HOW I PLAY VIDEO GAMES
With having relatively strong opinions about how video games are engaged with, I wanted to take some time to fully lay out how I go about playing them. None of these are hard-set rules, they're just rough guidelines I try to stick to.
WHEN IT COMES TO A SERIES, PLAY THE GAMES IN ORDER OF RELEASE
For example: Recently I've been interested in Yakuza/Like A Dragon. So, I started playing Yakuza (2005) for the PlayStation 2 first. I know there's the Kiwami versions, and the prequel Yakuza 0 (which a lot of people recommend playing first), but I think starting from the beginning is a good idea. I can get around to 0 after playing Yakuza 5, no harm done.
Sometimes, it takes a little more effort to investigate a series beforehand to understand which games are connected to one another. For instance, with Grasshopper Manufacture's titles, they all share a common thread and are best experienced in release order, however, this isn't exactly obvious from the outset unless you look into the company's history.
I think if you like the developers or series enough, sometimes it's just worth playing all of their games in order of release, even if there's no shared world. It's very interesting to see the artistic progression over time. Though, that's more appropriate when it's clear there's something related, whether it's theme, genre or shared staff members. I don't expect anyone to play every single Capcom game in order of release.
Furthermore, I would advocate for playing series that don't have a shared timeline (e.g. Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda) in order of release as well. This is a little less strict for me, as sometimes you just want to play a specific game from a series. Though I will say, having played FF1-8 & Tactics this way, I really think it enhanced my experience with the series.
PLAY THE GAME ON ORIGINAL HARDWARE (OR AT LEAST, THE ORIGINAL VERSION)
When possible, DS games should be played on the DS, PS2 on the PS2 etc. When I can't do this, I opt to play the games on an emulator in software rendering mode to be as authentic as possible. Do not upscale your PS1/2 games to 4K and install patches to unlock the FPS, experience it as it was intended!
Recently I've been testing out CRT filters as well when playing older games, just to keep in line with trying to have an authentic presentation. It will never be as perfect as just playing on actual hardware, on an actual CRT, but this isn't something you need to think too deeply about. Just do what you can, and enjoy.
If I have access to the original version of a game, I will play it over any modern remasters if possible. It depends on quite a few things, sometimes the remasters fuck up the visual effects, sometimes the frame rate is doubled and causes issues, sometimes the translation is dramatically improved, and those other issues take a backseat. It just depends, really.
IF I HAVE NO ACCESS TO A GAME, I WILL WAIT FOREVER
This one sounds funny, but I'll explain it as best as I can. There's a game by Grasshopper Manufacture called Moonlight Syndrome (pictured above too!) that I really want to play. I cannot speak Japanese, so I cannot play it currently. There are (if I remember correctly) some videos online that summarise the game, explain the events chronologically, goes into detail about how it ties into subsequent games or gives a deep dive on the gameplay and systems. But for me, I'm not going to indulge in that.
Watching a YouTube video of someone playing a video game, or summarising the story of a game, will never be the same as playing a video game. You cannot extract the same experience through watching as you could by actually interacting with the game itself. I would even extend this to games that don't have much interaction at all, like visual novels or something like Telltale games. Your lived experience of playing something, no matter how interactive, will always be better than watching a fucking YouTube video.
PLAY WITH ORIGINAL CONTROL SCHEMES
This is sort of an extension of playing the original version, but if possible, I will just use the original controller for any game. If not, I'll try to go as similar as possible, like using a Nintendo style controller for SNES games.
This is all I can think of right now! But if I think of more, I will update the post accordingly!