Darks Souls 3, Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Skyrim.
I love RPGs but hate boss fights, for some reason. Once I feel I've done enough exploration and character development, I invariably lose all interest close to the last boss.
Do you not want to find out how the game ends? I think I get it, though, since I'd just make up endings I preferred for books with endings I didn't like.
Not really, and I think that's because in many games I play primarily to experience the world, find new items, and generally explore. The story itself usually takes a back seat and is rarely the thing driving me forward.
One counterpoint to that, off the top of my head, is Journey, which I always play through to the end scene.
BOTW is a beautiful game. But the complex controls and the fact that all weapons simply break would have had me sinking hours over hours into the game.
Honestly, the point of BoTW isn’t the ending. It’s much more about the adventure and exploration. I turned off all the HUD stuff and just enjoyed exploring the world. By the time I fought Gannon, it was trivial because of how powerful Link had become.
But it was worth beating it because
Tap for spoiler
after Gannon and finishing the main DLC quests, you get a sick dirt bike and get to tear ass around Hyrule like it’s an open world Mario Kart.
Nah, Zelda games don’t typically save once you beat them. You get a little star on your save file, I think, but otherwise, it drops you back to the save right before you fought Ganon so you can do all the side quests if you want. (If you’re a completionist, good luck finding all 1000 Korok seeds.)
I found the first half of master mode to be really fun too. Eventually, you level up enough that it’s not that much harder but at first, you have to basically play in stealth mode and avoid fights or use trickery. (Eventually, you level up enough that it’s almost easier because the monsters are all stronger and it’s easier to get good weapons/shields.)
Good to know, I guess I'll finally get around to slaying him then! I have done all the side quests, all the shrines, and all the DLC (all on Master Mode), but I have no interest in finding the remaining 400+ Korok seeds
Zelda combat gives me way too many heart palpations. I also tried for like 2 hours to take down a guardian with shield blocking (eventually did) and I really don't think I got any better at it.
Yeah, same. Getting past Guardians in BoTW required relying heavily on save scumming until I managed to get it right. Any fight that needed flurry rush was also always a disaster.
There’s a UI mod that makes a world of difference. Adds categories and columns for sorting, one of the categories is junk so you know what you can just trash without worries. Another is a weight/value ratio so its easier to drop heavy armor that looks sort of valuable but really isnt. It saves an incredible amount of time. Game still takes forever to beat if you wanna do all the quests.
This may reveal me to be some kind of weirdo, but I've never managed to finish any Zelda other than the very first one on NES. I've gone back and tried other Zelda games over the years, they all seem interesting to start with but I just end up putting them down at some point and losing interest entirely.
I love a lot of single-player action RPGs and always have, but for some reason the most popular series of them ever consistently fails to vibe with me.
So odd as I feel I may be the Ying to your yang. The first zelda is maybe the only one I haven't completed. I think it was incredible for it's time but I think modern controls have left me in a place where I get bored with that entry too quickly.
I was actually coming in to say the Switch Zelda games. BOTW and TOTK were both fantastic, but I never finished them because it never felt like I had done “enough” to actually go fight Ganon.
Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. Both amazing games (latter after the many updates that brought it over to the good side).
If it’s “too” long (really, no such thing, but situationally this can be the reality) it can happen that life turns so that there’s no more time, and when I try to get back, too much time has passed and I can’t orientate myself anymore, can’t remember where I was and what I was doing etc.
On the other hand, I can’t start again either, for a few years, because I remember everything before the point I left off at, once I get into the places and puzzles and whatnot.
Yeah I had to go nolife for a while with Cyberpunk, got more than 100 hours in that game, definitely a commitment, although the main story is pretty short if you just want to do that
I love long open-world games, but I also reached a certain point in TW3 where I just burned out. It was weird too, because up until that point I was getting anxious over how little map I had left to explore. Then boom, I just lost my drive. Maybe I subconsciously sabotaged it so that I wouldn't run out of game. I'd really like to try again sometime.
I feel like some AAA games have gotten better at making it easier to return after a long absence. FFVII Rebirth basically has a timeline of every single event leading up to your current mission and FFXVI had the Active Time Lore system and basically an entire in-game wiki that you put together for that old librarian dude. It also had that strategist lady who would explain to you the state of the realm between events and missions.
Subnautica. I always have so much fun exploring and crafting things, but then for one reason or another I end up putting it aside. By the time I get back to it, I've forgotten how to play so I end up starting a new game, only for the cycle to repeat. One of these days I'll finish it!
Subnautica is absolute fire all the way through. But then again quitting before completion, forgetting all about it, and being able to perpetually start anew as it were your magical first time playing sounds like a pretty good plan for game edging :>
I really struggle to enjoy crafting in Subnautica. Something about it just feels clunky and/or a step removed from me, and I don't engage with it very well.
I finished the last dungeon, collected all the extra stuff and every side quest I could find. I literally got right up to the lead up to the final Gannon fight... Then I was like "meh, I'm done".
i do this all the time. when i get close to finishing the game, i HAVE to go do all the side quests i neglected to finish along the way. Then i get burned out and beforei do the final boss... But my SO has similar video game tastes as me, so i end up just watching him do the final boss on his save hahaha
First time I played was at a boyfriend’s house. I got like 80% of the way through, then we broke up.
Second time, I let a friend borrow my GameCube in exchange for his PS2. I got about 80% of the way through, then he wanted his PS2 back.
I finally got my own PS2. Played about 80% of the way through but had a couple bad builds and couldn’t beat a boss. I didn’t have energy to grind my way into a better build, so I just never finished.
It’s been ~20 years. I still sometimes think I’ll break out the old PS2 and see if my save file is there. I probably won’t.
The remastered copy on Steam let's you speed up the game. It is much quicker running around at x4 speed and clearing random encounters. Then slow game speed to normal for major bosses and events. I would highly recommend this route rather than trying to find a PS2 again.
If you haven't played FFX-2 or FFXII then those are worth checking out too.
I think the most frustrating part is to lose your inventory if you're far into a mine and then die. So, as a purist, I only allow myself that one cheat: keepInventory=true
You keep the tension off Survival without the heartache of lost items
Same until the remaster came out, when I was a kid I beat 2 and 3 but never finished 1 due to the disc being too scratched to load one of the later levels.
I played through one single player save and two multiplayer ones with different groups, enjoyed it all - but only got a little ways into Act 3 on any one save. A combination of middling performance with my older rig and just having sank so much time in I burnt out a little.
Still think it's a fantastic game, but I don't know if I'll ever go back to finish it - I feel like I'd have to start a whole new save.
In my experience act 3 was extremely buggy, we had a blast in act 1 and 2 with my friend but the bugs in act 3 killed basically all our motivation and we never finished it.
It was the same with divinity original sin 2. The final act was so large, disorganized, and not fun. Like they had a lot of ideas they needed to use but didn't know where until then, so they threw them all in a big city and called it a day.
I'm in the same boat. I want to like the game and it is fun, but I got stuck with some area with orbs and my save corrupted...one of the orbs just disappeared after 50+ hours and I can't bring myself to play again and possibly have the same bug pop up. Maybe someday but it's just such a big game.