On Day 7, I mentioned Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain will be the only game repeated in my 30 day challenge for one reason only: the emotional impact it left on me.
I had never played a game like Heavy Rain before and went into it completely blind. In fact, I picked up a used copy from GameStop, and the associate said he loved it. With a recommendation so high from a Game Stop employee, I figured it was worth a shot. After all, I do have a fascination with serial killers.
Heavy Rain is about four separate protagonists and the Origami Killer, a serial killer who uses long periods of rainfall to slowly drown his victims. Each of these protagonists have a choice-driven story and can die based on how you play the game. These protagonists are Ethan Mars, Norman Jayden, Madison Paige, and Scott Shelby.
Without spoiling the ending(s), the interactive story telling very much sucks you in. I beat this game in about a week (that’s with taking breaks from so many emotional scenes). You are these characters and watching their stories unfold to save a child’s life hits home in more ways than one.
“How far are you prepared to go to save someone you love?”
Want to see more of the 30 Day Video Game Challenge? Want to try the challenge yourself? Read this post here!
What game had a big emotional impact on you? Let me know in the comments!
Mine is FF4, it’s a neat little story that struck a chord with 12 year old me, back in the day. There’s a few artsy micro games like Gravitation, Dys4ia and Loneliness that were pretty emotionally powerful.
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I personally love emotional games. I’ll have to look into those!
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Cool, they only take 5-10 or less minutes to play. 🙂
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I would say Dragon Quest V. Usually when one game is the first to do something, it doesn’t take long for somebody to improve on it, but even to this day, it effortlessly beats down games made entire decades later. The narrative can be downright brutal at times, yet owing to the minimalistic way in which video game stories were told back then, the subtle approach succeeds at enhancing the hard-hitting moments. All too often, when I see a game go for the emotionally charged narrative, the author tends to be relentless to the protagonist (and by extension, the player) while neglecting to reward the suffering with any kind of satisfying payoff.
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I’ve never played Dragon Quest V, but based on your description, I’ll have to see if I can find it. The best stories for games or books have a good balance of suffering and reward for main characters.
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Yeah, I don’t think enough authors realize that; some have a tendency to pile on the angst, and that makes it difficult to care.
If you have a 3DS, the DS version is being sold on Amazon for a decent price.
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You’re absolutely correct.
I do have a 3DS so I’ll check that out!
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If whimsy counts as an emotion, there’s no reason not to pick The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I loved the game for it’s effortless sense of child-like wonder. I never had any complaints about the art style, because when I saw it I knew I was in for a great story and experience. It taught me to not take life too seriously, so when I catch myself doing it I’ll sometimes try to contextualize life in this style.
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Whimsy definitely counts. 🙂 That sounds really beautiful that a game was able to take you to a place that makes you feel good about life in general.
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My friend recommended me this game, I have yet to play it.
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It’s amazing. You should definitely give it a shot.
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