The Games I Wish I Never Replayed

The thing about having a favorite anything is that there is a more than decent chance that one day it no longer will be your favorite, and that shift can be jarring. This video explores how this has happened to me with 3 of my favorite (or rather formerly favorite) games, and asks the most important question of all: what is wrong with me?

Special thanks to honorary bagbutens Adamo and WilliamGlenn8.

[razbuten]

don't get mad at me

also, one thing I wish I would have dove into is how for some games it is easy for me to look back at the memory of playing a game and hold onto that regardless of if I still enjoy playing it today, but for others (like the three games I talk about in this video) I can't seem to hold onto that initial memory as well and start to sour on the game as a whole. I have not thought about it enough to have an answer as to why that is. I touch on it a tiny bit when talking about games that you can't truly replay and how you go into replaying those with the mindset that a new playthrough isn't designed to be the same, but I think there is a ton more in that space to explore, especially considering that there are games that I think suck to play now that are highly replayable, yet I don't have the same sour feeling towards them as I do towards these three. Could be something about the game, could be my mindset when I replayed them, could be the strength of the original memory when I played it, could be all of these things and more.

oh and one other thing I wish I would have done a bit differently was how I talked about Majora's Mask. I stand by all of my thoughts on how the game didn't hit for me on my most recent playthrough, but I think I presented it as if a switch had flipped and that the game means nothing to me now when that is not the case. The more accurate view is that when replaying it, I just could tell that if this was a game I kept coming back to, eventually the good memories I had of it (whether those be from when I played the game or was just obsessed with hearing about it) would be replaced by my more current lukewarm feelings on it, so I have decided that in order to preserve what love I still have for MM, I am better off not playing it anymore lol.

anyway, have a good one.

[Robertganca]

I remember once hearing that people don’t want to play the game that they once played. They want to play the game that they remember.

[IronPineapple]

ok awesome video, very insightful as usual, great points were made, but have you considered that majora's mask is actually still the GOAT and you're wrong

[errr]

The thing that's so necessary about Assassin's Creed 2 specifically is the attention to detail in the level design. Its interpretation of historical Italy and its architectural history is honestly incredible, they did the work to create a legitimate piece of virtual tourism and that makes it timeless

[DietButter]

One thing that will never change is how damn good the music for Bioshock Infinite is

[magimus]

It’s not necessarily the game you want to replay. It’s that part of life that you want to relive.

[kevinfitzpatrick]

I have often felt this way about books. I sometimes miss the days when I was a kid before I developed "taste." When I could just pick up any chapter book at the grocery store book rack and enjoy reading it for what it was. Now before I commit to buying a book I have to go online and read a dozen opinions on whether or not it was "worth" reading.

[mvdk]

I actually have the opposite reaction to OoT and MM. Trying to replay OoT I almost always come away disillusioned. The one exception being the first time I played Master Quest. But Majora's Mask I adore returning to. Part of it is that MM has what I find to be a deeply alluring replayability hook- since I know where all the masks are, I start planning out routes for each three days to try to optimize my playthrough. Not really a speedrun, more just to avoid downtime. But it's actually really engaging and a form of gameplay that is very rare, perhape unique.

[KahluaBomb]

I feel like Prince of Persia would like to chat about who invented the "run on walls and climb buildings looking cool as heck gameplay"

[JoCat]

never have I felt more vindicated than you bringing up the problems with AC2, not just because I agree with it, but because I thought I was going crazy after revisiting it recently and absolutely not enjoying it as much as I used to

[gowzahr]

As a kid, I usually assumed that hard games were hard because I was a kid and needed to get better. As an adult, there a several games that I can't go back to because I now know they're hard for other reasons, such as poor controls.

[dialga]

this video makes me appreciate super mario galaxy so much more. its my favorite game of all time, and i replay it atleast once a year if not multiple times, and it never gets old for me. i consider it one of the most finely crafted experiences in gaming.

[Caboose]

Majora's Mask excels somewhere around the halfway point of an initial playthrough, when your mind starts to map everything in the game world together. Exploring and engaging grants you gain a new understanding of the characters and setting, and once that clicks it's an indescribable feeling of empathy, dread, melancholy, etc. You can't really experience it a second time. I was so deeply moved by that game upon my first completion, but upon coming back to it you already know the ins and outs of the game and it's hard to recreate that first contact. In the same way you can never have the "aha" moment of a mystery, for instance.

[_IQ.points]

I think it's always good to remember that even if you don't like a game you used to love after a later playthrough, that will never take away from the enjoyment you had during that 1st playthrough. It's already in the past so it is set in stone.

[yakkocmn]

I think all of this is why I love video game music so much - sure, it's not the interactive part, but it's the part that can keep the memories and emotions intact even if the gameplay or story doesn't hit the same anymore. Also, really feel that part about needing to look at games more analytically, which is why I love every time a game comes around that breaks through the barrier and DOES just immerse me in the spectacle.

[VintageTechNerd]

As a vintage game collector and player, I relate too strongly to this. I am very nostalgic by nature, and it has taken me aback as age has removed the shades of fondness of classics when I replay them. It’s often a reminder of how much I have changed since then.

[BrotherCheng]

I think an important factor that you didn't mention is that your intentions for playing vs replaying the games are different. When you play the game for the first time you are just trying to… have fun and experience it. Maybe there was some hype around it but you are mostly approaching a new piece of content with a fresh mind. When you replay games though, especially in your case, it seems like you are trying to validate some ideas, and hunting for the "oh wow this was great" moment, which I think colors your perception of the game. You can already see the twists coming, you already know the plot, and you are kind of looking for what you didn't know before, or reaffirming certain built-up ideas of the game.

You already mentioned games like Outer Wilds aren't designed to be replayed but I don't see how games like Majora's Mask are different and it seems like an arbitrary distinction. I personally don't get this whole replayable shtick that gamers / reviewers start to demand of single player games as I find that they lead to unnecessarily needpicky criticisms (e.g. even Outer Wilds sees that criticism sometimes). That's literally not the point of these games! People can play roguelike for example for replayability. But yes unfortunately we will never be able to wipe our memories to try to evaluate a game in 2023 with a fresh mind if we have already played it before.

But yes, some games definitely age more poorly than others. For the memory aspect of it, a funny thing is I think for two of my favorite games (Outer Wilds and The Witness), I didn't actually enjoy them *that* much while playing them. It's only near the end, and also thinking more about them and reading what others were saying that I started to build more appreciation. Does that mean they were bad games though? I think even if the grind was a little tough and unenjoyable (e.g. The Witness had some tough puzzles that stumped me), the post-game analysis and thoughts were part of playing the game as well.

[andrewg.]

I think the reason games such as outer wilds and BotW seem like they will be more resilient to this isn't because they are made in a way to prevent this from happening, but because they are made in a way to pretty much guarantee this happens. The awe and wonder you experience in the first playthrough is immediately gone on any subsequent playthrough no matter how long its been since your first one. Whenever you go back to it, you are not playing the same game because your first playthrough WAS the game. And you know this going in when replaying it so it helps to remove disappointment.

[Crovax]

This is why every game in my "best" list are games i have played several times in different points in my life. That makes those games actually grow with me.

[worldsboss]

I’ve replayed a lot of games that I initially loved but have never experienced what you spoke about here. I pretty much still feel the same about them as I always did