#zero ranger

I was recommended Void Stranger on a whim. Chatting with an old friend I knew when I was really into FE: Three Houses and playing through the FE games as a result. They knew that narrative and style was far more important to me in games than graphics, and they also knew I really like Puzzles. I'll copy and paste direct quotes of what they said when they told me to play this game:

"It's a pixel puzzle game that like breaks your mind dawg. I can't go too into it without spoiling but just trust me. You like go through levels of a dungeon finishing puzzles, but there are puzzles that span through the larger game for you to figure out if you want the true endings, and those puzzles are both like, game puzzles and lore puzzles. I had to keep a notebook on hand to take notes."

Oo, alright, alright, sounds right up my alley. I love games that make you really sit and think about the information being given to you!

"The lore is really in depth too. And it ties to one of [the game studio]'s previous games. I don't think think that's too major of a spoiler to say. But I'm not joking when I say that I've had to step away and sit in a corner and think about this game more than once. It changed my life."

So I tell them I bought the game. $11 is more than worth whatever experience this trusted friend is swearing up and down I'll get.

"My one piece of advice: DO NOT GIVE UP."

I ask... what ever could they mean?

"Well. Okay. So. Hard to say without spoiling, again. But this game is trying to break you. This game is trying to test your will and your resolve. Like it doesn't hold your hand, it doesn't play nice. It's really hard and the puzzles are really difficult and the game can genuinely be kind of infuriating at times, but just trust me. Don't give up."

Alright, alright, I'm in for it then, but I'll work it into my to-play list, maybe bump it up a few slots bc I have still been meaning to start Rogue Trader, and I'm working through Spirit of the North, and also Hades II is coming out soon--

"Also the main character is a lesbian."

SOLD!!!!

So I open the game. I'm met with one of the most beautiful women I've ever had the pleasure of seeing put to pixels and I begin.

The basic structure of this game is exactly as my friend described. It is a puzzle game. The premise is that you play as Lady Gray, who is traveling into the Void - a deep, neverending maze that can be equated to both Hell and to Purgatory, for reasons you don't know at the start. The game opens with the cutscene of Gray leaping into the Void, and landing on floor B001. There is a mural at the top of this room, you don't understand what it means, or what it reads. You quickly learn that you descend the levels by reaching an easily accessible staircase on the right side of the room, and that is how you will be progressing through this game.

You reach B002. There is a seemingly impassable gap between you and the stairs. There is a large, strange statue in the void before you, and in front of it, a chest.

You open the chest, and you gain... a strange rod, as shown in the picture I attached of Gray above. And you are faced with your first puzzle, which I will not spoil. But from here - your objective is clear. Use the rod to navigate the Void, and solve the puzzles to get to the stairs in each room so you can descend deeper. And the questions, the puzzles, begin mounting, and pushing you forward.

Who is Gray? Why is she in the Void? What is she searching for? Who or what are those statues scattered EVERYWHERE in the Void? What is the rod, where did it come from? Why do you have 7 health, but enemies do 999 damage to you, making any hit an instant death?

You'll find out more and more as you go deeper. You'll find strange Locust idols in chests -- what the hell are those for? You learn— when you fall into a gap or get hit by one of the enemies — that one is consumed when you die, and you are brought back to the start of the room. These are your lives. You can gain more from chests, but… there isn’t always a chest on every floor. They’re limited… what happens if you use all these lives and die without a locust idol…?

Every 28 floors, you'll come across a room with a birch tree. And in these rooms, SOME of the questions I listed above will begin to be answered as you rest, and begin to experience Gray's memories, learn who she is, why she is here, why this is so important to her.

Gray's motivations become your own. You want to see her reach the end, You HAVE to see her reach the end, by any means possible, even if you don't entirely understand the depths of her motivations.

Determination is ALL that matters in this game. Get deeper, push farther, find those stairs, get to the bottom, no matter the gods damned cost, just keep fucking going. When I say that this game wormed its way into my skull and rooted itself deeply into my brain itself, I mean it. I played it every chance I could get. I streamed it to my friends so they could help me with puzzles, so I could push deeper, consumed by that determination, that will, that desire, to go deeper.

And I suffered for it.

I won't say anymore. I've said all I can to hopefully convince you to play this game, without spoiling anything major. Those who have actually played this game, or who want a full spoiler review, I'd be more than happy to discuss or write one up. But I cannot recommend this game Highly Enough. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this game contains some of the BEST character writing and narrative progression I've ever experienced. It pulls at your heart, it makes you cry, it makes you hope, it makes you despair.

And without exaggeration, this game contains the absolute best ending in a game I have ever experienced in my goddamn life.

The streets aren't so busy anymore. When satellite telescopes first identified Green Orange and confirmed its trajectory there was no panic, centuries of warfare made our cities and the people of Daikon resilient and adaptable. Buildings that retract seamlessly into the ground to shelter the inhabitants from artillery fire and bombing leaving a flat expanse of bunker doors and empty streets one hopes to never see anyone on.

Dori looks up to the orange sky and strains her vision in the direction of Green-Orange, but all she sees is that void of sky for now. She sighs and lets her gaze fall toward the pavement. A sudden wind makes her green button-down blouse flutter. Past her distressed jeans and beneath her boots the pavement's pock-marks seem like the remains of a battlefield soon to come.

The contemplation is broken by Mido grasping Dori's shoulders from behind which startles her, leaning in she giggles "Told you I'd catch up!"

She turns to look at Mido. Her knee-length, white with orange coloured orange-blossom pattern spaghetti strap dress flows in the gentle breeze. On her feet are orange crocs with charms of Decker and Rybb

Dori smiles and chides "You wouldn't have to catch up if you could just get changed quicker."

Mido pouts at this "Hey! It's not my fault! My pilot suit is too small…"

"File a request for a bigger one," she lifts the strap of her dress slightly "The last thing we need is you complaining about chafing while we're tying to do our job." She lets the strap snap and Mido yelps.

"Eeep! You're such a meanie!" She slaps her on the shoulder and they smile to each-other "Fine I'll talk to the quartermaster after our day-out. We're still going to that cafe right?"

Dori nods "Yeah, it isn't far now."

"What are you gonna get, Dori?"

She shrugs "Probably a Long Black."

Mido scrunches her face and sticks her tongue out in disgust "BLECH! How can you drink that. It's so bitter!"

"It really isn't, it's less bitter than a regular espresso."

Mido shakes her head "That's not much better, less bitter than super bitter is still bitter!"

Dori smiles patiently "Well I happen to like bitter things. Even the sweetest treat…"

Mido completes the sentence "…gets a little bitter with each bite." She rests her eyes a minute, the pipes up "What did Erasure mean by that anyways?"

"Who knows. Sometimes I think we barely understand what Erasure is. Sometimes when I finish a simulation I feel lightheaded, in more ways than one."

Mido pats her on the back and tries to assuage her fears "Erasure is really hard on us! You're probably just feeling some jet lag from coming back to reality!" She crosses her arms "Seriously though, she's worse than my mom. At least my mom doesn't make me fight a giant crab! Even though it feels like that sometimes hehe."

"Ha. Ya." She pauses. "What were you going to get?"

"Iced vanilla extra cream extra dextra sugar!" she winks and makes a peace sign.

"Why am I not suprised." Dori wraps her arm around Mido's shoulder as they walk "Why don't we pick each-other's drinks today?"

Mido raises an eyebrow "You're not going to make me drink anything gross right? Like a straight espresso or that long johnson you were talking about?"

"Long Black, and no. I was thinking you'd enjoy a comforting choccochino."

Her eyes light up "That sounds delicious! I love chocolate!"

"So what are you getting me?"

"Ummm…"

When Mido and Dori arrived at the Cafe, Dori got Mido the choccochino and Mido ended up ordering her usual vanilla with everything in it for Dori. Mido loved the choccochino, and the second one, and the third, and the fourth.

Meanwhile Dori's blood sugar had never been so sickeningly, dizzyingly high. When they returned to the base at the end of the day Mido went to sleep six hours late that night due to overcaffination from drinking eight choccochinos.

She raved "They're just too small! But they're so yummy! How can something so bitter be so yummy still!?" among other such exclamations.

Dori enjoyed her sugar coma and woke early utterly refreshed to find Mido still asleep in her bunk untucked. Dori tucked her back in and walked over to Erasure for her morning sim-session, who tells her about Mido's all-nighter trying to beat Dori's score.

"Well how did she do?"

"Have a look for yourself."

Dori no longer appeared on the score-board.

Dori's fist clenches and a vein pops out on her head "…"

A question mark appears on Erasure's screen "What is it? You do not seem pleased."

She smiles a tight smile "Serves me right for caffinating her." she crosses her arms tightly, feet shoulder length apart "Prepare the simulation, Erasure. Looks like I still have some room to grow too."

Lights flash around Erasure's terminal rapidly "Of course, from the top?"

"Is there any other way?"

"I suppose not. Good luck, Dori."

A flash of blinding light and the world breifly became void before a deep green glow grew filling the absence with flawless fidelity increasing to a perfect simulacrum.