Daily Debate: When Replaying a Favorite Zelda Game, Do you Do Anything Differently to Keep the Experience Fresh?

Throughout most of my life, I’ve had a habit of replaying through many of my all-time favorite video games pretty excessively. The older I get, though, the more I try to limit this practice. For as fun as it is to revisit a beloved classic, I find that – like most great songs or movies – some of the magic is lost on me whenever I replay it either too many times or too often.

In 2008 alone, for example, I distinctly remember completing Twilight Princess about a dozen times. I would just repeatedly follow up one playthrough with another. Since then, the game became a mostly annual ritual, but the damage had already been done. I knew the game too well. Again, this isn’t exclusive to Twilight Princess, as there are countless other favorites that I’ve played way too many times: Ocarina of Time, Banjo-Kazooie, the Mass Effect and Halo trilogies, BioShock, Fire Emblem: Three Houses – the list goes on!

Don’t get me wrong – there’s still plenty of enjoyment to be had from revisiting these games, but if I could go back in time, I would’ve severely limited the number of consecutive playthroughs I completed.

Case in point, as I discussed a few months ago, this past January marked my first playthrough of Twilight Princess in four years. Certainly, it helped that this was easily the longest gap between runs. However, what really turned this most recent trek through the Twilight Realm into one of my favorites was the fact that I finally played the game differently.

As the creature of habit that I am, I tend to tackle many of those aforementioned favorites in much the same way every time. In recent years, however, I’ve made an effort to not only go longer stretches of time between playthroughs, but also spice things up more significantly whenever I do revisit them. In Twilight Princess’ case, this recent run was my first attempt at a three-heart challenge. As such, the adventure took on a whole new vibe – one that made me feel as close as I’ve felt to experiencing the game for the first time again.

What about you, though? Like me, have you completed certain Zelda games so many times that you’ve begun switching things up in more recent playthroughs? If so, then what are some of the different ways in which you play? Let us know in the comments below!