You've summed up my feelings toward the game better than I ever could, even the part about only playing it once which I could never really explain before.
I don't want to get off topic, but there are only two other games I've played that have had that sort of emotional impact on me, To the Moon[1] and Gone Home[2]. In the case of Gone Home in particular, the impact was such that I actually felt a good deal of sadness at knowing that most of the people I know will never experience the story and message of that game, and I wound up buying it for two of my friends.
It's taken me a great deal of time and a large amount of consideration to distill my feelings about journey into language that well-enough eloquates how I felt playing it. At the end of the game, I truly felt like I had had a transformative experience. I would be embarrassed of it if it wasn't so true.
In regards to gone home, I really really wanted to like that game. I wanted it to be more. Not gameplay wise, but in what it aspired to tell us about the human experience. The resolution of the story felt so cheap and derivative, I could barely believe it was the same game that I had been playing up to that point, with its multifacted characters and spotlight on the ennui of the American family. The end just felt like a lazy wrap up of an ABC Family movie, and it was so disappointing it poisoned the entire game for me.
I don't want to get off topic, but there are only two other games I've played that have had that sort of emotional impact on me, To the Moon[1] and Gone Home[2]. In the case of Gone Home in particular, the impact was such that I actually felt a good deal of sadness at knowing that most of the people I know will never experience the story and message of that game, and I wound up buying it for two of my friends.
[1] http://freebirdgames.com/to_the_moon/
[2] http://thefullbrightcompany.com/gonehome/