I hate you but I'll beat you anyway

[ReloadPsi]

There's been a lot of games that, despite how much you hate them, you just gotta complete anyway because everyone else has, or because people accuse you of "not giving it a chance".

Three such games stick out for me: Super Mario 64, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Final Fantasy 10 (the latter I slowly grew to love once I could get past Overdrive Sin).

With Super Mario 64, I always criticised the game for feeling "rushed" and "incomplete" (it's really hard to describe, but I know a few people who have seen eye to eye with me after I used that word then got them to go play it again) and having some utterly horrible cameras, which to this day I still believe is the only challenge in the game (and yes, I did get all 120 stars and meet Yoshi). Also, thanks mostly to this game, when a game has bad camera angles, I instantly stop playing and refuse to continue (Devil May Cry being the most notable): I've given "fake difficulty" a chance once already, I'm not doing it again. Banjo Kazooie came out some time later and I loved it. It was everything Mario 64 should have been, in that you could actually friggin' play it.


MGS3: This game made me laugh at so many times when I don't think it was appropriate to do so. The Boss in her Villain Costume (apparently it was a new sneaking suit or something, but I call it a Villain Costume, proper noun), The Fear's lame stating-the-obvious taunts, such as "HOW DEOZ IT FEEL 2 B ATTAKD BY TEH THING YUO CANNOT SEA!!!!!11" (My answer: "The same as it feels to be shot by an ordinary camouflaged enemy hiding in the bushes I suppose."), the highly gratuitous Raikov injoke, The Boss on her horse (was it white? It must have been, or else I wouldn't have laughed so much), and The Fury, who just struck me as a bit of a dick. I enjoyed the challenge of having no radar, it was more realistic that way (Soliton Radar wasn't exactly developed until the 2000s), but it's not much help if when moving towards the right, the camera decides to track you in such a way that you fill the right hand side of the screen! That's like running backwards! The game didn't take me long to finish, but once I did it was the last time.

Final Fantasy 10! My initial hatred of this game was legendary amongst my peers for its irritating protagonist, poor voice acting and long, unskippable cutscenes (I'd usually skip spoken lines once I'd read them... when it let me. Anyone remember my old topic in the FFX forum?), but after I'd gotten past all the linear parts of the game, I finally grew to love it. The game's battle system had already made me keep on playing as CTB was just so fun for some reason, and I was overjoyed to esentially have my favourite Time Mage as the main character's Job, even if he did piss me off!

So there you go. Don't any of you ever say that I don't give games a chance now, will you?

Note: I have a very strong feeling that this thread is gonna be full of people citing FFX-2 as an example. I also predict that I will be flamed to high hell for my first two examples, as well as my honorary mention.

Other note: I also think that games aren't supposed to be given a chance: They're supposed to not be crap.

[theundeadhero]

I didn't realize how much I hated Lunar: SSS until after I had beaten it. The repetitiveness of every monster fight is enough to drive someone derranged.

[KentaRawr!]

Metroid Prime 2, I suppose. I don't know what it was about that game, but I simply didn't like it. I beat it anyway, though.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

My roomate and I got this game called "Magi" off some site's free game giveaway day (the game is normally $20). It was an interesting concept, but the execution, balance and general setup were absolutely atrocious.

We found a way to break the game, and never played it again. But not before making a post on how to never lose in the game and having all the rabid fanboys jump to defend it.

It's always fun to see people argue that their strategy would demolish the strategy you use that always wins when you're playing a game that DOESN'T HAVE MULTIPLAYER CAPABILITIES.

[Heath]

I didn't realize how much I hated Lunar: SSS until after I had beaten it. The repetitiveness of every monster fight is enough to drive someone derranged.

Not played SSS, but I felt that way at the end of GBA version (Lunar Legend) towards the end.

Also agreed fully with the horrid camera angles of Mario 64. I thought it was an enjoyable game but Banjo-Kazooie was much better. It was Rare that made most of great N64 games, after all.

[Captain Maxx Power]

MGS3...The game didn't take me long to finish, but once I did it was the last time.

A year or so ago I actually started a thread pertaining to my hatred of the MGS franchise as a whole and was duly trounced by the morons around these parts. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who think it's a trite, over-rated pile of second-rate garbage.

I actually had an inverse reaction with FF12. When I first starting playing through it I loved it. Absolutely adored it, couldn't get enough. Then I got further...and the story lugged...Penelo became more and more superfluous...nearly all of the characters failed to show anything beyond their initial development...sorry, I have to spend HOW long hunting for item drops? Seriously, I've never in my life known myself go through such a turn around on a game. Now I consider it to be a badly designed, utterly flawed game and perhaps the weakest in the series.

[NeoCracker]

MGS3...The game didn't take me long to finish, but once I did it was the last time.

A year or so ago I actually started a thread pertaining to my hatred of the MGS franchise as a whole and was duly trounced by the morons around these parts. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who think it's a trite, over-rated pile of second-rate garbage.

I actually had an inverse reaction with FF12. When I first starting playing through it I loved it. Absolutely adored it, couldn't get enough. Then I got further...and the story lugged...Penelo became more and more superfluous...nearly all of the characters failed to show anything beyond their initial development...sorry, I have to spend HOW long hunting for item drops? Seriously, I've never in my life known myself go through such a turn around on a game. Now I consider it to be a badly designed, utterly flawed game and perhaps the weakest in the series.

I think "Second Rate" is being a little nice actually.

[Seraphic]

Haunting Ground I guess...I mean I really loved it at first,but after the first guy was done and out of the picture,all the other monsters just really seemed subpar, like the maid and all those other things.
The story was never really explained either.
Found myself finishing it just to finish.
Chaos Legion was another good example, I got bored at like level 3 but kept playing just to finish,which the ending was not good at all,all the story was left for the end,so it all seemed rushed.

[Madame Adequate]

I actually had an inverse reaction with FF12. When I first starting playing through it I loved it. Absolutely adored it, couldn't get enough. Then I got further...and the story lugged...Penelo became more and more superfluous...nearly all of the characters failed to show anything beyond their initial development...sorry, I have to spend HOW long hunting for item drops? Seriously, I've never in my life known myself go through such a turn around on a game. Now I consider it to be a badly designed, utterly flawed game and perhaps the weakest in the series.

Couldn't agree more. I like Penelo but they've not given me a reason to like OR dislike her, or most other characters. The only good ones are Balthier and Larsa, and they don't really develop. The game started amazing and went downhill, now it lies unplayed and I don't really care.

Edit: I've tried playing TLoZ: OOT like nine times, and I can never, ever get into it enough to stick with it.

[Skyblade]

For me, most games fall under this category. I am fairly obsessive when it comes to gaming, and even games I don't like, I'm usually prone to complete. A true measure of how bad I consider a game is when I refuse to finish it. It takes something really bad to ruin a game enough to get me to stop playing it (and FFXII is an example of one of those games).

[Rengori]

I think Final Fantasy X was it.

FFXII would be on there but its just too painful.

[Genome]

It's always fun to see people argue that their strategy would demolish the strategy you use that always wins when you're playing a game that DOESN'T HAVE MULTIPLAYER CAPABILITIES.

That is always amusing, and I know exactly what you mean.

I've only ever beaten FFVII, because I have some problem where I get bored of a game and then never touch it again. It's annoying sometimes.

[Jessweeee♪]

Final Fantasy IV. I hadn't played any FFs before FFVII after that and I was tired of the YOU KIDS AND YOUR PLAYSTATION FFs IN MY DAY WE DIDN'T HAVE NONE OF THAT YOUTH SAVES THE WORLD CRAP AND WE WERE A LOT BETTER OFF WITHOUT IT so I was like, FINE, I NEED A PORTABLE FINAL FANTASY ANYWAY and I played FFIV.

I did not like it. Eventually I just popped in the Action Replay and made Cecil super strong so I could get through the story.

[Genome]

Final Fantasy IV. I hadn't played any FFs before FFVII after that and I was tired of the YOU KIDS AND YOUR PLAYSTATION FFs IN MY DAY WE DIDN'T HAVE NONE OF THAT YOUTH SAVES THE WORLD CRAP AND WE WERE A LOT BETTER OFF WITHOUT IT so I was like, FINE, I NEED A PORTABLE FINAL FANTASY ANYWAY and I played FFIV.

I did not like it. Eventually I just popped in the Action Replay and made Cecil super strong so I could get through the story.

This is madness! D:

[Nifleheim7]

FFX-2 is the first that comes to my mind (although there are others too).
It was a constant love-hate situation while playing it...i still have mixed feelings about it.