Game Completion[?]

[Kesubei]

Recently, I looked over all of the games I bought in 2008 and was a little disappointed to find that I completed none of them. Curious, I also collected the games I bought in 2007 and found that I hadn't completed them either (with the exception of the Phoenix Wright games).

Why do I not finish my games? I believe part of the reason has to do with the genre: almost every game I purchased over the last two years have been RPGs. They aren't meant to be short games, and that's exactly why I buy them. I feel that RPGs are the only genre of game where I can feel like I'm getting my money's worth.

The other reason is probably my personality. I hate being bored so I make sure I always have a backlog of activities. Unfortunately, I think I stopped paying attention to that backlog long ago. As a result, there are many things I have yet to finish, like books or comic series.

Surely I can't be the only one. Does anyone else have a backlog of unfinished games? Are you like me, the type of person who rarely finishes a game, or do you make sure to complete a game before you buy them?

For curiosity's sake, here's my backlog of games, 2007-08:

[SPOILER-BOX]Xenosaga
Etrian Odyssey
Tales of the Tempest
Jump Superstars
Dragon Quest VIII
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy X
Persona 3
Monster Hunter Freedom*
Monster Hunter Freedom 2*
Front Mission
Super Robot Wars: OG
Super Robot Wars: OG2
Yggdra Union (GBA)
FFT: War of the Lions
Disgaea PSP
Valkyrie Profile
Patapon
Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner
Pokemon Diamond
Odin Sphere
Geist
Tales of Symphonia
Sigma Star Saga

*You can't really 'finish' these, in the conventional sense[/SPOILER-BOX]

[beatrixkiddo]

I do the same thing with RPGs. The Final Fantasies especially. I get to the endgame and grind away at all the sidequests, rare enemies, gear acquisition, etc, that I eventually lose interest without ever having fought the end boss. :<

[Split]

FINISH FINAL FANTASY X. 5 TIMES. (and odin sphere)

[Solstis]

I usually finish RPGs, Western and Japanese. Then realize that I missed half the goodies when I replay it.

That said, I don't think I've ever finished a Zelda game.

I might finish Fallout 3 when I get bored with it, and I "finished" Fable 2 multiple times.

This year, I finished Fable 2 (as mentioned), Mass Effect, and... oh. Wow.

Backlog:

Gears of War 2 (Gears of War 1, as well)
Metroid Prime 3 (though I did beat the end boss for the bf, I didn't play through it all)
The newest Zelda (forgot the name)
Call of Duty: World at War
Boom Blox (well, as in I haven't unlocked everything yet)
Pokemon: Diamond

[Omega_Weltall]

heh i got Dragon Quest 8 at launch and JUST finished it 2 months ago...

[Ketchup345]

I am an RPG fan. I usually play to near end game and move on. Part of this may be I decide to overlevel myself (Final Fantasy 9 especially), and the rest I get bored after trying to go for difficult tasks such as at least full sphere grid with everyone in FFX in addition to beating everything in monster arena (I have maybe just over 1/2 of the "created" monsters done).

Zelda:Ocarina I think I stopped right before the final battle on the N64 version, no idea where on the GC Zelda pack.

Bet on me not finishing a game. One of the few exceptions was Lunar (bonus since it was an RPG).

[Outrider]

Don't feel bad. Playing Xenosaga or Geist would make anybody lose their faith in videogames.

Also:

HOLY CRAP, SOMEBODY ELSE WHO HAS PLAYED SIGMA STAR SAGA.

[Mike]

I get to the endgame and grind away at all the sidequests, rare enemies, gear acquisition, etc, that I eventually lose interest without ever having fought the end boss. :<

Me too and I never actually get around to beating them again. Ah well.

Sigma Star Story needed to be longer.

[Feelmirath]

...This thread just reminded me I haven't fully completed Super Mario Galaxy yet. D:

[amtalx]

Its very rare that I don't finish a game. It has to be pretty lame for me not to finish it. I will buy games, but won't start them until I've completed the previous one.

[AC9breaker]

It's also quite rare for me to not complete a game. Only games I can think of that I never beat are Okami cause it's last gen and my ps3 doesn't play ps2 games and my ps2 controllers broke.

A castlevania game for the SP. Game was freaking hard as FUCK. I was about to beat it when one of my nieces saved over my slot, I waited too long to start over again and then it just magically disappeared.

Cyborg Justice another hard game.

oh and Battletoads, obv.

[Outrider]

Snarkiness aside, I also find that I don't finish a lot of the games I start, for a variety of reasons.

Some games I'll pick up on the cheap or I'll borrow from my brothers because I'm itching for a new game, and when something else comes out, I'll jump ship. Some older games (going back to a lot of the SNES RPGs) I never finished simply because I would usually watch my brother play through them and finish them while I was only half-way done with the game. I still intend on going back to them, but I also don't feel terrible about mostly just watching them. They were linear RPGs, after all.

One thing I definitely do is start playing a game again and then never finishing it. I don't think that's really the same thing, though.

(Though the scary thing to me is it's seeming more and more like nobody plays games more than once anymore. Sure, there are games that I beat once, but there are a lot of games I beat and then go back to. Have we really gotten so bad that games are disposable after the first play-through? Do you only read a book once or watch a movie once? The idea is just bizarre to me.)

[Vanzazikon]

Now that I think about it, I don't really "finish" (As in Defeat last boss and view credits) most of the games I recently bought.

I don't know, console games aren't that fun to me anymore. =/ (Need PS3)

[darkante]

Yes, there are alot of games i tend to skip completition on for some reasons.
I don´t know really the reasons.

[Shiroyu]

It's rather rare for me to finish a game, and it's ever rarer for me to complete a game. The only games I have completed (finished, 100% endings, items, etc.) are Super Mario RPG, EarthBound, Disgaea, Gitaroo Man, and Chrono Trigger. The only games I've finished (beaten final boss) are Super Mario Bros., Tales of Symphonia, Disgaea 2, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow + Dawn of Sorrow, Mario 64, Phantasy Star Online, Phantasy Star Zero, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, and Ragnarok Online DS. I only really finish games if it's a game I feel is worthy of finishing.

I didn't include fighting games or music games. (Gitaroo Man is an exception because it has an actual story)

[CrimsomWolf]

Oh, so it's not just me :D

I often play even several games at roughly same time period and most of time I stop at some point and start all over again.

Though I do finish some of them, it's not that very common for me, I play mostly for pure enjoyment and boredom-killing. Though I did finished Command & Conquer 3 several times as did Red Alert 3 as well as Mass Effect...

[Kesubei]

Interesting answers! Nice to see that I'm not the only one.


(Though the scary thing to me is it's seeming more and more like nobody plays games more than once anymore. Sure, there are games that I beat once, but there are a lot of games I beat and then go back to. Have we really gotten so bad that games are disposable after the first play-through? Do you only read a book once or watch a movie once? The idea is just bizarre to me.)

I agree with you. I DO think games have become so disposable that some people can choose not to play the same game again, similar to books or movies. Going back to games is something I enjoy, though. Maybe that's another reason why I don't finish games, in addition to...


I often play even several games at roughly same time period and most of time I stop at some point and start all over again.

I'm with you. Actually, if I haven't played a game in a few months, I start over so that I may experience the story again.

[Outrider]

I agree with you. I DO think games have become so disposable that some people can choose not to play the same game again, similar to books or movies. Going back to games is something I enjoy, though. Maybe that's another reason why I don't finish games, in addition to...

I was actually suggesting that people DON'T just toss books or movies after only reading or viewing them once, but if that's the case as well...

I... I think I need to lay down.

[Tyreek]

Three games I've yet to ever finish:

Megaman Battle Network 4 Red Sun/Blue Moon- Super Hard
Persona 3 FES (The Answer)

I did a 100% Completion of Persona 3 (The Journey) and I was looking forward to finding out what happened afterward. One day I just... stopped playing. *shrugs*

[Weeaboolits]

I tend to lose interest in a game when I get to a part I don't feel like doing, so I don't, then I forget about it.

This can have disastrous consequences in RPGs where I'll come back to it one day, only to have no idea what the hell I'm expected to do anymore.

[Kesubei]

I was actually suggesting that people DON'T just toss books or movies after only reading or viewing them once, but if that's the case as well...

I... I think I need to lay down.

There are many books or movies that some people would never waste time on again, like the plethora of party movies based in college. I'm sure a large population of people wouldn't go out of their way to revisit those classics.

Similarly, a demographic like adult men probably wouldn't play any of the Imagine series of games more than once.

...I just picked up Rogue Galaxy for $12 at Circuit City yesterday, so I'll go ahead and add that to the list.

[Darkly]

i guess im half similar to you OP.

I always tend to just buy way too many games around winter especially play each one for a bit until the next one comes out and i flock to that.

Then around the great gaming drought (summer) i always go back to all those great games and systematically finish pretty much all of them, makes me feel satisfied knowing ive finally finished everything by the time winter comes around again!

[Kent]

Etrian Odyssey?

Good luck with that (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkbfmkFVsLA).

[beatrixkiddo]

I'm playing that currently. 16th floor~

[Zantra]

I can probably count on one hand, every single game i've ever completed 100%.

Well, maybe not one hand, but you get the idea...

For example:
New games like Disgaea 3 with it's lvl cap of 9,999 make it a very hard game to complete, including tons of characters to obtain, endings to unlock, and secrets to discover.

I love games, and I play way too much of them, but I seem to have developed Video Game ADD. I can't seem to focus enough to play any game to completion anymore.

I've never even capped a single character on PSO.

I don't know if it's the length of games that causes me not to finish them, or the fact that I buy too many, but I find that I end up playing 11 different games at a time.

Plus the fact that I like movies, and anime, and sleeping for 12-14 hours a day, (also reading) I find it hard to finish anything I start (except for books).

[SubstanceD]

This topic makes me feel a little bit better about myself since I thought I was the only one who had a whole bunch of unfinished games.

I am a massive rpg fan, sadly however I don't have the time to invest into long games like Persona 3 or games like Mass Effect which are filled with tonnes of side quests ( which I feel obligated to undertake even though they are un-essential to the main story ), tedious exploration and lengthy dialogue scenes.

[CafeTomas]

I've got a fairly large backlog of games myself, a lot I started but then had a busy schedule and ended up not playing anymore because I didn't have the time. Slowly I know I'll finish them, but there's just so much!

Case and point, I picked up Resident Evil 4 Wii when it came out. I only beat it about 2 weeks before this past Christmas! It's a slow process, but I find that if the games are really ones that you like, you'll get around to finishing them sooner or later.

The only games I can say I never really took long to finish were Zelda games. Any other action/adventure title and I'll still be trying to complete it for months!

[rayner]

Ever since I got an Xbox 360, I rarely have a backlog... basically near X-mas I have a few extra games lying around, but I tend to only buy games when I'm done with old ones. Some I hold off for a second or third playthrough. Like Infinite Undiscovery, Tales of Vesperia or Operation Darkness. Currently I have 5 unplayed games... and I still need to get back to 86% completion for gamerscore, so I may not start any of them until I get 61,812 Gamerscore :-)

Though I REALLY want to download R-Type Dimensions!!!

[beatrixkiddo]

Decided to make up my own list of unfinisheds!


PS2
[s]Persona 4
Final Fantasy 12
Metal Gear Solid 3 (working on it now!)
Odin Sphere
Unlimited SaGa (was awful anyway)
Jade Cocoon 2
Disgaea 2
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

PS3
LittleBigPlanet

PSP
Final Fantasy Tactics (working on it now!)
Patapon

GCN
Super Mario Sunshine

NDS
Etrian Odyssey
Super Mario 64 DS
Final Fantasy 3
Yoshi's Touch n Go (awful)

Wii
Super Mario Galaxy
WarioWare Smooth Moves
TLoZ: Twilight Princess

X360
Ninety-Nine Nights
Perfect Dark Zero
Grand Theft Auto 4
Fable 2

PC
Warcraft 3
STALKER
Prey
[/spoiler-box]

I'm pretty bad at this.