What’s In a Name: Revealed at Last

Tags

character, combat, making games, mechanics, story

Spoilers for some stuff in Plague Tale: Requiem

Butch:

Played through Chapter 6.  Started when we ditched mom there, ended when we (re)met Arnaud, who has quite a French name for a British guy.  

That was LOOOOOOONG, wasn’t it?  Good chapter, though.  Weak Amicia as contrast to ever stronger (and crazier) Hugo was a nice dynamic.  

THOUGHTS!  In no particular order. 

Here we go again with something that looks like it’s going to be a big plot thing then isn’t.  “Whoa! A village! No way the devs made this whole village with a leader with a name and his own cutscene only to have it not be a big deal and we’re gone.”   That village set the all time record for “game village with the least screen time.”  Though, did you find the swing?  Nice thing, that. 

I kinda love rat mode.  See, here’s something a TV show can’t do: At the end there, when Hugo is freaking out, screaming “I’ll eat you all!” (which is creepy as he is becoming rat, but I’m sure more on that later), I’m cruising along all “WHEE! Yeah! Gotcha! Take that!” as Hugo is screaming that.  I was INTO it, man!  I could barely register Amicia telling me to stop, and Amicia is MY character!  There’s a lot to unpack, there. 

That said, rat mode has its drawbacks.  I had to restart the first place there, where you learn to do rat mode.  To recap, you learn rat mode by eating some dudes, then you have to do some torch/tar stuff, then scoot past the dudes you ate.   It’s that last part that was the conundrum.   When I did rat mode for the first time, I did not think about where to leave poor Kevin.  Thus, in the aftermath of my first rat mode, I left rat tornadoes right where I had to scoot.  I could not have planned a better wall of rat tornado blocking my path if I tried.   I tried everything to get through my wall-o-rats, to no avail.  Had to restart the section.  Sigh.  

The end part, climbing, slowly, with Hugo as the rats came was really good.  That contrast between the first “run run run” rat thing to this was very moving.  It really did a good job selling the change in relationship between Hugo and Amicia.  

That said, there was just way too much sneaking by Kevin in this section.  (Yes, yes, dude from the Atlantic, I see you.  No, you did not tell me so.  Shush.  Fuck off.)  Kevin in the village, Kevin in the mine, more Kevin in the mine, fields of Kevin outside the mine.  SO MUCH KEVIN.  Could’ve done with half that amount of Kevin.  It broke the momentum.  It did.  (Fuck off, dude from the Atlantic)

The Beast should really return that armor.  Very weak buckles on that armor.  

I did not see Arnaud becoming our buddy.   This is a game.  One dimensional, gruff armored baddies are one dimensional.  Did not see that.  

Phew!  That’s a lot.  Long chapter.  Especially when you die so much and have to redo a section.

Feminina:

That was a hell of a lot of sneaking, you’re right. And the rat tornados were tricky to place, and that whole bit was well done. As you say, now it’s Hugo losing control and becoming murderous, and Amicia trying to be the voice of reason (sort of…in between killing dudes with things that aren’t rats).

And dude, with Arnaud, that’s what I thought! I thought, “is this guy supposed to be English?” But he’s not! He talks later on about fighting the English! He’s one of the Duke’s guards, I think.

I was so confused here, though, partly because I had Arnaud mixed up with the Beast and thought “didn’t I just kill him?” As you no doubt recall because you are probably not as confused as me, Arnaud is the guy who hit us in the head and chased us around the woods calling us “little girl” right before we let Mother and Lucas float off without us, and when the Beast showed up I thought they were the same person. 

What can I say, big, angry dudes in heavy armor all look alike, and I thought “the Beast” was a nickname.

I mean, I suppose it is since that’s probably not what his mother named him, but I thought it was a local nickname for the guy also known as Arnaud. Although I wasn’t really thinking that through, because there’s no way a game would be cruel enough to expect us to remember two different names for one person like this.

However that may be, I totally thought I was fighting the guy who’d bonked me on the head when I defeated the Beast (very weak armor buckles, although it took me a stupidly long time to figure out how to get at them), so I was like “who the hell is THIS now?” when Arnaud showed up. “He’s acting like HE hit me in the head, but I just KILLED that guy!”

A blow to the head can cause confusion. I’ll just go with that.

Anyway, no, they’re obviously different people, Arnaud was the one who hit me in the head, and as far as I can tell he’s not British even though he sounds very British, but then, they all do, which is part of why this is so confusing. 

At this point I’m just assuming there will not be anyone in the game who is actually British. I’ll just be angry at the level of complication if they try to introduce that now. 

Oh, and speaking of sneaking and Kevin never changing, as we did a while back, reminded me that I wanted to give props to the AI on the guards in this game, because maybe he kind of does change. 

I was throwing rocks at a chest full of helmets, as one does to make a noisy distraction, and the first couple of times the guy wandered over to look, clueless as usual, but the third time (yes, I was sneaking badly, I kept needing to re-distract him) he got all high-alert and starting shouting that there were intruders about, and then suddenly everybody was on edge and looking for me.

Annoying at the time, but more believable than having him just mindlessly going to check out the same noise over and over. I mean, obviously if you keep hearing something rattling in the same helmet-box, you’re eventually going to get suspicious, and I respect that guard-AI can now recognize this truth.

Butch:

Losing control and becoming one with the rats.  In their head.  Him saying “I’ll eat you,” not “I will tell them to eat you.”  Creepy. 

He is!  He is a Duke guard!  I can see it now: 

Kevin: Who’re you?

Arnaud: Arnaud. 

Kevin: Harno?  What kind of a name is Harno?

Arnaud: Not Harno.  Arnaud. I’m not cockney.  I’m French. 

Kevin: Pull the other one. 

Arnaud: I am!  I’m a bloody Frenchman!

Kevin: You’re fooling no one. 

I did figure out the connection rather quickly, as Amicia was talking about her head wound and I had the subtitles on so it said “Arnaud” every time he talked.  Pretty big hint, those subtitles. I was confused a bit as, I think, this was the first time we saw him without his helmet.  We hadn’t seen his face before, so it would’ve been hard to say “Oh! That guy!” what with not knowing what he looks like and all. 

A head injury can do that.  It did.  Next time, use the subtitles.  No one will judge you. 

Man, this accent thing is messing you up, isn’t it?  You need subtitles.  I even have it set so that different characters’ names are in different colors!  Arnaud is kinda beige. 

Feminina:

Subtitles are good. I often have them on, but for some reason started this game without them, and now, well, now I’m too set in my ways. It’s all right. I will luxuriate in my confusion. 

“What’s going on? Who’s that guy? What’d that guy say when I said “who’s that guy”?” 

And so on.

Hugo is going a bit mad with power here, and Amicia is not really one to talk. It feels like maybe part of what they did by splitting from Lucas and their mother is leave behind the people who were previously the rational voices. 

Mother calmed Hugo, Lucas tries to talk Amicia down…now, without those other voices, they’re trying to be each others’ rational sides, but they’re both also prone to fits of rage, so how well is that going to work out? 

Maybe OK. Maybe seeing her little brother go kind of nuts will help Amicia realize the value of self-restraint, all part of growing up. We shall see.

Butch:

She was trying to calm him down when he went full rat mode, but it seemed different.  Lucas’ urging Amicia not to kill and go nuts was more out of a) morality, as he thought it was bad to kill and b) self-preservation, as he knew that this was not the best way to escape (and he was right).   Amicia urging Hugo to calm down didn’t seem to have anything to do with that, but was more out of a concern for Hugo’s health, not much more. 

Hmm. 

Feminina:

Hm, true. She is more worried about Hugo’s health.

Well, that and she’s worried about people in general. I think she definitely doesn’t care about killing these guards, but she does want to avoid the rat tornados devouring another city, and she’s afraid that if Hugo loses control, that’s what will happen. 

And I expect she’s quite right, too, given the sad fate of the Red City (ominous name for a charming little place). 

Butch:

And the ruination of a perfectly good desert canyon.  In France. 

She’s not so worried about rat Armageddon that she didn’t take her mom’s advice, though.

By the way, as you are ahead of me, do we now know all the mechanics?  Seems we’re pretty late in the game (chapter 6 must be about halfway, yes?) and I’m still learning mechanics. 

Feminina:

France is full of desert canyons! And definitely was in 1305 or whatever. I blame overgrazing. Goats, you know. 

And you can only worry about Rat Armageddon up to a certain point. After that, it’s all about Hugo.

The new ones I’ve come across recently are only related to finally having enough tools to make an upgrade at the workbench. Without upgrading, I don’t think I’ve learned anything new about fighting lately. 

Butch:

Fucking goats, man.  Fucking goats. 

So no more rat sense or new weapons or shit like that? 

Feminina:

Rat sense (seeing where guards are) and controlling the rat swarm are the last new things I can think of. For Amicia it’s still been sling and crossbow. She remembers how to make that ‘odorous’ stuff that attracts the rats to a certain spot for a minute, but that’s not really new. 

Butch:

Oh right!  That!

Still don’t have the helmet stuff, do we?  I miss that stuff. 

Feminina:

Oh yeah, I forgot about that stuff since I got the crossbow, which can handily puncture a dude in a helmet so I don’t have to make him take it off. I still haven’t gotten that back…at this point, I’m not sure it’s coming. 

But the rat-attracting stuff, that we got back.

Butch:

Sigh.  There was more of the helmet stuff than crossbow bolts.  Crossbow bolts are hard to find.  I wish I could craft them. 

Feminina:

Crossbow bolts ARE hard to find. 

At one point I shot some dude we’d already sneaked past, just because I found a bolt and didn’t want to waste it. 

Sorry, dude. He probably would have come running up and annoyed me later anyway. They’re all pretty attentive to each others’ shouts, which is very responsible of them, but very irritating for me. 

Butch:

HA!

“Well, I was going to let you live, but, you know, waste not want not.” 

Speaking of killing Kevin, as one does, I found it interesting that Beast there (who is not Arnaud) kept talking about vengeance for Amicia killing his men.  Sure, we often get snarling boss fight trash talking, but it’s pretty rare that a rather cookie cutter, snarling, armored, grumpy boss shows some degree of empathy.  Beast cared about Kevin, to some degree.  You don’t often see such bosses care about much except killing you, and it’s rare ANYONE cares about Kevin save for other Kevin. 

Feminina:

Very true! Maybe not all bad, that Beast…like us, he had someone he cared about. 

Or he was just angry he was going to have to try to replace them during a plague.

“It’s hard enough finding anyone to shovel corpses these days, without having them picked off by a child! Lazy commoners…nobody wants to guard anymore.”

Butch:

Hey, man, give the guy some credit.  He has more empathy than pretty much every game boss there is!  I bet he really wanted to do something else. 

“I’m sensitive!  I just wanted to write bad poetry and sell Playbills, but when your mother names you Beast, it sort of puts you in a lane, you know?” 

Feminina:

Thanks a lot for setting my life on this harsh and unforgiving course, MOM.

Butch:

We should’ve been named something else, like “Happy, Rich McPuncherson.”

Feminina:

Well, my full name is Brilliant Hilarious and Extremely Modest Feminina O’Ladybrain, so my mom got it right on.

Butch:

Nicely done, Mama O’Ladybrain!

See?  Sometimes you can just tell.  

Poor Beast.   I bet his middle name is Badjudgeofarmor. 

Feminina:

It looked really great from the front!

No one was expecting him to be momentarily dazed by a cloud of saltpeter or whatever and be unable to protect his vulnerable buckle side.

Butch:

I just waited until he swung his mace.  It was pretty easy to dodge, then he was all “Man, this is heavy….just a sec…” and whack. 

Feminina:

Oh, nice! I was terrified to be anywhere near him, so I ran around like a panicky field mouse until I could whack that bag while he was close enough to it to be engulfed by the cloud. Then got behind him while he was coughing. 

Nice of them to give us various ways to approach the problem.

Oh, and in answer to the question you asked way back at the beginning, I DID get the bit on the swing, and it was nice.  Hugo taking care of Amicia and sharing something cool he knows: “Close your eyes and imagine you’re flying.” 

They throw in some nice moments. All the better to contrast with the rat-infested horrors.

Butch:

Well, and him pushing her was certainly in line with the THEMES of the chapter.   She was even suprised when he offered.  Nice tie in.  

Feminina:

Yeah…she’s trying so hard to take care of him, but hadn’t been thinking that he could take care of her in some ways. It was a nice moment.

So Many Dreams…

Tags

children, sports, TV

No spoilers

Butch:

I got nothing cuz hockey (at least he played well).  This being almost Friday, though, we can delve straight into the absurdity because I checked freecycle (as I do, because #gnomelife and I need that sweet, sweet eBay inventory) and someone WANTS an “old, unusable parachute.” 

I have concerns. 

Feminina:

Freecycle definitely brings out the people with interesting needs. 

We watched the Simpsons episode where the kids play hockey last night! 

That’s pretty much all I’ve got.

Butch:

I kinda want to reply to the guy who wants the unusable parachute all “Sir, are you OK?” 

But then I’d be all “involved” and “responsible” and fuck that. 

(If, this weekend, I see on the news that “local man dies in skydiving accident” I am going right to hell.) 

When you watched the Simpsons, did you tell your kids “Oh, hey, Nugget does that! You can do that, too?” 

Feminina:

He probably just wants it for a video shoot or something, man. No need to leap to the worst (though, admittedly, most interesting if we’re writing a mystery novel) conclusion. The truth is, if he wants to kill himself or someone else, guns are probably a lot easier to get than old parachutes. 

And you may say, sure, but what if he wants to stage an “accident”?

Well, lucky him, people die accidentally from gunshot wounds all the time! Oops, sorry, didn’t realize it was loaded when I was cleaning it/pointing it at someone for funnies/leaving it where the toddler could get it!

And yes, it’s slightly harder to get a gun in this state than in some others we could mention, but thanks to the miracle of geography, we’re within a few hours of more readily obtainable weaponry, and there’s no way it’s not easier to figure out how to accidentally shoot someone with a gun you got in another state than it is to accidentally give them a non-working parachute when they go on their big skydiving adventure.

Anyway, point being, it’s more likely this person wants to sew some literal parachute pants or make a hot air balloon. Your conscience should be clear.

And no, I was careful not to mention the fact that any real people do or could play hockey. I have learned that much from your example.

Butch:

Damn, man, that was a surprisingly and upsettingly well thought out answer. 

Maybe he’s just cheap.  Can’t do guns on freecycle.  Shit, if either of us were going to stage our own death, we’d still be damn frugal about it.   Priorities. 

HA!

Kids: Mommy, what are they doing? 

You: Cartoon stuff, kids. 

Kids: Can we do that? 

You: Remember when we watched that cartoon and I said jumping off cliffs and dropping safes on people was only in cartoons? 

Kids: Yeah. 

You: Same thing. Trust me.  Same thing. 

Feminina:

“If anything, this is even LESS real than surviving a fall from a cliff! After all, you could always have a working parachute on you, whereas hockey…pure fantasy.”

Maybe he thinks he can repair it! We can’t know other peoples’ hopes and dreams.

And dude, I think all our readers know that if we stage our own deaths it’s going to be alcohol poisoning all the way.

Butch:

That certainly would be believable.  Far more believable than us convincing anyone we would pay to go skydiving.  

Keep working on the fantasy of hockey. 

“Look, kids, Bart and Lisa are playing on ICE. You’ve seen ice!  It’s slippery!  Do you really think anyone could do anything on ICE in real life? Sheesh.  You kids will believe anything.” 

Also, if I go on eBay and someone is selling a “refurbished parachute,” I will think “In the totally impossible event I ever go skydiving, this will be a time I might put frugality aside.” 

Feminina:

Agreed. Some things it’s worth it to buy new. Not that I have any intention of ever needing a parachute, other than perhaps to make some pants out of, because now that guy has me thinking of the possibilities.

“You both HATE ice, and for good reason. It’s slippery and horrible and easy to fall down on. Can you imagine people in the real world going on it on purpose to play some game? HA!”

Butch:

“Plus, where does ice go, kids?  That’s right: In drinks.” 

Feminina:

“What a waste of ice, just using it to slide around on instead of to chill a margarita. I’m pretty sure that’s actually an illegal misuse of resources. There should be a fine involved.”

This is One Approach to Disaster Planning

Tags

booze, character, combat, mechanics, morality, Plague Tale: Requiem, The Last of Us

Spoilers for Plague Tale: Requiem, and also the end of The Last of Us

Butch:

AIEE!!!! I just wrote a huge, HUGE email and it didn’t save and didn’t send!!!!!

Fuck. 

Anyway, I played, but man I was STUPID. 

I played Chapter five and played it so badly I thought I had two, count ’em, two, game breaking bugs.  I forgot how to throw sticks, so when I had to throw a stick to Lucas in that otherwise very good sequence of puzzles, I shimmied around looking for a “triangle” prompt to no avail and restarted the section.  Twice.  I only figured it out when I was so mad at “having to restart the chapter” that I squeezed L2.  Heh. 

Then, I got to the part where you had to UNLOCK THE GATE then light the hay and run to the platform.  “LUCAS ISN’T FOLLOWING ME!!!!” Thought there was a bug.  Restarted that section.  Twice. 

Took forever to find every “shimmy through here” thing there was.  Especially on the bridge there where you had to get the cart to you.  Took forever.  My fault, again. 

Thus, I can’t tell if I was just bad last night or I really am that bad with the crossbow.  I am BAD with the crossbow.  VERY BAD with the crossbow. 

Anyway….

Joshua, we hardly knew you.  I thought he’d be in it more.  He’s gruff, kinda cool, a nice counter to Beatrice.  Guess not.  He’s got the same casting agent as Vaudin. 

They really did ditch their mother, didn’t they?  Kinda cold.  One thing to move on with your life, quite another to ditch your mother on a boat she can’t pilot in a corpse river.  Hugo even mentions she can’t pilot the boat.  Cold, dudes.  Cold. 

The second Amica freak out wasn’t as good as the first one.  The first one you had to kill everyone.  Here, if you missed, and lord knows I missed, you just kinda went by them.  Leaving corpses in your wake is punchier than leaving sheepish Kevin on a riverbank.  Keven all: 

Kevin 1: Man, she can’t shoot straight.

Kevin 2: Pot, kettle, dude. 

Feminina:

NNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I hate that so much. You pour your heart and soul into a brilliant, thoughtful post and then Hotmail eats it. 

However, you’ve recreated some good stuff.

First — I LOVE the crossbow, man! How can you not love the crossbow? It’s so satisfying to have something that works against dudes in helmets! I think I was cackling maniacally that whole scene. 

Although of course they make crossbow bolts a limited resource like knives, so you have to ponder when to use them, which is also a nice touch. I had to remind myself that guys without helmets are still better handled with ye goode olde sling, and to save the bolts for other targets. 

I did that so well that just recently I remembered “oh yeah, I have a crossbow!” while pondering how to deal with some jerk in a helmet, and it was a delightful moment.

And yes, alas poor Joshua. Nice knowing you briefly, you seemed decent, sorry about that bolt to the eye there. 

This game really has a bunch of instances of abruptly parting ways with people we’ve been thinking of as companions. Not only people we just met, like Vaudin, Joshua or that guard who briefly helped us out: also people we’ve known a long time, like our mother, and Lucas. Bye guys! Have fun out there on the heavily guarded and corpse-infested river! I’m sure it’s going to be great and they’re gonna love it.

It’s obviously all about how Amicia has to let go of things as she grows up and takes on more adult responsibility, with a heaping side of “you can’t get too attached to anyone because they could die or turn on you at a moment’s notice, so you have to be just as ready to abandon them.” 

Is this a lesson that will serve her well in life? Hard to say. Then again, it’s not clear how much life she really has to look forward to at this point, so it’s also hard to argue with her focus if she’s decided that all that matters is getting Hugo to his island, assuming it actually exists. 

And since realistically his whole vision could easily be a regular old hallucination instead of one inspired by some supernatural knowledge, that’s not at all clear, but never give up hope!

Butch:

Thank you, but the original was better.  I was in a rush the second time around. 

See, in theory, the crossbow would be great, but in order for it to be effective against dudes in helmets you must first hit the dude in the helmet.  Missing with the crossbow does nothing at all.  The crossbow is a wonderful thing.  I am very bad at using it.  That bit where you had to kill some Kevin with the crossbow took FOREVER because I a) kept missing and b) kept wasting bolts on dudes without helmets and c) kept missing. 

And — everyone except Hugo.  She’s willing to abandon people, yes, and didn’t seem to lose sleep over Joshua, and was willing to kill the guard on the docks (you monster).  However, her connection to Hugo is unbreakable.   It’s not that she won’t be attached to anyone, it’s that she’s attached to exactly one person, and that dedication is what makes her connections to others expendable. 

As for the island, well, there was that picture in Vaudin’s room.  It was, however, rather stylized.  Sure, “Two tooth island,” they are similar, yes, I get that, but still.  It’s not so unique that it couldn’t be a coincidence.   That said, does Vaudin strike you as a guy who just puts up a picture of a tranquil scene because it’s his happy place?  Right between the cat posters in inspirational quotes?  I think not. 

Feminina:

It’s very true, Vaudin’s picture is a good sign that there’s actually something to this island, since he was all in with the Order, and was, as you say, not the kind who seemed likely to have pretty pictures around just for decoration.

I mean, from a story standpoint there almost certainly is an island because otherwise it would be a weird thing to throw in there at all (“turns out his hallucinations were totally random and they died at sea looking for something that didn’t exist, nice twist huh?!”), but without metagaming Vaudin’s picture is definitely the best thing we’ve got, and it’s not bad. 

She’s not completely insane to be pursuing this kind-of-out-there lead as opposed to going along with her mother’s idea, which is to keep doing the same thing they’ve been doing: find an Order person to help. They haven’t done so great thus far., and anyway Vaudin flat out said Hugo is going to die, so on reflection it’s actually more odd that her mother is so set against looking for the island, than that Amicia is so determined to try. But I guess her mother has spent her whole life convinced the Order has the answers, and that’s a hard habit to break, whereas Amicia doesn’t really give a rat (ha!) for them and is, as you say, completely dedicated to Hugo over everything and everyone else.

Their paths were bound to diverge, I suppose.

Butch:

Still, diverge so coldly?  Jeez.  “Have fun on the river, ma!”  Beatrice didn’t deserve that, nor did Lucas.  Be nice, Amicia. 

I think her mother is against looking for the island because she agrees with the Order that Hugo is doomed, and is trying to mitigate the damage to, you know, everyone else on earth.  She sees the choice between a) I can isolate him and then maybe no more cities will be destroyed by rats or b) I can try to save him, which is futile, so he’ll die anyway and more cities will be destroyed by rats.   I don’t think that she believes the Order is going to save him.  I think she’s taking him there for, effectively, hospice care: make him as OK as possible and avoid other horrific scenes of mass rat attack.  Amicia is, very much, risking thousands of innocent lives on a dream.  One could see how Beatrice might see that as immoral. 

Feminina:

One absolutely can see that! Even, perhaps, agree with her. Way to introduce theme!

Amicia is a bit like Joel in The Last of Us here (on my mind maybe because of TV show). She cares about Hugo and will do anything not to lose Hugo, full stop. Go to hell, everyone else.

We judged Joel pretty harshly there, and I think there’s a lot of room to judge Amicia harshly as well, although she’s essentially still a child despite her movement towards adulthood in this game, and it’s not clear she fully understands the implications.

She (and we) have seen the historical information about the last plague, we’ve seen enough rats and dead bodies to convince us of the horror, we’ve seen the rats destroy two cities already, we certainly have the information needed to make this calculation, but…from her point of view, she is Hugo’s protector and she can’t let him go, so is she really fully acknowledging what it means to hang onto him?

Also — and this is different from the situation in TLOU — it’s not entirely clear that it’s really hopeless. Joel saved Ellie at the cost of a cure for the rest of humanity, and he/we KNEW that was what he was doing.

We can certainly have a lot of valid concerns (especially given what we know about how the Black Death turned out), but Amicia doesn’t actually KNOW that there’s no hope. Especially with the solid indication we just discussed that this island may actually exist–and if it does, maybe the cure he dreamed of is also there!

She doesn’t KNOW she’s dooming millions to death. She knows (or certainly should know) she’s risking a lot of peoples’ lives, and that’s certainly morally questionable in itself, but she doesn’t know with cold certainty that the two options are Hugo’s death in some sort of hospice vs. the plague death of half the population of Europe.  

Again, we can still absolutely talk about the morality of her decision, and I think that’s a big part of what’s going on in the game, but she does get a little more slack than Joel did. Both her youth and her lack of all the information about the situation, means her screw-other-people-I-don’t-care-about decision doesn’t seem quite so intentional.

Butch:

Oh agreed on all points.  Joel knew damn well that he was ending the world, or, at least, letting the end of the world continue.  I think Amicia thinks she can save the world AND Hugo.   In a sense, she’s a much more idealistic Joel (which makes sense as she is a kid).  In TLOU, the choice was “Ellie dies, or humanity dies.”  Here, the choice (at least to Amicia, but we don’t have any information that she’s wrong) is Hugo dies, humanity is saved or Hugo LIVES and humanity is saved.   To Amicia, that’s an easy choice, but it’s relying on quite an assumption.  Joel was not making assumptions.  Joel knew what was up.  Fuck Joel. 

I wonder if that bit in the water, freeing the ferry, was meant to emphasize this.  Making Amicia (and, by extention, the player) crawl through much and bodies only to get to a corpse we needed to move was intentional, as was Amicia saying “sorry” to the corpse.  Could be a metaphor for her knowing full well that charging off with Hugo was going to get people killed. 

Feminina:

Ah, good thought! That is a nice metaphor — and it was an effectively gruesome scene. This game really does the horribleness of death and decay well. 

Another metaphor, perhaps, is the separation from her mother and Lucas, returning to your comment about how cold that was. Maybe her expressionless not-even-saying-goodbye to them is a hint that even though she doesn’t actually know the full extent of the choice she’s making, she might be determined enough to make it even if she did, or certainly she’s heading in that direction.

But we don’t know what her final choices will turn out to be. And before you ask, I haven’t finished the game yet, so I really don’t know. I don’t know if there’s a cure on the island or not, or how far she’s going to go to try to find one. 

Should be an interesting story, though. 

There’s not so much of the bananas in this one so far, but the story is still moving well. Even the kind of choppiness of the “oh hi new companion!–oh bye, new companion” way things are going fits in with the overall arc. 

Butch:

HA!  I was going to ask if you finished it.  I’m getting even more predictable. 

There’s pretty much the same amount of bananas, really.  Just no new bananas as of yet.  Though, true, our bad guy, thus far, is very much in the regular grumpy big man in armor mold, which is nowhere near as bananas as white rat bishop from the first game. 

Also, I think, at the point I’m at in the game anyway, it’s not Amicia’s intention to abandon her mother and Lucas for good.  This wasn’t her all “So long, suckers!”  This was “I’m going to do what I think is right, save Hugo, see you soon.”  I think. 

Feminina:

True. There are exactly the same bananas as before, but since they haven’t introduced any new bananas (other than Hugo’s having visions), it feels normal. Just shows how you can get used to anything!

“Kid can control flesh-eating rats with his mind? Yeah, that’s a fairly standard mechanic…”

The equal of White Rat Bishop has not yet been seen in this one. 

And you’re right, I don’t think we have any reason to suppose that Amicia actively intends to never see her mother and Lucas again. In her ideal world, she probably plans to look for them later once Hugo is cured and then they can all live happily ever after.

She has to know damn well there’s a good chance they’ll be dead by then, but that’s not what she HOPES will happen. After all, they did give the mother up for dead and then have her turn up alive in the first game, so she clearly has some survivability. 

Butch:

Yeah, man, give Beatrice some credit.  She and Lucas have both proven they can handle things.  I think Amicia is worried about them, sure, it’s a worrisome world, but I do think that, as you say, she thinks she can cure Hugo, save everyone, find them, live happily ever after.  She’s lost her innocence, sure, but not her idealism.  If there’s one thing young people are, it’s idealistic.  

Probably why you don’t see too many middle aged heroes who aren’t assholes like Joel.  We just see rats and aliens and whatnot and say “Yup.  That’ll happen.  More tequila?”

Feminina:

Ha! So true. It takes idealistic youth to even try to save the world. We grumpy middle aged people are too grumpy, and, let’s be honest, too tired.

“The plague? Seriously? Damn it…I guess we could flee the city, but honestly, getting eaten by rats feels like less work.”

It’s just lucky the COVID precautions were about NOT traveling. 

Butch:

Oh, if we can save the world by staying home, drinking wine, playing games and whatnot then we’re goddam SUPERHEROES. 

The rat plague would be trickier to do that with, though.  Half the time you ordered from Amazon the truck would likely get eaten before it got to you.  Can’t have that. 

Feminina:

Oh, the rat plague would have messed us up for sure.

Butch:

Shit, a whole mechanic is burning your alcohol.  BURNING IT!!!!

Yeah, saving the world is for the young.

Feminina:

“Find booze and set it on fire” would never work for anyone who’s had time to develop a really serious relationship with booze.

Butch:

We’d suck at being heroes almost as much as we suck at games. 

Feminina:

And so, Gentle Reader, the decision was made to continue the blog, since we suck slightly less at playing games than we do at heroics, and we’re really excellent at talking about it.

Just playing to our less-weaknesses!

Butch:

Yup.  Better continue the blog.  Safer that way for all involved. 

There’s also reasons you never see gnomes saving the world.  

#gnomelife

Feminina:

Lay low, don’t attract attention, let other people deal with the rats.

Comes with the risk that if someone else doesn’t get around to dealing with it, you’ll get eaten by rats, but at least you don’t have to travel.

Butch:

Totally worth it.  At least you don’t have to burn your alcohol. 

Feminina:

Being eaten by rats seems like less of a concern if you’re nice and drunk.

Not that it’s less likely to happen — in fact it’s probably somewhat more likely to happen — but you won’t worry about it as much. 

Butch:

“Being eaten by rats seems like less of a concern if you’re nice and drunk.“

T SHIRT FOR THE AGES!!!!!!!

Childlike Wonder Goes Boom

Tags

character, children, mechanics, parents, Plague Tale: Requiem, story

Spoilers for Plague Tale: Requiem

Butch:

OK!  Did all of Chapter 4.  Made a ton of tar.  So much tar. Didn’t kill Kevin on the docks even though he was an ungrateful bastard. Met Joshua.  Ran from waves and waves of rats.  That was a cool bit.  Someone had fun designing that. 

I kinda like that she’s turning a bit on her mother.  Games don’t often do that. Characters, too often, either keep their relationships stable or, if they change, it’s drastic, it’s “You thought I was your mother but really I’m the ARCHDEMON DIE!” or something.  This was a subtle evolution of feelings, a maturing of feelings, that you don’t often see.  Nice. 

I also learned not to always trust prompts.  I was stumped at a place, got the prompt to hit L1 to make Lucas do something, that something was “stupefacto,” which I forgot put out fires, and I was promptly eaten by rats. 

Another thing was the opposite of that “use knife to open workbench” thing we talked on yesterday.  Yesterday, I was all “Should I use my knife to open this bench?  Might need it later.”  Last night, I killed a guy with a knife, THEN found a workbench I couldn’t open.  This wasn’t as much of a consideration.  When Kevin is about to kill you, you don’t have time to think “Hmm.  Lemme think: might need this for a workbench…” I can’t tell if that makes the mechanism weaker or not.  Makes the reward for not using the knife a workbench.  I’m not sure how I feel about it. 

Anyway, off to before school sports. 

Feminina:

So much tar.

I felt kind of bad about that soldier on the docks who helped us and then turned on us, but the first thing I did to try to convince him to move accidentally put out his torch and got him eaten by rats, and then I figured well, so much for that. I tried! Sort of.

Ha! Very helpful, prompt. Just what we’re looking for in these situations: death by rat. 

The relationship with her mother is interesting, and I agree it’s nice to see something kind of subtle and realistic where it’s not that I’ve realized mother is evil, it’s just that I’m questioning whether she has the best approach. Growing up meaning not always agreeing with your parents, not necessarily because they’re horrible people or stupid and wrong about everything, but just because in some situations there’s no clear answer and you may have other ideas about things, and those ideas may be correct.

In the first game we really pretty much trusted mother as the final word about things, which made sense when we didn’t really have any idea what was going on and she did, but now we know kind of the same about what’s happening, and we may legitimately disagree on the best approach, while still wanting what’s best for Hugo.

Butch:

So very, very much tar.  At least it’s a new mechanic that didn’t start with Lucas all “Hey! Look what I found in my pocket!” 

See, I actually waited to see what Lucas was telling me! Tutorial, and all.  He eventually said “You can blind him with tar!” which I took to mean “Shoot him with tar,” which worked and got me a trophy.  He’s likely horribly burned and blind, but hey! Alive!  And I got a trophy.

The relationship with the parent is nicely realistic, and very appropriate in a game about growing up.

It’s not just trusting her mother less as she learns, it’s trusting everything less.  In the first game, we also thought the Order was the way.  People all “Find the Order!” us all “Sounds good!” Now, we’re doubting.  Vaudin (who wasn’t in the game that long, was he?) was a condescending, ineffective jerk.  I don’t think we were supposed to think he was evil, or that he didn’t have the best interests of humanity at heart, but he was a condescending, ineffective jerk.  It makes sense for us, and Amicia, to start doubting, to start thinking for herself.  

Nice. 

Feminina:

Ah! Horribly burned, blinded, and surely going to be eaten by rats later when he can’t see to run away from them, but alive for the moment! And a trophy! Nicely done. I’ll have to try blinding someone with tar later. 

Hot tar: what CAN’T it accomplish!

Butch:

Yeah.  The trophy was called “mercy,” which I couldn’t tell was supposed to be literal or sarcastic.  

But handy, as putting out the torch does not repel rats, so when you want to repel both Kevin and rats, engulphing Kevin in bright yet surprisingly non lethal flame is pretty great. 

Feminina:

I just wish you could pick UP Kevin’s torch sometimes, but alas. 

Butch:

I know, right?  You know a game is really skimpy on loot when you can’t even loot Kevin. 

Though I did find a chest and a flower yesterday!  Whoo hoo!

At least the game isn’t making us find basic rocks.  The last game made you find rocks.  That was harsh.  

Feminina:

I’ve only found one flower. But later you start to collect feathers, and I think I have three of those! No doubt out of 15 I could have found in the area I’ve been through…

Butch:

MORE collectibles?  Great. 

After all, when you’re surrounded by death and Kevin, why not stop to pick flowers and find feathers? 

Surrounded by Kevin a row boats.  Did you notice that?  

“There is the boat we have hired! Over there!  Right past these fifty row boats that we could probably row!  Ah, fuck it.  Let’s go up there where Kevin is.” 

Feminina:

Ha! So true. 

“None of these boats are the one we paid for, and in these trying, rat-infested times we can certainly not lower ourselves to steal from some hard-working, probably-dead fisherman. Better go over there and ty to get killed.”

Speaking of which, I think that’s meant to be the point of the collectibles: trying to find a small moment of joy here and there in these trying, rat-infested times. Open your heart to a bit of childlike wonder, can’t you?

Oh, and I completely agree that I don’t think Vaudin was evil, but he was certainly an arrogant jerk, and I wasn’t especially sorry to see him fall to the crumbling, rat-infested streets as the building collapsed.

“Bye, jerk!” is more or less what I thought. 

More poetically, perhaps, “so long, jerk…we hardly knew ye.”

Butch:

Hey, if you’re going to have child like wonder and want your brother to experience same, maybe don’t put the flower in your hair before running around getting all sweaty and nasty. 

Just saying. 

I thought “Whoa, really?  Thought he was going to have more screen time. Go figure.” 

But yes, he wasn’t evil.  Usually, in games, jerks are evil, or, at least, rather self serving.  Vaudin really did seem to want to end the plague.   He wasn’t all “Ah, now I can control the plague” or even “Ah, now that I can selfishly try to cure this myself, I’ll finally get that promotion!”   He was just a jerk.   That’s rare in games. 

And, on the boats, I was so convinced I was supposed to row that it took me forever to find where I was supposed to go.  I walked up to every boat I could find, waiting to hit triangle. 

Nope. 

Feminina:

It didn’t help that you tugged on one of them right at the beginning for no apparent reason. “I must have to do something with one of these damn things…”

Butch:

Yeah!  Way to mislead me, cutscene. 

And Lucas, the fuck.  You start the game telling me how to solve a puzzle, and now it’s you, standing, surrounded by row boats, oblivious to the obvious solution because you’re crafting shit. 

Feminina:

You’re trying me, Lucas. 

Butch:

It would have been funnier if it had gone: 

Amicia:  Look!  Row boats! We’re-

Lucas: Hey Amicia!

Amicia: What? 

Lucas: I learned another way to blow shit up!

Amicia: Great, now help me with this row-

Lucas: I’ll demonstrate on these row boats!

Feminina:

I’m just going to imagine that’s what happened, because it’s more delightful.

We have to open our hearts to childlike wonder, after all.

Butch:

We do.  The childlike wonder of the misuse of explosives.

Feminina:

It warms my heart it does.

Pockets of Holding

Tags

loot, mechanics, Plague Tale: Requiem, story

Some minor, vague spoilers for Plague Tale: Requiem

Butch:

Um, Lucas? 

You just had that in your pocket this whole time? 

You could’ve have, you know, mentioned that earlier? 

Got out of prison.  Learned Hugo is doomed.  There’s not a lot of Hugo in this game.  At least Lucas is making himself useful.  Finally.  

Having Lucas as a companion is a problem in terms of gameplay, though.  If you’re going to have new gameplay elements, it makes more “sense” from Hugo because of the supernatural nature of things.   He can now call rats because the macula is spreading!  Makes sense in the narrative.   When you have a companion who is just a kid, and you don’t have a chance to get the kid back to the laboratory because the kid is in jail, all you can fall back on is “Oh, hey! Look what’s in my pocket!” which makes a lot less sense than “The macula progressed!”  

Sometimes bananas help a narrative. 

Feminina:

Enh. “Look what’s in my pocket!” is half of resource management in games, so it didn’t bother me that much.

“Check it out: three extra longswords! And a 10-course meal! And 7 suits of armor!”

“The components to make a thing I’ve been tinkering with that I finally got to work!” doesn’t seem that out of place in comparison.

Granted, this game in particular is not so much with the three extra longswords, given that I can’t even carry two knives at a time, but I can apparently fit quite a lot of sulfur and several bottles of alcohol into my bag, so even here I’m not that troubled. 

Butch:

Well, who can’t find space for alcohol?  I can always find space for alcohol.  

I’m going to list an old car manual now.  Watch: Given the sense of humor of dear, revered Naked Zeus, this will be the sale that makes me a Top Seller. 

Feminina:

Ha! That will be awesome. 

#gnomelife!

You KNOW gnomes would have old car manuals.

Butch:

Gnomes will sell whatever people will buy.  So I’m told. 

What I’ve really been scouring freecycle for (and will scour yard sales for when they happen) is old video games.  That would be the dream.  I’m still steamed my mother got rid of my old Commodore games.  Those are worth some tequila. 

Feminina:

May fortune favor you on the hunt, man. Good stuff is out there! You just have to Jamrock shuffle to find it.

Speaking of which, I feel like my shuffle is seriously off in the current game. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve come to a workbench and not had enough components to do anything about it, and it feels like if they keep giving me the opportunity, there really must be loot out there I’m missing. 

I suspect some of it is for hardcore “I’m going to sneak around this entire arena three times to make sure I don’t miss anything, even if I have to die 300 times to do it” folks, whereas I’m more of a “thank Naked Zeus I finally made it, I’m out of here” person in this particular game, but I’m not sure that’s the whole story. 

Something about having someone with you, though, specifically a younger kid that you’re responsible for protecting…it really sets the mood as “just get through as fast as you can, don’t take any stupid chances” for me. If I were just Amicia I think I would be much more inclined to, as usual, wander all over looking at everything even if I do die a lot, but I don’t know, I just don’t want to risk Hugo or Lucas who are counting on me. It’s interesting the impact it has on my approach.

I felt kind of the same way in Life is Strange 2 when we had to be watching out for Daniel all the time. 

And it’s interesting that it feels different to me when that’s the whole game, than when it’s just a snippet of a game where you mostly don’t have to think about other characters. 

All the times you have someone tagging along with Lara Croft, say, or the times in Fallout or other games where you have a short mission to “protect so-and-so from here to there,” I’m always kind of annoyed with the other person because I have to think about them all the time. I can’t wait to finish that section and leave them behind so I can go on my merry way thinking about no one but me!

In this game, I do occasionally have the thought that “I bet this would be easier without this kid” (although in fact I’m not sure it actually would, because Hugo and Lucas are very sneaky and can occasionally get into places I can’t), but I also recognize that it’s just part of the mechanic that you always have the kid, so I go with it, mentally, in a way I can’t really do in those games where it’s temporary. 

Butch:

Once again, I’m way too much like Harry DuBois.  Not sorry.

Oh DUDE I’m the same with the workbench.  Always missing “pieces” or “parts” or whatever.  Lordy knows I don’t have any flowers or whatever, save for the one the game gave me as a hint to look for more.   

Totally agree.  You’re responsible for the kid!  That and there aren’t really any lulls.  Lots of games have tense bits, then bits where you wander around, take a break, find stuff.  This game is pretty relentless. 

There’s also the fact that it takes resources just to get from point A to point B.  Do I want to use sulphur or a pot to go over there, only to find that it wasn’t worth it?  Do I spend resources to maybe get a flower instead of more resources when I might need those resources later?  Not worth the risk, you know?  Take what the game gives you to survive, then survive. 

I did think it was a very interesting mechanic, in that room with the ballista, where there was a workbench with parts and all that, except you had to sacrifice a knife to get at it.   That was a cool choice: do you want to save this powerful weapon that will save your ass, or give it up for a longer term, if less acute, advantage?  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in a game.  “OK, you can upgrade your gear, but it’ll cost you something that has a real gameplay advantage.”  Sure, we’ve paid gold and shards to upgrade, but never something that is actually gameplay useful.  Cool mechanic. 

Feminina:

Yes, that was interesting! Trade offs. I didn’t do it that time, but it came up again later and I did use the knife, although it turned out I still didn’t have enough tools. (Still got some components, though.) I have definitely managed some upgrades, everything is at least at the first level I think, but it feels like way more often I go to check out the options and find none. Just goes to show we’re living on the edge here, I guess. There’s no getting comfortable or feeling like things are fine and we’ve got everything we need. At any moment we could be on the run and scrounging our last pinch of sulfur!

Again, mood.

Though speaking of mood, there never was a stampede at the cattle market, was there? I guess the big flashing sign said “bad smell means people are dead from the plague!!!!” not “cattle auction means things will go down in the marketplace!!!!”

Butch:

I don’t know, man!  I just got out of jail!

Though I did find it funny that Kevin was all “She will be hanged! There will be a crowd!” and then BOOM and then…two days later…

Guess Kevin wasn’t looking all that much.  “Well, she got away.  Back to shoveling gravel.” 

Feminina:

“Hey, whatever happened with that kid we were going to hang?”

“Enh, probably died of the plague. Shut up and keep shoveling.”

Butch:

“I said keep shoveling!  Oh, you’re dead.  Rock from a sling.  Meh.  Probably coinci-” SMACK.

Feminina:

Kevin.

Kevin never changes.

Butch:

Thank Naked Zeus for that.

Piles of Things Theory

Tags

mechanics, Plague Tale: Requiem, voices

No spoilers

Butch:

Also nothing, as more hockey last night.  I noticed that the Zamboni moves at the same pace as the average rat tornado and, like rat tornadoes, leaves nothing but a smooth nothingness behind it. 

There isn’t much to do at hockey practice. 

We did go to one rink, once, that resurfaced its ice with plague rats.  Saugus, I think. 

I need more coffee. 

Feminina:

I have something. It is that I became deeply confused by all the British accents when we met this guy with whom we clearly had significant history, and I couldn’t place him.

“We’re fighting the English, right? Is he English? How would I know, when they all SOUND English?”

He’s not in fact English, he’s just this soldier guy that I didn’t recognize because I’d confused him with another soldier guy. But I wasted valuable brain cells wondering about it. I hope to Naked Zeus we don’t actually meet the English because unless they carry giant signs I’m going to have no way to recognize them. It’s more like a civil war than a struggle between nations.

Not that it really matters, I suppose. Our real enemy is the plague, and any person of whatever nationality who tries to interfere with our attempts to deal with said plague. Indeed, one could argue that this blurring of national distinctions only highlights the way all humans are vulnerable to the same ancient curses/tiny bacteria. 

Butch:

Or it’s casting decisions.  In TW3, all of a sudden, Niilfgard had British accents because they cast that Game of Thrones dude as the emperor.  Until then, they had all been Russian (which makes SENSE cuz metaphor and oh whatever).  

Maybe we will meet the English and all this will help.  

Brit Kevin: Move on, boys, not the kids we’re looking for. 

Amicia: I am!  I am Amicia de Rune!

BK: Pull the other one. 

Amicia: I am!  And this is my brother Hugo!

BK: Who? 

Amicia: Hugo!

BK: You can’t even say it right!

Amicia: It was a casting decision!

BK: Sure, sure.  Sod off, kid. 

Amicia:  Look, you’re wrecking the gameplay, here.  Can I at least throw a bloody pot over there before I sneak by you? 

BK: You said “bloody!” Told you you’re no de Rune!

[Long pause]

Amicia: Can I throw the pot or not? 

BK: Sure, sure. 

{CRASH}

BK: Oh, look, a broken pot.  I’ll go look over here.  ‘Appy now?

Amicia: Bloody ‘ell. 

Feminina:

That will be a glorious day. 

Speaking of pots, as is tradition I regularly pick the wrong thing off the weapon wheel and accidentally try to kill someone with a pot or distract them with a sling…I don’t know why this is so challenging, but here we are.

Butch:

Oh dude, I do that ALL the time, and Naked Zeus save me if I have to throw something by hand. 

“I shall stealthily chuck this, silent as a phantom {CRASH BOOM WHAM}.  Heh.” 

Feminina:

“We Daroons are known for our foxlike subtlety.” [BONK]

Butch:

Man, really is old joke week here on PFTL, ain’t it? 

Feminina:

Sometimes you have to revisit classic material. 

Especially when it’s as brilliant as known gnomes and unknown gnomes. That’s pure gold, man.

Butch:

That is pure gold. 

Out of curiosity, how long have you been waiting to drop that in the blog?

Feminina:

Honestly, I never thought about it in this context until yesterday, so technically no time at all. But it was clearly waiting in my brain for the right moment.

Waiting for #gnomelife

Butch:

Everyone is waiting for #gnomelife. 

Trying to enjoy said #gnomelife today.  Quiet.  Listing some playbills (MAN I have a lot of these).    Better enjoy it because kids have Monday off AGAIN for a professional day. 

Again.  

Now I have to go out to retrieve a child, but lying on the couch is looking better and better. 

There it is….right over there….on the other side of this pile of laundry….so far….

Feminina:

I mean, the laundry is maybe also worth collapsing on top of?

Butch:

Mmmm.   Warm, comfy wash clothes.  

Good call. 

Feminina:

I try to always provide wise counsel.

Now be sure to have some extra booze once the kids are home!

Butch:

You are the wisest person I know and I cherish your advice. 

Feminina:

My many years of careful and meditative study have gifted me with clarity regarding which types of piles of things are good for collapsing on.

Also, my many years of playing Assassin’s Creed have informed me on what types of piles of things are good for jumping into from great heights, and/or for hiding bodies in.

So I’m also very well-rounded.

Butch:

The problem with hiding bodies in clean laundry is then you have to wash it again.

Feminina:

Probably why they never do it in Assassin’s Creed. They respect the clean laundry.

Know Your Gnomes

Tags

children

No spoilers

Butch:

I got nothing because hockey, so, today, I shall take a left turn here and extol the beauty of something I have taken for granted:  The school bus.  I love the school bus.  I miss the school bus. 

This week, you see, is high school mid terms.  That means the schedule is all fucked up, and students don’t have to be at school for the blocks where they don’t have tests.  Makes sense.  But that means we, the parents, have to get them there.  Thus, I have to get Junior to school at 11, get him home at 115.  Get him to work at 3.  Get Meatball to trumpet at 430, home at 5, get Junior at 6, get Nugget to hockey at 8.  

Somewhere in there I have to get food and take this record I sold to the post office (two more sales and I’m top seller!).  

How in the actual fuck do you and Mr. O DO THIS?  Like, EVERY DAY?????

Feminina:

Dude, I don’t know how YOU do that even occasionally! That’s madness!

Our secret is, I drop them off and they stay there until Mr. O’ picks them up and that is the end of the matter. Grigrio has a swim lesson but that’s on Saturday. There are no additional scheduled events. 

Kids having lives is your real issue. I’m sure our time will come.

Butch:

The bus helps!  Were this a normal Wednesday, I’d tell them all to fuck right off to the bus (in a loving, parental way), Junior would get a ride from a friend to work, and I wouldn’t have to worry about a thing (save for the aforementioned food and chores) until 430!  

(Granted, all that evening stuff would still happen and I’d still find myself at 945, exhausted with a keyed up Nugget and a Meatball that refuses to sleep while I clutch a glass of whiskey like it is the only link to sanity I have, but I’d be free until 430!) 

Feminina:

Ah, the blessed freedom until 4:30! That will return.

Also, it’s very nice of the high school to let kids not be there if they don’t have a test, but that really does assume someone is home to drive them around, doesn’t it? Schools do just figure this is the case. 

And I mean, I get it, it’s not actually the school’s JOB to provide reliable childcare. Their job is to educate the kids as best they can given their staffing, their structural resources, and the limitations imposed by the laws of the nation, the commonwealth, and physics. The problem is just as much jobs assuming people don’t have kids, as it is schools assuming people don’t have jobs.

Nevertheless, it’s not an easy setup to manage. 

Butch:

Preach, sister, preach. 

You have also managed to avoid another terrible assumption schools make: that a kid does not have a sibling in a different school.   

Elementary School:  We have scheduled something terribly important for Thursday!

High School: So have we!

Parents: Uh…how can we be in both places at once?

Every school: Not our problem cuz fuck you!

Stupid laws of physics. 

Feminina:

Yes, we have avoided that for now, although we’ll have it in a few years. For four years. Ah well. The plan is that O’Jr. can get himself to high school, it’s only about 15 minutes away. 

Of course if he has to go somewhere after school we’ll have to worry about that, but I am DEFINITELY not going to worry about it now. 

And at least it will only ever be two different schools!

Butch:

All of this in a rental car with no radio to boot. 

NO RADIO!

Well, an FM radio, but who the fuck listens to that? 

Feminina:

I mean, I listen to FM more than AM, but yeah. 

When is your car going to be back?

Butch:

Oh lord. Parts are back ordered. You know what that means. 

I’ll likely never see it again.  

Feminina:

Yikes. You might as well just buy a new one.

Of course, that would also be backordered and take 6 months to arrive. Maybe get a horse and buggy?

Butch:

I looked.  Horses are backordered. 

Feminina:

And even if you could get one, the only buggies available are last year’s model and you can’t be seen on Main St. in that!

You’re not completely devoid of style, after all.

Butch:

I am not devoid of style!

Though, considering I am now rocking a Kia Optima with 60K miles, several scratches, a cracked tail light, dented New Jersey plates and that odor only rental cars can achieve, I’m pretty close. 

Feminina:

All the more reason to leave the house as little as possible.

#gnomelife

Butch:

AMEN, sister.  PRAISE NAKED ZEUS!  

And the #gnomelife. 

And yet….I keep leaving the house. 

It’s nasty out, too. 

This is so ungnome.  

Feminina:

This reminds me of a joke I tried to make in some D&D game years ago about how going into battle there are known gnomes and unknown gnomes, as well as known ungnomes and unknown ungnomes…

I feel like this is a known ungnome here.

Butch:

It so is.  

Man, blogging even lets twenty year old jokes finally land. Now that’s some 2023 magic.

Feminina:

Hang onto your game-related jokes, people! You never know when you may finally be able to use them!

A Delayed but Inevitable Doom

Tags

character, children, combat, mechanics, Plague Tale: Requiem, story, theme

Minor spoilers for Plague Tale: Requiem

Butch:

OK!  Got a bunch in. 

Did the hardest puzzle in the history of video games.  I kid.  Seriously, what was that at the end of chapter two?  “Now, player, shoot at signs for planets as Lucas tells you exactly what to do.”  Uh, OK.  Met grumpy Vaudin.  Took off after nightshade, did that whole chapter.  Failed entirely to save the herbalist, Lucas ran off, I found Lucas, Amicia went all Rambo, now I’m in jail.  I assume you have at least done this, yes?  I’ll refrain from brilliant analysis until you confirm. 

Feminina:

I have! And yes, that was kind of awesome. I mean, when puzzles are actually hard and your companion is just standing around muttering “there must be some connection here” or something, I generally mock them and say “you couldn’t offer any USEFUL advice I suppose?” so I appreciate that Lucas is actually pitching in here. 

On the other hand, having him just straight up tell us what to do did take some of the puzzling out of this particular puzzle.

Maybe there will be another one later on that we’ll have to do without him, and this was just a tutorial version? I don’t know, man. Maybe they were just being cheeky and messing with our expectations for how companions behave.

Butch:

I know!  So often “You’re the fucking genius alchemist, you tell me!  Oh, you are telling me.  Uh, thanks.”   It did, however, sap some of the gameplay fun out of it. 

While I am enjoying this game, I am going to double down on my complaints about not knowing where to go that I made yesterday, as I found yet another flaw in the system. 

When doing big stealth set pieces, or any set piece with a lot of places that can kill you, I’m all for save points.  Having a big long thing you have to start over every time Kevin #94 sees you is shitty, we agree on this.   That said, devs, you gotta be VERY careful where those save points are. 

Here’s what happened last night:  I was doing the bit where you have to find the herbalist.  Big long bit, right?  All for save points in it.   Right after I accidentally killed the herbalist, I mean, right after the herbalist met what was an inevitable fate despite there being a quest objective called “save the herbalist,” ahem, I was left with one Kevin between me and the end of the level.  OK, fine.  I was low on resources, he had a helmet, problem.  He saw me.  Oh no.  Run run, hide under a table.  Phew.  He comes up to the table, “Where are they…” etc.  He wanders off, I wander off, I die somehow, forget how.  Game reloads with me under the table and him right there.  Odd.  But, here’s the thing, we’re in this building surrounded by rats and the rats, somehow, have spawned in such a way that Kevin CAN’T GET OUT OF THE PLACE WE ARE.  

This, game, is not a good save point.  Save points are supposed to HELP!

Now, I think I know what happened.  I think this table was a place that, had I come at the level another way, would have been a perfectly acceptable save point.  It would have been “the safe point before the last dangerous thing,” which is a very good save point.   However, I came at the level from a different direction and doubled back to this particular table.  

Game, you gotta be ready for that. 

So, my shame, I cheated.  I totally cheated.  I did NOT want to do the whole chapter again.  I don’t have time for such balderdash.  Thus, I set it to “invincible mode,” which makes you immune to Kevin (but not fire or rats, so it’s not really “invincible mode.”  Thus, I spent the rest of that level doing what the game wanted me to do, which is figure out a way through the rats, accompanied by Kevin who would occasionally kick Lucas.   Kevin and Lucas dutifully followed me, in their kick and be kicked relationship, until I reached the end of the rat maze, at which point I tossed a flame pot nearby, chucked a regular pot next to it, and watched Kevin stare at the broken regular pot until the flame pot went out and that was the end of Kevin. 

MAN Kevin is stupid. 

Don’t worry:  Turned off invincible mode and played it straight after that. 

Still.  Bad save points, man.  Ruin the end of levels and get Lucas kicked. 

Feminina:

Dude, I tried SO MANY times to save that damn herbalist. I let myself die over and over so I could give it another try. I tried shooting at the guard next to him, I tried distracting the other guard, I tried putting out torches, lighting braziers…actually, maybe I didn’t light the brazier to keep the rats away before killing the guard next to him, maybe that would have done it. Anyway, I eventually just gave up and left him to his by-then-inevitable death. 

I mean, his wife was dead anyway, everyone on his little farm was dead, the whole countryside is going to be dead soon from plague…it wouldn’t have been that much of a kindness if we HAD saved him. I’m going with that.

I feel bad about Lucas getting kicked, but I know the table you mean, and yeah, that’s a bad place to come back to with a helmeted guard right there. Those helmeted guards are such jerks! Refusing to just die… I can’t wait until we rediscover the thing we had last time that makes the helmets burning hot so they take them off.

Butch:

I was so worried that I HAD to save the herbalist!  That quest marker all “Save the Herbalist!” that showed up for five seconds before being crossed out because I failed to save the damn herbalist!  It must’ve been possible.  Still, can’t imagine it changed much.  This is hardly a non-linear game. 

Lucas getting kicked was kinda funny.  Kevin just kinda followed us like he was part of the party.  He was like “that guy,” all “Hey, I wasn’t invited and don’t have any cash on me, but can I grab a slice of pizza anyway?”   Then, he’d sulk and kick Lucas all “I’ll show you.”  

I SO want that helmet stuff!  Where’d that shit go?  I want that. 

Before we get too silly here, as we do, the THEMES are rather interesting.  Rare that a game has your companion actively telling you to chill out unless it really is a situation where making noise leads to failure.  If you can shoot and kill everyone, usually you do not have a companion urging you not to.   At the start of that level, I shot a guy and Lucas is all “stop! Calm down” and I thought “Wait, if I kill too many guys do I have to start over or something?”  That’s usually why companions warn you like that.  Still, this was just a kid worrying that another kid is losing it.  

Considering that the first game was, in a way, a coming of age story, I found Amicia’s dialog during the “survive the assault” bit interesting.   It wasn’t the typical “I hate you revenge die!” stuff one often gets.  She kept saying “I’m in control now! I decide!”  She was asserting autonomy, taking charge.  Like an adult.   Here was a kid (Lucas) all “We should hide and run from the grown ups” and Amicia wanting to face them as an equal.  Hmm. 

Feminina:

I assume maybe it was quicker to get the nightshade if the herbalist was alive, but there’s no way we DIDN’T go through that whole bit with Lucas getting caught, etc., so the guards must have grabbed him for some other reason if we did manage to save the guy.

Or I don’t know, maybe you can’t even save him…the objective got a line through it when he died, the same as objectives get a line through them when we successfully complete them. Maybe all we could do was try.

I did find that interesting, all the “calm down” talk from Lucas. And she says it to herself, too, while she’s hiding in the bushes preparing to go find Lucas (also, I’m happy for him, but WHY did they stash Lucas in a building instead of just killing him outright the way they did everyone else here?). “You have to calm down, just find him and get away” kind of talk, trying to convince herself not to get too caught up in the bloodlust she’s seeing demonstrated on all sides by these grown-ups.

And yes, when she goes all Avenging Fury and is ranting about killing everyone while successfully (after a few tries in my case) killing everyone, she’s claiming control: “I’M in charge now,” which is a statement of power, but also, clearly, a sign that she’s lost something…she’s claiming adulthood on their terms, which are about combat and death, rather than following the advice of Lucas, who wants to be subtle, who’s the genius alchemist, and who being younger also represents her own childhood, which she’s been steadily losing since the beginning of the first game.

This model of adulthood is an interesting contrast from what we might consider to be the mature (adult) ‘voice of reason’ that was telling her NOT to go berserk and kill everyone. Two different versions of grown-up.

It’s obviously not as simple as “she’s chosen brute force over the science of alchemy,” since fighting and killing are often not options for her: in many instances throughout both games, she has to kill or be killed (and let others be killed as well), but Lucas’ commentary and the various lines here make it clear that in THIS case she (though not we) had the choice to just run off, so this represents a fuller embrace of the violence that previously was unavoidable. 

And it doesn’t go so well, since they wind up in jail after the guy with even more and better armor shows up. When you choose the path of violence, there’s always someone with more and better armor/weapons.

She has that alternative model for adulthood with her mother and the alchemists, who are not fighters, but they have their own issues…not only can they not physically defend Hugo the way Amicia can when she fights, but their methods don’t seem to be working that well. So one can see why she’s torn. She doesn’t WANT to be a cold-blooded killer, she sees those people everywhere and they’re awful, but she’s not sure the other choice is going to save Hugo. 

It’s also interesting that as the Protector and the fighter of the group, she’s taking on the role of the “man of the house.” Her father is dead, the boys are children, so she’s the one who goes around in trousers with a sling.

So yeah, there’s a lot of interesting stuff here.

Butch:

All spot on.  Interesting that you bring up the “man of the house” idea, because I was pondering that re her character design.  Amicia is pretty, sure, and has the braid with the ribbon in it, which is quite “girly,” but she isn’t at all sexualized, or even all that feminized, in any other way.  She dresses in armor and boots, and not the kind of armor and boots that, say, Lelianna wore.  Sure, we can say that she’s a teenager and we don’t want to sexualize teenagers and that’s why, but I still think that making her both a sister/mother figure AND the “man of the house” was intentional, and not just avoiding the controversy that a traditionally designed female in games would provoke. 

But also, with the “man of the house” stuff, society, the ORDER for heaven’s sake, is forcing it upon her.  “You are a Protector!” says Vaudin.  Not THE protector, A protector.  Here is the order, society, saying “This is your role, tough shit.”  Hmm. 

It’s interesting you bring up her choosing a version of adulthood in contrast to Lucas’ advice.  Right before all of this, we see Lucas, who the game has been playing up as a bit of a genius, dressed down.  He tells Vaudin he’s an alchemist, and Vaudin scolds him for overselling himself.  This “voice of reason” was slightly humiliated before being the “voice of reason,” which is also not something we often see. 

Feminina:

Yes, that’s true! And it makes us immediately think Vaudin is kind of a jerk, but realistically if I’m an Order guy who’s spent my life studying alchemy, I probably WOULD kind of want to curb the attitude of some literal kid who shows up claiming to be an alchemist. Put in your time first, child!

Still, I think Vaudin is kind of a jerk.

And this is a reminder that however competent WE know these characters are, based on what we’ve been through with them, they’re still going to be seen and treated as children, which is its own challenge they have to deal with in addition to everything else.

Butch:

Thing is, they ARE children.  Sure, they’re very competent, mostly.  That said, they are easily distracted, are plagued with self-esteem issues and really can’t fight like the grown ups.  Eivor gets seen by Kevin, Eivor says “Hold my beer” and slaughters Kevin.   Amicia gets seen by Kevin and, most of the time, it’s “restart checkpoint.”  Even the death animations (at the hands of Kevin, at least) are shot in a way that makes Kevin look huge and Amicia look tiny.  

Eivor she ain’t. 

Feminina:

Absolutely true! They are children, and at a very real disadvantage in the world in a lot of ways. That’s definitely part of the mood and tension of the game, even though they don’t really make a big deal about it most of the time. 

Butch:

Except she’s getting somewhat stronger.  The “counter” mechanic is new, right? 

Feminina:

Yes, we didn’t have that before. Nor could we stab people in the last game. Back to how she’s growing up, becoming literally bigger and stronger as well as accepting adult responsibilities and roles (even if in this case, the adult responsibility was “kill everyone”….I mean, someone’s got to do it).

Butch:

Yeah, she can do that now.  That said, it’s not that effective.  It’s hardly “axes for everyone!” Indeed, most of the time I “counter,” it just means “and you delayed seeing the load screen by three whole seconds!”  Maybe I’m doing it wrong. 

Feminina:

If there’s somewhere to run away to, I find it works OK for pushing someone back and then running away. If you can avoid them for a while, the damage heals and you can try again to get them eaten by rats or whatever. So it’s saved me a couple of times — but you’re right, in many cases it just means your death comes slightly later than it otherwise would have. 

But also, maybe we’ll get better at it and it will become more effective as the game progresses. I could see it being a skill we improve with practice.

Butch:

True.  Though, often the delay in load screen is that I counter Kevin #1 only to be killed by Kevin #2.   I like to think that Kevin #2 gives Kevin #1 shit for that.  “Ah, ha, you got countered by a kid!” 

Feminina:

Yeah, I don’t know if I’ve ever had it do me any good in cases where multiple people are coming after you at once.

In this game, you really, really do not want to be dealing with more than one person at once. Which is fine — I respect that this is how combat is for a person who is still a kid and physically weaker than pretty much everyone. Stealth and ranged attacks and using the environment are absolutely key. It’s cool.

Still really hate having a bunch of jerks yelling “they’re over there!” and swarming after you.

Butch:

They sure do swarm, don’t they? 

Someday, the whole fucking English army will attack when Amicia is in the bushes.  There they’ll be, at the gates, and the British will hear “They’re over here!” 

“They are coming!”  The Brits will yell. 

They will ready their weapons, storm the gates, and find the whole French army, clustered around a bush and a broken pot. 

We Meet Again, Rat Tornado

Tags

mechanics, Plague Tale: Requiem, puzzles

Spoilers for all the rats in Plague Tale: Requiem

Butch:

Man, you weren’t kidding.  Those were some motherfucking rats.  Not sure if there were 300,000.  I lost count at 235,902. 

Would’ve played more, but that first “run like hell from rats” bit was much easier than expected.  I kept thinking is was a “This way! No, That way!” deal, but no.  Just “run backwards.”  Heh. 

Did up through the bit where you have to dodge BOTH Kevin and rats.  Seemed a tad early for that.  Whatever.  We just got to where I HOPE that dude is.  

That’s a lot of rats. 

I got nothing more than this, except for ambient worry. 

Here is my worry:  This game is doing a very poor job in telling us what we have to do.  Sure, we know what not to do.  We know not to step in rats.  We know to avoid Kevin.   When there is a direct task like, say, get to the cranks to raise the elevator, we’re fine.  But this game, I think, much like the last game, has a lot of “get from here to there without the rats and Kevin” puzzles.  That’s what the first game was. 

I have no problem with that as a concept, but a big part of “get from here to there” is establishing where “there” is.   The first game was good at that.  You usually had a pretty good idea where you were supposed to be going, and could, thus, figure out how to do it.  

Already now, I have faced two times (the circular courtyard and now the Kevin rat melange) where I had no idea where “there” was.  I looked and said “OK, there are rats and Kevin and I must avoid, but where am I supposed to go?”  

How can I solve a puzzle that way? 

I’m particularly concerned because I’m still very early in this game.  The puzzles, one would think, are going to get more complicated.  If the game is already throwing levels so big I don’t know where to go, this promises to get worse, not better. 

Hmm. 

Feminina:

I have definitely found that to be true a few times. I know I need to get through the teeming hordes of rats and guards, but I’m not sure exactly where I’m going, so I end up running past my destination in the confusion. It’s been annoying, yes, but also consistent to the point that I wonder if it might not be intentional. Part of the general mood of chaos and dread and confusion. 

After all, Amicia DOESN’T know exactly where she’s going, more than “in that direction” so maybe leaving us and her to figure out the specific exit point once we get closer, risking deadly missteps along the way, is just how they do atmosphere. 

I also haven’t found that the levels are “so big,” exactly. They’re generally quite constrained once you get a sense of them (which, tragically, often only happens after I die a few times). They’re cluttered and full of moving pieces, but not enormous. “So confusing that I don’t know where to go” is more the issue, and as I said, I think that may be intentional. 

Obviously, even if it’s intentional that doesn’t mean we have to like it. 

Butch:

If it is intentional, that’s some bullshit.  I can see that sort of deal in a game that isn’t, at its core, a puzzler/stealth game.  If this was some straight up horror game, then fine.  There are games where the whole point is to scare and confuse a player, much like a horror movie.  We generally do not play those games (indeed, when we played Control, we were surprised that it tied into one such game).   The Plague Tale games are not those games.  Sure, they have their share of creepy shit, but their whole point is not to scare and confuse.  It is, as you say, to challenge the player to find a way through the teeming mass of rats and guards.  Rats aside, it’s a strange combination of Assassin’s Creed and Frogger.   It’s a puzzle game. 

Puzzles have objectives.  “Put these 1000 pieces together and make the Mona Lisa!”  “Take these clues and fill the words in the grid!”  “Take a pen and draw a line from start to finish in the maze!”  You KNOW what to do, and the challenge is in the doing of it. 

Mood is fine and good in a game, but it should enhance the point of the game if it is not, in and of itself, the point of the game.  If this confusion is intentional, the game has forgotten that mood is an enhancement, a garnish, not the main course. 

Feminina:

Just don’t overthink it, maybe would be the advice. Go to the place roughly opposite from where you started and look for a door around there, even if it’s not the first thing you see. There have been a couple of instances of “wait, the door IS there” I just missed it on my first panicky run-by. 

There’s also a lot of going through doors and latching them behind us. Someone is going to have a very annoying time getting into all these buildings later. 

Or not, if they all just get eaten by rats. I suppose they can consider that the bright side!

Butch:

There are a lot of doors.  One wonders why they aren’t locked to begin with. 

“I am hiding from mercenaries and plague rats.  Apparently, neither can get through these doors if I lock them!  But then, shit, I am always forgetting my keys…better leave them unlocked.” 

Feminina:

You have to admit, this does sound plausible. 

Like all the times when you have to figure out someone’s password by looking for clues around the room: the only thing that’s unrealistic is that it would be hidden in clues around the room, instead of just written on a sticky note that’s cleverly concealed under the keyboard.

This reminds me to place some clues around the room so I can look for them next time I can’t remember a password…

Butch:

I actually get the clue thing.  Mrs. McP is ALWAYS forgetting passwords and if we leave a sticky under the keyboard, the kids will find it.  The clues might work! 

Kids: Dad, why do we all of a sudden have sixteen clocks in the kitchen?

Me: So we always know what time it is!

Kids: They’re all set to different times. 

Me: Uh….time zones. 

Kids: And they never move. 

Me: Uh….time doesn’t move in other time zones.  

They’ll buy it I’m sure. 

Feminina:

Or just claim to be collecting them, but say that instead of leaving them all set at 11:10 because it’s the classic display mode, you like to have them at different times just for variety. PURELY for aesthetic reasons. 

They can’t argue with that, because you can’t argue with collectors! They want whatever weird thing they want and there is no debating it. Have them check out your eBay sales if they seem skeptical.

Butch:

I love it!  Perfect!  I can even turn it on them!

Kids: If these are so collectible, why aren’t you selling them?

Me: For you!  It’s your retirement plan!

Welcome to Rat City. Population: Rats.

No spoilers except that one about the rats

Butch:

I got nothing.  Thursday is hockey night.   Sigh.  

It’s Friday!  That’s something. 

Feminina:

It is! I played a bit. Made it a little farther into rat city.

Oops, sorry, spoiler! How terrible of me to let slip that there are going to be rats in the city. I do apologize. 

Butch:

Dammit Femmy!  I totally didn’t see that coming. Might as well stop playing now. 

But did you find the amulet of accent changing? 

I’m back off to the post office!  I sold a record! I got these special mailers for records, too, so it would look all professional and like I know what I’m doing.  Then, I couldn’t figure out how to fold the mailer, so it’s this weird, crooked mass of cardboard and tape. Professional! 

#gnomelife

Feminina:

Woohoo semi-professionalish packaging!

I have not found that amulet, and both Amicia and Lucas sound so, so British, and it really is a bit distracting. But I must press on.

Butch:

Yeah, every time they say “de Rune” it’s a bit jarring. 

Feminina:

I’m going to have to stop noticing at some point, I suppose. “All European accents are the same!”

Butch:

If Sean Connery can play a Russian submarine captain, then British people can play French rat hunters.  Rat…controllers.  Rat people. 

It just adds to the bananas. 

Feminina:

I assume the decision making process here was “Americans don’t travel and can’t tell the difference, Brits think everyone in the world SHOULD sound British, nobody cares what Australia or Canada think, and we’re not even getting into the smaller English-speaking countries…let’s just go with it.”

Butch:

Sounds legit.