Minor spoilers for Ghostwire: Tokyo
Butch:
OK, I'm doing the cold open early because a) I am at hockey and I'm bored and b) we need to give Looty another first:
A cold open where Butch leads with "I got nothing."
This, Looty, is an all too common open.
I got nothing.
Loothound:
Meh, it happens.
So I did the mission in the subway last night, where we go after the first Hannya henchmen dude. All that stuff I said about not needing to block anymore because Dodge is awesome…forget it. Dodging was no help against that guy, and I was so out of practice with blocking that I must have used about 2/3 of my healing stuff. Goddamn. I'm kind of annoyed that they have this habit of teleporting you to this otherworldly arena for the big fights—it had happened on one of the side missions, too (the hoarder house, maybe?). You just walked through this really nicely designed map area with levels, cover, interesting field of fire considerations, etc. and you don't get to use any of it for the big fight. Just a toe to toe slugfest. Kind of a letdown.
So, first thing I noticed about the boss guy is that he essentially has the same powers as we do. Kind of interesting, since it gives you the ides of what it would be like to face yourself. Then, du-duh-duhhhhh!, you WERE fighting yourself—only as a giant monster with horny eyes! Sort of.
So, if we're airing theories here, what if ALL of Hannya's minions are members of KK's team from the photo. We finish the mission, KK's body is being droned for evil Hannya plots, we go back to the old base of operations, we meet lady hacker from the old team in spirit form (kind of like KK was before possessing us). Will her body be behind the mask of the next mini boss? It would make a sensible lead up to Hannya being the scratched out face ex-team member guy like Butch thought.
You thought it, you can't unthink it!
Butch:
Oh "I got nothing" happens a lot. Often times, my "I got nothing" is followed by "Yeah, and it was Looty's night to play...so...." and things derail. But now, when it's Looty's night to play, here you are and we can be erudite!
What am I going to do with all these booze and nudity jokes?
I can totally see that being the progression of things. And I completely agree about these weird spectral arenas kind of sucking (yes, both the hoarder house and the bath house pulled that shit and it was annoying there, too).
When Femmy and I did this we talked on what we thought KK meant when he said "I can't kill it, it's me." Was that "I can't bring myself to do it?" Was it "If I kill it, I'll die (or something bad will happen to me?)" Was it "There's some spectral rule about a spirit attacking its body and there's a force field or something?" How'd you read that?
Feminina:
Ah, interesting theory that all Hannya's minions are from KK's old group! Maybe we'll run into Ed and...uh...Dale? Was that the name Ed mentioned in that recording?
Unrelated, but one thing I was thinking that doesn't necessarily fit with the 'we're in the afterlife' theory is the dogs and cats everywhere. I mean, animals are often credited with being able to see things humans can't so it's not impossible that dogs and cats (with their long history of connection to humans) could sort of exist in both worlds. Maybe they don't need to 'move on' the way human spirits do, and so they appear solid to us rather than looking like sparkly clouds, but they're just kind of hanging out in the human afterlife because it looks familiar, or to keep human spirits company for a while.
But their commentary if you read their thoughts...the dogs will often say things like "where are all the humans?" or otherwise indicate that they don't understand where everyone is. And a couple of times I've had cats say "the dogs are lost without humans but we cats will be fine" or something.
In both cases, they seem to be confirming the idea that there were plenty of people right here, in the world that we're currently inhabiting, and now there aren't. If this is meant to be the afterlife, would they perceive it as normally being full of people like that?
Although, maybe they would -- maybe it's normally crowded with human spirits pondering their mundane concerns individually, and the dogs and cats hang around to keep specific ones company, but Hannya's mystic whatever-it-is has made them disappear and/or pulled them into those clusters: whenever we absorb them with the paper dolls, it's always around 100 at a time, and maybe that's not normally how they hang out. Maybe that's what the dogs and cats are noticing.
I don't know. I'm not sure how to interpret this, but I did find it interesting that the animals are accustomed to seeing humans around, wherever we are.
Butch:
Oh right...them. Forgot about the regular animals. I keep being so weirded out by the freaky cats (as well as being amused that, in the absence of humans to run 7 11s two tailed cats step in) that I forgot there are all those normal dogs. Hmm.
Feminina:
Yes. On reflection, I don't know what to make of them. But perhaps answers will be forthcoming as we proceed.
Speaking of the two-tailed store cats, they also tend to greet us with "hey there, human," which suggests they can tell the difference between us and spirits of the dead who, presumably, don't do much shopping? But that's a minor discrepancy, and could be explained as "they see we're hanging on extra tight to our belief that we're still alive" or something.
Butch:
"Answers will be forthcoming." Ah, you're funny. Why do we always think answers will be forthcoming?
Well, maybe. We are only in chapter three.
Feminina:
They might be! You don't know this story won't wrap up neatly! Stranger things have happened, probably.
Butch:
True. We say Japan does weird stuff all the time. In a couple months, we'll be all "Japan did the strangest fucking thing! They made a game that made complete sense!!!!"
Loothound:
I'll have you know that there's no need to skimp on the booze and nudity jokes on account of one Mr. Looty O'Ladybrain, so don't despair Butch. I'm sure that you've noticed the clubs with the "No one under 18" signs on them (and possibly been disappointed that you can't walk through the curtains—no Duke Nukem' THIS game…)
Yeah, the more I think about it the more I think that this is actually a real disturbance in the real world. There are too many parts that don't fit that well to have this be the spirit realm. As far as KK not wanting to kill his body, I read that as him just being sentimental about it. He seemed totally surprised to see it, in a "what a dick move" kind of way and not a "what a clever ploy to keep me from fooling his plans" kind of way. I feel like if his corpse staying intact was important to KK's continued existence as a spirit it would have played a bit differently. Could easily be wrong, though.
Butch:
Oh there will be jokes. See, you joined on Monday, when my brain is still fairly functional. By Friday? I am often not capable of rational thought after about 1045 AM.
You joined us when I was at the summit of my energy and sanity. It is all downhill from here.
Take today. My kids, for reasons unknown, have half days on a regular basis. Today, they would have half days, but, for reasons unknown, the school is giving them a half day OF a half day. A quarter day? I don't think the busses left the front of the school. "Hey kids, just run in, wave to your teacher, come on back, I'll be here."
I'll stay erudite as long as I can.
Dear readers, there may well now be many a day, especially after HALF DAY where I stagger and fall, urging Femmy and Looty to carry on without me, as I pepper their intelligent discourse with garbled, crazed, non-sequitur references to tequila and sorceresses. So, you know, like the blog was, but with people being smart WHILE I do all of that.
You're gonna love it. It's gonna be great.
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