The Games That Broke You

Someone that follows the forum Twitter account started a thread about the games that left you bereft when you'd finished them, so big a part of your life had it been. You were sad that you couldn't play them any more. We've touched on the topic here from time to time but now it's time to make it a post.

So, yes. Some of the games I count on my list include the first Professor Layton game and the most recent one, as well as the great Super Mario Galaxy. What about y'all?

I've talked about this a couple of times. The ones which immediately come to mind:

Mass Effect 3

Breath of the Wild

Dark Souls

This post brought to you by DrunkaBot.exe

Metal Gear Solid 4

An incredibly marmite game this because it goes full Kojima. At the time though, I was a big MGS fan, having gone through all of the games bar any on PSP. The original wasn't one of the first games I played, but it was one of the more influential on me; a game that managed violence in a mature way, emphasising flight over fight. Buoyed by an incredible soundtrack, it's one of my top games of all time.

So eventually came MGS4 and Old Snake. Now, you've got to remember, that Kojima had been flirting with quitting the series forever, or at least that's what I heard, and with Snake being so old in 4 I truly believed this was it for the Big (Boss) Man. So I played through it, lapping up every ridiculous cutscene, marvelling at all the mechs, and even getting super involved in the online component of the game. Eventually it comes to an end, and it really is an incredible ending for fans of the series.

You've got the usual fantastic musical score, plus all that history, wrapped into a character I'd grown up with, and it all came down to a furious button-mashing bit, followed by an excellent climactic boss battle. Once the credits rolled I was emotionally spent. This was a passing of my childhood for me, the closing of a chapter in videogame form.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is far from the best game in the series. It's convoluted and full of pacing issues and dodgy controls. But, carrying the weight of its predecessors flawlessly into its climactic scenes, it made for an incredibly memorable first (and only) playthrough.

Super Mario 64 back in the day. BotW and SMO more recently. The original AA trilogy. And probably Xenoblade.

Nothing y'all haven't heard me saying before, I don't think.

I never would have thought of picking a Metal Gear Solid Game! Uncivilised, I am.

My answers are very similar - Super Mario 64, and a handful of Zeldas: Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and recently the Breath of the Wild DLC, which reminded me that there was no more Zelda. Earthbound as well, even though there was a clever bit after the ending. And surprisingly Day of the Tentacle - a good point'n'click adventure leaves you sad when you finish a puzzle, if it means you won't interact with a character or place again.

EDIT: And Little King's Story. About 80 hours of play, and that ending went "up to 11"...

I needed a sit down after Life is Strange, To The Moon and Mother 3 because of how emotionally affecting those games were. Mother 3 was (and will be, if it ever makes its way west) a particularly though one as it's nearly definitely the last Mother game.

I've just been told to keep away from To The Moon.

Love me some MGS4, I've never gone back in what will be 10 years this year since playing it, well worth paying £450 for a PS3 like a madman back in 2007.

I had a think and two games came to mind:

Journey
I played this late into the PS3's life when it was in a bundle with Unfinished Swan. Where my experience was by myself and I did think I would never go back to it due how emotional the journey was.

It later came to PS4 (I think VITA as well) where it was free as I already owned, as it had a new set of trophies and was now going to look even better I did give it a bash. This time I played the whole thing with someone as I guess it was new on PS4's PSN people where playing it. I had a different experience because of that and not gone back since and I don't think I ever will.

Shadow of the Colossus
Much like Journey, this is now coming to PS4 with the remake (I'm not sure I'd call it a remake more like that AAA remaster Crash was, same game but modern day graphics) and I wasn't that bothered about it at all as SotC is such an experience that going back now with the awful controls in mind could tarnish it. Thankfully I hear the remake has about 4 control methods and looks gorgeous (hearing it's one of the best looking games on the Pro), plus I'm seeing the hype around which I thought I'd never for such a cult classic and after The Last Guardian.

I even owned the remaster that came to PS3 which also had ICO (sooner have a remake of that) but never played them as I had fond memories of playing them on PS2 and SotC remains to this day my favourite PS2 game.

Likely more games similar to these that are such an experience that the next time around is never the same and in the case of something like SotC only gong back to it after 12 years as didn't want to have that experience tarnished.

I think Journey broke Andy as well.

Ah yes, feels, I know the emotion well, there was a time when I craved the feeling of them like an addict craves their next fix.  Games that break you can be interpreted two ways though, the emotional way and the way that involves the game strapping you to a wheel and systematically crushing your body bit by bit.  

Several games off the top of my head stand out as "feels" inducing.  Persona 3 is the standout, it ranks at the top of my top ten games of all time with good reason.  At first glance it kind of beats the player over the head with its theme of death and acceptance of it, but beneath the edgy paint is a masterful story that knows exactly what to do and when to do it, and despite its grim nature it has a partially positive message in making the most of your life while you have it.  

Danganronpa 1 and 2 are another pair of games (the anime doesn't exist, pile of fanfiction-tier nonsense) to really hit you emotionally.  It's not really a spoiler to say characters die, the storyline involves the cast being trapped and forced to participate in a death game where to escape one person has to commit murder and get away with it, failure means their own death.  No, it's not a spoiler to say people die in the games, but rather who survives and how the deaths occur.  

Doesn't stop certain deaths really hitting you in the gut though.  Part of their brilliance is that despite the fact you know characters are going to die and that it could be any of them, their deaths still hit you in the gut.  The game still manages to get the player emotionally invested in its cast despite its premise, no easy feat.

Finally Tales of Xillia 2.  The game's story had issues, but one aspect it excelled at was emotional impact when crunch time happened.  One of the few games to ever actually get a couple of tears leaking out of my eyes near the end.  The fact there isn't really a "good" ending despite the game having three of them should tell you the tone of the game.

Ending spoilers for those who care.:

Oh, and the edge gets even sharper, this is at the end of a game that essentially has the main cast wiping out parallel worlds to prevent their world from dying (god I wish they'd explored the morality of that instead of just defaulting to the "our world is the core world so our survival is paramount" shtick).  Leads to a pretty depressing death in the second act, one of the best I've seen, it even sort of remedies my complaint about the lack of morality exploration.  

-------------

The other kind of breaking, well, only one game comes to mind.  Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest.  The toughest of the three Fates games and one of the toughest Fire Emblems in general.  

Last year I decided I needed a test of my strategic prowess and brilliance.  So I started a playthrough on the game's hardest difficulty, Lunatic mode.  The mode upped the stats of all enemies, added more enemies to maps, gave every enemy at least one skill, and also slightly tinkered with a good chunk of them in such a way as to make them FAR harder (in several cases strategies used on lower difficulties just flat out no longer worked, forcing the player to take riskier and tougher options).  

I actually managed to make it near the end of the game, conquering many maps that would have had others crying in frustration and likely quitting far earlier (hell I made it through the infamous chapter 10 without a single death after a few tries, and those who've played that on hard mode know full well how brutal that map is.  It isn't the toughest map though, that title goes to the Ninja Cave of Death map which had me stuck for four days over twelve retries).

Eventually I burned out though, like a spark in the middle of a blizzard.  The pressure built up and I just couldn't take any more.  I believe it's the only time a game has actually broken me, beaten me over the head so many times I caved in and quit in actual defeat.  

Well, there was also Shadows of Valentia which took several months to beat, but that's got nothing to do with difficulty and everything to do with it being the worst designed modern Fire Emblem.  It's a game from the 80's and it shows.

Drunkalilly wrote:

I think Journey broke Andy as well.

"Broke" would be a very good way to describe that game.

Nah that's something for Ubisoft games.

Everything I’m playing at the moment is post-Celeste. It’s difficult to get attached to anything.

Might not be the best thread but Death Stranding, knowing I'll never experience that game for the first time again