So, 1:30am was a proud moment for me yesterday as I finally completed Luigi's Mansion on Gamecube which I had started probably sometime in 2002. I enjoyed the game, but for whatever reason, my playtime on it was sporadic with several year gaps in between play sessions. A couple of years ago, I played up to the blackout and then set it aside until making it effort to finally finish the game which only took a few playsessions this past week to accomplish. I attribute my overall lack of playtime on it to the time in which it released. The 6th Generation of consoles had 4 major console releases, and I owned 3 of them. Because the Gamecube didn't have tremendous 3rd party support, the majority of my gaming time was alloted to PS2 and XBox. I would put in sessions with Gamecube here and there, but more often than not, I was pouring countless hours into Grand Theft Auto III (PS2), Halo (XBox), and the lastest Wrestling and Sports games (which I used to play a lot when several of my friends used to be able to come over and party game on a weekly basis before we all got married and had less conflicting schedules). As a result, I never really put in enough time to play my GC games all the way through to completion.
Anyway, even if I don't complete a game, I keep it in my game's collection with the intention of getting back to it at some point. Of course, this gets harder and harder the more console generations that go by. Also, the older I get (over 40, full time job, and married), I find my attention span for playing a single game shorter than what it once was before I move on to another one. I once missed a part time shift because I was up the entire night before completing Final Fantasy VII on PS! That's not an option anymore (not to mention pretty irresponsible even for part-time work). Also, it might have something to do with how much longer games have gotten since I started gaming on Coleco Vision in 1982. Even if I'm greatly enjoying and tremendously deep into a game like Fallout 3 or Dragon Age: Inquisition, I find myself taking a break to try out another game rather than showing restraint and not picking-up anything else before moving on to something else.
I think prior to Luigi's Mansion the longest gap I had between start and finish of a game was Suikoden. I started the game in 1997 and loved it very much. Deep into the game, I thought I encountered a glitch in my save where I couldn't exit the vampire's castle and couldn't get the vampire to appear either. Around 2010, I went back and tried again only to realize that I was in fact able to exit the castle and needed to go to a village to trigger an event that would then allow the vampire to appear inside the castle. Once I did that, I steadily played the game until completion. So, that was about a 13 year gap!
Share any stories of games you may have had with years (or decade!) long gaps between start and completion.
