Hey guys, new Bully player here. I admit, I don't play a lot of newer games in general, so I won't compare it to new games, but just a few things that I found frustrating;
First, I'm playing on the original PS2 version. So there's no map. I know they included that in the Scholarship Edition, but the fact that they released a game in 2006 after this was one of the biggest complaints about GTA III, so the subsequent GTA games had maps. Relying on radar is okay, but missions like "Panty Raid" are difficult since everything is condensed in there, where its very easy to make a mistake.
Rhythm controls are not my thing. So for things like Chemistry, Shop Class and Mascot Dancing...it just feels like shooting fish in a barrel. There's no strategy involved, and I think at the core of any game playing should be strategy. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but just something I feel that cuts against the evolution of gameplay, as it was common for many games around this time...just follow the button sequence on screen. It's the reason why I hated God of War.
Any mini game that requires you to mash a button, I swear that I am hitting it as fast as possible and it's purely random at times when I fail. High Striker as an example sometimes loses, but the biggest challenge to me is Dodgeball. For some reason, every so often I can't wrestle the ball away from the opponent , maybe the difficulty level goes up and down randomly, since I have a long frustrating game against the Greasers but then take out the Jocks in 6 quick throws. Bike races can be a chore especially if it's a long race and I'm sitting there pounding the button for 3 minutes straight, plus you have rubber band AI that allows for your opponents to never be too far behind. I guess they want players to use turbo controllers.
Safe houses and garages; most of these aren't in places that I think are beneficial to the player. I typically will use the dorm, beach house and comic book shop. The dorm has the quickest access to most mission start points, the beach house is for convenience to the carnival if you're doing something there or the bike races, and the comic book shop is a great hub for New Coventry since most missions begin at the underpass. The Greasers hangout is in a bad location and I hate navigating New Coventry so much anyways, plus you're most likely using it during Chapter 3 when the Greasers are hostile toward you...so why would you save in a location where you're likely to get attacked as soon as you leave? The Townies safehouse is only worth it for the final mission. As far as garages, they're usually out of the way of where your safehouse is, and you have quicker access to other bikes that spawn on the street, the only exception is at the dorm, where you're least likely to need a bike...and once you unlock the go kart, then you'll almost always prefer that.
Stats; like I mentioned in my other posts, I try to keep the best stats possible in my game. This game goes above and beyond with unusual and needless stats. Do I really need to know how many times I slipped on a banana peel or how many times I said hello to a perfect? It doesn't count toward anything, so why keep track? I do find it weird that it doesn't keep track of other things such as times ridden the bus and such. Also, I've experienced glitches where I have not gotten busted, but it has registered as getting busted. During "The Big Game" you trip the football players with marbles, yet after you do so, the stats say you were tripped 3 times by marbles. I know the argument is that you shouldn't worry about your stats, but if that's the case...why did Rockstar include this? Lastly, it is impossible to make every single one of your projectiles to hit, like you have missions and errands that require you to do something, but you cannot register it accurately in the stats. As an example, when you egg a building, it doesn't count, even in situations such as "Tad's House" where you have cross hairs that align to a "hit". I'm willing to bet my entire life savings that no one from Rockstar can do this. I wish they spent less time on window dressing things like this and worked more important things.
In many ways, I loathe any time I have to enter a building. The load time on PS2 is grating since many times I begin at my safehouse, then have to go to a mission, let's say...inside the school. So I leave the dorm...loading...enter the school...loading...start a mission cutscene...loading...back to gameplay...loading...exit the school...loading. That's FIVE loading times for one thing. Again comparing it to something like GTA where most of the missions were in plain sight, so at most you have only two loading times. And I've noticed that the longer I play, the longer the load times, so I usually have to shut off my console after about an hour. I also experienced a troubling freezing glitch when I would enter the dorm and move too quickly, so I'd lose my progress. Grrrr.
Lastly, the clock; for someone who enjoys time management in his games, I feel like this is a missed opportunity. I don't know of another game to compare this to, other than Majora's Mask, where you need to navigate the game around specific schedules of the day. However Majora's Mask created ways to help ensure that the player was able to do whatever they needed to do based on their playing style, I've played that game numerous times and every time is different, yet I never felt cheated by needing to rush in the same way I do with Bully. See, I think this is something they should have sought to try to do, maybe an achievement based on the number of days it takes to to finish the final mission. Instead, I find myself either needing to constantly rush from one location to another, or play the game where I casually stand around waiting for the next mission to begin. Ideally, in order to get as much done as possible, I do no less than 6 missions a day, but sometimes the mission starting point is in one location and then I have to go across town to actually begin the mission such as "Funhouse Fun"...the mission should just being outside of the carnival. This is the same complaint I had about GTA San Andreas, just too much trekking to play the mission, and it's a waste of valuable clock time. This complaint might be specific to my playing style, but it works to my disadvantage so much.
Still...Bully is a lot of fun, I really enjoy the story and the characters. I just wish some of these issues were ironed out better since it probably would have created more hype for any sequels
