Games that stuck with you

I watched a YouTube video about this topic today and thought it was the perfect idea for a post here. It’s pretty straightforward, it’s games you played in the past that you’re still stuck thinking about, or games that taught you a lesson that you’ve held on to.

I’m going to start. For me, the two games that perfectly exemplify the idea of a game that sticks with you are Sekiro and BioShock. I have a feeling Dark Souls will be a popular choice but I think Sekiro did it more for me personally.

Starting with Sekiro, I honestly think it’s the closest to perfect I’ve ever seen in a video game, at least for a first playthrough. It’s fun, challenging, rewarding, thoughtfully made, beautiful to look at, it’s got great voice acting, memorable characters, and I honestly can only think of two mini bosses that bring the whole game very slightly down. Every other aspect is a 10/10 from me. Not to mention the combat is the best combat of any game I’ve ever played. Personally, this game is the purist example of a game that forces you to get good at it, and does the best job at teaching perseverance. In the rest of the Souls games, you can upgrade your weapon, get a new weapon, use buffs, summon NPCs or another player to help, if you’re getting stuck. With Sekiro on the other hand, you need to get good. Above any other game, this one showed me just how well hard work can pay off. I feel about this game the same way video essayists feel about Dark Souls. If you know, you know.

Moving on to BioShock, this one really taught me the value of a good story, and showed me that video games truly are art. It helped that the game itself is a ton of fun to play, but on top of that the writing is just phenomenal. I’m assuming most people on here have played this one so I won’t get too into it, and in case you haven’t, most of what I’d be gushing about would spoil the whole game anyway, so I’m just leaving it short, but yeah. This game is the finest example of video games being an art form.

What about you guys? What has stuck with you the hardest? I’ve got more games I could talk about but I’d love to see discussion from you.

SorteKanin,
@SorteKanin@feddit.dk avatar

Personally I have to mention The Talos Principle and its sequel. It has helped me formulate a kind of philosophy of mind that I couldn’t entirely grasp before. It’s also just an absolute masterpiece of a puzzle game. If you’ve played portal, you’ll enjoy Talos too most likely.

Elevator7009,

I asked this once on the Talos Principle subreddit and got absolutely wrecked for asking in the first place awhile back, I'll try again here:

If I like puzzle games but do not enjoy philosophy, would I enjoy the Talos Principle?

SorteKanin,
@SorteKanin@feddit.dk avatar

In the game, you’ll find various philosophical texts. These are entirely optional and serve as a kind of background set and things to think about. So you can just not read them if you don’t want to or find them boring. I’m guessing when you say you don’t enjoy philosophy, you’d find it boring to read those texts, so just skip them.

You’ll also find snippets of other texts that aren’t philosophical that give clues to the story. These can also be skipped but you’ll miss out on a significant chunk of the story then. There are other story bits that require no reading so you’ll still get an idea of it and might still get the gist mostly.

But you can play just the puzzles and not worry about the philosophical background or the story at all. They actually deliberately designed the game this way so that you can enjoy the puzzles alone if that’s your jam 🙂. The puzzles are very good so even if you just want some good puzzles, I’d still recommend it.

Elevator7009,

Thank you so much! This was a very helpful comment.

SorteKanin, (edited )
@SorteKanin@feddit.dk avatar

No problem 😇

Also the second one is lighter on the reading and has more character dialog and such, so definitely play that too!

drasglaf,
@drasglaf@sh.itjust.works avatar

Gris and Subnautica. For different reasons, they made me feel things I didn’t think I could feel while playing video games anymore.

CeeBee,

Little Big Adventure Little Big Adventure 2

chunkystyles,

TUNIC

LaserTurboShark69,

I just bought Tunic and am going to dive into it today!

chunkystyles,

Go in blind and avoid looking anything up if possible.

Enjoy!

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

There are certainly a lot of games I remember fondly; but ever since I first played I clicked with Dark Souls, it, its sequels, and the spin-offs have stuck with me. Consumed me. I have put hundreds of hours into every single one. Seen everything I can see, done everything you can do, including the DLC that just came out for Elden Ring and I still. Want. More!

Gigagoblin,
@Gigagoblin@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

don’t care if it sounds silly, Dark Souls literally saved my life. was going through Some Shit™ & it was easy for me to take the game as a metaphor for depression; it’s not over unless you give up.

i don’t play it as often as i maybe should, but it’s definitely the game that’s stuck with me the most.

TwiddleTwaddle,

I think “What Remains of Edith Finch” traumatized me to this day.

FeelzGoodMan420,

That game was extremely relatable for people with mentall illness. The game essentially asks the question of whether you can escape your fate from genetic mental illness. In the game, most members of the Finch family suffered from “a curse.” But it was it fairly obvious that the curse was mentall illness.

SolOrion,

God, that game is so good.

InternetCitizen2,

Hollow Knight had me excited for the world like I was a kid. It shows the devs had an artistic vision.

CatZoomies,
@CatZoomies@lemmy.world avatar

Some games have already been posted, so I’ll share two games that really stuck with me:

  • Life is Strange
  • Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

I could mention Persona 5 Royal, but it’s such a hugely popular game so there’s no need to elaborate.

Life is Strange took me on a mystery journey, and I felt such nostalgia for my early days as a teenager. It’s an old game, but I won’t spoil it here. I’ll give a small plot. You’re Max Caufield, and you’ve returned to Arcadia Bay and see your old best friend, Chloe Price, whom you haven’t spoken to in years. She gets into some crazy stuff and Chloe is about to be shot by another student, but Max intervenes and discovers she has the power to rewind time, allowing her to save Chloe’s life. There’s an underlying mystery in Arcadia Bay where another young girl mysteriously disappeared, and Max and Chloe team up to try to find her.

Hellblade allowed me to experience what psychosis is like, through the lens of the main character, Senua. This game is unforgettable. Senua needs to save her lover, without letting the rot that’s festering inside her to consume her. That’s all I’ll say about this gem.

SolOrion,

I really gotta play Life Is Strange. I started playing it a looong time ago but didn’t get very far into it at all before I put it down- I don’t honestly remember why.

redracc,

Seeing Max again in the new life is strange game brought me back to High School as a teenager. I don’t think seeing a game trailer has done something like that for me ever.

azertyfun,

Life is Strange’s writing is trope-y and often not that great, and my neurospicy ass doesn’t even relate with pretty much any of the nostalgic tropes about teenagehood (as far as I’m concerned these were the worst years of my life, by far, and any piece of media that wants to make me relive them is very unlikely to make its way onto my computer).

However the game manages to more than make up for all of that with an enthralling story that fully immerses the player with compelling gameplay, meaningful choice-based storytelling, great artistic vision, and ground-breaking character acting. The whole thing is expertly calibrated to deliver emotional gut-punch after emotional gut-punch.

Hellblade is just straight-up amazing and the Melinda Juergens’ character acting is hauntingly raw and poignant.

tpyoman,

For me it would have to be BioShock infinite the gameplay, story, characters everything about it was amazing to me.

showmeyourkizinti,

I’m really surprised that nobody’s mentioned The Last of Us yet. It really used the uncommon technique of changing POV to really suck me in to its storyline. Right from the start when Joel’s daughter dies in the tutorial it was a gut punch as I had ‘been’ her just a few minutes ago. But the whole story was so immersive I found by the end I was really engaged with the characters and their stories. Spoilers for the end of The Last of Us if you’ve not played or watched the series. In the last big action piece in the Fireflies Hospital on my first play through I shot both the nurses in cold blood because I was so upset about what was happening. I like to think of myself as a ok person, at least better then the kind of guy who’d do that but in the heat of the moment I was so angry I totally empathise with Joel and his desire to kill everyone threatening Elly.

SolOrion,

A lot of games try to open with a character death and fail because they don’t really give you a reason to care about the character. The perspective swap in The Last Of Us’s intro is absolutely amazing for that exact reason- it’s hard not to empathize with someone when you’ve literally been in their shoes for a bit.

FilthyShrooms,

I will forever rave about CrossCode, an indy game I found on gamejolt in 2016. It’s a top-down JRPG with great action, a cool parkour mechanic, and really pretty pixel art. It officially released in 2018, and it’s one of my favorite games of all time.

cod,
@cod@lemmy.world avatar

It’s on sale right now, I’ve added it to my cart. Looks really interesting

Landless2029,

Added. This looks like it would be fun on the Deck and checks out at ProtonDB

Corr,

I love this game. Number 1 game I’ve ever played. Sooooo good. I love thr characters so much

craftyindividual,
  • Limbo
  • The Long Dark
  • What remains of Edith Finch
  • Subnautica
  • Ape Out
  • Fire Watch
  • Prey
  • Hitman 1,2,3

There’s nothing like a great story married to good gameplay and simple yet beautiful and effecting visuals. I guess also a small but skilled team of developers with common focus.

cod,
@cod@lemmy.world avatar

I’m so glad someone mentioned Limbo. Have you played Inside? It’s my preference between the two. They’re both A+ games though in my books

craftyindividual,

Yes inside is… something more than limbo, a story without words but you can tell exactly what’s going on. So sad too.

Suck_on_my_Presence,

What is it about the Long Dark that’s stuck with you?

craftyindividual,

The art style is good especially the varying weather and sky effects, and changes in music to accompany it. So many different areas and places to explore. The challenges are punishing but amazing when you succeed - something about being on the edge of death and pulling yourself back at the last second.

I’m waiting for the last episode of the story mode to release.

DoucheBagMcSwag, (edited )

Nier Automata

The Last of Us

Undertale

Prey 2017

flubba86,

Another vote for outer wilds. Its weird how often it pops into my head.

CleoTheWizard,
@CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world avatar

I have many choices but here’s a few that really stand out to me

  1. The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine If you’ve played just the base game of Witcher 3, you’ve missed out. I decided after playing the base game and waiting for a couple years that I’d go back for the DLC. I spent upwards of 100+ hours with this game on the hardest difficulty and the story in the base game is long, engrossing, and whimsical. But at the end you aren’t really completely satisfied despite several moving moments. Enter the DLC of Blood and Wine though and now you’re basically in The Witcher 3 part 2. This is where you leave the baggage of the main game behind and play out the best ending to any character I’ve ever seen. It’s full of adventure and new sights to see, its full of interesting characters to meet, and it captures the sense of love that Geralt has for the other characters. I legitimately cried at the end of the epic adventure when you sit down next to Ciri and just… realize that its over. Every good book I’ve ever read makes you really feel an empty heart to see the last page and read the final words on it. It felt just like that and I was sad to leave that world behind.
  2. Kingdom Hearts Series Just an incredible game series that appears almost made for children but turns into a very convoluted and at times extremely beautiful story. Whats so wild about it is that the story is somewhat complex but the emotions throughout are so simple, pure, and understandable. It gets to the core of what we all feel and makes cartoons of our emotions and never leaves that space. And the music matched with those emotions is just the purest art.
  3. To The Moon Its short, its sweet, it has great music, go play it and bring tissues. Its a sad tale with very simple gameplay but I listen to the soundtrack once in a while to this day and I never stop thinking about the themes of this game. What exists in this game is so thoughtful, thought provoking, understandable, and most importantly human. I can’t discuss the story at all without spoiling it but just go play it. It takes a few hours and I recommend never leaving your seat for the whole thing. You can probably even just watch it be played on youtube without commentary and get 95% of the experience.
cod,
@cod@lemmy.world avatar

Do you need to play the first two Witcher games to play the third one? I want to play the Witcher 3 but I can’t seem to get into the first one. I’ve got about 6-7 hours put into it on steam and I haven’t had any desire to come back since

CleoTheWizard,
@CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world avatar

I actually haven’t played the other two since they’re both very old games at this point but I do plan to try them out. Witcher 3 seems like it mostly stands on its own and you won’t be missing anything too huge when it comes to the story and characters from the other games. That being said, its a situation where knowing the prior games helps and you’ll understand the relationships better. If you bounced off of the first one though, my recommendation is just to at least read up on the characters and major events of the first two. Maybe watch a game movie if you can find one. I went in completely blind into the third game and it turned out fine so really you can’t go wrong, don’t let the prep for playing the game stop you from actually playing it.

cod,
@cod@lemmy.world avatar

I appreciate it. Thank you!

SolOrion,

Absolutely not- you can just play TW2 which is significantly less dated than TW1, or just skip directly to TW3. Maybe watch a recap of the first two games if you do that, though.

HelixDab2,

Blood and Wine was especially tragic; I sympathized with Dettlaff and his pain, and Syanna was a terrible person. But preventing Detlaff from killing Syanna for using him leads to him attacking Geralt, who has to defend himself. Regis understands why you had to kill Dettlaff, but he still loved him like a brother; the death of Dettlaff leaves him feeling terribly alone. There isn’t any way to end the bloodshed; everyone is hell-bent on destroying themselves.

CleoTheWizard,
@CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world avatar

That’s what I really love about the Witcher and its writing, there aren’t very many characters that I can think of that don’t have many dimensions to them. And every decision you make isn’t good or bad, just different. Even the love interest you can completely turn your back on and for understandable reasons. It’s just phenomenal writing that doesn’t exist in any other game of its caliber imo

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