Hello all! Victor’s last installment of Pointless Pretension got me thinking about the arguments that games can make by illiciting emotion. (If you haven’t read the latest Pointless Pretension there’s a link in the magic wordy box below my head.) Anyway, I began thinking about what Victor had said, and I must conceded that yes, many arguments created by video games are emotional, and yes these arguments tend to be some of the most powerful in video games (if done properly!), and yes my clean, analytical approach to understanding the arguments of video game can tend to undermine this aspect. So I’ve decided to do things a little differently this time. Instead of breaking things down and looking at the raw mechanics and core rules of the game, I’m going to roughly take us through the experience of a game, occasionally pulling back the veils here and there to show how the game is manipulating rules to illicit these emotions.
Now inherent in this method, I am going to have to talk in depth about a game and, in doing so, spoil ALOT of the game. Visa vie there are two ways for you, the view, to approach this video: either A, pause this in a moment when i tell you the game we are going to study and then go play through it yourself (by far my highest suggested choice), or B, you can continue watching and just accept the fact that the game will be spoiled for you. I am not going to get up on my soap box and demand that everyone must go play the game, but I do REAAAAAAAALLLLLLLYYYYYYYY suggest it.
Alright so with the disclaimers out of the way it’s time to unveil today’s game! What will it be? I know what you are all thinking, I’ll choose some big and emotionally powerful game like Shadow of the Colossus, or Bioshock, or one from the Silent Hill series. Well partly out of my desire to be as unusual as possible, and party due the fact that I can’t play through those games again at the moment, I have decided to do a far newer and less well known game: Bastion. Now I know what ya’ll are going to say, “Isn’t that the game that Victor was talking about?” Yes, yes it is. And no I’m not just copying him to make things easier, for the most part. No I chose Bastion because it is the first game I have played in a long while that perfectly utilized its game-play and sewed it so seamlessly into its narrative, all the while converging on a singular, well defined argument. And it is exactly this depth of accuracy and precision with every aspect of the game that allowed it to evoke the emotional power that it did. So now I suggest that you stop this video and go play the game. It’s available on Xbox Marketplace, as well as on Steam, for about fifteen dollars, and is worth every penny.
So here we go, I’m going to narrate my experience as I played through Bastion to the best of my ability. First off one of the most important factors that affected how I experienced the game was that I downloaded it from Steam on my laptop, seeing as I had no other way to get it. Now a funny thing about my laptop, it seems that the computer cannot recognize motions on the track pad while keys are being used. This meant that I could not move, or use a weapon, and aim at the same time. The effect this had will become quite clear in a moment.
But nevertheless, I downloaded the game and started. Immediately a husky-voiced narration and detailed, colorful scenery pulled me into the game-world. I learn that the world has been nearly completely destroyed by something called The Calamity, and that I, a silent protagonist simply named The Kid, must make my way to the Bastion, a place of refuge for my people in times of tragedy. The narrator introduced me to the style of storytelling that the game would implement by talking about how “Proper stories should start at the beginning. Ain’t so simple with this one.” This literary device keys the player into the mindset that this story isn’t quite what it seems, and it is this very theme of uncertainty that plays a major role in the emotional argument of the game. As I begin to control the main character, I immediately am confronted with two of the major mechanics of the Bastion: the responsive narrative, and the reconstruction of the world around the Kid.
The responsive narrative, while being one of the most ingenious forms of story telling in any video game I have ever seen, is also an incredible device for the developing the emotional argument of the game. As you the player interact with your surroundings, destroying stuff, fighting enemies, exploring, ect, the narrator comments on every action in a slightly altered past tense. For example, when i first began the tutorial level, my personal disposition lead me to spend five minutes or so simply wandering around a “room” destroying every piece of intractable material I could. The narrator, without a bet, reacts by saying, “The kid just rages for a while. Can’t rightly blame him.” With this little snip of dialogue, the narration not only helps to keep the player immersed in the game world, but also helps to flesh out our understanding of the Kid. This simple act creates a strong link in the player’s mind between exploring what can be done in the world, and the development of the story and characters. This is not only ingenious, but powerfully addictive. I would find myself early in the game spending ten minutes in a room doing anything I could think of to try and squeeze a few more words from the narrator.
But the responsive narrative also has an even more powerful effect, one that, though it borders on the subconscious, significantly develops the emotional argument. As the player realizes that everything they do can be accounted for by the narrator, that no matter what I do, he will be able to work it into the overlying story, we become aware, if only subconsciously, that we in effect have no power. No matter what we as the protagonist do, we cannot ultimately change the unfolding story. The simple use of past tense by the narrative cements this understanding.
The second quickly apparent mechanic is that of the reconstruction of the world around the Kid. Due to the Calamity, the world surrounding the kid has literally been torn apart. When we first play the Kid is laying on a bed floating in the midst of chaos. As the Kid gets up, however, bits of the world begin to materialize underneath him, “Ground forms benieth his feet, as if to lead the way. He don’t stop to wonder why.” Initially this materialization gives the player an exalted feeling, as if the world is at his command. But it is soon realized that the world will only ever materialize in one particular way, although it seemed as if there were endless possibilities, the Kid is actually helpless as to where he goes, and yet he continues just the same.
Eventually, after defeating monsters left over from the calamity and essentially beating the tutorial, The Kid finally reaches the Bastion, where we at last meet another person, an old man named Rucks, who just happens to be narrator of the story. Rucks then tells the kid that the Bastion can undo the carnage of the Calamity, if the Kid can collect enough powerful crystals known as Shards. Thus we begin on a standard collection based rpg. But the game does not use this archetype as the actual plot of the game, but rather as a means to develop the plot. As the Kid sets off into the wreckage of the calamity and the wild in search of shards, the narration continues to be told in the past tense.
As the Kid brings each new shard back from the wreckage, the bastion grows and becomes more impressive, as the player is allowed to create new buildings such as Armories and Distilleries and Forges. Each of these buildings help the player to develop his combat abilities in different ways. Two of the most important are the Forge and Armory, which help the player develop the wide variety of weapons he obtains during his quest for the shards. There are a total of eleven different weapons that the player can choose from, being allowed to equip two at any given time. Each weapon in turn can be upgraded using items found in the levels or earned in challenges. The items are relatively easy to obtain, and the large variety of weapons offers a huge possibility for combat. But with every upgrade the player makes to a weapon, he must pick between two very different and well balanced bonuses; for instance the first upgrade for a weapon called the Breaker’s Bow has the player choose between a +2 penetration bonus, or a +25% draw speed. These balances not only keep the development of the weapons engaging, but also tend to develop a sense of seriousness in our choices, as well as having to choose between two incomparable options. This emotional effect greatly adds to the overall argument.
There are perplexing bits of change in the game, however. Despite having to fight hoards of creatures who’s only fault were being thrown in between you and the shard, after the Kid completes an area, one of the very creature, such as a squrt or a baby anklegator, are domesticated and become allies, dwelling in the friendly safety of the Bastion. These little abnormalities, while few and small, prepare for a much greater event further in the game.
As the Kid progresses through each of the levels, one cannot help but be impacted by the crushing loneliness of it all. The Kid is all by himself in a world that is not only massive and intimidating, but also literally forbids him from choosing his own path. The Kid, and the player, are both forced to proceed along the road plotted for them, in places completely devoid of other people. Occasionally the Kid would happen upon statue like figures of people he once knew, but they were long dead and dissolve into dust if touched. To be true the Kid is not completely alone, for he had Rucks, and soon he meets another person by the name of Zulf. But these characters are purposely designed to neglect that need for companionship. They offer little to no dialogue, and in the case of Zulf, introduced only to develop the relationship between the city dwelling Caledonians, which the Kid and Ruks are part of, and the Ura, a race of people who live underground and support the Caledonian city. With the addition of Zulf, an Ura, the player slowly learns of this relationship between the two peoples and that the Ura had once attempted to rebel, envious of the Caledonian people’s capability to thrive above ground, but they failed miserably.
This backstory and the crushing sence of lonliness combine in a beautifuly emotional apex at the end of a level called Prosper Bluffs, when a faint melody begins to overtake they typical battle music. The sound gets stronger and stronger until finally you burst your way into a meadow, where the song fills the air, sung by a young girl kneeling by a small pond. The emotion that hits the player is overwhelming. Finally another person, The Kids age, possibly a romantic interest, who is singing a deep, soulful song, an act that set her apart as a relateable, vulnerable character. But then it happens, the player starts to listen to the song that is being sung. “I dig my hole you build a wall, I did my hole you build a wall, One day that wall is ganna fall.” We realize she is an Ura, and subconsciously we characterize her as an “other”, we distance her in our subconscious. She, who was one of the greatest possibilities, became a hopeless endeavor.
With the arrival of Zia in the Bastion the four survivors soon became fast friends, “The calamity has that effect on people.” But she was not the only thing the Kid brought back from Prosper Bluff. He also found a journal, identified by Zia as belonging to her father, an Ura refugee who worked as a scientist in Caledonia. The journal was written in Uran, and only Zulf was able to read it.
With the arrival of Zia I became aware of another aspect of the Bastion: the “Who knows where” levels. These levels were caused by different things which made the Kid pass out (a cooking pot in which Zia made delicious food, Zulf’s pipe, and a bed roll). The player then experienced a dream type level in which the Kid had to defeat waves of enemies. From a gameplay standpoint, the Who Knows Where levels allow they player to test different weapon combinations and earn more experience and fragments, the currency used in the game which allows the player to purchase different upgrade items. But there is another, unique purpose of the Who Knows Where levels. During the waves of enemies, Ruks is continuously narrating the back stories of one of the three other characters. For example, when the player uses the Cooking Pot, that Who Knows Where tells the story of Zia, who was the daughter of an Ura refugee who was found in Calledonia after the Rebellion. These back-stories add depth and understanding to the story without having to force the player to sit there and listen for minutes. Also, the addition of fragments and experience that is gained in the Who Knows Where’s incentivize the back-stories and allow players who would otherwise not sit through the narration get the deeper understanding of the plot.
Finally, after another level, The Kid returns to discover that Zulf had stormed off and had severely damaged the Monument, the central mechanism of the Bastion which contained the recovered shards. Ruks tells the Kid that Zulf had stormed off and left a note for Zia which said that if she wanted to know the true story of the Calamity, she should go find him. With the Monument damaged, the Kid has to go even further into the wild to recover more, smaller pieces of shards to restore the Bastion. It is revealed in these quests that the shards themselves actually contained within them all the information of the time they experienced, like historians. It is this property that the Bastion would use to restore the world.
Upon returning with the final pieces, The Kid discovers that A group of Ura had survived and attacked the Bastion, stealing the final piece of shard needed to fully power the Bastion. The Kid fights off the intruders, and more importantly, is aided by the creatures he had befriended along his journey, several of whom perish protecting the Bastion. Thus The Kid goes off to the Tazal Terminals, the entrance to the under-gound cities of the Ura, to confront them once and for all. It is neccessary to note here that leading up to this point, all of the narration has tilted the player, or atleast myself, to believe that the Ura had caused the Calamity to get back at the Caledonians. But as The Kid lands at the Terminals and begins the final level, Ruks admits that this is not the case. The Caledonians, primarily with the help of Zia’s father, had created the weapon that caused the Calamity, which was designed to seal the earth so that the Ura could never rebel again. Zia’s father had discovered the intent of the weapon and sabatoged it. Unfortunatly the use of the sabatoged weapon lead to the earth wrenching itself to pieces. The Caledonians had accounted for this possibility, Ruks explaines, and thus they created the Bastion, which would restore the world to it’s proper glory.
It is exceedingly important to note that three singularly crucial rule changing things happen at this point in the final level. First, the Kid gains a battering ram as a weapon. This weapon makes the subsequent battles far easier, and allows the player to focus more on the Narration than the fighting, and also signals that how this story will end wont depend on the players ability to fight. Second, the player gains the ability to jump from one platform to another. While this may seem insignificant, it represents a powerful subconcious shift. As stated earlier, the platforms had taken away the Kids ability to choose his own path. By allowing the player to overcome this limitation, it signals the beigining of a shift in thought. That perhaps, by courage and will, certain limitations can be overcome, he can choose his own path. Finally, Ruks narration shifts from a past tense to a present tense. This releases the limitation that had been discussed earlier and gives the player a sense that they can control what happens next.
At this point Ruks reveals something deeply important. When the Bastion activates, it wont simply restore the world, it will revert it. The Bastion will rewind time to before the Calamity. All that happened, even all of the charecters as they are now, will cease to be. But at length he reveals that there is another possability. In case the Bastion was too far damaged, it could use the power stored in the shards to become airborn, allowing for the refugees of Caledonia to exodis and look for a place where they could rebuild.
Meanwhile, the Kid catches up to Zulf and the Ura, but, after defeating a large majority of the opposition, stubles upon something unexpected. We come across several Ura who are beating up Zulf, angry at him for having inadvertantly leading the Kid to them. The Ura flee, and leave a badly wounded Zulf lying helpessly on the ground. At this point the player is given two options: To either forsake Zulf and take his final revenge on the Ura, or give up the all poweful battering ram to carry the near death man to safety. This represents the first chance for the player to possably change the cycle of hate which up till now seemed so invinceable. But to do so would risk death. Infact, if the player chooses to carry Zulf, then he will begin slowly walking towards the exit, being bombarded by the Ura. However, just before the player dies, the Ura stop firing. One by one they take a pose of respect for the Kid, and even assault one of their own who still attempted to attack. There was great risk in the decision, but also a great gain. Thus the kid gains the final shard. We return to the Bastion, and are given the decision: Return to the past, being safe in the certainty of the cycles of the world trying to undo as many of our past mistakes as possible, or branch out into the dangerous and uncertain unknown, accepting our mistakes and attempting to learn from them.
Bastion reflects to us our own sense of helplessness towards the endless cycles of hate in this world, and looks us dead in the face, confronting us and asking if we have the courage to brave the dangerous uncertainties of the unknown. This is the core of the emotional argument, and all of the little emotional arguments beforehand all slowly evolve and prepair the player for this point.
So there ya go! I hope that to those of you who played the game then read this, it helped you better understand not only the argument of the game itslef, but also how the game affected you in the ways that it did. To those of you who didn’t play before reading this, I really hope that, despite the spoilers, you are intrigued enough to buy the game for yourselves, for although I did hit the key points, I had to shamefully cut many crucial parts in order to compact this analysis sufficiantly. Well, see you all next time!
Keep Gaming my friends, and always rememer to look underneath the underneath.
Sincerely,
Patrick (The N Factor)
