Does the story have "replay value"?

[Junkhead]

I feel kind of guilty, skipping the story of the games after the first run. Also supports, if I have read them before.

I don't want to be one of those people that simply play the game, only being interested in gameplay.

[Siegmund]

I do that too

[Junkhead]

On a similiar note, I also feel kind of bad for not using animations most of the time. I like them, but I also kind of feel in a hurry, for some reason.

[shadowofchaos]

What is wrong with pressing start?

I mean they put that functionality there for a reason.

I hated the lack of said feature on the remake of Tales of the Abyss on the 3DS.

Edited December 29, 2013 by shadowofchaos

[BrightBow]

From my experience, a good story gets better every time it's experienced because you get a fuller picture on each run.

[RJWalker]

In my opinion, the best kind of replay value comes not from how customizeable a character or how wildly different a second playthrough would be but from a game being just that damn good. Even the most linear game has far more replay value than a highly customizeable game if the linear game is of high enough quality. It's the same for the story. I can't skip through story if it's that good.

That said, there's nothing wrong in skipping the story even if you like it or love it or hate it.

[Espinosa]

I've only paid attention to the stories of FE4/5, FE9/10 and Awakening. Everything else I skip.

[Nobody]

I skip them every time I replay the games. I also turn the animations off. I'm not exactly patient.

[Rapier]

Story loses replay value far too quickly, unfortunately. I can't replay any Ace Attorney games no matter how good their stories are. Fire Emblem's story generally lasts three playthroughs with me, but that's all.

[Byte2222]

From my experience, a good story gets better every time it's experienced because you get a fuller picture on each run.

That's the thing: a story has 'replay value' if you get a different perspective on it after the end. A good non-game example is the film The Sixth Sense - there's such a massive twist at the end that you just have to go back and have another watch now that you know it. A decent video game example is the recent Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which also has a (metaphorically) game-changing twist at the end that casts the actions of most of the cast into a different light.

[X-Naut]

The start button and ability to disable animations give more replay value than the story IMO, since they let you enjoy the game after you've seen it all.

[Loki Laufeyson]

FE9/10 and FE7 are the only games i dont always find myself ramming on the start button. But a lot of stuff gets skipped anyway. In FE9/10, i skip the cutscenes unless its that GM Rescue one in FE10. (Cuz that shit is awesome) Ive replayed the FEs i have so much that i just sorta go "ehh whatevs."

[Constable Reggie]

I enjoy experiencing an Fe game's story (barring lol6andawakening) after some period of time that I've already played it. If I start another playthrough right after (or a short period after) I beat a previous one, I'm going to skip the story for that playthrough for the most part.

Edited December 30, 2013 by Constable Reggie

[Thor Odinson]

I think the only game where I don't skip story after initial run (given the choice) is Assassin's Creed series because I absolutely love the characters and the story bits is where all the characterization happen and I tend to care more about the characters than the plot

I mean I like the FE characters too but not to the degree that I like my assassins and most of the cast that I like about gets their characterization from supports anyway since they aren't the mains

But I will story for initial runs.

[Mighty Kamina]

I never skip the story in games on my subsequent playthroughs. The games I usually end up replaying usually have stories and characters that I like.

[PathOfRadiantDawn]

I am actually replaying PoR and RD for both the story and to do it on a harder difficulty. For all my playthroughs of those two I never payed attention to story or side conversations. Now I am playing on the hardest difficulty and listening to every info, support, character vs character conversation, etc. Yea, it takes longer but I enjoy the immersion.

To answer whether or not it has replay value, well, kinda. Yea, if you don't know the story much then listening to the conversations can really fill you in on what was happening and why you are in certain places and fighting certain enemies. I wouldn't replay it just for the story, but paying attention to it for the first time, it is really interesting to me.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Occasionally, i play Find The Foreshadowing with Tellius. I play FE9 and look for any clues about a lost Apostle. Yeah theres nothing there and its futile to keep looking, but whatever. But the Sothe convos are kinda neat in places. Or i look for clues about Soren/Kurthnaga/Rajaion/Dheginsea. And then i play FE10 to see if those dots connect.

If its FE7, and im not story skipping, its to see how much of a badass Hector really is. And Pent scenes.

[Skynstein]

I skip story because I've already seen it so many times. I wish Awakening was fully voice-acted. It would make me not skip the story as much.

Anyway, nowadays with YouTube and LPs you don't even need to play a game to experience its story anymore, so I'd say gameplay and other elements are far more important for generating replay value.

[Samias]

Occasionally, i play Find The Foreshadowing with Tellius. I play FE9 and look for any clues about a lost Apostle. Yeah theres nothing there and its futile to keep looking, but whatever. But the Sothe convos are kinda neat in places. Or i look for clues about Soren/Kurthnaga/Rajaion/Dheginsea. And then i play FE10 to see if those dots connect.

If its FE7, and im not story skipping, its to see how much of a badass Hector really is. And Pent scenes.

Pretty much this. FE9 is one of the few opportunities to look back at the sequel and see things that weren't there before with regards to how much information there is across both games.

I'll replay the story parts of any of the games if it's been long enough between playthroughs. However, if I immediately pick up the game to play again, I'll skip scenes. I'm glad that FE has the skip feature, which makes the gameplay really easy to pick up and play over and over again since there is replay value in support conversation collection and using different units.

[bottlegnomes]

FE9/10 and FE7 are the only games i dont always find myself ramming on the start button. But a lot of stuff gets skipped anyway. In FE9/10, i skip the cutscenes unless its that GM Rescue one in FE10. (Cuz that shit is awesome) Ive replayed the FEs i have so much that i just sorta go "ehh whatevs."

This pretty much. Love PoR's story to death, but after 11 PTs, I no longer care, save certain points like Shinon's info convo (probably a big part of why I like him so much) or Bryce's convos with Tauroneo (if I'm using him) and Ike.

In general, there's really nothing wrong with skipping. Compare it to movies or books. How often do you reread or rewatch a movie? Off the top of my head, there are like three movies I'll go out of my way to rewatch. There are even fewer books, as they're such a big time investment, which I'd group video games with.

That said, ideally, the story should have replay value in two senses. First, if you never get tired of a story, then that's better no matter how you look at it. Second, ideally, the story and gameplay should be completely intertwined, so that way, you'd get the story simply by replaying the game. So if the game has replay value, then the story would, too, and vice versa. Granted, games aren't there yet, but they seem to be getting there.