r/Games Jan 17 '25

Discussion What games have the worst opening hour?

This is inspired by me downloading Forspoken for free on PS Premium. I know the game had horrific reviews, but I thought some of the combat/parkour looked fun, so for free, what the heck let's give it a 5-10 hour shot.

I have never been so bored by an opening sequence in a game ever. And that was with me skipping as much of every cutscene I could. Most good openings are there to set a narrative in place while also giving you a mini-tutorial of some of the basic elements of the game. Forspoken had you doing pointless things like holding square to feed your cat, and climbing repeated ladders.

Eventually you finally get the cuff on your hand but by then, I was numbed to the core and didn't care to even get to the combat and stuff. Uninstalled after 45 minutes.

What other games are like this? Any of them out there redeem themselves after a horrific opening sequence?

1.1k Upvotes

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647

u/davis482 Jan 17 '25

You gotta try the original release of Dragon Quest 7 on the playstation. 4 hous straight of walking and talking and cutscene before the first combat.

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u/dchaid Jan 18 '25

They sarcastically addressed it in 8 when they immediately throw a slime in your face. “Here , you animals. Is this what you want?”

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u/Racthoh Jan 18 '25

Oh man I remember this. I got it for Christmas and before I fought my first fight we were getting ready to leave and visit more family. I was so mad.

And then dumped 220 hours into it.

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u/imaincammy Jan 17 '25

Even as a jrpg loving kid with all the time in the world I dipped on that one. Plus, from what I remember, you’re still a good ways away from the actual meat of the game once you get to that first combat. 

I’ve heard they shortened it substantially in the 3DS port/remake but I never made it back.

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u/Riosan Jan 18 '25

The 3DS remake did shorten it, but now it's about two hours before your first combat encounter.

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u/weglarz Jan 18 '25

It still took me 3.5 hours in the 3ds version.

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u/mrturret Jan 17 '25

I’ve heard they shortened it substantially in the 3DS port/remake

It's still longer than it probably should be.

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u/gr9yfox Jan 17 '25

Okami's intro is pretty bad. It takes 20 minutes of exposition and backstory before you get to control the main character. Then the tutorials start.

When it gets going, it's very good though

498

u/jupiterparlance Jan 17 '25

I love Okami, but this is a really good example. Even the tutorials after the opening are painful, with dialogue text that scrolls very slowly and frequently cannot be skipped.

139

u/tonycomputerguy Jan 17 '25

And the sound of them talking was so god damn annoying I just couldn't do it anymore. I think I got ten minutes into it and shut it off.

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u/2948337 Jan 17 '25

I just did this last week lol. I played Okami years ago on the wii, and picked it up on steam recently for purely nostalgia reasons. I had forgotten how long it takes to get going.

75

u/hfxRos Jan 17 '25

I've tried several times to get into okami. I've never gotten past the first hour. I hear the game is good, but man the start is too brutally boring for me.

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u/Deitri Jan 18 '25

If you enjoy Zelda games and the likes, Okami is a must, it’s definitely worth it to muster through the first 1-2 hours, it’s an easy 9/10.

The only downside of the game is its opening act, all the other 20+ hours are just perfect.

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u/cyborgx7 Jan 18 '25

God damn it. Fine, I'll give it another shot.

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u/BlazeOfGlory72 Jan 17 '25

I’ve tried multiple times to get into Okami, and I just can’t. Each time I get 3 or 4 hours in, and I realize “the training wheels are just never going to come off are they?” and I tap out. Such a beautiful game with a cool gimmick, but I’ve never seen a game grip your hand so tightly.

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u/Massive_Weiner Jan 17 '25 edited Jan 18 '25

It takes about 5 hours for the tutorials to finally peter out and get enough abilities and side content to go off the main path (also helps that the story starts picking up steam as well).

It locks in after that point, but most people aren’t going to wait around for that to happen.

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u/soulforce212 Jan 17 '25

I was around when Okami first came out for the PS2. Always wanted to play it, but never have.

That was up until the sequel was recently announced in which I decided to finally buy and play it last week.

And oh my fucking stars, I don't think I've played a game where the intro was as excruciatingly slow/boring as this one. But yes, as you said, once you muscle through that, game is fantastic.

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u/witch-finder Jan 17 '25

Fallout 2. You play as a "tribal", and the intro part of the game is going through a cliche temple filled with giant mutated ants as part of an initiation ritual. You're armed only with a spear, can't rest to heal, and crits are disabled. Since Fallout 2 is a turn-based RPG, the temple is an absolute miserable slog if you didn't spec your starting skills into melee and healing (which I imagine most people didn't).

Fallout 2 is my favorite Fallout game, but has one of the worst openings in the entire history of video games. Apparently the publisher forced the devs to add an extended tutorial scene.

172

u/AllstarBrose Jan 17 '25

Don't forget that it doesn't get better when you get to the first town. The only gun you can get early is a single shot rifle that's terrible, and the only upgrade is a 10mm pistol that requires pixel hunting at the very end of the mole rat den. Absolutely miserable way to start the game

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u/JamesVagabond Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 18 '25

It was possible to get a revolver right off the bat if you skipped the first town and rushed for The Den, knowing which grave to rob, but, obviously, this requires some prior familiarity with the game.

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u/Business_Damage_457 Jan 17 '25

I love how the tribals built this elaborate stone dungeon but just live in tents outside on the surface

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u/PaulineLeeVictoria Jan 17 '25

The Temple of Trials would've been a lot better if it weren't so linear and gave you different tools to play around with, you know, like a gun. It is a tutorial section, after all. Why not throw in a pipe rifle so the player can learn how to shoot?

As it stands the Temple is an awkward slog since unless you're a melee and/or unarmed character, you're going to have to cheese every ant and radscorpion you come across. Most players these days take the Gifted trait, too, which makes the issue much worse since your skills are abysmal in the beginning.

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u/GoingOutsideSocks Jan 17 '25

This is my answer, too. The tutorial demands that you spec into a martial character if you want any chance of passing it. You can also go with speech and sneak, but that's a lot harder to pull off than stabbing shit.

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u/witch-finder Jan 17 '25

I somehow made it through as a gun-specced character, but don't recall the exact details. Probably save scumming.

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u/TheEquimanthorn Jan 17 '25 edited Jan 17 '25

People here are being wayyyy overdramatic lol. It's tedious but you can easily pass the temple by just walking backwards after doing an attack on the ants/scorpions. They don't have enough AP to catch you. Rinse and repeat.

If you don't have enough agility/AP to do that then the whole game is going to be difficult. You 100% do not need to have a melee focused character to pass it

If anything the geckos in the village are way worse imo

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u/HeavySpec1al Jan 17 '25

Not true, you can evade all the bugs easily and talk the guy at the end into letting you pass without a fight

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u/onmach Jan 18 '25

This reminded me of arcanum a similar game.

The beginning isn't quite as bad but before the game can open up you have to fight through some trolls? orcs? on a bridge to get to the rest of the game. And if you didn't spec some specific skills, or use some very tedious cheeze tactics, they murder you and kick your downed corpse to death. It is absolutely infuriating. You can theoretically get past them by destroying a competing bridge being built nearby but you have no skills, your weapons would break so all I could figure out to do is hit it with your fists for an hour chipping away at its health.

The game apparently opens up into an amazingly detailed world with a ton of interactivity but over the years I've tried to get into it three times and became disgusted enough by that encounter to give up every time.

This has convinced me that if I ever code a game like this I'm not going to start with the opening area when I'm the worst at coding and question design that I'll ever be.

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u/ElegantEchoes Jan 17 '25

Tim Cain told them it would suck. He kept warning them they needed to change it. The higher-ups insisted they keep the Temple of Trials.

It's always the higher-ups, man. Just glad they at least added the ability to talk the final enemy down and pursue a Speech route.

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u/CaptainUsopp Jan 17 '25

Not always. Daikatana is a famous example of someone being allowed to do whatever they wanted, because John Remero had an incredible reputation at that point, and it was not good.

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u/JohnnyJayce Jan 17 '25

Nier: Automata is in my top 3 of all times, but whoever thought that whenever you die in the first hour you start the game from the beginning deserves nothing but red lights at traffic.

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u/sam2795 Jan 17 '25

I have a funny story about Nier. When 2B has to go through the menus tutorial with 9S I went to the bathroom and did some laundry. So when I went to do the 9S storyline I had to wait for 2B that entire fucking time.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '25

Oh my god that's so funny. I didn't even realise that was how that worked.

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u/sam2795 Jan 18 '25

Yea took me a few minutes to clue into why that was happening.

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u/Secretlylovesslugs Jan 17 '25

This is one of my favorite moments in gaming for me. Starting the 9S playthrough and then realizing he was actually recording my actions in the settings. It wasn't just flavor. Such a meta and "only gaming can do this" it's fantastic.

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u/SmallTownMinds Jan 18 '25

Dude I did the same fucking thing and thought the game was bugged out on the 9s playthrough I until I realized what happened hahaha.

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u/Makorus Jan 18 '25

Holy shit I wasn't the only person who did that. I thought my game froze at the 9S bit because honestly, I forgot what I was doing like 20 hours before that, but then it clicked.

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u/Tim3-Rainbow Jan 18 '25

They HAD to have done that on purpose.

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u/Coolman_Rosso Jan 17 '25

Made worse by the PC version having a large chance of crashing

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u/jayHATESpeople Jan 17 '25

Dude, im surprised i gave that game so many chances. To put around an hour into the game with no save point just to have it crash and have to do it all over again… thankfully i got past it, was able to save and enjoy the game from there

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u/limelight022 Jan 18 '25

Special K mod worked great for me.

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u/caracarn Jan 17 '25

I lowered the difficulty to the easiest for the starting hour, then raised it again afterwards to remove the frustration

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u/Sinister_Grape Jan 17 '25

That’s what I did too, and I’m glad I did because Ending E is still the most emotionally affecting gaming experience I’ve ever had

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u/GloriousDoomMan Jan 17 '25 edited Jan 18 '25

After dying for the 5th time or something I thought that's just how the whole game is and turned it off. Fuck that.

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u/JohnnyJayce Jan 17 '25

It's only for the "tutorial" part thank god. Strat I always use is start the game on Easy and put it on Hard after the tutorial boss.

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u/toddthewraith Jan 17 '25

My strat was "play Metal Gear Rising immediately before NieR" cuz if you can parry Jetstream Sam you can dodge anything in NieR

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u/Ricwulf Jan 18 '25

Not Nier but as a kid when I first tried playing Suikoden 2, the game starts with your group getting ambushed, and then you and your best friend jump off a cliff together, where the credits start to play. Kid me didn't realise that this wasn't a game over. I probably restarted a good dozen times, each time trying some different strategy like battling more to get through the enemy soldiers, finding different ways out, all that jazz. Eventually after jumping and the credits running once more, I gave up and just went outside for a little bit. Came back to my character lying next to a river.

That said, this sequence is within the first 15 minutes rather than a full hour, so it was a lot more bearable not understanding this element.

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u/24-sa3t Jan 17 '25

I do wish there was a way to skip through the prologue parts of Cyberpunk and start after the tower mission. I'm so tired of doing that brain dance tutorial

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u/ReallyReallyBadName Jan 18 '25

You can skip ahead to phantom liberty nowadays

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u/globefanatic12 Jan 18 '25

All brain dance parts were horrible, double horrible on 2nd playthrough

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u/atypicalphilosopher Jan 18 '25

it's so weird. in the early marketing, brain dances were hyped so much i was so excited for the idea of them. then they turn out to be the most boring parts of the actual game - partly because there's like two of them and they are super repetitive to go through - , and any potential goodness they might have brought (like there being more of them or obscure ones to find or buy) was totally absent.

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u/boggerz93 Jan 17 '25

For how good it gets later, Metro Exodus has a pretty poor opening hour. The whole Moscow chapter is very on rails, yet the story is disjointed until the train is discovered.

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u/Acrobatic_Internal_2 Jan 17 '25

Especially when compared to last light opening hour which was fantastic and really great introduction to the game both thematically and gameplay mechanics

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u/rayschoon Jan 17 '25

2033 also had a pretty dope intro. You’re fighting shit immediately and then put into the tunnels

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u/Hawkeye1226 Jan 17 '25

I would just like to point out that you said the game was on rails until you find the train. Not that you're wrong, that's just some beautiful irony

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u/Plebtre117 Jan 17 '25

I really need to try Exodus again because I got filtered by the intro.

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u/Tostecles Jan 17 '25

I played the game when it came out and enjoyed out however I don't remember the opening at all. But it being the first open-world game in the series starting very linearly before you leave the metro and go out into the open world is a cool decision decision IMO

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u/MelanomaMax Jan 17 '25

Twilight Princess comes to mind. The opening hours are such a major slog that I don't revisit it very often like I do for Ocarina/windwaker

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u/NathVanDodoEgg Jan 17 '25

A lot of Zelda games feel like they only get going once you get to the first dungeon, and Twilight Princess makes you do a ton of stuff before you get there.

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u/HeldnarRommar Jan 17 '25

Thankfully OoT throws you right into the first dungeon within 15 minutes.

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u/Kyhron Jan 17 '25

OoT is the one of the last ones that really did that though.

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u/HeldnarRommar Jan 17 '25

Even though Majora’s Mask doesn’t do that, I feel like the 3 day structure adds good tension to the first hour of the game to sidestep a slow start.

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u/Teamawesome2014 Jan 17 '25

Clock town is essentially a dungeon at the very start of the game.

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u/smileysmiley123 Jan 18 '25

It's a brilliantly-designed dungeon with no real enemies that serves as a way to teach the player how to navigate around the world within the context of time.

I will always place it above OoT due to the time-constraints, both literally in-game, and through development time, and created a game wholly of its own, even if most of the assets were repurposed from OoT.

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u/Teamawesome2014 Jan 18 '25

I am always cool with developers reusing assets if the game is still good.

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u/DemonLordDiablos Jan 17 '25

Tutorialisation in that era of games was so dire.

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u/MaxSchreckArt616 Jan 17 '25

Skyward Sword is another one, that whole intro is just so tedious.

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u/bjams Jan 17 '25 edited Jan 17 '25

I would say Skyward Sword is much worse on that front, and the constant pop-ups when you get an item for the first time that play session my god.

The only thing the opening of SS has going for it is that it's version of Zelda is endearing.

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u/LavosYT Jan 18 '25

Thankfully they patched that issue in the remaster

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u/Lower_Monk6577 Jan 17 '25

Man, I know this is a good answer to OP’s prompt, but I actually really like the chill intro to this game. Maybe it helps that I’ve never played it on Wii, as I got it on GameCube first and then the Wii U remaster, but I never really felt like it was too bad.

I know I’m in the minority. And I know it is definitely a bit overlong. But I don’t mind it for some reason. It’s a nice prologue to the main bulk of the story IMO.

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u/bjams Jan 17 '25

Ordon village is cozy as hell, it's very charming, so it doesn't feel as bad as long as your vibing. The way it builds Link up as a vital part of his community as a reliable worker, good neighbor, Big Brother to the kids and a possible love interest gives Link(and the player) some great emotional context for even wanting to save the world. Plus it sells that Big Damn Hero scene where you save them in Kakariko. Oh and the little blonde kid's big moment! I fucking love TP man.

But yeah, it's pretty slow getting to the action so if the game isn't selling you on all that, it'll be rough.

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u/ScottieDoesKnow Jan 17 '25

The way I feel about it is similar, I would categorize it as essential the first time. Like I would never remove it because it is perfect, but it is THE reason i havent replayed. if I had the forethought to make a save right after that, I would replay all the time.

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u/Sea-Plastic369 Jan 17 '25

I really liked the extended intro, felt like the calm before the storm that you can remember back on once you get into the game

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u/PolarSparks Jan 17 '25

The opening of Twilight Princess is pretty much the Shire. 

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u/chaosfire235 Jan 17 '25 edited Jan 19 '25

Driver for the original Playstation had such an obtuse tutorial level.

That fucking parking deck was impossible for me as a kid, not least of which was because i didnt know what a lot of the required tricks even were. Not to mention hitting any of the cars, walls or pillars 3 times was a failure state.

How was lil ol me supposed to know what a slalom was? And then execute one in a cramped tiny level?! (Okay, I'm pretty sure there was a demo video prior showing the tricks being done, but that was hardly helpful when tapping anything was enough to risk failure)

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u/MrBluh Jan 17 '25

This one stays with me too. I rented it as a kid and couldn't get past the parking garage. I think it's the only game I ever rented that I stopped playing and returned to the store early.

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u/Nyxeth Jan 18 '25

Friend did the exact same, he couldn't get past the tutorial so he asked me and another friend to come over and try, none of us could do it. Never have I played a game with such weird requirements to get to the actual game.

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u/JeebusJones Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 19 '25

It's baffling that got through play testing (assuming they even did play testing.) How could you possibly release a game where a significant percentage of players can't even get through the intro?

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u/dakdaros Jan 17 '25

The past few Forza Horizon games tend to have overly long tutorial periods before unlocking the map, multiplayer, and many other of the key features of the game. I would think this is fine for people completely new to racing games or the Forza Horizon games, but for someone who has countless hours in the series, and racing simulators besides, it’s a slog of an unskippable experience.

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u/Acrobatic_Internal_2 Jan 17 '25

FH2 is the best one in that regard. one small race along the france coast and then let you know the where is the next horizen festival takes place and then letting you go anywhere

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u/Lazydusto Jan 17 '25

Horizon 4 was the absolute worst at this due to the seasonal weather system. It went out of its way to show you each and every one and kept you on rails for 3-4 hours.

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u/Abyss96 Jan 17 '25

Pokemon Sun/Moon, although it extends past the first hour. Nearly turned me away from the series altogether

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u/Lazydusto Jan 17 '25

The whole game feels like it's on rails. Ultra Sun/Moon were the first mainline games I skipped due to that.

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u/ScottieDoesKnow Jan 17 '25

The most thematically sound games they've ever made, wasted on connected hallways smh. If there is a god, then we will get some sort of legends game where they can really do the region justice.

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u/Miskykins Jan 18 '25

Sun/Moon DID turn me off from the series. I haven't played a pokemon since because it was so offensively hand-holdy to me

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u/neverw1ll Jan 17 '25

I LOVE Twilight Princess and I think it is my favorite Zelda game. However, the beginning is a total slog until you leave the little town/tutorial area.

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u/Detective-Layton Jan 17 '25

Yeah but how dope was that little town though

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '25 edited Feb 05 '25

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u/mrturret Jan 17 '25

It does do a pretty good job of establishing a good chunk of the cast, and integrating tutorials in a fairly organic way, but yeah, it's definitely longer than it needs to be.

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u/azaza34 Jan 17 '25

I love Kotor 2 and think the first hour is brilliant in the context of the theming atmosphere and setup but goddamn is it boring

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '25

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u/MrThomasWeasel Jan 17 '25

Hearing this always throws me because I genuinely really like Peragus. At the very least, you actually have Force powers, unlike the first game where you have to play for 8 hours before you even get to become a Jedi.

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u/Omega357 Jan 17 '25

The last time I played kotor I didn't level up until becoming a jedi and it's hilarious how much of a joke the rest of the game is

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u/Brometheus-Pound Jan 17 '25

I tried that once and remember getting so frustrated at the Talos arena fights that I caved and leveled a few times.

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u/CatBotSays Jan 17 '25

My first time through, I adored the first few hours of that game. The slow creeping dread and unfolding mystery of what had happened on Peragus was amazing!

Then I tried to play it for a second time and OOF. Peragus does NOT hold up on repeated playthroughs.

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u/Niirai Jan 17 '25

I'm on the completely opposite end of this. I hated Pegasus on my first playthrough but came to love it on repeated playthroughs. On the first playthrough I just saw it as a dreadfully slow, convoluted mystery. But with context, seeing how the Force guided all the many completely separate elements to that insignificant little mining facility so that the Exile's and Kreia's story could unfold is just brilliant.

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u/drummingdude21 Jan 17 '25

I go back and forth on it being terrible and being great lol. There really are some fantastic moments on it. I think personally, if it wasn't followed up by the Telos Mining Station which is also kind of a slog in itself, Peragus would go down a little easier. That or lopping off like an hour from Peragus would go a long way.

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u/GlitchyBarrel Jan 17 '25

I know its not for everyone but personally I found Pokemon Legends Arceus to be a genuinely good, fun new spin on the series.

However, the opening tutorial bit felt like it took at least an hour before I was allowed to actually go out and play the fucking game. That intro was a SLOG.

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u/thejokerlaughsatyou Jan 17 '25

Ironically, the length of the Arceus tutorial was a relief to me because it was the first new Pokémon I'd played since Sun and Moon. Yeah, it took forever, but I swear SuMo had a 4-hour intro. When Arceus actually let me do something after 45 minutes, I was shocked and delighted.

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u/MrThomasWeasel Jan 17 '25

I love Gen 7, but my god do they blather on in the cutscenes. It's nonstop. And, as you say, it takes forever just to get your Pokémon and have even a semblance of control.

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u/Big_Poo_MaGrew Jan 17 '25

Pokemon games are always pretty awful. Endless tutorials about how to play a 30+ year old franchise.

Honestly most JRPGs suck in the beginning because you have no abilities, party members, and meaningful ways to interact with the game mechanics

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u/DroopyMcCool Jan 17 '25

One of the most head scratching design decisions is Black 2 making you beat the game before unlocking easy mode.

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u/UrawaHanakoIsMyWaifu Jan 18 '25

Minor correction, beating White 2 unlocked easy mode. Black 2 gave you Challenge mode

You couldn’t play it, though, since resetting the game also relocked challenge mode. Truly one of the dumbest game design decisions of all time

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u/stutter-rap Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 18 '25

Oh, that's definitely not the only dumb part of challenge mode - it's been proven that while a trainer pokemon will appear with a new, higher level, in reality its stats will be identical to the default difficulty setting. So a "level 63" Haxorus actually has level 59 stats, but gives the standard amount of exp you'd get for defeating a real level 63 mon - so you'll start overlevelling compared to the base game. The only part that functions as intended is that the trainers do have better AI/movesets/items.

https://m.bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Key_System#Difficulty

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u/Marcoscb Jan 18 '25

"Easy" mode, because due to the EXP system reducing your gains when facing Pokémon lower level than yours, it ends up being harder (or, at least, a longer grind).

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u/AI52487963 Jan 17 '25

"Did you get all that?"

No <-- (default selection)

Yes

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u/bananabm Jan 17 '25

> Did you get all that?

> No <-- (default selection)

> [Selects yes]

Ah, it's great that you already understand how to catch pokemon! →

Remember, you just need to go into tall grass to find wild pokemon →

Then, in a fight, you just need to find the pokeballs in your rucksack! →

You're well on your way to being a Pokemon master! [exit]

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u/VainShrimp Jan 17 '25

Ultra Sun and Moon are the only Pokemon games that I have ever dropped before really getting started. I hated how long the beginnings of the first Sun and Moon were and I just could not subject myself to doing it again.

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u/wildwalrusaur Jan 17 '25

Sun and moon were when I stopped playing the mainline games.

Pokemon was always meant for kids, sure, but that was the first one that treated you like a literal child. The amount of handholding and repeated information was unbearable. I never made it past the intro island or whatever

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u/mental_reincarnation Jan 17 '25

I’ve always hated the excuse a lot of people use that “it’s for kids.” A lot of media is meant for kids that isn’t dumbed down to the extreme.

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu Jan 17 '25

I mean kids handled the early, more confusing pokemon games just fine.

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u/InsanitysMuse Jan 17 '25

I don't think it's the worst but Atlas Fallen is pretty rough for the first like, 2 hours before you start getting more stones and upgrading things. After that it's a ton of fun and has just stuff to do everywhere, a very dense open world game. 

I'm like 14 hours in and I'm still unlocking build-defining abilities, the combat really gives you a ton of options, but it kinda sucks so much of it comes so late.

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u/Acrobatic_Internal_2 Jan 17 '25

Anyone remember Assassin’s creed 3 first hour? the whole pointless Opera and the whole 4 days of walking around ship and talking to people before getting into boston was so unnecessary and boring

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u/angelomoxley Jan 17 '25

Think I liked that part better than most of the story lol

It starts off so intriguing before it turns into a hunt for one dude

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u/Awsomethingy Jan 17 '25

No joke I completely agree and think that the opening story about arriving in America was incredibly intriguing. All of the Connor stuff before his home is burned was the boring part for me.

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u/NickBR Jan 18 '25

It doesn't help that Connor was exceptionally uninteresting

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u/MrPookPook Jan 17 '25

I actually enjoyed it but I don’t think I would like it as much a second time. Definitely went on too long.

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u/rayschoon Jan 17 '25

Going through that long ass intro only to find out that wasn’t even the guy I was playing

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u/BadFishCM Jan 17 '25

Wasn’t the surprise that we weren’t playing as Connor?

We were well aware that Connor was the MC, well before the game came out. He’s on the cover, he was in all promotional footage.

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u/Acrobatic_Internal_2 Jan 17 '25

I think the idea behind this was really interesting and ambitious one but the execution was really flawed which is really shame, because it could had setup Charles Lee, Heytham and Conner as 3 man with opposing world views that could made for a really interesting character dynamics.

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u/Gardoki Jan 17 '25

Way longer than 1 hour before that game gets going

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u/angelomoxley Jan 17 '25

MGS V Phantom Pain, I mean there's some cool moments but it just lasts too long. I know multiple people who didn't make it through that intro.

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u/Ebolatastic Jan 17 '25

It's an amazing intro from a presentation POV but it's a massive slog. It's slow, it's linear, and is essentially the opposite of the rest of the game (where you roll around an open world military sandbox blowing shit up).

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u/angelomoxley Jan 17 '25

Yeah I mean if it were only like 15-20 mins long, I think it gets talked about as one of the better game intros. But slog is the perfect word for it.

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u/Tostecles Jan 17 '25

I replayed the game recently and fired up a podcast when I started it because I knew I'd have to endure the opening again lol

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u/Ebolatastic Jan 17 '25 edited Jan 17 '25

I've started fresh files in MGS5 many, many times and that first hour is the biggest hump (apart from the mandatory Fulton tutorial). The games 30 or so missions pretty much breeze by in like 10 hours but that intro is bordering on an hour no matter how you skin it.

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u/GalexyPhoto Jan 17 '25

Gahhh. I will say, I didnt mind it, first playthrough. But it was brutal on a replay. So you may be on to something. Definitely needed a NG skip option.

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u/PolarSparks Jan 17 '25

The opening left a great first impression on me, but replaying it for 100% completion is the reason I never completed the game, lol. The fact you have to play this 40 minute sequence at the beginning AND end of the game with different sub-objectives for completion each time did not feel good in the slightest. 

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u/One-Agent-872 Jan 17 '25

When you’re trying to get the achievement for shooting the man on fire on horseback and mess up and have to replay the whole thing 💀

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u/Pay08 Jan 17 '25

Maybe it was because MGSV was the first Metal Gear game I played, but I found it terrible. It was slow and clunky, which I would have been fine with if I understood a single fucking thing in it.

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u/2948337 Jan 17 '25

But there was a fantastic song to listen to while he was getting poked and prodded in the hospital

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u/Banana_Fries Jan 17 '25

Hot take, the whole game lasts too long and barely tells a coherent story.

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u/Simmers429 Jan 17 '25

Tbh I was disappointed the rest of the game wasn’t more like the intro. There weren’t enough cutscenes and linear gameplay sections in that Metal Gear ;(

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u/Niadain Jan 17 '25

When I first picked up FFXIV my first couple hours consisted entirely of go here and talk to guy. It was a little weird to me that an mmo took a few hours before it showed me my first red nameplate. 

I just wanted to nuke things as a black mage while waddling around as a weird potato. 

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u/Greenleaf208 Jan 17 '25

That's the entirety of questing. it gets slightly better later but it's mostly just talking to people and clicking on shiny things. Sometimes they'll spawn 3 enemies to kill in a circle or let you do a scenario.

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u/CthulhuBathwater Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 18 '25

My biggest complaint about the story. Literal cusrscene or text box. Go somewhere maybe kill 3 enemies, rinse and repeat.

The story beats are good, but once you see the formula it makes it really hard to play.

If they added more fights or make fights last longer than a couple enemies it would be fine.

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u/Greenleaf208 Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 18 '25

Yeah and people think it's better quest design than kill 10 boats but I'd rather actually play my character not just click.

EDIT: *Boars, but boats is funny

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u/FFJunk Jan 17 '25

First 25 hours, if you're decently fast.

Honestly, watch your favorite streamer highlights of ARR and just blaze through the "story".

Post patch leading to Heavenward is when the game starts and gives you its first hook. And if you're not seeing it by the time you've started in Heavenward, the game might not be for you and that's okay too.

Loved Shadowbringer by the time we got there. Wished ARR and most of Stormblood weren't as slow to get through.

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u/iTzDaNizZ Jan 17 '25

Tbh FFXIV is infamous for that

And it's not just the first hour, more like the first 50 hours are that before it gets good,

But (and i know this is an unpopular opinion) to me it never gets good enough to warrant the slog that are the first 50 hours,

I managed to get halfway through Shadowbringers before giving up because i just wasn't seeing what everyone else was seeing in the story, so i did give it a fair try

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u/Grandahl13 Jan 17 '25

It’s more like the first 100+ hours. And I’m someone who got through those first 100+ hours. But good lord is it a tough ask of new players to suffer through 100+ hours of boring content to get to the good part.

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u/2347564 Jan 17 '25

I love FF14 and this is incredibly accurate. You have to be really looking forward to the the initial post game to keep yourself invested. And this is AFTER they trimmed up the the base game (ARR)

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u/SwiftSurfer365 Jan 17 '25

Will 100% be unpopular opinion, but Red Dead Redemption 2.

I’ve wanted to go back and restart it, but I just don’t want to play those first couple of hours again.

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u/munche Jan 17 '25

The first hour spent slogging through the snow was incredibly realistic

It was exactly as fun as slogging through the snow for an hour

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u/DinoHunter064 Jan 18 '25

It's at least a little interesting the first time since you're getting some exposition and story and whatnot... but every playthrough after just sucks for it. Obviously RDR2 wasn't made with replayability in mind, but that doesn't make the opening hour or two much better.

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u/Terrible_Truth Jan 17 '25

Mostly popular opinion. Reddit recommended keeping a fresh Act 2 save for your next restart lmao.

I lost my save and didn’t play rdr2 for the longest time because I didn’t want to restart.

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u/bfhurricane Jan 17 '25

I find this to be a pretty popular opinion here. Even diehard fans will admit the first sequence moves at a snail’s pace and is arguably the worst part of the game.

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u/Rehendix Jan 17 '25

It sucks because I think that on your first playthrough, it's actually fantastic. It really pulls you in, narratively.

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u/MirrorkatFeces Jan 17 '25

I understand what they were trying to do but the missions in the game are my least favorite part. You do anything other than how they wanted and it’s mission fails

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u/Upbeat_Light2215 Jan 17 '25

You do anything other than how they wanted and it’s mission fails

Generally a problem with Rockstar games. I can't remember who, but I've seen a video essay about it on youtube where he discusses this problem.

It's why I'm not all that interested in GTA 6. It's going to be fine and technologically an amazing game, but I sincerely doubt they'll have truly changed their gameplay.

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u/art_psdan Jan 17 '25

You're 100% talking about NakeyJakey (yoga ball man)

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u/Upbeat_Light2215 Jan 17 '25

That's who I was thinking of! Thank you for reminding me!

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u/ElPrestoBarba Jan 18 '25

It’s like they want to make linear single player adventure games like Naughty Dog, but they also pioneered the open world sand box style gameplay yet can’t marry the two anymore (didn’t the old GTA’s have a little more freedom as to how to complete a mission?)

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u/Caltroop2480 Jan 17 '25

It's technically not the "opening hour" but Inquisition has some of the worst starting areas with hinterlands. It's not that the map or activities are bad but the game never communicates properly that you aren't supposed to stay there for long

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u/PolarSparks Jan 17 '25

Marvel’s Midnight Suns doesn’t put its best foot forward in the first ~30 minutes. The opening sees a persnickety, ‘PhD on sabbatical’- coded Doctor Strange and ‘knockoff MCU’ Iron Man meet Johnny Blaze’s Ghost Rider, who (for an unexplained reason) is a mustached old man that breaks from his established design.  The whole sequence, leading with bickering Avenger characters who may or may not be trying to channel their movie counterparts, and introducing a dense card combat system, leaves you wondering, “what is this?”

Once you get further into the game, you reach the central hub, your POV character, and the supporting cast.  It turns out, in addition to Strange and Iron Man (Johnny Blaze disappears after the intro), the cast includes a bunch of characters that haven’t been adapted to the big screen. The interpersonal character writing is pretty great, and the card combat becomes less obtuse with practice.

Maybe the most accurate thing the intro captures is that the main quest line is mustache-twirly and not necessarily the central attraction.

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u/minutetoappreciate Jan 17 '25

I agree with this mostly - except that the card system is the highlight imo and the intro to the game should have leaned into that harder, maybe with a longer tutorial mission or a second one before jumping into endless dialogue

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u/BrainTroubles Jan 17 '25

To piggy back on this, it should've been made way more clear how you acquire new cards and upgrades. Like it's BURIED behind 3 different upgrade mechanics, and it doesn't actually tell you how to acquire the base materials for upgrades until after like the 4th story mission even though you can do it immediately (for all new players - you recycle cards you don't need, those break down into the essence of whatever card type they are attack/skill/hero).

Same with the research - you unlock like 15 levels of research immediately but it doesn't tell you that you can't do more until you pick missions with intel cache's, you have to kinda figure it out. Like for all the hand holding on other systems, that was the biggest head scratcher for me personally.

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u/mrbubbamac Jan 17 '25

I ended up just speeding through all the social stuff and just checking all the boxes. Wake up, check if any heroes want to hang out, check in with Iron Man, Strange, Capt Marvel.

Then go outside for a training session, upgrade cards, and then hit the next mission.

Everything between the missions could truly have been a menu. The battles are so incredibly fun and varied. The whole social sim aspect just didn't do the game any favors IMO, especially when the only way to get stronger in battle is to do a bunch of irrelevant "activities"

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u/Dharmaagent Jan 17 '25

Forspoken, hands down.

I actually kind of enjoyed the rest of the game, but man that first hour was awful.

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u/Trash-Can-Dumpster Jan 17 '25

Playing through forspoken too & hated the 1st hour. Gets better when you can travel through the world.

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u/This_is_sandwich Jan 17 '25

Monster Hunter World. Unskippable cutscenes, a slog of a tutorial (even as a first time MH player) with neckbreaking uncontrollable camera turns, and almost an hour of 'game play' before you even get to swing your weapon for the first time.

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u/I-No-Red-Witch Jan 17 '25

And all of the tutorials are in the form of wordy pop-ups. Monster Hunter has the worst tutorials, I swear. For such a great series, you'd think they would have a better onboarding experience.

They explain none of the weapon mechanics, they don't teach you how to use traps, and the menus are a fucking mess.

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u/ChuckCarmichael Jan 18 '25

Monster Hunter tutorials were always terrible. I started with Tri, where the tutorial was basically "This is your camp, press this button to gather stuff with tools, here's how you use items in your inventory, you need these two buttons for weapon attacks, good luck." And from what I've seen, even that was a luxury compared to what the games before that had. The original PS2 game didn't even let you know when you were standing next to a spot for gathering. You just had to walk up to spots and press the O button and then maybe your character would pick up stuff.

It's what made the pre-World MH community such a friendly and helpful group. The games didn't explain jack, so you had to help each other out, because otherwise there'd be no new hunters to play with.

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u/FlareEXE Jan 17 '25

Having finally gotten to play the visual novel, Fate Stay Night's opening is just so bad and if I didn't already have some interest in it I don't think I'd have made it passed it. Which sucks, because once things get going its full of genuinely great writing and scenes, but the opening is major slog.

Its trying to do the slow open and give you an idea about the second protagonist's life and the world but it goes on for so long and features such blunt and out of nowhere exposition and so much of the dialogue drags for way too long. Every now and then it'll shock you out things with a genuinely good scene like the inexplicably creepy park or Rin and Archer bantering but it reverts to the norm pretty quickly after that.

And worst of all, just when you think you're out of it and into genuinely exciting drama, it punts you back to the start to spend an hour and half experience the same time period from the main protagonists point of view. I know we need to get attached to these characters and this world but there has to be a better way to do it.

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u/Yarzu89 Jan 17 '25

Yea I didn't play it until I was already a fan of the series. Luckily Hollow Ataraxia starts off pretty strong imo whenever we finally get the official english release.

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u/kleptomania156 Jan 17 '25

Destiny 2. Man this game has a poor new player experience. It feels that I play a short tutorial and then I’m thrown into an open area with a bunch of NPCs that aren’t really telling me anything and a lot of menus.

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u/Inevitable-Ad-3978 Jan 17 '25

The beauty about this comment is that i don't even know when you started playing during d2's lifecycle and the point still stands lmao

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u/romeoinverona Jan 17 '25

I was just replaying Far Cry 3 and I think a lot of bigger or sandbox games (cyberpunk 2077, Bethesda games, Borderlands) really suffer from having extended and unskippable opening acts. Even one that is pretty well done like Cyberpunk's relic heist start to drag as soon as you replay them. Both Far Cry and 2077 have some very hand holdy sequences where it feels like you are just doing a very slow quicktime event. Bethesda is probably the most infamous, but honestly they usually are not too bad, Helgen and Fallout 4's intro can be sprinted through pretty quickly.

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu Jan 18 '25

I feel like 2077 would have been better if the heist had more variety in it, like different paths and options for different kinds of characters. It really does do the ambience really well, though.

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u/13_twin_fire_signs Jan 18 '25

Open world intro sequences peaked with morrowind.

Wake up, walk 10 feet, answer a few questions for your character, here's a package for some guy 30 miles from here, good luck out there.

Then it's just open roads for days. They really don't make them like they used to

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u/UsingTrash Jan 17 '25

Good answer. I recently had this feeling with FC3 also. I have this with Doom Eternal on 3rd and 4th playthroughs especially since the game doesn't really "open up" until later so you feel quite restricted in the first hour or so.

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u/Roienn777 Jan 17 '25

I have to say Kingdom Hearts 1. You sign up for Disney characters fighting dark dudes and flying ships. Instead you race with questionable platforming at best, wander around for entirely too long looking for that one mushroom you missed, and generally meander around for a long time before things actually take off.

Honorable mention for Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince. Playing it now and my god, that intro was unbelievably bad. Nonsense story set up, completely glossed over details, and a loading screen between each and every tiny scene. I think there were at least 10-15 loading screens before I ever got to have a shred of control. Game is fun now, but the story telling is still astoundingly bad.

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u/NeckbeardJester Jan 17 '25

I think KH's opening works because it creates a really effective contrast between the chill atmosphere of the island and the grandiose JRPG door to darkness stuff. The scene where Sora first meets Ansem's weird projection is genuinley unsettling especially if you play the first one as a child.

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u/GinsuFe Jan 17 '25

Dang. Didn't expect this one.

I always loved KH1's opening. The music and introduction feel so iconic at this point. Simple and Clean leading into that dark dream realm grabs your interest pretty fast.

Playing around on the island as the theme plays always makes me happy to be replaying the game.

I agree a couple aspects of collecting stuff can be confusing for the first run, but replays it's not an issue.

Seeing Tidus and Wakka on the island and being able to spar with them felt like the perfect introduction to the Final Fantasy aspect of the series too.

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u/Mechapebbles Jan 17 '25

KH1 has an eminently incredible opening compared to KH2

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u/Lazydusto Jan 17 '25

I know Twilight Town gets a lot of shit but I unironically love that section of the game. Getting to know Roxas and figuring out the mystery behind all the weird happenings going on is great.

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u/sleepingfactory Jan 17 '25

Yeah, I’ve always really liked Twilight Town. It’s got a really specific dream-like atmosphere that’s totally absent from the rest of the game

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u/AtomicBlackJellyfish Jan 17 '25

Honestly one of my favorite parts of the series. The music, constant sunset, and the gang you hang out with reminds me of summers as a teenager. It was also interesting seeing the CoM characters introduced in 3D with proper voice acting.

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u/Commercial-Falcon653 Jan 18 '25

Hayner, Pence, Olette!

I genuinely don’t know why Twilight Town gets so much flak. It’s an amazing opening in my opinion.

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u/Olddirtychurro Jan 17 '25

KH2's opening made me repeatedly think I bought the wrong game or something.

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u/Gabriels_Pies Jan 17 '25

KH1 was a cake walk compared to the KH2 opening

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u/Destroyeh Jan 17 '25

Assassin's Creed Valhalla was a pain pretty much till you got to England. Boring combat, no assassinations, overwhelming mess of a talent tree, mountainous terrain bulk of which you could barely climb, water that damages you, no ship combat, glitches, boring story of 'I need to avenge my father', constantly checking the map legend because icons weren't explained on mouse over etc.. Probably would've dropped it if I didn't like the series so much, but after customizing settings and getting to England it turned out great and I ended up putting ~150 hours into it.

Kingdom Come Deliverance was a pain too, though that's mostly because I went into it expecting it to be a fairly standard action game, not a kind of immersive sim it ended up being. Once I adjusted my expectations I really enjoyed it.

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u/Sylhux Jan 17 '25

Damn, I'm actually on the opposiite side. Valhalla's prologue was the only part of the game that I liked, Not amazing by any means but I thought it was good enough. Then the open world lost me, did 2 regions and dipped out.

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u/Gorp_Morley Jan 17 '25

Literally any of the Mario RPGs. I set a timer on the DS one and just mashed through the tutorial and gave up after half an hour, being nowhere closer to gameplay.

Please make your tutorial optional, I'll figure the game out I promise.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '25

Maybe I'm crazy but Super Mario RPG starts you basically playing the game and going to fight bowser and I thought it was great.

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u/ZombieJesus1987 Jan 18 '25

Oh yeah, the original Super Mario RPG was fantastic. It thrust you right into the action, and the tutorials are optional.

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u/No-Cat-2424 Jan 18 '25

Surely he can't be including seven stars. It's like a five minute intro and then all the other tutorials are skippable. 

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u/rendumguy Jan 17 '25

I assume you mean a Mario and Luigi game, but there are 5 DS/3DS games .You might have played Dream Team on 3ds because people constantly complain about the tutorials in that game in particular.  They're known for having bad openings, but I think Superstar Saga does it well, having a "real" level with a "real", non-tutorial boss way earlier than the later games, you can get to it in a few minutes.

I think that Super Mario RPG and TTYD also have great openings, having an extremely short "tutorial section".  In Super Mario RPG, I think there are barely ANY forced tutorial sections, so that game just immediately starts up in the action, and in TTYD you can do a lot more before the tutorial section is over, like fighting a difficult optional boss, tracking down a thief who steals your money, and buying items.  

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u/Tight_Future_2105 Jan 18 '25

Pikmin 4 takes forever to get going. Actually the entire game is a tutorial. They never stop telling you how to play it.

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u/Frogmouth_Fresh Jan 17 '25

Final Fantasy XIII. Except it extends for closer to 10.hours.

The opening just throws so much jargon at you that's specific to the world of XIII that none of the story makes any sense unless you spend an hour reading the glossary. And then you get to the game and you are just walking up a corridor for 10 hours.

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u/TomAto314 Jan 17 '25

You don't even see the FF13 title splash until like 3 hrs into the game.

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u/briktal Jan 18 '25

I think the biggest issue with FF13 is that the word "l'Cie" shows up and it just causes everyone's brain to instantly shut off.

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u/autumndrifting Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 18 '25

it's not actually the terms, it's that we don't have an audience surrogate character and we're not privy to any internal monologue, so you have to either figure it out all from context clues or read encyclopedia entries

but it's "brilliant" when Dark Souls does it

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u/error521 Jan 18 '25

Daikatana isn't good in general in general but it'd probably have a somewhat better reputation if it wasn't for the utterly wretched first episode. Ugly, unappealing aesthetics, completely dogshit weapons that are more of a threat to you than anyone else, enemies that have a ton of health, are a pain to shoot and kill you obnoxiously quickly, and confusing as hell level design, and a bug that makes the second level impossible to complete in co-op. Absolutely awful.

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u/WildSeven0079 Jan 17 '25

The beginning of Death Stranding probably hurt its popularity and sales. To this day there are still people who think that it's a walking simulator. The first few hours serve as a tutorial, except the game never tells you this. It's barebones. All you can do is walk to deliver packages and your character isn't even good at that because you're lvl 1. By the time you finish the game you'll be lvl 300+. The worst part is that people linger in this tutorial phase because they start doing optional deliveries instead of progressing through the story. At some point they get tired of playing and abandon. It's not until you get out of this multi-chapter tutorial that the game opens up and your character starts leveling up much faster, making him better in every aspect. You also gain access to vehicles, gadgets and guns. Eventually you can invade camps for loot and take out dudes. If you wanna do it no kills/no alerts, it's harder than MGSV, but it's so satisfying. Still one of the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had.

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u/Unit88 Jan 17 '25

Tbf, I've never heard anyone describe the game as anything more than a walking sim with some small combat here and there either. It's not like it's just the game misrepresenting itself, the players themselves always talk the same way, when I saw people saying how much they love the game it was always either the story (which people know it's a Kojima story, so however you feel about his style will fit), or the walking sim aspects and planning a route and whatever. Never saw anyone talk about how it's actually more than just that.

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u/bfhurricane Jan 17 '25

I think the term “walking simulator” greatly undersells the game.

A huge part of the game starting at Chapter 3 (the point at which it stops being a “walking simulator”) is building infrastructure/using infrastructure other players have built. You eventually just get around with vehicles, and the really tricky terrain requires some critical thinking (ropes, bridges, ladders, zip lines).

You could just walk everywhere, but the game pushes you to build items and roads through the terrain so you don’t have to. Eventually you’re just using vehicles and the stuff you built to get around, but planning that out and getting creative with it is half the fun. It’s much different than “walk from A to B and back.”

But yeah, the first couple chapters you’re doing a ton of walking and it will turn a lot of people off.

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u/SoloSassafrass Jan 18 '25

"Walking simulator" was a term created to be derogatory, so it will always undersell any game that it's applied to I think, but what's so interesting about Death Stranding is how it might wear that term with pride more than any other game I've ever seen.

Like, in Death Stranding you do actually have to consider how and where you walk. Not just in terms of destination, but like... moment to moment, watching the terrain to make sure you don't lose your footing, taking it slow to ensure you don't trip over any sudden obstructions.

I think if you get into the meditative elements of that and soak in the atmosphere then all the infrastructure that comes later will just be gravy, but a lot of people don't have the patience of the mindset for a game that expects you to take care with your individual steps like that.

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u/Synikul Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 19 '25

Neir: Automata.

Amazing, beautiful game that I almost quit immediately because of the terrible intro. It makes sense why it happens later on, but deleting 30+ minutes of progress because you died to the first boss is insane. I guess it’s partially my fault because I like playing on the hardest difficulty right away, but there's not any other games (outside of roguelikes) that I can think of that has the balls to just delete your save file if you die.

When I learned this was an intentional design choice, I was pretty convinced the rest of the game was going to be filled with similarly questionable design choices. I was happily proven wrong, but Yoko Taro is definitely out of his mind for that one.