Imagine a world, an empty but old world. You, a lone new being in this world, know next to nothing about it. So, perhaps by curiosity or for some other abstract reason such as wanting to save the world or overcome some emotional dilemmas, you walk around. You travel through this world. Journey through it.
Over time, you see new sights, you meet new people, see fantastical events happened and dissipated. Almost at the end of the voyage, once you've seen all there is to see, you look back and realize how much love you've grown for it. You love this world, its people, its sights and everything else it had to offer. This journey, this world, has touched your heart.
And then you see the edge of the world. One that you will have to pass, for the sake of everything and everyone in this world or the others. But once you do, that's it. The end. You will never return, or if you manage to, it will never be the same experience again. All that you've gained, once you cross that edge, will be nothing more than sweet memories. Your journey is finished. (Game) Over.
You know what that's like? Playing a most wonderful RPG. That's what a good RPG make me feel, what a good game makes me feel, right before the Very Definitely Final Dungeon: I don't want to end it. After all those love and explorations and looting and battling, I don't want to just... beat the Big Bad and then leave.
Oddly enough, it has never hit me so hard. Usually, after some hesitancy, I simply ram though those big door. Then came Bastion, the indie action-RPG by Supergiant Games.
Let me put it this way: It's been weeks, maybe even months, since that large looming 3-times-larger-than-everything-else castle has been lying open, ready for the ramming, on my map. And I kept trying to find some excuse to put it off. There's still this achievement to do, this side-dungeon to finish, that upgrade to do, bla-bla-blah.
In most other games I hate those extra sidequests. I consider them a waste of valuable time, unless they give me some form of Infinity+1 Sword or somehing, but in this game I'm secretly grateful for what few I have, since otherwise I will be forced to fight the final boss. And then, what? Endgame? After all that I've done?
One of the things that make Bastion so precious is because you can't revisit old locations anymore. Once you're done with it, it's either completely destroyed or overrun by monsters or some other excuse so I can't visit it. This isn't a bad thing, since it kept the experience fresh and the prevent Gameplay-Story Segregation, but still. Sometimes I do miss those Stage Ones.
It also gives me so little thing to do, come the final dungeon. So little opportunity for reminiscing. So little reminders about what I have done and accomplished. I'd love to look forward to the future, but I also want to look back.
I want something more to remember all those adventures by.
