10 Video Games That Take Multiple Playthroughs For The TRUE EXPERIENCE

Saving the real rewards for the most committed players.

Starfield starborn
Bethesda

Generally speaking, once you’ve rolled credits on a game, it’s safe to close the thing down and move on with your life, but there are certainly glaring exceptions to that rule.

Some games pack so much worthwhile, even "necessary" content into their New Game Plus modes that you’re only massively depriving yourself of the - wait for it - true experience if you don't bother sticking around for another few playthroughs.

Though we’ve all got busy lives and a backlog of games we haven’t got a hope in hell of ever clearing, these games absolutely begged you to come back for more to glean the full picture.

On repeat playthroughs these games unfurled the full extent of the story, presented it from a wholly different perspective, and perhaps even went full meta by playing around with parallel universes and alternate timelines.

If you dropped these games like a bad habit the moment you saw the dev credits, you’ve only seen a fraction of what they actually had to offer, and in most cases you’ve robbed yourself of something far more meaningful…

10. Nier: Automata

Starfield starborn
PlatinumGames

Let's kick things off with perhaps the gold standard of games which outright need you to play through them numerous times.

Rolling credits once on Nier: Automata just won't cut it, as players require a minimum of three playthroughs to experience every sliver of story it has to offer.

Once you've "beaten" the game as android protagonist 2B, you'll be able to witness the same events from the perspective of fellow android 9S, which given that the duo are separated for large chunks of the story, ensures a wealth of new content, with 9S also playing quite differently to 2B.

And then there's the third playthrough, which picks up after 2B and 9S's stories have concluded for an entirely new mini-campaign of sorts, with players now controlling yet another android character, A2.

Playing through all this is necessary to unlock Nier: Automata's true ending, Ending E, ensuring that those who jump off after 2B's initial campaign are really only seeing a third of the story play out.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.