games

Kenshi: after hundreds of hours put into the game and going thru multiple cycles of starting a new game, struggling to make money, fighting, losing, fighting again, building and automating a base, etc, and all the emergent storytelling that comes out of that -- I feel like it was only the combat-related systems that were fully fleshed out and ultimately, the only way to interact with the world in a meaningful way is through combat. Though the visuals and worldbuilding do great of offering the promise of a lot, the dialogue system is not developed enough to allow for any dialogue mods that integrate well with and impact the world or player characters. Animations systems are similarly limited, with the system allowing for minute customization and replacement of combat animations, and very little room for any animations not combat-related.

Binding of Isaac can be unfair, and while yeah that's kinda the point and mastery can overcome most of that, some rooms are laid out in a way that it's impossible to avoid damage. For example, a closet filled with spikes and a large troll bomb spawning and immediately homing in. This never feels good even if damage is avoided through pure luck (such as flight or explosion immunity).

Also most bosses are fine but they do love to add at least one bullshit boss per version. Rebirth brought us the dreaded Bloat, then in AB they added Hush, a bullet hellish, tanky completion mark boss that can only be attempted if reached within 30 mins or less. That wasn't bullshit enough, so in AB+ they added Delirium, another mark boss that is hidden somewhere on the largest map in the game among 6 other bosses (which included other end bosses). Before Rep there was only 1 way to guarantee access and that was by killing Hush (2 bs bosses in a row!) Oh and the fight itself is a disorienting chaotic nightmare and honestly never fun.

I don't think anything added in Rep compares to Delirium, though I'm never happy to see Scourge or Colostomia. Mother is difficult, but honestly getting to that fight is more annoying than the fight itself. Then Rep+ added the most devastating boss of all: barely functional online co-op that can delete your save.

Baldur's Gate 3 can be too safe art direction wise. I get they are trying to do the DnD aesthetic and I'm sure WotC had a specific view on what it wanted the Forgotten Realms to look like, but it feels a bit too generic fantasy.

Final Fantasy XIV needs new quest design for the main story. Dawntrail suffered because of the quest design.

I wish Eastward had made more of an attempt to tie the plot together. I spent the entire game excited to see how all the details relate and then it just ended with almost no clear explanations at all.

lost izalith is not a very good area

Disco Elysium and BG3 are both incredibly well written, to the point where my first playthrough was so good, and so perfectly fit my head canon, that playing it again with different choices and playstyles just feels tedious, and an exercise in futility.

Helldivers 2 really needs some sort of end game content. The gameplay loop is fun, but i'm not even max character level, yet I have everything unlocked, all warbonds, and maxed out resources.

El Paso, Elsewhere is flawless and there is nothing to criticize, go buy it now you losers.

The player base is trash. Self included

Valheim is broad but not deep enough and its success is mostly due to when it appeared. If it weren't in the early access cycle and the devs had made the game they wanted to make instead having the community poke and prod them it probably wouldn't be very fun.

Satisfactory is absolutely hampered by the unreal engine's limitations.

TLoZ: A Link to the Past, the enemy respawns get annoying when backtracking.

Chrono Trigger: Rewired my brain to make me like DBZ character design

TLoZ: OoT & MM: gave me nightmares which I was not expecting going into them from the previous games in the series

Super Metroid: led to me constantly waiting for MP4 but it's totally coming this year for sure. The sheer missile-sponginess of the bosses is kinda tedious I guess?

Any Tribes game: it will never be the same and I am sad.

Dwarf Fortress, Kenshi: I cannot play these anymore because I forget to eat in real life and I will die.

Red Alert series: Yuri was kind of a misstep I feel and limited the series' development.

Sim-Anything: Maxis selling to EA for a cash grab ruined one the coolest studios ever to exist.

Oh in SOTC killing the collosi made me way too sad

if anything the Jet Set Radio Future soundtrack is too good

Trails is lib as hell with a focus on Good Monarchs, just like most JRPGs. There are also a bunch of anime tropes, although I think this has been exaggerated and people play Persona and Xenoblade, both of which have just as many if not more tropes. Barely anyone dies in the story even though there are multiple wars and one plot point muddles the anti-imperialist themes. Missable quests suck and the soundtracks used to be amazing, but are now mostly farmed to one composed who is mostly just okay.

Ys is usually either way too hard or way too easy with little middle ground. The same complaints I already had about the Trails soundtracks also apply.

Yakuza has too many nonsensical plot points, even though some of them have become memes because of how dumb they are.

The turn-based gameplay sucks because it makes every fight against a level 1 enemy a slog that lasts forever because you can't skip or speed up the animations. There's also nothing as satisfying as doing a heat action in that whole gameplay loop.

Mai won't STFU when you're doing difficult enemy battles in FF7 Rebirth. The camera won't stay locked to the enemy you are fighting so a kot of battles are framed sideways or away from thr enemy as they charge, mow you on your ass or repeatedly strong strike you. You can't know when they are about to because the camera is not showing the enemy it's showing you.

Oh you just finished a section. Let's FATAL ERROR even though the game so still going. So hopw "fatal" was that error actually? Ok let's just wait for them to stop talking get control....menu....save and a crash. But at least the game autosaved at the transition.

StarCraft is too hard to play with friends and StarCraft 2 made the wrong things easy making the big army fights take 2 seconds.

Magic the gathering not only has power creep but rules and mechanics creep making the game even more complex over time. Also the focus on printing cards specifically for EDH/commander makes the format less interesting.

Pokemon TCG none of the meta decks use guys i like and it's because the ones i like all suck.

DotA and mobas are basically entirely suffering and the games are often prolonged by people who enjoy suffering.

Genshin's character quests are a hairball. Too easy to accidentally trigger once unlocked, and then you end up with other quests locked out, including dailies. There's also limited story reward-- I don't really need a deep dive into some B-plot character who you'll never see again in the main story progrrssion.