The game has a pretty unique mechanic. It makes you control two characters at the same time. It’s not a coop game, with optional solo. It’s strictly a single player game, where you use one controller to move two characters, the titular two sons, one on each control stick. Throughout the game you use movement and interactions with the environment to solve simple puzzles to remove obstacles in your way and travel to your destination. Usually, by having you do different things with each character simultaneously. After a while, it becomes second nature to control both brothers in a synchronous and flowing manner when you get used to the challenge of moving and paying attention to two different things at the same time.
spoilerNear the end of game though, one of the brothers dies. Now, you are left with two control sets, but only one character. Puzzles similar to ones that you already solved, now you have to figure out how to solve them, on your own. This on its own is gutwrenching as you developed a familiarity and affection to both characters and their dynamic, as they grow from mutually annoyed siblings, to a well coordinated team of brothers who care and protect each other. But through the game, you’re also taught that the younger brother can’t swim, he doesn’t know how to. So whenever you had to cross a body of water, the elder brother had to carry the younger brother on his back. He is deadly afraid of being in the water since their mother apparently drowned herself and he saw her die. At the climax of the game, alone in the middle of the ocean, you have to swim to shore. The emotional kicker is as you discover that using the dead brother’s stick on your controller, which you haven’t touched in at least half an hour since the other brother died because it doesn’t do anything anymore, calls however upon the memory of the older brother when you swim. You have to use both controller’s sticks to swim effectively and survive, and you can hear him cheering and supporting the younger brother to find his strength and swim on his own, back home, to carry on and save their father’s life. It’s such an empowering and emotional moment.
The ending of that game still makes me tear up after all this years as it makes me think of my own family. Even writing this comment I’m getting emotional. And it does it all without a single line of dialogue, text or voice acting. All by animation and vocalizations along with game mechanics. It’s one of the most effective uses of gameplay I have ever seen in a video game and forever has made me think of this as one of my favorite games of all time.
Other video games, and things people call emotional are usually about story elements, plot lines, events on a character’s arc. Things that have books upon books of analysis and history. Not that they’re any less valuable or deserving of praise, but using gameplay this effectively to convey emotion is, however, kind of unique and rather harder to pull off effectively.
You put that into words perfectly. I think it’s the only game that proscribes an emotion so successfully through a gameplay mechanic. It’s the most real, raw and visceral sense of loss I’ve ever felt in a game, film or book. Truly unique.
You missed the very end when the dad finds out that his son basically died to save him. As a dad with two sons, this would break me. Leave me to die, boys. That’s not a trade I’d ever make.
At the end of Boone’s companion quest, we’re watching the sunrise, having barely survived the night. He confesses what really happened to his wife. Nat King Cole comes on the radio with “Love Me.” I weep.
Oh damn son. You brought back some painful memories. Imagine tracking down a loved one and finding them but finding out the only thing you can do for them is end their suffering.
GameStop gift cards probably won't help you if they want the game for PC. There are also a lot of games that you can only buy digitally. Do you know which game you want to get for them? That could narrow it down. Otherwise, you might have to get even sneakier about finding out what platforms they have access to.
Okay, that helps. Both are on PC, but it's unlikely this 11 year old plays them on PC, as this is primarily a game people play on consoles in either case. Both will also have physical versions. If I were a betting man, I'd bet they want the PS5 version, but that's like a 65% chance. I'm not sure what your situation is, but surely you could ask the kid's parents, right? Also FYI, FIFA is the old name for the series, and starting with this year, it now goes by EA Sports FC.
Final Fantasy IX. Just… everything to do with Vivi and Quina. Those to characters cemented IX as my favorite in the series after initially writing it off as inferior to VII and VIII. While those games have some great narratives, Vivi and Quina both do such a great job of exploring what it is to be human, in their own beautiful and heart rending ways.
The entire experience of Outer Wilds.
So many parts of Persona 3, 4, and 5, but especially 4.
Here’s a weird one: Starflight on Genesis. Not so much because of the story or content, but because I played this game so much with a friend of mine in middle school, and had all but forgotten about it. I was playing through some old Genesis games a month or so ago, and started this game up. As soon as the title screen came up, a flood of memories washed over me and took me right back to 1992. Bawled like a kid for about ten minutes as I realized I had an awesome friend that I had basically completely forgotten about.
Bit of an odd one, but the “Jump Up, Superstar” sequence from Mario Odyssey. It was just a crash of nostalgia combined with the unapologetic celebration of Mario games in general and a heap of affirmation that you, the player, are awesome. It was so beautiful that I couldn’t help it.
And other givens like the endings to Mother 3 and Undertale.
There are few games that I wish I could selectively erase my memory of, this is one of them. Just so I could play it again brand new. Love that game so much
I am on vacation in the UK so I decided to play something very British and started up Hogwarts Legacy. Runs well on the ROG Ally (with everything on low) and it’s been pretty fun!
I would suggest Vampyr or Wolfenstein: New Order as games set in the UK that would probably run great on an Ally with the bonus that they don’t support a TERF
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