Gaming Withdrawal & Final Fantasy XVI

The age-old irony of finally being able to afford video games and consoles (well…barely these days) and not having the time to enjoy them has finally claimed its next victim: me.

I think that when adults say this, most often think about it in terms of simply not having enough time: having a full-time job, taking care of kids, extra jobs, maintaining relationships etc. However, for me, this was also brought on simply by being mentally exhausted. On weekdays, I would go to my dead-end job, come home, study on evenings for my degree, go to sleep and repeat. On weekends, I’d usually commit to playing a game from my backlog. I’d start up my PS5/Xbox/Switch, scroll endlessly through my home screen only to put the console to sleep and put the controller down followed by a mind numbing binge session of something I’d seen 100 times on Netflix.

For me, this is something I started noticing around 2022 or 2023. I’m not entirely sure what changed, particularly as I enjoyed a run of amazing games in 2020 and 2021 (Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Ghosts of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part 2 & Resident Evil Village are standouts here), but it’s persisted ever since.

The strange part was that my love for gaming as a medium never actually faded. It was just my desire to play. I still followed news, watched reviews, Digital Foundry technical breakdowns, 2 hour retrospectives and even made several day one purchases. But when it came time to play, I’d start the game, spend a few minutes with it, and then stop.

Every now and then, there’d be an exception. Case in point, I finished this year’s Resident Evil Requiem about a week after purchasing it on release. It was an amazing game that I enjoyed from start to finish despite some very tense and some drawn out sections (some bits of Raccoon city overstayed their welcome for me). At some point I intend to write about my time with that game here. But, moments like that were rare.

Part of the inspiration for starting this blog was to try and rekindle that lost connection, to actually enjoy playing games again, rather than just thinking about them.

So about a month ago, I decided to just pick something out of my backlog. Final Fantasy XVI stood out to me immediately. I’d been anticipating it ever since its reveal during the 2020 PS5 Showcase (feels like decades ago now), and I even purchased it on release. Like many others, I started a save file…and never made it past the opening hour, tutorial sequence included.

This time, I made the conscious effort to restart the game and give it a proper go. I’m happy to say that I’ve finally made it past the game’s prologue, and after a few flashy boss encounters, I’m actually enjoying where the game is heading.

I’m not sure if it means I’m “fully” back yet. Maybe it’s too early to say. But for the first time in a while, I’m actually sitting down and enjoying playing a game rather than just thinking about it.

And maybe, that’s enough for a start.

Expect my impressions on Final Fantasy XVI in the coming weeks.