Games that are rated low but are actually pretty good/great

[ayy]

Lately I've been trying some games that have had low ratings and found that I enjoy them quite a bit. Usually I realize the low rating has to do with single issue things, such as a lack of animation, or the inclusion of some (usually avoidable) fetish that pissed a group of people off. What are some examples of games that are rated low, but are actually quite fun if you're able to look past the low reviews?

I'll start off with one that had me hooked for a bit. Admittedly I'm a sucker for grindy games that slowly release their H-content by means of gradual corruption of the LIs, very similar to how trainers operate.

Room for Rent - https://f95zone.to/threads/room-for-rent-v16-beta-celavie-group.33328/

Goddamn can this game get frustrating, and the threads loosen the further you go into the game, but I find myself unable to pull away from the grind and always craving the next step up in corruption. I would call this a game I enjoyed, despite it not being a "good" game because of its anti-fun mechanics.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

Lust and Power is a bit underrated I think. People are just upset that the dev tries to block cheating, plus the reboot which removed a lot of content to be redone. It's a decent game though, by the low standards of ero-games.

 

[ciaqoo]

Lust and Power is a bit underrated I think. People are just upset that the dev tries to block cheating, plus the reboot which removed a lot of content to be redone. It's a decent game though, by the low standards of ero-games.

252 MB compressed after 5 years of development is alone the reason to rate this game no higher than 2 stars.
I know a lot fun games rated well below they are really worth. "Special request " or TPoNR are just 2 examples - a lot of hot stuff but still low ratings and limited number of users. I've almost stopped playing non VN games aka grinders.

 

[Meaning Less]

Reason for that is that many players just want dumb linear vns and complain about any gameplay element.

Both of those games are pretty good and have lots of content but since you have to work for it people cry in the reviews that the game is "grindy".

252 MB compressed after 5 years of development is alone the reason to rate this game no higher than 2 stars.

So the reason you rate this game low is because it is very well compressed and isn't wasting time with duplicate assets? That game has a lot of content...
Exactly this kind of dumb assessment from people that haven't even played the game is what fills the reviews with idiotic takes.

 

[Deleted member 229118]

Reason for that is that many players just want dumb linear vns and complain about any gameplay element.

This.
And i hate it.
I am here to game.
If you just want a story go watch or read porn.

 

[ciaqoo]

So the reason you rate this game low is because it is very well compressed and isn't wasting time with duplicate assets? That game has a lot of content...
Exactly this kind of dumb assessment from people that haven't even played the game is what fills the reviews with idiotic takes.

If this game has a lot of content why there is no metric here to show it ?

Time of developments and phisical size of compressed material are very good metrics for me but if you know other usefull metrics let us know - grinding and grinding again the same picuture with different numbers on top doesnt mean more content for me to be clear.
In changelog section i see just few new scenes per most upadates, so its like yelling toward me - "dont load this bullshit - please". Sorry guys if you dont like my comments here but i'm describing how it is working for me (and for a lot of other players too - i'm sure). I didn't played this game so i didn't rated it also. Content which is easier to compress is usually also easier to generate and to render it - so amount of content is very important metric for me.
Devs who are doing more than 500 new renders per update would have write new book in changelog section if they would like describe how many new renders are for each character. So describing in details which renders are new for each character is a sign for me - this game have really few new content per upadate - so it must be about grinding and grinding again previous content aka playing it.
I dont insist all grinders are bad cos they are just grinders. Some grinders are quite good like "Headmaster" for example but i also have to admit i have a lot of bad experience with a lot of grinders so maybe i'm a little biased against them.

Playing with story is quite different level and dimension of playing, so to rate well grinders and VN's there should be two different sets of metrics for them. But now we dont have these two sets.

Humans are different so they want different things to get fun. If reading stories and making choices is boring and hard for someone than maybe grinding and grinding again the same content with new numbers and new stats is more fun in such case.

Stars are subjective and general metric, so we never agree how much stars given game should be rated for - imho. But we can discuss here why grinders or low amount (not low quality) content games can be fun.

If we pinpoint what makes this particular game fun maybe we will found better metric to rate them. Maybe some new tags would help ? Like "content multiplying mechanics" (cmm) or "a lot of fun ideas" (alofi).

 

[Meaning Less]

I didn't played this game so i didn't rated it also.

I mean I'm glad you didn't actually reviewed the game but unfortunetely not everyone is as sensible as yourself.

Many users love reviewing games they didn't played, or that they didn't even give a proper chance but instead dropped the moment the game asked them to do anything aside from just clicking "next".

Devs who are doing more than 500 new renders per update would have write new book in changelog section if they would like describe how many new renders are for each character.

Yeah I'm aware of generic poorly optimized DAZ games, 500 renders which equals to 5 minutes of content since they are just images pasted sequentially into the game like movies instead of vns.

VNs are supposed to reuse characters and backgrounds to tell a more dense story without wasting hours of unnecessary rendering and disk space for several images that add nothing to the storytelling. That way devs can focus on actual important images instead.

Which is why number of renders is another useless metric unless you actually played the game and know how they are using those renders.

In fact most games that count "renders" and "lines of text" are doing so exactly in hopes of fooling users that there is "more" progress being made, because otherwise they would just write "4 minutes of content added, 1 new sex scene".

 

[SteelyDan14]

This.
And i hate it.
I am here to game.
If you just want a story go watch or read porn.

I hear you, but the problem is there are not that many people who can gamify a story effectively. I mean, how many times have you tried to "play" one these games that claim they are "sandbox" but just have a bunch of random shit to click on with no hints or clues on what the hell you are supposed to do next. Or repeating the same action over and over just to "build up" some attribute that doesn't make sense. Or you have to click on the keys on the table to pick them up... I hate not being able to see content just because I didn't get the MC to exercise or read or stick his finger up his ass enough.

So yeah... give me a linear VN with a good story, some choices that affect outcomes and let me watch the content and we're good. You can throw in a couple mini-games and maybe some hidden pictures if you want, but fuck the "sandbox" bs.

 

[Deleted member 229118]

I hear you, but the problem is there are not that many people who can gamify a story effectively. I mean, how many times have you tried to "play" one these games that claim they are "sandbox" but just have a bunch of random shit to click on with no hints or clues on what the hell you are supposed to do next. Or repeating the same action over and over just to "build up" some attribute that doesn't make sense. Or you have to click on the keys on the table to pick them up... I hate not being able to see content just because I didn't get the MC to exercise or read or stick his finger up his ass enough.

So yeah... give me a linear VN with a good story, some choices that affect outcomes and let me watch the content and we're good. You can throw in a couple mini-games and maybe some hidden pictures if you want, but fuck the "sandbox" bs.

Indeed.
Games like free cities, lab rats 2 and superpowered are rare as all heaven.
Where kingdoms of corruption would be better of as a visual novel given how the gameplay doesnt add to the game.
Or corruption where you can remove the gameplay and it would improve the game.

One of my personal challange's in lab rats 2 is building a bussiness using only special characters.
Rise to power and eratohok are nice too.

 

[chainedpanda]

Yeah I'm aware of generic poorly optimized DAZ games, 500 renders which equals to 5 minutes of content since they are just images pasted sequentially into the game like movies instead of vns.

I have no place in this debate, simply because I play both "grinders" and VNs and enjoy both sides generally. I may even lean more towards grinders a lot of the time.

I would also like to point out the hypocrisy of this line of thought. You seem annoyed that people are judging a game you played on base value and judgemental behavior, while also doing the exact same thing. Simply claiming "generic poorly optimized DAZ games, 500..." is the same as simply believing a game is lacking content based on the file size. It is simply assuming rather than confirming. Naturally, you can say "but I've seen many games that do exactly what I said!" but anyone can argue this exact same thing. While yes, there are PLENTY of shitty VNs, there are also plenty of shitty grinders, simply because there are plenty of shitty games in general.

I also use the size of a game as a reference point. I also use the version of a game as a reference point as well. Why? Simply because that is the single best measurement we have available to us. I played Lust and Power, in fact I have tried this game multiple times over the past few years. Each time I walk away thinking "man, this game is boring", but I love Lab Rats 2, a game with FAR more grind compared to LAP.

 

[SteelyDan14]

Lately I've been trying some games that have had low ratings and found that I enjoy them quite a bit. Usually I realize the low rating has to do with single issue things, such as a lack of animation, or the inclusion of some (usually avoidable) fetish that pissed a group of people off. What are some examples of games that are rated low, but are actually quite fun if you're able to look past the low reviews?

I'll start off with one that had me hooked for a bit. Admittedly I'm a sucker for grindy games that slowly release their H-content by means of gradual corruption of the LIs, very similar to how trainers operate.

Room for Rent - https://f95zone.to/threads/room-for-rent-v16-beta-celavie-group.33328/

Goddamn can this game get frustrating, and the threads loosen the further you go into the game, but I find myself unable to pull away from the grind and always craving the next step up in corruption. I would call this a game I enjoyed, despite it not being a "good" game because of its anti-fun mechanics.

I know the convo has deviated from the original topic... and personally, I usually only give higher rated games any consideration, so I would welcome a few recommendations. I looked at the link above and it's too loli for me but I can see why you liked it.

 

[Prancing Pony]

As for fetish turn-offs, a lot of reviewers that don’t like NTR penalise games with NTR, which is understandable but some also shit on games that don’t have NTR (as F95 defines it) but have strong female characters possibly having sex with other males.

Example - https://f95zone.to/threads/the-keymaster-v0-5-ptypoe.80276/ It has a female character that some people love and others hate. She has a long sub plot related to external magic affecting her and some players don’t get that. So it’s reviews seem to say its amazing or its crap depending on the NTR preference of the reviewer. For me its a winner of a game.

 

[Meaning Less]

I would also like to point out the hypocrisy of this line of thought
...It is simply assuming rather than confirming.

I'm not sure if you noticed but that was my point... Showing the opposite perspective.

Explaining that poorly optimized games can have 2gb+ of content and just minutes of gameplay, while well rounded games that know how to use their assets effectively can have hours of content even with 200mb or less.

I mean look at stuff like summertime saga that has 1gb and tons of content. While unoptimized daz games can get bloated to 10gb+ without getting close to the ammount of content a well rounded game has.

Which is exactly why I ended stating that number of renders and even game size are irrelevant unless you know how the game is using them.

 

[nulnil]

I hear you, but the problem is there are not that many people who can gamify a story effectively. I mean, how many times have you tried to "play" one these games that claim they are "sandbox" but just have a bunch of random shit to click on with no hints or clues on what the hell you are supposed to do next. Or repeating the same action over and over just to "build up" some attribute that doesn't make sense. Or you have to click on the keys on the table to pick them up... I hate not being able to see content just because I didn't get the MC to exercise or read or stick his finger up his ass enough.

I've never seen a porn game above a 3/10 story-wise, and on average it's a 1. Porn novels are hard to write because you have to be generally sparing with it. Action movies don't consist of solely 2 hours of people getting killed. To be fair though, most normal video games don't make good stories.

I almost always steer clear of visual novels due to how bad with gameplay/interaction they are. Your choices matter less than in a choose-your-own-adventure book, secrets consist of a single pixel that you must click for part of a series of renders, and the minigames are just a bunch of quicktime events. Gameplay should come first, otherwise it's not much of a game. Granted, few people know how to 3D model, fewer write, and even fewer create and make games.

 

[RedPillBlues]

I've never seen a porn game above a 3/10 story-wise, and on average it's a 1.

The Last Soverign, Light of my life, and Summers gone all have great stories to their peers, and are evem pretty decent compared to a lot of novels.

 

[nulnil]

The Last Soverign, Light of my life, and Summers gone all have great stories to their peers, and are evem pretty decent

compared to a lot of novels.

Oh that's where you messed up. They could be a 3/10, but as per the usual 1/10, they are pretty decent for their type. But I'll give it a shot.

 

[ayy]

Damn I meant for this thread to be a discussion, didn't expect a full blown argument here! Although I do enjoy VNs, I honestly don't have the desire to be invested in yet another character's story and expository dialogue therein. Especially when there are so many of these types of games, and only a limited amount of time in which to play them. A large number of games consist of highly detailed characters, without any interactivity or input from the player themselves. I don't want to watch things happen, I want to be a part of it. Even the illusion of it would be better than not being in the mix at all.

This paired with the fact that a lot of writers are aspiring weebs that want to develop MC as a typical anime protag surrounded by his stereotypical harem, and you have a recipe for a bland and personally uninspiring game.

I know the convo has deviated from the original topic... and personally, I usually only give higher rated games any consideration, so I would welcome a few recommendations. I looked at the link above and it's too loli for me but I can see why you liked it.

It is definitely veering towards that genre for the main LI, however the other characters are slightly less loli I would say. I also am not a cultured loli enjoyer, and am playing this game not because of it. There just aren't a lot of games that encompass a slow burn corruption with outfit changes that I'm aware of, so I'm hooked to the game despite the petite form of the LIs.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

252 MB compressed after 5 years of development is alone the reason to rate this game no higher than 2 stars.
I know a lot fun games rated well below they are really worth. "Special request " or TPoNR are just 2 examples - a lot of hot stuff but still low ratings and limited number of users. I've almost stopped playing non VN games aka grinders.

The game should be judged on its own merits, not on the amount of content it's gotten in the past year or whatever else. You're rating the game, not the dev.

 

[rk-47]

virtues is a pretty good game and has amazing jiggle physics
sexnote which was featured on the main page for some time is also pretty good too

 

[ayy]

I know the convo has deviated from the original topic... and personally, I usually only give higher rated games any consideration, so I would welcome a few recommendations. I looked at the link above and it's too loli for me but I can see why you liked it.

Also I recommend The Promise by Xagrim's Gameforge if you haven't already tried it!