Spoilers for the end of Jusant
Butch:
OK, done. I'm pondering. I have thoughts, but I must organize them.
That was rather abstract, wasn't it?
And, that last climb, game, you just aren't going to give me a save point one last time, are you?
Loothound:
Yeah, what an ending. Magical space whales, like in that Star Trek movie. Takeaway…is there really a takeaway?
I loved the tower climb on that last level. Great challenge and really nice looking.
I gave up on the trophy hunting on this game, though. Every time I had a mind to play I would find reasons to do something else, which is a good sign that my heart's not in it. So, I unwrapped my copy of Battlefield 2047 that had been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years and started playing that. There's no story to get involved with, so It'll be easy to put down IF THERE'S EVER A GODDAMN REASON TO DO SO!
Butch:
I...think there was a takeaway?
One of the last Bianca letters I found was about how everyone but her grabbed harpoons and tried to capture/kill a ballast to bring it back. They all disappeared. Dark. So, I think it was flirting with the whole eco-parable thing. Trying to exploit nature didn't work, caused harm. Loving nature, nurturing it, led to salvation. Somehow. Because happy space whales. And horns. The specifics are, what's the word, bananas, if there are any specifics, but we certainly have a juxtaposition of dudes with harpoons and our hero, hugging the ballast. Which he got...um...somewhere.
It's abstract, for sure.
And what was with that last fresco poem being all "I shall wait until you return, my love?" What? There was a lot of "What?"
I went and checked my collectibles for each chapter and I don't feel as bad, as I guess I got more of them than I thought I did. Missed some Bianca, though, and that's where most of the story was.
Gameplay thought: Why on earth didn't they use the wind mechanic more? That was in there so briefly, and it was so cool. They could've done so much more with that! Instead, it showed up, had a cup of coffee, and that was it.
I'm with you though about trophies, and really, feeling like that about the game. I liked it, I did, but I didn't find myself all "Oooo! Almost game time! Can't wait!" like I am with some games. Not sure why.
Loothound:
I mean, yes, the eco-parable thing is pretty clear. I'm just a bit unclear on exactly how we're supposed to end it. I mean, it seems like the lack of water issue was building up over a long time and that some of the more obviously problematic things that people were doing later were out of desperation. I'm mostly thrown about what we're supposed to make of all the water basically leaving the planet and just going to hang out in space, while the ballasts (magical space whales) just sort of…what, gave up and took a nap in the snow?
I mean, it definitely feels like "pay attention to the environment and love it," but it's tough to wrap my head around how we're supposed to read that.
Butch:
It was certainly odd. Many questions remain. Why, as you say, did they go there to freeze? Did someone have to blow these horns regularly, and, if so, why didn't they just do that? What are these horns, anyway? Where did baby ballast come from and why was it so special? What the hell was with the fresco poem?
You sort of expect as much from a gameplay focused (as opposed to narrative focused) game. You can hear the board meeting:
Developer: I have this great idea for a game. It'll have these puzzles based on climbing and swinging on rope, with all these mechanics. It'll be really pretty, too!
Boss: Cool! Sound neat. So, why is the dude climbing?
Developer: Um...........(long, long, LONG pause).........um.....
Feminina:
Yeah, I think it was meant to end on a note of hope (rain! wonder! magic!), but what the practical implications of that are is very vague.
Is water going to return to the parched lands far below and save whatever human society remains, if any? Or is this just the last place in the world that it rains, and it's going to sink into the tower and provide enough moisture for the plants and crawly/floaty things to live and that's the natural ending?
Extremely unclear.
Loothound:
Yeah, and is the sun going to start moving again? Also, what's with the protagonist's people. There are some, right? What's their deal?
Feminina:
One would ASSUME there are some, but since we never saw them, who knows? Maybe the kid and the ballast are both the last of their kind on the planet.
It's all very vague.
Perhaps this is because it is very French. I feel like the European approach to narrative isn't as fixated on wrapping up loose ends as we're used to.
Loothound:
Yeah, I can see that. Like, it has a moral but not a point, or something. Dang it…clean explanations are so tidy, though. Ambiguity is so…nah, it's fine. Things can be more felt than understood.
Feminina:
It seems like maybe there's more tolerance of "yeah, we don't know. Life is weird. Here's some really great mood, though."
And we're all sitting here saying "yeah, but WHAT HAPPENED?"
And they say "pfa, you unsubtle Americans! You think because there are not gunfights and explosions nothing happened!"
And we say "well, gunfights and explosions and some clue about what's even going on," and they say "the MOOD is going on, and the magic and wonder!" and we say "true, true" and slink away.
Loothound:
"The MOOD is what's going on." Now that's a t-shirt.
Also, I don't know about the slinking away bit. That would imply that we Americans learn lessons and feel shame. I think that's history has proven that as long as there are things to shoot and blow up, we do not do either of those things.
Butch:
I often wonder when I play a game made elsewhere if I'm missing something. Maybe there's some French fairy tale that is being referenced or something. We pretty much assume we're going to miss tons of references when we play a Japanese game, so why not a French game?
As for the mood mattering (that is a great T SHIRT), I was also thinking if this would've been a better game had it leaned into the mood less and the puzzles more. I keep calling it a puzzle game, but I don't think it was. Really, the "puzzles" were looking around until we saw a relay point or something to whistle at. It sure FELT like it wanted to be a puzzler. How to get from here to there without running out of rope, etc. That said, it really wasn't. It had more in common with What Remains of Edith Finch than a true puzzle game. That's not necessarily bad, but I didn't get much mood when I was figuring out where to go next. Figuring out where to go next was a bit of a chore. Had they made that more challenging, would it have affected mood? Sure. Would it have been more fun? I think so.
Feminina:
I did find that the puzzles were mostly not that difficult. I thought they could have done more with the limited rope than they did, for sure.
But they may not have wanted to wreck the mood.
I don't know.
Butch:
Well, Edith Finch was kind of like that, right? You had to "figure out" things, like, "pull the sticks to swing" which weren't really puzzles in the manner of puzzles.
We shall never know, but I found myself wishing it was more puzzly.
Feminina:
Edith Finch was a lot more about "find out what happened here" though. Working out the story was a major thing, even though some bits remained confusing.
Here, working out the story is probably not actually possible. It's not a case where "if we find all the clues we can piece it together." I mean, we can piece together what happened to Bianca, -ish, but that's just one person's story. Figuring out the backdrop against which that story takes place...I don't think they gave us near enough to go by, which I'm sure is intentional. We/the protagonist are wandering in the scattered remnants of long-departed civilizations, and we don't have the time or ability to craft a "decline and fall of the Tower Empire" story for them. We just pass through.
Loothound:
Yeah. When we started I was really thinking that we'd have to discover clues and solve mysteries, based on the description. Nothing like that at all. All of the information we find is just passive, set dressing. Unless there are clues to where some of the collectibles are hidden in there, but that doesn't seem likely.
Even the collectibles are just there to experience. Just supposed to be zen, I guess.
Butch:
Yeah. I was a little disappointed in that. I do like me some good story.
I felt kind of sad about Bianca. Sure, she said she was happy, but I don't know. It was interesting that she started in a lighthouse all alone and ended up in the tower all alone. I think they were trying to get at something there, but whatever it was went over my head.
Feminina:
I think a lot of what we were meant to get was a sort of "all things pass, finding contentment in the moment is the most achievable goal" message. Bianca ended up finding some measure of contentment at the end of her life, I thought.
I wondered if maybe there was a larger message of that humans (or, you know, the orange humanoid life forms) on this planet have reached the end of their time, but that through this task and this one representative, we/they can also find a measure of contentment.
If so it ends, as it began, with a sense of deep melancholy.
Butch:
Except, does it? It ends with a picture of hero child with a huge smile. Not all that melancholy.
Loothound:
Maybe it's like that story where the monk is getting chased by a tiger and eats a strawberry. Enjoy the good, disregard the bad or something.
Feminina:
Ah, that story. Bugged me as a child because I wanted to know "THEN WHAT HAPPENED?!"
Then the mood happened, boorish infant. He got eaten by a tiger, but that's not the point.
Also, I only said it was melancholy if we take from the game overall that message that humanlike beings are reaching the end of their time on this planet.
We certainly don't have to take that message! But there were definitely moments where the general mood for me was "everything human is over...and yet there's peace, and it's OK."
Butch:
It would be easier to interpret if we knew hero was one of the tower people (or a descendant) or not or what the fuck he is.
Maybe it was a strawberry of tiger resistance.
It's funny you both read it as "it's all over," because I read it the other way: that this is a new start, kind of like finding the sprout in Wall-E. It's raining again, and whatever is left will grow. There's still a human, just like there's still a sprout. I think it was telling that the ballast, first off, wasn't THE ballast and, like our hero, was a child. Two children, travelling together, one of whom turned out not to be the last, so I concluded Hero wasn't either. Humanity might have been knocked down, but the rain will make everything, even us, grow again.
Feminina:
I think that's certainly a possibility. Rain when it hasn't rained in perhaps centuries (?) absolutely could be hope and a new start. I'm not ruling it out, I just think it's not clear that that's the ending.
It might be! It might not be. I think we're not meant to really know one way or the other. Because of the mood.
Butch:
Oh nothing is clear.
It's not even bananas. It's just murky mood.
Speaking of things that aren't clear, the fuck are we going to play next?
Loothound:
Well, the ending definitely left the door open for some sort of rebirth/renewal a la Wall-e, but the whole game was about ruminating on the past and decline. Maybe it's just "the audacity of hope," or some such thing. The game is kind of interesting as a meditation, and climbers are known to have the same sort of new-agey cosmic oneness thing that surfers have going on. That may be all that it is supposed to be.
No real preference on what's next, game wise. I've got getting my ass handed to me by Very Serious FPS Players to keep me engaged for now, but I can switch gears easily enough.
Butch:
Yeah, I don't play those as I know I would be terrible. Shit, I can't even get Fortnite right.
Loothound:
Definitely not my favorite cup of tea, but entertaining enough from time to time. Only got into Battlefield so that I could play with the Korean Tiger.
Fortnite is actually worse, I think. Full of spastic 12 year old boys jumping all over creation while cranking their 90s. Battlefield at least draws a more mature crowd, it seems. I blame the lack of llamas.
Well, they talk like they're 12 at any rate. The world would be full of overcrowded kitchens without anything left to make sandwiches with, if they had their way.
Butch:
I keep having to talk my younger two out of getting back into Fortnite. It's always:
Them: It's a new season!
Me: What's that mean?
Them: New things are in it!
Me: Like what?
Them: You can dress in power armor [true] and Taylor Swift! [Maybe]
Me: Does that change the gameplay in any way, shape or form?
Them: Um…no…..
Me: Then who cares?
Them: Um….good point.
Nugget has grown out of it. Meatball always needs convincing.
Once, during the COVID lockdown, Mrs. McP played a couple of rounds. The gleeful cackling was terrifying.
Feminina:
I'm not playing Fortnite. Nor Battlefield.
So hear me out: by the law of maximum ridiculousness, which surely reflects the pure will of Naked Zeus, if we want BG3 to arrive as quickly as possible we should get deeply involved in something else, the better to be ironically unable to take advantage of the discs showing up sooner than expected.
I believe it logically follows that we should just play BG2. We already have the disc for that.
Will we finish it by July? Certainly not. But, if it pleases Naked Zeus, we'll be a lot more likely to actually HAVE discs in July.
And on the other hand, if BG3 discs don't show up until September, or next spring, we won't care as much if we're up to our necks in another giant game.
Alternatively, since summer is approaching and people will be taking vacation and visiting colleges and so on, playing may be light and maybe we want to just dabble in other small things and hope the July timeline works out even without an appeal to irony.
While at a conference I was reccommended something called Thirsty Suitors where apparently you have to battle all your exes, and another one called CrossCode where you're trapped in a fairly old-school video game. Both seem to be on PlayStation, and were highly spoken of by people I know, so I would be willing to try one.
Butch:
I was pondering BG2. As Naked Zeus does, indeed, enjoy irony, I suggested we get the original BGs as I was excited to play BG2 (the only game I've ever played twice, a fucking masterpiece) with Femmy, and then we never did. My schedule actually chills a bit in summer, as there's less hockey and band and trumpet and shit. I'd be down. But then BG3 might come and do we want to play two straight BG games?
They are very different games, I hear, re gameplay. Shit, BG2 had thaco and shit.
I, too, have heard good things about the games Femmy has mentioned.
I, as always, defer to blogmates.
Loothound:
Hmmm, the idea of trying to reverse psychology the will of the universe appeals to me, and we all do already have it. Also, a known quantity, given Butch's endorsement.
Plus, the nostalgia of THAC0 and all of those archaic Saving Throws will be intense. Built on 2E it was, yes?
Feminina:
BG 2 and 3 back to back would definitely be a LOT of Baldur's Gate, but I do hear they are very different (if nothing else, the graphics alone would distinguish them), so it would not be exactly like playing one game for 3,000 hours or however long it takes.
I'm ready to take the chance!
Butch:
I love this plan! Let's do it!
Yup, straight up second edition, to its core.
Nostalgia.
I think we can all agree that Baldur's Gate is now the series of better late than never.
Loothound:
Having never played any flavor of BG, we'll have to see. It's basically just a fancy version of Bard's Tale, right?
Butch:
But so much more. It's a masterpiece.
I shall not spoil.
Y'all gonna like it.
Anyway, I think they put the twist in of adding all the Siege of Dragonspear dudes like Neera. I wasn't already all flirting with Neera the last time I played. Key difference. Key.
Loothound:
More than Bards Tale!!! So, like Zork!?!? Amazing.
Feminina:
I just hope it has save points.
Ha!
Butch:
I will forever be bitter about the save points.
Though, one last thing about Jusant. At least, when it saved, it came out of the menu screen better than any game I've ever played. Forgot to mention that. Well done, Jusant menu screens.
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