Games You Want to Enjoy

I have been running through my DS library lately while looking forward to Bravely Default, and I came across a little game that I remember fondly, but never finished.

It's called Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume. It has great characters, pretty solid gameplay, and fun customization.

But I don't like it. And it's for a completely petty reason, but I can't get over it. The game is slow. Even for a tactical RPG. The controls are sluggish, enemy turns take forever (it cycles through each enemy for several seconds, even if they are doing nothing), and overall the game just doesn't keep me engaged.

With most tactical RPGs, I'm constantly engaged. My mind is tearing through strategies, and I'm constantly taking action, or assessing where the enemy is moving to. With this game, I just have too much time. I already know what the situation is, and what I can do, and I wind up waiting, and my mind wanders. And when that happens, I start picking up other games, or reading a book, and I can't keep going.

It's a great game. It's well written. The morality system is fantastic, as is how it affects the gameplay and difficulty. The characters are strong. And I want to see the ending. But it feels like a chore to sit through, and for that reason, I am probably never going to actually finish it. Which is a shame.


So let's talk about games that are overall really good, but which have a single problem that just keeps you from playing it.

Dark Souls. It's a good game, the world is great, it's visually stunning and I actually do enjoy the drawn out battles with regularly enemies at times, but I just can't. Never again man. *gets a controller put in his hands* Never again! *Dark Souls 2 plays on screen* Don't do it again! I'll be a good boy. I'll be a good boy, I promise. Don't do it, you're hurting me! SMURF YOU!

*snaps out of it* Whoa, zoned out there for a minue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skyblade

But I don't like it. And it's for a completely petty reason, but I can't get over it. The game is slow. Even for a tactical RPG. The controls are sluggish, enemy turns take forever (it cycles through each enemy for several seconds, even if they are doing nothing), and overall the game just doesn't keep me engaged.

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This is a legitimate reason to dislike a game. A good game with a bad UI is a bad game. Games are for fun, and waiting around for the interface to catch up to you is not fun. There have definitely been games I couldn't play because of massive lag. I'm thinking of the FF4/CT port for PS1.

I couldn't play FF1 on NES nowadays because you have to spend 10+ minutes buying potions one at a time from the item store, and because the walk speed and text display speed is way too slow. I can only play that game in an emulator at 3x acceleration.

FF1-6 because I'm graphically shallow. Also Oblivion because every character has the same head/nose as well as the way it feels as you control the player, it's like I am actually wearing a suit of armour whilst playing, real klunky. Lots of RPG's on PS2 that I have forgotton the names of, they just never matched up to FF.

There's also FFVI. Entirely due to game mechanics. I hate games where stat growth is tied to equipment (in this case, magicite). I also hate games that have points of no return. You should always be able to go back and complete things that you missed. Along a similar vein, you should be able to get max stats at any point, not only by holding back on leveling until you get all the best leveling equipment.

Again, I really like the game, but those mechanics annoy the heck out of me to the point I basically can't play it.

Persona 3. So many people like this series and I tried to get into it. I really tried. But I found the game incredibly boring and repetitive after a while.

>>> GTA games, it looks fun and it seems like you can do whatever you want there (is just what i like). But the whole ganster (lame) thing.. just turn me off..:luca:

Borderlands for starters, the styling is cool, Claptrap is hilarious and the overall setting seems like an explorers haven but try as I might I can't get into it. It's incredibly lonely as a single player experience which I guess I should have expected as the game is designed to be a multiplayer co-op experience, but not many of my friends bought the game. I did manage to play couch co-op with one friend and that wasn't much better, I guess you need four people to get the proper experience. That said Dead Island follows the same formula and I'm currently going through it with one friend and having a blast.

Gonna second Persona 3 unfortunately, at least think it was 3, I rented it for the PSP a while ago anyways. It seems like the sort of game I'd enjoy but it just took way too long to get going, and when it did I wasn't impressed.