A question to completionists

[TheBlaskar]

I just pick up where I left off. Since transferring to PS5, a lot of my PS4 saves didn't make it for some reason. So, I've had to start over on almost all of my backlog titles recently, but not by choice. In that case, I may even let more time go by before jumping back in so that it doesn't feel like I'm retreading or backtracking

[Sylvanticore]

17 hours ago, vanslayder said:

P.S. I like how 2 guys answered the thread about completionists have 45% and 69% completion rate. True completionists, lol.

 

Yeah my focus on completing games is out of wack, plan on fixing that very soon

[Doctor Completion]

I often start over simply because I've got the memory of a goldfish, it seems.

[Vern3r0z]

play one game at a time until you get the plat/100%. If some other game get DLC when you are playing another game then prioritize that after you have completed the previous game. If the DLC is a quick one to do (killing floor 2 comes to mind), then i just do them as soon as possible, even if im still in the middle of completing another game.

[Don_Chipotle]

I think it depends on how deep and far you are, when this happens to me i usually try to read a guide or wiki in order to remember what to do next

[Riku_Darkness]

Some years ago my account was a mess with incompleted games. My ps3 got ylod, one online game from japan got region lock so not possible to play without vpn, some games was just booring as hell or a second job, some games also has tons of dlc trophies etc. I decided to mix up my games and play 1-2 new games, than 1-2 old games. Sometimes i just play without hunting on other user. But to aswer your question, it depends on the game and the situation. If i messed a true end road in a rpg or lost my save with a broken console i have no other choice than start from 0 again and this happend more than once. I try to use my old save, but sometimes its not easy to jump into the saves progress so i restart sometimes a new game, but not always. I try to 100% every new game to not fall back. Since i reached 99%, trophy hunting got mor fun than before. A huge backlog can be very irksome. Its also more cheap to play a game to 100% instead of buying new games over and over.

[PhyrxianLibrarin]

Depends on the game.

 

- With Arkham Asylum, I jumped right into the challenges and hoped that playing through them would re-teach me the controls and game mechanics. It took time, but less time than it would have taken to playthrough the entire game again from scratch.

- With Dark Souls 2, I knew the game needed a more natural ramp-up of skill, so I started fresh after bouncing off it the first time.

 

Generally, though, I try to stick with a single game until I 100% it, specifically so I don't lose all the muscle memory I obtained. With something like Horizon Zero Dawn, I have to go back and NG+ it on the hardest difficulty, and I can barely even remember the controls. The fact that lots of similar-genre games have similar control schemes is my only saving grace.

[kingjavs]

I always restart. Not really out of choice but because my aging brain has a really hard time retaining the majority of games I stopped. Jumping in is overwhelming - I have no idea where I'm with inventory, abilities, controls, plot......its just better to restart when I actually feel the desire to dedicate a play-through.

[AJ_Radio]

I lost count of the number of times I’ve gone back to finishing games. 
 

One of the better examples is Red Dead Redemption 1. Played back in 2013 and spent hundreds of hours on the multiplayer. Spent 30 - 40 hours on the story. Fast forward to 2016 and I learn I only had a few trophies left for the platinum. Had a friend help me with getting assists at a gang hangout, and did some of the other online with randoms. 
 

Internet was bad, so I decided to give up on the 100%. A few years pass and I move to a different location. Internet was slightly better so I join some boosting sessions. Managed to get all the remaining trophies in just a weeks worth of playing. 
 

Other games, sometimes I just don’t feel the mood to play them. This happened with Unravel and many others. I don’t care about Fastest Achievers anymore, so as long as I want to complete a game, I’ll take as long as I want. 

[the1andonly654]

I forget most games quickly and this is why I just play one single player game at a time and I play it until completion. 

My gaming habits have changed recently but this is constant - if I stop playing a game, I'm done for good. I might want to replay a game at some point but then I start a new game, not ng+. 

 

With AC2, I'd definitely start over because the story in the whole trilogy is amazing imo. But then again, I'm saying that because I already know (and actually mostly remember) how amazing it is, if I didn't and was close to a plat - I might just continue for the sake of completion and miss out on all the amazingness. 

 

 

 

[ShinySpidey]

I never restart (even though sometimes I should) because that would just take too much time...

I try as much as I can to play one game at a time until 100%, especially if the game requires a lot of skill and muscle memory.

However I had a bit of hard time with "easier" games too like The Witcher 3 because I got the platinum, then dropped, picked up again one year later for Hearts of Stones, then dropped again and I eventually completed a few months later the last DLC Blood and Wine. Each time I went back, I forgot almost all the controls and how the menu works. That was not a good choice ?

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by ShinySpidey

[Lordguwa]

on games that i leave on the back-burner. i continue where i left off

 

binding of isaac for example i come back and continue the path (though it's on the back-burner again until it gets lucky on the lottery).

[Mr_Stkrdknmiblz]

On my old Xbox account, I would go back and carry on from where I left off.  On this account, I just play one game until it's done, occasionally flipping between up to three if I'm mainly working on a grindy game and want variety.

[Lava_Yuki]

I usually try to platinum the game when i start it but there are a few games on my list (that you may see took like 5 or 8 years to complete on my profile) that I stopped playing and only came back to platinum years later. I pick up from where I left off, unless I hardly played it or only earned one trophy and quit which is uncommon for me. The only games where I did that were Tales of Symphonia DOTW (which i did not plat as it was too boring) and Lightning Returns, so I started from the start.

 

I completed the story of FFX 8 years ago, left it and only came back to platinum it this year, with how long the plat is I obviously picked where I left off which was just the post game grind anyway. For Lightning Returns I only played an hour and then left it for 2 years, so restarted that from scratch. For Tales of Zestiria it was a similar story with FFX, I completed the story back in 2016 and abandoned the platinum, but this year decided to go back and plat it for completion % sake, it was again left at post game so I took off from there. I grinded grade and started NG+ to get the rest of the trophies, however because I forgot the story, I watched all the cutscenes again and ended up enjoying the game as I remember hating it first time around.

[starcrunch061]

On 11/20/2022 at 6:46 PM, BoxGuy23 said:

Say there is a game you've put off for some time. three months, a year, two. When going back, do you swing back into the saddle of where you left off or do you start back from square one. I really want to jump back into Assassins Creed two but don't know if it worth more of my time to watch some recap to get up to speed and jump back in or do the time and start it back. It happens to me with a lot of games because I struggle to just sit down with one game and play sometimes. would love to hear anyone's thoughts!

Good question, and it depends.

 

If it’s a game from a genre with which I have a lot of familiarity, I’ll just jump back in. Souls games, RPGs - I’ll start it right up.

 

Buy if it’s something with which I’m less familiar, I’ll likely start over. Action games with story, e.g.

[Kefka1986]

If I'm almost done with the platinum, I start from where I left it. A few weeks ago I finished Crash Bandicoot after FIVE YEARS just because I didn't find me in the mood to play it, and I started from where I left, learning the controls again. Same with Ratchet & Clank and with Bloodstone, two other games I neglected to finish and finally got them done, starting from the last save I had.

 

But if the game is too story-driven, I usually want to start again just to remember everything until that point. It happened to me with Shadows of mordor and it will probably happen to me again with Okami and Hack G.U. The shorter the game, the more I'm driven to start it from the beginning, unless I only have a few trophies left for the platinum.

[Gommes_]

Since the PS4 era I stick to a game until I have finished it 100%. Before I was rather cleaning up the "mess" I created with the PS3. I've left so many games unfinished and over time I always came back to them in order to get the platinums. My first hard platinum was Prototype in 2011, so after that I felt way more confident tackling those beasts in my backlog.

Btw. I am done now with completing Street Fighter 4 after almost 13 years and reaching an overall completion of 99% in November this year. If I keep going like this with new games I should maintain that status .

[StraightVege]

A somewhat rare occurrence for me, since I tend to focus on one game at a time until it's complete, but I do always attempt to begin wherever I left off. Usually a really awkward experience, because I've completely forgotten where I was, the controls, strategies, and so forth; I find it much harder than learning a new game, actually. It's particularly troublesome when the game in question has complex mechanics, or I'm suddenly thrown back into a difficult late game scenario.

 

Still, things typically become far easier after a few hours of derusting, so I don't see the point in starting from scratch. Currently dreading my return to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Battlechasers: Nightwar, and Greedfall. ?

[zizimonster]

10 minutes ago, StraightVege said:

Currently dreading my return to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Battlechasers: Nightwar, and Greedfall.

I can't speak about the other two games, but DX: Mankind Divided has simple controls. You have to play stealthily all the way to the end because there's a trophy for it. Further, the game features a manual save function, so you're able to save anytime, anywhere. You can always reload whenever you mess up. Really.

 

If you want to familiarize yourself with the game, complete the two story expansions (System Rift and A Criminal Past) first if you own them. I did that before tackling the main game because they were super quick to complete. Seriously.

[StraightVege]

21 minutes ago, zizimonster said:

I can't speak about the other two games, but DX: Mankind Divided has simple controls. You have to play stealthily all the way to the end because there's a trophy for it. Further, the game features a manual save function, so you're able to save anytime, anywhere. You can always reload whenever you mess up.

 

Appreciate the motivation! ?  Yeah, while I'm aware of all this (I did platinum Human Revolution twice, after all), it doesn't help with remembering where I stopped, or what I was in the midst of doing. Could be wrong, but I believe my last save is in the sewers above a group of enemies, where I was about to attempt one of the more annoying combat trophies. I was following the True Achievements walkthrough, so that should help me get my bearings, at least.

 

21 minutes ago, zizimonster said:

If you want to familiarize yourself with the game, complete the two story expansions (System Rift and A Criminal Past) first if you own them. I did that before tackling the main game because they were super quick to complete.

 

Oh, that could be good advice. Do they take place before or after the main story? I don't usually like playing stuff out of chronological order.

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by StraightVege

[zizimonster]

11 minutes ago, StraightVege said:

Could be wrong, but I believe my last save is in the sewers above a group of enemies, where I was about to attempt one of the more annoying combat trophies. I was following the True Achievements walkthrough, so that should help me get my bearings, at least.

That's still early. I used the videos in this thread for the Pacifist/Foxiest trophies.

 

11 minutes ago, StraightVege said:

Oh, that could good advice. Do they take place before or after the main story? I don't usually like playing stuff out of chronological order.

System Rift takes place during the main story

 

A Criminal Past takes place before the main story.

 

Both of them are separate from the main game -- they have their own modes in the main menu of the game, and your upgrades won't carry over.

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by zizimonster
update

[Spacey_Dweeb]

It really depends on the game for me. Usually though, I play some of the beginning again so I can get familiar with the controls again. Then jump back to my older save. I don't normally restart due to the story. Even if I need a refresh, there's generally a 10 minute YouTube vid I can watch/listen to to get me back into that and I can usually do that while folding laundry, or taking care of something else and not sacrifice any actual gaming time. 

[Aboelsas]

I tend to leave the game if i have to do multiple playthroughs so i always come back to a new game save and get familar with the game then carry over where i left.

 

Right now i have Resident evil 2 like this, stopped to play snd finish Gotham knights and now its time to revisit Mr.X again