Hello. Today I'm writing more about one of my favorite games, Bastion.
Today I'm writing mainly about the entire plot and ending of Bastion so skip this blog if you haven't finished the game or are interested in playing it. Like I said in my last blog, the Kid and Rucks are two Caelondians. Caelondia was a society that existed in the west of the continent. It was rich and successful and turned almost entirely into a sprawling city, surrounded by the Rippling Walls. What you aren't told early in the game is that the Rippling Walls isn't a simple border or way of keeping out animals, it was the main defense in a war against the other society on the continent, the Ura.
Long ago the Caelondians migrated across the boundless sea to the west, from the Motherland. When they got to this continent, they spread fast westward and pushed farther and farther into Ura land without permission and sometimes violence. The ever rapid expansion and resource depletion is what sparked the Ura-Caelondian war, 50 years before the Kid's time. The war was over before too long, and the Ura lost. After the war, Caelondian expansion slowed down but relations between the Ura and Caelondia were nonexistent. There were almost no Caelondians at all underground in the Tazal Terminals where the Ura lived. Ura refugees from the war living in Caelondia were not permitted to return to their homes so they would not disclose city secrets. Racism and discrimination was rampart against the minority and Caelondian's lived happily in their "perfect" society.
It's revealed late in the game that this racism and hate lead to the game's starting event: The Calamity. The Calamity was a plan developed by the Caelondian Mancers. The Mancers were a group of scientists that worked to protect the city. They believed that the answer to never having another war was to completely eliminate the opposition. The Calamity was meant to wipe out the Ura, killing thousands. However the Mancers were nowhere near close to developing something capable of this, until they recruited a brilliant Ura living in the city, named Ven. Ven was forced to create the Calamity, an instrument he knew would be the death of his people. When Ven was finally forced by the Mancers to set it off, he made it backfire. The Calamity ripped through the entire continent, killing almost everyone.
It's these events that lead to the main themes of the game, genocide, war, hate, and redemption. It has parallels to American expansion, the nuclear bomb and many other real-world problems. Next blog I will discuss these points and the very end of the game. I highly recommend checking out Bastion.
- By Ashton
The Grey Jack Frost
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Julia stumbled forward in disbelief. Looking at the Hole she saw the 4 catwalks that led to the elevator, twisted and broken from the elevators collapse into the hole. It unnerved her immensely to see all the Heliogel. It slithered out of the hole and intertwined with the catwalks, some strands were as thing as a spiderweb, others as thick as her torso. The lip of frozen ground she was standing on was only a few feet wide before the ring of Installation 1A jutted upwards.
Windows were rather sparse on this side, but what ones she could fine were too dark to see inside. The only doors were the large bay doors at the entrance of each catwalk, so she began to trek through the light snow towards the nearest one. She looked upwards towards the dark, deep blue sky. Against the Antarctic sky she could see the black hexagons that made up the dome covering the Hole and Installation 1A. Near the center, they broke and exposed the installation to the 6-month night sky.
Julia could not see any of the corrupted Heliogel up on the dome, but she couldn't imagine how anything else could have damaged it so. She shuddered at what she thought could drip down on her. The tear in the dome explained the light snow coming down. She sadly thought about how if her head wasn't inside this suit, the cold would quickly kill her. She finally made her way to the large bay door at one of the catwalks. It was hard to orient herself, but she believed it was the same one she had used to enter the hole with the investors and tourists. Julia stepped inside 1A.
It was very dim, so she switched on the lights on her head. Strands of Heliogel crept up the stairs and wandered throughout the halls. Julia had no idea what to do, her whole plan was that here would be people up here that could help her. What was even the point? Technically, she was completely dead. Her body and brain had been either obliterated or absorbed into those... things down in the Hole. What's the point of looking for help when you are already dead? No recorded incident of somebody living in a machine past their death has ever been recorded. She had no way of knowing if she could permanently stay in this suit. Or if she wanted to. With grim resolve, she began to explore Installation 1A.
- By Ashton
Julia stumbled forward in disbelief. Looking at the Hole she saw the 4 catwalks that led to the elevator, twisted and broken from the elevators collapse into the hole. It unnerved her immensely to see all the Heliogel. It slithered out of the hole and intertwined with the catwalks, some strands were as thing as a spiderweb, others as thick as her torso. The lip of frozen ground she was standing on was only a few feet wide before the ring of Installation 1A jutted upwards.
Windows were rather sparse on this side, but what ones she could fine were too dark to see inside. The only doors were the large bay doors at the entrance of each catwalk, so she began to trek through the light snow towards the nearest one. She looked upwards towards the dark, deep blue sky. Against the Antarctic sky she could see the black hexagons that made up the dome covering the Hole and Installation 1A. Near the center, they broke and exposed the installation to the 6-month night sky.
Julia could not see any of the corrupted Heliogel up on the dome, but she couldn't imagine how anything else could have damaged it so. She shuddered at what she thought could drip down on her. The tear in the dome explained the light snow coming down. She sadly thought about how if her head wasn't inside this suit, the cold would quickly kill her. She finally made her way to the large bay door at one of the catwalks. It was hard to orient herself, but she believed it was the same one she had used to enter the hole with the investors and tourists. Julia stepped inside 1A.
It was very dim, so she switched on the lights on her head. Strands of Heliogel crept up the stairs and wandered throughout the halls. Julia had no idea what to do, her whole plan was that here would be people up here that could help her. What was even the point? Technically, she was completely dead. Her body and brain had been either obliterated or absorbed into those... things down in the Hole. What's the point of looking for help when you are already dead? No recorded incident of somebody living in a machine past their death has ever been recorded. She had no way of knowing if she could permanently stay in this suit. Or if she wanted to. With grim resolve, she began to explore Installation 1A.
- By Ashton
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Bastion: Part 1
Hello. Today I'm writing about a very good game called Bastion. There will be only a couple spoilers in this blog, only about the basic premise of the game.
Bastion is available on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, but I played it on iOS. Bastion is an absolutely amazing video game, and has become my current favorite. The game is isometric, which means you look at the character top-down as if you're in the sky. Bastion is excellent in every category, but what ties it all together is its narrative. Bastion begins with a child sleeping on a cot, on a floating ruin in the sky. Below is a broken, burning landscape. The narrator is excellent and sounds like an old man. Bastion begins like this: "Proper story's supposed to start at the beginning. Ain't so simple with this one. Now here's a kid who's whole world got all twisted, leaving him stranded on a rock in the sky. He gets up."
That's how your journey begins. As The Kid gets up (The Kid is the name of the main character) he starts running along what's left of The Rippling Walls. Ruins of the walls soar into the sky into place under his feet. The Rippling Walls were the walls that protected Caelondia. The Kid lived on the walls, working to protect the city-state. When you begin the game, you have no idea what has caused The Calamity. You only know that is was some massive event that has tore up the world and left a sole few survivors. Imagine putting an orange in a blender and pausing time halfway through. That's what his world is now: lava and water careen over a broken and jagged landscape on the surface, and what was left of Caelondia float in the ruined skies like spiderwebs. The Kid makes his way to The Bastion, a place that Caelondians built as a safe haven in case of something like this. There, he meets the only other Caelondian survivor that made it to the Bastion: Rucks, the narrator.
The game is based around finding large stones called Cores. Cores are huge sources of energy that can restore the bastion to its former glory and eventually, maybe they can use The Bastion to do something about The Calamity. Maybe they can rebuild this world. Bastion is an excellent game and is probably the best game available for iOS I've ever played. The artwork is incredible and bright, it's the only post-apocalyptic game I've played that wasn't all brown and gray. The gameplay is incredible and the combat style is very fluid, you're always dodging or pulling up your shield; timing the perfect hits on your enemies. In the end, all aspects of it are simply incredible. It even has it's own soundtrack which is very good and available on iTunes. I loved this game so much, I plan on doing at least one more blog on it examining the story and moral dilemmas in the Bastion universe.
I highly recommend purchasing Bastion for any platform. I've played through it almost 3 times and I find new things that surprise and amaze me every time. Bye.
- By Ashton
Bastion is available on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, but I played it on iOS. Bastion is an absolutely amazing video game, and has become my current favorite. The game is isometric, which means you look at the character top-down as if you're in the sky. Bastion is excellent in every category, but what ties it all together is its narrative. Bastion begins with a child sleeping on a cot, on a floating ruin in the sky. Below is a broken, burning landscape. The narrator is excellent and sounds like an old man. Bastion begins like this: "Proper story's supposed to start at the beginning. Ain't so simple with this one. Now here's a kid who's whole world got all twisted, leaving him stranded on a rock in the sky. He gets up."
That's how your journey begins. As The Kid gets up (The Kid is the name of the main character) he starts running along what's left of The Rippling Walls. Ruins of the walls soar into the sky into place under his feet. The Rippling Walls were the walls that protected Caelondia. The Kid lived on the walls, working to protect the city-state. When you begin the game, you have no idea what has caused The Calamity. You only know that is was some massive event that has tore up the world and left a sole few survivors. Imagine putting an orange in a blender and pausing time halfway through. That's what his world is now: lava and water careen over a broken and jagged landscape on the surface, and what was left of Caelondia float in the ruined skies like spiderwebs. The Kid makes his way to The Bastion, a place that Caelondians built as a safe haven in case of something like this. There, he meets the only other Caelondian survivor that made it to the Bastion: Rucks, the narrator.
The game is based around finding large stones called Cores. Cores are huge sources of energy that can restore the bastion to its former glory and eventually, maybe they can use The Bastion to do something about The Calamity. Maybe they can rebuild this world. Bastion is an excellent game and is probably the best game available for iOS I've ever played. The artwork is incredible and bright, it's the only post-apocalyptic game I've played that wasn't all brown and gray. The gameplay is incredible and the combat style is very fluid, you're always dodging or pulling up your shield; timing the perfect hits on your enemies. In the end, all aspects of it are simply incredible. It even has it's own soundtrack which is very good and available on iTunes. I loved this game so much, I plan on doing at least one more blog on it examining the story and moral dilemmas in the Bastion universe.
I highly recommend purchasing Bastion for any platform. I've played through it almost 3 times and I find new things that surprise and amaze me every time. Bye.
- By Ashton
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Chapter 12 and 13
Chapter 12
Julia looked around. It took a while to get used to being a climbing suit. She couldn't smell, but her hearing was amplified and so was her sight, although she felt like her sight lagged behind when she turned her head. The rocks on top of the suit... Hurt her. She didn't stop to ask how. She looked over at the neurotech booth and saw through the dusty thick window her body slumped in the chair. It wasn't a pleasant sight. She trained herself, lifting rubble off of her new container with her chubby hands and fingers. The slamming and grotesque sounds from behind the door drew to an end. Before the door fell open. Julia didn't even hesitate, she stood up and reached her arm up to the rock wall of The Hole. A grapple hook shot out from just beneath her palm and the industrial alloy cable pulled her up with no problem. She could hear them, oh God she could hear them. She was a good 30 feet off of the ground now, and she chanced a look down. She could see directly into the neurotech booth from a broken ceiling. The things were disgusting, lumbering black masses with white boils and sometimes patches of bare human skin. They didn't see her up on the wall, instead they ripped through the door and tore away the meager barricade. Julia could of sworn that she saw her own eyes open, before they tore her apart.
Chapter 13
Julia would have cried, if she had the ability to do so. She heard the sobs in her mind, and the suit made her tortured sobs burst through the suits speakers in staticky echoes. Julia's machinated pain echoed from the Hole. She kept pulling herself up, hook by hook from the climbing suit's hands. It was extremely dark, and the only light she had were the small pinpoints attached the Hole's walls, and two beams of light she turned on from under her jaw. She didn't stop to think how it was possible, but she still felt physically tired after an hour of the climb. She did not need to breathe, but she made the noise anyway without any voluntary effort. After what she could only guess was over two hours, she came to the lip of the Hole. The sky wasn't pitch black, it was a shade of blue that wasn't dark, but the total absence of sunlight made it very dark and she saw only by plinking bits of light from 1A and the lights on her suit. She didn't know what disturbed her more, the absence of any human life or rescue attempt for what had happened in the Hole, or the black tentacles oozing out of the hole with her, penetrating the walls of installation 1A.
- By Ashton
Julia looked around. It took a while to get used to being a climbing suit. She couldn't smell, but her hearing was amplified and so was her sight, although she felt like her sight lagged behind when she turned her head. The rocks on top of the suit... Hurt her. She didn't stop to ask how. She looked over at the neurotech booth and saw through the dusty thick window her body slumped in the chair. It wasn't a pleasant sight. She trained herself, lifting rubble off of her new container with her chubby hands and fingers. The slamming and grotesque sounds from behind the door drew to an end. Before the door fell open. Julia didn't even hesitate, she stood up and reached her arm up to the rock wall of The Hole. A grapple hook shot out from just beneath her palm and the industrial alloy cable pulled her up with no problem. She could hear them, oh God she could hear them. She was a good 30 feet off of the ground now, and she chanced a look down. She could see directly into the neurotech booth from a broken ceiling. The things were disgusting, lumbering black masses with white boils and sometimes patches of bare human skin. They didn't see her up on the wall, instead they ripped through the door and tore away the meager barricade. Julia could of sworn that she saw her own eyes open, before they tore her apart.
Chapter 13
Julia would have cried, if she had the ability to do so. She heard the sobs in her mind, and the suit made her tortured sobs burst through the suits speakers in staticky echoes. Julia's machinated pain echoed from the Hole. She kept pulling herself up, hook by hook from the climbing suit's hands. It was extremely dark, and the only light she had were the small pinpoints attached the Hole's walls, and two beams of light she turned on from under her jaw. She didn't stop to think how it was possible, but she still felt physically tired after an hour of the climb. She did not need to breathe, but she made the noise anyway without any voluntary effort. After what she could only guess was over two hours, she came to the lip of the Hole. The sky wasn't pitch black, it was a shade of blue that wasn't dark, but the total absence of sunlight made it very dark and she saw only by plinking bits of light from 1A and the lights on her suit. She didn't know what disturbed her more, the absence of any human life or rescue attempt for what had happened in the Hole, or the black tentacles oozing out of the hole with her, penetrating the walls of installation 1A.
- By Ashton
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)