![]() Both decisions will affect those around you. In the final moments of Bastion, you can choose to turn back time or to learn from those mistakes. How do you act when you know it was your own country that did unspeakable things to win a conflict? Bastion explores the motivations of the people caught up in this and even suggest the monsters you fight as you try to restore order may be trying to stop you to ensure past mistakes aren't repeated. "It's not something I'm comfortable making light of, and if one of our games is going to have a lot of killing in it, as in Bastion, then I think it's important for the story to invite the player to be introspective about it." "It's not an accident that death is not a subject taken lightly in any of our games," he explains. When I ask Kasavin why despite this you don't spend most of Bastion fighting real people, he tells me it’s always important not to trivialize violence. He begins this task before he knows the catastrophic event, called the Calamity, was caused by his own country and meant to end a war over territory with their neighbors. Just like Red, the Kid has to question whether his world is worth saving. In Bastion you get to be a kind of cowboy, saddled (sorry) with the responsibility of rebuilding his world after a catastrophe wipes it out. The predicament of the Kid, the protagonist of Supergiant’s first game Bastion, is similar again. Her position is not unlike that of the Camerata, who chose to destroy Cloudbank in the first place. While in Pyre you are part of a larger circle working to achieve change that includes everyone, Red is one person with the responsibility for many. Some players have criticized this finale, but as unaccustomed to sad endings as we still are in videogames, I think this shows it‘s important to be realistic about what a sole person can accomplish and how much power we give an individual. Unlike Pyre’s team of magic basketball players, Red ultimately chooses not to try and save her home, overwhelmed by the losses she has endured. She's the only one listening in a world where everybody seems to be talking. ![]() But at the very beginning of Transistor, Red is silenced. In our own "post-facts" era, faced with the fear of losing a national identity to globalization, many have started looking to public figures and national icons to help us form our opinions. I believe the choice of occupation is deliberate. Transistor’s playable character, Red, is a popular singer and a muse to many. Even though they are established as antagonists, like all the characters you meet the Camerata share a strong identification with their home. I think it's important for the story to invite the player to be introspective about it Greg KasavinĪ group of such people called the Camerata feel their well-intentioned solutions going unappreciated, which leads them to drastic actions that pose a threat to the city's inhabitants. The virtual metropolis of Cloudbank where it's set is being slowly eaten away by a virus called the Process, and it’s implied the Process was previously used to repair and alter parts of the city by its creators and civil servants-a tool made with good intentions taken too far. Supergiant’s 2014 game Transistor shows this best. The most frightening antagonists are the ones we can relate to in some way, and see that whatever unconscionable choices they've made may have been well-intentioned somewhere down the line." "At the least, you should be able to understand why they've made the choices that they've made, even if they've made poor choices. "I think characters are far more interesting and believable if there's something about them that you can understand or relate to," he says. It's important to Kasavin to not create black-and-white stories with clearly defined villains. Exile makes everyone outcasts, and it’s from this new position of equality that they can attempt to overhaul the system if they keep working together, challenging previously established conventions. Many of the game’s exiles want to return to it, but that doesn’t mean it is always fair and wouldn’t benefit from diversity. The society in Pyre seemingly works, for the most part. Changing a belief you have held onto for a long time, religious or not, can be difficult. The crisis of faith at the centre of Pyre is also a very modern concern. It’s an empathy that seems to largely be missing in those marching the streets with tiki torches, demanding solutions that benefit themselves first and others never. Instead you play for others, and have the inexplicably strong feeling of cheering someone on from the sidelines.
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