A Pleasant Surprise

[kawaiiamethist]

Have you ever avoided a game, finally slot it into the machine, to find it wasn't half bad, maybe even a little awesome?

The last time this happened to me was Blue Dragon. I owned it for ages till I finally gave it a spin. Just looking at the lead characters and the villain made me gag, it just looked so childish. To my surprise the game was engaging and story quite touching. You don't look at Blue Dragon and expect there be killer poo, a town with killer trees, a suicide attempt, or a world in that much fear. It often reminded me of Final Fantasy X. The game play was nicely old school, with a few modern touches, and developing the dragons was actually fun.

Anyway, that's the gem I deprived myself of for a long while. Any similiar experiences?

 

[Dr. Love]

Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, didn't expect anything more then a hour or two of laughing at it then throwing it back under bed, but despite a odd fighting style, was actually one of the best story lines of any game I've played, great characters, and has a character who looks like harry potter who ends up being the most bad ass of them all. Thinking of playing the first one after the rather pleasant this one threw at me.

All this with a box art of what appears to be a 12 year old swinging a puny sword.

 

[Poopie McGhee]

Newer Pokemon games... They're like meth...

 

[Zing]

Gears of War. At first I refused to play it because it seemed like it was simply testosterone and chainsaws, but the Horde Mode in Gears 2 is easily my favorite survival-gametype ever.

Same for GoW. I generally loathed the influx of post-apocalyptic third person-alien-shooters so avoided it until well after GoW 2 came out, I eventually tried it and found it wasn't actually that bad. And running around with a chain saw is insanely fun.

 

[ObsessiveSketch]

The last time this happened to me was Blue Dragon. I owned it for ages till I finally gave it a spin. Just looking at the lead characters and the villain made me gag, it just looked so childish. To my surprise the game was engaging and story quite touching. You don't look at Blue Dragon and expect there be killer poo, a town with killer trees, a suicide attempt, or a world in that much fear. It often reminded me of Final Fantasy X. The game play was nicely old school, with a few modern touches, and developing the dragons was actually fun.

>.> did you expect anything ELSE from Akira Toriyama? srsly?

 

[kawaiiamethist]

The last time this happened to me was Blue Dragon. I owned it for ages till I finally gave it a spin. Just looking at the lead characters and the villain made me gag, it just looked so childish. To my surprise the game was engaging and story quite touching. You don't look at Blue Dragon and expect there be killer poo, a town with killer trees, a suicide attempt, or a world in that much fear. It often reminded me of Final Fantasy X. The game play was nicely old school, with a few modern touches, and developing the dragons was actually fun.

>.> did you expect anything ELSE from Akira Toriyama? srsly?

He only did the artwork, as far as I know. And speaking of artwork, he sure was lazy when outfitting the characters.

 

[Emilin_Rose]

Metroid Prime. I hate first person shooters, mainly because when you need to turn right and walk down a hall, instead of turning right when you push the control stick right, you crabwalk like an idiot and die. But once i actually tried Metroid out i found i really enjoyed it. Not so much the combat but the exploration aspect of it. So i guess its pretty much the cry engine of fps's.

 

[DSaB]

I was a bit like this with the witcher, especially after all the "controversy", (eek a set of bangers!) then i only got into the game after i read the first english translated book, which was ace.

I should also mention Magic Carpet too, which i thought was rubbish at first, didnt play for 4ish months then got thoroughly addicted to.

 

[Ultress]

For the longest time I avoided Persona 3. The one dungeon and Dating Sim aspects really turned me off the game. The I saw FES in a bargain bin with about 30 other copies for $15 about figured what the hell and bought it with some of my birthday money. It blew me away. The story, the characters, the game play, everything was almost pitch perfect to me.I told myself I was stupid for waiting this long to get this game.

 

[Sneaklemming]

This happened to me with boht KOTOR and Deus Ex

 

[MissShortosity]

Funnily enough, Mass Effect was mine. My ex lent it to me, and reccomended it, but I was only ever really a fan of FPSs until then. I had it for several months before I got bored over the holidays, and fell in love with it. I think I ended up logging in excess of 40 hours on that game, because I got addicted to the side-missions. I just loved the vast scope of it, and the character interactions behind it, and everything!
Ah, awesome stuff. I loved it so much I went out and got myself another copy after I broke up with my ex so I could play through it again

 

[Beefcakes]

Not so much a game, but I refused to use Skype for a long long long time, but when I started using it...
Magical...

 

[ethaninja]

Supreme Commander. I remember never wanting to play it until one day years later I went over to a mates for a LAN and now I'm bloody hooked =D

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

The last time this happened to me was Blue Dragon. I owned it for ages till I finally gave it a spin. Just looking at the lead characters and the villain made me gag, it just looked so childish. To my surprise the game was engaging and story quite touching. You don't look at Blue Dragon and expect there be killer poo, a town with killer trees, a suicide attempt, or a world in that much fear. It often reminded me of Final Fantasy X. The game play was nicely old school, with a few modern touches, and developing the dragons was actually fun.

Really? Wow... sounds like you had the exact opposite experience of the game that I did! I loathed and detested that game (only got through the first disc, then traded it in)

Maybe I should give it another go - what do you think?

 

[Nazulu]

Nope. It has never happened to me. Probably the closest thing to that experience is when I decided to buy Link to the Past for the Wii and it turned out a lot better than I thought it was, but I never avoided it.

 

[kawaiiamethist]

The last time this happened to me was Blue Dragon. I owned it for ages till I finally gave it a spin. Just looking at the lead characters and the villain made me gag, it just looked so childish. To my surprise the game was engaging and story quite touching. You don't look at Blue Dragon and expect there be killer poo, a town with killer trees, a suicide attempt, or a world in that much fear. It often reminded me of Final Fantasy X. The game play was nicely old school, with a few modern touches, and developing the dragons was actually fun.

Really? Wow... sounds like you had the exact opposite experience of the game that I did! I loathed and detested that game (only got through the first disc, then traded it in)

Maybe I should give it another go - what do you think?

Well, I'm bias It isn't in my top 5, but it was a rewarding game, worth the time. It grows more mature as you progress through the story.

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

le snip

Really? Wow... sounds like you had the exact opposite experience of the game that I did! I loathed and detested that game (only got through the first disc, then traded it in)

Maybe I should give it another go - what do you think?

Well, I'm bias It isn't in my top 5, but it was a rewarding game, worth the time. It grows more mature as you progress through the story.

Hmmm... I might try picking up a pre-owned copy then, if it really does improve as it goes on.

OT- I'm actually really enjoying Eternal Sonata at the moment. And after passing it over in stores, and once actually claiming I would never play/enjoy it, it's a real surprise.

 

[kawaiiamethist]

Eternal Sonata was very good. A little out there at times, and I didn't use most of the characters, but it was a lovely experience. It also helped that many of the english voice actors were from an anime I enjoy, Kyo Kara Maoh. Now that I think about, they've turned up in a lot of games lately.

After completing ES, I went onto Lost Odyssey and because of the prior prettiness, took time to warm up to LO. It was just a mindblow to go from bright colours to morbid, harsh tones.