Horrible Missed Opportunities.

[Angelblaze]

So, Neverwinter's 4th module (aka, half-way free expansion and don't let anyone tell you different) launched today, bringing with it a brand new character type, the Scourge Warlock.

And a horribly missed opportunity.

You see, the Scourge Warlock works as such that when you use a certain spell and kill an enemy with it, it summons a 'Soul Puppet' (AKA, a poorly modeled Dementor rip off.) which is a good gimmick....so why is it a missed opportunity?

Because all you do is summon it: it doesn't cast spells, the attack dmg it does is lower then if you just spit at your screen and pretended to play and you can't use it like some regent in future spells. You can't make it explode or control people, it just seems to take up useless space. If you were to remove it, well...you might actually be better off.

It feels like they took a perfectly good and unique (for Neverwinter and not counting the companion system) mechanic for a brand new class and just...took a dump on it. (This is Perfect World though so....why am I surprised?)

It made me think of other missed opportunities, like FFX-2, which could've been about Yuna's father Braska and his pilgrimage but instead we got...sadness in the form of stripperific Yuna. It made me sad .

Tl;dr: what are some things that happened or occurred in the gaming world/in a game that made you upset because they seemed to miss a perfectly good opportunity to do something great?

 

[Maximum Bert]

Not sure if its exactly what your asking but I consider the lack of Wii motion controls in Little Kings Story to not just be a missed opportunity but a complete oversight that actually hindered the game.

It was a perfect example of a game that could have benefitted from it and didnt use it, shame really as apart from the atrocious pathfinding of your troops it is a damn fine game.

UMVC3 not including Psylocke was also a massive missed opportunity instead we got a load of weaker marvel characters. Ive mentioned this before so sorry for repeating myself but it did make me very unhappy that she wasnt in the game more than it probably should have guess theres still MVC2.

SC5 also reeks of missed opportunities mainly due to a small development budget and time frame which was cut even shorter both financially and time wise than was originally intentioned.We could have had the best SC game yet instead we get a game with good combat, customisation and online coupled with a rubbish single player mode and a heavily gimped cast which reuses models for two of the most unlikeable characters in the game basically in game terms they are clone model characters with a different moveset or as Capcom would say completely new characters.

If they dont use the new models they are making for the frankly atrocious SC lost swords game as an opportunity to launch a new proper SC game i.e SC6 then that will be a huge missed opportunity. Im surprised they are still making new models for that game as that must mean someone is still playing it and I dont know why anyone would want to do that its one of the worst games I have played in years.

 

[Trinket to Ride]

I was recently playing Wind Waker HD, and I got to the part...

Spoiler: Potential spoiler for those who aren't able to see blatantly obvious things coming

where Tetra's true identity is revealed. She morphs into Zelda and spends almost the rest of the game just kind of hanging out in the castle basement.

At that point, Link goes first on a quest to power up the master sword, then on a quest to find all the triforce shards. I thought it would have been cool for the game to branch off there. One of those, "you can do either first, but you have to do both" deals. Link goes off and does his sword thing, and Tetra and her pirates go search for the shards. You could play as Tetra, sail around on her giant ship, and hunt for treasure like a true pirate. Maybe even incorporate her crew and do some squad-based puzzles or something. Once you do both, the two meet back up for the final assault on Ganondorf.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Remember when the Wii first launched and Nintendo surprised everybody by having the shiny, new Twilight Princess release on both that platform AND the Gamecube? Well...why didn't Nintendo do something similar with Skyward Sword? Twilight Princess showed off how awesome these newfangled motion controls are and, Skyward Sword could have done something similar for the Gamepad. If nothing else, Skyward Sword on the Wii U could have been a playable version of the game traditionally controlling Zelda game that didn't require recalibration after each sword-swing.

I don't know about Rock Band's archives worth of DLC but I do know that throughout the entirety of Guitar Hero, not ONE game allowed you to play the legendary Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.

Why hasn't there been a third Otogi?! Red Faction Guerrilla and, Just Cuase 2 has shown just how far we've come when it comes to destroying a games/levels terrain and a new Otogi could be absolutely awesome. This isn't so much a wasted opportunity yet I guess, just me being impatient.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I thought BioShock Infinite missed a good opportunity to have a truly insightful commentary on serious political topics like racism, nationalism, and religiously motivated political ideals. I was sort of hoping that the tears would explore the alternate scenarios to what Colombia was, but they furthest extent they had on that was to let Booker make an "enlightened" comment about how you spell Comstock and Fitzroy. In the end, everything turned into a story about video game stories, and while it did an excellent job at exploring the relationship between designer-created narratives and user-created stories, I felt it missed the opportunity to be a deep commentary on real-life issues and philosophies. The fact that the first game managed to be both a commentary on Objectivism while also commenting on video game narratives only helped in making it feel like something was missing.

 

[Riotguards]

i'd have to say Dark souls 2 powerstance system

the system could have had some really interesting differences between combat such as changing the way you fight such as some weapons going with others (i.e. mace and sword, ultra GS with greataxe, etc, etc) and all sorts of bonuses

what do we get? something that is essentially weaker since it takes extra stats, adds more weight, removes 2h and energy shield and does less damage and takes more stamina than 2h a weapon

some weapons don't even get anything useful moveset when powerstancing so its further wasted

 

[Colin Bagley]

The Ending for Mass Ef- Blam!

Hehe. Sorry. Couldn't resist.

 

[FPLOON]

A potential sequel to Virtua Quest... Granted, this game had a "few" missed opportunities ranging from the custom-building combat (it was both simplistic AND complex... but only if you were willing to replay certain servers A LOT, almost, to give it the time of day...) to it's use of a "level-up" system (as in, it didn't need one if the plot was going to demand you to "level-up", anyway, to continue on further... I GET IT, CUTSCENE! I'LL GET RIGHT ON IT POST-HASTE!!), but for what it's worth, the sequel could have improved on what they did right and wrong gameplay-wise... plus, the game left on a globdamn cliffhanger like it was some 12-episode anime series that should have went for 24 episodes instead...

 

[Asclepion]

Spore is arguably the biggest waste of potential in all of gaming.

 

[Norithics]

Resident Evil 6. The "Where Are They Now" of creepy mutant RE kids. Jake had super kung fu powers, and in cutscenes, Sherry Birkin had regeneration...

... But not in the game.
I'm sorry, that was an oversight. You have an entire scenario where one character is just clearly better than the other. I'd have considered playing her if she had even a between-fight regen. Nobody else probably even noticed it, but it really annoyed me.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

I was recently playing Wind Waker HD, and I got to the part...

Spoiler: Potential spoiler for those who aren't able to see blatantly obvious things coming

where Tetra's true identity is revealed. She morphs into Zelda and spends almost the rest of the game just kind of hanging out in the castle basement.

At that point, Link goes first on a quest to power up the master sword, then on a quest to find all the triforce shards. I thought it would have been cool for the game to branch off there. One of those, "you can do either first, but you have to do both" deals. Link goes off and does his sword thing, and Tetra and her pirates go search for the shards. You could play as Tetra, sail around on her giant ship, and hunt for treasure like a true pirate. Maybe even incorporate her crew and do some squad-based puzzles or something. Once you do both, the two meet back up for the final assault on Ganondorf.

That's a really good idea!
I just got to that part today for the first time and the sudden change in character bothered me a lot.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Spore is arguably the biggest waste of potential in all of gaming.

I'm fairly sure it should have been called Wasted Potential: The Game. I'll also go for Spore. I can't think of any game that so masterfully missed the mark from about 3 inches away. I'm fairly sure they spent the 3 years between the GDC/E3 '05 footage finding every way to fuck up what they already had.

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

Personally...I'm surprised Nintendo hasn't worked on "enhanced" play DLC for Wii games played on the WiiU. Imagine playing Okami using the touch pad, for example...

 

[JayRPG]

I think Nintendo still has an extremely good opportunity that they don't seem even the slightest bit interested in taking.

Pokemon Snap Wii U

Using the Gamepad as the camera to take the pictures - the screen-in-screen feature of the Gamepad has barely seen the light of day.

Nintendo want to show people what the gamepad can do, they want to sell more consoles; I can't understand why this wasn't planned as a launch title, I can't understand why it isn't even planned at all... it really is a missed opportunity.