Joke aside, Tbh there are some games where after the initial playthrough or so I'd like to go back and just be able to experience the stories without having to do 500 fetch quests and kill 1200 of generic bad guy #6
Not really the same thing. I'm not talking about getting rid of all the gameplay or combat, just stuff that's really inconsequential after you've done it once.
Plus I'm mostly talking about games that have multiple dialogue choices with dozens of different reactions and endings. Watching on youtube I have done and often do for games or characters I know I'll never play, but it's not as involving as being able to play out the story yourself or even do some of the more important battles. A lot of games already seem to end up with mods to remove large chunks of them for this very purpose.
Like, for example, you want me to get to mordor? Throw the ring in the fire? That's cool. I can play out the major plot developing areas. Go to Bree, get ambushed, face off against the Nazgul, race off to Rivendell, etc etc etc. But I don't really want to have to spend 6 hours battling inconsequential orcs in Moria on every single replay. I did it once, had the experience, clearly I can beat that part, and there's no real repeat value in forcing me to slog through some generic area of the dungeon so we can drag out the fight with them everytime. Let me get to the Balrog already.
This is clearly not how everyone feels or wants to play games, I'm just saying I'd personally appreciate it as an option.
Haha yeah I know, though that's still not quite what I meant. That's more or less the equivalent of making it on super easy mode, but you're still stuck down in the bowels of Moria with nothing worthwhile happening. Just shaves a couple hours off the slog through to the next area. Like in Dragon Age: Origins, a lot of people really *hated* a portion of the game that takes place in the fade (and also the deep roads, apparently). They did them once, wanted to replay the game with alternate race/companions/endings, but they didn't want to go through the deep roads ever again. So someone created a mod that let you literally skip the entire sequence. It gave you the general amount of xp you'd have gotten and let you carry on your way. Took a portion of the game that could likely take at least an hour and turned it into about 5 seconds.
And for situations like that, when it's the first playthrough, skipping it should not be an option. I don't know why people would generally want to when it's the first run. But for origins for example you could play 3 different races, spread across three different origin points, all of which impacts gameplay to a degree, and playing every single instant of games (even without exploring or sidequests) like that is a huge chunk of time and a lot of work. Don't always have that much time for things like that, so it would be nice to be able to make the time available count.
It's unlikely games will ever feel the desire to incorporate options like that, but I can always dream
As a side note, on the topic of Okami, I have no idea if it was designed that way or not, but the paintbrush in my first playthrough was a nightmare. I seriously had to get every line and every circle exactly perfect or the game would tell me I'd failed.
On my subsequent playthroughs, however, the game seemed to stop giving a shit. I was making ovals, I was making squares. It didn't care. It transitioned from "YOU CALL THAT A CIRCLE?!" To "meh, good enough" with startling ease
Well like I said it worked fine on any playthrough after-- it just couldn't be the original playthrough for a savefile. Was frustrating as hell though, I spent literally 45 minutes (with rage breaks in between) trying to draw a circle around some damn tree in one of the cities.
It's such a pretty/interesting game, though, it's a shame it doesn't get more love
Apparently it was largely inspired by legend of Zelda, which isn't really a surprise- you can definitely get that vibe in the gameplay. But it still feels like an entirely unique experience with such beautiful graphics and engaging gameplay. It's easily one of my favourites also, though I haven't played it in several years
Plus I'm mostly talking about games that have multiple dialogue choices with dozens of different reactions and endings. Watching on youtube I have done and often do for games or characters I know I'll never play, but it's not as involving as being able to play out the story yourself or even do some of the more important battles. A lot of games already seem to end up with mods to remove large chunks of them for this very purpose.
This is clearly not how everyone feels or wants to play games, I'm just saying I'd personally appreciate it as an option.
It's unlikely games will ever feel the desire to incorporate options like that, but I can always dream
On my subsequent playthroughs, however, the game seemed to stop giving a shit. I was making ovals, I was making squares. It didn't care. It transitioned from "YOU CALL THAT A CIRCLE?!" To "meh, good enough" with startling ease
It's such a pretty/interesting game, though, it's a shame it doesn't get more love