What are some of the biggest examples of bad game design you’ve seen?

[Troonologist PhD]

In FFXIII the first time within a battle you do a class change the characters will always strike a pose, even as they're as they're still getting attacked. The entire game is a lesson in how not to make a game or write its story.

 

[Dumpster dived waifu]

In FFXIII the first time within a battle you do a class change the characters will always strike a pose, even as they're as they're still getting attacked. The entire game is a lesson in how not to make a game or write its story.

The unintentionally taught me to instantly paradigm shift before the ATB filled fully just to skip this shit.

 

[Serbian Peacekeepers]

This thread awakened something deep within me.
Those one off vehicles missions in call of duty. It seemed for awhile that every cod had this random set piece mission with a tank or a helicopter or something that had little to no challenge and was just a glorified turret section, The worst one to me was from cod ww2 , unlike waw or cod 3 which both used the tank missions as training for the multiplayer , cod ww2 didnt even have vehicles in multiplayer , all you had was the 50 cal on top the sherman , so you spend a entire mission in this bastard cross between a m4a3 76 and a basic m4a3 just to never see those mechanics again. Infinite warfare gets away with its jets in my opinion since those were used more than once in the campaign.

 

[Captain Syrup]

FF10-2 makes getting 100% impossible.

It's actually stupider than that. Just getting the good ending requires hidden button prompts in cutscenes. And no, there's no hints. There isn't a cutscene earlier in the game where you tap the action button to get a result.

I have to assume it's an artificial way to lengthen the gameplay, because you can sleepwalk through 10-2. I've attempted a few challenge runs, but there's just no way.

Trivia: From what I've read on GameFAQs, the only way to make it harder is to use First Steps grid throughout. And ignore all accessories. I haven't found any footage of it on YouTube, so it's probably not that compelling.

 

[Dojima's Dragon]

The remote controlled bombing missions in the 3d gtas I dont wan... TO FUCKING REMEMBER THEM god they genuinely make me angry Everytime it they were a bitch to beat

 

[Captain Syrup]

The remote controlled bombing missions in the 3d gtas

Those RC choppers are so slow. It's not even a hard mission, it's just tedious.

It gets harder in the next game, when you defend Zero's store from planes. Zero is the biggest barrier to 100%.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

It gets harder in the next game, when you defend Zero's store from planes. Zero is the biggest barrier to 100%.

I remember the first time playing San Andreas, I noticed that Zero's missions were paywalled and I, not knowing any better, thought they were necessary to the story. So I saved up my cash and eventually managed to buy his missions. I immediately got stuck on Air Raid and only after did I find out that Zero's missions were optional.

Needless to say, I felt ripped off.

 

[Maya Amano]

fire emblem thracia 776 is bullshit going in blind, it's one of those games that's hard not by actual challenge, but poor design. i was essentially softlocked on the final map because i didn't bring enough door keys and the enemies didn't drop any, so i had no way of opening all doors and beating the final boss. sadly didn't have an older save to a previous chapter, either.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Those who played Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time know the pain of trying to get a single Philosopher's Stone, which you won't even know how to get unless you're extremely lucky or read a guide on the internet.

Oh speaking of that game.

Dying if your MP runs out, What the holy nutfuck is that shit.

 

[I.B. Niggin]

I remember the Zero mission where you bomb those model tanks being kind of fun. Is that just me looking through middle school rose tinted glasses?

 

[bigoogabaloogas]

Oh speaking of that game.

Dying if your MP runs out, What the holy nutfuck is that shit.

lmao i still remember not knowing about MP death until I had to face an undead dragon at the mines. those were good times

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

lmao i still remember not knowing about MP death until I had to face an undead dragon at the mines. those were good times

I don't remember much about the game, I fucking nopped out of it as soon as I found out zero MP kills you..but I recall Mushroom enemies being the thing that found me out about it when they instakilled all my party members by draining all of their MP in one attack.

 

[Captain Syrup]

Dying if your MP runs out, What the holy nutfuck is that shit.

Maybe you died of poor self-esteem?

 

[Ruin]

Any RPG where MP management is important that also has enemies that can drain your MP.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Maybe you died of poor self-esteem?

I would buy that if it happened twice..but then I re-loaded and tried that random encounter again to see just what the hell killed me..

 

[Samson Pumpkin Jr.]

when the most fun part about death stranding are the zip lines that allow you to skip the game you realize that every single aspect about that garbage is a poorly designed headache

 

[KingofNothing]

Oh speaking of that game.

Dying if your MP runs out, What the holy nutfuck is that shit.

I did think it was bullshit the first time that happened because as far as I know, that's the only rpg that does it, but I think I only let it happen to me once since it's pretty easy to avoid once you're aware that can happen.

I thought it was an interesting if annoying gimmick at that time to make you focus on both hp and mp to survive, but apparently I'm also one of those weirdos who doesn't mind the game which I understand to be shit compared to the rest of the series according to the fanbase.

 

[Captain Syrup]

when the most fun part about death stranding are the zip lines that allow you to skip the game you realize that every single aspect about that garbage is a poorly designed headache

It's not even fun to watch speedruns.

Phantom Pain is no different. I don't care what anybody says. No single-player game should be this monotonous.

Speaking of monotony: Phoenix Point. Now, we all all know Julian Gollup only had one good idea in his miserable life. Which is fine. Few games have the impact UFO Defense did.

Rebelstar. Shadow Wars. Still fucking that chicken. And now Phoenix Point. Bigger maps! Longer missions! Tougher enemies!

XCOM's strength is that it doesn't outstay its welcome. This is a common complaint about Terror from the Deep; and it's why many OpenXCOM mods fall short. Nobody has the patience to play "hunt the bug" for two hours.

Basically, he took out everything fun about XCOM, and amped-up the annoyances: Enemies are unbalanced, the research tree is full of dead-ends, and there's no clear objectives which results in wasting time and resources. The free-aim gimmick adds nothing, because your accuracy is awful regardless. We're basically fighting our dinner at Red Lobster. Shady-as-fuck money hatting from a company with close ties to Tencent. You know, the Chinese spying company.

It's abysmal. And made worse by Gollup masquerading as a creator with a passion project, who turned out to be a grifter who never cared in the end, and lied for the sake of cashing in on goodwill from his loyal fans. (Well we crunched the numbers and decided we could fuck our backers and only 6% would ask for their money back.)

 

[An Ghost]

Menus that pop up and have you make a decision, without being able to check what you're deciding on. Specifically recently, total warhammer 2 dilemmas that affect the loyalty of skaven commanders. Its on a scale of 1-10 but a choice can drop it by 5, causing a commander to rebel with all his troops. All it gives you is a name but fuck if i can remember the loyalty of scrungus dilsack.

Really any game that runs numbers. If a choice will drop my income by 6%, just tell me what that's gonna be.

 

[Mr. Skeltal]

Playing MHW:I to burn time until Rise hits PC and something hit me, in over 500 hours of gameplay I have no idea if there's a combo menu and where it may be. I discovered this when trying to git gud with SnS and learn the timing of the Perfect Rush combo only to find out that the training area doesn't tell you how to do it. I looked in the menus and found no "Combo List" option like was present in older titles.
For weapons like SnS and IG this can be troublesome because a lot of their damage output is reliant on combos and combo finishers. Seems like an oversight to me or fighting Ruiner Nergigante with a poison SnS sanded my brain to a mirror polish.