The way he tried to justify this mental experiment as a therapy, and cOnGrAtUlaTiNg you for 'thinking outside the box'. You rubber ducky nightmare inducing prat bean can mother.īut in all seriousness. If you really want an immaculately written and deep character narrative from a game and haven't played it yet, might I suggest Disco Elysium? A far different game gameplay-wise for sure but a hauntingly beautiful story of trauma and recovery.įuck. With the player being the character they can only get as much out of the narrative as they put in on that front. Expecting a narrative driven by the character isn't really fair on the game. On that note, I guess it's worth mentioning the character is a blank slate for the player to stand in. It could be the game wasn't all that hard for me to feel accomplished over beating. Sure knowing it's a controlled environment is a bit of a buzzkill but at least if the player felt a sense of accomplishment that is where I feel the ludonarrative does work.įor me personally, mm'yeah, I guess didn't feel all that accomplished so the ending felt pretty fake. While the treatment as played through fails at tackling any serious notions of trauma or mental illness, it is a safe, controlled environment where a patient could build confidence and motivation, which is the feel-good message I think the game is going for. There are no illusions to the treatment being wildly accepted or respected.

Even after the curtain has been pulled back, the game's setting still implies the clinic is hokey and fringe. On the other hand, the game doesn't take itself all too seriously.

In another medium, the story could have the freedom for a deeper narrative where the solutions to the problems put in front of the character organically come from that character, such as if the setting was within a lucid dream and the character's only limitation was their imagination. It celebrates being able to solve a problem from a different perspective but it's a perspective and solution that the designers have predetermined. The game applauds your ability to think outside the box but you aren't truly thinking outside the box because you are still working within the confines of the game mechanics. While most players don't take the narrative too seriously because it's just a framing device, if taken seriously, the story doesn't hold up as well. The story and gameplay aren't perfectly aligned.

The criticism you have with the game is one of ludonarrative dissonance. And again, I think that's because most of these types of games come from a mechanical concept thought up by a programmer as opposed to a story conceptualised by a writer. Deep narratives and experimental puzzlers don't tend to overlap. I think it would be a different story if the narrative was developed before the mechanics.Īs for player expectations, I think most players understood the framing device to be just that by the nature of the type of game it was. And this makes sense with the game's development as the narrative came about after the mechanical design. While I don't feel the same way, I agree, all the narrative is is a framing device for the game. You were expecting something more of a character-driven story and a stronger narrative focus.

Superliminal ending speech