Introduction

Journey is an indie adventure game by Thatgamecompany and was published by Sony on March 2012. It is currently available for the Playstation 3, 4, and Microsoft Windows. The game was made on PhyreEngine and has won several “game of the year” awards and has also been listed as one of the greatest games of all time.

Journey is an adventure game featuring a mysterious red-cloaked character who explores the ruins of a of a lost civilization in a vast desert. The main goal of the game is the reach the peak of a distant mountain by passing several levels. The game also features a multiplayer mode in which players on the same level may assist each other but may not communicate via voice chat, text, or see each other’s game tags until after the end of the game. Instead, the only mode of communication is a musical chime.

Story

The main character

In Journey, the player must reach the peak of a distant mountain. Unlike other games, Journey‘s story is wordless and is only told through its gameplay, art, and cutscenes. The game explores the idea of the voyage of life and does so by contextualizing this voyage via the levels that lead up to the mountain. Each level is a representation of a part of life — the early levels are full of wonder, amazement, and discovery, symbolizing childhood. The later levels are filled with danger, anxiety, and act as a symbol of leaving childhood and into adulthood. The levels then become heavily focused on moving in an upward trajectory, indicating the quickening of time, closer to the end. As the player treks closer to the mountain, the slower the character grows before meeting death. After the ending credits, a shooting star shoots from the mountain and past the levels and back to the beginning where the player sees other robes characters heading toward the mountain.

Mechanics

The main features of the game is exploration via walking or brief flying. The game’s character features a magical scarf that allows the player to fly temporarily and is recharged by walking or some other means. Touching other glowing symbols scattered throughout the game allows the player to extend the scarf, thus extending its flight life.

Its multiplayer features allows the play with one other stranger (whose username is unknown until after the game’s credits). Players can help each other by completing puzzles together but ultimately, two players are not needed to complete the levels.

Aesthetics

The game’s aesthetics is largely composed of flat colors, largely in a softer color palette (teals, pinks, gold, etc.) Its art is similar to cel-shading, where the shadows and highlights are flat colors rather than gradients.

Example of Journey’s use of lighting

Much of the game’s art and colors are meant to evoke some emotion in the player and does not focus its art on realism but rather on evoking the overall theme. One big part of the game is its use of light in its art. Rather than a means to mimic realism and make objects visible, light is used as a medium to create a mood or atmosphere in the game. According to the levels, whether it is the early levels filled with wonder or the later daunting levels, the color of light used is constantly different according to the ambience the game wants to create. Journey‘s use of luminosity to subtly reflect off the clouds of sand in the distant desert or dimly light up the underground level is one that leaves an impact on the player’s mood.

A more notable key factor of the game’s aesthetic is its use of simple and minimalistic design. There is little clutter throughout the game but instead emphasizes the idea of a vast, empty world. By doing this, the game puts its focus into creating scenes that look at the big picture rather than focusing on little details.

Technology

Journey runs on Playstation 3, 4, and Microsoft Windows. The game requires a minimum of Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4 Ghz, Windows 7+, Nvidia GeForce GTX 470, and 5 GB of space.

Lens 3: Fun

Every level, there is always something new that encounters the character or a new landscape that leaves the player in awe. The game is filled with fun things to do. Even when the player is not exploring some daunting level, there is always room to explore the landscape and discover new things.

Lens 4: Curiosity

The main feature of the game is to evoke curiosity in the player. This is probably my favourite aspect in the game – how the game is elicit curiosity in players.

The biggest way Journey does this is by putting the player in a never-ending landscape with little explicit guidance. Instead, there are little floating red carpet-like creatures than implicitly guide the players, but the player is never required to follow them. Being in such a massive land, the player is pressed to explore beyond the required path.

Lens 6: Problem Solving

Every level has some sort of problem that the player must pass, whether it might be avoiding the Guardians (the enemies) or figuring out how to create a bridge between pillars. There is always some sort of puzzle to complete.

Lens 7: Emotion

One of the characteristics of Journey that make the game such an impactful experience is its way of creating emotion. The game does so by emphasizing select features of a game – art and storyline. The storyline is simple – the circle of life from beginning to end. But what makes the story such a profound experience is its art. With its use of clever colors and simple design, Journey’s overall gameplay is one that is able to effortlessly set and change the ambience of the game.

While most other games such as the Walking Dead, The Last of Us, etc. have strong storylines, the gameplay and the story is almost detached. Players don’t even need to play the game but instead simply watch a compilation of the cutscenes and still be able to feel emotion and grow attached to the protagonists. The gameplay in these games act as an additional support to make the stories interactive for players. In this sense, the two features are separate.

However, in Journey, gameplay and plotlines are intertwined together. One cannot work without the other. And this is done through its story told implicitly throughout the gameplay rather than cutting the story into cutscenes. The cutscenes in Journey, rather, are the supporting features but are not necessary in order to feel any attachment to the protagonist or to evoke emotion.

Overall,  Journey is just an amazing and beautiful game. Highly recommend, 11/10.

http://thatgamecompany.com/journey/

Final Fantasy XV is Square Enix 15th installment of one of their oldest running titles – The Final Fantasy. It is an action role-playing game first released for the PS4 and Xbox One, and eventually on Windows. The game takes place on the fictional world of Eos where player assumed the role of Noctis, a prince and a soon-to-be King of Lucis – a royal title that has passed down by 113 generations.  Players would witness how Noctis transform from as spoiled prince to a formidable king whom everyone respect as he fights to reclaimed the land he once lost. The game features an open world environment and an action-based battle system incorporating quick-switching weapons, elemental magic and chain combos backed by operatic music that heightens the sense of drama. FF15 takes realism one notch further by incorporating activities like cruising and camping – something you don’t usually see in video games.

Lens #7: Elemental Tetrad

Story

A young prince was sent on a mission to marry an Oracle to have two nations form an alliance against the evil empire of Nifheim. While away on his journey, Noctis lost his father and his kingdom to the Nifheim during an invasion. The land becomes defiled with daemons released by Nifheim during the war. Accompanied by three others, Noctis need to seek ways to cleanse the daemon and restore light to Eos. One way is to borrow the power of the Royal Arms – heirlooms that were passed down by previous kings sealed away in tombs long forgotten.

As the story progresses, the group of friends later discover that Nifheim assault is more than an invasion when a former candidate of the crown sharing the same blood as Noctis revealed himself to be the mastermind behind the turmoil.

The game adopts a decision tree concept where the choices made by characters are controlled by the player.

Mechanics

The game mechanics feature a traditional hack-n-slash where character confront enemies and subdue them without dying (i.e., hp becomes zero). Player’s character would work together with three other allies to bring down massive foe through a series of cross chain and link combo (i.e., consecutive attacks). Combat usually begins when Noctis and friends are approached by an enemy, attack an enemy, or get too close to it. An interesting thing to note is the use of point-warp where characters can teleport to different spots and take enemies by surprise.

Like any other games, defeating enemies reward players with gold i.e., Gil to purchase powerful items and equipment from vendors. As your character becomes stronger, new skills and elemency emerged to help player defeat more powerful opponents.

Aesthetics

FF15 use real faces to models their characters. As such, players may find FF15 characters to borne resemblance to renowned figures in the world. For instance, Regis Lucis Caelum (father of Noctis) is model after Jon Campling, a British actor who starred in numerous Harry Potter films. Using real faces allow designers to accurately capture the characters’ emotions so that players can better empathize with them.

The game has incredible attention to detail. Day and night are flawlessly reproduced in the game; movement of the sun and moon have a real impact on the light and shadows of the scene. In the day, you can hear the rustle of leaves and the crunchiness of dry grass when you step on them. At night, characters use flashlights to move around just like how people behave in real life. Characters also spend most of their traveling by car (i.e., The Regalia) whose metallic body embodies the lightning from the surrounding. It is hard not to pay attention to how the reflection on the vehicle changes according to the camera angle, transitions between day and night and the movements through tunnels and street lights. The details are so delicate to the point where it is as if you were looking at a real car under real lighting situations.

Other attention to detail includes veins underneath the characters’ skin, elbow texture and the condition of the characters’ clothing when it rains.

Technology

FF15 runs on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. The Windows version requires computers to have a minimum specification of Intel Core i5-2500, Nvidia GeForce GTX760, 9GB of Ram and is running on Window 7 SP1 or higher.

Lens #4: The Lens of Curiosity

Ten minutes into the game and I already find myself wandering off to the vast land of FF15 instead of sticking to the main quest. My favorite spot is undeniably Gladin Quay which is a resort area and a seaside getaway along the ocean coast. My character needed to visit Galdin Quay in order to board a ship to Altissia to marry his fiancée. Like an actual resort, the place has a spa, a restaurant, and a hotel coupled filled with lounge activities like pools and darts. Palm trees, bungalows, and ocean typically surround the area.

The cuisines served at the resort is nothing but exquisite and delicious-looking. The resemblance of each dish to the actual item is so uncanny that it makes you salivate at the sight of each one. The lightning, shading, and texture all played a part in creating these mouth-watering dishes. Check out the Creamy Crustacean Omelette below to understand what I mean.

Another activity (or distraction rather) equally intriguing is fishing. Players can fish at the dock at Galdin Quay. You will need to purchase basic fishing gear (rod, reel, line, and lure) from shophouses near the coast. The player would proceed to cast their line and reel in fishes with the help of a meter bar that gauge the fishes’ interest of being lured to the bait.

At night, Gladin Quay is absolutely stunning being vastly different from the day. Pavements are lit-up to direct visitors and table lights used by restaurants to improve dining ambiance. Ocean waves also glow with blue light mirroring the aurorae of the northern hemisphere.

As there are just too many things to do at Gladin Quay, I end up doing all of them and lost track of time. The trade-off is, of course, being late for the wedding, but I mean who cares.

Lens #48: The Lens of Accessibility

Due to the sheer size of the continent in FF15, accessibility is often an issue. It is near impossible to travel by foot unless you are an avid hiker in the virtual world. As such, Regalia, a five-seater convertible was introduced to transport the characters from one place to another. You can either choose to teleport to your destination or take your time to savor the ride. Players can also stop by to explore new places at their leisure. Should players get separated from their car, Regalia can be summoned using the “Call Car” command on the map menu.

Locations on the world map marked with a “P” serve as parking spots for players to park their vehicle at places that are accessible. Similar to a real car, Regalia runs on gasoline which can be refilled at a gas station. Should it run out of fuel during a journey, characters will need to push it to the next gas station, or call a mechanic to tow it for a small fee and I’m not even kidding.

Lens #7: The Lens of Emotion

The Final Fantasy series is known to stir the emotions of players by taking them on the character’s journey. FF15 has plenty of those moments. Perhaps, the most emotional and defining moment is when the main protagonist decides to end his life to restore light to Eos. At the latter part of the game, Noctis learn that the land of Eos has become so tainted that it would take a great deal of power to revert it. Only the True King of Prophet, can do so at the cost of his own life and with the help of the previous Lucean guardians. In the last chapter, the protagonist asks for a photo that he has taken with his friends as memorabilia before the final battle commences. He then gets escorted to the throne room to conduct the ritual while his companions stay behind to fend off against a horde of demons lurking outside. Noctis began summoning the previous kings and have them stabbed him one by one in a slow yet dramatic manner. As he was being pierced, images of Noctis opening up to his companion in the final night flash through. The new king finally enters an eternal slumber where he finds rest with his Fiancé (who too died on a mission) in the afterlife.

Upon beating the game, players will notice that the title screen, music, and logo have undergone drastic changes. Originally night, the background sky now begins at dawn, indicating light have been restored. Initially a sleeping goodness, the FF15 logo change to Noctis sitting and sleeping alongside with his Fiancé suggesting that they have finally reconciled. Last but not least, the music “Somnus” is now replaced with “Noctis,” the protagonist’s leitmotif – a warm and resonant track of the Final Fantasy.

I know that the FF series tends to give players and overload of feels, but this one is just too much.

Lens #??: The Lens of flow

Despite the fantastic graphics and heart-wrenching storyline, Final Fantasy XV is not without its flaw. The game has many plot holes that were later cleared up by a bunch of DLCs and a 110-minute film -some released AFTER the game. As the game mostly revolves around Noctis, the prince of Lucis, little is known about the invasion that has happened while he is away. The game begins with your father happily sending you off on a mission to marry the Oracle of Tenebrae and 30 minutes into the game, you receive a call telling you that your kingdom is gone and your father died defending it. Mind Blown. Luckily for fans, the events of the invasion were captured in the movie, Kingsglaive which explain what happens before the events of the game, but heck who would spend two hours watching a movie before playing the game? Not me for sure.

Another thing that leaves players scratching their head is when the game introduce the character, Ardyn who appear unexpectedly, either as your foe or ally. He would assist you on some occasions or sabotage your plan in other instances. You are often left guessing his motive whether if it is incomprehensive or plain mysterious since he is responsible for the sudden shifts of tone between happy-go-lucky and sad and mournful or angry and vengeful – then back again. His role as the main antagonist is only made known in the second half of the game. But wait! I thought the Niflheim were the bad guys? No, Ardyn made use of the Niflheim empire to achieve his goal to end the Lucis line out of spite due to his complications with the Lucis household. For now, this is the only the plausible reason I can think of despite being a half-baked one to wage a war against a nation.

In short, the story fails to establish itself before thrusting you into its world. To fully understand the story, you will need to play the game, complete three DLCs (featuring the story of Noctis’ companions) and watch Kingsglaive. There are also rumors that the company has plans to work on more DLCs in time to come.

Some much-unfinished business. Well, I guess this is another marketing and PR strategy by Square Enix.