I’ve to disagree to be honest, because one of the absolute worst aspects which i hate about Diablo 2 LOD and Grim Dawn nowdays, despite them two counting as two of my favorite ARPG’s of all time ist the whole 3-Difficulty-Replay-Bullshit, because it makes it even more repetitive because the order you play is the exact same (run from the some quest to quest, from the same area to areas) each character, and it also ‘highly’ devalue the Campaign and Story of it. Because this type of games you often play (or atleast encourage) for it’s replaybility as well Endgame means both starting out new characters and level them up for new builds but also in the endgame where you focus to finalize / perfect them. That means you might start over a few character, but not because you want to enjoy the Campaign or Story again, but try new builds. And now imagine to give you a different example: Steak is your Favorite food, but you have to eat a few weeks straight, not because you are hungry for steak but you’re forced to eat it because nothing else is left?! How long do you geniunly think it will remain your Favorite Food if you’ve to eat it each day? I’d argue most people would throw the towel after 3 days or so… and some might even go completly sick on it.
And that’s the thing about Grim Dawn… i’m at 1000 Hours Gameplay, but these days i can’t enjoy the Campaign or Parts of it’s Story fully anymore - because if you even want to play atleast each class once (and that’s not considering the various class combinations and build variety in the same class-combo) for 9 Classes with a Dual-Class-System it means atleast 5 Characters to play, and that means you’ve to replay TOTAL 15 Times. The exact same story, in the exact same order (with only a little bit of variations if it comes down to choose which sidequests first) in the same route how you run the maps. Over and Over and Over again. That’s why even Crate added tools with the skip-merits and now the ‘finish normal to unlock ultimate instantly’ because it does become an issue for quite some people.
Diablo 3 have qute some stuff which i didn’t like and were fair criticism is, but one thing they certainly nailed in it’s core idea is how to tackle the situation. You’ve chapter-select where you can give yourself if you’re into that, a new-game+ system, or if you are more free-spirted pick chapters in a free order which you like - or an Adventure Mode which is completly Sandbox mode, where you can on your free and own will decide how to grind up a new character, running areas in any order, doing bosses in any order engage in bounties or doing rifts etc.
And the difficulty system is also kinda cleverly implemented due it’s not really playthrough related, though here was the issue that it was to bloated in the end with the torment like 16(?) or so, that’s to much - and there would have been a fewer but more distinctive and meaningfull variations better. And also i feel to point out, the Reason why D3 can’t fully embrace / use it’s potential of this concept is also because leveling new characters are kinda boring in D3, due no skillstrees, no real variation when you progress through your character because each playthrough with the same class feels the exact same - exact same order of unlocking skills and runes, no real tinkering with skillpoints/talentpoints etc etc. So the irony on this is - while they fixed one aspect they shifted a similiar issue to another. But the core-concept of how playthrough and difficultys work and the idea behind it was amazing, and D4 is definitely a step back from that (like yes you can skip campaign atleast that, but for people who want to enjoy ng+ they got kinda screwed).
But anyway you’ve a choice, and that’s when i do the campaign / story in Diablo 3 - despite of having a similiar amount of hours than in GD (and let’s not start D2 - 12 years playing it on and off, most likely still my most played game today) and despite that we could have a debate about the content of it’s story, it’s still an enjoyable experience to me because I can decide when i want to dig it and when not, → not when game forces me 3 times in a row only so i can enjoy it’s gameplay content of leveling characters, doing build and enjoy endgame.
Also as a sidenote - while i’m already push that contoversal take another hot take which might get me hate for. That’s also a reason why i find each game like this (ARPG and such), maybe not ‘forced’ as some games does but atleast as an option, should have Levelscaling for Enemies. Because it really annoys me (up to even kinda hate it); and sorry for the theatralic wording because i don’t know how to express it better in english; being caged like a lion in the Endgame - when only being limited to a few areas or maybe a certain endgame mechanics of a big world with alots of areas, because earlier areas don’t scale and so makes them become absolute meaningless and useless except for the people who are on a powertrip and need to roflstomp it just for a mere number (level) [and sorry for the harsh way to put it, normally i wouldn’t ‘diss’ people on that, but how often i’ve seen people are offended over the mere concept of suggestion adding an “optional” level-scaling option for all areas drives me kinda to also throw out some punches and being sorry but not sorry]. I want even in the endgame that early areas are meaningfull, that you can level and grind there for stuff, and prove my strength based on my build and such. Imagine a 5 slice pizza each with their own topping but at the time you get home with it you only can enjoy one piece because the other 4 went cold (for whatever reason).
//Edit:
Also before people start arguing about: But hey you’ve 1000 hours into the game it’s obvious that at one point something starts to become boring. Sure, you’re correct. But my point here is rather that it is an factor of proper dosage. My Argument is that - agian another example, that you can potentially watch your (favorite) Movie 50 times, but spread out in 50 years - meanwhile when you watch said movie 50 times in 1-2 weeks you are so oversaturated that you might NEVER watch it again. → Or it might not be as special anymore. But if it’s occassional / dosed correctly that helps immensely.
15 Times of playing a campaign/story when you are hungry for it spread out over the period of time of your liking (like 15 years) hits differently than replaying it for 15 times in a shorter period because you have to… and not even for 15 characters but for 5 due 3-difficulty-playthrough per character. (I mean if it’s per character once it’s much more bearable in that regard).
//Edit 2:
And another thing to specify here, it’s not just the timeframe and regularity which is part of it, but also intention factors hugely into it. I’m pretty sure some people might go with my example and say: “Duh i drink coffee each day and love it” or “i do eat this almost each day and still love it”. (though than again for some people in case of coffee there might be an argument to be made about they’ve too drink it otherwise they won’t funtion that day but that’s another topic) I don’t want to dismiss this, but in this example you’ve to factor in (as per my wording above) that you are hungry for it you want to. But Videogames get in this regard a bit more complex because people play them for different reasons, intentions etc. Like to this specific example some play it for story / campaign but some also just for the gameplay, endgame etc. If you geniunly want to replay a campaign 15 times in a row than there is a different intention than if you replay it because you wanna do different classes and builds… and that is the effect i’m talking about.
