I’ve given up on playing a video game many, many times, only to return later and have a different experience with it.
I remember the first time I played a Final Fantasy when I was young (I think it was VI), I thought it was dumb. Too many words! As a young teen I played VII, then went back and emulated all the SNES entries. VI turned out to be my favorite one. For whatever reason, I needed to play IV first (and ofc, VII before both of them)
As I’ve been posting about, I’m currently having this experience with The Witcher III. I had a similar journey with Elden Ring. When gave Elden Ring maybe 5 hours when I first started, and concluded it wasn’t for me. At least a year later, I went back and, after some persistence, found what I liked about it and had a great time for nearly 60 hours.
What changed?
For me, I think having the distance of time helps a lot. A game like Elden Ring comes saddled with high expectations. After some time, I’ve already observed the discourse from a distance, the conversation around the game has moved on, I am more able to approach the game on its own terms. I also think that as time has gone on, I’ve experienced a wider variety of games, which has increased my vocabulary for enjoying them. My life is also much more stable now than it was in recent past–in a very real way, my capacity for enjoying a game is greater than it ever has been.
Enough about me, though. I want to hear about your experiences. What is game that you’ve bounced off of multiple times, only to return to it later and enjoy it, or see it in a different light? Why? What changed? What caused you to try again in the first place?
It’s also possible to interpret the question in the inverse: what is a game that you used to really like, only to return to later to find you now don’t like it much at all?