A Game You Cherish But Don’t Enjoy Playing Today?

[AK-1138]

Well, one of the few things to pop up instantly is--or rather used to be--Ocarina of Time. The greatest game experience of my life at the time... then Majora's Mask came around and one-upped it in every way damn near to the point of obsolescence... and then the quasi-remakey vibes of Twilight Princess squeezed the last points of uniqueness out of it. Doesn't help it plays at a clunky and sluggish pace, and the script is little but plot devices and exposition. The magic is just all but gone...

 

...Well, remember I said "used to be" back there? That's right, after Breath of Generic Derivative Infinitely Boring Failure came around and destroyed the series forevermore to thunderous applause, my esteem of actual Zelda games, even the lesser ones like Phantom Tracks and the Four Swords games, has risen by virtue of comparativeness. Ocarina was the first Zelda thing I played to cleanse my soul of the stain of BOGDIBF, and you gotta know... I could almost feel it. Jumping the shark sometimes has its advantages...

 

Now, for a more directly PlayStation-y answer... Assassin's Creed II comes to mind. Even hadn't Brotherhood improved upon everything it does that's actually good, there's just too many caveats for me to feasibly consider replaying it again. Too little variety in gameplay, and having to consult non-game methods to gather collectibles is never not an absolutely terrible idea, especially in a series in which you have to consult the in-game map all the time anyway. I already had a less-than-stellar time stacking it on PS4.

 

Generally though, this isn't really a mindset I tend to have about games. Great gameplay is alpha and omega. Might and Magic VI and VII look like goddamn screensavers, but western RPGs have never since managed to equal their ceaselessly satisfying gameplay loop... and I first played them years after release. I pity people, like a certain brainless Sony exec, who can't get past a game's appearance to give the gameplay a chance... honestly, I'm somewhat worried generations grown up on high-fidelity graphics won't be able to "go back". If I ever have a kid, if they show any interest for the stuff at all, I'd make somewhat of an effort to ease them into gaming by starting somewhat chronologically. Of course, friends or whatever would probably fuck up my entire plan, but ya know ?

 

(...Geez, what a ramble.)

[mysticmosh]

Need For Speed Most Wanted. Played this to death (and back!) on the ps2 and found a copy years later for the 360....Most Wanted with achievements?, yes please!. Got about half way through and gave up. My rose tinted specs slightly cracked at the experience, I'd rather not go back to it again.....unless they remake Underground!

[dieselmanchild]

On 2021-04-06 at 7:38 AM, Kazduin said:

I think we all have that one game we love but when we go back it hasn’t aged particularly well or you just don’t enjoy playing it anymore.

 

For me, that would be RuneScape. I loved RuneScape in 2008-10. I used to be really excited to boot up my Windows XP desktop and play after school. Recently I went to play old-school RuneScape and I just don’t enjoy it anymore. 
 

What’s a game you will always love and have fond memories of but you don’t enjoy playing it today?

RuneScape is my vote too.

 

This game defined my childhood, and stole many years of my life even as a young adult. It’s incredibly nostalgic for me and is filled with so many amazing memories and relationships with both real life and dear online friends, but it’s sad to say the game is just a complete shadow of what it once used to be.

 

Like many people, I continued playing RuneScape for many years post-RS3 and watched as things like the EOC and rampant micro-transactions and Pay-2-Win eroded the heart and soul of the game. Most people who couldn’t stand the changes simply went to OSRS, but I knew so many other veteran players like myself who were completely miserable with the experience and continued to play out of habit/addiction despite constantly complaining and railing against the destruction of everything that used to make the game what it was.

 

Walking away from RuneScape was really hard at first, especially since I never achieved my goal of joining some of my peers in hitting 5.4 billion XP and felt like I wasn’t finished with my journey yet, but it was remarkable how fast the game became a faded memory once I finally did. Within just a few weeks, the game was completely absent from my mind like ancient history. It was a real eye opener for me on just how little I was actually enjoying the game anymore, and how miserable I was watching it lose its soul slowly over time.

[horatio_deltoro]

There's a few games that I remember fondly that are abit painful to try to play now, mostly to do with chunky graphics.  It's funny because the SNES top down style gameplay has aged very well, but the N64/PS1 era attempts at blocky 3D have not.  Like I LOVED Legend of Dragoon, but damn it's hard to play now.  I played DAYS worth of GoldenEye, Rogue Squadron and Perfect Dark back in the day as well, but if I fire up the old N64 now I can barely get through an hour.  Alot of the games of that era are better off in my nostalgia memory I think..

[Jelly Soup]

SNES Harvest Moon.

It's one of my favorite games, I was a very happy teen when I found it as a used game store way back when. Poured many an hour into it. I could easily sit down with it right now and get some enjoyment. The problem is, I played it so much back in the day and did so many runs since to see how many endings I could get in one go that the efficiency of playing it is all I can think about. I've sort of lost the ability to just shut it all out and enjoy the game for what it is. I'll start to and then the numbers and graphs I have locked away in my head start to slip out of the mental binder. And it's a bummer.

Edited August 12, 2021 by Jelly Soup

[Jordio]

Maplestory.

I played back around 2007-2008 (pre Big Bang update for those who know) and I have so many fond memories of playing with and meeting friends in that game. Plus, the music is still some of my favorite video game music to this day. I didn't play it for a few years and decided to try again back in 2014 and the game was just not what it used to be . The worst change was that the game was essentially pay to win by this point which will just suck all the fun out of any game. But I think what killed the soul of the game was that there was far more of an emphasis on soloing bosses and nobody needed/cared to party up anymore. Without this, the whole aspect of meeting new people was gone and the game now felt hollow. 

I played for about a year (nostalgia is strong) before I quit. I have thought many times to try again, especially since I have money I can spend now, but I have always talked myself out of it. Plus, my original account got hacked a few years ago and my main character was deleted so it just wouldn't be the same.

Edited August 19, 2021 by HungarianBarbarian