"One Man's Garbage is Another Man's Treasure"

[KomodoAce]

Earlier today, Amuro and I were playing some VF5 and the topic somehow became about a game we both thoroughly enjoyed, but was universally panned by critics and gamers alike - Dirge of Cerberus.

We enjoyed the customization of the weapons and thought the game was a lot better than it was given credit for.

I thought this would be a good topic to discuss.

So I ask you, what game did you enjoy that everyone else seemed to hate?

[AlucardsFate]

Oh my god...do I even have to post it?

Final Fantasy X-2

[Baberific]

Hah! I'll go with the Bouncer...all I can do is laugh at the multiplayer mode!

Just get an army of Dauragon C. Mikado's to face each other, and I AM SET!

Plus, the announcer kicks such ass!

[KomodoAce]

Oh my god...do I even have to post it?

Final Fantasy X-2


I thought that was a good game. It was sugar coated but a nice change of direction from the first one.

[AlucardsFate]

I get ugly stares, gay comments from most people in regards to me liking that game....

[KomodoAce]

I also think it's the last FF game to have a great soundtrack.

"Eternity (Eternal Memory of Lightwaves?)" was on par with "To Zanarkand".

And the J-Pop stuff is...listenable.

[GlassAdam]

Shenmue. My friends still tease me about it, mostly because none of 'em actually played it, the most they know is that you move boxes with a forklift. Also, Seaman. Oh, and LittleBigPlanet. Actually, my friends are all retarded.

[ChukoLiang]

The Bouncer is an awesome game (100% completion + beat the game ten times, dammit!), as is FFX-2 (98.2% completion, dammit!).

How about dynasty warriors? I like that, and nobody else seems to...Or Kessen? The third in particular. Awesome game that nobody but me likes.

What else? I could go through my library, but that shouldn't be necessary. Nobody else liked Yakuza, from what I know, and I fear I'm one of a select few who bought the second. I think I actually preordered it...

[KomodoAce]

I only played Warriors Orochi on the PSP. I think they're fairly addictive but if you've played one then you've played all of them.

I enjoyed the first Yakuza. Never got the second one and I'm waiting for part three to drop in price.

[Grand_OoF]

Well, let's see...

The first Gungrave for one. Yes, it was short, and yes, it was mindless. But it had an intriguing plot, the gameplay was fun and simple, the challenge was reasonable (especially on hard) and I love its style.

Castlevania Judgment also comes to mind. I know no one will agree with me on this, but hey, I had a lot of fun with it. I was okay with the controls, it looked good, the music was awesome and again, I had a blast. Plus, it opened up the world of Castlevania to me more, something that I know Alucards appreciates.

Prince of Persia (2008) This wasn't universally panned, but I know a lot of people decided that because "you couldn't die" it wasn't a good game. Well I call bullsh** on that. BioShock had no punishment for death but most people agree that it's fun. I still found PoP challenging enough, but it was also beautiful and fun. The story was kinda meh, but it wasn't the worst I've ever sat through.

Sonic Unleashed ...So okay, this was a bad game. But I don't think it was as bad as people said it was. At least the Wii version. The Wii version's daytime levels almost made up for the rest of the game, plus I love that game's soundtrack and presentation.

I'm sure I could list more, but I think that's a good start.

Shenmue. My friends still tease me about it, mostly because none of 'em actually played it, the most they know is that you move boxes with a forklift. Also, Seaman. Oh, and LittleBigPlanet. Actually, my friends are all retarded.

Sounds like they are. Those are all EXCELLENT games.

[Baberific]

Shenmue. My friends still tease me about it, mostly because none of 'em actually played it, the most they know is that you move boxes with a forklift. Also, Seaman. Oh, and LittleBigPlanet. Actually, my friends are all retarded.

They must be semi-retarded...for hating on a revolutionary title such as Shenmue. Sure, Gta and Yakuza basically did what it did and better....but Shenmue basically laid the groundwork!
Well, let's see...

The first Gungrave for one. Yes, it was short, and yes, it was mindless. But it had an intriguing plot, the gameplay was fun and simple, the challenge was reasonable (especially on hard) and I love its style.

Castlevania Judgment also comes to mind. I know no one will agree with me on this, but hey, I had a lot of fun with it. I was okay with the controls, it looked good, the music was awesome and again, I had a blast. Plus, it opened up the world of Castlevania to me more, something that I know Alucards appreciates.

Prince of Persia (2008) This wasn't universally panned, but I know a lot of people decided that because "you couldn't die" it wasn't a good game. Well I call bullsh** on that. BioShock had no punishment for death but most people agree that it's fun. I still found PoP challenging enough, but it was also beautiful and fun. The story was kinda meh, but it wasn't the worst I've ever sat through.

Sonic Unleashed ...So okay, this was a bad game. But I don't think it was as bad as people said it was. At least the Wii version. The Wii version's daytime levels almost made up for the rest of the game, plus I love that game's soundtrack and presentation.

I'm sure I could list more, but I think that's a good start.



Sounds like they are. Those are all EXCELLENT games.

I loved the 2008 POP, and I also loved Sonic unleashed on the 360! All the negative criticism it got about the werehog levels, to me, wasn't clearly justified. Cause I really had NO trouble at all with those levels! It was just mindless fun! And the music was terrific in that game! I will say though...that robotnik land was, by far, the most challenging level (and longest) out of any sonic game I've played.

[AlucardsFate]

Prince of Persia (2008) This wasn't universally panned, but I know a lot of people decided that because "you couldn't die" it wasn't a good game. Well I call bullsh** on that. BioShock had no punishment for death but most people agree that it's fun. I still found PoP challenging enough, but it was also beautiful and fun. The story was kinda meh, but it wasn't the worst I've ever sat through.

That's just it, Bioshock's, premise, world and story were not just creative...they were GREAT. Top, Top tier stuff. Something like no real punishment for dying can be overlooked when EVERY OTHER BIT of the game is Triple A. And you just said PoP had a meh story...

[ChukoLiang]

I almost bought gungrave.

I love SMT: Nocturne. Yet nobody's willing to play it. I mean, it IS hard as balls, and I HAVE completely avoided beating it...but...still!

I don't want to start an argument, because of course that's bound to happen if I mention this otherwise, but...FFXIII. Good game.

[SnakeEyez]

First game that springs to mind is Baten Kaitos. It gets a lot of flak for its generic plot, bland characters, and occasionally horrendous voice acting, but I think that everything else about the game is stellar. The game world is really interesting and well developed, the music is fantastic, and the Magnus system is ingenious. Visually, it is unquestionably the best-looking game on the GameCube. The positives far outweigh the negatives, I say.

There's also Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. The game...has issues. Lots of issues. Too many issues to even list them all. But still, I really enjoyed it! The gameplay was addictive and challenging, and I was rather fond of the cartoony visual style. It was a pleasant change of pace.

[AlucardsFate]

First game that springs to mind is Baten Kaitos. It gets a lot of flak for its generic plot, bland characters, and occasionally horrendous voice acting, but I think that everything else about the game is stellar. The game world is really interesting and well developed, the music is fantastic, and the Magnus system is ingenious. Visually, it is unquestionably the best-looking game on the GameCube. The positives far outweigh the negatives, I say.

There's also Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. The game...has issues. Lots of issues. Too many issues to even list them all. But still, I really enjoyed it! The gameplay was addictive and challenging, and I was rather fond of the cartoony visual style. It was a pleasant change of pace.

"Occasionally?" How about almost full time? (Xelha speaks like she's asking a question...pretty much all the time) The gameplay does work, but too often I found myself burning through turns doing nothing. Maybe I wasn't setting up my decks right...but goddammit I tried SOOO MANY variations. Eventually you start to feel a little screwed. Though the battle theme rocks ass....

Now I could easily say Final Fantasy VIII...I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who liked that one. But I'd rather say Tenchu: Fatal Shadows. The gameplay...is unchanged from Wrath of Heaven...the game is occasionally sloppy on it's AI consistency, and the combat is bland and not really balanced at all. (Leading to some REALLY annoying boss fights) On top of that, the camera is GOD DAMN AWFUL. (Not Red Ninja bad...but damn close) So why do I like this game when nobody else (probably rightfully so) does? It, despite mediocre voice acting (Which is actually better then the Tenchu series standard voices) the game has a cool story it tells, weaved together with neat, anime episodic style presentation. (Complete with NEXT EPISODE previews) Rin's tale is told pretty well. And the Tenchu gameplay, while annoyingly refusing to get with the times...is still fun for an old ninja dog like me.

[SnakeEyez]

"Occasionally?" How about almost full time? (Xelha speaks like she's asking a question...pretty much all the time) The gameplay does work, but too often I found myself burning through turns doing nothing. Maybe I wasn't setting up my decks right...but goddammit I tried SOOO MANY variations. Eventually you start to feel a little screwed. Though the battle theme rocks ass....

Thank you for proving my point. The game has problems, but I loved it anyway.

[Ed209]

Wow, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I hate that game so much...so much. oh well, to each his own.

Ima say Xenosaga II. I wouldn't call it a great game (I wouldn't call any game in the series great), but I thought the combat system made for some of the most interesting and strategic boss battles in a PS2 RPG. I am one of the few who appreciated part 2.

Also, Grandia Xtreme. A lot of people hated this game, but I liked it. its a tough dungeon crawler using Grandia's awesome battle system. There's a lot of fighting, and a lot of tough battles. the story is mediocre and there's only like 2 towns in the whole game, but the dungeons and the combat are awesome, so I liked it.

[AlucardsFate]

Thank you for proving my point. The game has problems, but I loved it anyway.

I didn't say I disliked it...I was actually having a blast until the holes started to show. Now I've just been gone so long, if I went back to try and win that fight I got stuck on (I CAN'T DO ANYTHING ON MY TURN) I wouldn't know where to begin...

[Grand_OoF]

That's just it, Bioshock's, premise, world and story were not just creative...they were GREAT. Top, Top tier stuff. Something like no real punishment for dying can be overlooked when EVERY OTHER BIT of the game is Triple A. And you just said PoP had a meh story...

See, I still call bullsh** on that.

I mean, while PoP had a meh story, it wasn't awful, and it's graphics, music and most importantly, game play, were all excellent.

Meanwhile, while BioShock had an excellent story, atmosphere, mus-...well, I guess it didn't really have music, but still, sound, when you really sit and think about it, what DID BioShock really do that was so stellar from a gameplay standpoint?

I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the sh** out of BioShock. THE SH**. But if you were to strip away all the political intrigue and atmosphere and narrative and replace with say...generic sci-fi space shooter drama...would anyway really care about the game? Well, some people would, but would it really be that special?

So my point is that doesn't make sense to me. Both games have the same flaw (if you consider dying without consequence a flaw), and not holding one game accountable for it while chastising the other severely for it is a serve double standard.

First game that springs to mind is Baten Kaitos. It gets a lot of flak for its generic plot, bland characters, and occasionally horrendous voice acting, but I think that everything else about the game is stellar. The game world is really interesting and well developed, the music is fantastic, and the Magnus system is ingenious. Visually, it is unquestionably the best-looking game on the GameCube. The positives far outweigh the negatives, I say.

There's also Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. The game...has issues. Lots of issues. Too many issues to even list them all. But still, I really enjoyed it! The gameplay was addictive and challenging, and I was rather fond of the cartoony visual style. It was a pleasant change of pace.

Ah yes. I love both games dearly. And yet I've never beaten either and gave up on both at/near the end of the game. Huh.

[KomodoAce]

Alucard where did you come off as the only person who likes Tenchu?

That game is legendary to me. The music is fantastic and despite the faults you mentioned, it's the first true stealth game I ever played. You got rewarded with the cool death animations for getting stealth kills.

And the motion capture was even done by a real-life ninja (Sho Kosugi) while his son (Kage) did Onikage.

I wish they'd make some type of free-roaming sandbox ninja game. That would rock so hard.

Back on topic, one of my favorite beat-em-ups was Minority Report from the PS2 era. The game had a move list rivaling that of Tekken and it was well-animated, but people thought it sucked since the graphics were sub-par and the difficulty was high.

Very satisfying when you won the boss fights in the game.

[Heiae]

Alucard where did you come off as the only person who likes Tenchu?

That game is legendary to me. The music is fantastic and despite the faults you mentioned, it's the first true stealth game I ever played. You got rewarded with the cool death animations for getting stealth kills.

And the motion capture was even done by a real-life ninja (Sho Kosugi) while his son (Kage) did Onikage.

I wish they'd make some type of free-roaming sandbox ninja game. That would rock so hard.


Whoa whoa whoa! Lots of people love the original. Alucards likes FATAL SHADOWS, though. Fatal Shadows is one of the most painfully mediocre titles in the series and drops Rikimaru for some boring new chick with a shitty revenge story.

Anyway, a lot of people consider God Hand a crappy game but I consider it one of the greatest action games on the PS2. Then again, those people probably don't really play action games or something because it's pretty beloved by most experienced gamers. Pussywillows just can't understand how awesome it is.

IGN gave it a 3/10. People still remember that to this day.

[Baberific]

Whoa whoa whoa! Lots of people love the original. Alucards likes FATAL SHADOWS, though. Fatal Shadows is one of the most painfully mediocre titles in the series and drops Rikimaru for some boring new chick with a shitty revenge story.

Anyway, a lot of people consider God Hand a crappy game but I consider it one of the greatest action games on the PS2. Then again, those people probably don't really play action games or something because it's pretty beloved by most experienced gamers. Pussywillows just can't understand how awesome it is.

IGN gave it a 3/10. People still remember that to this day.

In a way....this was the same case with DMC1 and the original DMC3, many people didn't bother with the titles due to the difficulty. God hand rocked! Even if it was harder than both DMC 1 and 3 combined!

I'm sorry to say...what comes with action games....is the pain of progress through horrendous defeat....many don't like that concept.

[SnakeEyez]

I didn't say I disliked it...I was actually having a blast until the holes started to show. Now I've just been gone so long, if I went back to try and win that fight I got stuck on (I CAN'T DO ANYTHING ON MY TURN) I wouldn't know where to begin...
Nor did I even say that you disliked it. I said that the game gets a lot of flak for various reasons, but I like it anyway. As soon as I made that post, what did you do? You gave it flak for various reasons. So, again, thank you for proving my point.

[AlucardsFate]

Whoa whoa whoa! Lots of people love the original. Alucards likes FATAL SHADOWS, though. Fatal Shadows is one of the most painfully mediocre titles in the series and drops Rikimaru for some boring new chick with a shitty revenge story.

I liked Rin and her story. Just not her voice acting...oh god the voice acting. "Clan gets betrayed and murdered by one of their own and lone survivor takes vengeance" isn't exactly original material...but I thought it was told pretty well. (Hell at this point ANY revenge ANYTHING is cliche so it's pretty moot) And having an ornamental bear mask that she only wears...just before she kills her primary target...for some reason such aesthetic accoutrements are awesome to me when your about to murder someone.

[RedWizard]

Man, I could go on forever here... Let's just start with the basics.

- Diablo
- Diablo II
- Assassin's Creed
- Assassin's Creed II (These are both excellent titles that catch a lot of crap and I don't even know why)
- Magic: The Gathering
- WoW TCG
- Final Fantasy
- Castlevania II
- Halo 3
- Warcraft II
- Halo Wars
- Blue Dragon
- Ninja Gaiden/Black/II
- Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
- Dungeons & Dragons

I s'pose that'll do for now...

[KomodoAce]

Ass Creed 1 gets a lot of flak for being monotonous. I could not get into it despite liking the setting a lot.

Ass Creed 2 is definitely an improvement (and one I enjoy playing).

I like the first FF (although I played the GBA version which I hear is far more accessible than the original NES version).

[RedWizard]

FFI&II: DoS is waaaaaaaaaaay easier than the original NES version. Although for that release they totally nerfed the Red Mage class, and I am adamantly opposed to nerfing the Red Mage class in any game. He was noticeably stronger in the original version than he was in either the PSX Origins version or the GBA DoS version.

Assassin's Creed was kind of... well, it got a little repetitive after awhile, and looking for all those flags was rather asinine. The only location's flags I found 100% was Masyaf. I did have a lot of fun looking for all the Templars' Treasure Troves though.

[ChukoLiang]

Whoa whoa whoa! Lots of people love the original. Alucards likes FATAL SHADOWS, though. Fatal Shadows is one of the most painfully mediocre titles in the series and drops Rikimaru for some boring new chick with a shitty revenge story.

Anyway, a lot of people consider God Hand a crappy game but I consider it one of the greatest action games on the PS2. Then again, those people probably don't really play action games or something because it's pretty beloved by most experienced gamers. Pussywillows just can't understand how awesome it is.

IGN gave it a 3/10. People still remember that to this day.

That's why I say FUCK IGN.

[Chuypc]

So I ask you, what game did you enjoy that everyone else seemed to hate?


umm, I guess for me it was... don't laugh (so hard)...

Shaq-Fu, for the Sega Genesis.

I found it enjoyable, kinda... I don't know what was I thinking (I was young! Please forgive me!)

[AlucardsFate]

Just a few comments:

- Diablo
- Diablo II (I thought this game was considered a classic...except by me of course. Just sayin...everyone likes this game. I even think it's just good...just not CLASSIC good. )
- Halo 3 (Ditto...everyone seems to like this game)
- Ninja Gaiden(Who aside from PSM hates this game!? I will cut them!)]

....as for me...what about Super Princess Peach? A fair bit on the VERY easy side...but it's got personality? And my affinity a certain princess does help I suppose...

Or Castlevania Dracula X for the Super Nintendo? Inferior to the original Turbo-Duo game? No question...it absolutely is. But it is still a GOOD Castlevania game with a surprisingly technologically burly soundtrack for an SNES cart. (I actually prefer a lot of the SNES songs over the CD tracks on the original game!) The game looks great, and while the stages themselves are pretty flatly designed (cept for a few choice few that are total bastards) it's pretty fun...and the visuals are nice. Except for the AWFUL cinematic drawings...

[WanderingMind]

That's why I say FUCK IGN.

It just proves that people weren't man enough to play God Hand. *flex*

One game I liked but a lot of people seemed to pan was Eternal Sonata for the 360. Sure, the game had a lot of potential since the game revolved around Frederick Chopin, but so much potential was wasted. I mean, hell, the game did a terrible job with the story and I wish I sat through the Japanese voice acting instead of the English voice acting. (I happen to go with Japanese voices over English voices these days. It's my rule of thumb)

The gameplay itself was nothing special and there are RPGs that have far more solid combat (read: Tales of Vesperia), but I liked the game for what it did. Sure, some of the characters were unbalanced, like Viola dominating as the best character in the game and Beat being the useless shota that he his, but I lived with it. Combat was pretty easy to pick up. I did appreciate how in the 360 version how I almost never ran out of money, even when I didn't use Beat's camera.

Did I mention how much the plot drove me crazy? I think it jumped the shark from the start. There was no way that the game could keep up with the mess of the story and everything gradually came apart the more I played it. It got worse and worse in the later chapters. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it crashed and burned by the time I got to the ending. I hated the ending so much in the 360 version, I wanted to punch the game. Literally.

Oh, did I also mention that the character models for the game weird me out. I mean, look at them. Gah.

To be fair, it was the first RPG I played this gen and the game looked beautiful, not to mention the great soundtrack.

[Grand_OoF]

Yeah, after having gotten reasonably far in God Hand, I would add it to my list of "games I love that everyone else hated". Or at least, was panned by most critics. I mean, seriously, this game is awesome.

I've yet to play Eternal Sonata or Blue Dragon, but had more then a passing interest in both, despite commentary from my friends. I still will play them...someday.

More on my list...

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: While...not exactly panned...a lot of people just don't like it. And I can kind of understand why. The majority of flack it gets is aimed at it's terribly nerfed implementation of multiplayer. Which I agree with. But that doesn't change the fact that once every blue moon, when the stars aligned and you got four people with a GBA and the cable together, that the multiplayer WASN'T fun. Plus, as a solo experience it was still awesome.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers: Yeah, Alucard is going to bite my head off for this one, but I don't care. I did love this game. Admittingly, combat was kinda shallow but there were a lot of neat ideas and creativity during battle and gameplay was rewarded. Combine that with a colorful, interesting cast of characters and a fun plot and some cool mini-games and hey, I'm sold.

...That's all I can think of for now.