The topic for today is "replayability". My definition of it is "what makes a game worth replaying again". In other words: If you start a new game after finishing it the first time, do you get anything? I suppose clearing the game and then being able to continue playing after the credits falls under this category also, but I'm more interested in the games where you can continue to unlock more goodies after your first completion.
Just a small list of what you could find from playing a game after completion:
- Extra difficulties?
Completing Mega Man 64/Mega Man Legends the first time unlocked Hard Mode--you get less money from enemies, and then clearing Hard Mode unlocked Easy Mode, which gave you the skate shoes at the beginning and doubled the money you got from enemies.
- More options?
Getting a Gold on Mario Kart 64's Special Cup on 150cc unlocked the "Extra" tier, which was each set of race tracks on reverse. A relatively small bonus, since getting Gold wasn't that hard anyway, even on Special Cup, but still, a bonus option is still a bonus option.
- Hidden features?
The Onimusha trilogy on PS2 had interesting costume swaps for the characters. In Onimusha: Warlords (the first game in the trilogy), the player could choose to give Samanosuke a panda outfit. In Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, Samanosuke could have a panda outfit or a more western-type outfit. And there was that option to give Michelle nothing but a towel. Silly Capcom. Now that I think about it, there were a ridiculous number of unlockables for this game by clearing the game with specific requirements. Potential spoilers abound, but just look at this. http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/589770-onimusha-3-demon-siege/cheats
- Additional bosses that can't be found in the first run?
In Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2, if you finished with the Chaos alignment, you got more Case Files (i.e. side quests) on your next game, and these led to additional boss battles. After you finished the boss battles you were allowed to fuse the demons you defeated.
I suppose most Pokemon games would fall under this category too, huh? Back in Red/Blue/Yellow, you had to have defeated the Elite Four to unlock the cave that Mewtwo resided in. In Gold/Silver, there was Ho-oh and Lugia, respectively. And was there another one? I don't remember. Anyway, Ruby and Sapphire, same deal, with Latios and Latias for one game or the other, and then Rayquaza, which was in both games. And I care little for the remakes so I won't discuss those.
- Better endings? Different endings?
In the event that a game (typically JRPGs) has different endings, one has to play through the game multiple times to see all the endings. Just to give some examples:
1. Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis (PS2/PSP; renamed Mana Khemia: Student Alliance) offered about 9 endings, and you had to play through the game to see each one. Which ending you got was mostly determined on how you decided to spend your limited free time (literally) on which characters you wanted to talk to, and at the 2nd-to-last chapter (don't quote me on this), talking to a certain character would determine which ending you got. One could manipulate this to their advantage by saving right before the sequence and then going back to get the rest of the endings, although this method is rather painful since there were still two dungeons and a lot of cutscenes and dialogue between the player and the final boss.
2. Chrono Trigger (SNES/PS1/DS) has 13 endings: 2 endings can be seen from the first playthrough, 1 ending that is exclusive to the DS remake by defeating the bonus last boss, and 10 "special" endings which require a New Game+ and then going to defeat the last boss at various points in the game.
3. Fire Emblem (GBA, and I believe the original port was on the SNES)
There's the ending to Lyn's story (the tutorial), Eliwood's story, and depending on the relationships that Eliwood has made through Support convos, there were a couple other viewable scenes. Same deal with Hector's story, and the Support scenes on that playthrough. All that together, I'd say there are about 10 different endings to be seen.
And a couple examples that aren't JRPGs:
1. Any Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors game. ;)
You cleared the game once, congratulations, now do it for everyone else to unlock more characters, weapons, and stages.
2. Trapt (PS2)
Run around, put down traps, kill people with intricate methods. Rinse and repeat. 3 possible endings: a bad ending, a decent ending, and a "good" ending, but all of them were mediocre. Unlock all endings to get the hidden traps to kill more people. To be honest, for a game that revolved around just sprinting from place to place just to kill people, this game was really fun. :)
3. Cave Story (PC)
3 endings--1 bad, 1 decent, and 1 true ending.
4. Star Fox 64 (N64)
...I suppose this counts? There were 2 possible endings, after all...Yeah, you can tell I'm running out of examples. ANYWAYS :D
So what's my stance on replayability?
Well, it is a factor on whether I want to spend time on a video game or not. I'm a completionist, and if it's a game that I end up liking a lot, I will be hellbent on getting everything. I won't go so far to say that it practically determines if I'll get a certain game or not, though. This mostly applies for any RPGs that I might be interested in getting, really.
One of my current projects (that's been on-going for the last several months, actually) is to 100% Chrono Trigger DS. I'm missing 1 Bestiary entry (Spekkio's Level 99 variation), 1 weapon (Ayla's Bronze Fist, which she automatically obtains at Level 97...I think?), and a couple of new accessories that are only obtained through the Monster Arena. After that, I hope to completely max everyone's stats. And then, if I'm still not yet burnt out from Chrono Trigger, I'll probably do a Minimalist run with everyone using their initial equipment.
There's Persona 4 on PS2, I suppose, which is also a valid example of good replayability. On your first playthrough, although it is possible to max all your stats and get all your S. Links to max, I suppose it's rather difficult to do this without planning and knowing what you have to do. And if you can do that, you are allowed to fuse the Persona that are unlocked after getting Max S. Link on a certain character. Besides that, I suppose I could also replay the game on another difficulty (working on Normal right now, played through my first run on Beginner, and to be honest I like it a lot more on Beginner)--difficulties are open to you at the beginning of the game. No comment on that. I suppose a sane person would start his/her first playthrough on something not Expert rank, and thus he/she would not see the hidden bosses of the game. To the best of my knowledge there are only two hidden bosses that can only be found on Expert rank.
Another game that I hope to finish before the year is over: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2 - Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon. Tongue-twisting title aside, to completely unlock everything on this game I'll need at least 3 more playthroughs, thanks to my law-abiding nature and making Raidou extremely Lawful. Even the quiz near the end of the last dungeon couldn't even put a dent on his alignment. I picked all the Chaos answers and I was still Lawful at the end of it. Having done that, I didn't get the Chaos-only Case Files, which means I missed out on Alice. I missed an earlier requirement for an earlier Case File, which means I can get that on my next playthrough. And since I'll be getting the Law alignment ending, I'll have to play through this game and aim for Chaos alignment to get the extra Case Files that are exclusive to Chaos-alignment players...Well, if not for this rambling I wouldn't have realized how far back I've set myself! See, this is what happens when you do nice things in video games. :/
I could keep going on about the video game things that I want to get done, but it's nearly 3 in the morning and I've already crafted a wall of text. So maybe next time. Or whenever I feel like rambling and remember that I have a blog to do it on.
