4 Gaming Moments That Made Me Go ‘Oooooh!’ (Contains SPOILERS).
As you grow, your interests in certain things either change or develop into new interests. As with most rules, there are exceptions as I am still very much into my RPGs and JRPGs for example. I still love animals and I still hate Brussel sprouts with every fibre in my body.
When I was young, I wasn’t too bothered by the stories of video games. As long as it made sense and the gameplay was good, I was a happy bunny. Now, I really like a good story in video games and I also like the little, smaller details that just add to a world and when I notice them, they often make me go ‘Oooooh!’, sometimes internally but more often externally. I will admit that once I notice them, I feel rather clever…
Here are four such moments. And in case you missed it in the title, there are some SPOILERS, most of them are mild but one can be considered a biggie. I will start with that one so we can get that out of the way.
1. The Departure of Milton Finch — What Remains of Edith Finch
I hadn’t heard of this game until earlier this year (2018) when it received a BAFTA and people felt rather mixed about this. I felt bad for not even hearing about the game, but about the time it came out, I had cut off from the internet as I was concentrating on some important coursework for my university so I think I can be forgiven for that.
In this game, you play as Edith Finch, who for the most part is presumed to be the last remaining member of the cursed Finch family, as it is made very clear very early on that they are all dead (lovely stuff really). She is given a key to the old family house from her recently deceased mother and she tasks it upon herself to explore the rooms of the house and you, the player, must play through the final moments of the various members of the Finches. Well, most of them anyway.
One of these unplayable Finches is a Milton Finch, whose room is high up in one of the main extensions above the main house. You watch his final moments via a comic he painted. To most players, this might baffle them as it shows that he just disappeared by the means of some unexplained magic. What the entirety of this section shows is the origin of The King from the previous by Giant Sparrow (the developers behind this game and) The Unfinished Swan. This also serves as a very clever Easter Egg as well, as the logo is what The King uses throughout his kingdom in The Unfinished Swan can be found on a chair and the comic itself in the room. Whilst you are in the room, a variation/remix of The Unfinished Swan theme is played as well. Finally, when Edith adds his name and portrait to her family tree, you will notice the art style changes to the one found used in The Unfinished Swan. Who knew that Easter Eggs could act as lore?
When I realised what was going on, I thought this was an absolute genius move, as it connects the two worlds together seamlessly, with no dialogue whatsoever. It just leaves you to work out what is going on. I was lucky in that I played The Unfinished Swan just before I played Edith, so I had its music and design fresh in my mind. It did make me wonder if the gap between playing the two games had been longer, say a week or a month, would I have noticed the wonderfully subtle storytelling? I would have certainly noticed the music that’s for sure!
It is also nice to see that not all the Finches died under horrific/tragic circumstances, that one managed to live a decent life. Well, two actually, which makes more sense if you play The Unfinished Swan, the theme I will leave below for you all.
I also strongly recommend you playing both of them. Neither one of them are particularly long and are both rather cheap on PS4 (I believe Edith is on Steam as well, but don’t quote me on that).
2. Encountering King Vendrick — Dark Souls II
There are many things that people don’t like about Dark Souls II, some I agree with, some I do not. I will leave a link to a video by some of my favourite YouTubers talks about 10 things it did right so you can listen to that as you carry on reading this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkSPqu4qrO4
One of my favourite things about Dark Souls II is how it sets up its world using various bits of item descriptions acting as lore, the little nuggets of information it’s eclectic cast provides you and the open approach you can tackle the games’ levels. Sure, all of this is subtle to the point of being called obscure, but that is what people such as myself have come to love about the franchise. I think the story this time around is a bit more interesting.
Dark Souls II does a pretty fine job of setting up King Vendrick being this big noble king, who founded and built the large kingdom of Drangleic and fought back the giants (sort of) he pissed off. The run-up to his encounter is similar to the encounter with Lord Gywn of the original Dark Souls. You defeat 4 powerful beings, make a trip to his layer and defeat his final defences before tackling the great and powerful king himself. The boss preceding Vendrick (Velstadt, the Royal Aegis) serves as that one final defence for his loyal master and gets the player hyped for this inevitable encounter feeling that they are in for a great fight.
Having played Dark Souls, I was expecting Vendrick to be undead like Gywn was. I was expecting the change of musical tone from large symphonic mayhem to the peaceful piano to signify that I was to fight an empty shell of what he once was and I got that…but with a twist
The fight with Gywn was an actual fight, providing you didn’t spam his parryable attacks. He is undead, but not truly Hollow. When you enter the room where Vendrick has locked himself away to protect the world from the dark magic of Nashandra, what you see is a being that resembles many of the early undead you encounter at the beginning of both Souls games. He’s gone, just wandering around aimlessly, dragging his greatsword on the ground, with some of the eeriest music found in a video game teasing the player. It is incredibly cold, with the strings that are introduced later on in the cue playing harmonics and the discordant piano at the beginning sending chills down my spine. Granted, you cannot harm him unless you are carrying at least one giant soul, but do you really want to ‘fight’ him? He doesn’t attack you unless provoked and you can just go and collect the item you have spent most of the game searching for. I only killed Vendrick on my first playthrough as I was a greedy bastard who wanted that trophy/achievement, but other than that, I never touched him after that because it just felt wrong. I legitimately felt bad for what I have done.
Both Dark Souls I and II set up their kings in a very similar fashion, but it is Dark Souls II executes this perfectly. You’ve spent the entire game working your way towards finding Vendrick, this powerful, enigmatic ruler of the land, and you’ve been reassured by many people that it is your fate to face him. Then you get to this part, and find only the empty shell of a ruler, wandering mindlessly. What makes this encounter all the more saddening is that Vendrick could quite possibly be the most powerful entity in the current Dark Souls universe, if he was sane enough that is. But this is just me speculating at this point as a boss who can easily one shot the player in a fight does not always mean he is that strong against other characters lore-wise. That said, he does have a slight height advantage…
3. To Kill a Mocking Bird — The Darkness
The Darkness is an incredibly underrated game in my opinion. It is loosely based on the comic of the same name, and as much as I love its sequel, the imaginatively named ‘The Darkness 2’, it does not have the same eerie nature and loses a lot of the charm and grit that it’s predecessor had.
You play as Jackie Estacado who on the eve of his 21st birthday, is targeted for assassination by Paulie Franchetti, a New York Mafia boss, following a failed task to retrieve money for the latter. Shortly after the game’s opening sequence, it is revealed that The Darkness (voiced by Mike Patton of Faith No More might I add!), an ancient demonic force that has inhabited Jackie’s family for several generations, awakens within him and slaughters anyone who gets in his way, with the benefit of Jackie becoming the possessor of some truly unholy demonic abilities that work only in the dark. He can also summon little goblin creatures called Darklings, but they are not particularly helpful as they don’t have the greatest AI in the world and often bug out. It is a very intense opening section hour, to say the least.
In and around all this chaos, Jackie meets up with his girlfriend Jenny in her apartment, who you could say were truly meant for each other given the build-up that happens during the opening sections of the game. I love the entirety of this scene, just because it is incredibly genuine and unforced (it does feel a bit odd if you choose to tell Jenny about everything that has just happened, so I don’t recommend that option) as the two just talk and curl up on the sofa and put on some films on the TV, as most couples tend to do. If you remain with her for a certain amount of time (you can get up at any point once you have sat down with her), they kiss before Jenny falls asleep on Jackie and you get a little achievement for it as well. The whole scene is the calm before the storm that is about to hit Jackie, so it is nice that for a moment, you are safe and happy with the love of your life, allowing you to forget about your problems…or at least put them on hold…
What makes this moment equally special and authentic is that what is shown on their TV are actual movies, most famously ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’. After a little bit of research, apparently the film ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’ is included as well as a full episode of Flash Gordon, the film ‘The Street Fighter’ and cartoon shorts of ‘Popeye’ and ‘Gabby’.
These are just very small details that try and make the player believe that this is a real-world location with real people who live normal lives and genuinely love each other. It is such a shame what happens next which makes this moment in the game all the more powerful, in my opinion anyway.
4. My Second Playthrough of ‘Journey’
I talked a little about Journey in my ‘4 Game Soundtracks (And 1 Cue) That I Simple Adore!’ blog (which you can find here). where I talked about some of the reasons why I loved the soundtrack. I may mention some of the music here, but I will do my best not to go overboard with it
It is quite difficult to describe Journey to people without sounding terribly dull or overly vague. In its most basic description, you are some a hooded figure (who apparently you are not allowed to call him/her/it ‘Little Red Riding Hood’) who must climb to the top of a mountain. That’s it. There are no enemies to fight, not dungeons to raid, just some jolly ol’ mountaineering! Confused why it received so much praise? Partially that is because of it’s incredibly technical, interactive and emotional score and partly the games’ true meaning.
Let me take you back to when I had just completed Journey, drained of all one’s tears after listening to such wonderfully sad and emotional music, not entirely sure what the story was, if there was one at all. There were the encounters with the other players, who accompanied me on my journey and the cutscenes with the Big White Ridding Hoods that were cool, but I generally had no idea what I had just played. After drying myself off, I picked up the controller and started again and played until you are greeted by the shooting star that wizzes past you near the beginning of the game. I had noticed it during my first playthrough and thought nothing of it other than it must have meant something because there was a stinger that hinted at the main theme for the game. When I saw it this time, however, I suddenly got the message of the game. It was truly a light bulb moment for me that made me cry again as everything I had gone through had just made sense.
Journey is one massive elaborate metaphor for the meaning of life, or rather an interpretation of the journey that we all take in life can be summed down to we are born, and we die. We have paths to take, and some people will come and help us out. Some will stay for a long time in our lives, whilst others are brief. Some will knock us down, as will the rest of life, but we must find a way to get back up and push on to reach our ultimate goal. Well, that was my initial interpretation of it at least…
Now, I would go ahead an elaborate on this further in how the music connects all of this with the imagery, but there is a wonderful video done by ‘Game Score Fanfare’ that does a superb job of explaining this, much better than I could pretend to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKnkaB0MBE
What gaming moments make you go ‘Oooooh!’? Have you experienced mine and did you feel the same?
Let’s start a conversation, people!
