[Long setup; for those without patience, start with the second paragraph after reading the first sentence below.]
I picked up the PS2 RPG Suikoden V a week or two ago (whenever it first came out), and most of my leisure time since then. With a compelling story, 108 characters to recruit (and no, not all are playable), and enough sidequests to make a completist like me happy, I’m almost to the end of the game after 56 hours of game time. Since I’m nearing the point of no return, I checked the online FAQs to find out how many “limited time” events and characters I missed. There are quite a few. I also found that after I finish the game once, I can restart from a post-game file to create a “New Game +,” which allows me to start from the beginning with money and items from my first runthrough, making the second MUCH easier.
However, despite the fact that I’m almost at the end, and could have a (relative) easy second playthrough and get all the stuff I missed, I’m suddenly feeling MUCH less enthusiastic about the prospect than I was even at the start of the day. This is despite (or perhaps because of?) the fact that I’ve been playing it so intensely for so long. I had a similar experience with a previous game in the series, but that one I didn’t regain enthusiasm for until after I played this one (with the previous game long sold).
Any of you other gamers ever feel this way? What do you find causes it? Can you “rest” and pick it up again to finish later?
I had this happen to me with Manhunt, after spending a couple of hours a day on it for over a month. When I finally finished it (one of the only such games that I’ve ever finished without using cheats), I was done. I thought about going back and re-doing levels to unlock some of the secrets, but as much as I enjoyed playing it the first time, I just didn’t feel like going back.
Yep, I get this all the time. It’s caused by feeling like you wasted all that time on your first playthrough (at least for me). We all know that you can’t get the best ending in Suikoden games unless you have all 108 characters.
I have found that I can get through a second run on most games after taking a break, and playing something else for a while.
Actually, Suikoden IV I still need to redo for the best ending (there was a failed attempt to do the second run immediately). I’m about 4 hours in to Suikoden V and I like it, just returned from the competition and they’re really setting things up well.
I tend to get tired of a game just before finishing it. I have a whole ton of games that I’ve never finished because of it. It kind of sucks.
Also, I don’t tend to get very far when replaying games. I tend to get maybe an hour in before I just stop playing. And if I find out I missed a secret item/character/mission that tends to make me not want to play anymore either. I can’t get them on the second playthrough because there IS no second playthrough. Blah.
Uh, I thought I might have slipped into the wrong thread after reading this. So there’s a game called Manhunt, huh?
As for getting bored with a game before exploring it completely - of course that happens to me. It’s been happening way before any game surpassed the megabyte mark. There has to be a term for that?
Yeah, I get that too. I find if I’m stumbling around lost in a level for awhile, I’m not as eager to keep playing once I finally reach the next level. I usually have to take a break to get my enthusiasm back, otherwise I’m just blowing through the game instead of really enjoying it.
I’ve found that as I get older and more and more things take up my time, attention, and energy, I have a much shorter fuse for games before I get bored of them. I tend to play a game intensely and constantly for a week or two, and then I’m pretty much “played out.” This even works with RPG’s; I can think of three in the past year alone that I’ve completed about 75% of and then just cooled off and walked away from.
I’m considering subscribing to something like Gamefly instead of buying games because of this very factor.