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Which games that have slow beginnings would you tell others not to give up on the first hour or so?
- Thread starter hwarang
- Start date
Can't say I agree. Majora's Mask has an hour-long opening where you're stuck as Deku Link (which you have to redo from scratch if you take too long and let the moon fall). Wind Waker starts off with half an hour of cutscenes and tutorials, then its first dungeon is a stealth mission. Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword are self-explanatory.
You're right that Ocarina of Time starts a lot faster, but even there the first thing you do in the game is spend 10 minutes picking up rocks and cutting down grass looking for enough rupees to buy the shield.
I thought those opening hours were the best part of 3. But yes, I would implore anyone turned off by the opening pace of any games in the series to stick with it. 7 in particular.
Silent Hill 2
Also, the apartment section of the game has some interesting things happen but the game really starts going after that.
They deliberately put roughly a 5 minute walk along a cliff side with nothing happening at the beginning for that extra slow burn
Agree to disagree then. :D Wind Waker has a wonderful mood-setting and motivating opening (your precious sister is mysteriously kidnapped, you get to travel with pirates to find her!!), even though I agree that it slows down at the Forsaken Fortress if you don't know what you're doing. And I didn't mind being Deku Link. It was an interesting atmosphere and situation.
Unlike Twilight Princess where nothing at all happens, you spend your "days" herding and fishing and go through the same area over and over. Tastes and all, but surely there's a class difference here.
I'm usually of the mindset that if a game doesn't get your attention after the first couple hours it's probably not worth sticking it out further.
But I'd probably say divinity original sin 1/2. While I didn't necessarily think their openings were boring. They are quite slow. And the first game in particular can feel a bit aimless with a lot of NPC conversations in the opening hours. When I first sat down to play DOS1 I think me and my boyfriend literally spent a good few hours just talking to npc's, amassing quests and trying to remember where the hell certain characters and vendors were (there aren't any waypoint markers)
...but my god do those games get good. They're easily without a doubt 2 of the best western RPG'S I've ever played. they put stuff like Skyrim to shame imo.
But I'd probably say divinity original sin 1/2. While I didn't necessarily think their openings were boring. They are quite slow. And the first game in particular can feel a bit aimless with a lot of NPC conversations in the opening hours. When I first sat down to play DOS1 I think me and my boyfriend literally spent a good few hours just talking to npc's, amassing quests and trying to remember where the hell certain characters and vendors were (there aren't any waypoint markers)
...but my god do those games get good. They're easily without a doubt 2 of the best western RPG'S I've ever played. they put stuff like Skyrim to shame imo.
Felt this way with The Pathless. Wasn't really quite sure about it after the first area or so (maybe I went in expecting more of a guided experience like Abzu or Journey), and things kinda felt off/limited for some reason, but the more I played it, the better it got, and by the end, I felt like I'd played one of the better games of the year.
I never got the hate for the beginning of Twilight Princess. It's really good and a lot of stuff happens in like the first hour. People tend to exaggerate and make it seem like it's 80% goat herding.
Obviously I'll go along with the Okami/Persona/Yakzua posts, but I would also add Borderlands 2.
Look, Borderlands is obviously not for everyone, but good lord that game starts off so slow in the snow area. As soon as you hit Sanctuary, it starts to pick up, but playing through that first area on repeat playthroughs was never very fun
Look, Borderlands is obviously not for everyone, but good lord that game starts off so slow in the snow area. As soon as you hit Sanctuary, it starts to pick up, but playing through that first area on repeat playthroughs was never very fun
It's not just that. It's also the fishing, climbing up vines really slowly, fetch quest for a cradle, the hawk mechanic that is used one or two more times in the game, scouring the village for rupees, really heavy-handed tutorials... And yes, the goat herding. Which happens twice.
And once you escape the tutorial you immediately enter the Wolf Link tutorial, and then the Tears of Light collect-a-thon.
I definitely agree that a lot of stuff happens in the first few hours of Twilight Princess. Lots of variety, yes.
I guess I just never disliked any of the stuff you mentioned. I guess it is just a tutorial sequence but I really liked how it was framed into getting a look into Link's normal life and his relationship with the people in his town before it's Zelda business as usual. We don't usually get that. I think it worked well from an emotional standpoint for the plot to move in that way.
Plus when you say things like "Wolf Link tutorial", it sounds more rigid than it actually is. I consider the game to have already started at that point. I never really felt like I was in a tutorial.
That said, when you list everything out, I can see how it would bother people who want to jump straight into the first temple. I think I just like slow starts of that style.
The thing that killed Twilight Princess' beginning for me was how bad the fishing was compared to OoT. It was only later after beating the game that I found out there was a proper fishing section in the middle of the game that I missed.
Came to say this.
I think the common saying is "Play until you get the air dash," or something, but I think it's more that it's actually not very overt what's so fun about playing that game and it might take someone to "figure it out."
No man's sky. Some of the starting planets can be BURTAL and the beginning as a whole really isn't much fun . Once you get to the "hub" the games charm really starts shining through
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
My fave JRPG series of all-time... and even I gave up and quit about a third of the way through on my first playthrough before revisiting it a year later.
My fave JRPG series of all-time... and even I gave up and quit about a third of the way through on my first playthrough before revisiting it a year later.
I had the exact opposite issue with BOTW. Tried playing it 3 times and couldn't make it past the plateau, it was so boring. Then one time I made it past the plateau and I was hooked. Now it's one of my favorite games ever.
Just link the thread.......man that whole discussion was how slow it was. I mean they were not totally wrong, but it does open up later
I gave up on Prey for over a year because the first hour was so zzzz. It ended up being the best game I played in the past couple of years. The boring part doesn't even last that long, but it does present as extremely flat.
