At some point, there has been at least one game that you have come to the conclusion that you didn't wish to play any longer for a reason. Even if the game in question was one that you enjoyed playing for extended periods of time throughout various years, one day it all came to an end with you never playing it again.
Story
Childhood
It was the year 2004, three years after the Nintendo Gamecube had been released. By this point, the majority of gamers around the world had already moved on to the more exciting consoles that were available since Nintendo to most felt more childlike, especially the the disappointment from the release of Wind Waker because they were promised something on the lines of Twilight Princess.
Personally I really liked Wind Waker, it was very fun and colorful with a whole ocean to explore, even though I do suffer from Thelasaphobia, which is the fear of the ocean or deep bodies of water, it remains one of my favorite. Regardless more people started to move onto other consoles such as the original Xbox with games like Halo and Play Station 2 with Tony Hawk and other fantastic titles which while a whole year older were some of the best and biggest console releases of all time.
Back then, I was not really a huge gamer; I spent the most of my time just watching cartoons and going outside. When I was a child, I had a very different perspective on life than I have now. I would go play by myself at the park, and when it got late, I would play some games on my GameCube due to the fact that it was one of the few things that I did have, along with a Nintendo Gameboy. Hell, I didn't even listen to music.
I was fine with exploring the worlds of Zelda, Animal Crossing (Original), Super Mario Sunshine, and even Pikmin, while everyone else around me had their start-up computers and Blackberry phones and some of the more recent consoles or should I say the games that took on a more graphically appealing appearance. I was happy.
I sit here now, twenty years later, reflecting back on those days, there is one specific game that comes to me that has left a bad feeling in my stomach. You can call it a coincidence or you can call it anything you want, it's just how it is. The game in general is already a hell of a cursed experience, the fact that the events in the game were so precisely aligned with my actual life was a scary for me when I as a child.
The Game
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
This game was cursed on so many different levels and I feel we can all agree on that as a fact. The moon crashing into the planet in only three days, with seemingly no way to stop it in time, as you travel back in time again and again witnessing so much death and resetting. This game was about the concept of death after all.
This game portrayed a variety of different degrees of fear, such as Ben Drowned or the fact that you are using the dead souls of the masks you get to take on their image, none of these really bothered me that much to be honest, that is until one faithful day.
Why I will never play Majora's Mask again
I had just made my way to the Great Bay Coast. In this location, you meet with one of the unfortunate souls of Terminus, Mikau a lead player in the Zora band floating at the base of the coastline. Link ends up rescuing him and drags him to shore before playing the Song of Healing in which trapping his soul into the Zora's Mask.
The very next scene is what destroyed the game for me even to this day, it produces so much anxiety and dread like a foreboding event. It seems and sounds harmless, but the very fact is that you have a burial for him and his guitar shortly after.
The burial of Mikau & Spiritually my best friend
At the precise moment that I entered this scene my CRT screen flickered as I left it idle, I had just at that moment received a phone call from my grandmother. She informed me that something had occurred earlier that day, involving my best buddy at the time, their dog, which I spent a lot of time with. A Rottweiler had been responsible for ending his life moments earlier.
While I was staring at the screen and letting it all soak in with what just happened, I realized that I could no longer see myself playing the game. A game about death in every corner, a game about not being able to escape this fate, a game to many considered cursed, still holds true to me today.
What's a game you refuse to play for an odd reason?
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