I still remember the first time I finished Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag like it was yesterday.
I remember how I felt at the beginning… sailing without a destination, fighting, exploring — and singing with the crew.
The crew… my companions. My ship, the Jackdaw.
Was I a good captain to them?
To me, every moment felt precious. I wanted to change the course of the story, to lead everything toward a better ending… a happy one.
I wish I could sit down with them one more time.
Just one more.
One last bottle of rum.
And even today, playing it again, I still feel it.
Not the same as before… but it’s still there.
Thinking about it now, it almost feels warm.
In the end… it’s just a game.
But at the same time, it isn’t.
I got to know those people.
I talked to them. I listened to what they had to say.
I lived through it with them.
For days, they were part of my routine.
It didn’t matter when or where…
they were always there.
Waiting for me to set sail once again.
And after days completely immersed in that world…
it suddenly ended.
No one was there anymore.
Everyone had gone their own way — their own goals, their own dreams.
It felt too soon to say goodbye.
But I didn’t have a choice.
At some point… you have to move on.
But then comes the question:
where to?
I think this happens to anyone who truly gives themselves to a story.
Whether it’s in Persona 4 Golden, when it’s finally time to say goodbye to your friends…
Or in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, where time itself becomes your enemy — and even so, you fight as if there’s no tomorrow.
(because… maybe there isn’t)
In GTA San Andreas or Pokémon, where you spend the entire journey gathering allies…
Or even in something quieter, like Journey… where even emptiness can be missed.
When you play with your heart, any digital world becomes yours.
They become memories.
Experiences.
Things that stay with you.
So… the credits have rolled.
You put the controller down, take a deep breath… and just sit there, staring at the screen, waiting for something more.
But nothing comes.
And now that it’s over… how are you supposed to deal with it?
The truth is, there isn’t a single answer.
Everyone feels it differently.
Some people think about it for days — even months.
Others forget it the very next night.
And some choose to carry it with them.
Because in the end… we do carry it.
Who hasn’t loved a character so much that they started picking up little pieces of them?
A way of speaking… of laughing… even of seeing the world.
We don’t really forget what we lived through.
But we can choose what to do with it.
Instead of just missing it…
we can keep it.
Learn from it.
And move forward a little different than before.
Because in the end…
same things make us laugh, make us cry.
(If you want to feel a bit of that farewell… I recommend watching this final scene.)
