Your Gaming Opinions Thread

[Dolce]

MOD NOTE: Unpopular Gaming Opinions, Overrated Games, and Underrated Games were all merged into one thread for their very similar discussion topic on what your opinions are on various games. So in this thread feel free to share your opinion on any game, and whether you love it/hate it.

Here's my personal list of games I think need more love:

• Rune Factory : I feel like it's underrated cause unlike it's counterpart in Harvest Moon it doesn't seem to be that well recognized of a name, more like it stays within Harvest Moon's shadow. Plus this series does try to combine two very different things, that being dungeon crawling and farming with a bit of romance which probably doesn't appeal as much to anyone who might play Harvest Moon for the laid back peace and quiet it offers. Or others who perhaps find this combination of gameplay rather odd. But I myself love it for that reason the odd gameplay is what makes it stand out to me, and I love how zany some of the characters can be (especially in Rune Factory 3 with Daria, an elf artist whom paints with a hammer and Pia a mermaid who's convinced squid are evil). So being a fan of fantasy I really love and adore what Rune Factory offers in it's cast, game play, and unique setting.
  
  
• Lux Pain : I'm pretty sure this game has a fan-base of precisely 00000.5 people, cause anyone I've asked has never heard of it. Plus it's gotten bad ratings from places like IGN, which is an outright shame in my opinion yet understandable at the same time because this game doesn't offer much as a game. It's more suited to being a visual novel, and or anime, but either way it definitely is visual novel-esque. But when playing this story I found that the one factor that resonated with me the most was this game's story it was one of the most absurd stories I've ever played and that's precisely what made it stuck out to me. Since you go around as a young boy named Atsuki on a mission to destroy "Silent", a worm born through hate and sadness, which has infected humans and forced them to commit atrocious crimes using your power of "Lux Pain". And aside from the story I do love the game's characters and it's OST most of all. In fact not only was the art great, but it had an amazing song like this as it's intro.
  
  
• Etrian Odyssey : Now I honestly can't say much in this case except I'm sorry I didn't pick it up sooner. I love how this game offers such a huge range of customization like your party, the skills they learn, and the very weapons/equipment they can wield. I also like how you get to map out your own map the way you like as well, and furious enemies like F.O.E.s lurking about it feels like an MMO at times, albeit with a good 10,000,000 less people. So really it's like you can build your own legend in these games. That's why I love them, but in the west it doesn't feel like this series has a ton of fans (though I could be wrong!).

Now that I've listed my favorite games, feel free to share what yours are! And don't limit yourself to just one game or a few sentences, cause hey who knows you might interest someone else in picking it up and making a fan out of them!

 

[Peachy]

Re: Underrated Games

Super Paper Mario. It was my first Wii game other than Wii Sports and I just love it. The characters the story the gameplay all of it. But it just seems to be disliked because it's so different from the first 2 games in the series. Which are both amazing too. Its just a really good game.

 

[FinalArcadia]

Re: Underrated Games

Okage: Shadow King - It was an early PS2 title and one of the earliest RPGs on the console, so it seems to have been overlooked as some bigger name franchises like Final Fantasy came out on PS2. But it is an absolutely charming game that follows Ari, the protagonist who has a weak shadow and is often totally overlooked by other people. Through a wild chain of events - like his sister being attacked by a ghost and feeling like she'll never be able to get married because she's cursed into speaking in pig Latin - the Evil King Stan takes Ari on as his servant and becomes his shadow. Stan is an incredibly entertaining character in how hard he tries to be evil and yet nobody takes him seriously, and also in his banter with Rosalyn, a hero who always has her parasol on hand. Combine the quirkiness of the game with the Tim Burton-esque art style and the nice soundtrack, and it's a shame it never got much attention or a rerelease on PSN.

Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis - I'm still angry that the Mana Khemia saga of the Atelier series was like the only one not to get a third game, because the first one in particular was fantastic. You're in a school-setting where alchemy and combat are taught, and you actually have to go to class and complete the assignments they give you, such as going to a certain location off-campus to find certain ingredients, and then synthesize those into a new item (sometimes with certain requirements like rank and particular traits). The synthesis feature is a ton of fun even if it is less involved than in the Atelier titles that followed, and stat boosts through the Grow Book was really interesting. Plus, the characters were mostly very likable; Vayne was a very different kind of protagonist for the Atelier series (in a good way), and Tony and Renee were an entertaining Team Rocket-like duo. Yet the game didn't do that great sales-wise nor does it get brought up much outside of Atelier circles, when it had a lot going for it.

Luminous Arc series: It was a set of three DS RPGs that involved witches with varying elemental affinities, and though the battle system was kind of typical and generic, the characters sort of made up for that in both of the first two games. It also had different little endings with each character depending on how you treated them during certain events, and a fair amount of voice acting for DS games. Sadly, the series didn't do well enough to get the third title ever released outside Japan, but that one looked like a nice improvement over the previous two (and the opening theme of that one was like the best).

And I totally agree about Rune Factory and Super Paper Mario, the former is super fun and deserves to stand on its own from Harvest Moon (which is also great in its own right), and the latter had a top-notch storyline and characterization. Even the gameplay was fun once you got over it being different from the previous two games.

 

[CrackFox]

Re: Underrated Games

I think the Saints Row series is very underrated. For those who aren't aware, it's a lot like GTA though the graphics aren't as good and they don't usually include famous people in it. In a lot of ways it's better than GTA and it deserves to be up there with it. Lots of people haven't even heard of it, let alone played it, though GTA is recognised by almost everyone, I feel sorry for the makers.

Parappa the Rapper is another game which not many people have heard of. I played it on the PS1 but it was later released on the PSP. You play as a cartoon-like dog and each level you meet a different teacher who instructs you how to do something. Like one level you learn to drive a car, the next level you learn to cook and so on. It's really basic but it has so much charm and so many great songs. I haven't played it in years but I still remember all the lyrics to each one.

Harvest Moon Back to Nature is my favorite HM game. It was one of the first releases in the series and back when I played it, it wasn't popular at all. Now HM is pretty popular and people are exposed to the new games in the series but Back to Nature was so much better than the other games after that imo. I think it was only released on the PS1 so many HM fans will never play it, which is a shame. Playing it again now wouldn't be the same, in comparison to the new games, it seems dated and very basic but playing it at the time was such a pleasure.

 

[Arc Blader]

Re: Underrated Games

The GBA tie-in for The Two Towers was actually a really solid action-RPG. A bit by-the-numbers, maybe, and it was definitely too easy to get lost in some parts, but it had a surprising amount of depth to it, more than I'd expect from any licensed game.

Also, while they're not necessarily underrated (given that they've gotten a fair helping of critical praise), I definitely think the Zero Escape games need to be played by more people.

 

[Dorothy]

Re: Underrated Games

All three Ty the Tasmanian Tiger games. Great platformers that really deserved more sequels.

 

[Flaze]

Re: Underrated Games

I actually do know a pretty obscure and practically unknown game.

When I was twelve I bought a game called Custome Robo Arena. It was the second installment of the Custom Robo series, which was a sort of a thing in Japan but only the Game Cube game had been brought to the US prior to Arena. Arena itself wasn't anything that big, it was a basic RPG set up where you had to climb through the ranks with your Custom Robo, you could customize them with different parts and you could get different robots too, the general things. I really liked the story though, at least at the time I thought it was an interesting story because I hadn't played many RPGs. Now that I'm older I do see that it had its clear holes but I still found it as a pretty fun game to play.

 

[Farfetchd the Vigilante]

Re: Underrated Games

I actually do know a pretty obscure and practically unknown game.

When I was twelve I bought a game called Custome Robo Arena. It was the second installment of the Custom Robo series, which was a sort of a thing in Japan but only the Game Cube game had been brought to the US prior to Arena. Arena itself wasn't anything that big, it was a basic RPG set up where you had to climb through the ranks with your Custom Robo, you could customize them with different parts and you could get different robots too, the general things. I really liked the story though, at least at the time I thought it was an interesting story because I hadn't played many RPGs. Now that I'm older I do see that it had its clear holes but I still found it as a pretty fun game to play.

I played the first one on the Gamecube, and this is really a great series. Cool customizations, a good story in the original, good mechanics. I love this series so much :3

 

[----]

Re: Underrated Games

One game I absolutely love that no one ever knows is Gauntlet Dark Legacy for Gamecube/Xbox/PS2. It was a game I grew up with so I may be a bit bias, but if you want to have a great multiplayer arcade fantasy experience I recommend it.

 

[Capricious Equilibrium]

Re: Underrated Games

Bayonetta. Famitsu 40. 2 Million copies sold among two systems. What the what?

 

[Flaze]

Re: Underrated Games

I don't think Bayonetta is that obscure to be honest, it could stand to be a lot more famous but I think it's still well known.

 

[Wispy Willow]

Re: Underrated Games

An obscure game I really love is Okami. If you don't know about this game (I wouldn't be surprised, I only discovered it last year) it's basicly a Zelda-like (Japanise)RPG (and if you've played ANY 3D Zelda (and the modern 2D ones) you will see gameplay references everywhere) where you go around saving the world from the evil dragon Orochi. One of the reasons I love this game is the aforementioned Zelda-like gameplay, with Techneques like the Clawshot Vine, the Gale boomerang Galeforce and the Cherry bombs. But my all-time favourite thing in this game is how you use the aforementioned Techneques: whenever you want to use one simply push and hold the B button (for the Wiiversion only, I have no idea about the PS2/3 versions) to bring up the canvas and use what is quite possibly the best gameplay mechanic ever: the Celestial Brush, which involves you painting on the aforementioned canvas with the pointer (Wii/PS3 version) or the analog stick (PS2 version) to use those Techneques. That and it makes you feel like you're part of the beautiful artwork of this game.

 

[----]

Overrated Games

Basically what series/game/anime do you think is extremely overrated and doesn't deserve this. I would like everyone to respect each others opinions. We don't need any fighting in here.

 

[Tyrfing]

Re: Overrated Games

Pokemon X and Y, mostly because of critics. I'll use Metacritic as my example here. 87 out of a hundred, reviews basically say "It's so innovative! It's 3D and added a new type!" Get your freaking facts right: Pokemon Colosseum and XD did 3D, and Gen freaking 2 added new types as well. They also praise the excellent music (BS, Black and White did it right) and excellent team (Er, Plasma? Flare Grunts were stupid, Plasma at least was content. Sinnoh also had Galactic, which was worlds better)

I hope I'm not sounding like a Gen 6 hater or a Gen 5 obsessive fanboy, but this is my honest opinion. Critic's ignorance and huge nostalgia shades are giving a mediocre game praise that it doesn't deserve.

 

[CrackFox]

Re: Overrated Games

I think the majority of great games are overrated. Even though they are great. Some people make out that they are on another level because I guess it's part of the human nature to exaggerate the truth somewhat. I've played many of the classics like GTA and The Last of Us etc and enjoyed them completely. Having said that, I still think they didn't quite live up to the hype that they receive. Since owning a PS3 i've played about 30 games, most of which a big titles. I honestly don't know which one is my favourite and that includes games that everyone raves about and games that most people call rubbish. It's all a matter of opinion I guess and in mine, the majority of games have turned out to be overrated.

 

[cityvillain]

Re: Overrated Games

I think if the game is so great which makes people think it is overrated, we purposely forget or pretend the -cons do not exist or can be justified. There isn't a perfect video game after all.

Anyway, I do agree Pokemon X & Y was a little bit overrated, at least from my personal interpretations of the reviews. I find the game to be actually underwhelming and I think many Pokemon players would agree to me when I say it has almost no post-game content aside from wifi/local battling.

Outside the Nintendo universe, Gone Home was kind of overrated by critics too. I agree that the narrative is excellent but the story is not compelling at all. The game if I try to put it in an analogy is like Morgan Freeman telling us a story about how Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.

 

[Lysson]

Re: Overrated Games

What I see as overrated has a huge fan-base and hardly any critics but that doesn't mean it's a bad game. It can be a really awesome ground breaking game but still not live up to people's hype.

Pokemon Emerald/Red/Blue/Yellow - these games are similar in that they are great games and have fans going crazy over them, I do really, really like them! But they just didn't live up to my expectations when people labelled them as the 'best'. They're as good as the other Pokemon games to me :/

Skylanders - I see it plastered everywhere and when I finally played it I wasn't that happy. Activion bought the rights to Spyro and Cynder but they did nothing with them or really any other character. The game just felt like League Of Legends and it shouldn't be. There are some really good characters but they have as much development as a certain poorly written best selling book's main character at the moment. Oh well I make do with fan art of the characters (and some people's comics are amazing!). The game was fun, very fun but very short and not much replay value.

League Of Legends - I played it for quite a bit until i came to the point of 'Why do I bother?' Games can last for up to an hour and you can not leave and for someone with bad internet that is bad. You also get yelled at by people so much the game become unbearable and it is insanely hard to master. I think it is good if you actually want to go anywhere with the game, if you play it casually you might as well not bother :/ I like the Champions though!

 

[Dr. Buni]

Re: Overrated Games

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It is a great game, but not even close to be the "best game ever". Hell, it isn't even the best game in the Zelda series.

 

[Silverwynde]

Re: Overrated Games

Call of Duty: It seems like the same thing every time I see it. It's a FPS and it's basically playing through a Tom Clancy novel. So we've got guns and military jargon and stuff. No matter how many of these games are made, it seems like they are cut from the exact same mold, which makes me wonder why everyone loves them.

 

[Hector]

Re: Overrated Games

I think a lot of this concept of overrated comes from when you played the game versus when it came out. Like I'm seeing mentions of two older games, classics (Pokemon RBY and OoT)

If you played the game at release (and I did in both cases as a kid, the targeted audience), in both of these cases (especially OoT) it was truly a mind-blowing experience. In OoT for example, just riding through Hyrule Field for the first time, an open world of that scale simply had never existed before. Combat that well done (in THREE DIMENSIONS) had never existed before. But I can see if someone was playing it now for the first time why they would be like 'meh, so what' in both of these cases. Because the newer Zelda games built off of the older ones, they should be better. Majora's Mask was objectively a better game than OoT (was basically OoT 2 with some of the kinks straightened out) but it didn't have the same lasting effect that OoT had on me.

Same with RBY versus XY. Sure XY are better games (I mean they better be given the tech and development time) than RBY, but again RBY were the first and truly effected me in a way that no other Pokemon game can or will.

For more modern games, it's far more subjective. For example League of Legends. Personally, I dislike it because it's not my cup of tea (MOBAs in general don't do it for me). I played a bit with my roommates in college and from what I can tell it's a very well done game with good design and a complex meta. But again, not for me.


As you all are probably noticing, I'm not giving an answer about what I find overrated. Because I don't find things overrated because I tend to believe that things are rated the way they are for a reason. That if something is being considered overrated, it's not because enough people bought it, played it and loved it for others who didn't like it as much to consider it overrated. And this is the case even if it's something that a lot of us find stupid. Like I'll use music for example, and Justin Bieber. I can't stand the punk, I think most of you can't either. And yet enough people bought his CDs, went to his concerts and listened to him on the radio to make him a star.