![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Completed! Played through the game twice, all memories found.
I'm glad I gave this game a second chance. It's gorgeous. The seventh chapter, in which the city becomes more stark and bleakly surreal as the player progresses, is outstanding.
I take back what I wrote earlier about the computer-controlled girl having the AI of a pug, since she really doesn't have any AI at all – she's an environmental element that follows a specific and unchanging script. As such, her actions make perfect gameplay sense, and she starts pulling her weight in the fifth chapter.
Still, it didn't sit well with me that certain puzzles and scenarios arise as a direct result of her incompetence or stupidity. The episode with the doll and the cage in the circus tent is a particularly galling example. Her gender is emphasized by the way the boy is consistently characterized as wanting to protect her and by the way she is consistently characterized as crying or being on the verge of tears. The boy does things, and the girl has things done to her.
Weird gender issues aside, the level design was perfectly engineered to create a lovely sense of flow, which was enhanced by the subtle yet effective sound design. Wow. Just, wow.
Next up is Final Fantasy I: Dawn of Souls. A friend of mine gave me a copy of The Road for my birthday, and I'm going to watch it this evening. The movie is about an hour and fifty minutes long; and, if I can't level up during that time period enough to defeat Chaos, I'm going to watch the ending on Youtube and say I beat the game. Maybe that's cheating, but I refuse to give this game as many hours of my life as it seems to be demanding.
I'm glad I gave this game a second chance. It's gorgeous. The seventh chapter, in which the city becomes more stark and bleakly surreal as the player progresses, is outstanding.
I take back what I wrote earlier about the computer-controlled girl having the AI of a pug, since she really doesn't have any AI at all – she's an environmental element that follows a specific and unchanging script. As such, her actions make perfect gameplay sense, and she starts pulling her weight in the fifth chapter.
Still, it didn't sit well with me that certain puzzles and scenarios arise as a direct result of her incompetence or stupidity. The episode with the doll and the cage in the circus tent is a particularly galling example. Her gender is emphasized by the way the boy is consistently characterized as wanting to protect her and by the way she is consistently characterized as crying or being on the verge of tears. The boy does things, and the girl has things done to her.
Weird gender issues aside, the level design was perfectly engineered to create a lovely sense of flow, which was enhanced by the subtle yet effective sound design. Wow. Just, wow.
Next up is Final Fantasy I: Dawn of Souls. A friend of mine gave me a copy of The Road for my birthday, and I'm going to watch it this evening. The movie is about an hour and fifty minutes long; and, if I can't level up during that time period enough to defeat Chaos, I'm going to watch the ending on Youtube and say I beat the game. Maybe that's cheating, but I refuse to give this game as many hours of my life as it seems to be demanding.
