Multi Games you enjoyed but dropped for one reason or another?

[Quagmire]

I had been playing Oriental Blue, I liked the plot and the world, but the characters were kind of bland as was the combat. I never really figured out magic. There's little to none for guides. It was an adventure, wandering was fun but ultimately there wasnt enough there story or character wise to keep me hooked.

Others
Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War, absolutely loved the story and charm, but it was such a chore to play. Mounted units move so much faster than foot units and the maps are huge. It takes forever to keep your party together, even on turbo

Ogre Battle 64 Just felt like a chore to play, the story was cool, but even with turbo the game was slow and menu navigation was so clunky.

Far Cry 6 I played it for about 20-25 hours, it was fun, but I was done. I got my fun out of it, these games dont need to be 40 hours long.

What about you? Games you wanted to finish but lost interest or couldnt get over something that otherwise you enjoyed?

 

[shortkut]

Another Eden - mobile game by the creators of chrono trigger. Starts off as the spiritual successor to chrono trigger, but since it is a mobile game, they keep adding new mechanics to the game and it stopped being fun

 

[TD]

Dragon Quest XI - I actually really enjoyed it, I was 2/3 through it about 13 months ago. Then life happened and I haven't touched it since, genuinely a great game too.

Another Eden - mobile game by the creators of chrono trigger. Starts off as the spiritual successor to chrono trigger, but since it is a mobile game, they keep adding new mechanics to the game and it stopped being fun

I tried this one for a while too. I think I put in like 6 hours but then quit.

 

[shortkut]

I tried this one for a while too. I think I put in like 6 hours but then quit.

I made it a lot further, but I took many breaks from it

 

[Raine]

I'm sure tons and tons of games would technically count, but typically if I'm enjoying a game I'll at least reach the ending credits for the story. Maybe not a true ending if that requires multiple playthroughs or something and life happens. Though in virtually all cases I'll eventually get back around to them, finishing out side quests/post-game stuff/optional endings/achievements & trophies.

I think Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope probably qualifies off the top of my head. I "enjoyed" the combat, got to the ending, and then didn't really have motivation to continue on with the enormous checklist of shit. But I came back to it 2~3 years later and over the course of like a couple of months, while babysitting my nephew who was an infant at the time, chipped away at the additional endings, difficulty settings and most notoriously all of the 900 in-game Battle Trophies.

Rock Band 4 as well, depending on how we view that. When I first got it and started playing I probably didn't make it through even a quarter of the setlist before getting distracted by other things. I don't really count that little stint as "playing," personally, but I didn't knock out the setlist (and the rest of the game) until late 2022/early 2023.

 

[Jawneh]

New stuff in Cult of the Lamb. Great and fun game overall and I liked playing through it once. After that even with the updates and everything, I don't feel like going and doing all the new stuff. Just... doesn't grab me again. I did get slightly annoyed that the game didn't have steam achievements for the first two or three weeks and I missed out on getting one as I had finished a quest line and didn't get credit for it retroactively. Maybe that's pissing me off somewhere in my subconscious.

Death's Door. Another really fun game with fun characters and art style. I got through maybe half, or maybe only a third of the game before never going back. No clue why for that one. Just never did.

Everhood. Technically a rhythm game, but not entirely IMO as you don't act on the beat, but the beat makes things happen for you to avoid/do things. Interesting, fun, trippy, enigmatic. But not finishable for me I guess.

Tiny Rogues. Should be one of those good roguelite games to go back to a lot, especially with even more content added into it now, but I never did. I did quite a bit of completion stuff, but never all of it. Then just stopped playing it.

Wartales. I was hyped for it as it was a medieval themed version of XCOM in way. I wanted more of something similar to XCOM2 to scratch that itch. I played it for a good month at least before I stopped. I think it's still in early access and in some sort of alpha/beta state, so the story and areas aren't fully there, but I never made it to even all the last areas in it before calling it for that too. Welp.

 

[MrDawn]

Just felt like a chore to play, the story was cool

You just described what any Final Fantasy game feels like. Long, repetitive, and too much grind for a single level.

 

[Raine]

You just described what any Final Fantasy game feels like. Long, repetitive, and too much grind for a single level.

I find implications of this wording to be endlessly fascinating! Especially given how wildly mechanically different each one is and the series finding success in large part because levels are superfluous.

Like there can be specific pain points (7, 12 and 13 spring to mind), but Final Fantasy has never level-locked the player like its eldest contemporaries, Dragon Quest and Megami Tensei. MegaTen and DQ have - will - routinely say "You don't have Tier 2 AoE heal, fuck you come again." But grinding simply makes things easier in most cases for FF, it's never been required.

Which one got your goat?

 

[MrDawn]

Which one got your goat?

The FF13 & 14 series were the straw that broke my camel's back. I pretty much only play FFX and even that gets old sometimes.

 

[TD]

The FF13 & 14 series were the straw that broke my camel's back. I pretty much only play FFX and even that gets old sometimes.

...oh this would do it.

FF13 is hot garbage and I love FF.

 

[MrDawn]

...oh this would do it.

FF13 is hot garbage and I love FF.

I like FF7 and FF10. I don't care for the rest at all. The rest are way too much grind for me.

 

[TD]

I like FF7 and FF10. I don't care for the rest at all. The rest are way too much grind for me.

My favourite is FF6 by a mile.

But they really aren't grindy.

Unless you just mean they're long games.

 

[MrDawn]

But they really aren't grindy.

How so? FF13 took forever to even get points for the grid and even then maxing that out didn't help much for most battles. Battles with simple monsters went on for far too long and I tried everything, looked up guides, went on the FF forums and asked questions. That game was still a dumpster fire. I felt the same way about FF8 and FF15.

 

[TD]

I personally find it a difference between designed gameplay loop and grindy.

Grindy is when you have to do unnecessary things like how CoD has you do the same levels over and over to unlock stuff.

Kinda just sounds like RPGs aren't for you.

 

[MrDawn]

Kinda just sounds like RPGs aren't for you.

You mean Final Fantasy games?

I play a lot of RPGs like Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Starfield. The grind in those games is minimal when compared to FF games.

 

[TD]

I don't know how you can call Final Fantasy grindy but not Bethesda games, but to each their own.

 

[MrDawn]

I don't know how you can call Final Fantasy grindy but not Bethesda games, but to each their own.

A lot of Bethesda games have loopholes that get you around the grind once you research and figure them out.

Back before they patched it, Skyrim had major glitches that allowed you to level skills in seconds like the Oghma Infinium glitch and there's still other glitches and loopholes that were never fixed.

 

[Raine]

My initial thought was "Final Fantasy" = "JRPG," which... seems to hold some merit. But the exact sticking points still stoke my curiosity!

The FF13 & 14 series were the straw that broke my camel's back. I pretty much only play FFX and even that gets old sometimes.

Ah. Like TD said, that would do it. FF13 is 1) objectively the worst Final Fantasy game and 2) just a bad game, period.

FF14 is an MMO. Grinding comes with the territory, but, in MMO terms it's the least grindy MMO I've experienced or otherwise heard of - which honestly works against it, as a game. From a game design standpoint.

How so? FF13 took forever to even get points for the grid and even then maxing that out didn't help much for most battles. Battles with simple monsters went on for far too long and I tried everything, looked up guides, went on the FF forums and asked questions. That game was still a dumpster fire. I felt the same way about FF8 and FF15.

FF13 is entirely about the Stagger System. COM/RAV/RAV -> RAV/RAV/RAV is the cheat code at the end of the game; anything that approximates that beforehand. SEN, SAB, SYN - worthless outside of bosses. MED is just for swapping in, healing up, going back to Staggering. It sucks.

Unlike the Sphere Grid from FF10, the Crystarium in FF13 is generally worthless. The only things that are important on the Crystarium are the abilities (no point having a Saboteur that can't debuff) and actually having the Paradigms unlocked - which isn't even a thing until Chapter 11. None of the stats, including HP, mean anything.

Prior to Chapter 11, there's no freedom to do anything. You can't even grind in that one unless you save, reload, and walk backwards through the hallway. See above about FF13 being objectively the worst one.

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Baldur's Gate 3. I can't do that much of a game anymore. I don't have the patience for the slow battles, the long winding dialogues... which is a bummer because I love those types of games.

Unfortunately all my long games need to either have an action oriented play style now with quick cutscenes that I can play in bite sized bites and not feel like I'm leaving myself with cliffhangers.

 

[TD]

Baldur's Gate 3. I can't do that much of a game anymore. I don't have the patience for the slow battles, the long winding dialogues... which is a bummer because I love those types of games.

That's my biggest fear about spending the money or taking that plunge. I can't do it.

 

[Quagmire]

Baldur's Gate 3. I can't do that much of a game anymore. I don't have the patience for the slow battles, the long winding dialogues... which is a bummer because I love those types of games.

Unfortunately all my long games need to either have an action oriented play style now with quick cutscenes that I can play in bite sized bites and not feel like I'm leaving myself with cliffhangers.

For the most part I've been able to play it in small chunks and not feel like im stuck on huge cliffhangers, but I get that being an issue

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

I also have it on PS5 and I think the controls make it more cumbersome, adding to the time and commitment to playing it. M&KB is ideal, but I also don't want to sit in front of my computer anymore for long periods of time.

 

[Quagmire]

I also have it on PS5 and I think the controls make it more cumbersome, adding to the time and commitment to playing it. M&KB is ideal, but I also don't want to sit in front of my computer anymore for long periods of time.

I play with controller on PC and the controller controls are really good

 

[the_promised_land]

Starfield. Great game but it just didn’t grip me as much as fallout and Skyrim. If it comes out on ps5 I might give it a proper go, I’m getting too old to sit on the pc all night

 

[rktaker]

I have too many games to count that I dropped, either I play it too much to the point that I get bored playing it ((this is mostly open world games and I just run around and either do a lot of side quests/not play the main story, or something that might not have a story like Sports games for example.) or I get distracted from some other game and I never finish the game I'm playing

 

[Fire Queen]

Sports Story. which is a shame because i loved golf story but this one just felt weirdly soulless. i think they tried to do too much with it

Stray. i played like half of it and it just didn’t grab me. maybe i’ll finish it one day. i do like that there’s a meow button

Golden Sun. tried playing this a few years ago for the first time as an adult who has been spoiled by non random encounter rpgs and it was tough. but i watched my friend play it recently (she’s currently playing the sequel for us) and i wish i’d given it more

Resident Evil 6. oh this was supposed to be about games we enjoyed. never mind

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War, absolutely loved the story and charm, but it was such a chore to play. Mounted units move so much faster than foot units and the maps are huge. It takes forever to keep your party together, even on turbo

as someone currently on ch3 of my latest attempt to play through this game…i get it

 

[Raine]

Resident Evil 6. oh this was supposed to be about games we enjoyed. never mind

I'm so interested to see what, if anything, Capcom is going to end up doing with this abomination when they inevitably try to give it the REmake treatment. RE5 too, I suppose, but - RE6's reputation was so bad that I never actually got around to buying it, much less thought to play it.

I mean it has its fans, then and now, but by all accounts that thing jumped the shark multiple times over.

And to this day I can't see the logo as anything other than what the internet corrupted it into.

 

[Andy]

Chrono Trigger. I have it on my phone and really enjoy it whenever I play but (as dumb as this sounds considering I have it with me 24/7) I just never think of playing it