Some games get right into the action and throw the player into a tough circumstance to get them going immediately, like throwing them in the deep end to teach them how to swim. Dark Souls 3 is a perfect example of this type of game; within 5 minutes of starting up the title, the player is already up against a boss.
Some games, though, take their time to get going. Sometimes the introduction is lengthy or the real meat of the game isn't found until many hours in. These games are usually really rewarding in the end after such a long build-up, but others are annoying slogs that take far too long to get good.
8 Dragon Quest VII
Dragon Quest VII was released in 2000 and was the first entry in the series to debut on the PlayStation. By this point, Dragon Quest fans were no strangers to long introductions. JRPGs tend to take their time to set up their worlds, and this game is no exception.
However, Dragon Quest VII's introduction takes most players anywhere from 2 to 3 hours to complete. It's an investment that pays off in the end, but that doesn't make it any less tiresome every time you boot up the game to play from the start.
7 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The introductory segment of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is actually pretty much the opposite of a slow start. However, after getting out of Helgen and escaping into the forests near Riverwood, the game slows down significantly.
Sure, running from a dragon and fighting Draugr is fun, but after getting out of the cave it feels like it takes far too long to unlock the first shout "Fus," not to mention the slog that is getting to High Hrothgar through the Seven Thousand Steps.
6 Kingdom Hearts 2
Kingdom Hearts, as a series, is in a strange place in the gaming community. It seems that half of the world's gamers treasure the series the same way many treasure old Disney movies, but the other half loathes the series and doesn't understand what makes it so special.
However, if there's anything everyone can agree on, it's that the introductory segment of Kingdom Hearts 2 is far too long and uninteresting. The story is the most cohesive in the whole franchise, though, so at least the tedious segment has that going for it.
5 The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was the second game to feature Geralt of Rivia in an adaptation from his original place in the books. The first game was met with success, everybody and their mother know about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but The Witcher 2 is often forgotten about.
Part of the problem was the game's long intro quest and the long time it takes to truly get into the campaign's meat. After completing the intro, the game starts, but it doesn't feel like Geralt is doing anything significant for many, many hours.
4 Dwarf Fortress
Dwarf Fortress is a seminal PC strategy game that many people find excruciatingly difficult to get into. It's one of the OG survival-exploration games, it's one of the titles that inspired Minecraft even, but that doesn't mean Dwarf Fortress is an experience that is easy to pick up.
There is an impressive amount of complexity in Dwarf Fortress, and even players who have dedicated years to the game have yet to truly master some of its particular quirks. There isn't a traditional introduction to this game, but it will take dozens of hours until you get the feeling you are doing "OK".
3 Borderlands
The Borderlands series is known for its off-the-wall sense of humor and high-octane gameplay that flips between hilarious character interactions and balls-to-the-wall intense gunplay. However, the first Borderlands game was not quite so insane as its two sequels.
The first Borderlands game was particularly slow at the start, and its combat was pretty simple. The neon explosivity of Borderlands 3 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is a later standard, but the initial game was tedious and a bit unintuitive, all things considered.
2 The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a notable example in this category of games that take too long to get started because it actually has two points where the story slows down significantly: the very start and close to the very end of the game.
Link doesn't get to go into a proper dungeon in The Wind Waker until he has already visited three other islands first, interconnected with story elements that make the "introduction" hours upon hours long. Later in the campaign, when the player is tasked with finding shards of the Triforce, the game grinds to a near-halt for a long, long time.
1 Every Grand Theft Auto Game
The Grand Theft Auto series is home to some of the most well-developed open worlds in all of gaming. Each entry in the franchise has a great narrative and massive interactivity within the world, but they all have notoriously slow introductions before any of the interesting quests are started.
Grand Theft Auto V, for example, has a lengthy heist introduction that explains how each character knows the other. Grand Theft Auto IV, even, has a lengthy introduction that keeps the majority of the fun parts of the game gated behind story missions. It's a plague in the series, but it is necessary for setting up such grand, explorable worlds.