What’s worse than dropping games you couldn’t get into? Dropping games you like cuz you’re not ready for them to end. I stopped playing persona 4 golden right before the end so I don’t have to say goodbye yet.
@@fancywaffles Came here to say the exact same thing. Except that it's been more than two weeks now and I haven't picked it back up. I don't feel ready yet!
SMT IV has such an interesting story and multiple endings that are affected by several choices that I think if you're open to using a guide for at least getting around, it's definitely worth it to try again.
Every time you say "game too hard" it just makes me appreciate that you're honest. I'm the same way. I was just telling a friend the other day that I'm at the age now where I'll put a game on easy mode as long as I can still enjoy the game. Otherwise I'll drop that game.
You're not alone on Star Ocean. Star Ocean, for me, is "I desperately want to love this game but it's making it so damn hard for me to love it" the game. I liked Star Ocean 2 back in the day, and dropped it because I just lost interest in dealing with the difficulty spikes. I got nearly to the very end of Star Ocean 3 and dropped it right before the final boss because the game's "twist" annoyed the ever living hell out of me. Fun fact: did you know that every Star Ocean game after Star Ocean 3 (that is, 4, 5, and 6, the divine force) is a prequel to Star Ocean 3? The twist was so bad that it ended the future of the Star Ocean universe and they can only do prequels now, because there is no future for the series past 3. It just annoys me that as I'm playing second story R or Star Ocean the divine force, I'm thinking "Star ocean 3 is this universe's future." Star Ocean 6, the divine force, I got fed up with the insane difficulty spikes that game had and I quit. Seriously, if there's one piece of advice I can give game devs, it's make sure your game has a smooth difficulty curve. Chrono Trigger achieved this in the 90s on the SNES using midi technology, don't tell me for a second that you can't also do it if you wanted to. There are precious few things that make people give up on a game more than the game's difficulty feeling unfair. So, yeah, Star Ocean, I played 2, 3 and 6 before I played Second Story R, and Second Story R was the first Star Ocean game I actually finished. That's got to be a personal record: Star Ocean, the series I quit on three different times before I finally finished one.
I actually first time played and beat Star Ocean 3. And yeah its not a nice move for all franchise, but I loved the ending overall. Its suddenly touch my concern about death and existence very lovely. Today I beat Divine Force (in that game you can change difficulty in any moment and still get achievements, but I never feel difficulty spikes in SO6 personally, even get to beat final story boss on Chaos without crazy weapons) and I don't have feelings that SO3 ruined it. I basically beat this two games in a row (and SO1 I beat half-year ago). But I totally get why most of the people gets med. Still it's freaking awesome game series, can't wait new game! And I totally agree that this games should be more liner with difficulty, its a pain sometimes.
All Star Ocean games have the same problem, the difficulty is not consistent. One moment you feel powerful and suddenly you are wiped out by regular enemies. But 5 aside,because is an insult to fans, they are worth the effort to me.
I was half-expecting you to have dropped SMTIV because of the Minotaur, but to drop it because you got unfathomably lost? You know what, that's fair actually. But I hope you go back to it someday. Such a good game. Ended up being my second-most played 3DS game (after Pokémon Y).
Never have any hesitation with dropping a game if I’m not enjoying it. Life is short, there are plenty of other games, and you could always try it again later when you might be more in the mood for it. As for revisiting a game you dropped, it’s a bit of crapshoot. Sometimes you don’t like it any more the second time round, but once in a while you’ll find one of your all time favorite games that way.
I dropped SMT V because i was sick of reengineering my entire party for every boss encounter. I got to a boss and most if my party was weak to his elements and ailments. I was gonna have to create an all new party to fight this guy and it hadn't even been an hour since i engineered my party for the last boss i had fought. It was too tedious and it was the game loop. I'll go back to it eventually.
An RPG really has to hook me if I'm going to spend 40-60+ hours with it. Even games I was enjoying I just suddenly had enough of them like chained echoes it was a great game but didn't keep me wanting more til the very end.
First time dropping by. I like your honest approach without coolness blather. There's also some FOMO in my own brain, but there are also budget restrictions, so this helps a lot. My particular bête noire is Vagrant Story. The story and characters are amazing, and they pushed the graphics of the PS1 beyond its perceived limits. But the amount of time to set up battles with just the right things, buffs and debuffs, etc. while constantly having to shift through layers upon layers of counterintuitive menus caves my head in every time. I pull it out about once a year now and end up with the same frustrating result. It might be time to sell this one since it's ao highly prized and it's gathering dust here.
Great video, nothing wrong with dropping a game you don't like, I have trouble doing it as well. I did drop Tactics Ogre Reborn but not for the same reason as you. My problem with it is that I feel like they take away your control with your characters. You're level capped at each store level, and you have no control over opening up new jobs. It IS one of the best stories in all JRPGs though, and it is by far the most anti-war game I've ever played.
I havent played a lot of jrpgs so I'm gonna mention other janres. So Kingdom of amalur reckoning - jaring facial animations were constantly pulling me out of the immersion zone, but more importantly the combat system didnt click with the rest of the game for me. Felt like i can do a lot, while the enemy cant keep up with me at all even if they were multiple levels above me. The sabateur - way too easy. I was standing there, getting shot at in the middle of an enemy base plaza, and doing my thing like noone was there... And finished the mission... On hardest setting. so it felt like im in a running simulator, planting bombs while i was hearing gunshots. Rizen - dont know what was the issue. just didnt click with me. People were prazing it immensely, but i didnt see it. Maybe i was too "young" of a gamer, since i havent been playing much of rpgs at that point and it felt too open ended for me, so i didnt know what to do, or more like i couldnt stick to one path. I started learning regular combat, then started learning magic... I didnt have any direction. So this could he entirely on me and my limited understanding of more open games.
For Star Ocean 2, I wondered into the secrent end game dungeon to get boots that increased my movement speed, and that's the edge I needed to make it past the last boss. I did drop the game a couple of times early on in Claude's path where they steal your wallet and run you around the same town at least 3 times.
Oh, whenever Astria Ascending goes on sale I’m always on the verge of buying it. But something about the art style didn’t convince me. Now, SMT IV… you truly need to fix that!!
I appreciate the honesty of this video. I think every one has dropped a game everyone else loved because it wasn't doing anything for them personally. Definitely about to watch all your videos
As soon as you said SMT 4 I knew it was because you got lost, that is what almost killed it for me. Thankfully I was able to find a guide to direct me to the next area and now I’m almost done with the game.
I found most of smt4 to be a real drag, and found it's sequel to be so much better (apocalypse) sometimes a game speaks to you, and sometimes it doesn't. *shrugs*
I bounced off literally all of these too! Except nato, which I never tried. I am totally a sunk cost fallacy person too (and a sick, recovering over-completionist). Many games I quit, thinking I’ll be back… but maybe that’s my brain just trying to get me out when i won’t admit I’m not into something. I rarely go back!
I had difficlty with SMTIV for teh same reason you did. The overworld map was so consusing and it was really diffiuclt to figure out where to go, particulalry later in the game. Apocolypse I played through like four times, but i only beat IV once, I think.
I dropped tales of bersaria 35 hours in due to unsatisfying combat. Dropped Valkyria Chronicls after 11 hours due to frustrating combat. Dropped Crystar 20 hours in due to overly repetative game loop. Dropped Valkyrie Elesium 5 hours in because it felt like a crate smashing simulator. Had high hopes for all those games. Generally if I'm not having fun I throw in the towel no matter how deep i am into the game.
Hey Brandon, yeah I understand quite well how sometime final boss that are way to hard can be a show stopper, just thinking at one I did recently, Labyrinth of Galleria, man I am still angry at that boss, but I told myself I be back, just need to grind a lot...
I can understand those who dropped Tactics Ogre. One website ranked the final boss as a 6/5 difficulty! ... But man, I'm glad I saw it through. It kicked my butt hard, but I never gave up. Now, I can kick the game's butt with an absolutely overpowered Denam, Vyse and Catiua (You can get overpowered by grinding out the green cards that drop. The level cap is no hindrance to becoming overpowered). I even braved the Golyat 3 challenge multiple times and snagged the Byrnhildr Relic and Ambicion. Tactics Ogre turned out to be incredibly rewarding by sticking with it. I see the magic of it, but I'd never diss or fault those who gave up on it.
Folklore had such a unique aesthetic and gameplay system, a shame the devs could not refine and explore these ideas further in a sequel before getting shut down. The monster catching combat must have been inspired by Chaos Legion and Castlevania Curse of Darkness which then further influenced the likes of Astral Chain and Bayonetta 3.
iirc the original Star Ocean Second Story has a very easy way to trigger the final boss to go from “final boss difficulty” to “mega ultra super boss difficulty,” and there’s no indication doing this thing (I think it’s just talking to an NPC) will do that. The remake thankfully made it so you can’t do that without beating the final boss the normal way at least once.
I haven't played it myself, but I think it had to do with opening the bonus dungeon. As soon as that happens, the last dungeon is rebalanced to adjust to the potential power levels you can earn there. Problem being, if you don't FINISH that dungeon, you are now underpowered.
@@RwnEsper I just checked, and spoilers for Star Ocean Second Story the original I guess, but it's talking with Philia. it makes sense as she is the limiter on the final boss' powers, but man accidentally triggering that for being a completionist suuuucks lol
Man I felt the same way with Tactics Ogre Reborn. It wasn't that it was too hard to beat, but it was too hard to enjoy. And took too long for each battle. When you only get an hour a night to play, it makes things go at a snails pace. I was playing along with resonant arc and they were moving way faster than I could keep up too
I am going to get myself in trouble here, I played Harvestella (on your tip) and got to the final boss, Gaia, play time around 100 hours. During battle I ran out of healing items and died. After that I could not pull myself to farm any longer to build enough healing items to win.
I also got lost in SMT IV, not at the part you were at though. Something about those types of games just directionally challenges me. Got lost in Touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia and Persona 1 also. Hopefully one day I'll go back to SMT IV, but trying to play games on the 3DS just seems a bit antiquated to me now days.
First Fantasy Star. I literally kept trying to play it as a kid with no direction and made it to level 32 without leaving the first town until I found talking to the store owner about an object.... This was before Internet.
I really wanted to love Austria Ascending but had a similar experience. I'll go back to it at some point but I think my expectations made it worse when the game felt like I missed some key narrative events.
i agree with you on the strategy/tactics games. i enjoy them for what they are and they are usually really good games. but i'm an older gamer now. i'm 40 and i need action. when i was 13 i had all the time in the world and patience for ff tactics. now i just can't.
Ok so here are my thoughts on these games:1-Phone game so nope. 2-I'm kinda interested in the remake. 3-I played past the beginning, but dropped it after that might go back later. 4-This is a indie right? Ive heard of it, but don't really care. 5-I have PSP version so I'm not interested in the remastered remake, but I've played the PSP version a bit to chapter 2. 6-Thats a PS2 game right? Yea i don't have a PS2 also doesn't really seem that interesting.
Persona 5 I gave up in the last dungeon. It was hard. Persona 4 I got up to the final boss and gave up. Got all the way to Skull Kid in Zelda Majoras Mask and didn’t even fight him. FF 7 I couldn’t beat Sephiroth.
I can relate to your SMT IV situation. I was playing Inuyasha Secret of the Divine Jewel on the DS. Loved my time with it and then I got lost and couldn't figure out where I was supposed to go. Unfortunately trying to play it now, the rate of encounters is just too much for me to get through the opening hours of the game. Guess it wasn't meant to be. I think I placed Folklore's demo... it looks familiar but definitely didn't stick with me.
I have ADHD so this happens to me constantly 😅 it’s not so much dropping as I get distracted by another game and then never get back to the previous ones so I don’t actually have a lot of games I’ve beaten
I had the orientation problem in xenoblade chronicles definitive edition. The story and setting decently grabbed me but the combat system and the "exploration" were a little too much for me. I believe I could have followed the story, but coming from a place where the side quests are often more fun than the main quest I tried completing the side quests of an area and what that entailed was running around searching for a marker and not being able to find the way. It was so frustrating that I quit playing even though I am fairly certain the story on the whole would have interested me.
I feel like OG SO2 expects you to exploit the heck out of the ceafting system by the end of the game, so the final boss is pretty hard. I love SO2R, but I thought it was kinda too easy? And I am with you on tactical RPGs, especially as I've gotten older. I just do not have the attention span for a battle that takes 30 minutes. I keep trying though lol. My two RPGs of shame would be Tales of Berseria and DQ11. Everyone loves them but I could not bring myself to finish either one.
6:03 "If your difficulty spikes are sharp enough to pierce my very soul, then your difficulty spikea are to much. Mhm.. i dunno.. i usually like it when the games throws everything you have learned into your face. Even the stuff you never used be- cause you thought it isn't THAT important because why not~ x'D I had my fair share of soul crushing embodiments of pain.. Some bosses even got me to change the difficulties a little.. Well.. if that is even a option at this point otherwise i just.. have to get creativ and change my entire battleplan.. o.o" But yeah i understand that it feels a bit unfair.. when everything so far was easy and normally beatable suddenly transforms into a giant wall and the game kinda expect you to "grind" it out.. grinding can be fun.. but i prefer to avoid it.. :S
Honestly, I dropped Final Fantasy XII after a while just because it became a slog getting anywhere in the story. Your list seems pretty solid, I was very on the fence with Mato Anomalies but just decided that I wasn't going to try it.
I'd say i sadly have the sunken cost fallacy syndrome to a real crazy degree but one game i just couldn't was after about 11 hours of Star Ocean 5 Integrity and faithlessness. Oh my god it just felt soulless and lacking charm or any hook for me that its impressive i made it about 11 hours 🥲
It’s only within the past few years that I’ve been able to DNF books that I actively hate. I think I’ve only stopped one game and that was Final Fantasy 13 due to life events (two very young kids and I had no brains to sort out battle system 😅)
Xenoblade 2 - it has a cool world and god-tier soundtrack, but even those couldnt keep me invested when the cost was a slow story, cliche characters, and a combat system I was never able to master. I enjoyed the 1st one and X. I've heard good things about the 3rd one, but I don't know.
I’m sorry to say but I abandoned FF Rebirth, Eiyuden Chronicles and Trails Azure. I either got burned out or bored. I did go back to Azure and powered through. The last of English voices took away from the story.
I feel the same of SMTIV i have it on my 2DS and i need to actually sit down and give it a true shot. Why dont they just port it over to PC i never understand. Loved SMTV tho
Definitely all valid! Thank you for explaining the reason why I want to go back to Tactics Ogre Reborn, but ultimately haven’t. 😂 For me, I really want to love FF12, I have put 20 hrs into it 4 times.. 😂. I just keep dropping it. Great channel Brandon! Wishing you 10000 subs 🎉
Your not an idiot for not understand the smt iv world map. It's pretty terrible so I don't blame you. A great game is in there though, you just have to push through.
Some games just can't hold attention well. I did however really enjoy Folklore and finished it. And actually liked the battle system. Tactics games in general dont hold my interest. Games i own but never finished include Final Fantasy 13-2 and 13-3. Finished the first one barely, but the next two i barely touched.
Interesting list i can see why you didnt stick with any of them. But of them all folklore is one of my favorite games. Its nastolgic probably cause the combat is similar to lost kingdoms which i also really liked. It was weird and different. My only issues with folklore was the grind, and i never liked waggle controls. Still dont.
Hey I love Mato Anomalies but I honestly can't objectively call it a good game. Probably a 6.5/10 tops but I still found the world just interesting and mysterious. It has has a lot of jank and bugs and oddities but I was glad I got invested in it. I played it on hard even because I guess I can be a masochist which probably wasn't a great idea as it is a long game and I was getting sick of it by the end. I still loved it though all things considered.
Currently playing it right now, yeah the story sometimes is hard to follow, to many time line to remember and characters, I thinking watching a vatividya like lore video after finishing it.
I feel bad for you dropping smt 4 it's a great game but like any smt game sometimes it doesn't deliver on presentation please play it again I'm sure you will find it enjoyable.
I agree with you on all of them except SMT IV! The issue is they’re all so grindy or uninteresting, they boil themselves down to plain mid. I’d rather play games that excite me… I really hope you pick up SMT IV again because it’s honestly one of the greatest. So worth it.
I think it is okay to drop a game if it does not resonate with you. I give a jrpg about 10-12 hrs to hook me in, and if it doesn't, I move on. I really tried to like Octopath Traveler... to the point of giving it 20 hrs. Too grindy and boring to me. I have SMY IV and Folklore on my pile of shame, and your video isn't going move Folklore higher on my list. Now, about this business opportunity I have for you... 🙂
