Unpopular games that you love, and vice versa

[Baseplate]

It was not a strict video game. If you guys remember the mod for GTA San Andreas which was called as SAMP GTA SA Multiplayer. There used to be various servers such as Cops Vs Robbers, Free roam, World war mode, etc. I used to play it on my low end PC. It used to be fun but slowly it was replaced by Russian Players and communication became harder. Then after some time, the server count reached an all time low and by 2018 it was the End of SAMP for me. I used to play with one of my friend but then we transitioned to GTA online and BF1. Good times. Simpler times. I still like GTA online and have many memories but the aesthetic of GTA SA and the ability to explore the city with my friends was something different. Also I started playing Skryim around 2019 so it took my attention of GTASAMP.

[starbreaker]

I'm one of the few people who liked Final Fantasy XIII. Yes, it was linear AF and the game took ages to finally let you use all of its systems. But I could see where Square-Enix was going with it; they were trying to integrate gameplay and narrative as tightly as possible, and with the cast on the run from the government (and Pope Benedict XVI) it just didn't make sense for them to be able to just wander about and poke around random corners of the setting.

And I bounced hard off of Genshin Impact. Mainly because of Paimon. I'm sure there are people who like that character's English VA, but I'm not one of them. She sounds entirely too perky and I found it grating that I was basically getting the game's tutorial by an actor so relentlessly chipper. I was like, "Please, just let me read a fucking manual."

(That's another thing. I miss the days when games had manuals. Printed manuals.)

[dirtnap]

When I was a teenager I was really into RuneScape 3, despite it's reputation of being the "tainted" version of RuneScape as opposed to Oldschool RuneScape.

was that eoc?

despite liking and having fond memories of osrs (never really played on the official jagex osrs servers so i don't really know what they're like), i was amazed and delighted when i got back to runescape years after last touching it (new account, long since forgotten the details of the old one) and saw the improvement.

incredible graphical updates. superior camera control. better movement, better menus, more skills. i started playing again not long before the cabbagepunch bonanza, and that was itself shortly before the godwars and eoc. i think eoc came first then godwars? can't remember.

i do remember the spinning wheel thing being weirdly hated. it was just a daily random free item, it seemed harmless and good. the replacement with chests was infinitely worse, i never touched that.

i liked eoc. i lost interest in runescape forever ago mainly because combat was boring and annoying rather than fun. there was no skill at all in pve, and very little skill in pvp beyond tricking noobs. combat was gear and stats and was basically deterministic. hold leftclick to win.

eoc was...okay, it was generic mmo combat system. i remember seeing a criticism of dragon age's combat system being "apply forehead to numberbar; roll face back and forth". i actually tried that with eoc, and, assuming you're appropriately levelled for your opponent and started combat with full health, this can result in a win.

or you might die because your forehead skipped over the keys that heal you or you got target-locked onto something else or a second enemy walked on screen.

there's a non-zero amount of skill and thought in deciding what goes on the hotbar, and what to use and when. it's easy to stop thinking and just use whatever's the lowest number and not on cooldown, but against any enemy that isn't piss-easy that can get you into trouble with having wasted an ability you'll genuinely need later.

it definitely made bosses and wildy fights much more fun, though.

i'm with you. eoc was a good thing.

______

it's easy to hate popular things, because they'll naturally come into your knowledge by being popular. assuming you don't just hate them for being popular (which for the sake of this thread we'll assume doesn't count), you would have hated them anyway if you had learned of them some other way and they weren't popular.

so most folk can name some popular things they hate.

but it's harder to name a genuinely unpopular thing you truly like. i honestly don't even think eoc was that unpopular. i just think the Gamers™ who played runescape and wanted it to have not changed at all since 2007 were angry that it had taken one step further from that 2007 browser game they loved. and i get it, i don't play rs any more because it can't even be played in-browser now. everyone has a line they draw someone. but i think anger against eoc was loud, but most players kept playing and did genuinely grow to like it.

whether or not runescape's eoc counts, i can't think at the moment of any genuinely unpopular games that i genuinely like.

maybe they'll come to me.

i can think of plenty of populare games i hate, but like i said, that's the easy part.

EDIT:

People really don't like Broken Age but I kind of fell in love with it. I never donated to the Kickstarter and I played it much later, but I think it's a solid game with some fun mechanics and characters I really like.

broken age was unpopular? i had no idea. i was very late to getting it, hadn't ever heard of it until i got it a few years ago in a humblebundle. i found it quite fun. i certainly wouldn't say i love it, though. i found the control scheme awkward but i always do with games where there's no visual divide between distant scenery you can't touch and nearby game furnishings you can interact with.

i decided to lower the barrier to just liking an unpopular game. i've gone through my steam library, checking the reviews for any game i liked where i felt it might be possible for it to be unpopular. very positive, or overwhelmingly positive, every time. not even just "positive" always some adjective.

i think the least popular game i can find is miasmata, with a mere "mostly" positive. the most obscure game i can find is super grave snatchers, with a mere 45 reviews, and even that is (without adjectives) positive.

so it's safe to say that if i like something, so do most folk who've played it.

[victoriana]

And I bounced hard off of Genshin Impact. Mainly because of Paimon. I'm sure there are people who like that character's English VA, but I'm not one of them. She sounds entirely too perky and I found it grating that I was basically getting the game's tutorial by an actor so relentlessly chipper. I was like, "Please, just let me read a fucking manual."

That's also one of the things I hate about Genshin Impact! My sister is an avid player, so I hear it a lot. Frankly, I think she gets even more perky as the game progresses.

(That's another thing. I miss the days when games had manuals. Printed manuals.)

Reminds me of this game for the Nintendo DS, called Ni no Kuni: Shikkoku no Madoushi, that had this >100 page manual that apparently, you'd have to refer to as you play the game. Unfortunately still haven't played it yet past the beginner cutscene, but the game never made it out of Japan compared to later games in the series.

[starbreaker]

That's also one of the things I hate about Genshin Impact! My sister is an avid player, so I hear it a lot. Frankly, I think she gets even more perky as the game progresses.

Paimon gets even perkier? Dear creeping gods, how is that even possible?

[MrsMoe]

I hesitate to call it "unpopular" since it still has a dedicated fanbase to this day, but I can't help but love Sonic Adventure. Everyone dunks on it for its cheesiness and clunky outdated gameplay, but it was literally the first video game I ever played. I beat it like six times in a row. That's how much I loved it.

On the other end, I don't care for most games that are clearly designed for you to play online with other people (Genshin Impact, Overwatch, Sea of Thieves, etc). It's not that they're necessarily bad, it's just that they're not to my taste. I'm way more into games you play once but it changes your life forever.

[Sofly]

Oh boy

So, first off i'm gonna write something that really isn't in line with this thread, as i didn't grow up with AAA games or consoles, so i can't really talk about that

However, there is a game out there that, while i can't recommend it on it's own, i really want people to take it into account when talking about indie videogames

That game being, and i swear i'm being serious, The Mana World

You're probably scratching your head as to why someone would dedicate more than 3 paragraphs to a game that looks like this, and you'd be right to do so, and i'm sorry

But this game is more than it's looks...well not really, it plays exactly as you'd expect, a really simple combat and essentially a grind fest with repetitive quests and no end goal other than "get better equipment", with some minigames sprinkled throughout, and yet there's something really captivating for me about this game

I feel it really captures the essence of making something that isn't really good, but that still has heart put into it; it's not there in order to make a profit or meet any goal in particular, it's there because someone wanted to make a game, and then they did it

Nowadays it feels like games aren't allowed to be just a piece of art on their own, there's always a trend they have to follow, whether it's something like "micro"-transactions and lootboxes for AAA games or a certain art-style or genre for indie games (lord nows we have a lot of farming sims right now)

Sorry if i rambled for way too long about a topic that way too few people care about, i'm infamous in my friendgroup for doing that often