Good series/games/movies that are hard to recommend because of specific reasons.

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Maybe the film Lucy is best going in blind too. I had trouble trying to not explain that to friends also.

I would argue that the movie isn't good, and thus no amount of trying to explain it will help. xD But that's just me. That movie irked me on so many levels, I was bonking my head on the seat coushin in front of me at the theater.

I agree it had some very stupid ideas as its' backbone, and Morgan Freeman should know better than to encourage them. But the spectacle of how bonkers it decides to go and commit to its' very stupid idea, is entertaining in its' own right. But yeah, definitely a flawed idea. Perhaps the redeeming quality for me was not knowing anything about the film going into it.

 

[sageoftruth]

Almost anything that's a deconstruction of something. Sadly, deconstructions can be pretty unremarkable to people who are unfamiliar with the content being deconstructed.

 

[Einspanner]

While 'X' is an amazing full season anime, the ending is so emotionally brutal and hopeless that it's hard to recommend unless you're into that kind of thing. If you are, then watching 'Old Yeller' on a loop is probably a quicker way to convince yourself that life is a futile and ugly exercise.

Maybe the film Lucy is best going in blind too. I had trouble trying to not explain that to friends also.

I would argue that the movie isn't good, and thus no amount of trying to explain it will help. xD But that's just me. That movie irked me on so many levels, I was bonking my head on the seat coushin in front of me at the theater.

If you knew absolutely nothing at all about science or medicine, except what you read from Deepak Chopra while you were squeezing one out, then I think it would have been just about "Okay".

 

[sageoftruth]

We all here, to some extent, like asking for an advice on what game to play, or which anime to watch. Also, we all here like suggesting to watch, play or read things that WE found enjoyable.

However, sometimes there is this one feature, or this one scene that makes it hard to recommend something.

For example, the anime called Great Teacher Onizuka

Spoiler

For those who don't know, this is a story about a young guy who decides to become a teacher for two reasons: to be near young pretty schoolgirls and to be actually supportive to his stundents, unlike his own teachers. He get the job and gets assigned to the most problematic class, the class that literally makes teachers go mad. But over the course of the story he actually befriends them and helps all of them with their problems. He is not judgemental, he is not preachy, he is a friend that they all desperately needed. It is filled with comedy, drama and life talk and is overall great story with good and likable characters.

So why is it hard to recommend? Because the very first scene of the series, THE VERY FIRST ONE, shows us Onizuka sitting under escalator and looking under skirts. Damn it, Onizuka! It's hard to sell you as a lovable but cool goof if you start like that!

So what are your examples?

I had a same issue with Spice and Wolf. My father is a finance guy and I thought it would be interesting for both of us if we watched an economy-focused anime together, but the show seems to frontload all of its fanservice into the very first episode, which has me concerned that I'm going to be going, "No! It's about economics and business, I swear!"

 

[Wasted]

It would have to be Undertale for me. The game is a simple but solid turned-based RPG. It is well written, has memorable characters, engaging combat, and great music.

However, you cannot ignore that the game visually looks like trash. Instead of trying to recapture the charm of 8/16-bit graphics like Shovel Knight, which looks great in my opinion, Undertale seems to just look crappy and justifies it by saying its an homage for NES-era RPGs. It is a rough looking game and I wouldn't blame you for passing on the game based on visuals alone.

Also, you cannot deny that the internet overhyped the crap out of this game, essentially treating the game like the second coming. The game is good but I feel that any player that did not play the game near release (before it was ran over by the hype train) you will inevitably be soured by the internet's collective boner for the game while postulating that the game is 2deep4u if you have any criticisms or issues.

 

[BrawlMan]

-snip-

PS: Thank you!

You are welcome. Also, I don't have Far Cry 2 anymore; I traded it in years ago. I don't see myself playing it on PC, but thanks for the advice.

 

[Michael Legault]

One Piece, because is it so ridiculously long. Almost 800 episodes and the author has just recently gone on record stating that he is 65% of the way done his story. If you can enjoy DBZ Naruto or Bleach, in my opinion One Piece is much better, it starts off a little slow, but I feel it just gets better and better. An where they're at now is pretty fantastic.

Due to it's absurd length I have a hard time recommending it.

 

[Mstrswrd]

Asura's Wrath...

(snip)

I loved Asura's Wrath, but I pretty much don't advise it to people because, well, even I don't call it a game- it's more of a "Vaguely interactive media experience," which isn't really what most people want.

Anyway, I have a hard time advising Touhou, or any Doujin schmup, really, because of the relatively high barrier to entry, difficulty wise.

The thing I have the hardest time recommending (though I do try) is the Visual Novel version (the original or the re-release, Realta Nua) of Fate/Stay Night. Now, the anime is easy enough to digest, but the Visual Novel is so utterly dense that it's been said Nasu (the author) only included the (very few) sex scenes in it because he looked at it and went "I have a super dense story about legends from history and myth fighting it out in a war for a magical wish granting device that is possessed by the Zoroastrian God of Evil, there's Time/Dimensional Travel, commentary on the nature of heroes/heroics and what it means to want to save others, a fair bit of Rape, characters who die in absolutely brutal ways, and have more sections of this story describing the magic system than most stories have words in their entirety. How do I market this? ... Got it. Sex."

I mean, he probably put the few scenes in because he wanted to and not for marketing, but the story goes that's why, and I can't remember if it's true or not.

But yeah, it's kind of hard to tell people to read that, unless I just tell them to watch the anime and then read it for the full experience.

 

[GrumbleGrump]

Most of what I like when recommending it to my close friends. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a "oh you won't get it" type asshole hipster, but most of my favourite stuff is exclusively in english and I have only one friend that's not turned off by english. Also, that same friend is the only one who you can actually call a gamer, meaning, he has a steam account that he uses, so I can actually recommend him something like Dark Souls, for instance. The rest prefer to do other stuff.

Ignoring that, stuff I find hard to recommend are certain Animes, like Kill la Kill (for obvious, fanservicey reasons) or Evangelion (for obvious, emoey reasons). Other stuff would be games like Papers Please, because it's essentially a temp job simulator, Insurgency, because it's pretty unforgiving, or webcomics like Homestuck, because it's ungodly long.

EDIT: Almost forgot. Hot Fuzz. I once showed it to some friends at a party and got absolutely no laughs. Seems like Wright's style doesn't go over well here, so I don't show his films to my regular friends.