The little things that you hate in games [Archive]

rogue_robot

Mar 15, 2008, 11:09 PM

Ooh! Ooh! I've got one!

How 'bout when the entire damn game is a tutorial for the game (especially when there's no online multiplayer). You know, those damn games (mostly on recent Nintendo consoles) that hold your hand the entire time, and there's no way to shut it off?

...aside from that... The "teen boy saving world" plot doesn't irritate me too badly. It's Final Fantasy specifically that irritates me, there. "Teen boy saving world"? I can live with that, especially when dealing with a low-tech, medieval-style society, where realistically 10-12 would be an "adult" (as in Legend of Zelda, though they tend to use 15-17 for "adult" in that series, which, because of the presence of magic, is understandable).

"Angsty teen emo boy saving world"? Absolutely not. Take your damn problems elsewhere, princess, I don't wanna hear it. I want to see more leads like Vyse, or the amusingly cynical, non-emo side of Ryudo (whenever Melfice isn't around, in the first half of that game).

The occasional reskin isn't that bad. (Keyword: "occasional." PSU's got way too many.)
I definitely agree on the difficulty level issue, though.

Oh, and I just came up with another one! T/M-rated games which, on an intellectual level, are simple enough for average 5-7 year-olds to play through. It doesn't need to be anything hyper-cerebral, just something which would send said 5-7 year-olds running screaming to Gamefaqs in no time, while still containing enough well-presented information that an average 15-19 year-old would figure it out in a reasonable amount of time, like 10-20 minutes (counting all time spent gathering clues). Adventuring isn't all battling monsters, you know - sometimes, you gotta deal with the occasional trap, and the only thing they ever seem willing to throw at us is the occasional super-easy Zelda-style trap. Anyone who doesn't like those kinds of puzzles is invited to head over to Gamefaqs.

On the other hand, Nintendo's occasional-but-infamous "puzzle bosses" really piss me off. When I said I wanted a puzzle, I meant one that kills me for getting the wrong answer, not one that's busy killing me while I'm trying to figure it out!

Oh, and those games which throw 50+ hidden collectible items at you, without even the vaguest hints to the locations of any of them.

Jife_Jifremok

Mar 16, 2008, 01:51 AM

Unskippable cutscenes.

Reused cutscenes that really should be disablable. (I'm looking at you PPT shuttles!)

Cutscenes for boss introductions and deaths that add nothing at all, and destroy any potential to have any surprise element. (Cutscenes with conversations and jokes are acceptable.)

Bad voice acting---if it doesn't add any accidental comedy. (example: Castlevania SotN's horrid voice acting is classic and memorable. SotN's new voices on the PSP are unremarkable. BOORING.)

Escort missions. I know this was already addressed but it needed to be said again.

PUZZLE BOSSES, YES! I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates these! But my reasoning is a bit different...when I fight a boss, I want a FIGHT! I don't want something that's just gonna be an absolute pushover the instant I figure out a weak spot or proper weapon to use! I want a proper fight!

Speaking of proper weapons to use, I HATE it when most or all weapons besides one are rendered useless, ESPECIALLY in battle! Do you have any idea how much more fun many fights would have been if the X-Com style waypoint-programmable wind boomerang were actually useful for the multitude of enemies and bosses?

Most lock-on systems. If I'm forced to Z-target things like some pansy who has no idea how to keep track of single targets, it's a HUUUGE issue that often pretty much breaks the game for me. But if manual control is viable, then the presence of Z-Targeting or whatever is only a small issue (thus being suited for this topic http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif) that makes me think "oh what a waste of a button, something USEFUL coulda been mapped to it!".

Lack of full button remapping in the options menu. This includes being unable to leave functions unmapped (for instance, I'd rather have an empty button than have one mapped to lock-on!) and being unable to map the same function to multiple buttons. And would it kill to have some sensitivity adjustments? Even the SHOULDER BUTTONS of PS2 controllers have adjustable sensitivity, as was proven by (mediocre) launch game Eternal Ring!

Having to repeatedly go to the inventory menu to switch items or sometimes even abilities over and over and over...

Being unable to choose Japanese or English voices where applicable. If the game simply cannot fit both voice tracks, it's excusable. Games that were only voiced in one language, obviously excusable. But some games have no excuse.

Unskippable tutorials, sometimes even coming in the form of at least one story-related level!

Being forced to read a damn instruction manual in this day and age without any reasonable excuse, just to find out how to do something when the game itself should tell me. (Just a beginning-of-some-games annoyance.)

Instruction manuals being useless and in black-and-white. While it may seem to contradict the above entry, instruction manuals really SHOULD be a joy to read. For instance, Katamari's beautiful and stylistic manual...

Puzzles in action or action-adventure games. Knowing full well that I have to push blocks around, backtrack, etc can really hurt replay value. Some puzzles I find to be fun though, like the "hacking" in Timesplitters Future Perfect. But that's because they're randomized (at least somewhat) and keep with the fast pace of the game, only slowing things down for those who keep failing at them and dying as a result. It's the only exception I can think of, really.

Being unable to get rid of that damn targeting reticle in shooting games! I KNOW WHERE THE MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING SCREEN IS! Have you seen how targeting reticles are handled in RE4? That's PERFECT! Wii games are an exception since you kinda have to move that reticle all over the screen, but the reticle should be removable in those games too for added challenge! (maybe...)

Unmovable HUDs in certain games. Yeesh...

"Custom" characters with extremely limited options.

While it's great to have adjustable difficulty levels, it sucks when there's NO EXPLANATION as to what they do! It's not so bad in a fighting game or Smash Bros since it's obvious, not to mention Smash Bros has various goals concerning various difficulty levels and each game is short and sweet, but longer games NEED explanations! Does it take more hits to kill enemies? Do I get less ammo to use? Do I take more damage? Will there be more enemies? Different enemies? Do enemies get smarter? Do they just get cheaper?

Yikes that's a long list. I'll stop here.

[ This Message was edited by: Jife_Jifremok on 2008-03-15 23:53 ]

[ This Message was edited by: Jife_Jifremok on 2008-03-16 00:19 ]

GunnerGoddess

Mar 16, 2008, 02:05 AM

only thing that really bugs me is ridiculously easy final boss battles in rpgs. like really you do all that hard work to get to the end just to have something so easy it doesn't feel like an accomplishment. it's even worse when the ending sucks. I want more final bosses like in FFXII or the harder modes on ToS/ToA. the kind that could probably kill the whole party off in one shot if you make a single mistake. that or maybe another setup like odin sphere where you had to build up all 5 characters and pick out which of the 5 final bosses they each fought

Syl

Mar 16, 2008, 02:43 AM

On 2008-03-16 00:05, GunnerGoddess wrote:
only thing that really bugs me is ridiculously easy final boss battles in rpgs.

QFMFT

I expect final bosses to epic in all perspectives (music, difficulty, setting, the boss itself, its attacks, etc).

Other than that, stale, poorly made BGM upsets me as much http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_nono.gif

Weeaboolits

Mar 16, 2008, 03:19 AM

Those mazes in some RPGs where there's no actual map you just need to go through the right ways in sequence and a wrong turn lands you back at the start. I'm terrible at memorization, so these force me to rely on hours of guesswork.

Also, unskippable cutscenes that suck, I just bought NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, and that's the reason I'm not playing it at the moment (would it really have killed them to leave NiGHTS unvoiced or at least include original JP voices?). .-.

SubstanceD

Mar 16, 2008, 03:37 AM

On 2008-03-15 20:09, Sexy_Raine wrote:
There common things found in video games that people dislike. Name some of them that you find most annoying.

1. Cutscenes that cannot be skipped.
2. Long boring tutorials.
3. Too much unnecessary text to read.
4. The whole "teen boy saving world" plot. Yeah I'm looking at you Final fantasy!
5. Lag/slowdown
6. Cheap love scenes
7. Bad Voice acting
8. Cloned/reskinned areas, characters, etc.
9. No choice of difficulty level.

That's all for me. I know there are more out there.

[ This Message was edited by: Sexy_Raine on 2008-03-15 20:13 ]

You've pretty much listed most of the things I hate in games. The "Child/Teen character saving the world" plot is in particular a major pet peeve of mine.

darkante

Mar 16, 2008, 04:36 AM

1. When they make the game too easy because people don´t like to be challenged at all.
2. Secret bosses which doesn´t really put up that huge of a fight.
3. Tedious grinding to get that ultimate weapon which you could live without. (Ehum..Rattlesnake in PSU example)
4. Game with customization which is really limiting.
5. Annoying voice acting.
6. No VA in games with alot of text.
7. Things that depends mostly on luck rather then skill to survive..example a boss which you might or not defeat depending on its random behavior.
8. Reskins of monsters or places in high degree. Shame on you ST doing this to PSU!
9. Repetive stuff..grinding the same place and shit for example...points at reason number "3"
10. Long distance between check points or SAVE areas.
11. Alot of text which cannot be skipped and afterwards will result in a very hard boss fight..chances are you die at least once.
12. Games that are insane in difficulty..example the R-type and Gradius games.

That is what i have come up with now.

Weeaboolits

Mar 16, 2008, 07:05 AM

Yes, save point spacing, hard to enjoy the game when you're muttering to yourself "please let me save, please let me save, please let me save" half the time.

rogue_robot

Mar 16, 2008, 08:12 AM

On 2008-03-15 23:51, Jife_Jifremok wrote:
PUZZLE BOSSES, YES! I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates these! But my reasoning is a bit different...when I fight a boss, I want a FIGHT! I don't want something that's just gonna be an absolute pushover the instant I figure out a weak spot or proper weapon to use! I want a proper fight!

Oh, I agree with you here, too. This is what really sucks about every 3d Zelda/Metroid game - especially because of this -

I can just imagine Link muttering this to himself on popping open some big treasure box:
"Oh, whuzzat? Interesting toy... hmm... wonder what I'm gonna have to do to kill Ganon's next big minion... http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif"

Weeaboolits

Mar 16, 2008, 08:44 AM

It's better when it's just hell to use anything else, but doing it properly doesn't reduce them to nothing.

Like in Madou Monogatari (not a hard game, but first to come to mind), you're just expected to use the right elements, even when you're doing it right, it just means the boss will actually be taking damage rather than shrugging it off.

rogue_robot

Mar 16, 2008, 09:14 AM

Yeah, the whole "GRAAR I'M INVINCIBLE TO EVERYTHING except that one specific little item/technique there" thing tends to irritate me, too.
It's obviously different when a boss has a reasonable, logical immunity to some specific items (like, for example, a lava dragon being immune to anything fire-based), but Kryptonite syndrome is just plain retarded.

I say Kryptonite syndrome, not Zelda syndrome, because I can actually name one boss which doesn't require something specific to defeat, outside of Zelda 2 - in OoT, you can defeat Volvagia without the Megaton Hammer. You just have to time your jump attacks with the Master Sword very carefully when he's sitting in one of those little lava pools doing his claw swipes.

ABDUR101

Mar 16, 2008, 11:06 AM

-Games that have music so loud that it overwhelms ingame speech and regular sound effects.(which brings us into...)

-Games that don't let you set the volumes for sound effects, vocal and background music seperately.

-Games that have extremely loud(or extremely quiet) cutscenes and sound effects, with no option to alter the sound in general.(Call of Duty 2, when that opening cutscene comes on it makes me want to send my controller through the TV). Seriously, what the fuck is up with that? Should'nt that kind of shit be caught by the QA team? When I'm playing a game at night, and I have the game turned way down so I don't wake everyone else, then suddenly a cutscene occurs and my TV is blaring. Or vice versa, I have to turn the volume way up on the TV to hear important cutscenes, then as soon as they end the game is blaring through the TV immediately.

-Games that have invisible walls. If I'm playing a 3D game, and there's a small incline that matches pretty much what I've already scaled in-game, don't tease me with an incline that looks like I should be able to get over it. I'm from the 2D era, for the most part if you could reach it, you were solid to going that way. Everytime I see a ledge in a game that I know I can jump to in a 3D game, I think "Hey, I bet there's a secret over there that most people would ignore" and I make the jump, and from my trajectory ingame I should have landed on the ledge perfectly; but no! A fucking invisible wall stops you and you plummet to your death, having to restart the area or lose a valuable life.

I come from an era of gaming where you checked every knook and cranny of a game for hidden stuff, its ingrained in my DNA as a game player to do so! If there's nothing in an area and I should'nt be jumping there, gee, I dunno, make the ledge alot higher than I know I'm able to jump so I know not to attempt it.

-Games that require you to remember all kinds of combo's to successfully kill anything. No, its not fun to remember how to perform a 34-hit combo, or that to get a certain item from a particular monster, you have to do a successful combo and then perform a particular 'finishing move' at just the right time of day. I want to have fun, if I wanted to dick around with how far I can push my memory, there are plenty of other ways of doing it.

-Endgame bosses that were easier than the first boss. ok, again, I come from a genre of gaming where the end-boss is someone who would be quite hard to fight, you had to use the culmination of all your abilities, items, etc to defeat. Basically the rest of the game was the training course on how to prepare yourself for this bad mother-fucker. Nothing is more annoying than going through all kinds of hell, and then at the very end of the game "oh wai hello there guilty spark, pew-pew-pew-dead". Hello let down and disappointment. =]

Sexy_Raine

Mar 16, 2008, 02:20 PM

On 2008-03-16 00:05, GunnerGoddess wrote:
only thing that really bugs me is ridiculously easy final boss battles in rpgs. like really you do all that hard work to get to the end just to have something so easy it doesn't feel like an accomplishment. it's even worse when the ending sucks. I want more final bosses like in FFXII or the harder modes on ToS/ToA. the kind that could probably kill the whole party off in one shot if you make a single mistake. that or maybe another setup like odin sphere where you had to build up all 5 characters and pick out which of the 5 final bosses they each fought

Yeah final boss fight in general should not be so damn easy. For example in Resident Evil 4, Saddler was friggin' easy compared to the earlier bosses.
Make harder final bosses please.

Also wanna add I cannot stand bad music in games. This is one of the big ones for me. I would go as far as muting a game if I can't stand the music in it, like Devel May Cry "Metal" crap music, or anything that doesn't fit the background of the game. Music/sound is a big thing for me in a game, and it goes as far as making a game memorable for me! Castlevania series has some of the best music, and one of the reason I love the series.

UnderscoreX

Mar 16, 2008, 04:12 PM

Annoying gimmicks the devs add on when they really aren't necessary at all.
For example I recently started playing Kingdom Hearts and God damn the Gummi ship is annoying, I understand some people might like the switch of gameplay but atleast give you the option to turn it off.

Frana

Mar 16, 2008, 08:51 PM

When they release a better version of the game like, a year later.

Anduril

Mar 16, 2008, 08:53 PM

When the game at first treats you like an idiot, and then at one point it just kicks into such a hard level that it feels like you were thrown out of the nest ass first.

BlaizeYES

Mar 16, 2008, 11:35 PM

On 2008-03-16 18:53, Anduril wrote:
When the game at first treats you like an idiot, and then at one point it just kicks into such a hard level that it feels like you were thrown out of the nest ass first.

... which is probably the best example of real life you can get from a game.

and yes, epic boss fights are a must. even if you're not sure what you are actually fighting for, it can all be made up in the end with something that blows your away. for instance: final fantasy 7. about 6 years ago, i played it to hear what all the fuss was about. as the story went on and i was obviously confused, that boss fight against sephiroth was so difficult and so EPIC, i probably broke the crontroller from gripping it so hard. but good games with a lackluster final boss, music, buildup, etc... it's just disappointing

Nitro Vordex

Mar 16, 2008, 11:45 PM

Why the hell has no one mentioned camera angles?
I don't think I really need to say much, as I'm sure the rest of you could come up with worse.

McLaughlin

Mar 16, 2008, 11:46 PM

Any game where, after I've past through the are, will not allow me to turn off random encounters.

Specifically, this is irritating me in Lost Odyssey. The Treasure Trove achievement is making me cry because of all the encounters with enemies I can kill in one hit, but slow me down with their presence.

Also, for those power levellers, a way to increase enemy encounters would be nice.

EDIT: Crappy Cameras. DMC suffers from this, sort of.

Shitty, mediocre bosses.

Something that really irks me is when a game throws ten party members at me and I can only use three or four of them. You can't even swap 'em out mid battle (Golden Sun II let me do this. I love that game).

When a dev re-releases their game with additional content, while screwing over current owners in one way or another. Whether it be not releasing the new version (ala Kingdom Hearts) or through just not giving players on the game's original platform a chance to get the content (like Gears of War's Brumak fight).

PC favoritism in general irks me.

EDIT 2: Control schemes. To be more precise, a lack thereof.

This is mostly an issue with any game where the Triggers/Bumpers are used routinely. Major offenders as on late are Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4.

Both Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 have a Southpaw scheme. "Great! NO problem then." Wrong. Halo's Southpaw swaps the Triggers ro LT shoot and RT Grenade. It leaves the Bumpers as RB reload and LB Grenade swap. That's confusing. If I pick up a second dual-wieldable weapon it reverts back to RT shoots right and LT shoots left. If I drop that second gun, it goes back to LT shoot and RT Grenade throw. That's confusing as well. Additionally, there are control schemes I like better than the Southpaw version of the Default, but can't use because there's no Southpaw variant. Specifically, Bumper Jumper would be nice to use, but I'd be totally flubbed relearning my triggers.

Call of Duty 4 also has only one Southpaw scheme, which is derived from the Default one. It switches my Triggers AND Bumpers, which is nice, but it also changes my LA and RA (analog sticks) functions for when I press them in. Instead of pressing LA to hold my breathe while sniping, I use it to sprint. RA is used for Melee and holding my breathe while zoomed. It's nigh impossible to hold RA down while trying to use it to aim.

A totally customizable control scheme for any game (or at least Shooters) would be fantastic. Lefties get screwed over in this department.

EDIT 3 (I'm tired and keep thinking of things): Ultimate Weapons. Yeah, they're awesome, but what good are they if I get to use them for all of thirty seconds before I get to the end of the game? Especially if I have to bust my balls to get them.

EDIT 4 (>_>): Games that don't show equipment changes on the battle sprites. Console games particularly. Even FFIII on the DS can show different weapons. Why the hell can't half my console games show me my new sword? It doesn't even feel like I've upgraded.

[ This Message was edited by: Obsidian_Knight on 2008-03-16 22:09 ]

ljkkjlcm9

Mar 17, 2008, 12:09 AM

just a question to you people... do you like games... at all?

do you even realize what you're complaining about?
Would I rather play a game with an 18 year old hero, or a 40 year old hero. Honestly, I don't care nor identify with a 40 year old, so I'll go with the 18 year old.

Ultimate weapons, are meant to be ultimate. They're meant to be the last thing you get in a game. They're meant to be harder to get than actually beating the game. They're meant to show that you worked your butt off to get them. They're not meant to actually be necessary to beat the game. Sidequests are suppose to be harder then the actual final boss. People never seem to understand this. Sidequests, acheiving ultimate weapons, special hidden stuff, is all purely optional. It's meant to reward the player. After you get it all, you don't need what you get. People have complained about it enough that sometimes now they just give you an item that says you killed such enemy. They don't even give you anything useful. I'd rather a really cool spell or something, even if it's completely unnecessary.

Oh and puzzle bosses often offer more true difficulty than just a buffed up boss. Sure buffed up bosses can be fun, but I don't want to spend an hour fighting a boss with a gazillion HP, who then uses an attack that kills me in 1 turn. That's just frustrating and annoying. Sure I'll try again, but if it gets to the point where it continues to happen, I'm done with the game. No game is worth that frustration. Game developers know this.

Just going back and reading this, many of the complaints all have legitimate reasons behind them.

THE JACKEL

[ This Message was edited by: ljkkjlcm9 on 2008-03-16 22:18 ]

McLaughlin

Mar 17, 2008, 12:13 AM

Yep.

Scrub

Mar 17, 2008, 12:20 AM

I hate when the game is incredibly fucking vague about where you need to go or what you need to do. No, travelling halfway around the fucking level trying to find the door I missed isnt fun. No, travelling around the entire fucking world to talk to every last NPC isnt fun either. Fuck off with this shit.

Army of 2 has this shit right. It has a button you can click at ANY TIME that gives BIG FUCKING ARROWS to where you need to go, and anything you need to get/sabotage/whatever GLOWS IN GREEN. It keeps the action constant and makes it so you dont backtrack through the level because you dont know what the fuck youre supposed to do.

Solstis

Mar 17, 2008, 01:02 AM

I hate Halo 3's multiplayer spawning system. Excuse me, I survived because I left my teammates behind. I do not want them spawning right next to me.

Also, what's up with Guitar Hero III? Did they forget to make it fun or something? Most of the songs suck (yes, there are exceptions, but I don't care right now), and I don't know who did the introductory clips, but they must have been idiots. I'm not playing Guitar Hero III because I want to be a rockstar, or do I have a desire to be a total poser. I want to play a freaking rhythm game. There's nothing badass about Guitar Hero III. The designers need to get over themselves.

Rock Band, on the other hand, is amazing. It comes with multiple genres of music, and yeah, it does share some songs, but there's something more there. I can play Maps and Orange Crush in one play period, then go for some metal or some electronica (yeah, there's no soul music, whatever).

Also, Guitar Hero III looks like crap on the Wii. The generic lead singer dude looks like a jackass.

[ This Message was edited by: Solstis on 2008-03-16 23:05 ]

AC9breaker

Mar 17, 2008, 01:06 AM

Instruction manuals with no colors, pictures, or significance of thought. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

Alizarin

Mar 17, 2008, 01:29 AM

Games that have to make you sit through screens of company logos before starting the game. I really just want to start the game already, they could plug in the logos at the title screen or during loading screens.

[ This Message was edited by: Alizarin on 2008-03-16 23:30 ]

Zorafim

Mar 17, 2008, 01:41 AM

Male giant sword wielding orphans with a problem with superiority. Why do I have to play as someone who can't pass highschool? Why can't I play as someone who's gone through his combat training and puberty long ago? An accomplished adventurer, a knight, a master strategist, anything but some guy who picked up a sword the first time five minutes after you met him.

Females just there for the love interest, fanservice, to be a dits, or the combination of the above. You're telling me female accomplished strategy thinking knight adventurers are so hard to come up with? Must females always be so flawed? Why can't you make a female I can respect without having her wear less than a bikini to combat?

Generic spiky haired giant sword wielding highschool dropouts finding romantic relationship to the bikini-armored wearing ditsy fanservice girl who happens to be the only female in the group/game for no reason other than the fact that one has the camera follow him and the other one has breasts. I like my romance, but if you're going to have it, at least plan for it.

Giant swords. I get it, people think they're cool. Now give me a lance and get out of my way.

Giant parties, when you're only going to be using four members, and every member fights the same anyway. Especially when you only put thought into the four members you're probably going to use anyway, and came up with the other twenty six on a whim.

"Unique" weapons. You're telling me that weapon shops happen to have an infinite amount of both unnecessarily huge swords and deadly sports balls? And yet, they've never heard about an axe, lance, or bow?

Sidequests that are more difficult than the final boss, especially ones which drop the ultimate weapon. So basically, I do something which completely ruins the difficulty of the last level, because I'm probably going to do the sidequest as soon as I find out about it, or stop playing the game once I beat the boss. And what's the point of it giving you the ultimate weapon, if the only reason to use said weapon is to fight the boss you already killed? Is it so much to ask for sidequests being part of the game? Must there be such a distinguishing line between something you can do and something you have to do?

Anti climaxes. Weak sub-bosses being more difficult than the boss of the area, or levels being more demanding than the boss fight.

Useless weapons/items. Something you use once, and keeps an inventory space throughout the entire game.

Grinding / luck based events. I'd so much rather go fly around the entire world, talking to NPCs and fighting bosses to obtain my ultimate weapon, than to fight the same rare monster in hopes it drops its rare item. Even if said rare monsters guaranteed a drop every time you fight it, and you need to trade a large amount of those items in to get your item, I'd prefer it to something which I could get next fight but will actually get in thirty fights.

Instant kills, cheap deaths. Watching my character fall to the ground is one of the most humiliating things I can think of in gaming. Seeing my character do this on a regular basis is just degrading. In fact, I don't know what's worse; being able to quick cast a full raise spell or having to start at the beginning of the level.

No respectable side characters. You're telling me there are only two people in the entire world who can wield a sword well? And that they're both below the legal age to get a job? Is everyone in every village and town either so cowardly that they have to rely on a child with a bad sense of weapon selection, so corrupt that they have to get in his way all the time, or too idiotic to see a giant rock heading strait towards them? And why is it that the corrupt people are so much stronger than the good natured cowards?

Inability to change the language. I don't want to hear english voice acting on a japanese game, unless they made it good. How am I supposed to enjoy a game when people are spurting out "All your base" to each other in awkward tones? Am I supposed to take that guy seriously when he says something that completely contradicts his mannerisms? I don't mind if the voice acting doesn't really make a difference other than to help build a character (Thank you, Skies of Arcadia. I can forgive your "How could this Be?!"s if you keep them short and sweet), but I really don't want to sit through another "What is a MAN?! *crash*" when the guys who came beforehand did it better. Who cares if I don't speak the language if I'm reading what they're saying anyway?

Non-texted VC'd games. I can't hear a word they're saying over the background noises, and I don't want to wake anyone in the house.

Games that don't know if it's an RPG or an action game. Can I dodge this attack? If not, what's the point of adding a dodge funtion if I'm just going to eat it anyway?

Games with no gameplay besides run and mash the B button. Especially when they make them difficult.

FFXII. Either make it hard, make the mechanics confusing, or make the game boring. Please don't do all three at once.

I probably have more in me, but I think this is enough for now. Of course, I have a list of things I love in games as well, otherwise I wouldn't be a gamer, but it's just so much easier to pick out the bad things.

Jife_Jifremok

Mar 17, 2008, 01:56 AM

On 2008-03-16 12:20, Sexy_Raine wrote:Devel May Cry "Metal" crap music
Sadly, I need only one hand (two if I'm lucky and forgot about some games) to count how many games have had GOOD metal (aside from the obvious Guitar Hero) to go with their action. Not even half of the games I can think of have more than two good metal tracks.

On 2008-03-16 14:12, UnderscoreX wrote:Annoying gimmicks the devs add on when they really aren't necessary at all.
For example I recently started playing Kingdom Hearts and God damn the Gummi ship is annoying, I understand some people might like the switch of gameplay but atleast give you the option to turn it off.
Ahh yes, the half-assed bids for variety. They really should only go for variety when they know they can do it RIGHT. Even worse is when the annoying gimmicky half-assed variety takes up more than half of the game, like Star Fox Assault's stupidass ground-based levels!

On 2008-03-16 22:09, ljkkjlcm9 wrote:
just a question to you people... do you like games... at all?

do you even realize what you're complaining about?
Would I rather play a game with an 18 year old hero, or a 40 year old hero. Honestly, I don't care nor identify with a 40 year old, so I'll go with the 18 year old.
I think the issue here is just with those teenage heroes that are whiny and hardly qualify as hero material. As was previously mentioned, it's often believable when the hero is some whippersnapper, but I wonder if their age is even noticed when they actually make good heroes. Though, an old person for a protagonist could be rather refreshing...

Ultimate weapons, are meant to be ultimate. They're meant to be the last thing you get in a game. They're meant to be harder to get than actually beating the game. They're meant to show that you worked your butt off to get them. They're not meant to actually be necessary to beat the game. Sidequests are suppose to be harder then the actual final boss. People never seem to understand this. Sidequests, acheiving ultimate weapons, special hidden stuff, is all purely optional. It's meant to reward the player. After you get it all, you don't need what you get. People have complained about it enough that sometimes now they just give you an item that says you killed such enemy. They don't even give you anything useful. I'd rather a really cool spell or something, even if it's completely unnecessary.
What's the point of even having an Ultimate Weapon if you only get to use it for ten minutes on a good day? It's understandable if said Ultimate Weapon is actually endgame-only because of the way the story goes (for instance, the Rocket Launcher from RE1), but in most cases after earning your Ultimate Weapon it's little more than a trophy that can only be seen by one epic fight, or perhaps TWO if that weapon is lucky. It's simply an issue of not having enough worthy opponents to pwn (or just make the battle easier if the opponents are truly mighty!) with your Ultimate Weapon!

Oh and puzzle bosses often offer more true difficulty than just a buffed up boss. Sure buffed up bosses can be fun, but I don't want to spend an hour fighting a boss with a gazillion HP, who then uses an attack that kills me in 1 turn. That's just frustrating and annoying. Sure I'll try again, but if it gets to the point where it continues to happen, I'm done with the game. No game is worth that frustration. Game developers know this.
Okay, I'd usually rather fight puzzle bosses than THESE kinds of bosses! Actually, in some cases these buffed-up bosses BECOME puzzle bosses that take forever to kill because you still have to find a weakness and exploit it! Just to give an example, fighting Galamoth in the new PSP SotN as Maria. I still hate puzzle bosses though, except for puzzle bosses that actually require skill to fight even after figuring out their weakness.

And now, some more pet peeves of mine...

Cutscenes that interrupt gameplay! This is especially annoying, and includes but is not limited to cutscene-style attacks such as Fakis's meteor and many of the really strong attacks in Tales of... games. The combat is realtime so it should STAY realtime!

Cheap unavoidable attacks in realtime battles! Not being a cutscene doesn't always stop a move from being cheap. And no, having the ability to heal afterward doesn't make up for it. Neither does me having the ability to use it make it cool. I don't like enemies that fight like this, so why should I fight like that?

Buffs and debuffs in general. In some games it can be difficult to tell whether some buffs are worth using. In some games they have visual effects (and understandably so) but that means in pretty much EVERY FUCKING BATTLE you have to have these glowing red and blue auras or some shit. It's unnecessary! May as well just make the buffs passive. Ah, but the worst offenders are time-based. They often just make the game too easy, and make players feel gimped if they don't have/use them.

Status effects in general. In most cases, if they're not cheap they're just a mild annoyance that gets in the way. Paralysis and sleep are cheap no matter what (in most cases), and things like poison and stinkiness are easily cured by a simple item use. Why even bother having the status (or the cure) in the first place? And then there's needlessly tacked-on shit like PSU's Shock. "Unable to use melee or bullet attacks"? What the hell is that shit? You can still move your arms and legs perfectly fine (not to mention use techs which also require arm movements), so what's keeping you from attacking, some pacifist urge? Oh, and the worst cases definitely involve one-man parties and being turned to stone or some shit. No, having to waste your Accessory slot on a Stone Check or whatever does not make up for how much it sucks.

Nitro Vordex

Mar 17, 2008, 12:01 PM

Okay, the status effects I'd let slide. If there's an enemy with a ____poison or poison ___ , wouldn't you think it would, oh I dunno, poison you? *gasp*
The paralyze, that's done for games that have to make you work together, or just annoy the crap out of you. (Damn Lilies http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_mad.gif )

Anyway, one of the things I hate in games, the graphics, but very specifically, that ugly ass gloss they put on characters. Example A:
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8010/sonicheroes4oj5.jpg

This gloss annoyed the crap out of me, it's ugly as hell. They should've stuck with this texture:
http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/981/sonichf2.png

That's right, Sonic Adventure 2. Now this is not the best image, but I know a lot of you have seen the game, and know this might be better. Specifically, this is from SA2B, so it's been "updated".

rogue_robot

Mar 17, 2008, 01:17 PM

On 2008-03-16 23:41, Zorafim wrote:
Giant swords.

QFMFT. Give me a regular-sized sword, and I'll gladly teach Mr. Big-Sword how much more it hurts somebody when you attack them with a weapon that's momentum is less than your own, by demonstrating on him - let's see if his puny muscles dragging that massive thing around can keep up.

JACKEL, you drew a rather unfair comparison with the "puzzle bosses." You have to assume their attacks are equally as accurate, and inflict equal amounts of damage. The only difference is between them being friggin' immune to all but one specific item in one specific target point, or them not taking much damage from anything but that specific item (though maybe having more health in exchange). In this regard, "puzzle bosses" are not only more annoying, but they often don't even make sense in their resistances and immunities!

Shadow of the Colossus handled the "puzzle bosses" best of any game I've seen, IMO (then again, that's all that game was). You could still inflict some damage to them without attacking their weak spots or using environmental event triggers, but you couldn't kill them that way - highly resistant, not immune. It still takes strategy and thought, but you can at least keep the bastard busy and inflict a little damage while you're analyzing the situation.

Solstis: I know what you mean with Halo 3's spawn scripts. Even more annoying is the occasional "You got assassinated!" - "Hey, WTF! I just killed that guy! Why the hell did it spawn him right behind me!"

Zora - unfortunately, the dumb and/or slutty females are easier to write for (and most of the time, since they're just there to be the whiny brat's love interests, the writers don't want to spend much effort on the females).

As for their clothes - well, even with total freedom of what to put on a character, you'll find it's often rather hard to make a character stand out as looking unique. Armor only exacerbates this problem, because a proper suit of armor is going to look much like any other proper suit of armor (except maybe for colors). Any attempt to make armor look unique generally just feeds into the giant-sword complex (like those common-ass hideously friggin' oversized pauldrons). So, rather than accept that no matter what they do, their character is going to resemble some character somewhere else in some way, they just instinctively reach for the next freakish lingerie-armor set they can summon up. Besides, those developers are generally aiming at an audience of raging hormones and excessive (and self-inflicted) teenage emotional baggage anyway.

Zorafim

Mar 17, 2008, 01:21 PM

Expanding on status effects, I really hate how useless status effects are to use, but how devastating they are for the enemy to use. For instance, poison. For poison to be useful, it has to be more damaging than a single attack. Seeing how many times, you'll kill an enemy before that happens, and the things that need to be poisoned the most are probably immune to poison anyway, you end up not caring about the spell at all. Then an enemy uses it, and it's doing twice the amount of damage the enemy does per turn and it doesn't go away after battle. Even as you walk, it keeps on working, so you're screwed if you don't have a poisona or antidote.
This goes for most status effects as well. The only ones that are actually good are the ones that work on you, and even then you're probably going to stick to Haste, Protect, and Shell.

And, in defense of that gloss, animal fur does tend to be shiny. I'm not sure if it's that shiny, of course... Really, gloss can look good if used well, but it's probably just a feature they want to have fun with.

Seority

Mar 17, 2008, 02:21 PM

*Luck based anything in a game. Games should be winnable puzzles. No, not easy, not impossible, but almost impossible. There should be no luck in needing to win a game. It's ok to get lucky, but as a necessity, that's just ridiculous.
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*I like the difficulty settings on games also. New to the game? Try easy, get used to the controls, go on expert = fun. Definitely hate the easy as hell, one mission later, extremely hard, or games that are just easy the WHOLE time. I like tough games. Keeps me intrigued and wanting to pass it more. Sure I get fustrated, but I'd rather get better then have the "hard boss" handed over to me on a silver plater and roasted for me. XP
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*Games that may or may not have a good story line, but just end up with the gayest ending ever. Yes! I just wasted a whole weeks free time to just get sh*t on!
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*I dislike the generic hero/heroin also. If the character just picked up a weapon, he/she should be unbalanced and the enemies you are supposed to defeat (at first at least) should be just as confused as he/she is. If I were playing a knight or w/e, it'd be difficult, not being one myself, but it gets you into more difficult situations from the head start, which is fun, and what should happen. I don't like being a trained person shooting commoners, or a great warrior killing off bunnies. Just dumb. And I too extremely dislike female characters always being love interests. I guess that's why I play war games too often to just avoid the damn "love" in games. Can't I play a thick, muscular chick that wears animal hide as armor with no skin showing, not even her face, and kills all in sight with no regard to life? Or have a great ass-kicking female side-kick whom I don't even think (as the male hero) of screwing once? And not to have her be my sister or something gay like that. If I want fanservice, I'll watch any anime, but I don't wish to see it in EVERY game.
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*Having to complete "side" missions to beat the game. You run through the game and get to the end with the end of the story coming up, but you are unable to continue because you didn't find such and such weapon in this one side mission at the beginning of the damn game. WTF@&#@!!
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*As far as the main build of a game, (graphics, story line, characters, weapons, enemies, etc.) if it says fantasy, I expect huge glowing weapons, big shiny magic, and all sorts of wizards and creatures to fight. Very pretty and entertaining. If I get a game that's supposed to be realistic, I want to see the breeze on the leaves, and the dirt on my armor gather as I walk through the jungle. Lots of violence, blood, whatever the games based on. No shiny or impossible looking things please. So for Sonic the Hedgehog, he can be as shiny as they want him to be. He's not supposed to look realistic.
The games I most love to play are ones with a main plot, but you can alter the plot and the main character as the game continues. Best example, Fable. In hours, I've played that game for over 500 just doing random things constantly which never ceased to amuse me. It had just the right mix of everything. Fantasy, real life, real commoners, real adversaries, and GOOD female characters. I still love it to this day.

[ This Message was edited by: Seority on 2008-03-17 12:27 ]

ABDUR101

Mar 17, 2008, 02:52 PM

Games that, when you beat the boss or whatever, and they make you sit through UNSKIPPABLE ending credits in order to save and have a save file with "Completed" to get any bonuses. Usually, I'll sit and watch the ending credits, listen to the music and see if they do anything special(because the gaming era I came from, the most you usually got was "Game Over, Thanks for playing.".). However, it gets annoying when I just beat a game and have to sit through the slowest fucking scrolling credits imaginable.

Halo 3 was a good example of having it done atleast somewhat right, sat through the credits to see an interesting cutscene. Thats cool and all, nice 'easter egg' of sorts because I know alot of people just jolted through the credits and exited the game(The Halo series I actually enjoyed the music to alot, so the end credits weren't bad for me).

Games that incorporate a feature that it only touches on once, but touts it as a gameplay mechanic on the back of the box.
"Use over 20 unique weapons, pilot tanks and other vehicles!"- and then you get ingame, and there's a FIVE MINUTE segment that has you driving a tank, and thats it, nothing cool, just get from point a to point b and you're done with the tank.

Aswell, games that brag about complete player control over the story and character development, non-linear gameplay, etc; and what do we get? You had maybe three or four decisions ingame that changed things slightly but overall no real effect. Do you kill the king and help his usurper? Guess what? It did'nt matter, if killing the king felt right at the time, feel free; but nothing in the game ever changed other than that one moment. You get no reward, no punishment, and the gameworld goes on as if King Isaac were just a nobody in the world.

[ This Message was edited by: ABDUR101 on 2008-03-17 12:54 ]

Zorafim

Mar 17, 2008, 10:23 PM

Difficulty settings are nice, I agree. Of course, that leads to the problem of what difficulty to choose. Kingdom Hearts was easy on normal, and by the time I found this out I was so far into the game that I didn't want to go back. Regardless, I at least knew that next time I should choose hard.

ngagerebel

Mar 17, 2008, 10:29 PM

I love how everyone is agreeing with the teen saving the world plot but forgets that Phantasy Star Universe Ethan waber is a teen

Solstis

Mar 17, 2008, 10:38 PM

On 2008-03-17 12:21, Seority wrote:

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*Games that may or may not have a good story line, but just end up with the gayest ending ever. Yes! I just wasted a whole weeks free time to just get sh*t on!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Personally, I would prefer that more games have gay endings.

Also, I'm pretty sure that most people are automatically including Ethan Waber. It's a staple of generic JRPGs.

Zorafim

Mar 17, 2008, 10:39 PM

On 2008-03-17 20:29, ngagerebel wrote:
I love how everyone is agreeing with the teen saving the world plot but forgets that Phantasy Star Universe Ethan waber is a teen

No, no, we remember that. I'm sure I'm not the only person who cries when NPCs call him a "great man."

McLaughlin

Mar 17, 2008, 10:50 PM

Adding to Status Effects, why the hell don't they work when I cast them? An enemy can cast All-Sleep/All-Petrify and it'll peg my entire party (barring an immunity item I never seem to have) every time. I can't get Sleep to stick to save my life (literally). How they can be used to such devastating effect by my opponents, but are completely useless to me really bugs me.

EDIT: Adding to Credits. Unskippable credits with endings that just stop. Like, a black screen or something of the like with "Fin." or the like, and that's it. You have to turn the game on and off to get out of it. Kingdom Hearts, cut that crap out.

[ This Message was edited by: Obsidian_Knight on 2008-03-17 20:54 ]

PhotonDrop

Mar 17, 2008, 11:28 PM

On 2008-03-17 20:29, ngagerebel wrote:
I love how everyone is agreeing with the teen saving the world plot but forgets that Phantasy Star Universe Ethan waber is a teen

I was not aware that anybody aside from the other NPCs even liked Ethan. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_clown.gif

Personally, one of my most hated features are "the instant killers". I don't mean death spells, I mean that freakin pit fall or the set of spikes that came out of nowhere. WOOHOO I GOT THE STAR! TAKE THIS YOU KOOPA BASTA- oh snap, I fell to my death. Damn.

Sexy_Raine

Mar 18, 2008, 01:46 AM

On 2008-03-17 21:28, PhotonDrop wrote:

On 2008-03-17 20:29, ngagerebel wrote:
I love how everyone is agreeing with the teen saving the world plot but forgets that Phantasy Star Universe Ethan waber is a teen

I was not aware that anybody aside from the other NPCs even liked Ethan. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_clown.gif

Personally, one of my most hated features are "the instant killers". I don't mean death spells, I mean that freakin pit fall or the set of spikes that came out of nowhere. WOOHOO I GOT THE STAR! TAKE THIS YOU KOOPA BASTA- oh snap, I fell to my death. Damn.

Yeah, I cannot stand certain instant death cheapness either. Capcom making Resident Evil 5 better do me a favor and get rid of those shitty "instant-death action scenes" where one incorrect button press kills you. Most of them were very unnecessary, and the only good one was the Krauser knife fight.

If it's an "Escape the area before the whole place blows" scene, then that is completely acceptable as an instant killer if you fail to escape.

[ This Message was edited by: Sexy_Raine on 2008-03-17 23:55 ]

Jife_Jifremok

Mar 18, 2008, 02:30 AM

On 2008-03-17 23:46, Sexy_Raine wrote:

On 2008-03-17 21:28, PhotonDrop wrote:

On 2008-03-17 20:29, ngagerebel wrote:
I love how everyone is agreeing with the teen saving the world plot but forgets that Phantasy Star Universe Ethan waber is a teen

I was not aware that anybody aside from the other NPCs even liked Ethan. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_clown.gif

Personally, one of my most hated features are "the instant killers". I don't mean death spells, I mean that freakin pit fall or the set of spikes that came out of nowhere. WOOHOO I GOT THE STAR! TAKE THIS YOU KOOPA BASTA- oh snap, I fell to my death. Damn.

Yeah, I cannot stand certain instant death cheapness either. Capcom making Resident Evil 5 better do me a favor and get rid of those shitty "instant-death action scenes" where one incorrect button press kills you. Most of them were very unnecessary, and the only good one was the Krauser knife fight.

If it's an "Escape the area before the whole place blows" scene, then that is completely acceptable as an instant killer if you fail to escape.

I don't mind the pitfalls and traps coming outta nowhere as long as it's possible to catch them with a good eye (crumbling floor, holes in the wall, etc) and disarm the trap or at least purposely spring it (with a thrown object, your body and good dodging skills, or whatever the trap may call for). (Half Life's trip mines come to mind as a good example.) Sadly, most of the time it's just cheap.

The Quick Timing Events can be a pain in the ass. You could see a peril more than ten seconds before it comes, but still have to press some random buttons suddenly flashing on the screen just to do something that you normally would have done long before any QTE would prompt you to do so. At least with the Krauser knife fight there HAS to be quickness. I will admit however, that RE4's mid-battle QTEs (NOT THE CUTSCENES!) were cool.

As for the "escape before time runs out" parts...I get tired of seeing really cheesy half-assed deaths that result from not escaping in time. I want something COOL to happen for once when I fuck up on one of those parts!

Sexy_Raine

Mar 18, 2008, 02:39 AM

On 2008-03-18 00:30, Jife_Jifremok wrote:

On 2008-03-17 23:46, Sexy_Raine wrote:

On 2008-03-17 21:28, PhotonDrop wrote:

On 2008-03-17 20:29, ngagerebel wrote:
I love how everyone is agreeing with the teen saving the world plot but forgets that Phantasy Star Universe Ethan waber is a teen

I was not aware that anybody aside from the other NPCs even liked Ethan. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_clown.gif

Personally, one of my most hated features are "the instant killers". I don't mean death spells, I mean that freakin pit fall or the set of spikes that came out of nowhere. WOOHOO I GOT THE STAR! TAKE THIS YOU KOOPA BASTA- oh snap, I fell to my death. Damn.

Yeah, I cannot stand certain instant death cheapness either. Capcom making Resident Evil 5 better do me a favor and get rid of those shitty "instant-death action scenes" where one incorrect button press kills you. Most of them were very unnecessary, and the only good one was the Krauser knife fight.

If it's an "Escape the area before the whole place blows" scene, then that is completely acceptable as an instant killer if you fail to escape.

As for the "escape before time runs out" parts...I get tired of seeing really cheesy half-assed deaths that result from not escaping in time. I want something COOL to happen for once when I fuck up on one of those parts!

Oh Jife, remember the Train level from Goldeneye N64? That part where you had to use the Laser Watch on the latches to escape before the time ran out. Seeing yourself drop dead in that little replay cut-scene wasn't cool enough for ya? Then starting the whole level again. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[ This Message was edited by: Sexy_Raine on 2008-03-18 00:44 ]

Jife_Jifremok

Mar 18, 2008, 02:46 AM

On 2008-03-18 00:39, Sexy_Raine wrote:
Oh Jife, remember the Train level from Goldeneye N64? That part where you had to use the Laser Watch on the latches to escape before the time ran out. Seeing yourself drop dead in that little replay cut-scene wasn't cool enough for ya? Then starting the whole level again. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

Nope, not nearly cool enough. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif Just a buncha cheesy little explosions and a generic death. Well, it's better than just having everything turn red and watching my guy spin around and die like we had in NES games...

Sol_B4dguy

Mar 18, 2008, 09:00 AM

Wow, lots of stuff I can't help but agree with here.

My own two cents: when the party's mage learns the instant death spell, the same one that slays just about any party member 99.9% of the time, and when you have him use it, NOTHING FREAKING HAPPENS! And you gotta cast it about 30 times to get the death SE, in which case you might as well have just smacked the stupid thing normally.

Also, confusion that never seems to work in my favor when I use it. >_<

Randomness

Mar 18, 2008, 12:04 PM

On the topic of status effects, I'd agree that they are often quite useless. A few counter-examples do spring to mind, though:

Final Fantasy 1-Sleep is a godsend early on

FFXII-So many hunts are simplified through statuses... enemies that are vulnerable to fun stuff like Berserk (On casting enemies), Blind (On basically anything), etc.

FFTA-Once instance where SEs get applied by your team just as, or more likely, more often. (And as an added bonus, you can get easy 70-100% instant death rates to boot)

But yes, too often you end up with enemies having better luck with status effects... which is why it pays to always have heals on short notice. (Yay Esuna)

Next topic:
Get out quick or die scenes have their uses, and a slick failure cutscene helps, as long as its skippable. No fun watching yourself die in the same drawn-out fashion twenty times from difficulty.

If the area is easy to deal with, they add tension to the feel of the moment, which is good. Now, would any of those complaints be directed at Metroid games' get-out-quick-or-die scenes? (Exempting the dull Metroid one, though that is THE fastest timer I've ever seen)

Weeaboolits

Mar 18, 2008, 12:37 PM

Oh, the best has to be stuff like Yunalesca in FFX, how the hell is it gonna cast an instant kill with a high success rate on the entire party, multiple times, while also spamming high damage attacks? >_>

Time limits in general, I dislike feeling rushed.

Poorly balanced difficulty levels, like in Kingdom Hearts II, easy and normal are a breeze, but step into proud , OH, HO! You're in for it, you go from trouncing the final boss with little effort to having your ass handed to you by the very first one.

Additionally I hate it when the difficulty increase is sudden, like once you get to X chapter, suddenly all the monsters get double stats and instant kill moves.

Also, CLIPPING. I Absolutely hate it, like in PSU, with Okanoh, heaven forbid a character below maximum height be able to hold it with its blade above the floor. Is it too much to ask that if my hair approaches my shoulder to any extent that it not go through my shirt's collar?

Seority

Mar 18, 2008, 01:16 PM

Phantasy Star Universe is also an MMORPG, if I'm not mistaken. Who really cares about the storys plot anyway?
-rollseyes- XD

DoubleJG

Mar 18, 2008, 02:29 PM

I hate it when games requires a lot of time and dedication to really get anywhere (most MMOs).

I'm a huge supporter when it comes to "pick me up and play" type games.

McLaughlin

Mar 18, 2008, 03:37 PM

On 2008-03-18 11:16, Seority wrote:
Phantasy Star Universe is also an MMORPG, if I'm not mistaken. Who really cares about the storys plot anyway?
-rollseyes- XD

Just an ORPG.

Jife_Jifremok

Mar 19, 2008, 11:08 PM

Online RPGs with typical save-the-world plots. Nothing like having THOUSANDS of people saving the world from the same exact "dark god" or whateverthefuck, repeatedly, and many of these "final battles" even being done simultaneously! It's just not believable. Unless of course there were lots and lots of these sorts of beings, kinda like how Dulk Fakises are made in multiple hives.

Final bosses having some ridiculous pspacey, alternate dimensiony, planetariumy, whatever, some overly pretentious background that doesn't even make any fucking sense. Most commonly seen in Final Fantasy games, but PSU is also quite guilty of this with Dulk Fakis. This also happened in Megaman 2, but that's only because one of Wily's machines gave off this illusion (as you could see when you defeat him) SO IT MAKES SENSE! I suppose Phantasy Star IV is exampt from this since your party actually goes down into The Edge where the Profound Darkness opened up a rift.

[ This Message was edited by: Jife_Jifremok on 2008-03-19 21:10 ]

Retehi

Mar 20, 2008, 12:14 AM

Only thing that comes to mind is from arcade games, when "health power ups" would budge your life bar like, 1 millimeter.

kurisu1974

Mar 20, 2008, 04:36 AM

Only thing I can come up with are time limits. Man, I hate those. I want to take my sweet time to do stuff.

Feelmirath

Mar 20, 2008, 07:02 AM

The worst thing EVER for me is when you get to the end credits,and it freezes at a screen saying "THE END". It's especially bad in RPGs, since it makes you go back to your last save point, meaning you have absolutely no proof you defeated the final boss http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

SStrikerR

Mar 20, 2008, 07:18 PM

Escort missions. It's boring enough having someone tag along and take forever, and it's even more annoying where they DON'T HELP AT ALL, and they die so frickin EASY.
Hello Ashley. Hello Scythe. Goodbye Ashley. Give Ashley a gun damnit!

Aisha_Clan-Clan

Mar 20, 2008, 07:51 PM

Falling through floors are fun.

SStrikerR

Mar 20, 2008, 09:08 PM

On 2008-03-20 17:51, Aisha_Clan-Clan wrote:
Falling through floors are fun.

what
the
fuck
?

Jife_Jifremok

Mar 21, 2008, 02:28 AM

Bad collision detection on things like ramps and walls/corners. It's like having an invisible wall to get stuck on, in a place you're supposed to go! Also, small inclines that you could step over, but you have to jump to traverse anyway.

On 2008-03-20 19:08, Ryan113 wrote:

On 2008-03-20 17:51, Aisha_Clan-Clan wrote:
Falling through floors are fun.

what
the
fuck
?

Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode (NES) and Phantasy Star (SMS) are perfect examples of floor-falling suckage. Imagine navigating a complicated maze, opening a door and falling to the floor below, with no way of knowing there's supposed to be a pitfall there.

Weeaboolits

Mar 21, 2008, 02:36 AM

Or just floor dropping out from under you for instant death fun. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

amtalx

Mar 21, 2008, 08:31 AM

On 2008-03-21 00:36, Ronin_Cooper wrote:
Or just floor dropping out from under you for instant death fun. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

Prince of Persia...GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

HAYABUSA-FMW-

Mar 21, 2008, 09:59 AM

You can add the rare times you fall into a chasm and it being a secret room/non death as one of those little things in games liked.

Or if you want to get really crazy, have someone grab Player 2(or swap yourself if quick enough) in the early Megamans to go nuts on the controller and sometimes you fly right back out. Music ended as if you had died but you can continue on in the stage as normal.

One of the first bugs/tricks I found in games.

Zorafim

Mar 21, 2008, 03:15 PM

On 2008-03-18 07:00, Sol_B4dguy wrote:
My own two cents: when the party's mage learns the instant death spell, the same one that slays just about any party member 99.9% of the time, and when you have him use it, NOTHING FREAKING HAPPENS! And you gotta cast it about 30 times to get the death SE, in which case you might as well have just smacked the stupid thing normally.

I can think of only two cases where this is not the case. One is in Breath of Fire II, when Nina learned Death. This was around the time you might come across a chimera, which had an insane amount of hit points for its level. You could spend five or so turns fighting it, or you can cast death (which somehow always works against it).
The second is in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Assassins learn a move which can kill an enemy in one hit, and learn an ability which boosts their accuracy. Combine the two, and add in some movement equipment, and your assassin is killing something every turn. If the enemy is immune to instant death, she can simply use one of the other plethora of fatal moves she has, such as stone or ultima. Failing that, she can reach into an archer's moveset and disable him.
There are also sages which have an instant death spell, which worked quite well if your enemy was facing away from you. Not bad considering it's ranged.

But yeah, you're right in saying instant death is normally useless. Anything you'd want to use it against is either immune to it or has so high a resistance that you may as well just cast thunder anyway.

Weeaboolits

Mar 21, 2008, 03:28 PM

Moves with stupid failure rates in general, like Madou Monogatari's spell Jugem, it's not even an instant kill, rather it's a reduce-them-to-low-hp move, but the success rate is extremely low and the casting cost is very high, I've yet to use it successfully, but enemies have no problem with it, and that crap hurts.

Ashkahn

Mar 21, 2008, 04:30 PM

"Choices" - Some games offer choices. Most offer "choices," where you get to pick between such exciting options as "I'll go." or "I'll go with you." Also, Capcom "choices" - sure, you can choose to take the Golden Doohickey off the mantle, but you'll die of a trap.

Highly innovative garbage - Nothing makes my day quite like hearing about "Feature X is so freaking awesome!11!!!" and then playing the game only to discover that Feature X is a steaming load.

Music that makes no sense - HIVE Theme. Used in every freaking level with even a tiny connection to SEED.

Ultra-Crippling Insidious Status Effects of Doom!!! - Porphyrric Hemophilia? Hmm. Only drains 5 Fatigue. I don't have to worry about that.

Three Days Later...

WHAT THE HELL?! I'M A VAMPIRE!?!?!?!?

McLaughlin

Mar 21, 2008, 05:35 PM

What's amusing is, I ended up going into an Oblivion Gate as a Vampire, and grabbed the Sigil Stone without looking at the time. I got thrown into a field in the middle of the day.

Weeaboolits

Mar 21, 2008, 09:06 PM

May have been said already, but having to use an item to save (such as typerwriter ribbons in RE or Gimel coins [I think they were so called] in Wild Arms 3). Since I save compulsively this bothers me a lot.

Jife_Jifremok

Mar 22, 2008, 07:20 AM

Heh...nothing like having to worry about how often you're allowed to save when you consider what you're gonna play in the amount of time that you have to kill, aye?

Similar to the menu shit when you have to wait for animations or fades to end, I am really sick of UNRESPONSIVE MENU CONTROLS. I've chosen the wrong menu commands oftentimes simply because "down" decides not to work. I shouldn't have to slow down my button pressing just to make sure the fucking cursor moves when the menu is clearly ready for cursor movement! It's much worse when menu use doesn't pause the game. YEAH I'M LOOKING AT YOU PSU.

When a button needs to be pressed to make dialog text scroll faster and to advance...well, what sucks about this is when the damn button is pressed and some text is skipped because of it! Happens most often when something really short is being said.

Probably the most insignificant little thing to complain about ever to reach this thread...EMPTY STATUS GAUGES! You know, like when an EXP bar is empty (instead of ever full or replaced by something useful) when you've reached the maximum level. Or when the "status" part of the character status sheet is empty because there is no status ailment and "NORMAL" or "FINE" isn't displayed. Or in King's Field IV for the 95% of the game that you're not underwater but there's an ever-present oxygen gauge that stays empty above water (yet fills up when you're underwater and it gradually empties). I'm sure no one gives a fuck. I don't either! Well maybe I do. Kinda.

A sense of humor. While it won't do much to keep me playing a game that sucks, it adds so much more to a game that's awesome.

Sayara

Mar 22, 2008, 01:21 PM

Someone mentioned Prince of Persia, so i must add the amazing

Drop 3 feet and die syndrome the new Wii game had for it. If i fell like 4 feet itd probably make me wounded, or in pain, but it wouldn't kill me!

Now 8 or so feet, or something would make alittle more sense.

Sol_B4dguy

Mar 22, 2008, 08:06 PM

"Director's Cuts" of JRPG's that got translated and released here, yet somehow end up never seeing the light of day in the US (YES, I'M LOOKING AT YOU KH II: FM!). For crying out loud, is it too much to ask for companies to throw the US fanbase a bone and let US play the extra content without importing?

Jakosifer

Mar 23, 2008, 12:12 PM

Hmm...Definitely cheapass all team one hit kills..I'm looking at you Mamoodo from the Persona series!

Monochrome

Mar 23, 2008, 09:25 PM

I haven't scanned the whole thread so these may be repeats, but:

RPG's where the main hero/s have amnesia or memory problems as an excuse to maximize mystery. I'm not faulting FFVII since that was back in the day, and I can sort of overlook it in Persona 3 because it's just a damn fine game. But at this point it's a tired genre cliche and needs to go away.

FVII
FVIII
Persona 3
Lost Odyssey
...and probably alot more I haven't listed

Evil twins( or shadowselves; not so much a twin as a dark doppleganger, especially when they are 'mistaken' for the main hero). Does every major series eventually need to resort to this?

Mario Sunshine
Sonic Adventure 2/Shadow the Hedgehog
Metal Gear Solid
F-Zero
Metroid Prime 2
Soul Calibur 2
Dead or Alive 2
Devil May Cry 3/4

Jife_Jifremok

Mar 27, 2008, 05:05 AM

Missiles that can't be fired "dumb". I know missiles are SUPPOSED to lock on to things, but what if the target is something the missile can't lock on to but can still be destroyed, and isn't hard to hit anyway? Sometimes I'd rather use a "dumb" missile just to save ammo of other weapons!

Multiple functions mapped to one button. Not like the "action button" that functions by context and never messes you up. I mewn stupid shit like a Belmont needing to duck but he's standing at the top of some stairs so he goes down those instead of ducking. (same with subweapon use and standing at the bottom of a staircase.)

Raine_Loire

Mar 27, 2008, 07:48 AM

On 2008-03-21 14:30, Ashkahn wrote:
"Choices" - Some games offer choices. Most offer "choices," where you get to pick between such exciting options as "I'll go." or "I'll go with you." Also, Capcom "choices" - sure, you can choose to take the Golden Doohickey off the mantle, but you'll die of a trap.

Actually, I hate decisions as well. Not for your reasons though, but because I'm notoriously terrible at making decisions IRL and in games. I second guess myself, over and over again. The ones where you can go back and try the other way are ok, but the ones where you lose something depending on which you choose are TERRIBLE. Or maps that have multiple paths, and you trigger a story part and can't back track... UGH!!! Nothing kills me like wondering "What if?" Especially with achievements that are for one thing or the other...

Rashiid

Mar 27, 2008, 08:09 AM

On 2008-03-16 06:12, rogue_robot wrote:

On 2008-03-15 23:51, Jife_Jifremok wrote:
PUZZLE BOSSES, YES! I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates these! But my reasoning is a bit different...when I fight a boss, I want a FIGHT! I don't want something that's just gonna be an absolute pushover the instant I figure out a weak spot or proper weapon to use! I want a proper fight!

Oh, I agree with you here, too. This is what really sucks about every 3d Zelda/Metroid game - especially because of this -

I can just imagine Link muttering this to himself on popping open some big treasure box:
"Oh, whuzzat? Interesting toy... hmm... wonder what I'm gonna have to do to kill Ganon's next big minion... http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif"

I hate it too.
I REALLY hate when you can only get a certain amount of hits in too. Or when you just have to do the process 3 times and you win.

That's why in Zelda games I look forward to the final battles, like in Twilight with Ganon and Zant, where you could just unleash damage until they fall. (Ganon took awhile....)

Sexy_Raine

Mar 27, 2008, 10:59 PM

I have a new one. Ever notice in games where you have like these 3 foot high gates, and wonder "why couldn't they just let me jump over it?" instead of having to go all the around the whole damn thing. It is really so hard to give us a jump animation to go over these?

[ This Message was edited by: Sexy_Raine on 2008-03-27 21:00 ]

Jife_Jifremok

Mar 28, 2008, 01:07 AM

Or a crawl animation to go under them?

Rashiid

Mar 28, 2008, 07:50 AM

Random invisible walls.

MrNomad

Mar 28, 2008, 01:15 PM

-Games that make you hafta lvl up every single attack you have just so you can use it normally. Why can't I do a normal combo from the start? Instead I need to spam the same one hit attack 60+ times just to get the 2nd hit and then spam 60+ more times to get a combo attack I SHOULD HAVE HAD FROM THE BEGINNING. It's not fun or original, it's boring...

-Games that have a lot of glitches. Fighting games are the usual offender to this.

-Games with little options. You mean I can't change the difficulty, adjust the sound, switch voices? Bah

-Fighting games with unbalanced character tiers. MVC2 I'm looking at you -.-

-fighting games that dont interest me. The new fighting games I've seen just dont impress me that much. The only exception to that is the Bleach DS games, man those games are awesome. Bleach +Treasure company = 1 happy Nomad :3

-Fighting games that emphisize on online play. Bleach DS does this too, only difference is it has so many more game modes to choose from as well that it's not dull like most other fighters that focus only on the online aspect. Most Fighters dont play well online either ;/

-Games where the later better items you find aren't much stronger than the ones you had from the start. At the same time, I hate games where certain items are just overpowering to any other item you find in the game, therefore destroying the concept of customizing.