THE GENERAL (KAISER KNUCKLE)

The end of Kaiser Knuckle’s campaign sees players coming up against The General, in what proves to be one of the cheapest and most frustratingly tough bosses you’ll ever face in a fighting game. Thanks to ridiculously unfair teleportation moves, slide kicks that he just won’t stop spamming, and various attacks that can do devastating damage, the General is an absolute nightmare.

Death Metal – No More Heroes

Despite its cool-ish demeanour and wacky art-style, mastering the controls in No More Heroes takes some time especially when it comes to blocking and charging your weapon. Of course, there’s always the trial by fire option and that’s where Death Metal comes in. As the opening boss, he has lots of health and some amazingly annoying combos. He also creates copies of himself halfway through the fight and blocks every attack that’s not a counter hit. Once you master said mechanics though, he’s relatively easy to take down.

Of course, we’re not just talking about a single loading screen that stretches for too long. This can also apply to a game that simply bombards you with loading screens at every turn, adding up to an experience that’s more loading than actual gameplay. Let’s take a look at 15 such games that are notorious for this. And remember: They may or may not have been patched since release so beware.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3

One of the most recent examples of horrid loading times is CI Games’ Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3. The game was criticized for taking an inordinate amount of time to even load the first level. Eurogamer showcased how it’s possible to complete one race in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, some speedruns in Gone Home and  casual Pokemon GO in the time it takes to load one level in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3.

Hironobu Sakaguchi may no longer work at Square Enix, but the man who created Final Fantasy, and then saw its evolution until its explosion in worldwide popularity, still has a lot of talent behind him. This can be easily deduced by seeing the games he has worked on since his departure from Square- Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and The Last Story, among others, are all great games that are beloved cult classics- all titles that he helmed.

In the last few years, however, Sakaguchi’s attention has been focused on Terra Battle, a mobile game that is rather popular in Japan- that said, he might be gearing up to announce a brand new project soon. In a year-end talk session with 4Gamer (via Siliconera), Sakaguchi teased, “I plan to announce a new title in 2017. Stay tuned!”

As noted above, Sakaguchi has a whole lot of talent and pedigree, so we are excited about whatever it is that he chooses to work on next- my only hope, personally, is that he will return to making console games again, and that this next game won’t be another smartphone title.

Lost Odyssey is one of the gems of the Xbox 360 library- created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the legendary creator of Final Fantasy, the game is a beloved, cult classic JRPG that many fans pine for a sequel for to this day. So when the game was made compatible with the Xbox One, there was much rejoicing. There was a bit of a catch, though- given that it is a multi disc game, Microsoft couldn’t put it up on the Xbox Store, and fans were left tracking down rare discs of this almost decade old release at the point.

However, whatever software issues prevented the game from being available to download have now been resolved, and Lost Odyssey can be downloaded from the Xbox Store, right now. That’s not all- you can download it right now for the price of nothing. That’s right, Lost Odyssey is free to download on Xbox One (and also Xbox 36) right at this moment, and it will remain so until December 31.

Blue Dragon, the other Xbox 360 exclusive JRPG, also by Sakaguchi and Mistwalker, is also available digitally now, although that one you’ll have to spend $20 getting- which honestly is not a bad price for it at all. But hey, $20 to try out what are among the two best JRPGs of last generation? Doesn’t sound like a bad deal to me at all.

One of the best, and most underrated, Xbox 360 games was Lost Odyssey, the excellent and ambitious JRPG by Mistwalker, directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy. Lost Odyssey was a cult classic, and it as gone on to be fondly looked back on by a lot of Xbox 360 players who played it. It was also a personal favorite of Xbox head Phil Spencer, who openly declared previously that he wanted the game playable on Xbox 360.

Well, now he’s gone and done it- as of today, Lost Odyssey can be played on Xbox One consoles. It joins the list alongside Toy Story 3 and Guwange. Of particular note here is that Lost Odyssey is still not listed on the Xbox Store- it’s compatible and playable now, but only the disc version is. This means you’re going to need to have a physical copy of the game if you want to play it on the Xbox One.

It’s still better than nothing- but a lot of people on the outside who doubtless want to play one of the better JRPGs of the previous generation will be hoping that the game is made available digitally some time soon as well.

It’s the industry’s worst kept secret that Phil Spencer is a hard core gamer. The Xbox One chief was recently outed as playing more than 300 hours of Destiny but he clearly likes some of the more old school games as well. This was underlined during a recent Twitter exchange where the exec made it clear he would really like to see both Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon making their way to the Xbox One.

Spencer doesn’t necessarily want to invest the time, energy or money in remaking or relaunching these two titles, but he would like to see them come over to the current generation console using its new backwards compatibility functionality. Spencer was asked by a user whether or not there was a chance that Lost Odyssey might get a sequel or port to the Xbox One on Twitter. The Xbox One chief responded, “First thing I’d like to do is get LO and Blue Dragon in back compat, don’t have that yet.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t ever want to make a new version of either game but it appears he’d first like to see whether or not there’s any real interest in playing those games by the general public on the new consoles. As we’ve been told by Microsoft a number of times, all it really takes to get backwards compatibility for any of these titles, is permission by the developers. With that in mind, it seems to us that Phil Spencer should get on that.

Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy who later left Square to start MIstwalker, and work on acclaimed JRPG projects such as Lost Odyssey and The Last Battle, released Terra Battle for smartphones in Japan. When he did, he also promised that once the game hit 2 million downloads, Mistwalker would work on bringing the world of Terra Battle to consoles.

Terra Battle hit 2 million downloads. Unfortunately, it seems the console game hasn’t actually been given any thought yet.

“When we first began planning the Download Starter and setting our goals, I never thought we’d reach two million downloads,” Sakaguchi said to Famitsu (as translated by Gematsu). “Or rather, it was a far away goal. But meeting this feeling, it is expected we keep our promise of ‘starting development on a consumer version,’ but I didn’t think that day would really come. We didn’t actually have anything planned for it, so I’m starting to feel the heat now that it’s happening.”

“We really don’t have any plans right now. I’m in so much trouble now,” he laughed. “Still, however we end up doing it, I want the characters and atmosphere of the game world to be in line with what we’ve done for the smartphone game. I plan on doing a lot of experimenting to see whether we otherwise actually take the game in any new directions. Virtual reality could be an interesting direction to take, as could having some sort of connectivity with next-gen if we could pull that off.”

So, while it seems that he has committed to doing a high end console JRPG, it might be a while before we do end up seeing it. So sure, there is something from him to look forward to. It’s just that no one, not even Sakaguchi himself, quite knows what that is yet.

However, not all games or even new IPs are the subject of great commercial success. Some of them may have scored very well commercially but added that extra zing to really win consumers over. Some of them were disappointing and didn’t live up to the hype. Some, however, were just criminally over-looked.

Here’s out top 10 games that no one played last generation. If you did experience these titles, and wonder why they’re here, then remember that they didn’t (probably) receive even half as much acclaim or attention as they might’ve warranted.

1. Asura’s Wrath

The adventures of Asura were a rather quirky affair. You switched between the third person perspective and executed several quick time events, with the story being broken up into episodes with openings and credits, and each episodes consisting of several short parts to play.

It was odd, for sure, and the style of gameplay wasn’t for everyone as some critics sounded off on the excessive use of QTEs. Nonetheless, as a game, it’s unique and worth a go.

2. Binary Domain

Sega’s Yakuza Team decided to do something different this time around with the typical third person shooter. They wanted to make a cooperative experience but with the game’s AI, allowing players to use headsets to issue commands to their squad-mates in game.

A Consequences system that made you think and consider your actions to win over your team-mates also broke away from the typical run, gun and cover mechanics of most other TPS games. And it didn’t hurt that this one had its fair share of addictive action. Sadly, it only sold about 20,000 copies in its first month of release and has since sunk into oblivion.

3. Warhawk

The multiplayer only release from Incognito Entertainment and SCE Santa Monica Studio focused on aerial combat and warfare, and was actually a remake of the same game from the PlayStation days (despite having nothing in common with that game).

Warhawk came off as an addictive, action-packed title that was one of the better initial releases on the PlayStation 3. For some reason, it never received the same amount of commercial acclaim as more mainstream PS3 titles. Nonetheless, it holds a special place for many, 6 years on.

4. Blue Dragon

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s first project since leaving Square Enix introduced an intriguing concept of shadow beasts. However, it flailed hopelessly with its rote gameplay, boring characters and less than stellar visuals. It didn’t help that the project took so long to release, or that it saw decent sales only in Japan.

While the game wasn’t a total failure, it lacked the spark of the Final Fantasy series (well, before XIII came around) and certainly wasn’t worthy of even half their recognition. At least it inspired a half decent manga with Ral Grad though.

5. Lock’s Quest

5th Cell’s Lock’s Quest brought tower defence gaming to the Nintendo DS in an under-stated but nonetheless big way. It allowed for attacking with your main character while building towers to defend, and integrated an RPG like campaign and story.

The overall gameplay was almost deceptively complex and featured some of the most challenging levels possible. Sadly enough, it won its fair share of Best Game No One Ever Played awards when it released in 2008 for the DS, and hasn’t popped up in public memory since.

6. Dark Void Zero

Even though the reboot for the game on consoles was a bust, Dark Void Zero, the follow-up to the game which released on PC, DSiWare and iPhone, was an excellent return to the series NES roots.

It’s amazing that the game started off as a joke but then quickly materialized into one of the better action platforming experiences ever made. What’s not funny is that hardly anyone has bothered to play it.

7. Infinite Undiscovery

For all the bitching we do about Square Enix and the rut they’re in with Final Fantasy XIII, we fail to give credit for games where they truly attempt something new and different. What if you played an RPG where things weren’t scripted? Where everything happened in real-time? Where you could just be sitting around and bam, plot device? That was the logic behind tri-Ace’s Infinite Undiscovery.

It took advantage of its real time settings to allow gamers variety in how they approach different missions, and you could even manage large missions with entire teams of party members. Sadly, the game only barely broke through a half million units sold on launch. The exclusivity to Xbox 360 didn’t help matters either.

8. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

This is the game that featured both R.A. Salvatore of the Forgotten Realms fame as writer and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane for artwork. This was supposed to be the next big action RPG. However, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning only ended up being a tremendous disaster, with Big Huge Games and 38 Studios shutting shop.

38 Studios is currently involved in a legal tussle with the state of Rhode Island over the same issue, following which the Kingdoms of Amalur IP was sold off. And to think that it released to a strong critical reaction.

9. Lost Odyssey

Another attempt by Hironobu Sakaguchi and Mistwalker at an exclusive JRPG on the Xbox 360, only this time with more mature characters and story-telling and far better visuals. Despite the significant leap over Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey just never caught on.

Delays and other issues such as limited marketing – which isn’t quite what a title from the creator of Final Fantasy should have – ensured that the game only sold a few hundred thousand copies since its launch.

10. Folklore

Yet another failed action RPG from Japan from Game Republic, Folklore could easily be one of the few games on the PS3 to make decent use of the SixAxis controller to reel in “folk” for one’s use.

The game’s eschewing of epic story-telling in favour of a fantasy-mystery and use of famous folklore characters – not to mention the vivid art style – helped set it apart from the pack. The poor sales of the game caused developer Game Republic to shut down, with plans for a sequel left to be forgotten.

What are your thoughts? Any particular game you played last generation that didn’t receive enough love? Let us know in the comments below.