Toss up between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. They are the only two games that I almost ritualisticly play every year or so, and I honestly do not know which one I have played more. I love them both to pieces and despite what many will tell you, they are two very different sides of the same coin.

Tales of Symphonia 10 times.

Super Mario Bros. don't keep the count, but a lot.

The original Castlevania, Metroid: Zero Mission, and Super Mario 64 are close to or over 10 times each probably. The original Luigi's Mansion is up there as well, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance like 6 or 7 times.

There are some strategy games that are designed to play through many times.  The biggest one for me is probably Civilization Revolution which I think I've played through around 50-100 times.  Also, Civ 1, Civ 2 and Master of Magic have had more playthroughs than I can count.  For more story/campaign oriented PC games, I've played through both Freedom Force and Heroes of Might and Magic 2 at least 5 times each (maybe more).

Then there are the NES games.  I've played through Super Mario Bros 1 and 3 and The Legend of Zelda a ton.  I've played these games so much (and so long ago) I couldn't tell you if I beat them closer to 4 times or 40 times.  Most likely somewhere near the middle of that, lol.  I've had a several playthroughs of NES Metroid too.  None of those games takes a long time to beat though.  

Golden Axe and D&D: Tower of Doom also fall into the 4-40 times playthrough category.  Some of those times were multiplayer though and some were by myself.

Final Fantasy games:  FF1, FF7 and FF Tactics I've beaten like 5-10 times each.  FF9 and FF10 are more like 4-6 times each.

Katamari Damacy is a game I've beaten around 8-12 times.

Oh yeah, and Adventure on the Atari 2600 I've beaten like 20-50 times, but again those playthroughs do not take long.

Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past is probably the one I have played and beaten the most times. But it is kind of cheating since most of the runs is from playing multiplayer on the Randomizer mod with friends. And the question was for single player.

Super Mario Bros 3 is probably the game where I started most new playthroughs. However a lot of them never went all the way and even more started at some randomly saved point near a level I wanted to play.

The first Diablo is probably the game I started most new games with the intention of playing it to the end. But I often set up some strange limitation to my games. like banning all armor or no town visits or no potion use that makes me get stuck somewhere.

The winner will be Fire Emblem the Blazing Blade. I have played that game start to finish a lot of times. Had a small obsession with collecting all the conversations between characters. And that takes a lot of games to archive. And since a few of the units joins you very late one needs to play all the way to the end.

Honorable mention to Resident evil 4. The game I finished on the most different platforms (NGC, PS2, Wii, PS3, iPhone, PC, Switch, PS5) as well as the game I bought most versions of.


Great thread btw =)

I've played Dragon Age Inquisition for over 1000 hours, so who knows how many times that is as generally I can co a main campaign in 25-30 hours, I've restarted loads of times mid way through as well. I'd put Skyrim up there. Crash 1 and 2. FF7, 8, 9, 10 12.

While it is MP, I've never played Diablo 3 with anyone, only solo, 600 hours in that.

Now that I think of it, has to be Contra on the NES. Lord knows how many times I've played it when I was a kid.

Probably Hades if you count every successful run as beating the game but for more standard games I would guess it's Mega Man 2. Once you know what you're doing you can easily finish it under an hour and the combination of having so much free time and a limited number of games to play when I was young means that I've played through it many many times.

Easily the original The Legend of Zelda.  Even with all the Randomizers and ROM Hacks out there, which I do try as well, I still do a complete playthrough of the original frequently.  Last year, I attempted (and completed) a "No Sword Run" for the first time.  I especially love the freedom of how you begin your quest.  Even though it has no value until paired with the Magic Wand, I always go into Level 8 way earlier than I'm supposed to (or need to) and get the Magic Book just because I can.

Probably the GBA Pokemon games. I've played RSE and FRLG so many times I've lost count. Also the GBA Fire Emblem games, I used to play those all the time back in the day.

It honestly would be a toss up between the Pokémon GBC games or Batman Arkham Asylum. An odd choice for sure, but I loooooove to replay Arkham Asylum every year since it came out. Especially around Halloween time. And not just a quick playthrough. I love to 100% the game every time! It's a timeless classic for me.