Games you weren't expecting to be so good!

[Pumpkin]

I've been trying to branch out from just RPG's so I've been trying lots of new games, some of which I expected not to like.

Mass Effect. Sci-fi isn't my setting of choice and shooters aren't my genre of choice, but I heard it had some RPG elements so I gave it a try and I quite liked it. The gameplay still isn't top drawer for me but I liked it much more than expected.

Dead or Alive 5. Just a buncha fan service I thought. But the game plays extremely well, it's smooth, it's fun. There's outfit changes, there's personalized team attacks and level attacks. It's one of the best fighting games I've ever played, go figure.

Fallout: New Vegas. I tried a bit of 3 but it didn't... I dunno, it didn't capture me. Again, it seemed a bit shooter-y for my tastes and everything is so... brown. But I liked how much you can personalize your game with your choices when watching sharky play so I gave it a go, and it was really good! It made me want to play Fallout 4 as well, which I also quite like.

Until Dawn. I like horror but can't play it. That was still kind of the case, but I couldn't wait to see sharky play and see LP's of it. I just loved the branching stories and the ham of it and everything. Plus I did find it terrifying, which is kind of the point.

Bloody Roar 3. I thought it would be super gimmicky with the beast transformations but it had some good depth and was actually super fun to play.

Emily is Away. I'm usually pretty suspicious of free to play stuff that isn't like... dress up flash games, but this managed to hit me in the feels.

Tomb Raider. Also not my genre, but it was very approachable and I had fun with it. Same with Super Mario Galaxy.

Ape Escape 3. I'm not much for platformers and you catch monkeys? Weird. But actually very cute and very fun. Katamari forever also sounds dumb in concept. You roll things in to a ball and get verbally berated. But very fun!

Dragon Quest V. I had tried VIII and found it pretty meh, but I fell in love with V. Chrono Trigger I thought might be a bit old and unpolished and I'd tried Cross and disliked it, but I fell in love with Trigger.

Record of Agarest War. Oh the fanservice. But the characters had surprising depth and I got to matchmaker.

Wind Waker. The art style turned me off but toon Link is favourite Link now and I love the aesthetics.

A few games I'm playing right now:
Saints Row -The Third-. Figured it would be too crude for my taste but it's super fun and goofy.

Dungeon Travelers 2 and Senran Kagura Estival Versus. Both are super fanservicy to an annoying degree, but they both have large casts of female characters and outfit changes and they're very fun time wasters for when I just want to decompress with something less heavy.

[Del Murder]

I guess a game that surprised me was The World Ends With You. I'd already heard good things about it but the description of it sounded dubious. It ended up being one of the best games on DS.

[Wolf Kanno]

Probably FFVI, I had not played a turn based RPG since Battletech on PC, and by that time in my life, I was pretty hardcore into fighting and action games. I hated it initially, though I was interested in the story, but it wasn't until Secret of Mana made me want to expand my horizons into the RPG genre that I came back to it and fell in love.

Threads of Fate was another one, the demo I had for it was cute but not really "must buy" but a friend bought it for me for my birthday and getting far into t made me realize how it was the spiritual successor to Brave Fencer Musashi.

Suikoden was another, while a review made me intrigued by it enough to borrow it from a friend, the first half hour of the game isn't exactly "amazing", but I muscled through and came to fall in love with the game and the series as a whole.

I can't think of anything other than that, most of the time I'm usually surprised by finally playing a game that has a lot of hype only to be pleasantly surprised it lives up to it.

[Pike]

Thought of another one: Awesomenauts. Got it in some bundle somewhere, ended up dumping HOURS into it. Still my favorite MOBA, hands down.

[Night Fury]

Probably Stardew Valley.

I heard it was good, and I bought it just as a little farming sim game to piss about with. Didn't expect how amazing it would be, and how it's so much more than just a 'farming sim'. Probably one of my favourite games of all time tbh.

[Slothy]

Probably Stardew Valley.

I heard it was good, and I bought it just as a little farming sim game to piss about with. Didn't expect how amazing it would be, and how it's so much more than just a 'farming sim'. Probably one of my favourite games of all time tbh.

Speaking of farm games, harvest moon on the playstation. Not only did i play the trout out of it, my sister played the trout out of it and my parents would sit on the couch and watch is play the trout out of it. They wouldn't watch is play anything else ever.

[Ayen]

Final Fantasy X-2
I literally picked this game up to do a negative review as a rite of passage back in 2013, but goddammit the thing was good and I couldn't say anything but nice things about it. That opening was hot I don't care what anyone says.

Resident Evil 6 is a more recent example. Frankly, I don't like anything RE 4 and beyond, but I got 6 along with 5 dirt cheap, so I figured why not? They let you play as an adult Sherry, and I kinda liked the look of an adult Sherry, so I just went with it. Honestly had a lot of fun. Felt like something me and my friends would've done in one of our old role-playing forums.

DmC. I wasn't expecting much given the fan hate, but I enjoyed it. I thought Dante and Vergil were both fleshed out the best they've ever been. A shame the director was a complete dick and their marketing campaign was trout.

[Zanmato]

Primal, of course!
I bought it because the illustration on the box was gorgeous (I know, that's a weird reason) and the salesman said I should give it a try.
It was a great game (although it should be longer)! Jen and Scree are one of my favorite duos and their adventures were amazing!
I'd play it again if I had a chance.

[Spuuky]

I thought of another one - The Talos Principle. I actually thought this would be a good game, and I was looking forward to it, but it turned out to be one of my favorite games of all time.

[Ayen]

I guess I can add the new Zelda game to my list now because the trailer looks AMAZING!

[Forsaken Lover]

Mass Effect 2.

It literally was as good as the hype said. That is a very rare thing.