This is a great topic. I think most people would be unable to admit they were no longer as interested in what used to be their most favorite games. I think it's better to fondly remember some games with nostalgia rather than trying to relive and recapture the magic of your first playthrough. Some of my favorite games I remember very fondly but I'm not really able to replay them with anywhere near the same level of enjoyment. When you're experiencing nostalgia for something you also tend not to recall the boring or bad parts. Some games that come to mind for me are: Halo: Combat Evolved - I've played through this game more times than I can recall and through all difficulty levels. In single player and in co-op and played the multiplayer to death. I played it so much that I started finding ways to get outside the boundaries of the levels just to experience something new. Tried to replay the game recently in the Master Chief collection and it was a complete slog. It doesn't help that the game reaches its pinnacle (for me) in the chapters Flawless Cowboy and Reunion Tour, which are right at the beginning of the game when you first land on Halo. After that there are too many uninspired, samey-looking alien levels. There are a few other highlights, like seeing the Flood unleashed, and escaping the Pillar of Autumn at the end of the game. Problem is those fun and interesting moments are too far between. World of Warcraft - It's hard to continue enjoying a game when it starts to feel like a job. I quit shortly after spending a few months getting into raiding, scheduling raids, and participating in them for 3-4 hours in the evening, all for the hope that my group would succeed and I would get a 1% chance of collecting an item that I wanted. Pokemon - This includes the original GB games and Pokemon Go. The series has done nothing to evolve since the original titles released in 1996. Pokemon Go captured my imagination for a short span of time, all the while the developers focused their updates around inhibiting player interaction and fun so that they could milk money from fans. I lost interest when I realized I was just playing the same game over and over again trying to recapture the addiction of the original games.
It's funny you mention trying to break the boundaries of a game just to experience something new, because even that has kind of worn away for me. I rarely try to get outside of the walls of games anymore. I had the EXACT same experience when the MCC hit Xbox Game Pass. I downloaded it, intent on starting from scratch, but I had played Halo so much when I was younger, than I just skipped to Halo 2 - which is still surprisingly fun! Pokemon is another good example. I guess I didn't realize it, but I haven't been into Pokemon for years. I did buy and beat Omega Ruby for 3DS, but I felt like I was waiting the entire game to be wowed. It never happened. When I did pick it back up, I forgot what I was even doing, so I started over and quit probably about halfway through. The Pokemon franchise, for as big as it is, sure hasn't changed much aside from graphics and a clutter of UI changes that makes me feel like a 90 year old man too afraid to interact with any of them should I mess anything up, Lineage II would be my MMO that I killed. I only played on and off again for two years, but it's dead to me. Since it went free-to-play I've tried to get back in what must have been 4-5 times. The most time I spent with the game was downloading everything. I'd quit soon after I started playing each time. I had a stint with WoW, but stopped sometime during The Burning Crusade.
Glad to hear that someone else has trouble going back and replaying older games all the way through. I'd often feel bad about the fact that I'd drop $5 on an eshop title only to quit playing after as little as 2 hours. I think that replaying games that you absolutely love can be a trap sometimes. You're remembering the magic of your first experience with the game. Not only are you never going to get that same experience again, each additional playthrough is only going to make you realize the game's flaws more and more. There are plenty of games that I have replayed and went "Ugghhh, it's THIS part..." I end up taking a break and never picking it up again, haha. Here are some games I've beaten too many times and find them hard to go back to. Final Fantasy IV: As much as I love the visuals and sounds of this game, as they bring me right back to when I was so young I couldn't even read yet I still tried to play this game, I find it tough to get through. The fact that the battle system consists mostly of having the same characters constantly doing the same thing over and over and over doesn't help. I usually lose motivation around the part where you need to go after the Dark Elf and have to unequip anything that is metal. A Link to the Past One of these reasons I absolutely can never go back to this game is because I happened upon the ALttP Randomizer website and things haven't been the same since. After using that site, I played through randomized versions of ALttP back to back to back. I'd say I beat the game 5 or 6 times easily in the course of a couple months. They have so many options for spicing up the adventure that it's extremely difficult to stay away. The randomizer will deeply test your knowledge of the game, you'll have to remember every single chest location (yes, even the ones that contained junk like 5/20 rupees. Arrows/Bombs) and when exactly you'll have access to those chests. It really breathes all new life into the game. Dragon Quest VIII I loved this game. I did two complete playthroughs on the PS2 (level 99 with all the best equipment, I even spent quite a bit of time farming Skill Seeds from the Lord of the Dragovians). I was really excited when it got remade for the 3ds. I played through it again, however I didn't complete everything. I don't think games should have rare enemies that flee frequently that offer boatloads of EXP. It makes you feel like any other battles are a waste of time. For example, the lowest amount of EXP you'd get from the weakest Metal Slime is on par with a battle full of endgame level enemies that are much more threatening to your party. The change that removed random battles and allowed you to see enemies on the map made hunting these metal creatures even easier, you'd simply avoid anything that wasn't a metal slime. Rogue Galaxy This game has awesome characters, awesome music and sounds and a great art style. I love the story and the setting. However, the areas are MASSIVE, and not in an "open world" type of way, in a "am I going around in circles?" way. You'll swear you're retreading the same ground, but looking at the map will show you're just in corridor #19 of 30. The battles also have some pretty big imbalance. Most of the time I'd just bring up the menu, select an AoE attack and wipe all enemies out in one hit as opposed to fighting for ~1 minute. Next battle, do the same thing. This game is also one of those ones where 999 HP just isn't enough. You're gonna find yourself in critical condition after being hit once. Healing items are in abundance, so it's almost like that is their solution to the problem. I remember the first time I played this and I opened a chest and 5 healing potions popped out. I'd never seen that before, usually you'll get one thing from a chest.
I'm unfamiliar with Rogue Galaxy, but I can understand your gripes with all of the other games you listed. Final Fantasy II (SNES) was a game I beat way too many times. So many, in fact, that I never could get into IV when it finally did hit the states. The closest I ever "got into it" was when it was released for the Nintendo DS -- and I thought that version was very cheap and underhanded instead of difficult. I never thought Metal Slimes would go from being something that you'd fall out of your seat to defeat to becoming a bother. Funny how a staple for a series can almost turn into a bad thing. Never did play any other version of DQ8 but the PS2 one, though.
@@BrockShake FF IV for the DS was utter garbage. The "rebalancing" was the laziest, most frustrating thing ever. Random enemies with AoE attacks that would OHKO Rosa, Rydia and Edge, and leave Cecil and Kain barely alive. Yeah, that's so fair, and tons of fun =/ Nothing like fighting a boss battle and the best strategy is to hope they just don't use certain attacks. Seriously, that game can die in a house fire.
Nice I have to say your # 1 is a good one I would have to say my #1 was final fantasy 3 for SNES I still remember the days we played that together then go out side and play are own version of the game with sticks and rocks
