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 :)