My favorite games of 2018

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! Today is Christmas, and to celebrate, I thought I'd talk about my favorite games of the year. A lot of cool games came out this year, and while I wouldn't rate this year as highly as 2015 or 2017 in terms of awesome games, it was still a good year, and I wanna talk about my favorites that came out this year

Now a few things to clarify before we start. First off, there will be 11 entries, and it's not really a top ten list, since a game I may consider my favorite today may not be next week. I'm just talking about what games came out this year that I'm grateful for

Second, I don't need to have actually played the game for it to be on this list. Thing is I'm poor, so I don't have as many opportunities to play new games as others. But just cause I didn't play a game, doesn't mean I can't be grateful that it exists. I'll put an (hp) next to the titles of the ones I haven't played so we're all clear.

And finally, the 4 games in the banner are my honorable mentions. I'm mostly glad they came out for other people, as opposed to myself. So, with that out of the way, let's talk about the games I'm most grateful for that came out in 2018, in no particular order. Let's start off with...

God of War (hp)

Truth be told, I've never much cared for the God of War series. The first one looks like it has a good story, but I've played two and it was boring to me, and I haven't heard great things about the story. It sounded like a bunch of games that were made because the first was popular and made with no substance.

But I don't get that feeling from this one. Many people have praised this game for its narrative of all things, not only the relationship between Kratos and the boy, but also other characters in the game. Such as a pair of blacksmith brothers who don't talk to eachother anymore and you can help them resolve their pain with each other. 

And it's little story bits like that which gives me hope that it'll be good. I've also heard there are some cool mechanics around the axe, so that's nice

Omensight

Omensight was a great hidden gem I found this year and I thoroughly enjoyed most of it. It's set in a fantasy world were human-animals are waging war against each other, and someone killed the goddless priests, who was the one person who could stop the apocalypse. Oops You play as the Harbinger, who has one day to figure out who killed her, but in a groundhog day loop.

For the most part, this game is excellent. You play as a cool, blue ghost-warrior lady, combat is excellent, and you spend each day with one of four companions, a bear berserker, a cat general, a rogue/bard mouse or the bird emperor to who each have a piece of the puzzle for the way to stop the apocalypse from happening.

Honestly, the only things I didn't like about this game were that falling in a hole kills you (I'm too used to Zelda and Warframe where you only take a bit of damage and pop back out) and the ending is... Complicated, we'll say. Though I shouldn't be surprised, since people who worked on this also worked on Planescape: Torrment. So I guess it's kind of expected. Still, the game is mostly excellent, and I do recommend it

 Soul Cailbur 6(hp)

I don't like fighting games, like at all. But there are 2 exceptions to that rule; and the first is Soul Calibur 2. I loved that game so, so much I bought the other games. But GEEEEEEZ, was that a mistake!

Soul Calibur 3 had this unique conquest mode, but the combat was busted, it was too easy to get ringed out, and all the voice actors sound like complete amateurs, despite being the same voice cast from the last game and they were superb there! And 4, 5 and Broken Destiny on the PSP (yes, I bought that) were better(?) but not by much

Honestly, I have no idea if this one will be good either, but a lot of people thought it was good. I saw so many people showing off their cool characters, and how creative they could get was inspiring. Plus there are 2 single player modes, apparently, so I guess I can be foolish of more time and hope for something good from this game.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

Now this is how you make a spiritual successor! While we wait for Ritual of the Night, we got this 8-bit styled game similar to the Castlevania games on the NES. The main difference being I could play this one!

This game takes the best elements from the old Castlevania games and improve them to make a truly great experience. Aside from the particularly obvious multiple characters and paths, this game has unique lanterns for the subweapons, so you won't accidentally screw yourself out of an item you need unless you aren't paying attention

Level design is incredibly good here, too. I never felt like I was unable to beat the game because I lost a character that I needed to progress. While secret paths need certain characters, the main path's obstacles can be overcome by any character. That does make it easier than the other games, but it also makes it better, in my opinion, since the difficulty is more customizable

And honestly, if you want to play those tough 8-bit games but are too afraid they'll kick your butt, this is a great game to get your feet wet in

The Messenger (hp)

Like Curse of the Moon is a spiritual succesor to the old Castlevania games, so is this to the Ninja Gaiden games for the NES. Which is cool, because I love Ninja Gaiden! Couldn't get half pasted any Castlevania, but made it to the final boss of Ninja Gaiden multiple times. Go figure

But this game is on this list less for the game itself and more so the developers, who kind of impressed me.

Here's the thing, the early copies of this game had a "did you assume my gender joke" which at best is tacky and at worst is genuinely anti-trans, which isn't cool at all. However, when someone pointed out the offensiveness of the joke, the dev team removed it. And that just seems crazy to me. You'd expect them to die on that hill and say "why can't you take a joke?" But instead they apologized and removed the offensive content. Good on them!

Now, I've heard there's still a Jordan Peterson reference in there somewhere, which is still cringe, but honestly I wanna give credit where credit is due. So good on you, Sabotage Studio, for not being Self-Sabotage Studio. I'm still a little wary, but I commend you for doing the right thing.

Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle (hp)

So remember when I said I've only ever really loved 2 fighting games (aside Smash cause it IS a fighting game)? Well, the other one is BlazBlue, and it came out with a really solid game this year. True, I've only played the demo, but it was a ton of fun from what I did play!

What really strikes me about this game is that it was made so that people new to fighting games could pick it up and play, so there are really only 2 main attack buttons, with the other two face buttons being partner buttons. And honestly, I think they nailed it. As someone who isn't good at fighters, it was so super easy to understand and play as the new characters. 

I'm super excited to play the full game for this one. Plus, BlazBlue has a better track record for me than Soul Calibur, so I have good odds here.

Sonic Mania Plus

On the one hand, I'm not sure if I should include DLC in a "best games" roundup, but on the other hand, it turned Sonic Mania from one of my least favorite Sonic games into one that was actually fun... Well, sometimes.

The Encore mode was a great addition, giving you plenty of options to get through certain challenges that some characters were better at then others, while also not having full access to every character. It was kind of like a more restrictive Bloodstained party, and it was a ton of fun.

And turns out after years of hearing the Sonic community wanting Mighty back and me not getting why, turns out he's my favorite character! Yeah, he's a ton of fun! Plus I had a few world records with him back when it first came out. They're likely swept away by now, but it's nice that I had them, you know?

Honestly, all this game needs is a playable girl character and the pre-order trailer music to be found somewhere in the game, and it'll be... Much better. Ok, I still can't get over some of the bad design in the game, but it's still better than before, so props on that! 

Octopath Traveler (hp)

It's strange that Square can't understand how badly so many people just want straightforward, turn-based RPG combat. Action RPG stuff is great too, but more of this would be so very welcomed. The main sticking point I hear is the stories aren't that original, but I'm okay with that. The world is beautiful enough and indeed, so is combat! Especially the break system

My OCD brain that loves elements and loves to recognize patterns is so very, very thrilled with the break system; six weapons (sword, dagger, bow, axe, spear, and staff) and six magical elements (fire, ice, lightning, air, dark, light) each enemy is weak to something; keep pelting them with their weakness until they become super vulnerable. It's so great.

AND. THE. MUSIC. MMMMMMM! I want a switch so bad, and this is gonna be one of the first games I get for it

... Right after Snipperclips. Priorities. 

The Missing: J.J. MacField
and the Island of Memories (hp)

Last game I haven't played! Woot! So this little gem is about a girl looking for her friend on the island of memories, and the only way for her to find her is to be torn apart, quite literally. You tear yourself apart and use your body parts to solve puzzles, and even go down to just a head to fit into narrow corridors.

At first  I was going to chalk this up as one of those games I'd find cool but wouldn't recommend to anyone after I played it, but then I learned it has a lot of positive LGBT+ themes in it, and I went to check what LGBT+ folx think of it (one group in particular, while trying not to spoil) and most of them found it rather positive! 

So, yeah, positive queer characters in video games and metaphors as mechanics? Sounds right up my ally, and I am very grateful this game came out.

Deltarune

Dang it, Toby! What were you thinking, making this game free?! I had planned to spend Halloween night, my favorite night of the year, alone in my room crying, but instead you gave me this magical adventure that moved me to tears, but of the happy variety! How could you do this to me!

But in all seriousness, Deltarune is fantastic. What I thought was going to be an hour long demo turned into a few hours of a whimsical adventure that felt just like my first time through Undertale. While I don't think it's combat is as puzzle oriented as Undertale's, but otherwise it's a worthy follow up. 

The story of Kris, Susie and Ralsei is full of laughter, danger, heart warming fun, twists, turns, tragedy and a promise for more of the Undertale world in the future. If you ask me, this was a K.rounding success 

CrossCode

And at last, my last favorite game of the year, CrossCode. It's a game that fills me happiness each time I play it. From the wonderful controls, to the platforming, to the characters to the music, to the world design, I truly love everything I've see so far about this game

I haven't beaten it yet, unfortunately, and that's the main reason I'm not doing a top 10 list, since I wouldn't feel right about putting a game I haven't finished at the top of the list. But still, it's a great game, and one I throughly enjoy and am grateful to have.

And that's it! Thanks for spending this time with me. If you have any games you were grateful for this year, feel free to share them with me. I'd love to know! Thank you so much for reading, and until next time, take care 💜

Twilight Princess without Gravity pt02

First post || Next Part

An epiphany came to me as I was watching this video on the Oracle games. At about the halfway point, KingK says that certain games in the series have mixed priorities, name checking Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker and Skyward Sword. So while they're still good, they aren't as strong as others. In contrast, he name checks three games that knew exactly what they wanted to be, and set out to do that. Those three games were Majora's Mask, Breath of the Wild, and naturally, Twilight Princess.

And while I understand where he's coming from, I gotta say I completely disagree.

Since this is a study about Twilight Princess, I'll go ahead and repeat what he says about it here, beginning at 22:40. *ahem*

"Twilight Princess was an epic adventure. Everything in it was in service to this goal; the blinding linearity, the epic set-pieces. While it might not be what everyone wanted from Zelda, it was clear that Twilight Princess wanted to be something.

"Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, Link's Awakening, Breath of the Wild, Oracle of Ages. These are the Zelda games. The ones that forego any sense of tradition, that ignore any need to conform, and just roll with some crazy idea or concept.

"It could come with unintended consequences, like the lack of satisfying puzzles in Breath of the Wild or the backtracking in Majora's Mask, but the unique good outweighs the typical bad in a way other Zelda games don't quite manage."

The thing is, those games he said aren't formulaic, are. In everything else he's correct, but they are still formulaic, because adding that to what KingK said is basically how Nintendo makes games.

I honestly have a lot of baggage when it comes to Nintendo as a company. At one point they were my favorite, but now? Not so much. I'm going to stick to what's relevant for this study though and just say this; Nintendo doesn't care about making a new game unless they can do something unique with it. Sometimes this works out like with Breath of the Wild or the Wii or the Switch. Other times it means the degradation of the Paper Mario series, not seeing a new F-Zero game in 15 years or having unique things shoved into Star Fox games when they probably should be made more traditionally.

Like most companies, Nintendo is severally out of touch and it has had an effect on its games. I would say out of any of their series, the main Mario series, Kirby and Zelda fair the best in Nintendo's want to make unique things. Because yes, every Zelda game has its own unique feature that distinguishes it from all the other Zelda games because Nintendo know what it wants Zelda to be.

But that focus doesn't mean Nintendo doesn't have blindspots, and that's where those unintended consequences come in.

Basically what I'm saying is this; every Zelda game is good and unique, but also tragically flawed, and the enjoyment you get out of them will be how much the unique good outweighs the typical bad. And I can think of no finer Zelda to showcase this then Twilight Princess.

Because make no mistake─Twilight Princess is an excellent game and at its best moments it feels like completely its own thing, like no other Zelda game, or even any other game, feels like. But at its worst it feels like it was made by machines with no love or tenderness poured into it.

But we'll get to that when we get to that. At the very least, most of today will be about the unique good, because we'll be talking about Wolf Link!

When we last left off, Link's friends had been kidnapped, the forest near Link's home shrouded in darkness, a creature pulled him into the darkness and it caused him to transform into a wolf and pass out.

Now we've woken up, and we're inside a prison cell! You get a few moments to move about, try to escape yourself, but to no avail. But after a few seconds Link notices that someone is in the cell with them, and when they turn to look, they see... this... face.

Theydies and gentlethems, I present to you one of the best
characters in any game ever.

A strange little imp creature proclaims that she "found you!" The imp starts to belittle and taunt Link, but also frees Link from their imprisonment. This is a great introduction to this character; she's both playful and domineering, mocking Link any chance she gets, but also pointing out how Link owes her for getting them out of that cell, a debt she plans to keep you accountable for.

She also sets herself apart by, well, not being very helpful. Whereas Navi would tell you things straight out, or Talt would question how you could not know something before telling you, half the time Midna won't tell you something you directly ask her. One of the first objects you encounter is a chain hanging from the ceiling with a ring at its end. Minda says, and I quote "Try pressing L. After that... Well, you'll figure it out."

She does the same thing in the next room. You see a small, green, floating fire and she tells you to hit X to "see something interesting." Rather then tell you what you need to know, she lets you figure it out on your own. It both reinforces the fact that she sees you as a tool, a means to an end, while also letting the player figure things out for themselves.

And honestly, I just love this part of the game. You just saw your friends carried off into the darkness by monsters, you have no idea if they're safe or what happened to your town, and now you're trapped in a dungeon, without any idea of where you are, and the only character you can rely on is completely unhelpful. It's just a terrific part of the game that adds a lot of suspense and intrigue to the suspense and intrigue we already hand, and without going overboard on it. It's well set up.

Still, describing this point in the game as "being thrown into a dungeon without knowing anything and the only character you can talk to is completely unhelpful" can probably describe about 80% or so of all RPGs out there. Oblvion comes to mind, since Patrick Stewart tells you basically nothing before he kicks the bucket. Curse you, Patrick Stewert! For not telling me a bloody thing yet still being such a wonderful and charming actor! How dare you!

Oh, right. That green ball of fire? It was a ghost. Because you're a wolf now, you have enhanced senses, and while the ghost can't see you, you can hear what he's saying. Our imp friend is helpful for once, telling us this and that we can see more weird stuff with our super senses.

This part is actually quite great since by answering a gameplay question, i.e. what is that green ball of fire, you find yourself with more narrative questions. Where are you? Why is a solder's spirit here? Why is he so frazzled? Something clearly happened, but what is it? Giving the player questions but answering another question is top notch writing, and I commend the designers for this.

Now let's talk about Wolf Link. And to be blunt, your initial impression of him is just amazing! They're just a ton of fun to play! Movement in Twilight Princess is serviceable, but it never feels quite as fun as it did in Wind Waker or even Ocarina. But Wolf Link is different. They're faster than normal Link, while not incorporating any stupid movement gimmick, so it feels natural and fun to move around! Wolf Link honestly feels like a new transformation mask from Majora's Mask, and it totally rules!

As for battle, Wolf Link is a little wild but not so much so to be distracting. In all honesty, in ways it's a lot more fun to fight in wolf mode. One of the reasons is novelty. I mean, in 99% of games you play as a bipedal humanoid, so it's nice to get something different. But also, the animations on Wolf Link are just killer!

Next time you play or watch someone else play look at the way Wolf Link bites into rats, and then throws them away. Look how when they climb up on a platform they use their hind legs to help get themselves up. Look at the way they move at different walking/running speeds. It's all fantastic.

And to top all that off, your imp friend has fantastic animations, too! Reacting to everything Link does, trying to keep balance and occasionally relaxing on her wolf mount. It's sooooooo good!

Then there's the platforming, my glob, the platforming! After missing a jump in a spiral stairwell inside a tower, the imp tells you she'll point out all the places to jump. Just target her and press A. Now what could have just been on rails jumping is, again, animated so well that it feels alive. You quickly jump from spot to spot, and the little sound effects make each new jump feel so good. I so badly wish I had a give to show you it.

So let's recap; we got a good fast movement speed, attacks are wild but fun to pull off, you get to play as a non-humanoid, the animations just knock it out of the park and a unique form a platforming that feels good to pull off even though the skill threshold is very low level. It's all so good and we aren't even done yet! We haven't talked about the super attack or the fact that they've got BEAN FEET!

And as the final cherry on top of everything else... I got a blue rupee! That's worth 5 rupees! That's nice!

There is, sadly, a lot wrong with Wolf Link's gameplay, but for what it's worth they've got some solid fundamentals going on here, and that's pretty awesome.

There's also some cool map design here. There's a sluice puzzle where you have to open two gates to make the water go in and then back out. But here's the thing, you can't reach the second gate until you hit the first, and when you do get to it, it has an NPC next to it. That's a cool way to show that you didn't wind up back at the first gate again. It's smart design.

Ok, we're finally out of the dungeon and onto the roof of some... place. It looks like a castle. And in fact, another spirit guard says it is, in fact, Hyrule Castle! Woah! That feels big.

Also, now that we're outside, why don't we talk about this world's dark zone, the Twilight Realm. Inside the dungeon you can't really tell you're in another realm that well, other than these cool, floating, black squares that rise up from the ground. Though now that you're outside, you can see clearly how everything just looks off, and this is done through smart use of colors!

The sky in the twilight realm is bright orange with yellow clouds. This is already cool not only because most dark worlds don't look like this, giving it that unique flair, but also because it evokes feelings of twilight, as it should. The ground is also this pale, sickly off-green color to help differentiate it from the sky. This is unique since green and orange aren't usually colors that fit well together, but they looks amazing here. It's just a shame that the game already over-saturates itself with orange, so the Twilight Realm doesn't stand out as much as it should.

I stand by what I said about Columbia being the primer
water-waster of fictional video game cities

I said it last time too, but it really would have behooved the game more if it saved orange for special occasions, like Final Fantasy X did with water. Making the main character's home town water themed, besaid being a watery island, Sin being a creature that travels in and attack cities by the water. Water is used incredibly well in FFX, and I wish Twilight Princess would have taken a page from its book.

This roof section also acts as a bit of a hidden tutorial. The only enemies here are these flying bird things, but the only way to hit them is with your lunge attack. Small problem; the lunge attack can launch you right off of the roof and into the bottomless void if you aren't careful. So you either have to learn how to run away, or use your lunge without hurting yourself. So the game is teaching you how to fight enemies, how Wolf Link's combat skills work, and to pay attention to your enviorment, all without a single word. It's freaking brilliant.

Finally you get inside and meet a mysterious fig─It's Princess Zelda. Yeah, it really isn't that mysterious, honestly. But she does immediately say the Imp's name is Midna, so at least we know that now.


 Again Midna shows her domineering side by, instead of explaining what's going on herself, gets Zelda to do it by saying it's all her fault, even calling her "Twilight Princess" in a mocking manner, since the kingdom is now covered in the Twilight Realm. It seemed a little forced when I first played it, like "we did it, guys! we put the title in! Woot!" But it's actually a very smart line in retrospect.

Zelda explains that the story Rusl told you at the beginning of the game with twilight beings in another world was true! And now their king has come to Hyrule to claim it as his own.

 Zant, the king of twilight, is an effective villain. This first scene with him establishes that he is a force to be reckoned with, capturing Hyrule castle for himself, and bathing the land in darkness. Now every person from Hyrule in the Twilight Realm have transformed into spirits, like the soldiers we saw before, unaware that they have transformed at all.

The cloaked Zelda then reveals herself to be Zelda! What a shock! Zelda then mentions that the shadow beasts are searching everywhere for Midna, though Midna denies knowing why. With that, we're told we must leave quickly before the guards that keep Zelda prisoner arrive.

After leaving, Midna returns Link to where they first entered the Twilight, back at the spring in Ordon. But then reminds Link of the captured kids. Thing is the only way through the curtain of Twilight is with the help of a creature of darkness, like Midna. And she'd be willing to help, of course, so long as Link promises to be her servant.

Her first command is to get a sword and shield for her, and fortunately Ordon village will have those. Only... You're still a wolf, and the village was just attacked by monsters. So Link's wolf form probably won't be welcomed there.

Or at least, not by the humans. After taking out some bandits that are lingering about, a Squirrel informs you that you should try talking to the animals if you need help. Considering you smell like the Ordon trees, most of them will be inclined to trust you.

Now you're in Ordon village, and you have to sneak about to get find information on and eventually get a sword and shield. That's right, it's a stealth mission! But truth be told, it's a good one. Like mentioned before, Twilight Princess is incredibly linear, and while that hurts it in some places, here it's welcomed because it won't randomly fail you because the game feels like it.

Heck, there's only one real sneaking part right at the beginning where the Mayor is talking with another villager about how Rusl was hurt in the attack, so he'll take that villager's shield and the sword they were going to present to the royal family to find the kids. If you do get too close and get spotted, they run away, but just walk over the nearby bridge and they respawn. You don't even have to reload the area. That's super cool.

Actually, I think this is a good spot to talk about the theme of Twilight Princess. Whether Nintendo was aware of what they did or not, I don't know, but there is a consistent theme going throughout this entire game; the story of Twilight Princess is not the story of another Link, but the story of every citizen in Hyrule.

Your return to the village is just one example, as you get to hear how all the citizens react to the attack on the village and the kidnapping of the children. The only people in the village who aren't children is Link and Fado, and all the rest are their parents. Seeing how badly they don't want to just sit around and actively find their children is a nice touch. And this kind of thing happens all throughout the game.

You meet so many people with more worries then for Link to stop Zant. The villagers want their kids back, there's a researcher is looking for legendary city in the sky, there's barkeep who just wants to help people! It helps form a real, tangible Hyrule. One you can actually get lost in. And not just because Hyrule Field is freaking huge!

And it's not just the people, the places you go have such a rich history, including the dungeons! From Arbitor's ground, an abandoned prison in the desert to The Goron Mines that actually feel like a place that people mine in. The places you go feel like they're actual, functional places and not just nebulous places of worship to store one of eight magic thingies.

Heck, the Ice Temple is just a couple's house & you need their help to get through it! That's a twofer!

I admit it's not as expansive or as deep as I'd like it to be, but it's also not hollow, and there are a quite a incredibly special people, places and moments this game has to offer.

So we know where to find a sword and shield, but as we get close to the shield's house, one of the children's father spots us and he calls upon the hawk from before to attack! He's not that hard to dispatch, but I really like this moment, too. It shows that even though this guy's an NPC without class levels, he's still willing to fight in anyway he can to rescue his kid (even if he's attack the wrong person). Also on the day you were walking about the town, he talked about hawk grass, so it makes sense that he fights in this way. 

Also as soon as you're attacked, the cat you got the fish for earlier will tell you how to defeat him, and if you call the hawk by howling near the grass he'll apologies for attacking you, he's just duty bound to obey anyone who calls on him. It's all around a nice scene.

So you get the shield, Rusl we see a scene with Rusl, showing he's patrolling the area. Sneak around him without getting too close to him or his wife and you can dig into his house to get the sword. Now we can return to the Twilight and save the kids! Maybe. But now we head back to the forest, but on the way, we're called back to the spring.

But just as we draw close, a magical gate seals us inside, and one of Zant's shadow beasts emerge from the portal the Bulblin King opened earlier.

This is a fairly effect fight, teaching you how to deal with these things, especially since this is the only time you fight them one on one. From here on out, they come in groups.

Dispatch the shadow beast and the voice will reveal itself as Ordona, one of four light spirits entrusted by the gods to protect hyrule from the Twilight Realm. Turns out Zant's plan is to have his shadow beasts weaken and steal the light from the four beings so that the Twilight Realm can spread across the land, allowing him to rule all of Hyrule, and eventually cover the entire world in darkness. And now Link must retrieve the light of the three fallen spirits to restore the land. Why Link? Well, it doesn't really say ever as far as I know, but I think it's because Link has the Triforce of Courage in him already. That's why he turned into a wolf instead of a ghost like everyone else.

So now we gotta restore the light spirit in the woods. Also, if we restore it, it will be able to return us to human form, so that's neat. I guess it's on to Faron woods then and the... ugh. Bug hunting quest -_-

So once you reach the curtain of twilight Midna pulls you back in. There's a quick scene here with Midna, where she explains she needs you to gather some things fro her after you restore the light spirit. You walk forward a bit and more shadow beasts arrive. Three of them this time. And Midna is her usual helpful self and just bails on you as soon as the fight starts. Nice.

Kill the off the beasts and you'll discover when only one of them are left, they revive their fallen brethren. Go back up to Midna and she gives Wolf Link a new upgrade! Hold down the B button until a large circle comes out and covers all the enemies, Link will preform quick dashes through all the enemies, and prevent the last one from reviving anyone, too. Not only is this a cool attack, but it also is one of Link's strongest attacks in the game. I do have a huge problem with it, though, but that can wait. Just remember this scene for much, much later. Because believe me, I'm going to come back to it.

I do quite like these fights with the shadow beasts, though. While the first few dark beast fights are just standard to get you used to fighting them, they eventually become puzzles where you need to figure out how to kill the last two at the same time. It's pretty neat.

But let's stop stalling. Get to the spring with the weakened spirit, and it'll give you the Vessel of Light to return its power to it. So how do you return the spirit's power? A fight with a boss? A cool dungeon full of traps and puzzles? What creative way have the designers come up with for the reoccurring main mission quest?! BUG HUNTING! Yeah. Bug hunting.

You gotta find all of these bugs scattered throughout the forest, retrieve the light they've stolen, and when you get 16 of them, the land returns to normal. Woot.



While the animation on both the bugs and the light they release really good, this part is incredibly boring. It's just so... underwhelming. All you're doing is busy work, especially this first bug hunt. I'll give the dev team credit that each hunt feels different, for example this is the only time all the bugs are on a linear track, making it another stealth tutorial for the bugs. That still makes it feel like more busy work, and I just want to get back to playing as normal Link at this point and tackle my first dungeon. At least it's short because this slow start is really, really wearing out its welcome. I swear, if this had been a single mini-quest longer I would have lost my mind.

This part coulda been great, but instead it's just crappier Skulltula hunting. So not only is it a excellent idea with lousy execution, but it's also an homage to Ocarina of Time! Take 2 shots!

I will give this part this, though; it is fun to see the forest area in Twilight, and seeing all the enemies you fought before as their dark world counterparts, so that's cool. And part of the forest is covered in a poisonous fog now, so you needa Midna jump over it. Pretty sweet.

So we finally save the light spirit Faron, and he's so pleased with us that he even gives us new clothes! And they look awesome! I've always loved the crawdad jammies that Wind Waker Link has at the beginning of the game, but these may be my favorite of Link's outfits. It has so many cool little details, from the chainmain under shirt to show how Link can withstand attacks, to the arm bracers that protect their hands while fighting, the little poaches on their back to show some of the extra ways they store items and even to the soft, white undershirt under chainmail. I love this outfit so much. It's a perfect blend of classic styling and modern sensibilities. 


Faron tells you that turning into a wolf proves you have the power of the chosen one within you (oh, I guess they do mention it!) and that you must now find the temple deep within the woods and retrieve the dark power resting inside it. Normally that spirits would rather it stay locked away, but in order to fight Zant, we'll need to match his dark powers with dark powers of our own

And funnily enough, Midna's heading the same way we are. How curious.

I think that about wraps it up for this issue. Join us next time when we visit our first dungeon, talk about monkeys, meet a Link from the past and discuss the pros and cons of the combat of Twilight Princess.

Like I was going to leave this part out

Thank you so much for reading, and until next time, take care 💜

Part 01 || Part 02 || Part 03

Bioshock Infinite Without Gravity pt.01

When you review a piece of art, what is the purpose of doing so? It seems like these days a lot of people try to "win" against it, picking apart plot holes or things that don't make sense, to come out as superior, either to the art in question or to others who didn't pick up on what they did.

But how does that serve the art? How does that serve other people? I don't think it does, and that's what I want to do.

In this series as I talk about different games, I don't want to focus on plot holes or inaccuracies for the sake of yucks or to appear smarter than I am. I want to ask two questions; what is this game trying to do, how well does it do it and what can be done to make the message stronger?

I hope you join me in my studies of games, where I'll talk a lot about games, a little about life, and all of it with a passion to elevate the medium so that nothing can hold it back, not even gravity.

I gotta be honest, I wasn't expecting to cover this game so soon. Because my sibling and I are on the same page in that we utterly hate it. So I thought it could be like a big event or something, ya know? Like "wow, I've been doing this for a year now. To celebrate let's talk about one of  the most problematic games I've ever seen."

I didn't expect this to be the second game/article in the "Without Gravity" series, but here we are.

But you know what? Maybe this is a good thing. Yeah, I'll take this opportunity to make the best of it. And since I know I'm going to hate it the more I play, I'm going to try focusing on all the good bits I can find before I utterly collapse into a pile of rage and madness. So, on we go!

So Bioshock Infinite is the 3rd Bioshock game, which was developed by Irrational Games and often seen as "being made" by Ken Levine. You know, in the same way games are "made" by one person. He was the creative designer for the first Bioshock, and is also well known for his work on Thief: The Dark Project and System Shock 2, which is basically the precursor to the Bioshock games.

I'm playing the Xbox 360 edition of Infinte, and I haven't played much of Bioshock 1 except for the demo, and I haven't played any of the other shock games, so we're going to be taking this mostly on its own merits, but I'll make comparisons where I can, alrighty?

The intro's rather fun, but it's a bit much to take in the first time. The game starts with three people in a boat; a man rowing (voiced by Oliver Vaquer), a woman (Jennifer Hale) and the player character, Booker DeWitt (Troy Baker ). The two NPCs have some playful banter I heard this time around, but every other time I was trying to get my bearings, so I couldn't really appreciate anything they were saying.

Still the location is nice, and its significance is not lost on me. It's a lighthouse like in Bioshock 1, but instead of a plane crash, here there's just a storm. Both are meant to give you a form of anxiety, that "outside" the lighthouse is peirlous, and you need to get inside asap.

It's nothing stellar, but it starts out promising before throwing it all away from some of the idiotic decisions I've ever seen in my life I hate this game so much why am I playing it right now?!

WE. ARE. BEING. POSITIVE. FOCUS. ON. THE. GAME.

*ahem* Moving on... 

As soon as we enter we're greeted with religious imagery, which will be a recurring motif of this story going forward. There's also a basin where you can get a look at DeWitt, where he then looks at the above sign and says "good luck with that." This gives us, literally and figuratively our first look at our main character, and it's worth keeping in mind as we go forward.

Speaking of going forward, moving up the lighthouse there's little of note other than more religious imagery and a dead body meant to shock the player, but I'll get into that in a while when we talk about shock tactics.

There's also... What I hesitate to call a puzzle, but I'll get back to that too.

So I know the thing you get in to get to Rapture was called a bathosphere, but I couldn't find the name of this flying totally-not-a-bathosphere, so I'll call it... a T-Nab. Yeah. So where as your decent with the bathosphere was calming and you were distracted by a in-swim movie, here you get forcibly strapped into a rickety death chamber which an ominous countdown starting as soon as you enter. I feel like whoever built this thing needs to visit a PR department

But once you're actually in the sky, you get your first look at Columbia, and it looks pretty nice and is again a contrast to Rapture. Where as your first viewing there was Andrew Ryan basically flexing his muscles humble bragging, here you get a sense of beauty and peace, like you really have arrived in heaven. It also sets it apart from the decaying and ruined Rapture. We can clearly see that Columbia is still alive and active.

This tour also serves as effective propaganda, as you're shown a large picture of the prophet and leader of the city, Zachary Hale Comstock (Kiff VandenHeuvel), and brought down to see even more relgious quotes and imagery. And another contrast to Rapture, where you arrived at basically an undersea airport, here the T-Nab lands inside of a church, right in front of this image to greet you

The people here are very religious, if you
hadn't caught on yet

Columbia wastes more water than Zanarkand

As you explore the church you begin to realize that... Ok, hold on. Who lit all these candles? Like, seriously! There's hundreds of them! There are half a dozen rooms in this church, and they all have at least 3 dozen candles each! And I wouldn't harp on that except the floor is covered in water! And it's not even a design flaw, like there's just a leak that no one's bothered to fix! Oh, no. You enter the church next to the fountain that just pours water all over everything!

How? How is this a thing?! Why is it a thing?! Who lights all these candles? How do they do it? Do they use vigors, the magic power in this game? I doubt it considering the only people we see use the fire vigor is... Not well. And why on the ground in water? I mean someone's going to fall at one point or kids will run up the aisle and splash 30 candles out at once, and whoever's job it is to light these things will question why they have to light all these damn candles all the damn time and─

FORGET. THE. CANDLES. FOCUS. ON. THE. GAME.

Eventually you find the entrance to the city, but you can only enter if you get baptized first. This is significant for 2 reasons; first it hints that this religion is pretty big in the city, since you can't enter without becoming a member first. It's also significant because we learn much later that one of the most significant moments in Booker's life was when he refused to be baptized, which was part of the reason he said "good luck with that" earlier. It's pretty good foreshadowing honestly.

It's just a shame literally everything I've spoken about up until now probably should have been cut.

After Booker wakes up from the priest nearly drowning him, we wake up to see more religious propaganda, but this time it's statues of the founding fathers, but BUFF! This is a much better opening scene, but first I needa talk about some real stuff

This game uses a lot of racist imagery in this game, and that presents a huge problem. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's bad to use it if you're going to talk about issues involving racism, which this game tries to do. But Satire is dead, and some of the imagery created for this game was used by real racists to further their racist agendas. Fox News used the logo and switched the words out to say "defend the homeland" and another image with the words "it is our holy duty to defend against the foreign hordes" was used on the homepage of an actual, literal white nationalist hate group.

When creating propaganda for your universe you need to be extra careful not to give real racists ammo, and that's why I can't get behind the explicitly racist stuff. The buff founding fathers, on the other hand, are a much better use of in-universe propaganda that aren't really problematic, or at the very least don't create new problems.

Why? Well, to explain that, we need to go back to what I said about the intro and how we could have scrapped basically everything thus far. Why? Well, that's actually one of the reasons; we aren't told why. Or what. Or who. Or when, and only kind of where. You're just some guy in the ocean who doesn't help with the rowing during a freaking storm going to a lighthouse for reasons even he doesn't seem to know!

Then the game just assaults you with religious propaganda, a stupid bell "puzzle" watery floors and... ugh... candles... It's just too much, man. It's a lot to take in all at once and you're not given a foot hold in any of it, so it kinda goes in one ear and out the other.

But that's why the buff founding fathers are actually so good here. The shot with you staring up at them with the sun behind them should have been one of the opening shots, if not the opening shot. And that's because if you grew up in America, you know who these people are, and you recognize exactly what's going on here; these people are mixing patriotic imagery with religious imagery.

Thing is these guys ain't just buff; they're heavenly. The sun is shining down from behind them, they're draped in flowing robes, and each on of them are holding out different items, almost as if they're offering you gifts of divine favor. This image alone tells you everything you need to know about Columbia.

And let's talk about the items they're handing you, from left to right it's a key, a sword and a scroll. I don't recall them meaning really anything in the grand scheme of things, but let's pretend they matter for a bit.

Now the first time the player is going to see these items is from the stupid bell mini-game right before entering the T-Nab. Introducing them here is dumb because the player still doesn't have a grasp on anything, and also the puzzle itself is stupid. I mean, it outright tells you the answer, doesn't keep the items in the same order as the buff founding fathers, and is so forgettable you probably didn't even remember it before I started saying how stupid it was.

The bells mean nothing to the player, which is why introducing them here is pointless and bad. But with the buff founding father, it's juxtaposing the alien imagery with familiar imagery; namely the founding fathers. You still don't know what it means, but you know it means something. And that familiarity with who these people are along with the unknown items should make you curious about what the symbols do mean.

And this is even further shown by the statues being made of stone, while the items are made of the strongest metal known; bronze!

... Yeah, that was a long way to go for a Clones of Bruce Lee joke...

So with all that said, why not just open here? Start with a pseudo-dream sequence with the two boat folx telling Booker "go to monument island, get the girl and the debt will be cleared." You don't even know that much by this point, so it would have been a much stronger, quicker opening.

I mean, ok, you lose the going up to the lighthouse, but that wasn't really needed, and you could have had the dream sequence at the light house (like much later). And yes, the game does give a note that tells DeWitt to get the girl to clear away the debt, but it was a single note made by someone I don't know to someone I don't know because I didn't even know I was DeWitt by that point!

Ok, with that out of the way, the majority of this opening is actually pretty spectacular. You walk through a beautiful garden before you open a door, and there you get your first glimpse of Columbia! ... for the second time!

 

We... We just did this. Not 5 minutes ago. Did you think I forgot?

Another reason that the beginning part of this story should have been cut is that seeing the propaganda poster and the stain glass window of our antagonist, Comstock, wasn't as strong as this is.

Check it out; the main point of focus when you open the door is that statue. And as you approach it, you get to see how freaking HUGE it is. It's bloody massive, with you being about the same size as its shoe. And when you approach it, you can hear a nearby civilian say "I dunno if this is as sick-azz-nasty as the real Comstock"

... Ok, they actually say it fails to capture his divinity, but still, that's a way better villain introduction than *points finger at picture below this text* THIS

Anyway, the itself city looks really, really good. The city itself is brown and white, there are plants everywhere giving it shades of green, and all of this is complimented by the blue sky with the occasional white cloud. The warm city colors contrast really well against the cool nature colors, and it gives the city overall a balanced, comforting feel.

There's a lot of background chatter, too. And while I won't go over pretty much any of it, it's still welcomed because pretty much everything said will be relevant later on in the game. You can over hear people talking about the Vox, how the city works, someone even mentions lady Comstock. If you keep your ears open, you might learn something cool ahead of time. There are also a ton of posters and other images that are important to the plot and the lives of the loquacious citizenry.

Then there's falling to your death, too! It's actually handled rather well. You don't take damage from falling off the edge of the world, and you instantly respawn where you just were within a split second. Not only is this great since enemies knocking you off the world won't be a problem when/if it happens, but it's also just fun to jump off for a lark!

After about 10 minutes of walking around I eventually see a huge angel. It;s Monument Island, which only now the game tells me is where I need to go. But as Booker looks at it, a kid walks up to him and gives him a telegram, which is basically a creepy message warning him of danger. Weird.

Soon after that you find yourself at a carnival. Here, you see a man talking to a crowd about an amazing new product, Vigors! Vigor are the stand-ins for Plasmids in this game, which if you don't know give people magic powers but prolonged use drives folx insane.

Generally people consider Vigors to be a plot hole. Like, why doesn't everyone use them like in Rapture? Why do only a few enemies use them. Well, apparently I was the only one paying attention here in class, because I can tell ya; they're new. 

Again, it's a contrast to Rapture. Where as there we saw the worst possible result of the society that got super powers through drugs, here we're seeing the snake-oil salesmen pitch to the populace that it's real. Heck, the reason they're giving some away for free is so that they can prove they're selling more than snake-oil to begin with!

I do have a problem with them, though, and it involves this carnival bit. For the most part, I love this part because it's a carnival that has stuff to do, and those things you do help you get better at the game, such as the shooting gallery, since you haven't fought with a gun yet. It gives you a safe environment to try it out.

Employee: Hey, chief? Do you really think it's okay to just give
away mind control powers to anyone who walks by?

Boss: Eh, what's the worst that could happen?

But then there's the game with the Cast out the Devil game, where you're given a temporary vigor! Yeah. It gives you Bucking Bronco, which the man helpfully informs you that "whether you need it lifted, lofted, tossed or tumbled, Bucking Bronco is just the ticket!” during the mini-game. But when you leave, it's just gone. How?! Why?! And if they can give out temporary vigors, then why on earth do the give you permanent mind-controlling power?! Ok, yeah, they advertise it as technopathy, but still, the vending machines in town sell upgrades that allow you to brainwash people, so I still politely offer a huge WTF to whoever came up with this marketing gimmick. How'd they even set up vending machines with Vigors that quickly?

Also, it's here at the fair that I notice that, like, every single person in the entire city wears a hat. I don't think it means anything, especially since there are a few exceptions like the sales ladies but still... It's creepy. Seriously. 99% of the people here wear hats.

But, hey, as long as we're talking about Vigors, I really love the game's magic UI! So like most games you have a set amount of energy (salts) you can expend to cast Vigors. But what's cool is that the UI changes slightly for each Vigor. Look at the picture to the side here; the both the upper and lower image have the same max salts, but because the Vigor on top costs more to cast, it only has two sections, whereas the lower one has 5.

You can also tell that the colors are slightly different, with both ends having a light blue color. This is to show that section doesn't have enough salts to cast, whether because it's not full (top image) or it is full but the section itself doesn't have enough for another casting (bottom image).

This is really smart design because you can tell at a glance how many times you can cast each Vigor and since gaining salts doesn't always restore a full charge, you need to be deliberate with each spell you cast. And what ties this whole thing together is the Vigors are actually really good. If you know how to use them properly, once cast can completely change the tide of the battle.

There are some issues with Vigors later on, most notably that they don't have enough variance, but if nothing else the foundation they're built on is solid, and it makes for a satisfying magic system

I trust you guys because you don't wear hats

And it's at this point you meet the Lutece Twins. We don't get much with them yet, just a game of heads or tails, but if you were paying attention on the boat, then you'll probably notice that these two sound exactly the same as the people who brought you here.

Now I don't like this game, mostly at all, but I have to admit that the Lutece Twins are great characters, and deserved a much better game. Which is why I'm officially giving them my stamp of "You Are WAAAAAAAAAAAY Too Good For This Game" award! Congrats

So you maaaaay have noticed at this point that this intro is incredibly slow and very little action has happened. But you know what? I stand by what I said with Twilight Princess; slow intros are good. It's taking its time, and while not a lot happens, it is setting up things in the background, so it ain't wasted

"Woah, I can't wait to ride the most disappointing boss battle ever!"
... You know what? Songbird gets a "too good for this game stamp," too

Another thing to bring up is that the way this town is set up is very, well, artificial. I've been walking in a straight line this entire time, and only once or twice did I see an alternate route, and one of them had a roadblock at the time. Heck, after a while even the propaganda posters start to look more like advertisements for new attractions than anything else.

But, honestly, it's good design. I mean, yeah, if feels like I'm walking through a town as real as Disneyland's Main St, but that's kinda the point. It's a town built by and for rich people. It's supposed to look nice, not be efficient.

Anyway, I keep walking down the street, and eventually I come across a sign that says "you will know the false shepard by his markl." ... Oh, sorry, "mark." Font problems aside, as soon as Booker sees the poster, he raises up his hand and says "what the?" So cool, now we know that Booker has the mark, and he has no idea why. It's a good little moment, made more significant because the poster is in the middle of the road under an archway, so it's cloaked in the shadows with two lit sconces on either side. It has a very foreboding feel to it all and is a nice set up to a mystery. I don't think the payoff is good, but the set up is nice.

Oh, dear, we're finally here, aren't we? The raffle. *deep breaths* Okay. Let's talk about this scene, and the use of racism in Bioshock Infinite.

You arrive at the raffle, hosted by local businessman Jeremiah Fink (Bill Lobley), participate and draw the exact ball you were told not to get in the telegram, #77. And then, all of a sudden the current on the stage opens and, well, this happen;

"Are you going to throw it, or are you taking your coffee black now? Haha!"
... Christ

Because, yeah, at first glance this scene looks really effective. You've just walked through this beautiful city, through a fair no less, and it's been nothing but jovial. Sure, some things the people have said have been questionable, but nothing too eye raising. Then, BAM! This happens!

Yeah, I get it, it's suppose to shock you, and it does... To an extent. And honestly I'd be fine with this scene if just a few things were tweaked about it. Namely, remove the racism from it. Because, mate, right from the word go this game's use of racism is just bad.

Let's be clear about this; what they're doing here is using racism for shock value, and that's not cool. And look, shock value is a good and useful tool, but when you do it with material as sensitive as racism, you better know what in the hell you're doing, because it can quickly get into "YIKES" territory if you mess up. And trust me, by the time we're done with this game, we'll have gone to "YIKES"-ville so many times that you'll know it like the back of your hand, as well as where all the best restaurants are located!

Because, really, what does this scene accomplish? Basically two things;
1) the people of Columbia are incredibly disingenuous
2) behind their veneer of decadency, they are incredibly violent and racist

Ok, cool, that scene accomplishes that. Just one question though; why did we need to know they're racist, and why in this way? Because I'd argue there shouldn't be a "reveal" for "this people are racist." If they're this racist, then it'll come through when we see nothing but black people as janitors, or you could have just had us walk by wash rooms for whites and colors, and that would have done the job just fine.

Heck, in the next session we'll be meeting Columbia's chapter of the KKK, so we were still going to get to the whole racism thing sooner rather than later.

Actually, I take it back; there is a reason for the racism here; it's so you know immediately why they're up on stage about to be stoned to death... By baseballs. Balled to death. Hmm.

Because it's a man and a woman of different colors, you immediately get why they're up there, and I'll give Irrational Games this; I can't think of another "crime" they could have committed that's instantly recognizable like that outside of homosexuality. Still, I'd rather not have it there at all. Just have Fink say "Hey, these guy's rustled some cattle! And we hate cattle ruslers! Let's give them the Leon Kuwata treatment!"

Oh, glob. I got so caught up in the racism I forgot about the choice. The. Choice. So when Fink reveals the couple to you, you're given a button prompt to throw the ball at the couple or Fink. My question is, why give you this in a button prompt? Why not let the player aim the ball wherever they wanted? I wanted to throw the ball into the crowd, but the best way I could think of to subvert the game's expectations was to let the time run out. Little did I know at the time how apropos that is to Booker's character, but that's another mess that I'll deal with later.

So actually it doesn't matter what you do, since where ever you try to send the ball, a cop grabs your hand and tells everyone you're the false Shepard! They try to execute you on the spot with a spinning saw thing, but you steal it from them by shoving it directly into directly into a guy's face! OWCH!

But that shows right there why we didn't even need the two on stage to begin with! Have Booker win the Raffle, he lifts up his hands, someone sees the mark and the police grab him just like they do here! In fact, it's more effective that way because one minute you're partying with everyone and the next they've got a saw in your face! Same scene, with 100% less clumsy use of racism!

You didn't need the rascim here at all! You wanna show how violent the city is? Show how quickly they resort to violent when they see you are the false shepherd!

And it would drive home how violent Booker is as well; I mean, yeah, they try to kill you on the spot, but Booker gets first blood, and he even aims for the guy's face. That was effective enough to show how the city is super violent, but that Booker is going to fit in just fine here.

Honestly there's probably more to say about this scene, but I feel like if I dwell on it anymore it'll just be an unfocused mess. Bottom line is maybe, MAYBE, I could tolerate the use of racism here if I was playing a game that handled racial tension with more delicacy and nuance than Birth of a Nation, but unfortunately that's not the game we're playing. SO. We're moving on.

Now you get your first real taste of combat, and it's effective enough. Cops come at you 2-4 at a time so you're outnumbered but not overwhelmed, you get a few tutorial section to show how certain mechanics work. It's fine. You may die a few times going through it, though, since you don't have your defense yet and can't store health items, well, ever. I'll have more to say on combat as we go on.

The atmosphere of the place has change here, too. When entering Columbia it looks like an average city (albeit in the sky) with people talking, walking, children playing, you know. But now the streets are empty, and you even pass by some places you did before and the only people around want you dead or are dead because of you. It's a nice shift in tone and creates some tension in the atmosphere. And the environment is all the same! Same orange & white buildings, same greenery all about, same blue sky. It's all the same, but the tone has changed dramatically. And this is all before you get to the mini-boss!

Soon enough you find yourself at a gate and on the other side is a fireman. It's an amazing encounter. The colors are now red, orange & burning, the trees are pitch black with embers, you can't even see the sky anymore through the smoke. It's a brilliant encounter

... Which certainly makes it a shame that I took him down with my pistol before he came within 20 feet of me, but whatever. Beat him, and now we have our second Vigor! It's a fire power! Basically it's a power that make rocks that explode on contact. So... So there's no way that this fire Vigor could have lit all those candles! Then how the hell did they all─

RULE. OF. THREE. FOCUS. ON. THE. GAME.

 But hey, ya wanna know something cools? Check out the burning trees here next time you play. This game is know to have some amazingly fake looking flat textures, but the trees where the firemen attack are a great example of how to use them well. They're all all black, except for where the fires are. Because instead of putting flame animations there, they just make the colors on the branches shift between various shades of yellow and orange to give the illusion of being on fire without putting fire on the tree. A+ on that!

After the fight there's another small fight where you're supposed to use oil to clear out the enemies, but I completely missed it. So, I just shot them. You find yourself at a new location called the Blue Ribbon, and inside we meet the Lutece Twins again! What are they up to? Well, we'll see about that next time.

I think this is enough for a part 1 on this. Next time we'll talk to the Lutece Twins, learn about some more mechanics, both cool and disappointing, and as mentioned earlier, we'll meet Columbia's very own brand of the KKK. Oh, boy! I'm already shuddering!

Thank you so much for reading, and until next time, take care 💜

"Hey, guy! Check out this cloud! It's crazy, right! I mean, are you guys seeing this?"
Narrator voice: And that was the last time that Zachary Comstock did drugs
Narrator 2: It wasn't

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3