Yes, yes, there are too many video games. We’ve been over this enough times for us all to agree that our favorite hobby is a curse that requires an engagement with infinite experiences while trying to remember the specific city an uninteresting character said they’d be hanging out in. We may be saving the world, but we’re also supposed to talk to a friend of a friend of a guy we went to high school with to get the best sword in the game. And, folks, sometimes those games dogreatwhen tracking all that busywork. Sometimes. And sometimes a quest log will just have a vague sentence referencing a conversation that’s supposed to fill me in on an entire storyline that kicked off hours ago.
So, fine, whatever. I’ll start keeping a gaming journal. I shouldn’thaveto keep a gaming journal. We are nearly a quarter century into the 2000s. That’s wild. And yet way too many games are still terrible at reminding players what happened a few hours ago. True, there are plenty of games that now have story recaps - at certain points - or previously-on-style reviews - at certain points - and even full lore encyclopedias - at certain points. But those still far more like the exception than the rule. Instead, we’re often stuck with in-game journals and quest logs that highlightsomeimportant points but leave outa lot. In-game journals often read more like a to-do list you take when grocery shopping.
And, honestly, fair. The developer shouldn’t have to work under the assumption that I’m going to take a week-long break from a quest to spend time trying to fix my actual mess of a life. I don’t expect every game to be tailored to a man who regularly promises himself he’s going to finishDragon Quest 7one day for real this time. That said, I shouldn’t have to be watching every moment of a 200-hour game like a hawk to be sure that I have a photographic recall of the specific method of gaining a secret stone that’s the only way to achieve the ‘true’ ending. By the way, that last part was an exaggeration, not a thing all of you missed in Dragon Quest 7. Or it is there and I haven’t seen it yet. Huge game.
As someone who - and don’t we all, baby! - struggles with memory and attention issues, it’s so easy for me to miss just one sentence in a game’s conversation and completely lose the thread. For a brief second, I’ll be watching a scene of a game. Then I’ll congratulate myself for watching the scene of the game. And then I’ll consider how in the past it was hard for me to watch a scene of a game. And then I’ll remember a game whose scene I failed to watch. Finally, my attention snaps back to the here and now and I’ve got no goddamn clue what I’m supposed to do or why.
Some games, likePersona, at least let me immediately stop a conversation and check a conversation log. That’s - oh man - that’s the best! So many gaming sessions have been saved by me just being able to read what the hell everyone said rather than reloading an entire sequence just to make sure I got it right. And, even then, I don’t always remember every word of every sentence if I take some time off to play one of the other eight thousand games.
Writing in a journal by hand during these scenes keeps me focused. I have to at the very least concentrate on some level to get the words and summaries down. It’s brute forcing a lack of attention, but at the very least it’s helping me note for both now and later what’s happening. I don’t blank out or absent-mindedly marvel at the game’s graphics. I’m taking down the equivalent of a court transcript so my brain retains at least some semblance of story.
Unfortunately, this all makes my gaming journal less ‘journal’ and more ‘serial killer’s scribbling in Se7en’. In fact, calling it a journal is a little grandiose. I imagine myself on my bed kicking my legs behind myself while I describe how much of a crush I have on Gale inBaldur’s Gate 3. Although that part never really happened because, when I did my BG3 run, Gale was still glitched out to be inconceivably horny. It’s funny to think that one of the greatest games of all time had a bug that made every character ready to get down like it was pon farr season.
Rather, my gaming journal resembles the notes I took in college. Which, again, had a very serial killer element. As much as I’d like to say I’m writing these journals in-character from the perspective of Cloud Strife or something, it’s really an almost line-by-line description of what just happened and what I’ve just been asked to do. Both as a way to remember the specifics of a quest and so when I see some side character ten hours later, I can skim back and remember he’s the douchebag who wanted to open a death trap hotel in Costa del Sol. Sure, I’d recognize what that person looked like, but without these notes, I wouldn’t have as good of a memory of exactly… well, anything else about them.
I don’t mind keeping the journal - and it’s helped. Especially because there’s a certain point at which bothFinal Fantasy 7 RebirthandLike A Dragon: Infinite Wealthhave nearly identical areasfilled with Looney Tunes side quests. It’s useful to be able to review any details. It’s useful to mark the exact point I left one game to play another without needing to go back a couple saves. Especially because these journal entries often do more than remind me - they unlock some stupid memory in my brain of the actual cutscene and what happened in it. This shouldn’t be the case. But when I find myself forgetting why two characters are mad at each other or how exactly a big cutscene ended, I need it.
But it’s frustrating that games still aren’t always great at holding up their end. Especially when some titles likeFinal Fantasy 16- of all games - did it perfectly. Not only could you follow the plot, you could follow the evolution of the characters and their relationships between each other. If you didn’t know who someone was or what just happened, Final Fantasy 16 made it about as easy as possible to remember. Final Fantasy 16! The most ‘yeah, it’s fine’ of the Final Fantasy games. And while I don’t always find guides like that sufficient, I’m definitely glad that more games have the occasional chapter recap.
That all said, these journals are actually helping mefinishgames. If I can reference what I was doing - in my own words and my own handwriting - I can more easily pick up a game months from now rather than giving up or starting an entirely new run. It’s not convenient to stop every scene or two to jot down Kasuga’s thoughts, but it’s even less convenient to rack my brain to remember why we’re mad at this specific gangster. I may not like it - I may find it a little annoying - but I’m keeping games fresh in my mind the only way my brain will let me. And if Idoever get accused of murder, please tell the police that’s all these journals were used for. Thank you.
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth
WHERE TO PLAY
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth continues the story of Ichiban Kasuga, in the ninth mainline entry in the series formerly known as Yakuza. It will once again feature turn-based combat, and takes our protagonist outside of Japan for the first time.
