A Game's Replay Value is Like Chocolate Sauce

[Shoggoth2588]

I think this nicely sums up why I haven't been able to stay enthusiastic about the Kingdom Hearts series. I loved the original but the only other ones I played and liked were Birth by Sleep and 3DS (I've never played KH2). As much as I liked BbS and 3DS, the former requires you to play through and beat it 3 times to see the true ending. 3DS has you play through it twice to get to the ending at all. Another problem is you know the plot is just going to continue tangling itself into an even more insidious knot...grr.

Ya know what game I absolutely adored though, with plenty of replay value? Duke Nukem 64. Once you beat the game you have multiplayer and unlike every single god-damn FPS from this generation (except maybe enough for me to count on the fingers of one of my hands) you can take on the multiplayer either with some buddies gathered around your TV OR WITH A BUNCH OF BOTS. Duke Nukem 64 is the first game I remember playing til 4am because of those bot matches.

Anyway great games (or rather, games that you personally love or enjoy or consider great) will always demand your attention. Ever since I got it back I've been going back to Otogi, which is what Devil May Cry should be copying. I've also been going back to Mechassault, which should have been put on the 360 years ago. Finally, I've gone back to and played a bunch of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest...because it's the most METAL of the Final Fantasy games.

 

[Joe Leon]

"It's more like that stuff Domino's Pizza includes with the dipping brownies that tastes like slightly viscous brown water." --Yah

Wow, I was wondering if there was anybody else in the world who felt like this. And the game for me with a lot of chocolate sauce might be between Super Mario World and Shadow of Colossus...

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Personally I'm a huge fan of Caramel sauce...

Good stuff as always, keep up them breast massages!

 

[KingWein22]

snip

I agree with that 100%

I've had my fair share of games that have (in my opinion) excellent replay value:

Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy III/VI, VII, Mystic Quest
Parasite Eve
Diablo II (and the expansion)
Pokemon
Resident Evil 1-4
Goldeneye (N64)
Perfect Dark (because it is fun to shoot bots ranging from me owning them to them owning me)
Metal Gear Solid
Star Fox (SNES, N64, GC)
Castlevania (most of it)
The Legend of Zelda (all of it)
Mario Party (all of them despite what graphics they may give you)
Kirby (all his games)
Dynasty Warriors (4,5,7 is what I played)
Starcraft (expansion and II)
Doom (and Doom II)

 

[likalaruku]

You know, now that I think about it, almost ALL of the games I consider to have the best replay value are linear. For me it branches from there; I either really liked the characters & the story & the environment (AM'G's Alice, Conkers, Zelda, Crash Bandicoot, Serious Sam 2, Aveyond, Baldur's Gate), or I just don't get tired of smashing & crashing into things in restricted areas over & over again. (Crazy Taxi, Carmageddon, Dungeon Siege 1, Skate 3, Katamari Damacy).

 

[mysecondlife]

Achievements, outside of the usual "game progress" or "do something an arbitrarily large number of times" types, are often another easy way to add chocolate sauce to a delicious sundae.

Actually, done wrong they are a deterrent. I found this with Braid. Having an achievement that tells me to beat the game in 45 minutes, which basically requires perfection, was foolish.

Ugh I hate those. But I say Prince of Persia sands of time is even worse. One trophy tells you to play through with less than 20 rewind time and the other one tells you to use rewind time 200 in a play through. I thought that was just stupid. At least achievements for timed playthrough isn't totally unheard of.

 

[mysecondlife]

Just wanted to say I've been replay ing god of war 3 on very hard difficulty. I figured after playing hours of assassins creed 3 that comes with tons of hand holding I could appreciate some challenge. And damn it's (still) fun.

 

[Triaed]

I hate chocolate... or chocolate sauce for that matter.
Is that why I do not play a game twice (or read the same book, etc)?

 

[Gypsyssilver]

For me, chocolate sauce isn't something that can be directly crafted by the game developers.

You replay a game because you want to re-live the awesomeness you experienced in the past, or because you want to do something a little differently this time (play as a wizard instead of a warrior etc).

It IS annoying when a game hides half the content from you because you didn't pick that particular set of conversational options. I can't really think of a way around it (it pretty much just being the nature of the beast when you're playing a 'choose-your-own-adventure' Bioware-style game), but it doesn't make me more likely to replay the game, only more aware that I'm not seeing the full game.

Perhaps finishing the game for the first time should open up an interactive video section - where you can experience the other parts of the game by choosing those other options without also having to grind your way through all of the same gameplay again.

In any event, chocolate sauce is just a topping. The game it sits on top of has to actually be good before I'll consider pouring another 20-40 hours of my time into it. I don't care if you've made the most magical chocolate sauce in the history of the world - if you've drizzled it on top of sardine-flavoured ice-cream, I'm not going to go there.