Which Video Games Have Taken You Years to Finish?

[Kavik]

For me, they're

Golden Sun: The Lost Age I started playing this in 2002, but I got stuck in the desert area at the beginning of the game; consequently, I didn't finish it until 2005 when I somehow figured out where to go. This game was much longer than the original as well, so, even after figuring out how to get past my block, it took me a while to beat it.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn I bought this game in 2012 because I saw it at a Target when I was out of town. I think I'd heard about it briefly but never saw it in stores. I proceeded to buy it and play it for about thirty minutes. I picked it up again in 2014 and played it for a few days on another road trip. I can't remember if I played it again after that, but I got stuck. A few days ago, I picked it up and somehow immediately figured out where to go (funny how that works). Maybe I'll beat it some day.

Star Tropics I'll probably never beat this one. I've been starting a new save file, beating the first cave, putting the game down and forgetting where I was, and starting a new save file every few years since 1998. My brother had beaten it a few years earlier but I don't think we actually owned a copy until '98. I'd really like to play through this one in its entirety, but I can't seem to stick with it.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption The original Metroid Prime is my favorite game of all time. I was not a big fan of the second one. The third one is cool, but I hate the Wii Remote controls (I've heard of a Dolphin version that uses mouse and keyboard, which sounds awesome); they just aren't conducive to long game sessions, which Metroid Prime requires. This is another one that I've restarted multiple times because I forget where I was, but I became so tired of replaying the first hour or two that I've just decided to be lost if I ever get back to it. So far, I've been playing this since 2007 on and off and have never beaten it.

Bomberman 64: The Second Attack For some reason, I thought this game was really hard back in the day. I recently started over and beat it over the course of a few weekends with a friend. It was difficult, but not as hard as I had remembered. So this one spanned 2000 to 2020 (I can't remember if we finished it early this year or late last year).

I'm sure there are others, but some games I would probably consider "abandoned" because I don't intend on ever finishing them (like the Banjo Kazookie games).

[jacethesaltsculptor]

If we are including games that you can't finish:

Dwarf Fortress, and I hope I never do, I love that game to shreds.

But taking the question more seriously:

1. I've never finished Dark Souls, I want to, I keep planning to, and just never doing it.

2. The Witcher 3, dear lord do my friends give me flak about that.

3. Owlboy, I waited for this game for years, played the first little area, and went to work, and promptly never touched it again. 

I feel personally attacked about the Banjo Kazooie games, but for those, I didn't want to go Jinjo Hunting, I loved the games, but I'll never 100% them, Yuka-Laylee is in the same boat, I didn't make it nearly as far with that though, it just didn't have the feel I wanted.

[Kavik]

I feel personally attacked about the Banjo Kazooie games, but for those, I didn't want to go Jinjo Hunting, I loved the games, but I'll never 100% them, Yuka-Laylee is in the same boat, I didn't make it nearly as far with that though, it just didn't have the feel I wanted.

Ha, the reason I consider those abandoned is that I had to start over on Banjo Kazooie after the game was stolen from my brother's dorm room in '98 or '99 and I had to buy another copy (I remember being rather far into the game). It just left me with a bad feeling that persists over twenty years later. Banjo Tooie was released a couple years later and I loved it, but it was a major time sink. I have no idea where I left off in 2001 or whenever it was, so I started a new save file a month or two ago and realized how big of an undertaking it would be to play over again and didn't pursue it. Maybe if I didn't try to get 100%, as you said, I could just enjoy playing through it.

I started Dark Souls, but I didn't play it enough to consider myself invested. Now my two Xbox 360s are dead, so I can't play it anyway. I've never played the Witcher games though.

I've also realized that everything I own for the Wii U probably qualifies for this thread.

[tp4tissue]

SegaGT 2002, my xbox broke and I didn't fix it until years later.

[absyrd]

Original Zelda.

[Kavik]

Original Zelda.

The funny thing is that the original Zelda for NES and Link's Awakening for GB are the only one's I've actually completed. I have become stuck on all the other Zeldas I've tried.

[noisyturtle]

I don't finish most games actually. I don't really give two ****s about story, so whenever I've had my fill of whatever the game play loop is I just stop playing. Not caring about the story prevents me from having the want to pick it back up.

It's weird because story used to be the most important thing to me, but I realized it's pointless in the face of bad or unfun mechanics. Thus concluded story in video games is merely window dressing. Meaningless when compared to the actual play.

Funny outlook coming from a writer, but games are meant to be played. If you take the story by itself it is no longer is a game, so the story must be meaningless.

Or better yet - deliver the story through the game play like a good game does.

[jacethesaltsculptor]

I feel personally attacked about the Banjo Kazooie games, but for those, I didn't want to go Jinjo Hunting, I loved the games, but I'll never 100% them, Yuka-Laylee is in the same boat, I didn't make it nearly as far with that though, it just didn't have the feel I wanted.

Ha, the reason I consider those abandoned is that I had to start over on Banjo Kazooie after the game was stolen from my brother's dorm room in '98 or '99 and I had to buy another copy (I remember being rather far into the game). It just left me with a bad feeling that persists over twenty years later. Banjo Tooie was released a couple years later and I loved it, but it was a major time sink. I have no idea where I left off in 2001 or whenever it was, so I started a new save file a month or two ago and realized how big of an undertaking it would be to play over again and didn't pursue it. Maybe if I didn't try to get 100%, as you said, I could just enjoy playing through it.

I started Dark Souls, but I didn't play it enough to consider myself invested. Now my two Xbox 360s are dead, so I can't play it anyway. I've never played the Witcher games though.

I've also realized that everything I own for the Wii U probably qualifies for this thread.

I feel that, there are games I got into but something in life made me just not like them and I never wanted to go back because of it, Super Smash Bros. Brawl wasn't particularly loved, but when I played it back in the day, I played it with one of the worst people I ever had to live with, I did it twice out of politeness, and never touched the game again. I moved out a half year later, which was 6 months of hell.

My one Xbox 360 died very very fast, it lasted about a year, and I didn't put in the warranty on it fast enough, I regret that.  Even though it was more than a decade ago.

You are right on the Wii U as well, I've still not finished breath of the wild. I even have it emulated on my PC now, and I still haven't done that. I need to.

It just made me sad to realize that Breath of the Wild has already been out years. 

[jacethesaltsculptor]

Or better yet - deliver the story through the game play like a good game does.

But, I want them to lock it behind artificially difficult and time consuming game mechanics so I can pay with a premium currency to skip it. 

why pay only once for a game?

[Sintpinty]

For me, they're

Golden Sun: The Lost Age I started playing this in 2002, but I got stuck in the desert area at the beginning of the game; consequently, I didn't finish it until 2005 when I somehow figured out where to go. This game was much longer than the original as well, so, even after figuring out how to get past my block, it took me a while to beat it.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn I bought this game in 2012 because I saw it at a Target when I was out of town. I think I'd heard about it briefly but never saw it in stores. I proceeded to buy it and play it for about thirty minutes. I picked it up again in 2014 and played it for a few days on another road trip. I can't remember if I played it again after that, but I got stuck. A few days ago, I picked it up and somehow immediately figured out where to go (funny how that works). Maybe I'll beat it some day.

Star Tropics I'll probably never beat this one. I've been starting a new save file, beating the first cave, putting the game down and forgetting where I was, and starting a new save file every few years since 1998. My brother had beaten it a few years earlier but I don't think we actually owned a copy until '98. I'd really like to play through this one in its entirety, but I can't seem to stick with it.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption The original Metroid Prime is my favorite game of all time. I was not a big fan of the second one. The third one is cool, but I hate the Wii Remote controls (I've heard of a Dolphin version that uses mouse and keyboard, which sounds awesome); they just aren't conducive to long game sessions, which Metroid Prime requires. This is another one that I've restarted multiple times because I forget where I was, but I became so tired of replaying the first hour or two that I've just decided to be lost if I ever get back to it. So far, I've been playing this since 2007 on and off and have never beaten it.

Bomberman 64: The Second Attack For some reason, I thought this game was really hard back in the day. I recently started over and beat it over the course of a few weekends with a friend. It was difficult, but not as hard as I had remembered. So this one spanned 2000 to 2020 (I can't remember if we finished it early this year or late last year).

I'm sure there are others, but some games I would probably consider "abandoned" because I don't intend on ever finishing them (like the Banjo Kazookie games).

Tippi and the gang are useless on world 8-3

Someone please help me on Super Paper Mario and Brawls the maze level

[Kavik]

I don't finish most games actually. I don't really give two ****s about story, so whenever I've had my fill of whatever the game play loop is I just stop playing. Not caring about the story prevents me from having the want to pick it back up.

It's weird because story used to be the most important thing to me, but I realized it's pointless in the face of bad or unfun mechanics. Thus concluded story in video games is merely window dressing. Meaningless when compared to the actual play.

Funny outlook coming from a writer, but games are meant to be played. If you take the story by itself it is no longer is a game, so the story must be meaningless.

Or better yet - deliver the story through the game play like a good game does.

I can't say I care about the story of any video game either (The only one that really got me was Deus Ex: Human Revolution). I want to finish games because I have some weird sense of obligation once I own one to finish it. The problem is that I obviously have so many games now that I could never finish them. It's a bit like trying to watch every movie I own or that's considered a classic; there's not enough time to do it unless I dedicate my life to it. This is partially why I watch longplays, especially for older games. I just don't have the wherewithal to figure out the mechanics of the game, get good at it, and then stay dedicated to it for a week or two or three to actually beat it. There's also the matter of not remembering the experience once it's over (the same way that I'll watch a movie, and a year later everything but maybe one scene or still image of it is erased from my mind).

[katushkin]

Ah man I LOVED the Golden Sun games. My favourite things to play on my purple GBA back in the day.

I did finish all the ones i played though, i think i only had the first and second ones.

I've recently gone back to playing CIV V to get all the achievements - does that count?

[tp4tissue]

Ah man I LOVED the Golden Sun games. My favourite things to play on my purple GBA back in the day.

I did finish all the ones i played though, i think i only had the first and second ones.

I've recently gone back to playing CIV V to get all the achievements - does that count?

Tp4 has beaten the original and the lost age.  Also megaman Battle netwurk.

[Sintpinty]

Ah man I LOVED the Golden Sun games. My favourite things to play on my purple GBA back in the day.

I did finish all the ones i played though, i think i only had the first and second ones.

I've recently gone back to playing CIV V to get all the achievements - does that count?

Growing up I had a dsi that later got a bat shaped mark when I dropped it and it later failed on me. I still have my acekard but I need a 3ds in order for that to work

[iri]

Morrowind.

[smarmar]

I don't finish most games actually. I don't really give two ****s about story, so whenever I've had my fill of whatever the game play loop is I just stop playing. Not caring about the story prevents me from having the want to pick it back up.

It's weird because story used to be the most important thing to me, but I realized it's pointless in the face of bad or unfun mechanics. Thus concluded story in video games is merely window dressing. Meaningless when compared to the actual play.

Funny outlook coming from a writer, but games are meant to be played. If you take the story by itself it is no longer is a game, so the story must be meaningless.

Or better yet - deliver the story through the game play like a good game does.

HA! I'm a sucker for a game with a good story and I don't mind when the gameplay takes second chair to the story. I love the Telltale Games' Walking Dead series and the Freebird games. I also like gameplay-centric ones like shoot-em-ups and bullet-hell games.

[casperm]

The witcher has definitely been the game which has taken me the longest to finish.

For the first time in any game, I found myself actually completely immersed in the world, meaning I had to quite literally do EVERYTHING in the game.

I still haven't completed 100% of the game, but I'd wager I have well over 2000 hours playing the game, often just wandering around doing completely random stuff.

The best part about the game is, when my internet goes down I simply jump into the game anyway, since it's offline and singleplayer.

All I can say is, there's a good reason this game got GOTY, it's by far the best single-player experience I've ever had and probably ever will have.

[yui]

for me it was nfs carbon on the ps2, that circuit race against the last boss that i could not do, took me a few years and a new ps2 (the psu burns fuses on the old one, it was not rage) to finally get the skills to beat the cheating AI. other than that i usually either hate the game and never finish it or play it to the end before changing starting an other one.

[devoures]

Original Zelda and moto x3m.

[-Jerry-]

Myst.

Still haven’t finished it.

[noisyturtle]

Is it fair to count stuff like racing games and sims since the completion rate is arbitrary?

[yui]

Is it fair to count stuff like racing games and sims since the completion rate is arbitrary?

at least most of them have a "career" mode with a clear end goal and progression. else you should also remove all openworld games, and that does not leave much nowadays.

[-Jerry-]

Trying to 100% any open world game is a bit of an exercise of extreme determination.

I'd say that I've completed The Witcher 3, for example, but I sure as hell haven't done 100% of the tiny randomly discovered side quests.

[Shapey Fiend]

I got Revenge of Shinobi for the Mega Drive in 1990 and it took me till the night before I sold it in 1996 or so to get the good ending. I'd finished it the regular way a hundred times. If I'd known there was a hidden POW in the room right before Neo Zeed that would have made it a lot easier than getting through the maze without getting hit.

With GameFAQs or Youtube there aren't really any games I can think of that I can't finish if I put in some practice. Maybe shmups. I'm generally OK to get 5 or 6 levels in but there's no way I'm looping most of those.

[_rubik]

Usually my issue is not being unable to finish a game, but rather losing interested 75% of the way through. I've never actually finished Fallout New Vegas despite putting over 100 hours into it. I could (probably) count the games I've fully completed on 2 hands. Maybe that says something about the size/scale of games these days...

[yui]

Usually my issue is not being unable to finish a game, but rather losing interested 75% of the way through. I've never actually finished Fallout New Vegas despite putting over 100 hours into it. I could (probably) count the games I've fully completed on 2 hands. Maybe that says something about the size/scale of games these days...

to be fair i do not know how to finish a game like new vegas, you could count seeing the end slide but then the game is very short and do you even count the dlc as well? and if you want to go to 100% then you can't really as missions can lock others, really not a game for everyone.

[NewbieOneKenobi]

I have a 2008 save from Fallout 3, which I'm probably not going to finish.

[funkmon]

Yeah, at this point, Fallout 3 feels very dated. I don't think it aged well. I absolve you of that crime. Don't finish it. Skip to Fallout 4, which I do think is pretty good, despite some of the RPGists online not liking it.

[-Jerry-]

Ironically Fallout 4 is on my ‘not finished’ list whereas I did finish 3 back when, haha.

[noisyturtle]

Ironically Fallout 4 is on my ‘not finished’ list whereas I did finish 3 back when, haha.

Same. And in terms of endings 3 blows 4 completely out of the water.

In fact 3 is better than 4 *shakes fist at screen*. It's a better game, has better dialogue options, gives the player more freedom.

[Kavik]

Ironically Fallout 4 is on my ‘not finished’ list whereas I did finish 3 back when, haha.

I am in the same boat. I absolutely loved Fallout 3, but I was also younger then. I finished it along with all the DLC and started a new save file with a melee and explosive based character who made "evil" choices. I never did complete that second playthrough, but it was more interesting than the first.

I feel as though I barely played New Vegas because I found it very boring and also very difficult, but the last time I popped it in, I was surprised I had 30 hours on it. It didn't help that, by the time I got it, my friends had already stopped playing it, so I had no one to talk to about it.

I never did finish Fallout 4. I really liked it when I first got it, but I felt as though I needed to play for at least four to seven hours at a time to accomplish anything, which I couldn't do on a regular basis. I put about 50-60 hours into it. I played it again earlier this year for the first time since about 2016, but I was completely lost, so I just finished the quest I was in the middle of and haven't touched it since.

[yui]

to me the 3D fallout tier list looks like this:
story:
NV>3>4>76
accessibility/playability:
4>3>NV>76
NV probably has some of the best writing in the series but then with rushed development it is very clunky while 4 may be the most polished 3D fallout yet but the story is a bit lackluster and the 4 options dialog does limit rp options

[noisyturtle]

to me the 3D fallout tier list looks like this:
story:
NV>3>4>76
accessibility/playability:
4>3>NV>76
NV probably has some of the best writing in the series but then with rushed development it is very clunky while 4 may be the most polished 3D fallout yet but the story is a bit lackluster and the 4 options dialog does limit rp options

Ah yes but: NV with MODS!

[yui]

Ah yes but: NV with MODS!

i never could finish it without a bugfix mod, and while i was at it i added a better vegetation mod cause the vegetation was not that great, never went further than that into modding it though, i do not really find to much pleasure modding story driven games, sandboxes on the other hand, never got enough mods for those.

[_rubik]

Ironically Fallout 4 is on my ‘not finished’ list whereas I did finish 3 back when, haha.

Same. And in terms of endings 3 blows 4 completely out of the water.

In fact 3 is better than 4 *shakes fist at screen*. It's a better game, has better dialogue options, gives the player more freedom.

You can finish 3 in one day if you hustle which I think adds to its appeal. Whereas 4 you drown in settlements and side quests etc. Maybe I just prefer "smaller" games, but 3 and NV will always take the cake over 4. (IMO)

[Kavik]

I just remembered another game that took me a long time to beat: Quake 2 for N64.

Quake 2 on N64 was neat because it was a different game from the PC version with new levels. I played the PC version later, but the N64 version is the one I have fonder memories of.

Anyway, I bought the game in the summer of 2000, and I got stuck on the second to last level (or thereabouts) until 2005 or 2006, I think. It was a weird level design that required jumping onto a spinning platform over a pit of death, and then jumping elsewhere up the platform (hard to describe but it was not obvious), all while being shot at. Somehow it took me five or six years to try jumping to the correct spot.

[71]

Rhythm games (VSRG  to be specific) because improving your skills is endless xd.

[-Jerry-]

Rhythm games (VSRG  to be specific) because improving your skills is endless xd.

God yes! Any game where you can possibly get 100% out of hundreds of possible things to hit has me striving forever!

I had to modify my Nintendo DS stylus to make it squishier after making my fingers sore trying to get 100% on the hardest level of Elite Beat Agents.