Journey Thread: I didn't ask for these feels edition

**POTENTIAL SPOILERS THROUGHOUT***

I know this topic has been beaten to death since Journey's release on the PS3, but I just finished it for the fourth time (2nd time on PS4) and I just need to talk about it. Every time I finish this game I come away with 'something in my eye.' I am not an emotional dude, and it's sort of a running joke between my wife and I how deadpan and stone faced I am all the time, but this game hits me like a sledgehammer and cracks me to pieces. The more I have played it and picked up on some of the less obvious metaphors, the worse it gets. Literally every single thing that happens in this game reflects the hardships of trying to make it through life. The large cluster of tombstones at the beginning of the journey, using the shredded scarf pieces of your predecessors to push you forward, the shifts in tone as you progress, losing a partner halfway through and being forced to finish alone, and finally the euphoria of bursting through the darkness... it's just a really beautiful in a really sad way. I always end up thinking about it for days after I finish. What really hit me this time, and something I hadn't noticed before, was that as I soared back through the sky as a shooting star I could see others hopping along on the early stages of their journey and it made me think whether they would feel the same huge range of emotions that I had felt. (Even though it's probably just a pre-rendered cutscene, it's still a nice touch). Are there any new Journey players here who would like to talk about how the game impacted them? or anyone else who has come back to play the PS4 version and still finding it hitting them right in their guts?

SHARE YOUR STORIES!

I didn't think I would experience anything major when playing through the game again but the emotions were strong. I was lucky enough to have the exact same person on my Journey for 95% of the game.

First time I played this game I died near the end. I couldn't touch the game again for weeks. I was just devastated.

Can't wait to play again on ps4.

Yup, first time playing through I was close to tears. It took me completely by surprise. It's been a few years since I played, so I am pretty pumped to give the PS4 version a shot.

I'm apparently an emotionless monster, because I never cared for my partners. I played it for the first time on PS4, having heard nothing about the story before. I used my partners to distract the monsters and get through areas faster. As soon as they didn't want to do the same thing I wanted to, they were disposable. I guess I just focus on things from a very heavy mechanics and goal oriented aspect. The point on the mountain where you walk into the snow until you are Deus Ex Machina-ed with a longer trail made me frustrated. I pulled out my phone and started checking twitter because I knew exactly what was going to happen. I really hate Deus Ex Machina in writing, it just feels lazy. If I could be resurrected by white people and fly to the mountain, why couldn't the entire race be resurrected? And why did I have to try and get to the mountain in the first place? I'm probably a huge outlier on this one, and I'm not saying that anyone else's experience is invalid. I just appreciated the game for its technical skill, I.E. the awesome shaders and cool sand deformation tech. It just didn't get to me at all, so I thought I'd share my story.

For a completely agnostic/atheist person such as me there's something quite unique in Journey's pilgrimage qualities. Not having ever been compelled for spiritual reasons to visit particularly revered locations/buildings in real life I feel that Journey allows me to experience something akin to that.

The difference is maybe that I'm not so much focused on the end goal, but (as the title of the game seems to suggest would be correct) the "journey". There are parts of the game that are frustrating (and intentionally so) and parts of it that are completely liberating, but that last bit of almost complete freedom granted to you at the last stage only works because of the hardship that you have had to go through previously.

I think the game is fantastic and have played it a number of times since it first hit, and honestly not once has my experience of it been diminished by prior knowledge of the game's flow.

I played Journey again last night in the first time in years. Even though the game is super easy and anybody can finish it, there is no greater feeling of accomplishment than walking through that last valley in the game.

Also, I always love striking up a casual conversation with my random friend about our Journey together after the credits roll. I played with someone who had never played the game before last night, so I was his first snowhill buddy!