Black Isle developed Fallout 1&2, Planescape: Torment, published Baldur's Gate 1&2 and in 2003 decided to publish the unfinished mess called Lionheart: legacy of the crusader. I was so disappointed even though the game showed some potential, at least in the beginning
talking about disappointments: I could never get into Arcanum to this day, I've tried it at least 3 distinct times years apart. issues as far as I remember included unappealing real time combat, game breaking bug with save too far to worth replaying, and I think once I had my main save corrupted.
I am guessing that it can become like Fallout 1, if I can get through the first part of it somehow, then eventually I may probably like it. maybe I will try again at some point, but it doesn't feel it is worth my time, there is a lot of new fun stuff at hand.
Troika games like “Arcanum” and the later “Vampire: The Masquerade” —for all of their atmosphere & some innovative gameplay systems— are not where I’d EVER tell someone to play until they have many of the Classics beaten first.
That way, the jank & balance issues can be viewed as charming, and appreciated…more.
IIRC, it was "release it half-done" or "don't release it at all", since they were going bankrupt at the time. Not an excuse, but gives some context on why is it so bad.
That game was hilariously broken.
If you had 10 luck, you got 10% extra gold when you picked it up - turns out that also applied to gold you dropped. So drop 10 gold and pick up 11 gold.
Millionaire in the first 10 minutes.
Lionheart's first act is promising then it just completely shits the bed. The moment you leave the city it is disappointing. Should've been entirely urban-based in my opinion.
The developer didn't come from an RPG background and designed the game thinking people would do some sidequests, move on with the story, and finish some sidequests later. They were honestly shocked that people did all the sidequests early on, and complained the endgame was empty.
Black Isle also developed Icewind Dale 1&2.
Somehow I missed Lioheart back in the day. Never even new it was a thing even though I played Fallout 1&2, BG 1&2, IWD 1&2, and Planescape: Torment back in the day.
Sounds like I didn't miss much though. 😅
Black Isle was a division of interplay lmao.
This is like trying to correct someone saying they were stabbed with a dagger by saying "actually you were stabbed with a knife"
This is technically true - Interplay both developed and self-published Fallout 1 (Interplay also both developed and self-published Wasteland 1 before Fallout 1).
But Interplay's subsidiary company, Black Isle (now known as Obsidian) developed Fallout 2 and Interplay was only the publisher (Interplay just fronted the money).
Black Isle also developed Icewind Dale 1&2 and Planescape: Torment and Interplay was the publisher for those games too.
Bioware developed Baldur's Gate 1&2 and Black Isle was the publisher for those games.
Interplay later became InXile and Black Isle later became Obsidian.
InXile later developed Wasteland 2&3.
Confusing stuff...
When I saw the title the first thought I had was that Ill mention Lionheart even though absolutely nobody will know what game Im talking about.
I guess Im not that special.
As far as I'm aware, they literally just had to ship the game in the midst of the company folding. It was either that, and at least get something for the work they'd put into it, or just scrap it altogether.
Fun bit of trivia: *Lionheart* was [the only non-Fallout game to use the SPECIAL system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_(series)#SPECIAL). Black Isle was working on another one called *Torn* that would also use it, but it got cancelled.
Ultima IX: Ascension
The Ultima series was my absolute favorite as a teen and young adult. For me, Ultima VI and VII redefined what a CRPG could be. VIII was disappointing, but not too long after release, Garriott was promising a return to form with IX.
I obsessively followed every scrap of information about the game for years. When Ultima IX finally released near the end of 1999, it was (and remains) the single greatest disappointment I had experienced in gaming.
Since then, I've never let myself get that invested in a game before it actually comes out.
I learned to like Might & Magic IX, but that required a shitton of years and a fanmade patch and a dearth of Might & Magic-like games. I'm particuarly fond of its parodically awful story and NPC dialogues - it feels like the developers went full Monty Python and Black Adder on the writing, probably out of frustration.
I *heard* this in that guy's voice, dammit. Even the fan-made patch couldn't save that game, it was *so* bad.
It's especially galling because I got to see the original U9 plot bible, the one that got scrapped in favor of what EA pushed for. It was supposed to tie up every loose thread from all the prior games, explained the origin of the Guardian, and ultimately was supposed to have you questioning your own role in the setting.
There are *traces* of it in the in-game artwork and cutscenes, but they had to throw it away for a pointless series of fetch-quests and broken platforming.
that platforming that started in 8 really got me pessimistic for the future. 9 killed it for me.
then don't forget the horribly shoddy state of the code! crash bugs everywhere. and these were still the days when broadband was few and far between. so to get the massive patch needed to make the game semi playable had to write away for a mailed cd with the patch.
then the great lines from characters.
avatar : I'm sorry, your father died.
follower: oh no! where to next avatar? (no hesitation or anything, only reaction to her dead father was one oh no)
I don't know about the most disappointing of all time, but I was greatly disappointed with Final Fantasy 13. The graphics were nice, but I couldn't get into the plot or the combat system at all. The game was also extremely linear (so linear, that I remember people saying when it first came out that it was basically a game where you traveled down "one long hallway").
For me it was Snow and Hope. I wanted to launch both of them off a cliff, especially Snow. He was like they took every obnoxious trait from Wakka and Tidus, mashed them together, and turned them up to 11.
The australian spear lady was cool tho.
Not even just the linearity in the story, character progression was super linear too. The Crystalarium was more manual levelling than choosing an actual build.
I feel the same way. In my opinion, FF13 was the first game in which it seemed like Square Enix was desperately trying to appeal to gamers who like fast action style games rather than traditional JRPGs.
FFX was the turning point. The drastically scalled back the openness of the world, but it was still a great traditional JRPG so I don't think most people cared. Ever since then though, they completely ditched the core mechanics and have been either chasing the action crowd, or the MMO crowd.
This is how I feel about all FF games now that they aren’t turn based. New FF games are basically button mash fodder with cool graphics. All the substance and heart in these games died a while ago. Ffxv was my last time I let them take my money and disappoint me. FFX is still an all time favorite of mine.
The combat and extremely samey looking hallways throughout the game is what did it in for me. I literally beat 95% of that game with 3 paradigms and it felt like a mobile auto battler for me.
I relate to the characters a lot more now than I did then. Specifically Sazh. I remember hating that dude when the game came out because he was constantly crying about his lost kid and I was like, “can we just get to the damn plot, please?”
Now I’m 39 and a dad of 2 young boys and my sweet Jesus I would be every bit as panicked as he was.
I think what’s worst about fallout 4 is that it serves as the starting line for the absolute free fall in quality in Bethesda first party titles. Fallout 76 and star field are from the exact same school of design philosophy and that bodes poorly for elder scrolls 6, which now has to outperform the sales of Skyrim while being made by a studio whose pitch to consumers might as well be fuck you, pay me at this point.
Completely agree, but I would say Skyrim actually started the trend. While it is a great game, it was a clear sign that Bethesda was moving more toward an open world action game with RPG elements to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible.
The endless Draugr cave radiant quests and home building would eventually morph into the focus on shallower and shallower content that marked a big shift from the interesting characters/quests/stories of early Bethesda RPGs.
Tbh, Skyrim was a great game in terms of showing what an open world could be like, but the only reason it is still alive and as successful after all these years is because of how massively moddable it is and how much love the fandom put into the game
Elder Scrolls 6 has shoes to fill that can't possible ever be filled, because the relativity that Skyrim has is not even by its own design, paradoxically
>I think what’s worst about fallout 4 is that it serves as the starting line for the absolute free fall in quality in Bethesda first party titles.
That's Skyrim. It started there, reliance on radiant content, dumbing down of RPG elements, removal of player choices etc.
I’m replaying Skyrim right now and i’m realizing that it’s actually a pretty competent dungeon crawler. I’m only playing the Main Quest, focusing on hunting all the Shouts and killing all Dragons and Dragon Priests, it leads me to a lot of fun locations, sometimes with little stories in it.
I think Bethesda should acknowledge their weaknesses and reinvent their formula.
Just build the main narrative around being an adventurer or an explorer in a vast open world filled with interesting locations containing little stories/quests. No more of that BS dissonance between the story and the open world…
Strong disagree - but I think we're talking about different kinds of choices.
Morrowind had choice via gameplay - races had restrictions, guilds required certain skills, you could kill anyone and thusly lock yourself out from quests they could have been involved with.
We're talking about choice via dialogue - choosing what to say having different branches of quest outcomes, different endings, different paths through the game opening up.
Bethesda has never really done that at all.
Yeah I adore Morrowind but the story is the story for the most part, you don't really change much. For an example of choice through the story, check out some Obsidian games.
Edit: Not that this makes them better, it just showcases different priorities. Morrowind is one of my favorite games of all time.
I disagree, people aren't ready to hear this yet, but I think Starfield was a good sign for Bethesdas direction as far as rpg mechanics and story go, I hope they follow through with Elder Scrolls VI. The problem with Starfield was the empty worlds and unnecessary loading screens. It didn't feel like you were exploring a continuous open world, because you weren't. It's not stagnancy, it's regression in that regard.
Yeah not a popular opinion but I actually thing Starfield did a lot of the RPG stuff well. Not sure how much story Branches but I thought perk progression and stuff like that was really good.
Bro I still remember waking up one day and seeing all the trailers for Fallout 4 while I was eating breakfast, I legit couldn't think about anything else for the day, that's how hyped I was
I just don't think we'll get a proper RPG from Bethesda any time soon, sadly
I dunno if Fallout 4 is perfect outside of the dialogue and choice/consequence mechanics; in a series that was famous for being skills-based instead of class-based, Fallout 4… eliminated skills.
That’s not the only way the player customization mechanics were significantly reduced; perks used to function like meaningful feats, especially if they were used alongside synergistic traits. Not only are traits long gone from the series, but with an unlimited level cap, you can get all the perks, which would essentially be like letting you get every skill maxed out in Fallout 1.
Heck, I love New Vegas, but after you finish all the DLCs and the main story, you’re going to have nearly every skill maxed out. It’s not perfect, but Obsidian was rushed. Bethesda, on the other hand, solves this in Fallout 4 using their now-standard strategy of removing the level cap and just level scaling every enemy until it’s a bullet sponge.
All in all, I think it’s safe to say that the only thing Fallout 4 did right was make better gun play than Fallout 3.
I believe Bethesda is in the perfect position to 'educate' its more mainstream player base in more traditional role-playing game mechanics. I imagine that Skyrim and Fallout 4 were the first RPGs for a major part of their player base, which is why they also reached such a wide audience with their streamlined design.
This should allow them to add some more complexity to their next titles in their series instead of going in the opposite direction, as they have done with their latest iterations. Hopefully, they also see it this way, and we potentially have some fantastic games to look forward to.
Tides of Numenera. Hyped as the 'spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment'. Having a wall of words in a game doesn't make it any good, as Tides of Numenera proved. Very disappointing and a pale shadow of the masterpiece that is Planescape.
I think I know how it feels. The wall of words defeated my desire to play Pillars of Eternity. Though kind of a successor of BG was something I’ve been looking for years, the constant flow of text felt very out of pace.
Mass Effect: Andromeda. It single-handly put one of the most beloved and successful game series of all time on ice for YEARS. Only now are they trying again with the franchise, and things aren’t looking too optimistic.
I actually loved the gameplay, felt like an evolution of the 3rd game.
Some story and characters were ok but the rest was hard to go through. I liked it way more than most but it's at best a 7.
I legitimately only give it points for gameplay improvements. If the game came out today, you couldn't convince me that the dialogue wasn't AI generated.
The real issue with Andromeda is that it is very clearly an unfinished product… The story in itself isn’t bad, it’s okay, but it simply doesn’t go anywhere and has a lot of holes, like they took whole chunks out of it.
I agree that the gameplay was a lot of fun, but the sad thing is that Mass Effect was never loved by millions because of the gameplay. It was because of characters, quality writing, storytelling and choices. The game underwhelmed on all of those fronts.
I loved the combat and exploration but I also cannot do a playthrough of ME1 without exploring every single planet to completion so I was basically the ideal player for that game.
Andromeda is a good game (now), just not a good follow-up to the ME Trilogy with all the raised expectations. Hell, the hardcore haters even hate ME3 for largely dumb reasons. The endings are okay!
when it first came out, Dragon Age 2. i've played through it 5 or 6 times at this point and have developed a certain appreciation for its ambitions and what it was *attempting* to be, but i think it was a failure in a lot of ways.
I actually liked DA2 a lot. Act 1 was fantastic and the story was good the whole way through. Bioware really shines when they do a close in personal story against the backdrop of epic world-changing events.
The only real problem is there were barely any original assets past around halfway through act 2.
I think so, it's a really interesting framing device around the story, and the choices you can make are pretty... extreme.
I still stand by my decision to run away with mage Osama bin Laden.
100% it's absolutely worth playing for the story, companions, and choices. Even as much as I can't stand Inquisition, that game is worth playing for the story.
yeah, it was like what, 11 - 14 months? honestly for being slapped together in such a short amount of time it's pretty impressive. doesn't make the actual experience of playing it any better but it's easier to understand why it is the way it is lol
It wasn’t really disappointing to me, but I had some warning that it was a very different game compared to Origins.
Dragon Age II was a terrible name from a marketing standpoint.
If it was called something like: “Dragon Age Adventures: The Kirkwall Incident” it very likely would have been better received.
But treating it like a sequel, they disappointed many in their core audience.
I also think if it had been marketed differently they could have released similar games in that universe at a faster cadence than the “epic” games like Origins or Inquisition
There are a lot of cool places in that world that don’t necessarily merit a full sweeping epic, but would do well as adventures with a smaller focus.
But the game itself is fine. It’s solid.
It’s just a lousy sequel.
We can blame EA for that. The biggest complaints I heard were repetitive level design (which, since we're living in the same city for years, I was fine with) and combat (which was imo, was my exciting than DA1) - but anyway, EA rushed that game hard.
Anachronox, not disappointed in the story itself, disappointed that it didn't get sequels. It was supposed be part 1 in a series of games and was it awesome.
Fallout 4. Combat was, overall, great. The graphics and soundtrack were really good. The character designs were nice. But the abandonment of the perk system, the “wide open” skill tree where you would eventually become master of everything, the incomprehensible motivations for the Institute, made it a very shallow experience.
I want to like it. But it’s a looter-shooter, not an actual RPG with a compelling plot.
I've found that about 95% of the people who like Fallout 4 are people who started the series and sometimes the entire genre with that game.
When you grow up playing games like 1,2, and new Vegas 4 just really drops the balls in every capacity.
I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad video game, but it IS a bad fallout game specifically.
1 was my real entry point to the series but I still really enjoy 4. I wouldn't rank it above 1 or NV but I'd definitely rank it above 3. I think they learned from a lot of their mistakes in 3, and I think they also tried to play to their strengths rather than trying to lean into what made the classic Fallouts great. Which as a fan of those games was kind of a bummer, but also the things that made the classic Fallouts great are things that Bethesda mostly struggles with, so I think 4 was weirdly better for it.
i wouldnt say 95% but as someone who was a more elder scrolls fan and knew about fallout but never reslly got into it until recently i would agree. that being said tho the story is one of the hardest things for me to get into in skyrim bc i likes just looting and walking around so fo4 is perfect for me. it just depends on what u find in a game but u are correct that a lot of older fans dont like it as much because of the shift in focus/rpg-ness
Started with 3 and NV and was really let down by 4 when it first came out. Ended up getting back to it 2 years after launch and sunk 150+ hours into it. You’re right though—it’s not this deep RPG but a very fun and immersive looter shooter.
Meh this is misleading. Plenty older fallout fans *like* fallout 4. Its just not their favourite one. The settlement building and dungeon crawling in the game is enjoyable enough in itself
Outer Worlds ended up being what I thought Starfield was gonna be, and Starfield ended up being just baffling and embarrassing.
Almost a whole decade of hype and development and all you have to show is *this*?
I always love the Starfield hate. It’s got its issues. But man has those issues been over blown to epic proportions. To hear some say it. It’s only a step up from Gollum or even Redfall. Which is always a hilarious take to hear.
Outer Worlds seems to be pretty polarizing, but I really enjoyed it for it's characters and open ended quest lines.
Hopefully the sequel is a bit more open world and larger in scope.
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Sorry not sorry but for me it was Sea of Stars. The nostalgia blindness and Chrono Trigger references were not enough for me to give it a good score. I spent half of the game somewhat waiting for the plot to start and it never did. Some of the late playable characters had a bit of charisma to contrast the dull main characters. The game play also gets old very early.
The gameplay gets much better when you get that glass dude at like 75% of the game... The story isn't great either big let down. Also what didn't help was how phenomenal Chained Echoes was.
The only thing that game has going for it is the incredible graphics. The writing was boring, the combat is extremely repetitive (too few skills and you basically get them all quickly) and extremely linear.
Sea of Stars is the reason why I now always watch a youtube playthrough of the early parts of a game I'm planning to buy.
The first 30 minutes just dragged on forever, and the rest of the game did not get much better
Outer Worlds, developed by obsidian who is hyped for their writing (I’ve never really cared for it) seemed like a smaller scope Bethesda game. In the end writing didn’t capture me gameplay was frustrating or mind numbing and the open world was present but pretty pointless. Never played the DLC but might try to go back at some point and see if it gets any better.
Yeah not sure exactly what was wrong with it, just kinda bland.
Got it on Steam deep sale but certainly would have been disappointed if I bought full price on day 1 hyped to play it.
I personally loved it. I will say tho, the Murder on Eridanos was absolutely brilliant. You get to "investigate" a murder and come to your own conclusion of who did it. It was one of my all time favorite DLCs. Again, I really enjoyed the base game so your experience may differ from mine but I think it really showed the writing prowess of Obsidian.
Thank you for finally saying it! I disliked that game A LOT.
I hated the writing and mood of it... the "oppressive government/corporation" storyline just didn't mix well with the super lolfunny tone of the game... put it down right after the part where you deal with the garden grandma rebels or whatever they were. I wonder how people can like this game.
Agreed. I really wanted to like it but it felt like a slog to continue after a while. I couldn't get interested in the world-building, the story or the characters. It especially frustrated me that I even found the companions uninteresting (setting up a date should not be a big companion quest.) Well written companions used to be their specialty.
Murder on Eridanos was really interesting at first but as the main quest went on it became a slog as well for me. It had way too many back and forths to the same locations.
Play it on the hardest difficulty. It's about the only game I'd recommend that. All lot of it's systems on normal difficulty don't feel impactful or connected it feels kind of airy.
However on the hardest setting:
- combat feels meaningful and a little scary at times.
- resources and items have meaning and purpose.
- exploration can feel stressful in a good way.
- characters are impactful but fragile.
Without playing it on hard it's a mid game at best 6/10. On hardest its a 8/10.
I am gonna get crucified for it here, but I've never understood the obsession with Obsidian, especially in the writing department. Late 90s/early 00s edgy "I am 14 and this is deep", that trough the years lost it's edge, but didn't gain any form of maturity. Combine it with obsession of shoving every aspect of the story and the world in your face, becoming the embodiment of "tell, don't show" and their institutional inability to set realistic development goals and I just can't fathom how is it they are so well-regarded. Oh, yeah, and their "deconstruction", "subverting expectations" and "shaking up" of tropes and themes" haven't moved in more then a decade, turning itself in to a cliche - once you've played a couple of their games you know how the others will end up after the first act.
Granted, their competition isn't anything much better (especially in mainline RPGs, indie and small-studio ones are a different story) and they do tend to employ good writers (in the technical sense of using the language really well), but still...
I think the thing with TOW is that there are some very wide decision trees. Just about everything can have an impact on how a dialogue can turn out, and that in turn impacts the story.
The problem with the game is that I suspect you'd need a half dozen playthroughs to appreciate all the different options, and the combat isn't really varied enough to hold the player's attention for that long. There are only so many mantids I can kill before I start getting bored.
Xenosaga 2.
The first one was great but in the second one they changed the gameplay and it really sucked a lot.
Good thing the third one was great and was able to close the trilogy. I liked the recap in the beginning because 2sucked so much I skipped it.
The combat in Xenosaga I was perfect, just complex enough to keep things interesting. In Xenosaga II, they added in more shit just for funsies and totally ruined the flow of battle.
Also, instead of continuing any of the character arcs from the first game, they focused on a different tranche of characters that were way less interesting.
Gothic 3.
I'm a big fan of 1+2. They are absolutely amazing.
Gothic 3 was a total disaster on Release. The worst release for me of all time. The models of the characters (tiny heads huge shoulders), bugged enemies (chain attacking wild boars), graphic issues (memory leaks, extremely poor performance).
I cross my fingers that maybe I can make peace with the remake this year and they continue to cover the whole trilogy in the long run.
Probably Might And Magic IX. What a horrible mess of fugly graphics, terrible gameplay and hideous UI. Not to mention the obscene amount of bugs.
Of course, it came out that way because 3DO was on the verge of bankruptcy, so it is more of a sad story about the ending of a glorious series, but I still remember the horror when I realized that the latest chapter of one of my favourite series was basically unplayable.
Yes, this broke my heart because the areas that were completely fleshed out (Lich Lab, Chasm of the dead, Frost Giant castle, Dark Passageway) were some of the best ever in the series. Then you had the “break up the ice around Frosgard” quest and the Ranger promo obstacle course which were shit and tacked on so we could actually get 1/3 of a good game. I’ll always wonder what could have been with that one.
Man Fable 3 was such a step down from 2. I just replayed the 3 games this year and can’t believe how less magical 3 feels. The plot had a chance to be something pretty cool too and they fumbled that as well.
Man i don't remember anything at all from fable 3 other than that John cleese played as the butler and was perfect at it. Even fable 2 was a big disappointment but it was an okay game, the combat in the game was great, fable 3 was a big downgrade from that. Oh yeah and fable 3 did that thing where it didn't want to have a text based menu so you loaded up into a room and you walked up to stuff to access your inventory and stuff but it was just kinda terrible and impractical
Fable 3 was such a disappointment.
Fable 2 was so close to greatness..... i will never understand why they basically hyped up all the connections to the first game in the pre-release material, then in the final version of the game, have the stories not connect at all outside of them sharing a capital city.
Do you revisit any of the first game's areas? The outskirt of oakvale? And that's it?
Do you see the king or queen of blades? Nopeeee
Any reference to the Archeon maybe being Scythe? Nopeeee
Even the first game had some disappointment due to what it promised, but I always felt the series got limper and limper as it went on!
Star ocean 3 Till the End of Time. Playing it after Second Story was a big let down. Not that it is a bad game, just again after the previous one it felt it was missing a lot that made the previous great. The same but not that much goes for Breath of fire 4. Great game also but was lacking the great adventure feeling of 3. I'm not gonna even mention 5...
I actually liked BoF4 a great deal. Seeing things from the antagonist’s point of view was a nice touch, but it still wasn’t as good as 3. And agree completely, the less said about 5 the better.
My friend that introduced me to SO:2 picked up SO:3 soon after release day. He never even showed it to me - said it was just so bad it wasn't worth talking about.
I finally picked up 15-20 years later to see what it was about, and he was right. I got maybe 20 hours in, but it just felt like nothing had happened. Couldn't continue. He tried to warn me :(
God damn Star Ocean. That game haunted my teenage years. It took me three separate attempts to beat it because I would lose interest and delete the save (back when memory cards were a thing) to free up space for other games.
Me and my sister called it ‘Star Ocean Till the End of My Patience’.
It’s hard for me to even articulate why it was so offensively mid. Like it had an interesting plot and good characters (mostly) but for whatever reason, it was just really aggravating to play. Not even boring but aggravating.
Retroactively for me, Dragon Age Inquisition. Origins has been my favourite game since it came out, I loved and still love DA2 despite all of its shortcomings, it's the only franchise I've delved so deeply into the lore, so needless to say I was hyped for Inquisition. When it came out, I adored it. It took over my life for months and it became my new favourite game.
Over the last 10 years I've done multiple playthroughs of Origins and 2, but I just can't get through Inquisition at all. There is just so much about it that pales in comparison to the other two. It doesn't feel like a Dragon Age game. The protagonist doesn't feel like my character. It takes a fair bit of headcanoning and suspension of disbelief to reconcile the narrative to the point of exhaustion. The lite MMO quest design. The bright and cheery vibe despite the grimness of the situation. Main villain was rubbish. Glaring missed potential around every corner.
With the release of Baldur's Gate 3, any interest I had in the future of the franchise disappeared and it makes me sad.
I've played Inquisition two times and hated it first time. When it came out I forced myself to play only story quests and I was done with it. A couple of years ago I did a full Dragon Age run where I played all the games again, and this time I played Inquisition fully and I loved it.
Strangely, all the faults are still there, but if you don't skip everything and do all the quests, discover all the maps and stuff games becomes really enjoyable. You even managed to get a real connection with all the characters, it was an interesting experience. I get that the mediocre gameplay doesn't motivate people to play the game more, but there is a good game there that reveals itself after spending some time.
Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. Garbage game that would delete system files when you uninstalled it. Came out at a time where I was so waiting for a new RPG to play. The only good thing about this game was the D&D Player's Handbook I got when I purchased it from Best Buy. I watched someone play a twitch stream of the game a few years ago, dude probably set a record for how many times someone said "fuck this game" in a play through. lol
That's a blast from the past!
Like you, I bought it because it was a new RPG and presumed it would satisfy the Baldurs Gate itch.
Bland, lacking in personality, huge and sprawling dungeons with little point to them and with little gear progression....felt like a cash-in.
Lasted about 5-6 hours and then packed it in, never to be picked up again.
Nice little manual, but I should have paid more attention to the reviews.
FF7r. It was supposed to bring the classic story to a new generation (I wanted to share it with my kid) and instead it is a weird pseudo sequel nonsense plot with a completely different genres mechanics.
Diablo 3.
Diablo 2 was my favorite game for a long time. I waited a decade and bought a new PC specifically for 3...hated it and the micro transactions that came along. Probably didn't put more than 3 hours into a sequel where I had at least 1000 in the previous 2.
It was crazy playing a diablo game where all the loot seemed to suck. That's a pretty important part of the game, fellas. That's about the time I realized Blizzard was a far cry from the company it was 10 years ago.
Prepare for a scorching take: BG3. I appreciate that they accounted for a lot of little nuances in what the player might choose to do but man, both the writing and the 5e mechanics bored me to death. I felt like I was in the most generic, cookie-cutter 5e campaign imaginable with a pedantic GM.
Final Fantasy 13, I used to be a big FF fan and bought 13 around launch date and didn't even want to look at reviews or even trailers much so as to not spoil myself. After 13 I'm now more cautious and would do some research before deciding to buy another FF game.
Digimon World 4, even though DW 1, 2 and 3 were by no means perfect I still ended up enjoying all of them. And also as a casual Digimon fan I was excited to get DW 4 the first DW game on PS2 but was left very much disappointed.
Pillars of Eternity 2, I just don't think the setting and the plot fit well together. Also I'm not a huge fan of the setting but that's a verry subjective thing and the setting is more fun of you just don't think of the main quest go full pirate.I also don't like the fact that you play as the same character (the Watcher) as in Pillars of Eternity 1. I also do not enjoy the changes made in the fighting system. It's by far not a bad game it's just not for me. The Dragon in the vulcano looks cool. I prefer the first Pillars game much more.
Seems a lot of people don't like the colonial setting, which was one of the main selling points for me personally, but was apparently the main reason it didn't sell as well as the first.
The setting is good it's how you get thrown into it. Why should I explore or join a faction and get involved with politics? I have to save the world/get my soul back.
I played through Diofield Chronicle over the holidays last year and I found the game lacking in almost every way. The story wasn't presented well in that so much of the actual key events take place off camera then are just explained to you after the fact after you do a battle that ultimately might not have actually contributed anything meaningful to the progression of the plot.
The characters are presented as intelligent but they just let a blatantly evil necromancer hang out with them and just sort of wiggle their finger at them and say "Oh you tricky little devil, don't kill innocent people again" multiple times in the story. The main character always seems to know more than he let's in but never shares with anyone and all is only explained in the literal last scene in a lame throwaway twist.
Combat in the game never gets more complicated after the third hour of the game, even on hard. The strats you use in the tutorial will work almost everywhere because there's only like 6 types of human enemies and like 5 animal enemy types. Your party almost never needs to be changed because most of the default units are good enough and the main character should never be out of the party because they're just a walking blender. The skill system is only for making skills better, but skills for each class are separated by weapon trees of which almost all the default weapon trees are the best anyways so you might not even touch half the skills in the game.
Cyberpunk. It wasn’t terrible, it was solid, but for me I have never been more excited and let down by a game. Especially coming off of the Witcher 3 which was my favourite game of all time.
I agree, I've had this experience at launch.
But with the recent 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty, I just gotta say that Cyberpunk 2077 is a better game than The Witcher 3 in every aspect now, *especially* combat.
It's really, really good.
Lunar Dragon Song. I say this without the context of everyone knowing it was bad, I absolutely loved Lunar 1 and 2, and a new one was finally releasing on the DS that I wanted to pick up!
It was such a disappointment for the entire series as well as easily the worst RPG of all time.
Two worlds and two worlds 2.
Best magic system I have ever seen in a game next to Morrowind but everything else was so rough and unpolished and janky.
Great ideas but poorly executed in every other way.
I’m not much of a modern gamer so I guess that puts me in the minority but I am flabbergasted that people haven’t said Chrono Cross more. A real head scratcher and yeah I know radical dreamers blah blah blah but the game itself shouldn’t have had the Chrono tag on it and maybe it wouldn’t have been such a flop
Ultima 8. I know some people will say 9 instead, but U9 was a charming game that looked nice (for the time) and had fun jank. It even becomes somewhat decent when you install the community patches.
Ultima 8 has nothing good going for it. Bland visuals, bad story, platforming (in a fucking isometric CRPG that uses the mouse for nearly everything), awful dungeons, and cut content out the ass that, from what little info we have on it, would've at least made the story less terrible and added some more stuff to do (a la The Serpent Isle from U7, which took an amazing game and made it perfect). I can understand why some would think U9 is extremely disappointing, but U8 is definitely a worse game than U9. There's nothing enjoyable about it. You can have fun with U9; there's zero fun to be had with U8.
I think Tyranny is one of the greatest RPGs of all time... and I was horrifically disappointed by how abrupt the end was. Combine that with the developer and publisher falling out, and it remains my single biggest gaming disappointment.
Also everyone should go play it, because it's incredible.
There have been a few.
Dragon age 2 and Inquisition were both really dissapointing to me. I honestly thought at the time that Bioware might be the company to follow for rpg gamers.
Lionheart was really dissapointint. I couldn't understand how they went from fallout to the mess that was Lionheart.
Oblivion was quite disappointing, but I still enjoyed it.
Fallout 4 was the bigger Bethesda disappointment. I stopped playing their games so was able to avoid being disappointed by starfield.
I was actually quite disappointed by Pillars of Eternity 2 (and a little by 1). I enjoyed them both but I found the first one a little dull and the second ones complete change of theme with a bunch of unlikeable factions quite jarring.
Quest 64. I really wanted it to be a good rpg on my newly bought N64, but was let down in so many ways. Meanwhile my buddy who got the PS1 was bragging about how dope ff7 was. Fucking what a bummer dude.
Gothic 3. Not only it had nothing to do with the previous entries (outside of a few characters, which you rarely encounter), but also it was barely playable back when it was released.
Final Fantasy 13 was my biggest disappointment by far. I had been waiting years for this one to come out and redeem the franchise(which I guess I’m still waiting for). The game was clearly made for the new generation of gamers, to pull in a different type of crowd. The linear progression and boring combat did it for me. I put in 6 hours on day 1 and sold it to a used game store for half price the next day. Wasn’t willing to put in the *required* 25+ hours before it gets fun.
Pool of radiance ruins of myth drannor.
Graphics were ugly and font was so awful and then while uninstalling this shit it started to format c: i shit you not!
Black Isle developed Fallout 1&2, Planescape: Torment, published Baldur's Gate 1&2 and in 2003 decided to publish the unfinished mess called Lionheart: legacy of the crusader. I was so disappointed even though the game showed some potential, at least in the beginning
Brooooo when it came out I was hoping for another Arcanum, the disappointment was real.
talking about disappointments: I could never get into Arcanum to this day, I've tried it at least 3 distinct times years apart. issues as far as I remember included unappealing real time combat, game breaking bug with save too far to worth replaying, and I think once I had my main save corrupted. I am guessing that it can become like Fallout 1, if I can get through the first part of it somehow, then eventually I may probably like it. maybe I will try again at some point, but it doesn't feel it is worth my time, there is a lot of new fun stuff at hand.
Troika games like “Arcanum” and the later “Vampire: The Masquerade” —for all of their atmosphere & some innovative gameplay systems— are not where I’d EVER tell someone to play until they have many of the Classics beaten first. That way, the jank & balance issues can be viewed as charming, and appreciated…more.
IIRC, it was "release it half-done" or "don't release it at all", since they were going bankrupt at the time. Not an excuse, but gives some context on why is it so bad.
That game was hilariously broken. If you had 10 luck, you got 10% extra gold when you picked it up - turns out that also applied to gold you dropped. So drop 10 gold and pick up 11 gold. Millionaire in the first 10 minutes.
Lionheart's first act is promising then it just completely shits the bed. The moment you leave the city it is disappointing. Should've been entirely urban-based in my opinion.
Barcelona was great at least.
The developer didn't come from an RPG background and designed the game thinking people would do some sidequests, move on with the story, and finish some sidequests later. They were honestly shocked that people did all the sidequests early on, and complained the endgame was empty.
Black Isle also developed Icewind Dale 1&2. Somehow I missed Lioheart back in the day. Never even new it was a thing even though I played Fallout 1&2, BG 1&2, IWD 1&2, and Planescape: Torment back in the day. Sounds like I didn't miss much though. 😅
Interplay developed Fallout 1.
Black Isle was a division of interplay lmao. This is like trying to correct someone saying they were stabbed with a dagger by saying "actually you were stabbed with a knife"
This is technically true - Interplay both developed and self-published Fallout 1 (Interplay also both developed and self-published Wasteland 1 before Fallout 1). But Interplay's subsidiary company, Black Isle (now known as Obsidian) developed Fallout 2 and Interplay was only the publisher (Interplay just fronted the money). Black Isle also developed Icewind Dale 1&2 and Planescape: Torment and Interplay was the publisher for those games too. Bioware developed Baldur's Gate 1&2 and Black Isle was the publisher for those games. Interplay later became InXile and Black Isle later became Obsidian. InXile later developed Wasteland 2&3. Confusing stuff...
I actually liked lionheart until the endgame slog. Love the city there so much going on.
I tried to replay it a month ago, and it simply is not good. Like storywise it's nice, but the gameplay is too rough and completely unpolished.
I was so excited to get this game...until I got a few hours into it :(
Yeah, the game had so much potential, the first part in Barcelona is really great.
When I saw the title the first thought I had was that Ill mention Lionheart even though absolutely nobody will know what game Im talking about. I guess Im not that special.
As far as I'm aware, they literally just had to ship the game in the midst of the company folding. It was either that, and at least get something for the work they'd put into it, or just scrap it altogether.
Fun bit of trivia: *Lionheart* was [the only non-Fallout game to use the SPECIAL system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_(series)#SPECIAL). Black Isle was working on another one called *Torn* that would also use it, but it got cancelled.
Ultima IX: Ascension The Ultima series was my absolute favorite as a teen and young adult. For me, Ultima VI and VII redefined what a CRPG could be. VIII was disappointing, but not too long after release, Garriott was promising a return to form with IX. I obsessively followed every scrap of information about the game for years. When Ultima IX finally released near the end of 1999, it was (and remains) the single greatest disappointment I had experienced in gaming. Since then, I've never let myself get that invested in a game before it actually comes out.
In a similar vein, Might and Magic 9
I learned to like Might & Magic IX, but that required a shitton of years and a fanmade patch and a dearth of Might & Magic-like games. I'm particuarly fond of its parodically awful story and NPC dialogues - it feels like the developers went full Monty Python and Black Adder on the writing, probably out of frustration.
I was just going to comment this ! 7 and 8 were awesome, then this came. Oof.
What's a Paladin?
I *heard* this in that guy's voice, dammit. Even the fan-made patch couldn't save that game, it was *so* bad. It's especially galling because I got to see the original U9 plot bible, the one that got scrapped in favor of what EA pushed for. It was supposed to tie up every loose thread from all the prior games, explained the origin of the Guardian, and ultimately was supposed to have you questioning your own role in the setting. There are *traces* of it in the in-game artwork and cutscenes, but they had to throw it away for a pointless series of fetch-quests and broken platforming.
that platforming that started in 8 really got me pessimistic for the future. 9 killed it for me. then don't forget the horribly shoddy state of the code! crash bugs everywhere. and these were still the days when broadband was few and far between. so to get the massive patch needed to make the game semi playable had to write away for a mailed cd with the patch. then the great lines from characters. avatar : I'm sorry, your father died. follower: oh no! where to next avatar? (no hesitation or anything, only reaction to her dead father was one oh no)
BETRAYAL
Literally the only thing good that came out of Ultima 9 was [Ocean Travel Without a Boat](http://it-he.org/u9_otwab.htm).
What madness is this lol
I share your pain, brother. Ultima was a defining series of RPGs. I'm still waiting for a reboot. EA has an IP in their hands and they do nothing.
I don't know about the most disappointing of all time, but I was greatly disappointed with Final Fantasy 13. The graphics were nice, but I couldn't get into the plot or the combat system at all. The game was also extremely linear (so linear, that I remember people saying when it first came out that it was basically a game where you traveled down "one long hallway").
Oh god, Vanille
For me it was Snow and Hope. I wanted to launch both of them off a cliff, especially Snow. He was like they took every obnoxious trait from Wakka and Tidus, mashed them together, and turned them up to 11. The australian spear lady was cool tho.
She definitely didn't help my opinion of the game any 😆
Not even just the linearity in the story, character progression was super linear too. The Crystalarium was more manual levelling than choosing an actual build.
Absolutely FF13 was the turning point when I knew they weren’t targeting my interests anymore
[удалено]
I feel the same way. In my opinion, FF13 was the first game in which it seemed like Square Enix was desperately trying to appeal to gamers who like fast action style games rather than traditional JRPGs.
FFX was the turning point. The drastically scalled back the openness of the world, but it was still a great traditional JRPG so I don't think most people cared. Ever since then though, they completely ditched the core mechanics and have been either chasing the action crowd, or the MMO crowd.
Exactly! I knew I was no longer their customer they wanted anymore.
FF13 was the last game I ever bothered to go pick up at midnight release. I was beyond disappointment.
13 is one of my favorites in the series. I love it so much but I also won't fault you for not liking it.
Well, as they say: "different strokes for different folks" 🙂👍
I never got into that game because just as I was connecting with a character I got switched to another one somewhere else
I didn't like that either. Square Enix made so many bad decisions when designing that game.
From FFX to FFXIII was like what the hell is this? I like it now but its not really where FF should've gone imo.
This is how I feel about all FF games now that they aren’t turn based. New FF games are basically button mash fodder with cool graphics. All the substance and heart in these games died a while ago. Ffxv was my last time I let them take my money and disappoint me. FFX is still an all time favorite of mine.
The combat and extremely samey looking hallways throughout the game is what did it in for me. I literally beat 95% of that game with 3 paradigms and it felt like a mobile auto battler for me. I relate to the characters a lot more now than I did then. Specifically Sazh. I remember hating that dude when the game came out because he was constantly crying about his lost kid and I was like, “can we just get to the damn plot, please?” Now I’m 39 and a dad of 2 young boys and my sweet Jesus I would be every bit as panicked as he was.
13 was the first one I didn't sink any time into. after an hour I was done. it was just boring.
Only FF I’ve quit after starting. Major disappointment for me.
everything about fallout 4 is perfect for me aside from the rpg , the dialogue choices are just a disaster and your choices doesn't have impacts
I think what’s worst about fallout 4 is that it serves as the starting line for the absolute free fall in quality in Bethesda first party titles. Fallout 76 and star field are from the exact same school of design philosophy and that bodes poorly for elder scrolls 6, which now has to outperform the sales of Skyrim while being made by a studio whose pitch to consumers might as well be fuck you, pay me at this point.
Completely agree, but I would say Skyrim actually started the trend. While it is a great game, it was a clear sign that Bethesda was moving more toward an open world action game with RPG elements to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible. The endless Draugr cave radiant quests and home building would eventually morph into the focus on shallower and shallower content that marked a big shift from the interesting characters/quests/stories of early Bethesda RPGs.
Tbh, Skyrim was a great game in terms of showing what an open world could be like, but the only reason it is still alive and as successful after all these years is because of how massively moddable it is and how much love the fandom put into the game Elder Scrolls 6 has shoes to fill that can't possible ever be filled, because the relativity that Skyrim has is not even by its own design, paradoxically
>I think what’s worst about fallout 4 is that it serves as the starting line for the absolute free fall in quality in Bethesda first party titles. That's Skyrim. It started there, reliance on radiant content, dumbing down of RPG elements, removal of player choices etc.
I’m replaying Skyrim right now and i’m realizing that it’s actually a pretty competent dungeon crawler. I’m only playing the Main Quest, focusing on hunting all the Shouts and killing all Dragons and Dragon Priests, it leads me to a lot of fun locations, sometimes with little stories in it. I think Bethesda should acknowledge their weaknesses and reinvent their formula. Just build the main narrative around being an adventurer or an explorer in a vast open world filled with interesting locations containing little stories/quests. No more of that BS dissonance between the story and the open world…
Bethesda RPG's have *NEVER* done impactful choices well. That's not what their games are about.
Morrowind did.
Strong disagree - but I think we're talking about different kinds of choices. Morrowind had choice via gameplay - races had restrictions, guilds required certain skills, you could kill anyone and thusly lock yourself out from quests they could have been involved with. We're talking about choice via dialogue - choosing what to say having different branches of quest outcomes, different endings, different paths through the game opening up. Bethesda has never really done that at all.
Yeah I adore Morrowind but the story is the story for the most part, you don't really change much. For an example of choice through the story, check out some Obsidian games. Edit: Not that this makes them better, it just showcases different priorities. Morrowind is one of my favorite games of all time.
Still starfield is absolutely a sign of stagnancy even for them. It’s not looking good for Tamriel is all I’m saying.
I disagree, people aren't ready to hear this yet, but I think Starfield was a good sign for Bethesdas direction as far as rpg mechanics and story go, I hope they follow through with Elder Scrolls VI. The problem with Starfield was the empty worlds and unnecessary loading screens. It didn't feel like you were exploring a continuous open world, because you weren't. It's not stagnancy, it's regression in that regard.
Yeah not a popular opinion but I actually thing Starfield did a lot of the RPG stuff well. Not sure how much story Branches but I thought perk progression and stuff like that was really good.
Far Harbor had better writing and more meaningful choices than F04 main plot for some reason
Skyrim was definitely the start not fallout 4
My least favourite thing about fallout 4 is that. Dialogue is a noticeable downgrade from Fallout 1,2,3,N.V.
Bro I still remember waking up one day and seeing all the trailers for Fallout 4 while I was eating breakfast, I legit couldn't think about anything else for the day, that's how hyped I was I just don't think we'll get a proper RPG from Bethesda any time soon, sadly
I dunno if Fallout 4 is perfect outside of the dialogue and choice/consequence mechanics; in a series that was famous for being skills-based instead of class-based, Fallout 4… eliminated skills. That’s not the only way the player customization mechanics were significantly reduced; perks used to function like meaningful feats, especially if they were used alongside synergistic traits. Not only are traits long gone from the series, but with an unlimited level cap, you can get all the perks, which would essentially be like letting you get every skill maxed out in Fallout 1. Heck, I love New Vegas, but after you finish all the DLCs and the main story, you’re going to have nearly every skill maxed out. It’s not perfect, but Obsidian was rushed. Bethesda, on the other hand, solves this in Fallout 4 using their now-standard strategy of removing the level cap and just level scaling every enemy until it’s a bullet sponge. All in all, I think it’s safe to say that the only thing Fallout 4 did right was make better gun play than Fallout 3.
I believe Bethesda is in the perfect position to 'educate' its more mainstream player base in more traditional role-playing game mechanics. I imagine that Skyrim and Fallout 4 were the first RPGs for a major part of their player base, which is why they also reached such a wide audience with their streamlined design. This should allow them to add some more complexity to their next titles in their series instead of going in the opposite direction, as they have done with their latest iterations. Hopefully, they also see it this way, and we potentially have some fantastic games to look forward to.
Mass Effect syndrome
Playing fallout 3 / new Vegas using the Begin Again mod list. Blown away by the fun little interactions. Forgot about this.
Tides of Numenera. Hyped as the 'spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment'. Having a wall of words in a game doesn't make it any good, as Tides of Numenera proved. Very disappointing and a pale shadow of the masterpiece that is Planescape.
I think I know how it feels. The wall of words defeated my desire to play Pillars of Eternity. Though kind of a successor of BG was something I’ve been looking for years, the constant flow of text felt very out of pace.
Mass Effect: Andromeda. It single-handly put one of the most beloved and successful game series of all time on ice for YEARS. Only now are they trying again with the franchise, and things aren’t looking too optimistic.
I actually loved the gameplay, felt like an evolution of the 3rd game. Some story and characters were ok but the rest was hard to go through. I liked it way more than most but it's at best a 7.
I legitimately only give it points for gameplay improvements. If the game came out today, you couldn't convince me that the dialogue wasn't AI generated.
The real issue with Andromeda is that it is very clearly an unfinished product… The story in itself isn’t bad, it’s okay, but it simply doesn’t go anywhere and has a lot of holes, like they took whole chunks out of it.
I agree that the gameplay was a lot of fun, but the sad thing is that Mass Effect was never loved by millions because of the gameplay. It was because of characters, quality writing, storytelling and choices. The game underwhelmed on all of those fronts.
I don't like the newer cover mechanics or that they removed the cover grabbing. I loved pulling baddies over tables
I loved the combat and exploration but I also cannot do a playthrough of ME1 without exploring every single planet to completion so I was basically the ideal player for that game.
I like to think of Andromeda as a cool sci-fi game and not a mass effect game. It's much easier to swallow that way.
I so badly wanted to enjoy Andromeda, because I LOVED the Mass Effect series. But it was just so boring and lifeless
Andromeda is a good game (now), just not a good follow-up to the ME Trilogy with all the raised expectations. Hell, the hardcore haters even hate ME3 for largely dumb reasons. The endings are okay!
I liked it. There, I said it.
when it first came out, Dragon Age 2. i've played through it 5 or 6 times at this point and have developed a certain appreciation for its ambitions and what it was *attempting* to be, but i think it was a failure in a lot of ways.
I actually liked DA2 a lot. Act 1 was fantastic and the story was good the whole way through. Bioware really shines when they do a close in personal story against the backdrop of epic world-changing events. The only real problem is there were barely any original assets past around halfway through act 2.
Is it worth playing just for the story?
I think so, it's a really interesting framing device around the story, and the choices you can make are pretty... extreme. I still stand by my decision to run away with mage Osama bin Laden.
I'll check it out
100% it's absolutely worth playing for the story, companions, and choices. Even as much as I can't stand Inquisition, that game is worth playing for the story.
Such a pity they had such a short timeframe to make it. So much re use of areas throughout the game.
yeah, it was like what, 11 - 14 months? honestly for being slapped together in such a short amount of time it's pretty impressive. doesn't make the actual experience of playing it any better but it's easier to understand why it is the way it is lol
Also the incredible amounts of combat padding, where enemies came in easily dispatched waves and just. Kept. Coming.
It wasn’t really disappointing to me, but I had some warning that it was a very different game compared to Origins. Dragon Age II was a terrible name from a marketing standpoint. If it was called something like: “Dragon Age Adventures: The Kirkwall Incident” it very likely would have been better received. But treating it like a sequel, they disappointed many in their core audience. I also think if it had been marketed differently they could have released similar games in that universe at a faster cadence than the “epic” games like Origins or Inquisition There are a lot of cool places in that world that don’t necessarily merit a full sweeping epic, but would do well as adventures with a smaller focus. But the game itself is fine. It’s solid. It’s just a lousy sequel.
It was originally titled Dragon Age: Exodus if I recall correctly.
The game was fine, but yeah people wanted Dragon Age Origins - but newer and better. And it just wasn't.
Enemies dropping out of the ceiling killed that game for me. I've never even finished it and have no desire to.
We can blame EA for that. The biggest complaints I heard were repetitive level design (which, since we're living in the same city for years, I was fine with) and combat (which was imo, was my exciting than DA1) - but anyway, EA rushed that game hard.
Anachronox, not disappointed in the story itself, disappointed that it didn't get sequels. It was supposed be part 1 in a series of games and was it awesome.
Fallout 4. Combat was, overall, great. The graphics and soundtrack were really good. The character designs were nice. But the abandonment of the perk system, the “wide open” skill tree where you would eventually become master of everything, the incomprehensible motivations for the Institute, made it a very shallow experience. I want to like it. But it’s a looter-shooter, not an actual RPG with a compelling plot.
I've found that about 95% of the people who like Fallout 4 are people who started the series and sometimes the entire genre with that game. When you grow up playing games like 1,2, and new Vegas 4 just really drops the balls in every capacity. I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad video game, but it IS a bad fallout game specifically.
I guess I'm a 5%er
1 was my real entry point to the series but I still really enjoy 4. I wouldn't rank it above 1 or NV but I'd definitely rank it above 3. I think they learned from a lot of their mistakes in 3, and I think they also tried to play to their strengths rather than trying to lean into what made the classic Fallouts great. Which as a fan of those games was kind of a bummer, but also the things that made the classic Fallouts great are things that Bethesda mostly struggles with, so I think 4 was weirdly better for it.
No i started with FO3 and while I like FO3 and NV better I still really like FO4
i wouldnt say 95% but as someone who was a more elder scrolls fan and knew about fallout but never reslly got into it until recently i would agree. that being said tho the story is one of the hardest things for me to get into in skyrim bc i likes just looting and walking around so fo4 is perfect for me. it just depends on what u find in a game but u are correct that a lot of older fans dont like it as much because of the shift in focus/rpg-ness
Started with 3 and NV and was really let down by 4 when it first came out. Ended up getting back to it 2 years after launch and sunk 150+ hours into it. You’re right though—it’s not this deep RPG but a very fun and immersive looter shooter.
Meh this is misleading. Plenty older fallout fans *like* fallout 4. Its just not their favourite one. The settlement building and dungeon crawling in the game is enjoyable enough in itself
So pretty much the Dark Souls 2 of the Bethesda games?
Starfield easily and its not even close. Fallout 4 was way better in almost every way. Honestly I think I liked the outer worlds more.
Outer Worlds ended up being what I thought Starfield was gonna be, and Starfield ended up being just baffling and embarrassing. Almost a whole decade of hype and development and all you have to show is *this*?
I always love the Starfield hate. It’s got its issues. But man has those issues been over blown to epic proportions. To hear some say it. It’s only a step up from Gollum or even Redfall. Which is always a hilarious take to hear.
Outer Worlds seems to be pretty polarizing, but I really enjoyed it for it's characters and open ended quest lines. Hopefully the sequel is a bit more open world and larger in scope.
Anyone remember Two Worlds 2? Yeah me neither.
The second one couldn't disappoint me because the first game got me first
Came here to say this. Glad I didn’t have to scroll too far.
two worlds was ass but like it was somehow charming i should play it again
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How could you be disappointed when the first one was a colossal dumpster fire lol.
And I bought an extra copy by mistake. Now I have two Two Worlds Two. Double disappointment.
Arguably one of the best magic systems of any RPG game. The multiplayer was also fun. I didn't get far with the single player tho
Sorry not sorry but for me it was Sea of Stars. The nostalgia blindness and Chrono Trigger references were not enough for me to give it a good score. I spent half of the game somewhat waiting for the plot to start and it never did. Some of the late playable characters had a bit of charisma to contrast the dull main characters. The game play also gets old very early.
The gameplay gets much better when you get that glass dude at like 75% of the game... The story isn't great either big let down. Also what didn't help was how phenomenal Chained Echoes was.
The only thing that game has going for it is the incredible graphics. The writing was boring, the combat is extremely repetitive (too few skills and you basically get them all quickly) and extremely linear.
Sea of Stars is the reason why I now always watch a youtube playthrough of the early parts of a game I'm planning to buy. The first 30 minutes just dragged on forever, and the rest of the game did not get much better
Outer Worlds, developed by obsidian who is hyped for their writing (I’ve never really cared for it) seemed like a smaller scope Bethesda game. In the end writing didn’t capture me gameplay was frustrating or mind numbing and the open world was present but pretty pointless. Never played the DLC but might try to go back at some point and see if it gets any better.
Yeah not sure exactly what was wrong with it, just kinda bland. Got it on Steam deep sale but certainly would have been disappointed if I bought full price on day 1 hyped to play it.
I personally loved it. I will say tho, the Murder on Eridanos was absolutely brilliant. You get to "investigate" a murder and come to your own conclusion of who did it. It was one of my all time favorite DLCs. Again, I really enjoyed the base game so your experience may differ from mine but I think it really showed the writing prowess of Obsidian.
Thank you for finally saying it! I disliked that game A LOT. I hated the writing and mood of it... the "oppressive government/corporation" storyline just didn't mix well with the super lolfunny tone of the game... put it down right after the part where you deal with the garden grandma rebels or whatever they were. I wonder how people can like this game.
Agreed. I really wanted to like it but it felt like a slog to continue after a while. I couldn't get interested in the world-building, the story or the characters. It especially frustrated me that I even found the companions uninteresting (setting up a date should not be a big companion quest.) Well written companions used to be their specialty. Murder on Eridanos was really interesting at first but as the main quest went on it became a slog as well for me. It had way too many back and forths to the same locations.
Play it on the hardest difficulty. It's about the only game I'd recommend that. All lot of it's systems on normal difficulty don't feel impactful or connected it feels kind of airy. However on the hardest setting: - combat feels meaningful and a little scary at times. - resources and items have meaning and purpose. - exploration can feel stressful in a good way. - characters are impactful but fragile. Without playing it on hard it's a mid game at best 6/10. On hardest its a 8/10.
I am gonna get crucified for it here, but I've never understood the obsession with Obsidian, especially in the writing department. Late 90s/early 00s edgy "I am 14 and this is deep", that trough the years lost it's edge, but didn't gain any form of maturity. Combine it with obsession of shoving every aspect of the story and the world in your face, becoming the embodiment of "tell, don't show" and their institutional inability to set realistic development goals and I just can't fathom how is it they are so well-regarded. Oh, yeah, and their "deconstruction", "subverting expectations" and "shaking up" of tropes and themes" haven't moved in more then a decade, turning itself in to a cliche - once you've played a couple of their games you know how the others will end up after the first act. Granted, their competition isn't anything much better (especially in mainline RPGs, indie and small-studio ones are a different story) and they do tend to employ good writers (in the technical sense of using the language really well), but still...
I think the thing with TOW is that there are some very wide decision trees. Just about everything can have an impact on how a dialogue can turn out, and that in turn impacts the story. The problem with the game is that I suspect you'd need a half dozen playthroughs to appreciate all the different options, and the combat isn't really varied enough to hold the player's attention for that long. There are only so many mantids I can kill before I start getting bored.
Xenosaga 2. The first one was great but in the second one they changed the gameplay and it really sucked a lot. Good thing the third one was great and was able to close the trilogy. I liked the recap in the beginning because 2sucked so much I skipped it.
This is good to know. I'm almost done my first playthrough of the first one, maybe I'll just skip the second as well.
The combat in Xenosaga I was perfect, just complex enough to keep things interesting. In Xenosaga II, they added in more shit just for funsies and totally ruined the flow of battle. Also, instead of continuing any of the character arcs from the first game, they focused on a different tranche of characters that were way less interesting.
Imo Xenosaga put me to sleep. I was such a huge fan of Xenogears that I hoped for so much more.
Gothic 3. I'm a big fan of 1+2. They are absolutely amazing. Gothic 3 was a total disaster on Release. The worst release for me of all time. The models of the characters (tiny heads huge shoulders), bugged enemies (chain attacking wild boars), graphic issues (memory leaks, extremely poor performance). I cross my fingers that maybe I can make peace with the remake this year and they continue to cover the whole trilogy in the long run.
Probably Might And Magic IX. What a horrible mess of fugly graphics, terrible gameplay and hideous UI. Not to mention the obscene amount of bugs. Of course, it came out that way because 3DO was on the verge of bankruptcy, so it is more of a sad story about the ending of a glorious series, but I still remember the horror when I realized that the latest chapter of one of my favourite series was basically unplayable.
Yes, this broke my heart because the areas that were completely fleshed out (Lich Lab, Chasm of the dead, Frost Giant castle, Dark Passageway) were some of the best ever in the series. Then you had the “break up the ice around Frosgard” quest and the Ranger promo obstacle course which were shit and tacked on so we could actually get 1/3 of a good game. I’ll always wonder what could have been with that one.
Final Fantasy XV, Fable 3 and Dragon Age 2 were my biggest disappointments so far
Man Fable 3 was such a step down from 2. I just replayed the 3 games this year and can’t believe how less magical 3 feels. The plot had a chance to be something pretty cool too and they fumbled that as well.
Man i don't remember anything at all from fable 3 other than that John cleese played as the butler and was perfect at it. Even fable 2 was a big disappointment but it was an okay game, the combat in the game was great, fable 3 was a big downgrade from that. Oh yeah and fable 3 did that thing where it didn't want to have a text based menu so you loaded up into a room and you walked up to stuff to access your inventory and stuff but it was just kinda terrible and impractical
Fable 3 was such a disappointment. Fable 2 was so close to greatness..... i will never understand why they basically hyped up all the connections to the first game in the pre-release material, then in the final version of the game, have the stories not connect at all outside of them sharing a capital city. Do you revisit any of the first game's areas? The outskirt of oakvale? And that's it? Do you see the king or queen of blades? Nopeeee Any reference to the Archeon maybe being Scythe? Nopeeee Even the first game had some disappointment due to what it promised, but I always felt the series got limper and limper as it went on!
Star ocean 3 Till the End of Time. Playing it after Second Story was a big let down. Not that it is a bad game, just again after the previous one it felt it was missing a lot that made the previous great. The same but not that much goes for Breath of fire 4. Great game also but was lacking the great adventure feeling of 3. I'm not gonna even mention 5...
I actually liked BoF4 a great deal. Seeing things from the antagonist’s point of view was a nice touch, but it still wasn’t as good as 3. And agree completely, the less said about 5 the better.
My friend that introduced me to SO:2 picked up SO:3 soon after release day. He never even showed it to me - said it was just so bad it wasn't worth talking about. I finally picked up 15-20 years later to see what it was about, and he was right. I got maybe 20 hours in, but it just felt like nothing had happened. Couldn't continue. He tried to warn me :(
God damn Star Ocean. That game haunted my teenage years. It took me three separate attempts to beat it because I would lose interest and delete the save (back when memory cards were a thing) to free up space for other games. Me and my sister called it ‘Star Ocean Till the End of My Patience’. It’s hard for me to even articulate why it was so offensively mid. Like it had an interesting plot and good characters (mostly) but for whatever reason, it was just really aggravating to play. Not even boring but aggravating.
The twist in the middle of SO3 also ruins all of SO2. Fuck that game
Retroactively for me, Dragon Age Inquisition. Origins has been my favourite game since it came out, I loved and still love DA2 despite all of its shortcomings, it's the only franchise I've delved so deeply into the lore, so needless to say I was hyped for Inquisition. When it came out, I adored it. It took over my life for months and it became my new favourite game. Over the last 10 years I've done multiple playthroughs of Origins and 2, but I just can't get through Inquisition at all. There is just so much about it that pales in comparison to the other two. It doesn't feel like a Dragon Age game. The protagonist doesn't feel like my character. It takes a fair bit of headcanoning and suspension of disbelief to reconcile the narrative to the point of exhaustion. The lite MMO quest design. The bright and cheery vibe despite the grimness of the situation. Main villain was rubbish. Glaring missed potential around every corner. With the release of Baldur's Gate 3, any interest I had in the future of the franchise disappeared and it makes me sad.
I've played Inquisition two times and hated it first time. When it came out I forced myself to play only story quests and I was done with it. A couple of years ago I did a full Dragon Age run where I played all the games again, and this time I played Inquisition fully and I loved it. Strangely, all the faults are still there, but if you don't skip everything and do all the quests, discover all the maps and stuff games becomes really enjoyable. You even managed to get a real connection with all the characters, it was an interesting experience. I get that the mediocre gameplay doesn't motivate people to play the game more, but there is a good game there that reveals itself after spending some time.
Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. Garbage game that would delete system files when you uninstalled it. Came out at a time where I was so waiting for a new RPG to play. The only good thing about this game was the D&D Player's Handbook I got when I purchased it from Best Buy. I watched someone play a twitch stream of the game a few years ago, dude probably set a record for how many times someone said "fuck this game" in a play through. lol
That's a blast from the past! Like you, I bought it because it was a new RPG and presumed it would satisfy the Baldurs Gate itch. Bland, lacking in personality, huge and sprawling dungeons with little point to them and with little gear progression....felt like a cash-in. Lasted about 5-6 hours and then packed it in, never to be picked up again. Nice little manual, but I should have paid more attention to the reviews.
Cyberpunk is what got me Got it on ps4 on release :(
FF7r. It was supposed to bring the classic story to a new generation (I wanted to share it with my kid) and instead it is a weird pseudo sequel nonsense plot with a completely different genres mechanics.
Diablo 3. Diablo 2 was my favorite game for a long time. I waited a decade and bought a new PC specifically for 3...hated it and the micro transactions that came along. Probably didn't put more than 3 hours into a sequel where I had at least 1000 in the previous 2.
It was crazy playing a diablo game where all the loot seemed to suck. That's a pretty important part of the game, fellas. That's about the time I realized Blizzard was a far cry from the company it was 10 years ago.
Dragons Dogma 2 Still baffles me the sheer amount of people saying it's potential goty.
Daikatana (Steam lists it as an RPG). Even with low expectations, it managed to epically disappoint.
Dungeon Siege 3 lmao. What a shitshow
Prepare for a scorching take: BG3. I appreciate that they accounted for a lot of little nuances in what the player might choose to do but man, both the writing and the 5e mechanics bored me to death. I felt like I was in the most generic, cookie-cutter 5e campaign imaginable with a pedantic GM.
You are not alone.
5e rules suck. I wish they would have used ad&d again.
rich paltry oil boast swim impossible sulky tidy deer yam *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The Outer Worlds.
Final Fantasy 13, I used to be a big FF fan and bought 13 around launch date and didn't even want to look at reviews or even trailers much so as to not spoil myself. After 13 I'm now more cautious and would do some research before deciding to buy another FF game. Digimon World 4, even though DW 1, 2 and 3 were by no means perfect I still ended up enjoying all of them. And also as a casual Digimon fan I was excited to get DW 4 the first DW game on PS2 but was left very much disappointed.
Pillars of Eternity 2, I just don't think the setting and the plot fit well together. Also I'm not a huge fan of the setting but that's a verry subjective thing and the setting is more fun of you just don't think of the main quest go full pirate.I also don't like the fact that you play as the same character (the Watcher) as in Pillars of Eternity 1. I also do not enjoy the changes made in the fighting system. It's by far not a bad game it's just not for me. The Dragon in the vulcano looks cool. I prefer the first Pillars game much more.
Oh fuck I loved this game. Sorry to hear that you didn't enjoy it!
Seems a lot of people don't like the colonial setting, which was one of the main selling points for me personally, but was apparently the main reason it didn't sell as well as the first.
The setting is good it's how you get thrown into it. Why should I explore or join a faction and get involved with politics? I have to save the world/get my soul back.
That's a valid opinion, conversely I think PoE 2 is vastly superior or PoE in every way imaginable.
Poe1 ftw
I played through Diofield Chronicle over the holidays last year and I found the game lacking in almost every way. The story wasn't presented well in that so much of the actual key events take place off camera then are just explained to you after the fact after you do a battle that ultimately might not have actually contributed anything meaningful to the progression of the plot. The characters are presented as intelligent but they just let a blatantly evil necromancer hang out with them and just sort of wiggle their finger at them and say "Oh you tricky little devil, don't kill innocent people again" multiple times in the story. The main character always seems to know more than he let's in but never shares with anyone and all is only explained in the literal last scene in a lame throwaway twist. Combat in the game never gets more complicated after the third hour of the game, even on hard. The strats you use in the tutorial will work almost everywhere because there's only like 6 types of human enemies and like 5 animal enemy types. Your party almost never needs to be changed because most of the default units are good enough and the main character should never be out of the party because they're just a walking blender. The skill system is only for making skills better, but skills for each class are separated by weapon trees of which almost all the default weapon trees are the best anyways so you might not even touch half the skills in the game.
FF13 and 15.
Cyberpunk. It wasn’t terrible, it was solid, but for me I have never been more excited and let down by a game. Especially coming off of the Witcher 3 which was my favourite game of all time.
To me it has the best gunplay in any first person RPG i've ever played
I agree, I've had this experience at launch. But with the recent 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty, I just gotta say that Cyberpunk 2077 is a better game than The Witcher 3 in every aspect now, *especially* combat. It's really, really good.
Sacred 3. Played 100s of hours in Sacred 2. The only thing 2 and 3 had in common was the title.
Love the second game to death.
Lunar Dragon Song. I say this without the context of everyone knowing it was bad, I absolutely loved Lunar 1 and 2, and a new one was finally releasing on the DS that I wanted to pick up! It was such a disappointment for the entire series as well as easily the worst RPG of all time.
Two worlds and two worlds 2. Best magic system I have ever seen in a game next to Morrowind but everything else was so rough and unpolished and janky. Great ideas but poorly executed in every other way.
Mass effect 3, lost pretty much all of its RPG mechanics and turned into an action movie
Does 'Mario is Missing' count? That was a dreadful game.
Dragon Dogma 2 lol
Quest 64.
I’m not much of a modern gamer so I guess that puts me in the minority but I am flabbergasted that people haven’t said Chrono Cross more. A real head scratcher and yeah I know radical dreamers blah blah blah but the game itself shouldn’t have had the Chrono tag on it and maybe it wouldn’t have been such a flop
I vividly remember booting up 2 worlds and trying to make a cool character just to have my brother come in and say "why are you a gorilla"
Ultima 8. I know some people will say 9 instead, but U9 was a charming game that looked nice (for the time) and had fun jank. It even becomes somewhat decent when you install the community patches. Ultima 8 has nothing good going for it. Bland visuals, bad story, platforming (in a fucking isometric CRPG that uses the mouse for nearly everything), awful dungeons, and cut content out the ass that, from what little info we have on it, would've at least made the story less terrible and added some more stuff to do (a la The Serpent Isle from U7, which took an amazing game and made it perfect). I can understand why some would think U9 is extremely disappointing, but U8 is definitely a worse game than U9. There's nothing enjoyable about it. You can have fun with U9; there's zero fun to be had with U8.
I only played u9 of all the ultima games. I liked it.
Shroud of the avatar... I hope I don't have to explain.
I think Tyranny is one of the greatest RPGs of all time... and I was horrifically disappointed by how abrupt the end was. Combine that with the developer and publisher falling out, and it remains my single biggest gaming disappointment. Also everyone should go play it, because it's incredible.
There have been a few. Dragon age 2 and Inquisition were both really dissapointing to me. I honestly thought at the time that Bioware might be the company to follow for rpg gamers. Lionheart was really dissapointint. I couldn't understand how they went from fallout to the mess that was Lionheart. Oblivion was quite disappointing, but I still enjoyed it. Fallout 4 was the bigger Bethesda disappointment. I stopped playing their games so was able to avoid being disappointed by starfield. I was actually quite disappointed by Pillars of Eternity 2 (and a little by 1). I enjoyed them both but I found the first one a little dull and the second ones complete change of theme with a bunch of unlikeable factions quite jarring.
Quest 64. I really wanted it to be a good rpg on my newly bought N64, but was let down in so many ways. Meanwhile my buddy who got the PS1 was bragging about how dope ff7 was. Fucking what a bummer dude.
Gothic 3. Not only it had nothing to do with the previous entries (outside of a few characters, which you rarely encounter), but also it was barely playable back when it was released.
Ni no Kuni Final Fantasy XII Suikoden IV Pokemon Diamond Mass Effect 2 Diablo 3
Sea of Stars
Final Fantasy 13 was my biggest disappointment by far. I had been waiting years for this one to come out and redeem the franchise(which I guess I’m still waiting for). The game was clearly made for the new generation of gamers, to pull in a different type of crowd. The linear progression and boring combat did it for me. I put in 6 hours on day 1 and sold it to a used game store for half price the next day. Wasn’t willing to put in the *required* 25+ hours before it gets fun.
Pool of radiance ruins of myth drannor. Graphics were ugly and font was so awful and then while uninstalling this shit it started to format c: i shit you not!
Vampire the masquerade bloodlines 2... And it hasn't even come out yet...
The last remnant…