Games/instances where you view common criticisms as positives

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

'Sluggish' aiming in TLoU

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TLOU isn't a shooter, you're not supposed to be gunning everyone down and should be avoiding direct encounters wherever possible. You can't have the aiming and shooting be super easy and simple in a game like that. The game has to discourage direct combat.

By this token, lets talk about Resident Evil tank controls! Absolutely a benefit to the design.

 

[elyetis]

With Final fantasy 11 for me, but it's complicated since even some of the things that I complained about, lead to things I loved about it.

Hard content that you need help to do => extremely frustrating => but guilds/linkshell then meant something
Slow XP you almost can't solo => can't do much when you don't have much time => but getting to max level felt like an acheivement, and the gear you used along the way did matter ( and for a long period of time )
Loosing xp dying => good god I'll need to xp again => but it made hard fight more frightening, and aggro from mobs an actual danger
Ect...

I'm not saying there is no way to try to eliminate the downside without making the upsides disapear, but no mmorpg were able to convince me for long often because they did remove those downside while also loosing the upsides.

 

[seroun]

I love the games that get criticized because they are "too much story, too little gameplay". Just love them. I'd eat them as breakfast, lol

 

[Starlatine]

Apparently people here really hated traditional catching and battling in pokemon games so that's my pick now

 

[MeltedDreams]

Definitely the map system in Hollow Knight. What started out feeling like a daunting task just to explore each area of Hollow Knight actually ended up being super fun for me. Entering new locations, seeking out the map guy and then slowly drawing the map as I explored more, dropping markers on the map for stuff I couldn't initially reach etc. Loved it.

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This. If anything i hope more games in the future doesn't hold the players hands and have similar map system.

 

[J75]

As a person that doesn't care for crazy challenge in games, Ni no Kuni 2's easy difficulty was perfect for me. Any game that gets criticized for being easy or a specific easy mode being criticized (i saw some snarky posts in the old place about Casual mode in Fire Emblem, Easy Auto in Nier A and the patched Story difficulty in Horizon) i will welcome with open arms.

 

[Deleted member 10795]

I don't know if it's necessarily a "positive", but I was absolutely fine with Titanfall's lack of a campaign. The game was a blast and I appreciated its multiplayer focus, and thought their attempt to weave campaign elements into traditional multiplayer was pretty neat.

I guess you could actually say it was a positive if you factor in the backlash resulting in the Titanfall 2 campaign..

 

[Deleted member 46948]

RDR2: The Thread.

I fully understand how the slower pace of the game and the animations for everything can frustrate some people, but I absolutely love it. Put maybe 300 hours into the game since it came out, currently on my 2nd playthrough.

 

[Laughing Banana]

Probably the 'need to grind' mechanic in RPGs or games like Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey. I typically enjoy such things, I like seeing progress bars or increased numbers, lol.

 

[Jakke_Koala]

Silent protagonist

When i know the main character has a voice in an RPG i'm a lot less interested in them.

 

[Selphie]

From games I played over this year:
Weapon durability made BotW combat very fun and just caused a lot of improvisation situations.
Also loved unlocking all the characters in smash ultimate.
I did like the summoning for the Blades in Xenoblade 2, it's the field skills that I have a problem with.

 

[GymWolf86]

Usually when the press talk about triple A games and says "the game is too hard" usually means that the game is good for a man with all working fingers and a little experience with videogame.

So yeah hard game is usually my selling point.

 

[Aureon]

"Too Complicated"
Especially in the context of heavily modded XCOM or Factorio.

 

[Mirage]

Slow paced games are the best, the slower the better. The first few hours of KH2 were my favourite part of the game.
I much prefer games that are paced like a book than an action movie.

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Just like Trails in the Sky, the start being slow paced isn't a problem for me.

 

[CloudWolf]

Spec Ops: The Line

"The shooting isn't fun!"

True, that's completely intentional and core to what the game is about.

 

[CloudWolf]

I love the games that get criticized because they are "too much story, too little gameplay". Just love them. I'd eat them as breakfast, lol

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It's a stupid criticism, because often in those games the way the story is told is the gameplay. Stuff like What Remains of Edith Finch, Gone Home or even Fallout: New Vegas don't have shit gameplay, they just have different gameplay from what people commonly associate with gameplay (shooting and action)

 

[Rotobit]

Long cutscenes, I love 'em if they're well directed or cheesy enough to be endearing. Metal Gear Solid V has the best gameplay by far but it being more concise with the story was its greatest flaw in my eyes.

Rain in Breath of the Wild is also easy enough to circumvent (in most cases) and I love how it encouraged exploration options other than climbing every sheer cliff you see.

Games looking "cheap" is a silly complaint. It baffles me that people complain about the lack of AA or B-tier games on modern systems and then complain when something like Left Alive doesn't look like a billion dollar blockbuster.

 

[Odeko]

Every time someone says "Hitman 2 sucks, it's basically just Hitman Season 2" I question their cognitive abilities.

It's like "why can't Bayonetta 2/Bloodborne come to PC"-levels of willful ignorance to how games are made.

 

[NuclearCake]

The dungeons and the lack of a story in Breath Of the Wild.

 

[Son Goku]

When people say a game is just a movie. Specifically the order 1886. They told you it would have the black bars and be single player only and yet people all act shocked when those two things happened. I love it and knew exactly what I was getting into bar some awful boss fights.

Also generally when people insult sequels for being more of the same. I go back to franchises becuase I want more of the same generally and if they reinvent then fine but a 12 hour dlc story is fine for a sequel for me. Give me a new adventure, new encounters, and some new set pieces. I won't dock points simply because they didn't reinvent the wheel and I feel certain franchises get a pass on this while others don't.

If I want a completely unfamiliar thing I go for new IP

 

[Deleted member 13370]

I understand the criticism of weapon durability in BotW, and I think the system could be better.
But I really liked how it forced me to play with different weapons and not settle on a preferred style.

 

[SweetVermouth]

When there are few or no unlockable characters in fighting games.

 

[Ryutaryi]

Any time someone complains that a game is made in RPG Maker. A game that has nearly all original assets and something from the stock RTP slipping through is my favorite thing in the world.

 

[Spacejaws]

The Mako in Mass effect, love driving that bouncey space rover, just needed levels that werent a randomised height map.

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Had this on my mind. Seriously didn't get peoples problem with the Mako.

As for my own suggestion. Final Fantasy VIII junction system. Loved it. Actually made more sense for me than Final Fantasy VII's stat system. I must have played through VII about 3 times before fully comprehending the stat effect of equiped materia rather than just equiping all the magic and summons I wanted.

 

[Council Pop]

Has to be weapons breaking in BOTW. I think this mechanic is brilliant- I hate RPG levelling up and skill trees in this kind of game, and weapon durability created this incredibly delicate balance between weapons simultaneously being incredibly valuble and incredibly disposable. You know everything will break quite quickly, so even though you hoard strong weapons in case you need them further down the line, if you get into a difficult fight you're often forced to use your prized possessions after all your more common weapons break. It really forced me to use every available weapon in the game, and the whole system worked so well with the immersiveness of the physics engine.

The infamously corny dialogue and slang in Life is Strange is something that many fans actually enjoy and find endearing.

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Yes! I absolutely love this. It's cheesy teen film stuff and it's so #emosh and earnest and ridiculous that I really just love it.

 

[Renteka-Bond]

You don't even unlock the full battle system and party till you're where, 80% of the game done?

Praise FFXIII for being linear if you must, but for "making you fully use its systems", sorry but this is BS

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Well, considering I didn't say 'making you fully use its systems', I dunno what your beef is. I specifically said "within those limits". I won't even disagree that you don't unlock all you can do til way late, but I didn't make any assertions otherwise in the first place.

 

[Starlatine]

Well, considering I didn't say 'making you fully use its systems', I dunno what your beef is. I specifically said "within those limits". I won't even disagree that you don't unlock all you can do til way late, but I didn't make any assertions otherwise in the first place.

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Sorry if i sounded more agressive than i wanted, but i still find odd to praise FFXIII for severely limiting your gameplay choices (in a game that is mostly praised for its gameplay) till the end

It was incredibly frustrating to feel like you were in an extended tutorial for more than two thirds of the game

 

[Certinfy]

The way Arthur controls in Red Dead Redemption 2. I'll happily admit the shooting mechanics are ass but the way he controls onfoot is the best of any open world game. It's so nice to have a character who actually feels weighty, like you're actually controlling someone in a world. In pretty much every other open world game it's like controlling a feather floating in the air.

 

[RuudGullitsittingonashed]

The bad voice acting in Silent Hill 2 adds to the overall experience.

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+1

 

[Sphinx]

The Triforce quest in Wind Waker is great

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I came to post this. I was surprised to see the internet world at large hated this.

I loved traveling around gathering treasure

 

[Renteka-Bond]

Sorry if i sounded more agressive than i wanted, but i still find odd to praise FFXIII for severely limiting your gameplay choices (in a game that is mostly praised for its gameplay) till the end

It was incredibly frustrating to feel like you were in an extended tutorial for more than two thirds of the game

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On replays, it's not as great as a system that is more open-ended, sure, but for me personally, when it comes to rpgs that have a lot of options, I generally end up spending more time trying to farm up whatever resource I want than actually engaging with the game. It's part of why I used Octopath in my initial post because, like with FF5 and anytime I try to re-play FFTactics, I spent a lot of time jacking around grinding then got bored and quit.

That being said, I enjoyed the different configurations you get put in throughout the chapters as sort of puzzles for how to overcome the challenges with a new, sometimes awkward setup (Sazh and Vanille sections are the worst). While it certainly could have been better, I generally tend to prefer more limited options that expand into more nuance later, though it helps that FF13 has the different uses for the different Paradigms as opposed to, say, Dragon Quest which, to me, always feels like a slog to play with how basic it is.