WARNING:
This article contains major spoilers for the game BASTION, and if you haven’t
played the game yourself, I highly suggest you stop reading and not ruin the
game for yourself, because it’s a pretty good game.
Bastion
was the first game released by small indie studio Supergiant Games, and was
quickly heralded as a masterpiece by many. Its acclaim is no surprise given its
total uniqueness in just about every aspect. From the isometric perspective where
bits of levels fly in as you explore, to the refined and highly customizable
combat, to the unique and surprisingly heartfelt story. One of the most unique
things about the game, in fact, is the way the story is told. While you play
the game, a narrator (who’s an in-game character named Rucks) will narrate the
events of the game. Often he will just describe current events or make snarky
comments on player actions, but occasionally he will drop hints of backstory
and exposition. Regardless of what he’s doing, the constant presence of the
narrator combined with the way he fluidly fits in with the flow of the game
makes Bastion’s narrator one of the most engaging ways of telling a story to be
seen yet. So today I’m going to take a look at how this, combined with clever
writing in the game’s final area, the Tazal Terminals, creates an incredibly
engaging and memorable climax.
To
understand the climax, first one needs to understand the things that occurred
leading up to it. Bastion takes place in a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by
an event known as the Calamity. It literally tore the world apart and turned
most of the people into ash. You play as the Kid, one of few survivors of this
great disaster. You make your way to the Bastion, an area known as the place to
go when things go wrong, and the end of the world certainly seems like things
going wrong. When you arrive you meet Rucks, a strange old man who was also the
one narrating your journey through the first level. He tells you that in order
to get the Bastion working you need to collect power cores, which have been
thrown about across the ruins of the world, although you’re never told exactly
what it is the Bastion does. With this you start your adventure, discovering
two other survivors, Zia and Zulf, along the way. But Zulf betrays you and
breaks the Bastion when he discovers the Calamity that destroyed the world was
actually caused by a superweapon designed to wipe out his people.
This
is where the game’s final level, the Tazal Terminals takes place. Zulf has
stolen the last piece you need to fix the Bastion and returned to the
ruins of the capital of his people, the Ura. In this stage you fight through
hordes of tough Ura soldiers, but it’s really the plot and narration that
occurs here that makes it such a memorable level. The stage already starts off
with a surprise, with Rucks revealing that all the narration he’s being doing
this whole game has been him telling Zia the stories of your adventures. This
doesn’t have any plot or lore implications, but it is a nice way to canonically
explain the narration, and makes the game’s story and ending suddenly feel more
intimate. No longer is the game really about you on an epic quest, instead it’s
about telling the stories of your great adventure. And it also sets this level
up as a major event in the plot, because Rucks states he’s been telling all
these stories while waiting for you to get back from the Tazal Terminals,
meaning that the actions that you are doing right now really are happening
right now, and the previously all-knowing narrator doesn’t even know what you
are up to right now.
The
game stays true with this idea all the way through the level. This is an
incredibly intelligent trick by the developers at Supergiant Games, as they
manage to use this core game feature in a brand new way that really sets the
final level apart. The narrator now explains the purpose of the Bastion to Zia.
Rucks has always been vague about the Bastion, and he’s never just given
straight up exposition, so the fact that this is so unprecedented helps make
what’s coming up much more impactful.
Just
as a side note, all of the dialogue I’m about to discuss is so well-written and
perfectly delivered by Rucks in game that it’s hard to be able to explain just how impactful it is to someone who
hasn’t played Bastion, and it is pretty spoiler heavy so even though there’s
already been a spoiler warning, I highly suggest you experience this game for
yourself, if you can, before getting it spoiled. After the initial reveal in
the start of the level, Rucks ends up explaining the purpose of the Bastion. He
states that the Bastion was designed as a failsafe in case something ever went
horribly awry, and that once all the cores are gathered, it can reverse time up
to a point before the Calamity, and everyone would have a chance to do it all
over again and prevent this terrible disaster. Then, after you’ve been given a
short bit of time to think about this, Rucks mentions that because of the
nature of the device, the Bastion is completely untestable. There is no way of
knowing that resetting time would prevent the Calamity. Then you’re given a bit
more time to ponder this.
It’s important to note
that none of this happens in a cutscene. All these major plot revelations occur
during the gameplay of the final level. This does two important things. First,
you’re forced to take all this in while playing the game. This is the game’s
final level, and it isn’t really a pushover, so you’re forced to consider the
implications while fighting a bunch of tough enemies. The gameplay never stops
being intense, and when the story matches that intensity without sacrificing
any gameplay pacing, the entire affair feels like a major climax. But the other
thing this does is make it so that the story is your reward for progressing
through the game. The narrator is continuously dropping major plot reveals, but
they only happen once you reach certain triggers in the level. This means that
if you want to find out what’s going to be revealed next, you have to progress
further into the level. This is a moment where gameplay and story come together
beautifully to drive the player. The level already has a good bit of forward
momentum, but when Rucks says just a little bit of something major every time
you make a bit of progress, the player feels a need to keep on going through
the level, and are given an intense drive to get all the way through, both for
the gameplay sake of beating the game, but also for the story sake of learning
more. And with this also, the story climax and gameplay climax both travel at
the same rate together, meaning that there’s no sense of disconnect at all,
everything flows together and keeps the player engaged. This would be a lot
less possible without the game’s narrator, because he can drop exposition in a
meaningful way without halting gameplay or breaking immersion for a second.
However at this point
the player still hasn’t reached the ultimate climax, which is part of the
beauty of this level. Soon Rucks reveals yet another surprise, that the Bastion
could also be used to fly away from this ruined part of the world, but he says
that’s a terrible idea, that you can’t just abandon the weight of the Calamity
that’s on your shoulders, you have to try to fix it. And at this point it
becomes clear you’re going to have a choice, to either revert time or to leave
and try to start fresh. With this, the game asks a deep question about who you
are as a person. Are you someone who let’s go of the past and moves on, or are
you someone who would rather fix your mistakes? Would you go back in time to
try to save millions of lives or just accept the past and move on? These are
deep questions about you as a person, and you better have an answer by the end
of the level. Just as the story reaches a peak here, the gameplay begins to
slow down. It doesn’t halt, but it does change. Earlier in the stage, you were
blasting through hordes of ninjas with the loadout of your choice. Pretty soon,
the game forces you to equip a new weapon, called the Battering Ram. As one
would expect, it’s just a giant wood battering ram. But its massive size comes
with massive weight, and while it does devastating damage, it also kills your
movement speed. Now every step is deliberate and slow, and you lose the ability
to perform a speedy dodge roll that you’ve had all game. The developers at this
point were well aware of which of their climaxes would be more impactful to the
player at this point, so they choose to slow down the gameplay so that the
weight of the plot and the upcoming decision can rest heavy on the player’s
shoulders.
The game isn’t done
throwing surprises and tough decisions at the players yet however, which is
part of the beauty of this level. The story culminates in a way that really
makes the player ask questions about themselves as a person, and it leaves a
big impact. Rucks
alludes to the fact that the Ura can’t be happy that Zulf led you, at this
point an unstoppable one man army, to their hideout. While Rucks is still
speaking, you find Zulf, being beaten up by his own people .
When you approach, they flee and you’re given a choice. You can either leave
Zulf there and let him get what he deserves for betraying you, or drop your
weapon to pick him up and carry him to safety. Except the battering ram is the
most powerful weapon in the game, and you’re still waist-deep in enemy
territory. If you choose to leave Zulf and carry on, you’ll end fighting the
one last stand of Ura soldiers, but with the power of the battering ram, its
essentially a massacre. But if you choose to save Zulf, the same horde of
soldiers will be waiting for you and weighed down by Zulf, all you can do is
slowly trod forward while you get shot by this army. A beautifully sad song
begins to play in the background as one by one, the enemies stop firing. They
begin to stand still and watch, as you carry Zulf to safety, not willing to
harm you once they see what you’re trying to do. Near the end of the path, one
soldier will start firing upon you again, before being struck down by his
commander. It’s a beautiful moment, and one that manages to express so much
emotion without any words.
Up until now, Bastion
was a game that relied heavily on words. The whole game is narrated to you
after all, but for this one poignant moment, the whole story is told visually.
This sudden reversal makes the event seem all that more significant when it’s
just you in silence, watching events unfold. This moment makes Bastion’s final
level now stick out in player’s minds for two reasons. First there is the
high-speed, intense plot reveal portion of the level that forces you to
question who you are as a person. Trying to figure out which decision you would
make while getting further and further into the level and learning more and
more is something almost every Bastion player can remember clearly, and I
imagine it had an impact, if even incredibly small, on their lives. Something
like that is a game functioning as art, and is the highest praise I can bestow
upon something. Except the level doesn’t end there, because then comes the
slow, heavy section where you have time to reflect and take things in before
you’re forced to decide the fate of a man’s life. Of course, the developers
knew most players would choose to save Zulf, as saving him seems like the
obvious “correct” choice. This illusion of choice makes you feel more like a
hero when you do save him, and then the moment where enemy soldiers lay down
their weapons for you is a powerful scene to further back up the strong
emotions the game is trying to create.
All this brings us back
to the article’s title. The Tazal Terminals aren’t remembered because of unique
gameplay, cool scenery, or unique challenge. What makes the area stick out as a
memorable climax is the way the story and gameplay peak together. In the Tazal
Terminals, your mind is always occupied. First you’re busy chasing after major
reveals as you progress through the level, and then suddenly you’re forced to
answer deep questions for yourself as the action continues. With the game’s
narrator, your immersion is never broken during any of this because the
gameplay never stops for a textbox or dialogue prompt. The final encounter with
Zulf is just the icing on the cake. Just when you think you have this area
figured out, the game dumps a second choice on you, one that will take most
players down the path to an emotional experience that’s able to convey so many
feelings you without any words, and once again never halting the gameplay, only
slowing it down for emphasis. The emotional impact of the questions that
Bastion makes you ask is what makes the final area so good at sticking with
players. And that right there is something to take note of, because it uses one
of the biggest strengths of games as a medium: the involvement of a player. If
all that I just described of Bastion's climax had been in a book, it wouldn't
have been as impactful. One unique strength games have over all other mediums
is the fact that the player is an active participant. They are the one making
the choices and determining the story. So if one was reading this in a book,
the question at the forefront of their mind would probably be "What is the
main character going to decide?" In a game, however the question at the
forefront of the player's mind is "What am I gonna do?" While a reader would probably have questions
sparked in their mind from the reading, a question like this is inherently more
impactful in a game because there the player is forced to make a choice, and
your choice will have a legitimate outcome. This potential of games to provide
meaningful choices that players have to make and then see the outcome of is
relatively untapped in games today, and is what can enable them to truly have
unique impacts on players.
This brings me to the major takeaway and the
point of today’s article: a good climax should always give players something to
chew on. Hit the player with something they weren’t expecting before, and then
make them think. Make them ask questions and make them feel something that may
have an impact on their life. All mediums can make their audience think, but
only games can force them to make a choice. Something surprising and impactful
what will make an area truly stick out, and what will make a climax stick with
players.
Key
Takeaways:
·
One of the unique strength of games is
their ability to involve the player. Games that truly excel at being games are
ones that use player choice in a meaningful way
·
Really engaging moments of a game will
weave story and gameplay together, so that both escalate and help each other
without making one halt for the other.
·
Good, memorable climaxes should always
make the player think and give them something to chew on later, or during the
climax.
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