How A Video Game Changed My Life

*Disclaimer: There are minor spoilers for the game Lost Odyssey in this post. I highly recommend that if you plan to play this game you only read this post after having played through to at least the second disc of the game as the spoilers pertain to the first disc of the game*

The power of media to influence and reach people can be seen throughout all of history. Yet certain media forms tend to be viewed through a different lens, where they wind up being seen as nothing more than some useless distraction at best. Most forms of media, from books to movies and everything in between, have borne their fair (unfair rather) share of this type of criticism.

Video games as a media form have been criticized as a waste of people’s time or even blamed for problems with youth and society as a whole. I’m not going to pretend that I can end that argument with anything I say here. There is a good chance that even if video games come to hold a reputation as an art form there will still be a vocal segment of society that argues against them. All I can really do is say how I feel on the subject, namely what games mean to me.

Games not only have the potential to reach people but they can be meaningful in a persons life as well. I don’t just mean as something that brings happiness to someone’s life. I don’t just mean as something that people can use to socialize with others or bond with friends over. Those arguments have already been made by others. What I mean is that a game can so deeply affect a person that it becomes a milestone, something that no matter how their memory may fade over time or their life change, will always be one of the most cherished and important moments in life.

To those who were involved in the making of Lost Odyssey, to Hironobu Sakaguchi the creative director of the game and to the game itself, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I will always be in your debt for the rest of my life.

That may sound unusual, sad or plain nerdy to some but its how I feel and how I will always feel and I can really care less how people see me for that statement. I will never be able to give an honest assessment of the game because my bias runs too deep. All I know is that I turned this game on with the expectation of just playing a hopefully good game. I came away with one of the most important experiences in my life. I played the game for the first time months after its release, not even having really anticipated it all that much.

I played it months after burying my older brother Manuel Angel Anton.

My life was a wreck by that point. I had slipped into such a deep depression and melancholy that I couldn’t go a day without feeling like my life was over. I wasn’t going to class and barely even cared about anything that was going on around me. His death had shaken me to my very core and all my goals, principles and desires meant nothing to me. I hid most of it from whomever I could but it didn’t change where I was headed and the fact that nothing I tried to do could help me break free of what I was feeling.

In Lost Odyssey there is a key moment in the story where the main character rediscovers his daughter (who was presumed dead from falling off a cliff) years later, on her death bed. It is an extremely emotional scene and a definite tear-jerker.

For someone still struggling with the death of a brother with whom there was an almost unexplainable link, it was almost too much to bear. I didn’t just cry. I absolutely broke down. The pain, the confusion, the anger but most of all the helplessness I felt came rushing in and there was no way for me to hold it all back. I don’t remember how long it took me to finally pick that controller back up again but this game had me hooked in a way that no other game ever had and I had to keep playing to see where things would go.

That is when Lost Odyssey did something that angered or annoyed many gamers. It forced them to put up with a segment involving running around and picking up random items, followed by a rather lengthy segment that just involved simple button presses and moving a flaming torch to light other torches (I would explain the entire segment but it would take too long to go through it in detail). It was part of a funeral process to send off the deceased daughter of the main character. For some gamers it was a great moment in the story; for others it was just an annoying segment of meaningless gameplay. For me it cemented my gratitude and debt.

For me it took away the pain.

At a time in my life where I felt nothing but confusion and hopelessness this one moment changed it all. No movie or book could have done what this single moment did. It allowed me to interact with a scenario I needed. It allowed me to send off my brother and move past what had happened.

It allowed me to do something about it.

That is where the meaning of gaming lies. The interactive nature of games is what sets it apart from any other media form and its what took a scene that I had seen played out in books and movies become something so much more. In time I may have found another way to get past what was going on in my life. That does not change what did happen. I was able to move past the single worst period of my life because of the interactive nature of a video game.

Even today I am already playing games less than I used to as I get back into writing, reading and other social endeavors. Regardless of whether I play a game ever again in my life I will always hold a special place in my heart for Lost Odyssey. So no matter what your stance may be on gaming just remember that a video game can change a person’s life.

A video game changed mine.

Spinning Back in the Right Direction

*Disclaimer* Hi everyone this is Kempand, the latest addition to the Gaming Simplicity staff. Just wanted to let everyone know that the following piece is strictly my opinion and not necessarily reflective of the rest of the Gaming Simplicity staff. Hope to be putting up more material for you all soon. *End of Disclaimer*

A few months ago multiple gaming sites covered the anniversary of the Dreamcast. While I was going through a few of these articles I noticed a character who always brought the words Sega into my mind: Sonic the Hedgehog. By extension I began to think about Sonic Adventure 2 for the Dreamcast, one of the last (and to some the very last) solid console outing in the Sonic franchise. Since then the Sonic franchise has seen a shaky run, from hits and misses on handhelds to a seemingly endless spiral into mediocrity (or downright crap) on consoles.

The shaky run on handhelds has had some bright moments as of late, including Sonic Rush Adventure which seems to point the franchise on handhelds in the right direction. Things don’t look as bright on the console market. The only real bright spots lately have been the re-releases of early Sonic games as downloadable content, and even then they are overshadowed by collections of Sega games that include those games already. As pessimistic as all this sounds I do have hope that Sonic can be restored to its former glory on consoles. If the series does reach that point, Sega needs to be sure that people will still be willing to buy Sonic games.

I know it is a big jump to say that the Sonic franchise, because of its drop in quality, will not be able to get people to buy the game just because of the legacy, but there is precedent there. We have seen trusted companies and properties who mistreated consumers for long enough that those consumers and fans abandoned them. The Dreamcast is a shining example (which Sega should never forget) about the limits to the patience of fans. After the manner in which Sega was constantly jerking around their fans with their odd system life cycles and choices, even when Sega releases one of the best systems in gaming history, the fans weren’t willing to give them another chance. Sega needs to keep the Sonic reputation from going that far or they may never be able to get the franchise out of mediocrity.

Which leads me to my point, namely that Sega needs to find a way to pull the Sonic franchise out of this rut it is in. My opinion is that they may need to take a step backward in order to take a few steps forward. “A step backward” to me means a return to the roots of the series in its original side scrolling format of years past. Could they follow the lead of the recent Bionic Commando: Rearmed in updating the older Sonic games? Perhaps, but I would much prefer that they make a brand new game using the format they had the most success with. A great example of this recently is Mega Man 9, which was not only a great game but as Mark Bozon of IGN stated perfectly, “[Mega Man 9] truly does rival the best in the franchise’s 8-bit roots.” If the Mega Man franchise can create a brand new game using a classic format why shouldn’t the Sonic franchise, whose glory days are grounded in that classic format, follow their lead?

Sega may very well go down that path or find more interesting ways to restore Sonic’s tarnished reputation. Then again they may not and we could see one of the classic franchises in gaming history continue to fall further into obscurity. Sega had Sonic spinning in the right direction long ago and that classic gameplay format may be the key to getting him back up there. Here is hoping that they do.