What's a really popular game franchise you just can't get into?
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I feel similar. After having tons of people tell me for years I need to get into them, I finally played Bloodborne, which multiple people have told me is their favorite.
I pushed through it on my own first. I actually didn't die quite as much as I expected, though I definitely had to spend time watching YouTube videos and reading 3 different fan-made wiki's to figure everything out. I managed to finish it, but I didn't think it was worth it and would not have finished it if not for wanting to be able to talk about it with my friends.
Then I did another playthrough with a friend doing co-op. When it worked (ugh) it was a way better experience. Partly because of my previous experience - I had a better feel for how to build my character, I remembered most of the environments and enemy placement, and still had that muscle memory from my first run. Partly because it's better as a cooperative experience. Having an ally makes the world feel less desolate. Having another player to take aggro so you can heal is huge- some bosses almost feel like they were designed for multiplayer. And it's fun just cracking jokes and hanging out, making fun of how ridiculous some of the stuff is.
I still don't have the love for it that other people do though. I agree 100% on the aesthetic: everything in Bloodborne is just dark and wet and looks the same. FromSoft makes a LOT of game design decisions that are different from most other developers in terms of what they prioritize. Which is fine, but there are aspects of design where they clearly cut corners and the fanbae seems to laud it as a desirable artistic choice. I shouldn't need to spend hours watching YouTube and researching fan sites to learn how to play the game, and I would argue I shouldn't have to do that to appreciate the story. They simply do not respect my time.
The multiplayer barely works. It's restricted to bosses and the areas leading up to them, and costs Insight (a valuable and kind-of finite resource) to use. Simply connecting is a tedious pain. You can only play either completely online or offline, so if you want to play with a friend you have to accept your whole world cluttered with annoying and distracting messages from random players and the specters where other players died. And that also opens you up to having hostile players gank you. Like... Why can't my friend and I just pair up and play through the whole game together without inviting the rest of the internet too? Why does it cost Insight? Why are the caps for stats never communicated to the player? Why does the Hunter's Axe do primarily Blunt damage while the KirkHAMMER does almost no Blunt damage, and for that matter why aren't the damage types explained anywhere? I'm still not sure why some gems increase Attack, others increase Physical Attack, and others increase Blunt or Thrust, plus there are hidden damage types.
The game feels like it was designed to really get good on your second playthrough and beyond. Especially NG+, although even starting a fresh file again is much better than the first playthrough. Kinda reminds me of how some MMO fans like to say "it gets good after the first 100 hours". For most developers, the player onboarding experience is one of the most important parts to be developed, but FromSoft basically skills over that and outsources it to their community of hardcore fans.
wrote last edited by [email protected]The only real way to play full co op is using the Seemless Co-op Mod. Also disables other players jumping in to kill you. You would have to play on PC though.
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The Witcher. I really want to like it. It seems like the kind of game I would love and I recognize that it’s an objectively well made game. However, I’ve bounced off it at least 4 times after getting 1-4 hours in.
wrote last edited by [email protected]i feel exactly the same about it, this seems like a thing. and i played the second one.
i wonder if it would be easier to get into it if i fixed the controls like people hinted at in this thread.
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Dark Souls and any of its copycats. Grinding a boss for hours on end just to learn it's patterns is not how I like to spend my free time. Aside from that: why is that whole genre so bleak? Apart from maybe "Another Crab's Treasure" they're all dark and gray/brown and unrelentingly depressing. Does the gameplay lend itself to that particular aesthetic? Or is everyone just copying Dark Souls that hard?
For me, soulslikes are pretty weird. I've loved the art direction and gameplay of Dark Souls and especially Elden Ring, and I get why people like them and I appreciate what they're trying to do, but something in them doesn't click the addiction button. It's not even the core gameplay that is the problem - I get flattened by some enemy and I'm like "oh I'll get you one day". But I booted up Elden Ring last time months ago. I'll be done with the game in 10 years I guess. It'll happen though!
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for me it feels like they don't respect me as an adult. i need to be able to pause and save games. sometimes i get phone calls. sometimes the power goes out. sometimes i spill my drink. but no, it's all just "get gud".
also i just can't handle the aesthetics .
Souls games autosave constantly, you can quit out at any time and reload to where you were. The only exception being that if you quit out during a boss fight you'll have to restart.
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I'll start. pokemon. doesn't matter if the game's old or new I just can't get into how it plays. idk the gameplay just gets old to me pretty quickly, palworld is an upgrade in every way tbh
Final Fantasy. JRPGs just aren't my thing
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D&D
I've been playing RPG for decades, but play D&D less than once a decade, and my impression goes form awful to not worth my money/time. When I was young and broke, having to buy a player manual + a GM guide + a monster manual when tons of RPG would fit in a single book (Yes I know, clan-books for let's say Vampire are also a money-pit), was out of my budget, then every-time I played D&D, feel like the story were not interesting as concept like alignment and some spells like detect lies would kill many interesting plot. Too which you had a lot of character optimisation often over the long-term (If you didn't take that feat a low level you cannot have the killer feat at high level), let alone the people mixing RPG and miniature games
Sure you can have some funs game with D&D and play it differently but there is so many other game out-there (and so few time) , that why would I even bother joining a D&D game rather than another,
I really enjoy D&D-based video games, but actual pen and paper is just frustratingly slow. I think if I could change my mindset to consider it a social activity first and a game second, I might find it more enjoyable. But that is also really dependent on the group dynamic and seems more likely attainable for playing in-person rather than with an online group.
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RDR2. Played, but didn’t beat the first one. Some other game pulled me away from it. Tried the sequel and was disappointed by the gunplay.
I did finish it but man do the missions get stale after the halfway point. It's just shooting and that is it.
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I tried factorio a while ago but couldn't get into it.
I got completely addicted for about a week and a half and then dropped it and never thought about it again. The core gameplay loop is crack, but it's also very shallow and I can never think of a good reason to come back to it.
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I'll start. pokemon. doesn't matter if the game's old or new I just can't get into how it plays. idk the gameplay just gets old to me pretty quickly, palworld is an upgrade in every way tbh
I think I/we were too old to get into pokemon. I tried 3 games, and got bored about 4 fights in. I'm sure back when that was the peak of gaming, it was amazing. But now after modern games, turn based gameplay is just not for me too
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I did finish it but man do the missions get stale after the halfway point. It's just shooting and that is it.
It's a cool world and all but it feels more like a movie that's too long than a video game. Not a lot of meaningful interaction with the world apart from shooting things.
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Anything Bethesda sadly. I want to like them, something about the control and movement is just so janky it’s not fun.
Weirdly, I love them. They're absolutely shallow main story wise but they do exploring and looting right which is the point of open world (for me!). The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2 for example are great games, but I didn't enjoy them nearly as much as the arguably bad Fallout 3.
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Pokemon - having to watch animations and not being able to speed anything up killed my interest
Skyrim - tried a melee run recently and the combat feels like you’re whacking air
The legend of Zelda - played Tears and the story and puzzles were a bit too kid friendly
Doom - I really tried to like it but I felt like I didn’t get anything out of it. It doesn’t scratch that itch I get out of FromSoft’s Souls games where I want to learn a boss’s patterns and die to it a million times.
In general I don’t think I can do story games anymore
In general I don’t think I can do story games anymore
Wow, that's the complete wrong take if you ask me! It sounds like your problems with these games are mostly in the gameplay, not the story? Have you ever played Outer Wilds or The Talos Principle? Unique puzzle games with a great story.
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I got completely addicted for about a week and a half and then dropped it and never thought about it again. The core gameplay loop is crack, but it's also very shallow and I can never think of a good reason to come back to it.
it's also very shallow
You take that back!
In all seriousness, if you're talking about something like the fact that all machines are functionally doing the same thing, that's kinda fair, but there's a lot of complexity in all the options available, made even greater with DLC and mods. Just the logistics of getting items to the right places have many different approaches with various upsides and downsides, and I love all the emergent mechanics that come from belts having two sides and splitters handling two belts.
It's not a game for everyone, but calling Factorio shallow seems really odd. If anything, I feel like it allows you to explore its mechanics deeply, instead of having a breadth of shallow mechanics that don't leave anything to be discovered.
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I think I/we were too old to get into pokemon. I tried 3 games, and got bored about 4 fights in. I'm sure back when that was the peak of gaming, it was amazing. But now after modern games, turn based gameplay is just not for me too
Except Baldurs Gate 3, that's an awesome way of doing turn-based combat
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Dark Souls and any of its copycats. Grinding a boss for hours on end just to learn it's patterns is not how I like to spend my free time. Aside from that: why is that whole genre so bleak? Apart from maybe "Another Crab's Treasure" they're all dark and gray/brown and unrelentingly depressing. Does the gameplay lend itself to that particular aesthetic? Or is everyone just copying Dark Souls that hard?
I can understand, but heartily disagree! For me, the firey hope in the face of a dark bleak world inspires me, and the way the games tend to have you earn your victories makes victory so, so much sweeter.
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Almost all of them. The only real thing that I played with pure joy was Minecraft, Cities Skylines, Planet Coaster and Sims series. I think its pretty clear what games do I like.
Anything with story/ending I find them unbearably boring and tedious. I'll play Cities Skylines for hours though.
Those games are awesome, if you enjoy strategy games, I think you'd love the full catalog by Paradox Interactive
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Terraria
Are you into minecraft? I'm working on the theory that people are into one or the other of those but not both
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Pokemon, TCGs in general, Fallout, Darksouls and the related things
tgc pokemon and magic, has so problems with scalpings its pratically not worth it. also the online version of pokemon are pretty bad LIVE is not a good game but people are still addicted to playing it, when the previous version ptgco was a better UI. MTG has something called UB, which means they use other IP as part of the card sets they release: so far they released FINAL FANTASY , spiderman, some racing game? LOTR. people also hate this because its not orignal IP, its money grabbing ventures.
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Pokemon - having to watch animations and not being able to speed anything up killed my interest
Skyrim - tried a melee run recently and the combat feels like you’re whacking air
The legend of Zelda - played Tears and the story and puzzles were a bit too kid friendly
Doom - I really tried to like it but I felt like I didn’t get anything out of it. It doesn’t scratch that itch I get out of FromSoft’s Souls games where I want to learn a boss’s patterns and die to it a million times.
In general I don’t think I can do story games anymore
i think you can disable the animations in the console games for pokemon, unless they changed it for the new games.
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It's a cool world and all but it feels more like a movie that's too long than a video game. Not a lot of meaningful interaction with the world apart from shooting things.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Yeah I really liked the story tbh but just the mission repetitiveness killed it.
I mean I finished the game but the replayability for me is nonexistent.
