Haha I was reminded of The Company Of Myself today when I randomly went to Kongregate to see if they have anything interesting. I posted about that and One Step Back before, and ever since then I have been looking for games like these. I did find YFYIAR the other time shortly after. Philosophical, these games, makes you think about life and all.
It appears that I have found a stash of these games!!
These games are, as I just found out today, known as Indie games. Interesting that it wasnt too long ago that I was confronted with the topic of Indie music.
Well Indie games are games that the fun factor isnt so much the reason you play them, heck these games mostly arent even hard at all. The only reason why they are games are because they are interactive, but their true purpose is to make you think. They are like the poetry of the gaming world.
Well, I havnt have the time to play them all (its more than 20 in my list lol) so the only one I've played so far is Loved.
Play it first, then read on for spoiler =). Shouldnt take that long, these kind of games arent meant to be long, just enough to get the message across. Play it twice, you should know what are the two options you can choose when playing it, so do both haha.
If you don't intend to play it yet but instead reserve for another time, dont read the spoilers. I greyed out the spoilers (I cant seem to black it out) but that might mean it may be abit hard to read even if you highlight it since its really long, so you might want to copy it over to microsoft word to read or something lol. I have alot of thoughts about this game (I spent more time thinking and writing about it than playing it) so yea haha.
This post thus ends here =).
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Spoiler:
I love (lol) the way this game is done. Right at the beginning of the game it attacks you. I was reading interpretations of this game at another website, and I was amused to see people who heed the voice and feel bad when they fail it. Someone even commented that he/she whispered 'im sorry' to the computer when he/she fails.
Well, that would be one group of people. I happen to belong to the other group where after the game blatantly went against what I said I wanted, I went defiant. I did pass through the first few in accordance to what the voice wanted me to because it only made sense, but when it told me to take the lower path, I actually spoke out loud to my computer, 'screw you' and took the upper path.
Its interesting because thats exactly the kind of thing that the developer wants to place in us. Frankly speaking the lower path wasnt really difficult anyway, I could easily go through it if I wanted to, but it was defiance that made me do it. 'There is an easier path, but you want me to take the tougher one, well im going to go against your wishes since you're such an ass anyway.'
I agree with the many people who said that the voice felt really real. They weren't just text on a screen. It was merely a game I knew that, but the words were directed against me. It was, creepy, like people described it. When it told me that I would see it soon, I was like 'hell no I dont want to see you'. And then it asked me if I was 'excited' or 'frightened', I realise that the second option would be more true. I wasn't terrified of the thing since it was only a game, but the idea of meeting this, thing, certainly wasnt a pleasant thought for me.
That too, was really interesting. If it were a regular game, surely such a mysterious thing would be something you would want to discover and know what it really is. Yet, it turned me away instead.
I disagree however with everyone who said the rebel path made life more colourful. If the developer wanted to make things more colourful, he would have really added colour to the things around instead of random pixel blocks. Additionally, if you obeyed, the graphic design actually became better instead, with the enemies like the shuriken thing actually having a shape instead of a floating red block. In my opinion, the colours were more of a representation of chaos. It makes life difficult for you, it screws with your eyes and your head.
There are many interpretations of this game, some thought it had religious references of which I do not agree. I dont think the developer had any such intentions, but he did say its open to free interpretation so whatever haha. I understand however, that this view may arise from the secret compartment. If you dont know about that, immediately after the statue where you are told not to touch, drop down the height and turn left through the spikes. A secret compartment opens into an empty room with one of those things that you touch and the voice speaks to you. This one says 'even here you search for me...how sweet'. That totally creeped me out.
Some thought it was about abusive relationships. For me, I didn't quite agree with that either, instead what I felt it was about was simply, relationships. Not even the abusive ones. The regular ones. In particular, I was thinking about a parent-child relationship. The motifs of control (try pressing the control key on the keyboard) and authority are found throughout the game, but it didnt even strike me at that point.
What happened for me was, I completely forgot what the game was called and I was just going on defying everything the voice was saying. By the end I wasnt doing the 'smart' things anymore as I did at the start, I was doing the things it didnt want me to do. It told me not to fail, I killed myself just to spite it. Then at the end of the game, the voice spoke 'why do you hate me?'. That caught me. Then the next line struck a second blow with 'I loved you'. That was when I made the connection to the parent-child relationships. The struggles for independence, to have control over our lives, to fight and go the paths we pave for ourselves, and their consequences, and the voice that despite all its meanness to us, really loved us.
Three things in the game later further supported this theory of mine. The ending of departing away from the voice was like the final breakaway from the parent. Also, when you replay the as the obedient one, you will realise that everything gets easier as you progress, hence signifying that because you take the harder paths first, you grow tougher and you can overcome future obstacles easier. Finally, at the end of the game, it asks you a reverse question of the very first question it asks you. 'Are you a boy or a girl?' And when I clicked boy, it tells me 'no, you are a man', and this for me signifies that the character has so called grown up and in the eyes of the parent, he is now a man.
Yet very obviously of course, we see that the voice is a pretty screwed up voice, and it makes me think about the inherent flaws within our society's parent-child relationships. Although the obedient ending might seem like a good ending, it didn't give me that vibe. I felt controlled, I felt like I had no freedom, I felt like a slave. I theoretically 'won', but it didn't give me any more satisfaction than I did when I 'lost'.
Just one last thing though, a part that doesn't quite fit into my analysis and yet I found to be outstanding. I didn't realise it until I read the comments that other people posted about it. Initially, the voice tells us to move, to avoid death, to touch the statue (which is a checkpoint so its good) etc, but later it tells us NOT to move, NOT to touch the statue, and to throw ourselves into a pit of spikes. The most impactful of this is how at the start if you had said that you didn't need instructions, the voice tells you to that 'you will fail', but at the end it tells you the opposite, to NOT fail, and this instruction isnt one that goes away after one time. It stays no matter how many times you fail.
Brilliant game, I would place it on par with The Company Of Myself and above One Step Back and YFYIAR. So excited that I have so many more to try out =p.
P.S. Random dota thought that just came to me (funny, I dont even play it anymore nowadays). Wisp, furion, spec, sand king, enigma, yes? Spec is a carry. Wisp, furion and spec ensure impossible to avoid 4 man ganks since there is no such thing as reporting missing with them. Spec needs not do it too much since he needs to farm but when haunt cooldowns he can get a kill for extra money this way. Furion and enigma ensure constant pushing pressure. Furion can play as secondary dpser. Disables are rather good as well in this team though its not a hardcore stunner team. In teamfights, there are two AOE ultis that work well together. Wisp late game can further boost the power of spec in team fights. Whats not to love about this team?
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