Replaying Old Video Games

There are moments when I feel like replaying an old game. Recently, I've been hit with this feeling when watching video essays that discuss these old games. I enjoy watching these deep dives of games from my past. Luckily, I also have the ability to emulate these games.

This happened a year ago with Kingdom Hearts. After watching a few videos, I wanted to play the game myself. At first, I tried to find it on sale and did not feel like paying full price for the remix version. Then I decided to play Kingdom Hearts 4 to scratch the itch, and I ended up getting a platinum trophy for it on my PlayStation console. I then got the game on my emulator but never actually played it because the itch was scratched.

Personally, I'm not much of a nostalgic person. Not because I don't have happy memories from my past, but because I focus more on the present and making sure I'm happy now. I don't spend a lot of time thinking of moments of happiness from before. In my mind, the past is the past, and what happened back then is just how it is. After getting this itch again to replay an old game, I started to question if I'm replaying it because of nostalgia. After thinking it over, I don't believe this is the case.

A lot of these old games I end up replaying, it's because I have an itch to play a game in that style. Like with Kingdom Hearts, after playing number four, I didn't need to play the first one again. I just wanted to play a Kingdom Hearts style game. I realize I get these urges to play a style of game, and what easier way to fix this urge than to play a game you already own and/or have played before that you know fits the urge. Earlier in the year, after watching Blue Eyed Samurai, I wanted to play a game with a samurai. I decided to wait until the new Rise of the Ronin game. Haven't gotten it yet, but I will eventually. I do have other games that can scatch this itch, but I know once I do, I will lose the urge to play the new one that's similar.

And even when I go back and replay a game, I try to play it differently from before. If I were truly playing it for nostalgia sake, then I would play it like I did before. I've been playing Dragon Quest VIII, and in that game, you can choose different weapons for your characters to specialize in. This time, I made Angelo staff focused, something I know I have never done in the past. I wanted to try something new because trying new things can give you a different appreciation for the game you enjoy. Right now I'm watching a video about Pokemon, and no lie, I'm probably going to replay an old Pokemon game. But I'm also trying to figure out what I want to do differently this time, giving myself different objectives or handicaps while playing.

TLDR; I enjoy replaying old games not because of nostalgia but because I get urges to play a game in that style/genre. While playing them, I try to play differently from how I normally would.