Unpopular Opinions about Video Games

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

Is Dead Space 1 ugly? Is Resident Evil 4 ugly? Is Half-Life 1 ugly? I'm not talking about games with genuinely terrible graphics, I'm talking about games that looked great for their time but have naturally aged with time. You can't expect shit to still look great 20 years down the line, but that doesn't mean they're suddenly no longer good or fun anymore.
I still love the Half-Life games as an example, regardless of their age; but I can also realize that they were good for their time and art direction ultimately trumps graphics.

DS1 and RE4 still look good. HL1 is ugly and was often pretty uggo even then.

By the way, in 6 weeks or so Unreal 1 turns 25 years old and it still looks fantastic.

 

[Psyduck]

That is the common opinion, though it was mostly hurt by people getting really mad about Phoenix no longer being the MC which made him come back in 5 and kind of really screwed Apollo's growth.

Which is my unpopular opinion on the series, Phoenix stepping aside as the Main character in the second trilogy was the best idea the 4th game had. By the end of game 3 he had accomplished everything he needed to do as a character. He saved Edgeworth from going down the path of evil, had his Rematch against Edgeworth who was no longer cheating (twice technically) , and then faced off against Godot and proved that he was the rightful heir to Mia's legacy.

There was nothing further for him to accomplish as a Main character and Apollo should have gotten a lot more of a spotlight (Athena being introduced in the 5th game didn't help this.)

Jap writers seem to have the opposite of whatever the Western ones have when it comes to successor stories and characters.

While our guys have no problem establishing their new characters as superior in every way to the previous ones, (sometimes even destroying the legacy characters just to bring theirs up) Asians seem get the cold feet when introducing new characters

Adding to the Ace Attorney example above, is Yakuza. We've had around 6+ games with Kiryu as the protagonist, we've seen the beginning and the end of his story, so when Like a Dragon came along, it was in the eyes of the new protagonist Ichiban.

The character of Ichiban was very well received by fans, who were ready to move into a new chapter in the franchise... And the sequel to LaD was announced.

Kiryu is back. Not only that, he gets a short DLC game about how the end of his story was actually not the end and how he has to return to wreck shit up again. To be fair, from what we saw LaD2 is gonna have 2 protagonists in Ichiban and Kiryu, but the fact that already they're cutting down on the new guy to bring back the old guy is not looking good.

Another example would be Dragon Ball Z. Toriyama was ready to put Goku to rest at the end of the Cell Saga, prepping up Goku's son Gohan to pick up the torch and lead the franchise afterwards, but nope. Goku was brought back, Gohan got permanently vanished to the sidelines.

Seriously, contrast that to say, Last of Us 2, where the legacy character gets unceremoniously and graphically killed off by the newer one, while all throughout the game the new writers retcon shit into how awful the old dude was

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

That is the common opinion, though it was mostly hurt by people getting really mad about Phoenix no longer being the MC which made him come back in 5 and kind of really screwed Apollo's growth.

Which is my unpopular opinion on the series, Phoenix stepping aside as the Main character in the second trilogy was the best idea the 4th game had. By the end of game 3 he had accomplished everything he needed to do as a character. He saved Edgeworth from going down the path of evil, had his Rematch against Edgeworth who was no longer cheating (twice technically) , and then faced off against Godot and proved that he was the rightful heir to Mia's legacy.

There was nothing further for him to accomplish as a Main character and Apollo should have gotten a lot more of a spotlight (Athena being introduced in the 5th game didn't help this.)

My main problem with Phoenix in the sequel games was that every relationship in the series was put on halt and Phoenix fucking off from his attorney role for 10+ years.
God forbid he finds a wife and at least has a semblance of a normal life, that might upset the subhuman gay shippers.

 

[Tanner Glass]

Adding to the Ace Attorney example above, is Yakuza. We've had around 6+ games with Kiryu as the protagonist, we've seen the beginning and the end of his story, so when Like a Dragon came along, it was in the eyes of the new protagonist Ichiban.

The character of Ichiban was very well received by fans, who were ready to move into a new chapter in the franchise... And the sequel to LaD was announced.

Kiryu is back. Not only that, he gets a short DLC game about how the end of his story was actually not the end and how he has to return to wreck shit up again. To be fair, from what we saw LaD2 is gonna have 2 protagonists in Ichiban and Kiryu, but the fact that already they're cutting down on the new guy to bring back the old guy is not looking good.

It's a bit of a nitpick, but Kiryu is all over the back end of Like a Dragon 1.

Ichiban is cut down by Kiryu several times during LaD1, including an unwinnable bossfight (which Ichban also has with other former protags Majima and Saejima). It helps to have Ichiban have a concrete place in the current power world scale, putting him into a similar place as a young Majima or Kiryu (Yakuza 0). Kiryu also cuts down every other series protagonists in any game he appears in (Saejima has an unwinnable bossfight with him in Y4, and Kiryu beats Akiyama and Tanimura at the same time in Y4) so it would actually be weirder to Ichiban to not have several fights against Kiryu. I think the only protagonist Kiryu doesn't technically fight is Y5's Haruka although he has the dance moves to probably win that one too.

That said - Yagami is untouched in the Judgement series. It's set in the same world but I don't think they encounter anyone from the mainline games and they seem pretty content to keep it this way.

 

[anustart76]

It's a bit of a nitpick, but Kiryu is all over the back end of Like a Dragon 1.

Ichiban is cut down by Kiryu several times during LaD1, including an unwinnable bossfight (which Ichban also has with other former protags Majima and Saejima). It helps to have Ichiban have a concrete place in the current power world scale, putting him into a similar place as a young Majima or Kiryu (Yakuza 0). Kiryu also cuts down every other series protagonists in any game he appears in (Saejima has an unwinnable bossfight with him in Y4, and Kiryu beats Akiyama and Tanimura at the same time in Y4) so it would actually be weirder to Ichiban to not have several fights against Kiryu. I think the only protagonist Kiryu doesn't technically fight is Y5's Haruka although he has the dance moves to probably win that one too.

That said - Yagami is untouched in the Judgement series. It's set in the same world but I don't think they encounter anyone from the mainline games and they seem pretty content to keep it this way.

I never played the main LaD/Yakuza series but I played both Judgment games (including the DLC) and I absolutely loved them. One of the things I think really stood out about it was that the Japanese seem to remember how to write adult men as best friends, which the west can't seem to do without adding gay shit. There was something really nice about Yagami and Kaito just being buddies.

 

[Matt Damon]

HL1 is ugly and was often pretty uggo even then.

Maybe if you're looking exclusively at the small scale of things like texture quality and poly counts, but the scope and sense of place was pretty incredible in 1998.

 

[Mista House]

Elden Ring started as a 10, then a 9, next an 8, then a 7, and now a 6.

Each playthrough it becomes more apparent the world really is just oversized and the repeating bosses spoil it. There's what, 47 unique bosses? That's a ton. They easily could have been utilized once-a-piece in a more reasonably sized overworld that was dense with events and shit to do instead of every playthrough starting with 45 minutes of commuting from the tip of Liurnia's Caria Manor to Fort Faroth down to the Weeping Peninsula and back up to Liurnia again.

My primary issue is it's feeling more and more like a Fallout 76 situation where they worried FIRST about making the world a certain size and second about what the fuck you're meant to be doing in it aside from galloping and picking berries.

Elden Ring's hype has been massively deflating for me and it's becoming less and less playable, unlike the other FS titles.

It doesn't help the "its epic because it's HARD" mind-virus affected the developers after enough people misinterpreted why they enjoy Demon's/Dark Souls and many bosses feel like overtuned anime-moments instead of technically sound.

You can't tell me Magma Wyrm Makario/Luigi is an acceptable experience for melee builds with the amount of camera-fucking and odd, spastic flailing you can't see that goes on. It's been how many years and these people will not only refuse to zoom-out for titanic bosses, but have you fight them in a shoe closet.

Elden Ring is let down so hard by the bosses. Firstly theres the shameless copy pasting of bosses.

Then there what I see as the worst offenders for Elden Ring:

The Fire Giant probably ranks as one of the worst bosses in a souls game, I mean its close to Bed of Chaos bad. Its got an enormous health pool, the attacks often go outside the camera and does a load of AoE attacks.

Elden Beast, aside from the fact youre given no reason to give a shit about this boss its also the problem off its in a massive arena and constsntly runs away. It feels like Torrent should be available and I wouldnt be suprised if they just forgot to turn it on.

Commander Niall. Boring.

I think the overall issue with Elden Ring bosses is theyre hyper aggressive, Ive been replaying Dark Souls 1 and what struck me was how better paced the boss fights are. The rate even Smario and Ornuigi attack is slower compared to most Elden Ring bosses.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

Maybe if you're looking exclusively at the small scale of things like texture quality and poly counts, but the scope and sense of place was pretty incredible in 1998.

The scope and sense of things was limited by environmental poly count and texture quality. The models were good and the animation was good, they had some other effects and clever things as well that were nice. Care was obviously put into it but it wasn't all that graphically or as a game.

 

[Scarthew]

It's the best one.

ds2 is only the best at pvp its campaign is bland and repetitive. Its just an rpg start to finish with no nuance and few interesting encounters. Its enemies all fall into the same formulas. And even then pvp has such a minor subset of players that its not really worth giving it that credit especially when everyone will play the latest one instead. Also soul memory ruins the pvp so you can only play against people in a specific organized setting to get the advantage of pvp.

 

[Croaking Spider]

The Persona series is severely overrated. I enjoy the atmosphere and design choices of Shin Megami Tensei, but I can't really get behind the high school setting of Persona. A large chunk of the gameplay is getting shoehorned from cutscene to cutscene. There's a lot of exposition to sit through that amounts to little more than small talk.

People have tired to preach Persona 5R to me and it honestly just feels like a chore to play. The UI stylization and music are top notch, and the gameplay is pretty standard turn-based RPG affair. The problem is how little you get to actually PLAY the game when you're not forced to do menial shit that progresses whole days out of the in-game calendar or listening to filler conversations to pad out the transitions.

The school life and having the whole game revolve around the calendar is just off-putting. Maybe I'm just not autistic enough to appreciate having to take literal exams in a video game on significant history in Japan, especially when it's tied directly to a form of your stats. The school environment itself is a whole other story. The first major antagonist in P5 is an ex-athlete gym teacher who grooms his students and abuses the high school sports team. It's a bit too on the nose for the Japanese. Dropping the sun on a country twice really does weird shit to a culture.

 

[The Zekenator]

The first major antagonist in P5 is an ex-athlete gym teacher who grooms his students and abuses the high school sports team. It's a bit too on the nose for the Japanese. Dropping the sun on a country twice really does weird shit to a culture.

It is relevant to note that every major antagonist in P5 is based on a real life scandal (or broad cultural flaw like black companies or Yakuza scams) more or less, so P5 more than the other 2 "modern" Personas is more relevant to Japan and thus that context kind of matters to really buy into what's going on beyond the fantasy stuff. Also he was a former Olympian I believe which is why he was given so much slack, he was effectively a trophy and ribbon for the school's reputation. So everyone in charge just let him do whatever as long as he had some sense of subtly. It is pretty much a nepotistic shit show to save face and keep their star teacher around.

Plus Japan was pretty fucked long before they got blasted into hell, dropping the sun on them just shifted where the fucked up shit is. These people as a nice comedy joke would line up hundreds of heads before a siege as a power move to force surrender by implying that their reinforcements are already dead. 100 or so years of nation wide civil war on a tiny island that is smaller then California will cause some shit. WW2 Japan was also fucked even if we barely talk about it these days.

Still Persona 5 is to me the weakest Persona overall in terms of narrative imo, especially after the first arc. It is a little "too Japanese" for me to fully buy into it, and frankly I just find the methods for the protagonists kind of...psychopathic? We're effectively using mind control, or some extremely potent suggestion mental reprogramming at minimum, to get our way and solve problems. No one gives a shit about this apparently either for the entire game. It just feels wrong and the game never really tries to argue the justification really, so it feels like some weird teenage power fantasy the entire way.

Still I like Persona well enough when it actually lands on what makes it unique with its social links and small scale problems, I feel that many JRPGs get lost in the "epic" story line and forget to write actually people within it. Small scale conflict can feel nice when you're in the right mind set for it.

 

[X Prime]

My main problem with Phoenix in the sequel games was that every relationship in the series was put on halt and Phoenix fucking off from his attorney role for 10+ years.
God forbid he finds a wife and at least has a semblance of a normal life, that might upset the subhuman gay shippers.

I cannot agree harder. I seem to remember that just before the timeskip Phoenix was more or less making googly eyes at his ex-girlfriend who was about to be put in prison for what appeared to be a very temporary amount of time. That character was definitely memory-holed, much like Lana Skye but somehow more egregious.

 

[Scotched up Scott]

ill throw my take in here. the WHOLE final fantasy series is grossly overrated and quite rankly boring. I find the stories boring and the gameplay on offer is almost always tedious and boring. I get a better experience watching a lets play of the games then i do actually playing them, a rarity thats only shared with other overrated titles such as ALL OF E SPORTS.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I cannot agree harder. I seem to remember that just before the timeskip Phoenix was more or less making googly eyes at his ex-girlfriend who was about to be put in prison for what appeared to be a very temporary amount of time. That character was definitely memory-holed, much like Lana Skye but somehow more egregious.

I'd even rather have Phoenix married to some random woman. But it's clear the devs wanted to keep the Phoenix-Edgeworth ship but knew they couldn't out both of them as homos without massive backlash.

I think the overall issue with Elden Ring bosses is theyre hyper aggressive, Ive been replaying Dark Souls 1 and what struck me was how better paced the boss fights are. The rate even Smario and Ornuigi attack is slower compared to most Elden Ring bosses.

Don't you like having bosses go on a ten hit combo where you basically wait for them to finish to hit them once and then wait a full minute again for the combo to end? The big issue in ER is that some ways are clearly better, like using bleeding, than just playing your preferred way, which was how you could have played every previous game. ER also suffers that you just don't care to explore by the midpoint, because you won't use 95% of the shit you get, and the only really important placed are the mines, some graves and the legacy dungeons that actually have some interesting design and set pieces.

It is relevant to note that every major antagonist in P5 is based on a real life scandal (or broad cultural flaw like black companies or Yakuza scams) more or less, so P5 more than the other 2 "modern" Personas is more relevant to Japan and thus that context kind of matters to really buy into what's going on beyond the fantasy stuff.

Persona 5 is relavant to virtually every country, but the moral is childish and simplistic "fuck you boomers and the future you destroyed" that isn't really deep in any way and is just repeated virtually every boss.

 

[Matt Damon]

I find the stories boring and the gameplay on offer is almost always tedious and boring. I get a better experience watching a lets play of the games then i do actually playing them

Final Fantasy stories are boring, so you prefer watching a let's play? Isn't that the equivalent of watching the world's longest bad movie?

 

[X Prime]

I'd even rather have Phoenix married to some random woman. But it's clear the devs wanted to keep the Phoenix-Edgeworth ship but knew they couldn't out both of them as homos without massive backlash.

There is something about gay shippers, particularly fujos, that is incredibly odious. They are an extremely loud minority in multiple Capcom franchises and are usually equal parts disgusting and annoying. Mega Man X's are quite bad, for example. They just never stop interjecting. The only thing worse in my experience are the "people" into lolicon.

Persona 5 is relavant to virtually every country, but the moral is childish and simplistic "fuck you boomers and the future you destroyed" that isn't really deep in any way and is just repeated virtually every boss.

The problem with Atlus is that they tend to moralize in a safe way, and always have. It's why Law is Christian-themed despite supposedly being a criticism of Japanese society, it's a way of externalizing the criticism.

There's also the problem that they almost always return to status quo.

 

[anustart76]

Persona 5 is relavant to virtually every country, but the moral is childish and simplistic "fuck you boomers and the future you destroyed" that isn't really deep in any way and is just repeated virtually every boss.

I like shitting on Boomers in power

 

[Scotched up Scott]

Final Fantasy stories are boring, so you prefer watching a let's play? Isn't that the equivalent of watching the world's longest bad movie?

it's more a jab at how FF fans sperg about the stories and keep telling me I have to wade through the games awful gameplay in order to get the story. I can just watch them and see how shit the story is with out having to torture my self with awful mind numbing gameplay.

 

[The Zekenator]

Persona 5 is relavant to virtually every country, but the moral is childish and simplistic "fuck you boomers and the future you destroyed" that isn't really deep in any way and is just repeated virtually every boss.

I more brought that up because a very common criticism people tend to have is that these incidents are too unrealistic or overdramatic that they couldn't actually happen, when in this case they're almost one to one based on an actual event or story. The ones with Yusuke and Mokoto I know tend to get the most flack for being too over the top and improbable to happen, when those actually happened. Reality is stranger than fiction and all that.

Although the "fuck you boomers" moral (if we can call it that) I'd say is actually a more novel lesson in Japan because as far as I understand outside of random forums like 2ch, you don't really see younger people really talk back to adults outside of complete outcasts like who Ryuji is meant to be based on. And Ryuji is by far the least liked character in Japan partially because he goes against social norms so extremely so he comes off as annoying and hard to listen to.

It is kind of why these things happen and one of the reasons why Japan is a fucking depressing nightmare where people throw themselves off buildings or hang themselves in a forest out of town, because you are far more discouraged from talking back to your superiors in any capacity so you just bottle everything inside and get drunk off your ass every night you can (or your boss forces you too, because he hates his boss). Remember you are highly discouraged from leaving work before your boss does, it is why salarymen overwork themselves and then their boss makes an offer they can't refuse. Even metal music is seen as "too radical" to the average salary man's image.

The very idea of rebellion or fighting back just feels like a foreign concept, so everyone just really really takes it up the ass there. It is why Japan's government had to enforce a special Friday every single month that was effectively a government sanctioned day off in one of their many many attempts to get Japanese people to not hate their lives so much. Where say burgerland's very foundational existence is based around rebellion, so to them it comes far more naturally to them so saying "fuck you boomer" is just old hat by comparison.

Still the methods Persona 5 uses are just fucking weird and is one of the biggest reasons I can't get into it, everything is either too weird to me or just kind of weak beyond all the flash.

 

[Inafune Fanfiction]

There is something about gay shippers, particularly fujos, that is incredibly odious. They are an extremely loud minority in multiple Capcom franchises and are usually equal parts disgusting and annoying. Mega Man X's are quite bad, for example. They just never stop interjecting. The only thing worse in my experience are the "people" into lolicon.

Not quite the mystery around how the series died. I’m convinced these “fujos” you keep talking about don’t exist. I’d rather see them talking about zero than glowies spamming that pedo shit and ignoring any reports in order to drive people to other sites.