What game did you ignore because you didn't "get it?"

avitus83

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Aug 9, 2016
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So I more or less ignored SuperPowered for years, occasionally downloading it and giving it a very brief try before deeming it to be too dense and giving up. Only like 2 months ago did I really bother to learn the systems at play, and realized I was missing out on a lot of good stuff.

What game(s) have you written off for whatever reason before finally realizing there was a lot of good content there?
 

DarthSeduction

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Well, I still wouldn't suggest this game as a "good game" but Solvalley High Shcool is one I wrote off for a long time, but found myself indulging in recently. It happens to cover a couple fetish territories I like, so it worked for me. But it's by no means good, just better than I would have given it credit for.
 
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Benn Swagger

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Aug 26, 2016
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Been respectful towards developer since 2016 to 2017. Tried to "get it" /understand many games, but time flows, I stop care and switch to "what's the point". Yet I have 1 example for myself.
[Unity] Horny As(s)ylum [v0.08] [Horny As(s)ylum] ... I really don't get it.
 
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eosar

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Aug 11, 2016
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Selectacorp. But it's not news since many on those threads can't comprehend whatever their "games" are. I just happen to be one of them.
 
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GuyFreely

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May 2, 2018
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Warframe. You have to play that game with a wiki open. Oh, did you mean adult game? I'm not sure I've run into that. For me it's not a matter of "getting it" and more a matter of "is it worth this shit?" If a game is super obtuse and hard to understand, that's the developers fault. If they want to have complex systems, they have to explain them to the player in a meaningful way. When it comes to "no idea what I'm doing" versus being led by the nose, I prefer the latter. Obviously, the optimal choice is somewhere in the middle.
 

avitus83

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Aug 9, 2016
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Selectacorp. But it's not news since many on those threads can't comprehend whatever their "games" are. I just happen to be one of them.
I'm a bit sad with regards to Selectacorp; I really liked their early games, and it all sort of culminated with Mysteria Lane for me. Everything after that has been really lackluster and they have been trying to force different kinds of ideas into a really inflexible game system, leading to mostly stale content.
 
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avitus83

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Aug 9, 2016
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Warframe. You have to play that game with a wiki open. Oh, did you mean adult game? I'm not sure I've run into that. For me it's not a matter of "getting it" and more a matter of "is it worth this shit?" If a game is super obtuse and hard to understand, that's the developers fault. If they want to have complex systems, they have to explain them to the player in a meaningful way. When it comes to "no idea what I'm doing" versus being led by the nose, I prefer the latter. Obviously, the optimal choice is somewhere in the middle.
I totally agree with you (and Warframe is actually a game I've been wanting to try); I actually don't mind complex systems, and even grinding (hell I played Everquest for years, when people here complain about a game being grindy, I just chuckle), but it still needs to be incorporated in a meaningful way where I still have a sense of agency in the game.
 

Darth Mat

Skyfire
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Jun 28, 2017
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In general Dark Souls, people say it's too hard, then one day my friend bought to me and invited me to play, i played and now i am a fan with more than 300 hours counting all of them.
About adult games, i didn't want to touch any "different" fetishes like futa or incest, but i gave a try to some of them, and i liked.

[edit] removed the last paragraph
 

NandabaCanti

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Jan 4, 2018
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I totally agree with you (and Warframe is actually a game I've been wanting to try); I actually don't mind complex systems, and even grinding (hell I played Everquest for years, when people here complain about a game being grindy, I just chuckle), but it still needs to be incorporated in a meaningful way where I still have a sense of agency in the game.
Oh man, EverQuest. I also used to be sucked into that for several years back in the early/mid 2000s. That game drove me crazy with all the waiting around. I once spent nearly a full day (something like 18+ hours) camping that barbarian in Qeynos Hills for the Fishbone Earing. Also used to help organize open raids on Naggy and Vox weekly for several months straight in order to get a drop for my Warrior's 1.0 epic and lost on every single roll...

I can't really think of any adult games I couldn't understand. There are plenty that failed to catch my interest for one reason or another though, but that's another thread right there, heh. One game that always stumped me, no matter how many times I look at it, since I refused to look up the rules on how it works, is a puzzle game that I think usually goes by the name Black Box. It consists of a grid surrounded by boxes with numbers or other symbols in some of them. I've never been able to make heads or tails of it and kinda want to leave it that way to see if one day something eventually clicks and it just starts making sense to me finally, lol. I think it's meant to be something a bit like minesweeper in a way, where maybe you need to use the clues around the edges to try and pinpoint where things are on the grid you need to mark to complete the game, but I'm not really sure on any of that. >.<
 

gunderson

Member
Aug 17, 2016
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Ooh, I like this question. In no particular order (I'll probably consider trends at the end) -

1) SuperPowered also. This one I've come and gone about. I thought the RAGS version was rad but kinda weird, then I enjoyed the very earliest builds of SuperPowered on ren'py, but when it actually evolved into the game it is now I felt totally lost. Later, as I learned to actually play the game (I even put together an early guide on how to get max grades by the end of the first month), I found it really satisfying. The grind eventually wore me down and it's been a few builds since I played, but I'd definitely say it's still a great game.

2) Corruption of Champions. The first few times I tried it I was like 'wtf am I turning into? I don't even know how to feel, sexually, about having huge tits and like five monster dicks, and my...intersex person/monster thing?...is getting anally raped by Goddamn everything.' Eventually, I learned that there's ALSO a decent RPG under the game and if you know what you're doing you can basically stay or become whatever you want and fuck a whole range of things/people/etc., some of whom aren't even all that monster-ey.

I wish I could say TiTS was in the same category, as it's actually got a decent RPG system under the hood too as well as some not-bad sex scenes, but as of the last few months I've had to put it in the same category as Patreon broadly: more interested in money than making good, weird porn games (and considering the fact that their main plot essentially requires the option for the PC bang their cousin [and they've gotten out ahead of getting reviewed by Patreon to declare that they think fictional incest is gross or unnatural or unhealthy or unpopular or however people into fucking literal hermaphrodite space monsters or clouds of nanites or fruit roll-up monsters justify to themselves telling other people that their fetishes are weird], I get the strong sense that they're quietly going to drop the game once people get tired of paying authors to make scenes for their favorite half-llama half-dickgirl DMV driving instructor postage stamp collector waifu). That and there are so Goddamn many sex scenes I just don't care about to get through before I find anything interesting to me at all in any particular playthrough that it seems less and less worth the trouble to try anymore.

3) A Spell for All. I actually first tried this game out when it was being developed by its original dev (Wizard, I believe), and while I knew it was cool it was also really hard to find any kind of explanation of how to play the thing far enough to really get into the main story, and I just got fucking LOST. Some difficult puzzles, easy to goozle yourself into an unavoiodable game over, and at the time it had a very small number of save slots.

Fast forward to the last couple years, and now there's a walkthrough thread on hypnopics, several nearly complete and different ways to play the game, and I really enjoy the hell out of it (also the save system is way more forgiving). The main thing I would say if you haven't played the game is: don't be afraid to use a walkthrough when you get stuck. There are a LOT of puzzles and ways to get lost or just run out of resources, and I doubt many players could get all the way through the game on their first try otherwise.

4) Free Cities: pregmod. Note: for the squeamish, the underage part of the mod is completely optional and there's a version that straight up doesn't have it. At first, I was weirded out by all the options. It seemed to focus on the simulation stuff way more than everything else as well as some fetishes that just don't do much for me. But honestly, once I found out that there was an extended family tree option I got much more into it, and found myself really enjoying running a simulated sex slave arcology much more than my straightworld self would probably own up to. I should also say that I think pregmod makes Free Cities a MUCH better game than the original experience, and even if I'm not such a big fan of all the options, what you can get access to is still worth it if any of the more niche options are your thing.

5) Man of the House. Much like with SuperPowered, I started off as a fan but got very frustrated when it actually got its eventual game loop together. Again, this is an instance where you probably just want a walkthrough the first time through if only to know what to do when. It's also really irritating to try to play one storyline at a time, so I'd recommend trying to plow everybody all at once and only making a choice when it becomes necessary due to time conflicts. While you might advance past a couple optional scenes, it's generally hard to miss most of the content aside from the hidden card things (they're, like, okay. Not a big worry if you don't want to spend time searching for them tho).

6) Daughter for Dessert. I really should have known with this one that it would be good, what with Palmer making it. For once, this wasn't so much a game with mechanics I didn't understand as a game that I assumed was just going off the rails by the third chapter or so (that is, the titular 'Daughter' seems to fade out so the dad can bang other people he's not [maybe?] related to). Still, by a few more chapters in, shit gets lit again. Eventually the game can start to wear out its welcome by just having the plodding 'visual novel' narrative style of describing things to death, but it's absolutely worth a look if that kinda game is your scene (daddy-daughter incest, of course).

7) The Himeros series. So far Seztworks is two games into the series and, I have to admit, I at first really didn't get Himeros Hotel. You just sort of wander around an apparently barebones (albeit with nice pictures) Adrift hotel map and try to stumble on events. For HOURS. REAL TIME HOURS. And it takes quite a while to get sex scenes going.

But once you figure out where the action is and get far enough in the plot for the sex scenes to happen? Hoo boy is that one a great game. Note: there's now a walkthrough, and I think that if you're willing to actually read the scene descriptions in addition to just looking at the photos then it can cut down on a lot of aggravation. Lots of bangable ladies, lots of plot stuff going on, choices to make that at least kiiiiinda matter. Solid Goddamn game. And once you get to the end of the first game, you can import your choices into the sequel, which alters some of the scenes there. The second Himeros game, in my opinion, is a bit more interesting and streamlined (not short by any means either in spite of still being in development, just easier to get a handle on), but I wouldn't recommend trying to start it without playing the first one.

That's probably enough stuff. If you got this far, I think I would say the things that end up on this list for me are: games with really good sex stuff that takes a loooong Goddamn time to get to, or games that hide good/incest-themed sex behind complex systems that are frustrating for noobs but really fun once you get good at them.

I should also mention that ultimately I love all these games. Pregmod is probably my most recent gamecrush, but I've played it through several times in the last couple weeks and it's fucking RAD. Doesn't exactly hurt that it is EXTREMELY not-Patreon-friendly, because I'm here to play weird porn games and not to try to make a living off making weird porn games that are also large-corporation-friendly. [Note: this is not intended to insult people who do want to make a living making porn games that Paypal is willing to be a payment processor for. That's totally your call to make. But I'm only gonna play/buy the shit I want to play/buy, and banning incest is pretty much 'the line' for me.]
 
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anne O'nymous

I'm not grumpy, I'm just coded that way.
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When it comes to "no idea what I'm doing" versus being led by the nose, I prefer the latter. Obviously, the optimal choice is somewhere in the middle.
So true... I tend to hate it in 'regular' games, but for adult games, OMG ! There's way too many games where I'm just here, staring at the screen and wondering what I should do next.
It's even worse when you just had a line like, "your mother asked you to fix the lamp in her bedroom". And you've to figure by yourself that you need to go to the bar asking for a job, earn enough money to buy a screwdriver, use it on the lamp to know what electric bulb you need, go back to the store to buy it (except that it's another store, it wouldn't be funny else), use it with the lamp, then don't forget to use the screwdriver again, else the quest will never end and you'll be stuck for everything else in the game.
Thank's dev, you tried, but it didn't helped.
 
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avitus83

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Aug 9, 2016
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Oh man, EverQuest. I also used to be sucked into that for several years back in the early/mid 2000s. That game drove me crazy with all the waiting around. I once spent nearly a full day (something like 18+ hours) camping that barbarian in Qeynos Hills for the Fishbone Earing. Also used to help organize open raids on Naggy and Vox weekly for several months straight in order to get a drop for my Warrior's 1.0 epic and lost on every single roll...
EQ was the ultimate for a game that you could play sometimes for days and accomplish absolutely nothing. I started playing in about 2001, and by that time there were a fair number of people who were high level and knew what they were doing, but there was still a critical mass of players for whom it was their first taste of an MMO and it was insane. I also believe the fishbone earring came from Fippy Darkpaw if I recall correctly.

I remember when I was just starting out, I was playing as a Gnome wizzy and at level 4 or something this guy was like "Lets go to Qeynos!" and he had a druid buddy come and port us over. We played for a few hours and each logged off, and I later found that early level spells were like 5-10x more expensive in Qeynos due to racial differences (like several gold instead of several silver for a level 6 spell or something). So I got on EQAtlas, printed out a bunch of maps, and started WALKING from Qeynos back to Steamfont. It literally took me several weeks in real time to complete this; getting through High Keep, running from Wisps in the common lands, making through Kithicor, and finally the harrowing run to lesser Faydark (and I was too much of a noob to know about hugging the zone line at that time). It was my ultimate journey and the experience that, while frustrating and terrifying at times, hooked me on EQ basically forever after that.
 

avitus83

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Aug 9, 2016
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3) A Spell for All. I actually first tried this game out when it was being developed by its original dev (Wizard, I believe), and while I knew it was cool it was also really hard to find any kind of explanation of how to play the thing far enough to really get into the main story, and I just got fucking LOST. Some difficult puzzles, easy to goozle yourself into an unavoiodable game over, and at the time it had a very small number of save slots.
Great list, and out of all of those, I fucking love A Spell for All, but jesus christ it can be infuriating in the same way an old Sierra point and click can be. Slowly but surely a lot of the dead-ends are being ironed out, but the game can still be unforgiving, with A LOT of ways to screw up even if you carefully read and follow the walkthrough...
 

Benn Swagger

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Aug 26, 2016
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Many of RPGM games are category "I don't get it" by me. Not because I don't understand the game, but more like "I don't get it, why you make VN games with RPGM ? ... you the VN-Dev want better income, go for Renpy, FFS !".
 
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GuyFreely

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Many of RPGM games are category "I don't get it" by me. Not because I don't understand the game, but more like "I don't get it, why you make VN games with RPGM ? ... you the VN-Dev want better income, go for Renpy, FFS !".
RPGM is very often misused. Sometimes it makes a bit of sense, but so many times it just hides the fact that the game is just a VN. Walking is not a gameplay mechanic. If the sole purpose of the RPGM engine is to get from point A to point B, it's unnecessary. There are a handful of things you can do in RPGM that don't really translate to something like Ren'Py. So if those things are a big part of your game, you get a pass. Otherwise, don't waste our time.
 
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NandabaCanti

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Jan 4, 2018
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@avitus83 - Heh, the worst run for me was the time when I was doing some grinding in the Warrens, and I was bound in that heretic city above the Hole. A friend told me I should head over to Lake of Ill Omen to level with him and after getting all the way to Firiona Vie and mere feet from the zone line into LoIO I got rooted and ganked by one of those damn spider women and it was then that I had realized I forgot to get a new bind in FV..... So there I was, a late teens barb war, naked and on the other side of the world from my corpse and it was the middle of the night and none of my guild's porters were on. So spent something like 5+ hours over all that night on those 2 runs, one of which was spent farming for temp gear to hold me over along the way. XD

I took part in a few GM events to do a level 1 naked run across Antontica from Freeport to Qeynos. Took like 4th or 5th place the first time. Then on the second run I had the 1st place guy in my sights all the way to the damn finish line on that one. It must have been someone over on the west coast, because they kept getting better zone times than I was as I was ahead of them up until we got into the last of the Karana zones. :confounded:

Also, it's definitely in Qey Hills who drops the fishbone earing. I'll never forget him after having to kill him 4 times in a row to finally get one with a ~6+ hour spawn time between each damn kill, lol.
 

avitus83

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Aug 9, 2016
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Legend of queen opala series.
I tried a bit the first game and it didnt really catch me so I dropped it, until I saw a few years later some hentai pics of
Loqo II and I decided to give it a go again.
I'm so glad I did, loqo II and now origins are ones of my favourite hentai games.
I actually put more time in LOQO II than I would care to admit... I actually think that apart from an adult game, its just a really impressive use of RPGMaker in general. I know a lot of people criticize it for being large picture hunt, but if you generally enjoy a decent RPG world and game mechanics, I think it really holds up. I have not yet tried Origins, but that is really because I am patiently waiting for the game to be finished (as I am pretty confident based on past performance that the dev won't abandon it).
 

Yukemoto

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Jun 19, 2020
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Labrats2.
I tried it and was pretty quickly turned off by the density of it all, then I decided to try it again on a whim and found a download that had prebaked mods, this time I realized it actually had procedurally generated characters alongside the premade ones, and I was able to tune the game to my pace and cut through all the density. Its now one of my alltime favorite games on the site.