What are some genres you don’t like or haven’t explore and why? Bonus points for anyone that recommends something for that person.
For me, it would be between Visual Novels and Simulation games like Rimworld. I played Kawata Shojo in like 11th grade and swore off the entire genre for it. I just felt like the medium of gaming could’ve been used better than reading a book one line at a time. Simulation games I just suck at them and get overwhelmed once its a lot of things to manage.
Tough question. I can’t really think of one I don’t like, but there are some I don’t feel as attracted to as some other genres and therefore have not really tried. Those being genres like JRPG’s and basically anything horror. JRPG’s I was never really into so haven’t played one as a kid/teen, but I’ve been wanting to play one for a while now but haven’t gotten into it. And yeah horror is just not my thing, in movies as well as in games. I’m just not for jumpscares, gore, … that kinda stuff.
As for some recommendations (as a management/simulation game lover);
Definitely Not Fried Chicken: game where you have to manage a narcotics factory and supply all your businesses with the stuff. Really fun game and not all that hard, but challenging enough to keep you engaged. Also a pretty funny concept and art style imo
Retro Rewind: store management sim where you run a VHS tape rental store. It’s not your generic copy paste store sim, but one the devs really put love and time in. This one can be pretty fast paced at times, but that’s what makes it fun. I think there’s also a big update coming where you can rent games, so that’s nice
Supermarket Together: not the greatest and most polished game out there, but very fun with friends.
Godlike Burger: Sci-Fi burger joint sim where you have to feed customers burgers, and then have to silently take them down to get meat for other burgers. Very funny concept and also pretty stressy at times
Besides those, I would also recommend trying some more classics like Prison Architect, Farming Simulator (especially with friends), Cities Skylines, The Sims (duh) and **Planet Coaster (**or Zoo). Also not sure if those count but Astroneer and Stardew Valley are also some of my favorite games of all time, which have a lot of management/sim/automation aspects. Or you could go all-in and give Dwarf Fortress a try lol
Thanks for the Recs. Def going to check out DNFC and Retro Rewind. And I do already own Prison Architect and Cities so I can check those out too.
JRPGs are harder to pin down because of how different each one could be but I got some:
Action Based: * Xanadu Next - A Diablo like where you unlock your skills from mastering each of the unique equipment in the game. At its core its the purest loop of what JRPGs are: dungeon crawling.
Tactic Based: Valkyria Chronicles - A WW2 JRPG where you have to control your units in a mix of real time and turn based combat.
Turn Based: One Piece Odyssey - You don’t really have to be a fan of the series to enjoy this one, though it helps. It’s the traditional turn based style that you would see in a Final Fantasy or Persona, but your party is dynamic. Each battle your party switches to anyone in your party and random events will happen like “Nami is surrounded, Sanji gets a power boost to protect her” or “Save Ussop in 3 turns”. It makes sure that combat never gets boring as you go.
Oddball: Dark Cloud - It’s a PS2 game where you go into random dungeons, fighting off hunger, thirst, and weapon durability to come back to a town building overworld. It’s challenging at first but super addicting once you get the hang of it.
Horror is a hard one. I’d say Resident Evil 4 (OG) or for a more lighthearted take Okage Shadow King (also a JRPG).
Thanks a lot! Haven’t heard of any of them, but they look pretty neat. The old-school art style of Xanadu Next looks very appealing. One Piece Odyssey looks like a good entry point indeed. I’ll def check some out! Also, I think I’ve picked up RE4 (or another one, not sure) on a Steam sale once, so might be a good time to play it and see what I think of it
EDIT: just checked, it is indeed RE4, and even the classic one