15/06/2020

Games I love that I will never play again


The (awesome) idea for that post came from my talented fellow gamer and blogger Geddy, who developed it first on his (no less awesome) blog Nostalgia Trigger. It was just so good that I had to make a version of my own; without further ado, dear fellow gamers, here are my 'Games I love that I will never play again'!


Balloon Kid: Not only is that game one of the highlights of my formative gaming years, but it has plenty of things going for it. Those range from its innovative and stellar physics, which were groundbreaking at the time and still are to this day, to its wonderfully evocative soundtrack — including that impossibly wholesome masterpiece, which remains one of my favourite pieces of gaming music ever and will probably forever be. And I cannot not mention its first level, which encompasses everything first levels should be about: the giddiness, the wonderment, the feeling of discovery, the joy of being ushered in a new world. As though all this were not enough, I also have a special and unique memory tied to BK: one fine mid-'90s afternoon, my cousin and I decided to join forces and finish the game, which up to that point was still unbeaten by both of us. We found ourselves a quiet little spot under the shade of a tree, and took turns playing; and lo and behold, we finally beat the darn game by the skin of our teeth, after nearly dying a thousand times. Epic! I just have to love that game, because it means so much to me; and yet, I really don't want to replay it ever again. The only part I truly enjoy playing is the first level, and I know the layout so well that I could nearly do so with my eyes closed; that's not nearly enough to motivate me to get my paws on a cartridge, let alone to actually play it.


Luminous Arc: I had a blast playing that SRPG back in 2017. The leveling system was deliciously broken, which led to one of my longest and most ridiculously massive grinding bouts ever; and although I ultimately failed to subdue the final boss, I was left totally sated by my 20 hours of LA. So sated, in fact, that I don't feel the need to touch that game ever again. I mean, I power-grinded the MC all the way up to lv.99; what could there be left to accomplish, apart from following a story I don't care one bit about and vanquishing a final boss I don't care one bit about either? Add to this a cumbersome control scheme and a glacial battle pace, and you'll understand why I don't want to play Luminous Arc ever again despite having only good memories of it. As a matter of fact, I'm so sure of my decision here that I pawned my cartridge not long after my playthrough. When I'm in the mood for some LA again, I can roll with the three sequels, which I all own, and let the original be a 'once in a lifetime' experience.


Myst III Exile: Unlike the other entries on my list, this one never appeared on the blog, and for good reason: I played it in 2009, when diving back into gaming was but a bittersweet dream and blogging about it was lightyears away from my radar. Emulation was my only tenuous link with gaming at the time; yet that summer 2009, I managed to get my paws on a physical copy of Myst III, and immediately proceeded with playing it as I was conveniently on holidays. I spent the next three weeks glued to the game, gobbling pots of (insert name of famous Italian hazelnut spread) to give me fuel for the brain; and since I had no internet at the time, I had to rely on the power of said brain alone to take me through the game. It was arduous, but I finally succeeded — creating one of my most memorable playthroughs ever in the process. I still remember those days with vivid clarity: the summer heat and light, the spoons of hazelnut spread, the feeling of constant challenge, the joy of finally solving a puzzle and, most importantly, the game's unique atmosphere, which sucked me in and made me totally obsessed with it. That playthrough was so deeply mesmerizing that I don't want to ever touch Myst III again, because I know fully well that subsequent runs wouldn't feel so utterly magical. And with the game having never been ported to any console, it's not like I risk stumbling upon it, now is it?


Xenoblade Chronicles 2: You knew this one was coming, didn't ya? I had the most passionate relationship of them all with XC2, going from loving it to pieces to getting sick of it — and everything in between. Today, my gamer's heart made its peace with XC2, and I can think back on my run(s) with great fondness. However, when I imagine myself actually replaying the game, I find myself paralyzed with utter and complete refusal — heck, the mere though of running again through the Tantal snows or the Leftheria sands is enough to make me nauseous, and that's with me loving those landscapes. There were tons of things I adored about XC2, from the slick fighting system to the grandiose vistas; yet I cannot bring myself to even think of experiencing all that goodness again.

This goes to show that even though I'm a total serial game replayer, I have my limits like everyone else. Of course, we never know what the future has in store for us, and maybe I'll replay one of those games after a couple of years; but for now, they stand firmly on my 'rest in peace' list. Don't hesitate to share your own list in the comments, dear fellow gamers — and see you soon with more gaming goodness!

11 comments:

  1. Oh, what an interesting idea. I personally have a lot of middle of the road RPGs I'll never play again, but it's less because I can't stand the thought of replaying it, or more like, I already got all I could out of it and there's nothing about it that gives me enough warm feelings to ever fire it up again.

    I can think of a few though:
    Pokemon Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby and all the gen. VII games:
    Hoenn was always my least favourite region and making it longer to transverse due to 3D just slowing things down in general, the extra cutscenes that you can't skip, a frankly weak pokedex until you beat the game, no following pokemon unlike heartgold/soulsilver and yeah, never gonna play this again. I know everyone makes fun of the IGN review "7 out of 10, too much water", but I agree with that sentiment. Only maybe I'd give it a 6.

    As for the gen. VII games, pretty much all of the problems above, but even worse. Full of cut-scenes and tutorials, the areas are surprisingly bland, all of the new pokemon are terribly slow (and therefore bad) and the designs aren't good either. The island trials are EVEN worse than gyms, horrendous lag that they LIED about in the original 3DS, the player clothing is a setback from gen. VI, and I don't even like any of the starters.

    All I liked was the rotom dex and lack of HMs. And both those things are in Sword and Shield. And no matter how bad that game might be (haven't played it yet, waiting for the last DLC) I'm pretty sure the battles don't lag. I might pick up Ultra Sun in about ten years, but if I do, it's purely because of sentimental reasons; it was the last game my granfather bought me before he died unexpectedly. The game itself is crap.

    Tales of Graces F:
    Nothing wrong with the game, it's perfectly lovely. But in my quest to platinum it during my first run, I have spent so much time grinding, I haven't touched it in six months and haven't even finished it yet. I like the main character and his childhood friend/eventual villain, that's done SO well. But if I even finish it, it's a miracle.

    I definitely won't make the same mistake with other tales games. No 10 hours of grinding in the same area, and I only turn the difficulty up to make the grinding more efficient, and turn it down to normal for the bosses.

    Any Idea Factory game:
    Same reason as Tales of Graces; if you aim for the true end and completing the postgame in an IF game, you're gonna spend so much time grinding you'll be sick of it by the end, even though the games by themselves are good. But this one is also because there's always a new IF game coming out, and since they've never had a huge dip in quality, it's always more worth my time to play the new game than revisit an old one.

    On the other hand, I actually spent most of my gaming time replaying stuff, especially this year, where I really don't have the energy for new experiences. I've played Devil Survivor 17 times and it's sequel 10 times. And since I lost my saves in my 3DS last year, I'll have to replay each at least 5-6 times to complete them again. Dynasty and Samurai Warriors (empires versions only) are also always fun when I want to finish a playthrough in one weekend, and no run is the same. And I've been playing the Sims 2 for 15 years. Yeah.

    Since I got back into Yugioh!, the franchise as a whole is going to be this for me. I spent 3 months beating Legacy of the Duelist, playing daily religiously....only for me to buy the PS4 version when the update came and start over from the beginning. Yes the game was also updated for switch but....Konami barely makes the games now, so I'll take all I can get in the feeble hopes that they'll at least release a new entry once every 3 years, instead of once in every 5 (yeah, Konami is dumb. Why make new anime if you're not gonna make games to sell with it?). Also got a copy of the Zexal game for the 3DS.

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    1. I'm pretty sure that wasn't your intention, but... reading your rant about Gen VII made me want to play Sun&Moon again! :P Not right now, though: the time for my annual rerun of gen VI has finally come. :D

      And talking about reruns and monster-collecting franchises, I'm currently staying at the same location where I played Digimon Cyber Sleuth: Hacker's Memory last summer... And of course, that makes me want to play it again! :P I'll abstain, though: not only is the game still too fresh in my memory, but I have other still unplayed entries to scratch any Digimon itch I may have.

      Funny that you should mention Idea Factory RPGs, because... Oh well, you'll see soon enough. No spoilers! ^^

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    2. Definitely play the original Cyber Sleuth first before replaying Hacker's Memory. It's good, trust me. Not that you need to, since Hacker's Memory is extremely similar to the original Cyber Sleuth, and you obviously liked that one.

      Speaking of monster catching games, I've been getting the urge to play Mocco Mocco Friends again. But then I remember the endless dialogue and how boring and predictable the plot is for anyone who has watched even one magical girls anime and yeah....I really wish there was a way to skip cutscenes.

      "Funny that you should mention Idea Factory RPGs, because... Oh well, you'll see soon enough. No spoilers!"
      Hmmmmm.....Trillion, God of Destruction maybe? Been meaning to play that for ages. Or maybe Mary Skelker? I have the switch version of the sequel that also includes the original game, so that's surely of good value.

      Either way, can't go too wrong unless it's one of the early Neptunia games. Or a Neptunia game in general...after the first game, you get tired of the "game consoles as waifus" concept really fast, or at least I sure did despite the decent gameplay.

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    3. "I have the switch version of the sequel that also includes the original game": Do you own the Japanese version, or did you manage to get your paws on the rare and super-coveted Limited Run english version? I gave the latter a pass and man, I kinda regret it now. And with the prices it commands on Ebay, I'm not sure I'll ever get to buying it... Oh, who am I kidding here? If my collecting instinct is raging and zeroing on that one game, I'll buy it allright, no matter how much it costs 😁

      Anyway, I have yet to find an Idea Factory game I dislike. I loved all the stuff I played from them — including the Neptunia Vita ports, which lounge comfortably in my Top 10 Vita series. They don't develop much, but nearly every game they craft is a gem. Come to think of it, I probably own all of their Vita input, although I have yet to play a good chunk of it! 😄

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    4. Nah, I just got the digital version of Mary Skelter 2. Honestly, it's been 2 years since I bought a physical game that you could also get digitally, and I haven't looked back. Saves a lot of shelf space, and my sister can't whine at me for money when she's broke and whine "just sell your old games!" (yes, this was an honest issue for me).

      I don't think I've ever disliked an IF game either, but I played the Neptunia games back-to-back (except the PS4 which I haven't even bought) and I have no shame in admitting I was skipping all the story bits by the middle of the second game. I don't hate them, but I feel like there was no real point, unless you like the console waifu gimmick. Which I did, at the start, then it got old.

      I also have all of their Vita output, and I'm only missing two Neptunia games on PS4 (The fourth one and the "4 goddesses online" one, cause screw online). I bought Trillion just cause I like IF and did't know much about it, but recently I heard it was a cross between RPG games and Princess Maker, and that has me intrigued. Like you, there's a lot of their games I haven't played yet, but I doubt any are bad.

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    5. Well, the three 'Re-Birth' games are basically copy-pastes of each other, so I can't blame you for skipping the story bits after a while. On the contrary: I wholeheartedly commend you for playing them back-to-back! Even though I love that series to pieces, I don't think I could have taken that much HN goodness at once. :P

      "My sister can't whine at me for money when she's broke and whine "just sell your old games!"": Heresy! My collector's heart hurts at the mere thought of it. Physical games are for life! :D

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    6. Well, what can I say, I just couldn't resist games that threw strong optional enemies early on, and rewarded you with a hefty amount of EXP, allowing you to face away other strong optional enemies, which means that by the end you'll be so overlevelled because the final boss can't compare to those enemies...

      Yeah, I love games that reward grinding, and give you ways to do it that aren't tedious. Couple that with being able to skip animations, and the Neptunia games were dreams come true at the time. But I overdosed, and now I can't even think about the fourth tittle. Which is coming to switch BTW.

      Well, at least having most of my games be digital now saved me from that stress. All I have left are games from before digital was a thing, which no, I won't get rid off! And at least I used the extra space to get more manga, which are "worthless" so it's not so bad.

      Thankfully for me, my sister is too dumb to know I have some rare yu-gi-oh! cards that are worth 30-70 bucks a pop nowadays (and unless they get reprinted in English again that price will only go up. Three words: Borreload Savage Dragon). And even if she does find out, I'm not dumb enough to show her my collection, and the cards are tiny and super easy to hide.

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    7. Your first paragraph sums up exactly what happened during my run of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re:Birth 2. The final boss lasted a mere few turns; after being forced to give up in Re:Birth 1 because I was too underleveled for the final showdown, this was sweet revenge. :P

      Talking about Yu-Gi-Oh cards, I recently became curious about the Yu-Gi-Oh game on the Switch. I never played any card games growing up (or later, for that matter); and the idea of trying my hand at it in digital form is strangely alluring. If I manage to get a cheap copy of Legacy of the Duelist, I'll definitely give it a try ^^

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    8. I never played any card games growing up either (never even had a pokemon card), though in my teens I played a few of the PSP Yu-Gi-Oh! games, and was okay at them. It's also when I started to collect cards, though I've sadly never played a single IRL game.

      In terms of the card game itself, I think Yu-Gi-Oh! only became really good in the early 2010's when Xyz summoning was added. Synchro summoning introduced in around 2007 elevated the game, but this was the era that "caveman" Yu-Gi-Oh! (where the game is basically just summoning the most powerful monsters and whacking each other on the head until one faints) died, and became about monster effects and how they chain together instead, which is a lot more fun.

      Sadly this is the exact era where Konami stopped releasing yearly games. So we have a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh! games, but only 3-5 from the "fun" era (two of those you need fan translations). Oh but there's a lot of crappy GX era games, yay :\

      Legacy of the duelist is fun, and it goes through the story of all the animes. This is both good and bad; on one hand, though you can make your own deck, you certainly don't need to, you can just use the deck the character used in that anime battle. This also allows you to try out many different decks in a natural way. On the other hand, the story isn't that well told, so if you aren't familiar with all of the anime seasons, then you won't get emotionally invested beyond the point you stopped watching.

      The tutorials are also a mixed bag; most are okay, but link summoning is still very confusing to me. If it wasn't for the anime I wouldn't even see the value of performing it.

      But either way, if you find it for a good price, give it a shot. At the very least you'll get some of the experience you missed out on as a child. And while Konami is awful and only releases a new game once every new console generation, at least it doesn't charge you out the eyeballs with micro transactions, a la Hearthstone.

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  2. Nice choices dude! As I've read your Xenoblade Chronicles 2 saga.. I kind of assumed we might see that on here :D It's just such a great series but the idea of spending what is potentially 4-5 other games to replay one you can't possibly get the same enjoyment out of the second time around is.. questionable!

    Also, this part about Myst III (a series which I could, unfortunately, never get into...) stood out:

    >I had no internet at the time

    This must have been SO interesting playing a game with no access to other information to metaphorically "poison the well" of your own thought process. Super cool, that's definitely an ideal way to play a game like that! I tried to avoid the internet entirely while playing The Talos Principle, and it felt like a similar style of game where the feeling of solving a puzzle is so great, the idea of looking up a solution is blasphemous. That being said, having an internet connection still can make it tempting... bravo to ya for finishing without resorting to hitting up gamefaqs!

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    1. "This must have been SO interesting playing a game with no access to other information to metaphorically "poison the well" of your own thought process": Oooh yes it was, indeed. I cannot tell you how proud I was to finish that game relying only on my own brain juices... I mean, there's nothing like that 'A-HA!' feeling when all the pieces fall into places and the puzzle you've been struggling with the last half-hour suddenly becomes crystal clear.

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