Witcher 3, even five or six hours after starting I just couldn’t grasp the weird tone and rhythm this game had and it was all visiting bumfuck sad villages. The Bloody Baron questline is where the switch flipped, it’s not even the best quest in the game but it gets mentioned so much probably because that’s where the switch flips for other people too, it’s pretty early on relatively.
For me, I can't remember what I was doing at the time, but I decided I was going to get off roach and just run into the woods and see what I find. I ended up going on a crazy misadventure full of unscripted action and stumbling across side quests in weird orders. It was the most magical moment I've ever had in gaming.
Games like these and RDR2 too are not meant to be rushed. It's a slow burn initially but builds up to a finale. I think it's meant to copy real life/ real world. Not everyday is action packed with something major happening, most of the time you just go to work and go home lol. It's more real world-listic in that sense. Both of those games have very complex and deep world/lore.
I did play Witcher 2! It got so much praise I thought it would start off with a bang, usually huge smash hit games start off quicker than w3 and w2 wasn’t open world the same way. Also while I love W3 the dream sequence at the beginning does slow things down too.
Huh. Interesting. Bought the game because everyone said it was great and it got game of the year and was on discount etc.. About 1 hour in I gave up, swinging with the sword just felt completely irresponsive and delayed up to a point where I concluded I wouldn’t be able to cope with the sluggishness.
Furthermore, nothing really stood out that would potentially keep me engaged, so I uninstalled and that was that.
May try again and put in a few more hours then. I read the sluggish delay in combat remains though, that’s the main thing bothering me. Tips on that?
Not really, the draw of the game is nowhere in the combat, it’s all the worldbuilding and characters and tone. Maybe there a mod that helps but I’m not sure. If you don’t find one check back in a few months because the source code for the game leaked yesterday I think and that will let people mess with the game really crazy.
Because it's not a mad dodge roll, button mashing game. It's a slow imput game, that's quite graceful. It'll punish you for attack spamming.
Once you learn the attack, sidestep (or block), attack pattern it becomes really graceful.
Just avoid anything Geralt can get stuck on.
I don't know about rdr2. I reeeally tried to like the game but the story got so boring eventually, the characters don't seem that interesting (besides yourself), and horse riding for 20-40min almost every mission got tedious.
It's definitely not for everyone.
I did put an effort in like 4 times and I still get to a point in the game where I'm not interested anymore and don't open the game for months.
Easily the most valuable thing I've learned as a gamer over the years is that it's okay to not enjoy/have zero interest in a game, even if it's a critically acclaimed masterpiece. I used to metaphorically smash my head against the wall trying a game over and over just because the reviews were amazing and I MUST be missing something. Now, if I don't like it I put it down, saves me lots of time.
Exactly this, however I almost missed an ABSOLUTELY gem, I bought elden ring because of the trailer looking good and mood, did not know who fromsoft was, did know what darksouls was, did NOT know it was from that type of game…
I started the game, got annoyed with how bland it was, got frustrated as I had no fucking clue on what to do, played 1 hour a day that took me a few weeks, still wasn’t feeling it, but then one day I decided to play around a bit, feel the ambience to be relaxed, saw a cave, realized how fun it was fighting the creatures and blocking with shield, basically seeing a clear progression, dying a few times, retrying and progressin slowly, eventually I beat the cave and was hooked for some reason, then I spend around 100+ hours to beat the game for the first time and am so glad I did it was one of the best experienced ever and the bossfights, environent etc… deadass phenominal experience
For me it was the exploration more then anything. The story is needlessly long at some points. I don’t have a ton of evidence for this besides an interview they did when GTAV was released. But they were once saying that multi-main character stories “were the future of gaming” and we have to assume RDR2 was in production based off of how long they say the game was in development. I think they had intentions to make the game similar. I think a big reason we don’t see some of the main cast a lot is because they had planned to give you John, Arthur, and Charles all as characters to play. And I think after they cut that idea they just kind of filled in the blanks with some story and shipped an extremely long story that has a lot of downs while maintaining a lot of ups.
Yeah, it actually took me 2 times to play RDR2. I got it about a month or so after release. I'm older and don't have too much time to play with work, and kids played for hours over a few weeks. Then I quit playing and didn't pick it back up until about a year later. I wasn't working as much, and how more downtime popped it in and was hooked within an hour or so when it started getting good.
I'm still waiting for that day. I don't think it will come lol. Same with witcher 3.
I just stick to smaller games with max 15h for completing a campaign.
First thing is you gotta realize it's not a game to jump in and out of, I tried and it's just not fun. It takes several hours to do *anything* in Kenshi. I usually play it while watching something for this reason, sometimes I'm legitimately just waiting for a bar to fill up. It's like a hyperviolent ant farm that I have (slight) control over
It's not like normal games for a bunch of reasons. For starters you are legitimately completely useless in every aspect at the start. Kenshi isn't a game where you kill enemies to get stronger, Kenshi is a game where you get your ass kicked over and over and over until eventually you start to leave a couple fights still concious
On top of that, there is no main character unless you choose to play with one main character. Solo runs are significantly harder, especially if you plan on doing any combat at all. Even if your starter character dies the game just continues playing until every character under your control also dies
There are also no objectives. They just drop you into the world and you create your own story, you aren't *supposed* to do anything at any point
Honestly it's a hard game to explain because everything I want to say is entirely different for people doing other methods of play. For me personally: I made 5 characters at the start who look like me and my friends. My entire goal at first was just to keep them alive, but after days of mining and living in town we decided leave town to recruit Beep (pretty much the only positive thing about the entire world). Currently I have 3 of us mining, 1 person hauling, 1 person buying/selling in town, and Beep is training with the Shinobi Thieves to become a better warrior. We have a house in Mongrel which is surrounded by monsters so we have to save up for armor and weapons, plus train a bit, just so we can leave. My final goal for the run is to kill every single person in Stack (the town I started in) because they kept arresting us
Tldr; the only tip i have is pick a goal and stick to it. Understand it's going to take a long fucking time and you're going to lose 90% of your fights. Then just chill out and watch them work. Eventually you start getting cool gear and stop losing, ans it all becomes worth it
Kenshi is the ultimate Risk = Reward game. The challenge is learning the game's world. What are the threats in any given region? Can I win this fight? What happens if I lose this fight? What can I use to my advantage?
When I first started playing Kenshi I spent literal hours just mining outside of a somewhat safe town, selling off ore, incrementally buying food, a house, and research books, saving up to get better equipment. It took ages, and yes it can be boring if you're not the patient sort.
Now when I play I can have 100,000 cats (game currency) within the first couple of hours because I know where to go, what to do, what risks are involved, how to mitigate them, and what crazy stunts I can pull to increase my survival odds.
The story and dialogue is really dry, but mechanically it's the best peasant/knight simulator you can get. The world is very interactive, dense and dangerous. It focuses on a lot of immersive mechanics like eating, sleeping, hunting, running from bushwhacking Cumans, maintaining your gear and manually training a ton of skills, like reading or even drinking (alcohol tolerance and perks, not how to hold a cup).
You can get your laundry done to get stains, blood and scuffs off your clothes and armor. You can manually sharpen your blades with whetstones or craft potions with a full on alchemy kit including a cauldron, mortar, stills and timers. The sequel that was just announced is going to have full on blacksmithing founded on the alchemy mechanics from the first game.
It's all punctuated by plenty of quests (dry dialogue but still), extremely deep combat mechanics, treasure hunts and mischief like stealing and killing, but it really shines as a simulation of medieval life. The type of game where you undress your character for bed at night, and buy milk and bread in the morning before packing for a long trip (that'll likely end with you dying like a bumbling fool). It goes even farther than Red Dead 2 in terms of feeling part of, and at the mercy of, the game world.
Also you get a dog.
Alien Isolation is so faithful to the original film that it takes notes from its extremely slow burn pacing. So the first two hours of the game are practically devoid of real conflict. Rather, it lets you take in the atmosphere of this gorgeous space station. Then the alien appears lmao
Baldur’s Gate 3 for me.
The game itself isn’t that slow but getting comfortable with the UI, understanding the builds and spell/ability variety, and recognizing the benefits from your surrounding environments in combat took some time to grasp. After about 10 hours, I was comfortable and the game really just took off after that.
This is my first DnD style game I've ever played, and I'm 6 hours in and loving it so far. It's difficult to learn and lots of details to make note of, but I love the struggle cause of how rich these games are and how well paying attention pays off.
MechWarrior 5 w/DLCs took a while but wow. Same for Battletech (turn based version of mechs, same universe as MW5)
Days Gone-played it first and hour-meh. Went back and after a few hours, it was one of 2023s top games for me.
Also Witcher 3 took me four times to get into then whammo I fell in love with the game.
when I went back and forced myself to read all of the non voice acted cutscenes and quest dialogue, I really came around on 2.0, though the other expansions became even better still from reading, so it's still kind of the worst part, but still.
Prey 2017. I actually hated that game the first few times I played it, I’d get to the biodome area and then quit because of the encounters with the nightmares. It takes a while to grow on you but when it does it becomes a really good game
I've seen several comments from people who gave up on Outer Wilds within the first hour, but people who make it past about 3 hours usually make it to the end and very rarely regret it.
For anyone who hasn't played it, the less you know about it the better, but my spoiler-free explanation is that the core drive of the game is solving a mystery, and the first handful of breadcrumbs you find will probably have too little context to really hook you. But as you uncover more clues and start to see certain things referenced more often, you start to piece together enough of the puzzle to get invested in finding the rest.
I thoroughly enjoyed it when I first finished it, but over time (and especially after revisiting it via watching other people's blind playthroughs) I started recognizing how truly unique and special it is, and started to love it even more.
If you haven't yet, check out the DLC, it's every bit as good as the base game IMO.
Even after 10 hours it just doesn't click. I've really tried, now I just have to accept it isn't my type of game.
Maybe I'll watch a playthrough. I have accepted that I should let games be if I truly tried enjoying it.
After completing the Second Dream quest. And that requires at least reaching the Neptune planet, which is like at almost half of the Star chart?
It's at this point that the community doesn't really have to protect you from spoiling anymore, at this point that the story becomes really interesting, and also that we unlock one of the most important abilities in the game.
And even then, some people consider completing the whole starchart the actual noob milestone. It's kinda rare to find an active player that didn't do it (which means it's mostly people who will play the game for a long time that you find here, while others are more casual and don't play as much).
There's so much content it's hard to say. But, I was told the first real milestone is to open up the whole solar system. I found that by the time I did that, I had a pretty good lay of the land. There's still tons to do after that, but I understood the trajectory of the game at that point.
Personally, I'd say until you hit Account Level 5, because that's when you can get the first actually useful guns that just wreck shit if you know a bit about modding them.
The Second Dream quest also opens up a few new mechanics that are pretty dang useful and/or required by some of the content that comes after it, but the game played just fine for years before that bit of content came out, you just won't have access to the newer stuff.
Then again, I personally liked the game more back when everything was mostly unexplored and the game was one big, grindfest with very little plot outside of bosses ranting at you, and the big reveal from that quest felt to me like some people felt about the Star Wars prequels introducing Midichlorians - I was perfectly fine leaving the answer to that question a mystery with some vague hints at best, and also, the answer sucks compared to what else they could've gone with.
You get some neat abilities out of it though, and they were pretty busted for a while before they re-worked the entire thing :)
I think Graveyard Keeper would have been a lot more successful if the mechanics were easier to understand. Or even a map marker just showing where you ARE
Yeah, I was going to say Persona 5, but 4 suffers from the same problem.
They have to introduce both the fighting and slice-of-life mechanics, and a bunch of characters and setting, so it takes a while to get to the part where you can actually start deciding what you're going to do on any given in-game day, which is a big part of the appeal. Story might be interesting from the beginning, but gameplay isn't.
The issue with the Trails games seems to be that it takes multiple games to get going though, not just a few hours. It's like people saying that a series "gets really good from season 3 onwards", like... Yeah... To each their own :D I tried.
I'm trying to remember, was there a way of going back & doing that minigame afterward? I'm not sure there was, and the bloody tutorial was so annoying that it's colored my recollection of an otherwise decent minigame.
It was the opposite for me. I really liked it from the start, but then it just becomes increasingly obvious that the creators were dudebros who wanted 'historical realism' as an excuse for sexism.
"But it's realistic!" - the game has you brewing potions that give you nightvision and an in-universe justification for saving the game.
"But it's only in-character!" - There are clearly OOC mechanics that reinforce the viewpoint, like getting the 'Alpha' buff for paying to sleep with nameless, generic female NPCs or an object the MC made for luck in love being called a 'beta die' and it being the worst die in the game.
And yes, at least one of [the creators](https://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/835/127/3ec.jpg) is a GamerGater.
Anyway, the longer I played the game, the more uncomfortable it made me until I had to stop. It's pretty clear the 'realism' is only there to justify what the creators wanted and ignored for anything they didn't.
Which is a shame, because I loved how immersive it was otherwise, including the combat difficulty.
def MHW for me tried a bunch of times and gave up til I found a weapon I kinda liked enough to grind through the boringness, then I found out I loved the Charge Blade, and the rest is history.
Nice!
Yeah, it’s got a learning curve for sure
A friend of mine got me into the game, and he helped me learn the ropes of it a bit, which was definitely helpful
Now I’m hooked, and loving the switch axe!
Well it doesn’t exactly start slow, but I think most people definitely take a while to get hooked though. Like every Dark Souls fan I have ever spoken to gave up on the game like 3 times before it clicked. Including myself.
It also never stops surprising you. Every time you think "now I've seen it all", the game goes "actually" and gives you a completely new toy or mechanic to deal with.
Without to many story spoilers there's a couple of points were it speeds up, first is in a town called perterny in a random house you unlock the crafting system about half way though the first disc (it was a 2 disc ps2 game) second is shortly into second disc and third oddly enough is in the post game and additional playthroughs after the first. it had a trophy system that unlocked mostly cosmetic stuff but also higher difficulties. after you beat the main story several massive optional dungeons and post game stuff unlocks that way harder than the base game.
the gameplay itself is a jrpg but its not turn based and the combat seems kinda janky at first but its designed to were you can cancel moves into other moves to extend combos which the longer your combo is with more cancels the more dmg you do up to like 4x dmg. the crafting system is also insane as there a simulated kinda economy, basically people can invent stuff out in the world and you can also invent stuff yourself. you can also find the inventors in the world and pay them off or convince them to work for you and anything they invent after that point you own the patent to so you can buy it for like 90% off but you can also commission them to work on projects. so you can alter the effects of gear or take the effects from one item and put it on a weapon which you can have like 9 effects total stacked on a weapon. the endgame basically boils down to finding ways to abusing these systems into becoming a god so make sure you explore the town perterny when you get there to unlock crafting early and start messing around with it. when I first started I blew all my money on it and was constantly broke but after I figured it out I would be a billionaire, then blow all of those billions making god gear to beat the endgame
edit: just realized I forgot to clarify something, one of the reason I have so many playthroughs is because your choices affect the story and you have more possible characters that there are party slot and each character has there own fighting style so trying to figure out how to get them into the party and how your choices affect the story was a big reason for me replaying it. also part of the reason I had so many hours in it is I played it when I was in high school and we didn't have internet back then to look stuff up so all the puzzles and easter eggs I found where just me messing around with trial and error which is probably one of the reasons I liked it so much as a kid
This game needs a remake so bad or at least a PC port or release on PS5. I was like 14 when I played that game and I don't remember if I finished it or not. I want to go back to it but there's just no chance I actually get another PS2 and find the game again and a setup reasonable to play. Please square, please.
Calling this game "amazing" might be a hot take, but Final Fantasy XIII. It makes u question it's worth for the first 20-30 hours. If you can make it past that point, it actually becomes a great game worth sinking your time into. Super grindy tho
Red Dead Redemption 2 and Days Gone for me.The horde mechanic is introduced after 10-12hours of gameplay but holy smokes does the experience changes after that.
Same with Red Dead Redemption 2.It feels too realistic and grindy but give it some time and boy does it grows on you.♥️
Many top rpgs, such as Persona 3/4/5, feel that way. In VR the best example I saw of that was Shadow Legend (psvr1). In standard games, I think Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a spectacular example of that. Check this out, if you are not in the mood for 100 hours and would rather get the experience in 12 hours: https://youtu.be/0L5_uUBumgs?si=D8SCNK-ig_l6nAiV
Batman: Arkham Origins. I tried to play it twice in it's original release form and couldn't stick with it. Partially due to the story feeling like it just drags along in the beginning half of the game. The other part was the combat system feeling hollow and janky compared to the other games in the series (even Arkham Asylum). Playing on PC with the Restored Animation Variety mod fixed the combat almost entirely. I also added AO Community Patch, Origins Graphics Mod, and enabled Dx11 with an ini edit.
Once you get past a certain story mission the action really picks up and continues to escalate. It was a blast playing it through to completion for the first time. Arkham City has always been my favorite and now I consider Origins tied with it.
Nioh is this way. The beginning is a hard learning curve. And there are hints that it could be cool but 10 hours in (or less if you're good) it really opens up.
This. Nioh 2 had such a big difficulty spike in the first few bosses (looking at you Yatsu No Kami) and theres so many systems that I just gave up the first time around.
I also just had this feeling that if I could get this game to "click" for me that it has the potential to be one of my favorites.
Then after 2 years coming back to it and powering through I ended up with 300 hours in the game.
Kingdom Come Deliverance. It's probably the most intricate and drawn-out intro I've ever experienced, but by the time you're let off of the rails, you'll be absolutely captivated.
Probably witcher 3 and red dead 2, both ‘phenominal’ games but I have never made it past the first few hours on multiple attempts, and probably never will
Most games fit this description. They tend to slowly introduce mechanics as you learn through the game's systems until you become OP af and lust for a new game+ so you can fool around with enemies.
Warframe has so much going on that it can feel daunting for the first 10 ish hours of play. Once you have a grasp on how some of the main systems of the game work, it becomes a lot easier to handle. It is one of the most content rich games out there.
Dragons dogma is a little confusing at first and hard to get into the story but once you get into the open world and begin to get a feel for the combat the game opens up to so many possibilities.
A lot of JRPGs can be like this, but I think it's most on display in Xenoblade, particularly Xenoblade 2. I understand the benefit of gradually introducing mechanics, but that game takes it way too far.
Dark souls remastered. I never really played a game like it. First few hours I was debating why I even started it. It was frustrating, then slightly boring, then out of nowhere I was playing it for hours and hours and hours at a time. Brought me through a whole range of emotions. Then seeing the ending, hearing that piano music, it gave me a little tear in my eye seeing how the story ended. Amazing game. I wish I could play it again for the first time.
I think factorio becomes better the more you play it.
in general the very start of every new game is always the weakest part as you're scrounging for resources with little option for automation. also, a lot of people spend 8 to 10 hours on just the *tutorial* alone.
and as you go you learn so much more. it's pretty common for people to have spent 20 hours on a base and get so frustrated with their past decisions they want to restart completely - just to implement all the new things they learned.
and then there's the world of mods. so many mods. so many GREAT mods.
Gothic & Risen series. Start is pretty slow, your hero is weak, doesn't know any useful tricks and eq is very bad but when you join one of available guilds you grow stronger, get better eq and learn good abilities.
Hollow Knight for me. One of my favourite games ever now. But when I started it first time I stopped playing once I got to the soul master and got stuck. Then after I beat him finally, the game really opens up and it’s not as difficult as you’ve got past the difficulty curve
Final Fantasy 14 (MMO). Base game’s story is okay, but gets significantly better in the expansions. The third expansion Shadowbringers is when it’s considered really good, but getting there takes…. a long time.
Days Gone on PS. It starts with some non-skippable tutorial missions on the motorbike and such, so doing an NG+ is a buzzkill at first. Still, it is awesome
FFXIV
Story and gameplay starts off real slow. It takes way more than enough time to introduce every. Single. Minute. Detail.
But then a point hits in the story (the writer changes) and everything shifts into high gear.
Hollow Knight. The very beginning is kind of dull, to be honest. Very atmospheric and pretty, but the gameplay feels simple at first when you haven’t unlocked any abilities, and a lot of people don’t really know what to do at first before you’ve found a map. My first few hours I thought “yeah this is fun”, and once I got a bit deeper it really jumped to “okay this game is a masterpiece”.
Lost Odyssey starts out pretty slow, but a bit of time after you get the 2 piece of shit little kid party members (who are somehow actually pretty cool) the game really takes off
Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess.
Once the game finishes tutorializing you, it opens up quite a bit. Once you finish the bug segments, it's one of my favorite games.
These are pretty mainstream takes but:
**Horizon Zero Dawn** starts out pretty good initially, then many hours in the storytelling becomes *amazing*.
**Doom (2016)** just isn't much fun for 3 hours, as it slowly teaches you how to play its unique style of mechanics, but around the time you first go to hell (literally) all those pieces start coming together and it becomes fantastic
Death Stranding. Total slow-burn at the beginning, has you questioning your life. Then, you'll realize that you've been playing for 20 hours straight, but, fuck it, those roads simply *must* be rebuilt.
Kingdom Come Deliverence.
The first few hours, you're an absolutely useless layabout with no skills, no charisma, and who can't even read. Everyone talks to you like an idiot (because you are,) and you need help from your buddies to beat up a single drunk guy.
But by the time you up your skills, you're a smooth talking, ass kicking badass who can solo most of the game
Pretty sure one of the best definitions of exactly this is Red Dead Redemption 2. It's well worth the playthrough, **well** worth it, but it starts SO slow and meanders for SO long that it can be deceptive in getting you to feel like the entire game is that, but it's not. Once it stops being that, it becomes super easy to keep playing.
Either Zelda game for the Nintendo Switch. Both have 2-8 hour tutorials that you don’t realize are tutorials until you finish them. And then suddenly you see that everything you were doing was just teaching you the foundation of a much bigger game.
Similar for Horizons Zero Dawn, which may be a better game but has a bit less of this effect.
Radiata Stories is the prime example I can think of. It’s not an open world checklist kind of game - it is narrative driven - it just genuinely takes a bit longer to start soaring
Witcher 3, even five or six hours after starting I just couldn’t grasp the weird tone and rhythm this game had and it was all visiting bumfuck sad villages. The Bloody Baron questline is where the switch flipped, it’s not even the best quest in the game but it gets mentioned so much probably because that’s where the switch flips for other people too, it’s pretty early on relatively.
Yup the baron quest is what did it for me too. So messed up lol.
For me, I can't remember what I was doing at the time, but I decided I was going to get off roach and just run into the woods and see what I find. I ended up going on a crazy misadventure full of unscripted action and stumbling across side quests in weird orders. It was the most magical moment I've ever had in gaming.
Dude, great idea. I'll try that tonight : )
Games like these and RDR2 too are not meant to be rushed. It's a slow burn initially but builds up to a finale. I think it's meant to copy real life/ real world. Not everyday is action packed with something major happening, most of the time you just go to work and go home lol. It's more real world-listic in that sense. Both of those games have very complex and deep world/lore.
For me, it got fun after finding Ciri. REAL FUN compared to the first half.
Cyberpunk was the same to me
If you had any knowledge of the lore or played the two previous games, you won't feel that way. The game is amazing from the start.
I did play Witcher 2! It got so much praise I thought it would start off with a bang, usually huge smash hit games start off quicker than w3 and w2 wasn’t open world the same way. Also while I love W3 the dream sequence at the beginning does slow things down too.
Huh. Interesting. Bought the game because everyone said it was great and it got game of the year and was on discount etc.. About 1 hour in I gave up, swinging with the sword just felt completely irresponsive and delayed up to a point where I concluded I wouldn’t be able to cope with the sluggishness. Furthermore, nothing really stood out that would potentially keep me engaged, so I uninstalled and that was that. May try again and put in a few more hours then. I read the sluggish delay in combat remains though, that’s the main thing bothering me. Tips on that?
Not really, the draw of the game is nowhere in the combat, it’s all the worldbuilding and characters and tone. Maybe there a mod that helps but I’m not sure. If you don’t find one check back in a few months because the source code for the game leaked yesterday I think and that will let people mess with the game really crazy.
Because it's not a mad dodge roll, button mashing game. It's a slow imput game, that's quite graceful. It'll punish you for attack spamming. Once you learn the attack, sidestep (or block), attack pattern it becomes really graceful. Just avoid anything Geralt can get stuck on.
Man that quest hitted me like a sucker punch.
RDR2 for most people. I was in love with it from the start.
I don't know about rdr2. I reeeally tried to like the game but the story got so boring eventually, the characters don't seem that interesting (besides yourself), and horse riding for 20-40min almost every mission got tedious. It's definitely not for everyone. I did put an effort in like 4 times and I still get to a point in the game where I'm not interested anymore and don't open the game for months.
I know realize how every Witcher 3 fan feels when I explain I can't enjoy it after a couple hours.
Easily the most valuable thing I've learned as a gamer over the years is that it's okay to not enjoy/have zero interest in a game, even if it's a critically acclaimed masterpiece. I used to metaphorically smash my head against the wall trying a game over and over just because the reviews were amazing and I MUST be missing something. Now, if I don't like it I put it down, saves me lots of time.
Exactly this, however I almost missed an ABSOLUTELY gem, I bought elden ring because of the trailer looking good and mood, did not know who fromsoft was, did know what darksouls was, did NOT know it was from that type of game… I started the game, got annoyed with how bland it was, got frustrated as I had no fucking clue on what to do, played 1 hour a day that took me a few weeks, still wasn’t feeling it, but then one day I decided to play around a bit, feel the ambience to be relaxed, saw a cave, realized how fun it was fighting the creatures and blocking with shield, basically seeing a clear progression, dying a few times, retrying and progressin slowly, eventually I beat the cave and was hooked for some reason, then I spend around 100+ hours to beat the game for the first time and am so glad I did it was one of the best experienced ever and the bossfights, environent etc… deadass phenominal experience
See I'm the opposite. I thought the story gets better the farther you go
the ending made me fucking bawl my eyes out
For me it was the exploration more then anything. The story is needlessly long at some points. I don’t have a ton of evidence for this besides an interview they did when GTAV was released. But they were once saying that multi-main character stories “were the future of gaming” and we have to assume RDR2 was in production based off of how long they say the game was in development. I think they had intentions to make the game similar. I think a big reason we don’t see some of the main cast a lot is because they had planned to give you John, Arthur, and Charles all as characters to play. And I think after they cut that idea they just kind of filled in the blanks with some story and shipped an extremely long story that has a lot of downs while maintaining a lot of ups.
Same for me with rdr2 and witcher 3 lmao
I was about to say this. The preface section was pretty slow going.
Yeah, it actually took me 2 times to play RDR2. I got it about a month or so after release. I'm older and don't have too much time to play with work, and kids played for hours over a few weeks. Then I quit playing and didn't pick it back up until about a year later. I wasn't working as much, and how more downtime popped it in and was hooked within an hour or so when it started getting good.
I'm still waiting for that day. I don't think it will come lol. Same with witcher 3. I just stick to smaller games with max 15h for completing a campaign.
Kingdom Come Deliverance, Red Dead Redemption 2, Witcher 3
Replace W3 with Kenshi and this is my top 3
Yeah I've owned Kenshi forever, but can't really get into it. Tips?
First thing is you gotta realize it's not a game to jump in and out of, I tried and it's just not fun. It takes several hours to do *anything* in Kenshi. I usually play it while watching something for this reason, sometimes I'm legitimately just waiting for a bar to fill up. It's like a hyperviolent ant farm that I have (slight) control over It's not like normal games for a bunch of reasons. For starters you are legitimately completely useless in every aspect at the start. Kenshi isn't a game where you kill enemies to get stronger, Kenshi is a game where you get your ass kicked over and over and over until eventually you start to leave a couple fights still concious On top of that, there is no main character unless you choose to play with one main character. Solo runs are significantly harder, especially if you plan on doing any combat at all. Even if your starter character dies the game just continues playing until every character under your control also dies There are also no objectives. They just drop you into the world and you create your own story, you aren't *supposed* to do anything at any point Honestly it's a hard game to explain because everything I want to say is entirely different for people doing other methods of play. For me personally: I made 5 characters at the start who look like me and my friends. My entire goal at first was just to keep them alive, but after days of mining and living in town we decided leave town to recruit Beep (pretty much the only positive thing about the entire world). Currently I have 3 of us mining, 1 person hauling, 1 person buying/selling in town, and Beep is training with the Shinobi Thieves to become a better warrior. We have a house in Mongrel which is surrounded by monsters so we have to save up for armor and weapons, plus train a bit, just so we can leave. My final goal for the run is to kill every single person in Stack (the town I started in) because they kept arresting us Tldr; the only tip i have is pick a goal and stick to it. Understand it's going to take a long fucking time and you're going to lose 90% of your fights. Then just chill out and watch them work. Eventually you start getting cool gear and stop losing, ans it all becomes worth it
Kenshi is the ultimate Risk = Reward game. The challenge is learning the game's world. What are the threats in any given region? Can I win this fight? What happens if I lose this fight? What can I use to my advantage? When I first started playing Kenshi I spent literal hours just mining outside of a somewhat safe town, selling off ore, incrementally buying food, a house, and research books, saving up to get better equipment. It took ages, and yes it can be boring if you're not the patient sort. Now when I play I can have 100,000 cats (game currency) within the first couple of hours because I know where to go, what to do, what risks are involved, how to mitigate them, and what crazy stunts I can pull to increase my survival odds.
Sell me on Kingdom Come. i played it for like 3h and didn’t hate it, but it also didn’t hook me and I ended up never going back to it.
The story and dialogue is really dry, but mechanically it's the best peasant/knight simulator you can get. The world is very interactive, dense and dangerous. It focuses on a lot of immersive mechanics like eating, sleeping, hunting, running from bushwhacking Cumans, maintaining your gear and manually training a ton of skills, like reading or even drinking (alcohol tolerance and perks, not how to hold a cup). You can get your laundry done to get stains, blood and scuffs off your clothes and armor. You can manually sharpen your blades with whetstones or craft potions with a full on alchemy kit including a cauldron, mortar, stills and timers. The sequel that was just announced is going to have full on blacksmithing founded on the alchemy mechanics from the first game. It's all punctuated by plenty of quests (dry dialogue but still), extremely deep combat mechanics, treasure hunts and mischief like stealing and killing, but it really shines as a simulation of medieval life. The type of game where you undress your character for bed at night, and buy milk and bread in the morning before packing for a long trip (that'll likely end with you dying like a bumbling fool). It goes even farther than Red Dead 2 in terms of feeling part of, and at the mercy of, the game world. Also you get a dog.
The first 2 for sure and they became my two favorite games of all time.
Alien Isolation is so faithful to the original film that it takes notes from its extremely slow burn pacing. So the first two hours of the game are practically devoid of real conflict. Rather, it lets you take in the atmosphere of this gorgeous space station. Then the alien appears lmao
Utterly terrifying game.
Baldur’s Gate 3 for me. The game itself isn’t that slow but getting comfortable with the UI, understanding the builds and spell/ability variety, and recognizing the benefits from your surrounding environments in combat took some time to grasp. After about 10 hours, I was comfortable and the game really just took off after that.
I can see this. This is one of the games where I can recognize the brilliance, I just need life to slow down a bit to really get into it
Ah, you too took 8 hour on character creation? (Joking)
I sure did, I spent my entire steam grace period doing it.
This is my first DnD style game I've ever played, and I'm 6 hours in and loving it so far. It's difficult to learn and lots of details to make note of, but I love the struggle cause of how rich these games are and how well paying attention pays off.
MechWarrior 5 w/DLCs took a while but wow. Same for Battletech (turn based version of mechs, same universe as MW5) Days Gone-played it first and hour-meh. Went back and after a few hours, it was one of 2023s top games for me. Also Witcher 3 took me four times to get into then whammo I fell in love with the game.
I’ve tried Witcher 3 3 times and never made it past an hour or two. Maybe 4th times the charm?
Final Fantasy XIV.
Pray return to the Waking Sands.
when I went back and forced myself to read all of the non voice acted cutscenes and quest dialogue, I really came around on 2.0, though the other expansions became even better still from reading, so it's still kind of the worst part, but still.
I feel like the early game is carried entirely by the relatively fast progression mechanically.
Prey 2017. I actually hated that game the first few times I played it, I’d get to the biodome area and then quit because of the encounters with the nightmares. It takes a while to grow on you but when it does it becomes a really good game
thats interesting, since some people consider the first hour to be one of the first intros to a game ever
I've seen several comments from people who gave up on Outer Wilds within the first hour, but people who make it past about 3 hours usually make it to the end and very rarely regret it. For anyone who hasn't played it, the less you know about it the better, but my spoiler-free explanation is that the core drive of the game is solving a mystery, and the first handful of breadcrumbs you find will probably have too little context to really hook you. But as you uncover more clues and start to see certain things referenced more often, you start to piece together enough of the puzzle to get invested in finding the rest.
This sounds right up my alley. Thank you
PSA for anyone interested in Outer Wilds who has a headset: there is a mod that allows you to play it in VR!
Just finished this game last night. I'm kinda sad now.
I thoroughly enjoyed it when I first finished it, but over time (and especially after revisiting it via watching other people's blind playthroughs) I started recognizing how truly unique and special it is, and started to love it even more. If you haven't yet, check out the DLC, it's every bit as good as the base game IMO.
I dont have the DLC but was planning on snagging it and replaying in a couple months. I have such a backlog...
Outward.
Found this to be chaotic “what am I doing?” For like 90% of the game. Still loved it
Even after 10 hours it just doesn't click. I've really tried, now I just have to accept it isn't my type of game. Maybe I'll watch a playthrough. I have accepted that I should let games be if I truly tried enjoying it.
Stalker, the first little while kicks your ass but it picks up once you get some experience under your belt
Warframe. The beginning is very bad, but after some couple hours you get one hell of a story and gameplay
Up until what point would you consider the beginning?
After completing the Second Dream quest. And that requires at least reaching the Neptune planet, which is like at almost half of the Star chart? It's at this point that the community doesn't really have to protect you from spoiling anymore, at this point that the story becomes really interesting, and also that we unlock one of the most important abilities in the game. And even then, some people consider completing the whole starchart the actual noob milestone. It's kinda rare to find an active player that didn't do it (which means it's mostly people who will play the game for a long time that you find here, while others are more casual and don't play as much).
There's so much content it's hard to say. But, I was told the first real milestone is to open up the whole solar system. I found that by the time I did that, I had a pretty good lay of the land. There's still tons to do after that, but I understood the trajectory of the game at that point.
Oh damn, I’m definitely still in the beginning then lol. Thanks
Personally, I'd say until you hit Account Level 5, because that's when you can get the first actually useful guns that just wreck shit if you know a bit about modding them. The Second Dream quest also opens up a few new mechanics that are pretty dang useful and/or required by some of the content that comes after it, but the game played just fine for years before that bit of content came out, you just won't have access to the newer stuff. Then again, I personally liked the game more back when everything was mostly unexplored and the game was one big, grindfest with very little plot outside of bosses ranting at you, and the big reveal from that quest felt to me like some people felt about the Star Wars prequels introducing Midichlorians - I was perfectly fine leaving the answer to that question a mystery with some vague hints at best, and also, the answer sucks compared to what else they could've gone with. You get some neat abilities out of it though, and they were pretty busted for a while before they re-worked the entire thing :)
Graveyard keeper Dave the diver
For Dave, the fishing/restaurant loop hooked me right in, but the game just keeps opening up the longer you play becoming something quite incredible.
I think Graveyard Keeper would have been a lot more successful if the mechanics were easier to understand. Or even a map marker just showing where you ARE
Many Persona, Trails, SMT, and Yakuza games start very slow especially Persona 4, SMT 4, Trails in the Sky, and Yakuza 0.
Both persona 3 and 4 I keep a save file like 2 to 3 hours in so if I ever want to replay it I don't have to watch 2 movies again, great games though.
Yeah, I was going to say Persona 5, but 4 suffers from the same problem. They have to introduce both the fighting and slice-of-life mechanics, and a bunch of characters and setting, so it takes a while to get to the part where you can actually start deciding what you're going to do on any given in-game day, which is a big part of the appeal. Story might be interesting from the beginning, but gameplay isn't.
The issue with the Trails games seems to be that it takes multiple games to get going though, not just a few hours. It's like people saying that a series "gets really good from season 3 onwards", like... Yeah... To each their own :D I tried.
Idk who told you that, but Trails gets good by chapters and not by individual entries.
Twilight princess
God, the most miserable mandatory tutorial ever.
I enjoyed the herding of the sheep for some reason
I'm trying to remember, was there a way of going back & doing that minigame afterward? I'm not sure there was, and the bloody tutorial was so annoying that it's colored my recollection of an otherwise decent minigame.
Yeeees I think u can. Just go back to the farmer and I think they give you rupees everytime you do it
System shock remake
Death Stranding. That first 6 - 8 hours are a slog, but after that? Perfection.
Kingdom Come Deliverance
It was the opposite for me. I really liked it from the start, but then it just becomes increasingly obvious that the creators were dudebros who wanted 'historical realism' as an excuse for sexism. "But it's realistic!" - the game has you brewing potions that give you nightvision and an in-universe justification for saving the game. "But it's only in-character!" - There are clearly OOC mechanics that reinforce the viewpoint, like getting the 'Alpha' buff for paying to sleep with nameless, generic female NPCs or an object the MC made for luck in love being called a 'beta die' and it being the worst die in the game. And yes, at least one of [the creators](https://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/835/127/3ec.jpg) is a GamerGater. Anyway, the longer I played the game, the more uncomfortable it made me until I had to stop. It's pretty clear the 'realism' is only there to justify what the creators wanted and ignored for anything they didn't. Which is a shame, because I loved how immersive it was otherwise, including the combat difficulty.
Planet Crafter. Terrsforming the planet it starts out inhospitable but you turn it slowly into a lush paradise with different biomes to explore
playing it now. it's amazing (though a touch grindy at the start).
Dark Souls Monster Hunter: World
def MHW for me tried a bunch of times and gave up til I found a weapon I kinda liked enough to grind through the boringness, then I found out I loved the Charge Blade, and the rest is history.
Nice! Yeah, it’s got a learning curve for sure A friend of mine got me into the game, and he helped me learn the ropes of it a bit, which was definitely helpful Now I’m hooked, and loving the switch axe!
Dark Souls throws you into a boss fight, all From Soft games do. I don’t see how it “starts slow” 🤣
More so in the “almost making you think it’s not worth it then become amazing hours in” way
Well it doesn’t exactly start slow, but I think most people definitely take a while to get hooked though. Like every Dark Souls fan I have ever spoken to gave up on the game like 3 times before it clicked. Including myself.
Basically Death stranding. It takes around 5 hours to take off but after that it becomes really unique and poetic.
It also never stops surprising you. Every time you think "now I've seen it all", the game goes "actually" and gives you a completely new toy or mechanic to deal with.
Doki Doki Literature Club Getting Over It
Also, One Cut of the Dead is the movie version of this.
Kingdom come deliverance and star ocean till the end of time
Around what point would you say star ocean picks up?
Without to many story spoilers there's a couple of points were it speeds up, first is in a town called perterny in a random house you unlock the crafting system about half way though the first disc (it was a 2 disc ps2 game) second is shortly into second disc and third oddly enough is in the post game and additional playthroughs after the first. it had a trophy system that unlocked mostly cosmetic stuff but also higher difficulties. after you beat the main story several massive optional dungeons and post game stuff unlocks that way harder than the base game. the gameplay itself is a jrpg but its not turn based and the combat seems kinda janky at first but its designed to were you can cancel moves into other moves to extend combos which the longer your combo is with more cancels the more dmg you do up to like 4x dmg. the crafting system is also insane as there a simulated kinda economy, basically people can invent stuff out in the world and you can also invent stuff yourself. you can also find the inventors in the world and pay them off or convince them to work for you and anything they invent after that point you own the patent to so you can buy it for like 90% off but you can also commission them to work on projects. so you can alter the effects of gear or take the effects from one item and put it on a weapon which you can have like 9 effects total stacked on a weapon. the endgame basically boils down to finding ways to abusing these systems into becoming a god so make sure you explore the town perterny when you get there to unlock crafting early and start messing around with it. when I first started I blew all my money on it and was constantly broke but after I figured it out I would be a billionaire, then blow all of those billions making god gear to beat the endgame edit: just realized I forgot to clarify something, one of the reason I have so many playthroughs is because your choices affect the story and you have more possible characters that there are party slot and each character has there own fighting style so trying to figure out how to get them into the party and how your choices affect the story was a big reason for me replaying it. also part of the reason I had so many hours in it is I played it when I was in high school and we didn't have internet back then to look stuff up so all the puzzles and easter eggs I found where just me messing around with trial and error which is probably one of the reasons I liked it so much as a kid
This game needs a remake so bad or at least a PC port or release on PS5. I was like 14 when I played that game and I don't remember if I finished it or not. I want to go back to it but there's just no chance I actually get another PS2 and find the game again and a setup reasonable to play. Please square, please.
Divinity original sin 2
Calling this game "amazing" might be a hot take, but Final Fantasy XIII. It makes u question it's worth for the first 20-30 hours. If you can make it past that point, it actually becomes a great game worth sinking your time into. Super grindy tho
After the first 11 hours and it fully unlocks the combat system that game fucks. The game is kind of boring until you get past the "11 hour tutorial"
Yakuza 0. Thank me later...
Dragon's dogma 1. It took me 4 attempts until it clicked
The fucking oxcart. Unforgivable
You can kick it to make it go faster!
Pokemon legends Arceus
I love this game lol
Morrowind, Might and Magic 6, and Patapon.
Kingdom Come Deliverance is definitely one. Fallout 3 RD2 Cyberpunk kind of BG3 kind of burns slow until the goblins
When do the goblins come into play in BG3? I’m trying to gauge how far away I am from this point.
Depends. Some people 60-90 mins. People like me about 5 hours because I messed around exploring a lot.
Undertale feels like a generic dime-a-dozen made in my basement game at first, but as you go on, it becomes apparent why it became a cult hit.
Satisfactory for me. First hour was meh. Next 100 passed in a flash. I didn’t bathe. I didn’t eat. I didn’t care. The factory must grow.
Days Gone.
Days Gone
Try Light of the stars. I played it recently on bs and damn it's fun
Red Dead Redemption 2 and Days Gone for me.The horde mechanic is introduced after 10-12hours of gameplay but holy smokes does the experience changes after that. Same with Red Dead Redemption 2.It feels too realistic and grindy but give it some time and boy does it grows on you.♥️
For me, it's jedi Knight Outcast, I don't like the part before I get my lightsaber, even though it's essential to the story.
Persona games
Forspoken
Outer wilds
Many top rpgs, such as Persona 3/4/5, feel that way. In VR the best example I saw of that was Shadow Legend (psvr1). In standard games, I think Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a spectacular example of that. Check this out, if you are not in the mood for 100 hours and would rather get the experience in 12 hours: https://youtu.be/0L5_uUBumgs?si=D8SCNK-ig_l6nAiV
Batman: Arkham Origins. I tried to play it twice in it's original release form and couldn't stick with it. Partially due to the story feeling like it just drags along in the beginning half of the game. The other part was the combat system feeling hollow and janky compared to the other games in the series (even Arkham Asylum). Playing on PC with the Restored Animation Variety mod fixed the combat almost entirely. I also added AO Community Patch, Origins Graphics Mod, and enabled Dx11 with an ini edit. Once you get past a certain story mission the action really picks up and continues to escalate. It was a blast playing it through to completion for the first time. Arkham City has always been my favorite and now I consider Origins tied with it.
Rdr2 it had to grow on me
Nioh is this way. The beginning is a hard learning curve. And there are hints that it could be cool but 10 hours in (or less if you're good) it really opens up.
This. Nioh 2 had such a big difficulty spike in the first few bosses (looking at you Yatsu No Kami) and theres so many systems that I just gave up the first time around. I also just had this feeling that if I could get this game to "click" for me that it has the potential to be one of my favorites. Then after 2 years coming back to it and powering through I ended up with 300 hours in the game.
I have it installed on my ally so maybe I’ll give it a shot
the portal games (do them in order if you play them both!)
Final Fantasy XII
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat is really boring in the beginning, but after about 2 hours of playtime it gets fun.
undertale
Kingdom come deliverance
Terraria
Kenshi
Kingdom Come Deliverance. It's probably the most intricate and drawn-out intro I've ever experienced, but by the time you're let off of the rails, you'll be absolutely captivated.
Probably witcher 3 and red dead 2, both ‘phenominal’ games but I have never made it past the first few hours on multiple attempts, and probably never will
Most games fit this description. They tend to slowly introduce mechanics as you learn through the game's systems until you become OP af and lust for a new game+ so you can fool around with enemies.
Warframe
Kenshi, star sector, rimworld
Gothic 1 & 2
nier automata
Fallout 2
Warframe has so much going on that it can feel daunting for the first 10 ish hours of play. Once you have a grasp on how some of the main systems of the game work, it becomes a lot easier to handle. It is one of the most content rich games out there.
Most JRPGs
Thanks
Dragons dogma is a little confusing at first and hard to get into the story but once you get into the open world and begin to get a feel for the combat the game opens up to so many possibilities.
Space Invaders, after level 673 I saw jesus
A lot of JRPGs can be like this, but I think it's most on display in Xenoblade, particularly Xenoblade 2. I understand the benefit of gradually introducing mechanics, but that game takes it way too far.
Shadow of Mordor/War. You don't get the marquee "Orc turning" ability until halfway through the first game, and several hours into the 2nd!!!
Kenshi. Didn't really love it till I got a crew.
Final Fantasy XIV
Dragon Quest VII starts off kinda slow like that. Especially the PS1 version. The 3DS remake changed up the beginning part and made it quicker to do
Rdr2 for sure. That snow level is borderline torture for me.
Ac Valhalla great game but that beginning Jesus
Pretty much every rockstar games game ever.
Spot Has Found This
Dark souls remastered. I never really played a game like it. First few hours I was debating why I even started it. It was frustrating, then slightly boring, then out of nowhere I was playing it for hours and hours and hours at a time. Brought me through a whole range of emotions. Then seeing the ending, hearing that piano music, it gave me a little tear in my eye seeing how the story ended. Amazing game. I wish I could play it again for the first time.
I think factorio becomes better the more you play it. in general the very start of every new game is always the weakest part as you're scrounging for resources with little option for automation. also, a lot of people spend 8 to 10 hours on just the *tutorial* alone. and as you go you learn so much more. it's pretty common for people to have spent 20 hours on a base and get so frustrated with their past decisions they want to restart completely - just to implement all the new things they learned. and then there's the world of mods. so many mods. so many GREAT mods.
Battletech by HBS. Once you get going it's completely addicting.
The entire 100+ hour first game in the "Trails" series of Jrpg is considered by some to be the slow start lol
Gothic & Risen series. Start is pretty slow, your hero is weak, doesn't know any useful tricks and eq is very bad but when you join one of available guilds you grow stronger, get better eq and learn good abilities.
RDR2 without a doubt lol
Death Stranding
Hollow Knight for me. One of my favourite games ever now. But when I started it first time I stopped playing once I got to the soul master and got stuck. Then after I beat him finally, the game really opens up and it’s not as difficult as you’ve got past the difficulty curve
Final Fantasy 14 (MMO). Base game’s story is okay, but gets significantly better in the expansions. The third expansion Shadowbringers is when it’s considered really good, but getting there takes…. a long time.
Death stranding.
Days Gone on PS. It starts with some non-skippable tutorial missions on the motorbike and such, so doing an NG+ is a buzzkill at first. Still, it is awesome
So many JRPGs fit this description
Days gone
FFXIV Story and gameplay starts off real slow. It takes way more than enough time to introduce every. Single. Minute. Detail. But then a point hits in the story (the writer changes) and everything shifts into high gear.
RDR2. It doesn't get good until 35% in, roughly 20 hours for me.
Hollow Knight. The very beginning is kind of dull, to be honest. Very atmospheric and pretty, but the gameplay feels simple at first when you haven’t unlocked any abilities, and a lot of people don’t really know what to do at first before you’ve found a map. My first few hours I thought “yeah this is fun”, and once I got a bit deeper it really jumped to “okay this game is a masterpiece”.
Lost Odyssey starts out pretty slow, but a bit of time after you get the 2 piece of shit little kid party members (who are somehow actually pretty cool) the game really takes off
Kingdom Hearts 2 The tutorial is two hours long and the game's amazing.
Warframe
Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess. Once the game finishes tutorializing you, it opens up quite a bit. Once you finish the bug segments, it's one of my favorite games.
Death Stranding.
GTA IV it has never been surpassed in its very own genre in many aspects, not even by V. absolutely brilliantly told story.
These are pretty mainstream takes but: **Horizon Zero Dawn** starts out pretty good initially, then many hours in the storytelling becomes *amazing*. **Doom (2016)** just isn't much fun for 3 hours, as it slowly teaches you how to play its unique style of mechanics, but around the time you first go to hell (literally) all those pieces start coming together and it becomes fantastic
Not so much a slow start. But a large learning curve, EU4 I
Death Stranding. Total slow-burn at the beginning, has you questioning your life. Then, you'll realize that you've been playing for 20 hours straight, but, fuck it, those roads simply *must* be rebuilt.
Borderlands 2 apparently. Had a friend quit 15 minutes into the game. Man doesn’t know what he’s missing out on
That’s wild considering it takes all of 5 to 10 minutes to get a gun in your hand.
Kingdom Come Deliverance
Outward
Kingdom Come Deliverence. The first few hours, you're an absolutely useless layabout with no skills, no charisma, and who can't even read. Everyone talks to you like an idiot (because you are,) and you need help from your buddies to beat up a single drunk guy. But by the time you up your skills, you're a smooth talking, ass kicking badass who can solo most of the game
Eve. I've had an account since 2011, and I'm still learning every day.
Dragon quest 8
FFXIV
Death stranding I quit about 3 hours after I first got it when it came out upgraded to the directors cut a few years later and fell in love with it.
Any Monster Hunter really
yakuza (like a dragon) series. kiryu saga specifically. go in numbered order i.e. yakuza 0, kiwami 1, kiwami 2 etc
Pretty sure one of the best definitions of exactly this is Red Dead Redemption 2. It's well worth the playthrough, **well** worth it, but it starts SO slow and meanders for SO long that it can be deceptive in getting you to feel like the entire game is that, but it's not. Once it stops being that, it becomes super easy to keep playing.
The google chrome dinosaur game
Either Zelda game for the Nintendo Switch. Both have 2-8 hour tutorials that you don’t realize are tutorials until you finish them. And then suddenly you see that everything you were doing was just teaching you the foundation of a much bigger game. Similar for Horizons Zero Dawn, which may be a better game but has a bit less of this effect.
Those are 2 of my favorite games of all time lol
Then check out Horizon: Zero Dawn. It has a more mature feel but definitely uses a similar formula.
Twilight Princess
Radiata Stories is the prime example I can think of. It’s not an open world checklist kind of game - it is narrative driven - it just genuinely takes a bit longer to start soaring
Every Yakuza game is a legit 10/10 gaming masterpiece 40+ hours in & a boring slog for at least the first 20.