What Makes a Game Replayable?

Lately I’ve been replaying Chrono Trigger.  (I know, I said I’d stay away from time travel for a while.  I also said “just one more level” a lot when I was a kid.)  This game is still fucking awesome.  I loved it when I was a kid (possibly even more than Secret of Mana, which is also still awesome), and I’m surprised to find that as an adult I don’t enjoy it any less.  I’ve tried to replay a lot of classic games on emulators over the years, and most of them are simply terrible when set against the games of today.  Chrono Trigger got me thinking – what qualities make some games timeless, with endless replay value (go buzzword), while others simply fade away?

1.  Emphasis on content

While the gameplay of Chrono Trigger is fun, it is ultimately a game that knows it is about story.  As the game progresses from place to place and era to era, it doesn’t bog down like many rpgs of its era.  There are no long stints of needing to level, or endless stretches of wandering the map not knowing where the hell to go.  And yet, the game doesn’t feel spoon fed to the player either – you are free to wander as you like, and sometimes rewarded for doing so.  But the story is compelling enough, even in poorly translated 1990’s rpg simplicity, that you don’t want to spend a lot of time dicking around.  You want to get your ass to 65,000,000 BC, get some red rocks, and kick some reptoid ass.

The draw lies in characters that aren’t completely straightforward, and that have goals and aspirations to their lives beyond “travel with the protagonist”.  The draw lies in seeing a continent and world shift over time based on your actions.  The draw lies in feeling like there is something THERE in the game, not just pretty packaging to pull in your sixty bucks.

2.  Intuitive gameplay

The best games need no manuals to explain their controls.  Chrono Trigger needs no real explanation how to play, but that is partly because it’s built on the back of its equally awesome forerunner – The Secret of Mana.  The control and menu schemes in Secret of Mana are still being emulated TODAY.  As a child, I immediately grokked how to attack, how to level up my attacks and magic, how to unleash more powerful attacks . . .

It is not enough to make the gameplay easy – it must feel natural as well.  In Castlevania, up and B throws your extra weapon, giving you an extra bit of oomph when you need it.  An easy control that feels very natural to the setting when you start whipping bottles of Holy Water around.  The controls and options needs to be in sync with the rest of the game.  Too Human, for example, had a very easy control style, but it felt as natural and intuitive as starting your car with a jar of peanut butter.  After two hours of struggle, I just gave up.

3.  Graphic style

Above and beyond the quality of the graphics in a game is how much STYLE they have.  I will go back to Castlevania 2 – Simon’s Quest over and over just to see the front of the mansions.  Final Fantasy 7 gets replay after replay after replay despite the fact that the characters have about ten polygons apiece, whereas I barely know anyone that even finished Final Fantasy 8 even once, despite stellar looking graphics.  The visual style of Final Fantasy 7 is just so much better, so much more emotive of what’s going on that anything in Final Fantasy 8.  Polish does not always mean attractive.

Think of your favorite games and how they have aged.  Chances are, if you still enjoy them, the art they used was so distinct that it left it’s mark on you and how you viewed all future games.  Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, Metroid . . . the list goes on and on.  These games continue to sell well again and again because despite over twenty years and 4 consoles passing since they premiered, they have retained the same STYLE throughout.

So, go grab your old games and load them up.  See how long you can play each one before getting bored, and see which ones just grab you and pull you in more more time.  Real art stands the test of time, and it’s a testament to the growing artistic quality of games that some of them are truly still playable after all of these years.