Any big franchises that have completely passed you by?

[strider]

I've just come to the realisation that I've only completed God Of War and God Of War Ghost of Sparta, that's despite owning the first two games on PS3, the two PSP games, a promo of the PSP remasters, God Of War III, a promo of the God Of War III remaster on PS4 and the new God Of War reboot (which I bought a week or so back with the intention of playing if I ever got a PS5).

God Of War is clearly a big franchise and it's one I've clearly got an interest is as I've bought or acquired god knows how many versions, but I've only completed/played two of them.

Are there any big franchises that have completely passed you by for some reason or another?

[Qazimod]

I feel as though I never really got on board with Pokémon - like, Red and Blue came out in *checks wiki* '99, and back then I would have been getting into PC gaming and that specific period of incredible shooters - Half-Life, UT, Quake III Arena, Hidden and Dangerous - so I had no hope of becoming interested in an RPG about catching and training monsters. The only time I ever tried to give the series a go was when HeartGold/SoulSilver came out with that pedometer thing, but even then I barely lasted a week or so before playing other things.

 

I know that I'm the problem and I'm sure that they're amazing games - I think I once saw my nephew playing Sword/Shield and it looked great - but they just seem like a bit of an investment, and I feel like if I jumped in on any game in the series then I'd have a massive onset of Confused Old Man syndrome. I'm so far behind with the franchise that I may as well not bother. Oh, and I don't own any Nintendo consoles newer than the original DS, which doesn't help.

[phillv85]

Loads of big franchises have either passed me by or get very little attention over the years.

 

God of War - Played a couple of them for an hour or two each. Tried the latest one and gave up during the tutorial.

Splinter Cell - No fan of stealth games

Metal Gear Solid - Played the first one, tried one or two others for an hour or so, also see above

FIFA - Not played since 2001 on the PS2, got PES after that for about 7 years then gave up on football games

Monster Hunter - Tried the one that's free on PS4, gave up after ~8 hours, never played any other.

Halo - Played a bit of PVP on the first two and made it a decent way through the campaign in 3, not played another since.

Tomb Raider - Played the first for a few hours

Assassins Creed - Done an hour or two on one or two of the early games, nothing since

 

None of that is helped by the fact I play very few AAA games these days, and haven't really done since the start of the PS4 generation. I spend most of my time on games from smaller devs or fighting games now.

[Rex Grossman]

I feel of all the ones I could in theory be interested in it's MGS.

 

I remember seeing that iconic ad in US comic books of the NES version of Metal Gear with all the equipment you could use laid out. I thought it looked so cool. When MGS arrived on the PlayStation a friend of mine had it but for some reason I never ended up borrowing it from him (we'd lend each other games all the time).

I think I would've really liked it. As the series went on I was put off by the self-indulgent cinematics. If I'd been a fan of the first I probably would've carried on.

[ScouserInExile]

Biggies?

 

Zelda - I played ALTTP recently with the intention of then working my way through the rest. Fairly quickly found I had no clue what I was doing and then reached a boss where I just couldn't best him. Gave up, have never touched another one.

Pretty much anything Mario, Luigi or Yoshi related. I got the Mario All Stars pack when I got my SNES. Have never really felt any need to play any other games in the serieseseses.

Metroid, Pokémon, Smash Bros... never played them. Don't want to.

Final Fantasy. Wrote the official guide for VII, have never played any other.

First person ganes give me motion sickness, so no Halo, CoD, Wolfenstein, Doom, Far Cry, Battlefield... I could go on.

GoW in both God and Gears versions give me motion sickness as well, as it turns out.

Tried Metal Gear Solid, didn't care for it. Tried the second one, didn't like that either. Didn't try any others.

None of those Souls type games interest me either. Or Assassin's Creed. Or Tomb Raider.

Haven't played FIFA since 98, which is the last iteration I had to play for work. Don't really do sports games at all - no NBA, MLB, NFL or whatever.

 

To be honest, it'd be quicker to list the series I have played. Erm... Gran Turismo up to 4 (I barely touched 5&6), Forza of both flavours... Some fighting games... and erm... Sniper Elite...

[AK Bell]

There are plenty of franchises I've dropped after one game, despite liking the game. Halo, Gears of War, God of War, Uncharted 3, AssCreed 2: The one everyone played, Splinter Cell: Somewhere in the middle, Metal Gear Solid 2, probably some others. It's a rare event that it doesn't just feel more of the same.

 

I think the problem is that often it's not just more of the same, but it's packaged as "even more stuff here than in the last one", so I feel like I've done it. 

I'm probably being unfair on a couple of them. MGS is usually different, but ...meh. 

 

Pokemon is one I've kept trying to like, after enjoying a bit of the first one, but I just can't get into it. 

 

Final Fantasy has clicked with me at last. I've kept trying to enjoy that one too, it clicked with 13 weirdly, and now I'm playing 6 and 9 on the side despite not digging them first time around. FF7 still doesn't click which is a shame. 

 

Not got into the new Tomb Raiders. I don't think the PS1-eras worked (bad controls but played them anyway), but had a blast with the bang-average PS2 era ones. But can't bring myself to play these new "good" ones. 

[strider]

15 hours ago, AK Bell said:

I think the problem is that often it's not just more of the same, but it's packaged as "even more stuff here than in the last one", so I feel like I've done it. 

I'm probably being unfair on a couple of them. MGS is usually different, but ...meh. 

 

That's a really good point and I'm certainly finding that with Uncharted 4 which I'm finally playing after a six-year hiatus from it. It's polished as hell and I enjoy the characters but there's nothing in it that really makes it stand out from the previous games. Adding a rope and utilising kill mechanics from The Last Of Us is a decent touch, but it doesn't feel enough. I'm enjoying it but if it's the last game in the series it doesn't feel like a triumph at the moment (17 stages in so far).

[Paulando]

16 hours ago, ScouserInExile said:

Zelda - I played ALTTP recently with the intention of then working my way through the rest. Fairly quickly found I had no clue what I was doing and then reached a boss where I just couldn't best him. Gave up, have never touched another one.

 

LTTP is pretty tough, to be fair! It’s a wonderful game, pretty unbelievable that it came out over 30 years ago, but the difficulty is of its time.

 

Pretty much any other Zelda would be a better jumping in point. Link’s Awakening - even the GB/GBC version - is a great one to start with, or A Link Between Worlds on 3DS.

[fat flatulent git]

I've never played Destiny, Halo, Rayman, Ratchet and Clank, Silent Hill or Ace Combat.

 

I have a couple of Ace Combat and Halo games, which seemed to be forever on my pile of shame.

 

Have barely touched Souls games, but I did play a bit of Bloodborne.  Not my thing.

[ScouserInExile]

54 minutes ago, Paulando said:

 

LTTP is pretty tough, to be fair! It’s a wonderful game, pretty unbelievable that it came out over 30 years ago, but the difficulty is of its time.

I had a couple of big issues with it:

1) from the start, I pretty much had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. I've read a good few things saying that the joy of it is the exploration, but I just found wandering around aimlessly really frustrating. I resorted to using a guide and there were a couple of points where I found myself thinking "how the fuck was I supposed to know that?". Even googling around, I couldn't work out how I was supposed to have come to a particular solution. It's like you're just supposed to know these things.

2) And this leads on from the above. I reached a boss where I had no idea how to beat them and then, even with a guide, couldn't beat them. I couldn't even work out if I was doing them any damage or how much damage I needed to do to get past them. I think this was exacerbated by their damage resetting whenever one of their attacks knocked me down a level. And this wasn't helped by:

3) the combat elements are awful. I wouldn't mind if it was a once in a blue moon thing, but it's near constant. There's enemies everywhere on the map, no just in the dungeon segments, and your shitty little sword swing makes it really hard to hit them without getting hit. And health seemed hard to come by.

 

I thought the graphics, sound and overall atmosphere of the game was amazing and I really, really wanted to like it. I just found the actual game bit of it to be (and I'll be polite here) really frustrating. I feel I gave it a fair shake of the stick as well - I probably put about 20 hours into it in a couple of big sessions and gave it my undivided attention in those sessions, no podcasts on in the background or the like. But I just didn't enjoy it. And it's put me off playing any of the others.

[Soulstar]

The one that always comes to mind for me is the Metal Gear Solid series, and more so because it’s the sort of thing I know I’d want to play. I did play the original MGS1 demo when I came out and was hyped up by it all but just never got it. Due to wanting to play the series in order, I’ve just never gotten round to starting it at all. 
 

Pokémon but I’ve less interest in this one and don’t think I’d ever bother at all. I’m bit into RPG’s but not this. Everything about it doesn’t appeal to me at all. I think I once played Jade Cocoon which had a similar thing where you capture and use monsters to fight with and thought it was shite. It also feels like it’s got too many characters to collect and the thought of the grind puts me off. 
 

Disgaea - Not a huge franchise but quite known in the scene, I’ve been intrigued by this but it comes across as a ridiculous grind fest. Puts me off. Ironically I own D3 from a bundle I got on here. 
 

Call of Duty - There was a time I’d have been interested in checking it out, but the fatigue of seeing it everywhere over the years put me off. Haven’t played it at all ever. The same is true for a lot of other FPS games like this such as Battlefield. 
 

Megaman - This doesn’t count 100% because I’ve played MM2 on the game boy and finished it and I’ve played Legends and finished that years back. Im adding it because there’s so many more in this franchise and it’s always appealed to me but I’ve just not played them at all. Wanted to start with the SNES games for years but never got round to it. I did once have MM X on my Super Wildcard but it turned out to be a single stage demo I think. 

[DeciderVT]

Pokémon. I imported Blue in 1998, played through the main story and lost interest afterward. The rest just seemed like more of the same at heart, so I didn't bother.

 

LucasArts point and click games- I've never played one, despite owning Monkey Island on several formats.

 

The biggest miss for me is probably Final Fantasy. I've spent some time with VII and VIII but I didn't finish them. Haven't touched the rest. My friends were excited for me when I finally started VII but I don't think I was ready to play it. I know that I'm only likely to ever play it once, so I obsessed a bit over missing stuff and it was ruining the experience. I'd probably not worry about that now and would try to enjoy the story instead.

[AK Bell]

1 hour ago, ScouserInExile said:

I had a couple of big issues with it:

1) from the start, I pretty much had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. I've read a good few things saying that the joy of it is the exploration, but I just found wandering around aimlessly really frustrating. I resorted to using a guide and there were a couple of points where I found myself thinking "how the fuck was I supposed to know that?". Even googling around, I couldn't work out how I was supposed to have come to a particular solution. It's like you're just supposed to know these things.

2) And this leads on from the above. I reached a boss where I had no idea how to beat them and then, even with a guide, couldn't beat them. I couldn't even work out if I was doing them any damage or how much damage I needed to do to get past them. I think this was exacerbated by their damage resetting whenever one of their attacks knocked me down a level. And this wasn't helped by:

3) the combat elements are awful. I wouldn't mind if it was a once in a blue moon thing, but it's near constant. There's enemies everywhere on the map, no just in the dungeon segments, and your shitty little sword swing makes it really hard to hit them without getting hit. And health seemed hard to come by.

 

I thought the graphics, sound and overall atmosphere of the game was amazing and I really, really wanted to like it. I just found the actual game bit of it to be (and I'll be polite here) really frustrating. I feel I gave it a fair shake of the stick as well - I probably put about 20 hours into it in a couple of big sessions and gave it my undivided attention in those sessions, no podcasts on in the background or the like. But I just didn't enjoy it. And it's put me off playing any of the others.

 

I keep bouncing off it for similar reasons. It does feel like it's a game built for kids who have the time to keep hitting brick walls. Which is a shame because top-down Zelda is the best Zelda and it's a joy to play, but it's why I prefer Link Between Worlds as it's the same world but you know what you're doing. 

 

It's only now I can play some games of an era because there are walkthroughs that can guide you through because the designers didn't give any proper signposting. But yeah, even then LTTP is still a struggle. 

[Rex Grossman]

52 minutes ago, AK Bell said:

 

I keep bouncing off it for similar reasons. It does feel like it's a game built for kids who have the time to keep hitting brick walls. Which is a shame because top-down Zelda is the best Zelda and it's a joy to play, but it's why I prefer Link Between Worlds as it's the same world but you know what you're doing. 

 

It's only now I can play some games of an era because there are walkthroughs that can guide you through because the designers didn't give any proper signposting. But yeah, even then LTTP is still a struggle. 

 

There's a reason that LTTP came with a sealed leaflet of hints. It can be rather obtuse at times. However the manual offers a lot of guidance as well. With those two at hand people back when it first came out could finish it without too much frustration. 

[Nick R]

Never played at all:

 

Animal Crossing 

Bioshock

Diablo

Donkey Kong

The Elder Scrolls

Gabriel Knight

God of War

The King of Fighters

Kingdom Hearts

King's Quest

Kirby

The Last of Us

Leisure Suit Larry

Minecraft

Mega Man

Monster Hunter

Myst

Need For Speed

NieR

Phoenix Wright

Silent Hill (I am not a horror guy!)

Splatoon

Thief

Uncharted

 

The only JRPG I've played for any significant amount of time is Skies of Arcadia. All of the others are a huge blind spot: Final Fantasy (see below!), Dragon Quest, Chrono Cross/Trigger, Shin Megami Tensei, Persona, Disgaea, Fire Emblem, etc.

 

 

Series of which I've only played one entry:

 

Assassin's Creed (only a few hours of AC2)

 

Bomberman (only Mega Bomberman on the MD)

 

Call of Duty (only COD4 Modern Warfare)

 

Castlevania (only Symphony of the Night)

 

Crash Bandicoot (only the PS1 original)

 

Dead or Alive (only Dreamcast DOA2)

 

Devil May Cry (completed DMC3 Special Edition on PS2, and started it again in the HD Collection on 360. I like it OK, but nowhere near as much as Ninja Gaiden or Bayonetta.)

 

Fallout (a few hours of Fallout 3)

 

Far Cry (only Far Cry 2)

 

Gears of War (only the first one)

 

Guilty Gear (only played X2 #Reload on PS2)

 

Hitman (a couple of levels of Hitman 2 on Xbox)

 

Phantasy Star (only PSOv2 on Dreamcast)

 

Smash Bros (only Melee on GameCube)

 

Unreal (only played Unreal Tournament on Dreamcast)

 

X-COM (only played Interceptor, which I understand is not representative of the series!)

 

 

Series that I don't think I've played enough to really be able to claim I've played them:

 

Final Fantasy (played the first couple of hours of FFVII on both PS1 and PC, but that's a minuscule fraction of the series!)

 

Resident Evil (played a couple of hours into the 360 version of RE4)

 

Metroid (played the NES original when I was about 6; played the first bit of Super Metroid briefly via emulator)

 

Pokemon (brief goes on Red/Blue on GB)

 

[Nick R]

3 hours ago, ScouserInExile said:

I had a couple of big issues with it:

1) from the start, I pretty much had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. I've read a good few things saying that the joy of it is the exploration, but I just found wandering around aimlessly really frustrating. I resorted to using a guide and there were a couple of points where I found myself thinking "how the fuck was I supposed to know that?". Even googling around, I couldn't work out how I was supposed to have come to a particular solution. It's like you're just supposed to know these things.

2) And this leads on from the above. I reached a boss where I had no idea how to beat them and then, even with a guide, couldn't beat them. I couldn't even work out if I was doing them any damage or how much damage I needed to do to get past them. I think this was exacerbated by their damage resetting whenever one of their attacks knocked me down a level. And this wasn't helped by:

3) the combat elements are awful. I wouldn't mind if it was a once in a blue moon thing, but it's near constant. There's enemies everywhere on the map, no just in the dungeon segments, and your shitty little sword swing makes it really hard to hit them without getting hit. And health seemed hard to come by.

 

I thought the graphics, sound and overall atmosphere of the game was amazing and I really, really wanted to like it. I just found the actual game bit of it to be (and I'll be polite here) really frustrating. I feel I gave it a fair shake of the stick as well - I probably put about 20 hours into it in a couple of big sessions and gave it my undivided attention in those sessions, no podcasts on in the background or the like. But I just didn't enjoy it. And it's put me off playing any of the others.

 

There were a few times in both Ocarina of Time (N64) and A Link to the Past (I played the Game Boy Advance version) when my reaction was "How was I supposed to know that?"

 

Specifically: in OOT, finding the message in a bottle in Lake Hylia (although I think there is a line of dialogue in there hinting that useful items sometimes get washed down the river to the lake).

 

And in ALTTP, the big one that stumped me was knocking the book off the top of the bookshelf.

 

With ALTTP, I liked the individual dungeons, but I found the overworld annoying. It felt like even when I knew where I wanted to go, obstacles (such as the large boulders that are unliftable for most of the game) were placed in such a way to make me take the longest possible, most time-consuming route to get anywhere.

 

I got to the last boss and then couldn't beat him. IIRC, each new attempt at fighting him required a lot of tedious item farming to restock my magic meter.

[JamesC]

Pokemon. 

I think I was a bit too old when it came out, so it was marketed at a younger audience. 

Nothing about it ever appealed to me at all.

My nephews used to watch the cartoon which I thought was shite. 

 

Final Fantasy. 

Again it just never appealed.

I've never liked the 'unfeasible hair and swords' aesthetic.

I did pick up one of the 360 ones at a car boot, so will give it a go at some point. 

 

 

Regarding ALTTP - I played through it when I got my SNES mini and found it pretty frustrating. I'd previously completed it on the GBA and think I enjoyed that earlier run more. 

I agree about the terrible combat. I also hate the 'low health' alarm which is a fucking awful bit of sound design which somehow survived throughout multiple Zelda adventures. 

Despite all that, there's still a lot to like about the game though. The dungeons being the best bits. 

[Protocol Penguin]

Pokemon I did miss out on, after playing and completing an imported North American copy of Blue back in 1998. Well, until I started with one of the 3DS games, got hooked again, and have bought every major game since.  I think the addition of EXP sharing and phasing out of Hidden Machines has massively improved the accessibility of the series, particularly with more background reading being available.

 

Played Resident Evil 2 on the PS1, couldn't get on with the tank controls. Played Resident Evil 4 years later, as it moved the series to a new format/genre but couldn't get on with the clunky controls. So that series I've barely played.

 

All FPSes made after Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64 are a mystery to me. Unless Metroid Prime counts as an FPS.

 

Haven't played any non-Wii Sports sports game since International Superstar Soccer 64.

[Dig Dug]

Splinter Cell always the first that comes to mind. Would play the first and then make very little headway in terms of progression. It's not even that hard to see why it was good I just wasn't motivated to play it because there's nothing outside of the gameplay that I'm probably going to find appeal in.

[Azrael]

Notable franchises I've not played anything from:

 

God of War

Uncharted 

Monster Hunter 

Metal Gear Solid 

Splinter Cell

Silent Hill

Xenoblade

Fire Emblem 

Devil May Cry 

Fallout 

Elder Scrolls 

Phoenix Wright 

Diablo

Starcraft 

Warcraft 

Batman Arkham Games 

Dead Space 

Forza 

Jak and Daxter 

Ratchet and Clank

Sly Cooper 

Kingdom Hearts 

Killzone 

Monkey Island 

Pikmin

Tomb Raider

Red Dead 

Yakuza 

Borderlands

 

 

Notable franchises I've played very little of/barely at all:

 

Final Fantasy - Got and started Final Fantasy 9 (I think) but never got further than the first disc 

 

Half-Life - Got a fair way through HL2 on Orange Box but never finished it. 

 

Hitman - Played the Blood Money demo a lot 

 

Crackdown - Played the demo of the first a lot 

 

Mafia - Completed the first one but nothing since

 

Max Payne - Completed the first one but nothing since 

 

Resident Evil - Completed RE4 a few times, started RE7 but got scared and haven't returned 

 

Prince of Persia - Completed Sands of Time but played nothing else 

 

Far Cry - played a lot of multiplayer of Instincts on OG xbox 

 

Assassins Creed - Got a fair way through Black Flag 

 

Metroid - played some of Prime,  GB Samus Returns and Super Metroid but not much 

 

Rayman - Played a fair bit of Origins or Legends,  can't remember which 

 

Call of Duty - Just some multiplayer from a few 

 

Souls - Started Dark Souls once, didn't get very far before getting annoyed and stopping 

 

Bayonetta - Started the first one but didn't get very far before stopping 

 

Spyro - Played a PS1 demo of one a lot 

 

Castlevania - Played and loved Dawn of Sorrow but never played any others.