August 2017 Playthrough - Journey (w/ The Cartridge Club)

[alatinolawyer]

Hey there guys!  Just saying hello on y'alls forum.  I don't have a SonyBox so I'll live vicariously through all your playthroughs.  It sure looks pretty and fun.

[singlebanana]

Hey there guys!  Just saying hello on y'alls forum.  I don't have a SonyBox so I'll live vicariously through all your playthroughs.  It sure looks pretty and fun.

Welcome good sir. Enjoy your stay and hopefully you'll get some good use out of our database.

[douglie007]

So anyone else playing this? What's the weekly goal... I'm so confused on such a short game, what to do after finishing it once

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[GrayGhost81]

This isn't official, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say checkpoints wouldn't make sense for this one.

Don't spoil the ending yet.

[Crabmaster2000]

I'm back home after a family trip.  Will pop in some Journey either today or tomorrow

[Pam]

I played through today. I don't really consider this game spoilable, but I'll go ahead and put this all in spoiler tags anyway. I have cross-posted this here and on the CC forums.

Spoiler (hover to show)

I don't really get the emotional component of this. It's just not there for me, so I will sadly have to talk about this mechanically. For me, the game works best when you're free to fly and soar and surf as you like. My favourite part was surfing down the sand for an extended amount of time and then having the camera flip around to a more side-scrolling view as the sunset glinted off the sand. I also enjoyed the lead up to the very end. In the beginning, where your ability to fly is very limited, I often found myself frustrated. I wanted to soar around more, not do it for 3 seconds and then have to walk on to the next bits of cloth that would let me do it again. Where the game lost me was the snow part. I did not find slowly trudging through the snow with wind pushing against me at all appealing. I'm sure that adversity is an important part of this Journey, but since it didn't engage me on an emotional level this was just slow and frustrating. And I hate snow.  So my feelings on the game haven't really changed since my first playthrough.

I can understand the appeal of occasionally playing with a stranger online who has no ability to act like garbage, and I liked how running alongside someone charged up the scarf.

[Crabmaster2000]

I gotta echo Pam. Journey didn't do much for me. Just seemed like a game about growing and shrinking scarves. I met two other players during my run and didn't even know you could recharge your scarf powers until Pam mentioned it. One player I just noticed leaving an area before I was able to so we didn't get to interact and the second player I met when we were climbing the frozen mountain. In the frozen mountain area the cold sapped your ability to gain any scarf powers and also made it so my speaking function didn't work. So basically my one chance to interact with another player was squandered. We trekked up the mountain together, but as soon as we passed out in the snow and the next area loaded he was gone and I never saw him again. Is two a low number of players to see during a playthrough? Can you meet multiple players in the same areas? Can a player you meet in one area progress to the next area with you? I don't get it.

Journey really felt like it was trying to be a game like Ico or Shadow of the Colossus, but didn't have the emotion, impact or intelligence of either of those. There never felt like there were any stakes or any real reason to push towards your goal. I like how they tried to tell the story by having you find things off the beaten path like the murals or some old ruins, but I think it really failed in actually telling any story. I have no idea what the game was about, why this world was in ruin, who the other characters are, why is a dragon eating my scarf, is the cloth stuff a power source and if so why does cold affect it so easily, why my character needed to get to the light on the mountain or even who my character was. So many questions and no answers.


Ending related:

Spoiler (hover to show)

The ending was super silly too. The first thing that popped up after completing my quest was "Thanks for Playing Journey!". For something trying to be artsy it went out of it's way at that moment to remind me I was playing a video game. Reminded me of cheesy endings on NES games like Dynowarz

[img width=475 height=350]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4332/35627020974_54aecca915.jpg[/img]

[Pam]

I saw 3 people on my playthrough, so 2 doesn't seem especially low. I don't believe you can run into more than one person per area, but I'm not positive. You can transition into new areas with someone though.

[Addicted]

I played through this last night. If I were playing this in 2013 I would have been amazed but it's 2017 and I've already played Rime. I highly recommend Rime as narrative has more lasting impact.

This quote does a good job of summarizing what's going on in Journey:

Spoiler (hover to show)

The entire game is a metaphor for life. Since their is no tutorial, you are lead only by curiosity and help from strangers. You go through a wide range of human emotions (happiness, fear, companionship) until ultimately it ends. The game seems ambiguous about what that means. I think this is largely because the developer was not trying to impose a specific ideology about what happens at the end of life. Everything turns white and the essence of your character is reborn again as someone else. It says a lot about death and rebirth, but not specifically what either of those mean.

[Crabmaster2000]

I played through this last night. If I were playing this in 2013 I would have been amazed but it's 2017 and I've already played Rime. I highly recommend Rime as narrative has more lasting impact.

This quote does a good job of summarizing what's going on in Journey:

Spoiler (hover to show)

The entire game is a metaphor for life. Since their is no tutorial, you are lead only by curiosity and help from strangers. You go through a wide range of human emotions (happiness, fear, companionship) until ultimately it ends. The game seems ambiguous about what that means. I think this is largely because the developer was not trying to impose a specific ideology about what happens at the end of life. Everything turns white and the essence of your character is reborn again as someone else. It says a lot about death and rebirth, but not specifically what either of those mean.

It's pretty daming that a game from 5 years ago that got SO MUCH critical praise and tons of word of mouth already feels so dated. Instead of the instant classic and must play that many people pegged it as it's already become almost throw away in just a few short years. Is that because games have really progressed so much in such a short time? Are indie games not held to the same standards? Is it being a mainly digital game that we view/judge it differently? Since it's short/cheap does it get a pass?

[Addicted]

Games that explore the human condition garner more critical praise and their more open ended nature will lead to a diverse set of opinions.

Think about games like:

Rime
Syberia
Abzu

[Crabmaster2000]

Games that explore the human condition garner more critical praise and their more open ended nature will lead to a diverse set of opinions.

Think about games like:

Rime
Syberia
Abzu

Syberia.......*shutter*

[singlebanana]

I finished Journey last night in one sitting.  I enjoyed my time with it and my only regret is not exploring a little more.  Beautiful game and an incredible soundtrack.  There's just something about playing a game this beautiful. I understand the gameplay criticisms, but with a 2 hour game, I could care less.  Beautiful, haunting, life affirming.... shut off what you know about games and just enjoy the ride.

[Addicted]

@singlebanana: Try Abzu.

[GrayGhost81]

@singlebanana: Try Abzu.

Seconded.