It think one of the reasons why I want to replay games and get a fresh new experience with them is because of certain games that have complex mechanics that might have gone under-appreciated or misunderstood. I do think that most games are designed to cater to the lowest common denominator and can still be beaten without engaging with most of a game’s mechanics and still complete them. But when games use mechanics that are either counter-intuitive or difficult to use, most players would label it as bad rather than different. There are those that bring up the fact that Final Fantasy VIII came out so close to Final Fantasy VII that players made comparisons between those two games. Wouldn’t that have been true for games like Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger on the Super Nintendo? Just because players did not get Final Fantasy V until years later doesn’t mean that players in Japan didn’t make those comparisons as well. I need to read up on Jeremy Parish’s critique of Final Fantasy VIII in the future.