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So this is something I've been thinking about - my biggest story concern as far as my project is concerned, but also what could make a role-playing game a little more interesting to play in general. So I was thinking of trying to figure out how to allow the players to experiment in my main project. Ideally, I want to add the following: the allowance of a multitude of "builds", no equipment is necessarily inferior (with some exceptions), any focus in stats can work, and weapons and skills would be unique in how the damage scales and/or unique effects, and the "equipping" of a set number of skills. However, I also want to tinker with a New Game Plus function - I have maybe around five different endings, each one with their own unique set of bosses and equipment. I'm probably not going to most of the equipment and stats carry over to a new cycle, except for an item that the final boss of each ending would drop. I was thinking in how I was going to handle endings in general - do I want their to be a true ending, unlocked only when all those special items are collected amongst the different routes? Wouldn't that make the game feel too grindy? Maybe I should allow the option to carry stats over so that players can clear the game quickly? Those are just a few questions I end up asking myself, since it would greatly affect how I want to delve into the story, but those are for me to answer. Help would be appreciated though (teehee). As for the actual discussion, I must ask: what makes you play a RPG again? Some people would say that the nostalgia is enough, or the attempt to re-experience the game, or to take it even further, experience the game completely. Usually, I find myself replaying games either for different endings and/or rewards, or to challenge myself. For example, playing Dark Souls II in a NG+ cycle would give me different challenges in the environment (and sometimes the boss), while I would also pick up more items unique to higher difficulties, giving me access to special equipment and more juicy lore implications - except I don't really care about any of that: I just want more souls, realize my build, and then eventually reach a point where I get so good at the game and my character is so unstoppable that I will complete an entire journey through Drangleic without dying. Hell, I already reached the point where it's rare for me to die to anything except a platforming mistake (but I die often to platforming mistakes). The challenge for me is to attain the realization of my Undead, and make it so that I will never have to see the "YOU DIED" screen once in a cycle. Another example would be the MegaTen games: I played Nocturne a multitude of times, completing my Compendium, trying out different builds, and not necessarily to experience the story (because let's face it, there's very little of that worth experiencing again in that game). I played Persona 4 and Persona 4 Golden a multitude of times, where I even filled out my Compendium and made sure every entry learned all the skills they possibly could. I took a step further in Shin Megami Tensei IV, finding bonus bosses that have a 1/256 chance of appearing, acquiring every single demon possible through the base game and the DLCs, etc. All of that was just to see if I could experience these games fully, and that was the challenge I gave myself. So what constitutes "replay value" in games for you?