Games you used to think you love, but were wrong about

EDIT: In case it wasn't clear, this was meant to be an April Fool's prank. That said, I may have made it too convincing. Very few people caught on (congrats to you guys, by the way). I still love and adore P4G, and it's still my favorite game of all time.

My original plan was to lock this thread once I had come clean with the prank. However, that said, it seems to be generating some good discussion, so I think I will leave it open.

This is a hard topic for me to make. A lot of my trepidation is based on the fact that I will have to go back on an opinion I have held and publicly espoused for a few years now. However, it all comes down to me being honest with myself, so I am now doing it. In the process, I will also ask you this- have you, System Wars, ever thought you really liked a game (maybe you were enamored by it shortly after you were done with it, caught up in the pre-release hype, swept up in the honeymoon period, and so on), but after a while - I don't know how long, but a while - you realize you didn't quite like it as much as you used to think after all? If so, share your experiences here along with your reasons.

As for my own contribution to this topic, it derives from when I decided, back in January, to play through three of my favorite games of all time again. I would give them all simultaneous replays and see how they held up with respect to each other. The games in question were Pokemon (H)G/(S)S, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Persona 4 Golden, which was the newest addition to the list, and had shot up right to the top at the end of 2013.

As it turned out, that was the game I had been wrong about. Last night, I finished The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past again (I am sure many of you must have gathered that I was replaying the game from how i was gushing about it in multiple threads, including the best Nintendo game one). It is an exemplary game. The game design is amazing, absolutely amazing, everything is fine tuned and paced to pitch perfection. it may be the only example of a perfect game we have so far.

After finishing it, i realized I could not bring myself to platy through Persona 4 any more. I am currently in July in the game, so right before the Naoto parts, and I had already sort of lost interest in playing any more a week or so ago (I haven't played it since last Thursday). I'd turned my attention entirely to Link to the Past back then, and blazed through it. The prospect of returning to Persona 4 Golden after that, however, filled me with trepidation. LttP throws the flaws of Persona 4 Golden into stark relief, such that I realized that not only was the game not fit to be my all time favorite game, but also, it was simply just a fairly average game that I had overhyped in my own 'honeymoon period' with it (the fact that I am also playing Bloodborne alongside this certainly does not help). While I will not take away everything the game does right- the art is pretty, it has an impeccable sense of style, and the music and characterization are top notch- what it does wrong is where it fails absolutely as a game. The dungeon design is so poor, each dungeon becomes a slog through faceless reskinned corridors, with no variation. The battle system is simplistic beyond belief, boiling down to weakness exploitation in a set of mechanics that can be broken more easily than Pokemon's. The world design absolutely fails- where the game should be able to draw you into its rustic and rural vision of the Japanese countryside, it resorts to using menus for navigation, abstracting the entire thing in the process. The much vaunted social sections of the game break gameplay flow entirely, sometimes putting literal hours between actual gameplay, and representing static and linear progression that completely jars you from the believability of the characters and trivializes all of it.

It is, in retrospect, just a fairly average game. An average game with a great soundtrack and stylish art that gets too much hype because it is one of the few worthwhile games on the Vita, and personally, enamored me with its (admittedly better than other games') approach to mixing storytelling and gameplay. Playing a game with actual mechanical nuance and perfection made me realize how wrong I was about Persona 4 Golden- it is not even close to the game I used to think I was. I was wrong about it.

Have you ever had any such instances yourself?

EDIT: I guess I am still fairly hyped for Persona 5, if only because they have said that they will be fixing and addressing this game's multiple egregious flaws. If they were to do that, I suspect this really would become a game worth recommending to everybody. Let's see if they can pull it off.

Yep! its called pokemon!

I used to love the franchise when i was a kid, heck pokemon was my very first RPG game i got to play as a kid ( pokemon Red was the first game i got to play ) i remember going out and having a hard decision deciding which color of a gameboy color i would chose ( chose the green gameboy lol ) then bought gameboy advanced and even 3DS XL but when i caught up to the franchise and bought Pokemon X i realized the franchise hasnt changed at all ( slight upgrade in graphics and 3D didnt do it for me ).

Pokemon was the reason why i bought a 3DS and the same reason why i sold my 3DS.. officially done with anything Nintendo related.

Generally if I like a game, I like it. The only thing that usually changes is what I consider my top 20 games which usually changes every few months cause ether I replay a game I haven't played in 8 years or a game that just came out and it wow's me enough to be put on my list.

Halo 1. I used to love the MP back in the day and always wanted to play it online (I didn't know anyone with an xbox at the time for LAN). Then playing it on the MCC I realise it's completely unbalanced and lacking in many ways compared to the later games.

Just now realized that about urself?

• 1st u cheer for nothing but Nintendo and Persona 4 for months
• Wii U best exclusives (which IS debatable)
• Then you claim SSB is a demanding game graphically (joke or not idc)
• Then Toad?
• Wii, Wii, Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
• Then all of a sudden PS4 dominating I'm disappointed in Wii U
• Show me something Nintendo.....
• Then lol vita
• All of a sudden you pro PS4

You're fickle so wouldn't be surprising if you apply that characteristic to your taste in games as well.

411 most gamers are too, just ask any MMO dev

Well for starters, your post is not coherent.

Secondly, none but one of the opinions you mentioned are mutually exclusive.

Finally, the one pair that is? It changed over time. it's called recognizing that something changed and accepting it, instead of claiming that no goddamnit, the UMDs are still the best format for portable games.

When I played Crysis 2 at first I thought I loved it, I hadn't finished it back then and I played it till completion 2 or 3 years after. On my second playthrough I found it really limited and at times repetitive.

Battlefield 4.

Got it a few months ago and, for a while, I thought it was fantastic. After almost reaching level 30 in the multiplayer I see the game as the shit stain it really is: a broken, repetitive, unimaginative, buggy game with crappy gun play.

I was hoping for a somewhat simulated war atmosphere, but in reality it's just a bunch of idiots running around as fast as they can to get more kills than the other fellow. They don't care if they die 20 times in a match as long as they get 21 kills.

Sold that pos.

Uhm........ Need For Speed.

More of a general games discussion topic or blog

Probably Parasite Eve. As much as I loved it back in the day I go to it now and it hurts to play. The thing I loved about it the most is the combat. I realize this now. Your main defense against the enemies is to slowly run away. If there was a dodge roll or something it probably would be my favorite rpg combat system of all time.

Guild Wars 2.

I didnt listen to myself when I was bored out of my mind of BWE2, thinking it was just the fact that it was a lack of permanency (this went to the point where I skipped BWE3). When I played the final game the game only lasted up until around level 70 where the tedium really started to kick in. And even then, I didnt realize that I wasn't having any fun until about a month or two after.

I realized then, the problem with the game was the mechanics, the execution, and the general lack of good design decisions. It was difficult for me to admit that the developers of some of my favorite games had developed their first blunder. They hit the wrong psychological buttons, and generally paid no heed to what makes us humans enjoy games. And what people in general look for in games. Guild Wars 2 had none of it, because it refused to stand on the shoulders of giants. It kept asking itself, "is this original?", but it did not ask itself, "is this fun?".

• Content was temporary, leading to stress, exclusion and content that were designed to be tackled in hours as opposed to weeks or even months.
• Combat was spammy and floaty. Leading to attacks having no feel of an impact. The absurd attack speed resulted in combat looking like a clusterfuck.
• The stories were full of unrelatable or even unlikeable characters.
• There was extremely little variety in biomes and enemies, with human characters facing the same centaurs and bandits for nearly 50 levels.
• There are no roles in combat, leading to chaos and failing to acknowledge that it is in human nature to identify ourselves with roles.
• Basic mmo features such as duelling is missing (bad for a game designed with 1v1 or 2v2 PvP).
• The extremley fast pace of the game, and lack of need to socialize caused GW2 to become quite possibly the most anti social mmo of all time. GW2 is notorious in the mmorpg community for being anti social.
• The economy is nonexistant as everyone has their own nodes and everyone can harvest from them.
• The game shamefully copy pasted music from the orignial. No, they didnt even remix it, simply CTRL-C->CTRL-V, while failing to take into account the atmosphere and context of the soundtrack of GW1.
• 10 skill hotkey combat does not allow for a particulary high skill ceiling.
• The PvP still only has one game mode and doesnt seem to know wheter or not it wants to appeal to the e-sports community or the casual community. They already failed with the e-sports community with the latest tournament having less than 3000 viewers.
• Traits were a good idea in theory, but in practice, there were very few viable choices to make. As far too many of the traits were too situational.

Unlike Persona 4 Golden, which is objectively good (great even), Guild Wars 2 is objectively bad.

Edit: The game was only fun in BWE1, and that was because of the difficulty. It wasn't insultingly easy and to tackle scenarios people actually had to *gasp* work together.

To be fair to Persona 4. How many hours did you put into it? How many times did you replay it.

It is hard for me to return to Mount and Blade: Warband for extended periods of time after over 700 hours of playtime (Steam did not track all my hours). But I still recognize the game as phenomenal.

But yes, your complaints are perfectly valid to the game. And this is why I find it hard to consider Persona 4 to be anything above a 3/10 personally. I still see the game as objectively really well made however, and as a 8/10. As the devs understood human nature quite well and did a good job appealing to human nature in its life sim sections. It hit the right psychological buttons.

AVP3, I tried to like it, I really did, but after some time came to agree with the general consensus it was mostly bad. Now, it did do some things right, but it just wasn't enough to overlook its problems.

Oh yeah.... and Uncharted.

Burnout PSP

Shadow the Hedgehog

Destiny. I loved it when it came out. Didn't get all the bad reviews. Grounded out my warlock until 25 until I couldn't take anymore and realized why the reviews were bad. Its the same 6 freaking levels over and over again with robo-imp droning in the background.

Blog it chaz

April fools?

I think Bloodborne has opened your eyes, Char.

Splinter Cell: Conviction is the game that I waited for so long. When it released, after years of hype, I wasn't impressed but tried hard to convince myself that I'm loving this game and it was worth it. Now when I look back, I can easily say that the game was worst in the series and not worth the wait. There are some other games too but right now I can't remember more.

I've always been pretty aware of what is good and bad. Or maybe I should say that games that I really really liked back in the day are all really great games. The one area I will stress is sports games. Most notably, the first batch of 3D football and basketball games. Used to enjoy NBA Shootout and some of the madden games on psx/n64. NFL Gameday is a series that recieved much critical acclaim but it is just not all that great.

Oh, BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN is one game that I was blown away by but now it is very apparent how lacking it is in gameplay. Amazing music though.

@Cloud_imperium:

Have you tried Blacklist :) ?

Yes, it was a lot better but my favorites are still Chaos Theory and Double Agent, followed by Pandora Tomorrow.

@Cloud_imperium:

But.... but...... Teh CO-OP !!! :(

I started Chaos Theory a few years ago and was impressed, still--even the visuals hold up well. My xbox actually broke down while playing it :(. I don't remember double agent. I have the first release on 360 which I got really bored with at that mission where you walk around posing at an enemy hideout/base(i forget). If I remember correctly the xbox and 360 versions of that game were different and that the original xbox one was the better of the two.

...I thought Pandoras Tomorrow was the worst of the original style Splinter Cell game.

*side note about gamers on graphics today because this game was all about "yeah but xbox can do shadows" lol.

Wow if you thought that now, good thing you didn't get it at release

are you really still upset that your thread got locked?

Goldeneye. Still play it to this day sometimes when i like to go old school but the game is hell out dated. It age horribly.

GTA for me, i use to love it more, but i traded in my PS3 copy 4 days after its launch.

Yeah. that mission in Double Agent where you invade JBA's HQ is a bit confusing in opening moments, it was for me too, but later it becomes a lot of fun. There are three of those missions in the game. And yeah, 6th and 7th gen versions of Double Agent had different stories. Most people prefer 6th gen version. I never played that version but was pretty happy with the newer one. Chaos Theory on other hand was brilliant stealth game and it still looks good.

Pretty much most of the games I consider to be badly aged enough that I refuse to play them anymore.

Soul Blade (PSOne)

Civilization I (PC)

Metroid (NES)

Star Fox (SNES)

GG fools. GG.

@Desmonic:

Come on dude..... not in here.

Honestly, this is a legit thread. Easy to give an answer.

@freedomfreak:

Well...... whats your answer, handsome ?

Oh, there's so many. You think on them "yeah, that was fun. best thing ever.", but then you get to play it again, and it's like "that's rubbish".

Nostalgia clouds the mind so much. At least they're nice memories.

@freedomfreak:

My problem is I know I have some but can't remember any.....

I suppose me forgetting them shows how forgetable they actually are.

Or you have filled your head with more important stuff to replace those memories :o

@freedomfreak:

Like Naruto !!! :(

Soldier Of Fortune.

Too many.

@charizard1605: pulling an April Fools joke.

Classic

Persona 4 is not a video game though, it's more like a visual novel with some video game elements.

The Last of Us. What a pile of crap that game is, right?

Now you mentioned it I think dragon age inquisition was a real disappointment for me – and PC gamers – I thought it was the game that I wanted but It wasn’t, I couldn’t have the same experience that I had with dragon age origin I. Inquisition was the awful Dragon age 2 In a bigger scale, a bad imitation of skyirm with a whacky storyline, full of boring side missions and gay characters, don’t get me wrong I’m not homophobic but too much gay romance and relationshit made DAI more like the sims than an RPG game

@princessgomez92:

Uhm..... no.... its very good.... so long as you didn't fall for the hype..... its not great though and I never thought it ever was.

I'd probably feel this way about some JRPGs I played back in the day if I ever bothered to go back to them.

You play with wrong ppl

make new friends

I usually get tired of stuff. From what I can see my limit is around one month of playing a game or like around 100 hours of actual playtime. Every single game I have loved has passed through this. After playing something else I always return for more dips.

God damn it guys.

On the other hand, maybe I made it too convincing and elaborate...