After 11 Years...

[Archem]

September 19th, 1999. I was celebrating my ninth birthday. 98 Degrees was all the rage amongst prepubescent girls. The 9th Final Fantasy game was fast approaching. I can't think of anything else 9-related. This was my best birthday ever. This was the year I got my Nintendo 64. That wasn't all, I got a game that many people call the greatest game ever made, or at least the best game in its series - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Today, I finally completed the game.

Why did it take over a decade to finish this game? Well, I have a few lame excuses. Lets start at the beginning. As a child, I was somewhat timid. The games I played were usually bright, upbeat titles (Kirby, Mario, and the like). This game was different. The colors were much deeper, darker than what I'd become so used to. The creatures were much creepier than any Goomba I'd stomped in the past. The realistic 3D (well, at the time) made it so no amount of imagination could make these beast less imposing. I was terrified by these villains. I was scared away from the game. Eventually, I faced my fears, and advanced. I made it to the third dungeon, and got stuck at the boss.

Skip ahead to 2003. I received a GameCube. Again, something marvelous came with the GameCube - A special disk that included the first two Zelda games, both N64 titles, a 30 minute demo of Wind Waker, a video outlining the story for Wind Waker, and a video detailing the history of the series. To me, this was something amazing. More than just a great collector's edition, it was an incentive to return to the game that stumped me as a youngster. So I played up to where I got stuck before, and I advanced to the adult portion of the game. Then I got Wind Waker.

Delayed.

I came back a few years later, and I made more progress. This was my shortest play, ending after the Forest Temple. I simply couldn't find out how to enter the next temple. So I waited a little longer. I waited until about two weeks ago. Random bullshit always gets me through my obstacles. Always. I stumbled upon the path to success dicking around, and I began to push forward again. I stumbled once for an hour or two, but I wouldn't be stopped now. I'd waited for over a decade to see the ending.

Today, I finally watched the credits roll.

*applause*

Anyways, who here has a story of a game that evaded completion for an unreasonable amount of time? Perhaps you still have games that remain unfinished? I certainly do, but I'd rather not list them. I'll just say that I've got a stack of games taller than me that need to be finished.

[Legacy of Elecrusher]

FF6, because it disappeared from my possession for about 7 years before reappearing in the Advance version. Then I got stuck. A lot. Took me about a year of playing it on and off from when I first started. Was so worth it ;-;

[HackersTotalMassLaser]

Cool story bro.

[fruckert]

To this day I still have not beaten any of the Zelda games, save Wind Waker.
And Phantom Hourglass, if you count it.

[Prpl_Mage]

This reminds me so much of me.

Sometime around 2000, might be 2001, it was about the release of Pokémon Stadium at least. I had 3 games for my N64, since it was kinda late to get one there were little games in stock.
I had this classmate though who lended me Kirby and the crystal shards as well as Zelda: Ocarina of time.

Just like yourself - this game was more mature than most games I'd played, damn I thought Bowser was creepy in Super mario 64, I thought that goddamn fish in super mario bros 3 was the paragon of fear.
I freaked out when I saw the first Baku baba(the plants thingies on the way to the great deku tree), it just popped out of the ground and ate me.
I picked up my shield every time I heard the sound of the spiders. And that part of the great tree where small Gomas are dropping from the ceiling was the part I hated the most.
Then I advanced through the game, thought the scary Lizfos, fought the creepy stalfos.

Anyway - I got all the way to the forest temple as adult. But that place was far too creepy. First you have to get through the maze with the minotaurs, and you can't kill them, they charge at you, you had to be stealthy and stuff.
Then when I finally arrives in the forest temple they have this totally creep music playing over and over. And even some werewolves if I'm not too damaged in the head. Lots of ghosts, wallmasters, twisting corridors, ghost puzzles.
I never found all the poes to open the door and stuff. And then my classmate wanted the game back.

The next time I played Ocarina of time was about 2-3 years later. I borrowed the game from a new friend and played it again. It didn't feel as scary this time, I guess I matured a little.
But coming to the forest temple still brought back some memories. I still don't like the sound of a wallmaster and the growing shadow.
Anyway. I cleared the forest temple, I busted the fire temple and then I got to the water temple. Problem was that I didn't have the Din's Fire item. And that made my life super hard. There is someplace inside the water temple where you have to light some torches, and there's this torch in the middle where they expect you to stand and shoot an arrow through - but there's not enough time. I think the water rose after sometime.

I think I returned the game about the same time I got my GC. Couldn't complete the water temple and all my friends said that I screwed up by not getting Din's Fire.

Some years later, at the release of Windwaker was also the release of Ocarina of time and Master quest.
I borrowed the OoT disc from a buddy and played master quest.
I rolled through all the things I'd done earlier, got Din's Fire, purged the water temple. Got stuck at the shadow temple, but in the end, I finally fought Ganondorf in the tower with the tennis battle. I finally got the light arrow and I finally got to see Ganondorf as Ganon(it was before internet had tons of pics of everything).
I beat him up with my BigGoron Sword and hover boots and enjoyed the ending like a boy.
Great times.

Also, I can probably write a list of all the games I've never completed.

[Bluhman]

Me, I just finish whatever game I'm playing. Except Half-life 2, because... I don't know.

My sister is the king of this, though; She has started, and not finished FF7, FF9, Chrono Cross (Even though she's in the FINAL FREAKIN' DUNGEON), Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, some other game, and Pokemon Yellow.

[Nandez]

I do this sometimes for weeks and months because I love the game and well I get to part were for exmaple in Baldur's Gate 2 I got to a part where I had to choose Viconia or Jaheira well I wanted to both but you couldn't and I didn't wanted to have to go through Baldurs Gate then go through it all over again (it's a long game) just to continue the Viconia romance in Throne Of Bhaal if I chose Jaheira's. I When I was younger the same thing happened to Chrono Trigger one of my all time favorites because you know new systems came out and as a little kid Lavos was just too hard for me to beat. I even did the same thing with Bioshock2 Dragon Age and Fear 2 granted I have finished them all but I would but them aside for a month for one reason or another and just never pick it back up. I did the same with Mass Effect 1 I got to the end then waited a month to finish *though Mass Effect 2 I kept going until it was done Marathon baby!) It's a habit I guess maybe I burst through the beggining mid and get to the end so quick instead of spacing it out?
I'm not sure it is only certain games i've done this with Baldur's Gate 2, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Mass Effect, Assasin's Creed (too boring to ever finish) etc etc etc maybe its easier for me now because games tend to be shorter. Like 4 days at most. Like Bioware games are all pretty long if you do everything in the game.

[A Forgotten Legend]

The first Spyro game for the PS1.  I made it the whole way to the end, and was a challenge away from the final boss.  I had been playing for hours upon hours upon hours.  This was 9 years ago.  I have yet to finish that game.  (Our PS1 broke shortly after and we lost the spyro disk)

[oooog]

I'm going to have to go with Final Fantasy III on this one.  I started this one way back in 98 on the PC, hooray awful fan translations, and got right about to the point of fighting Cloud of Darkness and then quit.  Come 07, I bought the DS remake and was very pleased with it, but once again, got right up to Cloud of Darkness, and quit.  It wasn't particularly difficult, especially with the DS one because I was around level 87, but I just lost interest in the game right then and there and never picked it back up.  Rest assured though, about a month and a half ago I had finally slain both Cloud of Darkness as well as my inability to finish the game.  I had no idea who the hell half the people were in the ending sequence, but the game was completed nonetheless.

[Avnas]

I have numerous games that have either been sitting on my shelf for years that I've never installed/played, or have been 'in the middle of' for years and forgotten about. Notably, Luminous Arc. I don't remember how I got the game, but I lent it to my brother, he completed it, has given it back this year after my insistence, and I still haven't touched it.

Also, Deus Ex. I played it for the first time a few years ago, but quit after Hong Kong. Due to technical issues with my old computer, I had to start all over, but somehow got lost in Liberty Island. I only just started playing it AGAIN a few months ago, and am now up to Vanderberg, but am stuck at a particularly annoying part that I am never in the mood for completing. (I'm pretty sure it's the bit involving reactivating the robots to destroy the other robots, since I somehow messed up and am low on rockets, plus the robots are mostly useless)

[Archem]

Correction: I accidentally typed "2005" instead of "2003" as the year I received a GameCube.

Ocarina of Time is my greatest accomplishment to this day. As explained already, the game has evaded me for many years, and my success is the peak of my gaming career. I feel like a cliché for saying that, but for me, it's definitely something special.

On other games that I never completed, let me speak for a moment of Banjo-Kazooie. The game would have been fine, and I could have beaten it a long time ago. I bought it on the Xbox LIVE Arcade a while back, and I simply couldn't complete the final part of the Gruntilda boss fight. I have 100% of the game completed, not counting that final fight. It still has me stuck. This isn't what kept me away as a child.

Everyone I know who played this game as a kid has been scarred by one thing in Banjo-Kazooie. Myself, my brother, every friend of mine who I shared childhood gaming experiences with, etc. We all have one thing that has tainted our gaming experiences for life. I speak, of course, of Snacker the shark. Sonofabitch frightened us all away from water in games for years. Even today, we're still cautious around deep pools of the wet stuff.

I hate sharks.

[MostEpicSwordy]

Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door. Took me years to finish it. I played straight through a while and always got stuck at a certain bit and came back to it later. I made it close to the end and my young brother deleted the memory card. Made it to the final boss and couldn't beat it. Left it alone, came back to another wiped memory card, played again, and finally beat it. It took years.
Super Mario Sunshine: Have yet to beat due to wiped memory cards (young children playing gamecube is never a good idea) and glitched game discs.

[Darkfox]

Zelda 2 and Fester's Quest

[lilsniffs3]

Kingdom Hearts 2. I got stuck at that one guy with the guitars. About 3 years later I played again and realized every character had limit breaks that you could equip. Beat the game about a few hours after that.

[Prpl_Mage]

Septerra Core. Great PC RPG from 98 or so.

I've played it, got stuck because of the difficulty(and some bugs). My brother finished this game when I was about halfway through. So I know the ending and all that. The longest I got was the final dungeon, problem there is that the team is divided. And one of the 3 groups consist of sucky magic people. And when I was a kid, I usually used magic for healing and used normal attacks for everything else to save the mana.
Either way, I stopped there the first time. After some year/years I found the game again and decided to restart it, it's way more fun than taking off where you last saved.
I played some and computer died.
I got a new computer and after a while I played this game again. Got about halfway again and computer died.
Third time I tried to play it was on a vista. thing was that vista wouldn't play it. Bugged me a lot, I still love the game. Then I did some modifications with the graphic card and it worked. But the save file got bugged.
So I still haven't finished it. But I know all the story since I watched my brother play.

And the second game which falls under the same thingy is Grandia II. I got this for the PC as well since I didn't have a PS2 yet(I think).
I played it pretty much alongside Septerra core, when I was in the mood for RPGs that is.
Great game and all that. But everytime I get far - the computer dies on me and I have to start over. Which is kinda annoying. Great game with books and eggs that teach you skills and abilities and neat storyline(but rather fucked). I watched my brother play longer than me but neither of us have finished it.
Sad thing is that vista won't run it. So I'll never find out.


Oh and by the way. Someone mentioned FF-freaks. Well, in a crowd of 8 people all FF-freaks(although 3 of them started playing at FFX and played backwards with tactics and the classic games) I'm the only one who completed FFXII. They all got bored 1/4 into the game but two of them actually got towards the end and the Rhidona Cataract when they lost interest. All of them have completed FFXIII though.