#this cutscene literally formed a core memory for me

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Master Kohga Age of Calamity Trailer Analysis

I’m a speedy boi time for some thoughts on today’s new trailer

Ok first off THIS SHOT. Very important. Look at the Sheikah Slate filter. Last trailer I was able to write it off as some thematic choice since Robbie and Purah were Ancient Sheikah Scientists, but THIS trailer does not have that same connection. Couple this with this screenshot [credit to @rachelsmusicallife​ thanks for pointing this out to me!]

I’m under the impression that these cutscenes might be part of an overarching theme of reliving memories through the Sheikah Slate. Kinda fleshed out out theory on how this might be related to eggbot here.

“Hehehehe... Look. What. You. Did...”

The camera motion here is handheld (yes I know it’s not literally handheld but it has that feel) with Master Kohga here literally holding the camera. I’m assuming because this scene is from the direct POV of another character, perhaps Link. Which would make sense, since he is apparently accusing us of doing something. The lighting is also super weird, we’re in the Yiga Hideout (the area with the large pit where we fight Kohga in botw) but the sun is just setting with a shroud on the area. Although, I can’t exactly place the time of day because I’ve been through the hideout my fair share and no time of the day really lines up with this scene (because of the snowy Gerudo Highlands in the background, so the glistening of the sun is different) 

This is by the Great Plateau. I’m thinking near the Outpost Ruins considering this isn’t Gatepost Town since they Great Plateau’s entrance is not in view. In fact, I could probably specifically place this right....HERE

Flag poles, juts in the Plateau walls, road directly perpendicular to the Plateau. If my three years of staring at the Botw world is correct, [please Nintendo it’s the only thing I’m good at] then I’d say they’re at the Outpost Ruins. The only thing is that the houses seen here are mainly wood, while the ruins have clear stone walls

Well...I don’t mind.

This is not Master Kohga. Different voice actor, new character design, new villain! I’m assuming he’s some sort of second in command or captain, given he duel wields Windcleavers. Also not how he doesn’t have a scar on his mask in this scene

Further note, look at that chimney!!! I love that chimney, I haven’t seen that chimney before... it’s in a style that I can only really place in Castle Town, but the location is clearly not there, so best assumption is that this is another prominent Hylian Village. The Hateno style archway at the bottom right seems to support so. The house shingles definitely mean this isn’t an outpost or military ruin...[this weekend I’d love to hope into the game myself and place it exactly] the background cliffs mean this isn’t Gatepost Town either. The rock formations look like a turn by Scout’s Hill, of the western breach by the Outskirts Stable...I wouldn’t put the Rauru Settlements out of the question either. All in all, I’m hesitant to connect this scene with the other scene because one clearly has a dirt path, and the other a stony road. Plus the house shingles are different

Ok I can pretty much place this scene exactly. At least the bottom one, the top one is a separate scene that doesn’t flow into the other one (you can just tell by the framing and continuity) 

You can see the Great Plateau entrance, the line of sight is at an angle, placing this backflipping Yiga man somewhere here. Only inconsistency would be the trees, but perhaps it’s just grown over after a hundred years, you can even see a building in the middle of this forest in center left of the map.

Link is chasing Backflip Benny over here through to the exit of town, (you can see the town entrance/exit archway on the bottom right, similar to the one seen in the chimney pic) AND you can see that Backflip Benny also has a fresh cut on his mask, presumable gained after fighting Link, which is why he teleports away at the end. 

So that places these two shots definitely after whatever conversation happened on the roof. Yay for timelines! 

The stupendous Chief of the Yiga Clan! Master Kohga!

This takes place at some ruins of some sort. The rocks on the top right actually look Edlin or Akkala, but that might just be the lighting. The stony slabs and etches actually remind be of Zonai, but that doesn’t really seem right...I’ve never seen those designs before I don’t think...you can see from the way the stone slabs are angled that they lead to a circular pattern. It could be the circular pit at the Yiga Hideout, but that area is just sand, not stone. The smooth, plain style of these ruins is actually more in line with Gerudo Ruins so that might actually be the case; we know the Yiga have a history of taking Gerudo Ruins as their own (The Yiga Hideout is canonically an old Gerudo architectural dig)

I’ll also note that this scene has the same lighting as the first shot, and the last two shots which we’ll see later. 

*maniacal laughter* Oo? TWO new characters I see???? O????? 

This is definitely the Yiga hideout, you can tell from the wall design, plus the lanterns, and the general comfort of Master Kohga and Backflip Benny in the background. But, elephant in the room...who are YOU dear sir? 

I’ll talk more about them later, but just keep that Calamity glowing thing in their hand in mind for later.

He’s gonna kill you all...to DEATH! 

This is Master Kohga speaking again, if you couldn’t tell from his....very dramatic and in character dialogue. Maybe this game will actually make me like him now alsdfkjsdlk

Obvious is obvious, this is the Yiga Hideout again, similar lighting to the first opening shot, I’m thinking this might be sometimes before it though, considering he has his minions around. Maybe Link fights off the goons, which prompts him to ask “Look what you did” but we can’t know for sure. 

Also there’s grass? So maybe that other shot isn’t the hideout. Also a spotlight???!? Jazz hands?!?!? Leave it to Kohga to defy the fourth wall huh.

Also I haven’t mentioned this yet but NEW MUSIC it’s so good aughghug I can’t wait.

And...we end on another Sheikah Slate fade out on this mysterious new character. Eyeliner says: Avatar Kyoshi

Ok but seriously I have THOUGHTS!! So firstly, they’re obviously working with the Yiga Clan, perhaps they’re the reason why the Yiga are in the Gerudo to begin with considering they have the Gerudo symbol on their cape. [Cause am I the only one that thought it was weird that the disgraced Sheikah people are living in Gerudo, and not like...closer to Kakariko, or their suposedl arch nemesis of the Royal Hylian family?] Also note that this scene most definitly takes place in the Lost Woods. Perhaps they need something with the Master Sword...or are ambushing someone...hmm..

Based on that rock formation in the background I’m thinking somewhere in one of these three general areas but I really need to just pick up my switch sometimes soon and find it exact...so bare with me it’s only from memory but I’m pretty sure of myself when it comes to locations

My money’s on this being the true mastermind and antagonist, notice how their eye circlet is the same of that of the Calamity goop eye 

This person has...yellow? Brown? Hazel eyes? And light hair with a braid? I don’t think they’re Sheikah, but definetly not Gerudo either. So that leaves them to be some Hylian. A Hylian with an evil Ancient Core. 

[It’s definitly some form of Giant Ancient Core. But there’s runes on the side of it that I have yet to translate]

Thinking on their idenity for another second, you’ll notice that they wear a black robe, but their cape with the Gerudo crest is actually torn and tattered. So, perhaps they were disgraced? A runaway? Or perhaps it’s a disguise, perhaps a spy playing both roles on either side of the war? 

There’s an old theory that the fortune teller who initally told King Rhoam of the prophecy was actually part of the Yiga Clan. Seeing as, their actions led the King to dig up the Guardians, and cement the deaths of thousands of people. So, putting points in order here

Evil Magic dude

Works for the Yiga

Has connected to people in power 

Has an evil Ancient Core

Could it be that this mastermind fully knew that the Guardians would eventually be corrupted? Could they be the “fortune teller” that encouraged the King to excavate the Sheikah Technology? Sheikah Technology, that would be an insult to the Yiga Clan considering their people were banished for creating them in the first place? Hmmm....

Final NOTE! Remember that one scene in the other HWAOC trailer with Zelda holding a mysterious object? 

Hmm...Sheikah Scientists, weird egg robot, and now an evil Ancient Core...you may also remember Daruk mentioning in dialogue that something was wrong with Rudania...and cutscenes from Urbosa and Revali might point to the Yiga being close to the Divine Beasts...lots to chew on. I’m thinking the plot of this game will heaviliy revolve on the idea that there was some sort of plan that led to Ganon corrupting the Guardians and Divine Beasts, but we’ll see!

[skyabove]

I mean re: “light tributes”, you always access the elders by lighting candles, and then once you are in the cutscene you always give them light (which is maybe a sort of. A mental representation of them accepting the light from the candles?). Plus, when you get cosmetics, I interpret it as paying tribute to these spirits with your candles, for which they give you a gift (rather than “buying”. It would be kind of weird if all the spirits you saved were like hey kid *opens jacket* wanna see my wares? And they were all just these weird ghost merchants who had no purpose in their afterlife other than selling you stuff cjdnjdndjdmd). On the thatgamecompany website (and in the game I believe) their cosmetic trees are referred to as “friendship trees”, and unlocking more of these nodes is “developing your friendship” (just like with other player characters). So in sky you forge and grow relationships by offering light tributes, for which you sometimes get gifts. Imo it is kind of weird how this sort of. Turns relationships into a transaction. But the light can always signify something other than currency (experiences, memories, conversations, quality time) where the more you share that light with others, the closer you grow to them, the more they share their light (or memories, or trinkets) with you.

Hi! This ended up being a really long response so I'm going to (hopefully) put it under a read more to avoid making everyone have to scroll :)

Yeah, I think it definitely makes sense in universe, and I really like that there is an actual name for them rather than just being a currency for players to use. On the topic of the light of the candles being the same as the light we give to the elders, when I was in Vault I noticed that the little lanterns that you light to charge the platform have the rotating white circle like the meditation spots, until all of them have been lit. This is the same as when the candle light transfers to the floor and becomes the meditation spot that allows us to enter the elders area that is separate from everything else. So I guess the rotating white line signifies transference, both in the sense of literally moving you (to home of the ark etc) or moving the light (from the lanterns to the diamond,or the candle to the other place)

And yeah I get what you mean about the spirits. In a world so connected to light, it probably represents a lot of things, and possibly further for skykids as they are essentially living light, and store the light they collect in their cores to, you know, keep them alive (ie forest rain killing you unless you keep picking up light/recharging) so voluntarily giving that up must be a big deal.

Or who knows, it could be the complete opposite! Light/flame was so common and used for everything that it might not be that valuable. Sure theres candles in important places like the temples and graves and the bell towers, but theres also candles just in the open fields or some unused pipes. It might be more like its valuable to the skykids (being their life energy or whatever) and therefore, it becomes valuable to the spirits when given as a gift in the same way that a kid giving someone some pretty rocks they found that they thing you will like.

I've been trying to work out how the spirits give you items with them being dead, and skykids being unable to take their capes/clothes off as it's part of their body. Getting into speculation here, but I wonder if it's more trading information? So rather than they give you a blue cape, the skykid learns how to make their cape look blue? Or how to reform their skin clothes to resemble the ones a rhythm spirit is wearing? Idk how this would translate for masks or items as they are actual objects that skykids can take on an off, and also wouldn't have the means of making them from scratch.

I do wonder if giving candles as a sign of friendship (side note: they were still 'tributes' before but we don't see any signs of them being given as gifts) started with the skykids as: light is definitely important to them, they have seen candles everywhere and therefore believe they must be important items, and their flame (life, soul, whatever it's supposed to be) takes the form of a candle. So for a skykid, giving a candles is the same as giving a part of yourself.

Sorry for the rambling, it probably didnt need this much of a response, just love the little details of the world they have created, and the possibilities of two completely different civilisations using the same space. Skykids are very interesting (to me at least) when I start to over think their behaviour and structure, and how they would adapt to a brand new world that they dont fully understand.

In summary, I agree with you

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Once Upon A Time Analysis- Part 2

in part one, I referred to Once Upon a Time's parts as one motif, and talked about its relation to Chara. In this post I'll actually talk about its separate parts, and focus on how they relate to the plot.

The theme Once Upon a Time actually has three parts. The first plays while showing the history of the monster human war in the opening cutscene, the second plays while showing Chara climb the mountain and enter the cave, and the third plays while showing Chara falling into the underground and ends the song. It's pretty easy to recognize the separate parts. For the sake of convenience, I'll be referring to these parts as O1, O2, and O3 respectively.

Small disclaimer, this post will be highly speculative. It was hard to get much solid evidence for this. I do believe I have a general idea of what was intended. I just hope there is a pattern and Toby didn't use the different parts where they were because they sounded good because if so then I look like a moron.

Anyways, theory time. This whole thing started with people making connections between Once Upon a Time being the first song in the Undertale OST, and Goodnight being the last song. People made jokes that Undertale was a fairy tale the whole time... but it got me thinking. The use of O3 in Beginning when Deltarune released only intrigued me more.

After some research and thinking it came to be clear to me that Once Upon a Time represents the plotline of a story, specifically the Undertale. Basically, O1 is the beginning, O2 is sort of a climax, and O3 is the ending. Though, it's not quite as simple as I first made it out to be.

Let's go back to the duality of Once Upon a Time, the beginning song, and Goodnight, the end song. Some of you may already be confused and think I'm spouting nonsense. "But if Once Upon a Time is the beginning why does it have all the motifs? And why does Goodnight use O1 if O1 represents the beginning?" I may certainly be spouting nonsense here, but I do have reasons. Once Upon a Time tells a short story in itself. O1 plays during what started it all, the story of the war, the beginning. O2 plays during once we come to 201X, where we see this "climax" of Chara climbing the mountain. Finally, O3 plays showing the aftermath of Chara having fallen into the Underground and laying on the cavern floor. This ending motif ends the intro and leads us into the main game. Now some may already point out this isn't the end of the story, as we see in Asriel's battle that Asriel actually found Chara and helped them, and there's much more that happened than us just starting the game from there. Now that's where the true nature of these motifs are shown, and things get more complicated.

You see Undertale's intro is very misleading. It makes you think that the war was simply a big war between the monsters and humans, but you find out later that it was much closer to an unprompted slaughter by the humans. Most think that Frisk wakes up and we can start the game right after seeing the human fall down in the intro, when it's later revealed to actually be Chara who fell long ago. Just like the intro is misleading, the motifs can reflect that. O3 is a repeating pattern, and in the intro it trails off. It can reflect how this is only the end of the story that we're currently being shown, and that there's really much more that will happen. The trailing off could represent an "end of the beginning" sort of thing. Meanwhile O2 more often than not emphasizes low and sad points in the story, like metaphorical "falls", rather than just the climax. If we look back at the intro, O2 plays while Chara climbs the mountain, and falls into it. While this could be considered a climax like I said before, it makes more sense to be a fall. Not to mention, Chara was probably at a pretty low point in their life right before they ran away and fell into the mountain.

Even more important is O1's use in Goodnight. I theorize, since O1 is supposed to represent the beginning, that its use here represents the irony of the pacifist ending in Undertale. You can easily just reset and play the game again, starting everything over. Undertale is a very meta game, and Flowey will even talk to you about resetting in the Pacifist ending. It's possible O1's use in Goodnight acknowledges that this is never really the end, as there's always the possibility to reset.

Now that I've wrapped up Once Upon a Time and Goodnight, the two endpoints of the plot, I'll go through the other songs that may use Once Upon a Time in this way as well.

Start Menu is hard at the very beginning of the game, which is why O1 would be used. It gradually progresses, carrying O1 with it as it adds more instruments with every monster you befriend. Finally, at the end of the Pacifist route, it adds in O3, which represents how it's the end of your journey.

Home and Home (Music Box) uses O1 as a calming motif to show how you're still at the beginning of your adventure through the underground. It also helps with Toriel's house feeling homely, as your home is where you start your day. Even so, O2 comes in to hint at the tragedy that has happened at this home. It pairs with the traces of the other children that you can find in the room Toriel gave you. It's a bittersweet feeling showing how the previous six humans all fell and had to leave Toriel, eventually dying to Asgore. However, it never uses O3. I believe this to be a subtle hint that the game is telling you it isn't the end, and that you shouldn't stay with Toriel. Like O2 suggests, you have to follow the fallen children and leave her. This is reinforced by how if you go upstairs and sleep before the Toriel fight, Chara will share a memory with you to encourage you to "stay determined" and keep going.

There's the big skip until Hotel and CYRCTHIDRMMPA, which both use O1 and O2. I think the best explanation/theory is in my previous post, in that it pokes fun at the serioussness of the tragedy of Asriel and Chara. But again, O2 is used to show that is still was a tragedy, even in elevator music form.

Later O2 is used in It's Raining Somewhere Else. This could somewhat reflects how you're nearing the climax of the story, as the CORE is the last main area. However, it more likely reflects again, the fallen humans. How horrible it must have been for Toriel to see them leave and to die. The realizing that the story Sans is telling you reveals how much she cared for them and how she cared for you so much she'd ask someone to promise her to protect you. Poor Toriel has gonna through so much and must be worried sick, O2 helps show that.

Now, the Undertale. This whole sequence is a story in itself. While the use of Once Upon a Time is to mainly refer to Chara, how all three of its parts are used are reflected in the story. I'm actually going to go much more in depth into how Once Upon a Time's parts represent the story in New Home, but I will save it for the next and last Once Upon a Time post. For a basic summary though, O1 represents the beginning of the story and then it leading into Undertale, and O2 represents the fall of Chara.

I won't talk much about O1's use in The Choice, since again The Choice is just a section of Undertale with effects layered over it, and The Choice plays in a multitude of places. Though, you could argue how O1 represents how your choice will affect things later, even if that's a bit of a stretch.

Next we move to Fallen Down (Reprise). All three parts are used here, and I believe it represents your entire journey to get here, from beginning to end. Having your friends all meet at the end of the game is a direct result of your pacifist actions to get them here, so it's sort of a little pat on the back for getting this far.

Now Hopes and Dreams. This song, while it uses O1 and O3, never actually uses O2. Odd right? All the monsters you worked so hard to befriend are now trapped in Asriel, who is now all powerful and you have no chance of beating. It's the climatic last stand final battle, where all the odds are against you, shouldn't the motif that represents that be there? Well not exactly. Let's compare this battle to one with a very similar situation, Omega Flowey. Omega Flowey's battle has a consistent theme of hopelessness. You're facing an almost-god, you have no chance! Flowey's attacks swarm you and every time you die he makes fun of you and the fact that you're all alone. Your attacks barely do any damage. Terrifying music plays and the battle is filled with so much chaos and despair. That's why, when the humans souls break free from Flowey and help you it's so impactful. In Asriel's battle, he's even more powerful, but there's not that feeling of hopelessness. Before the battle all your friends are supporting you, you don't feel as alone in the battle. When you die instead of getting a cruel joke from Flowey and your game crashing, Frisk literally refuses to die. You get hopes and dreams as healing items. Hell, the name of the song is Hopes and Dreams! You're constantly supported and encouraged to keep going. There's no sense of hopelessness, you actually feel like you can win this battle. Everyone is counting on you. Flavor text in the battle even tells you, "It's the end." which is why O3 is used so much. As for O1, why would it be used? If it's the end, why would the motif that represents the beginning be here? Well, I believe it represents that while this is the final battle, Asriel is still thinking in the past. He is still holding onto the foolish idea that you must be Chara, and he can still keep you around to stay with him.

These same things apply to SAVE the World, though it's possible that with how O1 is modified it might also represent your journey that led you to befriend everyone that is now helping you, and how it's coming full circle.

With Reunited, which uses all three, it's probably very similar to Fallen Down (Reprise), where it represents your entire journey to get here.

Bring It In, Guys! using O1 at the end really doesn't need much explanation. It's already a compilation of a bunch of the game's songs, why not end it off with the starting motif? Also from the previous post, it shows a colored version of the view of Mt. Ebott from the intro, where Once Upon a Time plays, so there's that.

Last Goodbye is pretty much a remix of SAVE the World, though it does include O2 in the beginning. This may be because it's, well the Last Goodbye, goodbyes are sad you know? You finished the game and not you can't play it for the first time again. Awesome as it is it's still a farewell song, but it doesn't spend much time on it and gets straight to partying.

We've already talked about Goodnight, so I'll move onto Deltarune songs! Before the Story was actually first used in the menu screen on PS4, and considering it's literally called *Before* the Story, it makes sense that it uses O1.

Beginning had such a nice nostalgia throwback using O3. It's possible that it's just using O3 like Undertale's into, leading to what's to come, "the end of the beginning" of sorts.

We don't get any instances of Once Upon a Time until You can Always Come Home, which is a remix of Home. The use of O1 is because it's Home, but notice how O2 is missing, replaced by Don't Forget. O3 also appears at the end with some flutes on top of Don't Forget. The reason O2 is gone is probably just because Don't Forget fit better, but may also be because this time you get to stay with Toriel, as well as the fact as far as we know there's no dead children that used to live here. And O3 would just be because it's the end of the chapter, and you finally get to come home and end the day.

Finally we have Dog Check, the song that plays on Deltarune's error screen. It usesO2 briefly, before leading into Don't Forget. In all seriousness I doubt Toby was thinking about how these parts would reflect the story, and just wanted to make a chill song using the motifs. But if you really want an explanation, O2 represents the depressed player that with a corrupt game that's giving them an error screen, and now had to figure out why Deltarune won't start. Yup that seems good.

And that's all the songs that use Once Upon a Time. Again I may be completely wrong, but I noticed some patterns and made some theories I wanted to share on this. Make of it what you will. Next post I will go more in-depth into the song Undertale, then we're done with Once Upon a Time.

[unwiltingblossom]

I’m back!

And now that it’s been years since it was a thing, can we talk a bit about how Undertale is absolutely written with just...thinly veiled contempt for the player? As if playing the game and having fun doing it is just a contemptible concept that should be mocked and undermined at every turn?

“Oh but if you have fun killing monste-”

ahahaHA that’s a nice try, except pacifist and neutral mode treat you with that same contempt, it just tacks on a vaguely happy ending depending on how well you follow the rules. Let me explain if it’s not been discussed!

First we’ll start with the obvious part people would immediately think of just to get it out of the way but be thorough: violent delights

The game will instantaneously punish you for playing it like a normal RPG and killing monsters to level up when you face bosses you can’t beat. Even if you take a hint from the frog and only kill the kinds of monsters who look unpleasant you’re still getting slammed.

You get leeway of about 5 monsters before the ending starts punishing you, and if you kill even one before Undyne you can’t befriend her, cutting off a whole portion of an already short game. If you kill 10 or more monsters (over the entirety of the game) the people you had friendly relationships with will start getting cold or harsh with you.

Meanwhile, of course, everything you encounter will relentlessly attempt to kill you, and anything that doesn’t is only not trying because it doesn’t realize you’re a human. Monsters gleefully talk about the genocide of humanity with you, while the game fingerwags at you for harming any of them.

Asgore has murdered 6 innocent children, is crushed by the guilt, and is planning to massacre all of humanity for lack of a better answer, but if you kill any monsters you have no position to speak to him/get him to weaken his attacks.

So we’ve established that for the neutral-violent players, the game treats you poorly, despite programming it to allow you to do so, and in fact making it considerably harder not to do it. What most games would treat as an achievement or bonus mode is treated as basic requirements by the game. But we’re not actually done with this section yet.

We can’t talk about this without discussing the open contempt and disdain the game has for you if you go full genocide. First, it’s 100% possible to accidentally start a genocide route. Lose to Toriel and then play it safe by grinding up levels until you accidentally run out of monsters and you’ve activated genocide mode. The game will assume you did it on purpose.

This means Toriel will insult you, Flowey will become a cheerleader, and then Sans and Papyrus will treat you terribly. You’ll act like a mindless robot from this point onward, with no way to change course or react differently until you’re done with the puzzle cutscenes. If you continue on with it, then the game gets belligerent, calling Undyne the ‘true heroine’ when you know full well that this woman is 100% okay with murdering an innocent child so that the monsters can be free to wage genocide on humanity. Weirdly enough, Undyne being willing to kill a person who wants to kill all of her people makes her a hero, but Frisk being willing to kill a monster who wants to kill all of humanity makes them a villain.

eventually the game gets to Sans, who is hilariously likely the most fun boss fight to play in the game. The ‘punishment’ for the route is the number one motivator for most people to play Genocide, just because it has the most challenging and entertaining gameplay (and best track). The game then spends the rest of its time preaching at you like it did the rest of the game, but this time you can’t just skip through the dialog, whatever.

More importantly, along the way of genocide, Flowey himself gets scared and runs away from Frisk, terrified of them, because they’ve become a monster ‘even worse than him’ - Flowey, someone who has admitted to tormenting and torturing every monster in every way he can think of, just to see how they react, until he got so bored from the repetition that he ran out of things to do. BUT IF YOU RESET (before you kill Asgore), all of a sudden he can’t remember any of  that and instead gets angry at you for stopping. The game definitely considered you defeating Sans and reloading, as Sans has special dialog for that, so it’s not sequence breaking.

No, this is just the game continuing to act with its weird sort of disdain toward the player. It doesn’t want to let you have a different Flowey to interact with after you scare him witless - presumably because that would be potentially rewarding you for genocide route - so it just ignores all the rules it established for itself and pretends Flowey’s memories end before Frisk gets to New Home.

“Okay, okay, but none of this is a problem if you’re a pacifist! Just play the game RIGHT and it’s fine!”

Except it still isn’t.

Put aside that Undyne will still insult you for not killing any monsters, and that the game still has its preposterous concept that monsters should be allowed to be as violent and abusive toward Frisk as possible, but Frisk can’t lift a finger to stop them because they’re ‘more powerful’ (except the whole “not one human died” thing is a bunch of BS when they’ve collected the soul of every human who fell in so far, and Frisk will die if a machine so much as sprays disinfectant on them) - the determination doesn’t matter because it’s clearly a freak occurrence in Frisk’s case to have enough to bend time to their whim, not normal for humans.

Put that aside!

Let’s see what this game has to offer players who follow the rules:

There’s a mercy mechanic, wherein you either beat on a monster until it’s critically injured and then press the ‘spare’ button, or you use the unique option that appears for the monster first and then spare it if that doesn’t auto-spare it. Despite ostensibly being the primary method of how you’re supposed to handle combat, it’s extremely simplistic. It can’t be leveled up, and there’s no skill or complexity in it. The bullet hell and attack timings are more complex than it - and the former you use in both violent and pacifist forms.

Backtracking to Genocide a moment - that route also intentionally sabotages your gameplay, because ‘intent to kill’ just one-shots everything as long as you’re locked into ‘genocide’ route, so the only way to get the most out of the combat system is to play neutral route and be violent, but never cross the line into genocide. (hilariously, just sparing one single creature for any reason will save you from being a killer robot ever again even if you go on to massacre everything from then on and/or before then)

So anyway. The mercy mechanic is simplistic and boring, and the only complexity and interest in the fights come from the bosses, which are identical regardless of your body count - just easier/harder - unless you’re genociding. However, the two hardest boss fights, Flowey and Asriel, are designed to be impossible to lose to.

Another mechanic available to players who follow the rules is dating!

Except the gameplay is minuscule in those, too. Sans’ ‘dates’ are just him talking to you, while Alphys and Papyrus both have a date-fight mock up, wherein you don’t really do anything but have them talk to you for a bit and your choices don’t matter. Undyne has the most interactivity on the surface, with a ‘choose your own adventure’ sequence in her house and the an actual fight. Unfortunately, every choice is meaningless, and will either be rejected by Undyne if incorrect or lead to the same ending - the non-fight.

Mettaton doesn’t even have a date, but at least to his credit he’d been planned to have the most expansive one involving a marriage, it just got cut out and never re-added.

So the sparing mechanic is simplistic and the dates are glorified cutscenes where you don’t really ‘date’ the monster so much as hang out with them once and listen to them ramble on. But there’s more to the gameplay, right?

There’s puzzles!

Except not really. Despite the monsters repeating over and over about how big the puzzles are to monsters, most of them won’t even suggest playing any puzzles with you, and as for the ones gating your progress...99% of them are just literally not puzzles. They’re already solved by the time you get there, the monster with you solves it for you, or it’s literally impossible to lose.

.9% of them are puzzles that technically exist, but are so simplistic that they shouldn’t count, or are less ‘puzzles’ than they are tests of skill (the snowball into the hole, for instance)

.1% are puzzles that are impossible to win (or meant to be so) and the game just lets you skip.

imagine, if the game were really about its puzzles, Mettaton actually giving you puzzles that you could solve without Alphys or Mettaton cheating to let you win, not just time attack sequences that you can’t lose in anyway. Imagine if the tile puzzle were an actual puzzle you were meant to solve, Papyrus’ being a simplistic version and Mettaton’s being the full version. Like an actual puzzle game would have.

The pay off for the box slide shooter game can even be missed in the Core if you take the wrong path, while still maintaining your pacifist run.

Then, of course, the game will try to guilt you into no longer playing if you get  the Ultra Happy Ending. That would indicate you should try to get it last, except if you do everything else first, the game will go out of its way to screw you - not even in an entertaining way, either, just ‘punishment’ for the genocide route. It’s basically just daring you to do the good end first and then go back for the others, but then will mock you for it in the genocide route if that’s what you do.

Also on the subject of resets, despite the game acknowledging the resets enough for Sans or Flowey to yell, lecture, or quip at you about it, there’s almost no opportunity for Frisk to respond differently to a situation because it’s on a repeat loop. Basically if a new response exists, it’s to let you skip some dialog/a cutscene. Which is a shame, because if canonical loading and saving is going to be a big part of a game, it should be used in more than one or two boss fights.

So in review, what is the gameplay offered by Undertale?

Puzzles you don’t really solve

Monsters who try to kill you no matter how good you are, because your reputation is entirely deductive, not additive

Dates that aren’t really dates with choices that don’t matter

Mercy mechanics that barely extend beyond mashing one button

Combat mechanics you can’t explore in pacifist modes and that are sabotaged in genocide mode

Reset loop mechanics that punish you regardless of whether you use them to explore every possibility or whether you save the best route for last

Characters who react to resets only so much as to either punish/lecture you for resetting or allow you to skip gameplay on repeats

Three gameplay styles, none of which are fully fleshed out, and two of which actively punish you for using.

Now admittedly, this is an indie game, about 10hrs long, for $10. It being a bit skimpy on content and not fully exploring its potential isn’t surprising, and it’s forgivable.

The trouble is that all through this, the game and characters in it are treating you, the player, with contempt. Anything shy of pacifist will get you lectured by the characters, and even when you do go full pacifist, you’ll still not get away without being talked down to. The puzzles from Mettaton are some of the worst ‘it’s cute that you expected a real puzzle’ moments, but of course things like the dates do it, too. And of course, even the naming mechanic is just designed to trick and essentially ‘call out’ the player.

All the detail and care that went into the game seems to just be dedicated to negatively subverting the player’s expectations or lecturing/scolding/disapproving of the player.

Thus.

I say that Undertale is written with this weird thinly veiled disdain and contempt for the player, and it’s weird no one talks about it.

[megashadowdragon]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Perspective, Tragedy, and the Value of Connection

comment by a

Pinned by Aleczandxr)Table of Contents: Introduction: 0:00 Rhea and the Church of Seiros: 4:22 Claude and the Golden Deer: 15:35 Edelgard and the Black Eagles: 29:10 Dimitri and the Blue Lions: 37:57 Conclusion: 58:11 Please note that a decent portion of this video involves summarizing certain lore, backstory, character and plot elements in order to provide a foundation for my arguments about the themes and ideas presented. This game has an extensive and quite complex setting and story, and it is told piece-meal across four routes, so I felt the need to summarize them for the sections in which they were relevant. Also, the main point of this video is now to have four all-encompassing character analyses for Rhea, Claude, Edelgard and Dimitri, but to go over their backgrounds, mindsets, philosophies and how they are integrative with the game's main themes of perspective and the importance of a connection and "light" like Byleth. This isn't intended to discuss every little nuance of each character, and there are undoubtedly some things I left out about each of them, simply because they wouldn't contribute to the intent of the video. So simply put: don't expect me to talk about every aspect of these characters, because that isn't the point. HAVING SAID THAT - I now realize that the main problem with this video is that I didn’t really delve into Rhea to the fullest extent. In the process of writing her part I got a bit too caught up in leaning on summarizing the lore of the game and talking about how you can be her “light”  and didn’t give her quite as much sympathy as she deserved with regards to her motivations. My phrasing should’ve been more fair and elaborate to help justify her perspective. ALSO: Note that I said that Rhea created the Empire, but it’s more accurate to say that she fostered the founding of the Empire, which is what she said in the scene I provided.Show less

comments I saw on the channel

I think it’s interesting to characterize Byleth as a light for Dimitri and Edelgard but not for Claude. There’s some nice visual storytelling in the fact that in the reunion cutscene with Claude, he’s already in the light while Byleth has to walk out of the darkness to meet him (which is the exact opposite for Dimitri’s cutscene). It reinforces the fact that what Claude needs isn’t “a light” or someone to pull him up, but a partner and companion with the power to help bring his dreams to fruition.

Edelgarld isn't in need of a light either,  she also just needs someone who she can trust to break the stalemate situation,  because if byleth didn't come she would have still won the war with the help of cornelia and house Gloucester in the alliance,  this is made proof in the amount of chapters you have to beat.

yes she can win, but  the " with the help of Cornelia" caveat to that statement is the big problem there. Yes if Byleth didn't exist she likely would have been able to win the war, but in order to do so she would have had to sell her soul completely to the devil (TWSITD) and compromise her morals for the sake of victory. Once you start down that slippery slope, it's difficult to pull yourself back. We see this in the Azure moon route where Edelgard becomes so committed to attaining absolute victory, that she's barely even tries to reach an understanding with Dimitri to avoid greater bloodshed. She becomes convinced of the fact that only she knows what is right for Fodlan and is prepared to do anything to win, including using her own people as meat shields and trap bait if need be. She's even willing to quite literally surrender her own humanity in order to increase the odds of her success. Edelgard and Dimitri are both good people who find themselves surrounded by darkness in different forms. They both need Byleth to act as a guiding light of sorts to lead them out of that darkness and into the brighter future that they hope for.

I feel like in that cutscene Claude is in a way serving as Byleth’s light which is why they have to walk out to meet Claude in the light. Claude focuses mostly in comforting Byleth, offering food and companionship first and foremost and throughout the story serves more in a guiding or advisor role letting Byleth be the leader/figurehead. This is all the more clear in the final battle where Claude sets up Byleth for victory even at risk of his own well being.

The tragedy of the game really hit me when the new difficulty mode came out and I had to pick a route again. I realized that no matter what house leader I chose to support, it meant i would have to watch the lives of others end in tragedy because my choice deprived them of the support they would desperately need

@kamden madan  that’s why I feel like a dick in silver snow I canonically upheld a system that harmed my students was the  cause of multiple wars lead to death innocents and then put people  for responsible  said system on top with no reforms no matter how much I like the church characters I can’t side with them it makes me sick to the core .

if Byleth doesn't join any faction, Edelgard probably would have won eventually, but at that point she probably would've compromised so many of her moral stances that I'd see it more as TWSITD's victory and not Edelgard's

What I love about Edelgard is just how much the butterfly effect is conveyed with this one character. If you opt not to help her, she closes off her heart completely. She becomes a ruthless empress intent to conquer all and absolutely destroy anyone in her path with no qualms or empathy. But the one action you choose in the crypt changes everything. Edelgard did not expect Byleth to side with her. In every single situation, Byleth should try to kill her. They have absolutely nothing to gain and everything to lose by siding with her. The Church turns on them, they become one of the biggest enemies there. But in that instant, Byleth's choice to believe in Edelgard purely because they care about her shakes her to the core. When you next see her, she cries tears of joy over Byleth's reappearance. Her moves are less brutal and cruel, and she has opened up more to her fellow classmates. The Agarthans do not dominate every choice that Adrestia makes, and as such she tries to win the war while minimizing casualties. The Agarthans do not seize Faerghus, and Dimitri is not driven out. He does not lose himself with madness, and instead goes down as a noble king who harbored the Archbishop and tried his best to fend off Adrestia. Claude can be spared, which will ultimately lead to peace between Fodlan and Almyra as he is the next in line. Edelgard's willingness to show empathy pays off in the end, as she mentions that she wanted to create a treaty with the nation. Who better to help create ties than Claude? All because Byleth reached for her hand.Show less

I always wondered why there wasn't such a heavy emphasis on Edelgard's and Dimitri's relationship in BE but if you recall the conversation that Edelgard, Dimitri, Byleth and Hubert have right before the attack on the Empire in the BL route, it's revealed that Edelgard forgot that Dimitri was the boy that she stayed with for all those years which makes sense if you realise Edelgard was tortured shortly after her time in FaerghusShow less It is apparently a realistic symptom of trauma like Edelgard endured that huge chunks of her life surrounding the trauma would fade from memory. One of the things I liked a lot about 3H was that all four of the leads Byleth can side with are carrying around a lot of trauma but it manifests in very different ways for all of them. Of course, it's a major knife in the heart to realize that if things are consistent between Azure Moon and Crimson Flower, Edelgard's memories of who Dimitri was to her come back into focus when he calls her "El." Which in Azure Moon happens moments after they realize neither of them can back down and they're going to fight to the death for their principles, and in Crimson Flower happens as Dimitri's bleeding out at her feet.Show less

[addicted-to-darkness]

The Second Coil of Bahamut Turn 4 Translation (German to English)

Playing the newest patch I noticed some massive differences in characterization between the English and German version (looking at you, Asahi), so I picked up the keyboard again and - much like with the Royal Menagerie - did some direct comparisons of both. But before looking at new content I decided to look at the wildly discussed cutscenes surrounding Nael van Darnus. So here it is, in case anyone ever wondered what Nael was like in another localization (and why apparently only those who played the English version of the game ever wondered about her gender). 

Bold: English Localization

Plain: German transcription

Cursive: Literal translation

(Alisaie) That... that surely cannot be Dalamud? How-- Where are we!?

Dalamud?! Aber wir sind doch in seinem Kern! Wie können wir ihn dann von unten sehen?!

Dalamud?! But we're inside its core! How can we see it from down here?!

(Nael van Darnus) The final resting place of Nael van Darnus.

Darf ich präsentieren? Das luftige Grab von Nael van Darnus!

May I present you? The lofty grave of Nael van Darnus!

This is a grave for the undeserving.

Ein Opfer – zerstört vom Produkt seines eigenen kranken Geistes.

A victim – destroyed by the product of their own sick mind.

And for the crime of trespassing upon my god's sanctuary, this place shall serve as your grave too!

Und bald ist es auch das Grab von neun kleinen Würmchen, die sich vorwitzig bis hierher vorgewagt haben!

And soon it shall also be the grave of nine little worms, which had the audacity of daring to come here!

(Alisaie) No!

Oh, nein … Bei allen Göttern!

Oh, no! … By all gods!

(Nael deus Darnus) In the hour of his failure, Nael van Darnus felt the currents of aether begin to bear away his essence. But before oblivion could claim the last of him, a divine will reached out... and I was born.

Als damals mein Äther zerstob, rettet er meine Seele … Er gab mir meinen Körper zurück … und neue, wahrhafte Stärke!

Back when my aether dispersed, he saved my soul … He gave me back my body … and new, veritable strength!

Then did the words of my god resound in mine ears...

Nun ist der große Gott tief im Inneren verborgen, und ich bin seine Wächterin.

Now the great god is hidden deep within, and I am his guardian*. (Note: Guardian is expressed as explicitly female.)

“Bring unto mine enemies crushing defeat, that they might know despair without end! And claim thee thus the victory which thou wert once denied!”

Kein Sterblicher verdient es, einen Blick auf ihn zu werfen. Ihr habt es getan, und dafür sollt ihr büßen … Die gesamte verdorbene Welt soll es büßen! Die Zeit der Läuterung ist nah!

No mortal is worthy of gazing upon him. You did so, and for this you shall suffer... The whole putrid world shall suffer! The time of catharsis has come!

(Alisaie) ...'Twould seem that little remained of Nael's essence when Bahamut plucked him from the brink of oblivion. And the result was this strange... simulacrum. Nevertheless, her aura bespeaks great power. She channels the rage of the elder primal himself...

Nicht zu fassen – Nael ist eine Frau? Ich hätte schwören können, Großvater sagte … Aber viel wichtiger: Hat sie nun Bahamuts Stärke erlangt?!

Unbelievable – Nael is a woman? I could have sworn grandfather said... But more importantly: Did she gain Bahamuts strength?!

(Nael deus Darnus) Lord Bahamut! Thy wish is my command! None shall 'scape Thine unquenchable fury!

Allmächtiger! Erhebe diesen schwachen Körper zu deinem Werkzeug! Nimm mich und verleih deinem Willen Gestalt!

Allmighty! Ascend this weak body to be your tool! Take me and make your will manifest!

Come, ye dull, unthinking beasts... bare your teeth!

Ich bin die verkörperte Katharsis! Der Anfang und das Ende … euer Ende.

I am the embodiment of catharsis! The beginning and the end... Your end.

They will avail you naught in the calamity to come!

Nun wird die wahre Siebte Katastrophe über Eorzea hereinbrechen!

Now the true Seventh Calamity shall befall Eorzea!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(Alisaie) Poor creature. Would that you had never been born.

Du hast dein Leben zum zweiten Mal verloren, Nael.

You lost your life a second time, Nael.

You had surrendered your physical form, and collapsed into aether... But Bahamut denied you death, and imprisoned what little was left of you in an aetherial shell resembling... what, I wonder? Images from your memory, perhaps?

Als dein Körper vor langer Zeit starb, verschlang Bahamut den Äther deiner Seele, und so lebtest du fort … Doch nun ist dieser Albtraum vorbei. Auch für uns.

When your body perished a long time ago, Bahamut devoured the aether of your soul, and this way, you lived on... But now this nightmare is over. For us as well.

But that shell is now broken. And your primal deity seems disinclined to sustain your existence.

Dein Gott hat dich verlassen.

Your god has abandoned you.

(Nael Deus Darnus) My “primal deity”? I kneel to no eikon! What need have I to beg the favor of such filth!?

”Gott”? Hah. Wer, der dem auch nur ein Funken Verstand, ein Rest von Stärke geblieben ist, huldigt verfluchten Götzenbildern?!

“God”? Hah. Which person, who is left with even so much as a sliver of sanity and strength, worships a fucking primal?!

I am Nael van Darnus! Legatus of the VIIth Legion...

Ich bin Nael van Darnus, Legatus der VII. Legion des Garleanischen Reichs. Niemand lenkt mein Schicksal außer mir selbst.

I am Nael van Darnus, Legatus of the VIIth legion of the Garlean Empire. Nobody determines my fate but myself.

No... A moment... My thoughts are clouded... and this body is not mine own. Could it be that you spoke the truth? Was I ensorcelled by the lesser moon's ancient prisoner? ...That will not happen again.

... Ausgerechnet mich musste dieses primitive Götzenvieh besitzen. Welcher Hohn! Mein Geist, die scharfe Klinge der Vernunft, betäubt und in die Knie gezwungen – von der Bestie, die mir dienen sollte!

… Of all people, this primitive idol* had to possess me. Which mockery! My mind, the sharp blade of reason, numbened and forced to its knees – by the beast, which was to serve me! (Note: Idol is actively formulated as an insult here. To express idol the word 'Götze' would have sufficed, but instead Nael chooses the compound word Götzenvieh. 'Vieh' literally translates to cattle, but is also used as derogatory word for any sort of undesirable animal.)

(Alisaie) You speak as if Bahamut no longer controlled you! But that's impossible! Once a primal ensnares a mind, it cannot be freed!

Sie erinnert sich … Bahamuts Einfluss ist verflogen.

She remembers... Bahamut's influence is gone.

Unless... Unless Bahamut simply relinquished his claim. What need has he of a broken spirit bound for the aetherial realm?

Jetzt, da sie besiegt ist, hat er keine Verwendung mehr für Nael. Endlich kann ihre Seele in den Äther zurückkehren.

Now, that she's defeated, he no longer has use for Nael. Finally her soul can return to the aether.

(Nael van Darnus) Ohhh...that I should fall prey to the very influence I sought to purge from the land. The irony is galling.

Hmph. Ich nutzlos für eine Götze der Wilden? Größer könnte die Schande nicht sein, die ich über mich gebracht habe -  über die gesamte garleische Nation! Wäre ich nur zu Äther zerfallen, ohne jemals davon zu erfahren.

Hmph. Me useless for an idol of the savages? There is no way the shame I brought over me – over the whole garlean nation! – could be any bigger. If only I had disolved into aether without coming to know about this.

But do not assume that all of my actions were chosen for me. It was my will that the Meteor project be resurrected—mine and none other.

Aber glaub nur nicht, dass alles von Anfang an sein Werk gewesen sei, Mädchen! Das Projekt Meteor war die Frucht meines Geistes.

But don't think everything from the beginning was his doing all along, girl! Project Meteor was the spawn of my own mind.

Yet it seems that my grand designs were destined to fail. Even the ungentle release of death was denied me...

Wenn mir auch ein Tod in Würde nicht gewährt sein mag – die Größe meines Werks könnt ihr nicht leugnen! Mir steht die Herrschaft zu! Allein die Umstände waren gegen mich.

Even if I may not be granted a dignified death – the dimension of my opus cannot be denied by you! I deserve sovereignty! It was only the circumstances which were against me.

(Alisaie) Nael, please. You must tell us more of the Calamity. I must know the truth of what has befallen the world...and what has become of my grandfather, Archon Louisoix.

Wir wollen wissen, was bei der Siebten Katastrophe wirklich geschehen ist. Sag uns, was ist mit meinem Großvater passiert? Hat Bahamut ihn getötet?

We want to know what really happened in the Seventh Calamity. Tell us, what happened to my grandfather? Did Bahamut kill him?

(Nael van Darnus) You are Louosoix's grandchild? Ah, the fates are generous with their cruelty.

Ah, du bist das Enkelkind des Weisen Louisoix? Tja … wer hätte ihm ein solches Ende gewünscht? Zu schade.

Ah, you are the granddaughter of Archon Louisoix? Oh well.... who would have wished such an end upon him? Too bad.

Continue on, if you would have your answers—they await you at the terminus of your path. But know that this path leads only to despair. The light of truth was ever harsh and unforgiving...

Wenn du deine sogenannte Wahrheit ertragen kannst, dann geh nur weiter. Du wirst die finden … und bereuen, dass du je nach ihr gesucht hast.

If you can bear your so called truth, then go ahead and carry on. You will find it... and regret ever looking for it.

(Alisaie) Why do you say this? Grandfather will be free once we put a stop to Bahamut's restoration, will he not? What are you not telling us!?

Aber … wenn wir Bahamut töten, dann wird doch auch mein Großvater gerettet! Seine Seele wird sich befreien und zu uns zurückkommen, oder nicht?

But... if we kill Bahamut, my grandfather will be saved! His soul will free itself and return to us, isn't that so?

(Nael van Darnus) Steel yourself, child. Only unbending resolve and merciless strength can conquer what lies ahead.

Törichtes Kind. Stellst du dir so den lauf der Dinge vor? Die Welt folgt eisernem Willen und gnadenloer Macht, nicht den Wünschen kleiner Mädchen.

Foolish child. Is that how you imagine the course of things to be? The world follows steeled resolve and merciless power, not the wishes of small girls.

The weak can do naught but weep under the pall of their own misery. As did the frail child I once was...

Auch mir beugte sich niemand, als ich noch wünschte statt zu fordern. Tritt aber mutig ins Licht, und dein Name wird die Geschichte überdauern.

No one yielded to me either, when I still wished instead of demanded. But if you take a courageous step into the light, your name will outlive history.

(???) Silence, chattering raven. Your wretched wings are broken, and you shall soar no more.

Es ist genug, Silberschwinge. Du wirst diese Welt nun endlich verlassen!

That's enough, silver wing. You will finally leave this world now!

(Nael van Darnus) My crimson moon... Your brilliance sears mine eyes...

Nein … Verfluchter … gib mir meine Stärker zurück! … Sie gehört … mir!

No... Blasted... give me back my strength! …It is... mine! (Note: There's many ways to translate what Nael calls ??? here. Blasted, cursed, fucking, damned … take your pick, but she certainly isn't happy.)

(Alisaie) I recognize that voice, Warrior of Light. But never would he say such words...

Diese Stimme … sie klang so vertraut!

This voice... it sounds so familiar!

Come, let us finish what we came to do. All will be put aright when the final hulk lies dormant. Grandfather will be himself again.... I'm sure of it.

Wir dürfen unsere Mission nicht vergessen. Lass uns die Maschinen zerstören, die Bahamut erhalten. Das wird auch meinen Großvater befreien – egal, was Nael uns glauben machen will!

We can't forget about our mission. Let us stop the machines, which maintain Bahamut. This will free my granfather as well – no matter what Nael wants to make us believe.

[why485]

I'm interested to see what you think are plot holes, especially as someone who hasn't gone through half the game. Perhaps put it under a read more? Part of what you may think are plot holes could also be the result of Automata being a (very distant) sequel to the original Nier, which itself is a spinoff of the Drakengard games. Automata's pretty self-contained though, so I kinda doubt it. As for DLC, IIRC it doesn't really add much story aside from some bits about the arena mode.

This is all going under a read more as it’s pretty much impossible to talk about this without getting into spoiler territory in a game where that matters.

I may write an update to this post later on after I’ve beaten the game and had more time to think on it all, as I’ve already re-written half of it because I answered some of my own questions in the process of typing it out. Rubber ducky debugging, basically.

Fair warning, there is a huge amount of text beyond the break because there’s just way too much to talk about when it comes to any one aspect of Nier and its universe. Like it’s a totally unreasonable amount of text for anybody to read. You have been warned.

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR NIER AUTOTOMATO AFTER THE BREAK

Before I start, it is obligatory that I mention that I’m somewhere in route C. I’ve destroyed one of the resource units as 9S. Specifically, the one in the forest if that makes a difference. I have no idea how far I am in the game anymore because at this point it feels like I’m playing this game’s sequel.

There are a lot of minor questions/problems I have with the game, but there is one issue bothers me the most as it feels like bad writing in a way that’s incongruous with the rest of the game. The best way to describe it is in the form of a question: 

Why do YoRHa androids care so much about dying?

I feel like the game contradicts itself on this, and the confusion it’s caused me has taken away from some key moments in the story. The core issue is that the main characters treat dying as if it’s a big deal, when outside of very specific circumstances it really isn’t. For the YoRHa androids, dying seems like an inconvenience at worst because they can just “respawn” based on their most recent backup.

It starts with the very opening of the game. Why does 2B care so much that 9S is dying? She didn’t care at all when her wingmen died in the opening, but the purportedly super serious with “no emotion” super soldier (that’s a whole other post, but my opinion on that has changed a bit since then) is completely torn up and super emotional that 9S is dying. Why does she care? He’s going to respawn at the Bunker when he dies, just like they both do literally a few minutes later when they self-destruct to no real consequences.

Yes, I know that 9S makes a big deal out of the fact that he’s backing up 2B during the fight so she can respawn just fine. He specifically calls out that he hasn’t backed up since before the fight, so he’s going to lose maybe an hour or so of his memory and his memory of the fight. Why is that a big deal? Why is 2B so distressed about the idea of saving 9S even though he’s way gone and definitely going to die? If anything, she should have killed him right there so he could respawn sooner and not suffer in pain. (Although it’s unclear if maybe 9S was the node from which 2B was getting backed up, so if that’s the case then let him finish first. However if that is the case, it implies he should be able to save anywhere and they wouldn’t be in that situation to begin with.)

This happens again at the end of route A/B, albeit with slightly different circumstances. 9S is infected and so he cannot be backed up in his current state to the Bunker. However, he still has a backup from maybe an hour ago before the fighting starting, so why does it matter so much that he’s going to die there? Again, when he comes back he’s not going to remember how he helped save the world, but that’s really not a big deal in the grand scheme of things and 2B will have a super rad story to tell him when he wakes up on the Bunker.

Things get weird though, because 9S saved himself on the machines nearby before he died. I’m very unclear on what happened between the ending of A/B and the beginning of C because he’s back in his body as if nothing happened, seemingly remembering everything, and nobody mentions it. I’m not sure how he got there, what happened to the 9S in the machine, how he got to the Bunker, and so on. If the 9S in the machine at the end of A/B is the same one you see at in route C, that seems like a huge liability and is probably the source of the infection that wipes out the Bunker. This whole thing raises a lot of questions, but this seems like the kind of thing that will get addressed in due time. There are some very important scenes that happened in between A/B and C that, at least where I am in the game anyway, we didn’t see.

For being such a central and defining feature of the plot and the game’s themes, I feel like the mechanics of android death and revival need very clearly defined rules. Which, they do have, but the characters opinions on it seem to contradict it sometimes for the sake of dramatic cutscenes and relationships. They act as if they don’t know how it works when there’s no reason they wouldn’t.

Ignoring the character’s opinions, this is my understanding of how it works:

1. To respawn requires some server in the Bunker. If the Bunker is destroyed, that means all androids lose this capability, and so when they die, there is no coming back.

2. Only YoRHa androids can access the server in the Bunker, which means only androids like 2B, 9S, and so on can respawn. Resistance members universally talk about death as if it is very permanent. I was confused about this for a while, but thinking about it’s easily explained as their designs being too old to be compatible with whatever technology drives the whole resurrection system.

3. Some level of communication must exist between an android and the Bunker at the moment of death. 11B’s death provides this example. After getting stuck, 11B wants to respawn back at the Bunker, but cannot because her communication systems are completely destroyed. 11B is one of the three examples I can think of off the top of my head where the resurrection process fails.

4. When androids respawn, they come back based on their last save/backup. This means that whenever they die, they lose memories of whatever happened between their last backup and up to the point where they died. It sucks, but they’re soldiers, and it’s something they should be well aware of and used to. All things considered, that’s really not a big price to pay for what’s effectively immortality.

As a corollary to this, there are two clear ways for a YoRHa android to permanently die:

1. Communication with the Bunker is completely cut off, meaning that the Bunker will never get the trigger that boots up the backup of an android in a backup body. The only example I recall of this happening to this degree was when an android’s communication system was completely destroyed, which seems to be an extremely rare occurrence.

(This process raises a lot of the same questions that come up when discussing transporters, but I’m willing to overlook that for the same reason most fiction does. It starts getting into questions about souls, which to be fair Nier makes explicit reference to in the Project Gestalt archives. Maybe there’s more to this?)

2. The Bunker itself is destroyed and so the mechanism by which androids respawn is completely broken. There doesn’t appear to be a backup of any kind for this system. As of route C, this is now the case. 2B dies and she’s now really dead. Meanwhile 9S is still alive, but if he dies now, he dies for real.

(This also raises the question of where do androids come from in the first place, which is something I don’t know but I suspect will be answered eventually.)

As an aside, 2B’s memories are in her sword now. It’s not clear how important an android’s “memories” are in terms of the backing up process. If all it takes is nebulously defined “memories” to respawn an android, then 2B will probably come back at the end of the game by restoring her memories into a new body. Whether or not your personality and thought processes are intrinsically stored in those memories seems like a question worth asking but that’s approaching a whole other philosophical discussion.

I could go on and on and on, but I think I’ve covered what has bugged me the most about the game (and then some) pretty well. In the process of writing this post, I ended up answering most of the questions I had going in. Just putting it to proverbial paper has made me think about a couple things and after reviewing a couple things I ended up answering my biggest question which was “how do androids die?”

[rat-game]

On Allegory and Authorial Intent

For my first real post I’d like to share this story from my personal life. It was the single most important event related to my game and I don’t think that will ever change. I wrote the story of my game in a way where at first I didn’t have a beat-by-beat script and I barely knew the locations and order of events, I had a rough idea of the themes and the way the story will shape but the very first thing I fleshed out apart from the battle mechanics, story-wise, were the characters. I’ll stay vague for now but the personality of the main 5 and the antagonist were fully formed at this point, I would do writing exercises where I’d have them talk about something completely unrelated to the game to flesh out their manner of speaking and interpersonal relationships (maybe I’ll post one of these in the future) and it felt incredibly natural, like chatting with a real person, I didn’t have to think about it whatsoever. At this time I was playing a game called Celeste (which I highly recommend btw). It’s a platformer about climbing a mountain, it has little story-segments in between stages where the main character talks to someone, I won’t recount the story here but in one scene the MC (main character) says in no uncertain terms that climbing the mountain is an allegory for her struggle with anxiety. One of the level mechanics is a chase-scene autoscroller where an evil version of the MC chases the MC around, taunting her. Story-segments containing the evil version make it very clear that the evil version an allegory as well, it’s an anthropomorphized manifestation of the MCs inner struggle, her inner critic and her low self-esteem. Throughout the game the MC learns to work with the evil version rather then against it. Empathizing with it and working together will help them longterm and make them (literally) stronger. Now, I’m going to be honest and say that I don’t think celeste is very well written, it’s not particularly subtle and also it’s unspecific enough to make basically everybody be able to project their internal struggles onto the story. I read in an interview that the games designer, Matt Thorson, himself struggled with anxiety and depression. He talked about how finishing the game became his “mountain to climb”. After watching this in-game cutscene, I suddenly completely broke down sobbing for what felt like hours. I didn’t really know why at first, my body just reacted. Interestingly this wasn’t at all because celestes story resonated, I wasn’t attached to the mountain metaphor or the evil self-doubt version or anything inside the game at all, none of that had any direct impact on me emotionally. Why then, did I break down?

Well, it was because I... I realized that I wrote my games story as an allegory for my life. I’m just going to assert that you believe me when I talk about this so and skip to the next question: “Wtf does this mean and how did you not know that? How do you write something down - in detail - and not realize it’s literally you?” Now this will probably illicit a strong reaction in some readers, so I’d like to give context to this: I have a mental disorder called OSDD (better known as DID: Dissociative Identity Disorder). It’s a trauma disorder that forms from prolonged repeated life-threatening trauma from the ages of 4 to about 9. Many people know this as “Multiple Personality Disorder” (this terminology has been deprecated for over 25 years, please give the wiki article a read to educated yourself on this). It presents as a person having multiple distinct, disjunct personality states. Each state has their own identity, their own body image, tastes and personality and most crucially: their own memory. During formation of the personality in childhood, the brains way to handle the terrible trauma-inducing things is to encapsulate them, to store them away in another personality, wrapping it in total or partial amnesia so the childs main personality can be unaffected . If the brain didn’t do this, the child would seize to function. I think the best way of introducing this concept to people is with soldiers: A soldiers personality is intentionally split during training, they have their regular self, functioning in society and with their family like a regular person, and they have their “soldier” self. The latter is the person fighting in active combat, able to kill or see their friends be killed without second though about it, able to take tremendous amounts of stress and pain while still functioning. The “soldier” personality state is the difference between a swat member clearing and entire complex, gunning down dozens of opposing soldiers without a second thought and a regular person in a disaster scenario, fearing for their life and breaking down from the stress because of it. Unable to think, move or maybe even save themself. I won’t go into specific detail but for my case, I know of 5 of those states in me. For the attentive of you, you may recognize that number: Every of the main characters in my game are literally one of my personality states. I’m not using literally fallaciously here, they’re not representation of them, they’re literally the personality state plugged out of the context of the real world and my brain and into the context of the game. This explains why writing dialogue for them felt so natural immediately, it’s what happens every day, every minute of every hour inside my head. I don’t have a singular inner voice, I have multiple. If I think about what to cook for dinner tonight, two of the states may argue about what they want, if I fail at an exam some of them may want to support me to feel better while others want to punish me and make me feel even worse. All 5 of those are in my game, you can imagine which of them will be the supporting cast and which of them will be the villain.

I actually stated that the games story is an allegory of my life, so how does entirety of the games story fit that description? For that I need to explain a little bit further, I’ll go into actual detail at a later point but my games story revolves around a hivemind that has taken over the world. This has already happened, the damage is done and irreversible and the entire world has been restructured or destroyed because of this. The main party was assembled from circumstance but has a main goal of “defeating the evil”. They force themself further and further into the center of the hiveminds society, believing that if they can defeat the core, the world will be saved. Spoiler alert: it won’t. It’s over, you lost before you even started playing. You can’t do anything about it but it’s still emotionally valuable to want to try. To just do your best just so you can say that you didn’t give up. As long as you fight, things will get better. Not because the evil is getting weakened but because you, as a person, will grow and heal and get used to the way the world is. I want you to read the past couple of sentences again. Done? You might have noticed that this sounds a lot like something a trauma therapist would tell their patient. You can’t “heal” trauma, you can’t revert the fact that a person is traumatized. It’s not possible for it to ever go away. Actual healing requires accepting this fact, learning how to work with the circumstances in order to be able to live a fulfilling life. That’s what I mean with the story being an allegory, the hivemind is basically trauma itself, fighting it mirrors the healing process, the entire party is literally me and their fight and the mechanics and ways to “win” are the same as with my healing process.

Now that you know what part of my game is allegorical, you may still ask: “How did you not notice this while coming up with the idea?” Supposedly the game retroactively became high-concept allegory for something incredibly personal to me, how could that have gone unnoticed and unconscious for so long? I honestly can’t answer that. Instead I’d like to instead share how my therapist answered that question: “maybe... someone else just wanted this to help you”

[softcoregamer]

Top 5 games I played in 2016

I actually played some games made in 2016 in 2016, for once.

honorable mentions

Dragon Age Inquisition has some interesting looking wrinkles to the Chosen One RPG formula- for one you can pretty much decide whether you believe you actually ARE the Chosen One, and the game looks quite reactive to things like class and race choice.  I like the high concept of the story but can’t stand Bioware’s dialogue, and the combat didn’t do much for me in the few hours I played, but I’m sure I’ll pick it back up properly at some point.

Unravel is a charming puzzle-platformer which makes good use of diegtic elements to feel organic and natural, which sometimes works against it because it can be hard to tell what bits of the environment can be manipulated to progress.  I’m a little embarrassed to admit that this game, while it looks beautiful, just isn’t flashy enough to convince me to spend that much time with it.

Doom 4, or D44m (there is already a game just called Doom, you philistines) kind of came out of nowhere; everyone was expecting it to be a nu-FPS trudge through halls of blobs that are called Cacodemons for brand recognition.  Instead it’s a fast-paced, blood-soaked, surprisingly-colourful romp through halls of blobs that are called Cacodemons for brand recognition.  I rented it on PS4 and will definitely buy it at some point when I upgrade my PC.  I have trouble justifying any PS4 purchase because almost every single game I’ve played on it has loading times that would have to be cut in half for me to consider them unacceptably long, and this game is no exception.

dishonorable mentions

Fallout 4 stripped out the role playing from an iconic role playing series and replaced it with a settlement building minigame. Fuck off.

Bound is a feels platformer about a pregnant woman imagining her traumatic childhood memories as a princess made of triangles defending her kingdom from a monster. Instead of combat you dance to produce a force field which protects you from flames and swarming triangles. You have three dance moves but I couldn't see any difference in their effects. The platforming isn't very good and it's impossible to run off a ledge because they put invisible walls everywhere because they didn't want to frustrate players of their bullshit feels game by having gameplay. Bound robbed me of two hours of my life that I can never get back.

If I never hear another “the only reason to not like No Man’s Sky is if you are too intellectually enfeebled to comprehend how good it is” it will be too soon.

Anyway, onto the top 5!!!!

5: Batman: Arkham Knight

I barely have any complaints about this game, but not much stands out as great either. The gameplay is polished and there’s a good amount of variety in side missions, the graphics are spectacular, it’s got great Batmanfeel with heft and weight to your actions, mixing up the brawling with an acceptable video game approximation of detective work. The Batmobile/Bat-tank is used way too much, though, and while the cutscenes are excellent the story is middle-of-the-road, and much of the gameplay is a bit too familar after the previous two games.  The PC release was atrocious and I’ve got no idea if it remains so since I played this on PS4. Overall I can see myself giving the DLC season pass a try, which is a huge mark in a game’s favour.

4: Brigador

Gorgeous looking isometric tank shooter.  The totalitarian dictator of the planet Novo Solo has been assassinated, and the invading Solo Nobre Concern is hiring independent contractors (that’s you!) to soften up the capital city for their takeover by destroying high-value targets, orbital cannons, and any scenery that gets in your way. It’s highly challenging, gameplay is smooth and slick, and it includes a huge selection of characters, vehicles and weapons, not to mention a banging soundtrack and an Official Novel which chronicles the adventures of several Solo Nobre soldiers trying to get through the last night of life as they know it.

3: Blue Revolver

Like all the best shmups Blue Revolver is like a diamond- a miraculous fusion of beauty and structural intricacy, small but perfectly formed, and absolutely rock hard.  It’s brutally difficult but scrupulously fair, punishing you with instant death when you slip up but always welcoming you back with a friendly smile to try again.  It goes out of its way to make itself accessible to newbies without being condescending, and I’ve seen it get high praise from genre veterans too.  It includes a selection of “missions” to train you to think like a shmupper, and provide extra challenges outside pure survival and score attack.  I don’t particularly like the art style or much of the music, but the gameplay is so good that this is going to be a fixture on my PC for years to come anyway.

2: The Witcher 3

CDProjekt Red’s action RPG is overrated but the “complete” edition is nonetheless consistently entertaining and great value for money, with my fairly thorough playthrough weighing in at nearly 140 hours(and not a radiant quest in sight), around 10 of which came from the first expansion, Hearts Of Stone, and nearly thirty from Blood And Wine- I’ve heard it said that B&W could almost have been sold full price as The Witcher 4, and I’m inclined to agree.  Get this game on PC if you can.

1: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

It’s difficult to place MGSV.  It’s clearly frustratingly incomplete- many missions have little weight to the story, there are few enemy types and encounter designs are samey, with the admittedly cool preparedness system (enemy equipment responds to your playstyle so sneaking around at night results in enemies wearing night vision goggles, headshots mean more helmets, etc) not actually doing that much to switch things up in the long run. The story is poorly paced, and feels a lot like the developer was struggling to balance a linear story with the linearity-unfriendly open-world genre.  Chapter 2 (of 2, with the online multiplayer component apparently constituting chapter 3) consists largely of harder versions of Chapter 1 missions- not “oh, you had to find a microfilm in that mission and now you have to find a microfilm in this one, but literally the other mission was called THE MICROFILM and this one is [EXTREME] THE MICROFILM.  Most of the story is told through audiologs, which go way too exposition-heavy and really feel like a last-minute solution to not being able to have more cutscenes because Konami turned off the money hose without warning.  A lot of the game feels like that, a first draft which would then be iterated on to get things right.  Obsidian Entertainment’s design director Josh Sawyer once roughly defined “alpha” as “you would cringe but eventually shrug if it went out in that state” and I think a lot of cringing and shrugging ended up happening at Kojima Productions.

And yet... the gameplay is clearly what they worked the hardest on for longest, and it’s as smooth and responsive as I’ve ever seen in a stealth game.  Whatever the last Metal Gear game was that I tried to play (maybe MGS3?) was nowhere near this in terms of deciding what you want to do and then doing it in an instant, without stumbling over which combination of buttons makes you go prone.  Add to that a ton of options, from smoke grenades to hide your escape, sleep grenades to knock enemies out, dummies to distract them, way too many types of guns, grenade launchers, rockets, a dog who will slit enemies’ throats for you and howl in triumph... And if you can divorce the story from it’s pacing it’s really great, surprisingly low-key and haunting for a military espionage thriller featuring a man with a mullet and eyepatch called Snake.  It’s all about the emptiness of revenge and the pain of loss, and about the lie at the heart of every myth about a Great Man, and about how if your circumstances dictate who you are then how do those circumstances come to be, who controls them, and why?  It’s shot through with references to two core concepts, phantoms and parasites, as you sneak around the battlefield as a mercenary, feeding off war(the ending reveals that...spoiler).  The story even makes the incomplete nature of the game feel kind of cool in a meta way- we feel the phantom pain of where the rest of the game should be.  It was our game!  Give it back!!  They played us like a damn fiddle!  That’s not enough to forgive everything, obviously, and the game really does suffer from a lack of content on par with the amount of playing it actually wants you to do(even at optimum efficiency it’d take well over 200 hours to unlock all the weapons and equipment) but it’s still resonating with me months later despite everything.  It’s hard to resist popping the game back in to collect some more soldiers for my base, maybe try the multiplayer and find some nukes to disarm for that special final cutscene.  It may be a disappointment to Metal Gear fans, but I’m not a Metal Gear fan, and I find it hard to justify putting it anywhere on my Top Games I Played In 2016 List except at number one.  It’s lame and unfinished, it sucks a big fat chode, and it’s one of the greatest games of all time.