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Acclaimed games that “alienated” you from a franchise you liked

Gush

Gush

Member
Nov 17, 2017
2,096
MGS4, and to a lesser extent MGSV.

Both were gigantic let downs as far as the story goes. The former is a groveling cop out that's almost the perfect antithesis to MGS2, and the latter is a game with a good sandbox and nothing else worth talking about. Now that the hardcore mod is busted on PC even the gameplay can't draw me in. Pretty much killed my enthusiasm for Kojima's future work altogether after being a die hard fan of the original trilogy.

Runner up would be Mass Effect 2 probably.

ME2 spun its wheels and is probably mostly to blame for ME3 being as disappointing as it's the middle part of a trilogy that has absolutely nothing worthwhile to contribute on the macro scale. Removal of RPG elements instead of honing them and focus on cover shooting was the opposite direction I wanted from the series and the loyalty quests felt super arcadey and with a couple exceptions were soap opera schlock about bad space dads and the like. Haven't finished a Bioware game since and I don't think I'm missing much.
 
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Prophyblakcis

Prophyblakcis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
230
assassins creed 3. even in the first one the world had a life and a mysticism to it that was completely gone in 3, at least to me.

I've been following the progress of ancestors the humankind odyssey since the beginning to see if desilets was really key to creating that vibe
 
Virtua King

Virtua King

Member
Dec 29, 2017
3,994
BotW - Zelda used to be one of my top 5 favorite series, but now, not only do I no longer care for any newer releases, but it also has retroactively ruined my enjoyment of the older games.

Pokemon ruby and sapphire - They just felt so dumbed down from gold and silver, and then diamond and pearl finished off my fanhood for good.
 

NuclearCake

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,867
Skyward Sword. There were so many problems with this game that i can't believe Nintendo actually released it in the state that it's currently in. All the problems that previous 3D Zelda games had were about 10 times worse in Skyward Sword. Thankfully the series is finally back on track with Breath of the Wild. The OOT formula was fundamentally flawed.

SSB Brawl and Smash 4. I don't know which of these games is worse. Not a fan of any of the gameplay changes made after Melee. Brawl i guess was a slightly better package overall than SSB4 but both of these games are pretty bad sequels to an amazing game. Ultimate was much better but it's still playing catch up.

Resident Evil 5. It feels like a direct to DVD sequel to RE4. It reuses so much from RE4, but does not a single thing better than it. Playing Solo is abysmal as the game was designed for CO-OP, at the expense of the single player experience. The perfect pacing and constant variety of RE4 is completely absent in RE5. RE6 is a much worse game than even RE5 but it's RE5 that made me consider not getting invested into this franchise anymore.

Super Mario 3D World. Buying the first HD Nintendo console with hopes that i would get something as amazing as Mario Odyssey but instead i got a worse version of 3D Land. The whole package was just so basic and boring by the second world and by the time the post game kicked in and things were starting to get a little bit more interesting, i stopped caring. 3D Mario games are system sellers for me but i regret buying the Wii U for 3D World as it did absolutely nothing for me. It's emblematic of everything that was wrong with Nintendo during the Wii U era.

Virtua King said:
BotW - Zelda used to be one of my top 5 favorite series, but now, not only do I no longer care for any newer releases, but it also has retroactively ruined my enjoyment of the older games.
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BocoDragon

BocoDragon

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,207
Twilight Princess really solidified Zelda as something I didn't like for awhile. It was grim, kind of ugly, linear, held your hand, lost its camera control on Wii... I just found it to be a dull experience, and I loved Zelda 1/2, Link to the Past, Ocarina, Wind Waker.....

I never quite found my footing with Zelda again after that. I think Skyward Sword was "okay" and Breath of the Wild continues to be this thing that I want to like but I keep bouncing off it. Link Between Worlds was dope, though.
 
RM8

RM8

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,914
JP
After Fates I don't care one bit about Fire Emblem. It was kind of liberating to let it go and see it was what it is now - a dating simulator / strategy hybrid. It's not for me, it's a shame, and I'll get my strategy somewhere else.
 
Spaltazar

Spaltazar

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
2,105
Dragon Age 2

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I Wanna Be The Guy

I Wanna Be The Guy

Member
Oct 28, 2017
16,803
VDenter said:
Skyward Sword. There were so many problems with this game that i can't believe Nintendo actually released it in the state that it's currently in. All the problems that previous 3D Zelda games had were about 10 times worse in Skyward Sword. Thankfully the series is finally back on track with Breath of the Wild. The OOT formula was

SSB Brawl and Smash 4. I don't know which of these games is worse. Not a fan of any of the gameplay changes made after Melee. Brawl i guess was a slightly better package overall than SSB4 but both of these games are pretty bad sequels to an amazing game. Ultimate was much better but it's still playing catch up.

Resident Evil 5. It feels like a direct to DVD sequel to RE4. It reuses so much from RE4, but does not a single thing better than it. Playing Solo is abysmal as the game was designed for CO-OP, at the expense of the single player experience. The perfect pacing and constant variety of RE4 is completely absent in RE5. RE6 is a much worse game than even RE5 but it's RE5 that made me consider not getting invested into this franchise anymore.

Super Mario 3D World. Buying the first HD Nintendo console with hopes that i would get something as amazing as Mario Odyssey but instead i got a worse version of 3D Land. The whole package was just so basic and boring by the second world and by the time the post game kicked in and things were starting to get a little bit more interesting, i stopped caring. 3D Mario games are system sellers for me but i regret buying the Wii U for 3D World as it did absolutely nothing for me. It's emblematic of everything that was wrong with Nintendo during the Wii U era.



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Completely agreed on RE5. RE4 is one of my favourite games of all time. It's actually kind of incredible how badly RE5 managed to fuck it up. Took another 8 years before the series finally got back to the top with RE7.

But yo, Mario 3D World was amazing and far better than Odyssey. The perfect culmination of linear 3D Mario. Superb level design it's so damn fun. I really hope it gets a Switch port.
 

Deleted member 8860

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,525
1. Super Mario 64
2. TLoZ: Ocarina of Time

Just sloppy, bloated, ugly messes of games compared to the 2D masterpieces that had come before.
 
TimeFire

TimeFire

Avenger
Nov 26, 2017
9,625
Brazil
I consider Fire Emblem Fates to be one of the worst experiences I've ever had. It just felt like a soulless, otaku pandering cashgrab that it soured me on Fire Emblem for quite some time. Fire Emblem never had a top tier story on anything like that but they were at least coherent. I didn't like a single character, every one is fucking stupid, the story is a mess, Corrin is a terrible protagonist and then Revelations, the third version/DLC, had the gall to be even worse!

I still can't believe I bought all three of them. Urgh.

Conquest's gameplay was good though. Sorta. A lot of gimmicky maps but it's at least something different
 
RM8

RM8

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,914
JP
TimeFire said:
I consider Fire Emblem Fates to be one of the worst experiences I've ever had. It just felt like a soulless, otaku pandering cashgrab that it soured me on Fire Emblem for quite some time. Fire Emblem never had a top tier story on anything like that but they were at least coherent. I didn't like a single character, every one is fucking stupid, the story is a mess, Corrin is a terrible protagonist and then Revelation had the gall to be even worse!

I still can't believe I bought all three of them. Urgh.
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Basically this. It's hard to believe someone was paid to write the story in Fates.
 
I Wanna Be The Guy

I Wanna Be The Guy

Member
Oct 28, 2017
16,803
emag said:
1. Super Mario 64
2. TLoZ: Ocarina of Time

Just sloppy, bloated, ugly messes of games compared to the 2D masterpieces that had come before.
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Agreed on Mario 64! God I could write an essay on why I dislike Mario 64. Before I played it I had an image in my head of what a 3D Mario game would play like. That was something along the lines of what 3D Land and 3D World would be years later. I certainly never imagined 3D Mario would be more about exploration than quality platforming or tight level design. Mario 64 felt nothing like Mario to me. Stars instead of a point a to b structure. Coins for health. The most incompetent camera man of all time. I just hated it it felt nothing like a Mario game to me.
 
Morfeo

Morfeo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
657
Final Fantasy VII for me. Game got popular for its shiny graphics, but story and gameplay was a big step back from FFVI.
 
KalBalboa

KalBalboa

Member
Oct 30, 2017
8,019
Massachusetts
Resident Evil 4, for me.

The control never felt right to me, and it never really gelled for my tastes. I played it at launch for a short while and never finished it, but I came back in 2016 and played it all the way through. The tone, story, control, and general gameplay loop were stale compared to what I loved about the previous games. I'm so very, very glad we got Resident Evil 7 this generation. I'm shocked at how well the franchise has returned to the roots I loved.

I understand the importance of Resident Evil 4, but it just never worked for me.
 
Sub Boss

Sub Boss

Banned
Nov 14, 2017
13,441
Sampson said:
Breath of the wild.

Zelda's supposed to be about dungeons and puzzles. I couldn't care less about exploring.
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I get the dungeons,they lost atmosphere and surprise, but i honestly don't get the puzzle complaining, BotW is a very puzzle heavy game, the physics engine is put to good use on them, they are just scatered all over the map, both outside and inside shrines, and the divine beasts have devious ones.
 
Unaha-Closp

Unaha-Closp

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,749
Scotland
Far Cry 3 - took out the first person map/orienteering from Far Cry 2 - was an immediate bummer to me when I first played it. I finished it eventually and enjoyed it enough but then Far Cry 4 came and I played a couple of hours but bounced off, and then Primal which I did not bother with and then 5 which I did not bother with and then New Dawn which I did not bother with. That one change from 2 killed my interest in Far Cry forever it seems. Fucking loved Far Cry 2.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 2793

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,368
Strat said:
Skips, why you so negative now, homie? Damn.
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Just not a fan of what a few recent games have been doing.

megachao24 said:
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Waiting for a few characters for over a decade continue to be shit upon by being Assist Trophies (and for the record, Waluigi can go die in a fire) for Sakurai to mock fans for. Bullshit "consolation prizes" for fans of ARMS and Xenoblade 2 (me within the latter). Fans feeling "vindicated" for the stupid ass box theory of the lame as fuck Kenceniroar and shitting on fans for waiting characters either not in the game or regulated as shitty ass Assist Trophies.

Fuck Smash, fuck it's trash fire of a fan base, and fuck Sakurai.
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welp. I feel you, even though I did believe in the box. The consolation prizes soured me more now that I've seen their DLC picks, with them going for a very recent character and a dormant IP. Feels like the justifications made to AT/Mii Costume other characters don't have the legs to stand on anymore.
 
Camwi

Camwi

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,375
I was expecting to see Dead Rising 3 mentioned here. While it's my favorite game in the series, I've seen plenty of purists complaining about the lessoned impact that time limits have in that game compared to the first two.
 
Sloane Ranger

Sloane Ranger

Member
Oct 27, 2017
631
New Albany
Modern Warfare 2 with its kill streak changes / systems & downgrade on story from 1. Made me begin to walk away from COD. Black Ops finished it off for me.

Going from the Rainbow 6 playstyle to Siege killed the franchise for me.

Forza Motorsport 4: Kinect integration, no Porsche at launch, reduction is depth of tuning (for some instances)
 
Dr. Mario

Dr. Mario

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
14,042
Netherlands
Basically every franchise that started aggressively pushing microtransactions as a business model.
I'm really happy for the people who like interacting with manipulative storefronts dressed up as games, but they lost me.
 
UshiromiyaEva

UshiromiyaEva

Member
Aug 22, 2018
1,684
Mario Galaxy was one of the first games to give me serious motion sickness and I dont really harbor any nostalgia for Rosalina or the musical motifs that have returned in multiple Mario games after the fact
 
Jobbs

Jobbs

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,639
Metroid Prime and Other M.. Those games had nothing to do with what I prize in Metroid and were very very alienating
 
Ryouji Gunblade

Ryouji Gunblade

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
4,151
California
Guns of the Patriots for sure. I much preferred the earlier titles in tone, story, and execution. Even Peace Walker and Phantom Pain were more appealing to me despite the grinds.

Super Mario Galaxy wasn't my thing either. But I recognize how innovative and pretty it was. I like course clear Mario games and free roam ones but not a mixture with a top-down camera.
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
44,133
GTA 4. I was a HUGE GTA fan on PS1/PS2, but 4 was just... I don't know.

I will give another chance to 4/5 eventually.
 
Ploid 6.0

Ploid 6.0

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,440
Final Fantasy XIII, it got 3 darn games. I also skipped FFXV, and plan on skipping FFVIIR for a long time, until its story is complete. FFVIIR's gameplay looks better than FFXV at least, magic and summons won't be grenades and random guest appearances.

GTA4 suuuuuucked for me. So boring.
 
brambles13

brambles13

Member
Oct 27, 2017
546
Space Lion said:
Persona 5.

Massive Persona fan and not sure I will be playing the series going forward. Bloat after bloat after drawn out bloat: the game. I didn't like the dungeon design, the repitition in the story drove my mad. I didn't make it to the third dungeon. What an utter slog.
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This. But I made it to the 5th dungeon if I recall, the game just felt like a complete boring slog at that point. I liked the more minimal dungeons, the towns in P3 and P4 were also significantly more charming than the Tokyo setting. The music in Persona 5 is also the most repetitive in any RPG this side of DQXI, ever since P3 the series has fewer and fewer tracks it seems. Persona 2 (both games), 3 and 4 are all some of my favorite JRPGs of all time but something got lost in 5 for me. Also the lack of portability kills it for me.

Mario Kart Wii killed my interest in that series for the most part. I still love playing the older ones though. I tried Mario kart Viii but I'm not a fan of that either sadly.

Phantom Hourglass put me off of new Zelda games until ALBW threw me back in.
 
Dukie85

Dukie85

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,554
Yep, BOTW for me as well. Have nothing really bad to say about it, but it's just not for me... The Link's Awakening remake, though. That's RIGHT up my alley.
 
Sub Boss

Sub Boss

Banned
Nov 14, 2017
13,441
To me Breath of the Wild is a return to form, its the first time i feel joy exploring a Zelda world since The Wind Waker when i was a kid, it does make some unfortunate sacrifices for the open world, and the ending is the worst of the 3D games, but Hyrule here looks beautiful, filled with charming towns and colorful characters,puzzles are everywhere.it truly feels like a new OoT
 
MrWindUpBird

MrWindUpBird

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
3,686
[/QUOTE]
megachao24 said:
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Waiting for a few characters for over a decade continue to be shit upon by being Assist Trophies (and for the record, Waluigi can go die in a fire) for Sakurai to mock fans for. Bullshit "consolation prizes" for fans of ARMS and Xenoblade 2 (me within the latter). Fans feeling "vindicated" for the stupid ass box theory of the lame as fuck Kenceniroar and shitting on fans for waiting characters either not in the game or regulated as shitty ass Assist Trophies.

Fuck Smash, fuck it's trash fire of a fan base, and fuck Sakurai.
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Are you okay? That's a pretty extreme reaction there, dude.
 
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Aranjah

Aranjah

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,185
+1 to Breath of the Wild.
I'll just quote what I said in the "worst Zelda game" thread yesterday, because it fits here, too, to explain how BotW alienated me.

The things that make a Zelda game a "Zelda game" are very similar to the things that make a Metroid game a Metroid game -- the core gameplay loop that over the course of the game you get new abilities/items and those allow you to reach new places and get things you couldn't get before. This is the gameplay loop that I play both Zelda and Metroid games for.
Full disclosure I've only played about 9 hours of BotW because after that I lost interest, but as far as I can tell that core gameplay loop is what they removed from the game that makes it feel so different from all the others. Dungeons aside, weapon durability aside (though I love dungeons and hate durability), them giving you all your tools right off the bat and the only real "progress" being figuring out new ways to use the tools you already have just didn't do it for me. Can you imagine a Metroid game where you get all your suit powers in the first hour or two and then you just kinda dick around and stumble across bosses for the rest of the game, and at best you get to find more missile capacity upgrades? That's what BotW felt like to me.

I love dungeons because it's a multi-room, cohesively-themed area that can have multi-room puzzles and rewards you with a new item that then allows you to explore new places. BotW didn't have that at all, and while I kinda expect BotW 2 to stick to that because it's a direct sequel, if 3D Zelda continues in that direction indefinitely then I guess that pushes me out. :/ I'll have to stick to the knock-off Zelda-like games (and if I can say "Zelda-like' and you guys know what I mean, then that, to me, proves my point about what the core gameplay of Zelda games is).



Also, +1 to Xenoblade Chronicles 2
I was a big fan of the first game, and I even generally like "anime" as an art style category, but the second game just went too hard into Titninja McWaifu territory and as a woman I just couldn't take it seriously. Played it fro 2 or 3 hours and while I haven't consciously said "I'm never playing this again!" I haven't made much of an effort to go back to it.
 
Magnus

Magnus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,414
Breath of the Wild, the thread.
Final Fantasy XIII was another one that cemented for me that Square Enix wanted to take the series in a very different direction than I'd hoped for (when it came to moment-to-moment gameplay, battle system, etc.)
 
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