SPOILER ALERT - CAN'T MAKE FORMATTING WORK ON MY PHONE.
IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED THE GAME "JOURNEY" YET, DON'T READ THIS. DON'T READ ANYTHING - JUST GO PLAY IT. Truly a beautiful experience made better the less you know ahead of time.
I think maybe my favorite gaming experience ever was when I played Journey when it first came out. I had avoided any spoilers and went in knowing absolutely nothing about it except the positive reviews. The beginning, the MUSIC, the pacing, the puzzles, and the friend you find along the way, all of it was just so beautiful to me. I loved chirping and the companion character chirping back, my heart stopped when the character got hit by one of the giant enemies and I was filled with joy when they got free, I loved that we huddled together climbing up the mountain for warmth, chirping to encourage each other to go on. And then of course that marvelous ending when you make it in a triumphant explosion of energy and animation, racing racing racing to the top after such a marvelous journey with a computer friend I had never felt so connected to before with absolutely no dialogue of course...
And then the credits roll, and you realize that it was ANOTHER player the entire time. You had just gone on this massive adventure solving puzzles, finding hidden secrets, and chirping like goddamn idiots for hours with another person, not a computer player
It absolutely blew me away and I cried at the simplistic beauty of it all. I've never felt such pure joy during a revelation from a gaming experience, neither before nor since. It still gets me now recalling it. The game became all the more fulfilling after the first play through, and each time your cloak became a bit more decorated.
It let you know when you were with someone who was in on the secret or not, so you got to show someone around if they were a newbie and reexperience the joy through new eyes vicariously that way. I still remember when I met my first white cloak and it was stunning in its own way. You unlocked the white cloak when you had found all of the secrets in the game, and on that playthrough they showed me all of the hidden spots and the tricks to get there, thus helping me to unlock the white cloak as well. Thus each white cloak shepherded subsequent players to the same secrets and passed the knowledge along.
All of it was just such a fantastic experience. I wish I could go back and experience that joy and surprise again, to hear the music for the first time, and to chirp friendly little songs only to have them chirped right back at me. If you haven't played the game before, read nothing else and see if you can find a way to play it now. It's a magical experience.
SPOILER ALERT - CAN'T MAKE FORMATTING WORK ON MY PHONE.
IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED THE GAME "JOURNEY" YET, DON'T READ THIS. DON'T READ ANYTHING - JUST GO PLAY IT. Truly a beautiful experience made better the less you know ahead of time.
I think maybe my favorite gaming experience ever was when I played Journey when it first came out. I had avoided any spoilers and went in knowing absolutely nothing about it except the positive reviews. The beginning, the MUSIC, the pacing, the puzzles, and the friend you find along the way, all of it was just so beautiful to me. I loved chirping and the companion character chirping back, my heart stopped when the character got hit by one of the giant enemies and I was filled with joy when they got free, I loved that we huddled together climbing up the mountain for warmth, chirping to encourage each other to go on. And then of course that marvelous ending when you make it in a triumphant explosion of energy and animation, racing racing racing to the top after such a marvelous journey with a computer friend I had never felt so connected to before with absolutely no dialogue of course...
And then the credits roll, and you realize that it was ANOTHER player the entire time. You had just gone on this massive adventure solving puzzles, finding hidden secrets, and chirping like goddamn idiots for hours with another person, not a computer player
It absolutely blew me away and I cried at the simplistic beauty of it all. I've never felt such pure joy during a revelation from a gaming experience, neither before nor since. It still gets me now recalling it. The game became all the more fulfilling after the first play through, and each time your cloak became a bit more decorated.
It let you know when you were with someone who was in on the secret or not, so you got to show someone around if they were a newbie and reexperience the joy through new eyes vicariously that way. I still remember when I met my first white cloak and it was stunning in its own way. You unlocked the white cloak when you had found all of the secrets in the game, and on that playthrough they showed me all of the hidden spots and the tricks to get there, thus helping me to unlock the white cloak as well. Thus each white cloak shepherded subsequent players to the same secrets and passed the knowledge along.
All of it was just such a fantastic experience. I wish I could go back and experience that joy and surprise again, to hear the music for the first time, and to chirp friendly little songs only to have them chirped right back at me. If you haven't played the game before, read nothing else and see if you can find a way to play it now. It's a magical experience.
Journey was an honest-to-god spiritual experience.
Thanks for inviting me to remember it this evening. Been a while since I've had a good cry and I needed the help.
:meow-hug: