I still haven't either. That's mostly just thanks to my PS3 controller breaking, but I do think the experience is most powerful the first time.

Still need to pick it up. Just haven't had the $15 extra to spend. Think I might give it a go this weekend.

I played through this a couple of times. Yes it's quite magical and that music score is very emotionally rousing. The sense of isolation and loneliness was well done. But I still found it a tad overhyped. It was good, but not THAT great.

I remember buying this, turning it on and immediately having some goofball running around completing the level. I was on that same stuff the author was on trying to really get into this so called amazing game and it completely ruined it for me. I quit the game, signed out, and got over it as I played through it offline, but I guess I haven't quite forgotten.

Great article! Journey is definitely a one of kind experience.

I had completed Journey about six times on PS3. When it came out for PS4, I was playing it in very short bursts for a couple of days. The last save point I left off at was halfway through the last level (with the snow and wind).
I had stopped there for a few days as I had received a call from my best friends parents saying that I had better get to the hospital. Rob had been fighting esophageal cancer for 5 months but that day they had told him and his family that he had a few weeks left to live. My wife and I rushed to the hospital. He seemed a little depressed but as his best friend of 23 years I was able to distract him a bit with many experiences we had shared together. We laughed and only laughed, no tears.
Two days later he was practically brain dead. He was just a shell, breathing. For nearly a day he lay in his hospital bed, unresponsive. That night he passed away.
I cried for nearly three days straight. My Grandfather, Nonno, had just passed away two months ago, so losing my best friend soon after made feeling better seem somewhat impossible. Then came his funeral and somehow I was able to hold it together for a little bit at least. When we got home, I put on Journey knowing how emotional of a game it is and expecting to fall to pieces all over again. But that's not what happened. Somehow, finishing the game put my mind and heart at ease. I knew that my Nonno and Rob we're going to be ok and so was I. I realized that my pain was because I was being selfish. I wanted them here with me a little longer. It sucks that they are gone. It hurts but a little less each passing day.
We are all on a Journey. Some of us just get there a little sooner.

I don't get the love for Journey from Western audiences.

Why don't you speak about Papo and Yo, a metaphorical journey of a bullied child- even a tiny bit of what you speak about Journey?