Oh this is actually pretty good

Ever played a game you thought was going to suck, but ended up enjoying it a lot more than you anticipated? Let's hear about it.

Destiny

back when it launched I talked so much trash about it, then I watched some streamers played it and thought "maybe this aint so bad", bought it for PS3 and then got hooked onto it for a couple of years lmao.

I have to be honest: Final Fantasy Adventure was the title I didn't really have any investment in when I bought Collection of Mana. I bought it because Trials of Mana managed to sneak into my childhood from the fan translation, and it became one of my favorite games from that time. Secret of Mana, on the other hand, was a game my brother used to play, with me being second fiddle. We did have a Game Boy, but we didn't have a copy of Final Fantasy Adventure.

That's why, when I finished Trials of Mana, I decided to play Final Fantasy Adventure to at least get it over with, and get some of my money's worth. Boy was I in for a surprise. Not only did I enjoy it, but it also exceeded my expectations, gameplay-wise, and story-wise. I didn't think they would make such a solid title for such a small console, but I guess if Pokémon and Zelda can do it, then why not Final Fantasy, right? It ended up being its own little series from this one title, and while Mana isn't as successful, I can still see why the first Mana title inspired its own series.

I'd play this game again. And I recommend it for anyone looking for hidden gems made for the Game Boy.

A few from me...

- Tales of Berseria. I absolutely despised Tales of Zestiria, and learning that this would be a prequel put me right off it. Velvet's awful character design and the theme made me think this was going to be some preachy emotional garbage with the usual Tales tropes that got boring several games ago, and the same mediocrity that plagued Zestiria. What I got is the second-best game I have ever played...and honestly, in some aspects - characterisation at the very least - I'd say this tops Xenoblade. I highly doubt the Tales series will be able to surpass this...at least not for another decade or so.

- Assassin's Creed Odyssey. I don't know what convinced me to try this, but I am so very glad I did. I wanted to explore, and I very rarely experience that with open world games, especially when the world is MASSIVE. With AC there is the added problem of the Animus narrative, which is the whole reason I had avoided the series up to this point - it's a BAD narrative framework. It breaks immersion completely. Odyssey had moments of this, but they were few and far between, and lasted for all of a few seconds...and the rest of the game more than made up for it.

- The Ace Attorney series. I wasn't expecting to like these games as much as I did, because problem solving isn't really my sort of thing. But the narrative more than made up for the occasional irritation (although I could have done without the one pointless case every AA game seems to have to have, as well as the bad touch-screen and mic gimmicks) and I grew very fond of the cast.

- Final Fantasy XIII-2. FFXIII was divisive, and I came down very hard on the "I hate this" side of things. But I actually really enjoyed XIII-2, for many of the reasons I enjoyed X-2: it gave the protagonist some much-needed backbone and personality of her own. Much as Yuna was weak-willed and pathetic in X but more assertive and likeable in X-2, Serah transformed into a strong and fairly likeable character not dependant on Snow, and it was nice to see. The game also had a proper villain, more responsive and engaging combat, and even though the narrative was absolute trash it wasn't afraid to run away with it sometimes with paradox endings, and I could appreciate that. Lightning Returns wrecked it all again, but XIII-2 was an unusually good title.

- Disgaea. Would you believe that I initially really didn't want to play the first Disgaea title? It looked awkward and grindy and filled with unnecessary statistics. It is all of these things, but it is the best SRPG series ever made for precisely those reasons. I wasn't expecting how engrossing and enjoyable it was going to be once all of those things finally clicked for me; once I knew what to do to maximise the potential of my characters. I also didn't expect the cast and the ridiculous story to be as good as it was.

- Final Fantasy XII. The opening few hours were very, VERY hard going. It drops you right in the middle of it and then throws you back into the shoes of Vaan, one of the worst FF protagonists ever...not as bad as Zidane or Tidus, but still BAD. FFXII's story grew on me with time, and once I got the hang of the Gambit system it became my favourite FF title.

...there are more. Watch this space for Part 2.

-The FNAF franchise: I'm not a huge horror game person at all, but the FNAF games are a weird exception I never anticipated. I really fell in love with the lore of the games and trying to piece together everything the games had to offer. It made me excited and was super fun.

-The Ace Attorney franchise: Technically, I haven't played them, but I'm watching Let's Plays of them and absolutely love them. The characters are fun (though I like some more than others) and all the cases are very interesting even if some are a tad on the more frustrating side. All in all they're just a lot of fun to experience even if I'm not actually playing them myself.

-Drill Dozer: Similar case to FNAF, I'm not very good at platformers, but man was this game fun and easy to master. It's a shame the game never got a sequel because it's one of my favorite Gameboy games to date.

Noblejanobii said:

-The FNAF franchise: I'm not a huge horror game person at all, but the FNAF games are a weird exception I never anticipated. I really fell in love with the lore of the games and trying to piece together everything the games had to offer. It made me excited and was super fun.

-The Ace Attorney franchise: Technically, I haven't played them, but I'm watching Let's Plays of them and absolutely love them. The characters are fun (though I like some more than others) and all the cases are very interesting even if some are a tad on the more frustrating side. All in all they're just a lot of fun to experience even if I'm not actually playing them myself.

-Drill Dozer: Similar case to FNAF, I'm not very good at platformers, but man was this game fun and easy to master. It's a shame the game never got a sequel because it's one of my favorite Gameboy games to date.

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FNAF is one I've looked at a few times and I always end up just going "this seems too overrated".

Don't hate me for this, but Bloodborne. I was so sure it wasn't going to live up to Dark/Demon Souls. And then I thought the same thing about Sekiro. Both ended up being phenomenal though!

gimmepie said:

FNAF is one I've looked at a few times and I always end up just going "this seems too overrated".

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Yeah, it's not for everyone but it's definitely one of my favorite indie franchises. I have a lot of great memories with it.

Fairy is going to kill me for this but...

Monster Hunter.

... okay, Monster Hunter World was not enjoyable for me at all, but MH4U was hella fun once i got the hang of things.

colours said:

Fairy is going to kill me for this but...

Monster Hunter.

... okay, Monster Hunter World was not enjoyable for me at all, but MH4U was hella fun once i got the hang of things.

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Because World is a basic and stripped down shadow of classic MH titles

MH Generations was actually this for me, too - I tried the demo and was not overly keen on it because using the analogue nub is a pain in the backside for camera control. Then I got the hang of it and somehow lost 500 hours across a few months to it.
...then Generations Ultimate gave me proper dual analogue controls and removed my single lasting complaint with the game, outside of trying to find a good online room to play in.

Yeah if World wasn't enjoyable to you but MH4U was, you'll want to give MHGU a try and see how that goes. World is Monster Hunter's best selling title, but is noticeably different from the older titles, which is what made it both sell well but be a divisive entry in the series. Gens/GU is basically "what if we took classic Monster Hunter but gave it a fucking enormous monster roster+hunting styles?!". It's also still recent enough that you can find people to play it with online (and I'd be down to help you, as I'm sure Jo would be).

Tera the MMORPG.

I downloaded it a couple years ago on a whim. Wanted a new MMO to play around with. Watched trailers and gameplay and honestly thought it was going to suck and that I'd lose interest. But it actually ended up being a game I really like to play.

A big one for me was actually Undertale. I played it way later than most because up to then Id only ever experienced the often rabid fandom and had assumed it wouldn't live up to the sermons. The it did live up to the hype and I was just like "oh"

another one for me: thought Ys VIII was going to be a game that i wasn't going to particularly enjoy, mostly because after purchasing it i saw gameplay videos and whatnot and i was kind of lukewarm towards it at first. after playing it though, it's much better than i thought the first time around and it's super easy to sink hours and hours into grinding alone just for the harder enemies/bosses. @_@