Post-game depression
- Thread starter Hong
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I fixed this in the first NieR by 100%ing it on Xbox...and then platinuming it on PS3.
Always reminds me of The World Is Saved music video put out a couple of years back:
But yeah it used to happen to me quite a bit, especially when finishing some of those good classic JRPGs. It's not as frequent lately though some games like Red Dead and Witcher still gave me that feeling.
But yeah it used to happen to me quite a bit, especially when finishing some of those good classic JRPGs. It's not as frequent lately though some games like Red Dead and Witcher still gave me that feeling.
It's empathy. Or at the very least cathexis. You invest emotionally in characters and then they go away.
It happens to me a lot with games that have a lot of character interaction. The characters start to feel like your buds and suddenly it's all over and they're gone forever.
I finished all 3 Danganronpa games around winter time last year I'm still feeling it from them. Thankfully I left the postgame stuff to mess around with in them so I still have that to return to sometime.
I finished all 3 Danganronpa games around winter time last year I'm still feeling it from them. Thankfully I left the postgame stuff to mess around with in them so I still have that to return to sometime.
I stopped playing games for like a year after finishing ME3. (Aside from its DLCs, anyway.) I just felt so fulfilled yet utterly bittersweet. I didn't need gaming anymore. I think the next game I played was The Last of Us.
Hell of a comeback.
Hell of a comeback.
I don't know about "depressed" but on the truly special games, I do feel a certain when when they are drawing to a close.
Its not depression, but it is a sort of bitter sweet melancholy. Doesn't last super long or anything, but yeah.
Its not depression, but it is a sort of bitter sweet melancholy. Doesn't last super long or anything, but yeah.
Depression is not an exclusively medical term. It became one after the word was a thing. Depression is a natural experience in certain instances and completely appropriate here.
I have MDD, but the word has other uses too.
Came here to post about Life Is Strange, only to see it mentioned in the OP. Yep, that game made me feel things I've rarely felt with any other piece of media. It also happened with The Last of Us and 999. I spent many days thinking about those games, replaying them in my head and reading about them online. The best thing is that I experienced all 3 of these games for the first time in 2016 and they all became personal favorites, so that may have been the best gaming year of my life (even though none of them came out that year).
That gif... I got a different outcome in my first playthrough, and it made me feel terrible. Not kidding, it depressed me a lot. Just thinking about it now is sad, it's funny how attached one can get to these characters.
That was pretty much the case with me. While I can appreciate a lot of games mechanically, not too many have had a similar hit on me emotionally and both the Life Is Strange games hit hard.
Only other case of post-game depression (in recent memory, at least) is Mass Effect 3. A proper trilogy-ender that one (regardless of the game's actual ending).
I knew this thread was going to be about LiS. Feel free to join us in the community thread too OP: https://www.resetera.com/threads/life-is-strange-community-thread-arcadia-baes.15030/
I wouldn't liken it to depression, but there definitely were games like that for me. Personally, I attribute it to not getting tired of the game and wanting more, despite it being finished. LiS is, kinda, an outlier, though. That game just made me feel all of the feels.
Off the top of my head, some examples would be:
God of War
Nier: Automata
Life is Strange
Witcher 3
Dark Souls
Bloodborne
But, what usually gets me out of that state is, either starting a NG+ in a game where it's available (Dark Souls/Bloodborne). Or returning to an old, beloved classic, especially if I haven't played it in a long time. And, of course, just letting it pass, usually it takes about a couple of weeks.
Off the top of my head, some examples would be:
God of War
Nier: Automata
Life is Strange
Witcher 3
Dark Souls
Bloodborne
But, what usually gets me out of that state is, either starting a NG+ in a game where it's available (Dark Souls/Bloodborne). Or returning to an old, beloved classic, especially if I haven't played it in a long time. And, of course, just letting it pass, usually it takes about a couple of weeks.
I'm like this with every FFXIV patch, you get a chunk of story and all you have left is content to keep you going until next patch/expansion.
Actually, Fallout is like this. Though I probably won't go back to 1 or 2 (remaster pls Bethesda), 3, NV, and 4 despite feeling like a new adventure every time I continue from where I last left off, completing all story, DLC, side quests... I'm left wanting more. With FO76 coming out I want to be excited, but it's online so ehhhhh.
One could argue Destiny is this to a few select people, just like with many shooters campaign is shallow and not much else to go on except endgame activities and pvp.
Actually, Fallout is like this. Though I probably won't go back to 1 or 2 (remaster pls Bethesda), 3, NV, and 4 despite feeling like a new adventure every time I continue from where I last left off, completing all story, DLC, side quests... I'm left wanting more. With FO76 coming out I want to be excited, but it's online so ehhhhh.
One could argue Destiny is this to a few select people, just like with many shooters campaign is shallow and not much else to go on except endgame activities and pvp.
The last game that did this to me was SOMA, it's been 2+ years since I finished it, but I still think about it a lot.
I've rarely experienced a game that gelled so well with me.
Everything from the setting, subject matter, story, characters are so perfect for my tastes and interests, I was so bummed out when I finished it.
I've since replayed it about 4 times and it never gets old.
Bravo Frictional Games, you've earned a lifetime subscription to my wallet.
I've rarely experienced a game that gelled so well with me.
Everything from the setting, subject matter, story, characters are so perfect for my tastes and interests, I was so bummed out when I finished it.
I've since replayed it about 4 times and it never gets old.
Bravo Frictional Games, you've earned a lifetime subscription to my wallet.
FFX
FFXV
TLoU
LiS
Even after finishing those games years ago, I still like to look up on videos, let's plays, reaction videos.
FFXV
TLoU
LiS
Even after finishing those games years ago, I still like to look up on videos, let's plays, reaction videos.
I have the opposite effect.
Once I'm 100% done with the game I feel completely satisfied and somewhat lose interest in wanting to play a new game for a short period of time.
Once I'm 100% done with the game I feel completely satisfied and somewhat lose interest in wanting to play a new game for a short period of time.
Long RPGs usually do this to me. Spending so much time with them, day after day, getting so invested in that world and those characters, only to one day no longer have that to wake up to... I know the feeling.
I'm really bad about actually finishing games so I don't really have this happen to me, but I definitely felt something similar after beating Breath of the Wild. I beat it and then I kept playing for 30ish more hours and then tried to play something else, and just found myself back at BotW again. I really had a hard time playing anything else even after I was done with it.
Yea I get this with every game I love. The last time it hit me really hard was Final Fantasy 15. Not only was I invested in the characters and world but my BFF and I had been sharing screenshots and comments on PSN the entire time, we finished it the same night. You know, it felt like how the end of summer vacation used to feel as a kid.
I don't think I've ever had 'post-game depression' but there are definitely RPGs where I've found myself thinking about them and both the characters and the choices I made in them weeks later. Often I won't start another one until that game has finally shuffled away from my idle thoughts. Off the top of my head, Persona 4- not so much the teens but i initially got the bad end, and the way it still takes an hour or so of play after the critical decision with a real sense of 'something's not right, you've missed something' before this becomes apparent. I just kept thinking 'what did I miss?' only to find that it was
. I think what was keeping it in my head was that sense that, after investing so much time in RPGs and maintaining that I love investigations and detective stuff, when it came to the crunch I was a bit tired and leapt to a conclusion rather than pursue the truth, which is the theme of the game. It's well done-
It ate at me a bit after investing so much time in the game, I didn't even realise there were multiple other endings until a few weeks later, and even after seeing it through it still kept me thinking about it. Even now in any RPG that has me either accusing or pursuing someone, if given a choice and if noone is in immediate danger, I'll tend to keep on investigating rather than move to an irreversible course of action. Unless it's some tosser like Kai Leng in Mass Effect of course. That fucker can die in a fire.
Another one: the endings of the SMT games I've played. The stakes are usually so high, and with some obvious downsides, that I agonise over every decision. So many RPGs I've rolled into town, added the sidequests to my jobs list, cleared half of them while doing the week's online food shop and not paid any attention to exactly the reason why x needs 20 magic macguffins. In SMT it's often something like 'I need this creature (so I can eat it for eternity)', so I tend to think about it more. They remind me of the stories of Celtic myth I was told as a child, where interactions, promises and gift exchanges with fairies never goes well for people.
all down to some multiple choice questions that I really should have paid more attention to
if you approach it having made up your mind, it'll support that and you won't realise it until it's too late, whereas if you question whether it all makes sense, even then it doesn't immediately say 'well done player'. I like that, it doesn't lead you on, it waits for you to make your own choice rather than give a 100% endorsement and reassurance that you've chosen path a or b.
It ate at me a bit after investing so much time in the game, I didn't even realise there were multiple other endings until a few weeks later, and even after seeing it through it still kept me thinking about it. Even now in any RPG that has me either accusing or pursuing someone, if given a choice and if noone is in immediate danger, I'll tend to keep on investigating rather than move to an irreversible course of action. Unless it's some tosser like Kai Leng in Mass Effect of course. That fucker can die in a fire.
Another one: the endings of the SMT games I've played. The stakes are usually so high, and with some obvious downsides, that I agonise over every decision. So many RPGs I've rolled into town, added the sidequests to my jobs list, cleared half of them while doing the week's online food shop and not paid any attention to exactly the reason why x needs 20 magic macguffins. In SMT it's often something like 'I need this creature (so I can eat it for eternity)', so I tend to think about it more. They remind me of the stories of Celtic myth I was told as a child, where interactions, promises and gift exchanges with fairies never goes well for people.
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I've never felt "empty" from beating a game. If I felt depressed, it was because I was spending too much of my time on videogames and the internet instead of what needs to get done and socializing IRL
Eninem - "Without Me" somehow fits the bill for a song describing relationships for video game withdrawal. I was just going through my albums...
Mass Effect 3 certainly left me feeling a bit low after i'd finished the Citadel DLC. No games have ever had me feeling so invested in the stories and characters as the ME trilogy did. Once it was fully wrapped up, the thought of no more adventures with Shepard, Garrus and the team was a real downer for a while.
No game since has ever got me as hooked.
No game since has ever got me as hooked.
It takes me a day or two to pick something else up after I get a platinum. I just have no motivation for any game for a bit.
I get this the worst with TV shows. Even those I've watched through several times.
I get this the worst with TV shows. Even those I've watched through several times.
Yes, when I completed Celeste. .. the problem with Celeste is it's too good and every other game, and life in general, just feels miserable after it
Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last Guardian and Mass Effect 3—no WAIT, hear me out—after I played The Citadel DLC which is the TRUE ENDING to the trilogy.
Don't you think it defeats the purpose and may make some other people think depression is not that serious?
A lot of the people that dismiss depression do so saying stuff like feel better or get over it which is not cool. I feel just throwing the term out there every time you feel some emptiness is not helpful.
Hasn't happened this year for me despite enjoying quite a few games, but it hit me twice last year almost back to back as well with Horizon Zero Dawn and Persona 5. I'll typically just play multiplayer games during those stretches as they're mindless fun as I don't have to really focus on any kind of narrative and can just go pew pew.
Interestingly, I usually have the opposite. I love seeing endings and the feeling of a good journey ending is one of my very favorite feelings.
