Why the dislike for LittleBigPlanet 3?

[Zor]

So I'm a complete newbie to this franchise. I wanted something new to play on my PS5 and picked up Sackboy but, having no prior history with LittleBigPlanet at all, I decided to turn on my PS3 and see if LBP1 was available to get some sense of franchise history. Turns out I must have grabbed it years ago in a sale or something as I was able to download it and have been playing the Story Mode all day. In short: I absolutely love it. For a 12 year old game this thing is charming as hell and bursting with life and I hate that I hadn't played it until now.

I immediately made sure I had the sequel (as well as PSP & Vita games) readily available too in case I want to jump in following the first game. But one thing that has emerged from looking into LBP3 in particular shows that folks don't seem to be so much in love with it as they were the Media Molecule games. Sure, it seems to have reviewed quite well but the impression I'm getting is that people just don't like SUMO's game. I'm wondering why that is.

Anyone on here a fan of LBP3? Or dislike it?

 

[Jawmuncher]

I believe it was offered as a PS+ game. Regardless, I have never played it either due to all the talk (Despite having played every other LBP game including vita).
I should download it and play through it after sackboy since I don't care about creating anything.

If I recall the big complaints were that it just lacked polish I think. Also I think the Sack friends weren't liked by some either.

 

[pokeystaples]

I wasn't a fan of the floaty controls in 1 and 2 so I never bought 3. I only took a chance on Sackboy because everyone in my circle who bought it said it was a much tighter experience than mainline LBP.

 

[Jonnax]

I thought it was really fun.

 

[Magog]

It was a good game and introduced some fun mechanics. It wasn't made by Mediamolecule though which may be why it was overlooked. Dreams is a much more ambitious game and is actually easy to create a 3D platformer if you use the built in templates.

 

[Angie]

It was broken at release.
I literally lost 3 save files, in which I had to restart the game. Also they promised that our old clothes and DLC from LBP 1 and 2 would get transfer to the game, and it never worked well.

 

[pswii60]

It was basically just a worse version of the previous two games and offered nothing new or interesting. And (at launch at least) it was buggy as hell on PS4, I experienced a ton of crashes and game breaking bugs.

 

[Ricelord]

its a buggy ass mess.

 

[Sprat]

I really liked it.

My only complaint is that it was really short

 

[msdstc]

Great game that was far too short and just short of broken at release with all the glitches and poor performance. If it launched bug free it'd have a much stronger legacy as a decent final entry in the series

 

[Satonaka]

It didn't offer anything new to fans. It was the same as 1 and 2 all over again, but worse.

 

[Richter1887]

It was good but wasn't polished on launch.

 

[kadotsu]

Oddsock is the best addition that was ever made to LBP.

 

[Nocturnowl]

I liked it much MUCH more than the first game, always felt like the extra characters were a roundabout way of getting past the sackboy physic issue which I imagine had to stay similar across the trilogy for consistency across ported stages and the one main character usable across all of them.
Toggle, Oddsock and Swoop were fun additions and when you did have to go back to the sack they basically threw gimmicks galore on top of him to make his stages flow better (though from what I played of it, I think LBP2 was already going in that direction).

Definitely felt a bit short and truth be told, I've never had any motivation to go back once I finished it, it was decent in any case and I assume the bad reputation comes from whatever its initial buggy launch issues were which were seemingly ironed out by the time I played it.

(Sumo now have the two best LBP games under their belt, you heard me!)

 

[JigglesBunny]

It was pretty buggy and unpolished. The Sack Pals were pretty clunky and uninteresting. The core movement was still floaty and unimproved.

 

[KORNdog]

People can't appreciate that different platformers can feel different. If it doesn't feel like mario it's shit. That's basically what it boiled down to.

 

[J-Spot]

Great campaign but there were a lot of glitches and many of them were never fixed as far as I know. It was supposed to be backward compatible with the other titles but the majority of the old levels I played had some incompatibility or another and were often impossible to complete.

 

[Edge]

I think it was the most unpolished of the 3 and pretty buggy at that time and also people were kinda sick of it after the first 2.
It was more of the same and people were over it.

 

[TimeFire]

People can't appreciate that different platformers can feel different. If it doesn't feel like mario it's shit. That's basically what it boiled down to.

Click to shrink...

That's not really true in the slightest. Megaman, Sonic, Castlevania, Metroid etc all play and feel very different than Mario. LBP in particular just feels bad for a lot of people

 

[MrHealthy]

I immediately made sure I had the sequel (as well as PSP & Vita games)

Click to shrink...

The Vita one is low key the best one. Its creativity is amazing. 2 is the second best, and since you have a vita make sure you grab the cross controller DLC for 2 which has levels where you literally jump from the screen to the vita and back again.

 

[KORNdog]

That's not really true in the slightest. Megaman, Sonic, Castlevania, Metroid etc all play and feel very different than Mario. LBP in particular just feels bad for a lot of people

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Tbh it's all I've ever heard about LBP as a whole "It's too floaty" like it's factually a bad thing. Pfft.

 

[Tora]

Fun, very short, VERY buggy

Massive LBP fanboy but it had its issues; don't understand why it was on PS3 as well

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

people were kinda sick of it after the first 2.

Click to shrink...

That's why I never got around to playing it. I keep saying I'm going to one day.

 

[Edge]

That's why I never got around to playing it. I keep saying I'm going to one day.

Click to shrink...

And I also loved the first 2. But I never had the urge to play the third one.

 

[Acquiescence]

It was a buggy mess (for me), the netcode was so bad that I was never able to join a single co-op session (which is kinda the main draw of LBP), and there was a certain magic the MediaMolecule games had that the devs for 3 tried to replicate but just couldn't capture. For some non-specific reason, it felt like a straight-to-DVD sequel.

Thankfully, I'm playing through Sackboy at the mo and it's a redemption of sorts. Really fun and charming experience. Still not on a par with LBP1+2, but leagues better than 3.

 

[AndyD]

its a buggy ass mess.

Click to shrink...

This was my biggest complaint after loving the previous 2. The framerate was worse and the mechanics were not as solid. And it lacked the charm and story flow of the first 2, as it was more unclear as to how to progress with the various critters that become available. I have not tried it on PS5 but a patch to ensure a flawless 60fps would go a long way for all the LBP games.

 

[Cheesebu]

Aside from being generally buggy, it broke a ton of levels from LBP 1 and 2, so you'd often get halfway through a level and have to quit out after a platform didn't line up or a jump was rendered impossible.

LBP2 is the height of the series imo.

 

[bombermouse]

I loved the other entries but couldn't get into 3. It was super buggy and I just wanted to pick a level and play but no, they were these confusing hubs and every time I wanna get back I just don't know where to go.

Series picked with lbp1

 

[Wouwie]

Since i spent a lot of time on user created content in LBP2, i remember buying LBP3 digitally with the intention of doing the same. Yet, shortly after finishing the campaign in LBP3, i uninstalled it and never went back, which is weird. I think part of the reason was that many creators had already left towards the end of LBP2 and never came back. Also, while i did feel that the campaign could have been good, it felt unpolished, buggy and rushed. Iirc, in the last overworld, i felt the game was close to falling apart from a technical point of view. It was odd. All things considered, LBP3 felt like a disappointment and the end of the franchise.

Sumo did a great job on Sackboy: a big adventure though.

 

[Zor]

Think I'm close to the end of LBP1 so I'm quite fascinated to go through this franchise now, though I'm fearing some burnout by the time I get to 3.

 

[PSOreo]

Didn't a different team make the third one while the main developers made Dreams?

 

[RecRoulette]

It was a MESS at launch. Broken levels, costumes not transferring, bugs in the story mode. Just a huge step down.

Really glad that Sumo was able to come back and do a great job with Sackboy's BIg Adventure.

 

[Zor]

Didn't a different team make the third one

Click to shrink...

Yep, I said this in OP.

...folks don't seem to be so much in love with it as they were the Media Molecule games. Sure, it seems to have reviewed quite well but the impression I'm getting is that people just don't like SUMO's game.

Click to shrink...

 

[darfox8]

I wasn't a fan of the floaty controls in 1 and 2 so I never bought 3. I only took a chance on Sackboy because everyone in my circle who bought it said it was a much tighter experience than mainline LBP.

Click to shrink...

That's funny because the 3rd game actually made the controls far more responsive. Nobody noticed...

 

[pokeystaples]

That's funny because the 3rd game actually made the controls far more responsive. Nobody noticed...

Click to shrink...

That's unfortunate. It's a case of "you won't get me a third time." When the third time was actually the charm.

 

[Ryukori]

I really enjoyed the game. The levels were creative and there was more depth than ever before in the LittleBigPlanet series. However, I have to admit, it was quite buggy at launch. I think the issues have mostly been fixed by now, but I haven't played the game since I got the platinum trophy in it back in 2015.

 

[Gestault]

From what I remember (I played it at the time), it's buggy to the point of being disruptive, and almost worse than that, the level design is gimmicky rather than feeling clever. I didn't really like the Sack Pals, and while the movement was changed, it just felt like arbitrarily moving some sliders around, so the underlying movement/platforming still didn't feel good.

For reference, I think LBP for Vita was the best title in the series, and felt pretty great.

 

[The Artisan]

I'm a big fan of the LBP series and in my opinion, LittleBigPlanet 2 is one of the best Ps3 games.

3 was a huge disappointment for many reasons. The difference in features from LBP1 to LBP2 was a leap, but the difference from LBP2 to LBP3 was just a step. And I think part of the reason I feel that way is because 3's development was outsourced to a different developer instead of the original. Back when it was announced with the trailers, from watching it looked like it could have been one huge DLC for LBP2 and the LBP series has had some massive DLC packs in the past.

Another thing that really bothered me was the addition of new characters. On principle, new characters in any medium video games/tv shows/movies is never a bad thing, but because Sumo Digital was new to it I really feel like they took the series in the wrong direction. The new characters Oddsock, Swoop, and Toggle don't really offer anything new (except maybe Oddsock), their inclusion just resulted in the takeaway of Sackboy's abilities. Toggle in his big form has the strength factor, which Sackboy had with the power gloves. Swoop can fly, which Sackboy could also do with the jet packs.

To me, the natural direction LBP should have gone in is what we got in part from Sackboy A Big Adventure, and that was going fully 3D. Hell they missed the opportunity of having the game being named "LittleBigPlanet 3D"

 

[deroli]

I started playing it last week and spent 2-3 hours on the game since. So far, I have not found any joy in LBP3. Controls, level design, game mechanics, the overworld/ hub system, characters or story... almost everything feels subpar. Some examples:

-Why is R1 assigned to two different actions (grabbing and using your item) when you have three face buttons that are barely used? This leads to some bullshit moments like blowing items away instead of grabbing them because you're standing a bit away from them
-Having multiple layers in the levels slows the game down while adding nothing worthwhile in return
-I hate the passages when you have only one chance to get a customization bubble. Especially those slides connecting the layers. Yeah you can restart from checkpoint but I'd rather walk back and try again
-After finishing the first (tutorial?) world I found no way to get to the next world from the level select screen. The solution was to go back to the menu and push the dedicated "take me to the next level"-button (??)
-The accents of the characters (in the German dub) are really annoying

So lots of small annoyances. Keep in mind I don't have much experience with LBP so these things might apply to other titles as well. But the only other LPB I've played - the Vita game - was really fun. Looking at youtube videos, that one had more linear level design and just a better flow.

I will give it a few more tries but this might be one of the few games I won't finish.

 

[Huey]

Just doesn't have the level design and execution prowess that the first and particularly the second did. It also tried to add in a bunch of additional elements that only kind of/sort of worked. You could just really tell it was from a different team - and while still a good one, not one that was functioning at the same level.

 

[deroli]

Following my post from thursday, I want to give an update. I'm stuck at the Ziggurat because even though I finished the three main quests there, according to the game I have not found any marble at all. Which is of course a necessity to unlock the big guy and to advance to the next levels. I restarted the game and also re-did one of the levels, but still no luck. Seems like a known bug:

Ziggurat main quest glitch

So bought the game recently from a sale and experienced probably a game breaking glitch. A year since release and this can still happen? wow what a shit game. Had just done second marble level in Ziggurat, played some extra labyrinth level after that and the main quest vanished from the Organizer...

www.playstationtrophies.org

Other bugs I've encountered since thursday:
-I bought a costume in the shop, but it does not show in the customization menu. Instead, there are two identical entries for a different costume
-After finishing the first world, the game would not advance to the second world. I had to play the final level (i.e. watch the final cutscene) again
-I insta-died after entering the Ziggurat level
-There is a segment in the Go Loco level where I've died twice instantly after entering a portal, without any indication why. I just get send back to the last checkpoint. Sucks because a no death run is required to unlock items.

LBP3 gave me more headaches than any other game I've played in recent years. I expect at least a bug free experience from Sony 1st party games, but this is a mess. Every other Sony exclusive I've played on PS4 was not just bug-free, but even highly polished, so this was a massive letdown. It was an easy decision to uninstall it, because even when I worked fine, LBP3 was never really fun to me.