Games with confusing or misleading titles

eDove said:
Oh my gosh, PETZ: CATZ 2 or however it's officially titled. Does this count?

I've been wanting to talk about this game for years. It's the most bizarre case of false advertizing I've experienced firsthand.

We had a Wii growing up. My dad saw this game on a shelf somewhere and bought it thinking it was a cute cat raising game for us kids to play.

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This was the cover. When I finally booted it up, it was an RPG and had nothing to do with what the image suggests.

You play as a cat on this island inhabited by cats. You wear clothes and stuff. There's a magic hat that's stolen by an evil wolf and he sends the world into darkness/chaos, Ganondorf style. You, the plucky protagonist cat (with the help of a talking companion thing?) must take down the evil wolf.


The thing is, ths game was super fun and cozy. I've debated tracking it down and emulating it just to experience it one more time. But yeah, very confusing for a young kid to process.
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Isn't this the same story with some fashion game on the DS too? Where it's supposed to be shovelware but in actuality is some deep RPG?

Thread tax: Rabbids Go Home. Everyone thinks "Rabbids = shovelware minigames", but it's actually a VERY good proper collectathon where you control a Rabbid pushing a shopping cart, trying to make a pile of junk by stealing and harassing humans to reach the moon. Hilarity ensues. You even get to make your own rabbid living inside your wiimote which has special functions (and you can abuse it by shaking the 'mote for comedic effect)

A Wii exclusive (a butchered PC port was created but cut up for certain eastern europe markets, just play it in Dolphin) And the soundtrack is made by a fucking gypsy brass band from Romania

Highly recommend it. It's a shame that Rabbids were so misused by Ubishaft. They had Minions before Minions were a thing

 
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Fallout 76. I wanted to play it but I wanted to play the previous ones first, I started looking and could only find 1, 2, 3, and 4. I've been searching for Fallout 5 through Fallout 75 for like 6 years now and I guess they've been scrubbed from the internet because I can't find ANYTHING about them anywhere. I tried to play 76 but there was like no story or anything so I assume they expect you to know the story from the previous 75 games to know what's going on. Pretty stupid if you ask me.
This is satire, before some dipshit UM ACTUALLY's me.
 
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How about Brain Lord?

BrainLord.webpBrainLordObv.webpBrainLordRev.webp

What is anyone supposed to get from this title and box art? How did they end up with this? It turns out that the game is a pretty standard Action RPG with a companion mechanic. I started it up today, and while it's nothing incredible so far, it's comfy and the music is nice.

 
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Runescape 3 suggests that there are two prior Runescape titles but the number relates not to an iterative game release but the game engine model. To further confuse, Runescape 3 is just named "Runescape" suggesting that this is the original model of the game. The title "Old School Runescape" must then be the first version based on the original engine, right? Wrong. Old School Runescape is based on the second game engine or Runescape 2. The original Runescape '1', or Runescape "Classic" has long been discontinued.

Others have pointed out the Final Fantasy titles. Due to certain games not being localized until later dates, the title numbers didn't exactly align with their release orders. For example, the Japanese Final Fantasy 4 was localized and originally released as Final Fantasy 2. Final Fantasy 6 was released as 3.

When video game numbering is confusing, players are lead to believe they may have missed something altogether or maybe even not at all.
 
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The Last Stand said:
Actually, it was believed to be Sakaguchi's last game. If it didn't do well, it would've been his swan song before going back to college. And the rest is history.
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This is actually a longstanding myth. In actuality they wanted to call it "Fighting Fantasy" but that name was taken by a legendary series of gamebooks, so they went down the list to another F-word, and the next word on the list happened to be Final. There was no particular relevance to the name.

eDove said:
Oh my gosh, PETZ: CATZ 2 or however it's officially titled. Does this count?
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I'm gonna say yes it counts. It's way closer to the intent of the thread than a lot of the meme answers people are posting.

If I can rant for a bit, I really do hate all the meme answers. The guy who posted "Goldeneye 007" particularly makes me twitch. I think that guy is trying to be all like "how can they say there's seven of them when there's only one" but realistically, in 1998 only a chronic retard would not have known who Agent 007 James Bond was.

Your example is legit confusing--like you said it sounds like a pet raising simulator but is actually a cutesy RPG. My own examples are games whose titles sound like they should be updates or remixes but are actually entirely new games. This is actually confusing in a "you might have accidentally passed on these because it wasn't clear what they were" way.

Judge Dredd said:
What will really upset you is Doom 64 is it's own game, and Quake 2 on N64 is a different game as well. It's a completely different campaign.
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On this note, one I thought of after posting (but decided to hold off on to let someone else have a chance to bring it up first) is any time a "port" is actually a completely different game.

My mind immediately goes to Bionic Commando as an example. The NES game is nothing like the arcade game outside of the grapple arm mechanic, and even that works differently (you can't send out a grapple in mid-air so no continuously swinging like Spider-Man like you can--and indeed must--on NES).

Again tho, this really isn't in the same ballpark as the titles I brought up in the OP. In those cases you might have passed on buying them (or failed to convince your parents) because you/they thought Jurassic Park Rampage Edition was just an update and not a new game. As a kid I literally did not know Bionic Commando had an arcade version. I first learned about it thanks to MAME.

graywolf88 said:
Horizon: Zero Dawn
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Errrr... what's the confusing part?

Bob's Fuckass Head said:
What is anyone supposed to get from this title and box art? How did they end up with this? It turns out that the game is a pretty standard Action RPG with a companion mechanic. I started it up today, and while it's nothing incredible so far, it's comfy and the music is nice.
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Story I've heard is its called Brain Lord because of the emphasis on puzzles, some of which really are kind of cryptic IIRC.
 
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Fascist Frederick said:
Fallout 76. I wanted to play it but I wanted to play the previous ones first, I started looking and could only find 1, 2, 3, and 4. I've been searching for Fallout 5 through Fallout 75 for like 6 years now and I guess they've been scrubbed from the internet because I can't find ANYTHING about them anywhere. I tried to play 76 but there was like no story or anything so I assume they expect you to know the story from the previous 75 games to know what's going on. Pretty stupid if you ask me.
This is satire, before some dipshit UM ACTUALLY's me.
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But seriously it's called that because the PS4 is a 76-bit system

skykiii said:
On this note, one I thought of after posting (but decided to hold off on to let someone else have a chance to bring it up first) is any time a "port" is actually a completely different game.

My mind immediately goes to Bionic Commando as an example. The NES game is nothing like the arcade game outside of the grapple arm mechanic, and even that works differently (you can't send out a grapple in mid-air so no continuously swinging like Spider-Man like you can--and indeed must--on NES).
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There are a bunch of these arcade non-ports on the NES. Shadow Dancer is one for Genesis.

Battletoads for Gameboy is a different game than the NES version. But Battletoads Ragnarok for Gameboy is a port of the NES game.

Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt (NES) is a port of Addam's Family (SNES). Addam's Family (NES) is a different game, and Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt (SNES) is a different game.
 
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Bob's Fuckass Head said:
How about Brain Lord?

View attachment 7826338View attachment 7826367View attachment 7826362

What is anyone supposed to get from this title and box art? How did they end up with this? It turns out that the game is a pretty standard Action RPG with a companion mechanic. I started it up today, and while it's nothing incredible so far, it's comfy and the music is nice.

View attachment 7826428
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Reminds me of if 7th Saga crossed with Soul Blazer. Apparently, these were also the same devs for 7th Saga, which is very apparent from the visuals of it. Looks pretty neat.

Ughubughughughughughghlug said:
Disco Elysium has no disco in it, disappointingly.
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It kind of does, if you end up setting up the music quest at the church. Otherwise, it's only referenced through various dialogue and thought cabinets.
 
Immortal Redneck is an arcade styled FPS, problem is you’re hardly immortal and can die just as easily as anyone else. False advertising! LITERALLY SHAKING!
 
It makes sense now, but as a kid I had no idea what "Super Mario RPG" meant.
 
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