This review contains spoilers
Hmmmmm do I get artsy-fartsy with this one, or do I lament the game's status within the echelon of mainstream acclaim along the weird negative force it's been obtaining cause of it? Eh, PanzyDragoonSaga did the latter greatly, so let's do the former.
I started this late at night, mainly as a way to spend the remaining few hours I have before turning in for work, especially since for some reason I have yet to actually play this despite knowing a lot about it for years. After spending time getting used to the controls - doubly cause I'm using WASD+Mouse for this one - in the starting area, I made my way towards the designated spots and progression activators, marked by ribbons and stones planted around as a way to guide my eyes as well as curiosity around the sand-filled dunes and waves.
After getting the first confluence, a door opens up and reveals a buried spot of bridges and what seems to be houses, or at the very least the microcosm of a once powerful civilization. I already got the clues before and especially after this, but even then my focus was on the enlightenment and ascending past obstacles. I already noted it was becoming more open with objects that increase my ribbon's length being tucked away just right, when going around chanting other flowing fabrics within the wind to become vitalized yet again. Second confluence down, I make my way towards a magenta-colored dune filled with varied hills and pits, as well as what appeared to be a pet in the form of cloth, probably adjacent to the avian of real life. After another comb through the desert and rescuing even more of these creatures, I finally found another person, deep within a sandstorm-riddled place of broken an- wait what the fuck, the game crashed? How!? There wasn't even that much going on!
...After restarting the game, I found a different person, somehow waiting for me as soon as I step forward. I wasn't exactly sure as to what their thought process was, but after redoing my rescue attempts as well as us finding out that I and whoever I'm co-opting with can, more or less, make ourselves float and glide pretty damn far as long as we time our chants and jump heights properly, which made for some cool maneuvering and funny moments throughout. Gotten back to the sandstorm-riddled towers, both of us climbed it and activated our third confluence, and after a bit of separation anxiety, we got back together and pressed onward towards the sinking city, an area I'm very much familiar with since people love to showcase the game's art direction and fascinating use of graphical fidelity with the heavy autumn and deeply orange colors as we slide along the path laid before us, activating yet another confluence vision.
The next part, within the abyss of the ruins, already set me up for weariness. My partner and I got used to doing short-burst communication with the chants, but the deep blues made things rather ominous, accentuated by traversing onward to a jade-colored environment mixed in with a new, rather alien and manufactured being made things a little more tense. My partner got the brunt of its attack due to stepping into its light of influence, whether to be served as bait for me to get through or due to unintentional mistakes I'll never know, but we both managed to make it on by at the end of it all, finding more murals to uncover as well as balls of light to increase the length of our ribbons, again tucked away in manners that make it easy to figure out and distinguish, and doing a Sand Hill-ass sequence as we slid down yet again, this time against two of those creatures, before barely making it to the wall of orange light. Second to last confluence down, we pressed onward.
The second-to-last area, admittedly, was the inverse of the last one. Instead of beaming our way downward towards the blues, we ascended towards orange light and mysticism of the many murals laid around us, though even then we didn't stop and find all of it. After messing around with what essentially become an orange-filled pool of influence and cloth whales, we received our final confluence, and it was here that it really settled in the trek I was making. Having already dabbled with each path and spots was enough, but gaining a new partner that I still knew so little about, alongside them barely holding on within the mural being conscripted, it felt rather uneasy. This was compounded with the last area being a heavy downpour of winds, cold, and another batch of the stone creatures. Granted, it didn't start tough, but after noticing our ribbons getting shorter and frost-riddled as we marched along, barely gaining with via our chants and huddles, I knew it wasn't gonna be easy. Somehow, I was sensing dread and anxiety more than the two actual horror games I completed prior.
After an encounter with the creatures, not really resulting in that many hits this time, we made it to the final onslaught of those winds, as it kept appearing more frequently. My partner got the brunt of it, and fell down shortly before the end of it, while I made it through. The exit was right there, I could escape and ascend upon the faith of the white robes... but would that be right? Would ditching the only other person I made contact with throughout my journey, someone I experienced contingent and tranquility with, truly make the aspect of holiness and tranquility matter? I decided it wasn't, and hopped on down to try and give them a way forward through those bygone ribbons, as we both made our way back up and through the bitterness of it all, only to plop down from exhaustion, and frostbite. Even then though, it seems like we were rewarded for making it this far, and we reached Apotheosis. All of that hardship was worth it, sailing through the skies and gates all around, not giving a care as to what was happening either in-game or even real life, fully grasping that sense of peace and inner-longing of self. So many things, so many views, a lot of memories formed, in just two hours. Also a newly formed hatred of winter, fuck that season.
As I sit here reminiscing my venture with Journey, I'm reminded of the weird cynicism and literal contrarianism it's gained over the years. "It has no replay value" this, "there's nothing there at all" that, even some weird stakes of "style over substance". I understand not everyone is gonna claim this is a masterpiece worthy of the lofted praise and awards it's gotten, but it sadly makes me think of the times back in Seventh Gen where barely anyone gave a shit about the mantra of games being an artform. The inherent obsession of "replay value" has always struck me as an odd one, since I'm usually content with playing a game once and only picking it up down the line when I finally make the time available to do so (plus it's like two hours, that's basically using an afternoon's worth of time), and "style over substance" is such a close-minded way of viewing the expression and creativity the creator(s) have made within the confides of the art and product in question, as well as how that coincides with the theming and intended tone/mood of it all. As for that middle point, well, look at what I wrote beforehand. I got what I wanted from Journey, and I'm pretty comfortable having this staying with me for years to come.
I started this late at night, mainly as a way to spend the remaining few hours I have before turning in for work, especially since for some reason I have yet to actually play this despite knowing a lot about it for years. After spending time getting used to the controls - doubly cause I'm using WASD+Mouse for this one - in the starting area, I made my way towards the designated spots and progression activators, marked by ribbons and stones planted around as a way to guide my eyes as well as curiosity around the sand-filled dunes and waves.
After getting the first confluence, a door opens up and reveals a buried spot of bridges and what seems to be houses, or at the very least the microcosm of a once powerful civilization. I already got the clues before and especially after this, but even then my focus was on the enlightenment and ascending past obstacles. I already noted it was becoming more open with objects that increase my ribbon's length being tucked away just right, when going around chanting other flowing fabrics within the wind to become vitalized yet again. Second confluence down, I make my way towards a magenta-colored dune filled with varied hills and pits, as well as what appeared to be a pet in the form of cloth, probably adjacent to the avian of real life. After another comb through the desert and rescuing even more of these creatures, I finally found another person, deep within a sandstorm-riddled place of broken an- wait what the fuck, the game crashed? How!? There wasn't even that much going on!
...After restarting the game, I found a different person, somehow waiting for me as soon as I step forward. I wasn't exactly sure as to what their thought process was, but after redoing my rescue attempts as well as us finding out that I and whoever I'm co-opting with can, more or less, make ourselves float and glide pretty damn far as long as we time our chants and jump heights properly, which made for some cool maneuvering and funny moments throughout. Gotten back to the sandstorm-riddled towers, both of us climbed it and activated our third confluence, and after a bit of separation anxiety, we got back together and pressed onward towards the sinking city, an area I'm very much familiar with since people love to showcase the game's art direction and fascinating use of graphical fidelity with the heavy autumn and deeply orange colors as we slide along the path laid before us, activating yet another confluence vision.
The next part, within the abyss of the ruins, already set me up for weariness. My partner and I got used to doing short-burst communication with the chants, but the deep blues made things rather ominous, accentuated by traversing onward to a jade-colored environment mixed in with a new, rather alien and manufactured being made things a little more tense. My partner got the brunt of its attack due to stepping into its light of influence, whether to be served as bait for me to get through or due to unintentional mistakes I'll never know, but we both managed to make it on by at the end of it all, finding more murals to uncover as well as balls of light to increase the length of our ribbons, again tucked away in manners that make it easy to figure out and distinguish, and doing a Sand Hill-ass sequence as we slid down yet again, this time against two of those creatures, before barely making it to the wall of orange light. Second to last confluence down, we pressed onward.
The second-to-last area, admittedly, was the inverse of the last one. Instead of beaming our way downward towards the blues, we ascended towards orange light and mysticism of the many murals laid around us, though even then we didn't stop and find all of it. After messing around with what essentially become an orange-filled pool of influence and cloth whales, we received our final confluence, and it was here that it really settled in the trek I was making. Having already dabbled with each path and spots was enough, but gaining a new partner that I still knew so little about, alongside them barely holding on within the mural being conscripted, it felt rather uneasy. This was compounded with the last area being a heavy downpour of winds, cold, and another batch of the stone creatures. Granted, it didn't start tough, but after noticing our ribbons getting shorter and frost-riddled as we marched along, barely gaining with via our chants and huddles, I knew it wasn't gonna be easy. Somehow, I was sensing dread and anxiety more than the two actual horror games I completed prior.
After an encounter with the creatures, not really resulting in that many hits this time, we made it to the final onslaught of those winds, as it kept appearing more frequently. My partner got the brunt of it, and fell down shortly before the end of it, while I made it through. The exit was right there, I could escape and ascend upon the faith of the white robes... but would that be right? Would ditching the only other person I made contact with throughout my journey, someone I experienced contingent and tranquility with, truly make the aspect of holiness and tranquility matter? I decided it wasn't, and hopped on down to try and give them a way forward through those bygone ribbons, as we both made our way back up and through the bitterness of it all, only to plop down from exhaustion, and frostbite. Even then though, it seems like we were rewarded for making it this far, and we reached Apotheosis. All of that hardship was worth it, sailing through the skies and gates all around, not giving a care as to what was happening either in-game or even real life, fully grasping that sense of peace and inner-longing of self. So many things, so many views, a lot of memories formed, in just two hours. Also a newly formed hatred of winter, fuck that season.
As I sit here reminiscing my venture with Journey, I'm reminded of the weird cynicism and literal contrarianism it's gained over the years. "It has no replay value" this, "there's nothing there at all" that, even some weird stakes of "style over substance". I understand not everyone is gonna claim this is a masterpiece worthy of the lofted praise and awards it's gotten, but it sadly makes me think of the times back in Seventh Gen where barely anyone gave a shit about the mantra of games being an artform. The inherent obsession of "replay value" has always struck me as an odd one, since I'm usually content with playing a game once and only picking it up down the line when I finally make the time available to do so (plus it's like two hours, that's basically using an afternoon's worth of time), and "style over substance" is such a close-minded way of viewing the expression and creativity the creator(s) have made within the confides of the art and product in question, as well as how that coincides with the theming and intended tone/mood of it all. As for that middle point, well, look at what I wrote beforehand. I got what I wanted from Journey, and I'm pretty comfortable having this staying with me for years to come.
2 Comments
Thank you! Main thing I wanted to get across was the individualistic aspect of Journey's playthrough, as well as its design ethos that's always present no matter who's going through it, so I'm glad it was able to get through well
Drax
1 year ago