Ever play an RPG twice in a row?

[danzibr]

Not necessarily an RPG, but not the sort of game that's meant to be played over and over, like a fighting game or CoD or something. I mean... a story game, I suppose.

Anyway, I've replayed games lotsa times, but almost always there's a break between playthroughs. I *almost* just did this with Undertale

Spoiler: Undertale spoiler

Show

Missed the true pacifist ending because I didn't go back and befriend Undyne. Then did that and got the true pacifist ending. I considered playing it through killing everybody, but Flowey changed my mind :P

but didn't follow through.

I only did this one time. With Suikoden II. Played through with no guide, didn't get the best ending, immediately restarted. Incredible game.

[Triaxx]

Skyrim, Fallout New Vegas, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Baldur's Gate 1/2. Yes, lots of times. As well as non RPG's a lot of the time.

[rooster707]

If a game has multiple paths, I usually tell myself I'll replay it, but I never do. The only exception I can think of is Dishonored; I ended up getting the bad ending by accident, so I went back for a no powers pacifist run, which was incredibly satisfying.

[factotum]

I don't think I have, no. Once upon a time I would end up playing the first few levels of an RPG through 2 or 3 times on the trot, because my build optimisation first time through would be so bad that I'd get irrevocably stuck at some point and have to restart with a better build plan, but that isn't even much of a thing these days where RPGs generally level themselves to match you regardless of what you do.

[Algeh]

Back when I was a kid with lots of time and very little money, I played through the first Breath of Fire twice since I owned the cartridge. It doesn't even have much in the way of multiple endings or choices, I just felt that I could play it again in the same way I'd watch a movie more than once, and I didn't own any other game that I'd rather be playing.

Of course, now that I'm an adult and have a very different time:money ratio, I tend to go to the other extreme and barely ever finish any "story" game since I usually have to put it down for multiple weeks/months at some point, and by the time I come back to it I forget where I was and what I was supposed to be doing. I then end up starting over and similarly having to abandon it partway through.

[Blackhawk748]

Oblivion, Skyrim, all the Fallouts, Dishonored, all 3 Fables and probably more

[GloatingSwine]

I think I played the original Mass Effect four, maybe five times in a row when it came out.

Might have been six.

[Kitten Champion]

I've played Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV-V-VI-VII-IX, and Pokemon LG/Black a few times now. I like RPGs where I can shut the sound off and play on my handhelds while travelling or listening to audiobooks, it's a thing I can do for hours without requiring tremendous focus.

Aside from those, I've played Persona 3 and 4 a couple of times each - more if you include P3P and P4Golden - and I'll probably play P5 again on hardest available difficulty next year-ish.

Oh, I've played the original Dragon Quest at least 40 times. I don't know why. It doesn't take that long though.

[Zevox]

Oh, sure, I used to do that all the time, when I had more free time. Pretty much every Bioware game I've ever owned up until Dragon Age: Inquisition (and I did start a second run of that right after the first, I just never finished it), Persona 3, Persona 4, Tales of Symphonia (heck, probably I played through this one three or more times in a row back then), old Dragon Quest/Warrior games, Ogre Battle 64 - basically, if I had an RPG I particularly liked, I probably replayed it at least once right after the first time. Sometimes using a New Game+ feature, sometimes not even if it was there, depending on the game.

[Ogremindes]

Twice in a row? I played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance to near 100%, realized that Black Threads were not in fact an item you could farm infinitely and that I had trashed one that I needed to do the last side mission, and then immediately restarted and played the game to 100% completion. I liked that game a lot.

[Kish]

Lots of times, lots of games.

[Aotrs Commander]

I don't think so; at least if I do, usually not to completion.

I might have done in fairly shortly with Planescape Torment, but that's about it.

Hell, I very rarely play games through more than once or, rarely, twice (if there's, like a good/evil path or something). Usually, it tends more to be like "once and a partial before I get bored" - I tned to have a bit of metaphorical ADD when it comes to games!

Three or four times tends to mark a game as somewhat special!

Actually, the thing I tend to play through the most repeatedly are RTS single player campaigns (decent ones like C&C series, or MechCommander 2 (which I very literally just finished my playthrough of for the third? Possibly forth? Time). Or point-and-clicks.

I've played ME 1 through three times (but the sequels only once), Dragon Age Origins twice, KotR 1 and 2 two and three times respectively, I think; PS:T three or four times (and there will be another once, since I bought the enhanced edition!). BG1 I played through two and a half, times, I think, but since BG2 came out, I haven't touched it. I think the other IE games I've played once plus partial playthroughs...

I've played C&C and DungeonKeeper 1 several times.

TIE Fighter all the way through only twice, I think, but I also spent many hours on it in the earlier missions and such.

[Olinser]

Chrono Trigger. Must have played through 3 or 4 times in a row.

[danzibr]

Great responses! Thanks folks. Man, now I want to play some of these.

I failed to mention while I only played a single game back to back, several times have I finished a game with the intention of a second playthrough, but lost interest. Like uhh... Metroid Prime, Dragon Age: Origins, probably some Final Fantasies (I want to say II in particular... actually, I just may have followed through on that), Breath of Five V, The Last of Us, a few others. I should check my trophies.

[LibraryOgre]

Baldur's Gate EE. I got the newest version, saw that barbarian was now classed as a Fighter kit and said "Cool, I'll do a dual-class Barbarian/Druid, which seems AWESOME."

It does not work. So I started BG1 over again, this time with a Blade.

[Triaxx]

Barbarian/Druid works better in BG2. The powers sync better there. Epic Shapeshifting+Berserker Rage is kind of hilariously too strong.

[kraftcheese]

Heeeeaps of games; most of the ones people have already mentioned, but also Pokemon, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Oblivion and the Halo 3 campaign, all endless times when I was a kid and teen cuz I'd have to get as much as possible out of the few games I did own.

[KillianHawkeye]

Chrono Trigger. Must have played through 3 or 4 times in a row.

Yeah, I was also going to say this. But CT was the first RPG I ever played to have multiple endings or anything like a New Game+ mode (and in fact, the phrase "New Game+" originally comes from Chrono Trigger). Prior to this, there wasn't ever a reason to immediately replay most RPGs, although this might be because in my younger years I mostly played console jRPGs which are pretty linear and tended to lack much in the way of character customization.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Not necessarily an RPG, but not the sort of game that's meant to be played over and over, like a fighting game or CoD or something. I mean... a story game, I suppose.

What a coincidence. I'm currently on my fourth consecutive playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins, after buying it for relative cheaps off Steam.

Spoiler

Show

DA:O kind of cheats by having six distinct origin stories (seven if you consider the elf mage and human mage separate, though I personally wouldn't). Even though the effect on the game as a whole is minimal, the fact that each origin is different really gives me at least a strong incentive to roll another character. There are also multiple choices for minor and major plot points, as well as companion relationships. Considering that the game only has three races and three classes, I find it has a surprising amount of replay value.

It's the little things I find. As a dwarf Noble I was coming home to Orzammar, and the major quest directly involves my own brother. Having minor dwarf NPCs comment on the (false) allegations of me killing the other brother was a minor but nice touch. As any other race I was visiting for presumably the first time, and purely there to enforce the Grey Warden treaties.

As a human noble facing down Arl Howe is a personal matter. For any other origin he's just one of Loghain's lieutenants. And so on.

For Mass Effect and Fallout it was more a question of tackling the game with each class, the challenge of mechanics as opposed to exploring the story. Yeah we had romance options aplenty if you track the entire ME trilogy, but that was a pretty minor aspect of it (to me at least).

It also helps that I have a "1st playthrough is blind" policy on games like these, meaning a second playthrough is basically inevitable. Assuming I was intrigued enough by the game.

[Emperor Demonking]

I've started a fair many - (FF, FFV, Pokemon) - but stopped at a certain point. One of my Dark Souls or Dark Souls 2 runs that came after a completion probably end in completion itself. Probably. Yes, I think that in Dark Souls my lvl 1 run came mmediately after my dagger (really easy) run.

[J-H]

Baldur's Gate I only once or twice, too punishing.
Baldur's Gate II/ToB, around a hundred times, but only about 25 completions of SoA and 10-12 of ToB.
Chrono Trigger at least 15-20 times.
FFIV, V, VI, at least four times each.
Ogre Battle (SNES) at least four completions, maybe more. I wish someone would port the series to PC.

[cobaltstarfire]

I played Hyper Light Drifter two times in a row without a break in between, I'm not sure I've done so with any other game (though I have replayed lots of games). The second time was in New Game+, but that didn't change anything other than the difficulty.

In the case of this game I think I played it all the way through because every little thing about it is just about perfect to me. The music, that atmosphere, and the combat too. The game really drew me in, and I wanted to experience it again and think about the story some more, as well as master the combat. The games combat was very satisfying, and responsive. If you died you knew it was definitely your mistake, so it felt really satisfying to play through again and beat it on hard mode, and even tackle the challenges and beat those too.

[danzibr]

Baldur's Gate I only once or twice, too punishing.
Baldur's Gate II/ToB, around a hundred times, but only about 25 completions of SoA and 10-12 of ToB.
Chrono Trigger at least 15-20 times.
FFIV, V, VI, at least four times each.
Ogre Battle (SNES) at least four completions, maybe more. I wish someone would port the series to PC.

Whoa, that many times in a row? Astounding.

I played Hyper Light Drifter two times in a row without a break in between, I'm not sure I've done so with any other game (though I have replayed lots of games). The second time was in New Game+, but that didn't change anything other than the difficulty.

In the case of this game I think I played it all the way through because every little thing about it is just about perfect to me. The music, that atmosphere, and the combat too. The game really drew me in, and I wanted to experience it again and think about the story some more, as well as master the combat. The games combat was very satisfying, and responsive. If you died you knew it was definitely your mistake, so it felt really satisfying to play through again and beat it on hard mode, and even tackle the challenges and beat those too.

Cool! I'm looking to buy that game really soon. That and Death's Gambit.

[LibraryOgre]

Barbarian/Druid works better in BG2. The powers sync better there. Epic Shapeshifting+Berserker Rage is kind of hilariously too strong.

It doesn't work at all. Berserker/Druid does, but not Barbarian/Druid.

[rooster707]

Oh, and I also played Gunpoint about five times in a row. Partly because it's only an hour or two long, but it's also a really good game and I wanted to get all the achievements.

[Triaxx]

Yeah, totally didn't notice the correction. Thanks for that.

[Psyren]

Just about any game with multiple paths/endings, and even some with just one where I enjoy the mechanics and feel comfortable enough with them to crank up the difficulty.

[J-H]

Whoa, that many times in a row? Astounding.

Oh, not in a row...but over the space of a few years (or many years in the case of BG2).
Fallout 1/2 a number of times as well, playing different builds.

[Kaptin Keen]

I've tried. I don't think I can. I was seriously in love with the first Dragon Age, and I tried starting over with a completely different character - race, class, background, all that. But I think I made it to the first big, boring fight, and quit =)

[Psyren]

I agree with Dragon Age - once you know the story, the actual gameplay is an utter slog, so going through it all again is a PITA

Having said that, I did go through it twice - once on console with a mage warden, then again years later once I finally had a gaming PC worthy of the name, as a Dalish Elf warden. I didn't want all my protagonists (Warden, Hawke, Inquisitor) to be mages, and that seemed to be the easiest one to make be something else. Plus, being able to play with mods on the second run made things much breezier.