What game effected your emotions?

[retro junkie]

I really don't know how to put into words what I am trying to convey. But.....

Is there that one game that resurfaces from the back of your memory? When it comes to mind it still causes you to have feelings? Or the word "awesome game" comes to mind. You went into the game and it had an unexpected impact on you. You were unprepared. You were pleasingly surprised. Pushed your mind to its limits? Wrecked you life because you became obsessed with it? You use this game to measure other games against? You find yourself looking for another game which gives you the same type of experience.

Ico for PS2 comes to my mind, as that game moved me. I found it very enjoyable and found that it became ingrained into my mind and emotions. It became the most pleasurable experience in gaming. Journey for the PS3 is another such game. Both of those games made me want more. Both games made me look at gaming from a different perspective. Especially Journey. When you are into shmups, platfomers and RPGs you really don't envision going into a game like Journey and finding an unexpected gameplay that suddenly you find that you enjoy.  Love the puzzle elements in Ico, but also loved the exploratory environment of Journey. Rarely do I run across a game that impact me the way those games did. The way those games weaved those elements into a game and pulled me into it, equal amazing.

[targetrasp]

For me, video games stir up emotions from the time period I was playing them, not necessarily what was going on in the game itself. For instance:

Dark Cloud - I played this game day and night. I was 20 / 21 years old when I found this game. It'd been out for a while but I'd completely missed it. I bought it a few days before the girl I'd been in love with since we were small kids decided we weren't a good fit anymore. We'd spent our entire teens together and I'd just bought a house for us. I was devastated. I took some time off of work and played Dark Cloud from start to finish. The roommate I had from college came over and hung out with me a lot. Between him and Dark Cloud I made it through.

Chrono Cross - I was playing this during my last few days living in a dorm. It was a bittersweet time. I was moving away from all the friends I'd made and the close proximity to the 24 /7 party to a new chapter in my life, completely unaware that the previous would happen and cause me to move the party to my house for the next 5 years.

Call of Duty World at War - I was playing this when my ex came in, turned it off, said she was pregnant, and went to bed. 16 months later I'm a single father with two kids. I treasure that game. In a round-about way it marks the beginning of the end of the worst relationship of my life.

[BLUEVOODU]

Call of duty modern warfare. I remember being so immersed  in the experience. Nothing has been like it since.  The scene where the nuke goes off and you crash.. Next scene shows your crawling out and while looking around at all the environment effects and buildings crumbling in the effects of the bomb. 

Not sure I'll experience something like that again. 

Diablo 2 - was a very addictive game...  but not sure it hit the emotions as much.

@SpartanEvolved mentioned the last of us hit the feels pretty hard. 

[mastermario]

I'm sure I'll be able to think of others, but the first game that comes to mind was the original Donkey Kong Country on SNES. Outside of Super Mario, that was really one of the first long games I was able to play through and beat as a kid. But the joy of beating King K Rool and watching the end-game credits followed by the sheer terror of realizing it wasn't over followed by more joy has a special place for me.

[Mai Valentine]

The first game I really played that made other games unplayable for a while because they just didn't compare was the Tomb Raider reboot in 2013. It was just such an amazing game. I mean the story was not the best (it's certainly not the caliber of an rpg) but every other element was amazing.

Another game I recall fondly, though not for the same reasons, is Spec Ops: The Line. A friend of mine recommended it to me. As far as the gameplay, it's a pretty standard first person shooter. But the set up of the story is ...very thought provoking.

[Jack]

The latest God of War, A Link to the Past, Super Mario Odyssey, most of the Pokemon games.

[Baker_Beezy]

Beating a pokemon game(espcially the first 3 gens) were some kind of experience. I was 8 years old, and it was Christmas morning when my parents gave me a present to open, and it was the special edition pokemon GBC that came with yellow version. And they bought me red and blue to go with it. It was amazing back then, but thinking about it now, I realize how truly awesome it was because they must have saved for the whole year to get it for me. I remember beating it like 8-9 months later, because I couldn't wrap my head around the different types or how they worked, So I just grinded my bulbasaur up to 20 or 30 levels higher than everything else to win. And as more games came out I played them, but each game I played always brought me back to that one moment when I was 8.

[Jack]

Beating a pokemon game(espcially the first 3 gens) were some kind of experience. I was 8 years old, and it was Christmas morning when my parents gave me a present to open, and it was the special edition pokemon GBC that came with yellow version. And they bought me red and blue to go with it. It was amazing back then, but thinking about it now, I realize how truly awesome it was because they must have saved for the whole year to get it for me. I remember beating it like 8-9 months later, because I couldn't wrap my head around the different types or how they worked, So I just grinded my bulbasaur up to 20 or 30 levels higher than everything else to win. And as more games came out I played them, but each game I played always brought me back to that one moment when I was 8.

My first game was Yellow version and I got so hung up on Brock's gym because I couldn't figure out why my Pikachu kept getting owned by Geodude and Onix. Weeks later I finally figured out I had to go catch a Caterpie so I could evolve it into a Butterfree so it would learn confusion, lol.

[Baker_Beezy]

OH I wondered the same thing. Those damn weaknesses and defense deal had me confused as a child like no other.