Finished business

Sometimes we have an experience with something that ends up either being so profound, or perhaps exceptional, that we struggle to leave that world.

I’ve had it happen with books, films, TV series and of course games.

 

What’s the problem?

As I mentioned before, sometimes, you just give up and get on with your life.  Some things are just not worth the time, despite the hype and your hopes.

On the reverse of that, though……. The issue isn’t so much that we’ve been so immensely impacted, and had a genuine emotional experience. I mean, that’s actually the most you can ask for, isn’t it?

For something that someone else has created to impact you on a level that things don’t reach, very often.

The problem is letting go.

That hollow, almost saddening feeling, knowing that something is over.  Perhaps it’s more that you know you can’t ever experience it for the first time again.

Finished that TV series that you were gripped by from start to finish? Left a film with that heavy heart and that almost profound outlook on life?

 

Going back….

Sure, I’m sad that I’ll never be able to experience things that first time, and that something is final.  But then, it’s not impossible in this day and age to just to go back and start again, is it?

Re-watching a box set is no issue.  Watching a film again, re-reading a book or re-playing a game.  All very easy to do.  The thing is, if you’ve had to make your peace with your initial experience, then it’s perhaps not that easy to do is it?

I’ll be honest, this has all been prompted by two games.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and The Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild.

Playing both of these games was an absolute revelation, and they’re all-time favourites.  However, I’m really struggling to give them any more time, even though I haven’t even finished Zelda.

 

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

This is the biggie.  One of the biggest impacts a game has ever made on me.  Between the Bloody Baron story line, the hefty, stunning world.  Ciri, choosing lovers…..Literally being Geralt and living that incredible game.

I finished the main game, I got a good ending, and I made my peace with the fact that I was probably never going to be able to have that experience again.

In honesty, I spent a few days collecting armour sets, building stuff etc and dragged it out.  But it was over and I had to come to terms with it.

Enter 2 DLC add-ons…….highly regarded, and by all accounts, the perfect way to see the world of Geralt out.

Of course I bought them when I could!  I’ve never played them though.  I genuinely struggle to get my head around opening-up that world again.

It’s ridiculous.  One of my favourite all-time games, one that I love and gush about.  Additional, and supposedly excellent content to really help see things through, and I can’t do it……But it’s always there in the back of my mind.

 

Breath of the Wild

Easily the best game I have for my Wii U.  The best game in the Zelda series, a series I’ve loved since Link’s Awakening on my Gameboy.

I’ve done every tower, I’ve hit loads of shrines, tackled 3 of the 4 Ganon Blights, and embarked upon a quest to get the Hylian Shield and Master Sword before I finish the blight and go to Ganon.

This is slightly different than the Witcher.  This is a game I don’t want to finish.  

Perhaps as a reaction to my gut-wrenching Witcher 3 dilemma, or perhaps I’m not sure there’s ever going to be another game like it?  Honestly, I don’t know.

What I do know, though, is that I can’t bring myself to get back into it to finish it off.  It sits in the back of my mind, this wonderful world, one of the best games I’ve ever played and I can’t….erm…..play it any more.

 

What to do?

It’s stupid really, isn’t it?

To get so attached to something that you struggle to let it go.  Either, refusing to let it go by leaving it in limbo, or by saying your goodbyes (mentally, I didn’t have a chat with my Witcher disk or anything….) and struggling to return.

How on earth can something like this happen and what the hell can I do?

Well, I think the answer is obvious.  These, to me, are masterpieces, works of art.  Shouldn’t I be enjoying them? Absolutely! 

Should I force myself to take more from them than I’ve already had, though?  Maybe, maybe not.

I mean, I read Cloud Atlas years ago and it struck me in the same way.  I’ll never watch the movie or re-read it though.  I don’t need to.  It’s a cherished memory, a warm feeling of something that I’ll no doubt forget the specifics of as time moves on.

The first time I watched Vanilla Sky (I was in my mid-teens), I never wanted it to end.  I re-watched it over and over, but it never hit me in the same way.

Is the enjoyment now, from the memory and the initial experience, more than forcing myself to take it in again?

All I really know, is that I don’t think I’ll ever really know the answer.

I don’t want to play the Mass Effect Trilogy again, but it’s one of my great gaming memories.

Just enjoy things, make your peace when they’re over, and then do as you wish afterwards.  Part of me thinks I’ll re-visit Wild Hunt and Breath of the Wild, I have a “need” to on some base level.  I just don’t know what will be the key to making that a priority.  That hazy, fuzzy time of joy, forever engrained within me.

Surely this level of attachment, and this complex set of emotions towards something that most people look at as something exclusively for kids and man-children, is more than anyone could ever ask for when experiencing entertainment like this?

 

Anyone else?

I hate to write here and ask questions to non-existent audience.  It’s not what I’m about, and it usually falls on deaf ears.  In this instance, though, I’d really love to hear what games, films, books etc have had a similar effect on you?

Leave a comment, tweet me, write on Facebook.  Whatever.  Share those masterpieces, eh?

There’s more for me, but The Witcher, and Zelda are the “big ones”.