Desert Island games (feat. some of you!)

The title is enough explanation, what game would I bring with me if I had to stay in a deserted island?

All of this under the assumption that all the hardware and peripherals required, magically work for the indefinite amount of time I’ll be stranded in the middle of nowhere. Except for internet.

But well, I just thought that my own answer would be rather boring, so I decided to ask some friends about it! And I’ll also provide my own commentary, if I agree or disagree with their choice, and the like!

As you can see by the word count of this—if you are visiting my website and not just reading via RSS—this ended up being a lot of text!

Feel free to reply with your own picks of course. I personally reached out to the bloggers here, and I don’t plan to add new submissions, but please share your own post, and I will link to it at the end!

The first replies got added first and so on, and hey, there’s a table of contents.

• Jana
• Cory
• Daniel
• Gina
• Ariadne
• OrbitalMartian
• Wouter
• Naty
• Jeremy
• Bojidar
• Brent (TK)
• Alyssa
• Dave
• Amin
• Gabz
• Bobby
• Sotolf
• FlamedFury
• And my choice is…
• Wrapping up

Jana

The quickest reply came from Jana! Who has listed some other games on her site already, in case you want to know more lol. Although there haven’t been many blogposts about gaming itself, maybe that can change sometime soon? 😉

I would pick Cyberpunk 2077.

I’d imagine that on an island I would want to have something to play that can offer a variety of things to potentially do and have a pretty long playtime.

Plus it should be able to effectively immerse myself in a different setting, so I can escape into a different reality, if I feel like it.

All of these things Cyberpunk 2077 accomplishes for me in a way like very little games have before.

I’ll definitely try Cyberpunk at some point during the next 10 years of my life, maybe. I still don’t have a computer powerful enough to play it and all I remember are the early days about how broken it was and such. I imagine it is excellent today, and I’ve heard good things of the Switch 2 port as well, which realistically is the way I may end up playing it, unless the Steam Machine’s price is within my reach, and actually available in Mexican storefronts. But hey the desert island has it all so, no reason to worry.

Cory

Cory rarely writes about games on his site—it ends in .dev for a reason—but I decided to reach out anyway and was surprised to find a game I am very much not familiar with!

If I had to choose, it would be the PS1 version of SaGa Frontier. I got it as an unexpected Christmas gift and it’s the game I’ve single handedly spent the most time with.

It’s an open ended RPG with numerous main characters, overlapping story lines and NPCs. I remain nostalgic about the graphics and have the music burned into my brain. I played through all of the characters’ storylines multiple times, particularly Blue’s (I probably took different paths through Blue’s at least 5 times)

Ain’t it nice when life-changing experiences start with a gift of all things? My PSP surely agrees.

I have never played a game from the SaGa series, I am not sure how much I’d be able to take whatever ancient mechanics it may have, but if I have gone through half of FFVII and all of Soul Reaver, and many older SNES games, it may be worth trying ;)

Daniel

Daniel selfhosts a lot of things, and we’ve been friends for a while, although I often forget his username for some strange reason (I’m sorry)…

My gut reaction was one of two games: Minecraft and Slay the Spire. StS is a deck building roguelike: each round feels unique and exciting; the perfect balance of RNG, meta-progression and difficulty. Daily challenges too ;). Minecraft, of course, is an absolute classic, with so many different ways to play: creative, survival, custom challenges and a crazy modding scene.

Honestly though, Pokémon is where my heart lies. I have been playing it as long as I remember, from Pokémon Black on my 3DS to the amazing variety of romhacks avilable today! Nuzlockes are a great way to ramp up the difficulty (I’m not that great at them xD). The question is… what game? If I could just cheat and say all of them, I would… But my final pick is:

*drum-roll*

Pokémon Unknown.

It’s a hack designed around a randomizer! Like StS, there is a kinda roguelike feel to it, designed for both nuzlocking and challenge. It should keep me occupied for a long time! My only other question is… can I bring my knitting too? :)

No, you can’t.

Seriously though, I gotta admit I didn’t see that coming, definitely an unknown choice! I am sure there are some fans of the franchise very happy to see Pokémon represented here! And it makes so much sense in hindsight, since every single game in the series has countless hours of gameplay and tasks to do, I must say I am tempted to pick one of these too, but we’ll see.

Gina

Gina is often busy helping whole governments move towards FOSS technologies, or doing talks in conventions and the like, but she was kind enough to share her thoughts on the matter:

Good question! And highly relevant since I’ll have to sit on a plane for 30 hours from Amsterdam to Sydney soon 💀 Let’s see. Objectively, as we all know, the best game of all time is The Legend of Zelda; Ocarina of Time. But, I’ve recently started playing that game for the millionth time, so something else would be nice. I could imagine that Powerwash Simulator would be very relaxing, in case I’m panicked about being on a deserted island. But also very boring after a while.

So my answer would probably be the game that I’m currently playing; Hogwart’s Legacy. I never cared much for the movies, but the game has been really fun so far It also helps that my Steam Deck wasn’t saving my game for a while due to my ssd being full, so I basically get to redo at least 5 five levels, yay 🥲

Another good one would have been Read Dead Redemption 2. The only reason I didn’t mention it is because I never finish the missions due to the constant bounties on my head from accidentally killing people with my horse. So yeah, Hogwarts Legacy.

Quite a lot of options mentioned! I never played this one either, I’m completely blind when it comes to Harry Potter. I haven’t tried RDR2 either, but I agree with Ocarina of Time being a great candidate as well.

Ariadne

Despite the focus on productivity of Noisy Deadlines, Ariadne has actually come up with one of the most interesting choices thus far!

Thanks for asking, Joel!

You are welcome! Thanks for replying at all!

For me it would have to be a game that I can replay more than once: I can create different characters each time and the story is not too linear. So that means a role-playing game, preferably in the Dungeons and Dragons world. I’d like a game that I can choose my character’s race, class, appearance, etc, with choices impacting gameplay. The first game that came to mind was the classic Neverwinter Nights, based on the DnD Forgotten Realms setting. I could play this game forever, creating different characters and having different companions to join my party each time. Also, I’d want ALL the expansion packs 😎.

I guess Baldur’s Gate or Dragon Age are tempting choices and would tick all the boxes, but Neverwinter Nights is the one I have the deepest connection to. It’s the game I’ve returned to the most, and I know it would keep me entertained no matter how long I was stranded.

I have never gotten into these type of RPGs! I have heard the whole internet going crazy for Baldur’s Gate 3, but I never heard of Neverwinter Nights before. This one looks extremely interesting, I may look into it but, my backlog hurts.

OrbitalMartian

Even if OrbitalMartian refuses to blog consistently (he’s on a good streak right now, at least), I still wanted to reach out to him and see what kind of game he would bring to the table, I mean, to a desert.

Despite living in orbit, the response came back soon enough! And here’s what the only alien blogger I know had to say:

The game I would bring to a desert island is FlightGear, a difficult choice as I’ve got a fair few games that I’d love to bring but my top one is definitely FlightGear. The question of why is rather simple, but I’ll expand it as much as I can. It’s a flight simulator with a wide variety of aircraft available to fly. Another bonus is that it’s free and open source, and as I try to keep to software that is FLOSS as much as is possible, it’s a perfect fit for me.

With all peripherals and hardware magically working, I would be able to use a HOTAS or yoke and pedals, with no problems. With no network connectivity, there will be no multiplayer functionality but there is always an offline, singleplayer mode that you can enable AI traffic to fly alongside other aircraft. I would also say one of the biggest reasons I’d choose FlightGear would be because I love flying, I’ve never done it in real life but it’s a lot of fun in the simulator.

I should have seen it coming, a Martian who likes flying ships, it’s to closest it gets to his flying saucer orbiting the earth right now, although he could have gone for something related to Star Wars, maybe?

Wouter

Despite my prompt clearly stating that every game system and periferal magically works without any need of electricity, Wouter—who writes about life, gaming, technology and such—decided to limit himself even further—it definitely wasn’t my fault he got it wrong—here’s what he had to say!

If I could bring only one game to a deserted island, it would have to be a handheld game. I don’t think there’s going to be a plug for that TV, meaning we’ll have to stack those AA batteries, grouped by four. Are you getting where I’m getting at? Indeed, the sturdy old Game Boy. It’s solid as a rock and there’ll probably plenty of rock-dropping on that island. Plus, those four AA batteries will last you more than twenty hours. On top of that, it’ll give you an excuse to get out of the sun.

As for the game cart, that’ll have to be the greatest Zelda game ever made: The Legend of Zelda Link’s Awakening. I’m sure many of you will pick some kind of roguelike/lite game to increase the so-called replayability. Well guess what, Link’s Awakening is soothing and I can replay that any time even though I know most dungeons and locations by heart. Plus, I’ll probably also have other responsibilities on that island to ensure my survival, such as fishing (check), taking photos of weirdos (check), conch collecting (check), and finding swords on a beach (check). Good luck with your descend!

Imagine bringing a game about being stranded on a deserted island, while you are stranded on a deserted island. Wouter’s sense of humor never ceases to amaze me!

But, I must admit, it’s an excellent choice! I am yet to complete this game myself, even if I’ve gone through a couple of the dungeons a few times, I always end up a little bit lost.

Naty

Naty is a great friend who writes about her blogging workflow and plenty of tech shenanigans, and she doesn’t have a lot of time for gaming nowadays. I was still curious to know her answer to this question, and after reaching out, she ended up with probably the most obscure game of them all!

Given a desert‑island scenario, I’d probably escape reality by revisiting fond childhood memories by playing a rather obscure, Japan‑only release, PlayStation 1 game (I didn’t realize it was obscure until now) called Hermie Hopperhead: Scrap Panic, released in 1995. Oh, how I love the OG grey PlayStation from back then.

Hermie is the game’s protagonist with funky, spiky red hair. The basic gist of this 2D side‑scroller is you collect stars for points and squash enemies by jumping on them. You collect “helper pets” that follow you; they hatch from eggs and are upgraded with points at the end of rounds. Pets have two modes: follow (they just trail Hermie) and release (they act independently to attack enemies; but they won’t avoid hazards, so they can all fall off cliffs if you’re not careful).

The OST is the biggest draw for me—it might feel repetitive to some (many tracks are instrumental variations on the same tune), but the slight jazz vibe is catchy and fun. I listened to it so much as a kid that the tunes still take me back to a happy place. The graphics, especially the multi-layer parallax scrolling and highly detailed sprites were exceptional I thought. Later in the game, there’s even a steampunk robot twist which is graphically appealing. I loved the aesthetics then and still do!

Another reason it’s perfect for a desert island: the game’s reputation for being overly difficult means it’ll probably take ages to beat. I don’t remember if I ever finished it as a kid… but I don’t mind games that need a slow grind, so that’s fine by me.

I literally have no words, I don’t know this game at all, but hey, now we do!

Jeremy

JP barely writes, but when he does, it’s often about software, gaming and tech. He gave another rather lenghty reply this time around, what will it be I wonder? it’s answered in the first paragraph and it’s something you already know, why am I trying to build up the suspense in the first place?

If I’m allowed one game to bring to a desert island, I’d have to pick Cyberpunk 2077. There are some games I enjoy more, but Cyberpunk has a little bit of everything I like in a game.

My favorite games do a good job of pacing out all the action with memorable narrative scenes. When a game has the right balance it’s just really difficult to put down. Cyberpunk is one of those games that I find to be really well paced, enough so that I’m usually looking forward to the next boss battle just as much as the next big narrative moment.

But there’s also a ton of variety in Cyberpunk 2077, which is the biggest reason I would pick it over other favorites like, say, something from the Half-Life series. If I have only one game to play, I know I could pretty easily get at least a few hundred more hours out of Cyberpunk between experimenting with different character builds and hunting down all the side content.

Then the cherry on top would have to be how much fun it is to just explore Cyberpunk’s world. Night City, despite some flaws, is still one of the best depictions of a sprawling futuristic city that I’ve seen in a game. It’s a lot of fun to drive around, but when you get out and just explore on foot there are lots of little world building details sprinkled around everywhere that would otherwise be really easy to miss. I love stuff like that.

So even though there are other titles that would be stronger contenders for my absolute favorite, Cyberpunk 2077 is still somewhere in my top 5 games list and is the one game I would pick to bring to a desert island.

There were a few more things said this time around, in case you wanted more reasons to try this game.

Bojidar

Certain bloggers have trouble understading what “a couple of paragraphs” means, especially for a collab post where everyone deserves time to shine. Such is the case with Bojidar, who seems to have lackluster reading comprehension overall, even if his writing is pretty alright…

Based on the theme of survival on a desert island, my thoughts immediatelly drifts to Lucky Castaway stranded with a Slot Machine, but… I realize it won’t be the most practical game to bring with me.

If I’m going for practicality, on a desert island I care about two things: meeting basic survival needs food and water, and communicating with the wider world. As Joel, in a rare skit of benevolence, stated that all hardware magically works, I would extend that to all network hardware and similar.
For communicating with the wider world, a massively multiplayer game sounds like the way to go.

Internet, does, not, work, sigh.

MMORPG sounds fun; I used to play Albion Online some years back, but I’ve been thinking of trying out Guild Wars 2 if I ever get back into MMORPGs. As long as there is a large enough playerbase, I imagine I can send messages in chat until I catch the attention of a person who can help coordinate my timely rescue.

There, is, no, escapeeee…

As for food and water… some amount of research along the lines of “food dispensing videogame arcade”, I managed to find the one and only, unique, revolutionary, visionary, SNACKADE. It’s a video game arcade which dispenses snacks whenever you collect them in-game. Sadly, from the scant information available, it seems SNACKADE only exists as a prototype and was never deployed for real—but I would count that as part of the “all hardware magically working” deal.

What in the world is this?

But all that talk of practicality makes me think of the practicality of being on a desert island in the first place. After all, the question is about a game I would rather bring with me, not a game I would rather be stranded with. And if I go to a desert island in a bid to get away from civilization… I think I would want a game which I can truly be away from civilization with. For years. Something I can invest decades in, and still find new things to discover and do; without having to resort to one-hitpoint speedruns.

And I have just a game for this:

Luanti née Minetest. A voxel game (I love those!) of infinite, procedurally-generated worlds (space to explore!) and emergent gameplay (things to learn!), with incredible moddability (infinite content for ages, bound only by my creativity!), courtesy of both its Lua support and open-source C++ codebase.
Just… in the spirit of defining the game I play, I think I would like say that I’m playing “contributor of Luanti content” so I can get Joel to throw in a free internet connection for uploading the occasional mod to ContentDB. Hey—it’s a multiplayer game, alright?

THERE IS NO INTERNET AAAAAAA.

Brent (TK)

Breathe in… and out…

Okay, so, I also asked Brent from Taming Knots—a blog about technology, Linux and videogames!—to participate on this, and he kindly provided me another very long essay—okay, maybe I am terrible at giving instructions—with a game that doesn’t need internet this time… I think.

The ever-classic “What would you bring to a desert island?” question is one I have never had an easy time answering. I am pragmatic to a fault and so if I am ever faced with this question, my mind immediately jumps to all of the surrounding questions about the practicality of such an endeavor. A “desert” island implies a small enough island as to never receive a meaningful amount of fresh water, with no trees or other natural resources to sustain oneself, yet there must be a structure of some kind, even if it is simply a television plugged into the sand in order for the thought experiment to work. My concern, then, is less about the video game itself, and more about what video game would offer the most benefit practically to me in that situation. Entertainment is important, of course, but survival is paramount. The question becomes “What game can offer me the best chance of survival?”

Interesting twist but definitely not what I asked?

Unless, of course, the starvation and slow death is a part of the entire point. With no resources and no hope of rescue, the only solace you have left is a game. The ultimate art form of distraction and time-wasting, now there to help you forget your empty stomach and cracked lips. The question then becomes “What game do I want to die with?”

Here’s another question that I did not ask…

Then, the question becomes less about the practicality of everything. You get the asker to make concessions: “yes, you have food, water and shelter,” “no there’s no hope of rescue,” “yes there are natural resources to build things out of,” “no there is no electricity other than what is needed to run the game,” on and on. The problem becomes one of context and holding something to a high pedestal. But a perfect game doesn’t exist. Nothing will be good forever. There is no Citizen Kane of anything. Even Citizen Kane isn’t Citizen Kane forever and without context. The question becomes “What is the perfect game?”

Some people just can’t help but overthink things huh.

None of these questions have an answer. Not a good one. Not a satisfying one. In a way, that’s the point. There is no world in which someone doesn’t come to regret their choice eventually. Even if they could look at all of the parallel realities and determine that, yes, this game would give them the most enjoyment out of any option. There is no better one. Eventually they will come to resent the game. Hate the game. Discard it. It’s a symbol of how you can never pick the right thing. Never pick the perfect thing. The question itself becomes torture for the soul.

Dark Cloud 2

Well, look at that, another rather obscure game! Never played it myself but I’m always up for an RPG developed by Level-5.

Not much else to add!

Alyssa

I found Alyssa’s blog during Blaugust and have been following her posts since then!

Her taste in gaming very much aligns with mine! So I decided to reach out to her and see what she had to say about this question.

This is a tough one to consider! I thought about choosing Koudelka or Resident Evil 2 Remake, two of my favorite games that I’ve spent a lot of time mastering. But upon reflecting further, I’ve decided I’d rather choose a game I haven’t yet mastered, one that still has much to offer me in terms of both gameplay and lore, and that’s Elden Ring.

I’ve completed Elden Ring’s main campaign with three characters, but there is still so much to mine from it, including the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, which I haven’t finished. If I’m going to be stuck on a desert island, I want a game that’s full of possibilities to explore. Elden Ring provides seemingly countless ways to build a character, along with interesting challenges like staying at level 1 throughout the game or defeating each region’s bosses using a different weapon. Something else I’d like to do is fully make use of all the summons, which I haven’t spent enough time getting to know. Elden Ring still has plenty of secrets to uncover within its vast and intriguing world, so it’s sure to hold my attention throughout those long desert-island days.

I have heard so much about Elden Ring in Into The Aether and from multiple people, it’s one of those games that was destined to become an all time great the moment it came out. I definitely look forward to playing it someday, it feels like the moment I start it on a whim, I’ll get completely hooked on for a couple weeks straight. And much like I’ve done with Silksong, I’ll procrastinate reaching the ending for no reason at all!

Dave

Okay, so Dave—a self proclaimed “fake gamer” documenting his journey procrastinating making his own tabletop RPG—was kind of enough to write something here, which is finally of a good length, yay!

Were I to be stuck on a desert island and had to choose one game to bring along with, the decision would be tough.

Having ADHD I tend to bounce between games depending on my mood. Currently I have roughly twenty games “In flight”. But, the one game I always come back to is The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt.

Some context. I stopped gaming in my late teens at the end of the 20th century. I did not restart until the Steam Deck came out, and the first game I played all the way through on that was The Witcher III. The story was top notch, and the open world left much to be explored.

I love that game, and will never tire of it, despite seeing many shiny objects to distract me.

I have always heard of this game, but I haven’t played it either. Given its size and the amount of story and quests on it, it’s a great pick for this situation.

Buckle up, the next one is long…

Amin

This guy is purposefully trying to troll me, as punishment, I won’t link to his blog.

My first thought when asked what game I should have on a desert island is that the primary concern is replayability. And, as luck would have it, I’m very much into roguelites. One top pick would be Astral Ascent, which has a great story, fantastic art, and lots of difficulty levels and variations, as well the new Outer Reaches DLC, which about doubles the size of the game’s world. The other game that tops my list is Noita, which I’ve gotten into recently, as it seems to be essentially endless in terms of gameplay variations, even apparently having alternate realities.

Another route would be a sandbox game, of which the archetypal example is Minecraft; my own pick, however, would be Kerbal Space Program. I haven’t played in a while, but the possibilities are endless and it’s a fantastic game to keep my intellectual side active.

That said, KSP is a little compute-hungry, which made me think of power requirements… Do we have a power outlet on this island, or is it just a “last hurrah” of gaming before the battery on the handheld or laptop or phone runs out? That very much changes the proposition.

Again, everything but the internet magically works.

Knowing that Joel has not thought this through nearly as far as me, I have to assume that power is provided, as he surely did not consider it being absent. Therefore, we can assume one power outlet on our desert island. Perhaps solar powered, with a battery backup? We found the parts to build a PC and solar system in boxes that floated to shore! How fortuitous.

Stop this at once.

Okay, but what if someone answered with a game that requires internet access? Would Joel strike that down? If not, that also presumes we have internet access. How we managed that on a deserted island, I know not, but I’ll take it. I’ll answer with some random MMO (maybe Veloren? I’ve had fun with that) and use it to call for help. If I can get anyone to believe me, in a game’s chatroom.

I already said the internet. doesn’t. work.

If I told Joel this idea, he would surely forbid it. (messages joel) Okay yeah, internet is officially forbidden.

I had told you this from the very beginning.

Since technology level is now apparently part of the deal here, I have to assume that electricity would be unrealistic, too. I’d probably just be given a handhold or laptop and whatever battery power it has left.

ELECTRICITY IS FINE.

In this case, you might think I would optimize my choice by power consumption, to maximize playing time, but I have a different tack.

My final answer: I request a deck of playing cards and a flat surface.

I have a feeling that Bojidar and Amin are very good friends.

Gabz

A bit of a last second request, but I also got Gabz to participate on this! Let’s see what happens…

I feel like I am going to cheat my way to this one, in a way, because I have two possible ones; two amazing picks.

No cheating, you’ll have to pick in the end…

Pokémon Crystal Legacy and Ghost of Tsushima. These two are by far my most-played games. 

Pokémon Crystal is a familiar dish that you keep coming back to when you need a taste of something simple, nostalgic, and satisfying. Ghost is just an amazingly beautiful-looking game. The best way I can describe it is like a playable painting or a piece of poetry.

I’ve heard great things of Ghosts of Tsushima as well, not that I have a system that can even play it like it deserves, same situation as Cyberpunk 2077…

If I had to pick just one of the two as my desert island game, yikes, I gotta go with Pokémon Crystal. Although Ghost is arguably the better game, Crystal offers more replayability as each run can be different; and it’s cozy.

Okay, I think that’s it, although I’ll be ruminating about this decision all day and argue with myself lol

Don’t worry Gabz, the interesting thing is that this makes for the second apparition of the Pokémon franchise, it is the best-selling videogame series for a reason, I guess.

Bobby

I love Bobby’s website! He often writes about his life as a teacher, but also shares a lot of his thoughts about games on his Credit Feed posts, which I try to never miss.

Anyway, he was pretty enthusiastic about the idea of getting stranded with nothing but games to survive, which is a little worrisome, but alas, here’s what he said:

Solitude. Yes please. And I get a game to play too? Sweet. A few games come to mind, but there can only be one. Should I take the game that brings comfort or the one I could git gud at with my free time? As much as I would love to play the same loop of some shmup, like Crimzon Clover World EXplosion, until I had the top score, I think I’ll take the first game that came to mind.

A short, comforting adventure. One where I could stroll through different biomes and encounter exotic fauna while listening to relaxing music. One where the protaganist and I share the same predicament: that wonderful feeling of isolation… Super Metroid is my desert island game.

Would you look at that, the first (and only? maybe?) Metroidvania that made it to the list! And it is the epitome of the genre that came out back in the SNES days!

That is one absolutely goated choice, and I completely approve of it.

Sotolf

This Sotolf guy can be quite a pain sometimes, but he’s a good fellow, I like to think, and I love his blog! Rather odd and grumpy sometimes but he does his best.

But well, as I say, a pain, who keeps trying to get away with more than one game and stuff.

So, I’ll try to keep to the premise of the question, and not just say a PC, because there is so much other things that i can do on the PC, and just pretend that the game is all that I get. So here we go:

The peripherals. don’t. matter. You can have a PC with just one game installed on it…

When faced with a question like this it’s so easy for me to just say my favourite game, Tetris, but I would think the stay would be rather long, and as much as I love Tetris it’s not really something that would hold for a long time.

You never know, but I agree to be honest, I would prefer to go with Lumines myself.

I’m leaning more towards a big RPG like Persona 5, which also has enough RNG stuff that it will be playable for a while, since I think I would be alone on the island, the social aspects of the games would also probably be a salve on the soul.

Now if I do have access to books to keep myself sane as well my answer would probably be different, and I would go for Siralim: Ultimate there is a bit of a recency bias there since it’s a game that I’m currently playing. It has a lot of procedural generation, and just a ton of fun stuff to do, and just fun to experiment with different monster teams, occupations, interact with the different systems, it’s just a really fun game to tinker with, and something that hopefully would keep me occupied until rescue arrives :)

So there you go, one AAA game and an indie, probably leaning towards the latter personally.

Umm, well, I didn’t mention books in any capacity so I guess I am kinda confused…

I’ll say you picked Siralim Ultimate and call it a day. No double picks! I haven’t heard of that one that much so, it’s a very interesting choice!

FlamedFury

Okay so, there was some miscommunication on my part once again but I will let this one slide…

If I was stranded on a desert island and had to take one game with me that would just magically work it would be World Of Warcraft (lol). While I love video games, and the idea of playing and finishing video games, I’m just not a gamer like that. I would describe my self as a WoW player who also likes video games on the side. After playing WoW for almost 20 years - it’s just so natural to me and doesn’t take any mental power for me to pick up and carry on where I last left off - which I value at this point in my life.

To be fair my WoW cycle these days is: New expansion > level up > Clear new raid > Complete new Mythic+ season > break until next patch.

I always intend to play other games in between but life happens, lol

Obviously, fLaMEd’s—who literally writes about every possible interest and has way too many pages on his blog—made a choice that required internet, however, I did fail to mention the caveat to him on a timely manner which definitely wasn’t the case in previous answers. I felt a little guilty because of this, but in the end he gave me another answer!

EDIT: So just after I passed this back to Joel he informed me that I can’t have internet - lame! And while it all remains true my second game would be Pokemon FireRed on my Miyoo Mini. I imagine if I was on a desert island with not much else to do except make sure I have food, water, and shelter I’d finally finish my play through ;)

So yeah, Pokémon, is definitely a winner, with three people going for those games, gotta respect that!

And my choice is…

If you know me, you probably think you already know my answer, it might seem clear as day given my username, of all things. It makes a lot of sense, I kind of want to choose it because it’s so easy and, and perfectly valid, generally speaking…

But, I don’t think I would choose Chrono Trigger.

As much as I love it, and as much as I’d like to get all the endings and play in New Game+ and know all of its secrets, I just don’t think it’s a game long enough to hold me for an undetermined period of time.

It would have to be something longer, and something I’m not very familiar with, but with gameplay that I know will be enjoyable for me. Something I can replay multiple times with harder difficulties as well.

I thought about some games frome the Monster Hunter series. I have 400+ hours in Freedom Unite, so maybe something like Generations Ultimate could be a nice change of pace that sticks with the traditional combat I prefer, while featuring enough modern quality of life changes, or I could go with Rise+Sunbreak which I love, even if it’s too easy in the low rank.

But it can’t be something that holds my attention with pure gameplay mechanics, I need a story, and more openness, maybe something like Breath of the Wild, with its DLC and all the time to spare, could offer me hundreds of hour of exploration and gameplay. But the theme of the story and the decay of its world may hit a little too close to home given the situation, which would be the same reason Minecraft is out of the question too.

Besides, I need a story that can actually rival with Chrono Trigger, with characters I am invested in, emotional stories, plot twists and subverted expectations, something that the silent and muted vibes of BOTW doesn’t quite provide.

At the same time I need to be able to stop and focus on my survival at any needed point, and to be able to jump back in and out without losing the thread of what’s going on, as gaming is not all I would have to do in an island if I want to live.

So, yes, to me, the one game that hits the mark, would have to be:

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition.

Long, full of story, full of great gameplay, exploration, collectibles, easy to jump in and out of, simply perfect for something like this, I think. 😁

Wrapping up

There were a couple of other people I reached out to, but they didn’t have time, and even though I pushed the deadline like two weeks due to my own procrastination, I guess some people procrastinate even more than me.

In any case, if I reached out to you and you want to provide me with your response, feel free! I’ll update this post as soon as possible.

Also, if you were too lazy to read all of that, here’s the list of games!

• Jana - Cyberpunk 2077
• Cory - SaGa Frontier
• Daniel - Pokémon Unknown
• Gina - Hogwarts Legacy
• Ariadne - Neverwinter Nights
• OrbitalMartian - FlightGear
• Wouter - The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
• Naty - Hermie Hopperhead: Scrap Panic
• Jeremy - Cyberpunk 2077
• Bojidar- Luanti
• Brent (TK) - Dark Cloud 2
• Alyssa - Elden Ring
• Dave - The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
• Amin - A deck of cards
• Gabz - Pokémon Crystal Legacy
• Bobby - Super Metroid
• Sotolf - Siralim Ultimate
• FlamedFury - Pokémon FireRed
• Me - Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition

And once again, if you make your own post with this theme, feel free to share me the link and I’ll add it here anyway!

This was quite the overwhelming endeavor, I am really thankful if you made it to the end and read all the commentary and answers given throughout the whole thing!

I hope you have a wonderful day! And thanks to all of those who decided to participate and provide me with answers, except for you Amin, you are truly evil…

Until later!