Thinking about games that are designed to be replayed (stuff like beat em ups, shmups, etc) And wondering if there are better ways to communicate to casual players that multiple playthroughs are the “full” experience - ThreadSky

jiikae.com • 12 days ago

Thinking about games that are designed to be replayed (stuff like beat em ups, shmups, etc)

And wondering if there are better ways to communicate to casual players that multiple playthroughs are the “full” experience

Comments

assoluto.bsky.social•11 days ago

I'm active in the arcade racing scene where people put a lot of effort into their time attacks. In the case of Maximum Tune, cosmetics, rank and battle trophies showcase accolades. These communicate to a casual player there's more to be had if you continue, which in time becomes a desire to replay.

duckmer.bsky.social•12 days ago

I'd look towards the roguelike genre for influence, since structurally they're not all that different from arcade games. granted the "rogue-lite" branch with its progressive unlocks have overtaken in popularity, there's still successful pure rogues that emphasize your playthrough as a "run"

polarbair.bsky.social•11 days ago

Branching paths like a lot of shmups (Darius) and more customizable characters (the mechs in Armored Warriors) seem good. idk if more recent games still do this or not tbh. I just remember a lot of people not realizing or even hating Nier for having many endings that you had to replay to get.

osakanone.bsky.social•12 days ago

High end shmups have a fixation with timeloops for this exact reason so the narritive matches the gameplay.

sweatypalms-btw.bsky.social•12 days ago

I would say new story scenes and extra endings can kinda work as a basic incentive but then I remember how people handled automata's routes lol.

tenkiei.bsky.social•11 days ago

Hades does a great job of this by having a super intricate story & allowing it to unfold over several runs.

blenderer.bsky.social•11 days ago

Unlock something when they die the first time

qwynnix.bsky.social•11 days ago

I'm a casual player and I play games multiple times.

Different playthrough different vibes 💜

evillucario.bsky.social•12 days ago

One of the most obvious ways to communicate this is branching paths. Star Fox 64, Fight N Rage, Shock Troopers, all these examples make it painfully obvious that there's more game to play without making an individual playthrough long.

backlogger.bsky.social•12 days ago

I think one way games can do this is by having the game itself be very short, but consistently taunting the player with other things that they could do, but miss for whatever reason. Obvious one way forks in the road, obvious paths or items they could have picked up, and the like

backlogger.bsky.social•12 days ago

I had this expefience when playing Journey on PS4. That is a very on-rails experience, and i just know there are other sections of the game that i missed or didnt get to experience.

backlogger.bsky.social•12 days ago

Experience ** damn i repeated that word a lot

jiikae.com•12 days ago

First really good answer. I think making them OBVIOUSLY short is actually a strong way of communicating that for sure

zimran03.bsky.social•11 days ago

Honestly all I can think of is rank systems other that… You know how every 3D Mario game has a thank you message at the end. Do that but make the message something like “Now you’re ready for the real experience!” alongside “hard mode is unlocked”

armormodekeeg.bsky.social•11 days ago

lock something cool behind a 1CC like the Extra Stage in Touhou games lol

also stuff like alternate stages/routes, unlockable characters/ships, etc. Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo is a shmup that's really good about this IMO

mechaoni.bsky.social•12 days ago

They'd have to expand their mindset first. Esp for those games. They only see them as mashers and don't go past the surface level on hpw deep they are or can be.

Beat em ups specifically get that rep a lot. Every reviewer back then would just say "typical button mashing game" and not learn anything

mewjam.bsky.social•11 days ago

you gotta force them to 1CC

also if we could find a way to bring back culture and hype around scoring and leaderboards that could do it. look at speedruns

verumleonhart.bsky.social•12 days ago

Probably not at this point especially when they’re still drawn in by “hours of enjoyment”

kaaboose.bsky.social•12 days ago

I don’t know if it’s the best way but Trophies/Achievements certainly work.
Seeing “The Perfect Murder” trophy in Heavy Rain got me playing it again.
And every time Disco Elysium got an update they added more achievements which was all the excuse I needed to play it again!

badboyjm.bsky.social•12 days ago

This is a good question because i'm playing through DMC 3 for the first time and some of those secret missions are 100% designed for a second playthrough once you get the upgrades. I wish there was a way to tell me without me failing 5-8 times and then giving up and moving on

onimaruxlr.bsky.social•11 days ago

feel like there's a spectrum where one end is "It's always the same stuff and you just take different approaches and fine tune your play" on one end and on the other end there's roguelikes where all kindsa stuff is randomized...

In the middle if Left 4 Dead. And that's what I want more of...

autismofficial.bsky.social•11 days ago

an innately good way of doing this is multiple "routes" relating to stuff like choices in-game or even just being allowed to choose the sequence of certain things

for example the way SMT games typically have different endgames depending on allignment, or the choice of desert or ice worlds in NSMBU

necraziti.bsky.social•11 days ago

Wild Guns Reloaded tries to solve this through:

• Normal and Hard each having one of the regular stages swapped out for alternate ones.

• Multiple playable characters, one of which plays drastically different!

• Unlocking an alternate player palette each time you “beat” the game as a character.

raphgg.bsky.social•12 days ago

Classic Sonic games knew how to do this by taunting you with Robotnik having all the emeralds saying "try again" or a robot Sonic/robotnik gets back up after the credits so you know you have unfinished business.

zimran03.bsky.social•11 days ago

This is actually a cool idea. Maybe you need to hit a certain amount of gold ranks or higher in the missions to unlock the true ending.

pressetoascend.bsky.social•11 days ago

So many people enjoy Roguelikes, so i feel like it isn’t hard to get them to look at other genres through a same lens

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