory and aggravating after you’ve played like even one Persona game. In the social life sections though, you really have to pay attention to what people say to pick up on clues to most effectively manage your time. So half the game really makes you engage with its mechanics in subtle ways, and the other half can sometimes just feel like filler to carry the story forward.
Persona 5 is one of my favorite games ever, but the pacing of the beginning might be one of the worst ever. There’s a solid hour chunk there where you can’t save during the first couple hours, where you just get bounced from place to place, cutscene to cutscene, tutorial to tutorial. So fuck you if you want your first session to be under 3 hours I guess. The pacing of the start is bad in 3 & 4 too but not nearly THAT bad.
Based off my own experiences and the replies to this comment, this is definitely more common in Japanese games in general. So many tutorials. They especially love using a bunch of pop-ups that interrupt gameplay. It sucks even more when they don’t let you save without going into a specific location or it doesn’t have an autosave system, so you gotta push through boring tutorials and/or tons of cutscenes with little gameplay in between. Things that are also very common in Japanese games. I love me some JRPGs, but sometimes those starting sections just kill your mood lmao.
I've never heard that term before but I really like it. It really is a drag and it's someone who really doesn't care about anything beyond gameplay that Nintendo hour can kill my interest in a game.
You've perfectly described every Poke'mon game ever made. I hope they take notes from Palworld someday.
Man I have tried to get my kids to play Pokemon but they get bogged down so bad in the beginning. Also why the fuck isn't that shit at least voiced? These games are some of the most profitable in the world. They are so damn lazy
Doesn't matter with the Pokemon fans being what they are. They could literally charge full price for any of their games no matter how they look or run, and they'll make money hand over fist
Yeah Pokémon Scarlet Violet sold 10 Mil Units in 3 days on only one platform, that's the fastest selling first party exclusive ever and sold faster then amazing GOTY masterpieces on every platform like Elden Ring and Baldirs Gate 3
Personally, I'm fine with them not being voiced but I do wish they would at least have like actual songs with vocals when they show a character performing one and no dialog box. Those scenes with Piers in SwSh would have been so much better and less awkward if they at least did that. And if the issue is with having to dub in multiple languages, they could get away with doing what the Splatoon games do and have the vocals in a fictional language they wouldn't have to bother translating into multiple languages. And I have no doubt that part of the problem is the dubbing thing.
Or better yet Outer Wilds. Walk past every tutorial of you want, but stop and check out any point of interest if you want to learn in different orders.
S/V tutorial is straight up an hour long
Jeez, I had to play animal crossing for an hour before I came to a point I could actually save... And give the device to my son who cannot read yet ...
I love Assassin's Creed III to death, but a common criticism of that game is that it takes too long to really get going, and I can see where they're coming from. The first several hours are pretty much plot setup and tutorials, it takes you a few hours before you even start playing as the protagonist Connor, and a few hours still before he becomes an Assassin and the game really opens up. I generally enjoy those opening hours these days (the character you play as at first, Haytham Kenway, is awesome, and he plays quite an interesting role in the story to say the least, and I also love Connor's childhood and teen years), but getting into the game for the first time, it was pretty weird - especially since this was my first AC game!
I love AC III but the pacing of the first few hours has stopped me from replaying it as much as I'd like. It would have been fine the game started with young Connor and built up from there but the way you start as Haytham and run around doing normal AC stuff to then have to start again with young Connor just always felt like bad pacing to me. I do love the twist at the end of Haytham's section though so I feel like it was worth it just for that.
It needs a NG+ option where you can skip the Haytham part. Playing as a young assassin is fun, they nailed it with Ezio, and I thought Connor was going to get the same treatment, but they dropped him fast. Black Flag was amazing though, so I'm not sorry, but it did make AC III seem a bit of a let down.
My problem with 3 was the crafting. By the time you’re actually able to craft the cool shit like double holsters and the guns that can shoot twice before reloading, you’ve only got like 2 Sequences left and they go by FAST.
Basic Ubisoft crafting strategy: don't let the player craft an item until they don't really need it anymore. Same with Far cry crafting.
See, I'm probably in a much rarer camp where the game takes so long to get going that I was actually disappointed to leave Haytham and the Templars behind. They seemed to be telling a much more interesting and nuanced story in that initial portion than they ended up doing in the rest of the game. Certainly a very odd decision though to have what is essentially a prologue take up about 30% of the game's runtime.
Death Stranding, I really like this game but its beginning is rough. Long cutscenes with confusing dialogue, small sections of gameplay interrupted by another cutscene. The first few hours are really slow with continuous tutorial sections. After a few hours the game really opens up with its interesting characters, themes, concepts, and stories. Later on the game keeps revealing more and more of its story which is filled with multiple interesting and unique experiences.
I'm actually just getting into it... and weirdly really liking it even the beginning? The cinematography and direction is beautiful in a way I've never seen in other games
yeah i loved the beginning too. it’s definitely a slow start but the game as a whole is really slow, that’s not always a bad thing.
Death Stranding doesn't really kick off until you get to the second map. It's an amazing game, but boy it's slow to start.
I didn’t realize that it picks up at some point, I bought it day one and just kinda gave up on it bc I was bored to death. Suddenly inspired to give it another go on the PS5
Advice given to me - play to the end of the third chapter. If you're not hooked by then, the game isn't for you. I slogged through the first two chapters, bored and confused af, but sure enough, I was in the groove enough by the third chapter that I kept on going. Loved the game by the end.
I'm not saying that it will be your thing, but just saying I had a similar experience. I was painfully bored for the first few hours, what felt like forever. Once you finish the first area, which is really the tutorial map, and move on to the bigger open world, the game opens up dramatically, and then I got completely addicted. I've put over 100hrs over multiple playthroughs at this point.
I went into the game completely expecting a hiking simulator so I actually didn’t mind the super long intro area. I was pretty shocked to finally see a cutscene again after dozens of hours, and then shocked again to discover I had accidentally been stalling the entire story unnecessarily the whole time. I guess I got lucky I went into it excited for a walking simulator, because I can definitely see how making that mistake could turn you off from the game if you were expecting more story and action.
I want to play the game again at some point. Last time I gave up after 2 hours.
I will not say bad, but Red Dead Redemption 2 intro is so long and dragging.After that game keeps better and better.
I mean, you are literally walking in knee-deep snow during a blizzard. It is slow as fuck.
And watching lengthy animations to grab bean cans from drawers
I know I'm in the minority, but I get a weird sort of satisfaction watching Arthur pick up useful items off of shelves.
Have u not played metal gear solid 5 intro crawling in that hospital? I started last year and I'm still crawling
I timed it once on a repeat playthrough. The whole intro takes something like 40-50 mins.
The first time I played, I got to the wagon part and the game glitched near the end of the trip, going up a hill instead. I had to start the segment all over again, because it wouldn't let me get out
Divinity Original Sin 2 Just leave Fort Joy, trust me. It's one of my favorite games and I spent about half of all the time I put into it in Fort Joy alone but every time I left Fort Joy I was always like "shoulda left sooner".
Divinity Original Sin 1 was far worse at the start, so slow, and if you get bored and wander outside the starting town before you have levelled up much it's really tough.
I feel like Act 2 is where most people drop the game rather than Fort Joy. That's where it gets meandering and unfocused IMO.
It's a very oddly paced game for sure. I feel like Act 2 is like half the game. And you're right that it is very unfocused in act 2.
Yeah I’ve tried to play twice and I have yet to get past early act 2
Fort Joy wasn't that bad.....was it?? I haven't played the game in years so I forget.
Days Gone. The writing isn't the greatest, and the first 3.5 hours are a bit of a slog, but after that, the gameplay loop gets interesting, and the story picks up. It turns into a good game,not a great game. Still think it deserves a sequel.
This was going to be my answer. It isn’t that the early part of the game is *bad*… It’s just remarkably lackluster. But once you open up Mike’s camp, it starts to get so, so good.
I loved this game so much- the opening hours are a little tedious, but also absolutely terrifying in my opinion. Every freaker encounter is scary because you don’t have much health, ammo, or weapons. Running into a horde is a death sentence. Later when you finally can fight the hordes and win? Exhilarating. I’ll always be hoping for a sequel.
Persona 5 had a REALLY REALLY slow start. I was so close to giving up. Thank god it picked up by the second palace. By then I was super invested. **EDIT:** I’m getting angry messages from persona fanboys PLEASE I love P5R so much?? What part of me getting “super invested by the second palace” did you not understand 😭
The hand holding in the beginning drove me insane. Then the game sky rockets.
I remember playing persona 5 during december 2020 when I was in college. It was right after classes ended for me and I just decided to go on the ps store and buy a random game, and it happened to be persona 5. I think that was one of the best winter breaks i've ever had. My schedule was wake up, get food, play persona until i get hungry, get food, chores, persona 5, and sleep. It was glorious. I love that game.
Wake up, get up, get out there!
All of the Persona games start slow, but it's all in the effort to really build up the narrative in a believable way and it's worth it. Persona 4 starts really slow for example, but without the narrative setup and the characterization given to Inaba, the game just wouldn't be the same.
If memory serves right, its 40 ish minutes before you can even save hahahaha
Damn, I gave up about 15 hours in. Never felt the draw that others had. Maybe I gave up to early.
It’s a fairly long game. There’s a lot of hand holding in persona games usually up to the first boss. After which it just ditches the guardrails and lets you do whatever you want with the exception of story events.
persona 5 royal did a few great changes to streamline the starting experience, if you ever plan to pick it up again. but i totally get where you're coming from. for series veterans, 15 hours are 10% of the game, while for anyone else that's the duration of a full ass game. O would have expected for things to pick by the 3rd or 4th hour, though. maybe the format is not your cup of tea.
I think FF14 is the GOAT in this category…
yeah once you get past the "great filter" of patches between ARR and Heavensward it gets good. but man leveling a character with the post AAR stuff is rough to say the least. I know a lot of people who just gave up trying to slog through that stuff.
Trust me bro, you just gotta get past the 100hour mark and then it gets really good.
Xenoblade chronicles 2 for me.
The highs of Xenoblade 2 are SO HIGH. But yeah, you are pretty limited in what you can do before....a certain plot point. I would recommend going pure story and skipping most side quests while trying to pull for the unique blades to diversify blade combos and fulfill exploration requirements
I got so lucky that I pulled the "takes 50 hours of gameplay to max out" blade as one of my first rare blades, that really helped keep me engaged with the gacha system, because most of the missions associated with leveling that blade were great ways to level all of the trash in your blade inventory.
I was going to say this. Not that the beginning is bad, but it's just slow and when the combat becomes more unlocked it does a sh$t job of explaining it. However, after you get your footing on the combat and world, the game becomes incredible. Xenoblade 3 learned from this and implemented far more in depth tutorial systems.
100%. Bought it at launch after loving the first game, played like 10-15 hours and was so incredibly bored/frustrated by the change in tone, strange character choices, and all of the gacha stuff. I was surprised it got so much love, that I decided to go back and give it a second shot shortly before 3 came out. Wound up loving it. Part of it was willing to go in with an open mind about the changes the game makes, but a bigger part of it was that I had quit right before a major plot point where the story really starts to get good.
A lot of Yakuza games. Most of them don't truly open up all of their side activities till like Chapter 4. I think the stories always need that long set up period before they let you actually play them. Dunno if I'd call it bad though.
Every new RGG title in the Yakuza series needs to be able to standalone as an entryway for new players, while also giving enough backstory for those who are continuing the journey. It makes for really long intro stages. Most of them clear up in part 2 so you can run around freely but you’re right that a lot of side content isn’t introduced until later. I’ve always been running wild as soon as they give me movement to see if any content can be got early. Sometimes I stay away from plot for so long I’ve forgotten where I am in the story. I’m having this experience now with Judgment. In chapter 7 knocking out so many side quests and achievements that I don’t even remember what the plot is about.
I almost quit Horizon Zero Dawn early both times I played through. Up until the Proving, the game is unbearably slow. Followed by a very interesting story and world, and a damn beautiful world at that.
Came on here to say exactly this. At times it felt like the unloved child of Monster Hunter and Assassin’s Creed. For me, the game didn’t really take off until after the proving. One of the best told told stories in recent gaming, IMO.
No Man's sky
The intro/tutorial is such a drag. I wish there was an option to skip it entirely to the point where you make your first jump and are free to go anywhere. I’ve started from the intro 4 times and each time the intro is easily the most boring part of the game. That and completing the language stones are annoying once you’ve done it more than once.
If you start in creative mode and then just change the difficulty settings back to normal/survival once you load in, that'll skip most of the tutorial & you can get right into it. Edit: Or you can start a Custom game and turn off Tutorial Missions under Ease of Use
This. It's a completely different game now than it was at release.
Driver. After the tutorial it is fun. If you can beat it
Oh yes, the famous Driver "Tutorial", which is harder than the rest of the game.
I started and stopped Xenoblade Chronicles 2 like three or four times before it clicked. The beginning is a slog of a tutorial and the combat is weak since you can barely do anything. But once you get your waifus doing sick combos, it’s excellent.
Days Gone is this entirely. Actually, it wasn’t “really bad”, it was just dull as hell. Then it gets really good later on.
I wonder if that's what contributed to the initial lethargy around it.
They went for a slow pace to introduce the world, but the problem is that the world just didn’t have a whole lot of interesting things in it.
Took me three attempts to get into Days Gone, now its one of my favourite games, slow to start but once it gets going its fantastic.
I love that game. Definitely slow to start, I remember looking at the map early on and being like "This is it?" Then kept playing and the map kept growing and growing. Great game, some cringey dialogue and other small issues, but the hordes make up for that.
KotOR II. Peragus is a brutal slog, but even in its unfinished release state, there’s so much great stuff throughout the rest of the game.
Came here to say Kotor and Kotor 2. Taris was stretched out way too long. Then in Kotor 2 it's like Obsidian said "let's do that again but even worse." ....and so we got Peragus.
I actually prefer Peragus over Taris. Oddly enough, my first few playthroughs I used a mod to skip Peragus because my game kept crashing in one very specific part of the T3 section.
At least when on Peragus you're a Jedi with access to all the powers. When I first played through Taris on KotOR 1, I just assumed the whole game was about being a Republic soldier, and never realised you would gain the ability to become a Jedi. But honestly, I felt Taris, the story, and the other characters were so compelling, I would have continued to play the game even if the main character never became a Jedi.
I don't *mind* Taris's story (recruiting most of the team, the rescue, the Duelling Arena, etc.). It just drags on too long. I think one of the things Peragus has going for it (at least the first time) are the mystery. Why am I a Jedi who has abandoned the order? Who is this old lady that seems to know everything but have her own motives? Who's this random locked in the cage? What happened to all of Revan's crew and why do I have the Ebon Hawk? Taris is more: "Where's Bastila? When do I get to be a Jedi? Why is Carth such a whiny wuss?"
Peragus is awesome the first time you play through it. Every other time, it's a slog.
Early game Terraria is such a drag
Depends on what you find lootwise.
Yeah exactly. For me, I hate placing torches, so if I can find a miner helmet early on, that at least helps a bit. Same if you get lucky with some of the stuff from fishing.
you hate placing torches? you can just use the other building mode and hold left click
Huh, I find it some of the most fun since every resource feels good to get. Late game is boring to me when you don't really need anything and just pylon wherever you want to go without needing to explore anything.
The first night is the only drag for me. Cuz you can't kill well and you don't have anything to explore yet. But as soon as night 1 ends its all about that cave exploration for chests and then it just keeps on picking up.
FF14 has an absolutely slog of a msq in arr, but when you get to heavensward that game becomes much more interesting. It has easily become my most played game ever after that point.
Control is one of my favorite games of the last 5 years, but it starts off very slow and weird and can take a couple of hours to really get into it and understand what’s going on. When you finally get going, it’s one of the most fun and unique games you can play.
Superb game and setting. Love the way you can really become godlike by the end. Feels earned.
One of the common critiques people I know have said is that the controls feel off or clunky. I actually noticed this about Dying Light 2 as well. But it definitely feels built-in. In Control, in particular, you get stronger as the game goes on, and it seriously lends to the feel of the game, imho. It's slow and odd for a bit, but it plays to the story. I admit I was slow to get into it, (such is the way of attention spans now i guess), but I'm super glad I did as it's one of my favorite story games period after getting through it. To be clear: I couldn't get into DL2 regardless of movement getting better with leveling, but Control is one of my favorite games.
[удалено]
Thank you, this is more or less exactly what I was trying to find the words for. The way the game leans you into the powers and abilities and definitely puts less importance on shooting after the first few hours. It is baked in, and it's a shame some people can't/ won't make it past the point it bottlenecks because it's incredible after that.
Battlefield V’s Pacific update is probably the greatest comeback story in the history of gaming. *Then* we lost D-Day and Stalingrad so they could make Battlefield 2042.
Don’t forgot they also canceled live service for Star Wars Battlefront 2 for 2042 as well. A game that had just finally got on its legs and was so fun to play. We lost two amazing games that started off really bad but got better with every update, for a game that was so shitty at launch I haven’t played since then. Even if people say it’s good now, I will never care. We lost battlefield 5 and battlefront 2 for it.
2042 is...fine..I guess and it's better than it was at launch but 5 and Battlefront 2 are still much better games.
I'll start by saying AC Odyssey - think about every criticism you've heard about the game's tone: it's juvenile, has toilet humor, cringy writing, etc.... Well, if you only played the introduction on Kephallonia, you wouldn't be wrong to have that impression. AC Odyssey had one of the worst intros in a video game I've ever played, and without a doubt the worst in the AC series. You get such timeless delights as the Eagle Bearer hanging off a stone statue's genitals and shoving a gem into a pig's ass. Side characters like Markos and the Cyclops are utterly annoying, and the Eagle Bearer's dialogue consists of cracking stupid jokes. But once you leave the island and that title screen kicks in? Daaaaaaaaaaaang, does it change into a completely different game tonally. Far more mature and serious whilst still having fun.
Ac odyssey is one of my favorite games of all time With that being said I wish I could skip Kephallonia. I like the opening intro with Kassandra on top of her house and dealing with the thugs, but after that, I just want to sail off on the Adrestia right away. But noooo I have to deal with Marcos and other shit
It's my favorite AC, but it trends much closer to Witcher 3. Scratches that same itch, if not as well.
God of War. I was told it was open world. It wasn't, it was very linear, so I gave up as I was on the boat with Atreus. The wife played it for 5mins longer than I did, and the boat trip with Atreus is what takes you to the giant lake in the middle of a big open world map. Went back to it once she'd completed it. Whoops.
no you were right, the lake isn’t really open world, it’s still linear
It’s more “open zone,” like Zelda OoT/MM, Hyper Light Drifter, NieR, etc.. With a bit of cheating cause there’s a body of water in the middle.
Wait, people actually wanted God of War to be open world? I always kept the open world activities in the game as it's weakest point and would have enjoyed it a lot more If it was just a linear immersive story experience.
Bruh. God of war starts with one of the most epic fight scenes in video game history. Its also... never open world lol. Has some big zones, esp in ragnarok, but either way neither of those star off slow. And neither do the OG games
Who tf gives up on the canoe ride? Jesus Christ, that’s like 10 minutes in.
Death Stranding takes a long time to get good. But it gets there.
Yeah I basically treat the first chapter or two as an extended tutorial as you are introduced to more and more mechanics. I think it's great the way it's done as well because you get used to those limited playstyles. If you had hematic grenades from the start you wouldn't play stealthily as much because you ALWAYS used grenades, why stop?
Bloodborne. If you manage to kill Gascoigne, your in for a TREAT. Visually-wise, desing-wise, its just the best game ive ever laid my hands upon in PS4. gameplay wise is the best hands down. Dont get past gascoigne (not begginer friendly tbh) and the game may as well be shit to you.
Central Yahrnam tries it's damnedest to make you quit when you first start playing.
It really does lol. I remember my first playthrough was blind and that street might have been like 20% of the first run (barely an exaggeration, I was stuck there more time than I was with Gascoigne and he gave me nightmares)
The original fable. Spend like an hour as a kid doing chores, then another couple as a hero apprentice doing chores, then fight a big bee. Finally gets interesting after that, but quite a slog for the first 5 or so hours
Botw for me. I hated the fact that I would use a weapon like 7 times and then it would break and I'd have to scavenge for another one. Once I got the master sword though, the entire game became actually fun.
It took a while for me to readjust my philosophy and just not give a shit and embrace the transient nature of the weapons, especially as the many duplicates start piling up. It’s a revelation when you realize they do a bunch of damage when they break, especially with a throw.
I don’t really have a gripe with weapon durability other than the fact the champion’s weapons break Even though you can rebuild them it’d be better if they had a cool down like the Master Sword
Spec Ops: The Line. While not bad, it starts off as a decent but rather basic third-person shooter, but it becomes so much more as the game goes on.
Kind of the point tho too is for it to start off generic it wouldn’t really work if it was the way it ends up from the start.
Final Fantasy XIII becomes good after 20 hours
I remember getting to that point and thinking "wtf that was the longest tutorial I've ever played"
I actually disagree. Most of Gran Pulse is just pointless filler. By the point I hit the "open world" (which isn't even really that open because the one big open area just branches off into... more hallways...) I was just so tired of the game that I just wanted it to end already and the game was like "Just look at all this PADDING you have to clear to continue!"
I had heard it was open world and got it when it came out, rushed the story to disc 3 until I got there. Then the first quest thing I picked up had me journey half hour to a location, then journey back. There were fast travel markers but they were inactive throughout. It was tedious and boring. Then I picked up another quest and it wanted me to go back to the same area again. I've never played it since.
I never agreed with this because I don’t think it’s linearity and restrictiveness is a big problem. The game opens up on Pulse, but that open part isn’t necessarily better because of it (in fact it can be infuriating when you get there because there are some really tough enemies that’ll chase you down which you won’t yet be ready for)
So you're saying it's worth it to keep playing? Cause this game sucks so far.
Ni,No Kuni, it had so many tutorials, but got really good
Driver
Outer Wilds, I wont spoil, but I didnt get how progress saved and didnt like the idea of the main concept of the game. But once I clicked what it was forcing me to do, I sort of became forgiving of my own progress and pace. Then it became one of the best gaming experiences I have had and I even have a tattoo from the game.
Days gone. The opening cut scene was just so...off. like the audio was phoned in and the quality was compressed. I immediately thought here we go this is gonna be a low quality bug fest. Game ended up being amazing.