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schneefinkI feel like I might be getting sick, but that would suck so clearly it's not happening.
Yesterday I thought I would try out playing Journey. It's a beautiful and moving game, but I did not expect the ending to make me so sad.
More thoughts below with spoilers, though if you think you might be interested in the game I'd recommend not reading them because I really enjoyed playing without spoilers. All I knew when I started was that I could fly with my scarf, I couldn't talk only chirp, and I would meet anonymous other players. The game only took me a little over 2.5 hours the first time and less than 2 hours the second time, so it's not very long, but I'm pretty sure I'll play it again eventually, maybe a few times, because I'm sure there's more to discover.
I was at first a bit apprehensive when I saw how the controls worked because changing the perspective with my mouse is tricky. To my relief, for the most part it worked quite well, and so did figuring out the ways & levels. The scenery is gorgeous, from flying over floating bridges to floating up the "scarf jellyfish" or the "scarf whales" to the underground lair – speaking of, evading those flying robots was very tense, well done. And I enjoyed the sand surfing.
Meeting other players was a lot of fun! Instant bonding with this anonymous person. My first game I met iirc four people and made it to the summit with one of them. My second game I didn't see anyone in the first two areas where I had met someone the first time, then I saw someone but they didn't move, and then on the mountain I traveled with someone for a bit, then I lost them, and then after I almost went on without them and instead turned back to find them again I just got to see them dissolve.
The ending was… I got so worried about my traveler when they started to falter, fighting the wind and snow, and I was shocked when they fell down and died, and so sad. That journey was important – yes I suppose I don't know it wasn't just a hobby or a whim but it felt important – and they tried their best and made it so far, and yet they failed.
Then the white figures appeared and the traveler entered the afterlife, and flew along a sunny mountainside there and made it to the top and that was beautiful, but that didn't change the fact that they failed. And when their spirit returns you can see other travelers, and by now on a meta level it's clear that they will all fail, over and over and over again.
I checked Wikipedia afterwards and it says "…the traveler falls and collapses in the snow. Six of the white-robed figures appear before the character and grant the traveler new energy, allowing the player to reach the summit of the mountain…" That was not at all how I interpreted it, not the first time and then not the second time either.
Overall I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm glad I played it.
Yesterday I thought I would try out playing Journey. It's a beautiful and moving game, but I did not expect the ending to make me so sad.
More thoughts below with spoilers, though if you think you might be interested in the game I'd recommend not reading them because I really enjoyed playing without spoilers. All I knew when I started was that I could fly with my scarf, I couldn't talk only chirp, and I would meet anonymous other players. The game only took me a little over 2.5 hours the first time and less than 2 hours the second time, so it's not very long, but I'm pretty sure I'll play it again eventually, maybe a few times, because I'm sure there's more to discover.
I was at first a bit apprehensive when I saw how the controls worked because changing the perspective with my mouse is tricky. To my relief, for the most part it worked quite well, and so did figuring out the ways & levels. The scenery is gorgeous, from flying over floating bridges to floating up the "scarf jellyfish" or the "scarf whales" to the underground lair – speaking of, evading those flying robots was very tense, well done. And I enjoyed the sand surfing.
Meeting other players was a lot of fun! Instant bonding with this anonymous person. My first game I met iirc four people and made it to the summit with one of them. My second game I didn't see anyone in the first two areas where I had met someone the first time, then I saw someone but they didn't move, and then on the mountain I traveled with someone for a bit, then I lost them, and then after I almost went on without them and instead turned back to find them again I just got to see them dissolve.
The ending was… I got so worried about my traveler when they started to falter, fighting the wind and snow, and I was shocked when they fell down and died, and so sad. That journey was important – yes I suppose I don't know it wasn't just a hobby or a whim but it felt important – and they tried their best and made it so far, and yet they failed.
Then the white figures appeared and the traveler entered the afterlife, and flew along a sunny mountainside there and made it to the top and that was beautiful, but that didn't change the fact that they failed. And when their spirit returns you can see other travelers, and by now on a meta level it's clear that they will all fail, over and over and over again.
I checked Wikipedia afterwards and it says "…the traveler falls and collapses in the snow. Six of the white-robed figures appear before the character and grant the traveler new energy, allowing the player to reach the summit of the mountain…" That was not at all how I interpreted it, not the first time and then not the second time either.
Overall I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm glad I played it.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-03 09:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-03 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-22 05:27 pm (UTC)I can understand your interpretation of the ending. I think I'm too entrenched in fantasy wish fulfillment land though, because my instinctual reading of the ending was, way back when I first played it, "the power of the ancestors let's you ascend to a higher plane where they've all gone" and I kinda read that as the goal of the game. That spark at the end going back through the desert, I've seen as a spark of guidance from the player-character-now-turned-ascended, to guide other travelers to the mountain.
Not saying you're wrong, though! Just interesting how differently people can read the same experience :)
no subject
Date: 2021-04-24 03:54 pm (UTC)Yeah, that is interesting! I would kind of be interested in seeing a poll on ending interpretations...
no subject
Date: 2021-04-26 06:05 pm (UTC)That would indeed be interesting! Journey is so open to interpretation all over, so seeing other people's headcanons of both the ending and the setting itself is always interesting :D