Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

I know I'm gonna get ripped to shred but... I thought The Last of Us was good but not amazing. I still think games like Resident Evil 4 and Evil Within trumps the game and I'm not to emotionally moved by the story (I do like Ellie though). Still, it's a good game. Just not a masterpiece everyone keep saying it is. Multiplayer was pretty fun, although it really requires a lot of skill, which I like.

Other unpopular opinions I have (pls don't shred me lol):
•I kinda prefer remasters over backward compatibility if it means improving many of the game's features. Though BC is still not a bad idea.
•Fallout 76 and Anthem are not terrible. Just mediocre/average.
•Immortal Legacy is one of the better china developed games on the PS4 (though still very flawed).
•I personally find God of War 2018 better than the first God of War game, since there are people out there calling the first game better than the PS4 game.
•Pokemon Sword and Shield are not the best pokemon games, but they're also not the worst. Both hardcore fans and haters of the games really need to chill lol.
•Dark Souls 2 is more fun than Dark Souls 3.
•Soul Sacrifice is the best non-Monster Hunter hunting game, and I wished it recieved it expanded enough to have its own franchise.
•Xbox One exclusives are not terrible. They're just not as varied as the PS4's nor even the Switch's. Sunset Overdrive was great though.
•Transformers Devastation is one of Platinum's best games.
•Power Rangers Battle for the Grid is a better fighting game than Mortal Kombat 11.

@johncalmc @SoulsBourne128 I don't get the clamour for backwards compatibility either. I guess it does help sell consoles early in their lifecycle so people don't feel like they're abandoning the last gen completely (although I normally hold out a little as it sometimes seems the early console models have the most issues).

But then I seem to be in a minority on here in that I play one game at a time and almost never go back to a game once I've done with it. This means my PS1/2/3 are all just in a box somewhere in the loft (until I have my way and have them out.... if the wife allows it).

@SoulsBourne128 @Thrillho for Backwards Compatibility i also don't think it's really needed, it's a nice option and can be helpful at the start of a new generation as it gives you more to play on your new system during the first year lull but it's not a necessity

i also agree on the XB1 exclusives, Transformers and Battle for the Grid

as for God of War i think both are great but i'm still undecided which i think is the better game as they are so different to each other, it's like comparing Mario to Zelda

as for the others, never played them so i can't say anything about them

@RogerRoger I knew it! It all makes sense now! I knew your persona was all a front for something. Everyone knows there no such thing as a Star Wars fan who also likes Star Trek. I’ve heard that such a paradox would create a unraveling of the space-time continuum.

@SoulsBourne128 Nice list! Specifically your mention of Soul Sacrifice and Transformers Devastation have caught my eye. I have SS loaded on my Vita memory card to play one day, just never got around to it. And I think TD was a PS+ offering a while back so it should be in my library. I’m not particularly a fan of the Transformers franchise and don’t know all the lore, would I still like it?

@Th3solution i like Star Trek, Star Wars and Doctor Who

what's that going to do to the space-time continuum?

@Th3solution although I'm not embarrassed, I think the Nekopara series. When they brought those to PS4 without the adult scenes on PC, I was all over it. Adorable catgirls with heartwarming stories? Sign me up! I'm all in for sure! They get a lot of flak, but 1, they are adorable, 2 they don't get as much credit for their comedy as they should. They honestly are pretty funny with mostly well-written dialogue. The writing gets better with each entry too I feel like (well 3 has the best and worst writing). They also aren't echii, hentai, or anything like that on console. I've received some flak from friends who saw what I was playing, but I don't care.

@Th3solution That depends. If you care more for the gameplay than the story, then give it a go. I recently started playing the game again. The soundtrack is great and the combat, while simplistic, is mindlessly fun and hectic. I even managed to platinum the game back in 2016. Was kinda hard due to the S rank requirements but nevertheless, it was very satisfying.

@Th3solution No apologies needed sir you did not come across in that way, I was just having a early morning rant lol.

@FullbringIchigo No wonder our world is in shambles. There’s probably destructive planetary chaos across the galaxy as we speak.
As long as you don’t like both Marvel and DC, then maybe the fiber of the universe can be tenuously held together. 😉

@LuisCruz13 Alright, good to know. I didn’t much care for the demo of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance but I didn’t play the actual game. I did really like Vanquish and Bayonetta and absolutely adored NieR: Automata. (And Babylon’s Fall looks pretty good so far.). So if Transformers can be considered better, then that is high praise indeed.

@Th3solution emmmm....

actually i do

@FullbringIchigo 🤔 Hmmm, lemme see. Something doesn’t quite gel here. I’m not sure how this is all possible metaphysically.
You’re clearly a hardcore gamer... you wouldn’t happen to like Fortnite, would you? 😜

@Th3solution now that....

@SoulsBourne128 Not sure if those are so unpopular, sounds like your are speaking with a lot of common sense.

@KratosMD Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree. As long as it doesn’t affect the overall story or is done for a nefarious reason, I don’t mind. Reading some of the comment sections on articles... I’d say we’re definitely the minority 😂

@KratosMD I agree somewhat. The vast majority I don’t care about a lot. Now, something like the Katherine Remake is different. Sony didn’t do that, but they facially changed the narrative for the 3 new character who is trans to not be offensive. At that point the whole narrative and it’s intent, artistic intent, and purpose is just getting changed. That one is more than a scene. If it’s changing the narrative by a decent degree, it’s an issue, but otherwise I agree; bringing myself to care about the stuff in Suran Kengara or a little more steam in Nekopara, I just don’t care. I’m not desperate for a bit of skin. It’s only when the narrative is getting a decent change I care. (One of the Yakuza games had way too many side missions removed too I think I too.)

@Jaz007 I dunno, the removed dialogue from Catherine was truly abhorrent and made several speedrunners who’ve supported the game for years since it came out quit. It was fairly necessary to change it at that point. I mean, the character Erica, who’s a trans woman throughout the entire game, was referred to in the credits as Eric Anderson (Erica). It’s rather obvious why people were upset. Also, in one of the endings, without spoilers, a character changes the world to give everyone a ‘better life’. In that world, Erica hasn’t transitioned and is seemingly living a fulfilled life as a man. Atlus seriously dropped the ball and that wasn’t even the character from the trailers with all the controversy since they’re not transgender at all, just a ‘trap’ for want of a better word.

@nessisonett That was the creator's intent. Those changes completely changed the meaning of the game. Whether anyone agrees with it or not, it's no longer the game the creator made in the NA release. A lot of what's added was made pointless. If that's what he thinks and said, that's what should be said in the game in the NA release. His viewpoint shouldn't be silenced because the country changed. You said as long as it doesn't affect the overall story, but now you agree with that type of censorship because it's something you personally disagree with.

So, with the proviso that we're not discussing obviously immoral government-imposed censorship (because censorship advocates typically enjoy erecting that strawman in these discussions), but private companies censoring themselves or other private companies/individuals, my general standards are as such:

• Artistic and intellectual freedom are inherently good and help to promote human flourishing. These goods cannot easily exist within a social framework where others are limiting their ability to think or express themselves as they please. Thus, restrictions on expression should be limited only to the degree that it helps maintain basic social cohesion (thus why I would be opposed, for example, to hardcore porn being televised on a channel targeted to children).
• In any free society, people can and will disagree about all manner of things. Social standards that people claim to be universal are almost never actually functionally universal. As such, censoring a product to align with "cultural standards" is impossible, and usually means that a creator or company is censoring their product to appease the demands of special interests who should have no more say over what you are able to consume than I do.
• Censoring media or products along these lines promotes only certain viewpoint and moral standards, which inhibits one's ability to self-actualize by being exposed to dissenting viewpoints and standards.
• When it's the norm for certain types of viewpoints or beliefs in a culture to be censored while others are promoted, it both produces a chilling effect that makes people afraid to engage with different sorts of ideas AND, in the case of "problematic ideas," such as, say, beliefs about racial supremacy, drives discussion of them underground. This might sound like a good thing to some people, but the problem is that silencing an idea never actually gets rid of it: it just robs a society of the ability to engage with and challenge it, and leaves people susceptible to it because they're not intellectually prepared to counter it.
• In the case of public pressure campaigns for something to be censored, doing so both sets a terrible precedent ("harass me enough in public or on social media and I'll cave to your demands") and whets the appetites of cultural totalitarians to impose more control over others. Because, at the end of the day, the natural tendency of the censor is to attempt to expand their influence and range of control as much as possible, founded as it is on the ability to control what other people have access to. This makes it more likely that the same control freaks and totalitarians you ceded ground to before will continue to attempt the reshaping of the world around them in their own image.

You can probably infer my general position on censorship controversies from what I've just stated. In essence, I'm a liberal to my core, and maintain an unshakable conviction in the good that comes from liberty, both artistic and cultural.

@Jaz007 At the same time, I didn’t mention the clearly transphobic things Vincent says because that’s how his character is written and reflects attitudes of men like him. The difference between that and Yakuza 3’s removed substory is that Kiryu is elsewhere remarkably open and accepting of basically everyone around him, including another trans character with a deep backstory. That’s why the substory with a trans woman portrayed as a brute who’s forcing Kiryu to sleep with her while he calls her ‘it’ just feels out of place. The game does have a disclaimer at the start saying that it reflects the attitudes of people in 2009 but honestly, that one in particular just wouldn’t have added anything at all. It would only detract from Kiryu’s character.

Speaking apart from my own previously expressed convictions about censorship, and particularly as someone who doesn't fit neatly into a cishet paradigm, I'm not hugely sad to see the "predatory gays" scene from Persona 5 get dumped. It's a really unfortunate trope in Japanese fiction (and is also unfortunately common with lesbian characters as well; Kunihiko Ikuhara's bizarre Yurikuma Arashi was almost wholly dedicated to satirizing this trope).

I'm not hugely comfortable with it being censored by rogue elements in Atlus' localization team, though. If a change must happen to the work, it should be orchestrated by people associated with the original production. Liberties should only be taken in localization when it comes to aiding audience comprehension and understanding of something, like when jokes sometimes need to be completely rewritten so that they can make sense in English.