The Special Satisfaction of Finishing a Great Video Game Epic

After a close-to-200-hour run with the game, I finally finished The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild this weekend. I was ridiculously overpowered for the final fight, with two rows of hearts, nearly every piece of gear in the game, the finest weaponry, and 200+ of nearly every special arrow type. I could've taken about 12 Calamity Ganons in a row, comfortably.

That's not some pronouncement of skill, by a long shot. I just took my sweet, sweet time in the game, exploring every inch (almost) of its impressively giant world, garnering all of the things. I think it's a phenomenal piece of game design—particularly in the mechanics related to traversal, with running, jumping, climbing, gliding, swimming all making for a game that plays like a fantastic 3D platformer.

I'll probably play more, especially because I'm not 100% through with the current DLC. But it felt SO GOOD to finish the game, to watch my special "secret ending" (if you find all the memories, you get a really nice little treat at the end), and sit there, watching the credits roll, ending on one very poignant name—the late, beloved Saturo Iwata as executive producer. Even when I dip in further, I'll know that I saw this incredible adventure to the end, that I have a sense of closure to the main story. There's a not-inconsequential feeling of accomplishment there, and I love it.

I felt the same way when I finished Prey for the first time (you know, my other favorite game this year), after another exceptionally-long single player jaunt (50+ hours for a "15-20 hour game"). And I've since started a second playthrough, but I'll be ok if I don't beat it again, because, similarly, I saw the story to the end. I was happy with my decisions, with my actions, and my version of Morgan Yu.

It feels incredible to finish a game, particularly a big one, with many different potential playstyles, choices to make, or paths through the world. It's something I've missed dearly, since my days primarily reviewing games, where I would actually finish a big AAA release per week (or thereabouts, I certainly played smaller/shorter games during that time as well). In 2016, I didn't finish many big games. I played enough to write review impressions, to do video coverage, to speak about a game intelligently. But I saw vanishingly few endings to games that lasted longer than 10-ish hours (of course, shorter games, like Inside and Firewatch, were easier to make that finish line), and there's a weird sadness to that.

It's as if I started so many stories—stories I loved, even—and never really knew what happened to them. What happened to my buddy the Doom Marine? What becomes of Lincoln Clay from Mafia 3? Does Elizabeth from Dishonored 2 come out ok in the end, and win back her throne? I have no idea, and sure, it'd be easy to go check out the endings on YouTube, but it just wouldn't be the same.

Some of this is a necessity of our jobs: we have to play what's new to cover it, and that often means tasting many games, rather than feasting on any one. But after falling in love with these two, I've also rekindled my love for actually finishing these experiences. And I won't stop anytime soon!

So, yes, I'll be going back to Doom, and Dishonored 2, and Mafia 3. Right now, I'm actually working on finishing up Uncharted 4—hopefully by the time Lost Legacy arrives, in a couple of weeks, I'll have seen the last scenes of 4 (of my own doing, not on YouTube), and I'll continue on this glorious tradition, of actually finishing the games I enjoy.

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