Orphaned games and players who want to (re)adopt them

[TaRix]

I'd define an orphaned game here as one that a player has dropped without finishing it to his/her satisfaction. It's a game that you feel a little guilty for abandoning. Let's talk about some of 'em, about some we'd like to eventually get back to playing, or about how you drum up the motivation to get back to one.

I've dropped a lot of titles for various reasons: a new release caught my eye, an old favorite gets a neat update, a looming grindfest lost its appeal, save data got corrupted, couldn't figure out a puzzle, and other more nebulous reasons. How do I get back to one? Should I go back or just let 'em stay where they are?

What do the Playgrounders have to say about the subject?

[Hagashager]

I have a chronic tendency to get very far into games and then stop in the home stretch. The last game I played Was Turok on Switch, I'm at level 7 but I just can't seem to muster the energy to press onward. Before that was Jedi Outcast. I'm at Yavin Temple, it's the very tail end of the game but I just can't go on...

[tyckspoon]

I have never completed Final Fantasy 8. I have played and replayed most of the game several times, but the farthest I've gotten in it is to the lobby of the last dungeon. Never bothered actually finishing it.

[Rakaydos]

X-COM: UFO DEFENSE.

It's sitting on my desktop. My file is probably 80% of the way to the end, and I'm set for stratigic scale assets, my troops are almost all high rank, I've got some of the best gear in the game... and I just need to grind encounters to defend earth while I finish researching and building what I need to reach endgame.

And I havnt touched it in years.

[TaRix]

Bravely Default. I'm pretty sure I'm in the last stretch, gotten an ending that's not the golden one, but it still changes the title screen. I ran up against parties of asterisk-bearers that squash my party. Now I've basically forgotten how to play the thing. I know I have to do some serious tweaking and twinking for these encounters, but haven't even found a place to grind now, what with the one-way story and all.

Dragon Quest XI: I think I'm at the second likely point-of-no-return (though I'm assured that nothing's truly missable) and just lost steam doing the sidequests. I'll get back to it again, eventually. Sure I will.

Terraria: I start doing larger-scale constructions, life gets in the way for a few days, and then I can't remember my plans and find I spend more time digging through all my chests than actual questing/building, and another world gathers dust.

[Lord Raziere]

I don't abandon games, I hit points where I don't feel like going further then take a break from them to let it age like wine so I can go back and enjoy it again for another taste. I'll get around to finishing Monster Hunter Worlds, Forgotten Anne, Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, Underhero, Dark Souls Remastered, Code Vein, Borderlands Pre-Sequel, and Doom Eternal, Divinity 2 Original Sin and all my pokemon fan games, I just haven't done it yet. got to keep a positive mindset.

[Zevox]

I've done this a fair amount in the past decade or so. Off the top of my head, Dragon Quest 7 has been a big one for me - it's the only major Dragon Quest game (not counting 10 since it's a Japan-exclusive MMO) that I haven't finished. I've tried three times (once on the original PS2 version, where it was still called Dragon Warrior, and twice on the 3DS remake), and gotten further each time, but always wound up dropping off. Either something else that interested me more caught my eye, or it just failed to hold my attention well enough. For the sake of completing the series as much as possible I'd still like to go back to it someday, but I have no idea if I will.

Just looking through my PS4 games, other recent-ish examples include XCOM 2, Tales of Zestiria, and Bloodborne. All games that I would like to finish, but just didn't for one reason or another when I played them, and I'd basically have to start over if I went back to them at this point. One older example also comes to mind: Final Fantasy 9. Seemed decent enough that I wouldn't mind finishing it when I played it, but I hit a point where I died in a dungeon and lost around an hour of progress, which discouraged me enough that I dropped it at the time; and again, would have to start over if I go back to it at this point, as I don't remember a damn thing of where I was at.

Final Fantasy 7 kind of falls into the category as well, except in that case I think I'll just play the Remakes, which look pretty darn good.

Games that I've done this with and then later returned and finished them include Xenosaga Episode 2 (this was over a decade ago, I couldn't tell you why I stopped the first time at this point); Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest (it just couldn't keep my attention for multiple playthroughs in a row when it first came out, and I did Birthright first); Fire Emblem: Three Houses (finished Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind, got a little bit into a Blue Lions run then had other things catch my eye and take me away, later returned and did all the rest of the game's routes and DLC); Tokyo Mirage Sessions (got about 2/3 of the way through the original release, later returned and did the whole thing once Encore was released on the Switch); and Yooka-Laylee (the casino stage was not very fun for me - thankfully this was one where I didn't need to start over from the beginning when I did come back to it though).

And this isn't counting games that I got partway through and wouldn't want to go back to. Those are ones like Final Fantasy 8 (IMO the worst FF I've tried, and I don't have a high opinion of the series), the first two Persona games, or Nostalgia (obscure 3DS RPG that I was very let down by).

[Seppl]

I played Dragon Age: Origins at least three or four times but never really got through the Awakening expansion. Or even far into it. By the time I finish the main game and am ready to start it, I have already spent weeks on the main game and want to play something else. Coming back later, I will have forgotten everything about my previous session and will not be able to get back into that character's journey. For the same reason I do not want to create a new character just for the expansion. After all, it is a story driven game and I want to know my character from the very beginning.

Which is a shame, because it is a very good game. I did play the main campaign so often for a reason. In the end, I just watched a Let's Play of Awakening to satisfy my curiosity about the main plot points. And I do indeed feel guilty about that.

[IthilanorStPete]

Terraria, as mentioned upthread. I got to the point of farming chlorophyte ore at one point, got bored at how slow it went, and never came back.

[Aotrs Commander]

I try an avoid it these days, trying to get into a place where I'll play through a game (and often most games don't get more than one playthrough). During the early 2010s, before kickstarters took off and I was VERY short of stuff to play, I made a point of going through a lot of games I'd half-finished and completing them.

There's still rather a lot, though. I have never completed MechCommander 1 despite several tries (and despite playing the MechCommander 2 several times) and I also never completed X-Com UFO Defence (though I'm now just finishing my second pass through X-Com 2 of the new games).

I still have not finished my first Crusader Kings 2 game, and I'm still a good way off completing Hearts of Iron IV on the only attempt I GOT anywhere.



I have a lot of JRPGs on the PS2/DS uncompleted, and about three I've never started.



No pity for Pools of Radiance, Star Trek New Worlds or Perimeter, though.

[tonberrian]

You utter fools. I am the king of orphaning games! Let's see, in recent memory it's something like Pillars of Eternity, DOS: Original Sin 2 twice, Octopath Traveler, SMT IV (technically i lost steam trying to get all the endings - I got 1 out of 4), Dragon Quest XI, Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy 12 Zodiac Age, and Battlechasers: Nightwar. This is about a year's worth of gameplay. Other games I've orphaned more than a year ago include Mario+Rabbids, Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey (although that one i did complete, just not 100% - missing a few picture moons and... Darkest side of the Moon? the really long super dungeon endgame thing, and of course a lot of toadette's moons), FF12 again, FF10, SMT IV again, Digital Devil Saga, Persona 3 FES, Persona 3 Portable, Zettai Hero Project at least twice, Final Fantasy 3 (the real one, on the DS release), Dragon Quest IX, FF13, Geneforge 2, 3, and 4, Avadon 2, Dragon Quests IV, V, VI, and I, Persona Q, Etrian Odyssey 5, Etrian Odyssey Nexus, Etrian Odyssey Untold 2, Pillars of Eternity again, Bravely Default... The list goes on and on. I'm really bad about finishing games.

[Zevox]

Ugh, Shin Megami Tensei 4... that one kind of qualifies for me, except that there's no way in hell I'd go back to it at this point. Still, I played through it something like five or six times trying to get the Neutral ending, since that's (IMO) the only good one in a SMT game, but they made it so ridiculously hard to get. You had such a narrow window for your alignment to fall into to qualify, and that alignment was completely invisible and impossible to check - even online guides claiming to spell out exactly how to do it failed me repeatedly.

And then, once I finally hit it, and the big branching point put me on the Neutral path, I find out that I can't proceed far on it until I've completed every side-quest in the game. Well, if you can guess how many of those I was doing during my runs at that point... yeah, seeing that requirement was the death knell of me actually finishing that game, ever.

[Kitten Champion]

I haven't completed any CRPG, unless you include Undertale.

Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, Pillar of Eternity, Fallout 1, Vampire the Masquerade, Dragon Age: Origin, Knights of the Old Republic, Planescape Torment, and probably more. I get it into my head that I want to play one, do it for half a day, then I either hit a progress wall and give up or just don't pick it up again until a long time later and choose to start from scratch.

Admittedly, other than Undertale, I didn't actually buy any of them and simply copied them from my father's collection a while ago. So I lack a degree of investment and stick-to-it've-ness.

[Theoboldi]

Octopath Traveller is the one game I do really feel bad for (at least currently) leaving on the wayside. I love the stories and the characters in that game, but the gameplay keeps bouncing me away by being too complex and difficult to simply relax and grind through in my spare time, while requiring too much grinding and exploring to just beat it by getting better at the strategy elements.

It's not even that the gameplay mechanics are bad, they genuinely aren't. If they were, I wouldn't regret not finishing it. The overall design just ends up bringing in a lot of the kind of RPG gameplay that I cannot get into.

[tyckspoon]

And then, once I finally hit it, and the big branching point put me on the Neutral path, I find out that I can't proceed far on it until I've completed every side-quest in the game. Well, if you can guess how many of those I was doing during my runs at that point... yeah, seeing that requirement was the death knell of me actually finishing that game, ever.

Bonus boot-to-the-head-ness: Many of the side quests have alignment influences, and doing them can put you outside the target area to actually get on the Neutral path if you tried to do them as they came up.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Eh. It happens. Games are not usually worth the sheer number of hours they last for. Things are fun until they stop being fun, and I feel under no obligation to finish a game after I've seen all the fun bits and what's left is just not as fun as doing something else.

But don't take it from me, take it from a guy that has been successfully selling long games for like 30 years now.

Grey Wolf

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I go through cycles on Warframe, playing for a few months because the gameplay is legitimately awesome, then getting bored of the grind and dropping it for even longer. It's been a few years since I've touched it, though.

One of these days, I'm gonna finish Primal (a PS2 game). I played the first world (of 4 I think), then put it down to try different stuff.

I'm actually in the process of de-orphaning Okami. Played it years ago, but didn't finish because the disc got lost. Got the HD version a few years back, and made it 35 hours or so through. And just this month I've picked up that save file and have been closing in on the finish line.

After that... I need to make some progress on Sekiro before it becomes orphaned, and I'd like to replay DMC V on one of the higher difficulties now that I've got some skills. Oh! And I never did beat that extra dungeon thing that came with Cave Story+! Maybe that'll be my next project; I might have to replay the game to get my skills back, though.

[Studoku]

I've bought Baldur's Gate three times now and still haven't finished it.

[tonberrian]

I've bought Baldur's Gate three times now and still haven't finished it.

Oh, dear. I've bought it twice and haven't even started it.

[Vinyadan]

Eh. It happens. Games are not usually worth the sheer number of hours they last for. Things are fun until they stop being fun, and I feel under no obligation to finish a game after I've seen all the fun bits and what's left is just not as fun as doing something else.

But don't take it from me, take it from a guy that has been successfully selling long games for like 30 years now.

Grey Wolf

It's also that devs normally do the opposite of what he did. They put a lot of effort into the first parts, and then run out of steam or time or money and leave the endings unfinished or much less polished than the rest.

I readopted Skyrim and finished it relatively recently (main quest). I feel like going back to Dragon Age and Bloodlines, although who knows when I will.

[Spacewolf]

Probably AC: Odyssey. I never played Origins and Odyssey is just too damn big to keep my attention.

[danzibr]

Oh my.

I’m with tonberrian. I have an abundance of games I bought and never started, or just played for a few minutes, or got reasonably into.

Not many that I almost beat though. If I make it that far, usually I finish.

[Erloas]

I've had quite a few games where I got mid-to late into them and they just dropped them. Usually because they just seemed highly unlikely to do anything new or interesting and the story and/or gameplay wasn't that engaging.

I got fairly far into Dragon Age and got stuck on a mission my character simply couldn't win. I've gathered now that it is because I picked a "bad" class, but I didn't find either the gameplay or the story engaging enough to play again with a new character or even worth the effort to keep trying that one fight until I got past. I think it was fairly late into the game, but obviously I didn't finish the game to know for sure.

Fallout New Vegas was another. I didn't get stuck, but having finished a few DLC and been entirely underwhelmed by the resolution of said content I really felt no drive to finish the main story. I think all I had to do was trigger the main battle on the bridge and finish that. But between the lackluster combat and crashing it just wasn't worth the effort, even if it wasn't really that much effort.

I think everything else I've either finished or wasn't anywhere near the end.

[Kris Strife]

Too many to name or count.
Some big ones are Final Fantasy Tactics, because I kind of ruined my ability to complete it by spending too much time grinding in the prologue, I had all the jobs but still the basic gear and a bunch of baby chocobos cause I didn't realize monsters bred in your party.
Final Fantasy VII, which I've played enough to get to level 60 in disc one, because my disc wouldn't let me into the Temple of the Ancients. I've managed to get Omnislash on Disc 1 when I started a playthrough on PSP. I still want to complete it since the Remake seems to be a very different story.
Fallout: New Vegas. 849 hours and still haven't beat it. I get so caught up in doing side quests and DLC that I just run out of steam for that playthrough before I get to the end every time. I'm sure I'll pick it up again, sooner or later.