Topic: What is the single most important aspect of a game to you?

For me good Gameplay = Replayability, and it's the most important thing on any game. I also like a nice coherent story; and I barely discovered that, even if I like the gameplay, I just can't play a game if I can't stand the principal character (I'm looking at you Kratos ).

Graphics.

Which includes box cover.

I'll buy a game for a sexy cover.

Gameplay and controls. What good is a game with an epic story, epic soundtrack and fancy graphics if it's boring/ controls badly?

1. Gameplay
2. Story
3. Multiplayer (online or local, I really like co-op, but most shooters need a deathmatch mode to impress me...)
4. Innovation
If the game is fun to play, that's great. If it has an engaging story, it's even better!
Thus, with friends, the experience only gets better right? (...usually)
Also, if all else fails, if the game is refreshingly new, I'll stand playing it.
EDIT: Oh yeah and I always appreciate a nice soundtrack, but that's never a game seller for me

That's the one reason I bought Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Wandered around? Did you get to the town part, with the lynched policeman, and everyone attacking you and chainsaw guys going for you? Cuz that's usually the part that wakes people up and grabs their attention.

Gameplay, definitely. A game could look awesome and have a great story, but if you can't figure out how to play it/or the controls are messed up, there really is no point.

He probably didn't. It's the only possible explanation.

Gameplay. What good are great graphics and epic story if the gameplay sucks?

Gameplay is key, but personally I enjoy good production values like clean sound and visual effects, soundtracks, and graphics that demonstrate that the developer took real pride in the presentation, not just the programming. World of Goo is a perfect example.

Fun/gameplay. Next comes lasting appeal, and then production.

Then this must describe you, as you appear to be defending 360 fans. If you weren't one, you wouldn't have said that about my list.

Well, I could narrow this down to just one, but I like lists better, so here we go.

1. Gameplay
2. Story (I had trouble deciding between the first two, but I just wouldn't be a Nintendo gamer if I didn't put gameplay before story)
3. Music
4. Graphical Style
5.Everything else, with online possibly last.

@ Blue Protoman, you forgot to list story as #9 on your 360 list.

I think art is more important than graphics, polygon power alone wont make a game look good.

You are a moron. How you can interpret my reply as such is beyond me.

Blue Protoman means 'baffling awful reasoning skills' in japanese.

Gameplay, that is more important than all other aspects.

It got pretty grueling toward the end. The game kinda stacks things against you to the point where you absolutely have to merge yourself new demons and copy new skills before each major battle in order to stay ahead of the enemies... attempting to grind (like in other RPGs) won't get you very far, because you get crap for XP in battle if you go back in just to grind. I can't stand the merging thing; I'm the kind of person who got their team of Pokemon set up early on in R/B/Y and didn't change them out at all throughout the entire rest of the game (unless I had to for HM reasons or because I absolutely needed more of a certain type in order to win whatever battle), y'know? The idea of up and disposing of a demon I worked hard to set up in battle in order to create another one entirely made me feel kinda bad, but either way, it's like you do some story stuff, you merge demons/learn you some abilities by fighting a random battle or three, and then you fight the real battle. Repeat. Wipe hands on pants.

And it's not like the battles are over quickly, either... you're in a battle for a good fifteen minutes at least on average, I'd say (and I would bet I'm guessing on the low side of that scale, especially the farther in you get, and I'm also not taking do-overs into consideration). There's nothing terribly exciting about most of the battles in the game. Some have somewhat interesting terrain/obstacles to deal with, or objectives that change over the course of the battle depending on what happens, but when you're just trying to learn abilities in random battles and earn money to buy demons to merge, it's so boring... it kinda gets to the point where all you want to do is skip the battles just to get back to the story, which is honestly interesting.

If you're a huge strategy RPG fan, I'd say go for it (some people are really into that kind of thing I suppose :3), but I just remember I'd be in the middle of a battle and thinking of other things I could be doing that would've been more fun, and then I'd rush to get the battle over with just so I could shut the DSi off and do those other things. Seriously. I was that bored. D:

Balance, when every aspect is great and flows together, a great example is TWEWY