So, a lot of people say that they love a game, but never finished it. I know this, I'm guilty of it myself. I love playing Zelda: Twilight Princess and Luigi's Mansion, but both remain woefully incomplete. The former because I usually just game for quick spurts, and I hate the thought of starting back at the start of a dungeon before it's finished, and the latter because I put it down for a bit, and completely lost where I was, but instead of playing it over again, it's become part of my "to-do" list.
But, what my wife is wondering for an article she is writing for 1up.com is, "why don't people finish the games they start?" Do they get too difficult for you?
Too boring?
Does real life interfere, and by the time you're able to return, it's too hard to get back into the swing of things?
Do more games need to "update" the player when they return from a long break (for example, Pokemon Pearl and Diamond do just this)?
Do you get distracted by new releases, leading to that last problem? (my issue with Luigi's Mansion, btw)
Tell your tales of distraction and incompletion here, and if you want to be quoted in the feature, be sure to e-mail my wife with your name (real, please; "Baron von Asskick '97" seems to be considered unprofessional by online publications these days, for some reason), and a vague location (we don't need your street address or anything, just a state is fine). You can e-mail said info to her at nadiaoxford at gmail dot com.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on
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1. the 'novelty' of the new game wears off
2. they are too busy with other things in their life
3. they end up with other games and then start those instead of finishing one
4. they get busy and forget, then come back and realize they don't remember what's going on, then say fuck it.
5. the game in question is just too goddamn long and they lose the feeling of 'need to see the game to the end', even if they did in fact enjoy the gameplay
6. someone gets stuck on a part and just doesn't have the time/energy to invest in it to figure out how to get past that part
7. Game is just too difficult period.
8. so many 'side quests' or other 'things to do' in the game that a player never bothers finishing the 'primary plot/goal/story/etc.'
9. The multiplayer aspect of a game becomes the only reason to play the game, and the player 'gets enough out of the game' just from that
10. A game has you doing a repetitive task, or is very repetitive in its gameplay, to the point where you've simply "had enough" and don't care to finish it
that's what I think.
Also, if a person finds the game boring, obviously they might not finish it.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
It's very long and I am not very smart.
Gonna have another go at it though.
You see, a year ago I bought Dead Rising when it came out (8/8/06). I played through it until the very end:
I was so mad at myself and the game that I never finished it. Finally, last week (killing time before Bioshock) I decided to give it another go. I managed to finish the game... sorta:
So there's a game that I've halfway completed, and only got halfway after a year of incompleteness. Frustration was really the only thing that stood in my way, knowing that I'd replay difficult parts only because *I* screwed up the first time around.
I can't think of any other incomplete games. Oh, FFIV for the GBA! I'm still not finished because I have to grind in the last dungeon for hours before I finish it. But I beat it on the SNES multiple times so I don't feel that bad.
I have to do what to get more lockpicks? Oh, you said that NPC is bugged? Shift+Delete
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
GTA
I never finished Xenogears or FFX. On both of those, I liked the games just enough to keep going, and as soon as I died twice in a row on a certain boss, I said fuck it and quit, because neither of the games were especially enjoyable.
OH MY GOD I AM SO WI
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I couldn't finish Hitman 2 because I thought that the snowy big level was too fucking tedious.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
i mean i liked the game but i got to a mission which seemed impossible so i just stopped and spent my rest of the time on it just murdering people and blowing shit up.
Fire Emblem 9
I just beat Fire Emblem 7, after years of owning it and about five attempts. Take that, backlog!
Mega Man X8. I spent all sorts of time and effort to get to the end of this ridiculously difficult game (on Normal mode), but then... One of the last levels appeared to be constructed almost entirely out of spikes. Hooray. No thanks!
Ico. I guess I'm just stupid, because I was always getting stuck. The puzzles just seemed really obscure and hard to figure out a lot of the time. I really really liked everything else about it though, so one of these days I'm just going to start it up and use a guide when I get stuck.
Metroid Prime. The very last bit before the final boss, at the Impact Crater or whatever. Screw going through that area again each time I want to fight the boss. It's the very end though, so this is not a big deal.
Baten Kaitos. I have no attention span! I loved a lot of things about this game, but it was actually pretty boring outside of the battle system. In the end, I think this one was mostly because of other games distracting me.
Beyond Good & Evil. It just sorta...failed to grab me. I think it's a cool game, and I wish I could have played through it, but I was practically forcing myself to keep playing before I gave up.
These are some of the most significant ones, I think, but it's just a fraction of the full list of games I wish I had completed. I suck.
I prefer non-lethal stealth on my first playthrough of these types of games, but it almost always degenerates into frustrating trial-and-error gameplay. If I could just bite the bullet and assassinate everyone instead of sneaking by them, problem solved.
Oblivion
My first character was a pure mage, and there's no way that I know of to remove obsolete spells in the 360 version. Going through the spellbook for stuff I don't have hotkeyed or can't remember the name of is just that irritating.
System Shock 2
Because I am a miserable failure of a human being. Finishing Bioshock may have redeemed my soul a little bit, but this one still haunts me.
Planescape: Torment
See above
Got stuck on Wily's Fortress.
Then my little brother broke the MMAC disk.
Resident Evils 1 - 4: Scary
Chrono Cross: I'd actually been having fun with this one until I got to Fort Dragonia or whatever that place was and it reminded me way too much of FFVII's temple of the ancients. I really hate those maze/puzzle things...
That's about all I can think of off the top of my head.
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
I felt like I was just going through the motions and it wasn't impressing me all that much.
Some day I might go back to it.
God of War - The combat was pretty cool but the world was so uninteresting, your average dark as shit world that every anti-hero in a action game these days lives in...not to mention I thought Kratos was an ass and I can't play games where I don't like the mains.
Star Ocean 3 - Too many changes from SO2, didn't enjoy the combat as much and though MP damage was the stupidest idea ever.
GTA3 - Just never got around to doing it, finished Vice City and Sandreas though.
I did like Fran though!
Zelda 2 The Adventures of Link:
very enjoyable game. i just couldn't finish it because i hated the fact that everytime you die and have game over or you save and turn it off, you start back at the beginning of the game. just irritating as hell!!
S.T.A.K.E.R.:
well, my roomate uninstalled it...
GTA San Andreas:
i played 3 and vice city so much that it was just the same old crap to me. even though there was a lot more to do, it just wasn't worth the effort.
the list could go on and on, but that's just a few for me.
But ya, there's some games I just don't finish because they get frustrating and I go do something else. Pretty much any Castlevania game does this to me. Fuck you rooms with medusa heads and spikes. Why do you always have to make an appearance???
know what you mean. i bought the collector's edition and huge ass strategy guide thinking i would love it!! played two days, and haven't played since... $90.00 down the drain.
the part with the platforms and neverending elemental metroids? I tried pulling MP back out a couple times and just kept getting jacked up in that part over and over again, so I just said screw it.
is the boss after that part the one where
It's MP1.
I got to the last mission on Kohan (the original), where you get attacked by every single boss creature you've killed in the game, simultaneously, and gave up for some reason....
Edit: I didn't give up then.
First, I read a walkthrough.
The walkthrough told me to use cheats.
Then I gave up.
You know...not to start a rant thread or anything, but I think the problem I had with it is that the plot was so boring. Most people in the reviews were talking about how the story was full of political intrigue on all that, but to me it was just boring and made it hard to relate to any of the characters because they have little personal development(IMO, Tactics did a better job of mixing politics with characters). I'm still playing through the game but yeah, story has done little for me when compared to FFs in the past.
God, there's one game mechanic that needs to die horribly.
This can be compounded by a particularly poorly designed section of the game that is tricky, unfairly difficult, or very tedious. Usually when hitting these sections is when I realize all the flaws of the game I'd been ignoring to that point and lose interest in the game, since there's probably not a lot of interesting gameplay past that point anyway.
That describes me. I only really play single player games that give the player freedom. Like in oblivion, I've done all the side quests and guilds, but haven't even touched the main story line. Same with GTA:SA, Spent hours rolling around and doing stupid things, but never really even looked at the main storyline.
These days i just stick to MMO's and other multiplayer.
Yeah, that section really isn't very hard.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Xenosaga Ep. 2
Final Fantasy X-2 (well, the "never completed" part of the thread topic, anyway)
Tales of Phantasia
GTA 3 and both spinoffs
And uh
Link to the Past
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