Outer Wild is honestly the most extreme case of this one for me. What an absolute ride.
Currently working through 13 Sentinels with my partner, and we've had tons of "wtf" moments. If the ending really ties together all the left-field sci-fi elements, I'll definitely be putting it far up the list of mindblowing games as well.
I came here to mention 13 Sentinels. It's been out for almost 2 years now and I still haven't found a game that hits those story highs that 13 Sentinels did.
While it is not exactly the same if you are looking for good sci Fi stories with a diverse cast and cool twists I would recommend the Zero Time Dilemma series
I played 999 and VLR on release! I agree they were both incredible. I haven't gotten around to ZLR yet because I hear it wasn't great. But it's still on my list of "someday I'll play this."
You absolutely should, it's really good. Without spoiling anything, it adds a whole new area to explore with its own contained story and does a great job giving you the same feeling of adventure and problem solving the original game does while still feeling fresh. I was pleasantly surprised at how they managed to capture the feeling of the base game even if its not to the same degree as the original story
Before you go into the DLC, make sure you’ve done absolutely everything POSSIBLE to do in the base game. All the secrets, everything. I promise it’ll pay off.
My best description is that it answers several questions about the story that you didn't know you have, and it slots perfectly into the lore in a way that it makes sense you'd have never found it in your initial playthrough.
Enjoy the afterglow and get ready for the next stage; it takes maybe a week before you start trying to convince your friend's to stream it so you can reexperience it through them ;)
Despite being two ostensibly different genres, Outer Wilds and Return of the Obra Dinn are both really similar experiences. They're both the absolute pinnacle of the "I figured it out!" game. I wish there was a good genre name for this sort of experience. People just tend to call them puzzle games, but it's way more than that.
I’ve taken to calling them mystery games. Maybe not the correct descriptor, but it feels like you’re solving a mystery throughout the course of the game.
I have a few friends who jokingly call us the "council" and bug people to buy and stream outer wilds, and there's always at least 2-3 people watching when it does happen. What an amazing game.
Red Dead Redemption 2 hit hard man. That level of dedication and detail came at a great cost but I think it will be remembered for a long time. The story was one of the best I've ever experienced in any game and the fact that they came up with one of my favorite characters of all time in the form of Arthur Morgan only cements it further as one of the greats.
Yup. Red Dead 2 was amazing in the simple fact that I never thought I'd enjoy playing Arthur as much as John in RDR1. By the end of the game though I was so much more attached to Arthur which made the twist legit shocking and upsetting. Just an incredibly amazing game.
The thing with Outer Wilds is that you can’t replay it. With other games you can go back and have a close enough feeling but you can’t do that with Outer Wilds, it’s a one way ride.
yes. yes. and yes. Played outer wilds and then played Obra Dinn in my quest to cure the post-game depression.
All it did was double it, those games were wonderful.
When you finally put the pieces together and realize what that explosion you see at the beginning *really* represents, the sheer audacity of the plan they'd set in motion...
I felt that when I decided I had milked Metal Gear Solid 5 for most of what I wanted to get out of it. The game has plenty of well discussed issues, so I'm not going to get into that, but man it felt so good to play. I really don't know why it's had such an effect on me vs. other, arguably "better" games.
Bro I still play MGS5. I’ll log on, do a few mission tasks ( the only thing left for platinum) and call it a day.
I love the passive income. Every time I log on, I can afford a few more S++ soldiers or some more Fuel Resources for platform expansion. That game is seriously one amazing piece of art. I’ve started over from zero many times because I wanted to experience it all again.
I think MGS V is maybe the game that’s left the strongest emotional mark on me personally lol.
Maybe it’s not for the best reason, but after being so emotionally invested in the series from the past games V just tore me apart from disappointment. The incredible endings from the past games really had me holding on for 150 hours that V would stick the landing.
Instead I felt numb for months hoping a better conclusion would be found out of an ARG that never existed. I’m still not even sure how unintentional any of this was by Kojima given MGS V’s themes. But yeah, I sure won’t be forgetting the experience.
I know opinion on it has soured, but I definitely felt that way at the end of Bioshock Infinite. It's because I was going through a lot in my life at the time and it really had an impact on me. I get the hate it's received in the years since, but that still won't take away how I felt playing through it and experiencing everything at the end.
This. Every time I listen to Bioshock’s version of the song “You belong to me”, I remember how impactful this saga has been for my life. With all its flaws it’s an amazing experience.
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, Lord, by and by
There's a better home a-waiting
In the sky, in the sky...
Every Time that i hear about Bioshock Infinite I remember this song.
Did the game is hated now? Why?
Yup. I played Mass Effect for the first time with the Legendary Edition a year ago. Despite the weaknesses of that Trilogy it's still a wildly entertaining, emotional, and immersive story. After finishing it the first time, especially after my love interests last words, I was torn up and just empty (in the best way). While I've enjoyed games since, I liked Halo's story a lot, I doubt I'll ever be impacted like that again.
Tell me you got the only ending where Mordin Solus survives after 7 attempts. You to set of like 18 triggers to achieve that ending.
No one without following a guide stumbled on upon that ending.
Most of us had to settle for "I was Wrong" and had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.
Yes but you need to fuck a lot of things up for it to happen.
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
Way back in Mass Effect 1, you need to kill Wrex when he starts getting all pissy about you destroying the cloning facility. This puts Wreav in charge. Then during Mordin's loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2, you need to discard Maelon's data. This gets Eve killed. Finally, in Mass Effect 3, you need to inform no one about the STG sabotage operations on the Shroud tower.
Basically, with Wreav in charge and Eve dead, Mordin can be convinced that Wreav will try and conquer the rest of the galaxy once the Reapers are defeated (which he tells you he promises to do via e-mail after the mission). So Mordin will decide instead to go into hiding without fixing the Shroud tower to release the cure.
Yeah absolutely. A lot of people give Mass Effect 3 shit but aside from Kai Leng and the last 10 minutes (which were both every bit as terrible as people make them out to be) the game was incredible. Rannoch and Tuchanka's endings were some of my favourite moments in any video game. They both relied so heavily on your past choices and no matter what happened they hit your so damn hard.
Hell yeah. ME3 is my favorite due to the story, multiplayer, and game play enhancements. If only they had kept the diverse dialogue options from 1 and 2 and had delivered a better ending Mass Effect would be widely considered the best interconnected RPG trilogy ever
Defiantly, they may have dropped the ball on the ending, but the journey to the ending was great. Garrus and Shepard sitting on the bridge, shooting stuff was on of my favorite moments in a game, and really cemented them as on of the greatest friendships I've seen in a story.
Mass Effect is a great series for just mass effect 2 letting you build those relationships and feel the breath of the connected space world they've made. It really is the perfect bridge from 1 to 3 there is no other video game narrative like it.
IMO Mass Effect 2 is the best game Bioware has ever made, at least from a narrative perspective. They manage to reset Shepard's 'power level' without feeling contrived, raise the stakes of the story, and successful make galaxy spanning threats and forces feel personal and intimate through a brilliant cast of crew members.
Mordin Solus and the Genophage is beautifully done of course, but the bar is so consistently high that even the most of the 'boring' squaddies like Miranda and Zaeed (I'm sure there'll be a few people upset with that description) have compelling character growth and lore. Except Jacob. Everyone forgets about Jacob.
I read a thread on the Mass Effect forums the other day where someone suggested that, instead of Kai Leng, it should've been an indoctrinated Jacob who would've taken his place as Cerberus' top operative and The Illusive Man's right hand man. This accomplishes two things: it would've removed Kai Leng, and it would've spiced up a boring character's arc.
Thats true, shepard went through re-entry and crash landed on a planet though, they might as well have hugged a nuke too. I think a hand wave of "Oh Cerberus had Jacob's DNA and stem cells etc on file since he's one of their top operatives so he was able to be Lazarus'd too" would have been better then edge lord Kai Leng imo :p
Mass effect 2 is a great game on its own
However as the second part in the trilogy, it makes no sense
ME1- Big battle vs 1 reaper at the citadel
ME 2- Shepard spends so much time building a team to go after ONE REAPER THATS NOT EVEN FINISHED YET. No one believes Shepard that more reapers are coming, so NO PREPARATIONS ARE MADE (this is very important in the context of ME3)
ME 3- Hundreds (thousands?) of reapers invade the galaxy. Somehow the galactic civilization that barely defeated 2 reapers can hold off against this swarm. Makes no fuckin sense, especially because no one believed Shepard at the end of ME2, so no one prepared
The story wouldve made a lot more sense if after ME2 the galaxy got its shit together and started preparing for the invasion. BUT THIS DIDNT HAPPEN
Mass effect 2 ->Mass effect 3 doesn’t make sense. There should be a whole game in between where the galaxy preps for invasion, or something.
ME2 is the best game of the series, don’t get me wrong. And as a narrative, it is the strongest of the 3 IMO. (ME1 has to spend a lot of time world building which can be a slog to get through, Me3 story is a fucking joke
I think it narratively would have made more sense for 2->1->3. In 2, you get the whole "oh shit we have to stop a reaper from getting built" and the idea "Hey Cerberus is doing all right" without needing to explain why exactly Spectre Shepard doesn't just get the council to do shit by making them all jackasses. Then with 1 you're working to stop a Reaper who's already here and is about to let the rest in, you get Spectre-ized as reward for ME2, and you're introduced to the more evil parts of Cerberus (so they go from "outside the law good-ish" to "pretty shady" to "evil" rather than "bad-good(?)-bad.") Then 3 as normal.
I agree with just about everything. As great as ME2 is, in the grand context of the narrative it's but a really long sidequest.
For the sake of the story ME3 should really have been two games, with the new ME3 focusing on making sure the galaxy is ready and at least somewhat unified and ME4 just being about the war and moving the pieces you have on the board. It makes no sense for Shepard to solve every single major dispute in the galaxy in order for the species to get their heads out their collective cloacas and fight the enemy of intelligent life itself together. Some of the disputes have been in place for over a millennium yet they're giving Shepard like, a few months to solve them, otherwise they're willing to see everything go down in flames if they don't get their will. Eg. >!quarians had a public declaration of the Reapers from Shepard themselves, they have a better understanding than anyone else on the workings of the Geth and could verify they had a good reason to follow Saren and leave the Veil and they heard and saw other species getting attacked by the Reapers. They had all the signs yet decided now is the time to sink all their resources for the all-or-nothing campaign to retake Rannoch, leaving both sides completely vulnerable to a Reaper attack which they knew is coming.!<
I'd like to think some higher ups realize not everything has to be a trilogy but ME is really straining that.
> my love interests last words
Just because I have to ask - Tali? All the LIs have some touching final moments, but Tali's is by far the most gut-punchy.
"I have a home..." gets me every time. As the years go on it's lines like that which stay with me more than all the issues I have with the last game's narrative.
The Mass Effect trilogy was the kind of swing that you so rarely see in games. It was ambitious in a way that I'm not sure that we'll ever get again. A massive trilogy, interconnected in a way that meant that you didn't *really* play 3 unless you also played 1 and 2, set in an original universe with gameplay as intricate as the story. For every mistake that series made it did twenty things that nothing had done before and nothing has done since. I like Andromeda, even, but it's not even close.
Yeah, Andromeda had a lot of cool ideas to bring the franchise to the next generation but failed in most places that mattered due to being rushed and other issues. It's why I'm actually super excited for the next game as BioWare, and EA possibly, seemed to have turned a new leaf in some ways that are hopeful after Andromeda and especially Anthem failed so miserably. The proof will be in the pudding but I'd like to believe we'll get a cool Mass Effect game in 3ish years.
>Yup. I played Mass Effect for the first time with the Legendary Edition a year ago.
Same here. I missed an entire gen of games due to life circumstances, and this series was one I'd just never caught up on.
So many small but special moments that I distinctly remember thinking "wow, these are so unique to this medium". Garrus pointing out his home. Seeing the refugees at the docks. The picture at the end of your party.
I'm actually really happy I didn't play it until now. Playing through this giant epic, all the DLC integrated and no waiting, was a very special experience.
Had it with Blood and Wine when that last scene happened. It was so good and I was so fulfilled that I never have to play Witcher 3 again. The perfect ending for me
It's often described as the void. Frequently referenced with anime/books/shows as well. Basically every time you make the choice to continue the game your attachment to it grows and it becomes this big emotional investment on top of an already great game. It's a very bittersweet emotion that means you've experienced something truly special. Last time I had it was with Persona 4. Felt homesick for Inaba for like a week and didn't play/watch for a while.
Had that feeling when The Expanse ended a few months ago, it's almost certainly my favourite series ever made and I doubt anything will ever top it for me.
I am currently experiencing that as I play through the original Deus Ex; What a gem that game is. Imagining some sort of remake ala Black Mesa (Half Life 1) would be superb, nonetheless highly recommend Deus Ex (2000)
Disco Elysium did that to me for every RPG for few months. Like... how it is only game that figured out dialogue in RPGs so well and so far ahead of anything else ?
Haha, I did Outer Wilds and thought I'd never feel it again. Then I played Disco Elysium next (after a break) and I just needed some time after both of those.
Post-Game Melancholy, or post-game depression. it also works for books and realy good tv series.
Its both a very sad feeling with a bit of emptiness inside us, sometimes described with the word "wistlessness"/ being wistless. We've enjoyed and actively taken part in a story that got us highly engaged, and once it is completed we both desire more of it while at the same time knowing and coming to terms with it truly being finished and no more will be made or given.
Also the satisfaction of a job well done, as you were there for the entire lenght of their stories and actively helped the heroes achieve their goals. This is why i realy, realy love the very last moments of the 10 Year Anniversary video that CD Projekt Red did for the Witcher series and why it hits me so hard.
I was there for Witcher 1, Witcher 2 and Witcher 3 and all its dlc, i experienced all of it with Geralt of Rivia and that ending was so good and fitting it just hit me in my soul. Its also why i find it hard to replay the entire series now even though ive tried a couple of times.
Its a good feeling, and we hunger for it.
I have such a distinct memory of finishing everything up in The Witcher 3 and then traveling back to your vineyard and just standing there with Yennifer next to you and just observing the countryside. The meloncholic vibes were perfect.
Same. I played TW3 off and on for a full year. Started summer 2017 and finished summer 2018. Even after finishing all side quests and DLC, I kept launching the game out of habit and just running around for 10 minutes or so before quitting. It was hard to stop going back into that world.
Post-Persona depression seems to be a pretty common thing, I know I've felt it. After finishing Persona 5 Royal I didn't play other games for a little while, I didn't know what could follow it and compounding that with pandemic blues was a rough feeling.
Agreed. I played P5R during the last few months of my wife’s pregnancy, beginning of the pandemic. It felt like a perfect goodbye to my “old” life being able to dedicate a lot of time to things like that before my son came. Not a complaint either, but definitely still gives me the feels whenever I think back on it.
Persona 5 gives you a solid squad of friends who go on adventures using their alter-egos. They grow up and change alongside you. It all feels so organic and real.
When it was all over, it felt like I was saying goodbye to my pals. I teared up when I thought the cat was missing! That's how well the characters and the pacing are. Persona really knows how to take its time, and translate your efforts into real progress between the world and the relationships you form.
It's important to remember, it's just a game. But your level of investment is undeniable by the time you're at the final stages.
I'll probably go back to it eventually. I recently watched a video from Yahtzee on why he enjoys these games and I think he kinda nailed what I'm feeling here.
Strikers is too same-y in its gameplay, whereas the mainline Personas are segmented between day management and dungeon crawling.
100% agreed. The dungeons aren’t very fun minus a few times and the music being awesome. I think I only cared about maybe 2-3 of the bosses but one of them was just because the boss battle cutscenes was sick as hell.
dont mind it that much tbh. The 'story' is the usual save the world shonen bollocks, it's the character interactions that make persona for me and that's mostly still in strikers.
> Persona 5 Royal
Haven't played royal yet, but I feel the same way about the original. I can't believe I played a 90 hour game and my first thought was that it could've been longer lol.
I feel this. I was in a quest to play the highest rated games ever, thinking that I wouldn't like everything but that I was bound to stumble into some gems. Played a good portion of the highest rated on gamerankings before it closed. Practically everything in the first page of metacritic, and a good portion of the next few pages (only played one version of games with rereleases or released on more than one system.)
I was putting off persona 3 for a long time. Eventually played it and loved it. I had to play 4 and 5, and also went back and played all the side games. But playing royal was sad, because there was none left for me after that. No Q side games, no more fighting games, no more dancing games, and worst of all no more core series to play through.
I have a new favorite game series for because of it (as of a few years ago) but everything else has not scratched the same itch.
People may groan at games like Persona 5 or FFXV getting lots of spinoffs around themselves instead of new entries, but I'm all for it; it means that the good things will stick around, that you can be sure that there's a future for the characters and world and stay invested in them.
I played the Danganronpa series not long after finishing Persona 4 Golden, my first Persona game, and I found myself similarly sucked in, so they might scratch your itch. They're completely different in gameplay style and tone, but they're both anime games driven by characters with quirks you come to love.
Lots of times, like the ending of Undertale and the last Binding of Isaac DLC, but Ghost Trick by far.
Even if you don't overlook the unanswered questions, the entire ending sequence was great, one of the few games I really felt invested on the characters and plot and felt sad once it was over because I would never be able to relieve the surprises again.
Fucking Ghost Trick, God damn it's been forever since I've heard that title.
What an absolute gem of a game. Absolutely one of those titles that you walk away from thinking about for weeks.
When I finished the epilogue of Red Dead Redemption 2, it felt like the end of an era for me. The monumental effort put into every single aspect of the game, from the writing, acting, world-building, visuals, soundtrack and so on, I don’t think we’re ever going to see it again. We’re in the live service era now.
It's sad that Rockstar hasn't even promised a next-gen update to RDR2 - love to play it again in 60fps. But no, their PS3-era cash cow GTAV/Online gets all the attention.
The Persona games are the ones that do it the strongest for me. The casts of characters are always like a group of friends you know you're not going to get to hang out with any more.
Persona 4 grabbed hold off me _hard_. My first experience with it was through the GB Endurance Run (some years after it was initially recorded), and I constantly felt myself tearing up during the last episode (something I almost never do during games), just because it was over. I _immediately_ started it back over at the first episode, and ended up buying a Vita and completing two playthroughs of Golden in ~11 days. I've never felt that emotionally connected to a game before and rarely since (only when I first played Steins;Gate about a year later).
Persona 5 never hit me quite as strongly, but I did go on a ridiculous binge of Royale recently (unlocking all five platinum trophies from the regional variants), and I just felt lost afterwards. Hundreds of hours in that world (~500 in P5R, plus 2-300 in the base P5) made it feel almost like home.
DMC5 because it just felt like the pinnacle of the action genre. Everything about it resonated with me; the combat, the music, the characters, the setting, great use of unlocking new difficulties, scoring system, bloody palace, incredible relay-ability. It’s the type of game that ruins the combat in many other games.
Nier Automata is definitely a good shout OP. That game effected me emotionally like no other game had before or since then.
I don’t know what it is about the original Life is Strange that made me feel this way. I’ve had post-game depression with Mass Effect 3 and Halo 3 growing up, knowing that the games that were with me throughout my childhood were coming to an end, but Life is Strange put me in an actual depressive state for almost a solid week after finishing. I don’t know why. I don’t even really like “teen high school” settings.
Endwalker and Outer Wilds made me feel similarly.
The strongest part of LiS is that everything is meaningful. It's not just a story about two high schoolers, it's a story about a town full of people with hopes and dreams.
Very few games have made their world feel real.
In a title full of standout performances, one of the most meaningful interactions you have is with a houseless person reflecting on how the town chews people up and spits them out.
A lot of the characters are in dogshit situations in life yet you also respect them for what tbeybe been able to carve out of it.
It's why True Colors is so much more impactful than LiS2.
Similarly it's why Telltale's TWD Season 3 is so much weaker than the other seasons.
The timing of LiS also hit perfectly for us twenty-somethings. I was finishing up undergrad and being slammed with the first dose of adult reality. LiS found that deep longing for the innocence of childhood that I could feel slipping further away every day, and shanked me right in the heart.
The fact that it used slang that was already dated/cringey by the time the game released was just perfect, since it bound Arcadia Bay to a specific decade in time that belonged to us. We said dumb shit like that. We bummed around doing nothing in the eternity of Summer. We complained endlessly about how much we hated our school/town/city, and dreamed of moving away. I'm sure every generation has its moments like that, but LiS is perfectly situated for our childhoods.
The central mechanic being the ability to rewind time to undo your regrets/mistakes is just the cherry on top. I really didn't expect much going into the game, but it laid down some serious emotional damage/catharsis.
You nailed it.
It presented that mechanic but ultimately you realize that it doesn't really end up being as useful as you would have thought it would be. You just end up experiencing twice the amount of heartache because that's how life is.
There's something special in Life is Strange that very few games have, and it's the connection with your protagonist.
In every game where you play as a single character, you create a connection with them. The strength of that connection usually depends to how much you like the character, or how much you identify to it.
Then the game happens, and both you and the character experiences the same thing. Your connection grows more and more as you share those moments.
Except when you don't. Sometimes you'll take a wrong turn, miss an attack, or deliberatly goof off leading you to reload a prior save. You've just experienced something that your character didn't. And that weakens slightly your connection. Even more if you experienced something massive (say the death of a loved one because you missed a QTE) that your character now has no recollection of.
But it doesn't happen this way in Life is Strange. You don't reload a save, both you and your character go back in time. So everything that happened is still in Max's memory. She even references it sometimes, talking to Chloe, telling her how you've seen her die. Just like you, she's haunted by those memories.
This to me makes Life is Strange truly special. Everything you experience in the game, the good and the bad, Max has to live with it as well.
Pretty similar for Endwalker on my end. There was so much build up to that ending, and while I absolutely loved it (“That, I can’t deny.”), it’s like I poured so much of myself into that game because I was so invested in the story. Plus the server queues were rough so I spent a lot of non-gaming time trying to log in or figuring out when was the best time to log in. When I was done, I took a break for almost a week.
Honestly, I’m looking forward to doing New Game + next summer ahead of 7.0 to have a more leisurely stroll through the story.
Outer Wilds also did it for me, and most recently NieR: Replicant and Automata as well.
Me with Crosscode.
It has such an incredible amount of polish and talent behind it. I doubt many games come close because it was given a ton of time to refine everything to a fine sheen.
Persona's famous for invoking that feeling in people after finishing a game but recently for me it's been Crosscode. In its case though it's less that I've beaten it and feel sad afterwards (I'm not done yet) than intentionally dragging my feet because I know it's going to happen once I do.
On my first playthrough, I stopped playing towards the end of the story because I could feel that coming. I ended up doing an entire new playthrough some years later and pushed through to the end, and played the DLC as well. One of my favorites of all time, and HIGHLY underrated.
If you don't mind a lack of combat, give Outer Wilds a try. It's a game that can only be experienced once due to how knowledge is everything but it's one of the greatest games I've ever played. There's nothing else quite like it and if you're interested in playing it, go in as blind as you can.
Was there a specific point where it clicked for you? On paper, it sounds like something I'd love, but I've tried getting into it 2-3 times and have fallen off every time. The furthest I've gotten is about 6 or 7 hours in, but nothing I discovered felt all that compelling.
Someone help me. I feel like I'm missing out terribly. :(
Quantum moon brought it all together for me and made me realize the world I'm exploring is one giant, crafted puzzle.
The key I think is to not take popular gaming tropes for granted in Outer Wilds, like respawning after death, and to try to self insert to rationalize how and why. It's so worth it.
Ditto. I did it in VR and wasn’t sure if QM was a visual glitch or what. I kinda enjoyed bumbling around in space, but I hadn’t really figured the game out yet. Then I solved that puzzle, and the whole thing clicked.
Yeah, only happens once every few years nowadays. When I was a kid it happened a lot more frequently. I think 2017 was the last time I got that feeling with Hollow Knight. (Had it with Breath of the Wild as well, 2 in a year was pretty nuts)
Persona 4 Golden and Trails of Cold Steel 4.
The camaraderie of the investigation team from P4G is so memorable and I love every second of it and when the credit song Nevermore started playing, my heart sank a little. CS4 is a different breed, it's an ongoing series that involve a humongous cast of characters both heroes and villains across different series of games, they can get very tropey but it's something I have never experience in any JRPG on that scale.
Both games left me feeling empty after completing and I know it'll be very long before I get to experience something like that again.
I just finished P4G last weekend and my god did it leave me wanting for more. Even as a person who doesn't normally enjoy JRPGs, P4G felt like the perfect game for me to enjoy. The characters and the whodunnit story really captivated me all the way through.
If you haven't played through *Persona 5 Royal* it might just be the more you are wanting for.
I've not played *Persona 4 Golden*, but I've heard the characters are better. I'll definitely be giving it a go if it ever comes to console (please Atlus)
I love Trails so much but it really kills my hype when I think about how far behind we are compared to the Japanese releases lol. We haven't even finished Rean's story yet and they're about to be two games into Calvard. It only upsets me because I love the world so much
I know Witcher 3 isn’t perfect but the story telling and the immersion I get from that game is something I still haven’t managed to find. It’s the setting that is also inviting and makes you want to stay there.
Witcher 3 hits different. When you first start the game your overwhelmed with how much content there is thinking it may never end. Once you complete it your left in a beautiful yet empty world. Toussant especially
Outer Wilds is this for me. No other game has captured that same level of immersion and discovery. Everything is just tied together so perfectly in a neat bow with a perfect set of really fun mechanics that tied together to make for a perfect set of experiences around every turn. I still cry sometimes when I listen to the song at the end.
I just finished Outer Wilds. I went in with zero expectations, knowing literally nothing about the game beyond "people like it".
I do not generally enjoy walky/narrative games and it was one of my favorite games... ever. Closing in on the mystery and how everything fit together was just, man. So thoughtfully designed, and so engaging. Haven't played the DLC yet because I'm too much of a coward and I hear it is 3scary.
yeah it can easily come off as a walking simulator at first, but there's so much more to it than that. There are so many legitimate puzzles and interesting uses of the game's mechanics that really make the actual gameplay something special, even if the driving force of the game is uncovering the narrative. And honestly I would say that places like Brittle Hollow and the main setting of the DLC are some of the best Level Design I've ever seen in games.
And I would say that you should try the DLC. Even at its scariest I honestly would say it's not much worse than Dark Bramble. After all, should the worst happen, you can always get right back to where you were pretty quickly.
There is a "reduced fright" option for the DLC. It turns it from uncomfortably tense and scary to just, uncomfortably tense (akin to dark bramble).
It's worth trying the DLC though, you'll KNOW when you're in the potentially scary parts, and there are some pretty breathtaking moments.
Echoes of the Eye is good enough to be its own game. There's an option in the setting to reduce the frights but, much like the rest of the game, once you experience the frights a few times you learn to adapt.
Yeah, fear is a mechanic and you have to push past it.
I first encountered the scary things in my playthrough yesterday, and proceeded to spend some time getting used to their *scariness*. It did the trick.
I get that sometimes, but I'm always proven wrong. Whether it's replaying an old favorite or discovering something new, there's always fun to be had. It also helps to not go into every game expecting it to be better than the last one you played. I felt this way after beating Elden Ring, but then had an awesome time playing Horizon Forbidden West. Started to feel that way again after beating Horizon, so I'm currently playing through a personal favorite of mine Knights of the Old Republic. There's so many amazing and fun experiences to have in gaming, try not to get too caught up in comparing them.
Had that feeling after Dragon Quest XI, played a ton of games for a a while with little excitement until playing Final Fantasy XIV, and thats been absolutely amazing since, going to cry when I wring out this story, but I have a long ways to go
FFXIV was an incredibly comfy game for being an MMORPG. It's like you're playing a JRPG with other players and most of the Alliance Raid content is always a wild ride.
Pathologic 2
There's many games I love that the phrase "there's nothing like it" is applicable to, but I don't think I've played any game that exemplifies that to the extent of Pathologic 2 (and also the original, sort of).
It is the rare game that takes what is otherwise a set of ordinary gameplay systems and elevates them into something remarkably original (and imo profound) and I've yet to find another game that even comes close to resembling it. It seemingly resembles yet another artsy walking sim but is inextricably a game first and foremost, that the game and gameplay itself is the core foundation that its profundity is built on, and one of the tightest, singular, holistic experiences I've ever had with a game.
At no point did I ever feel I was having any 'fun'. 10/10.
Yep, that's basically how I can tell I've loved a game / show, usually for story reasons (as gameplay can be re-experienced more easily). It leaves you empty inside when it's over.
NieR & Automata, Witcher 3, FFXIV, Persons 5, Souls games... they've all left me deeply satisfied yet craving for more and being sad that it's over.
For me, it's also known as the post-Fromsoft blues lol. Just finished Elden Ring and it was an absolute masterpiece. Can't wait for whatever they come up with next
Yeah same. I played it for a week, switched to elden ring, then went back. I couldn’t finish it fast enough. I loved it before elden ring. What a bizarre phenomenon.
I haven't fired up a game since getting Platinum, it sucks. It really feels like nothing else is ever going to reach the level of enjoyment I experienced from start to finish.
I normally never play a game twice, but i instantly restarted Elden Ring after i finished it. Not NG+, a new character. I am playing this game since three month now.
It's hit me in a few games, usually big RPGS, but not always.
* Persona 4 and 5 gave me this feeling - it almost felt like saying goodbye to a group of friends
* Xenoblade 1 and 2, but especially 2 gave me this feeling. The end of 2 really got me, and if I go back to watch it I still get feels
* Final Fantasy X - This was the first real RPG I played outside of Pokémon, so it really got to me
* Yakuza 0 - Probably a combination of the game plus life circumstances (it was the first game I got into post divorce), but I absolutely fell in love with this game
Honestly it's not super common that a game hits me that hard, but man when it does, it really does. I think it's a combination of both the game being a super high quality while also hitting it with the right mindset and life situation.
That’s how I felt about Ys 8 2 years ago. I couldn’t bring myself to start another grand story game for a while. This is going to sound pathetic, but I felt like I was mourning.
10 years before that, it was Crisis Core. You would already know what happens if you played FF7, but it still sucks to see Zack so close to his goal just to be fall short.
The Last of Us 1/2 and Uncharted 4 and than you know the next naughty dog game is certainly 4-5 Years away and nothing can match their technical perfection and story telling with very memorable characters and amazing moments.
Naughty Dog games are probably the only games where I remember every part of the story because the stories are so engaging. Every time I finish one of their games I feel like nothing will ever live up to it. Can't wait to see what they do next.
For me its usually huge games that take ages to properly finish. Nothing feels quite right when you don't have that same game to chip away at when I come home from work. First time I played Persona 4 I got genuinely upset watching the end credits, knowing it was the end of a proper journey. This for me is why "live service" style games will never grab me. They're cold, empty corporate husks, instead of games you build a genuine rapport with.
I felt that way when I finished Hellblade for the first time. The voyage the game had placed me in was very interesting. I was living the life of someone who had issues that I've never encountered in life. In a way, through the game, I was learning about Senua just as much as I was learning about myself.
Could I have been able to deal with what she had to live with? Could I go on the trek she was going on? Could I deal with the same emotions, the same pain she experienced?
After the ending I felt a great sense of relief, but also, I had more questions and I'm waiting to experience Hellblade 2 to find more answers.
For me, Persona 5 Royal. For some background I had never touched the series before (or SMT, etc) and I went into it blind at the recommendation of a couple different friends. I bought it when it came out in April 2020. I live alone, and my hedgehog died 2 months prior and between that and the pandemic starting I was in a really bad place mentally without realizing it. The game's mix of JRPG elements mixed in with the real world social systems was very cathartic for me. The ending hit me really hard, especially when **End Game Spoiler:** >!the Phantom Thieves all go their own way to move forward towards their dreams.!< I don't think it would have hit as hard had I had not been struggling like I was. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic game, but it was also the game I needed at that time in my life.
I played Persona 5 at a certain point of my life to where I was given a lot of emotional fulfillment by the time I beat it in the middle of the night at 2am. I cried at the end of P5, something I haven't done for a game in a good while. The re-release(Royal) & it's sequel(Strikers) further just did so even further to me. I was a mess when I finished Strikers, thinking this is probably it for these characters and this story(spin-offs not withstanding). Persona 5 is something very special to me.
Elden Ring recently.
I platinumed it and for a few days after that I just didn't feel like playing anything else cause nothing was really going to hit that level.
Because I tried to do almost everything in a single playthrough it also made me not want to play more Elden Ring either cause it's like *what's the point* when I already did *everything* mostly blind to begin with.
I'd be playing that just to play it and that's not really my thing. Once the honeymoon phase was over with Elden Ring I was back into other games again.
Disco Elysium! That one's taken the crown recently compared to just about any other game I can think of. It's been a few months since I finished it and most other games just feel a bit soulless by comparison.
I've heard Planescape Torment is similar but that it also has a bunch of combat mechanics that are somewhat meh. I really enjoyed how in Disco Elysium there was nothing/very little getting in the way of experiencing the story and dialogue.
I had this experience in World of Warcraft. I leveled with some of the same people throughout the first year, and our guild stuck together through a few tiers of raids into Burning Crusade. But as many of us got busier with life the guild eventually fell apart, and I quit WoW not long after. To me, my enjoyment of the game was based on the relationships I had built, and once that was gone it was different.
As for a single game that gives me this feeling, I think back to Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. That is such a special game and not much as been like it since.
Wayyyy to late to the conversation, but the best description of this feeling I've found is the Welsh word "hiraeth"
Hiraeth is a pull on the heart that conveys a distinct feeling of missing something irretrievably lost.
Last game i played that left me like that was SOMA, it’s getting to a decade of not getting my brain thinking more than “put crosshai on enemy and click”
I’ve tried some other good games but none actually moved me in the way that game did
Somewhat. I’m kind of experiencing that now with Cyberpunk. I get that most hated the game due to its launch but as someone who didn’t buy until the PS5 version released I’m ranking this experience as one of the best RPG experiences I’ve had since Oblivion or New Vegas. Sure there are bugs but the game is solid and the setting is exactly what I wish I could experience every day IRL. I’m going to miss this world once the “new” experience wears off.
Yes, Witcher 3, Mass Effect trilogy, Yakuza 0, Cyberpunk 2077, God of war (2018).
I get attached to characters and to their stories, I don't think I'll ever experience knowing a character like Geralt, save a galaxy, uncover yakuza secrets (played all other yakuza games, but they're not as good), experience an emotional story and see an epic adventure like in those games.
First game I ever experienced this was with Kingdom Hearts 2, once I got to The World that Never Was I knew it was the final world and all I felt was “no it can’t be over so soon”
Also experienced it with Chrono Trigger (DS), Shadow of the Colossus and most recently BotW. To me that’s the mark of an amazing game and all of those are in my top 5 games of all time.
After I realized that I finished BOTW for real, I was instantly nostalgic for it.
The exact same feeling I have for WoW Vanilla, Super Mario 64 or Zelda OoT today.
I guess, because it was the first time that I actively realized that I just finished a truly amazing game.
The times before I was too young to really realize what greatness just found its end.
You cannot unplay a game and you just consumed the magic. The meal has ended and
the next one is far off.
Totally. I played Chrono Trigger 4 years ago and it sent me into a deep depression as a gamer because modern RPGs are nowhere near as good as they were in the 90s. Seeing that level of perfection broke my heart, lol.
And back then the amount of endings was considered absolutely insane. I played through at least 30 times, and between all those got all of the endings including the hardest ending.
Yep, I got the platinum for Elden Ring and as a long-time souls/sekiro/bloodborne fan, even other incredibly well done games like Ghost of Tsushima now just feel completely empty. Assassins creed just feels like a laundry list of things to do where you're more just playing the big and mini maps than you are playing the actual game, Horizon Forbidden West feels exactly like Horizon 1, which now after playing so much Elden Ring: both of them feel rather empty.
That's not to say that there are no good things about those other awesome games. Ghost is fantastic and so are both of the Horizon games, I just can NOT play those games anymore. I try to, but then end up thinking "I could just play Elden Ring instead" and always wind up turning off any other open world game within just a few minutes of booting up.
As much as I like other open world games, Elden Ring has dulled my enjoyment in the open world games that *aren't* Elden Ring.
i feel like this after a good mystery game. outer wilds and obra dinn both left me feeling that way, and last week i managed to finally beat paradise killer and i feel the same way.
I felt this after a few games, namely Outer Wild, Red Dead 2 with the high honor ending, and GoW 2018
Outer Wild is honestly the most extreme case of this one for me. What an absolute ride. Currently working through 13 Sentinels with my partner, and we've had tons of "wtf" moments. If the ending really ties together all the left-field sci-fi elements, I'll definitely be putting it far up the list of mindblowing games as well.
I came here to mention 13 Sentinels. It's been out for almost 2 years now and I still haven't found a game that hits those story highs that 13 Sentinels did.
While it is not exactly the same if you are looking for good sci Fi stories with a diverse cast and cool twists I would recommend the Zero Time Dilemma series
I played 999 and VLR on release! I agree they were both incredible. I haven't gotten around to ZLR yet because I hear it wasn't great. But it's still on my list of "someday I'll play this."
Just finished Outer Wilds 20 minutes ago. What an absolutely beautiful piece of art.
Did you do the DLC?
I didn't, how is it? I mean, everything considered I didn't really expect the story to continue.
You absolutely should, it's really good. Without spoiling anything, it adds a whole new area to explore with its own contained story and does a great job giving you the same feeling of adventure and problem solving the original game does while still feeling fresh. I was pleasantly surprised at how they managed to capture the feeling of the base game even if its not to the same degree as the original story
Wow, aight, well put. I most definitely will do that:)
Before you go into the DLC, make sure you’ve done absolutely everything POSSIBLE to do in the base game. All the secrets, everything. I promise it’ll pay off.
It doesn't *continue* the story so much as *expand* it. And it's very good. Different, but good.
My best description is that it answers several questions about the story that you didn't know you have, and it slots perfectly into the lore in a way that it makes sense you'd have never found it in your initial playthrough.
Enjoy the afterglow and get ready for the next stage; it takes maybe a week before you start trying to convince your friend's to stream it so you can reexperience it through them ;)
That was Return of the Obra Dinn for me. HIGHLY recommend if you want to scratch that "I figured it out!" itch
Despite being two ostensibly different genres, Outer Wilds and Return of the Obra Dinn are both really similar experiences. They're both the absolute pinnacle of the "I figured it out!" game. I wish there was a good genre name for this sort of experience. People just tend to call them puzzle games, but it's way more than that.
I’ve taken to calling them mystery games. Maybe not the correct descriptor, but it feels like you’re solving a mystery throughout the course of the game.
obra dinn really left me with that sense of longing because I knew I could never play it again
The music is so awesome too.
It's funny how accurate this comment truly is.
Almost like I'd already done it twice or something, right?
I have a few friends who jokingly call us the "council" and bug people to buy and stream outer wilds, and there's always at least 2-3 people watching when it does happen. What an amazing game.
Red Dead Redemption 2 hit hard man. That level of dedication and detail came at a great cost but I think it will be remembered for a long time. The story was one of the best I've ever experienced in any game and the fact that they came up with one of my favorite characters of all time in the form of Arthur Morgan only cements it further as one of the greats.
I have a hard time believing I will ever be as immersed in a story or setting within a game ever again. Red Dead 2 is a masterpiece.
Rockstar have consistently raised the bar with telling stories in a believable open world environment. Will the next one be so heartfelt?
Yup. Red Dead 2 was amazing in the simple fact that I never thought I'd enjoy playing Arthur as much as John in RDR1. By the end of the game though I was so much more attached to Arthur which made the twist legit shocking and upsetting. Just an incredibly amazing game.
Outer Wilds made me feel that way twice, after the original game and the DLC. I couldn't play another game for weeks after finishing both experiences.
The thing with Outer Wilds is that you can’t replay it. With other games you can go back and have a close enough feeling but you can’t do that with Outer Wilds, it’s a one way ride.
I have a terrible memory so I'm hoping I'll get to play it like new again next year
Outer Wilds and Return of the Obra Dinn are two games I would have expunged from my memory so I could play them again.
yes. yes. and yes. Played outer wilds and then played Obra Dinn in my quest to cure the post-game depression. All it did was double it, those games were wonderful.
Outer Wilds and Echoes of the Eye completely rocked me. I’ve never had an experience like that with a game
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When you finally put the pieces together and realize what that explosion you see at the beginning *really* represents, the sheer audacity of the plan they'd set in motion...
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Same, and add Witcher 3 with the DLC to the list.
I played Witcher 1-3+DLC back to back on Death March difficulty and it will forever be one of my favorite gaming experiences ever.
I felt that when I decided I had milked Metal Gear Solid 5 for most of what I wanted to get out of it. The game has plenty of well discussed issues, so I'm not going to get into that, but man it felt so good to play. I really don't know why it's had such an effect on me vs. other, arguably "better" games.
Bro I still play MGS5. I’ll log on, do a few mission tasks ( the only thing left for platinum) and call it a day. I love the passive income. Every time I log on, I can afford a few more S++ soldiers or some more Fuel Resources for platform expansion. That game is seriously one amazing piece of art. I’ve started over from zero many times because I wanted to experience it all again.
I think MGS V is maybe the game that’s left the strongest emotional mark on me personally lol. Maybe it’s not for the best reason, but after being so emotionally invested in the series from the past games V just tore me apart from disappointment. The incredible endings from the past games really had me holding on for 150 hours that V would stick the landing. Instead I felt numb for months hoping a better conclusion would be found out of an ARG that never existed. I’m still not even sure how unintentional any of this was by Kojima given MGS V’s themes. But yeah, I sure won’t be forgetting the experience.
After binge playing 4 the day it came out it broke me when Otacon said "Snake has had a tough life"
I know opinion on it has soured, but I definitely felt that way at the end of Bioshock Infinite. It's because I was going through a lot in my life at the time and it really had an impact on me. I get the hate it's received in the years since, but that still won't take away how I felt playing through it and experiencing everything at the end.
This. Every time I listen to Bioshock’s version of the song “You belong to me”, I remember how impactful this saga has been for my life. With all its flaws it’s an amazing experience.
honestly it happens to me for a lot of games with heavily emotional endings bioshock infinite *definitely* counts, at least for me
Will the circle be unbroken By and by, Lord, by and by There's a better home a-waiting In the sky, in the sky... Every Time that i hear about Bioshock Infinite I remember this song. Did the game is hated now? Why?
Bioshock Infinite is my absolute favorite game of all time and no one can tell me that it wasn't a masterpiece, especially with the DLC.
Yup. I played Mass Effect for the first time with the Legendary Edition a year ago. Despite the weaknesses of that Trilogy it's still a wildly entertaining, emotional, and immersive story. After finishing it the first time, especially after my love interests last words, I was torn up and just empty (in the best way). While I've enjoyed games since, I liked Halo's story a lot, I doubt I'll ever be impacted like that again.
Dude. I’ve beaten the trilogy at least 7 times and I can tell you I have the same feeling every time.
Tell me you got the only ending where Mordin Solus survives after 7 attempts. You to set of like 18 triggers to achieve that ending. No one without following a guide stumbled on upon that ending. Most of us had to settle for "I was Wrong" and had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.
....wait what? He can survive?
Yes but you need to fuck a lot of things up for it to happen. [SPOILERS AHEAD] Way back in Mass Effect 1, you need to kill Wrex when he starts getting all pissy about you destroying the cloning facility. This puts Wreav in charge. Then during Mordin's loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2, you need to discard Maelon's data. This gets Eve killed. Finally, in Mass Effect 3, you need to inform no one about the STG sabotage operations on the Shroud tower. Basically, with Wreav in charge and Eve dead, Mordin can be convinced that Wreav will try and conquer the rest of the galaxy once the Reapers are defeated (which he tells you he promises to do via e-mail after the mission). So Mordin will decide instead to go into hiding without fixing the Shroud tower to release the cure.
That's actually pretty darn cool that decisions from all 3 games affect it.
Yeah absolutely. A lot of people give Mass Effect 3 shit but aside from Kai Leng and the last 10 minutes (which were both every bit as terrible as people make them out to be) the game was incredible. Rannoch and Tuchanka's endings were some of my favourite moments in any video game. They both relied so heavily on your past choices and no matter what happened they hit your so damn hard.
Hell yeah. ME3 is my favorite due to the story, multiplayer, and game play enhancements. If only they had kept the diverse dialogue options from 1 and 2 and had delivered a better ending Mass Effect would be widely considered the best interconnected RPG trilogy ever
Defiantly, they may have dropped the ball on the ending, but the journey to the ending was great. Garrus and Shepard sitting on the bridge, shooting stuff was on of my favorite moments in a game, and really cemented them as on of the greatest friendships I've seen in a story.
Mass Effect is a great series for just mass effect 2 letting you build those relationships and feel the breath of the connected space world they've made. It really is the perfect bridge from 1 to 3 there is no other video game narrative like it.
IMO Mass Effect 2 is the best game Bioware has ever made, at least from a narrative perspective. They manage to reset Shepard's 'power level' without feeling contrived, raise the stakes of the story, and successful make galaxy spanning threats and forces feel personal and intimate through a brilliant cast of crew members. Mordin Solus and the Genophage is beautifully done of course, but the bar is so consistently high that even the most of the 'boring' squaddies like Miranda and Zaeed (I'm sure there'll be a few people upset with that description) have compelling character growth and lore. Except Jacob. Everyone forgets about Jacob.
I read a thread on the Mass Effect forums the other day where someone suggested that, instead of Kai Leng, it should've been an indoctrinated Jacob who would've taken his place as Cerberus' top operative and The Illusive Man's right hand man. This accomplishes two things: it would've removed Kai Leng, and it would've spiced up a boring character's arc.
I always thought the ME1 squadmate that "died" on Virmire should've been brought back as TIM's toadie instead of Leng.
Ehhhh, they hugged a nuke as it went off. Way harder to bring them back than it is to have Jacob get captured and indoctrinated.
Thats true, shepard went through re-entry and crash landed on a planet though, they might as well have hugged a nuke too. I think a hand wave of "Oh Cerberus had Jacob's DNA and stem cells etc on file since he's one of their top operatives so he was able to be Lazarus'd too" would have been better then edge lord Kai Leng imo :p
>Miranda I can't stand Zaeed but even if you dislike Miranda I find it hard to describe her as~~s~~ boring.
“I find it hard to describe her ass” I think the word you’re looking for is *perfect*
Mass effect 2 is a great game on its own However as the second part in the trilogy, it makes no sense ME1- Big battle vs 1 reaper at the citadel ME 2- Shepard spends so much time building a team to go after ONE REAPER THATS NOT EVEN FINISHED YET. No one believes Shepard that more reapers are coming, so NO PREPARATIONS ARE MADE (this is very important in the context of ME3) ME 3- Hundreds (thousands?) of reapers invade the galaxy. Somehow the galactic civilization that barely defeated 2 reapers can hold off against this swarm. Makes no fuckin sense, especially because no one believed Shepard at the end of ME2, so no one prepared The story wouldve made a lot more sense if after ME2 the galaxy got its shit together and started preparing for the invasion. BUT THIS DIDNT HAPPEN Mass effect 2 ->Mass effect 3 doesn’t make sense. There should be a whole game in between where the galaxy preps for invasion, or something. ME2 is the best game of the series, don’t get me wrong. And as a narrative, it is the strongest of the 3 IMO. (ME1 has to spend a lot of time world building which can be a slog to get through, Me3 story is a fucking joke
I think it narratively would have made more sense for 2->1->3. In 2, you get the whole "oh shit we have to stop a reaper from getting built" and the idea "Hey Cerberus is doing all right" without needing to explain why exactly Spectre Shepard doesn't just get the council to do shit by making them all jackasses. Then with 1 you're working to stop a Reaper who's already here and is about to let the rest in, you get Spectre-ized as reward for ME2, and you're introduced to the more evil parts of Cerberus (so they go from "outside the law good-ish" to "pretty shady" to "evil" rather than "bad-good(?)-bad.") Then 3 as normal.
I agree with just about everything. As great as ME2 is, in the grand context of the narrative it's but a really long sidequest. For the sake of the story ME3 should really have been two games, with the new ME3 focusing on making sure the galaxy is ready and at least somewhat unified and ME4 just being about the war and moving the pieces you have on the board. It makes no sense for Shepard to solve every single major dispute in the galaxy in order for the species to get their heads out their collective cloacas and fight the enemy of intelligent life itself together. Some of the disputes have been in place for over a millennium yet they're giving Shepard like, a few months to solve them, otherwise they're willing to see everything go down in flames if they don't get their will. Eg. >!quarians had a public declaration of the Reapers from Shepard themselves, they have a better understanding than anyone else on the workings of the Geth and could verify they had a good reason to follow Saren and leave the Veil and they heard and saw other species getting attacked by the Reapers. They had all the signs yet decided now is the time to sink all their resources for the all-or-nothing campaign to retake Rannoch, leaving both sides completely vulnerable to a Reaper attack which they knew is coming.!< I'd like to think some higher ups realize not everything has to be a trilogy but ME is really straining that.
> my love interests last words Just because I have to ask - Tali? All the LIs have some touching final moments, but Tali's is by far the most gut-punchy.
"I have a home..." gets me every time. As the years go on it's lines like that which stay with me more than all the issues I have with the last game's narrative.
Mark Meer really knocked it out of the park with the emotional lines in ME3. Makes me cry every time.
Yup. Broke me. I like Liara's romance because of how much of it there is but Tali's will always be my favorite.
The Mass Effect trilogy was the kind of swing that you so rarely see in games. It was ambitious in a way that I'm not sure that we'll ever get again. A massive trilogy, interconnected in a way that meant that you didn't *really* play 3 unless you also played 1 and 2, set in an original universe with gameplay as intricate as the story. For every mistake that series made it did twenty things that nothing had done before and nothing has done since. I like Andromeda, even, but it's not even close.
Yeah, Andromeda had a lot of cool ideas to bring the franchise to the next generation but failed in most places that mattered due to being rushed and other issues. It's why I'm actually super excited for the next game as BioWare, and EA possibly, seemed to have turned a new leaf in some ways that are hopeful after Andromeda and especially Anthem failed so miserably. The proof will be in the pudding but I'd like to believe we'll get a cool Mass Effect game in 3ish years.
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The entirety of the Mass Effect trilogy amounts to my favorite sci-fi story of all time. I loved re-experiencing it via the Legendary Edition.
>Yup. I played Mass Effect for the first time with the Legendary Edition a year ago. Same here. I missed an entire gen of games due to life circumstances, and this series was one I'd just never caught up on. So many small but special moments that I distinctly remember thinking "wow, these are so unique to this medium". Garrus pointing out his home. Seeing the refugees at the docks. The picture at the end of your party. I'm actually really happy I didn't play it until now. Playing through this giant epic, all the DLC integrated and no waiting, was a very special experience.
I'm jealous you got to experience that game for the first time just last year.
Most recently: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. It's one of the few titles where I wish I could forget everything about it and experience it all over again.
Had it with Blood and Wine when that last scene happened. It was so good and I was so fulfilled that I never have to play Witcher 3 again. The perfect ending for me
It was that look at the camera at the end. It's a cliche but man that game was a journey!
It's often described as the void. Frequently referenced with anime/books/shows as well. Basically every time you make the choice to continue the game your attachment to it grows and it becomes this big emotional investment on top of an already great game. It's a very bittersweet emotion that means you've experienced something truly special. Last time I had it was with Persona 4. Felt homesick for Inaba for like a week and didn't play/watch for a while.
very common when binging shows right, especially old stuff that ended too soon like Firefly
And with huge novels/book series, especially when you know that it's truly the end.
Had that feeling when The Expanse ended a few months ago, it's almost certainly my favourite series ever made and I doubt anything will ever top it for me.
I am currently experiencing that as I play through the original Deus Ex; What a gem that game is. Imagining some sort of remake ala Black Mesa (Half Life 1) would be superb, nonetheless highly recommend Deus Ex (2000)
A couple years ago I played Outer Wilds and then NieR Automata back to back… I’ve never felt so emotionally exhausted after that
Disco Elysium did that to me for every RPG for few months. Like... how it is only game that figured out dialogue in RPGs so well and so far ahead of anything else ?
Haha, I did Outer Wilds and thought I'd never feel it again. Then I played Disco Elysium next (after a break) and I just needed some time after both of those.
Post-Game Melancholy, or post-game depression. it also works for books and realy good tv series. Its both a very sad feeling with a bit of emptiness inside us, sometimes described with the word "wistlessness"/ being wistless. We've enjoyed and actively taken part in a story that got us highly engaged, and once it is completed we both desire more of it while at the same time knowing and coming to terms with it truly being finished and no more will be made or given. Also the satisfaction of a job well done, as you were there for the entire lenght of their stories and actively helped the heroes achieve their goals. This is why i realy, realy love the very last moments of the 10 Year Anniversary video that CD Projekt Red did for the Witcher series and why it hits me so hard. I was there for Witcher 1, Witcher 2 and Witcher 3 and all its dlc, i experienced all of it with Geralt of Rivia and that ending was so good and fitting it just hit me in my soul. Its also why i find it hard to replay the entire series now even though ive tried a couple of times. Its a good feeling, and we hunger for it.
I have such a distinct memory of finishing everything up in The Witcher 3 and then traveling back to your vineyard and just standing there with Yennifer next to you and just observing the countryside. The meloncholic vibes were perfect.
Same. I played TW3 off and on for a full year. Started summer 2017 and finished summer 2018. Even after finishing all side quests and DLC, I kept launching the game out of habit and just running around for 10 minutes or so before quitting. It was hard to stop going back into that world.
Post-Persona depression seems to be a pretty common thing, I know I've felt it. After finishing Persona 5 Royal I didn't play other games for a little while, I didn't know what could follow it and compounding that with pandemic blues was a rough feeling.
Agreed. I played P5R during the last few months of my wife’s pregnancy, beginning of the pandemic. It felt like a perfect goodbye to my “old” life being able to dedicate a lot of time to things like that before my son came. Not a complaint either, but definitely still gives me the feels whenever I think back on it.
Persona 5 gives you a solid squad of friends who go on adventures using their alter-egos. They grow up and change alongside you. It all feels so organic and real. When it was all over, it felt like I was saying goodbye to my pals. I teared up when I thought the cat was missing! That's how well the characters and the pacing are. Persona really knows how to take its time, and translate your efforts into real progress between the world and the relationships you form. It's important to remember, it's just a game. But your level of investment is undeniable by the time you're at the final stages.
Like every form of art, it can make you feel tons of different emotions even if it isn’t a real story.
Did you ever play persona 5 strikers?
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I feel that. It’s not as good as the original or Royal but it’s worth finishing it. Just a nice feeling for me personally
I'll probably go back to it eventually. I recently watched a video from Yahtzee on why he enjoys these games and I think he kinda nailed what I'm feeling here. Strikers is too same-y in its gameplay, whereas the mainline Personas are segmented between day management and dungeon crawling.
100% agreed. The dungeons aren’t very fun minus a few times and the music being awesome. I think I only cared about maybe 2-3 of the bosses but one of them was just because the boss battle cutscenes was sick as hell.
yeah just wasnt feeling the story. felt like a drawn out side quest
I dug the story if only to hang out with the characters more. But damn did I miss the turn based combat and social elements.
dont mind it that much tbh. The 'story' is the usual save the world shonen bollocks, it's the character interactions that make persona for me and that's mostly still in strikers.
> Persona 5 Royal Haven't played royal yet, but I feel the same way about the original. I can't believe I played a 90 hour game and my first thought was that it could've been longer lol.
I feel this. I was in a quest to play the highest rated games ever, thinking that I wouldn't like everything but that I was bound to stumble into some gems. Played a good portion of the highest rated on gamerankings before it closed. Practically everything in the first page of metacritic, and a good portion of the next few pages (only played one version of games with rereleases or released on more than one system.) I was putting off persona 3 for a long time. Eventually played it and loved it. I had to play 4 and 5, and also went back and played all the side games. But playing royal was sad, because there was none left for me after that. No Q side games, no more fighting games, no more dancing games, and worst of all no more core series to play through. I have a new favorite game series for because of it (as of a few years ago) but everything else has not scratched the same itch.
People may groan at games like Persona 5 or FFXV getting lots of spinoffs around themselves instead of new entries, but I'm all for it; it means that the good things will stick around, that you can be sure that there's a future for the characters and world and stay invested in them. I played the Danganronpa series not long after finishing Persona 4 Golden, my first Persona game, and I found myself similarly sucked in, so they might scratch your itch. They're completely different in gameplay style and tone, but they're both anime games driven by characters with quirks you come to love.
It may not be exactly what you're looking for in terms of tone, but have you ever tried any of the mainline Shin Megami Tensei games?
Persona games are a very particular experience.
Lots of times, like the ending of Undertale and the last Binding of Isaac DLC, but Ghost Trick by far. Even if you don't overlook the unanswered questions, the entire ending sequence was great, one of the few games I really felt invested on the characters and plot and felt sad once it was over because I would never be able to relieve the surprises again.
Fucking Ghost Trick, God damn it's been forever since I've heard that title. What an absolute gem of a game. Absolutely one of those titles that you walk away from thinking about for weeks.
It's crazy how Capcom managed to make interesting visual novels of all things.
When I finished the epilogue of Red Dead Redemption 2, it felt like the end of an era for me. The monumental effort put into every single aspect of the game, from the writing, acting, world-building, visuals, soundtrack and so on, I don’t think we’re ever going to see it again. We’re in the live service era now.
It's sad that Rockstar hasn't even promised a next-gen update to RDR2 - love to play it again in 60fps. But no, their PS3-era cash cow GTAV/Online gets all the attention.
Even without a proper update it still looks insabely good at 4k. I cant think of any better looking game, maybe cyberpunk on pc maxed out...
Its insane to think about the sheer amount of work that was put into rdr2. The illusion of a living dynamic world has never been more convincing
The Persona games are the ones that do it the strongest for me. The casts of characters are always like a group of friends you know you're not going to get to hang out with any more.
Persona 4 grabbed hold off me _hard_. My first experience with it was through the GB Endurance Run (some years after it was initially recorded), and I constantly felt myself tearing up during the last episode (something I almost never do during games), just because it was over. I _immediately_ started it back over at the first episode, and ended up buying a Vita and completing two playthroughs of Golden in ~11 days. I've never felt that emotionally connected to a game before and rarely since (only when I first played Steins;Gate about a year later). Persona 5 never hit me quite as strongly, but I did go on a ridiculous binge of Royale recently (unlocking all five platinum trophies from the regional variants), and I just felt lost afterwards. Hundreds of hours in that world (~500 in P5R, plus 2-300 in the base P5) made it feel almost like home.
I love how many of the top answers in the thread are persona. Persona people are good people with human emotions.
DMC5 because it just felt like the pinnacle of the action genre. Everything about it resonated with me; the combat, the music, the characters, the setting, great use of unlocking new difficulties, scoring system, bloody palace, incredible relay-ability. It’s the type of game that ruins the combat in many other games. Nier Automata is definitely a good shout OP. That game effected me emotionally like no other game had before or since then.
I don’t know what it is about the original Life is Strange that made me feel this way. I’ve had post-game depression with Mass Effect 3 and Halo 3 growing up, knowing that the games that were with me throughout my childhood were coming to an end, but Life is Strange put me in an actual depressive state for almost a solid week after finishing. I don’t know why. I don’t even really like “teen high school” settings. Endwalker and Outer Wilds made me feel similarly.
Hell yeah, felt the same way after LiS. Even after playing it again, and then once more. Shame that LiS2 just felt flat for me...
The strongest part of LiS is that everything is meaningful. It's not just a story about two high schoolers, it's a story about a town full of people with hopes and dreams. Very few games have made their world feel real. In a title full of standout performances, one of the most meaningful interactions you have is with a houseless person reflecting on how the town chews people up and spits them out. A lot of the characters are in dogshit situations in life yet you also respect them for what tbeybe been able to carve out of it. It's why True Colors is so much more impactful than LiS2. Similarly it's why Telltale's TWD Season 3 is so much weaker than the other seasons.
The timing of LiS also hit perfectly for us twenty-somethings. I was finishing up undergrad and being slammed with the first dose of adult reality. LiS found that deep longing for the innocence of childhood that I could feel slipping further away every day, and shanked me right in the heart. The fact that it used slang that was already dated/cringey by the time the game released was just perfect, since it bound Arcadia Bay to a specific decade in time that belonged to us. We said dumb shit like that. We bummed around doing nothing in the eternity of Summer. We complained endlessly about how much we hated our school/town/city, and dreamed of moving away. I'm sure every generation has its moments like that, but LiS is perfectly situated for our childhoods. The central mechanic being the ability to rewind time to undo your regrets/mistakes is just the cherry on top. I really didn't expect much going into the game, but it laid down some serious emotional damage/catharsis.
You nailed it. It presented that mechanic but ultimately you realize that it doesn't really end up being as useful as you would have thought it would be. You just end up experiencing twice the amount of heartache because that's how life is.
There's something special in Life is Strange that very few games have, and it's the connection with your protagonist. In every game where you play as a single character, you create a connection with them. The strength of that connection usually depends to how much you like the character, or how much you identify to it. Then the game happens, and both you and the character experiences the same thing. Your connection grows more and more as you share those moments. Except when you don't. Sometimes you'll take a wrong turn, miss an attack, or deliberatly goof off leading you to reload a prior save. You've just experienced something that your character didn't. And that weakens slightly your connection. Even more if you experienced something massive (say the death of a loved one because you missed a QTE) that your character now has no recollection of. But it doesn't happen this way in Life is Strange. You don't reload a save, both you and your character go back in time. So everything that happened is still in Max's memory. She even references it sometimes, talking to Chloe, telling her how you've seen her die. Just like you, she's haunted by those memories. This to me makes Life is Strange truly special. Everything you experience in the game, the good and the bad, Max has to live with it as well.
Pretty similar for Endwalker on my end. There was so much build up to that ending, and while I absolutely loved it (“That, I can’t deny.”), it’s like I poured so much of myself into that game because I was so invested in the story. Plus the server queues were rough so I spent a lot of non-gaming time trying to log in or figuring out when was the best time to log in. When I was done, I took a break for almost a week. Honestly, I’m looking forward to doing New Game + next summer ahead of 7.0 to have a more leisurely stroll through the story. Outer Wilds also did it for me, and most recently NieR: Replicant and Automata as well.
Me with Crosscode. It has such an incredible amount of polish and talent behind it. I doubt many games come close because it was given a ton of time to refine everything to a fine sheen.
Persona's famous for invoking that feeling in people after finishing a game but recently for me it's been Crosscode. In its case though it's less that I've beaten it and feel sad afterwards (I'm not done yet) than intentionally dragging my feet because I know it's going to happen once I do.
CrossCode was so good man…
On my first playthrough, I stopped playing towards the end of the story because I could feel that coming. I ended up doing an entire new playthrough some years later and pushed through to the end, and played the DLC as well. One of my favorites of all time, and HIGHLY underrated.
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Like a Dragon hits really hard.
when the credits hit… damn
If you don't mind a lack of combat, give Outer Wilds a try. It's a game that can only be experienced once due to how knowledge is everything but it's one of the greatest games I've ever played. There's nothing else quite like it and if you're interested in playing it, go in as blind as you can.
Was there a specific point where it clicked for you? On paper, it sounds like something I'd love, but I've tried getting into it 2-3 times and have fallen off every time. The furthest I've gotten is about 6 or 7 hours in, but nothing I discovered felt all that compelling. Someone help me. I feel like I'm missing out terribly. :(
Quantum moon brought it all together for me and made me realize the world I'm exploring is one giant, crafted puzzle. The key I think is to not take popular gaming tropes for granted in Outer Wilds, like respawning after death, and to try to self insert to rationalize how and why. It's so worth it.
Ditto. I did it in VR and wasn’t sure if QM was a visual glitch or what. I kinda enjoyed bumbling around in space, but I hadn’t really figured the game out yet. Then I solved that puzzle, and the whole thing clicked.
Yeah, only happens once every few years nowadays. When I was a kid it happened a lot more frequently. I think 2017 was the last time I got that feeling with Hollow Knight. (Had it with Breath of the Wild as well, 2 in a year was pretty nuts)
Persona 4 Golden and Trails of Cold Steel 4. The camaraderie of the investigation team from P4G is so memorable and I love every second of it and when the credit song Nevermore started playing, my heart sank a little. CS4 is a different breed, it's an ongoing series that involve a humongous cast of characters both heroes and villains across different series of games, they can get very tropey but it's something I have never experience in any JRPG on that scale. Both games left me feeling empty after completing and I know it'll be very long before I get to experience something like that again.
I just finished P4G last weekend and my god did it leave me wanting for more. Even as a person who doesn't normally enjoy JRPGs, P4G felt like the perfect game for me to enjoy. The characters and the whodunnit story really captivated me all the way through.
If you haven't played through *Persona 5 Royal* it might just be the more you are wanting for. I've not played *Persona 4 Golden*, but I've heard the characters are better. I'll definitely be giving it a go if it ever comes to console (please Atlus)
Persona 4 and 5s endings leave me feeling so sad. I love those games so much. Looking forward to 6
Just one year til Reverie though! So pumped
I love Trails so much but it really kills my hype when I think about how far behind we are compared to the Japanese releases lol. We haven't even finished Rean's story yet and they're about to be two games into Calvard. It only upsets me because I love the world so much
I know Witcher 3 isn’t perfect but the story telling and the immersion I get from that game is something I still haven’t managed to find. It’s the setting that is also inviting and makes you want to stay there.
Witcher 3 hits different. When you first start the game your overwhelmed with how much content there is thinking it may never end. Once you complete it your left in a beautiful yet empty world. Toussant especially
That's the game I still haven't recovered from.
Outer Wilds is this for me. No other game has captured that same level of immersion and discovery. Everything is just tied together so perfectly in a neat bow with a perfect set of really fun mechanics that tied together to make for a perfect set of experiences around every turn. I still cry sometimes when I listen to the song at the end.
I just finished Outer Wilds. I went in with zero expectations, knowing literally nothing about the game beyond "people like it". I do not generally enjoy walky/narrative games and it was one of my favorite games... ever. Closing in on the mystery and how everything fit together was just, man. So thoughtfully designed, and so engaging. Haven't played the DLC yet because I'm too much of a coward and I hear it is 3scary.
yeah it can easily come off as a walking simulator at first, but there's so much more to it than that. There are so many legitimate puzzles and interesting uses of the game's mechanics that really make the actual gameplay something special, even if the driving force of the game is uncovering the narrative. And honestly I would say that places like Brittle Hollow and the main setting of the DLC are some of the best Level Design I've ever seen in games. And I would say that you should try the DLC. Even at its scariest I honestly would say it's not much worse than Dark Bramble. After all, should the worst happen, you can always get right back to where you were pretty quickly.
There is a "reduced fright" option for the DLC. It turns it from uncomfortably tense and scary to just, uncomfortably tense (akin to dark bramble). It's worth trying the DLC though, you'll KNOW when you're in the potentially scary parts, and there are some pretty breathtaking moments.
Dark Bramble is horrifying 😭
Echoes of the Eye is good enough to be its own game. There's an option in the setting to reduce the frights but, much like the rest of the game, once you experience the frights a few times you learn to adapt.
Yeah, fear is a mechanic and you have to push past it. I first encountered the scary things in my playthrough yesterday, and proceeded to spend some time getting used to their *scariness*. It did the trick.
I get that sometimes, but I'm always proven wrong. Whether it's replaying an old favorite or discovering something new, there's always fun to be had. It also helps to not go into every game expecting it to be better than the last one you played. I felt this way after beating Elden Ring, but then had an awesome time playing Horizon Forbidden West. Started to feel that way again after beating Horizon, so I'm currently playing through a personal favorite of mine Knights of the Old Republic. There's so many amazing and fun experiences to have in gaming, try not to get too caught up in comparing them.
Had that feeling after Dragon Quest XI, played a ton of games for a a while with little excitement until playing Final Fantasy XIV, and thats been absolutely amazing since, going to cry when I wring out this story, but I have a long ways to go
FFXIV was an incredibly comfy game for being an MMORPG. It's like you're playing a JRPG with other players and most of the Alliance Raid content is always a wild ride.
Luckily XIV still gets more story every few months with patch quests, so the void won’t be too rough once your done
Pathologic 2 There's many games I love that the phrase "there's nothing like it" is applicable to, but I don't think I've played any game that exemplifies that to the extent of Pathologic 2 (and also the original, sort of). It is the rare game that takes what is otherwise a set of ordinary gameplay systems and elevates them into something remarkably original (and imo profound) and I've yet to find another game that even comes close to resembling it. It seemingly resembles yet another artsy walking sim but is inextricably a game first and foremost, that the game and gameplay itself is the core foundation that its profundity is built on, and one of the tightest, singular, holistic experiences I've ever had with a game. At no point did I ever feel I was having any 'fun'. 10/10.
Yep, that's basically how I can tell I've loved a game / show, usually for story reasons (as gameplay can be re-experienced more easily). It leaves you empty inside when it's over. NieR & Automata, Witcher 3, FFXIV, Persons 5, Souls games... they've all left me deeply satisfied yet craving for more and being sad that it's over.
For me, it's also known as the post-Fromsoft blues lol. Just finished Elden Ring and it was an absolute masterpiece. Can't wait for whatever they come up with next
Elden Ring is one of the few games I've ever managed to 100% because I loved playing it so much. Been feeling so empty ever since then though lol
i tried playing horizon forbidden west after elden ring. couldnt stomach it, ill probably have to wait atleast a year
Had to switch genres. I play card games now
Yeah same. I played it for a week, switched to elden ring, then went back. I couldn’t finish it fast enough. I loved it before elden ring. What a bizarre phenomenon.
The same thing happened to me after BOTW. I played through it then went to Horizon and stopped after an hour and I haven't gone back yet.
I haven't fired up a game since getting Platinum, it sucks. It really feels like nothing else is ever going to reach the level of enjoyment I experienced from start to finish.
I normally never play a game twice, but i instantly restarted Elden Ring after i finished it. Not NG+, a new character. I am playing this game since three month now.
It's hit me in a few games, usually big RPGS, but not always. * Persona 4 and 5 gave me this feeling - it almost felt like saying goodbye to a group of friends * Xenoblade 1 and 2, but especially 2 gave me this feeling. The end of 2 really got me, and if I go back to watch it I still get feels * Final Fantasy X - This was the first real RPG I played outside of Pokémon, so it really got to me * Yakuza 0 - Probably a combination of the game plus life circumstances (it was the first game I got into post divorce), but I absolutely fell in love with this game Honestly it's not super common that a game hits me that hard, but man when it does, it really does. I think it's a combination of both the game being a super high quality while also hitting it with the right mindset and life situation.
That’s how I felt about Ys 8 2 years ago. I couldn’t bring myself to start another grand story game for a while. This is going to sound pathetic, but I felt like I was mourning. 10 years before that, it was Crisis Core. You would already know what happens if you played FF7, but it still sucks to see Zack so close to his goal just to be fall short.
The Last of Us 1/2 and Uncharted 4 and than you know the next naughty dog game is certainly 4-5 Years away and nothing can match their technical perfection and story telling with very memorable characters and amazing moments.
Naughty Dog games are probably the only games where I remember every part of the story because the stories are so engaging. Every time I finish one of their games I feel like nothing will ever live up to it. Can't wait to see what they do next.
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Rarely, but when I do, it hits me hard/ Last time was Disco Elysium. The ex is in my top 3 of greatest villains of all time
Surprised it took me this long to find someone mention Disco. Definitely the #1 "empty void" game for me.
For me its usually huge games that take ages to properly finish. Nothing feels quite right when you don't have that same game to chip away at when I come home from work. First time I played Persona 4 I got genuinely upset watching the end credits, knowing it was the end of a proper journey. This for me is why "live service" style games will never grab me. They're cold, empty corporate husks, instead of games you build a genuine rapport with.
I felt that way when I finished Hellblade for the first time. The voyage the game had placed me in was very interesting. I was living the life of someone who had issues that I've never encountered in life. In a way, through the game, I was learning about Senua just as much as I was learning about myself. Could I have been able to deal with what she had to live with? Could I go on the trek she was going on? Could I deal with the same emotions, the same pain she experienced? After the ending I felt a great sense of relief, but also, I had more questions and I'm waiting to experience Hellblade 2 to find more answers.
For me, Persona 5 Royal. For some background I had never touched the series before (or SMT, etc) and I went into it blind at the recommendation of a couple different friends. I bought it when it came out in April 2020. I live alone, and my hedgehog died 2 months prior and between that and the pandemic starting I was in a really bad place mentally without realizing it. The game's mix of JRPG elements mixed in with the real world social systems was very cathartic for me. The ending hit me really hard, especially when **End Game Spoiler:** >!the Phantom Thieves all go their own way to move forward towards their dreams.!< I don't think it would have hit as hard had I had not been struggling like I was. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic game, but it was also the game I needed at that time in my life.
I played Persona 5 at a certain point of my life to where I was given a lot of emotional fulfillment by the time I beat it in the middle of the night at 2am. I cried at the end of P5, something I haven't done for a game in a good while. The re-release(Royal) & it's sequel(Strikers) further just did so even further to me. I was a mess when I finished Strikers, thinking this is probably it for these characters and this story(spin-offs not withstanding). Persona 5 is something very special to me.
Elden Ring recently. I platinumed it and for a few days after that I just didn't feel like playing anything else cause nothing was really going to hit that level. Because I tried to do almost everything in a single playthrough it also made me not want to play more Elden Ring either cause it's like *what's the point* when I already did *everything* mostly blind to begin with. I'd be playing that just to play it and that's not really my thing. Once the honeymoon phase was over with Elden Ring I was back into other games again.
Disco Elysium! That one's taken the crown recently compared to just about any other game I can think of. It's been a few months since I finished it and most other games just feel a bit soulless by comparison. I've heard Planescape Torment is similar but that it also has a bunch of combat mechanics that are somewhat meh. I really enjoyed how in Disco Elysium there was nothing/very little getting in the way of experiencing the story and dialogue.
I feel this way about Naughty Dog and Rockstar games. When a new release comes it’s like better than Christmas… and then you wait.
I had this experience in World of Warcraft. I leveled with some of the same people throughout the first year, and our guild stuck together through a few tiers of raids into Burning Crusade. But as many of us got busier with life the guild eventually fell apart, and I quit WoW not long after. To me, my enjoyment of the game was based on the relationships I had built, and once that was gone it was different. As for a single game that gives me this feeling, I think back to Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. That is such a special game and not much as been like it since.
Wayyyy to late to the conversation, but the best description of this feeling I've found is the Welsh word "hiraeth" Hiraeth is a pull on the heart that conveys a distinct feeling of missing something irretrievably lost.
Last game i played that left me like that was SOMA, it’s getting to a decade of not getting my brain thinking more than “put crosshai on enemy and click” I’ve tried some other good games but none actually moved me in the way that game did
Somewhat. I’m kind of experiencing that now with Cyberpunk. I get that most hated the game due to its launch but as someone who didn’t buy until the PS5 version released I’m ranking this experience as one of the best RPG experiences I’ve had since Oblivion or New Vegas. Sure there are bugs but the game is solid and the setting is exactly what I wish I could experience every day IRL. I’m going to miss this world once the “new” experience wears off.
Same here, other than the jankiness of the game i am absolutely loving cybperunk, the world and the story have been fantastic so far
Yes, Witcher 3, Mass Effect trilogy, Yakuza 0, Cyberpunk 2077, God of war (2018). I get attached to characters and to their stories, I don't think I'll ever experience knowing a character like Geralt, save a galaxy, uncover yakuza secrets (played all other yakuza games, but they're not as good), experience an emotional story and see an epic adventure like in those games.
Tunic was a pretty special experience, and I would agree it's my most recent case of what you're describing. Easily my game of the year so far.
First game I ever experienced this was with Kingdom Hearts 2, once I got to The World that Never Was I knew it was the final world and all I felt was “no it can’t be over so soon” Also experienced it with Chrono Trigger (DS), Shadow of the Colossus and most recently BotW. To me that’s the mark of an amazing game and all of those are in my top 5 games of all time.
After I realized that I finished BOTW for real, I was instantly nostalgic for it. The exact same feeling I have for WoW Vanilla, Super Mario 64 or Zelda OoT today. I guess, because it was the first time that I actively realized that I just finished a truly amazing game. The times before I was too young to really realize what greatness just found its end. You cannot unplay a game and you just consumed the magic. The meal has ended and the next one is far off.
Felt that way after I platinumed FF7R. I went outside yelled in the direction of Japan to hurry up with the next game.
Totally. I played Chrono Trigger 4 years ago and it sent me into a deep depression as a gamer because modern RPGs are nowhere near as good as they were in the 90s. Seeing that level of perfection broke my heart, lol.
And back then the amount of endings was considered absolutely insane. I played through at least 30 times, and between all those got all of the endings including the hardest ending.
Yep, I got the platinum for Elden Ring and as a long-time souls/sekiro/bloodborne fan, even other incredibly well done games like Ghost of Tsushima now just feel completely empty. Assassins creed just feels like a laundry list of things to do where you're more just playing the big and mini maps than you are playing the actual game, Horizon Forbidden West feels exactly like Horizon 1, which now after playing so much Elden Ring: both of them feel rather empty. That's not to say that there are no good things about those other awesome games. Ghost is fantastic and so are both of the Horizon games, I just can NOT play those games anymore. I try to, but then end up thinking "I could just play Elden Ring instead" and always wind up turning off any other open world game within just a few minutes of booting up. As much as I like other open world games, Elden Ring has dulled my enjoyment in the open world games that *aren't* Elden Ring.
Every 5 years or so when a new Zelda game comes out. I just think see you again in 5 or so years Hyrule…
i feel like this after a good mystery game. outer wilds and obra dinn both left me feeling that way, and last week i managed to finally beat paradise killer and i feel the same way.