Rajaah
Honorable Member
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All the talk about games taking X amount of time or people powering through so they have time to go outside and touch grass, it got me thinking.
What are some games that you spent a lot of time on and regret it? Not necessarily the worst games, but more games that took up time that you'll never get back and just weren't worth the trouble. Games that just had no respect at all for your time, or felt thoroughly pointless to have played. I've got several. I know I'm forgetting a few too.
7. Suikoden IV: Anyone who has played Suikoden knows how good that series is. Especially the first two. An absolutely rockin' time. Well, not the fourth one! This shit cost me like a week of my life. The visuals are bland as hell, the character models look idiotic and have tiny heads, the story is unmemorable, the music sucks (which is super weird for a Suikoden game) and I wanted back all the time I put into it. Sad thing is, Suikoden V came along later and was waaaay better but I don't think too many people played it. What the hell happened here? At least it wasn't too long.
6. Breath of Fire IV: Finally finished this on a Backlog Challenge here a couple years ago. One of those games that didn't age well at all and was probably a lot better in-era 20 years ago. It took me like 6 years to get through because it was so ungodly boring most of the time. And so drawn-out. Most of what you do in the game is inconsequential or pointless to the overall narrative Just couldn't compare to BoF1-3 at all for me. I think the worst part was the overhead view was kinda low-angled, the environments were very built-up, and you could only rotate the camera to a couple of positions. What all of this means is that I constantly couldn't see where my characters were because the terrain was in the way. The villain was interesting and the story cutting to him frequently was the best aspect of it. Still, took like 55 hours to get through this thing and I didn't have fun. Damn my need to complete a series. And I didn't even complete this one because when I tried BoF Dragon Quarter (5) I noped out because it's so dismal and brown and everyone talks like some kind of goggle boy anime asshole.
5. Pokemon Diamond: This game is SLOW. The battles take ages, every little thing has to be spelled out, and it's legitimately a sleep aid. Was the last Pokemon game I played for literally almost ten years and I regretted all the time I spent on it. Especially considering Pokemon Platinum (improved version of this game) eventually came out during the several years I was chipping away at this, and fixed all of its issues. So if I'd waited a couple years I would have gotten to play a much better version of it and might have actually stuck with the series instead of tapping out and missing several gens.
4a and 4b. WoW, Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands: I liked everything up through Legion. Wanted to keep up, and made two attempts to return to it with these two expansions. Both times I was bored out of my mind. I managed to finish BFA's main story, but Shadowlands I couldn't even muster that up. Dragonflight seems cool and all but I felt so much like I'd wasted the 20-30 hours I spent on these two that I didn't even look back.
3a and 3b. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks: I don't actually think these qualify by my own criteria because I don't entirely regret playing them. I wanted to finish the Zelda series and you can't do that without knocking out these two at some point. Man, I hate DS stylus controls when they aren't necessary though. And they weren't necessary for either of these. Both were a slog and I regretted spending so much time on them. I wish the actual good Zelda games were as long and expansive as these.
3c. Metroid Pime Hunters: Ditto here on stylus controls. Every series I like had to get a shitty DS installment with shitty stylus controls. Had to do it for completion, wished I spent that time on any actual good Metroid.
2. Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Spent like 70 hours on this and it was SO BORING. They got rid of a lot of the assassin elements in favor of a more generic combat system. No tall buildings to scale outside of Londinium. Just didn't feel like Assassin's Creed. Great if you like axes, but if I want to play an axe game God of War 1 and 2 are right there. Nowhere near as bad as Lufia: Ruins of Lore, but it took up so much goddamn time that I seriously regretted playing it. AC Odyssey also took up too much time and was too drawn-out but at least it was enjoyable. Surprised they took the one complaint people had about Odyssey (too long / drawn-out / padded) and made it literally twice as bad in Valhalla.
1. Lufia: Ruins of Lore: Hands-down the biggest waste of time I've ever played. I liked Lufia on the SNES and loved Lufia 2 (top ten RPG on the system easily). Lufia 3 on the Game Boy Color was kind of iffy with the random dungeons and everything, but it was inoffensive and easy to get through. Then we got this one, on the GBA. It was so horrendously bad and it took up like 30 hours of my life at a time when I should have been doing any number of other things. The game makes you do every dungeon multiple times for no reason, the dungeon layouts are super-confusing messes, the combat is so basic you'd think it was an 8-bit game from the early 80's, the characters are all carbon copies of each other with very limited movesets, the dialogue is laughable, it doesn't have any real connection to the rest of the series outside of one semi-neat cameo, and it's just so incredibly shit. Was also depressed from my first GF leaving me, so while I slogged through this I also had the added benefit of finding myself rethinking my life choices.
Also, look at this fucking character portrait. That's the main face you're looking at for most of the game.
What are some games that you spent a lot of time on and regret it? Not necessarily the worst games, but more games that took up time that you'll never get back and just weren't worth the trouble. Games that just had no respect at all for your time, or felt thoroughly pointless to have played. I've got several. I know I'm forgetting a few too.
7. Suikoden IV: Anyone who has played Suikoden knows how good that series is. Especially the first two. An absolutely rockin' time. Well, not the fourth one! This shit cost me like a week of my life. The visuals are bland as hell, the character models look idiotic and have tiny heads, the story is unmemorable, the music sucks (which is super weird for a Suikoden game) and I wanted back all the time I put into it. Sad thing is, Suikoden V came along later and was waaaay better but I don't think too many people played it. What the hell happened here? At least it wasn't too long.
6. Breath of Fire IV: Finally finished this on a Backlog Challenge here a couple years ago. One of those games that didn't age well at all and was probably a lot better in-era 20 years ago. It took me like 6 years to get through because it was so ungodly boring most of the time. And so drawn-out. Most of what you do in the game is inconsequential or pointless to the overall narrative Just couldn't compare to BoF1-3 at all for me. I think the worst part was the overhead view was kinda low-angled, the environments were very built-up, and you could only rotate the camera to a couple of positions. What all of this means is that I constantly couldn't see where my characters were because the terrain was in the way. The villain was interesting and the story cutting to him frequently was the best aspect of it. Still, took like 55 hours to get through this thing and I didn't have fun. Damn my need to complete a series. And I didn't even complete this one because when I tried BoF Dragon Quarter (5) I noped out because it's so dismal and brown and everyone talks like some kind of goggle boy anime asshole.
5. Pokemon Diamond: This game is SLOW. The battles take ages, every little thing has to be spelled out, and it's legitimately a sleep aid. Was the last Pokemon game I played for literally almost ten years and I regretted all the time I spent on it. Especially considering Pokemon Platinum (improved version of this game) eventually came out during the several years I was chipping away at this, and fixed all of its issues. So if I'd waited a couple years I would have gotten to play a much better version of it and might have actually stuck with the series instead of tapping out and missing several gens.
4a and 4b. WoW, Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands: I liked everything up through Legion. Wanted to keep up, and made two attempts to return to it with these two expansions. Both times I was bored out of my mind. I managed to finish BFA's main story, but Shadowlands I couldn't even muster that up. Dragonflight seems cool and all but I felt so much like I'd wasted the 20-30 hours I spent on these two that I didn't even look back.
3a and 3b. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks: I don't actually think these qualify by my own criteria because I don't entirely regret playing them. I wanted to finish the Zelda series and you can't do that without knocking out these two at some point. Man, I hate DS stylus controls when they aren't necessary though. And they weren't necessary for either of these. Both were a slog and I regretted spending so much time on them. I wish the actual good Zelda games were as long and expansive as these.
3c. Metroid Pime Hunters: Ditto here on stylus controls. Every series I like had to get a shitty DS installment with shitty stylus controls. Had to do it for completion, wished I spent that time on any actual good Metroid.
2. Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Spent like 70 hours on this and it was SO BORING. They got rid of a lot of the assassin elements in favor of a more generic combat system. No tall buildings to scale outside of Londinium. Just didn't feel like Assassin's Creed. Great if you like axes, but if I want to play an axe game God of War 1 and 2 are right there. Nowhere near as bad as Lufia: Ruins of Lore, but it took up so much goddamn time that I seriously regretted playing it. AC Odyssey also took up too much time and was too drawn-out but at least it was enjoyable. Surprised they took the one complaint people had about Odyssey (too long / drawn-out / padded) and made it literally twice as bad in Valhalla.
1. Lufia: Ruins of Lore: Hands-down the biggest waste of time I've ever played. I liked Lufia on the SNES and loved Lufia 2 (top ten RPG on the system easily). Lufia 3 on the Game Boy Color was kind of iffy with the random dungeons and everything, but it was inoffensive and easy to get through. Then we got this one, on the GBA. It was so horrendously bad and it took up like 30 hours of my life at a time when I should have been doing any number of other things. The game makes you do every dungeon multiple times for no reason, the dungeon layouts are super-confusing messes, the combat is so basic you'd think it was an 8-bit game from the early 80's, the characters are all carbon copies of each other with very limited movesets, the dialogue is laughable, it doesn't have any real connection to the rest of the series outside of one semi-neat cameo, and it's just so incredibly shit. Was also depressed from my first GF leaving me, so while I slogged through this I also had the added benefit of finding myself rethinking my life choices.
Also, look at this fucking character portrait. That's the main face you're looking at for most of the game.
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