I know it's belaboring the point, but I just finished the start of Forza Horizon 4. I am in love.

I had a bizzarely emotional experience with the start of this game. Life's been tough lately, and the start of that game is just boiling over with joy and positivity that I had a huge smile the whole time. Like, it was this deep down kind of joy you don't get often. It was odd because I can't recall the last game that gave me such a raw emotional response.

Have any of you guys ever had a response like this to a game? I'm sure it's a combination of a lot of things that lead to such a response, but regardless, I think the start of this game is fantastic.

hmm yeah, i had that kind of joy playing Earthbound a long time ago

Journey was the game that I had most emotional experience with. At the time I was going through some deep depression and had fallen entirely out of love with video games. That game had such an odd effect on me that by the end I had goosebumps and was lost for words... that hasn't happened very often.

Some games come at the perfect time.

I never get emotional about new games. I think the last time I felt anything close to a real emotion, aside from excitement or nervousness, was in Gears of War 2. The part where Dom finds his wife. Even that wasn't that big of a deal.

I do get a bit emotional when playing older games though, just for the nostalgia factor. Sometimes, I like to make myself a nice cup of coffee and put an hour into Jedi Outcast. Man, that game gives me such a nostalgia buzz. Makes me want to cry a bit haha.

The intro to FH4 is phenominal, it's not just you i felt it too :P.

Yeah the start of that game is a celebration of racing cars on the open road. Since your not allowed to do this with your real car, it's pretty great just going pedal to the metal with the latest hypercar. To bad all this absurd policing and constant traffic jams IRL destroyed my love for cars in general now it's just a extra burden you got, where a car use to be a symbol of freedom now it's just a symbol of burden then a symbol of freedom.

I thought this Forza commercial was brilliant at the time.

I totally agree, the opening to both FH3 and 4 is so weirdly euphoric. It’s like the start of Holiday.

I used to cry when Olga died every time i beat MGS2 (which was at least 30+ times) but I was 11 haha. I've felt that only from Red Dead and GTA IV, Rockstar really hit their sweet spot with storytelling there. Hated all the characters in V except Lamar

Animal crossing, I feel like that game just found me at the right time. For the same reason you speak about Forza really.

The last opening to a game that made me emotional was Ori & The Blind Forest. God dammit is it absolutely beautiful and just a roller coaster of emotions.

I have my own emotional attachment to the Forza series for being one of the very few racing games my extreme low vision allows me to play. The rewind feature and assists are a godsend. I've never quite taken to the Horizon games as much as Forza proper - I like a simple list of racing events I can choose from and some of the UI from Horizon is a problem for me to read, especially while driving - but I can definitely get your reaction.

I'd say the feeling I had while playing The Swapper was fairly similar. Close to 'magical' in feeling. And the whole intro->late game of Soma; that whole transition and discovery, when you go from thinking the game is one thing, to realizing it's something else entirely, and you look back at the early points and realize you were thinking about them all wrong. Masterful storytelling.

It's a blue sky game, sometimes those just make you feel great.

This should be in the Horizon 4 forum. Anyway yeah, probably Okami, Mother 3, Mario World/Odyssey/3D World, RDR, Witcher 3, and Breath of the Wild.

I can get emotional in essentially any game where I care at all about the story or characters, but as for some kind of profound joy I have three that tend to do it for me.

Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair, Super Mario Odyssey, and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 all make me extremely happy. Not just "hey look, I'm having fun with this video game" but legitimately happy. They can definitely have their bad moments - I just couldn't do some bits of Odyssey because platforming isn't my strongest ability, EDF has some extremely tough, slog missions, and Xenoverse 2 has terrible RNG in side quests for drops - but essentially every other moment was/is filled with unbridled joy.

Looking forward to starting up FH4 though. Just finished downloading it a few days ago but haven't had the chance to play it.

To the moon was a trip.

Honestly the last time I felt this happy playing a game was the intro to Forza Horizon 2.

I honestly belive the Horizon games have the best intros in all of gaming. In terms of capturing the game play and tone you will be experiencing for the next 20-30 hours it's pretty much perfect.

FH4 is centering me a bit during a pretty stressful time. I hate how hard it is to find things to be happy or even content about lately. But it helps a little.

I'm fortunate to live with people who also like games quite a bit, but they don't really get how I enjoy pretending to drive old cars with no assists. I find the whole thing to be deeply relaxing, as it basically uses parts of my brain that I don't use anymore (I drive to work maybe once a month, otherwise getting around on transit or my feet). Forza Horizon has basically become my forever series for reasons described in this thread.

The games where I feel that kinda deep down joy are Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Halo, and The Legend of Zelda games. Listening to the music from any of these games makes just feel happy and nostalgic in a way very few things do in life.

@cubidog: Music probably plays the biggest part for me, these days.

Games don't tend to 'get me' anymore, but I can listen to a soundtrack from old games I love and feel the nostalgic burn.

Oh shit, it just happened to me. I was in drone mode, zooming across a black, frozen river at full speed as the snow fell into the camera and an M83 song was playing, and it just flicked a switch in me. This game is magical. I liked 3 a lot, but this is the best Forza game ever IMO, and one of the best racing packages in years.

Also, drone mode is better than every photo mode ever, but I hope it unlocks a photo mode within drone mode at some point. That would be beautiful.

I thought Witcher 3 had a lot of emotional moments. Music is what tends to get me the most, so games with great soundtracks can move me even if the story or characters don't.

Breath of The Wild was the last game to really hit me emotionally solely by everything it did aesthetically. I'm still wowed by how that game represents nature and no other game really nails that feeling of being in a place better than that game for me.

Witcher 3 had contained moments of that so I would put that as a close second where as Zeldas hit me right off the bat.

That game touched me in a weird way at the start. When I booted it up and got greated with the Welcome to Forza Horizon Ben.even though they did that in 3, it just felt like a personal experience.

Same. I recently built my PC and Assassin's Creed Origins is the most recent game I played on it. Saw that the demo was up and running and looked around to see if the build was stable since FH3 was kind of iffy on certain hardware. Last Forza I played was FM3, so I downloaded the FH4 demo thinking "m'alright. Fairly new PC, a franchise I haven't touched in a while, and my 1440p monitor looking to flex. Lets do this". I was pretty reserved.

Now I don't really get hyped over anything these days, and when I do it's just a smile and a "huh", but I couldn't help but say "wooooow" when I hit the accelerator, the environment rushing past me at 1440p, 60fps, and drum and bass tune that hearkens back to Grand Turismo 1-4. I'll echo what Rob Zacny said over at Waypoint and say that the Forza games have nailed the cars and are confident enough to do it again next time around, but this game is an effort to make their world feel alive which is something the genre needed.

2018's moment/sequence of the year for me so far. haha

I think all the Forza Horizon games have good intros. Forza Horizon 2 has an fmv intro that is super cheesy and weirdly earnest that sells the festival part of these games and it always makes me smile. Then it transitions into that first race where you're driving the Lambo across the coastline, and I'm in bliss.

Nearly every single game I like enough to play to a reasonable degree of completion has provoked very strong emotional reactions. I suppose since I was a small child games have been my primary emotional outlet in general. I'm trying to remember the last game I finished that I didn't experience some unique and powerful feelings during and I'm drawing a blank. maybe... xcom 2012? haha. Needless to say I spent my whole life thinking that the concept of having a favorite video game was absolutely ludicrous until a little something called NieR happened.

@changethel1ghts: My lifelong friend and I were playing together yesterday, and he actually told me about this thread. I’m not sure if it was brought up because he was aware of my current struggles, or he just genuinely found your post interesting, but I’m right there with you pal.

I won’t go into detail, but the past few months have been very trying emotionally. A ton of stress, depression, mentally drained and losing touch with the important things in life. I had a moment where I was ripping around in the game with previously mentioned friend and just had this legitimately happy feeling. Told him, “Dude, it’s so damn good to be playing another Horizon game with you.”

There are just some things that don’t need to be explained. Some things that don’t have to be worried about, or over analyzed. Some things just are, and they’re exactly what you need. That’s what’s special about video games.

Also, first time posting. Pleasure to meet you all!

Right on! Things have been a bit crazy for me lately, and I had a feeling similar to what you described when I first loaded up Spider-Man PS4 and started swinging around. Just plain joy.

Also the scene where Peter has to ditch dinner and there's a little moment about his clothes made me happier than I can recall any other game in recent memory making me feel. So used to praising games for doing heavier stuff well in recent years, but seeing a very down-to-earth moment that came across as very genuine just made me so damn happy. So adorable.

The start of this game is probably my "best moment" moment of the year. It when from like 0-60 for me within like 2 seconds. It has like that 30 seconds of the woman talking and at first I was just like "oh okay this is just gonna be some wack ass car porn shit" then they immediately throw you in the driver's seat and suddenly I'm just like "oh fuuuuck, I am way into this!" It's a beautifully fun sequence that I assume does work on that sorta car porn-y level, but yeah it's also just all about fun and it put a big dumb smile on my face.

I've talked about this before on here, but I legit cried playing Sonic Racing Transformed during the Burning Rangers level. I love, love, loooove me some Burning Rangers. I was already losing it when I found out there was any Burning Rangers level at all. I knew nothing about the game because I just kinda bought it on a whim so it was a great surprise. I started losing it again when I finally got to it and noticed they were bought to drop a dope ass remix of the Burning Rangers theme on you. Then, when I think they can't do anymore, not only are the actual Burning Rangers characters themselves flying around the level, when the race starts, Chris the operator comes online and starts giving you directions like she did in the original game (except now they're racing directions which is incredibly fucking cool) and I just couldn't contain myself anymore. Tears were streaming down my face, I was getting choked up, and I just could not stop smiling. I kinda exaggerate how good this game is for laughs from time to time, but playing that level for the first time was genuinely, truly one of my favorite moments in any game ever.

I've played the opening to FH4 twice now (the first time when the demo came out a few weeks ago) and it definitely made me a little verklempt both times.

I know what you mean and I've had a similar experience playing FH4 even. I've always loved the Horizon series, but for me this one is special. I live in Northern England so many of the 'beauty spots' in game are actually places I visit pretty often (Derwent Reservoir, Bamburgh Castle to name a few). To see them recreated in game, and done so well has been amazing and I had a bit of an emotional moment whilst blasting down the road parallel to Bamburgh beach, a drive I've done for real so many times. Amazing stuff

As far as games that had deep emotional impacts, I'd say Journey and NieR: Automata are the two standouts that come to mind. Though, the game that gave me an experience closer to what you're describing would be, odd as it sounds, Digimon World: Next 0rder. (Sorry for the upcoming text wall, but this is something I've been meaning to get my thoughts down on for a while)

The original Digimon World game for the playstation was one of my favorite games as a kid, but then every single Digimon World game that came after it was completely different from it. The original was an open-world vpet-style raising sim mixed with a town building game and some RPG elements. It also had an entire curling mini-game which was baller. Then for whatever reason, 2 onwards decided to take the series into a completely different direction with some of them being roguelikes, action rpgs, straight jrpgs, and so on. The ONLY one that ever came remotely close to what the original was was a PSP game that never got localized. For ~16 years, it was this itch that had never been scratched by any other game, even outside of the Digimon franchise. Every single time a new digimon game would get announced or released, my hopes would be raised and then dashed. It was a unique, singular experience that resonated with me as a kid and nothing since ever managed to replicate.

Then Next 0rder got announced for vita, with the pitch being that it would play like Digimon World 1. I figure it would never get localized and dropped hope again. Then they announced a localization and that the localization would be an HD PS4 version. I bought it without looking at any gameplay or anything. I figured it wouldn't be the Digimon World 1 sequel that I had always wanted, but it would be better than nothing.

Then as I'm playing it, it's exactly what I had wanted for the past 16+ years. It played just like the original but with improvements. It even started in almost the same way, and my pre-order came with the soundtrack for the original to my surprise. So I was already in a profoundly happy state, but then something I didn't expect happened. One of the game's main characters was introduced: an adult version of the character from the original game, who had aged in real time (and since I was about the same age as the character when the original came out, this meant he was right at my age here), who then basically revealed the game's central problem and it turned out to be following up directly on how the original had ended. I realised that this wasn't just a "spiritual sequel" that played similar to the original. This was a straight up, actual sequel to the game that I loved so dearly as a child, 17 years later after I had long since given up hope on getting it. So here this was, while I was going through a really rough patch in my life, and it was like the game that I had dreamed about for as long as I can remember had materialized in front of me. I didn't realise tears of joy were an actual thing until that moment.

/blog