Games you wanted to like, but just could not get into

[bikingjahuty]

I have two that immediately come to mind.


Earthbound: Given how much of a reputation this game has built around itself, and the fact that people are willing to shell out $150+ for it even though it has a Virtual Console release, I had very high hopes for this game, but just could not get into it no matter how hard I tried. Yeah, it is definitely unique for an SNES RPG, but it's appeal really escaped me as I felt like I was playing a mediocre RPG. Given how underwhelmed I was after about 5-hours of playing it, I actually sold my cart which I had found at a thrift store about a year earlier for only $5. I do have it on the Virtual Console and may someday try it again, but sadly I just had a hard time getting into.


Metal Gear Solid: This game immediately has a strike against it in that it is a stealth game, a genre that I'm not the biggest fan of. Regardless, people talk about this game and franchise on the same level as Ocarina or Time or Half Life. I tried very hard to like it and I did end up getting about halfway through it before giving up and not having the motivation to keep playing. I will probably try and play it again someday, but it'll have to wait. On a side note, I LOVE Metal Gear Rising, but because it is not a stealth game in the least.

[davifus]

FFXII

[hexen]

The most obvious answer for me is The Witcher 3. I love open world RPGs, absolutely love them. The day I first played Morrowind was a milestone in my gaming life that is on par with first playing Super Mario Brothers.  However, they are a very rare type of game... with Bethesda being almost exclusively the sole proprietor. When I heard Witcher 3 was open world, I was excited and went out and bout it a few days after release. I excitedly started it up and... hated almost everything about it. The openness felt pretty limited, and the controls are downright atrocious, I hate the way combat works in that game even after spending hours trying to get used to it. A game often criticized as being bad, Two Worlds, is 100x the open world RPG Witcher 3 is. I hear Witcher 3 has a good story, and I don't doubt that, but I just can't get past it's atrocious gameplay. I have always been really sad it turned out as it did.

[realpoketendonl]

I'm in a situation not exactly like this, but somewhat similair with the The Legend of Zelda and Metroid franchises.
I have two Zelda games (A Link Between Worlds and Twilight Princess (and Four Swords Anniversary Edition, but that one doesn't count) and four Metroid games (Metroid II: Return of Samus, Super Metroid, Metroid Prime Hunters and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption). I did enjoy all of them while playing them, but all of these games failed to really grasp me. I only played Metroid Prime Hunters and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption a couple of times, and the others I for whatever reason stopped going back to after playing them a few times.
I don't know why, I really want to love these games. I want to get involved in the series, especially the Metroid series. I love its settings, lore, characters, general astheatics, yet for some reason the games just fail to really grab me. Same with Zelda. I really want to like it, but I just don't have the drive to get into it. Maybe I have to play a little more of Twilight Princess to fall in love with it, but A Link Between Worlds failed to grab me. As for Metroid, who knows. On one hand I'd love to try and get back into it, but on the other hand I don't think I'll last that long before quitting again. It's a real shame, since I really want to love the Metroid series, but I just can't get into the games.

[pizzasafari]

I've tried so many times to enjoy Kingdom Hearts but it just isn't working. It always seems like a series I'd like but when I actually play it I hate the gameplay, the writing makes me want to die, the Final Fantasy cameos are awfully done which makes my inner and outer fanboy see red and I didn't really grow up with Disney so the Disney stuff is a turnoff for me.
I quite liked the very start of Kingdom Hearts 2. Apart from that I just don't think it's gonna happen.

Also the Shin Megami Tensei games outside of Persona, although last time I tried to play Lucifer's Call I did actually find myself suddenly really enjoying it. I'd tried playing it twice before then and I found it really dull but then last time I suddenly found myself completely drawn in from the very start. Not sure what happened but I guess this means there's hope. I probably would've finished it by now but the game crashed after over an hour's progress without saving so I gave up on it. I'll probably try Digital Devil Saga again next.

[telly]

FF VI  Played it through twice, never was able to get into it.

EDIT: Also agree with you on MGS, bikingjahuty. Now that i've played 1-4, the only MGS game I like is 3.

[Warmsignal]

Definitely Earthbound. I can't say I didn't like it, but it just wasn't the type for me to really get sucked into. I got to part where you start fighting bears in a cave add the first kid to your party, then I never picked it back up.

Mario 3D World. Always have high hopes for a new Mario game, but I just didn't really like it. Felt really half-baked to me.

Marker Man Adventures. In theory, sounded like a neat platforming game that would implement the DS stylus well, but no. It's not even playable, it's so glitch-ridden and it seems like an unfinished game.

Star Ocean (the PS2 one). Wanted to give the series a try, but after the first few hours of nothing much at all happening, and realizing it was the longest game in the world I decided it was not for me.

Psychonauts. I heard a lot of people saying this was a gem, but I found the art-style and characters of the game to be annoying, and for whatever reason didn't care much for the gloomy atmosphere of the game mixed with the muddy, rather ugly (for PS2) graphics.

[kamikazekeeg]

The most obvious answer for me is The Witcher 3. I love open world RPGs, absolutely love them. The day I first played Morrowind was a milestone in my gaming life that is on par with first playing Super Mario Brothers.  However, they are a very rare type of game... with Bethesda being almost exclusively the sole proprietor. When I heard Witcher 3 was open world, I was excited and went out and bout it a few days after release. I excitedly started it up and... hated almost everything about it. The openness felt pretty limited, and the controls are downright atrocious, I hate the way combat works in that game even after spending hours trying to get used to it. A game often criticized as being bad, Two Worlds, is 100x the open world RPG Witcher 3 is. I hear Witcher 3 has a good story, and I don't doubt that, but I just can't get past it's atrocious gameplay. I have always been really sad it turned out as it did.

I managed to beat Witcher 3 after 60 hours, but I absolutely agree about the controls and combat.  I don't get why they are so overlooked, because it's terrible combat.  I was able to put up with it for awhile and every so often I kept wondering why group fights were still garbage and basically most battles that weren't one on one with a big creature or badass boss were not fun or well handled.  Basically by the 40 hour mark, I was just like "I gotta beat this game" and rushed as much as I could to the end.  It's a shame because it is a rich world, good characters, good story, but man, it's not fun to play and I've avoided the expansions.  Disappointing, because I want to play them, but I'm not likely to go back to Witcher 3 ever.  Hopefully Cyberpunk 2077 is much better combat wise.

Recently for me, I found Xenoblade Chronicles X to be something I eventually abandoned.  I still made it like 40 hours in (This is apparently peak tolerance level for me on some games lol) and got over half way, but it's not a very fun RPG.  Battles are a mess of numbers and spamming attacks, which feels very MMO-like, but it lacks the co-op and focus of an MMO.  You got all these classes you can level, but don't play super different really, and then you get the Skell and it just makes all that class grinding pointless, because there's no reason to ever not utilize the super awesome mech suit.  The story and handling of the side-stories are all so dry and repetitive that only picks up like once a chapter when you get some badass CG cutscene, and then back to the same dry interactions.  There's so much extra little stuff to do and it feels like they allow you a lot of control, but I would've like the scope of the game narrowed more.  Too much not fun busywork.

Bigger series overall would be Resident Evil.  I really don't like those old games before RE4, mostly due to the controls and fixed cameras.  I remember beating RE3 somehow, but I dabbled in practically all of those games, but I hate those controls so much, plus the inventory system can get really tedious.  There's survival and then there's just obnoxious.  I don't even like the Remakes they recently released.  I bought the double pack with Zero and RE1 and tried to play with the slightly updated controls they added, which are improved, but still so awful.  I kinda wish the RE2 remaster they are doing, it would just be like an RE4/5/6 overhaul, but I know the purists would go nuts over that lol 

[sloan11]

Windwaker

I never wanted to play that game back when it came out, but the attention given to the HD remake reminded me of the game and I got my hopes up after hearing so many people praise it and the original. but i just didn't care for it.

[azure]

I love Kingdom Hearts, but for the life of me I can't get into the first game at all. Love every other KH game, even consider KH2 one of my favorite games of all time, but I hate the first one. I have tried on numerous occasions to play it, and I just can't. It bores, and annoys me.

[emporerdragon]

Dead Island. I was into the hype expecting basically a Borderlands style game with zombies, but it was just so meh. My apathy for the game was enough that I didn't even bother with the free digital copy when it went Games for Gold on Xbox live.

The Dark Souls series is another big one. It wasn't because of the difficulty but because of the controls themselves. The way the game responds to controller inputs just made it feel like I was trying to move underwater.

[kamikazekeeg]

Windwaker

I never wanted to play that game back when it came out, but the attention given to the HD remake reminded me of the game and I got my hopes up after hearing so many people praise it and the original. but i just didn't care for it.

If Skyward Sword gets an HD release that tweaks Fi and allows for regular controls somehow, Wind Waker might be at the bottom of the list for me on 3D Zeldas.  I played through it this year and I really find a lot of the game to be boring and tedious.  I don't hate it and I beat it, but it was underwhelming I thought.

[matimo]

Skyrim, i just found it confusing, it was explained to me that if i liked Zelda i'd enjoy this game, i just got bored confused and quit playing it.

[kamikazekeeg]

Skyrim, i just found it confusing, it was explained to me that if i liked Zelda i'd enjoy this game, i just got bored confused and quit playing it.

Zelda is a real bad comparison for someone to make.  Zelda generally has an open world, but it's a much more structured open world, where there is much more focus to it than something like Skyrim has where you can just kinda go anywhere and do whatever you want.

[stealthrush]

Kingdom Hearts series
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Dead Rising series
Lost Planet series