Creatures of Light

This post is going to be spoiler heavy, and is essentially a walkthrough of a wordless game. You've been warned!

I have a terrible habit of not 'getting around to things'. I'm perpetually late to the party, People are always greeting me with a mixture of horror, shock and mild curiousity when I say I've never watched Friends, nor Breaking Bad, I've not read the latest novel phenomenon and I've never played Grand Theft Auto. In fact, it's actually become a rarity when I am currently clued up on something!

Such is the case with one of the forerunners in the 'Video Games As Art' category, Journey.

My friend Terra was home for the Easter weekend, and as usual I went to visit. We were discussing the Classic FM 2014 Hall of Fame (which ran a top 300 classical chart over the Easter weekend, and concluded on the Monday) and which video game pieces made it in. As usual, Nobuo Uematsu and Jeremy Soule were there, and there were a few surprises too such as Grant Kirkhope (I miss Rare! D: ) and Russell Brower.

(If you haven't guessed, Terra is one of the people I go to Final Fantasy concerts with :3 )

There was a name I was unfamiliar with in the chart, but one my friend spoke highly of - Austin Wintory. His piece Apotheosis reached number 289, not bad considering the insurmountable competition of Mozart, Tchaikovsky et al. Terra said it was an amazing piece of music, and then played it on YouTube as we perused the rest of the chart. He mentioned it was from the game Journey, to which I uttered the immortal words...

I haven't played it yet.

Followed by the usual 'I knooowww, it's an experience, I keep meaning to, I think I have it downloaded and just never got around to it', etc etc. He insisted I needed to play it while I was there and that it wouldn't take long, but he wanted to watch someone's first time playing it. I realize this sounds a bit of an odd request but I guess it's like those reaction videos you see on YouTube, and after playing the game for myself, I can see why. We all have a game, film, book, we wish we could experience as if it were new again, and I am already starting to feel this way about Journey.

This is the story of my first journey!

And what a journey it was.

They say you always remember your first, and I surely will. Journey was a truly magical experience, and I'd like to thank the anonymous person who joined me around 10pm Monday night GMT, as well as Terra for making me play it.

I'm sure it's been said a thousand times, and that everyone who reads this has already journeyed themselves many times by now, but it bears repeating. Journey is a special thing indeed. A tale told wordlessly, you start off submerged in an endless desert. Pulling yourself from the sand, your journey begins. You're given free reign, and can wander where you fancy.

It's simplicity is it's beauty. With only two buttons, you don't feel limited at all. If anything, you're free from heavy tutorials and cumbersome memorizing. I started my journey following the sun, absorbing the atmosphere, then eventually sliding down dunes to some intriguing ruins.

After a brief explore around the ruins, and some delightful flights of flying tickets, I am presented with several plinths with portals to different levels. I float over to the furthest left.

The scenery throughout Journey is a delight. On a few occasions I wasn't sure when cutscene ended and game began, it was almost a surprise to move your character. I glided through the pastel hills and set scarf spirit after scarf spirit free.

Between the seamless level breaks, we are shown mysterious glimpses into the history of our wanderer's civilisation. Again, no words are spoken, and the history is all suggested. You can take what you like from Journey. A story of a fallen civilization? A metaphor for the journey of life? There are countless essays of people's interpretations of the game only a Google search away. They make for very interesting reads! Despite all this, Journey never feels pretentious. It's a pure innocent delight, that makes you feel more than you'd care to admit. Established RPGs devote hours for this kind of emotional response, and rarely are they so successful.

At this point I was well and truly under Journey's spell, but then something came and turned the joy up to eleven. I was completely unprepared for how purely happy this would make me feel, how innocently and honestly happy I was to have another to journey with me!

The simplicity of Journey extends to it's multiplayer. The only means of communication are a sonorant tone, accompanied with a circular ping and an ancient glyph-like symbol. This tone is used to interact with the environment as well as your ally, often used for freeing spirits or charging runes. Less is more, often in the video game communication stakes, a simple ping can mean anything from 'over here!' to 'help please!' or just a friendly little ditty played out in the Wanderer's melodious tones. I value this so much more than blatant text speak, or the dreaded voice chat where anything derogatory can and will be hurled at you. There is an innocent creativity to it, both in trying to connect with someone and to be understood.

Multiplayer is completely anonymous throughout the game, which you would think would lead to a griefing free-for-all. Not so. The person I played with around 10pm Monday GMT made my experience truly magical, and if by some freakish chance you read this, I cannot thank you enough. You probably don't realize how special you made it for me!

My new accomplice had white robes to compliment my red ones. According to Terra this meant he was quite experienced with this game, I guess these are unlockables. We worried this might have meant that the other wanderer would have run on ahead, but instead... They waited for me, they let me do everything, never rushing ahead, and showed me where special items, hidden runes, and trophy locations where. They led me out of danger, and always gave me a little power boost by recharging me when I was low. This person was a true soul, what a wonderful community Journey has.

As we continued our quest, I noticed the warm terracotta shades were replaced by beautiful blues, soft and mysterious. Journey teaches you to appreciate the little things. There is such joy to be found in sliding down dunes, helping a comrade ascend a steep climb, and absorbing the rich atmosphere.

Like most things though, you have to appreciate the good with the bad, and I soon felt a strange sense of foreboding. The ruins, while beautiful, were ruins, and that suggests a past tragedy. Who are these figures in white robes? Why are they showing me these visions? Are they sages telling me their history, or warning of our destination..?

I noted Terra's expressions as I played through Journey (he had to help me on a bit on the water level because I kept falling and I was worried I wasn't impressing my awesome white robed companion), and I could see him become visibly uncomfortable as the game went on. He was on his computer the whole time, but I could see him looking over every now and again, noting my progress and humouring my joy with my companion. I probably wasn't helping matters with my childish yays! as I played. Ignorance is bliss, as they say...

There is a stark contrast in mood on this level. The sage has bid us one last... warning? Message? And we are left to reach our destinies alone, together. I was so grateful to the fellow wanderer, who patiently waited and led me to safety, through snowstorms and harsh winds. Who signaled me to hide with desperate pings as predators flew overhead. Who kept me from freezing by sharing body heat. 

There's a dreadful sense of finality on this level. The carefree abandon of floating and flying is replaced by a grounded slowdown. I cannot jump, as my scarf freezes. We share our warmth, but we still aren't as free as we were. Our jumps are stunted, our communicative pings weak.

I'm glad you're with me, Journeywise JourneyGee, here at the end of all things.

At the final summit, we can't see the horizon for the storm. We are swept off course, separated, then desperately and hopelessly return to each other. We stride onwards, not knowing what is there. In one heartbreaking moment, our pings grow so weak that they eventually fade to nothing. It's tragic. The sound falls, the music ends, we can't even ping. The storm quenches. And, my friend, who has helped me through everything, falls.

There is a hesitation to accept the situation. The realization that you won't make it hits hard, and there is a dreadful stillness, as I fall too. I stared pained at the screen... the silence is horrible, yet it compliments the scene perfectly. Eventually the screen fades to white.

Am I dead?

The sages come to my body, they raise me and with a burst of new life, I am hurtled towards the peak. In my ascension, I dodge the final predators who would stop me from my goal, and then -

I burst through the skies! To a world of colour, of infinite energy. I can fly without needing rest, I soar with the scarf spirits I freed on my travels, it's sublime.

It's hard to ignore the metaphors in this game. After a struggle in your final moments, you're given new life, without boundaries. You shed the burden of death to attain new limitless life in what I took to be paradise. I was so happy, flying without limits, and I mentioned to Terra through stifled tears that I hoped my ally made it here too.

Amongst Wintory's Apotheosis, and the soaring scarved spirits, I thought I heard a familiar sound.

And then I saw the ping.

That was it at this point, I couldn't hold back anymore. I had a little cry. I can't even tell you why, Apotheosis playing, I was just so happy that they were here with me, after everything, that we could share in this energy after our struggles. I had assumed this was typical aftergame fare, and that this was a sort of interactive ending. To be reunited was the icing on the ethereal cake.

It's just so beautiful ;__;

We danced, we pinged in joy and twirled with our infinite energy. We ascended waterfalls, and glided over bridges, guided by the light symbols of souls passed before us. And when we finally reached the end of our journey, we stopped. He wrote a simple note in the snow – 'Ty'.

I've heard it's common for people to create heart shapes in the snow, as a farewell. We exchanged muddled jumps and turns, pinging tones of mutual thanks. And then, at the end of everything...

We both went into the light together.

----------------

Journey told more in an hour than most games do in a trilogy.

A shooting star erupts from the mountain, and falls as the credits play. Perhaps it is the very star that was your birth at the beginning of your pilgrimage, maybe it's a new soul about to undertake it's very own quest. Maybe it's my star. The credits themselves are expectedly wondrous, playing more of Wintory's Grammy nominated music, following your star while showing your journey simultaneously. (One point turned out unexpectedly humourous as both my companion and I both fell awkwardly off a balcony...). The game then reveals the PSN IDs of who your fellow wanderers were. You may have had many and not realized it

Finally, your star lands in the desert, as the sun rises... and the 'New Journey' option appears, we have come full circle to our title screen.

THUS ENDS LUCY'S EMOTIONAL AND PERSONAL JOURNEY

Terra sent the guy a message, thanking him for a wonderful experience and making my first time so special. We got a delightful engrish reply :3

Journey caught me by surprise. It did. I'm usually quite cynical about games that come highly recommended, and it can be easily assumed that arty games will be pretentious. And yet, Journey wasn't. It told enough of a story for you to make your own conclusions, without being avant garde nonsense. It is both intelligent and possesses a childlike innocence. I believe everyone who plays it has their own personal response, it touches people.

Journey even has it's own communities of people sharing kindness and warm stories. Others telling of their experiences, their interpretations and personal outpourings.

 I'm convinced this one above was sent by Terra himself, but it was posted before I even played the game XD;

I won't get into my interpretations of the game here, but it somehow felt immensely personal. I'm not sure I enjoyed a game having that much power over me, and yet, I'm surprised. As an avid reader, I am usually attached to characters through fleshed out characterization and histories, and Journey moved me so without a single word.

And I'll admit freely that if I were playing this at home, I'd have gone through a whole box of tissues. I had to make do with a few pained expressions and biting my knuckle in company.

It reminded me of past characters I had that never got developed, of ancient civilizations and a still, ominous mountain. I don't want to sound pretentious, but I'm reminded of a favourite poem of mine by Ted Hughes (also his epitaph, fittingly enough). From That Morning:

So we reached the end of our journey...

So we stood alive in the river of light

Among the creatures or light, creatures of light.

~

Feel free to share your Journeys with me! I'd love to know I'm not alone with my emotional response. Had a grifer? Tell me more! Interpretations of story? Let's hear 'em!  I'm always happy to read of others' adventures :)