Top 20 games I Hate everyone else Loves

Top 20 games I Hate everyone else Loves

 Just like the previous list... but the other way around!


20) Breath of Fire IV

 Hate may be too strong a word for this game, which is why it's opening up the list. I used to play this game on PC, and had a blast with it, until I got to a point where I could simply not progress anymore because the game would freeze after Fou-Lou went crazy, or somethin' like that. I was not able to finish the game until much later down the line, when I got the PS1 version of the game.
 And, sadly, I wasn't feeling it as much as I did back when I was younger. I adore the art direction, any piece of official art is dope!, but the story wasn't as interesting as I once thought, and the gameplay was on par with what you'd expect out of a JRPG.... including with obtuse moments in which you'll be stuck talking and talking and talking with NPCs until you trigger the next event. Gathering all dragons without a guide is an exercise in frustration, and i'ts a dull hunt even with one at hand.

19) Sonic Battle

 Sonic Battle was the s@#*!! If you weren't playing it in Highschool, you were doing it wrong. But I was playing it, and boy, Sonic was finally cool in my eyes. But games come and go, so it wasn't long before I forgot about it. Years later, I'd find myself growing my collection of games, and it got to a point where Sonic Battle was something I needed to have.... but was hard to find.
 But I found it, and I played it, and I hated it.
 The fighting mechanics simply aren't much fun at all, although kudos on the animations, the game looks great. But even if the fighting mechanics were fun, the Story Mode is completely dull. You have to fight the same characters(It's a 10 character roster, after all!) over and over and over again. Many times you'll be outnumbered by lethal AI enemies, so much so that you'll learn that any chance of survival depends on you cheesing the game mechanics in your favor.
 The game's biggest hook, at the time, was Emerl, a little customizable Robot that can learn any move from any character. I bet that sounds awesome, and it could've been, in theory. But you need to grind Story Mode battles for customization points, which you do at incredibly low increments, and you also need to cross your fingers so that the move you covet is the one you get after a fight, because you need cards to equip Emerl with moves, and card acquisition is 100% random.
 As much as I dislike the game, it's only this low because nowadays, finally, dissenting opinions are becoming more vocal about it, thus vindicating me.

18) Super Mario Land

 You know me, I love me some good, olde 2-D Mario platoforming. But I hate Super Mario Land.
 Supposedly a system seller, this game is beloved by everyone, despite(Or perhaps 'because') it being so weird and different from other Mario games. I ABSOLUTELY ADORE WEIRD, but this game just... It isn't very good.
 The problem lies where most Mario games shine: Control. Mario is a slippery little bugger in this game, which made the game completely unenjoyable for me. Where's the fun in falling down because the controls simply aren't up for snuff? Mercifully, the game is rather short, so torture doesn't last for long.
 And I used to play the game when I was younger, so it's not just a matter of me holding up the game to today's standards, because I should have some nostalgia lingering for it. But it's not enough.

17) Grandia II

 I'm willing to grant the game the fact that I played the horrible PS2 port for my bad experience with the game, but it's not like a have a Dreamcast in my closet or that the PC version is easy to find, so if you want to experience Grandia II there aren't many options out there... although I think there was a PS4 rerelease.
 The game's story? Pretty decent, it has a few great characters. The gameplay? Great. But it's the huge amount of little things that add up that turn this game into a nightmare. The combat is strategic, with characters running around the field, and with the aid of a circular grind you can plan out your turns in order to avoid damage and interrupt enemy actions. But playable characters can be SO dumb, often times getting stuck running against each other, thus cancelling each other's attacks. And it's not like you can plan ahead HOW you characters will decide to get to their targets. Other times they'll simply decide to waste their second combo-attack on thin air, just because.
 But that's the least of the game's issues. How about the horrible frame-rate? Every SINGLE time you enter a new town, the camera has to give you a mini-tour of the entire area... at a sub 10 framerate counter. I'm not kidding. Exploring around can be annoying because of this, and EVEN battles aren't privy to this. And sometimes, if the game is feeling trippy, a character's textures may not load when you enter a battle.
 Grandia II, at least on the PS2 is a technical mess that only helps exacerbate the game's shortcomings. I'm sure the game could be a decent 7.0 out of 10 if it wasn't so broken. But this is the version of the game I get to play.

16) LittleBigPlanet (Series)

 I'm not the biggest fan of LittleBigPlanet. I played a bit of the PS3 version, but it was simply too floaty for me, and the three-planes thing was clunky, to say the least. The version I spent the most time with, and actually finished, was the PSP iteration... which I felt was just as bad. I grew up on platformers, Mario, Banjo, Circus Charlie, Milk and Nuts, Gex, Adventure Island... all manner of Platform games, all games I enjoyed throughout my life. Yet LittleBigPlanet just doesn't do it for me... which kinda sucks, considering how much praise this series tends to garner.

15) Fear Effect (Series)

 Among Playstation 1's most beloved niche games are the Fear Effect duology of games. Look, I can appreciate their dark stories and even darker characters, but the gameplay is just so clunky. Hitboxes are all over the place, swapping discs is cumbersome(In Fear Effect 2, each disc has two 'zones') and some of the puzzles are just annoying. I will never understand how these games managed to warm their way up people's hearts.

14)Killzone Liberation

 Killzone Liberation was so beloved that it managed to get into Sony's 'Platinum' and 'PSP Essentials' lines. And I hate it. I remember going online to see if everyone else thought the game was as bad as I did, but alas, my feelings were not validated. The story was so boring that I skipped most of it, melee is useless and aiming your guns is atrocious. It's also a very slow game, which goes against what I tend to enjoy: Fast arcade action. This game just didn't do it for me like it did for other PSP owners.

13)Twisted Metal Black

 You could fit the entire Twisted Metal franchise here, but I've only played this one and the one on PS3, so it didn't seem fair. I remember reading about Twisted Metal and its clones, like Vigilante 8, feeling very intrigued by them. And then I got a PS2 and eventually got my hands on Twisted Metal Black. And I hated it. The game was boring and unlocking stuff was a chore. And I get it, the game is meant to be played in multiplayer, since having the CPU gang up on you or ran away to heal as you try to kill it is always annoying. But I also played it in multiplayer(Well, with another player, but it still counts!) and I hated it. Years later I would try my hand at the PS3 reboot.... and it didn't fare much better.
 I don't get it. Are fans of the franchise always finding means to play this game with 3 other players instead of the Single Player modes? Because I just can't understand how people see any fun here.

12) Dragon's Crown

 I love beat'em ups and Vanillaware's artsyle. I also happen to hate Dragon's Crown. Featuring a hideous artstyle that meant to titillate players with the Amazon and the Witch, but only managing to create abominations that spit on the human form, looking at this game was anything but appealing, and the unnecessary fanservice made me facepalm every single time a female NPC was introduced.
 The gameplay doesn't help with anything, I remember that upgrading my Knight felt like such a let down, since every single skill sounded so lame. In RPGs leveling up is supposed to be rewarding, unlocking new abilities and skills is supposed to be something that you want to do and it feels great to do. Not in this game it isn't.
 The kicker? Having to use the right analog stick to direct a thief ally to unlock staff for you. Because I really want to wait doing nothing on a beat'em up, a game about bashing skulls. Dragon's Crown is one of the most unfun and overrated beat'em ups out there.

 11) P.T

 No game director is more overrated than Hideo Kojima, that is a fact. I quite feel like going on a tangent here about it, but I will restrain myself. And just like the creator itself, no 'game', if you can even call it that, is as overrated as PT.
 I played it. The puzzles were dumb and broke the fourth wall, which does the opposite of investing you on the game. It relied on cheap jumpscares that weren't even scary, and it's so short and dumb that I felt insulted some Youtubers would place it on their 'Top X games' of the year PT was released in. If you didn't get to play it, don't worry, it isn't worth it.

10)Dragon Ball Xenoverse

 Xenoverse marked the last time I got hyped for a Dragon Ball game. Everything looked so great, with tiny little details like characters using their legs to swim while underwater. And, truth be told, the graphics were pretty phenomenal. But the framerate, jesus christ, the frame rate. If there were more than two characters on screen, which was the rule and not the exception, the game's framerate would tank. Some parts of the game were nigh unplayable due to this.
 Granted, I was playing the horrible PS3 port... but even then, that doesn't fix the lack of menus(everything is done through the Hub town), poor local multiplayer options, lack of balancing, need to grind for stuff, a RNG for the RNG(The boss has an random chance to appear, and the drops of said boss have their own random chance to drop IF you defeat him), and a disappointing implementation of the character creation which meant that you had to dress for stats and not looks....
 I can understand why people can enjoy the game, if you think of it as a MMO, then it's alright. But I wanted a fighting game and this... wasn't.

9)Jump Ultimate Stars

 If you liked anime and had a DS during the mid 00s, then you definitely heard of Jump Ultimate Stars. I did, and somehow got around importing it, only to be let down by a game that wasn't everything it was made out to be.
 I think the language barrier had a lot to do with it, as finding the pieces I wanted for my deck was a bit more of a hassle than it needed to, since, well, I can't read Japanese. Speaking of decks, I can't say I was a fan of that either, I would've much preferred a straight-to-the point fighting game. The worst part about decks is that if you want to play as certain characters, you have to build your deck BEFORE jumping into the game, which is a bit annoying if you just want to play around with the cast, which, let's get real, is what everyone wanted, to play around with every character.
 The online community around it also left a lot to be desired, with a weird 'don't break out of combos' etiquette, and obnoxious 'farmers' that expected you to do nothing and wait for a game to end... and if you didn't know what they were meaning to do, they would gang up on you, making sure you earned the least amount of points. Pricks!

8) Mortal Kombat(Series)

 My first experience with the series was through a bootleg NES cart that I used to play over and over again when I was younger. And, somehow, I felt into the hype, I watched the movie and my parents got me a few figures and collectible caps. I loved Mortal Kombat. And when I was a bit older, but not THAT old, I got Trilogy on the N64 and I loved it, although not as much as MK4 once it came out. Deadly Alliance on the PS2 was dope too.
 But midway(Heh!) through the PS2 era I realized something... Mortal Kombat kinda sucks. The first four games were too simple, every character sharing punches and kicks, and the latter PS2 iterations had horrible character designs and animations. It wasn't a game you wanted to look at, and it seemed like the games got more and more uninspired as the series progressed. Deception introduced some of the worst character designs into the franchise, and Armageddon cut a lot of corners to make it work(Only 2 styles per character, some of the laziest and worst animations yet, no fatalities)... while, ironically, Shaolin Monks proved that the devs had talent, they were simply squandering it. As bad as Armageddon was,  the pinnacle of bad animation and character models would arrive with Mortal Kombat VS DC comics. Some of the worst animations can be found in Flash's wimpy shoves and flailing arms, or in Wonder Woman's horrible special attacks(Splitting her legs to... grab the enemy? A silly twirl?), and just look at how horrible Sonya's model is sculpted from the neck up, or at Kitana's tiny head. Mortal Kombat VS DC was one ugly chimera.
 But somehow, thanks to brand recognition alone, the series toiled on... and we got Mortal Kombat 9. Some character models were still ugly, some of the animations were still ugly... but the game was fun to play. Where I meant to arrive with all the diatribe above was.... Mortal Kombat sucked up until 9, since then Netherrealms has gotten better and better. I respect what the series turned into, but man, was it a bumpy road.

7) Wild Arms & Wild Arms Alter Code F

 Do you know what really gets under my skin? When people talk about classic RPGs on the PS1 and never, ever fail to mention Wild Arms 1 but not its sequels... or outright claim that the first one was the best. It wasn't.
 I was familiar with Wild Arms 2, a game I adored, and Wild Arms 3, one of my favorite JRPGs out there, before I gave Wild Arms 1 a chance, and needless to say, expectations were skyhigh, since people had the gall to claim that this game was superior to those two. What I got with Wild Arms 1 were flat characters and a combat system that lacked all the refinements and niceties of the sequels. There's no way, absolutely no way people can actually, really believe that this game beats its sequels, because it doesn't.
 And sooooooo I actually got around purchasing the excessively pricey remake, Alter Code F, which was meant to be Wild Arms 1 with all the niceties of the Wild Arms 3 engine. But they screwed that up too. There's pretty much no equipment, which makes exploration less rewarding, and there aren't as many skills to outfit characters with as there were in Wild Arms 3. Loading times are excessively high, the encounter rate is obscenely high and there's no simple way to replenish your mana and ammo counters, and... and there's a lot more I could say that I already said on my review. The remake is EVEN worse than the original game. But then again, I think most people prefer the original anyways.... because nostalgia. Which sucks, because the sequels, at least 2 and 3, are fantastic, and eclipse the first game in every single way possible.


6) Uncharted - Drake's Fortune

 Drake's Fortune is, easily, one of the sloppiest third person shooters I've ever played. The parkour is sloppy to the point of feeling like the game cheated me into dying. The shootouts last too long and enemies are damage sponges. And the worst part about it? There are QTEs... three of them, so few that you'll never be ready for them. I was flabbergasted at how terrible the game was after I finished it, so I asked around online boards if I was nuts or Uncharted 1 sucked... and the best I got was 'It was good for its time'. No, no it was not. I would've disliked the game as much had I played it at release. If anything, I'm glad the series continued, because every game that came afterwards was pure gold.

5) Hyrule Warriors Legends

 Alright, alright, I know that the 3DS version isn't the ideal way to play Hyrule Warriors, but hey, I loved Samurai Warrior 4-II on the Vita and had a blast with Samurai Warriors Chronicles on the 3DS. But it goes beyond that, anyone who has spent more than five minutes on this blog would know that I love the Warriors games with a passion. But I hate Hyrule Warriors.
 Much like Fist of the North Star - Ken's Rage 2, the game loves to stop me from having fun pummeling enemies. It brings up these annoying bosses that require you to use the correct item in order to get the chance to chip their health away. Generals are also kind of annoying due to needing items in order to expose their weaknesses at times. As a matter of fact, the entire concept of items in the game is needless fluff that's only there to give the game the most superficial appearance of depth it can. Warriors games don't need that, they don't need depth, they need to be fun.
 I think the worst part about Pirate Warriors 3, a Warriors game I loved, was developing characters through medals. Sadly, said mechanic was reused here, which makes for needless padding if you want to upgrade every character.
 The story mode is boring, the adventure game is a hassle, the gameplay is annoying... there's a reason I haven't finished the game yet, and thus reviewed it: It bores me to tears.

4) Halo - Combat Evolved

 If one game was massively overhyped, and changed FPS forever, it was Halo. And I just couldn't get into it. The first few alien monsters looked pathetic, it almost felt like I was playing a humorous game. I also failed to enjoy the guns Master Chief could find, none felt fun to use. The game was so boring, to me, that I stopped playing after I fell off a bridge while driving the Warthog.
 I'm sure that multiplayer was fun, there's got to be a reason why the game was so beloved, but as far as the Single Player mode went... it failed to arrest my attention. How can people take Halo's enemies seriously?! I will admit, however, that I did play a bit of Halo 2 on co-op and actually enjoyed it. But as for the first game? I'll pass it any day of the week.

3) Animal Crossing(Series)

 I swear I gave it a chance. I played the one on gamecube, I played the one on DS and I even played a bit of the one on the 3DS... and I can't for the life of me figure out what makes this game so much fun for other people. Hunting for bugs and fishing grows boring soon, collecting money is a chore and I can't say I see much fun in designing a house.
 There's not much else I can say besides that, I simply don't like Animal Crossing.

2) Kirby's Epic Yarn

 Oh boy, here we go. Kirby's Epic Yarn has always been a tough game to criticize, because anyone that dared imply the game was anything but perfect was a dull idiot that couldn't appreciate a game that dared to look cute.
 And it blows, because the best thing about the game is, precisely, its looks. But a few stages into the game it just stops doing novel things with the 'everything is made out of thread' theme, the cutest and smartest things lie in the first few stages, and it feels like developers forgot about the possibilities the theme brought later down the line. Not being able to die was the least of the game's problems, I'm a fan of Wario Land games, so this was nothing new to me.
 But what really sunk the game was how boring the gameplay was. Missing Kirby's trademark power-stealing powers meant that you'd quickly grow tired of Thread Kirby's limited moveset. And the game failed to keep things fresh, every single stage felt like going through the motions while turning my brain off, because there was nothing fun to do.

1) Xenosaga Series

 Not gonna lie, every time the Xenosaga games make it into a 'Top X RPGs' I die a little inside. I admit, the reason I may have disliked Xenosaga 1 so much was because I was expecting Xenogears 0, so I might had been extra disappointed. But that doesn't excuse the fetishistic use they gave KOS-MOS, the limited combat mechanics(Compared to Xenogears, and this is fair, because the combat takes up cues from said game) or how dull the mechs were.
 But Xenosaga II was a mess, everything that a game could get wrong, they got wrong. The female characters were further sexualized(Shion doesn't need glasses anymore because reasons!), Jr., the most annoying character EVER created took the lead role and the gameplay... boy, the gameplay was horrible. Equipment was removed entirely, so now every character had their own elemental affinity. You also had to keep in mind that only a few characters could place enemies under certain advantageous status for you, like 'Downed' or 'On air'... this meant that you had to switch up your party accordingly. Strategic? Yeah, maybe... but this also meant that I couldn't play with my favorite characters if I wanted, which really soured the experience for me, since I can't stand more than half of them. And you know you've done something wrong if random encounters are harder than boss fights.
 As for Xenosaga III... The gameplay was great, and they got to my heart by filling it with nods and references to Xenogears, but, sadly, the story was a nonsensical mess, filled with horrible inconsistencies.
 Luckily, Monolith-soft would go on to create Xenoblade, which was the successor we deserved AND needed.