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Discussion Games that made you enjoy genres you never liked before

C

correojon

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I thought a lot about getting Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, because I love action-heavy DMC-like games, but I have no interest at all in farming sims. But when I got it, I ended up enjoying the sim part a lot and spending much more time in it than the game really required me to. It was really well done and gently taught you the inns and outs so it felt very easy to learn the basics and try things on my own.

Something similar happened with Yoku's Island Express: A game that relies a lot on pinball mechanics to move around, solve puzzles and get resources...and I have never liked pinball games. But what do you know, I also ended up putting much more time into the pinball sections than required to try to hit every shiny thing in the "board". It worked so well and ws so well interlinked with the rest of the world that it never felt like this secondary activity I had to go through, but a main, enjoyable part of the game.

What about you Fami?
 
Not a "genre", but more like a type of game: I kept a long, long distance from FromSoft games before Sekiro, they looked so wholly unappealing to me and I was even more averse to overly difficult games than I am now.

Granted, Sekiro is very different from Souls, but it was like "holy shit, I've died to this boss 100 times and I love it."

Ever since then, I've been way more receptive to overly difficult games.
 
I'm not too big on First Person Shooters but I've enjoyed DOOM (2016) a whole lot. Something about the movement and the fast combat just clicks with me in a way a lot of other shooters don't :D
 
I love this topic idea!

Similar to Irene, Sekiro really opened up my brain to Fromsoft's catalogue.

I also never really beat many long RPGs before I played Xenoblade X. Something about that game just clicked. I've played that entire series and many other wonderful RPGs since then.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood got me to open my mind to games with a darker/grim aesthetic, and there's tons of amazing ones I've played since that.

I'm still looking for the right FPS to open me to that genre! I've played Halo CE, and it was great, but I'm not really clamoring for more of that. It may just not be for me!
 
I didn't really like open-world games at all before Breath of the Wild.

Also, I'm not a fan of sports or sports games but SSX 3 is one of my favorite games of all time.
 
Hades was the first roguelike that clicked with me, and while I still struggle with the genre sometimes, I tend to enjoy them more than I did before.
 
Before Halo I never like FPS games all that much. After Halo I’m excited to try more
 
Great thread idea.

the Demon's Souls remake is the first Souls game I actually completed. i loooved it. and it gave me an itch to actually play the Souls games again and try to complete them properly. Elden Ring was next. Didn't love it as much, but still pretty undeniably good. Dark Souls 3 is next for me I think.

EDIT: I keep thinking of new examples. Fire Emblem Awakening made me love turn-based strategy games.

oomoepoo said:
I'm not too big on First Person Shooters but I've enjoyed DOOM (2016) a whole lot. Something about the movement and the fast combat just clicks with me in a way a lot of other shooters don't :D
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Doom's multiplayer, along with Battlefield 1, made me like FPS PvP or Team Deathmatch multiplayer. Could never get into it otherwise. Kinda bummed Doom's multiplayer never caught on. With Halo, co-op was my preferred method; Firefight in ODST was amazing.
 
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Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ on Switch was my introduction to roguelikes. When I first started playing it I didn't know anything about the genre and I didn't understand why I didn't get to keep my upgrades from previous runs.

1,500 hours in the game later I now have Dead God. I also have 100% files in Enter the Gungeon, Hades, and Dead Cells. Crazy.
 
Growing up, I wasn't big on Metroidvanias. I'd played Metroid 2: Return of Samus, as a kid alongside a friend who I was competing with to find all the Metroids as fast we could. While fun, I didn't get into many others, when I tried Metroid Fusion, I always got stuck at places with absolutely no hope of finding which random tile to bomb, and it turned me off from the genre as a whole even though I wanted to like it. This happened over the course of years each time I'd try to replay Fusion.

Flash forward to summer 2020 when I decided I'd give them another good college try with Super Metroid, which I played to completion and really liked! I really appreciated the exploration and level design there. Then for Halloween month, I played through Castlevania Symphony of the Night and REALLY fell in love with the genre. Its setting/art style ring closer to my sensibilities. The music, the graphics, the different skills/combat/weapons, and the way the dungeon was designed all felt so immaculate that I went from Metroidvania indifferent to loving the genre so passionately
 
oomoepoo said:
I'm not too big on First Person Shooters but I've enjoyed DOOM (2016) a whole lot. Something about the movement and the fast combat just clicks with me in a way a lot of other shooters don't :D
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If you're ever in mood for more shooters like that, consider looking into Retro FPS indie scene, as they closely resemble what made original DOOM (and its soft-reboot) great: quick pace, somewhat open levels filled with secrets, stuff like that.

I would also credit my love of FPS to a game from a retro FPS boom called DUSK. I've played FPS games before, I like Half-Life, but before Dusk I've never engaged with any arcadey shooter before and I fell in love. Turns out shooters are a lot of fun if you let player have fun and explore as opposed to trying to do set-pieces with regenerating health. Who knew!
 
Chrono Trigger. I still don't love JRPGs, but Chrono Trigger taught me how to play them, and I loved it.
 
oomoepoo said:
I'm not too big on First Person Shooters but I've enjoyed DOOM (2016) a whole lot. Something about the movement and the fast combat just clicks with me in a way a lot of other shooters don't :D
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Same for me, Doom 2016 is one of my favorite games and I NEVER play FPS :)


Nmanic said:
I'm still looking for the right FPS to open me to that genre! I've played Halo CE, and it was great, but I'm not really clamoring for more of that. It may just not be for me!
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Try Doom 2016, it's amazing even if you're not a fan of the genre (like me)
 
Bit of a weird one I guess but I didn't like THPS / Skating games until I played THPS1 on the PS1. I think if you start with the latest ones (ex: the 1+2 remakes) it's too easy to get overwhelmed with all the stuff they iteratively added while if you progress the series as normal they introduce one or two things at a time.
 
I'd say the MGS series in general got me to enjoy third person shooters. Growing up exclusively on Nintendo consoles until I was in college, it wasn't a genre I had a ton of exposure to, and my general queasiness with playing games with realistic guns held me back until I played through MGS. It's still not a genre I play super frequently, but it's not the barrier it once was. The first Metal Gear Solid is still my all time favorite game.
 
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I’m still not fantastically big on shooters, but Mass Effect 2 got me into the warm comfort of ducking behind a crumbling bit of convenient cover thanks to it’s combination of rpg framework with TPS combat.

Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright got me into puzzle games and VNs (or whatever Ace Attorney is) respectively just due to their cheerfully daft take on things. Just raw fun and silliness while still telling a story.
 
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I became a platformer fan because of Donkey Kong Country, after previously disliking Mario 3 because he had to jump on enemies' heads to attack them. Donkey Kong had a roll attack, which made it a lot more approachable to a kid raised on 3D games.

Fast forward a few years and I was a speedrun world record holder in Tropical Freeze.
 
I never used to play rhythm games before, but one day I decided to pick up a cheap copy of Taiko No Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival on a whim and got hooked on it enough to buy the drum controller. Learning to play with the drum is almost like re-learning the game, but I've been having fun with it. I even learned that the true hardcore Taiko gamers even buy $600 arcade drum replicas, which makes me really want to find a Taiko cab to try out someday lol
 
I bought Triangle Strategy for the story and art style. I stayed because I realized I loved turn-based tactical RPGs. A few months later I also picked up my first Fire Emblem game.
 
Inscryption made me enjoy the roguelike loop. Yet, I'm still very resistant to buying any game of the genre. It's why I haven't played Hades and Dead Cells.
 
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Balatro made me like a roguelike deckbuilder. I still don’t like any other roguelike deckbuilders, but it’s at least a possibility that I’ll like another one now!
 
Fire Emblem Three Houses - Strategy RPGs

Pikmin 3 - RTS

POINPY - roguelikes

Splatoon - online shooters

Forza Horizon 4 - sim racing
 
Portal 1+2 - Games in a First Person perspective
BOTW - Open World Action Adventures (if that‘s a genre)
Hi-Fi Rush - Rhythm Games
 
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I had really bad experiences with FTL that soured me on roguelikes for about half a decade, until a streamer I liked played a roguelike called IVAN.

Some time after that, I got bored and decided to give it a try. And it turns out when you die in the first five minutes 90% of the time, you don't have to experience the frustration of losing a ton of progress every time you die.

Also, y'know, it has plenty of opportunity for goofiness. You can replace your limbs with bananas and name your characters completely inane stuff because they're probably going to die in five minutes anyway.

Hulk Hogan, killed by a jackal while polymorphed into a ghost of a female servant in underwater tunnel level 2

Also it's not technically a game but Higurashi When They Cry taught me I can enjoy horror. So there's that.
 
MinxyEMF said:
Also it's not technically a game but Higurashi When They Cry taught me I can enjoy horror. So there's that.
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Hey, it's had console ports, it counts! My personal favorite is the (unofficial) GBA port...



Anyways, my answer is more "mechanics" related than a specific genre, but I've always hated games where you have to keep track of a bunch of different things like time, hunger, etc. And then I played Pathologic and it was VERY eye-opening. Absolutely adored my time with that game and the way the mechanics play into the narrative. It was a lot but I am much more accepting of those kinds of things now.
 
StretchNStripes said:
My personal favorite is the (unofficial) GBA port...
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I like the part where Rena will doxx you if you play on an emulator. It strikes me as appropriately spooky.

Also most of the music sounds about as crummy as expected but Dancers7 just hits different in the GBA soundfont.
 
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes made me far more interested in the Warriors Genre! I'm not entirely new to the Hack'n'Slash genre, as I played and adored Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, and Chain of Memories as a kid, but the Warriors games were something that always evaded me. Even when the original FEW came out, I didn't bother playing it due to fan backlash and the fact I didn't have a Switch at the time. (Yes, I know there was a 3DS version, but I didn't want to play that version.) But when Three Hopes was announced, I got incredibly hyped! (...after being confused for a few weeks lol) After beating the demo for Three Hopes, I scoured my city for a copy of Fire Emblem Warriors, bought it alongside the DLC, and had some fun with it! I'll return to it eventually. Last year, I also bought Dynasty Warriors 8, although I didn't actually play it until last week... And now, I'm cautiously optimistic about Dynasty Warriors: Origins next year!

I'd also say that Rune Factory 4 opened my eyes to the idea of farm dating sim games. I'm still not the biggest fan of them, as Stardew Valley did NOT work for me in its entirety, but I like the idea of them and want to keep searching until I find one that sticks. I'm hoping it's either Moonstone Island or Sun Haven. (I'll also take Rune Factory: Project Dragon or Coral Island...if that ever comes to the Switch or Switch 2, that is...)

I'm hoping Another Crab's Treasure gets me into Soulsborne games, but I'm not entirely convinced it will.
 
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i dont really like racers but recently ive just been on racing binge and it all started with horizon chase turbo. never beat it but it was super fun and exciting. Now im playing through need for speed 2015 and even though im much worse at the realistic racers, still a fun hour or so of driving around
 
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Sengoku Basara is such a sick series with its DMC influenced combat and it shows how cool Musou games can be if not developed by Koei Tecmo lol
 
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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.
I thought I would never like the "Walking Sim" genre ; I could never finish Dear Esther on Steam and I got it for free.

It's Caddicarus's video that made me give it a try and I loved the game and played others like it. Sadly I ended with a game I disliked as much as I liked it, aka "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture". A beautiful, well written and with a gorgeous soundtrack sleeping simulator where your running speed is slower than walking in Vanishing. And also having a glitched progression and trophees that never unlocked didn't help. And it sucks because I loved the story, the characters and the soundtrack, and the visuals too are beautiful.

I recently started What Remains of Edith Finch and... the speed didn't improve at all and the numerous invisible walls and collision problems right at the opening zone are already a red flag.
 
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Divinity Original Sin 2 made me love turn-based combat, or actually made me realize how fun it can be when the combat doesn't happen in a vacuum (Pokemon) but in a space where positioning is fundamental (chess?)
 
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Actually Breath of the wild got me into the genre of video games XD.
All I've ever played before was pokemon and 2D mario games on handhelds.
One time I tried A Link Between Worlds cause the overhead camera angle reminded me of pokemon and I was baffled by the fact that there were no Pokemon battle mechanics (at this point I didnt even know what an RPG was). Just walking in the overworld swinging a sword? How is this fun?

Then I of course bought a switch for pokemon sword and shield, and felt extra guilty this time around for buying a 300$ system for one game. So I also bought BOTW to justify my purchase.
Something about hiding behind a tree and shooting an arrow from afar at a boar and watch it turn into meat changed something in my brain chimestry forever. It truly opened my mind to what this medium is capable of.
But playing Pokemon Shield after that was the biggest dissapointment of my life
 
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Sturmgeist said:
Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ on Switch was my introduction to roguelikes. When I first started playing it I didn't know anything about the genre and I didn't understand why I didn't get to keep my upgrades from previous runs.

1,500 hours in the game later I now have Dead God. I also have 100% files in Enter the Gungeon, Hades, and Dead Cells. Crazy.
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I came to post this, Isaac made me fall in love with roguelikes.

I also wanted to shout out Slay the Spire for making me really dig into a deckbuilder and see what I was missing out on.
 
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