“Starting a game over” is an interesting phrase. I know exactly what it means, but the words themselves are nonsense.
I don’t have a problem with the phrase, but “restarting a game” would probably be a better choice.
Oh, yeah. Language is just fun to observe because its easy to not notice.
I understood it to mean “the end of something”, though I guess “repeating the game” might be more concrete. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It’s poetry.
I think you’re getting stuck on the “game over” part. This by itself does mean “the end of something” But “start over” is a separable phrasal verb that means “to begin again”. So you can say “Let’s start over” or “Let’s start the game over”.
I always felt a little bad for ESL students who just discovered phrasal verbs because they’re basically a whole new set of often nonsensical verbs to learn.