LogFAQs > #965248577

I came back to Hollow Knight this week, which is a game with a surprising amount of content and a strong candidate for a game you might want to play a second time...but isn't really "replayable," and I was surprised when I realized I had about 70 hours and had never actually gotten the true ending. It made me wonder...

What I'm considering replayable:

• Anything that is a singular gameplay loop that gets repeated ad nauseum (fighting games, sports, probably racing games, 4x, match 3)
• Online multiplayer (MOBA, MMO, FPS deathmatch, social deduction)
• Games where you might replay with a custom character (many open-world RPGs)
• Games with strong random elements (rogue-likes, many rogue-lites, randomizers, card battlers)
• Games driven by your score (rhythm, match 3)

What I'm not considering replayable:

• Games in the replayable list if you only play them one-and-done
• Games with a finite number of replay loops (Undertale, Mass Effect)
• Collectible or achievement hunting
• Games with multiple difficulties or endings
• Games where you need to git gud (classic arcade)
• Grinding (unless that literally is the whole game, like idle games)

Situational:

• Speedrunning
• Games with freeform objectives (sandbox, simulation)
• Gacha/casual/anything with an energy system

Basically, a game is not replayable if it has a singular, finite gameplay experience, regardless of how that experience plays out specifically for you.

You are not required to use my interpretation. You probably know what is and isn't replayable for you. This is just for anyone who needs me to spell it out.

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And in hindsight, I suspect the answer is probably Might and Magic: World of Xeen. It's an incredibly long game that I played in totality quite a few times back in an age when I didn't have a lot of games to choose from and had to make them count. It's open world, kinda, but it's not a Bethesda game -- you only have limited, pre-programmed things you can do. You can also play with different parties, but I always used the default team. I'm guessing I've played at least four or five hundred hours in that. Maybe more. It's not like games tracked your time played in the 90s. But when I think of games I know I've put more time into, they were all designed in such a way that the devs intended for you to come back, that you could come back meaningfully, or that the game was just one endless gameplay loop.