Games You Didn't Expect to Love

[T-Pac | 7,537]

On 1/10/2021 at 4:23 PM, DorkOverlord said:

I surprisingly really like golf games in general. I have no desire to play golf in real life, but put me in front of Neo Turf Masters or PGA Golf Tour on Genny any day. 

I couldn't agree more. I even like Golf on the Atari 2600. 

-CasualCart

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

Here is my list! And in alphabetical order!

- Demon's Souls: I'm talking about the original PS3 version here. My only gripe is that I went in blindly when it came to a few parts of the game. But between starting off as a Noble and having a love of sniping enemies, this is one of those games I regret not finishing. So I might get this for PS5 when that time comes.

- Dragon Quest XI: I bought a digital copy of this game a year after I left the fandom. The first half of the game dragged me back in. Everything I experienced, including the cheesy parts, reminded me why I became a fan. And now that I have a digital copy of "S" on my Switch Lite I hope to beat the second half.

- Dragon Warrior: In the past I liked computer RPGs but never got fully invested in them. So a part of me did not expect myself to be as invested in this game like I ended up being. In the end I ended up beating the NES version, the Game Boy version, the SFC version in ROM/translation format, and the version available on the Switch.

- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Horizon: This is similar to Demon's Souls for me. It's not perfect since there are a few things that can happen, etc. But the sniping before going down the "enchanted archer" route feels fulfilling. Plus it is hilarious that you can steal from a person and still sell their possessions back to them. 

- Resident Evil 2: To cap things off all I can say is that this is the game that had me become a fan of the franchise.

[Tanooki | 4,932]

I feel like throwing a somewhat funny, somewhat depraved, fairly obscure one out there for you, an oddly and unique to the Japanese series of games translated into english back in the DOS days.  Ever heard of Dragon Knight?  How about Knights of Xentar?

If you know it, you're like probably thinking...dude seriously?  Yeah, I am, and keep in mind, there was a sanitized, and the adult patch version of the game.  I didn't think I'd enjoy it, and got it originally as old warez back in the day downloading it off one of our bots on irc in the day.  A traditional JRPG, pranks hard on old grimm fairy tales, plays kind of like I guess final fantasy style and a little dragon quest too, yet if you adult patch it, it gets all hentai on you.  THe thing is, the writing or at least the megatech US translation is so bad, and the CD audio is a whole other tier of awful, that it's actually funny to sit through, and the RPG combat is actually very fun, along with a solid sized adventure and a decent map, nice items, etc.  Strangely a good game, just with some questionable material.  Downloaded it for a laugh, stayed for the adventure, and in the last 2-3 years I re-acquired the thing complete in the box too.

Everything else megatech released was just reprehensible both in just how bad it played, but just being so lame with the blantant hentai stupidity.  There was one exception, their last game, it wasn't even 'NR-13' in the least, vanilla as any Nintendo or Sega console game would have been in the 90s, and that's Power Dolls, basically a grid and turn based unit combat game sort of like Nectaris/Advance Wars stuff.  Highly recommended, re-acquired that one too.

[Sumez | 2,946]

For some reason Knights of Xentar was super popular as a "warez" game, and pretty much everyone I talked about video games with in the late 90s or early 00s seemed to be familiar with it.

If I played it today I'd probably hate it, but I had a ton of funs going through it at the time. Had that free spirited Ys or old DQ style open exploration just asking you to grind a bit and move on.

Hell, I didn't even care for the porn stuff in it, I just thought it was a fun game.

 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

15 hours ago, FenrirZero said:

Here is my list! And in alphabetical order!

- Demon's Souls: I'm talking about the original PS3 version here. My only gripe is that I went in blindly when it came to a few parts of the game. But between starting off as a Noble and having a love of sniping enemies, this is one of those games I regret not finishing. So I might get this for PS5 when that time comes.

- Dragon Quest XI: I bought a digital copy of this game a year after I left the fandom. The first half of the game dragged me back in. Everything I experienced, including the cheesy parts, reminded me why I became a fan. And now that I have a digital copy of "S" on my Switch Lite I hope to beat the second half.

- Dragon Warrior: In the past I liked computer RPGs but never got fully invested in them. So a part of me did not expect myself to be as invested in this game like I ended up being. In the end I ended up beating the NES version, the Game Boy version, the SFC version in ROM/translation format, and the version available on the Switch.

- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Horizon: This is similar to Demon's Souls for me. It's not perfect since there are a few things that can happen, etc. But the sniping before going down the "enchanted archer" route feels fulfilling. Plus it is hilarious that you can steal from a person and still sell their possessions back to them. 

- Resident Evil 2: To cap things off all I can say is that this is the game that had me become a fan of the franchise.

The PS5 version of Demon's Souls is legitimately awesome. I put in about ten hours, then put it on the back burner to play through AC: Valhalla. You'll love it.

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

I picked up Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 Remaster for Xbox One for $25 during the holiday sales, on a whim, because I liked the old games. I figured it'd be fun to mess around for a little bit.

Two months later I've put in over 100 hours and almost have all challenges and achievements completed. Did NOT expect to get sucked in like that. It's so much fun!

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

9 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

The PS5 version of Demon's Souls is legitimately awesome. I put in about ten hours, then put it on the back burner to play through AC: Valhalla. You'll love it.

That is what I keep hearing. But alas, I have to save up again for my brief return to Japan. So I may not find out until 2022 if things go better than planned. 

[CMR | 519]

21 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I feel like throwing a somewhat funny, somewhat depraved, fairly obscure one out there for you, an oddly and unique to the Japanese series of games translated into english back in the DOS days.  Ever heard of Dragon Knight?  How about Knights of Xentar?

If you know it, you're like probably thinking...dude seriously?  Yeah, I am, and keep in mind, there was a sanitized, and the adult patch version of the game.  I didn't think I'd enjoy it, and got it originally as old warez back in the day downloading it off one of our bots on irc in the day.  A traditional JRPG, pranks hard on old grimm fairy tales, plays kind of like I guess final fantasy style and a little dragon quest too, yet if you adult patch it, it gets all hentai on you.  THe thing is, the writing or at least the megatech US translation is so bad, and the CD audio is a whole other tier of awful, that it's actually funny to sit through, and the RPG combat is actually very fun, along with a solid sized adventure and a decent map, nice items, etc.  Strangely a good game, just with some questionable material.  Downloaded it for a laugh, stayed for the adventure, and in the last 2-3 years I re-acquired the thing complete in the box too.

Everything else megatech released was just reprehensible both in just how bad it played, but just being so lame with the blantant hentai stupidity.  There was one exception, their last game, it wasn't even 'NR-13' in the least, vanilla as any Nintendo or Sega console game would have been in the 90s, and that's Power Dolls, basically a grid and turn based unit combat game sort of like Nectaris/Advance Wars stuff.  Highly recommended, re-acquired that one too.

Naughty bits aside, I liked the classic anime artwork for the game.  I thought the spritework was really well done and did a good job getting around the DOS color limitations.  I would like to go back and play through it sometime.  I also thought Cobra Mission was a pretty decent game (naughty bits aside).

If any of you do decide to play Knights of Xentar, enjoy the tree scene.

[Tanooki | 4,932]

@Sumez@CMR

Exactly.  It was HOT stuff in the oldwarez community around 1995-98ish.  It was a time when people were starting to look towards CDs for gaming, but also when anime was for once really taking off in america, not just the 1-2% of the stuff that got mainstream for decades (Robotech, Speed Racer, Astroboy, Dragonball/DBZ) so it was big when this arrived.  Also it was that dawn of the internet of the masses, no more dial up to get your hentai or real boobs for free online too watching it slowly crawl in line by line.

The game did have a classic JRPG, DQ, and yeah I guess in a way Ys vibe to it too.  The artwork even if it's sub-VGA is beautifully drawn and colored, characters, lands, enemies, bosses all varied and pretty amusing too as the plot twists along.  It was also in a way a poke not just at Grimm, but also JRPG tropes even then too, so it was fun seeing that skewering.  When I decided to try it again and snapped up another copy I had burned it first and ran an hour or two, honestly, it has aged well as far as comedically terrible story, gameplay mechanics, random battles, etc goes, even so so awful it hurts but is amusingly painful spoken stuff too.  I poke away at it here and there, it's a very nice distraction, and easily finished if anyone would want to dedicate to it as it's not terribly lengthy.  Visually it's like a moderately colored Genesis RPG, audio is more on a SNES level, sprite work in the middle -- a good 16bit style effort.

[Andykin Skysk8r | 49]

Silver Surfer on NES. The whole internet was having a big party shitting on it so when I bought it for like 10 bucks and tried it with my NES Advantage I was shocked to find an addictive game with the best music on the NES.

FF6 on SNES, because my impressions of FF1-4 was basically that they are slow hard and boring, and my impression of FF5 was kinda cool but still a bit slow and boring. Then I played FF6 and got colossally blown away by whats arguably the best SNES game ever made. 

World Heroes on SNES, because it was just a random 5 dollar pickup from a local game shop that I expected to be a SF2 rip off at best, but its actually a fun and addicting game.

[guitarzombie | 924]

Hmm I can't really think of anything specific, but I will go with games people hated that I loved.  Sometimes because they WERE bad but I have an affinity for bad NES games.  Swamp Thing, Die Hard, Zombie Nation, Waynes World, The Terminator, Ubisofts Indiana Jones, Cliffhanger all come to mind.  And yea Silver Surfer too.

[Webhead123 | 675]

Silver Surfer is a good game, despite the reputation. Hard as shit but still very charming. Outstanding music.

Zombie Nation fits in that same boat, I think. I quite like the graphics and the creativity going on. It isn't the most polished game for sure and it gets pretty aggravating with its cheapness at times but it's so unique and entertaining, even if I never get very far.

[bronzeshield | 293]

Gain Ground on the Genesis. Bought it kind of randomly, didn't really know anything about it, graphics and sound aren't especially impressive -- but it turned out to be my favorite game on the console. Great in co-op, great solo, and with three difficulty levels that offer genuinely distinct challenges.