Pay to Win. Bad water/camera controls. Ugly interface. Boring Tutorial. No immediate clear directive. Water levels.
For me, a number of (or combination of) things may turn me away from picking up a game ever again: -A story that trips over itself with too many plot holes. -Lack of clarity towards certain quests. -Loooooooooooong loading times. -Constantly lagging frame rate. -Sudden difficulty spikes. -Glitches that make certain segments unplayable. -Fighting the same exact boss more than twice (Okami is an exception). -Fighting with the controls. -Fighting with the camera. -Areas that place restrictions on the player (Unless they're optional). -Unblock-able instant death attacks. -Fighting a boss that is too hard for all the reasons stated above.
Badly written characters Lots of fetching quests along the lines of: PersonA: "Go get this from PersonB and I'll give you this" PersonB: "Oh, if you get me this from PersonC I'll give you this for PersonB" PersonC: "I need this thing from PersonD" Etc, etc. Fanservice for fanservice sake. Really annoying repetitive music that cant be turned off. Timed fights. Timed things in general. I'm just really bad at them.
It could really be a multitude of things. Usually, if the characters are just unlikable or boring I just can't get behind it. Sometimes games are just way toooooo sloooowwww for me, which isn't great since some games take a while to progress and I just can't get behind it.
Knuckles not being able to jump as high as Sonic can in sonic 3 and knuckles. also annoying rivals (cough cough Hau cough cough)
Confusing gameplay/mechanics/puzzles The game is either too easy, or too difficult If the game is challenging, it's for all the wrong reasons (Bad level design, game-breaking glitches, etc.) Flat or unlikable characters Bad or forgettable OST The game has no replay value Uncomfortable or backwards controls, like using B to jump and A to attack The list could go on, but I consider these to be some of the strongest turnoffs for me... Overly complex puzzles made me throw down games like Paper Mario: Sticker Star before I even finished a chunk of them.
Horrible ost Urking characters A slow start to the "interesting story". Bad resolution. Having a character act a certain way without clarification. A unclear ending or mechanic. There we go!
Ridiculously/unnecessarily complex control schemes. Why yes I /love/ learning 10,000 button combinations to kill that one enemy. Sometimes sharp difficulty spikes turn me away, too, though if I still like the game I usually tend to take a break, then return and try to move past the point I'm stuck at.
Pay to Win No PvP Lack of ability requirements to give impressive results (low effort, high reward systems) And a lot of stuff that I can't remember...but know there is more
Repetitive/monotonous tasks and bad/dialogue are two big ones for me. Also, if the soundtrack is bad I'm not gonna touch it.
What turns me off to games is usually either: overly-complicated controls/combos (Basically 2D fighters in a nutshell), too much dialogue that drowns out the gameplay (unless it's really interesting), or games that require you to repetitively grind and farm just to be good or progress.
For me it's mostly an issue if the pacing is too slow, the gameplay or story are too repetitive, or if it's too easy. That was kind of my issue with Detective Pikachu was that it was too slow for such easy gameplay. I'm not sure when I'll be playing it again, but I probably will just because the gameplay, while easy, was still pretty fun and unique. I've considered replaying Mass Effect a lot lately, but I think the ending kind of ruined it for me. So I guess that's one more thing to add to the list. It was a fun series though.
poor graphics poor controls poor narration/plot explanation poor character development (this can actually ruin certain characters if not done right) cringey dialogue That's essentially it. I would normally say I'm not a hard person to please but honestly that BS and I'm just picky af.
A number of things... Loot-boxes/crates Bad voice-acting (when applicable) Bad music/popular RL music (such as games like Need for Speed and Grand Theft Auto) Bad camera controls (or lack of control thereof, such as with the 3D Sonic games) Framerate issues Little/no gameplay explanation (I can put up with boring tutorials far better than this) BAD. WRITING. (this is the reason why I have no faith in the upcoming Fire Emblem game for the Switch; Fateswakening - especially Fates - is so bad that there is no excuse; it's also why Mass Effect 3 failed)
Level grinding, too many random encounters, and a complicated battle system. I just want to hack and slash without having to think sometimes. :p
What makes me off? It is when you are stuck up in a game, preferably some Pokémon GBA Games, and then you don't know what to do next, just walking around...
Controls are so important to me in a game. If I can barely control my character then I won't play it. Also, I don't want to be bored while playing a game. I've played quite a few games that are just nothing but busy work. Microtransactions can also be a turn-off if the game isn't free to play. I just hate that business practice so much.
Hmmm. A big turn off for me is if it's a pay to win, online only game. I've played enough of those in the past to be disappointed, especially when they get shut down. Lootboxes in general within games just annoy me.
Introducing new gameplay mechanics when we're well into the game. Maybe not special attacks, because I understand that some things can be locked until a special attack is unlocked. I meant new ways to traverse the environment after the halfway mark that involve out of battle techniques. Looking at you, Dream Team.
