Which video game did you bounce off of at first, but then tried again later for it to become one of your favorites of all time?
Which video game did you bounce off of at first, but then tried again later for it to become one of your favorites of all time?
Cyberpunk 2077
Got it on console first, and it was ... rough. Got it as a gift on PC and finally got to experience the glorious story and wonderful characters.
Monster Hunter. When I was a kid with a PSP I bought Freedom Unite since the box art was cool. Had not a fucking clue what was happening or how to even understand the weapons.
Years later I bought a 3DS, 3 Ultimate, and even a circle pad pro for it. Nope, still just didn't even crack an hour of playtime because everything was just so strange. Finally, in probably 2019 or so I decided that there was too much cool word of mouth about the series for me to not try and figure out how it worked.
I got Generations Ultimate, and decided that if I could figure out how to play Monster Hunter that I wouldnt be a complete failure in life. I just played, found that nothing made sense, but just... kept going anyway. I started researching what the different weapons were for, realized that they're basically just different fighting game character-type movesets, and from there I slowly explored the game until id ended up burning 240 hours or so on MHGU.
I discovered Monster Hunter World after that, and it was all over for me. I never get to g rank, but I've put probably a combined over 1k hours into the series, which is much more than I usually would for other games. Just fucking fantastic games in almost every way, except for tutorialization.
Control.
The beginning of the game is really slow, hard to understand what's happening, and you literally have only minimal throwing ability. The manual navigation with overlay fullscreen map also doesn't do justice to the game. Combining with the fact that I wasn't used to playing these types of games, this was an easy pass for me after like 1 hour of the game.
But boy it's awesome as you actually get more abilities and understand more of the story. Currently it's one of the games I usually come back to.
Subnautica. I didn't really get it at first. Swam around the life pod a bit; didn't see the point.
Was travelling some time (months?) Later and stuck at an airport with my laptop and a Power outlet but super patchy wifi. So I fired it up again and really, really got into it. Kept playing on the plane and all through that trip. By the time I got back, I had a Cyclops and a Prawn suit and was about to find the lost river.
Rimworld. Did the standard start (industrial with 3 pawns) on cass. Died of hunger. Uninstalled the game.
Next week I was bored at my intership and redownloaded it and gave it another shot. Now I have close to 4k hours in Rimworld.
Same thing happened with Crusader Kings, funnily enough.
Edit: oh, that happened with M&B: Warband and Kenshi as well.
Diablo III. First time I played it was at the urging of my friend, who told me unironically, "don't worry about the plot, the plot doesn't matter." Unsurprisingly my experience wasn't particularly engaging and I lost interest, not seeing much reason to play it over any number of other games that didn't have an always-online requirement.
Flash forward several years later. My then-girlfriend (now spouse) asked me if I'd ever played a Diablo game, and I related my experience. After she was done sputtering and emitting various noises of extreme outrage she insisted that I set things up so we could play through Diablo 1, 2, and then 3 together. I went in to D1 expecting to be similarly disappointed and instead found an incredibly dark, atmospheric, and compelling story. Oh and we did get The Butcher so I also shat myself. After that I was way hyped for 2, and by the time we hit 3 I was far more interested in playing. Loved the hell out of it, found myself not only enjoying the game but completing through the last stages of a season journey to score extra stash space and all that. Not out of obligation either, I was legitimately enjoying the grind.
I wouldn't really call it a favorite, but I definitely ended up liking Nier: Automata pretty well after bouncing off it really hard when trying it at a friend's house. That's because we were trying from the start, and it starts with a section that's about half an hour long, with only two checkpoints, vastly harder than anything else in the game, and in which the first half isn't even the same genre as the rest of the game. It's seriously one of the worst intros I can think of in a video game. The rest of the game is, y'know, a pretty good third-person action RPG.
Fallout 3 took me a couple tries to get going, but it was hard to put down once hooked.
I played Celeste, thought it was kinda easy and the hotel level kinda lame which is where I dropped it. A few years later I broke my leg, being a pc gamer before the steamdeck my switch was the only portable console I had and celeste the only unfinished game i had for it. I played the entire game in a week of 12 hour sessions while high as a mother fucking kite. It was amazingly good fun.
Morrowind. I'd played it when it came out but didn't get very far. Tried it again after watching an 8 hour video about it. Focused on speed in my build so I didn't feel like running at a snail's pace. Finding the dead people that failed to become Nerevar, giving some guy a book of poetry without a quest telling me to, getting used to the layout of Vivec, actually enjoying the fast travel system, and lots more all added up to such a great experience.
Overwatch.
Oroginally I dismissed it as just being a TF2 clone, and being a very loyal TF2 player at the time I didn't want to play it as I consodered it a blatant ripoff. However, I started going to a LAN party group at work in 2017 and Overwatch was the only FPS they played so I got it. It still does feel similar to TF2 but the variety of characters got me hooked and it became my most played game for many years until OW2 came out and ruined everything. Getting back into it now though and they've toned down some of the bad decisions of OW2 since launch. Now I'm dating a girl who plays Overwatch as well and we've been playing constantly so I'm back into it completely now.
Civilization VI
With my limited English back then, I struggled to understand how to play Civilization VI. I was expecting something similar to Age of Empires, which made me frustrated until I gave it another try a couple years later. Today, it stands as my most played game ever, with over 900 hours of gameplay.
STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl.
It didn't click at first, I was used to (less janky) games that treated you nicely. Came back years later, installed a bunch of mods to improve graphics and immersion.. And wow, I remember that first play through so well.
I haven't played many games that do immersion quite so well. Morrowind actually, is the closest.
It's because of the 'expedition' aspect. You don't just leave town and fumble your way through the world- you can't.. You need to prepare, know where you are going, have ammo and food and health supplies. And working guns.
Every expedition is an adventure. Death is seconds away at every moment, and it's your skill and knowledge that keeps you alive, not game mechanics or leveled enemies. It feels real.
I remember one time, I had a nice mp5 and I was going through Lab X16. A snork jumped out at me and in fright I emptied the whole mag. It was dead in 3 bullets, most of the mag went in to the ceiling. Ammo conservation is a real thing, and it's not about being accurate or efficient. It's about keeping your wits and trying not to panic-fire.
I've never had that experience in any other game ever.
Rocket league.
I thought it was just some soccer car game and could not see the complexity and skill required to master the game.
Went back to the game years later and pretty much never dropped it then.
Fallout 4. I died easily early on and quit after 20 minutes. A year or so later I picked it back up. 700 hours of gameplay later, I think I've changed my mind.
Hollow Knight for me fits this scenario to a t. I got it as part of a humble bundle, but couldn't get into it for at least a year as the initial part felt really depressing, and didn't at all grab me.
But once I managed to tough it through to greenpath, and started to get some power ups, it finally sunk it's claws into me. I proceeded to nearly 100% the game.
Prey (2017), Monster Hunter, Stalker, Dark Souls. All great games that only show their true self after some time investment. Not too ridiculous time investment apart from Monster Hunter which gets really fun literally only after a few tens of hours, maybe even a hundred. I wish I was kidding.
My Summer Car
Doom Eternal
I played on easy mode, over the course of months slogged my way through over half the game getting wrecked and HATING it. And then one day...
Everything clicked. I got into the Fun Zone or Flow State or whatever it's called. And I have been obsessed ever since. I play at least a few minutes almost every night for years now. I can now comfortably beat it in the hardest difficulty, including the DLC. And it never stops being so much fun and satisfying!
Dragon Age
I started with Dragon Age inquisition and I dropped it within the first half an hour. Years later, I started with DAO and now it’s my favourite serie; I replay dao way too much btw
I got Rhythm Heaven Fever for the Wii when it first came out and just couldn't get it. I mean, I understood what I was supposed to be doing, but I could barely pass any of the songs. I figured I just didn't have any rhythm and put it on the shelf.
Fast-forward to 2020 when I was rearranging some stuff and came across Rhythm Heaven Fever again. I hooked my Wii back up for shits and giggles and started playing and was doing great. Either I had magically gained a sense of rhythm or (most likely) the TV I had been playing on when I first got the game had some sort of latency issue.
Now I've gone through all the Rhythm Heaven games, but Fever is still my hands-down favorite. I put a copy on my Steam Deck and sometimes I just load it up and play through some songs when I have a few minutes to kill.
Happened twice, both to my #1 games. Tried Chrono Trigger as a kid and didn't like it, then came back and played it as a young adult and was like... damn... this is an actual treasure.
In 2015 I tried FFXI due to the XIV crossover event, and I could not get past the eccentric and clunky UI and the pacing of the combat. I tried again a couple of years later and committed to finishing all the stories. It became my new #1 and I think genuinely one of the best games ever made, in terms of revealing and pushing the artistic potential of online games, and games in general. Actual masterpiece and a massive innovation, and unlike Chrono Trigger I think the lessons are going to be a lot harder to learn and replicate.
Witcher 3 Crusader Kings II
Binding of Isaac, I couldn't handle all the poop and mild horror, but eventually something clicked and now I have 1500 hours combined in both games.
Half Life 3.
fallout 3. first time i ever played a game like it. stopped playing because the subways scared me and i was out of ammo
Sekiro. Tried getting into it twice, but couldn't - I always got mentally stuck at Lady Butterfly.
Third time, someone told me that I shouldn't fight her until later, and HOT DAMN is this a good game. I'm still working on the final fight of the normal route, but can't wait to go back and do the other endings!
Hollow Knight.
The first few hours on felt dull. Lots of reviews were praising it and I just didn't get why. Dirtmouth and the Forgotten Crossroads weren't really exhilarating, so I stopped after ~5h.
A couple months later I created a new game slot. My POV shifted by following Cornifer's passion for exploring for exploring's sake, instead of grinding the Geo economy. The soundtrack really enhances the experience and environment of each section. I'm now ~120h in and still unsure if I'm halfway there!
World of Warcraft.
I bought it because a classmate told me about it and we planned to play together, but he had a level 60 character and didn't want to start a new one to level with me. So I played alone for the first 25 levels or so, and quit out of boredom. Then I told my brother about the game and we started again together. That lasted until about halfway through Legion (at least 10 years, with a few breaks ofc), when we both stopped playing. I've been trying to get back into it a few times since then, but it never really clicked again.
Ark
Bloodborne. I gave up on 3 separate times, even after loving previous Dark Souls games. Gave it a 4th and final try, then didn’t stop until I got the platinum trophy. I don’t know that it’s my favorite souls game, but it left me the most satisfied when I finally finished it. Love that game and wish it would get the same remaster treatment that Demon Souls got.
The Division 2
The main campaign story is boring, but end game is tons of fun and customization of gear builds.
League of legends.
Absolutely despised it, thought it was just pointless since progress doesn't really carry over from match to match, so what's the point?
Eventually gave it a go back in 2011 and never got rid of it. Took me a while to get into it too, I'd only play because of my brother and with friends on teamspeak but eventually got reeeeally into it.
These days I don't have time, or at least don't want to invest it, for rankeds or even SR (5x5) so I mostly play ARAMs and some of the riot forge games (LOTRK, song of nunu). Looking forward for the mmo, really love the universe and I loved the TV show too.
Trails in the Sky, the first one. I bounced off the game not once, but twice. I liked the combat, but it felt like all I was doing was quests from the guild's notice board, so I quit. But then I kept seeing TitS (heh) on various "Best of" lists, so I was like "FINE. I'll try to push through one last time". And then it clicked and I pretty much marathoned the entire trilogy.
The first game is good, buuuut I still feel like it's the weakest in the Trilogy. Story-wise, you get to the good stuff way, way later in the game. Everything that comes before is world building. And it's good, too. You get to see how the world works, how different regions of Liberl (the country you're in) operate and you also get a small glimpse of Zemurian politics (Zemuria being the name of the continent Liberl is on). This also gets vastly expanded upon in the second game.
I'm glad I tried it, because the writing is great, the music is incredible and I really dig the combat. If anyone wants to try it, definitely do. Just know that the first game is a slow burn. Worry not, though. Once the plot starts picking up steam, it doesn't stop.
Tetrisphere
So many games in here, that I started and apparently need to go back and try again.
Not that I didn't like them, but with limited time, I just couldn't get into them properly.
Against the Storm. Been on steam for 15 years and it’s my third most played game now. Rimworld and CK3 are the only ones above.
Monster Hunter (I tink it was 4U).
The first time I just didn't Get It(TM) and kept dying to uuuuh I think some scaly raptor doggos. But the damn good music and the monster designs lured me again and I gave it a try and among other things, I learned that the first time I tried I had been wandering into the Hard Mode section of the game, into which you can head at T=0 without warning. I guess that's why I kept dying. Oh well.
That defo taught me to READ THE TEXT of the NPC dialogues and the item and quest descriptions and such. And the game is much better with that.
Dota2
Residentes Evil. The camera fixed angles were confusing and sometimes I got caught between two different angles in a small space to maneuver.
Path of Exile for me. I went in blind towards the end of Synthesis league (Q2 2019) and played completely SSF with a homebrew zoo witch. Managed to eventually fight and kill shaper but it was so draining I didn't even want to look at the game again... Til the end of the year when I hopped into the end of Blight league and I've sunk almost 2k hours since
One of the first video games I owned was FFXII, gifted to me for Christmas after I had finally saved up and bought my own PS2.
I did not understand how to play the game well. Basically kitted out every character as archers, and if I ever struggled (which was frequently) my go-to was to chain mist attacks and use up all my mana at once. I would often sure a lot of time just waiting for mana to regenerate after any had fight. It was slow but worked, until the bomb king boss in the forest. I would finally kill it, and then the thing would revive, and I would have nothing left. Tried and tried until I managed to kill it a second time and it revived again.
I gave up out of frustration. Came back to it a couple years later, a little bit wiser, and found the game much easier when the different characters had different roles and I didn't blow all my mana at the first sign of trouble. The bomb boss was actually a breeze, and I noticed this time that each revival was with fewer hp than before, so it only revived 3 times before it was done for good.
DDR, use to talk mad shit about that game. Can’t remember what happened but I think my uncle bought it for me and then it just clicked. Ended up hanging at the arcade for hours all sweaty getting food court food.
Mass effect
Tried it twice and thought it was soooo boring. Then one day I figured I'd give it a final go and omg I fell in love with the whole franchise.
Vagrant Story and Parasite Eve
Played them as demos back when that was a thing and I didn't get why there's spheres popping up making battle stop (semi-turned based combat) and why there's a dude named Ashley.
Tried again a couple years later after playing FF7, connecting that they were all by squaresoft, and it all made sense. Absolutely became a couple of my favorites.
Hollow Knight and Darkest Dungeon both fit this for me. When I initially played them there would be some pain point where I got frustrated with some wall in the exploration or a tough setback (like some classic darkest dungeon bullshit like 3 spiders getting critical hits in a row killing a hero at full health). But the atmosphere of both games kept pulling me back again and again, and each time I’d get a little bit further.
Now I can say I’ve beaten Darkest Dungeon probably a half dozen times, nearly 100% Darkest Dungeon 2, and beaten every pantheon in Hollow Knight (with bindings on all but P5).
Not sure if my obvious masochism was the biggest factor in these games pulling through for me, but I can still say they are fantastic experiences for anyone willing to dig in and face the challenges they have to offer.
I have two very different kinds of games I did this with.
The first was Undertale, didn't really get into it at first and stopped playing it around half way through. However after I watched someone else beat the game I got a lot more into it and finally beat all the main endings. Really liked the story and it quickly became one of my favorites after that.
The other is the Crusader Kings games. I got one of them when I was pretty young through a humble bundle and did not understand how it worked at all. Then near the end of highschool I finally tried them again along with playing Stellaris and thats when I was finally able to figure out how to play them and got super into a lot of Paradox's games.
Dragon Age: Origins. Not sure why. I was a big fan of Mass Effect already, and of story heavy RPGs in general, but I stopped this one pretty early on and sat on it for several years. Needless to say, it stuck the second time and now I've played it and the other Dragon Age games multiple times.
Knights Field series. I never could get into them back in the day, but I've been on a retro kick with my Anbernic and got sucked into them. Ended up putting 20 hours so far into the English translation of the first Japanese KF.
Also, Vagrant Story. Pretty much same scenario where I rented it back in the day and bounced off the combat for not making any sense to me. Tried it recently and really dig it. The combat system is really quite clever once you understand it.
Binding of Isaac
Witcher 3
Was overwhelmed with most of the game mechanics.
Dark Souls, took a partner to get me to give it another shot, I've played all souls games since lmao
Dota 2. First time I played it it was not for me, I only played it to hang out with my friends. Many years later I had an itch for it, so I started playing again. And I haven't stopped. It is an excellent game.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon
Mount & Blade
There's a cheat that puts the game into slowmo, and it was the first game that pretty much let you dive into an army of soldiers and take them all down with melee combat. It was glorious.
Plus there was a cheat that would let you teleport, so sometimes your enemies would go rally an army against you, and you could literally teleport behind them and take them on the hills.
Glorious game.
Since the Trails series is continuous, it's what I think of with this sort of thing. I bounced off of and had to nibble at Trails in the Sky over a good while until the third game hooked me. I never would have gotten rolling with that series without pandemic lockdowns.
Now, Trails to Azure is firmly in my top 5 games.
Mass Effect. Played the first one and couldn't get off Eden Prime cause of the shitty starting rifle and the OG game's idea of weapon stability.
Played Mass Effect 2 years later and beat it in a week, just absolutely loved the whole thing. Went back and played the first one after that to get the whole story. Then waited for ME3 to come out.
I still hate the way weapons work in the original ME1 but I pushed through, not surprised it turned people off of the game though.
Thief: The Dark Project
My brother had acquired a pirated copy for me. But the videos and dialogues had been stripped out to save space. He was gushing about how your footsteps would make different sounds on different floor types, but I already knew that from Jedi Knight. So I really didn't get what the fuzz was about.
Don't know how much time later I got a full copy and completely fell in love. It's one of my all time favourite games. The atmosphere is the best. And the different footstep sounds actually serve a gameplay purpose.
Auralux 2
Horizon Zero Dawn. The first time I played it I could not get into the tutorial, just felt so bland. Then years later I tried it again, pushed through the tutorial, and it's now my all time favorite video game series.
The binding of Isaac. I played about 10 hours of the flash version. 10 years later my friend gifted me afterbirth and repentance and I've played almost 1000 hours
I'm currently playing through Shadowrun : Hong Kong and really enjoying it. I'm not sure why I bounced off the first time, I played and enjoyed Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Shadowrun Returns but Hong Kong just did not click with me the first two times I tried
Pokémon Unite
I tried it early on but I felt it lacked the maturity and depth of playing a more serious and in-depth MOBA like League of Legends. I played a lot of Pokémon games throughout the years but it just paled compared to how fulfilling the long-form games and lore of Leagues went.
Turns out I’m a dad now and these shorter, punchier games are both perfect for me and somehow more fulfilling. On top of that they added complexity with Boost Medallions without breaking the game with them. It makes the setup more cerebral because you lose stats as well as gain.
Fallout 3
Etrian Odyssey
I tried the demo for the fourth one and just didn't really like or get it. A couple years later Atlus announced Persona Q (which has mostly the same gameplay as Etrian Odyssey) so, I decided to give the demo another try and it just clicked this time. I have no idea why I didn't like it the first time around.
That would be OMORI, first and foremost.
PS4 God of War
I’ve been Xbox, Nintendo, PC my whole life, and eventually borrowed a PlayStation during the pandemic to play through some exclusives. I barely got through the tutorial before putting it down for two years. Got a ps5 eventually and gave it another try… and loved it.
Hated the original Dota mod in warcraft, now Dota 2 is my jam.
Andor's Trail
Like just about everyone, I started the game by forgetting to equip the armour and weapon. Instadeath and rage at the weakest mobs.
Came back to it later and read some of the hint text, which helped to pass the first map. Then several months to grind away and complete every quest. Top game with an eclectic sense of humour. Very recommended.
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.gpl.rpg.AndorsTrail/
GPLv2 RPG fun.
Donkey Kong County Returns. Played it back when I was younger and it didn't click with me. The platforming was too challenging and honestly I think I got too swept up in the hype around the game at the time.
Coming back to it later, I really appreciate it now. The music, animations and platforming is all sublime. It's sequel, Tropical Freeze is my favorite 2d platfomer hands down. It's an absolute joy to play
DayZ. 100%