[Multiplatform] Game Series you just stopped playing. Sonic is the correct answer, by the way.

Final Fantasy. I absolutely adored FF6 when I was a kid and it's one of the main reasons I started getting into games at all. Still one of my favorite games to this day. Then FF7 came along and instantly became my favorite game of all time. This game has either a love or hate relationship with people, but it'll always hold a special place in my heart. After that, Tactics rolled in and I was simply amazed by how great it was. I still believe it has one of the best plots of any rpg I've experienced. I tried out 4 and 5 and while they aren't my favorites by any stretch, I still like them much more than the current FF titles.

What happened? I look at Tactics as the last great FF game. 8 and onwards were either terrible or completely forgettable. I've been disappointed for quite a while with the direction the FF series is headed. Most characters are bland and undeveloped, it seems like they could care less about plot these days, and the battle/skill setups leave much to be desired. I'm also really tired of this jpop craze.

I'm rather disappointed with Suikoden as well. I absolute love Suiko 1 and 2. I know everyone loves 2 the most, but 1 was quite enjoyable and had a great plot. I'm not usually into tragedy, but Tir's struggles in the first game drew me in and made him stand out as a character. It was the most enjoyable part of Suiko1 for me. As for Suiko2, even though Suiko2's translation left much to be desired, the thing I enjoyed the most about the game was that it was a direct sequel. You see almost all of your favorite characters return and even get to use a lot of them. It was done just perfectly.

Which leads me to why I started to dislike the series. Suiko2 was perfect in my eyes since it picked the plot right back up and brought back important characters. I was expecting the same in Suiko3, but I was severely disappointed. Even though it was set a while after the second game important characters could have returned, but we're just left to guess what the hell they're doing while all of this supposedly important stuff is going on. The plot wasn't that bad, but it just didn't pull me in the way Suiko 1 and 2 did. The music sucked too, which is a shame since the previous games had great soundtracks. After my disappointment with 3 I didn't even want to bother with the rest. From what I've seen everyone hates 4 and Tactics, but a lot of people have said 5 is good, so I may check that out someday. I have no idea if there are plans for another Suiko, but it really annoys me that they wasted so much potential to explain the world and runes more throughly.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Elegy

Which leads me to why I started to dislike the series. Suiko2 was perfect in my eyes since it picked the plot right back up and brought back important characters. I was expecting the same in Suiko3, but I was severely disappointed. Even though it was set a while after the second game important characters could have returned, but we're just left to guess what the hell they're doing while all of this supposedly important stuff is going on. The plot wasn't that bad, but it just didn't pull me in the way Suiko 1 and 2 did. The music sucked too, which is a shame since the previous games had great soundtracks. After my disappointment with 3 I didn't even want to bother with the rest. From what I've seen everyone hates 4 and Tactics, but a lot of people have said 5 is good, so I may check that out someday. I have no idea if there are plans for another Suiko, but it really annoys me that they wasted so much potential to explain the world and runes more throughly.

All right, I disagree with your dismissal of IX, especially since you've played the SNES era FF games. I think it's a brilliant book end to those games and is wonderfully nostalgic.

But that's a matter of taste, so whatever. However, I very strongly urge you to play Suikoden V. I'd given up after III (double ugh), IV (ugh) and Tactics (violent reaction and throwing of things). And as such, I didn't pick up V for a long time after it had come out. I think it was largely because of Leknaat and someone else constantly harping at me to give it a shot. Not only did V work as a wonderful follow up to I and II for me, and completely restore my love of the Suikoden series, it actually rekindled my love of video games in general. I hadn't sat down and played an RPG I really enjoyed in years, but I tore through V, absolutely devoured it. You won't regret it.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Denicalis

All right, I disagree with your dismissal of IX, especially since you've played the SNES era FF games. I think it's a brilliant book end to those games and is wonderfully nostalgic.

But that's a matter of taste, so whatever. However, I very strongly urge you to play Suikoden V. I'd given up after III (double ugh), IV (ugh) and Tactics (violent reaction and throwing of things). And as such, I didn't pick up V for a long time after it had come out. I think it was largely because of Leknaat and someone else constantly harping at me to give it a shot. Not only did V work as a wonderful follow up to I and II for me, and completely restore my love of the Suikoden series, it actually rekindled my love of video games in general. I hadn't sat down and played an RPG I really enjoyed in years, but I tore through V, absolutely devoured it. You won't regret it.

I was going to go into more detail about why I thought the other FF games were this and that, but I thought I had rambled on enough. The forgettable comment was meant for 9 primarily, but even though I feel that way I really don't think it was a bad game. Anyway, thanks for your input about Suiko5. I've always been debating with myself if I should bother, but I think I'll finally give in and get it. I've really been missing the Suiko world.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Seems like Elegy and I feel similarly about the FF series. Only difference is that I like FFXII, though I knew that I would based on my tendency to enjoy Matsuno-directed titles. Also, I enjoyed FFVII a great deal, but FFVI is untouchable in that number one spot for me. FFVIII, FFIX, and FFX were all forgettable for me, though FFIX is the lesser evil of the three. Overall, I feel that Final Fantasy was most consistent during the 16-bit era. FFIV, FFV, and FFVI were all good games.

Sonic is a good answer for this thing, though I could just say that I stopped playing Sega titles in general. I had both a Genesis and SNES during the 16-bit era but I just forgot about Sega after that. Once Dreamcast rolled around, I opted to wait for a PS2 (well, I was waiting for Gamecube, but I got caught up in the PS2 shortage hype), so I'm still in the process of checking out the Sega titles I missed from the 32-bit and 128-bit eras.

Grandia is one that I stopped playing. I loved the first game but I didn't care for the second one. Never played Xtreme or part three because of all the negative things I heard about them.

I was speaking idiomatically.

If you liked Grandia for the battle system and not for some boring story with mediocre voice acting, then Xtreme is the best game ever.

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Xenogears and Xenosaga. Gears was great, Saga rocked, but 2 and 3... I just dunno. Everything was too much of the same and the balance of game play to cinemas was unbearable.

Mortal Kombat. Come on, it's sucked ever since it went 3D. Do I even have to say anything about the DC mix? No. I didn't think so, either.

Pokemon. If you had this game in 7th and 8th grade it was THE thing to do on the bus. I think the lack of a story really got to me here - cause you know, I needed something deep to match my taste for Power Rangers.

FELIPE NO

The funny thing about all the people here saying Pokemon is that I never played a Pokemon game all the way through till the remakes of the originals on GBA. I had Pokemon Blue for the original gameboy when it came out, but I hated trying to look at the screen on the old gameboys and I actually only had the game cause I got bitched at for not having it. I was in highschool at the time and for some reason around here even if you were a teen you were considered a loser if you didn't like Pokemon. So it's kinda funny cause I've went kinda the opposite direction of a lot of people, rather then lose interest in the series, I gained interest in it cause the handheld screens don't suck so much anymore.

Also, I already posted but I'm gonna have to throw my name in with the people who have said Final Fantasy. 7 and Tactics were the last ones I played. I loved 1, 4, 6, 7, and Tactics. But when I went to play 8... I just couldn't stand to play it. The music and graphics were great but the story was so boring and I didn't really care for the combat system either. I never really gave the series another chance after that. I've seen friends play X and while it doesn't look horrible, it just doesn't really inspire me to want to play it.

Wild Arms too. I'm probably one of the few people on earth who liked the second game, but all of them after that didn't look very interesting.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Gotta go with Zelda games as well.

Loved the ones I did play, Original Zelda on the NES, Link to the past on SNES, and of course the mighty Ocarina of Time on the N64, even Link's Awakening on the GB.

After Ocarina of Time I never really touched a Zelda game again. I tried to get Majoro's Mask on the N64, but I could never find that stupid extra memory cartridge you needed, so I never got to play it.

Don't know if it was lack of interest, or the fact that I never owned a Nintendo system since the N64, but haven't touched one since. I've seen a few screenshots and videos, but that's about it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Megaman
I used to love these games like crazy as a kid. I would play Megaman 2 over and over and over again, I figure that was the perfect game for me as a kid. I can choose any stage I want and just blast away at huge dogs shooting fire.

~I'll never forget that as a child, the intro to Woodmans stage ALWAYS reminded me of bouncing boobs and I don't know why.

After Megaman 4 though, I stopped caring about Megaman as much. After I could beat every boss in Megaman 5 except for that asshole in the bottom left corner known as Waveman I gave up on pretty much the entire series. I couldn't even make it to that boss because his stage was overly annoying and difficult.

Many years later, Megaman was going 3D with Legends, and I could not wait for it to come out. It was much different and some of the voice acting was so bad, they became ridiculous inside jokes with friends. *hands lady lipstick to finish her paint* She then replies 'THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!" then runs across town to god knows where.

Megaman now though, is horrible. I tried playing the game on PSP where you can create your own level. Without cool music and odd graphics, it just doesn't seem as fun as it could have been. Oh well.

Madden
I never liked football much, but I've always loved these games, especially on Sega. There was something fun about just trying to injure someone with brutal tackles and hearing the sound effects of bones popping.

Now, if I just TRY to play it, I get my ass kicked completely. You have to know the inside and out of football to even catch a pass. Whatever happened to those shitty awesome Mutant League games? They were amazing, I can't imagine how awesome those would be now.

Mortal Kombat
As soon as it went from me killing paper cutouts of actual people, to shitty 3d versions of them which didn't look realistic at all, the fun was sucked from the series.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Deni and I were talking about the Mutant League games and how it's amazing they never were remade. They are pretty darn awesome.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I dunno if the Mutant League games count. I didn't stop playing the series by choice, the games just stopped existing. I'd buy a new Mutant League Football in a heartbeat if someone would actually make the damn game.

It's another case of my amazement at video game companies refusing to print money. Do they really think there's no market for this? It's not the mid 90s anymore but there's ample room to update the game's sensibilities.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Good lord, a new Mutant League Football or Hockey would just mean an instant buy. EA released that EA collection on PSP that had Football on it, so a remake or a new addition to the series isn't out of the question because it's obviously still alive.

Keeping on topic, another series I stopped playing is Street Fighter. I had II Turbo for the SNES and I loved it, but I didn't play another one until about 3 years ago when I borrowed the Anniversary Collection from a friend on the PS2. I tried Street Fighter III on there, and it was awful. Then I tried Street Fighter II on XBox Live and found myself losing every time to the Ryu spammers who did the jump kick and sweep. Part of it might be because I've always been a fan of Mortal Kombat over Street Fighter and part of it might be that I just suck at Street Fighter, but back in the day when everyone else's skill level was down to mine SF2: Turbo was an amazing game.

However, maybe SF4 will change my mind. I wouldn't mind giving it a try.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I just look at the fact of the type of games people like today (GTA IV, NFL Blitz, Wayne Gretzy Hockey, etc) or within the last few years and super amazed that Mutant League Hocket/Football was never updated.

The Megaman series is another series that has slowed down. I went through all the NES and SNES games, but never really went far on the PS1 or PS2. Not that they were horrible, but just uninteresting. The GBA series was different but the difficulty was insane. I got smashed by the bosses way too many times. And if it's true you must go through the entire level/boss right without taking a hit to get their weapon, then geez, forget that.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by mortis

I just look at the fact of the type of games people like today (GTA IV, NFL Blitz, Wayne Gretzy Hockey, etc)

Um. I don't think there's been a Wayne Gretzky hockey since, what... the SNES? Maybe the N64? And is NFL Blitz still getting made? For serious?

FELIPE NO

Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98 was the last Gretzky game and was on the N64. Blitz is no longer NFL Blitz, but is now known as Blitz: The League; a completely original football game with original teams and cheerleaders with the shortest skirts I have ever seen. It's hilarious because one of the main points of the game is something called Dirty Hits. Sometimes these Dirty Hits will cause an injury, and will cause an x-ray closeup to see a muscle tear or a certain bone area in the body break. There's also trash talking which can be either horrible or hilarious.

The game might get boring after a while to some people, but I never tire of it. I think it's because for me it's the closest a next-gen game has gotten to Mutant League Football.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I'm surprise my mention of Mutant League would have caused discussion.

-Blitz games are alright, but they don't compare to how amazing I used to think Mutant League was. I remember just killing and getting killed like it was the best thing ever. Not even that, playing football in space and falling off the planet. Playing hockey was amazing also, falling through the ice instantly killing yourself. ~ The golden days of my video game playing

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I, myself, didn't like the Blitz games. However, Mutant League Hockey was just fun, fun, FUN. It's just one of those games that seriously, again, I look and say, 'In this day and age, with these types of games, how did this NOT get remade/a sequel?'.

Maybe I meant NHL Hitz, but I thought for sure it was Wayne Gretzy Hockey for N64. Ya know, the game where there is crazy scoring and the CPU will never trail too much?

How ya doing, buddy?

I've never played NHL Hitz, but what you're describing definitely Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey. You could be leading in the middle of the period by three goals and by the end of the period, your lead is either cut to 1 or nothing. NBA Jam was also like that...if you had a huge lead, the CPU would just start busting three pointers out of nowhere. Oh, and where you've got like a two point lead and the CPU takes a long three at the buzzer and wins it AND the game? It pissed me off, but those were two classic games for me.

Speaking of Gretzky's Hockey, that's another series I stopped playing. I played the one on Genesis and then the one for N64, but I didn't bother to play '98 since it looked more of the same and I never bothered with the Gretzky game on PSP. A shame too, because Gretzky was the reason I even got into hockey.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm going to take a dive here and say Tony Hawk. I never actually could get into the original Pro Skater games because having time limits in video games makes me feel like I'm suffocating oh Jesus Christ I can't breathe open the window, but I did really enjoy the skating mechanics. I picked up the first Underground because it offered the fun of skating without horrible, trachea-clenching time limits and had a good amount of fun with it despite the groan-inducing story.

Then came Underground 2, or rather "Bam Margera takes a shit on the ground and a bunch of potheads laugh for two hours oh hey here's a skateboard." Nevertheless, I ended up picking up American Skateland for DS because it was one of the first Wi-fi enable games. Of course, I was one of maybe twelve or so people who purchased it so I didn't actually get to take advantage of any online features. I gave into the hype of American Wasteland, with it's supposed lack of load-times and giant GTA-styled city and gave Mr. Hawk one last purchase. Needless to say, they fucking lied. I haven't touched any Tony Hawk games since then and don't really plan to.

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I quit Tekken after 5.1 because the place where I studied had a severe lack of competition.
I quit console RPGs (except I forced myself to eat FFXII bitterly) because they just became too time consuming.
I quit Pokemon games because I wanted to save face.

Instead, I picked up the Run'n'Gun genre, Devil May cry 3 and the Castlevania series. And I have never looked back

I was speaking idiomatically.

This thread is really interesting... it seems like people who originally played the "original" games in the series hated the ones after

For example.. those who played FFVI and BEFORE hated the series afterwards. Those who played Suikoden I and II didn't like the continuation... or xenogears to xenosaga (even though they technically aren't related)

I'll be honest, I haven't played before FFVI or Suikoden III... I LOVE all FF (other than X-2 and XII) and all of Suiko (other than IV). Sure this isn't as good as that - but they are still good games in general. I have NOT played Xenogears (I did buy a used copy from eBay though)... as for the Xenosaga series - Xenosaga III is by far my most favorite game ever!!! (if you stick with the series that is)


As for games I D/C-ed... let's see Ace Combat - lost it's flavor, Wild Arms (pretty much the same theme over and over again), FPS (because the online community = shit talkers and rather annoying... FPS = much more fun when you play against others... and since "others" = noobs or 8 year old idiots... I pretty much gave up on them)....

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Tsunade

This thread is really interesting... it seems like people who originally played the "original" games in the series hated the ones after

For example.. those who played FFVI and BEFORE hated the series afterwards. Those who played Suikoden I and II didn't like the continuation... or xenogears to xenosaga (even though they technically aren't related)

Actually, most people who liked Suikoden I and II loved Suikoden V. Just hated the stuff inbetween.

Quote:

I'll be honest, I haven't played before FFVI or Suikoden III... I LOVE all FF (other than X-2 and XII) and all of Suiko (other than IV). Sure this isn't as good as that - but they are still good games in general. I have NOT played Xenogears (I did buy a used copy from eBay though)... as for the Xenosaga series - Xenosaga III is by far my most favorite game ever!!! (if you stick with the series that is)

Really. XS III is your favourite game -ever-. Wow.

FELIPE NO

Actually many if not most people who liked Suikoden I and II stopped playing after III - but those who did play V loved it too

As for XS III - YES IT IS MY FAVORITE game - u got some problem with that??? "Wow" what's what supposed to mean???? Last time I checked we are all individuals of different tastes and to top things of you're a male and I'm a female so that by itself makes our tastes quite different (for the most part).

If you can name me a game with a controversial and deep story on the PS2 or a game readily available on the PS1 then I'll try it... but I'll have you know I'm an RPG fan! Oh and please dun say GTA or a FPS. Suikoden V was a great game (which I noticed you enjoyed) but it's story level was no where near Xenosaga III.

Geez I don't see why you out of all people in this entire thread have to disagree with OPINIONS... this isn't math and there is no right and wrong. If you dun like the game so-be-it but don't personally quote someone and just say "WOW" because that sounds very disrespectful

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Tsunade

Actually many if not most people who liked Suikoden I and II stopped playing after III - but those who did play V loved it too

As for XS III - YES IT IS MY FAVORITE game - u got some problem with that??? "Wow" what's what supposed to mean???? Last time I checked we are all individuals of different tastes and to top things of you're a male and I'm a female so that by itself makes our tastes quite different (for the most part).

If you can name me a game with a controversial and deep story on the PS2 or a game readily available on the PS1 then I'll try it... but I'll have you know I'm an RPG fan! Oh and please dun say GTA or a FPS. Suikoden V was a great game (which I noticed you enjoyed) but it's story level was no where near Xenosaga III.

Geez I don't see why you out of all people in this entire thread have to disagree with OPINIONS... this isn't math and there is no right and wrong. If you dun like the game so-be-it but don't personally quote someone and just say "WOW" because that sounds very disrespectful

Wow.

Settle down there, sport. It's just that--you may have noticed this--a lot of people hate Xenosaga. And uh, our definitions of deep storyline clearly differ.

Also, if you would be so kind, please post the scientific study that says your having a gaping hole between your legs means we must obviously like different games. I think I missed that bit in psych 101. Or was it biology?

I also didn't SAY anything about your liking Xenosaga. I expressed surprise at it being your favourite game ever. Because I'd never heard that before.

The "wow" in this post, though? Yeah. That's because you're fucking crazy. Take your pills, sweetheart. Your dementia is showing.

How ya doing, buddy?

I suppose the best response I can give is the example of Final Fantasy. It's not so much that I "just stopped" playing but that at some point around the release of FF9, the series got way too self-indulgent and self-referential for my tastes. Odd, too, considering that I didn't mind FF9 as a game all that much (dog-slow engine notwithstanding) but something about 10,000,000 in-jokes, series allusions and references, and other little tie-ins like that being presented with the expectation that I would think it to be unparalleled genius rubbed me the wrong way. Following up with the melodramatic FF10 didn't help either.

Haven't bothered with Crystal Chronicles, FFTA, FF11 or its expansion packs, any of the DS rereleases, or anything since, though I'll admit to trying FF12 and actually being somewhat impressed. Though it may have to do with 12 being developed by the Vagrant Story/FFT team and actually seeming to have a sense of humility and trying to tell its story as opposed to saying "ZOMG STORY!!!111!!!!" and glaring at fans until they respond "Yaaaaaaaay Squaresoft!" as they goddamn rightfully should.

Jaded? ME?

Otherwise, yeah, Sonic was it. I didn't buy a Dreamcast when it came out, so that hurt my involvement in the series, but I tried Sonic Rush and found the frustration factor to be a complete turnoff. Either I've gotten to be shit-bad at platformers or they made Sonic a LOT harder since I went away.

How ya doing, buddy?