Just wanna say, GOW 2018 was like that for me too. I hated it at first. Replayed it a few months ago more casually. Didn’t like it still at first, but stuck with it a bit and ended up loving it.
Anyways, if you want an actual answer it’s Xenoblade. The combat was so boring, and exploration was slow and also boring. The story really didn’t captivate me either. The world was interesting but the actual gameplay of the game was so underwhelming.
I liked God of war 2018. I liked Ragnarok. ;ast year I played them back to back and oh my god Ragnarok does not hold up that way. you don't notice it at first but playing consecutively Ragnarok turned all the side protagonists into Marvel-esque one liner spewing archetypes and made kratos the grumpy straight man to groan at their quips.
Honestly I don't even remember Odin in Ragnarok, which is probably an indicator of quality in its own. I remember him meeting you at your house with Thor. and of courseI remember Sif, but none of the other deity's you fight stuck with me.
i’ve tried it like 3 times now. just can’t get into GOW 2018. i liked the older ones, but for some reason this one never clicked and i fall off maybe 5 or 6 hours into the game. it’s ok. but i think the kid yelling at me about not figuring out puzzles fast enough annoyed me.
Same for me. I loved the originals and played through them all multiple times, but the new one doesn't click with me.
I think it's the tone and the cutscenes maybe being too serious and depressing? I'm not really a fan of the way most modern big budget games tell the story tbh. If I'm gaming I want to play a game, not watch a movie.
Yeah, was a fan of the hack and slash old games, felt like they turned it into a bit of a walking simulator with annoying cutscenes that didn't do it for me at all.
For me I just didnt want another 100+ hour sprawling open world. The fact I could beat it in a few sittings and still get some awesome gameplay and story is what had me sold. 2018 was a bloated let down
For me so many games are like how you describe Xenoblade.
I can get through a lot of JRPGs because the constant interruptions for a slow moving story plus the combat that is uninteresting/tedious/repetitive and forced on you while you are trying to get anywhere.
Very hard for me to enjoy that genre. Expedition 33 was like a revolutionary game to me though because it was so much more interesting and way less tedious than any other JRPG I've played. Off the top of my head Chrono trigger and Golden Sun are great too in a different way. Don't think there are others that I've tried and actually been able to get through
When did it click? I got to the fairy realm and still felt it was boring for me. The whole game felt like a cut scene that tried to convince me I was participating.
Icl that’s the worst part of the game, gameplay wise. I would say it clicked a bit after that. Like it was pretty miserable gameplay wise but story wise I was invested.
100% I had always wanted to play GOW, but I went the xbox route. When I got steam I was like ok time to give it a try. I think I got GOW Ragnarok and it was a let down. The world felt super cut off, definitely not open world. The gameplay was meh.
For me the combat is cool, the story is cool but there just isn't enough. I fight a room of like 6 enemies then get what feels like 10 min of cutscenes, puzzles and walking before I get more combat which makes me want to just skip past story stuff.
Xenoblade 1 is ROUGH and it still shows to this day. its just a hard game to go in after playing 2 or 3. I did play 3 and go back to 1... and I hated it. but thats on me for not making it far enough to say "yeah I actually tried you know" yet.
Xenoblade’s combat is just way too fucky for me. I loved 2 (skipped the first) but it started to get stale when I noticed the same attack combos every single battle with no variation because toppling and launching enemies was infinitely better than literally every other attack combo. And then seeing how Specials and using multi-hit attacks was better than every other special with the right attack power increases made me realize it’s a game horribly balanced with no clear goal, combat-wise.
And 3 was just… even worse with the lagfest that it was.
The first games combat got boring towards the end for me, the second had a genuinely awful story but the third I feel really strikes a good balance, but doesn’t have the best story or the best gameplay.
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u/WickedJ0ker Aug 19 '26
Just wanna say, GOW 2018 was like that for me too. I hated it at first. Replayed it a few months ago more casually. Didn’t like it still at first, but stuck with it a bit and ended up loving it.
Anyways, if you want an actual answer it’s Xenoblade. The combat was so boring, and exploration was slow and also boring. The story really didn’t captivate me either. The world was interesting but the actual gameplay of the game was so underwhelming.