Do you ever find yourself in the middle of a great conversation about a game you love when the person with whom you’re bonding decides to ask if you beat the game? Sometimes, if you answer in the negative, the bond is immediately broken and your opinions become moot. It’s kind of weird. While finishing games is nice, especially story-driven games, the fact remains that games are meant to be played, and anyone who plays a game for some considerable time should be able to voice their opinions and know that they carry weight.
Now, I’m thinking about this as someone who typically occupies the snobby side of the conversation. Final Fantasy VII meant a lot to me growing up, and it’ll always hold a very special place in my heart. Just a couple of months ago I got into a great conversation with a colleague of mine about FFVII, and he mentioned in passing that he never actually got around to beating the game. I was aghast. I felt like I had been deceived! The final battles and concluding sequences – especially the very last shot before credits start rolling – conclude the game in such a touching, epic way; I just couldn’t believe that someone would assume the right to speak with authority about the game when they didn’t have that experience to draw from. The audacity!
That’s not to say that I haven’t been myself alienated in this way. Bloodborne is a perfect example of a game that I didn’t finish but feel like I understand. I beat the hell out of Dark Souls and have gone back again and again to re-roll different characters, and Dark Souls 2 I enjoy as well. Bloodborne , on the other hand, I never felt compelled to finish. I put about ten hours into the game, and I get it. I understand why everyone thinks it’s incredible, and I get why reviewers gave it perfect scores. The thing is: I don’t enjoy it very much. In forums when I try to express why this is so, my opinions are collectively ignored when it’s brought to light that I didn’t actually beat the game.
Isn’t it very strange that we do this? Why do we insist that one can only form a valid opinion of a game if they made it all the way to the closing credits? If you spend ten hours listening to multiple albums from some band or artist and decide that you don’t like them, no one bats an eye. If you spend ten hours watching a couple seasons of Parks and Recreation and decide that you don’t like it at all, I don’t think we could be friends, but I’d still accept your judgment. I’d say that even a few hours with a game should be long enough to make legitimate judgments, subjective though they may be.
Heck, even within the first hour of a game you can pretty much make up your mind about almost everything but the story. Visuals, music, controls, main gameplay mechanics… you’re engaging with most of what a game has to offer from the very beginning. If you don’t like playing Lumines within the first ten minutes, you’re certainly not going to like it hours in or after you’ve beaten it. Alternatively I think it’s perfectly fine to decide that you love a game even if you haven’t beaten it; even story-driven games!
I consider Final Fantasy VIII one of my favorite RPGs of all-time and I didn’t even make it to the third disc (out of four)! Yeah, that’s right! All of you FFVIII snobs can bite me! I’m sure the ending is incredible and maybe I’ll see it one day, but I already know I love the game for what it’s given me. What about you guys? This could be a pretty interesting conversation. What’s your favorite game that you’ve spent the least amount of time with? Do any of you consider a game you’ve never beaten to be your favorite game of all-time?