What was the most hype-deflating piece of information about a highly anticipated game release that you learned close to launch?

[HylianSeven]

SMT x Fire Emblem. The initial concept trailer showing all the original characters got me hyped, then we got the actual game trailer 2 years later and it turned into some idol musical anime game. It's no wonder it bombed twice.

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I actually made a thread about this topic a few months back.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE IS both a Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei game, in both story and gameplay. [spoilers]

I just finished Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore the other day. I had played the original on Wii U but never finished it. I was chomping at the bit for the Switch version. Fair warning, I will be discussing some open spoiler stuff in this post, but I will try not to spoil EVERYTHING, and even...

www.resetera.com

Bottom line: That original trailer was a bunch of jpegs that Nintendo jumped the gun on showing. We DID still get SMT x Fire Emblem, it just wasn't a "Demi-Fiend vs Marth" thing.

 

[Altazor]

I haven't been spoiled (thankfully) in regards to TLOU2 but, even without knowing what was detailed in the leaks, I think my own personal hype for the game has been steadily diminishing for the past few months.

I think it's because the tone of the marketing and how tidbits of info have been presented in gaming outlets, including Druckmann's comments - I have the utmost respect and admiration for the devs, voice actors and everybody else who has worked their socks off in this project, but the whole tone of the thing (or, at least, the one that has been shared in the past months) feels "off" to me. Like, they're trying so hard to be M A T U R E and S E R I O U S and E D G Y that it somehow borders on self-parody, like THIS IS A SERIOUS GAME WITH SERIOUS DIFFICULT CHOICES: DO YOU EITHER KILL YOUR DAUGHTER'S DOG OR YOUR SON'S CAT TO PROGRESS? LOOK AT THEIR CUTE LITTLE FACES, HEAR YOUR CHILDREN'S WEEPING, YOU MUST KILL ONE OF THOSE PETS BECAUSE THIS IS A DARK, SERIOUS STORY. DIFFICULT CHOICES!!!111

I dunno, it rubs me the wrong way. There's a fine line between effective grittiness and darkness, the one that really impacts the player/viewer, and 2Edgy4U ridiculousness that doesn't stick the landing and seems to be done for grittiness/darkness' sake. I hope TLOU2 remains on the side of the first instead of crossing the border.

Another game I have in mind for this thread is Dark Souls 2, as already mentioned. Still bought it, still enjoyed it but, man, the downgrade was fucking *severe*. And even though I enjoyed it, it's no DS1... and, after playing (and beating) DS3, it's no DS3 either. Still, DS2's DLC content is fucking aces - better than most of the base game, tbh.

 

[Loneck]

It's probably been said, but finding out that Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (before we knew it was called that) wasn't going to be a direct sequel adventure game absolutely killed me back then, and to this day we're strill waiting.

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Yes, this. Who was asking for some vehicle building non-sense.

 

[Freddie13]

It will be digital only: Switch games.......too many

 

[Ringten]

In order for turning off waypoints to be a viable option in an open-world game, the game needs to give you verbal directions of where to go and what to look for, which doesn't seem to be the case here. Maybe they just haven't shown it off yet for some reason

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Let me start of by saying I 100% agree that verbal cues are a great element.
However I disagree with your statement implying that verbal cues are the only viable way to not have waypoints.
The issue with verbal cues is that it requires the player to know the map (impossible)/ or have a map. For example Jin would know most locations in Tsushima, however you the player who is new to this world would have no clue.

Secondly a game solely having verbal cues could not encompass the majority of things that are on the map, nor would that make sense. In fact that would be quite shitty, that everyone in the game world seems to know about secret locations.

Furthermore, let's see what they do with the game? Maybe there are verbal cues of sorts aswell... doubtful but you never know.

but from what we can tell following the wind or keeping your eyes glued to the map seem to be the only options.

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Are we talking about the same game?
First of all there is no map as HUD so how would your eyes be glued to it? Secondly the map and wind are not your only options.

Why do you keep dismissing the fact there are in-game visual cues. The smoke and trees for exmaple. What's wrong with that?

Its immersive and does not require a map (as hud element).

 

[Chopchop]

Dark souls 2 gutting its lighting engine. I don't remember if it was right on release or right before it, but it was something I was really looking forward to.

 

[Odeko]

I disagree with your statement implying that verbal cues are the only viable way to not have waypoints.
The issue with verbal cues is that it requires the player to know the map (impossible)/ or have a map. For example Jin would know most locations in Tsushima, however you the player who is new to this world would have no clue.

Furthermore, let's see what they do with the game? Maybe there are verbal cues of sorts aswell... doubtful but you never know.



Are we talking about the same game?
First of all there is no map as HUD so how would your eyes be glued to it? Secondly the map and wind are not your only options.

Why do you keep dismissing the fact there are in-game visual cues. The smoke and trees for exmaple. What's wrong with that?

Its immersive and does not require a map (as hud element).

A game solely having verbal cues could not encompass all the things that are on the map, nor would that make sense. In fact that would be quite shitty, that everyone in the game world seems to know about secret locations.

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I'm a big fan of all the secrets that aren't marked on the map in GoT, I really like the idea of following birds or heading towards distant smoke signals. I have no complaints with how that's handled and that's not what I'm referring to here.

I'm talking about specifically the main quest line which — unless it's like BotW — is going to be a sequence of events and locations around the game world that you need to navigate to in a certain order. Currently it looks like your options for following the main quest (or any side quests) are: a) follow the wind, or b) turn off the wind and navigate by bringing up the map screen every 30 seconds. In my ideal world, those would still be options for people who want them, but there would also be a third option which played similar to Morrowind. That would mean no "?" icons on the map at all, and in order to find your way around NPCs would tell you things like "Oh you want to get to Ryukawa village? Just follow this path until you get to bridge, then turn right and travel south along the river until you find it. It's just past an old ruined temple."

THAT'S what I crave, and what I naively was hoping for when they said there would be no waypoints.

 

[Deleted member 32822]

- No magic in Twilight Princess
- The length of RE3 and Pokémon Shield
- Starting roster for MvCI
- Yooka Laylee gameplay
- Astral Chain silent protagonist

 

[Zaimokuza]

Final Fantasy VIIR announcement: "wow, I've never played the original game and nowadays it looks extremely dated, I'm so happy about this"

Episodic structure revealed: "uh, well, I guess this means the games will be a bit padded, but it's ok, I can't wait to play it"

Game comes out and I read spoilers about the final part of the game: "oh, well, I'll play the original super modded and forget about this one"

 

[wafflebrain]

Re3 and FFVIIR definitely the most recent examples. Was really excited for both until reading about the super short campaign and cut content of RE plus the vastly inconsistent asset quality in REVIIR. At least the latter has some chance of getting fixed through a patch at some point.

Can't say I understand the numerous NMS callouts sans the lack of mp, there were plenty of previews explaining it was a crafting/survival focused affair. If anyone was expecting Mass Effect levels of hand crafted events and narrative development for a procedurally generated gameplay loop that's on them.

 

[Ombala]

That Tony Hawk remaster will get MTs after release

 

[Ringten]

I'm a big fan of all the secrets that aren't marked on the map in GoT, I really like the idea of following birds or heading towards distant smoke signals. I have no complaints with how that's handled and that's not what I'm referring to here.

I'm talking about specifically the main quest line which — unless it's like BotW — is going to be a sequence of events and locations around the game world that you need to navigate to in a certain order. Currently it looks like your options for following the main quest (or any side quests) are: a) follow the wind, or b) turn off the wind and navigate by bringing up the map screen every 30 seconds. In my ideal world, those would still be options for people who want them, but there would also be a third option which played similar to Morrowind. That would mean no "?" icons on the map at all, and in order to find your way around NPCs would tell you things like "Oh you want to get to Ryukawa village? Just follow this path until you get to bridge, then turn right and travel south along the river until you find it. It's just past an old ruined temple."

THAT'S what I crave, and what I naively was hoping for when they said there would be no waypoints.

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Understood. And yep that would be great indeed. You're right. We can only hope 😂

The only thing I would say in defence is it would narratively not make sense for Jin not to know Tsushima. Going back to the point that verbal cues do require some sort of visual aid aswell (may that be a menu map).

 

[Mentalist]

Always-online and RMAH for Diablo 3.

The second I heard that, Diablo was dead for me.

 

[McEwan]

MK11:Aftermath costing 35 quid. I simply can't justify that expense for something I really liked.

 

[DavidDesu]

Regarding Ghost of Tsushima, I was disappointed by that animal thing. Seems like all throughout the game there will be very noticeable animals that will always lead you to some extra mission or whatever. Like having that happen once or twice by chance during a play through would be quite magical, but it seems like enough of a mechanic that it featured here and gives the impression it will happen A LOT during the game, and happening more than a couple of times seems really silly to me, immersion breaking.

I definitely have deflated hype for this seeing more of the gameplay.

 

[Lagamorph]

Star Wars Fallen Order would have Souls-like mechanics.

 

[Shoot]

The fucking hyper-downgrade of Dark Souls 2.

It went from looking too good, like what the fuck good, to some screens legit looking like PS2 screenshots shortly before release and nobody knew what was going on. I shrugged it off assuming it was some sort of bad angle or what have, did the midnight launch, even took a day off work only to find out it most certainly was true. Some of that game still looks mindbogglingly bad to me. Left the sourest taste a video game has ever managed to leave. I see that box on my shelf and cringe a little each time.

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That downgrade was massive, shocking, and still unexplained to this day. From Software had the opportunity to fix it with the Scholar of the First Sin next gen releases but did not.

The worst part was the gutting of the lighting system making torches almost useless. I was really excited to hold a torch in one hand and a sword in the other in areas too dark to see as shown in the trailers.

It certainly did not help that the game was rather ugly as well.

 

[TransEuropaExpress]

That downgrade was massive, shocking, and still unexplained to this day. From Software had the opportunity to fix it with the Scholar of the First Sin next gen releases but did not.

The worst part was the gutting of the lighting system making torches almost useless. I was really excited to hold a torch in one hand and a sword in the other in areas too dark to see as shown in the trailers.

It certainly did not help that the game was rather ugly as well.

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That's the part I forgot in my initial post and that stings the most. I totally forgot about how fucking hyped I was again hearing they'd release a 'fixed' version. Obviously once again barely any details were provided until shortly before release I remember right, no word on the lighting or anything...and then it turns out Scholar dropped the damn ball again.

Scholar to me was an insult to injury type scenario. I was in a pretty hard 'Fuck From Software' after that but then Bloodborne hit soooo....

 

[Decarb]

The Switch version of W101 having same horrendous framerate as WiiU. I'm still getting it, but not on Switch anymore.

 

[BFIB]

Watch Dogs downgrade.

 

[Kamaros]

I haven't been spoiled (thankfully) in regards to TLOU2 but, even without knowing what was detailed in the leaks, I think my own personal hype for the game has been steadily diminishing for the past few months.

I think it's because the tone of the marketing and how tidbits of info have been presented in gaming outlets, including Druckmann's comments - I have the utmost respect and admiration for the devs, voice actors and everybody else who has worked their socks off in this project, but the whole tone of the thing (or, at least, the one that has been shared in the past months) feels "off" to me. Like, they're trying so hard to be M A T U R E and S E R I O U S and E D G Y that it somehow borders on self-parody, like THIS IS A SERIOUS GAME WITH SERIOUS DIFFICULT CHOICES: DO YOU EITHER KILL YOUR DAUGHTER'S DOG OR YOUR SON'S CAT TO PROGRESS? LOOK AT THEIR CUTE LITTLE FACES, HEAR YOUR CHILDREN'S WEEPING, YOU MUST KILL ONE OF THOSE PETS BECAUSE THIS IS A DARK, SERIOUS STORY. DIFFICULT CHOICES!!!111

I dunno, it rubs me the wrong way. There's a fine line between effective grittiness and darkness, the one that really impacts the player/viewer, and 2Edgy4U ridiculousness that doesn't stick the landing and seems to be done for grittiness/darkness' sake. I hope TLOU2 remains on the side of the first instead of crossing the border.

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the fuck? you are taking this out of your brain to bash the dark tone of the game hahaha my god. bash the game all you like but with real info please.

also ND games aren't choice based and there's no indication TLOU2 will have it.

 

[Yrch]

Mass Effect 3 Javik Day-1 DLC.

Diablo 3 PC having always Online requirements and an RM Auction House.

 

[Lunaray]

I echo many of the others in this thread on SimCity 2013. I don't think I've ever been as hyped for a game as I was for that, only to be completely deflated later.

 

[Pellaidh]

I wouldn't call it highly anticipated, but I was somewhat excited for Icons, the f2p PC Smash Melee clone clone that was announced at EVO some years back. So I was pretty happy to get an email that announced in 30pt bold font that the open beta for the game was now open to EVERYBODY.

Except that at the very bottom of the email, in super small barely readable font, the email clarified that by everybody, they actually only meant people form North America, because the game would never be released in any other region.

I was pretty annoyed by that, but then again the game was basically dead a week later, so I guess I wasn't exactly missing out on anything.

 

[SirKai]

RE2 lacking the proper scenario B, and RE3 lacking Mercenaries, the Park, the Clock Tower, the Dead Factory, Grave Digger, and Nemesis as an actual stalker.

 

[Altazor]

the fuck? you are taking this out of your brain to bash the dark tone of the game hahaha my god. bash the game all you like but with real info please.

also ND games aren't choice based and there's no indication TLOU2 will have it.

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I'm not bashing anything, man. I'm not saying the game won't be good, why are you putting words in my mouth? There's a damn difference between "this game sucks don't play it" and "the tone the marketing has given for this game is putting me off".

 

[FarSight XR-20]

Battlefield V.

DICE is making a new WW2 Battlefield. Great, that's what I wanted !

Then a disastrous and catastrophic reveal trailer.

Then you learn that it will be only Germany vs UK with obscure and unknown battles from 1940 no one asked for and only 8 maps.

 

[BBech]

Metroid Other M. Insanely hyped at everything I was shown from all the press releases and promotional videos— only to have my expectations shattered by the reviews and first hands on of the game saying it would be NOTHING close to the quality of Prime and the story essentially ruining Samus' character. I almost didn't buy the game, but I felt like I had to as a diehard Metroid fan.

I almost made the right choice.

 

[Kamaros]

I'm not bashing anything, man. I'm not saying the game won't be good, why are you putting words in my mouth? There's a damn difference between "this game sucks don't play it" and "the tone the marketing has given for this game is putting me off".

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anyone reading your post comes out thinking that the game somehow have choices and this dark stuff like killing pets. i don't mean any offense but it was a misleading post.

sorry if i was rude.

 

[Vagabond]

"No X-Men - they're just functions anyway" - Marvel vs Capcom Infinite.

Honestly that whole ride, the horrid art direction and the leaked character list probably turned the game from a surefire hit that would've built on the Marvel cinematic universe's success into a bargain bin curiosity purchase.

 

[Rei no Otaku]

Star Wars Fallen Order would have Souls-like mechanics.

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Yup. Any time I hear "Souls mechanics" I just nope out.

 

[jett]

Street Fighter V not having an arcade mode. Shit stung at the time. Ironically however, that forced me to properly learn a fighting game for the first time since there was nothing else to do but training mode and going online.

 

[Gabbo]

Ghostbusters 2008 not having multiplayer on PC

 

[defaltoption]

Assassins Creed Valhalla being even bigger then Odyssey, I was already down on the series and considering not buying it day 1 but this ensured I won't buy it until the ultimate edition is $30 or less.

Cheap enough that I have everything available didn't get raked over the coals for it in price and don't feel like shit when bum rush the story and skip the crappy repeatable generic side content.