Anyone have a problem starting loads of games and not finishing them?

[Patches]

I feel your pain. Especially when its like 100+ jrpgs and currently in jrpg burnout. I have currently been juggling fallout new vegas, .hack//infection, .hack//gu vol1, .hack fragment, gran turismo 4 and Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere (jp).

 

[zilbert25]

I tend to put off AAA games now and play retro or emulation, which I do tend to finish most of the time. Getting older and lazier utlising save states, rewind functions, etc. All in all, plenty of good fun.

 

[Leifang]

Story of my life right there.

I also got item stingy Tomb Raider 3 on PS1, where I ran out of save crystals and medpacks as a kid and had to restart the entire game so I kept finishing with dozens, just reloading parts where I lost a lot of health.

The terminal phase was having 99 potions in Final Fantasy and selling 10-20 so ones I pick up don't go to waste. I fixed it by actually using an ether and noticing ceiling not collapsed...

It's so much more fun to play when you use those remedies on berserked fighter instead of reloading every time you get into a status effect. Last time I played Baldur's Gate, my weapon broke in the tutorial, I kept the save. It's more fun and immersive!

 

[burntman]

Yes, it can be challenging when they're are so many interesting games around. Having retroarch on my phone has kinda helped my with my backlog.

before i broke my phone, that was my go to for psp emulation

Post automatically merged: Dec 29, 2024

The ADHD is strong with me, so unless I hyper focus on it, or make a conscious effort to continue playing a game, I have a hard time being focused enough to get through most of the games I start. I find that recording my gaming sessions are a good way to not lose the plot, so to speak.

only game i can really think of beating was rhythm tengoku but still havent got all the perfects yet so I guess it isn't beaten lol

Post automatically merged: Dec 29, 2024

Well, you don't really "beat" fighting and puzzle games, do you? Unless there's a story mode and those are usually very short. I consider Tekken completed when I unlocked all characters and filled Theater Mode. Now you don't unlock much and cosmetics grind never ends, so it's just getting all endings.

But yeah I used to have a HUGE problem of restartitis, I have countless RPGs started and dropped because I want to recreate a character... or find out I missed tons of stuff before. Worst example is Bioware games, I finished KOTOR dilogy and Mass Effect trilogy multiple times, but Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale is party creation simulators. Fallout and Dragon Age are modding toolkits with games being attached to them. So...

I got out of the cycle of endless restarts by actually picking some shorter games to just get to the end, selected more manageable games to 100%, and finally, focused on more linear RPGs without open world distracting you so much.

Like, I have a save in FF1 right before final dungeon from years ago... and FF13 in the last 20% of the game or so, but I got all tails and summons in FF4 and finished it properly, then went through the PAINFUL minigames in FFX, and on track to one-shot the last bosses like I Rikku mugged Seymour. xD Note that I am deliberately choosing the MOST linear RPGs because you get lost in more open games forever.

*** *** ***

I actually went back and finished first, original Assassin's Creed, so now I have Ezio games and Origins done 100%, same with first five Tomb Raiders and Rise... Where I need to pick up my 87% save from TR2013.

Problem with these games is you get burned out way before you can finish them, I love when you can do the post-game completion for treasure search and collectathons, most older RPGs forcing you to go back before final fight and spend hours grinding for useless items when you could have just finished the story is bad game design, no two ways around that... But thanks to post-game, Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of very few modern games I have a 100% save on, it didn't overstay its welcome. AC Origins is also well paced.

So to avoid burnout, I take breaks and switch to short arcade games. Apart from having a Retroarch setup on Steam with RetroAchievements and all, I also got a PS3 with custom firmware and some arcade ports installed, it's a really neat console where you can emulate three others natively and play Crazy Taxi or Daytona USA on breaks... or get a few rounds in Tekken TAG HD.

What this all boils down to is that to avoid being burning out between endless fighters and modern-ish games that reward you for exploring endlessly, and actually enjoy them without a feeling of "I haven't actually finished a game in years", I just go through something like Golden Axe, Contra, Metal Slug, or Final Fight, you need like what, 40 minutes for each? That's less than one Blitzball league and I went through like three or four to get ONE weapon.

And sometimes I got insane and try to 100% achievements in Civilization 5 and 6, a game series that I literally never finished a game on. There are saves that help with that. It's crazy but fun!

But overall, I just learned to stop worrying and enjoy games I can't do perfectly, and I found out letting games play even with something missed is far more enjoyable than restarting all the time and then being so OP at the end, the grind had no point to it.

yeaahhhh golden axe is awesome, my friends love that. Good response, I have hundreds of games I want to play but I'm just tryna play the ones that are the most enjoyable. I love the casino in dq 5. Princess crown is one im almost starting; but then a new patch for the translation drops.

Post automatically merged: Dec 29, 2024

I feel your pain. Especially when its like 100+ jrpgs and currently in jrpg burnout. I have currently been juggling fallout new vegas, .hack//infection, .hack//gu vol1, .hack fragment, gran turismo 4 and Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere (jp).

Gran turismo 4 is one of the best ps2 if not games of all time. I had a cheap wheel for it, but wanted a force feedback one, then got sidetracked with pc light guns and have yet to get round to buying one . I love getting into the specific gaming peripheral like wheel, light guns and what not.

 

[quixotic_kimchi]

leavin gaems uncompletd isnt a *me* problem, it’s a shit game problem. i will nvr force myself 2 finish a game for sake of completionism. if it aint fun, what’s the point?

gamerz place 2 much value in playing the way devs intended. obvi they want u 2 see it thru n get 2 the end credits. if i want 2 spend teh entirety of my Pokémon Emerald journey grindin a bug on the saem patch of grass for 60 hours w/ only two badges, thts my prerogative. my game. my journey. my rules.

i rather play 100 gaems n not “finish” a single one than dedicate myself 2 beating a one boring game jst bc the sunk cost b naggin. fk finishing gamez on someone else’s terms (end credits). b ur own ending. sometimes, the princess nvr gets saved, n thts alright

 

[Ikagura]

This is why I spend much more time thinking about which games I really want to start vs just starting random stuff.

 

[YuriSukiSan]

.. Yeah, just a little. It got bad enough that I started setting goals and keeping a habit tracker so I didn't stop what I was doing to play something else. My only advice is practicing self discipline.. it took a lot of practice for me. Especially when you have a backlog you don't want to look at or you're playing something that's really challenging, I used to have a nasty habit of giving up on something then immediately going back to playing an MMORPG to grind out something for a month.

And like others mentioned in the thread, destructive perfectionism and self sabotage. Whether that's spending hours in a character creator then 2 minutes in game before deleting to start again because I'm unhappy with the result or restarting a save because I've forgotten something trivial. Usually because I missed some random unimportant dialogue that's worthless in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Tbest25]

Whether that's spending hours in a character creator then 2 minutes in game before deleting to start again because I'm unhappy with the result or restarting a save because I've forgotten something trivial.

I do that a lot with Fire emblem when i forgot to recruit a unit, i restart the whole chapter even if i was about to finish it lol

 

[RageBurner]

It's a real issue, and it gets worse the more options you have, and the more time passes. That said, I wouldn't worry about backlog; just play what you feel like playing at any given time.

 

[shubiduba]

Oh yeah. Always had that, though I was able to finish them a bit more when I was a kid.

I really don't bother with it and I'm fine with having backlogs and games I bought without ever playing nowadays.

Still, my time is a lot more strict now, so I just try to make sure I really want to play whatever it is I'm playing. Even if it's a bit of a bad game, as long as I like it (lots of guilty pleasures, you know).

You gotta hunt and kill that sunken cost fallacy, if the game isn't working for you, broom it and move on.

That's the thing. If it's not good or became repetitive/boring, I just move one. I'm sure as hell not working for the game, so I'm not gonna put up with it just to finish it.

 

[zilbert25]

I still have my GOW PS5 save, just under halfway through the game. There always seems to be something else popping up for a quick play or on the handheld. Sometimes its nice to play a short game and one that doesnt take months on end to complete too.

 

[Sandteufel]

It's weird. It's an issue for me. I can't even put too many hours into a game anymore. I look at my Steam hours back in 2012. I wonder how I did that. Granted now I'm a lot more clean when it comes to that.

 

[ObscureJigglypuff]

In relation to the thread and comments here i've seen many videos talking about the problem of games being too long, and i think the real problem is the QUANTITY of them being too long on top of that.

This era on gaming is good when it comes to have many options but that could be equally awful in the exact moment you realize how long is your list...

Many franchise have 5 games or more, and jesus...sometimes i have to search a bit because is a new franchise to me and i have to know where i should start, the best version, find out if the emulator works fine on this, make sure fucking Nintendo don't sue me, etc, etc...

I often forget almost completely the plot in a game because of the many hours i put into many other games through months xD