What Makes A Game Replayable?

It’s tough to make a game worth playing. But what about one worth playing AGAIN? That’s even tougher. Let’s talk about replayability. We’ll go through a ton of examples in three broad categories about how games add replay value, and we’ll also talk about what to avoid if you want to make a game as replayable as possible.

#mariomaker #hearthstone #hades

[DesignDoc]

Game timestamps by first appearance:
0:13 - Hitman 2
0:14 - Minecraft
0:16 - Super Metroid
0:20 - Resident Evil 4
0:23 - Breath of the Wild
0:28 - Halo Combat Evolved
0:31 - OneShot
0:34 - CubeWorld
0:39 - Sonic Mania
0:43 - Pac Man Championship Edition DX
0:48 - Hades
0:48 - Mario Maker 2
0:48 - Hearthstone
1:02 - The Order 1886
1:02 - Motorbike
1:02 - Street Fighter X Tekken
1:08 - Katamari Damacy
1:11 - Hyrule Warriors
2:37 - Slay the Spire
2:42 - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
2:47 - Star Fox 64
2:55 - Mass Effect 2
3:00 - Witcher 3
3:01 - New Super Mario Bros
3:27 - Chrono Trigger
3:34 - Disco Elysium
3:47 - Skyrim
3:51 - Dark Souls
4:03 - Final Fantasy X
4:48 - FTL
4:56 - Spelunky
5:19 - Enter the Gungeon
5:40 - The Order: 1886
5:46 - Monkey Island 2
5:50 - Uncharted
6:12 - Ace Attorney
6:33 - Final Fantasy XIII
6:50 - Game of Thrones (Telltale)
7:02 - The Walking Dead Season 2
7:45 - Metal Gear Solid V
7:52 - ModNation Racers
7:56 - Rollercoaster Tycoon
8:04 - Dreams
8:05 - LittleBigPlanet 3
8:07 - Warcraft 3
8:20 - Terraria
9:37 - Civilization V
9:45 - Motorbike
10:01 - Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance
10:30 - Wargroove
10:39 - Super Smash Bros Ultimate
10:44 - Soundshapes
11:25 - L.A. Noire
11:36 - Red Dead Redemption 2
12:20 - Tetris Effect
12:26 - Rocket League
12:33 - Overwatch
12:40 - Splatoon 2
12:48 - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
12:51 - Super Smash Bros Melee
13:13 - Chess on Chess.com
13:48 - Pac-Man Championship Edition 2
14:03 - Crazy Taxi
14:10 - Donkey Kong
14:17 - Kingdom Hearts 3
14:26 - Bayonetta 2
14:29 - Devil May Cry V
15:27 - Super Monkey Ball
15:35 - Mario Kart 64
15:40 - Luigi's Mansion
15:42 - Zelda Ocarina of Time
15:52 - Pokemon Red/Blue
16:06 - Lawbreakers
16:19 - Super Smash Bros Brawl
16:21 - Street Fighter X Tekken
16:33 - Evolve
16:38 - Team Sonic Racing
16:48 - Super Smash Bros Ultimate
17:05 - Tetris 99
17:14 - Guilty Gear Xrd
17:28 - Pokemon Omega Ruby
18:04 - Shadow the Hedgehog
18:17 - Dragon Quest 3
18:37 - Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival
18:55 - God of War (PS4)
19:01 - Final Fantasy IX

Leave a comment if you see a clip you don't recognize - we, or someone else, will let you know what it is.

[Sheevlord]

Sometimes replayability can come from the writing and not gameplay. For example, if there is a massive plot twist that gets properly foreshadowed it's tempting to replay the game just to try spotting all the little hints that were there, as well as to see how various events are recontextualized by knowing the twist that is coming. Tales of Berseria and CrossCode are examples of such games.

[emotional_strm]

Am I the only one who REALLY needs a "gameplay from:" tag at the bottom of the screen? It's been too many times where I've seen games that look really interesting used in these videos but have no idea what they're called!

[SapphireCarbuncle]

Skippable Cutscenes absolutely help with replayability. I used to want to go back to play the original KH 1 and 2 but stuck with KH2 because it was a slog to go back to KH1. The rerelease helped fix that though, and now I go back roughly every year to play it again. Such a good childhood game of mine...

Though apparently the Xbox One port is allowing the infamous unskippable opening cinematic to be skipped?

[eduardorpg]

"Unskippable cutscenes make a game less speedrun friendly." To be honest, I don't even understand why games STILL has unskippable cutscenes nowadays.


Also, I think it's important to make it clear that NOT ALL GAMES should be replayable. Just because a game isn't replayable doesn't make it a bad game. As you mentioned, the Uncharted series barely has any replayability since most of your engagement with the game will be on your first playthrough. That doesn't make the Uncharted games bad.


Amazing video as always. Keep up the good work!

[princesszelda]

I also think that a major factor in replayability is "how long until I get to the fun bits?" because some games can be great fun but take their sweet time to get rolling, for instance an open world game that heavily restricts you for a very long time before it opens up.

on the other hand, I haven't played Skyrim yet, but from what I hear of people who do play it more than once, it seems that a dominant reason is that they have to wait relatively little time before they just ignore the main story and go off doing random nonsense, their favorite sidequests etf. I even play linear games again because I know I can just get to the good bits without it being a chore.

of course each person has a different opinion on what the "good bits" of a game are.

[lukostello]

One factor you didn't mention is aesthetics/nostalgia. I often revisit Banjo-Kazooie just for the music and level design. Its just a cool place to hang out. This especially applies to noncompetitive games like animal crossing. Perhaps thats more of a factor for what makes games worth revisiting rather than replaying, if there is a difference there.

[tjofcarolina]

"But first, we gotta pay the bills" is such a great segue into advertising

[elecboy]

3:27
Shadow the hedgehog used multiple endings to double playtime, and was worse off for it. Add alternate endings with caution.

[xaltsun]

Never stop doing these types of videos. They’re so Damn entertaining and educational.

[jerry]

Fire emblem games, especially three houses. Most games have a cast larger than you can deploy, so you have to choose what units to bring to each map. Additionally, more modern games feature stuff like reclassing so the same unit can be totally different each time.

[AlmaHeartfire]

As a big rpg fan I like to replay them for story and character's alone sometimes, also having new knowledge on how the game work's let's me experiment more with the battle system.

[RandomBurfness]

I don't know if I agree that the Ace Attorney games aren't re-playable. They're as re-playable as a book is re-readable.


I pretty much only play single player games where a completionist playstyle can be achieved and to me, any game is re-playable because I always try to make the act of getting everything as efficient as possible (perhaps not to a speedrun level) every time I decide to re-play a game.

[themustachioedfish]

The 2D Sonic games are an excellent example of replayability through evolution. And they're also one of few titles I can think of that uses the "back to the start" style of game over to aid in that idea. The more times you play through the game, the better of a route you find, and the better your execution gets.

[Sonnance]

For me, one of the biggest draws to replay a game is the story. Even games whose story is the same every time can incentivize replaying. Even if the story hasn’t changed, you may have, and you can find new meaning in and old story, or be reminded of the meaning you saw in it to begin with.

[Dizzula]

The Saints Row franchise keeps me coming back time and time again just for the amount of fun the user can create for themselves. Also, Final Fantasy 7 is a great game to go back and play again and again, as long as you inhibit yourself in some way. For example, last time I played it I wanted to get all of the weapons, limit breaks and materia within 70 hours.

[RatherWatchThemSA]

Hades is SO replayable! I've sunk so many hours into it already and I still feel like I haven't found everything they're hiding. And it's not even "done" yet!

[Tremmuh]

I love how randomizers helped with replayability for some older games. I’ve found myself going back to a lot of the older Legend of Zelda games to play the randomizer versions. Added challenge and different ways to approach the games.

[rmsgrey]

A nitpick about Chess - the ruleset has been tweaked frequently for as long as the game's existed, so it's never had the same ruleset for even a single century. In the late 20th century, the international body governing Chess introduced a minimum period of 4 years between rule updates in order to limit the pace of change...


My pet example of unskippable cutscenes is the start of Ocarina of Time - I've played the game dozens of times, and every time I have to resign myself to sitting through the opening, which even requires you to start pressing a button to advance text partway through so you can't even leave it running and come back when it's done...

[BackseatYT]

It's not the most important part but... that red / purple colour you used for the thumbnail and background of the graphics in this video. Gorgeous