- 6,113
- Texas
Everyone's emotions have hit them playing games at some point, and usually it's the standard 'Gamer's Rage' when you get screwed by the AI or some detail falls out of place and destroys a perfectly laid plan.
That's not what I'm on about here. I'm talking about the times when you play a game and, either suddenly or in buildup, something happens that either pulls at the heartstrings, delivers a heartpunch, or sends a surge of energy you can't hold back (good or bad), all of which can leave you questioning and processing what has happened as if for that moment, it was real, tangible, and unfolding in front of you. It also helps if you've just realised you haven't moved, spoken, or remember breathing, for the last three hours.
Considering that I'm **TRYING** to decipher a game I don't think I'm halfway through yet, I figured this would be as good a time as any. Also, let's keep this to direct personal experiences, and above all let's assume no one has played the game at all and induce spoilers, so we don't ruin it for others.
So...anything y'all want to share here?
That's not what I'm on about here. I'm talking about the times when you play a game and, either suddenly or in buildup, something happens that either pulls at the heartstrings, delivers a heartpunch, or sends a surge of energy you can't hold back (good or bad), all of which can leave you questioning and processing what has happened as if for that moment, it was real, tangible, and unfolding in front of you. It also helps if you've just realised you haven't moved, spoken, or remember breathing, for the last three hours.
Considering that I'm **TRYING** to decipher a game I don't think I'm halfway through yet, I figured this would be as good a time as any. Also, let's keep this to direct personal experiences, and above all let's assume no one has played the game at all and induce spoilers, so we don't ruin it for others.
Bit of background here. I was in my early teens (13-ish), was playing my Aunt's PS2 she left, it's 10 PM, my room is black aside from the TV. She also left a few games, one of which was an game I'd never heard of, from a genre I flat out didn't play. I'd gotten tired of racing, and decided to put it in. It's the original Kingdom Hearts, and the menu music automatically draws my interest, so I keep going. Pulled in by the cinematic, I'm already confused on how the hell any of this is happening, but I keep going. I choose my weapon, first heartless pops up, "OK, not bad"...then I see another two pop up and go after them. What I DIDN'T know was that there were three, and they jump, and if the camera is in the right spot, they can obscure your vision. Attack animation stops, my screen went black with yellow streaks...
I did not have to change pants, but while I was mentally swearing words that still do not exist and probably never will again, PHYSICALLY all I did was scream and scramble to turn off the console before whatever hellspawn abomination I'd summoned could lay claim to my soul. To this day, I've not played the game, or it's sequels, or any other RPGs, without the lights on.
I did not have to change pants, but while I was mentally swearing words that still do not exist and probably never will again, PHYSICALLY all I did was scream and scramble to turn off the console before whatever hellspawn abomination I'd summoned could lay claim to my soul. To this day, I've not played the game, or it's sequels, or any other RPGs, without the lights on.
My thought's pretty much verbatum:
Holy hell, that was a fight! Now let's grab the girl and GT...Sora...What are you doing? Sora? WTF!...OK, she's up now...Hey, why am I not following them? Why am I looooooh what the 🤬 Square! Are we really doing this? Does this mean everything I've built toward ends, maybe at my own hands?...Why did they stop? Why are they even here? There's teleport locations before this...
....
.....
A hug? What? Why? HOW?!? What the hell is in my tea, none of this just happened. And if I'm not dreaming, this dolt is...right?...
(Traverse Town then travel screen)
...Whoever wrote this was either a genius or high on some hard 🤬. WTF Did I just see?!?
Holy hell, that was a fight! Now let's grab the girl and GT...Sora...What are you doing? Sora? WTF!...OK, she's up now...Hey, why am I not following them? Why am I looooooh what the 🤬 Square! Are we really doing this? Does this mean everything I've built toward ends, maybe at my own hands?...Why did they stop? Why are they even here? There's teleport locations before this...
....
.....
A hug? What? Why? HOW?!? What the hell is in my tea, none of this just happened. And if I'm not dreaming, this dolt is...right?...
(Traverse Town then travel screen)
...Whoever wrote this was either a genius or high on some hard 🤬. WTF Did I just see?!?
OK, I'm already trying to digest Hugo Strange's demise, and the rather graphic "end" of Ra's al Guhl (I hope that's spelt right) but having trouble with it due to DC's and WB's habit of not killing people, and the explosion, fall, and the HELICOPTER GUNSHIPS ACTIVELY MURDERING are bending this notion severely.
Then there's the "Joker", or Clayface as you've likely figured out by now, and the ensuing fight. Fair enough, but then it all goes 🤬 bat:censored:. Clayface falls into the Lazarus pit, doing god knows what to him and it, then Joker, then Talia, and then... and then... and then the ending happens and I spend the next three days replaying the sequence in my head because I don't believe it all happened as I saw it. Asylum was the better game, City's ending caught me completely off guard.
Then there's the "Joker", or Clayface as you've likely figured out by now, and the ensuing fight. Fair enough, but then it all goes 🤬 bat:censored:. Clayface falls into the Lazarus pit, doing god knows what to him and it, then Joker, then Talia, and then... and then... and then the ending happens and I spend the next three days replaying the sequence in my head because I don't believe it all happened as I saw it. Asylum was the better game, City's ending caught me completely off guard.
If you don't plan for the bosses beyond the first one, and on higher difficulties even the first one, they will eat your lunch and make you watch. Beating each one becomes an occasion because of the hell you've put up with to that point, even against regular enemies even though the game is effectively a Warriors game with boats in place of people. By the time you GET to the last mission, you've faced pretty much everything including a massive solar-powered beam cannon, a flying laser-firing spider-looking thing, a weaponized iceberg, and/or a gun the size of several train engines. The last one IS a ship, possibly the baddest human ship you've seen, and it is able to take your baddest and laugh at your pitiful attempt.
Then you finally beat it, you watch it be destroyed. Save Game. You could sit through the credits, but at this point you probably need to stretch and do your business, and while at it pump your fist and shout "YES!" every so often. Come back in time to see the ship you just used in the credits, see the last picture and last lines for that adjutant, then end up at the title screen again...Wait. Why don't I get to play those old missions again?
*Continue*
*select completed save*
*load complete*
*loading...*
O...K...didn't expect that to work. Again, why send me back to the title screen.
*Campaign intro sequence, but you have your BA ship*
Oh, OK. New Game+ I guess. This won't be hard, I'll get all the collectables, easy peasy.
*First real fight, NG+ features discovered*
Oh...ooh 🤬, I'm gonna die!
Even on the easiest difficulty, the game has just put on knucks and is ready for round 2. All the bosses are harder, laser battleships will wreck you in a minute, but you perservere and get back to the end AGAIN and face off with Evil McBastard AGAIN and just hold your stuff together with enough super glue to watch him deep six AGAIN. Save. Jump for joy...then realise you 'aint done! One short build-up "mission" later and you're in the arctic...and IIRC you get briefed, then immediately go to a cut scene where dudeman gets obliterated by an alien ship...I repeat, an ALIEN naval vessel, that fires black-plasma orbs of death and despair, shattering any illusion you had of victory.
And then, it happens. You finally find the right build, and the hellspawn dies in a violent nuclear-esqe explosion. 🤬 SAVE THE GAME! Proceed to make laps around the house screaming in victory.
Just me? Fine by me, even on easy that game can be hard as hell. I'll take the good times however they come.
Then you finally beat it, you watch it be destroyed. Save Game. You could sit through the credits, but at this point you probably need to stretch and do your business, and while at it pump your fist and shout "YES!" every so often. Come back in time to see the ship you just used in the credits, see the last picture and last lines for that adjutant, then end up at the title screen again...Wait. Why don't I get to play those old missions again?
*Continue*
*select completed save*
*load complete*
*loading...*
O...K...didn't expect that to work. Again, why send me back to the title screen.
*Campaign intro sequence, but you have your BA ship*
Oh, OK. New Game+ I guess. This won't be hard, I'll get all the collectables, easy peasy.
*First real fight, NG+ features discovered*
Oh...ooh 🤬, I'm gonna die!
Even on the easiest difficulty, the game has just put on knucks and is ready for round 2. All the bosses are harder, laser battleships will wreck you in a minute, but you perservere and get back to the end AGAIN and face off with Evil McBastard AGAIN and just hold your stuff together with enough super glue to watch him deep six AGAIN. Save. Jump for joy...then realise you 'aint done! One short build-up "mission" later and you're in the arctic...and IIRC you get briefed, then immediately go to a cut scene where dudeman gets obliterated by an alien ship...I repeat, an ALIEN naval vessel, that fires black-plasma orbs of death and despair, shattering any illusion you had of victory.
And then, it happens. You finally find the right build, and the hellspawn dies in a violent nuclear-esqe explosion. 🤬 SAVE THE GAME! Proceed to make laps around the house screaming in victory.
Just me? Fine by me, even on easy that game can be hard as hell. I'll take the good times however they come.
Where to start...You know it's all gonna go to 🤬, I can't think of a game with a story where all the joyousness doesn't get a nuke to the face, and you know it's coming from go. What I hoped was that the main party would be established, sent off to fetch something, and armageddon rain upon home in the meantime...
It doesn't help when one of the mains decides to speak the innocuous words summed up as "I hope it's this peaceful forever" that may as well read "Hey, come kill our dumb 🤬!" But then you get hold of the Monado and what would have been shock becomes dread, then remains so for the rest of the experience because you know what will happen if you 🤬 it up!
As I said in the intro, I don't thing I'm halfway, may not even be 1/4 way through the game, but this game has shown me why seeing the future can possibly be the worst thing ever. I had to stop playing tonight because my head and my nerves are completely frazzled. The characters actually being even somewhat likeable makes it even harder...DAMN YOU, EMOTIONS!
It doesn't help when one of the mains decides to speak the innocuous words summed up as "I hope it's this peaceful forever" that may as well read "Hey, come kill our dumb 🤬!" But then you get hold of the Monado and what would have been shock becomes dread, then remains so for the rest of the experience because you know what will happen if you 🤬 it up!
As I said in the intro, I don't thing I'm halfway, may not even be 1/4 way through the game, but this game has shown me why seeing the future can possibly be the worst thing ever. I had to stop playing tonight because my head and my nerves are completely frazzled. The characters actually being even somewhat likeable makes it even harder...DAMN YOU, EMOTIONS!
So...anything y'all want to share here?
