It Takes Two is not focused on offering replayability, Josef Fares has said, with the director noting that “people don’t even finish games” these days. The Hazelight Studios co-founder made the claim during a Q&A session ahead of a preview of the upcoming game, noting how it wouldn’t feature any collectibles and would not focus on being replayable.
During the Q&A, Fares was asked whether or not players would feel compelled to replay It Takes Two after completing it. Fares noted how although journalists repeatedly pursue this line of questioning, it doesn’t line up with how people actually play games.
“We should be very careful about this, because the issue with replayability is that the statistics show that people don’t even finish games,” Fares said. “Who’s replaying games? People don’t even finish games.”
“We always get this question,” he continued. “Why, I don’t understand. People don’t replay games.”
Fares noted that while It Takes Two was technically replayable, the Hazelight team have proudly avoided inserting collectibles into their platformer, a staple of the genre.
“Yes, you can replay It Takes Two … but you don’t have any collectibles in It Takes Two,” Fares said. “It’s something we’re very proud of.”
It Takes Two won’t have collectibles or “shiny sh*t”
The director, whose previous credits also include A Way Out and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, derisively referred to collectibles as “shiny shit” and noted that there are other ways to get players to navigate an area than tempting them with an inconsequential item.
“I know shiny shit is there to guide the player, but you can do that with other things,” Fares said, referring to mini-games as a way to guide players to a new area.
Fares’ comments regarding completion rates for video games is accurate. In a report of PS4 game completion rates (via Ungeek), it was revealed that The Last of Us 2 had the higest completion rate of any PS4 game based on trophy data, though it still barely broke even with a 58% completion rating. Some of the PS4’s most popular games such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Ghost of Tsushima, and Horizon Zero Dawn each have completion rates below 40%. You can read a comprehensive list of game completion rates here.
In other news, the Elden Ring gameplay trailer was reportedly leaked this week, offering our first proper look at From Software’s upcoming action RPG. The starter Pokemon for the recently unveiled Pokemon Legends Arceus were also revealed.
