Pokemon X and Y. I was mind blown by the idea we are finally moving from 2d to 3d in main line pokemon games.
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Most agonizing wait you've experienced for a game and how you distracted yourself till release?
- Thread starter wafflebrain
- Start date
Metroid Prime maybe? I remember really looking forward to that one, reading all the info I could find, going over all the screenshots.
I realized I don't really impatiently anticipate game releases anymore. They come out when they come out and then I play them when I have the time.
I realized I don't really impatiently anticipate game releases anymore. They come out when they come out and then I play them when I have the time.
The biggest wait and also one of the biggest disappointments within my 30+ years of gaming hobby.
I had finished Star Control 2 and thought that it would be the best game I will ever play. It still is on my top-3 easily. I heard that there would be fully voiced, beautifully cgi-made, vast interstellar adventure of Star Control 3 coming soon. This was back in 1995.
I didn't buy literally any other game throughout the year because I wanted to make sure I had the money for SC3. I managed to convince my parents to mail order it from Germany because it didn't arrive here until later.
It arrived. I meddled with the language and got the english version working... and it was... Star Control 3... *Sigh*
I had finished Star Control 2 and thought that it would be the best game I will ever play. It still is on my top-3 easily. I heard that there would be fully voiced, beautifully cgi-made, vast interstellar adventure of Star Control 3 coming soon. This was back in 1995.
I didn't buy literally any other game throughout the year because I wanted to make sure I had the money for SC3. I managed to convince my parents to mail order it from Germany because it didn't arrive here until later.
It arrived. I meddled with the language and got the english version working... and it was... Star Control 3... *Sigh*
Breath of the Wild absolutely. I had dreams of that game up until it's release!!
I was able to distract myself with Xenoblade and Xenoblade X, but man, I wasn't ready for the delays. :((
I was able to distract myself with Xenoblade and Xenoblade X, but man, I wasn't ready for the delays. :((
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. I remember seeing the trailers and watching every video I could find dozens of times over. I would dream about it. Morrowind was one of my favorite games so, it was like magic.
I've never been more excited in my life for a game than I was for FF XV, I swear. On my younger years I was hype but never like this, I legit stopped using the internet unless it was 100% necessary. Couldn't think of anything else.
Then the game came out and it broke my heart how bad it was. But ever since then, even if I'm super hype about a game (Indivisible, Kingdom Hearts 3, FF VII RE and Last of Us 2), I feel like I can control myself more now. Not really sure why or how. It's always cautious optimism.
Whenever I'm hype for a game and I want to distract myself I like to read or write, sometimes even go outside randomly with my headphones and just listen to music as I walk and think about stuff. Again, the levels of hype I had for FF XV kinda made me... bitter? I guess, that almost childish anticipation was completely killed by that game. It really did change me forever haha
Then the game came out and it broke my heart how bad it was. But ever since then, even if I'm super hype about a game (Indivisible, Kingdom Hearts 3, FF VII RE and Last of Us 2), I feel like I can control myself more now. Not really sure why or how. It's always cautious optimism.
Whenever I'm hype for a game and I want to distract myself I like to read or write, sometimes even go outside randomly with my headphones and just listen to music as I walk and think about stuff. Again, the levels of hype I had for FF XV kinda made me... bitter? I guess, that almost childish anticipation was completely killed by that game. It really did change me forever haha
Bioshock Infinite was the first, Persona 5 was the most promising... Infinite was lovely when I first played it but it falls flat now, while P5 doesn't reach its potential but is still an amazing game.
My pick is neither. And my pick will require some explanation.
Zero Escape is a weird series. It's probably the only visual novel series ever made thanks to an ardent Western fanbase despite lukewarm Japanese reception.
The first game, 999, still holds up brilliantly, especially on DS. It changed my life, perhaps more profoundly than any other work of art or entertainment.
The second game, Virtue's Last Reward, was a 2012 release, as I recall... I played it in the February of 2014, mere weeks before or after its sequel was put on hiatus, and riding the high of 999 which I'd finished a couple months before.
Its twists are less well-written, the atmosphere less gripping, some of the cast utterly wack, the graphics terrible-- but the heart of VLR's story got me hook, line and sinker; I thought about it for literal years on end, daily. When I finished it, it became my favorite game of all time.
Here's the thing, though. 999 was self contained, and VLR only existed because of Western fans (and ironically, was toned down in terms of horror and had dialed up fanservice precisely to cater more to a Japanese demographic, changes generally accepted to be detrimental to the game). Yet Kotaro Uchikoshi (the writer/director of the series) had gotten more ambitious, and so VLR ended on a cliffhanger. You still know what happened in VLR very well, but some causes and effects went unanswered, left for a clearly suggested sequel to convey. Some hated the game for it, but I loved that.
Do not forget, though, that said sequel was put on hiatus around the time I played VLR.
This absolutely mobilized the fanbase--fan collages sent to Spike Chunsoft and Uchikoshi to show interest and support, a 20K-like Facebook page called Operation Bluebird, a mind-boggling amount of speculation, hype, and love for the franchise. It could be called a microcosm of what communities around Shenmue and similar games went through.
I got a Twitter to follow the news around this time. (Half a decade later, as someone with probably 100K+ tweets, this is probably just one of the many major ways in which Zero Escape changed my life.)
And I think I can say with confidence that at this point, that I spent every day actively YEARNING for Zero Escape 3 to come back to life.
Fast forward to, I believe, 18th of March, 2015. Aksys, the localizer and Western (well, American) publisher of the series, posts a teaser- 4infinity.co.
Long story short, the 0303 that was on the website back then stood for 3 months, 3 weeks. You'd think "zero-three-zero-three" would've made the connection obvious (in hindsight), but I couldn't afford confident deductions when so much of my feelings was on the line, and so I (alongside the rest of the fanbase) rabidly speculated about the website constantly. Every week a new weird word would pop up (firefighter, shotgun, Gab) on the site.
Those 15 weeks be the most exciting and stressful part of my life so far. "Please let this be Zero Escape, please let this be Zero Escape, PLEASE let this be Zero Escape...", every day. The NeoGAF threads on the topic (and its climax) are the finest memories I have of this forum.
The countdown ended at Anime Expo 2015.
Look up the video of the announcement- it always, without fail, makes me tear up with happiness (a spoilery line from VLR is played though).
Those who were there on the day will know--the stream for the entire panel never worked, and we ended up getting the news from Feep back on GAF, and a few folks on Twitter.
No trailer, no name, no logo, just a reused voice line, VLR music, and the words ESCAPING SUMMER 2016.
I'm actually crying a little right now.
It might have been, in all seriousness, the happiest moment of my life.
One and a half years of yearning, campaigning, belief against belief, and camaraderie--vindicated.
(Yes, it's just a video game, and yes, I know I am a nerd.)
The next year of waiting was fucking nothing in comparison. I preordered as soon as the orders went live, and I was supposed to get a watch, but an entire controversy ended up revolving around those watches (and hence the associated copies of the game) being delayed by more than a month, when release came around. That was stressful, but personally I ended up lucking out immensely (basically got a complimentary gift card that netted me Persona 5's limited edition for free) so I can't complain too much.
I was away on some activities when the game, full name "Zero Escape 3, Zero Time Dilemma", released; ended up playing it close to a month later, and the wait turned out to be far and away the best part of the game. It took me 21 hours to beat over three days, and the long and short of it is that the game is a rushed, disappointing, whimpering little thing that was designed to actively harm its own narrative and storytelling at every turn.
The ending was so comically terrible, I can't even properly enjoy the hilarious memes it spawned.
I now have what I pretend to myself is a clean break from the franchise, because ZE3 is so disappointing, it retroactively soured me somewhat on VLR (which is ZE2).
TL;DR: Waiting for Zero Time Dilemma was, in many ways, a highlight of my life; the game itself is one of the greatest disappointments I've ever had.
My pick is neither. And my pick will require some explanation.
Zero Escape is a weird series. It's probably the only visual novel series ever made thanks to an ardent Western fanbase despite lukewarm Japanese reception.
The first game, 999, still holds up brilliantly, especially on DS. It changed my life, perhaps more profoundly than any other work of art or entertainment.
The second game, Virtue's Last Reward, was a 2012 release, as I recall... I played it in the February of 2014, mere weeks before or after its sequel was put on hiatus, and riding the high of 999 which I'd finished a couple months before.
Its twists are less well-written, the atmosphere less gripping, some of the cast utterly wack, the graphics terrible-- but the heart of VLR's story got me hook, line and sinker; I thought about it for literal years on end, daily. When I finished it, it became my favorite game of all time.
Here's the thing, though. 999 was self contained, and VLR only existed because of Western fans (and ironically, was toned down in terms of horror and had dialed up fanservice precisely to cater more to a Japanese demographic, changes generally accepted to be detrimental to the game). Yet Kotaro Uchikoshi (the writer/director of the series) had gotten more ambitious, and so VLR ended on a cliffhanger. You still know what happened in VLR very well, but some causes and effects went unanswered, left for a clearly suggested sequel to convey. Some hated the game for it, but I loved that.
Do not forget, though, that said sequel was put on hiatus around the time I played VLR.
This absolutely mobilized the fanbase--fan collages sent to Spike Chunsoft and Uchikoshi to show interest and support, a 20K-like Facebook page called Operation Bluebird, a mind-boggling amount of speculation, hype, and love for the franchise. It could be called a microcosm of what communities around Shenmue and similar games went through.
I got a Twitter to follow the news around this time. (Half a decade later, as someone with probably 100K+ tweets, this is probably just one of the many major ways in which Zero Escape changed my life.)
And I think I can say with confidence that at this point, that I spent every day actively YEARNING for Zero Escape 3 to come back to life.
Fast forward to, I believe, 18th of March, 2015. Aksys, the localizer and Western (well, American) publisher of the series, posts a teaser- 4infinity.co.
Long story short, the 0303 that was on the website back then stood for 3 months, 3 weeks. You'd think "zero-three-zero-three" would've made the connection obvious (in hindsight), but I couldn't afford confident deductions when so much of my feelings was on the line, and so I (alongside the rest of the fanbase) rabidly speculated about the website constantly. Every week a new weird word would pop up (firefighter, shotgun, Gab) on the site.
Those 15 weeks be the most exciting and stressful part of my life so far. "Please let this be Zero Escape, please let this be Zero Escape, PLEASE let this be Zero Escape...", every day. The NeoGAF threads on the topic (and its climax) are the finest memories I have of this forum.
The countdown ended at Anime Expo 2015.
Look up the video of the announcement- it always, without fail, makes me tear up with happiness (a spoilery line from VLR is played though).
Those who were there on the day will know--the stream for the entire panel never worked, and we ended up getting the news from Feep back on GAF, and a few folks on Twitter.
No trailer, no name, no logo, just a reused voice line, VLR music, and the words ESCAPING SUMMER 2016.
I'm actually crying a little right now.
It might have been, in all seriousness, the happiest moment of my life.
One and a half years of yearning, campaigning, belief against belief, and camaraderie--vindicated.
(Yes, it's just a video game, and yes, I know I am a nerd.)
The next year of waiting was fucking nothing in comparison. I preordered as soon as the orders went live, and I was supposed to get a watch, but an entire controversy ended up revolving around those watches (and hence the associated copies of the game) being delayed by more than a month, when release came around. That was stressful, but personally I ended up lucking out immensely (basically got a complimentary gift card that netted me Persona 5's limited edition for free) so I can't complain too much.
I was away on some activities when the game, full name "Zero Escape 3, Zero Time Dilemma", released; ended up playing it close to a month later, and the wait turned out to be far and away the best part of the game. It took me 21 hours to beat over three days, and the long and short of it is that the game is a rushed, disappointing, whimpering little thing that was designed to actively harm its own narrative and storytelling at every turn.
The ending was so comically terrible, I can't even properly enjoy the hilarious memes it spawned.
I now have what I pretend to myself is a clean break from the franchise, because ZE3 is so disappointing, it retroactively soured me somewhat on VLR (which is ZE2).
TL;DR: Waiting for Zero Time Dilemma was, in many ways, a highlight of my life; the game itself is one of the greatest disappointments I've ever had.
Usually im never desperate for a game, and can easily wait for games even delayed ones like red dead 2 because i know they will be worth the wait. But this right here was painful. Delayed 2014 release, delayed 2015 release, announced for japan for delayed to february in the west, then delayed AGAIN to april.
Id honestly love to see what the game was like in 2014, because it must of been like fucking nothing if it took 2+ years of development. And now we stupidly have to wait another 6 fucking months for royal for some reason.
Although i am really wanting a star wars experience, so fallen order can't come soon enough.
Definitely RDR2, I watched tonnes of westerns and listened to western music in the weeks before release, I was disappointed (probably my own fault) that the game didn't have that western cowboy feel to it. I didn't even finish it, which is another story all together.
Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which never came out.
Currently though, I am almost painfully hyped for Final Fantasy VII: Remake and it's getting harder and harder to wait.
Currently though, I am almost painfully hyped for Final Fantasy VII: Remake and it's getting harder and harder to wait.
Probably Trails in the Sky SC. After finishing the first game and it leaving where it did it was a long wait...
In terms of shorter ones I desperately wanted Shadowrun HK after Dragonfall. I don't think I've backed anything so quick before.
In terms of shorter ones I desperately wanted Shadowrun HK after Dragonfall. I don't think I've backed anything so quick before.
I really need to go back to Dragonfall. That game kept me hooked somehow even if I didn't know why.
I almost forgot. It took so long for SC to actually release in the west.
Currently I'm waiting for the PC release of Monster Hunter World Iceborne. I'm distracting myself by playing Monster Hunter World Iceborne on PS4 [...]
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Honestly don't know why i keep falling for the same shit. Here I've been eagerly waiting for SMTV, knowing full well it won't release for another 2-3 years.
The writing and characterization maybe. I was also fascinated with the lore/world. It is close enough to the real world that a lot of things don't need to be explained, only stretched a little with a touch of fantasy/sci-fi. So it was fun seeing what remains the same and what differs.
Yeah and 3rd was only a dream at the time. Every time I think about SC I am thankful for its localisation. I can only imagine how challenging it was and how much it took to make happen.
This never happens to me anymore, delay your games all you want, I'm happy playing what I already own. I have more games than time to play them already.
Going back a while I remember the wait for Fighters Megamix to come to Europe was hard. Sega Saturn magazine seemed to have a feature on it every month and it was already out in Japan. They hyped it up a lot and I didn't have the abundance of games I have now to distract myself.
Going back a while I remember the wait for Fighters Megamix to come to Europe was hard. Sega Saturn magazine seemed to have a feature on it every month and it was already out in Japan. They hyped it up a lot and I didn't have the abundance of games I have now to distract myself.
I haven't really felt that hype feeling in years - much to my disappointment as I really miss it. The last game that I was super hyped for was Skyrim. Luckily, I didn't have to wait that long for it. I think it was less than a year between teaser and release. I'm feeling hyped a little for Animal Crossing but nothing like the old days unfortunately.
The wait for the new Smash Bros. is always draining for me. I try to step back from the speculation because it's the same 5 discussions over and over.
OP
OP
I can definitely relate to this, mostly learning to savor and enjoy the anticipation of something rather than feeling like a prisoner of time being stuck waiting for it to get here. I had that recently with the Oculus Quest for a couple months and it was a great thing, just this little reminder in the back of my head of "oh yeah that's coming out soon and it's gonna be great!".
I'll admit to being a little impatient for the VR title Boneworks to come out, its games like that with a vague release window of "before the end of the year" that get to me, especially when you're iffy on if it will get delayed further out. Sometimes I just need a date dammit! Though this can be better too when there's the possibility of it coming sooner ofc :)
Yeah I'm pretty sure the Cyberpunk wait is gonna be harsh once we get into next year and start seeing more previews, though frankly I don't really need any other teases or videos I just want to sink into Night City for myself already.
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I can't really remember the last time I really waited for a game to come out. Maybe 2006, for Oblivion? Even then I had a ton of PS2/GB(A) RPGs at my disposal.
I honestly can't recall the last time I was ever bored. There's always tons of games to play now, offline or online, PC/console or mobile. I'll always have a backlog of great stuff to go through.
I honestly can't recall the last time I was ever bored. There's always tons of games to play now, offline or online, PC/console or mobile. I'll always have a backlog of great stuff to go through.
Pokémon Snap was the first game I ever preordered as a kid and it felt like an eternity to finally release.
Metal Gear Solid 2.
In 2002 I went to stay with my father who was then living in Melbourne, I would have been 14 at the time and Australia did not get MGS2 for holiday 01, we had to wait until March the following year. I visited him on what would have been the Term 1 school break at the start of April. I vividly remember going into Myer and paying $120 AUD for MGS2 and being ecstatic.
...The only problem was I couldn't bring my PS2 with me. So I then spent a week poring over the manual and watching the making of documentary that was included three or four times. I can probably recite parts of the manual from memory.
In 2002 I went to stay with my father who was then living in Melbourne, I would have been 14 at the time and Australia did not get MGS2 for holiday 01, we had to wait until March the following year. I visited him on what would have been the Term 1 school break at the start of April. I vividly remember going into Myer and paying $120 AUD for MGS2 and being ecstatic.
...The only problem was I couldn't bring my PS2 with me. So I then spent a week poring over the manual and watching the making of documentary that was included three or four times. I can probably recite parts of the manual from memory.
Duke Nukem Forever, I waited for it actively from 1999 (when I got online) to it's release in 2011. I never stopped believing it'd be released, I just figured if they switched engines (which they did a couple times), scrapped a version etc, it could still be just three years away.
On what I did, I just keep that sliding date going in my head, and don't stop believin' as they say.
For games with release dates that are in the relatively near future, like within a year or two? That's no problem. I guess I'm just kind of zen with release dates. I've been very excited for Death Stranding, and now that it's a month away it's fun really thinking about what it'll be like to play.
On what I did, I just keep that sliding date going in my head, and don't stop believin' as they say.
For games with release dates that are in the relatively near future, like within a year or two? That's no problem. I guess I'm just kind of zen with release dates. I've been very excited for Death Stranding, and now that it's a month away it's fun really thinking about what it'll be like to play.
The Last of Us Part II.... I've just been living my life and playing other games when I get time. Currently playing Control. It's great!
Definitely KH3's entire wait since the original teaser. Though Ace Combat 7's PC Launch delay was especially rough for me :(
The only way I could cope with the 13 year wait for KH3 was feeding on dopamine hits from trolling internet forums. Now my youth is gone and i don't have any life skills.
Dark souls on PC. Didn't have the money to afford a console and had a pretty good pc back then. Saw a review of the game saying it was hard as nails, and i knew immediately that it was my cup of tea.
I was playing Skyrim, if i remember correctly, and that helped ease the wait (because at first the game wouldn't even exist on pc).
Nowadays i don't care enough about any game that much because i don't have the time to play a lot and there's already lots of hyped games on my wish list that i know I won't play for a good while.
Books on the other hand: the wait for Doors of stone is killing me!
I was playing Skyrim, if i remember correctly, and that helped ease the wait (because at first the game wouldn't even exist on pc).
Nowadays i don't care enough about any game that much because i don't have the time to play a lot and there's already lots of hyped games on my wish list that i know I won't play for a good while.
Books on the other hand: the wait for Doors of stone is killing me!
Avoiding spoilers when it launched in Japan was an absolute nightmare. The temptation was so strong but Im so glad I was able to hold off.
I'm actually going through that agonizing wait right now with Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I have sooo many games that involve lots of tension and high speed action, and not many games where I can just chill in the game's world (which is kinda what I need right now). The closest I have to those right now are BOTW and GTA V, and as much as I love them both, I've exhausted their worlds almost to death. And I don't do farming games, which seems to be my only other option at this point. Monster Hunter is sorta scratching an itch lately, but its long sessions don't really help.
Shenmue 3. I've had to distract myself with like life and other stuff for the past 18 years or so. Finally though as we get nearer to release, the long wait is almost over.
I was legitimately, unhealthily obsessed for BotW for the whole span from its E3 blowout to its release. I watched the Switch presentation trailer multiple times a week until release and pored over E3 impressions (there are sooooo maaaaany) and such for that whole window. Never again do I want to do that. Haven't been a hype slave like that before or since and that I'd like to keep it that way.
Chrono Cross.
Distracted myself with the rest of Square's "Summer of Adventure" titles that year (2000... almost 20 years ago... Christ...), of which Chrono Cross was last in the release schedule following Legend of Mana and Threads of Fate. Then, for the month or so I had in-between Threads of Fate and Chrono Cross, I got into the Mac version of Diablo II to keep distracting myself... then dropped it like a hot potato when Chrono Cross finally arrived.
And it was so fucking worth the wait. Brilliant game, though not quite on Chrono Trigger's level. Then again, what is?
Distracted myself with the rest of Square's "Summer of Adventure" titles that year (2000... almost 20 years ago... Christ...), of which Chrono Cross was last in the release schedule following Legend of Mana and Threads of Fate. Then, for the month or so I had in-between Threads of Fate and Chrono Cross, I got into the Mac version of Diablo II to keep distracting myself... then dropped it like a hot potato when Chrono Cross finally arrived.
And it was so fucking worth the wait. Brilliant game, though not quite on Chrono Trigger's level. Then again, what is?
Nothing. Nothing is.