When asked what your favourite song is, chances are it's one you know all the words to, all the tunes, rhythms, and chord shifts. It's basically one you've heard a million times, one you've played to death. The same can be said of books. Your favourite novel is the most worn and shabby on your shelf. The concept is the same with films, and, of course, games.
We revisit games for many reasons: a comforting story, great gameplay, or just to return to a familiar virtual space (whether with friends or on our own). Users on the NeoGAF forum had this discussion today (August 5th), which made us reminisce on our own comfort games.
Final Fantasy VII is clearly a popular comfort game, as conformed by the enduring quality of the new remake series. Check out the trailer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth below!
User Artoris started the discussion by creating a thread titled "the one game you keep on going back to". The following titles contained some predictable answers, a few surprises, and a few hidden gems.
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User Kuranghi absolutely raved about Batman: Arkham Knight: "I have something like 250 hours in it, 100% completed it three (3) times at least. It's just such a well made game with little touches everywhere. It's like with Arrested Development, they just kept adding more and more ideas even as they were making it." Comparing Arkham Knight to Arrested Development is the kind of intertextual connection we like to see.
Other popular games were Final Fantasy, Skyrim, Call of Duty, Halo, and Fallout. A few wildcards include Bangai-O on the Dreamcast, and 2018's Deep Rock Galactic.
I'd like to mention one of my own.. Silent Bomber, released on the PS1 back in 1999. There was nothing like it before, nor has there been since. The story is fun and pulpy sci-fi, the dialogue is cheesy, the thumping techno soundtrack is dynamite, and the gameplay is fun, addictive, and challenging. For me, it's always worth going back to.
Featured Image Credit: Bethesda, Santa Monica StudioTopics: Final Fantasy, Skyrim, PC, PlayStation, Xbox