Games You Regret Passing Up (Pandemic edition)

[mαrkαsscoρ]

A while back I made a thread about this, but now I'm making another one b/c I've noticed a lot of games I had my eye on skyrocketed in price over the past year or two. Some of them probably would've shot up anyway, but I think the whole lockdown situation has made some game's prices worse than they could've been. What are some games you've put off from getting the past year that you now regret passing up/holding off on?

I'll mention the ones that had their prices at least double from when I initially saw them pre pandemic:
Dragon Quest 4, 5 DS
Baten Kaitos
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Radiant Historia
Metroid Samus Returns
Sly Cooper 4
Silent Hill 3

Plenty of these I can still get digitally at least, but physically? forget it

 

[thePlinko]

A few years ago I found a copy of Wand of Gamelon for $60. I ended up passing it up for a different game at around the same price.

the first listing for Wand of Gamelon right now on eBay is about $430

Edit: I just realized that you said this past year. In that case there really isn’t much that I haven’t been able to get, but I assume the main reason WoG is so pricy right now is because of the pandemic so I’m gonna stick with that.

 

[Bowsette Plus-Ultra]

It isn't a game, but I kind of regret passing up on the New 2DS.

It's was a fairly cheap console with access to some SNES games and stuff like Xenoblade Chronicles. Additionally, that second analog... nub would make playing games like Metal Gear Solid 3 just feel better.

 

[NintendoCN]

I passed up Jet Set Radio. I should have taken it when it was cheap.

 

[twilitfalchion]

Pretty much GC collecting in general (though specific games I have yet to add to my collection like F-Zero GX and Twilight Princess come to mind first). Pre-pandemic, collecting for the GC was reasonable, if a bit pricey at times. Now it's just ridiculous with how expensive it is.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

Pretty much GC collecting in general (though specific games I have yet to add to my collection like F-Zero GX and Twilight Princess come to mind first). Pre-pandemic, collecting for the GC was reasonable, if a bit pricey at times. Now it's just ridiculous with how expensive it is.

Absolutely. Pre-pandemic you might end up paying between $45 to $80 USD for the games along with the cases and whatnot.

Now the games are like $70 to start out, and for popular first party games they are in the $100 range. It's absolutely insane. Before the price range was just holding at the value some of the games were at if you bought them new years ago, but now they've skyrocketed beyond that, and are for some reason holding at these higher prices.

I'm not sure if it's a supply vs demand issue, like there are limited copies of the games that people are willing to sell but more potential buyers than available copies of the game. But what also plays a part is a lot of people must be shelling out money to buy the games at these high prices. The games are worth what a majority of people are willing to pay, and as long as people keep buying the games at these prices they will stay high.

 

[the8thark]

Maybe Fate Extella Umbral Star.
Not the best game ever but now getting it for under $60 is near impossible.

 

[Turo602]

I've actually been retro game hunting these past couple of months and the prices are just f*cking stupid now and there's definitely quite a lot I've passed on before the pandemic that I'm just in total regret over now and I just started collecting in 2019 too when I finally started a PS2 collection for the first time.

Off the top of my head:

Ocarina of Time (N64)
Majora's Mask (N64)
Silent Hill (PS1)
Silent Hill 2 (PS2)
Silent Hill 3 (PS2)
Dino Crisis (PS1)
Dino Crisis 2 (PS1)
Haunting Ground (PS2)
WWE Day of Reckoning (Gamecube)
WWE Day of Reckoning 2 (Gamecube)
Resident Evil 2 (N64)
007 GoldenEye (N64)
Super Mario 64 (N64)
Marvel vs Capcom 2 (Xbox)
Gauntlet: Lost Legacy (Gamecube)
The Simpson's Hit and Run (Gamecube)
Metroid Prime (Gamecube)
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Gamecube)
Metroid (NES)

I'm really f*cking sour about the Silent Hill games the most. Survival horror games in general are just f*cking ridiculous now. The first time I saw Silent Hill 2 and 3, they were like 40 dollars each, seen them recently anywhere from 80 to 120. Even the first game is about 90 to 100.

I saw Haunting Ground once before the pandemic too when I was first collecting and it was like 130. I decided I'd rather beef my PS2 collection first and then go for that later. I don't even want to know what it goes for now. I also never came across a Clock Tower 3 before, and the first time I do see it somewhere, there's multiple copies and each going for 90 dollars now.

Gamecube games have always been sparse too when I first started looking, but they're damn near non-existent now. I think I've seen Mario Kart: Double Dash go from 40 to 60 before the pandemic and I found it for 90 recently by total f*cking luck and bit the bullet. Then I found it on ebay for 60 bucks the next day after hurting from that 90 dollar purchase and returned it. So I guess I got lucky there.

I also wanted to get Gauntlet on Gamecube because that's where we played it on when I was a kid, but the Gamecube version goes for so much more than the others and I ended up settling on PS2 for 25 dollars and saw it again on PS2 a few days later for 75 at another store. I've also been feeling really nostalgic for wrestling games lately and completely regret skipping over the Day of Reckoning games so many times before when they were more common and cheaper. Still haven't even come across a Here Comes the Pain yet.

I was originally saving a lot of these already pricey games for a "one big purchase" kind of day just to knock out some essentials one by one, but I feel defeated after seeing all this sh*t lately.

 

[A Link In Time]

I unironically say Devil's Third. That game sells for so much for a physical copy in North America nowadays. I wish I had picked it up for the Wii U a few years back.

 

[Ninja]

There's definitely plenty for me but what stood out the most this year was the Mass Effect trilogy. It's incredible and I'm so excited for 4.

 

[twilitfalchion]

The price of the Rune Factory 4 Special Archival Edition used to be stupid reasonable. Now it's stupid expensive.

 

[Link&Midna]

Not this year, but the mario battle royal that Nintendo took down for no reason... for some reason I never even tried it but it's definitely the kind of game I would have loved

 

[Ryu that somebody?]

This is a narrow one because I actually did get it (and technically still have it, though it's in storage on my brother's property in another state) but I'd be sitting on a very good condition complete set (game & box & inserts) of Earthbound if it weren't for the fact that at one point in the 90s one of my siblings accidentally spilled milk all over the player's guide!