What do you despise in a game?

[Ms Littlefish]

You know, I'm weird about grinding. It's really weird to explain. Sometimes I love it and sometimes I hate it. I think it definitely depends on what part of the game I'm playing and even what type of game I'm playing. If I really want to progress in the story and actually complete the main story, yeah I hate it. It's just stopping me from doing that. And if it's absolutely required to not get stomped, then it's a complete drag. But if I want to do some questing, gathering, thing getting, exploration, ect; it's sort of addicting and I love it.

 

[Nirwanda]

^^There's also games where battling is fun enough that you end up spending extra time battling, just because you're enjoying yourself. Though it isn't that common in RPG, it does happen. (for example: The world ends with you, Star Ocean/Tales games, Final Fantasy Tactics..)

I to despise grinding, since if you need to grind then the game has a stupid exp requirement to gain a lvl. It's why I like FF8 so much since not only is gaining levels optional the exp requirement for level up never changes it stays the same and eventually if you chose to fight enemies beyond the ones necessary to progress the story you can find enemies that will give you a level up when killed.

I also despise poorly designed difficulty scaling, If it suddenly goes from 'normal' to 'nightmare' difficulty requireing you to go grind just to stand a chance, then your doing something wrong.

FF8 is once again a good example for this its real simple the higher your level the higher the enemie's level so they grow stronger as your level increases. But trash monsters will always be weak in comparison to bosses unless they are a Malboro and you aren't junctioned to defend against Bad Breath.

I agree with you mostly, but the problem with this is that a lot times wheter some game is considered grindy or not (FF8 not withstanding) is dependant on player skill. I've seen more than a few times the "being too grindy" line used in games where I never grinded, and had no troubles with them despite that. Sometimes players just get frustrated with a difficult battle and decide to grind instead of coming up with clever strategies, and then, they blame the game for it. Maybe such games would benefit from a gentler learning curve or a difficulty slider.

 

[captainproton]

Excessive grinding can be annoying, but the combat should be fun enough that you don't realize you're grinding.

And I do agree about those players who think they should just be able to spam a single action instead of using strategy, and then get upset when they lose "because they didn't grind enough." Yes, you can grind and grind until you're strong enough to hammer away at that boss, or you can take a moment to think: swap your mithril blade for an old iron sword when fighting that faerie lord; use mirror potions to reflect that witch's spells back at her; cast gravity on that wind demon so it's vulnerable to your quake spell.

Something I don't like--though it doesn't really apply to RM games--is online necessity. That is, things you can only do in the game if you have the internet or can somehow link up with another player. In Dragon Quest 9, most of the sidequests are only available through download. In Bravely Default, it takes several solid months of the system being left on to rebuild Norende village, unless you happen to encounter someone playing the same game with Streetpass. It's the only way you can obtain certain items or equipment, too.

I can make my peace with the download-only quests, but it strikes me that the rebuilding of Norende could be sped along with minigames.

 

[orochii]

I despise when a game has really no exploration. I want to lose myself trying to explore! Not just lose this item because the camera angle didn't help. That's not exploring.

Exploring doesn't means having a worldmap. You can explore a mansion, or a cave. But if your game consists of a giant hallway, just like the Final Hallway XIII, then game, I got a problem against you.

===

I think I don't like item creation systems. In MMORPGs, they are time wasters. MMORPGs are overall meant to waste your time. But in regular RPGs, they are time wasters too. Farming one rare item is bad, farming several rare items is horrible (FFXII, why you...).

Item creation systems are pointless. You waste time getting an item, just to be replaced by another one acquired by simpler methods like chests or shops. Of course, if each item in your game is unique, then this system will have more value. Just never make Spear, Spear2, Spear3... (this counts as another thing to despise, heh, duplicate better versions of items, skills... characters? and even bosses, enemies AND areas!).

===

Labyrinths. I HATE LABYRINTHS. I stick to the right and walk patiently. But I will hate you forever.

 

[GraveBusta]

What turns me off in any story has to be plot rush to the point it ruins the story and adds holes it kills everything I loved up to that point,while Sword Art Online is not a game example it is a story example as to how low you can stoop in plot rushing alot of it it felt disapointing yes my avatar is Kirito but that's only cuz he looks cool in dual wield the show killed me off at the last episode that lead to Alfheim Online all this did was plot rush to echii harem worst plot rush I ever seen. 



Another way to kill a story is when you make a game,claim it's a sequel and then throw away the old cast like it's garbage that is rarely forgivable but sometimes I admit it does work however Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the new world is how to possibly do this sin in the worst way possible not only was the old cast thrown away for the most part they capped the levels so you have no use for the old cast,oh it gets better then to add salt to injury most or your party is monsters with no dialogue at all just a less then pokemon irritating rip off. I swear Namco aimed to punish anyone who wanted  Tales of symphony sequel badly the only possible way I could of enjoyed this game was if I never played the first one.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World was one of the greatest tragedies of my gaming life. You take a game what was so much about the characters and you give me a sequel that is next to nothing about those characters. But then you give me two very, very annoying protagonists that I want to know nothing about. Weekend ruined. Tenebrae was the only somewhat redeemable character. 

 

[Balrogic]

Inconsistent game mechanics. I also despise overly simplified systems. I do like *some* simple games like One Way Heroics but for the most part there's not a lot of cause for making things stupidly simplistic. I'm not talking about smooth interfaces, either. I'm talking about lack of features and the few you do have are so simple that they hardly do anything. I do like when a game series gets rid of redundant steps in a way that does not compromise functionality. Modern JRPGs for instance have substantial improvements to the way menus and battles are handled relative to the early games in the genre. I also like it when seemingly simple tools turn out to have a very complex assortment of uses and I have to think about how to best approach the problem in front of me. But just plain simple all around? That's going to bore me to tears. If I want something that doesn't have much action and doesn't require a lot of difficult decisions I'll pick up a visual novel.

 

[Fernyfer775]

Ridiculously complicated names on characters, towns, items, etc. If I can't easily read the name the 1st time around, I lose major interest really fast.

 

[Shelby]

Timers! For the love of god stop! I get so stressed that I do not even enjoy that part of the game! Best case for this is Final Fantasy 7, so many cool parts are timed and you will miss out on things but ehh it drives me crazy.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

you take a game what was so much about the characters and you give me a sequel that is next to nothing about those characters.

This is why you should really take a look at it individually rather than as part of something bigger... It's not just in games, even novels and movies suffer from this phenomena... No matter how good something is, if it's predecessor was better, people look at the newer one as trash even if it's actually good in itself... It's not easy though. Me for example, I hate the game titled DmC even if the game seems to be good on it's own. Why? Because they have a new-look character but still named him Dante.

Expectations, the source of a lot of our problems.  

 

[GraveBusta]

This is why you should really take a look at it individually rather than as part of something bigger... It's not just in games, even novels and movies suffer from this phenomena... No matter how good something is, if it's predecessor was better, people look at the newer one as trash even if it's actually good in itself... It's not easy though. Me for example, I hate the game titled DmC even if the game seems to be good on it's own. Why? Because they have a new-look character but still named him Dante.

Expectations, the source of a lot of our problems.  

I suppose the whole Marta and Emil is all about opinion so story can be rather questionable as to whether it's bad or not because what pleases one person might torment another I hate Emil so much more then Marta but I am sure there are thousands who like Emil more then marta.(don't like either of the 2 just find Emil more annoying) The real characteristics as to how you can ruin a story in general though involves plotholes and rushed dialog as if the Designer seemed like they weren't even trying as for game play aspects it's all fair game to rage especially when the games are too easy,too glitchy, or was cruel not because it's hard but it's the game at fault and not the player. I take it back about what I said about the story in the world as a whole as long as you don't plot hole  too much, or rush as if you're not even trying it should not affect as to how fun the game is I personally like my story though as a reward for all my time spent grinding and leveling.

 

[_Shadow_]

1]  Wrong tagging on a market like Steam or even a site that hosts your free game. [SIZE=14.4444446563721px]Being tricked before I ever play it does not start a good relationship between the gamer and the developer. For example I made a thread here about horror tag abuse. Oh it is trendy! So we must tag the game like that for popularity! Let's make an abandoned house level, in our "Pink Ponies Save the Princess" game and tag it as horror, because of that pink abandoned haunted by evil cucumbers house. NO! Horror should stab my senses in an uncanny or fearsome way. I must feel the terror. Not just walk around a "haunted" castle. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.4444446563721px]2] Trying to perform a certain category mix and fail. I will use horror as an example too. Overdoing it with action scenes, can turn a great horror game concept into an ACTION game. Action games are not very horror. Even F.E.A.R. had isolated horror moments from the action moments. And it succeeded! [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.4444446563721px]3] Wrong target group. When you make an RPG, you must keep in mind that it MUST be an RPG for people who play RPGS. You might love visual novels and story driven games. The rest of the people might not. So when I see HUGE intros and HUGE dialogues, I think of myself "Wait, is this a visual novel? I thought that was an RPG. I WANNA DO SOMETHING! LET ME DO STUFF! And then I do, for 5 minutes, and here comes a cut scene that takes other 5 minutes. I would uninstall such a game.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.4444446563721px]4] No soul. I can't explain it easily. When was your last time that the characters of a game had their own personality to the story? Characters must have something to say. Characters must give life to a game. Hopefully even NPCs must give a little color to the story. But no, you get really flat characters most of the time.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.4444446563721px]5] Bugs. I hate it when someone delivers (especially big companies) a game that has bugs. Once upon a time, manufascturing a cartridge with ONE bad bug, you were almost doomed as a company. There was no Internet, no "sorry", no patch, no ****! It was instant doom for your company. At SUCH an era, games like Sonic and Sonic2, Final Fantasy 6, Super Mario World, Secret of Mana, were created. FLAWLESS. That's how it must be if I wanna take a company seriously.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.4444446563721px]6] Unpleasant difficulty. FROM START! What were you thinking people? Making it harder doesn't make it better. Even if it is a small game.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.4444446563721px]7] Game clones. Especially when they are identical. It is plagiarism (changed colors and name) and it is dreadful.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.4444446563721px]8] BAD controls = BAD game. Always. Except for QWOP. I laughed a lot with this stupid thing.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.4444446563721px]9] Annoying music. Or bad composed music. Also... b[/SIZE][SIZE=14.4444446563721px]ad actors, bad voice acting ( anyone else suffered during FF10? ) and even bad dialogues.[/SIZE]

 

[SIZE=14.4444446563721px]10] Treating the player like an idiot.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.4444446563721px]For the rest, just watch AVGN episodes. The guy's thoughts is almost identical to my own thoughts. Maybe because we have almost the same age I guess.[/SIZE]

 

[Cozzer]

At SUCH an era, games like Sonic and Sonic2, Final Fantasy 6, Super Mario World, Secret of Mana, were created. FLAWLESS.

You know, FF6 has a bug that makes one of the character attributes completely useless. If such a thing happened today and wasn't patched on day 1, the Internet would scream and grind its teeth about it forever.

I don't want to undermine your point that bugs are bad (because they are), but I think this "the past was always better" thing that a lot of people seem to love is... less than accurate.

On topic, I'm becoming less and less tolerant of bad UIs and games where you can see a lot of numbers from the start and you have no idea what some of them even are (JRPGs are often guilty of this).

 

[Caitlin]

I think that my biggest problem with games is mostly player and developer related.  I do not mind people trying new things, but if you don't like a genre, don't make that genre.  You upset the people who love that genre and the genre you are trying to turn it into, won't like it, either.  I can forgive systems, as long as they work properly and doesn't remove player interaction with the game.  If it doesn't work, is a pain in the rear, doesn't make it fun or removes choices from the game, then, it is a peeve of mine.  Games that have systems that don't work, Live a live, Final Fantasy 13, Final Fantasy 12...Now, if it has interesting characters and a good story, you can overlook any bad system.  For example, I hated the gambits, but otherwise, the characters, and story of Final Fantasy 12 was really interesting.  Final Fantasy XIII had none of that and I honestly, fell asleep or fighting falling asleep. 

Player pet peeves are the people, who have shallow dislikes and won't play a game with certain systems, even when it has interesting characters, story.  They are overly critical of some games that their dislike list is so long, you wonder why they are using rpg maker and not other game engines. (Lucky, I am not talking about anyone on this forum, or at least, none that I noticed.) But I was talking about Kitase, and his dislike of RPGs, trying to turn Final Fantasy into a FPS, when he should just work on those types of game.  I am all for growth, since Final Fantasy has been in a rut since Final Fantasy VII, but they are not fixing the problem when they do not even know what the problem is.  Too focused on the world when everyone loved the old Final Fantasy just fine.

 

[AriesFireTiger]

4 things I despise most:

Invisible walls

Poor camera

Linear gameplay

super-wimpy or super-emo or melodramatic "heroes"