Video game design flaws that ruined games for you?

[AspieAlly613]

There are two main rules for game design:

 

1)  smart decisions should be rewarded and foolish decisions should be punished.

 

2)  the best decision should not be obvious.

 

There are a few issues that ruined some games that I really wanted to enjoy.  Here are a few that come to mind:

 

Hearthstone:  This one hurt.  They actually got the two main rules right, for the most part.  But there was a major issue that eventually ruined the game for me.  Each card has a mana cost, to prevent players from playing powerful cards too early or playing too much powerful stuff in one turn.  Some cards could lower other cards' mana costs.  There was a problem when cards got reduced to 0 mana, completely bypassing that check, and leading to some degenerate deck combinations.

 

RWBY Amity Arena:  I soooo wanted to like this game.  But the leveling system meant that the outcome of the game had nothing to do with the decisions you made, and instead was based on who had played longer/levelled up xyr fighters the most.

 

Crystal Soul Arena:  This game had (and still has) promise.  But there are two issues currently:  First, the matchmaking system often matches players against lousy AI opponents that play so poorly, you can't really practice for organized play.  Second, they tried to make counterplay a thing, but the game has both players shuffle their hands into their decks every turn, so counterplay just becomes a matter of guesswork.

 

What about you?

[Guest]

uhhhhhhhhh, everything about Hylics 2, pretty much. I cannot properly express my disappointment with that game. the developer went too big and it was anything but enjoyable to play. obnoxiously annoying side scroller sections, one of which is mandatory to reaching the end of the game... the overall movement being incredibly awkward and clunky... I actually gave up when I reached that second side scroller section. I hated it so much. there's like, a god mode thing which made it tolerable but completing it in that mode doesn't count. and I just decided I was done. there was also the fact that the areas were honestly too large for the most part, making getting through it all the more annoying.

[AspieAlly613]

4 minutes ago, MOONTRIPS said:

uhhhhhhhhh, everything about Hylics 2, pretty much. I cannot properly express my disappointment with that game. the developer went too big and it was anything but enjoyable to play. obnoxiously annoying side scroller sections, one of which is mandatory to reaching the end of the game... the overall movement being incredibly awkward and clunky... I actually gave up when I reached that second side scroller section. I hated it so much. there's like, a god mode thing which made it tolerable but completing it in that mode doesn't count. and I just decided I was done. there was also the fact that the areas were honestly too large for the most part, making getting through it all the more annoying.

Oof, yeah, fake difficulty is never good.

[Captain_Tass]

The handling of the EXP share in pokémom generation 6 onwards. Pokémon X and Y absolutely had the right idea by making the EXP share an item that splits the EXP points earned from battle between all party members rather than just one party member, like the previous generations had done. Grinding for hours on end to be able to make a dent of progress is far from pleasant, and the EXP share still could be toggled on or off, to suit each player's preferred playstyle. However, the problem lies in the fact that the changes in the EXP share were obviously implemented late in development, and the game isn't built around such a mechanic. As a result, with the EXP share toggled on, your team will inevitably end up vastly overleveled, and even the elite 4 and the champion (the last challenge of the game, that's meant to be... challenging) will be a breeze.

 

These problems were only made worse in generation 8 (pokémon sword and shield specifically), where the exp share was permanently toggled on, removing player choice and any and all challenge, as the problem with the scaling wasn't addressed. I haven't even played gen 8, but I'm extremely familiar with the EXP share debacle, as I played pokémon Y.

 

Look. My first ever champion was Cynthia in a used copy of diamond. I was like 9 years old, and I literally cried when she wiped the floor with my team. But I tried again, and again, and again, and I eventually beat her. Then at like 11, I played soulsilver, raised a team from absolute scratch, struggled with Lance, eventually beat him, and then I went on to beat the Kanto gym leaders and climb Mt Silver, where I found Red. First pokémon comes out, it's a level 81 pikachu, I barely stood a chance. It took a lot of grinding and a bunch of strategy, but I ended up beating Red as well. I played all of gen 5 as well, and I loved it. Eventually I got a 3ds and pokémon Y. Every time I was nervous before the pokémon league. But when I finished Y's league, I wasn't relieved and happy like I was all the previous times. I was just disappointed and a bit guilty, it felt totally undeserved. I was the Red of my Y file, Diantha never stood a chance.

 

I'm currently doing a pokémon leafgreen nuzlocke (no level caps in place other than my own patience to endlessly grind) and it's brought back the fun along with the challenge! I'm far from a person who plays pokémon for the battles, but that doesn't mean I want to turn my brain off and breeze past them, mindlessly mashing A until I've become the champion. And the nuzlocke is endlessly rewarding. My underleveled team barged into the fighting dojo and my level 32 pidgeot VALIANT nearly died before he wiped the floor with the fighting dojo master's level 37 team. And I literally cheered in relief and happiness, and picked the hitmonchan and named him PLONKO. (Yeah I have a capital letters naming scheme because gen 3).

 

(Not to say that pokémon games before the 3d era were perfectly balanced, hell, HG/SS have a crap difficulty curve I never noticed as a kid, but... I could let that go more easily than just removing all challenge from the game entirely)

[Philip027]

Taking away options from the player.  The Pokemon example cited above is a good example.

 

Some devs seem to have this inexplicable hard-on for only letting players play the way that they want them to play.

[Guest]

56 minutes ago, Philip027 said:

Some devs seem to have this inexplicable hard-on for only letting players play the way that they want them to play.

I heard people criticise rdr2 for that, but since I found rdr boring af I dunno if the criticism is accurate or not. 

 

This doesn't "ruin" games for me but when a character can't interact with aspects of the environment it can be frustrating. In the witcher 3 Geralt can't step over a friggin rock. 

[nutterwithasolderingiron]

i have an example from pokemon that i want to bring up and i may end up punching one of the sacred cows of the franchise. 

 

i've always had issues with pokemon diamond and pearl. some of it is performance issues. but if we're talking about design issues, i got a big one to pick. THE FUCKING POKEDEX IS BORKED. 

wanna use a fire type that's not chimchar? ponyta is yer only option. you will need a fire type because it'll work well against a lot of the bug and grass types in this gen
wanna use an electric type that's not shinx? gotta use pikachu. you will need an electric type because there's a lot of flying and water pokemon in this gen. 

 

there's a joke in the pokemon community that goes along the lines of "i can't wait to play sinnoh again" but because so few pokemon in this gen are even competitively viable, most people's teams end up the same. your elite 4 team is probably going to look something like this as a result. 
infernape
staraptor
luxray
lucario
garchomp
buizel

 

seriously, i hate gen 4.

 

[ElloryJaye]

Grafting mandatory twitch-based minigames into games that are overall turn-based, or at least slow-paced.  It's the "mandatory" that's the problem, especially since my reflexes weren't that great even when I was in my teens.  I generally get past them eventually, but it isn't unusual for me to spend three or four sessions that end in rage-quits, followed by a week of decompressing each time before I actually go back to the game.  (WildARMS 2, I'm looking at you.)

[Captain_Tass]

13 minutes ago, nutterwithasolderingiron said:

seriously, i hate gen 4.

In hindsight and considering what could have been, I found that I hate gen 4 too (even though that was my introduction to pokemon), gen 5 (and especially B2W2) is where the franchise peaked imho.

 

Platinum supposedly fixed many of the issued that plagued D/P, (and renegade Platinum fixed even more) but I got so much sinnoh fatigue that I can't get through Platinum tbh. I love seeing Hisui in Legends: Arceus, but I've had enough of Sinnoh.

[Phalena]

- Putting on the different boots in the original version of Ocarina of Time was annoying as heck!

 

Generally:

- Quick-time events in otherwise complex fighting systems. They are dull and it's not like the cinematic aspects are done well in many cases. (Sorry, God of War franchise, you're great otherwise! t's just that I can't concentrate on the cool camera angles for fear that I miss the stupid events)-

- Monsters in horror games having dumb AIs. (Almost all the horror games to this day, sorry not sorry).

- Mandatory zombies in survival games that are actually gather-and-build-simulators. Maybe the formular is great and I'm just tired of it.

- Having to beat one timed/countdown event after the other and thus being under constant pressure to be quick even if it isn't necessary. The levels in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle had a strong tendency to feel that way.

 

[Still]

In Shenmue 3, you had a stamina bar that was constantly depleting, and it drained pretty fast even while walking. You had to constantly eat to be able to do anything. The combat from the previous two games was also replaced with a new system that was meant to be "more approachable", but it was just terrible. Then again, Shenmue 3 shouldn't have been made in the first place 🤷‍♂️

[Lord Jade Cross]

I wouldnt say it neccesarily ruined the game for me, but it definately pissed me off enough that I started the game from scratch, throwing away the many hours I had spent grinding for levels, the first time I played Witcher 3 and got the bad ending

 

Now a game that I completely felt like I was slapped across the face when I played it was Sun & Moon (Moon was the first I played), especially the battle tree. I had played X & Y before and had found it decent as a Pokemon game, but Sun & Moon felt like a very lazily put together game, which I feel had a good potential. 

 

The final nail on the coffin was the reintroduction of Red & Blue as fightable trainers and as someone who struggled, and damn did I struggle back in Gold that I spent almost 40 hours prepping a team to fight him. I was beyond frustrated at how my battle with him (which I won) felt so devoid of everything. I felt like I was just solving the math equation for the game and not playing the game itself

 

[Epitaph]

I don't really think I've had games ruined for me, since I'm so picky, but I suppose I could talk about one while I'm here. Warframe is such a unique game for me for a number of reasons, from its mostly relaxed community to its unique aesthetics and sci-fi elements. It launched as a free to play four player grindfest that made its money from the market through microtransactions that eventually incorporated community made content.

 

I never minded the grindfest and the push to the market because from the get go the game reeled me in to all of its building and resource aspects. It felt really damn good to build and do everything on my own when other players relied on trading, group efforts, and cash to get what they got. I just like taking it easy, picking a project and setting out to work on it.

 

But here's the problem. This game can be a nightmare running solo if you don't know the absolute ins and outs or you don't have the right gear. And even with the right gear, some mission types are nigh impossible solo because of the overwhelming odds and factors.

 

So if I had to sum it? Including single player modes in multi-player games for players but not balancing them correctly. Or maybe the inverse, including options for single players to get and do things without needing an A-team to do it. I fucking hate challenge modes in multiplayer games or things to do that unlocks stuff but needs teammates, because the curse of playing solo in pvp modes is that all your random teammates are usually potatoes while opposing teams are hyper twitch sweatlords. Or in PVE, it's balanced for a team rather than a solo. Why include solo modes at all if they aren't balanced well?

 

And that ties into an opposite. I think we're still in the age when many games tack on cheap multiplayer gimmicks in what could otherwise be great singler player games, drawing resources from the devs. Unless your game strikes gold with great multiplayer and develops a solid community base, ten years down the road its multiplayer won't be played. But its single player modes will.

[nutterwithasolderingiron]

4 hours ago, Life Of Tass said:

In hindsight and considering what could have been, I found that I hate gen 4 too (even though that was my introduction to pokemon), gen 5 (and especially B2W2) is where the franchise peaked imho.

 

Platinum supposedly fixed many of the issued that plagued D/P, (and renegade Platinum fixed even more) but I got so much sinnoh fatigue that I can't get through Platinum tbh. I love seeing Hisui in Legends: Arceus, but I've had enough of Sinnoh.

imho platinum didn't fix much. it added a few new pokemon to fill the gap but it still runs slow. 

 

but hey, at least i know how to give gen 4 fans a heart attack. 

 

p.s. she's not actually that hard. 

[Philip027]

Personally, I loved gen 4 / Sinnoh.  They were the first mainline Pokemon games that felt like they tried to inject some actual lore and "culture" into the region, if that makes any sense.  Platinum and HG/SS were also the last games to include the Battle Frontier, post-game competitive-tier content that I hugely appreciated as a single-player kind of guy.  Nowadays the post-games are so watered down that they are all but explicitly saying "if you want to keep playing, go battle other players" and I'm just like "but I don't wanna!!"

 

5 hours ago, nutterwithasolderingiron said:

i have an example from pokemon that i want to bring up and i may end up punching one of the sacred cows of the franchise. 

 

i've always had issues with pokemon diamond and pearl. some of it is performance issues. but if we're talking about design issues, i got a big one to pick. THE FUCKING POKEDEX IS BORKED. 

wanna use a fire type that's not chimchar? ponyta is yer only option. you will need a fire type because it'll work well against a lot of the bug and grass types in this gen
wanna use an electric type that's not shinx? gotta use pikachu. you will need an electric type because there's a lot of flying and water pokemon in this gen. 

 

there's a joke in the pokemon community that goes along the lines of "i can't wait to play sinnoh again" but because so few pokemon in this gen are even competitively viable, most people's teams end up the same. your elite 4 team is probably going to look something like this as a result. 
infernape
staraptor
luxray
lucario
garchomp
buizel

 

seriously, i hate gen 4.

Lack of fire types in gen 4 has been a long-standing critique; I remember seeing it a lot back when the gen was still current.  Didn't hear as much about electric types, but that is also technically true.

 

Staraptor was a BAMF and more than sufficed for dealing with bug/grass, though (and I see you probably recognize that too, as you've mentioned it in your hypothetical lineup)

[Guest]

Not a ruiner, just annoying, but basically any game that lets you whistle a horse. If you've played one, you'll know what I mean... 

 

Horse: there's a fence in the way. 

 

Playable character: OK I'll move over here and try again. 

 

Horse: there's a tree in the way. 

 

Playable character: OK I'll come to you, stay there. 

 

Horse: but I want to be over there. *randomly wanders*

 

Playable character: ffs just stand still

 

Horse: but there's a building in the way... Oh look at me, I'm standing on the roof now! The view's great from up here! 

 

Playable character: fuck it, I'll fast travel. 

[Karst]

11 hours ago, Black-purple-grey said:

Not a ruiner, just annoying, but basically any game that lets you whistle a horse. If you've played one, you'll know what I mean... 

 

Horse: there's a fence in the way. 

 

Playable character: OK I'll move over here and try again. 

 

Horse: there's a tree in the way. 

 

Playable character: OK I'll come to you, stay there. 

 

Horse: but I want to be over there. *randomly wanders*

 

Playable character: ffs just stand still

 

Horse: but there's a building in the way... Oh look at me, I'm standing on the roof now! The view's great from up here! 

 

Playable character: fuck it, I'll fast travel. 

And this is why I don't bother riding machines in Horizon Zero Dawn.  That, and the fact that it lets every enemy in what feels like about a ten-kilometer radius know you're there.

[Jusey1]

Random critical hits in Team Fortress 2 for me. Love the game and did put a lot of time into it, but I couldn't deal with the random critz anymore. It's such a bad gameplay mechanic that completely breaks gamemodes and matches.

[SorryNotSorry]

That some of the human characters in video games are cross-eyed. Maybe some people think it looks cute, but would you trust a cross-eyed sniper???

[TokenStrife]

For me it varies from game to game.

 

I remember being stupid excited for Strangers in Paradise Final Fantasy Origin, I was ALL about this game from the trailers, I ordered the collector's edition, and devoured every article and trailer. And then they dropped the demo, and that absolutely killed it for me. I could not get behind the gameplay, the amount of loot they threw at you was overwhelming and meaningless in the end cause the next section you'd just get a thousand tons of more gear and whatnot. And man the story was just absolute garbage with horrible cutscenes in terms of voice acting. The MC was an asshole it seemed, just for the sake of being the edgelord "I don't care" kind of dude, and I canceled my preorder the moment I finished the demo. I was SO disappointed. HOWEVER. I did watch someones story cutscenes of the whole game on YouTube, and the ending was PHENOMENAL! It was so freaking good with the way it was done. It would never justify buying the game for me, but it was worth watching the cringe worthy script just for the ending. **Edit, the job system and level up system in this game was absolutely amazing and a great way to modernize a job system.**

 

Overwatch... I want to start this rant with, yes, Lootboxes are a very predatory practice in terms of trying to get your players to spend money. It is akin to gambling(but so is buying TCG booster packs). That being said. Overwatch 2 RUINED my favorite multiplayer shooter. Their battle pass system is okay, after receiving all heroes on launch for free for like 5 years, I'm still salty that they're locking the heroes behind the battle pass, free track aside. I get that live service games that go F2P need to do things differently, but I HATED this change. And then come the in game currency. You know, the currency used in game to buy skins for your favorite heroes. The same currency that you can only earn 60 coins per week, save up for 32 weeks(more than half a year) to buy ONE 1900 coin cost skin, not counting all the other skins that will have released in that time. The fact that the skins are basically $20 per skin, with no reduction in cost for the basic recolors of the basic skins. I am not saying lootboxes are better, although I don't mind them for purely cosmetic purposes because its just cosmetics. BUT. Overwatch 1 threw soooooooo many loot boxes at you, every week for playing matches, leveling up, doing arcade modes, queuing for specific roles, and even endorsement levels. EVERY SINGLE event, I always managed to get the skins I wanted out of the event through purely just playing and earning loot boxes. The way they were distributed was a hell of a lot more generous than the predatory system that is in Overwatch 2 that almost forces you to give them money if you want cosmetics. It is absolutely awful.

 

Rant over lol.

[thegreatwolf]

For me it was Yokai Watch. I got the game for Christmas the year it came to the west and oh boy what a mess. First off the battling system was not fun for me not being able to tell them which attacks to use and have them fight on autopilot made certain fights a chore, second trying to recruit any yokai was cryptic at best and tedious at worst (context you don't capture them like in pokemon  you convince them to join you think like shin megami tensei.), and finally for me the straw that broke the camel's back you're locked out of areas unless you have a specific yokai and see point number two for why this made it a pain, overall making it a gimmicky, annoying, tedious mess.