TornadoCreator Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 We've all got stories about games that we feel betrayed us. Games so bad that it actually makes you upset thinking about it, maybe even angry and what they did to a franchise you love. For me there are a few that jump to mind such as Dragon Age 2, Sonic '06 and Ultima IX: Ascension. The biggest one for me though has to be Final Fantasy XIII. What a massive insult that game was. FFXIII is an insulting, terribly written, nonsensical, badly paced, 50 hour long corridor where you're forced to watch a game play itself as you travel though an incomprehensible world, with characters with no growth, development, or clear motivations for anything they do. Gameplay wise... there isn't any. Considering the brilliance in, well basically the first 10 games in this franchise frankly, this is depressing. I grew up playing Final Fantasy games. 8 was my first, and naturally my favourite... my first mainly because Europe gets screwed for localisation. Still, this game was incredible. Sure it had flaws and the gameplay was easily broken, but the storyline was fantastic. Likable and interesting characters, interesting world, and at least capable gameplay. FF7, a merging of traditional Cyberpunk tropes and JRPG traditional gameplay. Rightly considered one of the best RPGs ever made. FF9, a traditional fantasy JRPG with fun characters and a great atmosphere, FF6, the best telling of the classic science vs. magic tropes in an RPG to date. Hell, even FF10, a decent exploration of religious propaganda, the revolving death door in many fantasy settings, and following the disenfranchising that occurs when the propaganda and corruption is exposed... and it has one of the best battle systems and upgrade systems in the franchise, (international version only, the USA version was limited as hell). This was a fantastic, iconic franchise... So, do you have any games that you'd name as a Betrayal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 (edited) I'm just gonna go ahead and say Bioware. I used to think they could do no wrong. I should be thankful, really. They single-handedly made me realize how silly of a notion that is to have towards a game developer. I absolutely loved Dragon Age: Origins but couldn't bear more than 10 hours of Dragon Age II. Basically, I came back from the Deep Roads and realized I just had to re-explore Kirkwall. That's when I quit out of the game and uninstalled it. It just struck me as the epitome of a lazy cash-in. It came out a mere 18 months after Origins and it really shows. As a result, I have no interest whatsoever in Inquisition. I might give it a shot if the reception is good once it comes out but there is zero hype or anticipation for now. Then there's Mass Effect 2 and 3. They're hardly bad games but I couldn't help but be massively disappointed by the direction the series took with ME2. ME1 was a legit RPG that just happened to have cover shooting mechanics in it. ME2 and 3 are very much the opposite: cover shooters that just happen to have light RPG mechanics in them. Most of the major locations in the original were these massive hubs that you explored and completed quests in. The Citadel felt like a real place then, you could go from almost any point A to any point B entirely on foot and I loved that. In the sequels, you pick a mission on the space map and get teleported to a corridor shooter level. No exploration whatsoever and you're never going back there again. The story was entertaining and, even if they were ultimately meaningless, the choices were fun to make. But the sequels lost a lot of what made me love the original so much. ME2 and 3 are unarguably better made and designed but, even though it was pretty rough around the edges, I still like the original better. Edited July 10, 2014 by FLD 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TornadoCreator Posted July 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Couldn't agree more, I only own Mass Effect, no sequels because I refuse to have those steaming piles of desperate pandering to the "mainstream", because we all know Call Of Duty fans will get the sequel if only we tone down the RPG elements in a fucking RPG... screw you; stupid developers. I actually purposely didn't include the Mass Effect sequels because I know people will accuse me of over-reacting because they're "good games". Who cares if they're good Gears Of Mass Effect games, they're shite RPGs; and at a time when every second game is a third person cover based shooter but there's pretty much no RPGs at all. It feels like the damn devs are just trolling us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Writing them off entirely does seem like a bit of an overreaction, yeah. There's room for games to be disappointing and still be worthwhile. Comparing them to Gears of War is definitely selling them short. I made it a point to say they're still good games for a reason. Dragon Age II is unredeemable garbage, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRevanchist Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Fucking LucasArts and BioWare. I'll start with BattleFront 3, because it was going to be made. Then, they cancelled it, screwing with my emotions. Then, the game is contracted, again. It's almost complete, at which time LA cancelled the whole thing again. They left it up to the assholes at Disney to maybe get this game out the door. Just fucking ridiculous. Then, after many years of waiting for KoTOR 3, there are rumors of LA and BioWare coming together to finally deliver the goods. I get excited, like a 13 year old boy feeling a boob. A website goes up with both company's participation showing a room in the style of a Sith temple. I was emotional. Until it was revealed to be an MMORPG. That is not KoTOR!!! It is supposed to be single player, turn-based combat game! A story with an end. Damn jerks. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TornadoCreator Posted July 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 My problem is that it doesn't matter how good they are I can never enjoy them, they're just a constant reminder that the industry took my only decent sci-fi western RPG in years and turned it into yet another fucking third person shooter... and I LIKE third person shooters. The thing is; I own Uncharted, Vanquish, Spec Ops: The Line, Gears Of War, Kane & Lynch, Bionic Commando, Binary Domain, Dead Space, Hitman, Splinter Cell, Wet, Tomb Raider... and so many more. How many sci-fi RPGs do I own, well there's Star Wars: KOTOR and Mass Effect... and that's it. As far as I'm concerned, I consider the Mass Effect games no different than the Resident Evil games, competent action games but a betrayal regardless. Resident Evil 6 is shite not because it's bad but because it's not survival horror; somehow though Mass Effect 2 got away with not being an RPG and got endless praise which if anything makes me even more angry. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 (edited) I don't really know what to tell you, man. I mean, I get disappointment or if you honestly thought they were bad games, for some reason. But not being able to enjoy a game in a genre you normally like because it actually makes you angry? That's... kind of an unhealthy way to feel towards what's supposed to be a hobby? Edited July 10, 2014 by FLD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TornadoCreator Posted July 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 I know it's probably not healthy but yeah it makes me genuinely angry. All I can think about when playing them is how they exist INSTEAD of proper RPG sequels to one of my all time favourite games. The squandered potential drives me crazy and it genuinely robs me of joy I'm sure; but that said I know I'm not alone. There are tonnes of Resident Evil fans who enjoy shooters like Binary Domain and Gears Of War but hate Resident Evil 6 because it represents yet another year without a proper survival horror game. That's how I feel with Mass Effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
staySICK Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Bioware, for reasons stated. I'll add: Criterion. Burnout Revenge > Burnout Paradise > Burnout Crash? Sure they went and injected new life into the Need For Speed franchise, but you know what Hot Pursuit made me want? Revenge 2. JUST GIVE US A BURNOUT REVENGE 2 / BURNOUT 4. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 ^Everything he just said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Burnout Paradise was just disappointing. Sure, it was fun to mess about with friends online, that was actually really well-designed, but the actual racing took a backseat or just wasn't the same thrill ride it had been before. The later NFS games addressed this somewhat, but I never had a perfect experience with them because Criterio can't program a PC game for shit. The only game to actually, really, totally bum me out was Mass Effect 3. I actually really enjoyed ME2, it's one of my favourite games of all time, and I'm actually glad it trimmed the fat off the messy, clunky ME1 (which had initially disappointed me somewhat after earlier BioWare games). It has more interesting characters and took you to other places you wanted to see, without losing that great Mass Effect atmosphere. ...then they'd painted themselves into a corner. Big, galactic war alongside your big, dumb Alliance buddies. Okay, maybe I'm bitter that they sidelined a lot of the better ME2 characters, but it was the general direction that the story took, which bothered me most. Cerberus become the Illuminati evil empire and the writers try to ignore some of the other ME2 changes, or at least attempt to recapture more of the ME1 vibe (like Dark Knight Rises did, poorly) and open up plotholes big enough to fly a dreadnought through. Now, I loved the combat (I put the multiplayer aspect as my GOTY!) and I understand what they were probably getting at with the ending(s), but I couldn't escape this really depressing feeling that sort of grew afterwards. Like...that's it? I think it was after that that I really stopped gaming so much (probably more to do with timing and other factors, though). Fortunately, the Citadel DLC was actually really fun and a somewhat decent send-off (though, again, favouring the boring cast over the others), but I really cannot get excited about another BioWare game anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 If Inquisition is a letdown then I'll be done with Bioware, at least until they release a game that is well received all around. Re ME3: I loved it mechanically (ME1's systems were far from perfect, but I felt ME2 trimmed too much fat; ME3 was a good balance), and I actually really liked the plot right up until the very end, then it just goes completely off the deep end. I also don't like that they completely abandoned all the stuff they'd been foreshadowing with dark matter and whatnot. But honestly, more than the actual events of the ending I felt that it just didn't flesh things out enough, and in that respect the Director's Cut addressed basically all my issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 I've been debating, and I'm going to go ahead and throw Halo 2 in here, mostly because of the ending. It's fine now, because Halo 3 exists and you can just jump right in and finish it up, but seriously this was awful when the game first launched. I remember seeing an interview with one of the developers and they were asked what they thought about people throwing their controllers down with rage over the ending, and he said something like "I don't think anyone threw their controller down with rage. They might have dropped it in awe..." I threw my controller down with rage! I remember doing it, as my roommate (who I was playing coop with) screamed "WHAT?!" We'd been all pumped for what we believed was about to be the final level of the game, where Chief returns to Earth and kicks so Covenant ass, but no, it was all a tease. The game built up but then never actually climaxed. It was so frustrating. I also have a few issues with some of the design choices, namely the addition of bosses (which thankfully they dropped in later installments) and the fact that the levels are more constrained than other games in the series tend to be. Really though these complaints take it more into "letdown" territory (it's still a good game, just not as good as 1 or 3), it's just the ending that elevates it to the level of a betrayal. Caveat: I'm talking entirely about the campaign here. I get that the multiplayer was revolutionary in terms of having that kind of experience on a console, but I'm not one who cares much for multiplayer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 (edited) I felt betrayed by King of Fighters XII. I'm a big KOF fan and those games are pretty niche so I like to think I'm supporting the franchise when I buy those games. In return for my loyalty I expect a certain degree of effort. But KOF XII was so lazy it was insulting. There were barely any characters, there was no story mode, and arcade mode was five matches long and didn't even have a boss. Are you fucking kidding me? I paid full price for this? The online play didn't even work right and it was bare bones even when it did work. It was years before I bought KOF XIII, and that was only because it was ten bucks on steam. Edited July 10, 2014 by Mister Jack 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleven Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 ME2 > ME3 > ME1 DA2 > DA1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 DA2 > DA1 I can accept that there's an argument for the first one, but this is just false. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleven Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 Hawke is a more interesting protagonist, and I like the 2nd game's story better (it's smaller scale, more personal). Combined with the simpler inventory, it made the game more fun to play. Judging games on their technical merit is just not for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP Posted July 10, 2014 Report Share Posted July 10, 2014 ME2 > ME3 > ME1 DA2 > DA1 I agree with you in ME. ME2 and 3 are vastly better games, from both gameplay and storytelling perspectives than the original. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 DA2 > DA1 I can accept that there's an argument for the first one, but this is just false. Yeah, ME is mostly a matter of genre preference. You'd have to be out of your goddamned mind to actually think DA2 is better than Origins, though. Quite possibly the only opinion that can actually be wrong! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Both DA:O and DA2 suck in different, but equal ways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Both DA:O and DA2 suck in different, but equal ways. I'm confused. How exactly is "not at all" equal to "in every possible way"? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 I guess I just like fun in my video games. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 You should play Dragon Age: Origins, then! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 Dragon Age Origins is really good for nights when I'm having trouble falling asleep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 11, 2014 Report Share Posted July 11, 2014 I'm sorry your ADD is causing you so much trouble. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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