Which video game did you bounce off of at first, but then tried again later for it to become one of your favorites of all time?
Dark souls
Demons souls through Dark Souls 3 I bought, tried, and quickly ended up on my shelf.
Knew they were amazing games, but I just couldn't figure it out. Always played with a shield, was slow and methodical, and just didn't get anywhere.
Then I read a post about someone who was having trouble so summoned another player. The summon showed up "Naked with a katana and charged in like a Jedi".
So I said screw it, and tried a light no shield build. Didnt care how far I got, I just started grinding the early enemies and leveling up. Then it all just sort of clicked.
Got my girlfriend into the games, and we've played through them all together, just now finishing on bloodborne.
Same. It took me months to give it another shot and after that I couldn't stop
Same. I still suck. I haven't finished a single one of them games. It took me months of playing on and off to get past Vordt in DS3. But once I beat him and reached the undead settlement, that was it. I was hooked. I also just rarely finish RPGs in general lol. The art direction and general ambiance, the combat hitboxes, the music, the learning curve, the variety of builds... Fromsoft just knows something about games that most other companies don't.
Not gonna try that again until I'm retired. I don't need my play to feel like work.
Factorio. I tried it years ago and it just never clicked. I just started playing it again and suffice it to say I have gotten very little sleep over the past couple weeks.
The factory must grow
The factory must expand to meet the ever expanding needs of the factory.
Ohh no. Just started Satisfactory. It's going well, well into my sleep.
I refuse to play that game knowing that I have an addictive personality and an unhealthy obsession with maximizing efficiency. It just doesn't seem like a good idea to give a person with my type of personality the equivalent of heroin.
Outer Wilds. I went to the hollow planet early and got very frustrated with the platforming and falling rocks.
I returned to it almost a year later and gave it a chance based on everyone's praise. Very glad I did.
This is one that I have to come back to.
You should. Make sure you pick it up when you have time to really wrap your head around it. When I finally played through it, it was over a Christmas holiday. I don't think it's the sort of game that would lend itself well to being played in 1-2 hour chunks after work every night for a week when you're feeling burned out. You gotta be able to sink your teeth into it
Cyberpunk 2077
Got it on console first, and it was ... rough. Got it as a gift on PC and finally got to experience the glorious story and wonderful characters.
Baldur's Gate. I've never played DnD so there was a bit of a learning curve. I rage quit after two hours, almost returned it. Three days later I fired it up again and haven't really stopped playing since.
Baldur's Gate was a special game. It's the only game my wife liked to play, and we couch-coopted it. We played the rest in the series together, full play through all of them, a couple of times. Never found that magic combo again, sadly, and to this day she laments that there are so few 3d isometric couch coop games.
And now I’m 158 hours in and can’t bear the thought of finishing it now that combat has become sooooo monotonous.
I've been playing bg1 on Android lately, anything you would go back and tell yourself if you could? I've basically been flying blind and struggling a bit lol
Control.
The beginning of the game is really slow, hard to understand what's happening, and you literally have only minimal throwing ability. The manual navigation with overlay fullscreen map also doesn't do justice to the game. Combining with the fact that I wasn't used to playing these types of games, this was an easy pass for me after like 1 hour of the game.
But boy it's awesome as you actually get more abilities and understand more of the story. Currently it's one of the games I usually come back to.
I didn't realize it was in the Alan Wake universe. I still need to play Control.
Yeah there's only a couple subtle hints in the regular game and I think more in the dlc. I'm guessing they'll lean into it more with control 2 now that AW2 is out as well.
Interesting, I had a similar experience at the start and couldn't work out why everyone was praising it so much. Maybe I'll give it another go
Please do. Control was such a hidden gem. I picked it up in a humble bundle and it absolutely blew me away.
Monster Hunter. When I was a kid with a PSP I bought Freedom Unite since the box art was cool. Had not a fucking clue what was happening or how to even understand the weapons.
Years later I bought a 3DS, 3 Ultimate, and even a circle pad pro for it. Nope, still just didn't even crack an hour of playtime because everything was just so strange. Finally, in probably 2019 or so I decided that there was too much cool word of mouth about the series for me to not try and figure out how it worked.
I got Generations Ultimate, and decided that if I could figure out how to play Monster Hunter that I wouldnt be a complete failure in life. I just played, found that nothing made sense, but just... kept going anyway. I started researching what the different weapons were for, realized that they're basically just different fighting game character-type movesets, and from there I slowly explored the game until id ended up burning 240 hours or so on MHGU.
I discovered Monster Hunter World after that, and it was all over for me. I never get to g rank, but I've put probably a combined over 1k hours into the series, which is much more than I usually would for other games. Just fucking fantastic games in almost every way, except for tutorialization.
Monster Hunter for me as well! Tried 3 Ultimate on the 3ds and it just did not click for me. Tried it again with Rise and World and loved them
That’s because Rise and World are WAY better than the old games. Less clunky inventory, better movement, better everything. Trying to play MH3 or earlier is like pulling teeth now after Rise. It’s so much better in every way
I got the monster hunter on 3ds (MH 3 Ultimate), and I liked playing it, got pretty good at it, but man....the graphics on that system just isn't right for that game. They tried making it look to non pixilated on a system that was too pixilated for it.
I've planned for quite a while to get it as a rom for my PC or steam deck and use some filters to smooth the jaggedness out of it and see how it does, but still haven't gotten around to it yet. Really need to get on that. I played like 30 hours worth and stopped.
This is encouraging, as I have a game session of MH4 Ultimate forgotten in my 3DS for years now.
Subnautica. I didn't really get it at first. Swam around the life pod a bit; didn't see the point.
Was travelling some time (months?) Later and stuck at an airport with my laptop and a Power outlet but super patchy wifi. So I fired it up again and really, really got into it. Kept playing on the plane and all through that trip. By the time I got back, I had a Cyclops and a Prawn suit and was about to find the lost river.
I also came to say Subnautica. I got it for free prom PlayStation, messed around a little bit, didn’t have any clue where to go, and stopped playing.
Years later I started a new game and it clicked with me. I bought the sequel before I rolled credits so I’d be able to go right into it.
Love that game. Love, love, love it.
I bounced off Dwarf Fortress a lot over the years, even with the packs to help. Eventually I got the hang of Adventurer Mode and quite enjoyed it! Now I'm just waiting for that mode on the steam version!
I bought the Steam version of Dwarf Fortress. I did not realise it was actually a time machine.
Every time I started it, I would instantly jump 4 hours into the future.
When the Steam version was announced, I decided to dive in to the game blind. In the months before the release, I ended up seeing some interviews of Tarn and fell in love with their vision and quiet dedication.
Steam version came out and I dumped easily 200+ hours into the game. I'm waiting for adventure mode to dive back in. Can't wait.
The game is definitely not for everyone. But it is very special.
Do you know if there's a noob friendly Lemmy community for Dwarf Fortress. I want to get into the game
I don't know, I'm sorry!
Rimworld. Did the standard start (industrial with 3 pawns) on cass. Died of hunger. Uninstalled the game.
Next week I was bored at my intership and redownloaded it and gave it another shot. Now I have close to 4k hours in Rimworld.
Same thing happened with Crusader Kings, funnily enough.
Edit: oh, that happened with M&B: Warband and Kenshi as well.
RimWorld is incredible. I’m hard pressed to think of another game with as much customization of play style or as vibrant a mod scene.
Dwarf Fortress. There aren't many mods in the steam version afaik (tons for the free ascii version though) but... You don't need mods for it. Want to capture invaders and host gladiator fights? Yep. Water trap to push invaders off a cliff onto some grates so you can collect their items after blocking the water trap again? Easy peasy floodgates Parcheesi. Want to gift lead mugs to the filthy elves? Strike the Earth, brother. (Doesn't poison them though, sadly). Want your dwarves to only drink alcohol? They only have to drink water when they're injured, 24/7 drinking besides that makes for happy dwarves. You're battling a bunch of invading goblins and you have some dwarves die? Better bury them or their ghost will haunt your fortress. Oh, and don't forget your necromancer will probably grab some new friends from the fight.
There's very little you can't do in Dwarf Fortress. It doesn't get very high tech since it's fantasy based, most high tech that you can get is windmill driven mills and water pumps I think, but there is so much depth to the game that honestly that's perfectly okay with me
Edit: there are mods for the steam version too, baked right into the steam workshop
Kinshi is such a deep game. I get how it’s hard to get into but damn once it clicks it’s crazy how far down the rabbit hole that game goes.
I still can't get into Kenshi. It's too much jank. I love the ideas and the stories people share.
Terraria. At first I compared it to Minecraft before I started to like it on it's own. Thanks to pre-Fandom wiki I broke through not getting it's gameplay at all to enjoying it.
This one for me. The controls were hard to get used to and I died a whole lot and lost my stuff the first dozen nights. But once it clicked it got better and better, and holy cow the game has a lot going on inside of it.
Same for me. But then a friend played like an hour together with me, showed me the ropes and I haven't stopped playing since. Not all the time, but like one playthrough a month or so.
Diablo III. First time I played it was at the urging of my friend, who told me unironically, "don't worry about the plot, the plot doesn't matter." Unsurprisingly my experience wasn't particularly engaging and I lost interest, not seeing much reason to play it over any number of other games that didn't have an always-online requirement.
Flash forward several years later. My then-girlfriend (now spouse) asked me if I'd ever played a Diablo game, and I related my experience. After she was done sputtering and emitting various noises of extreme outrage she insisted that I set things up so we could play through Diablo 1, 2, and then 3 together. I went in to D1 expecting to be similarly disappointed and instead found an incredibly dark, atmospheric, and compelling story. Oh and we did get The Butcher so I also shat myself. After that I was way hyped for 2, and by the time we hit 3 I was far more interested in playing. Loved the hell out of it, found myself not only enjoying the game but completing through the last stages of a season journey to score extra stash space and all that. Not out of obligation either, I was legitimately enjoying the grind.
I gotta ask - given all that, what’d you think of 4?
Played the Beta, thought it was... good. Better than 3 in some ways, but not up to that oppressive, almost claustrophobic ambiance in D1 that made it so damn good. That said, I loved rolling around as a Shaman Werewolf tanking everything. Was it the most effective? Nope, but I tanked Butcher twice and the World Boss and survived. Felt great.
Haven't played the game proper on release though. Got drawn into other things actually. Am looking forward to it.
Unironically The Witcher 3. It just didn't click at first.
That's one of my all time favorite games now. Same thing, didn't like it at first, but once I started playing more of the game, they had some of the most interesting side quests.
Same. I wasn’t even an hour in. I was fucking around on some rocks and died from a ten foot drop. Early gameplay before getting some skills was kinda meh too. I didn’t come back for almost a year.
I had the same experience! I got as far as the first boss, died, and thought this game just wasn’t for me and fuck all the hype.
Came back a few years later and actually paid attention to the lore and was blown away.
I tried playing this on Xbox one, but I couldn't figure out the combat due to input lag.
Played it again on a different system, and it was excellent!
Hollow Knight. Bought it and played a few hours, died and got very annoyed that I couldn't find my shade so lost motivation.
Picked it up again 2 years later and it's arguably my favourite game ever now.
Almost exactly the same story here
I wouldn't really call it a favorite, but I definitely ended up liking Nier: Automata pretty well after bouncing off it really hard when trying it at a friend's house. That's because we were trying from the start, and it starts with a section that's about half an hour long, with only two checkpoints, vastly harder than anything else in the game, and in which the first half isn't even the same genre as the rest of the game. It's seriously one of the worst intros I can think of in a video game. The rest of the game is, y'know, a pretty good third-person action RPG.
Rocket League. 3246 hours.
BioShock 1. I found the first level to be frustrating. Left it for a year and came back; it was easier, somehow, or I was more patient.
I'm so glad I gave it a second chance. Easily in my top 5 GOAT.
God yes what a classic. 2 is amazing too
Minecraft / Minetest - I'm used to games with active quests etc. so the openness threw me off but now I host a server for the kiddos and we have all sorts of adventures and random builds
play quest based modpacks
I played Celeste, thought it was kinda easy and the hotel level kinda lame which is where I dropped it. A few years later I broke my leg, being a pc gamer before the steamdeck my switch was the only portable console I had and celeste the only unfinished game i had for it. I played the entire game in a week of 12 hour sessions while high as a mother fucking kite. It was amazingly good fun.
Fallout 3 took me a couple tries to get going, but it was hard to put down once hooked.
Elden Ring. So glad a friend dragged me back. Stone cold masterpiece.
Oof, this one pains me.
I bought it on release and played for like 2 hours, only to never pick it up again.
Yessss! This is the game that caused me to have the idea to do this post.
I first played it about a year ago. I used the two hour Steam refund period, which in retrospect probably caused me to rush or not give it enough of a chance.
Fast forward to now, when I’m dealing with a nasty chronic health condition and lots of time on my hands. And I’m between games - basically waiting for stuff to come out, like the Factorio DLC.
So I poked around and somehow Elden Ring came up as a possibility. And then I found THIS video:
Elden Ring Is a Masterpiece — my thoughts after 60 hours
https://youtu.be/kdstSHeoNGA?si=xo1ea2b1WGYBexJJ
And it got me so hyped that I ended up watching a ton more videos. And finally I plunked down the $60 and gave it a shot.
Now I can’t stop thinking about it. I am in love with the jaw dropping terrain, inventive enemies, depth of play styles and options, the brilliant way it hints at things instead of spamming a map with quest markers and to do lists. I’ve had moments that felt like I was on the inside of an epic fantasy novel, living an otherworldly fever dream of awesomeness.
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Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Overwatch.
Oroginally I dismissed it as just being a TF2 clone, and being a very loyal TF2 player at the time I didn't want to play it as I consodered it a blatant ripoff. However, I started going to a LAN party group at work in 2017 and Overwatch was the only FPS they played so I got it. It still does feel similar to TF2 but the variety of characters got me hooked and it became my most played game for many years until OW2 came out and ruined everything. Getting back into it now though and they've toned down some of the bad decisions of OW2 since launch. Now I'm dating a girl who plays Overwatch as well and we've been playing constantly so I'm back into it completely now.
Morrowind. I'd played it when it came out but didn't get very far. Tried it again after watching an 8 hour video about it. Focused on speed in my build so I didn't feel like running at a snail's pace. Finding the dead people that failed to become Nerevar, giving some guy a book of poetry without a quest telling me to, getting used to the layout of Vivec, actually enjoying the fast travel system, and lots more all added up to such a great experience.
Morrowind was the most immersive game I ever played. Something about it made it so I could just get really into it and focus on nothing else for hours. Not even the other elder scroll games were that way for me. I'd give anything to be able to re-live those days. I don't think it's even possible anymore with how much other shit I have going on in my life as an adult.
Favorite game of all time.
PatricianTV is one of the best long form video game essay writers out there. Really understands the topic they are talking about. Would recommend watching all his content if you like the format.
Oh yeah, I definitely have experience his other videos. Used to fall asleep to the oblivion one but then kept getting woken up by the 🎵 horse cock🎶 part.
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I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I bounced off the first Deus Ex a few times… the first mission is just kind of dull.
The game is so funny if you know all of the Y2K era stuff that it's a satire of.
Yeah for sure! It’s not surprising that it’s a cult classic at all. But ugh, after figuring out key bindings and going through the tutorial I would always lose interest by the time I started liberty island. Deus Ex just feels clunky at first.
Death Stranding. As a Metal Gear fanatic, the disappointment I felt on my first attempt at playing it was immense. Only got a few hours in before writing off as just not for me. Tried again in a different frame of mind, different time in my life, and it clicked. One of my fav games of all time.
I just played it through for the first time. What an experience it was! I've never played a game like it before. It's a story that will stick with me for years.
Had to try really hard to get into it but when it clicked, it clicked. Really enjoyed it but can't seem myself ever playing again
Yeah I know what you mean. I think I feel the same way about replaying it. I want to keep the memory of my journey intact.
The original Rogue Legacy. I just couldn't get the hang of it. Came back a year later and it all clicked.
Help me understand it? The first hour or so was awful. The castle level seems boring AF, the powerups feel grindy, and the random character abilities seem more likely a handicap than a bonus. What changes? Or what could I possibly be doing wrong?
I can't remember rogue legacy, but I loved it enough to buy Rogue Legacy 2. So my comment is based on that.
My solution was to turn on handicaps. I honestly don't know how people play it when you die in 3-4 hits.
I also play it like a Metroidvania game, trying to get to the next power up or story quest. I also really really really love Castlevania Symphony of the Night, where i'd spend 10-20 minutes running the same rooms for loot drops.
It's supposed to be a bit grindy. Like a lot of rouge lites you get more powerful each iteration as you get more gold and can level up. So it becomes a game of trying to progress farther and farther as you level up through upgrading the castle.
The second one does a bit better job of adding replayability and more interesting mechanics.
more likely a handicap than a bonus
Yep, that's intentional. It's how you get a variety of challenges from run to run.
The game is really all about rhythm and timing. Each enemy has an attack pattern and telegraphed moves, and how you progress is to learn those and how yo text to them, then how to do that with multiple enemies, then how to do that with different abilities and handicaps.
Dark souls
Same. Spent 3 hours on Gundyr in ds3 just to watch my non gamer wife beat him second try. Hated the game then came back to it with a friend who had finished it and voila, my new never ending addiction.
Same here, played a bit of DS2, but never really got into it. Started on DS3, but got tired of that pretty quick as well. But when Elden Ring came out, I got really hooked on the games. I finished Elden Ring, then I played through DS 1, 2 and 3. And then a few more playthroughs of Elden Ring with different builds. I've started a bit on Sekiro, but jumped over to Lies of P when it came out. The plan is to play the new Lords of the Fallen, when I'm finished with Lies of P. It's really satisfying to beat a boss after a few hours of learning the patterns.
Dark Souls and Syardew Valley.
Also Dark Souls. I was confused at first as I mostly ignored the story part since it's not given to you on a plate and just stopped. Then years later I did a proper run and I'll never forget it.
Ill always remember going to firelink shrine for the first time.
Arrive at firelink, go to cemetary, get calcium stolen by skeletons multiple times. Think maybe i picked a bad character. Re roll
Character 2. Attempt to murder guy sitting at firelink for his armor. Die. He wont unaggro after respawning. Re roll character again.
Pick knight, finally find undead parish, things start to click.
I'm still bouncing on DS. I've tried about 4 or 5 times now, getting farther each time, but honestly... Hating it more each time. The last time I just full on started cheating with Cheat Engine after a lot of frustration and I... Still ended up frustrated and exhausted by the gameplay.
I bounced off Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, and it wasn't until I played Bloodborne that I finally got it.
Don't worry about souls (XP) and losing them when you die. Stick early XP into health for a bit to give you more chances to learn, and stamina for more rolling about. Your damage will come mostly from weapon upgrades.
Spend your first runs in a new area learning the enemy attacks and layout, and what you can block or have to roll away from. This is the main thing you're levelling by playing. The old "gitting gud". And it will happen, because honestly it's not that hard for the most part. It's just uncompromising, and will punish you when you stop paying attention.
Shortcuts are everywhere. Just about every area has something to unlock to make getting back to the boss faster.
Too much armour will be a hindrance. It's heavy and makes it so you can't move or roll as fast.
Minecraft. I tried it as a teenager and didn't really "get it". Much later in life I found some friends and none of us really played the game that much so we decided to try it together and got hooked.
Whenever I play minecraft now. Either it's fully modded Minecraft with automation and stuff.
Or it's vanilla with a ton of client side mods and automating stuff through vanilla farms.
I can't help being a factorio dude.
Civilization VI
With my limited English back then, I struggled to understand how to play Civilization VI. I was expecting something similar to Age of Empires, which made me frustrated until I gave it another try a couple years later. Today, it stands as my most played game ever, with over 900 hours of gameplay.
Fallout 3. I never made it out of the vault on my first play. It's long and slow. I played at a friend's house who was past that point and realized I needed to try again. I'll never regret giving it another try!
New Vegas made Fallout 3 click for me. NV is better in every way, but I was able to go back and actually enjoy it afterwords.
It took me forever to want to play Skyrim because the beginning is so dull. Not really a fan of the Oblivion / Fallout 3 / Skyrim openings. I can’t remember Fallout 4… I feel like it was a little faster.
Skyrim: running from Satan's dragon.
Fallout 4: husband/wife trying to get a door-to-door salesman to go away.
Oddly enough, Witcher 3. It took a mate of mine to convince me to give it another go, now I love it.
I did the same thing. Bought it many years ago, it didn't click with me. Tried again in 2020 and I've so far done all achievements and played through it about 5 times. Absolutely love it!
Same here. It just has such an extremely slow start. It only really clicked for me about 3 hours in or so when I realized just how huge it was.
I still can't get that game to click with me. I love an RPG but I just can't get into it. I even love the characters etc and Netflix show (the first season anyway). Don't know why, and at this point I can't bear the thought of starting over again.
It didn't click with me with either, I tried it for a few hours then put it down and forgot about it. A couple of Christmases ago I went back into it with a mindset of "just focus on the story missions rather than exploring every nook and cranny" and I got far enough that it really started to click and I was hooked.
The story is incredible, pretty much the whole way through. The progression and combat is delightful. The world is beautiful so you end up exploring it whilst naturally following your quest markers. To top it all the expansions are amazing and have really incredible moments.
Rocket league.
I thought it was just some soccer car game and could not see the complexity and skill required to master the game.
Went back to the game years later and pretty much never dropped it then.
Bloodborne. The learning curve is rediculous and the controls are fucking trash.... until you git good.
Bloodborne is when the Souls games finally clicked for me. Damn is it brutal though.
Played this after dark souls, I felt like a superhero.. Cutting through swarms of hairy freaks like hot knife in butter
The hard one for me was sekiro, definitely the hardest game I've beaten.
Portal 2. I just couldn't get into it at first but for some reason after not touching it for a year or so I went bad and played the ever living shit out of it. I know we won't ever get a third especially not for console but I'd love to see it happen
Fallout 4. I died easily early on and quit after 20 minutes. A year or so later I picked it back up. 700 hours of gameplay later, I think I've changed my mind.
Stardew Valley. I don't know why I didn't get it the first time. Maybe it was the art style? Now it becomes my daily routine…
That game was the total opposite for me. Played it at launch and sunk in like 40h in a week. Absolutely loved it. Put it aside for a while and I have never been able to spend more than 30m on it since...
STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl.
It didn't click at first, I was used to (less janky) games that treated you nicely. Came back years later, installed a bunch of mods to improve graphics and immersion.. And wow, I remember that first play through so well.
I haven't played many games that do immersion quite so well. Morrowind actually, is the closest.
It's because of the 'expedition' aspect. You don't just leave town and fumble your way through the world- you can't.. You need to prepare, know where you are going, have ammo and food and health supplies. And working guns.
Every expedition is an adventure. Death is seconds away at every moment, and it's your skill and knowledge that keeps you alive, not game mechanics or leveled enemies. It feels real.
I remember one time, I had a nice mp5 and I was going through Lab X16. A snork jumped out at me and in fright I emptied the whole mag. It was dead in 3 bullets, most of the mag went in to the ceiling. Ammo conservation is a real thing, and it's not about being accurate or efficient. It's about keeping your wits and trying not to panic-fire.
I've never had that experience in any other game ever.
Super accurate and relatable. Playing misery mod and building up a decent kit and venturing further into the zone than I’d ever been is one of the most memorable gaming moments of my life.
Have you played Anomaly? Anomaly looked better than Misery. I haven't checked the state of either for a while though.
Skyrim, thought it was boring at first but started again after a friend got it 1 month after me, im currently on what feels like my hundreth playthrough and it still is my all time favorit
Oblivion for me. I had no idea what to do once I left the sewer, I was overwhelmed. But I brought it to a friend's house and he helped give me some direction. I'll always be thankful for that because elder scrolls is now my absolute favorite IP for video games
Slay the Spire.
Gave up because I couldn't beat jaw worm or act 1 boss. Then I had an absolutely OP deadbranch +corruption deck. Been hooked ever since.
You fool, Jaw Worm is the act 1 boss!
Hollow Knight for me fits this scenario to a t. I got it as part of a humble bundle, but couldn't get into it for at least a year as the initial part felt really depressing, and didn't at all grab me.
But once I managed to tough it through to greenpath, and started to get some power ups, it finally sunk it's claws into me. I proceeded to nearly 100% the game.
When I first arrived at Path of Pain on my first run without looking up any guide, "This is bullshit . . ".
Prey (2017), Monster Hunter, Stalker, Dark Souls. All great games that only show their true self after some time investment. Not too ridiculous time investment apart from Monster Hunter which gets really fun literally only after a few tens of hours, maybe even a hundred. I wish I was kidding.
Bloodborne
Didn't even got to the first boss my first "try" (actually a lot of tries) and shelved it as "I'm not gud enough"
After a colleague nagged me about it again I gave it another try (with a guide this time) and it clicked! 10/10 game of the decade
Agreed I hated that first mob around the fire and could not get past it. Gave up and came back after Elden ring and loved it. Also dark souls, I said fuck it during zens fortress but eventually came back started again from scratch and really enjoyed it.
Witcher 3, is was so bored for the first 30 mins I turned it off. Came back a year later, now got around 300 hours in the game.
Oh no this is probably going to be me. I never made it out of the "tutorial" area and literally just learned about it a few days ago in a different thread. I thought it was boring because the map seemed small and uninstalled it. Turns out I never really started the game.
Mass Effect
The first time I played it I completely missed that I could pick a class. I just kept getting Soldier and not having any fun.
I tried the caster based classes first and hated how awkward they were, and soldier is what made the game so much better.
I got Rhythm Heaven Fever for the Wii when it first came out and just couldn't get it. I mean, I understood what I was supposed to be doing, but I could barely pass any of the songs. I figured I just didn't have any rhythm and put it on the shelf.
Fast-forward to 2020 when I was rearranging some stuff and came across Rhythm Heaven Fever again. I hooked my Wii back up for shits and giggles and started playing and was doing great. Either I had magically gained a sense of rhythm or (most likely) the TV I had been playing on when I first got the game had some sort of latency issue.
Now I've gone through all the Rhythm Heaven games, but Fever is still my hands-down favorite. I put a copy on my Steam Deck and sometimes I just load it up and play through some songs when I have a few minutes to kill.
The fact that Fever is your favorite tells me you are a person with good taste. That was the one that really had the best balance of difficulty and novelty. Plus, Remix 9 in that game is probably the best song across the series
That's how I feel about Guitar Hero. It was cool when I was in early middle school, but I was bad at it. A while ago I've discovered Clone Hero (it's free!) and started playing it. I now play only expert and I've gotten pretty good by my standards. I use a Wii guitar via Bluetooth and it's very good.
Witcher 3 Crusader Kings II
Horizon Zero Dawn
Same here. I first played it in 2019 and was immediately terrified of the enemy machines. Since I'm the kind of person who doesn't enjoy being stressed out for fun in any context, I pretty quickly bounced off of it. I also eventually realized that I saw death/game over in video games as irredeemable failure, and I'm working on being more accepting of trial and error (in video games and elsewhere in my life). I returned to it in early 2022, tried different strategies when I died, and realized that I loved the game. Zero Dawn, Forbidden West, and their DLCs are now among the very few games I have 100 percented.
Binding of Isaac, I couldn't handle all the poop and mild horror, but eventually something clicked and now I have 1500 hours combined in both games.
Cyberpunk. Hated all the stuff with Johnny in the beginning. Came back later and actually played through the entire game.
Played through it multiple times now and still not a fan of the Silverhand story. Would've much rather kept Jackie throughout.
Like if V and Jackie kept rising and either rolled together or became adversaries in the end
That would of been great. I just hated being torn out of V's story and having to do the Johnny stuff. I'm usually pretty busy and have started disliking games with long unskipable cut scenes because I just want to zone out and play something for a minute. That's all the silver hand parts felt like to me was a cutscene.
100% this. Jackie and Misty were the only characters I really liked in the game and you loose them very early on
Happened twice, both to my #1 games. Tried Chrono Trigger as a kid and didn't like it, then came back and played it as a young adult and was like... damn... this is an actual treasure.
In 2015 I tried FFXI due to the XIV crossover event, and I could not get past the eccentric and clunky UI and the pacing of the combat. I tried again a couple of years later and committed to finishing all the stories. It became my new #1 and I think genuinely one of the best games ever made, in terms of revealing and pushing the artistic potential of online games, and games in general. Actual masterpiece and a massive innovation, and unlike Chrono Trigger I think the lessons are going to be a lot harder to learn and replicate.