text: Hello reddit! I just wanted to share something personal relating to Pokemon games. It turned into a little story so I thought maybe I'd post it on here because it's been weighing heavy on me. I really appreciate anyone who takes the time to read it I was in tears just writing this so, hopefully this story touches someones heart! Some people may not care about Pokemon or video games at all but I think you'll be able to relate in other ways. This is the story of Me, my love, and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky. This is a 100% true story. So let's go back to summer 2015. I was in love with a woman named Jess whom I'd known since college and we were both big Pokemon fans. Once we moved in together, we would wake up on days that we had nothing going on, which was quite often, and play Pokemon games with the tv in the background! We would play for for hours before really getting around to doing anything. It was like our daily ritual! It was 1 of the things early on that really connected us, the love of the Pokemon universe. So, 1 day I tell Jess I'm about to replay Explorers of Sky for the first time in a few years. I'd only ever played through it completely twice, as it wasn't that old of a game yet. To my surprise, she had never played it! She did play the original on GBA however. So I ended up getting it on my PC to play on the TV so she could watch me play and take turns playing and enjoying the story. Over the next few days, it was amazing to see her reaction to all the cute little things and all the great twists and turns of the plot of Explorers of Sky! I think we played it for about 6 hours a day for a week straight. All of the amazing music from the game was probably her favorite part actually. And after we finished, we would still listen to the music through the jukebox occasionally and go back to grind. So teleport us to about 5 months later, she went away to see her family but had to stay there due to her father having a serious health issue. I couldn't be with her for about 3 weeks, including New Years. This was an especially stressful time as I had no idea when she was coming back so it was pretty depressing. But when she was gone, I did another replay of that game to pass the time, and found myself really sad playing it without her. The music honestly hurt to hear. It just wasn't the same! The next winter in late 2016, life was going very well. We had got engaged on Thanksgiving, and 2 days after Christmas we went to get matching tattoos at a friends house. On the way there, out of nowhere, someone hit our car. Yeah, she died instantly, there was absolutely nothing I could do to save her. So it obviously was the worst thing that's ever happened to me. I was alone again on New Years, and all I could think about was the music from Explorers of Sky and it just stung bad. It took me almost all of 2017 to get to a point where I could even smile again. So, the whole reason I'm writing about this is because I was always afraid to play this game again, but I finally did it. My life is pretty good now, I have clean 15 months ago finally, generally am happy, but, if I was ever going to fully move on, I had to play Explorers of Sky again. I was afraid it would be really depressing but, I found myself crying in a good way with the parts relating to Grovyle and going to the future and back especially. Most of all, it was impossible not to let out tears with the Steam Caves, and Treeshroud Forest music playing. That music was just so special to us. Without her, it felt like a million bee stings going into every inch of my body. I never cry, I hadn't since 2021 but yeah, this game did it. I feel like I finally can enjoy what may be the best Pokemon game ever though, certainly one of my favorite video games ever made. I feel like she was with me the whole time I was playing it and from now on I'll always be grateful to have this game to go back and feel that connection with her, even if she's not here anymore. I've never finished playing a game and wanted to write a story about it yet here I am.