I’ve recently found that big (mostly open world) games tend to overwhelm or even intimidate me. I’m a big fan of the Rockstar games and absolutely adored Breath of the Wild, but my playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom has been a bit rocky from the get-go.
As soon as the game let me explore all of its content and released me from the tutorial island, I was able to roam the lands of Hyrule freely as I once did in Breath of the Wild, but I’ve come to a sort of paralysis. I feel like there’s such an enormous amount of content to see that I’m constantly anxious to unintentionally skip content or to not make the most of my experience. I did not feel like this back in Breath of the Wild, and I’m not really sure why. I did, however, have this same sense of FOMO when I first played Skyrim. That game also made me feel like I was constantly missing stuff which left me kind of unsatisfied.
This is not a big problem and all of the games I listed are great games. I’m posting this because I unconciously took a two week break from ToTK in order to alleviate that feeling but when I came back to the game today and still felt the same, I thought of posting here and maybe hearing your opinions on this thing.
Have you ever felt the same in big open world games? Do you feel like this in more linear games with multiple endings? (I do) Do you think I’m an overthinker and should just rock on? Looking forward to your comments!
Go ahead and miss stuff. It’ll be more fun on subsequent plays-through if you’re still discovering new things. It’s also more enjoyable to come across stuff organically than if you turn it into a chore.
I used to be a completionist; it made games less enjoyable. If a game is good enough to make missing some content a loss there’s a strong chance I’ll want to replay it in a year or two anyway so I’ve learned to let some things go the first time around.
100% agree with you, being a completionist also sucks the enjoyment out of games for me. I feel like I’m not as far along as you and still have to “get” that I don’t HAVE to explore and find everything. Just takes a while, probably. :) It’s hard for me to decide whether a game is worth exploring extensively or not.
It’s a good attitude – “if it’s that good I’ll replay it one day anyway” – though easier said than done sometimes. (Particularly in a game like, say, Dying Light 2, where you can lock yourself out of tons of sidequests by simply progressing the main story.