The first Dark Souls. At the time I had played Demon’s Souls, but didn’t really play games for the challenge so I was very much not used to those types of games. Was also a diehard FPS player.

But a good friend, the same one that introduced me to Demon’s Souls, gifted me Dark Souls. It was a game a genuinely enjoyed, but couldn’t quite find my groove. I’d create a character, get to a certain point, then feel lost or too frustrated to proceed. So I’d stop playing for a few months, then pick it up again and roll a new character.

This trend repeated for a while, and I DID progress farther every time. Eventually, I hit a wall with one of the bosses and raged quit. So fast forward to my inevitable return to the game, instead of starting over I just went right back to that boss and tried again, and again, and again… and actually won?! That was the moment I feel like my gaming potential was awakened.

From Software fanboy, but also truly invested in a good challenge.

Unrelated, but I’m polishing of Nioh 2 now with NG+ and the DLC

Stardew Valley. I pirated it because I really didn’t think I would like it, but was curious about all the positive buzz that was going on around it. Played for maybe 45 minutes and decided that it wasn’t for me. I think it was two weeks later that I picked it back up again because some article wouldn’t stop singing it’s praises. Start playing, look up, 4 hours had passed.

So I bought the game and proceeded to put over 200 hours into it.

Then I bought it on Switch and put like 160 hours into it.

Then I bought it on Mobile and put like 60 hours into it.

Never thought I’d click so well with some silly farming game.

It kinda happened for me with Fallout New Vegas. I was maybe 11 and never played anything from the series. I spent my time killer hobo-ing my way through but I always felt like I was missing something, then I started reading negative opinions about it online and got influence by that, so I dropped it. After some time I played Fallout 3 after hearing people saying it was much better, I liked and I too thought it was much better than New Vegas but decided to give NV another shot (I was 12 or 13 by then). I loved it to the point where it is probably on the top of my emotional top 10. It got me into 50s/60s music, got me interested in politics and ethics, made me become a fan of science fiction and old school RPGs focused on story and a variety of approaches. Really a fantastic game.

EDIT: wanted to add that nowadays I really can’t play FO3 without thinking that I could just play NV instead. That’s how much I love that game

Actually yes! Days Gone took me 3 reinstalls to get into it. I think I just pushed through the start. I ended up enjoying it I dont know why it got all the bad press.

Vampire Survivors. I did like it in the beginning, but I started to get bored since I got stuck in the first map. I uninstalled it for a while then I installed it again last week. I’ve been playing on and off again, since I was basically just trying to get a lot of coins. I managed to reach level 20 and unlock the second map, then yesterday, I reached 27 minutes in the second map and now I’m addicted to it lmao. I got the magic wand without cooldown on that playthrough, and it was so satisfying to see everything just dying.