Does anyone else hate when RPG's force minigames on you?

[Xantan the Foul]

I don't mind when it's a couple small things, but when the game does it frequently (like Final Fantasy 7) or the minigames suck (like Breath of Fire 4 has so far, I'm about 4 hours in) then it really bothers me.

Personally, I love optional minigames. Fishing in almost any Breath of Fire (and alot of other games), the Fairy Village in Breath of Fire 3, the casino in Dragon Warrior 7, and especially the card game in Final Fantasy 9 (though I really disliked the one in FF8).

What are your thoughts?

[VACRMH]

When the minigame is something simple, and you only have to play it once or twice... no prob.

If it's something stupid or too hard, and you have to pass it to progress... :angry:

[Daria]

Yeah optional minigames are fun time wasters. But nothing's more annoying then the difficult minigame you have to pass inorder to progress. Although if it's implemented well I don't mind as much, like the Super Bowser World sequances in Paper Mario 2. (:

[WanganRunner]

I liked all the FF7 minigames, especially snowboarding.

I also really liked Triple Triad in FF8, never got into the FF9 game.

I like it when they're optional.

FFX had, what was it called, Blitzball? I really liked that, it was FUN. It could have been a standalone game and I would have bought it. It was also almost necessary to getting good items, but in that case, it was good enough that I didn't complain.

[Graham Mitchell]

I liked all the FF7 minigames, especially snowboarding.

I also really liked Triple Triad in FF8, never got into the FF9 game.

I like it when they're optional.

FFX had, what was it called, Blitzball? I really liked that, it was FUN. It could have been a standalone game and I would have bought it. It was also almost necessary to getting good items, but in that case, it was good enough that I didn't complain.

I really liked all the minigames in FF7 because they were little action games and they were fun. I hated the card game in 8, and I totally loathed blitzball in XI because they imposed on you. You had to do them with some amount of success or you couldn't advance. I found myself in the 3rd disk of FF8 with the first weapons in the game because I refused to play the card game, and I was so weak that I simply couldn't advance any further, so I just stopped playing.

[Sylentwulf]

Most of the minigames, including the some of the ones you've mentioned are completely optional though.
In order to ACTUALLY BEAT the game you don't need to do them. You're just choosing to do them to get the extra scenes/weapons/places/characters/etc...

[Xantan the Foul]

I'm pretty sure you had to do the snowboard thing(which I hated) the first time in FF7, then you could go and do it again later as an optional game.

Unless I'm mistaken, most of FF7's minigames were forced on you the first time.

I totally don't mind if they're needed for optional super weapons or something. That's just the price you pay for wanting them. :)

[CasualCoreGamer]

I don't mind mini games at all. They break up the monotony of having to constantly level up.

[Damaramu]

Not a fan of blitzball. I felt it too much of a chore when all I wanted to do was move on with the story. x_x

[rick weis]

personally i LOVE minigames. some minigames are even better then the game they are in. :P

Rick

[tylerwillis]

Yeah... minigames can be good or very very bad.

I will never forget the butterfly run in FFX. It's been ingrained into the very bowels of my skull. I had all of the other super weapons - there's no way that I could just pass on this one.
I played that thing for hours... it's supposed to be a 30 second run... do the math.
When the third day of straight gameplay came and I was still attempting it, my roommate dared to ask...
"Tyler, are you going to class?"
"Shut up."
"I think you should go to class..."
"When I beat this stupid minigame."
"Do you plan on graduating this semester?"
At which point I whipped out my body size sword and sliced him in half.

I also hate minigames that require you to go through them completely without saving. I just finished off a minigame in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne that would have been fun if it had not taken me 1.5 hours to finish... and I discovered the hard way that it doesn't save your progress automatically. It was a puzzle type game... potentially fun, but horribly implemented.

I hate being a completionist sometimes.

But some games are fun - I really enjoyed FF8's card game. I never took it horribly seriously (ie, trying to collect them all), but I enjoyed it when I played it. I much prefer a random cerebral minigame to twitch based games in otherwise traditional RPGs.

[VACRMH]

I'm pretty sure you had to do the snowboard thing(which I hated) the first time in FF7, then you could go and do it again later as an optional game.

Unless I'm mistaken, most of FF7's minigames were forced on you the first time.

True, but the Motorcycle race thing was a breeze, and the snowboarding stage... did you even have to do anything? Was there even a way to lose?

[PDorr3]

games like FFVII I loved the minigames, becuase they were FUN! but some of them I just despise, such as being forced to try blitzball in FFX.

[-hellvin-]

Damn FFX and it's Blitzball. The most generic and annoying minigame I've ever played. As soon as that little tutorial came up I went straight to END. Just kinda sat there and did nothing, waiting to lose. Afterwards, Wakka came in and was supposed to kick ass or something but he just failed horribly.

Later when I had to get his stupid World Champion it was the only weapon I cheated to get because I hated that game so much. I even legitally dodged 200 lightning bolts but would not play another game of Blitzball. Damn...thinking back on it, some of the ultimate weapons were a bitch to get in that FF. It was kinda fun hacking the level up grid on that game and making it all strength.

"Yuna attacks with Cane....DING! 99999....."

[slip81]

I don't mind when they're nessisary as long as they are well balanced and fit into the game. Though I do also enjoy optional ones as time wasters, and I like it when the game turn a required one into one that can be revisited after you get past it.

[Cthulhu]

Forced mini-games are usually pretty short, and optional after the first or second time. I really don't mind it when they do it that way. The "forced" times are usually set to really, really easy difficulties too, so you don't have to worry about failing. And even if you -do- fail, you usually miss out on little more than some sort of cute-but-useless knicknack.

I guess it depends on the mini-games too, of course. If they're good, I don't mind playing them. I'll toss my vote in with the "blitzball sucks" crowd regarding FFX though. Bleh. It was still a whole lot better than blitzball in FFX-2 though. LOL

[Lemmy Kilmister]

Final Fantasy X sucked with or without mini games in it so that's out. As for Final Fantasy 7, I never really had a problem playing the sub or snowboarding games. I mean how long do they take to finish, 30 seconds? It's not like you had to stress yourself out playing hour apon hour of them. :P

[XxMe2NiKxX]

I love minigames when they're good (Arcomage from Might and Magic 7/8), hate them with a passion when they're bad (anything from FF7).

Sploooooooosh.

[Crush Crawfish]

It depends. BOF4's mini-games are a tad excessive (feed the old man? WTF??) but I like fleshed-out optional mini-games like FF8's card game, which I actually enjoyed more than the game itself! LOL

Blitzball was horrendous though. Total waste of time. Way, WAAAAAAAAAAY too complicated and boring.

[Tatsu]

It depends, some minigames are ok (most in FF VII) but there is some stuff I hate with passion: Blitzball for example! The story in FF X evolves very slow at the beginning (I don't know how it will be in the future since I haven't played that game for months) but all the fuss about Blitzball isn't helping at all to bring the story further. I'm not really into sportsgames, especially when I'm playing an RPG! More depth in the story and less Blitzball would have made the game much better!

The card game in FF VIII is both good and bad. I'm too much of a collector to not play the card game, but on the other hand I feel like loosing too much time with it. So I'm in a dilemma because I want to have as much cards as possible and to play as good as possible but still I want to see the end of the game.

[rbudrick]

WariWare rocks, but I hate when I have to play all those mini games to get by! :evil:

-Rob

[The Great Dane]

Yeah, I have to say that I love mini games when they are your choice. An example of some awesome mini games is from Suikoden 2. One of them is the standard fishing game, nothing special. But the other main one is the Cooking Contest. AWESOME. This could be made into a seperate game if they wanted to make it one. I mean it is very cool.

I also have to say that I hate it when games force you play mini games. One example would be on Suikoden 1. Even though its my favorite game ever there is one part that I hate about it and dread every time I play it. The part is where you have to steal this item and you have to go through this room in order to get to the item. The room has a big wheel of fortune type of wheel in it. You stand on it and it spins. Now, the goal is to make it to the other side where the door is. But, since it appears to be completely random as to where the wheel lands you will be landing on the other spots on the wheel A LOT. Some of the other spots include: Getting extra money, experience, and fighting monsters. I've gone close to an hour playing this part before. Very annoying. Now, these are the types of mini games I hate a lot.

[Aswald]

Actually, if you mean "real-time" games, then yes. It spoils the gaming experience.

[Gzilla23]

I enjoy minigames for he most part. They can be a nice diversion. As long as they arent too difficult or really long I'm ok with it. Does anyone know what the first mini-game in an RPG was? Just curious.

[Crush Crawfish]

I enjoy minigames for he most part. They can be a nice diversion. As long as they arent too difficult or really long I'm ok with it. Does anyone know what the first mini-game in an RPG was? Just curious.

It might have been that card-matching Mini-game in the original Final Fantasy, but don't quote me on that one. :/

[Nz17]

In a word: yes. Sometimes you come across fun little minigames that you want to go back to later to play again. However, I find that I really don't like it when a game distracts you from the main gameplay and makes you play a minigame.

Now if playing these minigames is essential to something optional like nice equipment or some sidequest, that's cool. I almost find that I like that setup most because by the time I go back to finish all the little extras in a game I've had enough of its main play mechanic.