Games you loved but find difficult to/will never go back to?

[Julius]

Shenmue has been on my mind a lot lately, and I'm not really sure why that is. I love the game's soundtrack, and I still listen to this orchestral arrangement on a regular basis: 

Genuinely one of my favourite non-JRPG OSTs in gaming, which is to say it's one of my favourite OSTs in gaming, period. It's incredibly distinct and just so magical. 

I loved its vibe, its characters, its earnestness; heck, when I played Shenmue and Shenmue II for the first time, back-to-back with the HD remasters which released back in 2018, I really found some enjoyment in the game's systems and mechanics. There was making the bus on time to get to work, forklift races, spending too much on the gacha machines, standing around waiting for time to pass, waiting out the front of a seedy yakuza office, looking after a cat, hunting down a sailor, brooding over Lan Di. A LOT of brooding over Lan Di. In the second game there was arm wrestling in the docks (my thumb still suffers with the flashbacks!), harassing local kids, hunting down the masters in Hong Kong, making my way through the Kowloon Walled City, which in and of itself feels like an immortal and interactive monument to a city which is no more, and of course, there's that magical meeting and ending. 

These games are undeniably special, and even with them now feeling like they're somewhat of a proto-Yakuza, to this day there is no experience I've had in gaming which comes close to comparing to the scale and feeling of Shenmue. Despite the fact that I had no nostalgia for the games before playing the remasters in 2018, buoyed on by Shenmue III hype and anticipation, playing Shenmue and Shenmue II back-to-back is one of my favourite experiences in gaming, despite how poorly they've aged in some regards, they're timeless in so many of the others - and most notably, in the intangibles - to me that it's hard to nail down anything more concrete than the feeling that they are special. 

And yet, I have absolutely no desire to return to Shenmue. 

It dawned on me eventually the other day that my experience of Shenmue and Shenmue II were so heavily tied into my life at that time – I'd just finished college and was distraught at the prospect of not going to university because of my physical and mental health at the time, and here came along these games, nearly two decades old and just a couple of years younger than me, ready to teleport me away to the cosy vibes of Yokosuka, juxtaposed with the grand adventure I would find myself on in Hong Kong. It was a much-needed escape, like a bowl of soup on a rainy Sunday afternoon, or wrapping yourself in a blanket during the British winter. 

I just can't bring myself to go back, perhaps in hopes of preserving my appreciation and affinity for my time with those games, but also because they were such an early part of my gaming education that going back to it almost seems unfair and unnecessary. I know deep down that it just won't be the same. 

So, I ask you N-E: for whatever reasons you may have, are there any games which you love but struggle to return to? Or worse yet, don't think you'll ever return to? 

Would love to hear your thoughts 

[Glen-i]

Conker's Bad Fur Day, easily.

The game is absolutely hilarious, and part of why is that the game goes out of it's way to laugh at the player. The game has so many moments where the difficulty ratchets up, that it kinda wraps around from frustrating to funny. But it's only effective on the first playthrough. If I were to play it again, it would just be frustrating. So I don't.

[Cube]

Burnout Paradise

It arrived at the perfect time for me. I had plenty of spare time, and was interested in online gaming. On top of that, it was before Party Chat existed in consoles, so you had to chat with those in the lobbies. Paradise was the ultimate online game for me, focused on just having a fun time with friendly competition. The main feature online is challenges, with a set of 50 or so for each number of players (50 for 2 players, a different set of 50 for for 3 players, and so on up to 8 players). These were things the host turned on and people would have to perform specific moves (sometimes in a specific location on the map). There were also game modes, like marked man and stunt, that you could just turn on at any point, no interruption to gameplay.

Then free updates made it better, adding 10 timed challenges (with leaderboards) for each player count and a subtle but fun addition to challenges: it told you who performed the best in a challenge. Just for fun, which added to the "friendly rivalry" nature of the game. Many players were more than happy to help or participate in the games, and I made some good friends while playing it. I spent over 1,000 hours in the game and it's one of my favourite gaming experiences.

Now. The core gameplay is still enjoyable, but the online community is nowhere near the same. The online challenges are now far more of a pain to do, and I'm not a fan of online gaming anymore. The singleplayer is just a small part of the game. 

[Jonnas]

Easy answer is, any game that changes a lot through time, like Fire Emblem Heroes. I literally cannot go back to the V1.00 version of a game that's currently on V8.09. What happened with WOW was a very unique thing.

Better answers:

Pokémon Red&Blue + Gold&Silver - My enjoyment of these nostalgic games is deeply tied to the friend group I had at the ages of 10-13. Outside of that context, outside of the link cable, the constant new things that people kept finding, the daily Mystery Gifts during recess/break, the various kids throughout the school participating into this social activity... The game just isn't the same. Every time I think "Yo, this would be a cool generation to pop back into the franchise!", I hold myself and realise that I'm never getting back what I once associated with this delightful series. I have never played HG/SS, and in fact, I have no desire to, despite how nostalgic it surely is.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - A similar vibe, but in a different time period. As a teenager, my class would often pop into the computer room at the school and we'd all play some deathmatches in LAN. It is impossible to replicate the wild feeling of a dozen friends all playing the same match in the same room. Online ain't got shit on that. Outside of that one context, this game is worthless to me.

Rise of Nations + Civilization V - On to a different mindset, these are games that I enjoyed a lot, and would surely enjoy again if I picked them up again. However, I no longer have much free time, and these are timesinks. Civ V takes like 7 hours per match (against the CPU), and any RoN match takes a few hours as well. Since these games lack any worthwhile campaign mode, I never feel any desire to fire them up again. (Curiously, Age of Empires II is in a similar boat, but since that game has an inventive campaign, I can see myself picking it up just to play that)

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance + Radiant Dawn & Three Houses - Oh snap! That's right, single-player favourites can be timesinks as well. I love Fire Emblem, but picking up their lengthier titles back again feels like such a daunting task. I don't think I'm ever playing the other 3H routes.

Little King's Story - Same deal as Fire Emblem. Very good, very charming, very lengthy. Looks excellent in my memories, but I know I'm turned off from replaying it any time soon.

[Dcubed]

Madworld, LA Noire, Bioshock, Braid and Gears of War 1 & 2 all fall into this category for me.  I enjoyed them enough the first time around, but I have zero desire to ever play them again.

Not that they were bad or anything, I enjoyed them enough the first time around, but they distinctly feel like One-And-Done games to me.

[nekunando]

Shenmue is an interesting example as I definitely do hold a desire to return to it and would have done if the game had come to Switch. I didn't particularly like the sequel when I played it, though, and I would be very fearful that replaying the original again just wouldn't be as enjoyable as it once was.

Another game that falls into that category a little for me is The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Unquestionably one of my favourite DS games when I played it, I have wanted to play it again in the years since but never quite found the right opportunity. I'm almost scared to go back to it in case my eyes become open to the reasons why so many seem to dislike it 😅

To continue with the Zelda theme, one entry I absolutely never want to touch again is Tears of the Kingdom 😖

I persevered my way through to beating that game, despite basically doing the bare minimum and being horribly unequipped to even make it to the final battle. That I managed to beat it the way I did with that euphoric feeling of knowing that it was over, I never, ever want to dip back into it. I'm sure that it wasn't all bad but I only seem to remember every second of tedium and irritation to the point where I'd right now go as far as to say I hated it. I guess that doesn't fit the criteria of the question!

One game I also find tricky to put into this criteria is Dark Souls Remastered on Switch. I came away from playing Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2 utterly tired of mashing buttons and sick of the repulsive vibes of those games and their characters. Dark Souls was purchased as a complete change of pace and there were certainly elements of it I appreciated and enjoyed. I could say that I loved parts of the experience but, much like Xenoblade Chronicles, the driving force came from simply wanting to overcome the challenge. In both cases, I was massively out of my comfort zone and overcame so many hurdles, many of which felt insurmountable to me.

Satisfying to beat.. but NEVER AGAIN 😂

I suppose an actual good recent example of something I loved but don't imagine going back to is Splatoon 2 and, in particular, Octo Expansion. I only got around to it when Splatoon 3 was about to release and I thought it was excellent. The final challenge was absurdly difficult for me but I was so happy to beat it. I just don't ever really see myself playing through any of it again 🙂

[Hero-of-Time]

Yakuza series. Loved each and every one of them but have never earned the platinum on all of them, which is a rare thing for me not to do. I would love to go through them all again but the time sink would be huge and the 100% completion list + Legend play through is an absolute grind.

The Mass Effect trilogy is another I would love to revisit. The trilogy release on PS4 has been sat on my shelf for years but I just can't bring myself to play them due to the length and the possibility of how janky they are. The first game wasn't exactly a smooth experience back in the 360 days.

To be honest, I would like to revisit a lot of games but there are that many new releases to get through, it's getting harder to do so. Not to mention a lot of games are a lot longer than they used to be, making repeat playthroughs harder to stomach. So, for me, it's not so much the lack of desire or fear of the game not hold up, but rather time.

[Happenstance]

3 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The Mass Effect trilogy is another I would love to revisit. The trilogy release on PS4 has been sat on my shelf for years but I just can't bring myself to play them due to the length and the possibility of how janky they are. The first game wasn't exactly a smooth experience back in the 360 days.

If it helps, all the Remastered games play great. I'm the exact opposite though, the entire Mass Effect trilogy, both original and Remastered is one I can just play over and over again, doing everything and always stopping to read the lore. Its one of my favourite universes in media.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just now, Happenstance said:

If it helps, all the Remastered games play great. I'm the exact opposite though, the entire Mass Effect trilogy, both original and Remastered is one I can just play over and over again, doing everything and always stopping to read the lore. Its one of my favourite universes in media.

Yeah, I thought of you when writing about it. I forget, did you play through Andromeda?

[Happenstance]

1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, I thought of you when writing about it. I forget, did you play through Andromeda?

Hah, I've tried a few times and still never made it more than a few hours in. I think the last time was about a year ago and I thought I could go into it with a clearer perspective and enjoy it for just being Mass Effect. I don't remember what annoyed me so much on that playthrough, I just remember having such hatred for the game that I finally gave up trying 😆