It’s that time again, random thoughts about something.
I recently played and finished Knights and Bikes, a new game by Double Fine and Foam Sword. And while I watched the credits roll, I couldn’t help, but ask myself a question. Was it real? By that, I mean did the events in the game really happen, or were they all in a little girl’s head? So, yeah I’m gonna ramble about a video game I finished just two days ago. And since this involves the end of the game I’m gonna say spoilers, now. Click on the read more link if you’re curious what the hell I’m babbling about.
Well, this really me trying to ponder something about the ending that I just do not understand. Namely, what the hell happened to Nessa? She’s there for the whole adventure, right up till they find the treasure. Then she says she has to go and Demelza wakes up on the rock alone, with honkers and gets rescued by her dad and a chopper pilot. Um, what just happened, here? I have a few ideas and I’m going to list them here, from least absurd to most.
1: It was all just a dream.
The whole thing was in Demelza’s head. She wound up on the rock, somehow and this whole adventure played out insider her head. The whole thing was Demelza’s way of dealing with recent events, her mother’s death, her father kinda falling apart and losing the golf course/ caravan park, Demelza wanting to help, but not knowing how an accident that destroyed Demelza’s caravan and all her stuff. There are, however, two issues with this.
1: What about Nessa? If this was true, Nessa would essentially be a figment of Demelza’s imagination. But, while the ending doesn’t outright say it, it heavily implies that Nessa is the chopper pilot’s daughter. So if Nessa’s real, how is this all in Demelza’s head? Did Demelza randomly see Nessa somewhere? Is the pilot’s daughter not Nessa, but someone who sounds a hell of a lot like her? Those would be some fairly healthy coincidences.
2. How the hell did Demelza get on that rock, if the whole thing was in her head? What, was she trying to help earn by offering rides in a homemade hot air balloon and a test flight went really wrong?
I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy this. If it was in Demelza’s head, how do you explain Nessa? Well, now that I’ve said I’m going to try to explain Nessa.
2: was all just a dream...kinda.
This is very similar to the last idea, with one massive twist. Nessa is a dream walker. Okay, try this. In this world, there are people who inherit a special gift. They are born with an incredibly advanced form of lucid dreaming. Not only can they control their own dreams, but they can also walk out of their dreams and into other people’s dreams.
Yeah, I know this is a bit out there. But, we’re talking a game that involves an ancient curse that can bring inanimate objects to life and curse people, and the severed head of an immortal knight was hanging in a cage only a few feet below the main character’s house. So compared to that a girl who can walk into other people’s dreams isn’t exactly off the map.
So, how does this go, exactly? Well Nessa is the chopper pilot’s daughter, she’s asleep somewhere, maybe a barracks, maybe military housing. Demelza somehow gets herself out on that rock and gets knocked cold. Nessa sense’s this and realizes that Demelza’s in massive trouble.
Seeing a lot of herself in Demelza and feeling sorry for her, Nessa digs into Demelza’s recent memories and uses them to concoct the adventure to keep Demelza’s mind active so she doesn’t slip into a coma and maybe die. Technically the events of the game were in Demelza’s head, but they were all crafted by Nessa to keep her alive. So yeah, Demelza’s gonna meet the pilot’s daughter, who is going to explain that yes they know each other, even though they haven’t physically met yet.
This one is a bit more out there, but it does explain how Nessa was involved if it was all in Demelza’s head. But, I think I can do better. Can I find a way to explain things if the events of the game really happened? Okay, buckle up people, it’s time to go cuckoo for coco-puffs.
3: Nessa and her dad are immortal.
Much like the night, Nessa and her dad somehow found their way to the treasure and looked inside, gaining immortality. Now, this was fun at first, after a while it started to get really annoying. Especially having to reinvent themselves every few decades to keep people from getting suspicious.
One day Nessa sensed someone getting close to finding the treasure. Maybe she gained a connection to it, or maybe she found some special magic object in the treasure, itself. I mean the knight said there were more than gold and jewels n there.
Not wanting someone else to get stuck in her shoes, Nessa decides to go to Penfurzie and work with the person to find the treasure, but her main goal is to stop this person from making the same mistake she did and avoiding the immortality. I am, of course, talking about...Demelza’s mom. Nessa managed to make friends with her and accompanied her on her exploration. She managed to convince Demela’s mom that the treasure just wasn’t worth it. But during the adventure, Nessa learns about the woman’s daughter, who sounds uncomfortably like her mother.
So Nessa decides to stay nearby, on the mainland. Sure enough, Demelza’s beginning to show signs that she could find the treasure. So Nessa decides to meet and make friends with Demelza, to make sure she’s there on Demelza’s adventure and can talk Demelza out of looking into the chest. But, this theory too has a couple of problems with it. Other than Nessa being a freaking highlander, I mean.
1: So, if they really were there, where did Nessa go? Did she have some kinda magic that could teleport her out of the castle? And if she did, why didn’t she take Demelza with her?
2: How did Demelza wind up unconscious back on the rock? Did Nessa knock her out and dump her there to make sure she didn’t change her mind?
3: How the hell did no one else notice the giant freaking sword in the sky? Did people just assume that there was some kind of fancy light show going on, in the rainy season, after all the tourists had left?
So, now that I’ve got that out of my system, here’s a few other things about the game that bug me.
Nessa contradicted herself. When they’re approaching the scrapyard, she says, this place is a lot like home. And when Demelza questions her, Nessa says that she might tell her someday. Then later on, after Demelza loses her caravan, Nessa says that she doesn’t have a home, either? I think there’s an explanation for this. If the pilot really is Nessa’ dad, Nessa is an army brat, getting dragged around all over the place, from post to post. That could easily make Nessa feel like she has no real home. As for the first line, maybe they were posted at a place near a scrapyard at some point?
On the way to get Nessa bike, the two run into an old lady who’s acting weird. Presumably, she’s possessed by the curse. Except, that we never see her again. She’s not part of any of the boss fights, nor do Nessa and Demelza ever remove the curse from her. Maybe she wasn’t cursed at all. Maybe she’s just an old lady, who’s gone a bit dotty. She’s fine when she takes her medicine, but if she forgets, she can do things like standing around, babbling and diving into bushes. The matter-of-fact way Demelza reacts to it leads me to believe she’s seen this before. Maybe the islanders just got used to the old lady’s oddness?
How the hell did ancient knights have access to levers and gears? Especially ones that can drastically alter the landscape?
For that matter, if no one had been up there for ages, how did all those electronic devices and engines get up there? And how did they get into the knight’s castle, for that matter?
Okay, how did no one notice an ancient manhole cover just sitting on a hill? I mean Demelza spotted for god’s sake. And that was after someone parked a caravan on top of it.
Why did Demelza’s dad stock pizza in the party room after the tourist season? Or were Demelza and Nessa munching on pizza that had been sitting around for at least a week?
Anyway, I’m gonna stop now..later.