Games you like but everyone hates

NiGHTs Journey of Dreams. I just loved the premise of it, even if I can admit there was a lot wrong with it. The controls were a little weird at times, they had too many segments where you just played as the kids, voice acting wasn't all that great, and they made NiGHTS' gender weird. I think they're supposed to be genderless in the Japanese version of the game but in Japan NiGHTS is usually portrayed as a female? But then NiGHTS is canonically male in the English version. It's really weird since they gave "him" an obviously female voice actor. I don't care what gender NiGHTS actually is, they're a cool character, I just wish they'd stick to a canon. Oh and of course there's Owl who everyone finds annoying, although I've never had much of an issue with him. I think he's a cute and funny.

I love the idea of flying through dream worlds and fighting against nightmares. A lot of the dream worlds in the game were pretty similar to dreams I had actually had. Of course after playing a game a lot it wasn't uncommon for me to have dreams about it, which made NiGHTS really meta. The worlds were so beautiful and colorful and the music was great. I think it was the first game I ever finished 100%. A ranks on every stage and found all the dream drops. It's still a guilty pleasure.

 

@Wolf Expert
I love NiGHTS too! Actually, I'm pretty sure that it's cannon that NiGHTS has no gender? The creators stated it as such, and in Japan NiGHTS uses gender-neutral pronouns while in English they use 'He/Him' due to a lack of gender-neutral pronouns besides 'they/them' and 'it'. NiGHTS was given a female voice actor to either point out that they are genderless or to make them sound young and innocent..possibly.
NiGHTS is certainly very 'meta' like, the games were designed as such!
However I wouldn't mark NiGHTS as a game 'that everyone hates' as it, as well as Mother, has a massive fan base online.

Only game I can think of that has a big backlash online is Sonic Unleashed. Most people say the Day Stages were the only good thing, meanwhile I enjoyed the Night Stages too!

 

The first to come to mind for me is Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley. I can understand why a lot of people were unhappy with the departure from the usual formula but it was a nice, fresh take on what was becoming terribly repetitive... The Harvest Moon franchise isn't short of games by any means! The mechanics work well enough and the freedom you have with your farm's layout was enjoyable, could have done with more bachelors though... :'(
There're still plenty of games lined up that stick to tradition too, it's a shame that it's still stuck with such low reviews!

 

I'm pretty sure that is the canon, but if NiGHTS is ever given a gender by fans in Japan, they're usually portrayed as a female, while the English games defaulted to making NiGHTS male like they do with pretty much all localized genderless characters.

I know that NiGHTS Into Dreams was considered a pretty good game, I haven't heard much about Journey of Dreams though. Mostly just complaints about it. I just looked up some ratings and it looks like it averages around 50% approval, so I guess I just somehow heard all the bad criticisms of it.

The voice acting was pretty bad at times though and the story could be a little corny. "Alright! I've finally captured NiGHTS (for the 6th time in the game) time to leave them in this easily escapable cage that they've escaped from 5 other times instead of taking them to Wiseman."

 

... Well, the only one that comes to mind is MS Saga: A New Dawn. Granted, it's not like a lot of people have played it (it's the lowest selling game in the Gundam franchise), but I can't imagine a lot of people liking it considering the sorts of games in its genre that it had to go against when it came out (Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy X/XII, Disgaea, etc.) or other games on the system it came out on (PS2).

 

@Wolf Expert
I've seen english artists drawing NiGHTS female (Heck I used to do that as well while I was learning how to draw NiGHTS) too, so its not just Japan.
Voice acting was iffy, however the voices aren't as bad as NiGHTS into Dreams was. (Luckily Claire's VA came back in NiGHTS Journey of Dreams to show off how her singing has improved over the years with her rendition of 'Dreams Dreams')
Plus, the story of JoD is the same as NiD- boy has problems during sports, girl has problems with music, NiGHTS finds them in the dream world with just their courage, helps them get the rest of their ideya back by fighting bosses (who are all similar in both games), and they ultimately face their fears irl after seeing NiGHTS defeat Wizeman.
Elliot in NiD plays basketball and has trouble with a older team that bullies him, Will in JoD plays soccer but can't get his head in the game due to missing his dad. Claris in NiD has stage fright singing in a play, Helen in JoD has trouble separating violin practice with time to hang out and be a pre-teen girl.

tl;dr NiGHTS is genderless, regardless of pronouns used (in fact he/him is the go-to for genderless as using 'it' is very rude for people). Some English artists portray NiGHTS as female, its not just Japanese fan art. Voice acting wasn't the best, but it was better than NiD's. JoD is a re-hash of NiD, with some differences to keep them apart.

 

I hear tell that a lot of people don't like Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. And it's easy to see why (the temple of the ocean king is pure evil incarnate). But I still liked it overall.

 

I can agree with that. The temple isn't really difficult, just tedious after a while. The rest of the game is pretty good though, even if the final boss is really easy. After playing many others, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that Phantom Hourglass was my first Zelda game. It definitely doesn't hold up to a lot of the other Zelda games, but on its own its not bad.

 

Shadow the Hedgehog. Maybe it's because I played the Gamecube version, but I never understood where people were coming from when they complained about the controls. The gameplay functions fine. Yes, the story is tripe and the graphics are outdated, but it's still fun to play.

Nights for the Wii is a definite for me. So many trash it for the new gameplay elements, but I felt that added a nice level of variety to it.

Not sure if it's accurate to assume all that many people hate the DS Zelda games, but I know quite a number dismissed Spirit Tracks just because they replaced the boat with a train. Honestly, I think it's better over all. The bosses are more inspired, the main dungeon is a lot less annoying and the gameplay is just overall better. Though I do really like Phantom Hourglass as well. Admittedly, it was a long time before I tried them, but mostly because I'm iffy about games that require you to use the stylus and nothing but the stylus.

Also, the Chameleon Twist games. So many dismiss these as garbage just for being short for N64 titles, and they don't deserve that. They're a lot of fun. (Yes, I hate how they changed the designs of the characters in the North American release of the sequel, but that's a minor gripe)

Oh, and before I forget, Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals. It seems like every single fan of the franchise hates this one just because it's different and that's it. No other reason. Just, oh, they changed the gameplay style and altered a story a little bit. Some things they improved upon, like Tia who in the original Lufia 2 wasn't that likable and was kind of useless in combat. Granted, yes, the platforming elements are iffy and the puzzles are easier, but I still had a lot of fun with this game. (Though the option to permanently increase your level by 5 after losing enough is questionable to say the least)

 

I'm very addicted to Magikarp Jump and I'm probably the only person on earth to play it.

 

Pokémon Black and White. To be honest these games really do get a lot of hate and Gen 5 in general just gets a lot of hate. I happen to like Gen 5 quite a bit and in fact, it's my second favorite generation. I think most of the Pokémon they added are really cute and I loved the story.

Other M. Not sure why a lot of people hate Other M. I thought it was a great game. I guess it's because it wasn't a Metroid Prime game or something.

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity. There are only two problems I ever had with this game, but I really do love this game overall. Sure it isn't the best PMD but it's not terrible...in my opinion anyways.

 

From what I can gather, most Other M haters are people who think story matters more than gameplay in a, well, GAME. Many were not happy with the portrayal of Samus. That's literally the only reason it gets so much backlash.

Speaking of which, there's another game I like that gets a lot of flack from the public for what I think is an incredibly stupid reason: Conker: Live and Reloaded. Allow me to sum up the hate this game receives in a nutshell:
"THEY CENSORED CERTAIN SWEAR WORDS! THIS IS AWFUL! THIS VERSION SUCKS!"
Seriously, if that's the only thing you care about, you don't know the definition of the word game, do you? I admit, the decision to do that was unnecessary and confusing, considering the Xbox is aimed at an older crowd than the N64, but I don't think that alone undermines the fact that everything else was improved significantly. Though okay, I did find the idea of Conker's main weapon being a frying pan much funnier/cooler than the spiked club, plus that edit they did during the final cutscene where they replaced a shotgun with a crossbow and kept in the click sound was weird. Seriously, that's something 4kids would do. Still, the gameplay, presentation and music are so much better in this one.

Oh yeah, and I second the more recent Harvest Moon games. Yes, it does pain me how Story of Seasons seems to have become the more traditional HM series (Seriously, why not just keep calling them Harvest Moon games? They're basically the same thing) but I still had just as much fun as I usually do.

 

gen 4 and 5 of Pokémon. the music from gen 4 was amazing and 5 had some of the most original Pokémon designs. i put way too much time into both of these games.

 

shadow the hedgehog. everyone hates it because of cringey lines and bad graphics but like..i've owned that game since i was like 8 or 9 or whatever. i've had it since late elementary school. it's heckin amazing and it's a huge guilty pleasure of mine. the multiple endings and storylines give it a lot of replay value and i actually don't mind the "cringey" lines that bad. i love it when shadow swears an the fact he has a gun. it suits my edgy boi.

nights journey into dreams is also one of my favorites. i played it a while back i think at my cousins house and was addicted and beat the whole game in a day i think. the story and gameplay can be super annoying at times, but i love it nonetheless and i love my edgy boi reala. (i love villains can you tell) i also then proceeded to buy the game for myself afterwards and owned it and beat it again twice.

i also really love sonic heroes, despite seeing a lot of hate for it. its also a game i grew up with and still play even now. sure the controls are a bit wonky and the lines can be..a bit.. odd at times, but the story i think is pretty good and its an overall enjoyable game for me. i recently beat the secret story (not really secret, just.. hard for me to get personally) for the first time a couple months ago.

sonic unleashed is also one of my favorites. i actually remember when that game first game out, and i begged my dad to get it for me. he did get it for me of course, and i almost beat the whole game until my sister deleted my data and i got extremely mad. good game though, i do enjoy it a lot even if i cant find it in my house anymore and it disappeared into the void. i quite enjoy the werehog levels.

another sonic game on this list lmao. sonic chronicles the dark brotherhood. good game. good story. weird controls and a bit unfair at times, but i still enjoyed it a lot. i also begged my dad to get this for me and he got it for me for my birthday. i beat it really quickly lol. i then proceeded to replay it twice over the course of the many years i owned it. then after i had already replayed through it 3 times, i decided to sell it. however i still do enjoy it nonetheless and even if the story and gameplay is a bit weird and unfair, i still like it a lot and find it enjoyable. im still bitter they will probably never make a sequel. i just want to see shade return pls and IX.

i could go on and on about many games i enjoy, especially the sonic games but i wont bore you with the details lol

 

@kindred I liked Sonic Chronicles too! At the end (of my 5+ playthroughs) Sonic was MAX Level and I was only missing like 5 or so Chao. Shame they never did a sequel as the ending was hinting at.