Game you didn't think you'd like but ended up loving?

[Scootarooni]

Hades and Slay the Spire are my brother's favorite games. But I've always been scared of roguelikes. You make all that progress but once you die, bam! All of it is gone! The concept was intimidating so I never touched the genre. I also felt like I wasn't smart enough for those games either.

But then! Splatoon 3 came out with Side Order and with me being a huge splatoon fan, I knew I had to take the plunge. And I ended up having a blast with it! I thought it was just because it was Splatoon, but fast-forward a few months. Hades goes on sale (right around the time Hades 2 enters early-access) and guess what? I'm having a blast with it too!

Turns out, the whole resetting upon death thing? Not as scary as I thought it would be It's actually super nice to not be locked into skill-trees or other such things. I have the freedom to try other play styles each time I lose a run! And its fun strategizing and finding new uses for skills/boons I've used in previous runs. And I was silly to think I wasn't smart enough for it. I could go on, but all-in-all, I'm having a great time with Hades!

[xXWebMasterXx_Gina]

Glad I'm not the only one who jumped on Hades when that sale popped up XD.


As for what game I thought I'd hate but ended up loving..... Cyberpunk 2077 >_<. I mean it had a horrible launch, was super buggy and was widely criticized for its bastardization of the Cyberpunk genre. I basically ignored it completely assuming it to be yet another AAA hackjob.

Well, skip ahead to late last year and I see it on a heavy discount with talk of some major update and an upcoming expansion. So, I thought, what the hell; I should give the game a fair shake and see if it's truly as bad as they say. And well... It was good, really good!    The story was engaging, the characters were memorable, and the gameplay loop was fun. I also didn't think it was a bastardization of the genre; with Neuromancer as my primary reference, I'd say it ticks off most of the boxes!

I was so obsessed that when the expansion came out, I picked it up immediately! It takes a bit of a different direction, but I enjoyed it!

[Zombiethederg]

I used to think I'd hate Slay the Spire, and when I played it I didn't like it for a time, but GOD that game slapped back at me in the span of a year, I think I've added 30+ hours to my playtime just this year.

[litten]

also hades for me! i knew it was a great game just from what i heard about it, but always thought i would hate games where you have to kill everything in a level and go back to the beginning when you die. i gave it a shot when it went on sale this year, and could not put it down for several days. turns out i'm a lot better at rougelikes than i thought i would be, and that the repetitive gameplay loop is actually super fun!

[chillycat]

oh!! one that my friends recommended out of nowhere was SuperFighters Deluxe on steam! it was like a updated port of a platform flash fighter i think and it has so many cool mechanics that i dont think ive seen any other platform fighter do! every match that u play with friends feels like a michael bay film honestly!! its genuinely so so fun! 

[Memory]

Re-Volt, racing game from 1999. There you drive twitchy RC cars. Quite difficult and it requires more practise than other racing games. Also, the countdown was so blunt that it freaked my kid's brain out. An immediate rejection. Back then I didn't know, how to mod the game, which would have been a piece of cake in fact, as all the sound files are openly accessable.

Now I play it only for one reason: The source code got leaked, when the developer went bankrupt some years later. Then the community picked it up and made many truely fantastic improvements to the old game, most importantly the internet play mode. It's the best high-class online racing I ever encountered, especially wheel-to-wheel battles. Very little lag disturbances through the efficent codebase.

Many games with a solid technical base could write the same story as Re-Volt, which is still actively played today.

[xixxii]

final fantasy 7 (the original)! not exactly an unpopular opinion, but it's not something that i thought would be really in line with my taste - i don't really like old games or retro graphics at all, had never played any final fantasy before, and i actually wasn't that into it for around half the game. but i ended up really liking it a lot!

deep sky derelicts and massive chalice, also! i hate roguelikes (deep sky derelicts has roguelike elements) and usually dislike strategy games because i'm bad at them (massive chalice is a strategy game) but something about them really worked for me, i played them a lot and ended up really really liking them both! it's been a while since i played either of them actually and now i don't remember much about them besides really enjoying them and being surprised about that, haha.

[3lsie]

I picked up Wytchwood on a deal after my friend recommended it to me as a cosy game. I wasn't sure if I'd like it because it's basically a game about crafting, and I often dislike crafting in games. I think what it is though is I don't like it when it's forced into games where it's not the main focus (I find it a bit overwhelming), because I'm actually really enjoying Wytchwood so far! It's really nice to just walk around collecting ingredients to make things with and not have any other mechanics to worry about.

[Nikodile]

For me, I played Tales of Berseria late December of last year. I couldn't get behind the dark and brooding protagonist, but all the other characters like Magilou and Rokurou definitely warmed me up by the end of the game. Story was pretty great too! Not my favorite Tales game (Abyss is still my #1) but it was definitely a good game by the end.

I used to think I'd hate Slay the Spire, and when I played it I didn't like it for a time, but GOD that game slapped back at me in the span of a year, I think I've added 30+ hours to my playtime just this year.

Slay The Spire is SO good. I totally recommend Chrono Ark if you like roguelike deck builders, just came out recently. I dropped 40+ hours in it since release last month. It has a fully developed story too along with your regular roguelike elements like Slay The Spire.