Imagine going back to your childhood home, reminiscing in memories of the past, only to find out that there is an even deeper, darker story about your family. Throughout the game, What Remains of Edith Finch, you must take a journey down memory lane, experiencing the deaths of each family member, and attempting to figure out just what this “curse” on the family was. What Remains of Edith Finch has superb puzzles, mind-boggling psychological elements, and interactive game mechanics which highly enhance not only the character’s story, but the overall player experience.
As you go through the game, you are guided into bedrooms of the now passed family members, each with clues/journals which help to tell how that family member died. One room had an extremely powerful story, and it was because of the game mechanics involved in telling that story that made it immensely immersive. This story was extremely informative as well because you learned everything you needed to, all while experiencing the characters physical and mental state. Lewis Finch, a fish canner, a hippie, and most importantly he was schizophrenic, to an extent. To start, you are just performing Lewis’ day to day job of chopping fish heads using a mini guillotine and praying that you will not chop off your own hand. As you are doing this, you are hearing Lewis’ psychologist in the background describing how he was in sessions and giving you insight on the things he was seeing. After a few rounds of fish chopping, there is a mini game which appears in the top left of the screen. This mini game is very small, not very detailed, and is easily played, however the catch is that you must keep performing Lewis’ job simultaneously. As you play through the mini game, it slowly progresses and becomes more complex both in art style, and the controls needed to play it. This is what Lewis was experiencing every day, and every day his life would become more consumed by an alternate reality, thus the mini game in the corner would become more complex and begin to take over more of your screen, all while you are still trying to perform Lewis’ job. As you begin to reach the end of his story, the mini game has completely taken over the screen, and the art style went from plain 2D characters with black and white coloring, to a 3D, fully colored world, like a utopia. When you reach the end of the minigame, Lewis’ also dies to a guillotine, which is quite ironic given his occupation. Game mechanics such as taking over the screen with an alternate reality, are what help to push the story even further into the player’s mind, giving them even more to grasp onto and giving them the chance to experience what the character truly went through. No one truly knows what another person has been through unless they experience it themselves, and that is exactly what this game mechanic allows the player to do.
The next story also held no lack of seriously compelling and interactive game mechanics, all driving the story of the character that much further. Molly, Edith’s great aunt, had a very tragic death at the young age of 10. Her story started off with her parents sending her to bed hungry, which leads her to try and find food around her room. Unfortunately, some of the items she decided to eat were not good and quite toxic. After she ate all, she could in her room, she peers out the window and notices a bird, which makes you jump out the window, turn into a cat, and proceed to chase the bird until ultimately eating it. It does not stop there, however. After she eats the bird, she then becomes an owl and wants to hunt the mother rabbits, then a shark which hunts mother seals. The final form she becomes is a sea monster of sorts, that grabs sailors and eats them. When she gets back to her room, she knows the beast is underneath her bed, to which she says, “that I’m going to be delicious (Molly Finch, 2017, L1).” These game mechanics were key to showing the player what Molly went through, and truly made the story interesting. The aspect of truly having no choice but to eat these animals and eventually people is a largely psychologically thrilling element to the story. It also provides the foundation for the game and story, as this is the first story you will experience as a player. It gives you insight into what you will experience as you go throughout each family members room. The mechanic of becoming a bigger predator each time you eat an animal, gives away to the fact that Molly is wanting to ultimately gain power and perhaps eat her parents. It also shows that her hunger was taking over her, like a disease.
At this point, you are probably wondering to yourself, so what? What about this game and its mechanics makes it worthy of an analysis? The story of What Remains of Edith Finch is a complex one, and there are many elements of the game that do not present themselves easily. It takes someone to read in between the lines and present this information. These mechanics are compelling and make the player want to immerse themselves more and learn more about the story. A lot of people tend to focus on just the story and getting to the end, however if we look at the world of Edith Finch, there is so much more to be looked upon and analyzed such as the game mechanics behind all the stories, which only help to emphasize the characters experiences. There are many other authors out there who feel the same way, for example, “But you do it anyway. The story compels. Only in Edith Finch, you don’t just read and sympathize you have to take the controls yourself and make it happen (Ditum, 2017).” Game mechanics matter, they drive the story, and they make the player analyze more than they would otherwise. They also drive the player to make hasty decisions, to make it through the game and reach the end, all while absorbing the information that is being conveyed. Bottom line is, game mechanics are a very important element to the game, and they give the foundation to go even deeper and analyze the game in ways no one ever has. It opens a new world and will continue to for many years to come. Games are only going up from here, and so will the game mechanics and design, making it even more important to analyze and gain information for future generations of gamers to look back on and appreciate.
Works Cited
Ditum, Sarah. “What Remains of Edith Finch and the Art of Inevitability.” Eurogamer.net, Eurogamer.net, 19 Aug. 2017, www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-08-19-what-remains-of-edith-finch-and-the-art-of-inevitability.
What Remains of Edith Finch. Windows PC version, Giant Sparrow, 2017.
Throughout the semester, there have been a few things that I have learned and grown from by playing games. The largest takeaway I have is that you should not judge a game by its cover. I used to always look at the covers of games and tell myself I would dislike it and it would not be something I would enjoy… Boy was I wrong! There were games we played such as Bioshock Infinite and What Remains of Edith Finch that I would have never played on my own, simply because it did not look interesting and was a genre I did not care for. These two games were the best ones in the class in my opinion and I want to play them over and over. Their worlds and plot lines were so immersive, I could not help but become completely entwined in the game.
Another aspect I was able to learn and take away from this semester is that video games are literature! Although this class was named “Video Games as Literature” I was not expecting to actually learn about how games were literature and in what ways, oops. I was more expecting to just play the games and write papers on our thoughts. This was so much more in-depth however, and I learned a lot more than I thought. I was able to see so many parallels between literature such as books and video games. Some of these parallels include strong plot, real world connections, and a theme/lesson to take away. This has definitely changed the way that I play video games because I am now hyper aware of the plots and world in which they take place when I never was that concerned with it before. I feel like I am obsessed with lore, now more than ever. I just want to keep learning more about the games and see just how deep they can go.
I plan to continue onward with speaking about games as being literature. This topic is very intriguing to me because it was something I had never heard about until coming to this class. Playing the video games and seeing real examples of how this compares to literature made me realize that video games are freaking literature! They have all the elements that a storybook would, you just get to actually play through it and experience it in an even more immersive setting. I think this is a better way of storytelling because I for one despise reading books. They are boring and make me fall asleep, but video games however, I can stay awake and alert for hours on end with the help of an energy drink or two and a bag of Doritos.
Chrono Trigger is an RPG wonderland, and honestly, it is one of the better-looking and playing games of 1995. I was unfortunately not born when it came out, but playing it now I can understand why it was so popular in the RPG community and still is to this day.
So, Bioshock Infinite, how was it? Well, let me tell you this game was absolutely fantastic. From the world, it took place in, to the mind-boggling twists and turns around every corner. I thoroughly enjoyed this game and it made me want more. I could not stop playing and finished it in about 2 days, and I hardly ever finish games if that says anything. I have some very specific feelings and theories about this game that I want to dive into.
Upon completing Bioshock 1, I had no idea what was in store when we began playing Bioshock Infinite. I am quite glad I did not know because it was a complete surprise. Though I am only halfway through the game, there have been many great turning points and amazing melee experiences. I am thoroughly enjoying my progress through Bioshock Infinite and perhaps it is because this time I set it on easy mode. I really enjoy the game mechanics and storyline of this particular game because it seems a lot more interactive and I really enjoy the zip lining aspect, though you would definitely break your arms doing some of the jumps he does in real life. The storyline is very interesting and the fact that it is based in a town that floats in the sky is really cool.
Where do I even begin with Bioshock? This game had so many twists and turns that kept things engaging and fun. Bioshock was the first game I have played where you beat people with a wrench and face off against giant robots who are not easy to kill, I may add. Not only that, but this game had tons of horror-type aspects, at least in my opinion because I am a scaredy-cat and will jump at the slightest of things. One of the largest game mechanics that was introduced within the game was pretty close to the beginning. This mechanic known as Adam was the basis for many decisions made throughout the game and made things very hard as a player.
Overall, the ending was a very good one. Though it was very sad, and yes I did end up crying, it was very solid and I think showed how much the characters evolved up until the end. I feel I made the right decisions for how I wanted the story to go. Though most of the game the decisions I made were based on the characters I felt were important and I preferred. One of these characters was Clementine, and she was the largest reason for my decisions. Throughout the entire story, Clementine was always the one I put first. I started to develop a father-daughter relationship with her, and I just wanted to be a good role model. I wanted her to see that I was not a bad person and I wanted her to carry that on in case anything happened to me. This reminds me of a quote from Nonplayer Characters, or NPCs by Katherine Isbister. She stated, “Interactions with NPCs move players beyond para-social feelings into consequential social experiences with accompanying social emotions and behaviors (Isbister, 2017).” This specific quote really connected with me because I definitely felt social emotions and behaviors all while being around Clementine. It is like she brought out a side of myself I never thought I would have, even though she is just a character that helps guide the story. She truly changed the way I made decisions and I think I made the right decisions because of her. Kenny was also a character that I based my decisions on because he was the one I met first, and he seemed to have his head in the right place. I felt it would be beneficial to side with him for the majority of the story. There were points where I tried to remain neutral, but for the most part, I chose Kenny. He had his family and I wanted to protect them too. ![No beard Lee Episode 5 S2 [The Walking Dead: Season 2] [Mods]](https://images.gamebanana.com/img/ss/mods/5a328cac2da48.jpg)
Overall, this game was amazing with the way it brought out your own emotions and put them into the character you were playing as. The way the story flowed, and how your decisions altered the story itself was very well done. I highly recommend trying this game out yourself and see what outcome you end up with.
the game. One of the factors is that due to the game mechanics, I am trying very hard to have my decisions not reflect poorly on me later. I also find myself seeing which characters have the strength we need to survive the game, which affects my decisions on who I will save and who will be eaten. For example, at the end of Episode 1, I decided to save Carley instead of Doug, because she was very accurate when using the pistol, and honestly, Greg just kind of stood there and watched. It seemed like the right decision for the sake of the group. I can’t wait to play through the game more and see what happens next.
After reviewing many authors blog posts, the one author which stuck out to me was Brendan Caldwell. One of the main reasons I enjoy reading his blog posts are because you can feel the comical side he is bringing out when writing. He seems to enjoy poking fun at games, especially in reviews and wording things a certain way to stick out more. An example of this can be found when he says, “…we discovered its name from that most reliable of informants: a Doritos packet (Caldwell, 2020).” Another reason why I like this author is because he is into the same games I am. This makes it very easy to relate to his posts and find humor about the games that I have never thought of before. He easily makes his articles fun to read, while also getting to the point and making sure everyone knows his stance on the game.
The one article I really enjoyed reading was his review on Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War single player. This is a game I have been playing a lot of recently, so when I saw he had a review of it, I just had to see what his thoughts were. Some of them were quite grim, however it was the truth of the game. Something I can learn from this author that will help me write better blog posts is to have fun, and bring your own sense of style into the posts themselves. By bringing your own personality to the blog posts, they become your own and people are able to see that. Though these posts are just text on a screen, Brendan was able to bring them to life. I want to be able to do the same in my own blog posts. I also enjoyed how, although he was humorous in his posts, he also knew how to become serious and allow readers to see the major takeaways from his posts. With my own blog posts, I think this will be a strong skill to practice for future posts.