1. The game must have replayability. If you beat the game and there's nothing else to do, what initiative do you have on playing again?

2. The game must have memorable characters. I'd rather be journeying with a weak character that develops his or her sense of self and grow as a person, than to journey with many strong characters who I'd just rather forget about.

3. The game must have easy to use controls. Controls should be familiar to the player. Rage quitting is popular for those who just can't get the hang of the controls.

4. The game must have a good plot. This is especially crucial for the first half hour of the game. This is the 'make or break' moment, and if a game is found to be boring or shallow at this point in time, no one will continue playing.

5. Finally, the game must have originality. There has to be something that sets the game aside from other games. If it has a unique skill system, I'll give it a shot. If it has a quest system that doesn't only involve "Kill X Ogres" or "Gather X items", I'll try it out.

1) Story Line/ Plot - This is what I believe to be the most important part of any game. The story line must be entertaining with an interesting beginning, climax, and an amazing ending.
2) Controls - A game should have controls that are not frustrating. They Should be easy for a player to use.
3) Character - Games are just better with characters that are well thought-out. They should at least have a little bit of a back story because it gives more depth to the character as well as the story line
4) Side quests - I love playing games to 100%. A game should have interesting side-quests to lengthen game play even more and make people want to go for 100%
5) Music - The music should go with whatever emotion a scene is trying to show. I don't like it when I hear happy music while the scene is more somber. The music sh.ould also be high quality and be something that people would actually enjoy

1-difficulty
2-graphics
3-story
4-game play
5-multiplayer

Ferrobbra : You can say amen on the last thing you said, its seems more game companys wont take from there true fans and bend out to a new fan base that they should avoid, like....dragon..age.....
.......2.

1:Fighting
2:Action
3:Comedy
4:Romance
5:Everything

1. Story is one of the biggest parts of any RPG. Persona 4 wouldn't have been one of the best games released on the ps2 if it wouldn't have had that awesome story that just gripped you and led you by the nose to see what the ending was.

2. Presentation of the game is also key. Persona 3 would not have been nearly as cool if ti wouldn't have had the anime flavoring with the cool blue as it's theme. Most of the action takes place at night so blue is rather appropriate. Same with Persona 4, it's color is yellow and most of the action takes place during the daytime.

3. Music is also very important. to a gaming experience. The music in the persona games are just high quality. and rarely detracts from the experience of the game. Each dungeon in Persona 4 has its own music nd I must have to say that Secret Base, Long Way, and Heaven are just some of the finest pieces of music I have ever heard.
That's as far as I'm gonna go.

jizlilz21 : A decent options menu, thats a good one.  I hate games that dont let you reconfigure the controls to how you want it.  Having the only option to adjust screen brightness and gamma just doesnt cut it. 

Well here are 5 things I think are important in a video game:

1. Difficulty
2. Story
3.Gameplay
4. Decent Options
5. Replay Value

Here are 5 things:

1. Good story. (The Legend Of Zelda, Wind Waker as a example) The story can't be a pointless one, like action 52's cheetamen story introduction.
2. The game should slowly get harder and harder. (Super Mario Bros 1 NES as a example) There are games that start out so hard that I need to throw the game at a brick wall.
3. Every item has to be useful. (The Legend Of Zelda, Wind Waker, again as a example) There should not be any useless weapons, Dr Jekkel and Mr Hyde on the NES has a completely useless stick that doesn't hurt anything.
4. Has to be a long game. (Castlevania: Symphony of the night on the PS1 as a example) The game should not be short, like the NES game, "Frakenstein, The Monster Returns" since it has just 4 hard and long levels.
5. No perma-death in the game. (Yoshi's Story as a example, search perma-death on wikipedia) Perma death in video games can cause people to panic and nearly commit a possible suicide attempt. These perma death games have a big and major flaw:
- When you get a Game Over in any of these games, doesn't matter how far you are, it sends you "ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE START OF THE GAME!!!" *Roars like Godzilla*

Those are 5 things which are important in a video game.