Starmen.Net

Surely this has happened to you: there’s a game on the horizon that looks and feels like something else you really dig, or which simply simply looks up your alley. But once you give it a spin, things just don’t click?

Or perhaps there’s a title that all your buddies are way into, and because you all share common interests and tastes, you’d think you’d be all over it as well. But cannot? Or maybe there’s something that you should like, but in fact kinda hate?

If you know what that’s like, please spill your guts! We’ll be talking about it, during our next podcast. And better yet, feel free to tell us by leaving us a voicemail, cuz we love playing them on the air! That number, as always. is 503-446-CAST.

^ Agreed on Skyrim, not so agreed on Final Fantasy…

Anyway, I don’t play Minecraft. I don’t play Left 4 Dead. I don’t play first-person shooters in general. In fact, I’d probably be content playing Super Nintendo for the rest of my life. People see me playing video games all the time, and they’re all “hey so you have an Xbox, right? Lets play blank.” or assume that because I’m a gamer I must like first-person shooters, when frankly, I don’t give a crap about ’em. :O

That’s not to say there aren’t exceptions. Who wouldn’t love Portal? :P

The really big one for me was Contact. I understood that it was not EarthBound-related, despite the initial rumour mill’s rumblings, and that it was pretty much nothing at all like EarthBound. It looked and sounded neat, and a lot of people on starmen were raving about how much they loved it, but I found it to be really poorly put together in terms of some of the game’s ill-conceived mechanics (I can’t complete certain and progress in the game unless I find a randomly appearing item?… WHAT?!… not to mention all the lame back-tracking to swap suits to change my abilities), the characters (especially the game’s primary antagonists) and what I felt wasn’t all that great a plot.

Some people were really going on about how much they loved the ending, so I endured, and maybe it was just due to it being built up or due to the buildup of frustration with the game’s lack of goodness, but I even found that to be a let down.

I wanted to get into it and to love it so much… I wanted it to be a game I’d replay to uncover every single one of its sidequests — it seemed to have so much charm and so much promise… But in the end, the only love to be had was for Mochi (and a little for the Professor).

The only other thing I think I much liked about the game was that the “system” for healing your character that relied on food items being eaten and only being able to be eaten in a limited capacity at a time was called the “digestive system”.

Otherwise, I think I may have actually hated the game.

As for Skyrim, I only played a little of it, and I actually had a good time playing it, but I really don’t understand what all the fuss is about. As good as it is and as big as it is, really, in most ways that matter it just seems to me like it’s a larger, more open Ultima Underworld … which was released 19 years prior, in 1992.

1992!!

Now, Ultima Underworld was a fantastic, groundbreaking game that was well ahead of its time, sure, and to be fair is still one of my favorites ever… and I’m not trying to say that they should have to reinvent the wheel every time a new game is made. What I am saying is that I find it staggering that people were getting so excited about this game leading up to its release, when it just felt like another first-person swords and sorcery game with some political intrigue thrown in for good measure. Again, it’s okay to get excited by these sorts of things — I was anticipating it as well, but so many people seemed to feel that the game was going to be something really, really special, and I’m still not sure why or how that happened.

And in the time that I was playing it, while I enjoyed it, I think that’s what prevented me from really getting into it — I got tired of waiting for something, anything to wow me on some level or show me something that exceeded my “Ultima Underworld: Revamped” expectations. Maybe I just didn’t play for long enough? I dunno. I’d think that 30+ hours should be enough to see something there.

Guitar Hero. Call of Duty. FPS games in general. I see everyone raving about how amazing these games are, but I just can’t get into them.

Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Symphonia 2. I tried to enjoy both, I really did, but I ended up getting bored much faster than I thought I would. I think I would enjoy Abyss if I went back to it (I think at the time I started it I was anticipating another game) but Dawn of the New World I actually got somewhere and the verdict was that it just wasn’t the same. I felt like I was playing it to finish it and say I had, rather than playing it to enjoy it.

Arfy:

I felt like I was playing it to finish it and say I had, rather than playing it to enjoy it.

Yeah, this is a mindset I’ve tried to avoid. Honestly there’s no sense wasting your time on something you don’t enjoy, yeah?

Coincidentally, I’d say Tales of the Abyss is the only Tales game I’ve loved where I’ve simply liked most of them. Sort of relating back to the topic and this concept of finishing ‘just because’ I played Tales of Legendia immediately coming off of an Abyss high. And talk about a sobering experience, as Legendia quickly became a huge disappointment even though I gave it a few chances to hook me. I eventually said “why am I doing this, anyway?” and abandoned it.

Something else that comes to mind along this same line of thought is The World Ends With You. I was doing some of the postgame stuff when I just decided to quit playing. It’s a game that had potential,but I didn’t at all enjoy the gameplay or characters. I wanted to complete this game because I had bought it new, full price. Wasn’t so much that I wanted to like or get into this game. More in line with I wanted to get the most value for my dollar. But the signal-to-noise ratio was just not working out. I finally said to hell with it.

I have a confession to make.

I’m not a good Touhou fan. Of the 13+extra games I’ve played there’s only one game that I’ve been able to beat, Perfect Cherry Blossom, and it was only after several months of practicing and having a friend coach me through the game (FallenAngelV, if you’re out there, thanks.) Everything else, either after a few months of on and off playing or giving it a shot and going NOPE, I just gave up on them because I have better things to do than bang my head against a wall hoping to one day quantum tunnel through it.

So yeah, I don’t have a lot of fun with the Touhou games themselves because I find their barrier of entry and learning curve to be way too high.

Hey Matt – if the podcast ever decides to ask the opposite question (what game did you think you’d hate but ended up loving?), I’ve got some great answers for that one! :)

PoeTrader:

Hey Matt – if the podcast ever decides to ask the opposite question (what game did you think you’d hate but ended up loving?), I’ve got some great answers for that one!

That’s a topic I most definitely would love to explore! So duly noted.

I loved Zelda 2, so no complaints on that one here.

The only example I can currently think of is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

I’ve loved every game in the Zelda franchise and was extremely hyped for the release for this one. I even convinced all of my friends to buy it along with me so that we could all play through it, talk about our progress, and have discussions about the game, however, I’m the only member of that group that has yet to complete the game. I really want to finish it, but Fi’s ramblings and the motion controls really keep me from having fun with it. The motion controls don’t always end up being accurate for me, even if I stand up and make extremely fluid drawn out swings. It really takes away from the game when the direction of my swing ends up going astray and hitting a Deku Baba over the head instead of slashing through it’s mouth. Also, the game just feels less open to me. Don’t get me wrong, Skyloft is fun and has many side quests to do, but having 3 main quest areas that open up as you progress eliminates the feel of adventure that games like Ocarina of Time did so well. I also feel that Fi force feeding you information and holding your hand throughout the game really doesn’t help make it fun.

I really want to enjoy and complete Skyward Sword, but I don’t think I’ll be finishing it any time soon.

Wait, I’m not the only one? Yeah, I got Secret of Mana off the Virtual Console because it was interesting and highly recommended. But I just can’t seem to be able to get into it. The story hasn’t drawn me in yet, and I don’t like having to wait before I swing my sword. In fact, I haven’t played it in months. Which is really a shame.

Omnitarian:

climhazard:

Secret of Mana.

I couldn’t even get halfway through that game because of the non-fun combat mechanics, useless partner AI, hard to navigate menus, and outrageous difficulty curve. I’ve tried giving that game a chance at least 2 or 3 times but I’ve concluded that I’m never going to get into it.

These are pretty much my thoughts on SoM as well.

Wow, I’m actually surprised that I’m not alone on my feelings regarding Secret of Mana. I suppose the reason why I love Seiken Densetsu 3 so much is because it had what I felt SoM was seriously lacking. It had six different characters, an interesting class change system, a day changing system and decent AI… and the boss music was actually good.

I, too, played SoM with my bros. We played it before as kids and were determined to beat the game again this time. As it turns out, it was so fun, we would start falling asleep during boss battles. We’d constantly get lost or killed and sometimes encounter glitches that forced us to leave a dungeon or reset the game. Some of the environments like the tight corridors or the waterfall area with obstructive lily pads were great places to fight enemies. And speaking of not hitting anything ever, I loved it when I would charge up for an attack and end up missing because the hit detection was a complete mystery. Our recent playthrough of SoM destroyed my opinion of it for the reasons mentioned in this thread to the point that it doesn’t match the topic for me – I don’t wish to be into this game.

Banter aside – as for those games that leave my head saying yes but my heart saying no – usually, it’s because of the flaws being too heavy to overlook, overshadowing whatever positives the game has going for it (Okami). But for games that are all-around solid yet can’t pull my interest in (Chrono Trigger), all I can do is shrug and give a stupid look. Personal taste is such a strange criteria in judging a game but sometimes that’s all it comes down to. How well did the game gels with me, how did I balance its pros and cons, how much fun did I have – all of this is such a gray area that is figured out from my gut feeling of the game. So while I will note all of the technical aspects and look at them more analytically, I still ultimately look for that hard to quantify connection I have with the game that can satisfy my gaming soul.