So in the privacy of my own room, re-playing the opening levels of Limbo, I find myself intentionally testing for mechanics like fall damage and if the boy can swim. I do this a lot and frankly it’s kinda dumb and definitely a waste of time.
Anyone else out there with this weirdness? Any other weird rituals when re-playing something?
Suddenly I find myself in love with the idea of an RPG that is aware of how many times you’ve experienced something, and you have the option of being telepathic, and letting you change events a few times.
“We need to rush to such and so a pla-”
“No, you stay here. You take an arrow and die there.”
“What?”
Radiant Historia for the Nintendo DS (and I think it’s coming out for the 3DS next year?) is a bit like this, and it’s also just a really good game in its own right.
I once sat down to replay the Bionic Commando remake and log every thought that came into my mind in a notepad. I didn’t make it more than an hour, but I had a lot of great ‘content’. In many ways that process was more enjoyable than actually playing the game.
I sometimes wish I could go back and experience something for the first time but I don’t pretend because I don’t have that ability. Also now that I think about it I’ve also never tested game mechanics knowingly. I just do stuff and if I die or get a game over I learn I can’t do that.
Skyrim’s Random Alternate Start mod is the closest I get. Ooh, I’m starting among the icebergs in a sinking ship? Ooh, I’m just a hunter chilling at camp, but, weird, I just saw this dragon fly overhead. This is obviously nothing like the first 800 hours of Skyrim I’ve played. This is a whole new game.
I sometimes get this way when I go back to play old adventure games, y’know the puzzles and plot points sometimes fade from the mind over time, but some of the details still remain. I can’t exactly pull the Stoneship age puzzle from MYST out of the back of my mind if I were to go back and play it now, but I wouldn’t really be solving the puzzle again, I’d be more jogging my memory to remember what I did last time. That’s kind of similar, it’s like I’m reverting to a state of unknowing but I’m actually just re-remembering rather than learning.
Undertale does something like this, where if you kill Toriel in your first playthough. you can tell her you watched her die in your next playthrough.
I don’t know if this does anything mechanically, but hey.
I often do. I play Shadow of the Colossus like it’s my first time everytime. I have enough knowledge to slay a colossus at a brisk pace, but I take my time, I try to handicap myself. I won’t get the same feeling ever again but I can still be amazed at how incredible this game can be.
Kinda hard for me to do that since my muscle memory is pretty solid making replaying games easy so that first time experience wont come back.
Every replay of an open world game feels like the first time when you’re bad at directions.
I’ve played hundreds of hours of Fallout: New Vegas and know every nook and cranny of that map by heart but I still insist on taking the game’s super roundabout route to get to the Vegas Strip instead of just bolting there immediately and getting nice gear from the start (this shortcut route is incredibly dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing but it’s possible).
Part of the role playing experience for me is enhanced by acting like I’m still stumbling upon some wild unexpected shit every time I play. Kind of a separate discussion but I also have a huge problem playing RPG’s like this in a totally new way when I start a fresh playthrough. I tell myself every time I’m gonna try being a murderous asshole this playthrough but 20 minutes in I’m already helping old ladies cross the street and donating my entire fortune to a beggar in town
Being mean in video games feels bad. :c
I kind of do this when I am replaying Pokémon games. I try to pick a different start, catch and use Pokémon I haven’t before, and try new team combinations to make it more interesting for myself.
Some games just work better with established expectations in a subsequent playthrough. I really didn’t like Batman: Arkham Asylum on my first playthrough, then loved it on a replay with the mechanical familiarity.
I’m playing Final Fantasy XV again, and I’m able to take my time with it instead of rushing into the confused slog of the last few chapters.