#gaming analysis

Since God of War (2005) a core part of the series has ALWAYS been the focus on Weapons and how Kratos is given power through them. Such as the Blades of Chaos and Blade of Artemis given to him by Ares and Aretmis, even EXTENDING to his third weapon in the first game being The Blade of the Gods! This is such a massive thing cause even after Kratos becomes the God of War in God of War 2 he is given weapons again such as Athena's Blades and the Blade of Olympus which belonged to his Father before him. He even takes the weapons of non gods in this game, The Hammer of Alrik The Barbarian King and the Spear of Destiny from the Dark Rider Satyr leader of The Griffin Riders! Now God of War 3 takes this to the extreme with so MANY WEAPONS, some are given and MOST are taken by force. Athena once again gifts Kratos with new blades called the Blades of Exile, the Claws of Hades, Nemean Cestus, Gauntlet of Zeus, Bow of Apollo, the Golden Fleece! All these are taken by Kratos beating his godly family but in this he is crafted a weapon! Oh.... wait its not really a weapon for him its just Hephaestus's weapon that he couldn't make unless Kratos got something for him so that just another weapon GIVEN to him but not one of his own....Even God of War: Ascension doesn't give his OWN signature weapon of his own origin. Now we hit God of War (2018) here in Norse relams we have the Leviathan Axe which is the weapon of his late wife Faye! That's better than all the weapons he's taken or be given by the gods which all weapons given to him by the gods have been basically traps! We also get the Guardian Shield which was.....a gift from Faye.......on the anniversary of the night they met. Alright another good given weapon what else do we have! I mean we can't count Aretrus and his Talon Bow for his father so that just leaves the Blades of Chaos..... ONCE AGAIN WE CANT GET AWAY FROM THESE COOL BLADES BUT THEY ARENT A GOOD THING! These things helped Kratos ruin his past life so that's not something a God wants to known for the Blades he killed the Greeks with??

When I was a kid, I remember watching on my old Blackberry phone (remember those?) cutscenes of Resident Evil 2. It was weird how I even had access to YouTube on such a device, but in 2010-2011, the possibilities were there. I had a friend of mine who was interested in the franchise, and we sat down in the corner of our after-school program, snacks in hand, watching both the Leon A and Claire B…

ANYWAYS stray is super cool and it's worth your time. it's creative, innovative, and a refreshing take on the genre. :)

I was quite surprised to discover that there weren’t that many analyses on Tumblr about video games, at least not enough into-depth analysis like you would find for any other medias.

Well, gamers and non-gamers, this is your day of luck, this post is the first of a series on video games and especially about all the forms of art in video games. Because games do not only represent a good ride for those in thirst for an adventure, games are multidimensional, they need all forms of art :

Graphic arts, may it be animation, scenery, character design… anything related to visuals. A scenery or an atmosphere can tell a story on its own, think about Little Nightmares : no dialogues, not a line of text, yet the visuals allow you to create or recreate a story.

Music and voice acting which contribute to the atmosphere and give life to everything. Ever felt boosted up by the music during a difficult boss fight ? Listening to Rivers in the desert makes you want to fight giants ? Every game soundtrack has its very specific power.

Story telling, you may not think this is an important aspect but a well-written story sometimes surpasses the most beautiful and realistic graphics, Undertale being a very good example of this.

Finally video games have the possibility to play with the player’s involvement in the game. This last parameter is what makes video games so unique, here again Undertale is a famous example but small games like One Shot can explore this aspect very cleverly.

Every parameter has a part to play but how does it all come together ? Good question reader and to understand that, nothing better than an example !

NieR Automata is the most recent game where all aspects really have a part to play. A complete analysis of this game will result in a three-hundred-page book so I will restrain to the fight against the Opera Singer Boss. Fear not, you don’t need to have played the game to enjoy this, if you know the general context of NieR you should be fine ! However, this is your warning of potential spoilers if you want to play the game by yourself.

This is where our heroes 2B and 9S confront the Opera Singer, also called Simone or Beauvoir. This machine lifeform is the boss of the Amusement Park area. Let’s talk about the scenery. The entire fight takes place in a theater and more precisely in the auditorium. This location is extremely important regarding who Simone is. The scenery mirrors her and her struggles. Simone defines herself by her appearance. As we learn from her memory data, she was a machine lifeform very similar to the others we met in the game, but she wanted to be noticed by another machine lifeform which is very likely to be Jean-Paul. She wanted to acquire some things to distinguish herself and soon became obsessed with beauty. Simone as we first saw her has a lot of ornaments on her, you can actually still see her base head.

Appareances are one of the aspects of theater : putting on a costume, showing yourself in front of others, playing a character, is the essence of theater, which is exactly what Simone did : by adding more and more ornaments, she became someone else, a beautiful person according to her, she wants to be this ideal beautiful persona. In her memory data, she keeps saying “he won’t look my way” over and again until she looses her mind and says “someone please look my way”. The verb look is very important as it is the central core of theater : theater comes from the ancient greek verb meaning to look. The location and what makes Simone’s essence are tied up closely. There is where the developpers are genuises, Simone is like the embodiment of theater : she literally has the symbolic red curtain on her. She also has the look expected for an opera singer : impressive skirt, the regal shape behind her head, she has the gestures and poses you would expect. Video games don’t come from nowhere, they are inspired by other arts and they use it in an ingenious manner.

Finally the theater mirrors Simone for it is the place where stories are told and where humanity exposes its strength and weaknesses. The fight stages her struggle for what she wants and it shows more and more as she takes hits from our heroes. Theater is the place where struggles are put in the light in front of everyone. And indeed this passage highlights a specific ambiguity at the center of the game. Simone has the features of an Opera Singer and indeed she sings, the amazing soundtrack is triggered by her and it seems like she conducts it : the puppet-androids are the choir and she is the leading voice. This part is also very cleverly done for the music is in sinc with Simone’s attacks : the red rays with the entrance of the choir, the red balls with the bells for example. Moreover some of her attacks are inspired by sound vibrations.

It really shows how all aspects can be linked and in this case it is extremely well-thought and well-executed. Simone is very closely linked to music and more precisely to singing. Singing is known to be the way of expressing passion, of revealing yourself. This is why singing is usely a human attribute. Moreover, Simone is an opera singer, the opera being the place where everything is exposed through singing. Arias are a focus on a character who shows themselves and what makes them human.

According to this Simone should be human and there is no denying her emotions when she goes crazy at the end of the fight and when her backstory is revealed. 9S is actually surprised by this after the encounter and says : “it’s almost like it had actual emotion”  and 2B interrupts him and says in a rather harsh tone : “the machines don’t have feelings” This should alert the player : 2B shows here that she is aware of the ambiguity and similarities between machine lifeforms and androids and their link to humanity. Simone’s memory data is yet another proof of this as she pondered and suffered from what she has done after Jean-Paul’s rejection :   “I gaze into the mirror. In its reflection, I see only my own meaningless. And so I scream.” Simone is very human and this is yet another clever way to hint the deepest themes of the game : this story of machines is about humanity. In a way Simone already makes 2B and 9S face their own contradictions : the second half of the fight brings in the controled androids. The theater here seems to be transformed into an arena where 2B and 9S have to battle their own kind. This twisted show is conducted by Simone as she is the one who closes the curtain to place the action elsewhere. Moroever, the camera switches to a high-angle shot during that second part and we can clearly see our main characters being followed by a spotlight.They are part of this play : the twisted show echoes throughout the entire game since 2B had to kill 9S over and over again and all the character seem trapped and unable to break free. As some players pointed out their blindfold can represent how they are blind to the world they live in and how they blind themselves. Which then again makes them very human.