Iconoclasts for me too, love the style and the gameplay is good enough but I played it for about 10 hours and I remember not knowing where to go next and just dropped it.For about a year now on my Twitch stream, I've been participating in the Alphabet Challenge - clearing a game off the backlog for every letter of the alphabet.
As you can see, I've made it up to "J" (which I'll be starting up quite soon) - but the only times where I had to abandon a game outright were both BIT.TRIP RUNNER ["B"] and Ironcast ["I"]. Why?
BIT.TRIP RUNNER: I love BIT.TRIP and have always found it quite engaging and strange, which is good for me. However, my first experience with Runner was actually playing (and beating) Runner2 when I picked it up on Wii U. So going back to no checkpoints and brutal difficulty spikes kinda hit me like a freight train and I ended up quitting in the final area. It was a shame, but it was legitimately frustrating me and I decided that it wasn't worth it.
[BIT.TRIP RUNNER won the poll over Binary Domain, Blade Kitten, and Beatbuddy: Tales of the Guardians.]
Ironcast: I wanted to like this game. Actually, I do - I dig the aesthetic a lot and games like these have been quite fun. BUT what absolutely frustrated me about this game is the fact that it's a roguelike. So what does that entail? A repetitive campaign? Fights with AI that seems to be smarter than what the actual difficulty implies? Really, REALLY bad RNG? Check, check, and check. I've put in 14 hours into the game and I have never beaten it. I've only gotten to what I presume was the final boss about 5 times in my playthrough, and the ONE time where I'm not already entering the fight with my mech not fully healed, lame abilities that don't help, or weapons that rack up damage... I get curb-stomped. Like, there's certain powerups and upgrades that feel almost mandatory and having a decent run can go to shit really quickly if the RNG screws you.
[Ironcast won its poll over Ittle Dew, INK, and Intrusion 2.]
At least with Runner1, I feel like I can try again since I'm used to its style and would have to deal with memorization and difficulty spikes. I gave Ironcast a fair shot, and the day I quit it had me feel like a gigantic weight was off my shoulders. Do try it if you're a roguelike fan - but if you're there for just the puzzle gameplay and aesthetic, I'd say to take a hard pass.
Shadow of Mordor. Was in the backlog for a long time. Thought I would give it a go. Enjoyed it for quite a while. Got some badass powers and really good at combat, then it started to feel a bit same-y. Then all of a sudden a second area opens up, but it's just more of the same with a new backdrop. Dropped it.
Dropped this one like a bad habit. Did not enjoy it at all.
Noooooo! To each their own (of course), but I loved the heck out of this game. One of the top 5 JRPGs of all time by any metric. It's just so good. I'd suggest engaging with it in small spurts, like a bedtime novel.
I pushed through this game to the ending. Can't say I loved it. Something about it is just sorta dull.
I did really enjoy this game, but I will concede that it would have been even better if it were a teensy bit shorter.Astral Chain - Didn't like the gameplay loop or the feel of the combat. Music and graphics were nice though
I did not enjoy this game at all. Trudged through that entire game hoping it would get better. Never did. I will play any Final Fantasy I can get my hands on, but modern Final Fantasy ... woof.FF XII. The battle system was interesting but I got bored of it after 20ish hours. The story also didn't grab me.
This is me except for Mad Max. For some reason that middling gameplay coupled with the car upgrades just hit me perfectly. Loved every minute of that game. Watch Dogs 2 started as "meh" for me and only went downhill from there. I actually found some of the "stealth" gameplay really frustrating.Metal Gear Solid V: I can't stand the series' convoluted story since Metal Gear 3. Besides, the game got really boring after a while and I'm still to this day puzzled with the notion of a Metal Gear game in a open world setup.
Watch Dogs 2: everything in this game is OK. Just that, OK. And I couldn't find any will to see it through. Played for just a couple of hours.
Mad Max: great concept, awful execution.
Hollow Knight. I simply don't have enough patience nowadays to keep getting lost in metroidvanias and really disliked the map system.
Breath of the Wild.
I tried playing last night after a while and I have no idea wtf is going on and I was just lost.
I might just start the game over tbh.