If there is a similar thread, I will delete.
I will provide an example of what I mean when I ask what game mechanics do you hate.
I am looking forward to starting the Elden Ring DLC. Loved the base game and put countless hours into it. As much as the positives outweighed the negatives, one of the things I loathed was missing out on armor, weapons, or items due to choices made. So after putting 85 plus hours into a story line, I made a decision that allowed me to obtain one item but locked me out of another. I am the type of gamer that will not start a new game to play 85 more hours to obtain something if I already did the quests etc. It's tedious to me. I don't like having to read up on quests etc from an outside source to make sure I get the item I want if I dont have to.
What say you?
Boss fights that, for me at least, are more tedious than epic. I'm talking those super long fights, where the boss has a ridiculous amount of health and takes multiple stages to finish. Especially when the fight is a glaring disparity to normal gameplay. My reference example for this is Torchlight I. I don't remember much about the game other than the fact the final boss fight was just ridiculously difficult in comparison to everything prior to that. After many attempts, I think I ended up using a map exploit to cheese it.
If there is a similar thread, I will delete.
I will provide an example of what I mean when I ask what game mechanics do you hate.
I am looking forward to starting the Elden Ring DLC. Loved the base game and put countless hours into it. As much as the positives outweighed the negatives, one of the things I loathed was missing out on armor, weapons, or items due to choices made. So after putting 85 plus hours into a story line, I made a decision that allowed me to obtain one item but locked me out of another. I am the type of gamer that will not start a new game to play 85 more hours to obtain something if I already did the quests etc. It's tedious to me. I don't like having to read up on quests etc from an outside source to make sure I get the item I want if I dont have to.
What say you?
That's just the nature of From Software (and some other souls games like Black Myth). The quests and item discovery are obscure and you almost have to stumble into them. I personally don't hold that against Elden Ring, everything else is virtually flawless imo.
I agree with the boss fight comment by Clumber. Just recently DA:Vielguard did that. The dragon fight was staggeringly harder than other fights up to that point and it felt more dumb than interesting.
And while it might not be called a "mechanic" I hate bad mapping/directions. Every time I boot up Dragon's Dogma 2 I wind up frustrated because I can't figure out where to go with its weak quest log and map. I think they wanted to go for "you find stuff organically" but it just leaves me annoyed.
Bosses who get a scripted upper hand in mid-fight cut scenes.
Some cool cinematic scenes that you can't even look at or appreciate because you're too busy focusing on the next button to mash in the quicktime event.
A boss fight that I win handily, followed by a cut scene which shows my guys on death's door, having barely eked out a victor. Or a boss fight that I win handily, followed by a cut scene where they thrash me and get away with whatever I was trying to prevent. Why'd I even have that fight?
This is, unfortunately, part of the cost of admission when playing JRPGs.
Missions that have to be completed in a certain amount of time, regardless if it is a real time countdown or a limited number of turns.
I hate deadlines.
Crafting. Why does every game have to have this nowadays?
Card games. They just feel tedious and boring to me.
....and before anybody suggests it, Inscryption and I did not get along.
Agree with Clumber re boss fights.
One that's fresh in my mind: mandatory stealth sequences that don't let the player use all their available tools, even when they should be a viable alternative to stealth. That infuriated me in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom!
When you spend time building towards something and it gets lost by design.
So like if it’s an RPG and you lose a party member, or more frequently…
Just about any RTS. I’ve always hated them because I hate starting from scratch every battle.
I would be happy to never have to mash a button to pry open a door or a chest.
I also think we need better looting. I don’t want to have to walk to each defeated enemy and hit a button to loot them. There should be more automation.
Having to check every wastebasket, drawer or trash pile in every room and they all look the same.
Not quite a hate but an exasperation: Material components in junk. What the hell kind of 6x6 wooden wall am I actually going to be able to make with a handful of pencils and a roll of tape.
Escort missions. Is that mechanics? Anyway, escort missions. It pleased me when survivors in Dead Rising made it out alive, but it was equally pleasing when they died, or you got a message saying somebody you weren't heading to safe was killed.
The cooking bullshit they cram into every Japanese game.
Crafting, fishing, mini-games in general
I hate it when I spend time and effort to learn skills and gain weapons and equipment, and then the game takes them all away to make me struggle for 2-3 missions without them.
In the 20+ year history of this forum, I'm sure this topic has come up, but it's a good one to revive.
Decay and wear mechanics for me. I am 45 and only going to live so long. Plus I have a job and a family. I don't need more chores. I worked hard to get that stuff, don't make me repair it.
Escort missions. Especially when your run or walk speed doesn't match the person you're protecting.
Escort missions. Especially when your run or walk speed doesn't match the person you're protecting.
Or they get hung up on a corner or a flower pot
A boss fight that I win handily, followed by a cut scene which shows my guys on death's door, having barely eked out a victor. Or a boss fight that I win handily, followed by a cut scene where they thrash me and get away with whatever I was trying to prevent. Why'd I even have that fight?
This is, unfortunately, part of the cost of admission when playing JRPGs.
I completely agree with this one, that dissonance can be aggravating, especially since I see it so often.
One that drove me batty is hit stun in FF7 Rebirth. There was no balance between what would stagger you and enemies were completely immune to it.
Deaths that are unavoidable the first time you encounter them. Poster child for this is From Software.
You have to die to learn how not to die. It's just a massive failure in game design - a well designed game equips you with the skills to avoid the death. A shitty game teaches you those skills by killing you.
Half-assed stealth mechanics. To be more specific, a game that chooses to do stealth should allow the player a set of options to pick from in the event they are caught and they should never be presented with a game over screen.
Insta-kill deaths in general are my #1. Mostly in RPGs, though I'm not super high on them in other genres either. Avoidance is usually based around equipping a specific accessory, so the real mechanic ends up being "block one accessory slot". It never adds anything to the strategy, it's just putting a randomize game over screen into the mix.
I hate missions or mechanics that are completely different from the rest of the game and poorly implemented.
For example, I’m replaying Dragon Age Inquisition and just finished the Wicked Hearts masquerade mission. For those not familiar with DAI, most missions are a mix of combat and exploration with some roleplaying thrown in. Wicked Hearts involves a lot of dialogue as you try to catch the assassin who wants to kill the queen. Say the wrong thing to the wrong person and you lose approval which in turn makes it hard to get the best ending. This would work much better in a narrative adventure game.
Also, I really hate jumping puzzles in non-platformer games. Looking at you Guild Wars 2.
Scooter. He felt like a direct parody of a bunch of people I went to high school with and it was just grating. On the flip I really enjoy Ellie.
Named items that can generate with randomized stats/effects. Tedious layered stat and bonus comparison is tedious.
Npc’s that says “come with me” and then proceeds to walk slightly slower than you.
Weapon degradation. Hey I have this awesome sword. I am going to use it. Oh no, it's broken and crap until I find some special elf iron and take it back to my forge at my movable camp. I guess I will use this shit battle axe for the next hour or so.
Also, incomberance. If you want to limit how much I can carry, that's fine. If you want to punish me by making me walk super slow because I grabbed an apple too much, that isn't fun.
I think Weapon Degradation is why I gave up on Breath of the Wild multiple times.
It turned into a constant inventory management game of cycling out my worst weapon whenever I found a "new" one.
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