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[DunDunDunpachi]

I try not to play too many games at once or to start new games until I finish old ones. Over the years, I realized that I get into a bad rut where I have a ton of games where I've sunk 4 or 5 hours into it and then stopped to move on to something else. When picking the game up again, it is sometimes too jarring so I just restart a new save file. RPGs seem to be the worst culprit for restarts (I struggle to get my brain back into the right headspace for the story, the mechanics, etc).

I suppose this is much better than having a backlog full of unplayed games, but I think it would be still better to get out of this habit.

Curious if other GAFers suffer from this same ADD-like behavior.

 

[mcz117chief]

I don't like to restart games if i haven't finished them, especially if it is a long rpg game. I just chip away at these games from time to time and thus reduce my backlog.

 

[MeatSafeMurderer]

One single player story based game at a time. If I stop I'm likely stopped for good. If I do ever pick it back up I start fresh.

 

[Graciaus]

I usually never play multiple games at once. But if for some reason I stop playing a game for awhile I generally just never go back to it.

 

[Saruhashi]

Exactly the same here.

Unless the game has some horrifically bad beginning that I could never ever suffer again then I'd tend to start over if I've been away for a while.

I don't have A LOT of unfinished or half-finished games but I find I tend to pick them up over the years.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I don't like to restart games if i haven't finished them, especially if it is a long rpg game. I just chip away at these games from time to time and thus reduce my backlog.

How do you keep your head straight if you've taken a long break from an RPG? That's my problem. I love playing them, but as I get older the genre is becoming an all-or-nothing affair. Either I play and beat the RPG, or I shelve it for too many weeks and forget about it.

One single player story based game at a time. If I stop I'm likely stopped for good. If I do ever pick it back up I start fresh.

You have more self control than me. I have a habit of picking up more than one story-based game.

 

[Spukc]

Stop bringing up shit like this OP i already feel bad about this

 

[KàIRóS]

I feel like there should be a middle ground answer in that poll, I have lots of dropped games, but many of those I'm never coming back to, simply because I didn't like them at all but there are also games that I'm coming back to eventually due to DLC or updates.

For now my answer would be closer to "No way, I play to the end or drop the game entirely" it's like TV shows for me, if they don't grab me in the first few episodes then they won't grab at all, no point in keep losing my time with that.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I feel like there should be a middle ground answer in that poll, I have lots of dropped games, but many of those I'm never coming back to, simply because I didn't like them at all but there are also games that I'm coming back to eventually due to DLC or updates.

For now my answer would be closer to "No way, I play to the end or drop the game entirely" it's like TV shows for me, if they don't grab me in the first few episodes then they won't grab at all, no point in keep losing my time with that.

I drop games entirely, too, so that is why I included the caveat of "half-finished games that you will get back to someday". Sorry for the confusing wording in the poll.

 

[Gamersane]

A lot of half finished games for sure. It is difficult to finish reading a book or do homework. Not to mention difficult to finish optional tasks like playing games. Some of these games are unfinished because the higher levels become too difficult, it becomes a difficult puzzle to solve and I give up.

 

[ROMhack]

Oh yeah I absolutely do the same. If it's 4-5 hours into an RPG then I don't restart, but if it's a much shorter game then I usually do.

I see those first 4-5 hours as a testing ground -- a 'do I want to actually play this or not' kinda thing.

Anecdotally, this is precisely what I did with Okami recently.

 

[CeeJay]

The older I get, the more likely I am to drop a game and not care less about it. I am at a point now where I tend to pick short roguelikes or endless games like sports or racers rather than games I know have a long story. Most recently I started Gears 5 and only got as far as Act 2 before dropping it and moving on. There are way too many games and not enough time or focus to play them all. Give me games like Spelunky, FTL or Slay The Spire nowadays.

 

[FranXico]

If it's been long ago, I'll restart. If my memory is fresh, I keep the save.
Except in open world checklist simulators, hell, I'm not going to redo all that boring shit...
...
...right. That's why I stopped playing it in the first place.

 

[johntown]

I have quite a few and I have recently been forcing myself to stick to one game until I finish it. Some games you can go back to but others you just have to start over.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Probably too many but I never restart a save.

The longest ones I have that I either beat or nearly beat were Golden Sun: Lost Ages (because I got stuck on a section and used GameFAQs 7 years later to backtrack and beat the game), and Final Fantasy 7, again got stuck but went back and almost beat it (died on Sephiroph's final form but couldn't be bothered).

The longest one I went back to and still haven't beat is Viewtiful Joe 2 from 2008, now a 2018 save and half way through it. XD

See no point in restarting unless you absolutely have no clue on where to go next again.

This may sound VERY strange, but I have a knack for remembering what I was supposed to do on almost all of my saves (probably about 50+....almost 100). It's like "oh, I was supposed to go here next" and carry on.

 

[WindomURL]

Ugh man so, so many. It's a terrible habit for me. Even worse, I've had a thing for years now, ever since games, particularly big open world games, started ballooning into larger and larger timesinks, where I'll put 100+ hours into something, only to drop it right before the end. Then, a year or two later, I start a new game. It's a vicious cycle.

For instance, Skyrim. I've played that game, across platforms, for hundreds of hours total.

But I've never finished the main questline.

It bling glate shame and dishonol on famiry

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Ugh man so, so many. It's a terrible habit for me. Even worse, I've had a thing for years now, ever since games, particularly big open world games, started ballooning into larger and larger timesinks, where I'll put 100+ hours into something, only to drop it right before the end. Then, a year or two later, I start a new game. It's a vicious cycle.

For instance, Skyrim. I've played that game, across platforms, for hundreds of hours total.

But I've never finished the main questline.

It bling glate shame and dishonol on famiry

I don't think there's anything bad with doing this for certain games. For example a person could play and enjoy Minecraft for many years but never beat The End, and I wouldn't consider their time wasted. Videogames are games first and "narrative experiences" second for me.

 

[WindomURL]

I don't think there's anything bad with doing this for certain games. For example a person could play and enjoy Minecraft for many years but never beat The End, and I wouldn't consider their time wasted. Videogames are games first and "narrative experiences" second for me.

Yeah, I get it, and I've certainly gotten more than my money's worth out of many of these unfinished journeys.

But it just feels wrong

 

[Vawn]

I don't ever stop part way through and return. I only play a single game at a time. Even if I'm not totally in love with it, my OCD makes me finish. It takes a truly abysmal game for me to quit halfway through.

 

[ROMhack]

Probably too many but I never restart a save.

The longest ones I have that I either beat or nearly beat were Golden Sun: Lost Ages (because I got stuck on a section and used GameFAQs 7 years later to backtrack and beat the game), and Final Fantasy 7, again got stuck but went back and almost beat it (died on Sephiroph's final form but couldn't be bothered).

The longest one I went back to and still haven't beat is Viewtiful Joe 2 from 2008, now a 2018 save and half way through it. XD

See no point in restarting unless you absolutely have no clue on where to go next again.

This may sound VERY strange, but I have a knack for remembering what I was supposed to do on almost all of my saves (probably about 50+....almost 100). It's like "oh, I was supposed to go here next" and carry on.

This is pretty much me at Ultimecia in FF8 right now. Painfully annoying isn't it.

 

[mcz117chief]

How do you keep your head straight if you've taken a long break from an RPG? That's my problem. I love playing them, but as I get older the genre is becoming an all-or-nothing affair. Either I play and beat the RPG, or I shelve it for too many weeks and forget about it.

I just don't have an issue with it. I guess I have a good memory.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

This is pretty much me at Ultimecia in FF8 right now. Painfully annoying isn't it.

Yeah! I gave up though as the next battle was winnable either way and I had my fill at the time.

I need to finish Ys 8 but started Ys 3 now.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I've done this with the first SMT on my phone. I got rid of it and now its not even supported anymore. Same with Valkyrie Profile on iOS. Its great for a while, but I drop it when the next game comes out. I do this with a lot of my iPhone JRPGs. I play a couple hours and then I move on. Its worse on mobile than any other platform. I get a feeling of going back to JRPGs I played/finished years ago. I bought Romancing Saga 2 on iOS and played for a couple hours. I am a couple hours into Dragon Quest III at the moment and the whole transition thing has put it on hold. I've also done this type of thing with Battlefield games mainly due to the boring single play campaigns Battlefield tend to have. I did it with RAGE and Mad Max. My attention span wasn't there and nothing was grabbing me back in. I had my feel of what people were praising the game for and then I hit the delete button. I'd have to start over if I ever went back. RAGE I booted up and it just felt like it was going to be very tiresome to get to the good parts. FEAR 3 was this way too. I didn't mind restarting FEAR 3, but playing it from start to finish is another story.

There should be a middle answer of Complete games most of the time, but drop the ones in between.

I remember locations and the major events of the games I played. If I do restart something sometimes I remember the ending or the end result. That sorta does me in.

 

[Shifty]

It's all or nothing for me. I've had the intention to go back to a whole bunch of different games over the years, but I now know myself well enough to realise it ain't happening.

If I do go back, you can bet your hat that it's gonna be on a fresh save unless we're talking about an evergreen classic with chunky post-game unlocks, like Devil May Cry 3. I'll keep my save on that to avoid the pain of unlocking everything again.

 

[RPS37]

This thread title gave me anxiety.

 

[KorbinDallas]

I've had to restart FFIX probably 4 or 5 times. This time I'm on disc 3 which is the furthest I've got. I'm committed fam, committed I tell you. This time...

 

[zeorhymer]

I have a ton. The last one I had was FFXV and I totally restarted from scratch and managed to finish the game.