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Games you LOVED at first, but they eventually petered out

Neolombax

Member
FF7 Rebirth. Had to drag myself to beat the game. I think the loop of going to a new location and repeating every side quest killed it for me. I know they're optional, but they're kind of in your face with that whole region completion thing. By the end, I just wanted the whole thing to end, plus the story was personally for me confusing, hence the bad experience.
 

badblue

Gold Member
Sadly anything open world.
I don't want to spend game time travelling all over the place any more.

Mad Max makes the traversal part of the game play loop, which is cool but the map full of things to do... I ended up getting side tracked by side quests to upgrade my car that I felt like I needed to take a break from it.

They also just suffer from "too much to do" and I think I just want to spend my game time doing something a bit more focused these days.
 

RCU005

Member
Recently Dragon Quest 11
I loved the game from start to finish and I even missed the game weeks after I finished it. It was one of the most memorable games I've played.

I choose Super Mario Wonder.
To me, is still New Super Mario Bros. It still has the same font in the logo, same characters, same lack of bosses, same structure, etc. It was very disappointing. The character list is awful (outside of Daisy). Why not some different like Wario, Waluifgi, or whatever, but we're stuck with the same two boring toads as always, plus 4 yoshi colors.

The novelty of the Wonder flowers are great at first, but at some point they become same-y. The music also repeats a lot.

When you start the game, you're left very impressed by the art style and animations, but the coat of paint doesn't hide the fact that it's still a New Super Mario Bros game in almost every way.

They really need to make a game COMPLETELY NEW, not just a new iteration with pretty art style. New game structure, new locations, new characters, innovating gameplay, new move sets. In retrospective, Super Mario 3D Land/World did more things differently. I liked that it have many new enemies, though.
 
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NahaNago

Member
The trial of mana for me recently. I was expecting the game to open up and have tons of things to explore and discover with nice sidequests but it was just pretty much just go straight down the storyline and nothing else. Any exploring is just mostly to find that cactus. What is also annoying is that they only made the heroes interesting not the side characters or the villain.
 

EverydayBeast

ChatGPT 0.1
A little bit of hate in this thread, the next level in any game probably should be different, I think we all know side missions in these open world games are voluntary.
 

KXVXII9X

Member
Zelda TotK

Thought it was easily the best game of all time and was obsessed with how ambitious it was but then the cracks started to show little by little. It is still an excellent game with some technical mastery for sure and a lot of care, but there are so many aspects of the game that just kill my overall excitement.

I wish the story was better told and was consistent. Having some returning characters not remember you is really odd. Also, having repeated cutscenes for the sages was definitely a choice. It felt kind of half assed.

There is little incentive to explore as much as you don't really get substantial rewards. Someone said it best when they described that the reward you get is less than the resources you waste trying to get that reward. The game is also another case of how exhausting open world games can be. I'm excited for Zelda Echoes of Wisdom despite it still following the open-ended puzzle design of BotW and TotK. It seems it will be much more focused given the top-down perspective. I hope they don't double down on crafting and padding.
 

KXVXII9X

Member
FFXVI for sure.
I was loving it for the first 5-6 hours. To the point I'd go online and see some mixed responses to it and I wondered WTF some people were talking about because I really felt like I was playing the beginning of what would become one of my favorite entries in the series.

Eventually though you start noticing the flaws and they just keep getting worse and worse: The complete lack of challenge, the boring empty world with nothing to do or find it, the incredibly bland sidequests, the very basic progression, crafting and gear systems, the "dungeons" which are just linear corridos connecting combat arenas, the fact you never go to any cool cities outside of a few linear missions, etc.
Then once you are like 60-70% into the game even the story, which had been the one consistently good thing IMO, starts to go to shit as most of the interesting elements get left behind for yet another cookie cutter JRPG plot with all the expected tropes
I was really excited to get this for PC and your comment as well as others I've heard, tell me, I will probably feel the same. It is a shame since some parts of the game look absolutely epic, and the combat looks kind of fun. I think I'm falling out of JRPG tropes in general.
 

RaptorGTA

Member
Zelda TotK
Loved it at first but can't get back into it. I feel like there too much to do and yet nothing to do. So weird cause I've played breath of the wild twice through.

Starfield
Really loved landing on random planets and exploring. I feel like each mission I do is the same thing over and over.

Enshrouded
Was super into when it came out. Would literally play it on my lunch break. But there was just a point where I just lost interest. Idk what happened.
 

nucleargenocide

Neo Member
NEW WORLD

Jesus Christ new world. Smh. Never seen myself fell in love and out of it so fast.
the first two weeks during release with my guild was the most fun ive had in a game ever in my life. To experience wars and win and lose is actually awesome. It's a shame the bugs and endgame content just never got there
 

Dynasty8

Member
Dragons Dogma 2. Started fun, appreciated the lack of hand holding and learning the game...but then you realize just how incredibly easy the game's combat is and uninteresting the story is overall to the point where I just dropped it after 40 hours or so.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
Dave the Diver definitely hit me that way too. I was really enjoying it, but then I put it down and never went back. Now I don't know if I even care to go back at all, lol.
 

Imtjnotu

Member
Oh God what a list we have here.


HELLDIVERS 2.
Devs started breaking things for now reason in a game that isn't pvp

Legend of Zelda bow.
Weapons system is ass.

Spiderman 2.
Story... Woke.... Gameplay... The same...

The last of us 2.
Idk just didn't wow me like the first.
 

Diddy X

Member
A lot of games I could name but I'll go with Mad Max, it's a very good game just that at some point it really gets repetitive and it didn't seem like I was anywhere near the end.
 

kunonabi

Member
Breath of the Wild. I was all aboard the greatest game ever talk before I realized just how pointless and repetitive it was. It now sits firmly with my least favorite Zelda games and I didn't even bother with the DLC.
 

Umbral

Member
Spider-Man. Fuck I hated that game by the end. Didn’t do the DLC, skipped Miles Morales, and Spider-Man 2. That one game put me off the whole series. It’s so repetitive. No room for creativity.
 

Fess

Member
I guess Zelda TOTK is the latest game that fits this thread the best.

It was my GOTY and a 11/10, at least for a couple months… Then I just stopped playing it. Happened sometime after the 3rd temple.

Maybe I return to it some day but for now I’m kinda over the main quest loop and just find the creative elements interesting.
 

Švejk

Banned
Zelda: TOTK. Started with an insane amount of hype and newness.. About 14 hours later, 30-40 shrines done and 2 main dungeons and bosses, everything in it just bores the shit out of me now. I don't ever expect to go back to it, which is unfortunate.
 
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Topher

Identifies as young
Played 70-80 hours and never really had to deal with it. What happened?

Dragonsplague is where one of your pawn gets infected and when you rest at an inn or home then everyone in that town dies including NPCs that quests are dependent on to continue. So if you are in the middle of a quest line and it happens and a key NPC is killed as a result, that quest is effectively dead.
 

Robb

Gold Member
I’m sure there’s a lot, but the first thing that came to mind was Deathloop, so I’ll go with that.

Huge Dishonored vibes initially (which I love), but the repeated cycles, not getting to keep abilities by default etc. just killed it for me down the line.
 

Katajx

Member
Dragonsplague is where one of your pawn gets infected and when you rest at an inn or home then everyone in that town dies including NPCs that quests are dependent on to continue. So if you are in the middle of a quest line and it happens and a key NPC is killed as a result, that quest is effectively dead.
I know what it is. Just never had it happen. Had so much fun with that game.
 
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Soodanim

Member
I was having a great time with Nioh 1, but as soon as I finished the main story I hit a wall. The DLC stuff was a difficulty spike and going through the main story stuff again didn't appeal. All of a sudden I went from wanting more of this game to uninstalling forever and not looking back. I nearly got whiplash with how quickly it happened.
 

StueyDuck

Member
Celeste also has more difficult experiences, they were also there for you to find. the B-Sides and C-Sides are examples of this

the controls are fundamentally more slippery and rage inducing in SMB as opposed to Celeste's super precise and easy to grasp physics- it's a small bit of artifical difficulty for the game. Not to mention that Celeste's actual level design and exploration of its stage gimmicks and ideas is way more creative, complex and ingenius compared to Super Meat Boy- it's incomparable IMO.

There's less of an exploration element in the levels too, there's no such thing as strawberries in Meat Boy so there's less of a completionist element in that game too

the aesthetic is questionable, Celeste has very beautiful pixel art work and effects. Meat Boy's visuals are good too but Celeste's are far more nice.

and yeah i vastly prefer the story in Celeste. I think it's a real nice way to tie up the game. The cutscenes are always skippable too so I don't see the problem here.

Both games have top tier soundtracks, but I applaud Celeste's more as it makes me care about genres that I'm not as big of a fan of compared to Meat Boy's OST.
Ok. Good for you 👍
 

CZY

Member
Dragonsplague is where one of your pawn gets infected and when you rest at an inn or home then everyone in that town dies including NPCs that quests are dependent on to continue. So if you are in the middle of a quest line and it happens and a key NPC is killed as a result, that quest is effectively dead.
Sounds awesome, I love when games do stuff like that. Cheers for spoiling it! Thanks bro!
 

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
Witcher 3. Enjoyed the beginning and then it was just issue after issue. Sound cutting out, horse can't cross bridge, corrupt save etc

Even with all of that aside, it just seem the game's main story is a fucking bore, its like this huge run around and the story feels like some shit from an episode of Friends, like "oh you just missed her, but while your here"

Like "find Dandelions thru his girlfriends" lol or "Kill theses rats here before you can leave"

It got so boring and repetitive, it actually felt like the side quest really is the core heart of that game tbh.

The main story did nothing for me and I just want to do the side quest saving them towns. Thats all I care about lol

I actually ended up liking Witcher 1 much better. (but knowing this team, they'll fuck up that remake) lol
 

Chukhopops

Member
Loop Hero. It was a cool concept but the grind to actually finish the game is beyond ridiculous, never seen anything like that.

It’s a shame because just a few numbers adjustments would fix it.
 

Majukun

Member
recently dragon's dogma 2...I didn't LOVE it but i spent a lot of time with it, waiting fro it to finally get better than the predecessor, but instead the game kinda plateau and i lost interest in continuing playing it
 
Dragon Age Inquisition, love the first 10 hours, and then the rest of the game was the same, so bored with it that I never finished
 
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Recently Dragon Quest 11

I was loving every minute of the game but then something happens and you are forced to play with one character

I gave it a shot but I immediately uninstalled the game. Shit is terrible.
WTF? That's the game I've been playing when I'm not exploring Shadow of the Erdtree...
I'm like 20+ hours into it. You need to collect party members. Heck, I am sure when you boot up the PC version, it basically spoils the full party roster during first load.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
Botw was fun for the first 15-20 hours when playing with the physics is still a novelty before realizing that rewards for explorations are utter shit, dungeons are whatever and the combat\enemy variety\traversal\story are not nearly good enough to sustain a 50+ hours game.

Dogma 2, the game is fun until you realize that they didn't fixed almost anything from the first deeply flawed game and you are gonna fight the same 5 enemy types 90% of the time without any challenge whatsoever for another 30 to 50 hours with a dogshit story and charas.
 
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drganon

Member
Hogwarts legacy. Decent enough game, which I did beat, but gave up on trying to get my rank up enough to see the best class awards thing.
 

Roberts

Member
Many open world games. But I found certain solutions to overcome boredom, fatigue, etc.

For example, I would have quit playing Spider-Man if I focused on both main plot and side activities, but decided to focus on the story and simply ignored all the dull optional stuff.

Another example, Red Dead Redmption. I fucking loved it, got to the Mexico and while the sequence itself is legendary, the idea that there is so much more threw me off the game. I took a year long break, got back to it and enjoyed just as much ad the first time.

That said, I couldn’t find a reason to get back to Tsushima but maybe I never really loved it in the first place.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Octopath Traveler. I was enamored with it at first. The visual style was so cool and it felt like the beginning of a grand adventure with limitless potential.

Then by the end of the chapter 1s I realized it’s just 8 unrelated D-tier JRPG stories mashed together and I didn’t give a single shit about what would happen next. I was sick of the boring turn based battles. And the characters’ unique abilities just added tedium (oh a locked treasure chest, guess I have to come back to this dungeon later with the guy who can open treasure chests, so fun and strategic!!”)
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
I was really excited to get this for PC and your comment as well as others I've heard, tell me, I will probably feel the same. It is a shame since some parts of the game look absolutely epic, and the combat looks kind of fun. I think I'm falling out of JRPG tropes in general.
It’s so bad, honestly one of my biggest gaming disappointments ever.

As a character action game it sucks because the enemies don’t even fight back, they just stand there like training dummies while you rotate through your moves off cooldown and chip away at their health.

And it sucks as a JRPG. No choice of party members, only 1 weapon type, every weapon/armor is just a slight stat increase vs the previous one. It has a completely pointless crafting system where there’s barely anything to make. Tons of generic MMO quests that reward you with useless crafting materials you already have 1000s of already. Big open zones that have jack shit to do, dotted with pointless treasures to give you some incentive to explore them (usually useless crafting materials or like 3 Gil).

And for every riveting GoT style cutscene, there are 10 more where it’s just characters standing there like bored mannequins yapping endlessly about something you don’t care about.

The only parts that were truly great were the Eikon battles. I honestly think it started out as some DMC style spinoff and then they decided to rework it into FF XVI, and added in all these half baked RPG mechanics to justify calling it that.
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
Wayfinder.

While in Early Access, I loved the concept, art style and gameplay.
Ran through content rather quickly though so took a lil break so when I would get back in there'd be more content, but it turns out they'll make a different game out of it that I'm not interested in.
 
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