Have your taste in video games changed over the years?

Started by Mustang, July 08, 2019, 04:27:37 PM

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Mustang

If so, how? I've become more picky than ever.

Yep, taking from and giving credit to Markness's thread about music. But I was thinking about this while playing Devil May Cry 5 Saturday. Back in my NES days we played whatever we got our hands on because, obviously, my parents were buying / renting (Blockbusters anyone?) the games for us and because we (my brother and sister, every now and then, cousins) were all playing said games and for the most part we enjoyed them. I'm fairly certain if I were to try and play those same games today I'd tell you how much I can't stand them.

My SNES and Genesis days were pretty much the same as NES. Although, my brother had a Genesis and my cousin had one as well. I was the odd one who had the SNES. But get this all those classic hits that were released on it (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 4-6, I think, etc) I never got my hands on. The only games I had on it were Super Street Fighter 2 (I want to say original, I don't recall there being any supers in it), TMNT Fighters, Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat 1&2, Super Mario World, Super Mario Allstars and probably some other weird stuff (SNES - PS2 days were spent outside. SNES-PSX were playing basketball. N64-Xbox were spent chasing girls)

Saturn/PSX/Dreamcast/N64 was where everything really started to shift towards me getting very competitive in fighting games (not on a tournament level, but to the point where I'd pop off like I'm hot shit when in reality I was just garbage). At this time I'm still playing just about everything but I started phasing games like Sonic and Mario out, but like I said I was outside hanging with my little clique at this point as well so I didn't have many games to begin with.

PS2/Xbox. I completely X'd Nintendo out. This was also my intro to JRPGs because I got my PS2 very late and was still playing PSX games (catch up and whatnot). Again, outside playing ball and chasing skirts. This was also my introduction to the Metal Gear Solids, Devil May Cries, Ninja Gaidens and the Halos. So at this point I'm a dude bro (or cool dude), but I still wanted to be left alone playing my games. Fighting games, while I still played them took a back seat to everything else. Hell, I think I dabbled into a little bit of everything during these days.

XBox360/PS3. Again, Nintendo was completely gone. I welcomed the summer blockbusters (Uncharteds, Batmans, whatever) but for the most part it was Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs Capcom 3 24/7. Dabbled into the DMCs, MGSs so on and so forth, but got hooked on to Mass Effect. JRPG's I was starting to phase out, not to mention they weren't coming out for those consoles anyway. I had long been done with hand-held games. (Even then I got these consoles relatively late as well)

Fast forward to now. Like I said, what brought all of this on was triggered from playing DMC5. So I'm playing, in the midst of it all I'm like "why am I not feeling this game?'. This is one of the games I've been looking forward to the most. I don't want anymore games like Dark Souls. I want combos and swag. The crazy part about it is this is not the 1st time I've been hit like this. The other time was when I was playing Nier Automata. Both of these games should be right up my alley right? Then it hit me. I get more enjoyment out of seeing games like these be played than actually playing them these days. For the last 4-5 months the only type of games I've been playing are JRPG's (Persona 5 and Final Fantasy 7) and Fighting games (and some random obscured title; Xenoverse 2, Yugioh). I think I'm turning into an old person  :cry:
3S - Ken, Ryu, Dudley
SF6 - Ken, Jamie, Juri
GGXrdR2 - Johnny, Sol

Dr. Ensatsu-ken

#1
Respect your opinion but disagree completely about DMC5; I love watching skilled players play it and games like it, of course, but I'd still much rather play it than watch it. A huge part of the fun is on replaying it and constantly discovering more intricacies and nuances to the combat mechanics as well as the enemies and bosses. I've wasted hours in The Void alone, essentially treating it like the training mode in a fighting game just having a blast experimenting with combos and trying to perfect royal guard parry timing on each enemy type.

As for me, I'd say that my taste in gaming has mainly changed in terms of what kind games I prefer now compared to my pre-college days. Back then I loved mostly games with long campaigns and a very heavy emphasis on leveling up and gaining progression through things like increased stats and such (Pokemon, KOTOR, Oblivion, etc.), but these days I just find a lot of that stuff too time-consuming. I mean, I still fondly remember those games from my youth, and I do still play long games today, but I'm always busy and tend to play things in short bursts, and certainly not every day. That's why I tend to prefer character action games, fighting games, certain shooters, and other more singularly focused titles with less emphasis on longevity and more emphasis on quality over quantity as well as overall replayability.

Mustang

I respect that and I hope I get that fire back to play and go for such crazy/stylish combos (These are usually my go-to's). It feels like I've waited forever to buy these games (Astral Chain is next on my list) only to not even pop it in the damn PS4 because I'm still playing said fighting game or JRPG and then I lose interest when I do get to it (And I kick myself for it all the time). I pray that no one gets like me.
3S - Ken, Ryu, Dudley
SF6 - Ken, Jamie, Juri
GGXrdR2 - Johnny, Sol

Foggle

I was massively hyped for Devil May Cry 5 but I've barely touched it. My skills have atrophied to the point where it's borderline-unplayable for me on Normal, not that I was ever the best player to begin with (there's a reason I don't touch fighting games). It might just be Nero's playstyle but I can't seem to do anything except clunk around with his most basic combos, which isn't particularly fun. I was also getting my ass handed to me when I tried replaying the Ninja Gaiden games, though at least I was still enjoying those. I'm going to need to start over from scratch with DMC 1 or something. I didn't have trouble with Nier Automata, but on Normal that game isn't really designed to be challenging anyway, and it's more about bullet dodging and mixing melee/shooting than pure technical combat in the first place. If you're really into JRPGs right now and don't necessarily care about the action you could try playing it again on Easy difficulty to enjoy the story and music if you want.

When I was a kid I was pretty much solely into platformers, especially 3D ones, though I did enjoy a few other games like Paper Mario, Halo, Smash Bros, and StarCraft. In my teenage years I started to enjoy character action, stealth, and survival horror games the most, and I got really into FPS for a time. Eventually I lost interest in gaming almost entirely until the original Nier pulled me back in, which made me a lot more open to playing RPGs (even though I still dislike turn-based combat). Nowadays I'm mostly into immersive sims (games like Deus Ex and Dishonored), platformers (especially Metroidvania), and classic-style survival horror/FPS (no "cinematic" shit please). Phoenix Wright has taught me to enjoy point & click adventure games and visual novels as well, which is something I never really thought possible before.

The biggest thing I look for in gaming these days is a unique experience. I will gladly take an amateurish indie title made by one person over a highly-polished AAA blockbuster any day, provided it does something new and interesting mechanically or has a compelling story to tell.

Dr. Ensatsu-ken

You could always lower the difficulty on DMC5, though. Plus it gives you gold orbs as a daily login bonus. I'd also argue that execution in the game had been made easier than in previous DMC games. This is by no means a game that requires frame-perfect timing for any of it's mechanics.

I don't know, maybe I'm the weird one here, but this is easily better than any game I've played this generation so far on mechanics alone, as it's more about self-expression through finding your own unique playstyle than on being a hardcore action title like the older games were.

Foggle

It might just be either the way Nero plays at the start or the fact that I was constantly exhausted from work and a horrendous sleep schedule when DMC5 came out. It probably is easier than the previous games (which is why I don't want to lower the difficulty or abuse login bonuses...) but I seem to have some sort of mental block preventing me from doing well at any similar game right now. :el_cry:

It's good that the gameplay is designed around being creative, though. That's why I enjoy games like Deus Ex so much! Prey is probably my favorite current-gen game mechanically for similar reasons.

Dr. Ensatsu-ken

Nero is the best he's ever been in DMC5, but he does start out with fairly limited options. That said, I'd recommend experimenting with the Devil Breakers as they really diversify his combat and have multiple applications to mix things up. For example, Gerbera makes dodging easier, especially in mid-air, but it also carries projectiles and redirects them back at the enemy, so you could literally dodge and reflect attacks at the same time if you time it right. Using it's charge move on the ground will create a powerful energy beam that does huge damage (at the cost of breaking it for balance reasons), but using the charge move in mid-air creates a scatter-shot effect, and if used in closed corridors it will juggle all surrounding enemies for you and gain you tons of style points, giving it a strategic use depending on your environment. That's just one example, of course. Literally every other main Devil Breaker is just as nuanced and interesting to use in combat. Using Exceed is also highly encouraged as it really helps add a whole new layer to combat, especially when dealing with a crowd of enemies.

You can also Max-Act off of Nero's air-taunt, enemy-step off of all enemies and bosses to increase air-time (you can even do this for the mission 6 boss without having to weaken his legs to get on his back), and he unlocks his devil breaker and devil trigger by the end of the game allowing for literally a whole new array of options on replays. This game's developers literally had the balls to take away one of Nero's main gameplay mechanics from the previous games to encourage using new methods of attack in it's place, but also took the time and effort to include those things for future playthroughs including the hundreds of hours they must have spent programming completely unique and intricate animations for buster grabbing each enemy type, including ALL bosses. Not to mention you unlock it in one of the best final boss fights since DMC3, with Silver Bullet being arguably the greatest final boss theme of all time.

And that's just Nero. There are still two other playable characters, one of which objectively has the most in-depth and robust combat arsenal in all of gaming history (I'm pretty sure you can guess who). ;)

Meanwhile a game like God of Snore recycles the same bosses and mini-bosses as well as the same basic enemy variants (literally only differentiating them between elemental types) with the same two weapons throughout the entire game, and somehow gets awards and accolades for that because it pretends to have a deep story. So, yeah, I love a game like DMC5 which is becoming rarer and rarer in this day and age, which is why I sincerely wish more people would respond to the clear love and care the developers put into this title.

Obviously, nothing wrong if that's not yours or Mustang's thing anymore, but it does genuinely make me a bit sad that it doesn't manage to rekindle your former enjoyment for this style of action game. To be fair, though, you guys clearly aren't alone there, hence why this style of game has mostly died out in the last several years. Even Team Ninja is putting more stock in their Souls-like series or licensed IPs than in a new Ninja Gaiden game.

Foggle

Don't worry, replaying Ninja Gaiden Black is rekindling my former love of the genre. ;) I just need to ease back in slowly, maybe replay the classic DMCs as well (I mean, I do own the PS4 ports). I'm sure I'll get around to 5 someday and end up loving it!

God of Norse can heck off, I'm really disappointed that's the direction action-adventure games have gone in. Only Platinum, Capcom, and indie devs seem interested in carrying the torch at all. :(

Mustang

No fans of God of War I take it?  :sweat: The only selling point to me for God of War as a series was its presentation and how everything felt huge. Other than that it's whatever.

And to add to my earlier post. Where I'm at with gaming in general these days (this might explain why it's hard for me to really get into DMC5 at the moment), we're in 2019, damn near 2020. Is it too much to ask for the total package (I also understand folks love for FromSoft games)? For me, to get me to replay single-player games at this point I need more than just trying to get better at combos. If your story is okay or has no hook I'm only going to play it once and move on. I can play Nioh repetitively because the hook for me are the historical figures (let alone just having a samurai setting) despite having a mediocre story. It also helps when you have several ways to customize William (A few others fit here but Nioh is the recent one).

As much as I love the DMC series, I think the problem I'm having with DMC5 is that it's coming off as slow and a little dull (I'm not tech heavy so it might be me and tv that sucks). I love Nero, Dante and Vergil, but goodness it's slow and limiting to the point that I'm contemplating buying orbs just to unlock moves (Just to get past this limited feeling). That aside, the story, having a hard time caring despite wanting to know the connection between DMC4-5. And I just find Nico uninteresting. Sassy, but uninteresting. And the crazy part about that, back when I was 16-27 years old I would've told you that story was the last thing I'd look for in my games. I never cared about story until I got my hands on Mass Effect 2. Now mind you, this is also coming from someone that use to love the Uncharted series, but I don't care for them now because the game play is "meh". I'll be 35 at the end of August. I don't get a lot of free time (I work from 6am-2:30pm) and what little free time I do get I most certainly don't want to spend it replaying games that I've already beaten, and the ones I do replay are the ones I'd consider special /top 5 material (both Nioh and Persona 5 comes to mind).

Now considering that everyone and their mothers know that fighting games are my favorite type of games so everything I just said is hypocritical. Couple of things. Story in fighting games are stupid. I hate it when people ask for it. Those that're looking for story in fighting games need to kick rocks. I'm sorry, as harsh as that sound, we know that those who're looking for story are just going to play through that and put it to the side. I get it, that's the majority and that's where devs make their money. I wish devs added all the content in the world to keep said players, but unfortunately we have incompetence in our midst and until said devs get their acts together those said players gotta go kick rocks. That tangent set aside, the 2nd thing is I also go to a weekly local every Friday night (been going since the beginning of this year and have a setup for almost everything). Every time new tech is discovered I have to practice so I don't get left behind because this day and age this scene moves very fast, and if you're behind it's hard to catch up (Currently playing catch up in DBFZ, UNIEL and GGXrdR2)

But Dr. Ensatsu-ken, I respect the hell out of your opinion when it comes to the hack n slash genre because you (like Huber from Easy Allies) wear your emotion on your sleeves for that genre and it does suck that the direction for the genre (a genre that seems like it's even more niche than fighting games) is heading in a direction where the market is going to push out more FromSoft and clones inc than ever (although, to me it feels like we're already there). Ninja Gaiden is a game I can always go back to simply because, Ninjas. I just wish that NG1&2 were remastered 1 more time for the PS4.
3S - Ken, Ryu, Dudley
SF6 - Ken, Jamie, Juri
GGXrdR2 - Johnny, Sol

Dr. Ensatsu-ken

#9
Quote from: Mustang on July 11, 2019, 04:37:53 PMNo fans of God of War I take it?  :sweat: The only selling point to me for God of War as a series was its presentation and how everything felt huge. Other than that it's whatever.

To be fair I was a lot more obnoxious and overly-biased back when I used to shit on the older titles, and I had barely even played them. I still much prefer series like DMC and Ninja Gaiden, though after playing GOW3 I can say that it's still better than an average Western action game. The most surprising thing about Dad of Bore is just how much it got me to actually appreciate the older titles. They still aren't really my thing, but at least they were made by people who actually like video games; and I know that all main titles are developed by Santa Monica Studios, but the development team has drastically changed the people actually running it at least twice since God of War 2 was released.

And since you mentioned presentation, I can still distinctly visualize key scenes and moments from older titles; even ones that I haven't played. The locked behind the shoulder perspective of Slog of Chore is so bland and uninspired that no particular environment or set-piece moment sticks out to me in particular.

QuoteAnd to add to my earlier post. Where I'm at with gaming in general these days (this might explain why it's hard for me to really get into DMC5 at the moment), we're in 2019, damn near 2020. Is it too much to ask for the total package (I also understand folks love for FromSoft games)? For me, to get me to replay single-player games at this point I need more than just trying to get better at combos. If your story is okay or has no hook I'm only going to play it once and move on. I can play Nioh repetitively because the hook for me are the historical figures (let alone just having a samurai setting) despite having a mediocre story. It also helps when you have several ways to customize William (A few others fit here but Nioh is the recent one).

In defense of DMC5, though, the unlockable moves and upgrades are more than robust enough that it will take you more than one playthrough to attain them all unless you are specifically replaying levels or using Bloody Palace to farm for Red Orbs, or just cheating and using real currency to buy enough Red Orbs to unlock everything.

I'd also argue that increasing the difficulty of enemies and bosses in organic rather than artificial ways (as in, making their AI naturally more aggressive rather than just upscaling their health and damage output) does a lot more for replay value than just you learning new moves. It forces you to engage familiar fors in completely new ways and adapt to new strategies, especially since enemy placement is completely changed up with tougher enemies appearing earlier and in combination with other enemy types that you didn't see them fight with on easier difficulties, really causing you to reassess your approach and strategy to combat in almost every single encounter. It's a hell of a lot more interesting to me than the more superficial replay value of 2019 games that just wants you to get artificially better stats and gear to deal with artificially (as in, just increased stats) stronger enemies. I love the fuck out of Nioh, but even that game was guilty of doing that on it's harder difficulties which is why I never bothered with them. I'll take Ninja Gaiden's harder difficulties with new enemy types, mixed up item placement, and enhanced enemy AI over what Team Ninja decided to do with Nioh's harder difficulties (I genuinely hope that Nioh 2 addresses this, but I doubt it). The funny thing is that what kept me coming back to Nioh in the first place WAS wanting to learn new combos and experiment with new abilities. After a while I could care less about leveling up my gear except for when I wanted certain status effects for my weapons in order to stack up Discord on large enemies for fun.

QuoteAs much as I love the DMC series, I think the problem I'm having with DMC5 is that it's coming off as slow and a little dull (I'm not tech heavy so it might be me and tv that sucks). I love Nero, Dante and Vergil, but goodness it's slow and limiting to the point that I'm contemplating buying orbs just to unlock moves (Just to get past this limited feeling).

I mean, in this day and age if DMC5 is considered slow then I'm really eager to know which other games you have been playing....because I definitely want in. ;)

QuoteThat aside, the story, having a hard time caring despite wanting to know the connection between DMC4-5. And I just find Nico uninteresting. Sassy, but uninteresting. And the crazy part about that, back when I was 16-27 years old I would've told you that story was the last thing I'd look for in my games. I never cared about story until I got my hands on Mass Effect 2. Now mind you, this is also coming from someone that use to love the Uncharted series, but I don't care for them now because the game play is "meh". I'll be 35 at the end of August. I don't get a lot of free time (I work from 6am-2:30pm) and what little free time I do get I most certainly don't want to spend it replaying games that I've already beaten, and the ones I do replay are the ones I'd consider special /top 5 material (both Nioh and Persona 5 comes to mind).

That's understandable, as everyone values different things in their games and story is certainly one of them. That said, while I doubt it would alter your perspective much, I'd recommend checking out Codex Entry's videos on DMC3 and 5's stories, as well as Hyper Bit Hero's Vergil video for DMC3 for good insight into how there's more beneath the surface and goofy, cheesy fun tone of the stories within those games. And again, I find the self-aware campiness of these games' stories to personally be far more appealing for me than the pretentious, overly self-serious titles that make up a majority of modern AAA games. That's just my own preference, of course, though, and what you value most in a story will always be subjective to you.

QuoteBut Dr. Ensatsu-ken, I respect the hell out of your opinion when it comes to the hack n slash genre because you (like Huber from Easy Allies) wear your emotion on your sleeves for that genre and it does suck that the direction for the genre (a genre that seems like it's even more niche than fighting games) is heading in a direction where the market is going to push out more FromSoft and clones inc than ever (although, to me it feels like we're already there). Ninja Gaiden is a game I can always go back to simply because, Ninjas. I just wish that NG1&2 were remastered 1 more time for the PS4.

Thank you. I really appreciate that sentiment. :joy:

And FUCK YES! I've been wanting NG on the PS4 since I bought one. I'd even take the Sigma versions of both (which is realistically what we would get). And none of this PS Now garbage either. I tried playing Sigma 2 through a free-trial of that service and the compression and input lag were so unbelievably bad to the point of being unplayable, and this was at five times their minimum recommended Internet speed (and it was running at sub-30 FPS). Ninja Gaiden was never intended to be played this way.

Hey, KoeiTecmo: you want easy money? Re-release these games on current-gen consoles and for PC. With MUA3 coming out and clearly being finished in development, Team Ninja's C-team should be free to work on some ports.

Foggle

DMC5 felt a little slow to me but that's only because I exclusively play 3 and 4 on Turbo mode. :sweat:

And I will be obnoxious and biased about the God of War franchise. :P The whole series sucks. I hate it. I've played the first three games, and the first PSP game - I really liked the second one back in the day, but the first and third are horrifically boring to me, and I remember absolutely nothing about the PSP one. I'll gladly take Arkham combat over "mash the square button for 10-30 seconds per enemy and then do a QTE with totally awesome gore, bro." Also, Kratos is the least likable protagonist in video game history. I actively despise playing as him and find his cruelty, especially in GOW3, to be nauseating.

I know this sounds hypocritical since I adore the ultraviolence in Ninja Gaiden 2 & Doom 4 and love playing evil characters in western RPGs, but there's just something about the framing and presentation in God of War that makes me feel sick. Same with the newer Mortal Kombat games and The Last of Us 2.

Dr. Ensatsu-ken

#11
Quote from: Foggle on July 12, 2019, 01:30:54 PMDMC5 felt a little slow to me but that's only because I exclusively play 3 and 4 on Turbo mode. :sweat:

While I do wish that 5 had a Turbo mode, it's actually faster than 4; I exclusively play 4 on Turbo and the base game feels so slow that Turbo feels like normal speed in other DMC games. Having played both for comparison, 5's speed is honestly pretty comparable to 4 on Turbo. Nothing plays as fast as DMC3 on Turbo, though.

QuoteAnd I will be obnoxious and biased about the God of War franchise. :P The whole series sucks. I hate it. I've played the first three games, and the first PSP game - I really liked the second one back in the day, but the first and third are horrifically boring to me, and I remember absolutely nothing about the PSP one. I'll gladly take Arkham combat over "mash the square button for 10-30 seconds per enemy and then do a QTE with totally awesome gore, bro." Also, Kratos is the least likable protagonist in video game history. I actively despise playing as him and find his cruelty, especially in GOW3, to be nauseating.}

I pretty much agree but I cut it a bit of slack because for one thing it's clearly the intent of the earlier games to make Kratos an unlikable douche (which is even reflected by how other people act around him in cutscenes). That's never something that I've cared for, but those games are clearly self-aware in the same way that DMC 3-5 are self-aware of their cheesy action movie tone despite that not being everyone's preference. What I can at least respect about either franchise, though, preference aside, is that they are unabashedly clear about what they are and wear their identity on their sleeves. When I say that a game like Disappointing Son Simulator 2018 even managed to make me appreciate a game series that I never even liked to begin with, that's precisely what I mean. Older GoW games were basic action games that got by on spectacle and gore. Not my thing, but it is what it is, and it has an audience. The reboot is some of the most pathetically artificial, insincere, pandering bull-shit that I've ever seen in gaming. It feels like a game made by people who actively dislike the medium, and cares far more about the appearance of depth and nuance than actually having it.

Foggle

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on July 12, 2019, 03:32:50 PM
While I do wish that 5 had a Turbo mode, it's actually faster than 4; I exclusively play 4 on Turbo and the base game feels so slow that Turbo feels like normal speed in other DMC games. Having played both for comparison, 5's speed is honestly pretty comparable to 4 on Turbo. Nothing plays as fast as DMC3 on Turbo, though.
Ah, okay. 3 is the one I've played most and I think I've only finished 4 on Turbo once (twice in total), so, yeah. :sweat: :sweat: :sweat:

QuoteI pretty much agree but I cut it a bit of slack because for one thing it's clearly the intent of the earlier games to make Kratos an unlikable douche (which is even reflected by how other people act around him in cutscenes). That's never something that I've cared for, but those games are clearly self-aware in the same way that DMC 3-5 are self-aware of their cheesy action movie tone despite that not being everyone's preference. What I can at least respect about either franchise, though, preference aside, is that they are unabashedly clear about what they are and wear their identity on their sleeves. When I say that a game like Disappointing Son Simulator 2018 even managed to make me appreciate a game series that I never even liked to begin with, that's precisely what I mean. Older GoW games were basic action games that got by on spectacle and gore. Not my thing, but it is what it is, and it has an audience. The reboot is some of the most pathetically artificial, insincere, pandering bull-shit that I've ever seen in gaming. It feels like a game made by people who actively dislike the medium, and cares far more about the appearance of depth and nuance than actually having it.
It's definitely true that the old GOW titles had an audience different from DMC and NG, though in all honesty I think the new one is kind of an evolution of the originals in a really dumb way? The older games were really big among the crowd that prefers spectacle and the impression of a good story over deep or immersive gameplay, which is what the new one does too; it just feels dishonest in the context of its franchise because they tried to turn pure exploitation into Oscarbait. Like, the core mechanics and overall intention are different but to me feels like it was made for those same people who only kinda-sorta liked video games, grew up with the first two installments, and are now sad dads themselves.

Dr. Ensatsu-ken

#13
The gaming journalists definitely always treated the series as such, which makes it all the more hilarious how easily they turned on the older games when the prettier, shinier new one came along with the most obvious, un-subtle critique of the old version of Kratos. However, there was a fan-base beyond that who didn't care about any of that stuff and mostly just liked Kratos fighting giant monsters and such. I know because some of those people were/are friends of mine. Old GoW games catered to both groups, but this new one seems to cater exclusively to that journalist crowd and, unfortunately, the millions of people who have bought into that skewed, corporate line of thinking.

Basically, Nu God of War is trying to be some sort of deconstruction of it's franchise in the same way that Nier is for action games and JRPGs, except, you know....bad.

Mustang

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on July 12, 2019, 05:17:54 PM
The gaming journalists definitely always treated the series as such, which makes it all the more hilarious how easily they turned on the older games when the prettier, shinier new one came along with the most obvious, un-subtle critique of the old version of Kratos. However, there was a fan-base beyond that who didn't care about any of that stuff and mostly just liked Kratos fighting giant monsters and such. I know because some of those people were/are friends of mine. Old GoW games catered to both groups, but this new one seems to cater exclusively to that journalist crowd and, unfortunately, the millions of people who have bought into that skewed, corporate line of thinking.

Basically, Nu God of War is trying to be some sort of deconstruction of it's franchise in the same way that Nier is for action games and JRPGs, except, you know....bad.

It's funny that you mention this as I am currently listening to Easy Allies podcast and Kyle Bosman said that they've been getting a lot of comments about them sleeping on Astral Chain, and I can't help but think how much praise they've given to games like God of War and the Souls/Borne games (I roll my eyes every time because the conversation always comes back to Souls games). During one of their Hall of Greats episodes, Huber made the bold statement of saying that Sekiro might have the best combat of all time.  In my mind I'm like have you not played Ninja Gaiden? I usually don't care about the opinion of journalists, but that one rubbed me the wrong way (don't let them talk about fighting games).

As for DMC5, turbo missing is definitely causing a little setback but I'm certain a lot of my minor issues will be resolved once I get more moves unlocked. Coming off of both Nioh and NG2 will cause a lot of games to feel slow though.

And then we have Kratos, lol. If you were to ask me who my favorite character was back then I'd tell you Dante. If you were to ask me now, Vergil (THE ONE TIME YOU'D THINK CAPCOM WOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF DLC AND MAKE VERGIL A PLAYABLE CHARACTER THEY SAY NO!!!! WHAT?!!!). I give no shits about Kratos. Never have and never will. I've yet to play through the new God of War so I don't have much of an opinion, but from what I can remember during GoW1-3, yeah, he was definitely a shitty character and I found it crazy that people actually liked him.
3S - Ken, Ryu, Dudley
SF6 - Ken, Jamie, Juri
GGXrdR2 - Johnny, Sol