Have you ever binge-played an entire series/franchise?

[wangobangy]

Over the past year I have been binge-playing the entire Yakuza/Like A Dragon game franchise. I started playing Yakuza 0 in 2020, but never got super into it but I did really like it. I had left it sitting installed on my PS4 for years, only picking it back up a few times. I didn't even touch it for the entire year of 2022. However, this year I decided to pick it back up again. I don't remember why. So, in March of this year I decided to play more Yakuza 0 and quickly fell in love with it. From that point on, I decided I would play the whole franchise (and the spin-offs eventually too).

I have spent the whole year playing nothing but this franchise (I spent a few odd days playing other games but my main focus has been Yakuza). I have played 7 (and a half because I am currently playing through Yakuza: Like A Dragon) of the 9 games that are available (and canon) to me in the span of 9 months. I average around 50-90 hours on each game. I have started to wonder if this is something that a lot of people do. There are a lot of franchises that I love but I have never played them like this before. For example, I love Resident Evil, but I never jumped from one game to the next as soon as possible.

Has anyone else ever done this? I am personally having a lot of fun playing the series like this. Some of my friends seem to be impressed with how committed I am to it.

[tarraxahum]

I definitely have, although mine had less games involved   Back in uni I've discovered the existence of RPG games, more precisely Bioware ones, so I binge-played first the Dragon Age series (so three games) and then immediately after the whole Mass Effect series (so three more, at the time). There really is something special about just submerging yourself in the story/the world fully from start to the finish, I think.

Can't tell you what my hour count was 'cause I re-played them quite a bit in the year since, but I definitely played a lot of them instead of doing homework or being concerned with exams...   

[wangobangy]

There really is something special about just submerging yourself in the story/the world fully from start to the finish, I think.

There definitely is! Especially when the next game afterwards picks up right where the previous one left off. I think it makes the emotional moments hit harder as well, because you have been with some of those characters for so long that if anything were to happen to them you'd feel stronger emotions than if there was a larger gap of time between playing the games.

I have also been meaning to play the BioWare RPG games as well. I do have Mass Effect Legendary Edition but I haven't touched it much yet. I love RPGs so when I get around to playing them, I might end up binging those games as well.

[litten]

Back in December of 2020 and up until around February of 2021, I played every single mainline Ace Attorney game (there are six) as well as the two Miles Edgeworth Investigations spinoffs. When I would finish one game, I'd hop directly into the next. The only AA games I did not play during this period were The Great Ace Attorney duology (which at the time were not localized outside of Japan, but were released in July of 2021. I did play them then, and they are my favorite out of the entire franchise!) and the Professor Layton crossover (which I still have not played since I have never touched a Layton game before).

Every time winter rolls around I get the urge to replay the trilogy or rewatch Press Buttons 'n Talk's playthrough, LOL.

[GreenTea]

It's fairly common in my group! I have a friend that did this with the Tales of series. This man played every game from Tales of Phantasia to Tales of Arise over the course of a year, it was maddening hearing him talk about trying to play Tales of Hearts, he said it was quite bad.

He hosted quite a few game nights were he'd play his games while people ate, hung out, or played on lan. Sadly, I live many hours away from him, so I never went to any of those parties. As for myself, I made an attempt on running every Kingdom Hearts game, but I gave up because of lack of time. Honestly, it's been awhile since I last completed a game.

[Guest]

Has anyone else ever done this? I am personally having a lot of fun playing the series like this. Some of my friends seem to be impressed with how committed I am to it.

Yes! Although it's rare, because I tend to favour replaying comfort games over branching out into new series. And even when I do, it's difficult for me to want to invest too much into them because of the same reason. Do you find it easier to branch out? Or perhaps this is a common problem :D

Regardless, when I played SMT4 (Shin Megami Tensei) on my DS I found myself unable to put it down until I had completed it. No other game existed for me, and I decided to play the whole series backwards as soon as I finished LOL. Same goes for a few visual novel series too, like Higurashi and Danganronpa.

I love seeing the progression of games too, especially because my play style leans towards trying the newer entries first and working backwards. Where one might find it annoying to have a de-evolution of aspects, I find it really intriguing and it keeps the series interesting for me!

[wangobangy]

Do you find it easier to branch out?

I think it's pretty even when it comes to replaying games and trying new ones out. I always love to try out new games, but if I really really love a game, I'm probably going to replay it a few times (if it doesn't take hours and hours to complete).
 
I was like that with Resident Evil Village, I replayed that game back to back so many times. It got to a point where I think that branching out was doing me some good, especially when I am branching out to a whole new genre with a completely different feel.

Trying new games and seeing what clicks is very satisfying for me, and it makes it easier to really immerse myself in the games. Not every game clicks for me, and that leads me to shelf it and try again later, or just drop it all together. That tends to lead me back to playing my comfort games again. Thankfully, Yakuza has quickly become a "comfort franchise" for me, so I have no desire to drop any of the games so far.

Though I have never played a series in reverse order before, it sounds interesting.

[virtue]

Honestly, not before, though I'm currently looking to get started by binging the entire metroid series. I have only half-begun this though so it definitely does not count as having done it before.

[akesi]

I played every single mainline Ace Attorney game (there are six) as well as the two Miles Edgeworth Investigations spinoffs. When I would finish one game, I'd hop directly into the next.

oh, I did the same thing in summer 2014! i have this really clear memory of having a terrible headache right at the end of the second game, at like 2am, but powering through cause i needed to know what happened. i do think playing all of them together like that caused my memories of them all to blend together a little bit.

i can't think of any other video game series that i binged like this, everything else feels more spread out

[Uneuclid]

the original halo trilogy + reach and emily is away 1-3 come to mind

[Cobra!]

I’m actually doing this with the Tomb Raider series right now. I got a DVD release that contains the entire pre-reboot collection, but I played through the first game on Sega Saturn because I’ve been in a Saturn mood lately, and wanted to experience it from a Sega fanboy’s POV. (I’m going to play 4 and Chronicles on Dreamcast for the same reason.)

I just beat the first game, and thought it was fantastic! I can’t believe I’ve been sitting on it for years, but I absolutely loved it, so plan to binge play the series.

The Saturn homebrew community ported the Unfinished Business to the console, and I’m using my Psuedo Saturn Kai to play it.

They’re also porting the Tomb Raider 2 E3 demo to Saturn, but I don’t think they’re going to port the full game, so I’m going to play that and 3 (and the PS2 era games) on PC. I will play this demo once it releases, though!

[Nickolox]

Yes... very very much yes.
I do this all the time LOL 

I'll admit anytime I play a series I can't help but play the whole thing through from start to finish, often times just because I play a lot of games with a story focus, and I have the tendency to forget after a while and then be like "huh???? whuhhhh??????" 

The one game series I remember most clearly doing this w/ is Half Life!
Played HL1, then Blue Shift, then Opposing Force, HL2, Episode 1, Episode 2... and then for shits n gigs I played Black Mesa (the fan made remake)
and then I proceeded to do this two more  times, because I loved the games a lot (and now I think I've had my half life fill for at least a year xd)

The only thing about playing game series like this is it gets quite exhausting after a bit, especially because I'm a completionist and replay titles to go for 100% on Steam (im absolutely obsessed w/ achievement hunting lol)
I tried playing Hotline Miami 1 and 2 back to back, but I think I'm just a little worn out from the Half Life spree, so I couldn't get through 2...
I've been playing a lot more stand-alone games as of late, I find it's been helping! 

[wangobangy]

I've been playing a lot more stand-alone games as of late, I find it's been helping!

I think I'm going to try to find a few standalone games to play after I'm done with Yakuza, but I still have tons of games left to play. I even plan on playing the spin-offs. I'm definitely going to have some burnout from playing the same type of game almost all year, so treating myself to something new might be good. Once I'm caught up of course. Thankfully I'm just about at the halfway point of this last game.

I'm a completionist and replay titles to go for 100% on Steam (im absolutely obsessed w/ achievement hunting lol)

These games are long and probably hellish for completionists. I'm a bit of a completionist too, but moreso because I want too see everything and less for trophies. Not sure if it's better to recommend them, or to warn you to stay away haha .

[doomvega]

Oh goodness, yes I have. When I played DOOM (2016) for the first time, I played for about seven hours straight. From there I made it my mission to play the rest of the DOOM games as soon as I could.