Hey there, I'm filmotter. I'm a filmmaker and Twitch streamer. I create video essays diving into game design and storytelling tropes in the medium, as well as video game analysis.
So if you want video game video essays, this is the place for you! We've talked about Swimming in Video Games like Abzu, Subnautica, and Ecco the Dolphin. We've talked about Fishing in Gaming that we see in games like Hades or Animal Crossing. How Kingdom Hearts may have ended the Turn-Based JRPG. Why a lot of tutorials in video games aren't that great... Lots of topics here.
I don't agree with the message of this game. Showing mercy to your enemy might be "poetic", but that just means you are giving them a free opportunity to try to kill you again. Bad people don't change if you treat them well, they just take advantage of that. I reckon this message to be naive. If someone thinks this is brutal, just offer a burglar a cup of tea instead of calling the police. Maybe they'll change their mind lol.
Simpler graphics are more effective because high resolution graphics more accurately capture how objects look in the external world of physical reality, but are _less_ true to the interior world of the _psyche_ and are less effective carriers of the relevant projections.
There's no tentacles, but bodily viscera fits the bill (or perhaps the archetype) just as well, and there _is_ a cult in the game staring you in the face. In fact there's two of them and they are both cults of personality: the Eusan Empire and the Eusan Nation.
I chose the Whale mask. Finding out about the origins of life on the planet and the mask-wearing culture was fascinating, so I decided I would be a historian and storyteller, aided by the fact that the better filtering of the mask would help Sable to grow old in good health.
[What kind of horror is left.] Social horror. That's an untapped mine. We sort of already do it here and there, but it always comes back to a monster. But what if a game could punish you not for failing to avoid damage, but for your virtues?
There's no horror like Basements by Kitty Horrorshow. Just spends 30 minutes blaring you with loud noises and visual pain, it's spinechilling and I love it.
Mm, smudge! Also, I'm here from Architect of Games, he did a shout-out at the end of his video today on Rimworld/stories you make within a game (i can't remember the exact words). I'm really glad I came over this way, your content seems really cool :)
Definitely piqued my interest in en guarde! I may have misunderstood what you meant by "made it past one hour in sekiro" but it doesn't sound like executing a parry is a "skill issue" for you and more like you just didn't immediately get it without giving it time. That's where the rewarding part comes in, you work at it and become familiar with the different animations and timings the reward is feeling of well earned mastery, it's not an innate skill you can do right away. That being said I love the idea of telegraphed timings with generous windows in a different style.
I agree with just about everything you said, except for the writing. I felt like Ori and the Blind Forest had a significantly better story overall than Will of the Wisps, most notably with their respective villains. Shriek felt like a pure evil villain where the "tragic backstory" felt like an attempt at a cheap gut punch to make Shriek relatable, whereas Kuro was genuinely a sympathetic villain, yet both were written like their villain was supposed to be relatable and it didn't work for me in Will of the Wisps. That said, Will of the Wisps was truly a massive improvement on Blind Forest, to the point where the only reasons I would recommend Blind Forest to see how Moon Studios improved upon its formula and for the first game's story content.
I agree with basically all of your points, except on the art and story elements. I feel like Ori and the Blind Forest is a beautiful game with an immaculately crafted story, with its opening being the first time I've ever cried at the beginning of a story and its ending being one of the best endings I've ever seen in a video game. That said, I felt like you understated how bad the movement was. I was personally scared to make progression-relevant jumps throughout most of the game because I didn't think the movement tools I had allowed me to make those jumps and failure meant at least losing health, if not my entire life. Furthermore, most of the time Ori and the Blind Forest doesn't give enough of a safe zone for you to learn new tools the way most other metroidvanias either layer the progression-relevant upgrade on existing tools you already know how to use (like most of Samus' gun upgrades) or make you use the new tool to leave the area where you got it. I also feel like your assessment of combat is slightly inaccurate. You can move while using Ori and the Blind Forest's sad excuse of a combat system, it's just that the movement is bad and the combat is bland regardless of whether you're moving or not. It's at least responsive though, which is more than I can say for Ender Lilies' combat system.
I remember when I first saw Kingdom Hearts, I was at a friends house and her older sister was playing it, I recognised the Disney characters and asked to play. She started a new game for me and I saw the intro, then the way the first boss appears, I knew then I was hooked! I also learned about Final Fantasy through kh as well.
So, the video is good and the game looks really great. But I really didn't get the comparison with soulslikes. This games got nothing to do with soulslikes.
I find it very interesting that From Software is my favorite developer by far, but soulslikes in general are one of my least fav genres. Also, En Garde demo was very fun! I want to play it for sure!
Fucking awesome video. Amazing game. Amazing breakdown of the story. So much better than everyone else's takes on it. They don't understand wude. And never will. But you seemed to bro 👍
The way you use the environment and the challenges that encourage replaying levels remind me of Hitman. I’ll have to check this one out and embrace the smudge~
LMAO Thank you for proving my point I made about the Souls fandom in the video. :) Maybe watch the video again. Because uhhh you're right, I never said it was a soulslike. LMAO. It's almost like the premise of the video was how soulslikes influenced the wider action genre and how this game bucks that trend.
Youve just changed the way I look at the things I create. Imperfections make the experience memorable and human. I really loved this point. ❤❤❤ Also Cat Fock! ❤️❤️❤️
Another excellent video. So many game developers forget that the raison d'etre of computer games is to be a FUN pastime, not a slog or a chore; and that dying repeatedly in a grim game world is the antithesis of fun. PS: It gladdens my heart that you are now getting more supporters on Ko-Fi. 🥰
