nekunando Posted August 2, 2015 Posted August 2, 2015 As I attempt to finally break into Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii this weekend I started to wonder if anyone here finds certain games to be a daunting prospect I sunk 10 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles a couple of years ago, only scratching the surface, obviously, but the scale and length of the adventure ahead has always intimidated a little, especially since the combat is entirely different to anything I've ever played before and was still trying to get to grips with it, even after all that time. Due to work and other commitments I've only managed to invest 2 hours into it over the last 2 days, starting from scratch. Hopefully it all clicks this time but I will always have the fear of getting completely stuck later on and feeling like I've almost wasted 60+ hours of my life I've also been wary of games such as the original Resident Evil where I'm scared to use my weapons half the time in case I need them for a boss later on..
punio75 Posted August 2, 2015 Posted August 2, 2015 I completely empathise, Have the Witcher on the backlog pile- can't bring myself to start it- its stupid really! I also have this with games I've built up my expectations for. When a new Zelda comes out I put off for a while as I don't think I can cope with the disappointment if its poorer than I anticipated.
EEVILMURRAY Posted August 2, 2015 Posted August 2, 2015 Most RPG's/epic adventure games. I sometimes feel that when I start I'm a little out of my depth due to the scale of the world and being on my own. Then after getting a new party members/items I find my feet and have no problem unleashing the pain upon dem baddies.
Agent Gibbs Posted August 2, 2015 Posted August 2, 2015 I'm about 20 hours into Xenoblade, and to keep it fresh i put it down and went to Majora's mask and Trails in the sky (although that might not be a good idea)
Fierce_LiNk Posted August 2, 2015 Posted August 2, 2015 Have the Witcher on the backlog pile- can't bring myself to start it- its stupid really! You should be ashamed. :p Alien: Isolation intimidated me right before I was about to play it. Due to the nature of the game, I would only play it in about 3 hour bursts. Kinda like a little movie/film each time. I would make myself a cuppa beforehand, turn off all the nights and mentally psych myself before playing it. It was hard and the most tense game I've ever played. I spent 2 and a half hours once moving from locker to locker and barely made it into the next room over. It was intimidating in a "please, don't let me/my character die in the game." I felt absolutely drained when the game was over. There were one or two moments where I wasn't sure I'd make it to the end. Tempted to play it on Nightmare/the hardest difficult next time.
punio75 Posted August 3, 2015 Posted August 3, 2015 You should be ashamed. :p i know, I know, I guess I'm scared I will get wrapped up in it then I won't play anything else for an age.
bob Posted August 5, 2015 Posted August 5, 2015 I generally find any dark and dingy game pretty intimidating. And I can't play horror games at all.
nekunando Posted August 5, 2015 Author Posted August 5, 2015 Xenoblade Chronicles is still proving to be quite intimidating. I planned to get some time with it over the last few days but only managed to fit in an hour this morning, leaving me just over 3 hours into the adventure. I'm paying attention to everything this time and am understanding a little better how to battle but I already feel like I've invested so much into it, somehow, and it's still so early on
Murr Posted August 5, 2015 Posted August 5, 2015 It's a 2 way split in how I find games intimidating. 1) Are the scary? I got Dead Space for Christmas one year, and played the first level or 2 straight off. I knew the tone of the game was dark and scary, but dived in. After the first 2 levels I just stopped playing it. I never completed it till a few years later when I had some free time off work and pretty much forced myself to play it during the day. I don't know if it's considered cheating or not, but I did check up online how many stages or levels there were to complete the game. I didn't read into how they were done or not. I just wanted to know how long I'd be on the game. At the end of each level it was such a sense of relief. However I never had the sense of fear or dread for Resident Evil or Silent Hill games? Perhaps I enjoy them more and don't see them as a chore to complete? I did like Dead Space though, but it just took a lot of time to finally finish it. 2) Are they massive games? It's not so much that the size of games intimidates me, it's more so having the time to dedicate to playing them. When I get home from work now I imagine it's the same for most people. They get home, cook up some food, spend some time with their partners or family and then maybe squeeze 2 hours in the final hours of the evening before switching the light off at a reasonable time to do the same routine the next day? Granted I'm actually incredibly lucky in that my wife knew what she was marrying into early in our relationship. She knew I was a gamer and would spend what ever disposable income I had on games or gaming related items and any spare time on them. She doesn't mind me taking off to the game room and spending the evening there as she's in the living room watching TV. It's more so my conscious feeling bad that I'm not spending time with my wife. So now I do tend to worry about the length of games. But depending on the title in question will ultimately lead me to decide on how much time I'll invest on it in evenings. Witcher 3 my wife had no chance. We saw each other when we had food in the evenings, then the next time she'd see me would be when I got to bed at what-ever o clock at night it was. As of late I've started playing Legend of Zelda Wind Waker HD, and it's very much the same, I'm just spending barely minimal time with her. But after this I know I won't be picking up such a time consuming game for some time (I guess I won't anyway?) TL;DR Scary games can intimidate me, but good scary games (Resident Evil / Silent Hill) don't. Games of epic size can intimidate me, but it's more so my conscious saying I should spend time with my wife, not necessarily the size of the game so much.
Shorty Posted August 6, 2015 Posted August 6, 2015 I couldn't scratch Dragon Quest because the beginning just seemed a bit too immense. Several FF games have had this issue, usually with their levelling/spell systems. However, sometimes it's a lot simpler than they get across in their literature. A lot of RPGs seem to want to shout at you "look how clever we made it!!" early on by listing a tonne of features instead of showing you them as you need them.
The Bard Posted August 8, 2015 Posted August 8, 2015 You guys have all mentioned JRPGs and I don't really find those intimidating at all because they all generally tend to follow the same template and gameplay conventions. The games I find intimidating and impenetrable are things like Sins of a Solar Empire and Dota 2, where it's the system of rules governing play that's the source of intimidation rather than the length or tone.
Grazza Posted August 8, 2015 Posted August 8, 2015 Generally the RPGs with a timed battle system, like Final Fantasy IV onwards. Although I like the genre, I feel they're best with an untimed turn-based system so you have to time to read everything and consider your actions carefully. The newer ones like Xenoblade Chronicles are an ever bigger turn-off for me, as your team dart around the enemy and I get confused as to whether placement matters (logic says it should, but that's too much for me when I have to switch between each member in real-time). Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the idea this system is going for, but I think it'd be better via really good A.I., with you merely setting priorities before battle (as in Final Fantasy XII). Another intimidating game was Bangai-O Spirits on the DS. To this day, I have no idea how you play it.
nekunando Posted August 8, 2015 Author Posted August 8, 2015 In addition to my original post, I also feel intimidated by fighting games. All of the different button combinations and techniques to memorise seems overwhelming and I'm not sure I could ever be really good at one I'm also finding it interesting that even football games, a genre I've been familiar with for a long time, now have a depth that I'm relatively unfamiliar with. The basic gameplay hasn't really changed for the last 2 decades but the introduction of a multitude of skills and pace control are elements that I don't find myself exploring. I never get the chance to play football games religiously like back in my school days so perhaps this is why I never feel like I can explore these sorts of things. I can still hold my own, though
Hero-of-Time Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 Dark Souls...that is all. Yeah, this is a series I would love to get into but i'm not sure it's a fit for me. I actually bought Lords of the Fallen earlier in the year, as I heard it's a good beginners Dark Souls game, but I have yet to play it. Another game is Persona 4. I tried playing this years ago on the PS2. Everything was going ok ( well, apart from the stupidly slow start ) until the social linking stuff started to crop up. I felt completely overwhelmed with what I had to do and who I had to talk to. I was constantly worried that I would make the wrong choice, or miss/fail a class or something. I gave up playing it not long after.
flameboy Posted August 11, 2015 Posted August 11, 2015 Yeah, this is a series I would love to get into but i'm not sure it's a fit for me. I actually bought Lords of the Fallen earlier in the year, as I heard it's a good beginners Dark Souls game, but I have yet to play it. Another game is Persona 4. I tried playing this years ago on the PS2. Everything was going ok ( well, apart from the stupidly slow start ) until the social linking stuff started to crop up. I felt completely overwhelmed with what I had to do and who I had to talk to. I was constantly worried that I would make the wrong choice, or miss/fail a class or something. I gave up playing it not long after. Yeah I've waiting for Lords of the Fallen to drop in price. I should elaborate I have actually played Dark Souls and beaten one boss but I got stuck past there couldn't get any further. Going back to PS3 controller didn't help in some ways so if it's added to Xbox One backwards compatibility I may try it again as I own a Games with Gold copy. Persona is actually another one for me as well. I have one of the PS2 classics sat on my PS3 that I've not even touched.
WackerJr Posted November 6, 2015 Posted November 6, 2015 Games of epic size can intimidate me, but it's more so my conscious saying I should spend time with my wife, not necessarily the size of the game so much. I can empathise with you Murr. It's those games that I know will take hours to complete, that I'd want to get fully engrossed in & would need to spend time concentrating on that intimidate me. My wife is amazing & understanding of my passion for games, but I do feel guilty if I come across a game like the above. I'd really like to play the Mass Effect series as I've only played the 1st one for a few hours, but I fear it would take up my life for a significant amount of time if I committed to playing and completing it!
nekunando Posted June 9, 2016 Author Posted June 9, 2016 I was reminded of this thread when I recently started making my way through Battalion Wars on Gamecube. I'm 11 missions into the game at this point and while it hasn't been particularly difficult so far, my unfamiliarty with this type of game means I have this constant fear that I'll eventually come to a stage that I just can't beat I'm certainly a competent gamer and should take comfort from the countless challenges I have overcome throughout my years playing games as well as the fact that I'm progressing through the game relatively well so far but I can't seem to shake that feeling of dread that I may eventually get to a position where I can't make progress and will feel like I've wasted my time up until then I think this may actually be one of the reasons why I haven't attempted to make my way through Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance yet or kept hold of Advance Wars: Dual Strike when I owned it briefly on DS. I'm still relatively unfamiliar with RPGs in general, never mind tactical RPGs, so always suspect I may come unstuck somewhere down the line..
Hero-of-Time Posted June 9, 2016 Posted June 9, 2016 Battalion Wars was stupidly easy, even when going for 100%. Cracking game, though. I could never get into the sequel on the Wii. They really should have made another version on the Wii U. The GamePad would have been perfect for it.
nekunando Posted June 9, 2016 Author Posted June 9, 2016 Battalion Wars was stupidly easy.. If anything, comments such as this increase the fear How useless will I feel if I can't make it through something so simple? My ratings haven't exactly been impressive thus far
Hero-of-Time Posted June 9, 2016 Posted June 9, 2016 If anything, comments such as this increase the fear How useless will I feel if I can't make it through something so simple? My ratings haven't exactly been impressive thus far You'll be fine. When you're not living in fear, are you at least enjoying the game?
nekunando Posted June 9, 2016 Author Posted June 9, 2016 You'll be fine. When you're not living in fear, are you at least enjoying the game? Yes, actually I feel like I'm finally getting into it after all these years! The receipt in the box is dated 9/9/2008
Guy Posted June 9, 2016 Posted June 9, 2016 Conventional fighting games with precise input based movesets, Call of Duty, RPGs with lots of number/stat management and Pokemon competitive battling are pretty much the gaming mountains I've accepted I will never climb. Tabletop games that put me on the spot to come up with creative stuff out of nowhere also leave me a nervous, sweaty wreck.
nekunando Posted June 13, 2016 Author Posted June 13, 2016 (edited) I knew this was coming I've reached a mission called 'Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers' and I just can't beat it I've attempted being patient with it and also just heading straight for the main objective but both outcomes are the same. It's starting to really frustrate me EDIT Never mind I just about did it.. at last Edited June 13, 2016 by nekunando
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