Top 5 Entries You Hated in a Series You Generally Love?

[PhantomFear94]

I've done some Top 5 forums in the past, and the responses have always been fun, engaging and intruiging.   Great community here. 

 

What are 5 sequels or entries in a series you love that just missed the mark for you? Or were just below par for the time of release/the rest of the series?

 

It also doesn't have to be from your favourite video game.  For example, my favourite game of all time is Half Life 2, but I don't think Gordon Freeman is anything other than a decent protagonist. 

 

1)  Wolfenstein II: The New Order

 

Okay, so as a huge lover of the Wolfenstein series (namely The New Order, The Old Blood, Return and 3D) I really didn't like W2: TNC.  Although the gunplay was redefining and graphics were amazing, I felt that it sacrified everything else that made it unique and fun into a bland shooter.  Ignoring the whole "Mein Leben" bullshit (which is bullshit, no matter how amazing you are it asks too much of 99.9% of gamers)  BJ went from being well-written to Max Payne levels of cringe,  with his tormented inner dialogue that is too serious and melancholy for a plot that was too wacky.  Variance between humour and seriousness is fun, but it has no degree of nuance, it's like putting chocolate sauce on an aubergine and saying you have a tasty treat and a healthy option.   Anyway, I felt the plot issues were excacerbated by a very poor  supporting cast, the level design was poor and even a bit broken, and the increased difficulty made you go from being a badass dual wielding killing machine, to a standard solider who had to basically creep around cover to survive and HOPE that certain spawns were foruitious.   Difficulty is fine, but it was implemented poorly, with easy being too easy and anything above normal being too hard too quickly. Only thing I respect is that they didn't crumble and include a MP, keeping it SP.

 

2) Far Cry 3

 

The one I think people will disagree with the most.  The remaster IS more glitchy and buggy than the original, so I do respect this.  However, people seem to argue this as the bets in the series and I cannot fathom why.  I never played the original, but between 2, 3, 4, 5, Blood Dragon and Primal this was the worst IMO.  Vaas IS a good bad guy, but aside from a good performance and cool quotes he is pretty meaningless.  Pagan Mind and the Seeds have more understandable intentions and do create moral dilemmas, creating for more nuanced and engaging plots.   An overrated bad guy for sure, as is Hoyt who is just a ballbag.  The story is laughable, as is the protagonist, who goes from being a chicken, to a ruthless killer, back to a chicken over and over.  The story relies on meangingless drug-enduced portions just to mix it up, replacing the idea of any substance in its mission structure by mixing things up or making more fun quests.   Far Cry 4 does this better with Shangri-La, as it is within the lore of the game and culture generally.   The game play is also very dated, the game is only 6 years old but feels far older than say BioShock or Resistance IMO.    A very average game in a series I otherwise love.  Even 2, which wasn't amazing either, was more inventive for its time and had the series' best MP.

 

3) The Walking Dead: A New Frontier

 

I love Telltale Games.  I adore The Walking Dead S1&2, Tales from the Borderlands, The Wolf Among Us and Batman S2 (where they corrected a lot of wrongs).  However, I feel that since they got "big", they've started taking on too many franchises and making some medicore series'.  The worst crime was GoT, but this was pretty poor too.  First 2 episodes were great, but after this the game went really downhill.  The characters iritate me and, worst of all, the decisions are really boring and uninspiring.  Javier was a s**t protagonist, too. Telltale usually have a fine art of making technically meaningless decisions (due to inevitable outcomes either way) still FEEL important and still require thought, which is a very difficult balance and one that I love.  I hope more of this is present in the final season with out beloved Clem.

 

4) Resident Evil 6

 

Resident Evil 7 was my GOTY in 2017 (closely followed by 2 Switch games), and although God of War and Far Cry 5 were amaxing I don't think I've played a better game SINCE RE7.  RE4 is equally a masterpiece, and 5 was pretty amazing too (albeit rather less fun solo due to the annoying AI).   6 somehow managed to feel more dated than 5 and almost more dated than 4.  The game wasn't scary.  The game was barely even fun.  The narratives were convoluted or simple with no imbetween, and aside from a semi-enjoyable Leon campaign was dull, inspired and boring in every way.  The game was also a glitchy mess, and had some truly BS DLC.    A shit stain in the history of one of the best franchises of all time who make terrible decisions from time to time (Operation Racoon City and Umbrella Corps are even worse, but aren't main series so I won't pick on them.

 

5) BioShock 2

 

I put this last because I don't "hate" BioShock 2.  I'd give it an 8/10.  It's a good game, I love it and actually maxed it out alongside the whole series on Xbox.   However, it is also in the same series as BioShock 1 and BioSHock Infinite, both within the best 10 games of all time in my opinion (Infinite is my 2nd favourite game ever created).   BioShock 2 just made a lot of questionable decisions.  The protagonist was blander than a gruel risotto, the MP was meaningless (even if it did garner a cult following, it deserved no place in an amazing series) and they took one of the most boring parts of a largely flawless game and made it a significant feature (the escort part with little sisters).   The locations were also not quite on par with BioShock 1, and side characters were less fun.   A good game, great even, but glaringly weak in comparison to its 2 overachieving brothers.

Edited July 17, 2018 by phantomfear9494

[madbuk]

1) Assassin's Creed Origins

How the fuck did Ubisoft manage to go so wrong with this? Every AC up until this point was a joy to play, and now suddenly it's a shitty RPG that level gates the main story, which is the worst main story in the franchise because of the way it's structured - it's a mess of disconnected generic plots that don't come together in any kind of meaningful way. The modern day part is horrible, we get a generic Lara Croft clone who does nothing and the Juno arc doesn't get any kind of mention or progression. I hear they wrapped it up via a comic series, which is the biggest fuck you to the fans of the franchise. Personally I can't get into comics, so I will never get closure on this story they have been building over multiple games. The combat is tedious and boring, the world, just like the quests, is level gated so you can't explore without getting slaughtered, and stealth isn't a viable option because stealth kills no longer actually kill guards, they just slightly damage them and then they alert the whole fort and you're dead. The world is also bland as hell, and many of the areas aren't even used in the game. Many of the areas are just empty desert as well, what's the point? Bloat of the highest magnitude. Pisses me off that they seem to be doing their best to make the franchise even less recognizable with Odyssey. Choices, in an AC game? What the fuck? The whole concept of the franchise is you are reliving a piece of history, not re-writing it however you please.

Fuck Ubisoft for ruining my favourite franchise with this mess of a game.

 

2) God of War (2018)

God of War is a very story-driven franchise. So, naturally, they go ahead and make this game which contradicts a lot of the previous games and doesn't even attempt to explain how Kratos made it to the Norse realm, it doesn't show the aftermath of God of War III, and it doesn't explain how this game even exists despite the ending of God of War III. Even without these flaws the story in general isn't interesting at all, and the gameplay... yikes. The puzzles are all identical, the side quests are terrible, and they removed the jump button so there's no more platforming. In a God of War game. My feelings on this game could be cleansed a little by the sequels, if they decide to fix the gaping problems with the story in this, but I have no reason to believe they will.

 

3) Sonic Generations

Okay, so Sonic is nothing special really, outside of a couple of games. But I've enjoyed most of the ones I've played despite some pretty obvious flaws. Heroes is very repetitive, making you do all of the same levels over again with 4 different teams with very little variation, but the game was charming despite being pretty bad. Metal Sonic was also an interesting villain and I regret never finishing the final story (the chaos emeralds were too hard ;-;) so I never got to fully appreciate him, but from what I've seen via videos it wraps up pretty well. Adventure 2 feels very soulless when compared to Adventure 1, but overall it's still an enjoyable time and there's a good variety of level playstyles due to the multiple characters (though some of Knuckles and Rogue's stages can be a little sloppy). I even enjoyed my time with Sonic 06, and that game is very obviously not a good game. Generations... there's just nothing fun or charming about it. It brings back a character from the dead with no explanation, all the levels are way too easy and feel like you just hold square to win (for modern Sonic, anyway), modern Sonic stages often switch to 2D so you're essentially just playing a classic Sonic stage again, and the bonus challenges are horrible. It was nice to fight Perfect Chaos again though even if I prefer his fight in Adventure 1.

 

4) LittleBigPlanet 2

This game added too many gimmicks and the platforming challenges weren't as challenging or fun as they were in LittleBigPlanet 1. Acing every level is a breeze and feels more like a chore than a challenge. I liked that the themes of the worlds were more apparent than in LBP1, but that's about all I liked. The DLC was also pretty bad and the Move is a terrible device that rightfully died pretty quickly. It simply doesn't work and introduces artificial difficulty as a result. Remove all the gimmicky power-ups and make the platforming more challenging and this might've been a fun game, but as it is it has put me off even trying LBP3 despite really enjoying my time with LBP1, LBP PSP, and LBP Vita.

 

5) Tomb Raider 2013

Saved this one for last, because it's actually a good game. It's just an atrocious Tomb Raider game. The shooting is satisfying, but there's way too much of it. All of the puzzles are a joke and Lara is the blandest she has ever been. Going from Keeley Hawe's Lara to Camilla Ludington's is a substantial downgrade, all she does is complain and moan at every little thing that happens to her. The platforming also suffers from white ledge syndrome, a problem that plagues a lot of modern games such as Uncharted and God of War 2018. At least GoW explains why the ledges are so colourful and unnatural, though. Tomb Raider: Anniversary is the only time I've really seen white ledge platforming done right, and it's a shame they never really succeeded at making it interesting again after that.

[ExHaseo]

1) Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness  

This game was so pointless. The entire point of it was to explain something from Star Ocean 3, that already had a good explanation. It also has an enormous plot hole that completely negates a huge part of Star Ocean 3. The fact that Fidel has the exact same powers as Fayt, for no reason. Them having the same fighting style is whatever, but Fidel shouldn't be able to use Ethereal Blast. It makes zero sense, and it bugs the hell out of me. The pacing was also terrible, the characters were boring, the combat was bland, almost all of the cutscenes were just you standing around. It's just such a shame, because up until this point, Star Ocean was always the series I could point to that didn't have any bad games. Even the "worst" in the series, Second Evolution, was still a great game.

 

2) Tales of Xillia

I hate this game. I hate this game so much. Even more as time goes on. Coming from Tales of Vesperia, it was an enormous step backwards. The story was split into two, and you were supposed to play with both characters to get the full story, but nothing happened in either one that required another playthrough, because they just explain what happens. It felt so stupid and forced. Then there was almost no extra content. Unlike Vesperia that had a metric shitton of extra content. Including side quests, costumes, accessories, and secret areas. And they also took away the world map. The whole game just felt like a big hallway. There weren't even any puzzles. And then the story was just a terrible attempt at trying to be Symphonia, except executed very poorly, and it didn't even feel completed. At the end, I expected there to be a lot more game, but there wasn't. It just kind of ends. The worst part though, is that so many people like it. It's held in a high regard for some reason, despite how much it spits in the face of long time fans. It was a lazy and rushed game that cut content so that they could sell ridiculously overpriced costumes. And people talk highly of it, so of course they kept making games like it. Rushed games with low amounts of actual content, designed to sell you overpriced costumes. The series has improved a little bit since then with Zestiria and Berseria, but it's still nowhere near the level of games like Symphonia, Abyss, and Vesperia.

 

3) Resident Evil Revelations 2

I was never a huge RE fan. I didn't like the tank controls. I didn't like how slow paced they were. And I didn't like not being able to move. Then along came RE Revelations. I was told it was different than the past games, and that I would like it, by a friend of mine that has always recommended stuff I enjoyed. So, it was one of the first games I got for my 3DS, and I fell in love almost instantly. It had a perfect mix of action, exploration, and horror. It was just amazing. Then came RE6, and while the gameplay was good, nothing else was done very well. Then Revelations 2 got announced, and I got so excited. I thought they were going to go back to the same formula used for the first game, but I was terribly wrong. Instead, we got watered down gameplay, an episodic game instead of an exploration based one, and an overall boring story.

 

4) Final Fantasy XIII

I kind of feel like I'm cheating with this one, because it's so widely regarded as the worst in the series, but that doesn't make it less bad. You have your standard reasons for this one. Final Hallway XIII. Auto battle to win. Etc. The only good thing to come out of this, was Lightning Returns. Which is a fantastic game.

 

5) Tekken 7

I wasn't into Tekken for a long time. I was more into other 3D fighters like Dead or Alive and Soul Calibur, and 2D fighters like Marvel vs. Capcom and Street Fighter. Until Tekken 6 came out. It was the very first plat I ever got, not because I started trophy hunting (I didn't do that until years later) but because I enjoyed it so much that I just kept playing it. Once I ran out of things to do, I looked to the trophy list to give me an excuse to keep playing it. IMO, that's the mark of a truly great game. One that you look for any reason to keep on playing it. The customization and bound system is really what did it for me. It let you do some really cool combos, something I've always thought was lacking in the series. And there was a ridiculous amount of customization, and it was fun unlocking more and more stuff through the different modes. So, once Tekken 7 came out, I was pretty excited. I couldn't get it at launch, so I got to see months of people talking about how great it was. Talking about how it's the best in the series and all that. When I finally did pick it up, I popped it into the PS4 and got real excited. In my first fight, I notice the bound system is gone. I was pretty immediately disappointed. Then I go into the customization, and there's very few options. Then the story mode was bland and most of the characters didn't even show up in the main scenario. We just go those weird side stories for them, with like 1 line of text. The whole thing just felt like a hollow shell of what Tekken 6 was, but at the same time, a lot of Tekken 7 felt recycled from 6. It's like they took 6, then took out all of the parts that made it fun, and then slapped a new coat of paint on it and called it Tekken 7.

Edited July 17, 2018 by ExHaseo

[DrBloodmoney]

@phantomfear9494 - those are some well argued points.... that I disagree with completely  

I Loved Wolfenstein 2, loved Bioshock 2, was a big fan of A New Frontier, really enjoyed Far Cry 3 and...

...

lol, no, I agree - RE6 was a total clown-shoe. (though RE7 was meant to be real good - haven’t played yet - and probably wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t scortched the earth so badly that they needed a full-ass reboot!)

 

For me, my list would be:

 

1. (With a bullet) Jak 2

 

What a tremendously dissapointing piece of garbage that game was. From a good, fun, smart 3D platformer, to a shitty, emo, ‘90’s-edgy’(the most un-edgy of types of edgy!) GTA-clone in one single swoop. Bad story, bad controls, awful camera, etc etc etc.

An abomination.

 

2. Gravity Rush 2

Proof that if you expand on and - on paper at least - improve every part of a game, it doesn’t always get better, sometimes it just gets flabby and overlong.

Loved the first one, but this was a disappointment.

 

3. Metal Gear Solid

The first two games were fun, silly little romps, that never took themselves too seriously. Then someone gave Kojima too much money, and he just went to the anime-zoo.

Cut-scenes that lasted for what felt like hours, a camera that never allowed enough field of view, more reading of terribly written codex entries than gameplay and some of the most emo-ass whining dialogue ever given to a main protagonist.

 

4. Prince of Persia: The Forgotton Sands

Not truely awful, but after they went to all the trouble of rebooting the franchise, it was very disappointing to see the devs waiver, and try to cash in on the (awful) movie, by retuning to the old tried-and-tested-and-done-to-death formula. Killed the reboot, along with the franchise. Should have been called ‘Prince of Persia: Flogging a Dead Horse’  

 

 

5. Trine 3

Not a bad game, but after the first two games ranked among my favortie co-op games of recent times, this one just made me sad. Looks lovely, but too easy, too short and no enough scope for clever solutions.

 

Edited July 17, 2018 by DrBloodmoney

[madbuk]

3 minutes ago, ExHaseo said:

2) Tales of Xillia

I hate this game. I hate this game so much. Even more as time goes on. Coming from Tales of Vesperia, it was an enormous step backwards. The story was split into two, and you were supposed to play with both characters to get the full story, but nothing happened in either one that required another playthrough, because they just explain what happens. It felt so stupid and forced. Then there was almost no extra content. Unlike Vesperia that had a metric shitton of extra content. Including side quests, costumes, accessories, and secret areas. And they also took away the world map. The whole game just felt like a big hallway. There weren't even any puzzles. And then the story was just a terrible attempt at trying to be Symphonia, except executed very poorly, and it didn't even feel completed. At the end, I expected there to be a lot more game, but there wasn't. It just kind of ends. The worst part though, is that so many people like it. It's held in a high regard for some reason, despite how much it spits in the face of long time fans. It was a lazy and rushed game that cut content so that they could sell ridiculously overpriced costumes. And people talk highly of it, so of course they kept making games like it. Rushed games with low amounts of actual content, designed to sell you overpriced costumes. The series has improved a little bit since then with Zestiria and Berseria, but it's still nowhere near the level of games like Symphonia, Abyss, and Vesperia.

 

4) Final Fantasy XIII

I kind of feel like I'm cheating with this one, because it's so widely regarded as the worst in the series, but that doesn't make it less bad. You have your standard reasons for this one. Final Hallway XIII. Auto battle to win. Etc. The only good thing to come out of this, was Lightning Returns. Which is a fantastic game.

Xillia has a world map, you get it right before reaching Nia Khera and it's used to fast travel. It doesn't really act any differently to the one you get in Graces f, you just get it in Xillia much earlier.

I also never really understood the Final Hallway XIII. Final Fantasy X was a hallway game too but I never see any complaints about that. And auto battle to win doesn't make sense, if you rely on auto battle you won't win, you need to set up paradigms properly and know when to switch to them. I wish auto battle was insta-win, I struggle to even beat mobs in XIII, let alone boss fights.

[ExHaseo]

1 minute ago, madbuk said:

Xillia has a world map, you get it right before reaching Nia Khera and it's used to fast travel. It doesn't really act any differently to the one you get in Graces f, you just get it in Xillia much earlier.

I also never really understood the Final Hallway XIII. Final Fantasy X was a hallway game too but I never see any complaints about that. And auto battle to win doesn't make sense, if you rely on auto battle you won't win, you need to set up paradigms properly and know when to switch to them. I wish auto battle was insta-win, I struggle to even beat mobs in XIII, let alone boss fights.

K

 

I'M GOING TO SAY THIS ONCE, AND I'M SAYING IT IN BOLD.

 

THIS IS A THREAD ABOUT GAMES YOU DON'T LIKE. YOU AREN'T GOING TO AGREE WITH PEOPLE. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH SOMEONE. JUST MOVE ON. 

[madbuk]

5 minutes ago, ExHaseo said:

K

 

I'M GOING TO SAY THIS ONCE, AND I'M SAYING IT IN BOLD.

 

THIS IS A THREAD ABOUT GAMES YOU DON'T LIKE. YOU AREN'T GOING TO AGREE WITH PEOPLE. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH SOMEONE. JUST MOVE ON. 

I'm not saying you should like the games, I just wanted to understand why X isn't at fault too

[ExHaseo]

5 minutes ago, madbuk said:

I'm not saying you should like the games, I just wanted to understand why X isn't at fault too

Okay, fine. If you really want a response. I'm not going to respond after this though, because I'm not going to get into a pointless bickering contest.

 

Selecting from a list for fast travel is not a world map. A world map is something you can move around and explore.

 

FFX is linear, not a hallway, there's a huge difference. In X there's plenty of sections of the game with branching paths and optional areas you can explore. FFX also has the cloister of trials sprinkled throughout the game that break up the movement from one area to another. XIII is just one long hallway. There's very few branching paths, and nothing to break up the movement from one area to another. You walk forward through an area, you fight a boss, repeating forever until the end of the game. The only exception is Gran Pulse, and even then, there's not much reason to explore it, and it's not a very big part of the game. As for auto battle, you just have to have a Sentinel, Medic, and a damage dealer. You will win almost every fight by just mashing auto battle. The damage dealer can be ravager or commando. If you're impatient you can switch to triple ravager until you break it. You really don't need to though. The game is that simple.

[Evil_Joker88]

Just random order they came in mind:

 

1) Assassin's Creed 3

The story is weird. Playing several hours as a Templar, then switching to his son who sets out to kills his father but then decides it's better to fight alongside him was a bad idea. And while climbing through cities which is the main part in the older games was pretty nice and made sense, in this game there were too many rural areas in which you cannot climb free as i had hoped for... Best thing about the story are the DLCs with a mad king named George Washington

 

2) Dead Space 3

Dead Space was an amazing horror-action game. Dead Space 3 was a good action game. And the coop story should have their own cutscenes It felt wrong to see Isaac jumping through a closing door, surviving in the next room while Carter didn't make the jump but still was teleported next to Isaac because he had to survive in coop games...

 

3) Resident Evil 5

Haven't played RE6 otherwise it would make this list   just like Dead Space 3 RE5 also went to the wrong direction. The Action orientated one... RE4 had some real puzzles which took me a while to figure out and was scarier too. RE5 was a shooter with some ugly beasts as boss enemies. A good shooter especially in coop but not a scary game

 

4) Bioshock Infinite

I love Rapture. Columbia cannot win that fight The fights on the railroads felt clunky and i missed every shot on the rails. Driving slowly killed me almost instantly because the enemies were 1000% more accurate than me. And while it wanted to explain a few things that were known from Bioshock 1 and 2 the story was very confusing. I watched a 10 hours long video series on youtube to see the similarities from Bioshock Infinite to its predecessors

 

5) Far Cry 2

All other mentioned games i played through at least the story once. This game not. Driving around the world was too much a hassle. There were enemy camps every second or two and if i killed all enemies in one outpost they just respawned a second or so later again. My car was heavily damaged when i wanted to drive through without fighting. Both methods didn't go well. I stopped early in the story progression...

Edited July 17, 2018 by Evil_Joker88

[Sanetsuken]

Sure, not like I have shit to do today.

 

1. Dragon age inquisition

Bioware enjoys ruining their series by the third one, and this is the most annoying example for me. DA: Origins was amazing in my eyes. It was dark, there were several plots going on at once, the fear of the "swarm" was very real and provided interesting interaction with the world, not to mention the human element of being backstabbing bastards where it counts the most. Also the combat was great, providing ample opportunities to mix it up while at the same time having a initial difficulty curve i personally enjoyed.

DA 2 was a sign of things to come. The writing was worse, the interactions with party members focused more on being "zany" than actually creative, the combat was simplified (yet luckily still had some flair to it) but it wasn't a completely bad game. It was mediocre, but salvageable depending on who you ask.

DA:I though. Wooh boy. Whoever thought to design an MMO for 1 person should be flagellated in public until they apologize to every person alive who had the misfortune of experiencing this travesty. The combat is straight trash, simplified even worse than DA 2. There's no flair or impact behind the skills, it's just world of warcraft tier throwing spells and abilities until something is dead. The party members barely have personality at this point (Dorian, darian, the gay guy had literally one feature about him, and that was how gay he was. It was even used in marketing. Why have character when you can flaunt sexuality as your only interesting point, right?) and the general tone and writing of the world is hitting the ditch. It showed to me that Dragon age, for it's humble and great beginning, is creatively bankrupt. And also was developed by what I have to assume was the B-team of bioware.  This game made me hope DA is dead forever so nobody can start it up and follow the trend, making each game just worse. It's a goddamn shame to see dark fantasy end up like this. I'm still mad.

 

2. Dead space 3

 

Until recently, dead space 3 was the single biggest reminder in my mind that chasing trends only causes your downfall. After Dead space 2, there was a steadily growing fanbase. People wanted more. More of the unsure horror, more creative monsters to battle, more ways to fuck with enemies using telekinesis. More weapons and so forth.

 

Then came dead space 3. Nothing but broken promises and an investors wet dream in theory. The game didn't build off what Dead space 2 had built, oh no. Instead it chased after every trend there was in an effort to cater to literally everyone. The atmosphere and feel of older games are gone, now you're just running around like you're playing redneck rampage with some jumpscares blasting aliens down and getting into "epic" setpieces to really bring the point home. No longer are you mostly alone, you can play co-op with your best bud, cause after all dead space was built with the intention of playing on a couch during the day with all the lights on and some coke and your best friend sitting there beside you, RIGHT?

 

And the weapon system, what a goddamn trainwreck. Not only are the weapons not anything special anymore, the developers thought "fuck it, they'll make the weapons" and just give you blueprints instead. Want a gun that fires electrified rockets? sure go ahead. Doesn't matter. All the ammo you get are universal, the guns are constantly modded to make sure you're more "borderlands" than "dead space" and if you can't afford the thing you want from the store? Just get out your wallet and buy more dead bux™ so you can build an orbital ion cannon with aftershock acid AOE so the aliens REALLY stay dead.  Do you get my point yet? They ruined it. Completely. They made a well created horror game into action shooter #3158917 with fads shoveled in your face so you can never forget it.

 

3. Final Fantasy XV

Look, I played this shit when it was new, when you expect the fucking thing to be done. I didn't play it 2 years after when they bothered to patch that shit, alright?

It was buggy, it lacked MANY quality of life features (like only being able to hunt 1 and 1 monster from the bounty board, but hey atleast they fixed that 6 months later, silly me for not waiting a year before buying it), the so-called "superboss" was a genuine and massive (literally) waste of time. The plotline is a mess and wasn't engaging, luna was important for all of 10 minutes, magic being reduced to generic grenades annoyed me, and the summons can bite me. Whoever came up with the summoning system in XV deserves a kick in the nads, alright? The entire system is based around X summon appears when you're low health, or the fight has dragged on too long, or a party member sneezed at a 45 degree angle, and maybe the sea serpent will show up, but it's probably only gonna be the old guy again because why can't i select anyone goddammit.

 

Adding to that insult if you DO use a summon, it's not a reward. It's not cool. It's an emergency button. Summon appears, kills everyone, gives noctis all the XP, gg nub now go grind some more.

 

Getting knights of the round in FF7 is amazing because it's a high powered attack that's flashy. You get sick of it by the 3rd time you use it but it's SOMETHING. XV just decided that summons are emergency help and should actively be avoided because fuck you for wanting to summon higher powers.

 

And the flying car sucks. Atleast the bromance was decent until the end where everyone got pissy because plot wanted it to happen.

 

 

4. Ninja gaiden 3

Razor's edge fixed SOME of it, but the attempt to suddenly turn the tight gameplay of ninja gaiden into some 2deep4u feeling plot where Ryu questions the death of his enemies is just bad form. The blood on bone system was godawful and didn't fit the pace, and the entire game is just a mash of failed ideas. And the online should never have existed.

In 10 years time we'll probably hear the reason ninja gaiden 4 didn't happen was because 3 didn't sell billions of copies and therefore we hated the series as a whole. Thanks Itagaki.

 

5. Dead rising 4

Short development time, wasted effort, made for casuals and fans were given the finger once again. It's mediocre and a genuine dissappointment for anyone who's been there since the start.

And I haven't been able to finish a full game of the online. The lobby system makes me angry.

 

 

37 minutes ago, ExHaseo said:

K

 

I'M GOING TO SAY THIS ONCE, AND I'M SAYING IT IN BOLD.

 

THIS IS A THREAD ABOUT GAMES YOU DON'T LIKE. YOU AREN'T GOING TO AGREE WITH PEOPLE. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH SOMEONE. JUST MOVE ON. 

 

You do realize asking someone about their opinion is a vital part in how forums work?

[Lucas]

1. Persona 4 Arena (+Ultimax)

The Persona series is one of my favorite (if not my favorite series) and it hurts to see how they completely ruined their reputation as a great series for some people with the Arena games. These two spin-off games are very bad in terms of story and character development. The core element of the game is the fighting gameplay of course, which is great but not enjoyable for me. As a big fan of the series, however, I had to try these games out despite not being a fan of fighters. The story modes in these games are atrocious and don't even come close to the quality of any of the other Persona games. Atlus says these games are canon but they are not to me .

 

2. Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon

I always enjoy playing through the Far Cry games but this standalone DLC was extremely dull to me. I didn't like the style at all and for some reason that made the gameplay feel more boring as well. I have yet to finish this game but I have my doubts if I ever will.

 

3. Need for Speed 2015

I'm not that big of a fan of the Need for Speed games but the 2015 reboot was definitely not for me. The gameplay isn't that great and feels somewhat unbalanced in the beginning of the game, the open world is really empty and the FMV-like way of story telling is bad and not interesting whatsoever.

 

4. Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival

Yes, I realize that this is a spin-off game but I still wanted to put it on the list. I love the Animal Crossing series but this spin-off isn't interesting at all, not even for fans.

 

5. inFamous Second Son

I definitely don't hate this game but it's by far the weakest entry in the series in my opinion. The story and character development are bad and gameplay just doesn't seem to match that of the other games for some reason. The only great part about this game is Fetch and the neon powers so I was glad that Fetch got a standalone DLC to shine .

[madbuk]

23 minutes ago, ExHaseo said:

Okay, fine. If you really want a response. I'm not going to respond after this though, because I'm not going to get into a pointless bickering contest.

 

Selecting from a list for fast travel is not a world map. A world map is something you can move around and explore.

 

FFX is linear, not a hallway, there's a huge difference. In X there's plenty of sections of the game with branching paths and optional areas you can explore. FFX also has the cloister of trials sprinkled throughout the game that break up the movement from one area to another. XIII is just one long hallway. There's very few branching paths, and nothing to break up the movement from one area to another. You walk forward through an area, you fight a boss, repeating forever until the end of the game. The only exception is Gran Pulse, and even then, there's not much reason to explore it, and it's not a very big part of the game. As for auto battle, you just have to have a Sentinel, Medic, and a damage dealer. You will win almost every fight by just mashing auto battle. The damage dealer can be ravager or commando. If you're impatient you can switch to triple ravager until you break it. You really don't need to though. The game is that simple.

Should I do any grinding on Gran Pulse to make this work or should I be good at any level? If it's really this simple I may go back to it, the difficulty curve towards the forest area onwards really threw me off.

[Gisquared09]

1. Grand theft auto V

- This Game’s Story really disappointed me. I liked Trevor franklin and Michael but I felt like the story was jumbled all over the place and it was pretty short for a gta game. I get they had to change it up to have 3 playable characters but I much rather just play as one as I can connect with them more. I loved Niko and the story of gta IV, my favorite gta by far. 

 

2. Assassins Creed Unity

- I think we can all agree on this one, haha. This game really pissed me off, a buggy mess and a literal copy and paste of Assassins creed II in terms of story. This was the only game this generation I have buyers remorse for. Assassins creed was over when they killed off Desmond in 3. Every game after that meant nothing to the series in my opinion. I was even disappointed with origins. It was a great realized world, but the quests were boring and I hated playing those naval battles AGAIN. I feel like that’s the only thing that sells ac these days. 

 

3.  Fallout 4

-A game that I still play today after 3 years after release with a game clock over 200 hours. Story wise this game probably has the best one out of all the fallout games by Bethesda. Gameplay and rpg wise it is a huge setback to the previous entries. Shooting was improved but the dialogue choices were pretty meaningless and not as plentiful. 

 

4. Rise of the Tomb Raider

- I found this game to be pretty boring. The shooting was janky and the crafting system I wasn’t about. I also didn’t care for any of the characters in this game besides for Laura. The ending also plays out exactly like the first game’s ending which was a far superior game overall. 

 

5.  Metal Gear Solid V

-My favorite gaming franchise ends with a thud. I didn’t pick up this game until this year because it was dirt cheap during a sale.  I wasn’t interested in an open world metal gear but this game did it far better than What I expected it to

Spoiler

. The ending also threw me through a hoop and I loved it because I didn’t see it coming at all and it’s such a good twist.

But this game was missing the classic metal gear story and the story that was there was unfulfilling doing the same damn rescue hostage mission over and over and over again. I wish Hideo would get another shot at this game. 

 

[stupot00]

1 hour ago, madbuk said:

1) Assassin's Creed Origins

How the fuck did Ubisoft manage to go so wrong with this? Every AC up until this point was a joy to play, and now suddenly it's a shitty RPG that level gates the main story, which is the worst main story in the franchise because of the way it's structured - it's a mess of disconnected generic plots that don't come together in any kind of meaningful way. The modern day part is horrible, we get a generic Lara Croft clone who does nothing and the Juno arc doesn't get any kind of mention or progression. I hear they wrapped it up via a comic series, which is the biggest fuck you to the fans of the franchise. Personally I can't get into comics, so I will never get closure on this story they have been building over multiple games. The combat is tedious and boring, the world, just like the quests, is level gated so you can't explore without getting slaughtered, and stealth isn't a viable option because stealth kills no longer actually kill guards, they just slightly damage them and then they alert the whole fort and you're dead. The world is also bland as hell, and many of the areas aren't even used in the game. Many of the areas are just empty desert as well, what's the point? Bloat of the highest magnitude. Pisses me off that they seem to be doing their best to make the franchise even less recognizable with Odyssey. Choices, in an AC game? What the fuck? The whole concept of the franchise is you are reliving a piece of history, not re-writing it however you please.

Fuck Ubisoft for ruining my favourite franchise with this mess of a game.

 

I don't think I could of put it in better words, really sad to see how the games have gone since Desmond is gone.

 

Assassin's creed origins

Fallout 4

Far cry primal

Tony hawk's pro skater 5

Borderlands the pre-sequel 

 

[I need more BIOSHOCK]

Jak 2. One awful game! 

 

Silent Hill downpour. Just didn't have what the other did at all. Not a terrible game but no classic silent hill that's for sure. 

[Wavergray]

1. Mario Odyssey
2. Dragon age inquisition
3. Soulcalibur V
4. Mass Effect 1
5. Final Fantasy VII

[thefourfoldroot]

I'll keep it to this gen because... toomany:

 

FFXV - everything was awful: combat, "story", characters, filler sub quests, traversal was atrocious. Just bad in every way. Even worse than XIII. 

 

Gravity Rush 2 - Loved the first enough to get the plat, but the sequel bored me to death with all the horrid stealth sections. 

 

Dragon Quest Heroes 2. Again, loved the first enough to get the plat, but a horrible open world structure ruined this. 

 

Resident Evil 5: OK, cheating a little perhaps, but the current genre-release was a huge disappointment as I thought they'd fix the local coop issue from ps3 of player 2 not being able to get cash or manage their own inventory. They didn't. The 360 version remains the only playable local coop version unfortunately. 

 

GTAV - SA was boring, but the move to a massive online focus and horrible monetisation strategies mean this series has fallen big time in my estimation. 

 

 

[Arctic Cress]

1. Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

I just was talking about this in a status update, actually. The main characters are both unlikable characters, the Symphonia returning characters are not well implemented and locked at certain levels, and the plot ruins the link between its far off sequel in Phantasia.

 

2. Hyperdimension Neptunia

The series itself has improved itself to be a very good JRPG in recent years but the original game still stand as a reminder of how to not make a good game. Every dungeon is a bland corridor with not much to explore (and you'll be spending a lot of time in them). Healing yourself in battle is a random chance. There's random difficulty spikes out of nowhere, including a difficult late-game dungeon if you don't have the DLC characters. The combo system is completely useless because every monster dies to the same basic combo. I had already bought mk2 before really getting into this game but I would have dropped the series all together had this been the only one I had.

 

3. Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

Danganronpa is a great visual novel series but this game shows that they should stay away from making third person shooter games. The game's controls are a ridiculous mess compared to other shooter games. Every character, aside from Monaca, is just completely annoying and a waste of time. And then there's that event in Chapter 3 which just can't be put into words. How does that get into ANY game in the first place.

 

4. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

Persona 2 through 5 are all really great games! The original... not so much. I do like classic Shin Megami Tensei and this is close to it. However, the range system in battle makes some characters, like Mark, be much worse than they could be in a classic turn-based system. The penultimate dungeon forces you to use limited characters when the demons inside are built for a full party. The plot is complete nonsense. I never got to the second route but I can't imagine it being worse than what I played through originally.

 

5. Corpse Party: Blood Drive

Oh god, where do I begin with this. Corpse Party was a very good game, and while Book of Shadows was sub-par the final chapter that lead into this game made me interested in it again. What we got was the main character moping around for half a game, unkillable phantoms wandering the halls of Heavenly Host and endlessly chasing you, and three (or four? I don't remember exactly) new characters that serve no purpose and only complicate what is going on. Just playing it wanted me to go bang my head against a wall, which is probably more entertaining than playing this game.

 

Limited myself mostly to games on Sony platforms, but I could also have added Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Final Fantasy II or III, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass among others.

[ExHaseo]

55 minutes ago, madbuk said:

Should I do any grinding on Gran Pulse to make this work or should I be good at any level? If it's really this simple I may go back to it, the difficulty curve towards the forest area onwards really threw me off.

I never did any real grinding and beat the game just using those paradigms. I only beat the main game though, I didn't do the plat stuff. I hear for the extra stuff you have to do more, especially to get five stars, but I'm not about to grind for dozens of hours in a game I didn't really enjoy. So I don't really know for sure.

 

1 hour ago, Sanetsuken said:

You do realize asking someone about their opinion is a vital part in how forums work?

I do, that's the whole point of this thread after all.

You're already supposed to explain your reasoning for your opinions here. If you don't, then it's likely safe to say that you either don't care to talk more about them, or don't have the time. Either way, there isn't much reason to ask anyone about them if you disagree, especially when there's already a full explanation. It's also one thing to have a legitimate question, but that's pretty rare on the internet. And telling people they're wrong or questioning their opinion because you don't agree is pretty pointless, and is more than likely going to lead to pointless bickering. I see it all the time in threads like this. That's why I said if you disagree just move on. Believe it or not, there's such a thing as agreeing with someone, and discussing common points, instead of just arguing all the time. Seriously, by all means, if you find someone you agree with, talk to them, make a friend. I'm just tired of seeing threads like this devolve into bickering and personal attacks because of a difference of opinion.

[SnowxSakura]

Star Ocean 3

 

Star Ocean 4

 

Tales of xillia

 

Final Fantasy XII

 

Final Fantasy XIII

[PhantomFear94]

2 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

@phantomfear9494 - those are some well argued points.... that I disagree with completely  

I Loved Wolfenstein 2, loved Bioshock 2, was a big fan of A New Frontier, really enjoyed Far Cry 3 and...

...

lol, no, I agree - RE6 was a total clown-shoe. (though RE7 was meant to be real good - haven’t played yet - and probably wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t scortched the earth so badly that they needed a full-ass reboot!)

 

 

Is that a respectful difference of opinion we have? We are letting the youth of today down,  who must relentlessly argue when they disagree on a subjective point! 

[Sanetsuken]

40 minutes ago, ExHaseo said:

I never did any real grinding and beat the game just using those paradigms. I only beat the main game though, I didn't do the plat stuff. I hear for the extra stuff you have to do more, especially to get five stars, but I'm not about to grind for dozens of hours in a game I didn't really enjoy. So I don't really know for sure.

 

I do, that's the whole point of this thread after all.

You're already supposed to explain your reasoning for your opinions here. If you don't, then it's likely safe to say that you either don't care to talk more about them, or don't have the time. Either way, there isn't much reason to ask anyone about them if you disagree, especially when there's already a full explanation. It's also one thing to have a legitimate question, but that's pretty rare on the internet. And telling people they're wrong or questioning their opinion because you don't agree is pretty pointless, and is more than likely going to lead to pointless bickering. I see it all the time in threads like this. That's why I said if you disagree just move on. Believe it or not, there's such a thing as agreeing with someone, and discussing common points, instead of just arguing all the time. Seriously, by all means, if you find someone you agree with, talk to them, make a friend. I'm just tired of seeing threads like this devolve into bickering and personal attacks because of a difference of opinion.

 

 

Maybe your reasoning warranted deeper questioning...as Madbuk did...

And why would you just want replies based on agreement? There's no discussion to be had there...Not that I'm here to force you to have a certain viewpoint, but to dismiss anything that isn't agreeing with you?

 

sheesh.

Welp, I'll stop hogging the thread with that, and maybe read some more on topic posts about it.

[fastflowdaman]

2 hours ago, Lucas said:

2. Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon

I always enjoy playing through the Far Cry games but this standalone DLC was extremely dull to me. I didn't like the style at all and for some reason that made the gameplay feel more boring as well.

 

Loved FC3, never understood the hype surrounding FC3 BD. I finished it, but my experience was similar to yours.

[BlueFireReaper]

This is also not in a top 5 style - just what pops in my head

 

Hyperdimension Neptunia (Hyperdimension Neptunia)

An obvious one coming from the Neptunia series, I think we can all agree that out of all of the main games of the HDN series, the first one was the shittiest. I mean that in both a positive and negative way. Positive, because the series managed to get better over time and you can definitely tell that the story and gameplay was not the reason why a sequel/reboot/whatever you would consider mk2 to be compared to the original - was made. Of course I can easily think of many negatives: the repetitive and honestly lackluster battle system, the story wasn't all that compelling compared to the many other titles that came out later, and the bland soundtrack (though there are a few that stick out that aren't bad) to name a few. That said, I'm glad that I found this series and I'm even more glad that I played the first title before the others.

 

Resident Evil 6 (Resident Evil)

To start, I played the hell out of RE5 and have played through 1, 0, 4, 6, and 7. But of all of the titles I have played, it was 6 that stuck out - and in a bad way. That said, I didn't hate RE6. But the whole thing felt more like an action game directed by Michael Bay with some slight zombie/mutant horror tropes instead of a survival horror game. In fact, I only ran out of ammo once throughout all 4 campaigns. I'll give props to Capcom though for not continuing down this path and instead went back to its roots with some extra twists in RE7 (Not my favorite of the series, but a spectacular title indeed). 

 

Pokemon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow (Pokemon)

To the fangirls/boys of Gen 1, just read please. While I enjoy the endless fun you can have with the glitches, as well as the many speedruns, there are plenty of reasons why I prefer the later generations over the original. And it primarily lies within the gameplay. Crits being determined by your speed stat, no physical/special split, the glitch making all psychic types invincible... sure, there are Pokemon that are overpowered nowadays (*cough* Mega Rayquaza *cough*), but back then, all you needed was a Kadabra (or if you had the stuff for it, an Alakazam) with Blizzard and Psychic, and you were practically unstoppable.

 

Sonic R (Sonic)

I think the first question that I would be asked regarding this choice would be "But what about Sonic '06 or Sonic Boom?" To that I say the following: I liked '06 in a "so bad, it's good" way, and I've never played Sonic Boom. Sonic R, on the other hand, I have played and OH MY GOD, it's terrible! The poor controls and gameplay are the primary complaints. The music is.... interesting to say the most. Interesting in a creepy sort of way. I only have one question to ask from this: Can you feel the sunshine?

 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Call of Duty)

Question 1: Was MW3 a bad game? No. Question 2: Do I personally not like MW3? No. Question 3: So why is it your least favorite Call of Duty game? Simple answer actually. As someone who played CoD4 and MW2, I felt like the third one didn't live up to the standards that the previous two set. And the complaints mainly come from the campaign. While I was fine with the arc featuring American military (as the other two titles also had such arcs - CoD4's ended with the nuke that set off the main events of the trilogy as a whole while you had Ramirez practically do everything in MW2), I feel like the game would have been better if the disavowed 141 took the wheel for the entirety of the campaign. We could've had more time with Soap and Captain Price after all. Then the final mission, while satisfying considering you finally kill Makarov, just felt like an epilogue rather than a final mission. In addition, I tend to have plenty of good memories from playing the MP for each game (with the exception of Ghosts and Advanced Warfare - I only went after the trophies for those two). And I only have one from MW3 (which thankfully, was a good one): when I went 1v6 in TDM and won.

 

To think, my favorite CoD title, Black Ops 2 came out the year after this one.

[RNumbers]

First few that come to mind:

 

1. XCOM: Terror From the Deep - Yes, the old PC game. It was pretty much the same engine as UFO Defense, one of the greatest games ever. But lots of glitches to the research tree and some truly unpleasant combat conditions (cruise ships with a million tiny compartments) made it unplayable, IMO. I tried a couple of times to get through it and just couldn't, which is a pretty unique experience for me. I have high hopes that Firaxis will finally do a TftD that will do the series justice.

 

2. Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance - I'm a longtime KH fan, going way back to the original. I went so far as to import Final Mix on PS2 back when that was not super straightforward and played the GameBoy Chain of Memories (100%!) as well as the DS games (Days and Coded), but decided against buying a 3DS just for DDD. I was pretty happy to finally get to play it when it released as part of 2.8, but just couldn't get into it. The fact that the story continues to get convoluted and that very little of the story really seemed to matter in the grand scheme made it feel like filler, but the gameplay was the worst part for me. It was kind of a mixed bag, but I was pretty turned off overall.

 

3. FFXV - I won't continue to beat a dead horse, but releasing an unfinished game, tacking on multiplayer after the fact, tons of DLC... and ultimately it just didn't feel like  a Final Fantasy. I even enjoyed FFXIII more than this.

 

4. InFamous Second Son - Basically the same as another poster. Didn't hate it, but definitely the weakest entry in the series.

 

5. PvZ: Garden Warfare 2 - I'm a pretty big fan of the original tower defense games, so Garden Warfare kind of made me skeptical, but I was able to get a lot of enjoyment from the first iteration. GW2, however, had too much emphasis on co-op play. Specifically, I'm talking about the Mystery Portal Boss Hunts, especially on the hardest difficulty. Just the fact that you can only try them at certain times (quite a few other trophies are tied to the Mystery Portal too, so you can only earn them every so often), and then the fact that you need a really good team for what is supposed to be a pretty casual game... what were they thinking???

Edited July 17, 2018 by RNumbers