• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

I keep getting the urge to restart games

Joined
Dec 15, 2009
Messages
1,122
Reaction score
2,084
I have a problem that interferes with my ability to enjoy Pokemon games, and I'm wondering if anyone can relate. I obsess over all kinds of small details such as the date I started playing, which Pokemon I use, the data that's registered in my Pokedex, and so on. If something doesn't feel quite right, I get the urge to delete my save file and restart.

I once erased an entire Omega Ruby living dex in the middle of the night, because thinking about all the attributes of those Pokemon - their abilities, genders, the balls they were caught in, and so on - was keeping me awake. I made a new living dex in Ultra Sun a few years later, and that one suffered the same fate.

I avoid downloading event Pokemon, because I don't like having anything on my save file that can't be re-obtained at a later date. I dread encountering shinies, because I feel that it makes my Pokedex untidy if I have a few shinies registered but not all of them. Sometimes I avoid using nicknames even if I have really good ideas for them, because I feel that they make my Pokemon look untidy.

I used to be really carefree and never thought about any of these things. I wish I could go back to playing the way I used to, because I feel like I'm ruining the games for myself. There are so many save files I regret deleting.

I've heard people talking about "Pokemon OCD" and "video game OCD" so I know I'm not alone. I hesitate to use the term OCD, though, because I don't want to trivialise the struggles of people who really have the illness. Sometimes I do wonder if I might really have a mild form of OCD, but I've never been formally diagnosed.

Has anyone else here ever had problems like this? How do you deal with it? I would love to leave all of this nonsense behind me when BDSP and Legends come out. Recently, I've been having some success with a "messy" playthrough of Sword which I'm hoping to make my main save file, but I still keep having to fight the urge to delete it!
 
Not to suggest that you can extrapolate a diagnosis from my own, but I actually do have OCD, and yeah, I recognize this story very clearly, almost word-for-word. I’ve sent countless playthroughs to the grave because of mild imperfections. Hell, I’ve reset my 3DS to factory settings more times than I can remember for much the same reason.

It’s something I’ve been working on lately; trying to get more comfortable with finding a happy middleground between “100% the game according precisely to the script in my head” and “lol nuke it.” One strategy I've been employing is to play more games that either don't really have a completionist aspect to them, or that don't appeal to me in the all-consuming way that Pokémon does. As an example, I recently picked up Mario Kart 8 for my wife and I to play together. The fact that it's now a shared project rather than a solo game, combined with my relative lack of interest in that franchise compared to Pokémon, means I don't feel so compelled to unlock every last thing and get every top score or whatever. And then, because I now have that "messy" game on my Switch, I feel a bit less obsessive about the details of my Pokémon games on the same system.

But it's kind of funny how my brain still tries to look for escape hatches - saying, "Well, okay, the Switch can be impure; I'll just start replaying my 3DS games and that will be my 'pure' system." Though I guess to my credit, I haven't actually gone through with that idea. And I think part of the reason for that is because of me getting into games other than Pokémon. That may not apply to you, I'm afraid, since I don't know what your gaming portfolio is like, but for me, the vast majority of my time on the Switch has been spent on Pokémon and Animal Crossing, both of which I was extremely obsessive about when playing (though I ended up swearing off Animal Crossing eventually because it just became an endless, pointless grind without any new updates on the horizon). But I would like to have more diverse gaming experiences anyway, so I decided to start loading up my Switch with games from my "I'd like to play this" list. So now, the fact that I have like 12 other Switch games on the docket that I need to get my money's worth from has, I think, given me a reason to not go back to the 3DS. And if any of those new games don't work out in my favor, then in a way, that just contributes to the normalization of the "messiness."
 
Last edited:
My own problems are on a much smaller scale, but I feel like I do understand your struggle. Pokédex completionism is well outside of my capabilities or desires, but I've built up several teams from every region throughout the core series and a couple from Orre. I recently realized my Glalie was female (I was specifically hoping for a female Gardevoir and a male Glalie), and had an unjustifiable urge to trash the team and go through XD again JUST to fix that. Or I'll play through Pokkén Tournament and then delete it halfway because I didn't get the Rank promotion in the minimum amount of battles, so I can't apply that to the other Pokémon I want to level up appropriately. Or I'll threaten my Pokémon Conquest save with six Eeveelutions and 90% of transformations because I'll realize that I could have possibly gone through Legend of Ransei better than I did.

First of all, never let yourself make a decision in the middle of the night (or the middle of the day, if you work the graveyard shift; you get my point). If you're not fully-rested or you're just getting out of bed, your decision-making process is hampered. I realize this isn't the biggest thing affecting you, but every little bit helps.

Secondly, try to remember about things like Pokémon Bank and Pokémon HOME. Or, if you don't have access to either of them, consider designating a cartridge as a "storage" option and trade them over manually - I have the same thing in Generation IV. If you're 100 Pokémon into a living Pokédex and only 30 of them satisfy you, that's still 30 Pokémon that satisfy you, save those 30. Maybe this'll help you regarding event Pokémon, too.

Next, the biggest thing that stops me from going through with my own "wipe it, do it again" urges is stopping before I do something like that, and taking a good long time to think about the amount of work I'll have to do in order to satisfy it. Like, my XD example, I just want a male Glalie with Micheal's OT. Which would entail: releasing the entire rest of the team (because I know I'm not gonna get matching Trainer IDs); playing through the entirety of XD again (because Orre prohibits trading until after the credits); #SaveScumming to get the entire rest of the team satisfactory (because if I get a male Glalie and a male Gardevoir, that's just the same thing again); trading the Pokémon to my copy of LeafGreen which may or may not be soft-locked after a series of transfers to Gen IV (I don't remember which Pokémon Center I'm in), which if yes would require playing through LeafGreen again and catching enough species to get the National Dex; transferring the Pokémon to Gen IV via Pal Park, then to Gen V via Poké Transfer and Gen VI via Poké Transporter. That's not worth it just for a male Glalie. Yes, you have comparatively bigger urges, but also a comparatively larger amount of work to do. Is it worth losing an entire living Pokédex because you caught Regirock and Regice in Dusk Balls and Registeel in a Timer Ball?

And finally, if you can't stop yourself from over-scrutinizing after the fact, then let me give you one last bit of advice: You can't go for completionism if you don't know how much there is to complete. I already had preferred teams for Kanto to Alola planned out at the dawn of Generation VIII, but when I started playing Galar, I didn't let myself do anything more than "this starter seems most appropriate" until after I had played through Galar once, because I didn't know anything about what Galar's Pokédex was like. (And even then, I changed my mind when I realized that the Scorbunny line is "association football player" and not "track athlete".) I waited until the Expansion Pass had been released and did a round of the Isle of Armour and the Crown Tundra before I decided what team to put together.
Apply the same logic to your Pokédex completionism. You can't know how many new Pokémon there are to catch in Hisui until you've actually played through Legends: Arceus at least once. Even for BDSP - yes, it's Sinnoh, but think about how many differences there are between GSC Johto and HGSS Johto, or RSE Hoenn and ORAS Hoenn. You don't know for sure whether the Pokémon distribution is going to be the same. Or even which distribution it's going to be the same as; I'm willing to put my money on the Pt Sinnoh Dex, but there is a chance I could be wrong. Are they gonna let us into the Fight Area as soon as we make the Hall of Fame, or is there gonna be a post-game plot around the Distortion World? Or will they just upgrade the story at Stark Mountain into a full blown Lava Dome Episode? Are they going to do in BDSP what they did in ORAS, and make a Mythical Pokémon available without an event? And if so, which Mythical Pokémon are they going to choose? A peaceful encounter with Shaymin at the Flower Paradise? Upgrade the Lunar Wing story into a full on Cresselia vs. Darkrai clash on the Twin Moon Isles? Maybe they'll even finally go through with the Azure Flute to get people hyped for Legends: Arceus.
There's no way to know any of this, for sure, until the game comes out. If you don't know, how can you complete? And if you can't complete, then what is there to gain from scrutinization? Keep that in mind when November comes. If you're not gonna get the game at launch, block yourself off from Bulbagarden and Serebii and Twitter and whatever other frickers try to spoiler us, and go into the game blind when you finally do get it. That should help you enjoy it - at least the first time.
 
Last edited:
I get the same urge sometimes too. But I always refrain from doing that because I spent so much effort and time completing my games and I'd hate to begin again from the start and lose all my progress. :(
 
I almost never restart my games, the only exceptions being Ruby back in 2003/2004 because I was trying to get all the Starter Pokemon that I didn't already have in Sapphire. And also one time when my Crystal restarted on its own because of a glitch, but that's about it.
 
Unfortunately I cannot relate. In fact, I may even have the opposite feels. The amount of times I've ever restarted Pokémon games could be probably counted with one hand with some fingers left over, because I cannot stand the thought of flushing any amount of that time and work down the toilet.
 
i actually dislike restarting pokemon games. unless there's a situation where i've stopped playing that particular game completely and years have passed since then, then i think it's whatever, but it makes me uncomfortable wiping out all the hard work i've put into those games. u_u
 
I get completionist urges in a lot of games, too. And this often results in me resetting or starting a new save file in lots of them, particularly Pokémon. And/or dedicating an unholy amount of hours to a single game, a la Hollow Knight
I find that it helps to have games that don’t keep track of your progress in a notable or standout manner, such as Super Smash Bros. or as you mentioned above, Mario Kart. This aspect is not present in Pokémon, which explicitly states how many [insert item or Pokémon] you are missing, and that you should find.
As a result, I often try to avoid games with any specific percentage or goals to aim towards other than the main story.
 
I'm completely relaxed about restarting a game once all the 'Mons I want to keep are sequestered away in HOME or the latest title, and I used to restart quite frequently to experience the main story with species I'm unfamiliar with, or start a Nuzlocke (often with the same goal in mind). Ultimately, acquiring a specific Pokémon is so convenient these days through the power of technology that I never feel like I'm losing anything I can't easily get back.

Given my intense familiarity with older titles, which are generally my favourites, I tend to find less value in launching a fresh run these days - Johto really does hold no more surprises.
 
I realize this is an old thread, but I wanted to say that I restart my games quite frequently too. I think I've grown especially more likely to since Pokemon Home and the previous one from the 3DS came around. When I feel the urge, I'll take out all the Pokemon I wanna keep and then restart the game to I can beat it again ^^'
 
Please note: The thread is from 2 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom