A Solid Beginning

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

My journey when it came to the Legend of Heroes series began with Rean Schwarzer and his merry band of misfit classmates that comprised Class 7 in Trails of Cold Steel. I can’t say what prompted me to purchase the title on my PlayStation Vita, but purchase it I did and was subsequently taken on a grand adventure throughout the Erebonian Empire before I was mildly displeased at the sudden appearance of an ancient mech. In all my anime-watching, I’ve always hated fictional worlds with huge mechanical suits. They’re much too cliche for my tastes and frankly, the less they appear in the media I consume, the better.

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While I did purchase Trails of Cold Steel 3 and fully intend to play it in the near future, forums I scoured recommended playing the Trails in the Sky series beforehand. Why? Well, how better to understand what Olivert Reise Arnor was doing prior to the events of Giliath Osborne trying to take over the world? And what of the sudden appearance of a certain Lloyd Bannings in Trails of Cold Steel 2?

So, after slowing purchasing the games from GoG (Good Old Games), I began Trails in the Sky just before the impending releases of a hundred thousand different games that would be coming out in November. 

Trails in the Sky begins with a mysterious boy being delivered to a bright-eyed Estelle Bright by her very own father. Shenanigans occur and it is not long before there’s a time skip and we rejoin Estelle and her adopted brother, Joshua, when they turn sixteen and decide to take on a test that would allow them to become junior bracers at their local guild in Rolent.

When her father takes on an important mission, both Estelle and Joshua are left behind. Eager to prove their worth, they assist the townsfolk by completing odd jobs. It is not long, however, that they rise to the role of detectives, solving the theft of a valuable orbment necklace that was meant to be delivered to the Queen of Liberl for her birthday celebration. Estelle, never one to pick up on subtle clues, is shocked to discover it is Josette – a girl she assumed was a student at a prestigious academy in the Kingdom – a sky pirate. They duke it out before Josette is rescued by her brother, fleeing towards Bose.

Thus ends the prologue after several hours of gameplay and dialogue. 

Within days of uncovering the crime, Estelle and Joshua learn that the ship their father was on has gone missing. Worried, they enlist the aid of Scherazard and head to Bose (not knowing, yet, that the sky pirates and the disappearance of the Linde are connected). It is not long before they are swept into another mystery, which they solve within days of arriving in the new city, and begin travelling around the Kingdom of Liberl to learn more about its denizens. 

Throughout their journey, they make new friends and impress each local branch of the Bracers guild while solving major problems plaguing the cities that they visit. It is the fourth city, Zeiss, however, when the plot starts to pick up and the characters begin to sense something darker and more sinister is at play. It was also here that I started paying more attention, having nearly fallen asleep at the proverbial wheel with the glacial pacing of the narrative.

After carrying around a MacGuffin black orbment, several questions were answered even as the game set about laying out the seeds for a grand conspiracy plot. But as with always the case of protagonists, they plod through most of the subtext, oblivious until the villain of the piece declares his master plan. Without the means of airships, Estelle and Joshua set out for Grancel via foot and finally arrive just as the Intelligence Division begins its coup d’etat.

While the rescue missions were fun and served to propel the plot forward, the final boss was a bit of a letdown. In many stories from the Japanese role playing genre, I find the human to human struggle much more engaging than having to fight an archaic machine Alas, that was the case here.

Worse, was the fact that Reverie was hardly what I might have called challenging. Instead, the machine proved annoying with his high defence and health stats. Equipped with two magic users and having Estelle and Joshua dish out the occasional hurt with physical attacks, the battle was soon over and the kingdom saved.

Trails in the Sky plays like the first arc of a major story. Were it the sole game in the series, it would have felt incomplete. Knowing that there were two other games waiting in the wings, I was able to stifle much of my disappointment. Even though I would have liked for most of the loose ends to have been tied off. A stand alone title, Trails in the Sky is most assuredly not. Whether that was uncovering Olivier Lenheim’s true identity and purpose in Liberl, to whatever was Ouroborous and the mysterious Weissmann.

The combat is turn-based and felt much simpler than the mechanics employed in Trails of Cold Steel. I can’t rightly say why but I will chalk it up to the fact that there were no bonuses to experience points being earned through certain victory conditions. Just like in Trails of Cold Steel, characters place quartz into spare slots – triggering certain spells and stat boosting abilities.

Being familiar with the system, it was easy for me to pick up the mechanics again and trounce my foes. Most bosses gave me hardly any trouble – except of course, Lorence.

As for the characters themselves, my favourites were Joshua and Kloe, the disguised princess of Liberl. Tita and Agate were also enjoyable. But as the credits rolled, I regretted not getting to know them a little better. After completing each major city, the other characters left and it was back to my two-man party of Estelle and Joshua.

Overall, Trails in the Sky was a good introduction to the complex world created by Nihon Falcom. It provides some much needed background and introduced players to certain key characters that would later play important roles in later titles. The world building in The Legend of Heroes is top notch. As a writer, it was interesting to see the multiple and opposing views shared by heroes, villains and the general public. For that, the developers and story writers ought to be applauded. But while the story to Trails in the Sky FC was fairly simplistic, I am eager to see how the characters fit into the larger narrative and what the sequels have in store for this new fan to the franchise.

As a side note, I hate the fact that several side missions are missable, have a limited time frame or are hidden. Of course, having played through Trails of Cold Steel, I knew this beforehand and played through the game with a trusty walkthrough to guide me.

Meat Cute

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

How old is too old when it comes to having a chaperone to a date? In my late twenties, I found my most recent attempt at love (during the pandemic, no less) an awkward and bewildering state of affairs. Volunteering his services, one of my grandmother’s good friends said that they knew someone new to the city of Sydney that would be a good fit to my mercurial personality. I was less than convinced. My earlier encounters had left me sour to the whole experience. It was only due to my grandmother’s earnest wish that I find myself a man that I decided to go.

I was a little late in arriving, having played badminton with my friends in my old high school gym. Having to park in the open-air carpark of the local shopping centre, it took me a few minutes to locate the restaurant. By then, they had arrived and were waiting patiently. I rocked in, face covered in a mask and wearing a neat short-sleeved black shirt along with active-wear shorts. It was, I will admit, not the best combination. But with the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in my fair city, it seemed imperative that I limited the instances when I had to touch surfaces. 

The restaurant that was chosen was close to where I played badminton and offered cuisine a little different from the norm. Our chaperone on this pseudo-date had selected an Afghan restaurant that offered plenty of lamb for my discerning taste buds. After taking a seat opposite my possible future beau, I began perusing the menu for possible options – choosing a lamb chopan kebab and a garlic and cheese naan. The men decided to share – ordering a garlic naan, lamb meatballs (or kofta), ashaak dumpings and topped off with kabuli pallow rice.

One would think seated across from someone would engender quite a bit of back and forth conversation. Alas, our chaperone, serving as moderator saw fit to regale us both with tales of his own life and anecdotes that he thought best exemplify whatever topic we were discussing. It was like the US Presidential debate, except all interruptions were made by the moderator himself. I, and the glasses-wearing web designer with a degree in mechanical engineering barely got a word in edgewise until our dear chaperone briefly disappeared to the restroom for a few short minutes.

Even then, our conversation was a little stilted as I gave a brief summary of my adventures in the United States of America and Canada during the summer of 2016 – four years prior.

But it mattered not what we said to each other. For, before we could say anything beyond general niceties, our chaperone returned and our heads were once again turned towards the head of the table as he chatted about the differences he noted between Australia and China, made enquiries on good crime shows on Netflix and illustrated his very good connections that had brought us all together to this restaurant on this particular sunny October day.

If I want to be perfectly honest, it was a little overbearing. We were treated like young children who did not know what they wanted out of life. Our hobbies, degrees were all extolled by the chaperone. During the two-hour luncheon, I looked at the spectacle-wearing boy for perhaps a cumulative 10 minutes at most. The rest of the time, I was eating or pretending to be enraptured by whatever our moderator had to say.

All in all, any sparks between me and the possible boyfriend to be was quickly doused by the heavy-handed way we were treated by the one who was introducing us. At the very least, I did not feel pressured with the idea that I had to fall in love with the boy. How could I when the moderator essentially talked about and to us for almost the entire duration of my time there?

Still, perhaps a sort of kinship was formed. If not, at least we enjoyed a hearty meal by the lake (all paid for by the chaperone).

Will I bother to send him a text over WeChat? Who knows. Will he? Possibly. The future is up in the air. But the feeling I got, while seated at the restaurant, was a lukewarm response at best. After all, I’m not a drop dead gorgeous model. And, I had just come from sweating it out on the badminton court. Then again, stranger things have happened. In life and in fiction.

In any case, I’m not fussed either way by the outcome (though I’m hoping for nothing to eventuate. I’ve got to game and Peter Smith the Fifth is waiting for me in 2021. Alas, I did not manage to snag a pre-order before it was all sold out). Here’s to finding someone that can appreciate an interesting personality rather than appearances.

“De Sardet, Legate of the Merchant Congregation”

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

Diplomacy is an art. It is a delicate balancing act, likened to a dance where two or more opposing sides seek something from another. But in the end, diplomacy is all about compromise. This was something I learned as I played through Greedfall as De Sardet, Legate of the Congregation of Merchants, charming my way through the various factions in order to maintain a semblance of order in the new world of Teer Fradee. 

Releasing in September 2019, it was not a title that had been on my immediate radar. In fact, had I not spied a trailer on YouTube and heard Jane from Outside Xbox mention it on one of the weekly videos, I might have let it fall to the wayside. Fate had other plans and I managed to purchase the game. Intrigued by the setting and the premise behind it, I was eager to see where Spiders would take the game. Thus, it sat on my shelf until the year of COVID-19 rolled around before I finally booted it up to play.

Thrust into the role of De Sardet, cousin of Constantin D’Orsay, the new Governor of New Serene located on the island of Teer Fradee, players are tasked with maintaining relations between the Merchant Congregation and its allies as they set their eyes on a new land. As soon as the game started, I was enamoured by the fashion of the setting. I mean, who doesn’t love a good tricorne hat (previously referred to as ‘cocked hats’)? 

The only issue I had with the game was the jankiness involved with movement and combat. De Sardet seemed to startle forwards and when I released the analog stick, jerked to a stop. Consequently, it felt jarring. Particularly during the early segments as I was trying to adjust to the controls. Then there were the occasions when De Sardet seemed to get stuck on basic geometry, such as a stair. Over time, however, I managed to see past these initial problems and began to thoroughly enjoy shooting my foes and stabbing at them with my rapier. Perfection, it might not have been, but it was certainly serviceable during my battles with the nadaig guardians.

Not being a triple-A studio game, however, meant there was a dip in the lip-syncing and textures that were used in the game. It was nothing that disrupted my enjoyment of the game, but during one of the later cutscenes, I found it somewhat annoying when the camera was out of focus as it bounced from De Sardet and Mev. Then there was the matter of my cloak/ body armour threatening to glitch itself out of existence. Thankfully, this was easily remedied.

Still, despite all my gripes with the technical nature of the game, I thoroughly enjoyed the plot and the characters. While the ending felt a little bit rushed, I liked seeing the different sides of each faction and trying to resolve what I thought were the bad elements with the good. This was particularly evident during my interactions with Theleme – the believers of Saint Matheus. Just like Christianity, many of its followers fell into two camps: the missionaries (seeking to convert the wayward natives) and the Ordo Luminis (a callback to the Spanish Inquisition). What I thoroughly liked about Greedfall was that despite my first impression of Theleme being quite poor as someone who considers themselves an atheist, the Mother Cardinal Cornelia won me over.

On the other hand, the Bridge Alliance enticed me with its focus on science. However, their unethical behaviour and betrayals quickly had me disillusioned. I was thoroughly delighted that at game’s end, they finally saw the wisdom to install an ethics board. Also, Aphra essentially becoming one of the first people in the world to embrace social science was a nice change.

The underlying message in Greedfall also seemed to ring true to someone living in 2020. Through the lens of colonialism, though most of it was dressed up as finding a cure for the malichor (and no sudden declaration of terra nullius), there was still a sense that the Merchant Congregation, Theleme and the Bridge Alliance were superior to the natives of Teer Fradee. Often, they were decried as savages and uncultured. Of course, given the setting of the game, it should come as no surprise.

What was refreshing was how I, the player, could choose to interact with such individuals. And very often, I found myself siding with the natives when it came to disputes.

Greedfall was also very good at highlighting the fact that abuse of the land (and in general climate change) can also be a leading factor in its deterioration. By game’s end, the God of Teer Fradee, En on mil Frichtiman was quick to point out that the malichor came from the people’s abuse of the land’s resources. Only by healing the land could the people be free of the blood plague that dogged their very footsteps. A singular message that rings very true in our current pandemic.

The ending, however, felt a little rushed. But after trying so hard to stop my dear beloved cousin, perhaps it was better that the camera panned upwards after I had stabbed him. After all, what was De Sardet to do after killing the one person she has protected for most of her life. They were basically siblings.

And if anyone knows any good Constantin D’Orsay and De Sardet fanfiction, send me a link!

As for my allies – I found each and one of them unique and useful. Their stories also tied into the greater narrative. In fact, leave Kurt’s personal missions alone and it is possible that he betrays your party during a coup of the Coin Guard. And while Aphra intrigued me, sadly, she was less than useful in my party as I, being the technical genius, already had access to bombs, traps and a slew of guns. Siora, on the other hand, was a main staple in my party. Her ability to provide vigor and her healing prowess was greatly appreciated as I traversed the many maps of Teer Fradee (and for that, I was grateful. The change to big open world maps has made certain games tedious. Although, I did find the loading screens annoying when I had to go from one place to another). Petrus and Vasco were also indispensable, depending on the situation.

But, I would be remiss in forgetting one of the most memorable things about the game. “Things are about to get dicey!” Kurt’s combat line is as memorable as Ignis and his: “I’ve come up with a new recipe.” Or, when playing Kingdom Hearts 3: “This might be a good spot to find some ingredients.”

Let’s not forget how often De Sardet often introduces themselves. It’s on par with: “Sora, Donald and Goofy.” At least, the game only lasted only forty or so hours. If it had been any longer, I might have skipped through most of the conversations.

Greedfall turned out to be a surprising game that I wasn’t sure if I would have liked. In fact, I knew little about the general plot when I bought it except that the setting was in an interesting era when compared to most fantasy role playing titles. And while the combat took a little getting used to, I became thoroughly engrossed in what the game had to offer. With my natural paragon virtues, it was second nature for me to help everyone and elevate myself to the role of highly skilled diplomat of the new world. And if a conversation did not go my way, I was always able to reload my previous save and try again.

A Changing World

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

In a world that is slowly trying to correct the wrongs of the past, there has been a considerable number of missteps. Progressive individuals from the past might also be bigots with conflicting ideals when viewed from the perspective of the present. Celebrities, held up on pedestals, reveal that they are just as fallible as us other humans and vulnerable to the same vices. Yet, in a society where one can express their opinion through the limits of 140 characters, everything that we do is scrutinised by our peers. And, should someone take umbrage with what we’ve said, all the good work we have done is made invalid.

I can’t say much regarding certain controversies floating around the internet. After all, I don’t actually have a Twitter account. So, my voice, when it comes to social media is limited to overlong blog posts that are almost ignored.

But after reading numerous articles on the subject, I’ve come to the conclusion that often times our need for political correctness has only served to divide humans rather than bring us together in solidarity. How do we include people from all walks of life without dismissing their individual lived experiences? What if we substitute the ‘e’ in women with an ‘x’ to include transgender individuals? No, wait. That could also be considered excluding them by drawing attention to the very fact that we are trying to include them.

Nothing is ever as cut and dry as one would hope. And honestly, over the years, it’s been a tiring prospect to try and remind myself of all the new words and phrases to replace ones that would be considered offensive. Is it aboriginal, indigenous or First Nations? Should I refer to someone as being physically disabled? Does that person have Asperger’s or has it all been lumped under the singular spectrum of autism?

As someone that has quite a few privileges, it can be hard to take into account all the many ways people now identify themselves as. Are you joking or do you really think of yourself as an apache attack helicopter? 

It seems that no matter where I go, I’m liable to step into a veritable minefield, offending someone even when I’m trying to appease everyone. 

And once you have offended a particular set of individuals, the fun really starts. You are then attacked for a poor choice set of words. It does not matter why you might have a particular set of views – if your own experiences in life have informed the way you think in a certain way – the lack of open discourse essentially shuts down your voice and casts you as an intolerant bigot. You are labelled and cancelled. It is essentially a form of shaming.

But the problem with this is that it fails to allow others to amend their ways. By ostracising these people, instead of trying to see things from their perspective and reaching out to them, we are essentially pushing them away. After all, with how much the world has changed, it is difficult to adapt to the myriad ways language and what is acceptable versus what isn’t has changed. 

A short film I watched from Wongfu Productions handles this issue quite well.Titled ‘A Long Time Coming’ it is about how our prejudices are shaped by the time period we grew up in and what we endured during that time. The father character is not a monster because he cannot rationalise why black lives should matter. By using her compassion and trying to relate his experiences with the current political climate, the daughter is able to open her father’s mind to possible change rather than forcing it upon him. The son’s acknowledgement of the father’s belief as born from the truth of his experiences also sheds a lot of light on the matter as who we are is shaped from what we lived through before.

I know that I have often struggled with trying to change people’s views. In particular, some of my work colleagues. Living in Australia, some of them were sceptical why Black Lives Matter protests were going to be held in several of our major cities. And I, trying to be champion the cause explained that these protests were especially relevant once the experiences of Indigenous Australians are considered. It is an inconvenient truth that the number of Indigenous Australians in prison populations is disproportionate to other ethnic groups. And that many live in a cycle that exaggerates and perpetuates a life of crime.

Of course, none of my arguments gained much ground. Why should only black lives matter when all lives matter?

When they pulled out that card, I remembered my own thoughts on the whole BLM movement several years ago. It was only by opening myself up to other views and discourse was I able to realise that in order for all lives to matter, we need to uplift those that are still suffering from inequality.

But if I had been harangued for my opposing views back then, I might have clamped down and become defensive, refusing to hear other voices because they only seemed to dismiss and ridicule my own ideologies. Articles I’ve read show that that the best way to change someone’s mind is to listen without prejudice and be open to why they think they way they do. That means being sympathetic and understanding. It means being patient as you try to educate them.

And what is most important in challenging misconceptions is open dialogue. Labelling someone a monster and saying that none of their opinions matter and demanding an immediate apology (for when that person doesn’t quite understand what exactly is wrong) does not help. Ignoring them only serves to keep them trapped in their own echo chamber that amplifies the views they already have. By sitting down and having a discussion rather than an argument, it allows people to perhaps consider the other side. And that can only be done by listening, showing patience and expressing empathy.

One of my colleagues told me that the protests of the past were not just demonstrations and people shouting out their views to an impassive public. Instead, individuals would openly discuss the merits of a change, with several others playing devil’s advocate. It meant that all sides could be weighed and considered and judged. And, perhaps, it was the best tools in ensuring change.

Besides, if my degree in criminology has taught me anything, labelling only leads to either people embracing the poor opinion public has of them or simply shunning society altogether. Something to consider when people attack others for not sharing their views or might have built-in misconceptions from the truth of their lives.

The Seed of an Idea

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

This is a story that I would have very much liked to have become a video game. If only I had the ability to code and create logic algorithms and also had artistic skills. Alas, I fear that without the aid of others, The Monsters Beneath Our Beds must remain a narrative rattling inside my head.

By the time this post is scheduled to go up, most of the story of the story will already be up on my FictionPress or thereabouts. It was only intended to be quite short: a children’s chapter book at best. 

https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3350488/1/The-Monsters-Beneath-Our-Beds

And just to tantalise my blog readers, here’s a brief excerpt to enjoy.

The Monsters Beneath Our Beds

i. Explanations

Everyone knows that when the sun goes down, the veil between worlds is thinned. With the darkness serving as their cover, the monsters come crawling. From beneath our beds to stepping out of closet doors. By breaching into our world, they changed familiar objects into horrible things from our worst nightmares. A tree branch becomes a hand, reaching out to grab you. The cat next door turns into a ferocious tiger.

It’s scary and frightening.

But worse of all is the fact that the monsters love the taste of naughty children. The ones that don’t listen. The ones that refused to do their homework and are always in front of the TV playing silly video games like The Legend of Zelda. At least, that’s what mum always said.

The only way not to get eaten is to have a night light plugged in and ensure that no hands or feet are dangling over the side of the bed.

Tucked tightly under the covers, I kept my eyes screwed shut with the pillow covering my ears. The monsters always came just before I managed to fall asleep. Right when I was on the cusp of the world of dreams. They were big and nasty and they stank a lot, too. More often than not, they would stomp around my room, looking for something to eat. Like dogs, they tried to sniff me out. When they couldn’t, because of my expertise at keeping myself hidden, they would let out a loud roar before they crossed back through the portal underneath my bed. Thwarted, once again.

Unfortunately, Teddy wasn’t so lucky last Tuesday. He fell onto the floor when Mandy curled up next to me that night. Too late, I realised that he was out in the open. Before I could reach out to grab him, the monsters came and spotted him immediately. It took everything that I had not to gasp out in dismay – lest they find me too. And as quick as a flash, they gobbled him up.

No more Teddy.

For two days, I mourned the loss of my friend. He had been a comfort to me when I was younger. Though he might have been a little torn up around the ears and his overalls needed a bit of patching, he was still a dear friend. Mandy understood that. And perhaps because of that, she clung to me closer.

Mandy had been my special friend ever since I was really young. We went everywhere together. To school. To the park. Sometimes even to the local library to do some research for my class projects.

Both mum and dad disapproved. It was strange, they said, that I only ever played with Mandy. In their minds, it simply wasn’t right.

“Evelyn, dear, you need to stop playing make believe,” dad had said one time, pulling me aside just before school began. “I know Mandy is important to you. I can see that she makes you happy. But you need some real friends. What about Piper over there? Or the twins? Why don’t you try talking to them and see how everything pans out? Please, Evelyn. For me.”

Torn between wanting to please my parents and scared that I would only get hurt, I agreed to reach out on the first day of school. But Piper had never liked me. Not even when we were in pre-school together. And the twins – Gertrude and Belladonna – were quick to turn up their noses when I tried to introduce them to Teddy and Mandy.

By lunch time, I was sitting in a corner of the library, munching on my soggy sandwich. Mandy, the only one beside me.

In the end, there wasn’t much mum or dad could do. I know that they worried about me, but I never felt lonely with just Mandy and Teddy by my side. In my first year of proper school, mum introduced me to Jester. She was a tiny rabbit doll with a silly hat and a patchwork outfit. And after some persuading from Mandy, I even befriended Nemean, our next-door neighbour’s Pomeranian.

Every afternoon, after I’d finished my homework, Mandy, Teddy and Jester and I would have a picnic and tea in the garden. Sometimes Nemean would join us, but he’d often steal the snacks I had painfully collected instead of sharing it with the rest of us. One time I gave him a smart rap on the nose for being mean and being greedy. That was a mistake. If it hadn’t been for Mandy, Nemean would have bitten me. Hard. Dad would never have allowed me outside if that had happened.

But maybe if I had some ‘proper’ friends, everything would still be all right. If I had only been the good girl that mum and dad had wanted, the monsters wouldn’t have taken them away in order to punish me.

Why else would mum have told me to hide when there were noises downstairs? And why didn’t mum look for me afterwards?

Hiding in my room, I was shaken by the frightening sirens and loud roars. As time dribbled past, I knew that mum and dad had been taken. I wanted to crawl back out from the covers. But to do so meant putting myself in harm’s way. The monsters would take me next.

Fear paralysed me. I couldn’t move.

I was so scared that when my grandma finally found me in the morning, the bedsheets were wet. Grandma didn’t say much as she drew me into her arms. Except only that she had received a call around midnight. And she had come as soon as possible. I could just imagine her leaping out of bed like the heroine from one of the old western movies I used to watch, clambering on a horse and galloping down to our house that was twenty minutes away by car.

It’s been hours since then. Grandma said it was nearly dinner time. But there’s been no sign of mum or dad. Grandma was on the phone for most of the day and she had me bundled up in blankets and seated on the couch, a cup of warm cocoa in my hands.

I took a sip, feeling the warmth of the cocoa spread through me. Even with Jester and Mandy seated beside me, I still felt completely alone. Mum and dad were gone. The monsters had taken them. Yet none of the adults believed me when I told them that the monsters had done it.

If none of the adults were going to do what was needed, then I had to. I set the cup down on the coffee table and rose to my feet.

Truth Seeker

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

You would imagine that after playing through most of the Yakuza series during the pandemic, I would have wearied of exploring the same city for the sixth time. Yet there was something special about finally starting Judgment that washed away the malaise I was feeling towards the franchise that started my Kamurocho journey ever since it was praised by a member of PlayStation Access. Perhaps it was because I was playing a different character from the stoic Kiryu Kazuma. Or maybe I would now be thrust in the role of a lawyer-turned-detective in an alternative history of Phoenix Wright if he had allowed Matt Engarde go free at the end of Justice for All. Honestly, Takayuki Yagami’s swagger and more cynical attitude to life was a breath of fresh air. One that allowed Judgment to maintain its more serious narrative and juggle it with the levity peppered throughout that was represented by the side cases.

But first, a little backstory on how I managed to get my hands on the title. In fact, it might be best to think of my quest to pick up the game as one of the side cases that are in the game itself.

 After keeping an eye on its impending release in the West, I made a beeline to the nearest JB Hi-Fi after work. Unfortunately, the one closest to the train station had sold out of all their copies. Why would anyone bother to purchase a relatively unknown title that was not Call of Duty? I cried within the privacy of my mind.

Luckily, two other stores still held copies and I was directed to both – though they were in opposite directions of each other. I picked the one at World Square. It was a gamble, but it was the one that had the most copies was also quite close to an EB Games.

Off I dashed, in my heavy coat, my umbrella propped up until I reached World Square. I stormed the entrance and made my way to the gaming section, the shelves decorated with all kinds of other games to distract me. To my relief, a copy of Judgment was waiting. I picked it up and presented it to the cashier.

With my purchase safely tucked into my bag, I made the slow slog to the train station and returned home. The game would sit on my shelf, gathering dust, until the year after.

Now, back to the game.

Despite many of the assets being reused from the Yakuza franchise, Judgment still felt fresh. After experimenting with their new engine, Ryu Ga Gotoku studio in Yakuza 6, they were able to take advantage of what they had learned. The narrative starts off with Yagami locating a fellow detective that owes money to a gang. Players soon learn that a killer is stalking the streets of Kamurocho, his signature being the removal of the victim’s eyes. When the captain of the Matsugane family is fingered as the culprit, a yakuza family with which Yagami has ties to, our main character is drawn into a conspiracy involving a drug to cure Alzheimer’s and a mysterious connection to a previous case three years ago that forced him to leave his lawyer days behind him.

From the very first moment, I was gripped by the story. I was immediately drawn to desire to hunt down the truth. From a character standpoint, it made perfect sense. In stark contrast with Yakuza 6, I felt Kiryu could have simply stopped as soon as he pulled Yuta away from making the worst mistake of his life by trying to kill his own father. The whole Onimichi secret of a battleship that survived the end of World War II felt a little too contrived. Was there really a need for Kiryu to hunt it down except for the desire of the writer’s to see their elaborate plots seen to their conclusion?

Yagami’s guilt was also an important factor in many of his interactions with his fellow cast mates. And, despite being a civilian and never sworn into the yakuza lifestyle, it was still possible for Ryu Ga Gotoku studio to do what it did best by representing the seedy underbelly of Japan. The whole AD-9 drug and the subsequent scandal surrounding it also felt believable. In fact, it came as a shock to learn that dementia has such a high prevalence in Japan and the world. Unfortunately for my own thriller writing, I’ve been less able to incorporate proper facts and figures into my own story regarding climate change.

What I liked most, regarding the plot, was that the key figure behind the deaths in Kamurocho was a seemingly milquetoast gentleman scientist: Yoji Shono. Rather than a big hulking brute, it was a short thin man that had a face that barely stood out amidst a crowd.

By game’s end, I was almost reluctant to see Yagami’s journey come to an end. As soon as the credits rolled, I was eager for a sequel. Yagami, Kaito, Hoshino, Sugiura, Higashi, Saori and Mafuyu all seemed like characters I would like to learn more about. It helped, as well, that the writers managed to make it believable that all of them had a shared history.

The scenes in the court houses made it abundantly clear that Ace Attorney is very much a Japanese courtroom. With the prosecutors and defense seated facing each other. 

Although, it could be said that Yagami’s and Izumida’s alliance near the end was a little on the nose when it came to unmasking Ichinose. In fact, it was a bit like Edgeworth and Wright teaming up to uncover the truth of the matter rather than trying to win a case for the sake of prestige and standing.

The side cases were also quite enjoyable. Ryu Ga Gotoku was still able to retain its sense of humour even by making most cases available through clients seeking the help of a detective. I personally enjoyed Yagami’s hunt for a ghost in a local apartment complex and taking photos of a wrestler-turned-politician. Even the ones that were encountered on the streets of Kamurocho were enjoyable, ranging from stopping calamities to chasing a wig.

All of this was heightened by the controls of the game and the numerous side activities on offer. By trimming some of the fat, I did not have to worry about subjecting my eyes to softcore porn videos or watching Kiryu type with two fingers the phrase: ‘it’s growing.’ I will miss hostesses but the girlfriend system was also quite robust. In fact, the conversations were quite nice and I liked how Yagami went out of his way to help a woman snag her first interview. Alas, the one detriment to this was that Judgment offered no karaoke – a stapler minigame that should have been kept.

Words to live by. Although, it did feel a little as if Yagami was mansplaining…

I also very much liked the combat. While it took some adjusting to, with X used to sprint, within moments, I was leapfrogging over enemies or wall punching the street thugs and Keihin gang into the dirt. The return of different combat styles was welcome. I often changed between crane and tiger as I took on groups and bosses. In fact, this was the first time in the entire history of the Yakuza series that I took on an ‘Amon’ and won! 

That was in spite of the mortal wounds mechanics that proved a little frustrating and the very limited healing items. I’ll never say a bad word about Toughness Emperor ever again!

On a side note, why were there so many stray cats? Even in the flashbacks!

Judgment proved to be a detective game set in the backdrop of Kamurocho. While the tailing missions were tedious, it was nevertheless an enjoyable excursion back into the world of corrupt politicians and the seedy criminal underworld of Japan. Yagami was also a refreshing main character that had his own burdens to bear. Should there ever be a sequel, I hope that karaoke would be reinstated as a side activity. As it is, I’ll need to double down and learn how to play shogi if I ever want to enjoy another iconic past time that has been incorporated within the world of Kamurocho.

When September Ends

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When I look back over the months, I oft wonder how time could have gone by so fast. Somehow, without my knowing, it is now spring here in Australia. When COVID-19 first struck, the month of March felt terribly slow. It seemed as if I were caught in a constant state of anxiety. Even now, it still feels as if life has paused. I’m stuck in an endless cycle of days. Time has blurred and I can barely remember what I did the week before. The only difference is the occasional video game, new book or brand new television series on Netflix. On the rare occasion, I might see someone I know. 

Despite that, I’ve been keeping up with a lot of my writing. After wrapping up and editing both Wild Child and Monsters Beneath Our Bed, I’ve begun a new project of writing what might be described as a corporate conspiracy and intrigue story. It isn’t part of my normal purview and it’s been quite a challenge trying to figure things out from a modern standpoint. Trying to balance the realism and the more scientifically advanced elements of the story has proven to be a challenge. Often, I’ve wanted to take a step back or throw my hands up in defeat. Instead I’ve kept my head down and kept working on it.

The one lesson I’ve learned after writing in my spare time that the best way to get past an obstacle is through. Just keep writing and somehow my brain will magically spin out a cohesive narrative. When all the ideas and words have been splurged onto the page, it’s then a matter of fixing continuity errors and polishing the rough gem into a diamond. 

In any case, the main idea about my new story – title: Control State is actually due to the reboot of The Mummy franchise and a suggestion from my own mother after we watched the film. She suggested an adventurous tale involving dust storms and air pollution. Thus, the concept that a main character interested in the environment, heading to China to develop nanotechnology to combat climate change was born. The bushfires in Australia only served to exacerbate the clamour for a fictional story where a solution for climate change and poor air quality.

It also helped that for a good long while I was also toying with the idea of having an evil institute made up of the initials of the first names of several of my friends. Double Helix Institute was what I hoped the corporation would be called. However, in the end I settled on Dominus Hominum Industries. Latin, as is always the case, the greatest ally in the creation of names that have not already been stolen. 

(And, after much thought, it didn’t seem right to make allusions to DNA when the story revolved around nanotechnology rather than the human genome.)

I do apologise to my friends for unwittingly using the initials of their first names for my evil corporation. Alas, my desire to incorporate those I know into these make-believe stories was too strong. Besides, Control State might never have come to fruition without already having a general idea of an evil megacorporation trying to better the human race floating somewhere in my brain.

Alas, my short stories have taken quite a hit. Still, after experimenting with a diary format in Disaster Relief, I’ve headed back to more familiar waters. Suddenly Thirteen is a twist on time travel and a couple of movies that came out in the 2000s. With my ten year reunion coming up, it came as no surprise that I had a mountain of regrets. Scrolling through Facebook, it’s hard to reconcile that the person I was best friends with during primary school is a complete stranger now that I’m older.

Rather than sending them a Facebook message, however, I’ve simply continued to lurk occasionally on their profile (and write a story, of course!). One of these days, I’ll break free of this introverted cocoon I’ve woven around myself. Until then, I’m perfectly happy ensconced inside my fortress of solitude as I watch the world go by.

A Hint of Fiesta Flavour

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When it comes to game genres, I have never been much good at fighting, racing, sports or platformers. The first one requires memorisation of multiple button presses to pull off the most impressive looking moves. And while the Yakuza series is a decent brawler, the input is a lot simpler. For the second, I have only one word: drifting. As for sport titles, the less that is said, the better. Throughout all my years playing video games, I have never ever been curious about the latest FIFA or NBA2K. Nor do I believe I would find it enjoyable.

Platformers, on the other hand, have seen a resurgence. Particularly among indie developers. My curiosity tickled by the vibrant colours and impressive reviews, I believed it was imperative that I start working on my ever growing large pile of shame that was wholly dedicated to these gems. First up to bat was Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition on the Nintendo Switch.

Despite releasing many years before, it was not until very recently that I managed to nab a copy of the game. Distracted by flashy Triple-A titles, I barely gave it a look. Even when I did buy it on the Nintendo Store, it was not until the pandemic that I decided to muster my courage to tackle a 2D Metroidvania platformer. Already, I was sweating.

My brief experiences with Thomas was Alone, the jump quests in Maplestory and Gameboy versions of Super Mario World were very traumatising experiences with the platforming genre. In one, my timing would be off. Another, I died again and again (or failed to achieve what I wanted within the given timeframe I had, incurring self-loathing and hatred at a mere video game).

Video games have always been about escaping to an alternate world, of living out someone’s story and perhaps indulging in a little power fantasy. Rage, due to an impossible challenge, was never part of the deal I struck. It was this very reason that turned me away from such franchises as Dark Souls. And while Hollow Knight looks like a delight and Cuphead enjoys a very interesting aesthetic, they are games that I fear will never be played by these hands. 

But back to Guacamelee! Like many indie titles, not much could be said of the voice work. Despite that, the dialogue was humorous, the graphics popped off the screen and the music had me grooving. Enter Juan – our erstwhile hero. An agave farmer with a history with El Presidente’s daughter. Though nothing was explicitly stated, the game managed to show the romance between the two characters.

Before he can properly celebrate the festivities in his village, however, Juan hears news that El Presidente’s daughter is kidnapped and goes to her rescue. His efforts are for naught and he is struck down. In death, he stumbles upon the Mask of the Luchador. Donning it, he returns to the world of the living and sets off on his quest to rescue his childhood friend.

The premise of the story is simple, culminating in battling the big bad at the end. Backstory is shed, for both Juan and the main villain, Carlos Calaca. Minions are trotted out, each different and unique in their own way. In particular, I quite liked Flame Face and X’tabay. And these abilities and skills are also utilised in their boss battles. Each one that I faced was a challenge – particularly as I felt some of the controls were a little finicky when it came to using the move I wanted to break the shields protecting them.

While it took some time, the combat was easy to wrap my head around. Considering my familiarity with brawlers, it was easy to start punching skeletons left, right and centre. What was unique in Guacamelee! were Juan’s ability to throw his enemies and use of wrestling moves. Soon, it became an endless cycle of rinse and repeat, with the occasional directional super move if the enemy had a coloured shield.

As for the platforming puzzles, I was able to grasp most of the concepts quite easily. There were many, however, that proved to be quite infuriating when it felt like that I was fighting the controls to do what I wanted. I can’t rightly say how precise it all was. Only that in my experience, the analog stick did not feel as intuitive as I would have hoped. Perhaps then, it was a matter of switching to the directional buttons, but even then, I couldn’t quite get comfortable.

Still, after much trial and error, I managed to reach the final battle. Thank Goodness for checkpoints at each phase of the fight or else I might have truly rage-quitted the game with how frustratingly long the second stage was and with no real ability to heal if I made a costly mistake.

What stayed with me the most during my playthrough of Guacamelee! was not the challenges or the questionable side quests. Rather, it was the cameos and allusions to other video games that managed to pull me through the game. That, and the fact that I was no quitter (even if I only managed to obtain the normal ending. As for the good ending…well, there’s always YouTube).

Overall, the game was a challenging distraction that left me visibly shaking once I had managed to whittle away the last of Carlos Calaca’s health bar in his demon form. After memorising his attack patterns, it was simply a matter of destroying him by a thousand different cuts. Tedious, true. But I could finally set the controller down and breathe a sigh of relief.

I can only dream that Ori and the Blind Forest as well as Celeste will be less of a challenge. Ah, who am I kidding. I’ll be having heart palpitations all the way – cursing myself for ever picking them up and desperately wishing to return to the game genres that I am most familiar with. Hack-n-slash role playing games. 

Do my eyes deceive me or is that a cactuar?
Honestly, I think Juan looks a lot hotter as a skeleton.

Parables of Our Times

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Right after finishing a very high-octane, action-heavy title, I thought it best to slow down and try my hand at a game that had tickled my curiosity for a good long while. Considering how much I enjoyed Gone Home, Tacoma and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, it came as a surprise when I finished Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture with very mixed feelings. Instead of falling in love with a quaint English town and the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the people that had lived there, I was tempted after an hour or so of play to stop and try my hand at something else.

I can’t rightly pinpoint what exactly about the game, from developer The Chinese Room, did not sit right with me. After scouring the internet, I feel like it must have been the pace of the game and the lack of objects that could be interacted with. From the very beginning, it felt as if the playable character moved at a snail’s pace. Other titles that might be considered ‘walking simulators’ in their own right felt faster, or were perhaps more dense. Even holding down R2 did not elevate how slow I moved around the world. In fact, the speed was also detrimental to my desire to explore and see more of the town I found myself in. Why bother heading to a particular point of interest if it took forever and a day to reach it and head back to the critical path?

Additionally, the lack of objects that could be picked up and studied also served to dull my interest. In fact, other than with doors and the occasional radio, the only other thing that I could interact with were strange globules of light that required the controller be tilted either left or right. The controls for this, in particular, did not seem very intuitive and the prompt at the beginning did not anchor in my head until I found my third ball of light. 

What I did like were the revelations about each named character and the other individuals that lived in the town. Whether that was Wendy trying to meddle in the love lives of her son and his previous beau (as well as her disdain for his American wife), to the interactions between Jeremy and those that attended his church.

While the conversations proved illuminating when it came to understanding the many different individuals that lived in Yaughton, Shropshire, I feel like it was a missed opportunity that other ways to tell the story were not included.

The mystery behind the disappearing populace – supposedly a sudden influx of Spanish influenza – did prove to be intriguing. After exploring the first area, it was clear that this was something more. The tissues covered in blood and the recording made by the local physician only served to heighten the possibilities of what was truly going on. As the story continues, the player learns that a strange phenomenon may be the actual cause. Fearful, Stephen Appleton calls on the government to spray nerve gas over the entire town to stop the spread of this alien contagion.

In many ways, the quarantine that surrounded the town is reminiscent of our current battle with COVID-19. Locked in our homes, unable to venture overseas or even cross state lines has proven a difficult enterprise for many. And like some of the characters in the game, there have been the occasional individuals that have tried to sneak past borders or lied to authorities their actual movements in order to be allowed sanctuary in another state or city.

Fortunately, we have yet to be turned into dust and sucked up into a glowing pattern of light. Whether it’s meant to be considered an alien or a concept of faith is unclear. What is strange in Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is that only humans were infected. Birds and cows simply dropped dead. There was no dusting a la the Thanos Snap in Avengers: Infinity War. 

Speaking of which, Stephen feared that the contagion of light had traversed the phone lines and had spread outside the valley where the town of Yaughton was located. If that was the case, who is the playable character? Are we also a ball of light? After all, I had no feet or hands. I hardly heard any indication of footsteps. Yet, somehow, I could still get trapped on random geometry in the environment.  Alas, a mystery to solve another time.

On the other side of the spectrum of games that I managed to finish quite quickly was The Walking Dead: The Final Season. After the whole debacle of Telltale shutting its doors due to unsustainable business practices and the game initially being released on Epic Games Store, I wasn’t quite certain if I would ever see Clementine’s story through to completion. Yet, fast forward a year or two and I managed to purchase it on Steam.

Clementine has always had a special place in my heart. After looking after her while playing as Lee Everett, I had watched as she grew up in a world that was very different from our own. Each subsequent game only seemed to further paint a grim and bleak future for humanity after the zombie apocalypse and I feared something terrible would happen to the little girl I found nestled in her tree house, waiting for her parents to return home.

In The Final Season, several years have passed and Clementine is in her late teens. With her is AJ, the son of Rebecca and a very precocious five year old. He seems incredibly mature for his age and behaves basically like a rebellious teenager. Except, of course, that he still has a very black and white view of the world. Shoot monsters in the head. Food and bullets are good. Clementine is the best.

What felt different in this title, rather than the ones before, is that after an encounter at an old railway station, Clementine is welcomed to a small community that is largely run by kids. Or, at the very least, teenagers that have also lived through the traumatic beginnings of the apocalypse. There are no adults – for many of the teachers abandoned these troubled youth at the first sign of danger. And instead of trying to prove herself in a world full of adults, Clementine is able to interact with people her own age or younger. Coupled with looking after AJ, she is the one that needs to be responsible and make sure that AJ doesn’t grow up to become a completely jaded ten-year old.

The narrative of The Final Season is centred around the Erikson Boarding School and the students there. Leader of the small group is Marlon, voiced by none other than Prince Noctis himself, Ray Chase. Violet and Louis came next in import. Then came Willy, Aasim, Ruby, Mitch, Omar and Tennessee. Oh, and mustn’t forget Brody. Voiced by Hedy Burress (or Yuna from Final Fantasy X)! 

Interacting with this gaggle of kids was refreshing. Instead of suspicion, Clementine and AJ were met with curiosity. While Ruby might not have liked the fact that AJ bit her, or his eating habits, it was very easy to like each character and not have to dwell on what each person’s agenda was and wondering if they would betray the group.

Alas, Clementine’s good deed in trying to find more food leads to Brody freaking out when Clementine mentions meeting a scavenger also looking for food: Abel. The climax of the first chapter ends with the discovery that raiders have previously taken two members of the Erikson Boarding School kids and may have returned. But before Marlon could atone for his crimes, he is shot dead by AJ. Plot contrivances somehow allowed the five year old kid to pick up the gun that Marlon dropped by his feet, sneak up behind him and shoot him right in the head. Don’t ask me how.

The next two chapters proved excellent in building up the tension of confronting the raiders, one of which was Season 1 Lilly. I knew the instant that I had to once again select my choices from the previous titles that she would be making a reappearance. After all, she was a plot thread that had yet to be neatly tied into a bow. And despite everything – like the hardening of Clementine and making her a ruthless survivor – I could not order AJ to shoot the conniving ex-military woman.

In fact, I played Clementine as I did most of my other characters when it comes to role-playing games. Emphatic and desperately trying to make the right choices. 

While the story did feel a little cliched with many familiar beats, I did feel strongly invested in trying to pass on everything I could to little AJ. In that, The Final Season felt like it came full circle with Clementine getting bitten and faced with the dilemma of turning or allowing herself to be killed. Rather than repeat what happened in the first season of The Walking Dead, however, the epilogue shows Clementine surviving her leg been haphazardly chopped off with an axe covered in walker guts.

How did she not manage to bleed out? Did the other kids manage to find her in the barn and free both her and AJ? How did she not die from infection?

Like many mediums that are set after the apocalypse, the humans here are hardy and tenacious. In a world where many of us are struggling with a pandemic that does not appear to be seasonal and with long-lasting symptoms that can affect individuals months after the initial diagnosis, it does feel like we’ve entered a nebulous stage of despair. Whole countries have been shut down, re-opened and sent straight back into lockdown when numbers have climbed. With summer approaching in Australia, it feels like the worst may have passed. But for the rest of the world in the northern hemisphere, winter is coming. With it comes the additional risks of normal flu and cold. 

But what The Walking Dead: The Final Season left me with, despite how glum a zombie outbreak would bring, is that there is still the chance for hope. Of creating a family and living instead of surviving. 

Even when society has collapsed and most have returned to old bartering systems or looking after their own crops, there is still light at the end of the tunnel. 

The Cost of Honour

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What would you sacrifice to save the lives of the people you love and the home you cherish? How long would you be able to hold onto your morals when faced with an enemy that is impossible to win against? In the last exclusive for the PlayStation 4, Ghost of Tsushima from the developer Sucker Punch, asks these hard hitting questions and many more as it follows the journey of Jin Sakai in his quest to drive out the brutal Mongols from the island of Tsushima.

Considering the pedigree of Sucker Punch and chafing to dive into the world of Feudal Japan, Ghost of Tsushima was an easy buy for me. Immersed in the world of the Yakuza series and delighting occasionally in fresh new anime, it seemed imperative that I see what this game could bring to the fore. After all, the game looked very much like Assassin’s Creed. I liked Assassin’s Creed. And hadn’t the fans of the Assassin’s Creed franchise been clamouring for something in a similar vein for a very long time?

Once I booted it up, I was immediately struck by the visual representation. The colours were vibrant (though one could choose to play in black and white mode) and coupled with the particle effects, I could have sworn I had been pulled into a cinematic world. The opening scene used this to great effect and proved to be a masterful attempt of immersing me immediately with the world. As Jin raced down the beach, I thoroughly enjoyed the rush that came with swinging my katana at anyone that was foolish enough to stand in my way. Yet, it is not long before it becomes exceedingly clear that the samurai have lost the battle. Many are slain on the beach and Lord Shimura, Jin Sakai’s uncle and jito (land steward) of Tsushima is captured. Jin, having taken a couple of arrow shots in the back, is left for dead.

Enter Yuna. It isn’t clear why she singled out our protagonist as being alive and pulled him away to nurse him back to health. 

As the prologue continued, I wondered if she was questioning her choice of companion as Jin, armed with only his sword and a broken piece of armour went to confront the Khan at Castle Kaneda, in a desperate bid to rescue his uncle. This first attempt is met with failure and Jin is essentially yeeted off the bridge. Yes. I know. I used the word ‘yeeted.’ I’m basically roasting my own hands over hot coals as I type this. 

Despite plummeting what looked like several hundred metres down into the water below, Jin manages to survive. The man, it seems, is almost unkillable. You could say…he’s a ghost. Badum tss. I’ll see myself out now.

From a discouraging defeat, Jin, however, vows to avenge his fallen samurai brethren and rescue his uncle from the clutches of the evil Mongol invaders. Here, too, was when my journey to collect everything and complete all the side stories began.

Unfamiliar with the works of Kurosawa Akira, I can not rightly say if the narrative nestled in Ghost of Tsushima’s maze of collectibles plays upon the tropes of those that came before. What I did manage to glean was a story of revenge and hate, the cost of war and the values embodied by the notion of ‘samurai.’ With his back to the wall, Jin Sakai must adapt if he hopes to win. Much like Yuna’s speech at the start of the game, he and Lord Shimura have forgotten what it was like to face someone stronger and smarter than they were. If Tsushima and its people hoped to survive, instead of throwing away their lives, they needed to change their tactics.

In the early stages, Jin is shown to grapple with the idea of going in quietly and silently stabbing people in the back. But after the first mission and the first outpost, he was free of the burdens that were his old code of honour. I suppose in that sense, there is a degree of dissonance between the narrative and the play. Alas, I couldn’t have cared less as I went from camp to camp, observing the leaders and unlocking new technique points.

The end of Act 2 and the beginning of Act 3, however, is when Jin Sakai’s actions finally catch up to him. Instead of following through with his uncle’s plan of rebuilding the bridge at Castle Shimura after an explosion killed countless soldiers and allies, he poisons the Mongols drink in a bid to save the lives of his comrades. Classic war crime manoeuvre. Learning from this, however, the Mongols use this against the people of Tsushima as well.

It is this devastation that we see after Jin escapes from his uncle’s stronghold, desperate to free the people from the Mongol’s iron grip. Despite the gruesome nature of it all, it helped put Jin’s actions into a different light. By making the enemy aware of a new weapon, could he have possibly doomed his own people?

Subsequently, when the Khan is killed and Jin is about to face his father figure, it makes sense for Shimura to point out many of his misdeeds. Can the people of Tsushima really be saved if Jin’s actions undermine the authority of those in power? What of the stories that paint him as a ten foot demon with eyes that glow in the dark?

So, it came as no surprise when Lord Shimura asked for a warrior’s death. And wishing to be the dutiful son, no matter how painful it would be, I granted it. One last ‘honourable’ act.

The gameplay in Ghost of Tsushima initially proved to be a challenge, although that was mostly due to the fact that I had to readjust my understanding of my controls. Navigating without a minimap in the corner or a HUD showing me the general directions of north, south, east and west also took some time to adjust to. I don’t think I’ve ever just ‘followed the wind’ when it came to video games before. But, because of that, it allowed me to actually keep my eyes focused on the screen in front of me rather than the top right/ left corner. I could actually take in the scenery instead of being solely focused on clearing out the fog of war.

As for the actual combat, the controls were incredibly intuitive. Square for a normal attack, triangle for heavy. L1 to block and circle to dodge. Where it seemed like the developers should have stopped a little when it came to the variety of options available to the player was mapping R2 as the interactions button – but also the stance and quick throw wheel.

Traversal also proved to be fun and because the HUD wasn’t as cluttered as I was used to, it made exploration easy. Equipped with the Traveler’s Outfit as soon as the game had started also made it incredibly easy to start hunting down collectibles and feeding my urge to see every nook and cranny that was on display. What pained me, however, was the fact that it took me a while to realise that I needed to progress the story and obtain the grappling hook before I could complete a few of the shrines in the first area. And to obtain a few choice head gear.

My only other gripe with the game is that my poor Nobu was felled so swiftly at the start of the third act. And the thin brown horse that served as its replacement was not the replacement I had hoped for. Thankfully, Yuna was able to gift me with another horse – which I named Sora – but my heart still goes out to the faithful Nobu.

Why do you have to kill all of my faithful steeds, video games? I was distraught when Red Dead Redemption 2 did it. Appalled when Shimmer was caught in an explosion in The Last of Us Part II and now…this?

The side characters and side stories also proved to be entertaining distractions over the course of the long journey to free Tsushima. While Masako’s revenge plot was a hollow echo of the pain Jin faced, it was Norio’s burning of the Mongol camp that left me frightened of the legacy of the ghost. At least the ending of Sensei Ishikawa’s story felt a little more redemptive and filled wit hope.

And, after IMDBing the cast, I was gladdened by the fact that many of the voice actors chosen for the game were Asian Americans. Jin Sakai was actually voiced by a Japanese man in the English dub! Imagine that!

Ghost of Tsushima is an excellent open-world game that hews quite closely to the more recent Assassin’s Creed formula. Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed my time exploring Feudal Japan, inconsistencies and all! My favourite part of it was collecting Mongol artefacts, records and learning a little about each clan banner. The combat also provided a few surprises, although the duels were a little tedious in the latter half. With the world still unable to quite shake the virus that still threatens many of our loved ones, it’s fun to actually dive into this fantastical and historical inaccurate world that is Ghost of Tsushima.