Maybe a dumb suggestion, but since you mentioned older systems, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a PS1 classic that helped create the Metroidvania genre. There's also Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which is a spiritual successor by one the key developers behind SOTN. Dead Cells and Hollow Knight are solid games that have been recommended already, but if you find yourself enjoying the rogue-lite elements of those you might enjoy Cult of the Lamb. Admittedly it's top down 2.5d, but it's a nice blend of rogue lite and town management as your tasked with building up a cult and turning it into a thriving community in between fighting your way through dungeons.
I bought a Japanese “new 3ds” system about 2 years ago off of eBay and I’ve been using it a lot! I’ve been loving the Ace Attorney Trilogy lately, but I also played
SM64 via a homebrew 3ds port
NSMB2
SM 3D Land
Shantae 1 & 2 (gbc and dsiware, but I wanna play the 3rd, which is a native 3ds game)
Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition (dsiware, originally gba)
Pilotwings Resort
CTGP-7 (great mk7 modpack)
So, so much Picross
My favorite 3ds game is Pushmo! I played it when I was younger, but it’s still fantastic.
I also loved the 3ds ecosystem outside of strictly games. Mii maker, Streetpass and Nintendo Video were all really fun extras.
Also the VB emulator Red Viper just recently released, so if there’s ever a time to try virtual boy games, it’s now! 3D baybeeee!!
Thomas was alone.(I recommend this one up there with obra dinn)
Spec ops the line
Dlc quest
Limbo
For something quite a bit different, amnesia the dark decent.
This one might be controversial, but the original BioShock, I played it how I wanted, and >! Got the good ending!< And never felt the desire to pick it up. If you’re a completionist on the first run, and it isn’t very difficult to do (very rewarding I’d say), then there’s 0 reason to pick it up again. I felt the same about replaying BioShock infinite, but more because I just didn’t want to play it again (I felt like it had much more story to offer, and sidequests to do, but I didn’t get any of the same satisfactions from the game, first one was done and wrapped up nicely, third one was barely unraveled and I chose to read other people’s ideas of how it had ended)
I played amnesia exactly once and still haven’t brought myself to replay it. I tried a year ago (originally played in 2012) and, while I admit I didn’t give it much effort to relearn the mazes, I didn’t feel too motivated still remembering most of the plot and of course the finale.
Spec Ops The Line has sadly been delisted and is no longer available for purchase. If you already got it, you’re fine, but the only way to get a copy now is 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
I mean there’s games like… Minecraft that I certainly have played many, many times for many hours with lots of different combinations of mods. That’s repayable to the max.
Yes that’s a good point. I don’t have a lot of time to play so I try to stick with shorter games as you said in the post. Even if there is replayability I just drop it after I finish it the first time. For that reason I don’t play stuff like Minecraft and also rarely open worlds, I’ve played a few but try to stick to the main story
I only play games you can’t really finish.
My favorites are Crusader Kings 3, Kerbal Space Program, Rimworld, Dwarf Fortress and Euro Truck Simulator 2.
I struggle to define what “playing it once” would even mean in those games.
For me, it depends how much of the game is story-driven, how long a campaign takes, and how dynamic the gameplay is. I’ve never replayed an assassin’s creed game (from 3 thru Odyssey), but rank them highly. I consider racing/sim games “replayable” in the sense that I never finish the absurd number of championships but will binge them for a while as I buy more dream cars. Similar story for battle Royale/arena/non-story games like rocket league or fortnite. My most-replayed game series is Ace Combat (4-7), but that’s because the campaign is only about 5 hours typically and offers more variation in gameplay along with attainable medals. Puzzle games like Portal 1/2 or The Turing Test offer replayability to me because I never really remember all the tricks to the puzzles, but that’s like 5 years between replays to not spoil the entire story.
This is also driven by having less time available to game. I wish I could learn 2 games every week but a good gaming week has 10 hours of gameplay for me. It’s usually less than 5. So there’s a little more motivation to play something familiar so I can start having fun faster. Ironically, Elite: Dangerous is a comfort game despite the common complaint of its complexity. Some PS2 era games come to mind
I have a 3DS but it’s broken in various ways. Besides I always found the 3DS too top heavy. On the other hand my trusty 2DS is still fine. Nevertheless I’m getting old and my eyes aren’t what they used to be. These screens are so tiny… What are these, TVs for ants?!
I don’t see it here so I’ll mention Ty the Tasmanian Tiger! Really fun collectathon platformer. Played through the more recent remaster on PC and realized it’s very easy, but I spent a huge amount of time as a kid just running around the maps and hub area.
Nioh. It might not be what you’re looking for since it’s fantasy but it does mix in some real elements from that period and even has some historical characters. It’s a pretty good game.
Also in the same genre and also fantasy/samurai themed, Sekiro. Not sure about historical accuracy, but you will enjoy the gameplay or die trying. Or both, those aren’t mutually exclusive
Nioh can be best described as “dark souls gameplay with Borderlands itemization” which I personally love. It’s not for everyone. But the folks it is for will love it. You know who you are.
Escape Academy? It’s a great escape room game (even better in co-op) but it’s more engaging than Escape Simulator since there’s a story pulling everything together. The story’s ridiculous but honestly the context adds entertainment value, regardless of how absurd it is.
SuperBrothers: Sword and Sworcery probably fits this bill. It’s an odd game, but I love the shit out of every minute of it. I have 3 hours in that game. I haven’t touched it since 2013, but I still remember just how ethereal and soothing it was while still being an exciting adventure game. One of the odder things about it is how it instructs you when and for how long to play it. For example, it tells you to stop playing it for a few weeks so the moon’s phase can change. Not that that’s a bad thing, but
They don’t exactly fit with your theme of short mystery and puzzle games, but based on your initial question most JRPGs and most story-focused games came to mind. Let’s go over a few of them I’d recommend to everyone interested in those games:
Persona 5 Royal: It’s about a 100h and very story-heavy. There are some twists and turns which keep you engaged and you build relationships with a wide cast of characters. Besides the story and actual combat, there’s a ton of side activities, all of which you only do a few times. It’s probably my favorite game I’ll never replay, because all these things are an absolute slog to play again. The same goes for Persona 4 and maybe 3, haven’t played that one.
every Etrian Odyssey: They are old-school dungeon crawlers originally released on the 3/DS and got remakes on steam and the Switch. You draw your own maps of every layer the dungeon has, which is a large puzzle in itself. However, once you know the dungeon, there is literally no point in exploring it again. You know every trap, every worthwhile detour and of course the path to take.
Like a dragon 7/8: They combine an open world with lots of mini-games, funny and/or touching side stories and an epic overarching main story to follow. There are tons of interactions with your companions, all of them interesting. It’s just, similarly to Persona 5, all these mini-games and interactions only carry themselves for the short burst you get them in and while they are fresh. Replaying them? It’s an absolute slog. You know every punchline, you have optimized most mini-games and probably remember most of the great backstories each character has - you’d be skipping most of the content and the non-optional combat system isn’t fun enough to carry itself on its own.
Can’t you have fun in dungeon crawlers by trying other party compositions? Or is EO badly balanced where you can only succeed with an specific composition?
You absolutely can! There are classes, subclasses and equipable skills depending on the game. All with different builds. You can win with all of them and swapping around can be fun. However, you can also do this within a single playthrough. At least in my opinion, the dungeon is the main draw here - but of course, as with all games here, there are certainly people who like to replay them.
There is a game from the MS-DOS age of 1996 called Realms of the Haunting where you traverse large open areas for hours searching for items and interactables needed to progress.
You might clear it a second time just to make the experience seem like a linear cohesive string of events but I can’t imagine you would want to clear it any more than that.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne