Ok it's been like a whole two days, who has finished this, I want to talk about it
I finished it this evening.
I thought the game had a really strong mid-section.
I certainly see why people like the ending but didn't care for it.
I'd love to see a game (especially an 'art game') try to connect with its audience in a way that WASN'T killing one of the characters. I grant that I don't like character death in general, but literally the moment I saw someone say this game was 'emotional' I already knew the ending.
There are other ways to establish that two characters care about each other, and I thought that a re-bonding after the older brother kind of shrugs younger off for the girl would have been nice. Instead she murders him and there's no real making-up while they are still alive, which to me kind of spoiled the relationship.
Anyway it's a cool, beautiful game with a lot of neat mechanics and some fun adventure that's going to win all the video game oscars
I almost shut the game off when little brother goes to bury his brother and falls down to cry, yanking him from your control, and was extremely frustrated when the last shot was of the father weeping. There is such a thing as overdoing melancholy and sadness.
I almost shut the game off when little brother goes to bury his brother and falls down to cry, yanking him from your control, and was extremely frustrated when the last shot was of the father weeping. There is such a thing as overdoing melancholy and sadness.
As a younger brother, I seriously would not know what to do if either of my older brothers died. At the same time, I know it'll happen someday. I don't think I'll be able to play this game, to be honest. I'm already sad at the thought of it.
I almost shut the game off when little brother goes to bury his brother and falls down to cry, yanking him from your control, and was extremely frustrated when the last shot was of the father weeping. There is such a thing as overdoing melancholy and sadness.
As a younger brother, I seriously would not know what to do if either of my older brothers died. At the same time, I know it'll happen someday. I don't think I'll be able to play this game, to be honest. I'm already sad at the thought of it.
Yeah I mean, I felt like it would have been nice if the game gave some sort of message of "These things happen, and they are terrible, but it will be ok." There wasn't really anything like that.
When you first interact with the girl as the younger brother and she continuously kind of spurns you away from the older brother, I couldn't help but think that things wouldn't end well with her. My suspicions grew when, in the ice village, she CASUALLY JUMPS OVER A HUGE CHASM AND KICKS OPEN A HUGE GATE? Nope, nothing out of the ordinary... nothing to see here...
When you first interact with the girl as the younger brother and she continuously kind of spurns you away from the older brother, I couldn't help but think that things wouldn't end well with her. My suspicions grew when, in the ice village, she CASUALLY JUMPS OVER A HUGE CHASM AND KICKS OPEN A HUGE GATE? Nope, nothing out of the ordinary... nothing to see here...
Yeah I know you need to be fairly obvious since there is no dialogue but man
@Rankenphile: So, a compilation and explanation of kind of my feelings from earlier posts:
I'd love to see a game (especially an 'art game') try to connect with its audience in a way that WASN'T killing one of the characters. I grant that I don't like character death in general, but literally the moment I saw someone say this game was 'emotional' I already knew the ending. Telegraphing it to that extent (which kind of wasn't their fault I suppose, but even without that word it feels pretty inevitable) made me just wait for it to happen and then go 'yup' instead of being shocked.
There are other ways to establish that two characters care about each other and are deeply meaningful to each other, and I thought that a re-bonding after the older brother kind of shrugs younger off for the girl would have been nice. Instead she murders him and there's no real making-up while they are still alive, which to me kind of spoiled the relationship. The sense I got was less "these two brothers love each other very much" and more "The younger brother loves his brother but the older brother only does so when its convenient for him"
Also, I almost shut the game off when little brother goes to bury his brother and falls down to cry, yanking him from your control, and was extremely frustrated when the last shot was of the father weeping. There is such a thing as overdoing melancholy and sadness. The fact that that is the last shot, and the fact that there is no reconciliation between brothers makes me question what the message of this game is.
"Don't trust spider ladies?" I mean, there are a lot of messages you can get across with this kind of game. "Terrible things happen but it will eventually be ok", "Family is the most important thing", etc... but I don't feel like any of those were explored and because of the absolute lack of hope at the end it feels more like the message is just "life is terrible, suck it".
Character death can be done excellently, to carry on a games theme's. In Red Dead, the theme of revenge runs deep and John's death is used to explore that fully. I don't know what the point of the older brother's death is in this game, other than shock value, which doesn't even work because it's so obvious.
The more I think about it the more I dislike it and I feel it made the game feel like an exercise in futility in retrospect.
But my twitter is exploding with how amazing it is, so what do I know.
I got really excited about playing this with my bro when I saw the first trailer. Could I conceivably do that? Maybe with one of us on either end of the keyboard?
I got really excited about playing this with my bro when I saw the first trailer. Could I conceivably do that? Maybe with one of us on either end of the keyboard?
You could, but I think the a lot of what's special about the game would be lost
It's about two people acting as part of the same whole and getting the two brothers to cooperate. A lot about their personalities is informed by the way the game plays an I think you'd miss out on some of that if you're always looking at the one character.
Also the puzzles are already simple and just separating it into two parts I think you'd find the game mostly a bore
@Rankenphile: So, a compilation and explanation of kind of my feelings from earlier posts:
I'd love to see a game (especially an 'art game') try to connect with its audience in a way that WASN'T killing one of the characters. I grant that I don't like character death in general, but literally the moment I saw someone say this game was 'emotional' I already knew the ending. Telegraphing it to that extent (which kind of wasn't their fault I suppose, but even without that word it feels pretty inevitable) made me just wait for it to happen and then go 'yup' instead of being shocked.
There are other ways to establish that two characters care about each other and are deeply meaningful to each other, and I thought that a re-bonding after the older brother kind of shrugs younger off for the girl would have been nice. Instead she murders him and there's no real making-up while they are still alive, which to me kind of spoiled the relationship. The sense I got was less "these two brothers love each other very much" and more "The younger brother loves his brother but the older brother only does so when its convenient for him"
Also, I almost shut the game off when little brother goes to bury his brother and falls down to cry, yanking him from your control, and was extremely frustrated when the last shot was of the father weeping. There is such a thing as overdoing melancholy and sadness. The fact that that is the last shot, and the fact that there is no reconciliation between brothers makes me question what the message of this game is.
"Don't trust spider ladies?" I mean, there are a lot of messages you can get across with this kind of game. "Terrible things happen but it will eventually be ok", "Family is the most important thing", etc... but I don't feel like any of those were explored and because of the absolute lack of hope at the end it feels more like the message is just "life is terrible, suck it".
Character death can be done excellently, to carry on a games theme's. In Red Dead, the theme of revenge runs deep and John's death is used to explore that fully. I don't know what the point of the older brother's death is in this game, other than shock value, which doesn't even work because it's so obvious.
The more I think about it the more I dislike it and I feel it made the game feel like an exercise in futility in retrospect.
But my twitter is exploding with how amazing it is, so what do I know.
That's fair.
I think the larger message, after the brother died, was that the younger brother had to learn to be strong, to be the bigger brother now that he didn't have the help he could once count on. That's what made the ending so special, to me. The fact that you had to use the older brother's trigger in order to swim across the water was an incredible moment of realization that the player had to come to on their own, emulating the process of discovery that the character was going through.
The whole game is less about how these two boys care for each other and more about learning how to work together, which was perfectly mirrored by the control scheme. The player had to learn how to get their thumbs to cooperate, just as the boys did. As they continue their journey and things get more and more complex, they work together more in concert, often going through the same actions without speaking a word to each other.
The death itself and the melancholy drama was certainly overdone, I grant you that. But the fact that they allowed you to bury your brother through player action rather than showing it through a cinematic was a powerful choice, I thought, and to follow it with the moment of growth and revelation right afterward was beautiful. At least in my opinion. It told a lot about the process of grief, of needing to overcome and drawing strength from your ancestors, from your past, to carry on.
The final shot, with the father crying, was powerful. The boy standing there comforting his father is a role reversal from what is usually the standard, and is understandable -- the father, in real life, would have a ton of survivor's guilt to process. His eldest son died trying to save his life. Any man would be broken down by an event like that. For the younger son to stand there stoically, comforting his father, showed that he had accepted the role of the stronger brother, and was a nice way to finish the game.
Yes, the drama was overdone, and the acting through the animation was often a bit heavy, but for a game to pull off some of these revelations through player agency is something that has never really been done like this to my recollection, and was a triumph of melding mechanics and narrative.
@Rankenphile: So, a compilation and explanation of kind of my feelings from earlier posts:
I'd love to see a game (especially an 'art game') try to connect with its audience in a way that WASN'T killing one of the characters. I grant that I don't like character death in general, but literally the moment I saw someone say this game was 'emotional' I already knew the ending. Telegraphing it to that extent (which kind of wasn't their fault I suppose, but even without that word it feels pretty inevitable) made me just wait for it to happen and then go 'yup' instead of being shocked.
There are other ways to establish that two characters care about each other and are deeply meaningful to each other, and I thought that a re-bonding after the older brother kind of shrugs younger off for the girl would have been nice. Instead she murders him and there's no real making-up while they are still alive, which to me kind of spoiled the relationship. The sense I got was less "these two brothers love each other very much" and more "The younger brother loves his brother but the older brother only does so when its convenient for him"
Also, I almost shut the game off when little brother goes to bury his brother and falls down to cry, yanking him from your control, and was extremely frustrated when the last shot was of the father weeping. There is such a thing as overdoing melancholy and sadness. The fact that that is the last shot, and the fact that there is no reconciliation between brothers makes me question what the message of this game is.
"Don't trust spider ladies?" I mean, there are a lot of messages you can get across with this kind of game. "Terrible things happen but it will eventually be ok", "Family is the most important thing", etc... but I don't feel like any of those were explored and because of the absolute lack of hope at the end it feels more like the message is just "life is terrible, suck it".
Character death can be done excellently, to carry on a games theme's. In Red Dead, the theme of revenge runs deep and John's death is used to explore that fully. I don't know what the point of the older brother's death is in this game, other than shock value, which doesn't even work because it's so obvious.
The more I think about it the more I dislike it and I feel it made the game feel like an exercise in futility in retrospect.
But my twitter is exploding with how amazing it is, so what do I know.
That's fair.
I think the larger message, after the brother died, was that the younger brother had to learn to be strong, to be the bigger brother now that he didn't have the help he could once count on. That's what made the ending so special, to me. The fact that you had to use the older brother's trigger in order to swim across the water was an incredible moment of realization that the player had to come to on their own, emulating the process of discovery that the character was going through.
The whole game is less about how these two boys care for each other and more about learning how to work together, which was perfectly mirrored by the control scheme. The player had to learn how to get their thumbs to cooperate, just as the boys did. As they continue their journey and things get more and more complex, they work together more in concert, often going through the same actions without speaking a word to each other.
The death itself and the melancholy drama was certainly overdone, I grant you that. But the fact that they allowed you to bury your brother through player action rather than showing it through a cinematic was a powerful choice, I thought, and to follow it with the moment of growth and revelation right afterward was beautiful. At least in my opinion. It told a lot about the process of grief, of needing to overcome and drawing strength from your ancestors, from your past, to carry on.
The final shot, with the father crying, was powerful. The boy standing there comforting his father is a role reversal from what is usually the standard, and is understandable -- the father, in real life, would have a ton of survivor's guilt to process. His eldest son died trying to save his life. Any man would be broken down by an event like that. For the younger son to stand there stoically, comforting his father, showed that he had accepted the role of the stronger brother, and was a nice way to finish the game.
Yes, the drama was overdone, and the acting through the animation was often a bit heavy, but for a game to pull off some of these revelations through player agency is something that has never really been done like this to my recollection, and was a triumph of melding mechanics and narrative.
Yeah those are all good points. I guess for me
the combination of seeing it coming and finding the whole ending far too hopeless in tone robbed it of a lot of impact.
But like I said there's a lot of good things about the game and I'd still recommend people play it.
by the women. When the younger brother expressed his doubts I was like, what? why? we started to climb into the spider hole and only then did I say yeah, I might not trust this person much anymore. Before that I was all "Gee I hope this girl lives because she is obviously the only character here who could possibly die"
The ridiculous acrobatic abilities she displayed? Well, if the younger brother can hang from a ledge while the older swings from a rope tied to their waists? It distorted my sense of reality I guess? I mean I laughed at how ridiculous her abilities were but it still didn't seem entirely impossible at the time. Maybe she's a Ninja?
Question, older brother is Tia (Teea?)
Younger is Nyeah? Nyah?
Posts
they have two
thrust and munch
Sure. You get to go in the tank first, though.
time to change my sig
Steam ID - VeldrinD | SS Post | Wishlist
It's out at the end of this month on Steam and PS3.
I finished it this evening.
I thought the game had a really strong mid-section.
I certainly see why people like the ending but didn't care for it.
There are other ways to establish that two characters care about each other, and I thought that a re-bonding after the older brother kind of shrugs younger off for the girl would have been nice. Instead she murders him and there's no real making-up while they are still alive, which to me kind of spoiled the relationship.
Anyway it's a cool, beautiful game with a lot of neat mechanics and some fun adventure that's going to win all the video game oscars
Just not my favorite thing this year.
Also http://au.ign.com/videos/2013/08/08/tmnt-out-of-the-shadows-single-player-commentary month of brotherly love!
I never saw this game coming and even though it wasn't a perfect experience it completely blew me away
The more I ruminate on it the more I feel like the ending robbed it of any deeper meaning for me
But there was enough there that I'm glad I spoke with my dollars to Star breeze
Do more things like this please
and then as soon as I realized what I should do I was just like HAHAHA HOLY SHIT HAHA WOOOOO for that sequence
The only ones I got were
@Rankenphile: So, a compilation and explanation of kind of my feelings from earlier posts:
There are other ways to establish that two characters care about each other and are deeply meaningful to each other, and I thought that a re-bonding after the older brother kind of shrugs younger off for the girl would have been nice. Instead she murders him and there's no real making-up while they are still alive, which to me kind of spoiled the relationship. The sense I got was less "these two brothers love each other very much" and more "The younger brother loves his brother but the older brother only does so when its convenient for him"
Also, I almost shut the game off when little brother goes to bury his brother and falls down to cry, yanking him from your control, and was extremely frustrated when the last shot was of the father weeping. There is such a thing as overdoing melancholy and sadness. The fact that that is the last shot, and the fact that there is no reconciliation between brothers makes me question what the message of this game is.
"Don't trust spider ladies?" I mean, there are a lot of messages you can get across with this kind of game. "Terrible things happen but it will eventually be ok", "Family is the most important thing", etc... but I don't feel like any of those were explored and because of the absolute lack of hope at the end it feels more like the message is just "life is terrible, suck it".
Character death can be done excellently, to carry on a games theme's. In Red Dead, the theme of revenge runs deep and John's death is used to explore that fully. I don't know what the point of the older brother's death is in this game, other than shock value, which doesn't even work because it's so obvious.
The more I think about it the more I dislike it and I feel it made the game feel like an exercise in futility in retrospect.
But my twitter is exploding with how amazing it is, so what do I know.
You could, but I think the a lot of what's special about the game would be lost
It's about two people acting as part of the same whole and getting the two brothers to cooperate. A lot about their personalities is informed by the way the game plays an I think you'd miss out on some of that if you're always looking at the one character.
Also the puzzles are already simple and just separating it into two parts I think you'd find the game mostly a bore
The whole game is less about how these two boys care for each other and more about learning how to work together, which was perfectly mirrored by the control scheme. The player had to learn how to get their thumbs to cooperate, just as the boys did. As they continue their journey and things get more and more complex, they work together more in concert, often going through the same actions without speaking a word to each other.
The death itself and the melancholy drama was certainly overdone, I grant you that. But the fact that they allowed you to bury your brother through player action rather than showing it through a cinematic was a powerful choice, I thought, and to follow it with the moment of growth and revelation right afterward was beautiful. At least in my opinion. It told a lot about the process of grief, of needing to overcome and drawing strength from your ancestors, from your past, to carry on.
The final shot, with the father crying, was powerful. The boy standing there comforting his father is a role reversal from what is usually the standard, and is understandable -- the father, in real life, would have a ton of survivor's guilt to process. His eldest son died trying to save his life. Any man would be broken down by an event like that. For the younger son to stand there stoically, comforting his father, showed that he had accepted the role of the stronger brother, and was a nice way to finish the game.
Yes, the drama was overdone, and the acting through the animation was often a bit heavy, but for a game to pull off some of these revelations through player agency is something that has never really been done like this to my recollection, and was a triumph of melding mechanics and narrative.
Yeah those are all good points. I guess for me
But like I said there's a lot of good things about the game and I'd still recommend people play it.
The ridiculous acrobatic abilities she displayed? Well, if the younger brother can hang from a ledge while the older swings from a rope tied to their waists? It distorted my sense of reality I guess? I mean I laughed at how ridiculous her abilities were but it still didn't seem entirely impossible at the time. Maybe she's a Ninja?
Question, older brother is Tia (Teea?)
Younger is Nyeah? Nyah?
NNID-InvisibleInk