I recently finished Natsu-Mon: 20th Century Summer Kid, an action-adventure game with social/life simulation elements. It really left a profound mark on me, emotionally. It's about a fourth-grader spending his summer in the countryside, and it ended up making me feel very nostalgic. I got pretty bummed when it was over.

It got me thinking: what are some games that made you feel similarly? What games have stuck with you months or years after you've completed them, and why?

Ori and the Blind Forest. It tells such an amazing story, but does it is beautifully. It doesn't use a bunch of voice acting or cut scenes. It tells the story with art and music. The music in particular is astounding.

Oh yeah, both games hit me hard. The second one especially.

ICO comes to mind with its minimalistic design and display of humanity through language barriers. The moments hits hard and stayed in my mind for a long time.

Papers Please. Donno if I want to call this a real game and I have not played it for very long. But the theme and its correlation to real world settings make it pop up from time to time with a feeling that I do not particularly like but also consider important.

Positive and more nostalgic emotions is rare, at least in games I play for the first time. I find that the emotions from games that affects me is mostly of sadness or fear. New Pokémon Snap made me think of simpler times being a kid playing Pokémon. It is just so relaxing and cozy and true to the original game but improved in almost every aspect. It is the most recent example of a game that can inject a lasting positive feeling into my cold heart.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

Bubsy 3D

Tetris

Warcraft 3 was probably the first game that had an emotional toll on me. And not in a good way lol. Seeing Arthas Menethil go from hero to his descent into madness in The Culling mission that ultimately leads to the now infamous cutscene of him murdering his father. It was insane watching a hopeful Paladin Prince start to lose himself as he became desperate in finding a way to defeat the Burning Legion. Although we got a badass villain out of it in Arthas becoming the Lich King lol.

Then there's the Orc Campaign where you see Grom Hellscream sacrifice himself to save Thrall. It was a lot of heavy storytelling in that game. One of the many reasons why it's considered one of the best games ever, and my personal favorite game of all time.

I was a mess at the end of The Last Guardian. The only other game that's had me in tears is SotC, though that wasn't as bad:

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