Three and Out – ‘FAR: Lone Sails’
It is Ben’s recommendation that you listen to Joel Schoch’s score of FAR: Lone Sails while you read the review. FAR: Lone Sails is about triumph in the face of loneliness. Operating a large...
Welcome to the Epilogue
Roundtable: Companion Characters
Question: What role do side characters have in games? Specifically companion characters, not just NPCs. How do character companions influence the story, drive the narrative, and affect the gameplay? Ben: Companions, and the way...
Analysis: Is Bethesda going the way of Telltale?
With the abysmal reception to Bethesda’s recent release, Fallout 76, many gamers including myself found themselves in a state of utter disappointment. Though the company has taken repeated criticisms for buggy games, an outdated...
‘One Hand Clapping’: A Sonorous Sensation
One Hand Clapping combines unexpected gameplay mechanics, lore, and surprisingly silent storytelling. The premise is generally a mystery. You are dropped into a world swirling with atmosphere and intrigue, something deeply reminiscent of how...
Why ‘Chrono Trigger’ Holds Up in 2018: A Fresh Perspective
This past month, I embarked on a journey unlike any other: a blind first playthrough of Chrono Trigger. I had no expectations, no context, and no experience with this game – but I had...
The Ten Worst Tutorials Ever
One of the worst things in video games is the mandatory tutorial. It severs any chance of replaying a game and enjoying it in full (there will always be that part that you have to...
The Nuzlocke Challenge and Emotional Attachments in Video Games
In a Pokemon “Nuzlocke Challenge”, you’re tasked with difficult obstacles like the mortality of your Pokemon (if they faint, they are gone forever) and limited access to which Pokemon you can “own” or use...
What Remains of Ludonarrative in ‘Edith Finch’
It’s easy to accuse narratively driven games of “walking simulator” status, meaning that a game lacks true challenge or “play” in the traditional sense. What Remains of Edith Finch has faced that criticism due...
Three and Out – ‘Mega Man 11’
After an eight-year long hiatus, Mega Man is back with a brand new entry into the classic franchise. The movement, shooting and level design harkens back to the NES-era. The art style and voice...
Three and Out – ‘Fallout: New Vegas’
War never changes. This is the opening line to Fallout: New Vegas, and it rings true throughout the game. It begins with a unique 1950’s aesthetic in its retro-futuristic style and keeps it consistent...
Analysis: What Happened to Telltale?
With the shocking news of developer Telltale Games’ closure last week, a lot of unanswered questions remain in its wake. It isn’t bad enough that one of the most critically revered developers is now...
No Man’s Subway Station
No Man’s Sky started as a flop with broken promises, and what seemed like immense empty space. The last part is the most intriguing though, a game full of empty space with very little...
Three and Out – ‘Life is Strange: Before the Storm’
Prequels tend to serve as a foot in the mouth of a storyline that we already know the conclusion to. I nervously expected our time with Chloe Price and Rachel Amber to reveal too...
Roundtable: Bonding With Characters
Question: How can games develop meaningful relationships between the player and its characters? What kind of mechanics help develop a bond – and what are your favorite instances of those mechanics? Andy: I feel...
Participation versus Witnessing: An Examination of Video Games – Part II
I was at work, dealing with the banality that entails, and fell into a conversation with Art, a co-worker of mine, about film and video games’ similarities and differences concerning audience engagement. Him and...
Three and Out – ‘Night in the Woods’
When my friend Dakota gifted me a copy of Night in the Woods, I had no idea I was stepping into the best game I’ve played all year. The deceptively cartoony sidescrolling adventure...
‘Pony Island’: A Metaphor for Depression
As we discussed in July’s episode of our LudonarrativeFM podcast, Pony Island is a metacognitive game that subverts our storytelling expectations. We left a thread dangling in this discussion that, in editing the episode...
‘Florence’ and Brilliant Visual Storytelling
Unlike most mobile games I’ve played, ‘Florence’ tells its story in subtle and clever ways, indicating that the developers tried to tell this story exclusively for mobile players. Many games often feel patched in,...
Three and Out – ‘Hollow Knight’
There was an intense moment of relief for me when I found my first character buried beneath the levels of soil, mystery and labyrinth of Hollownest, the beautifully quiet setting for Hollow Knight. Cornifer the...
‘Father and Son’: Bringing Closure to the Past
Growing up without a dad, you start to imagine all the possibilities of what he’d be like. Is he heroic or cowardly? Is he a man of great accomplishment or a miserable alcoholic? This...
Participation vs. Witnessing: An Examination of Video Games
I was at work, dealing with the banality that entails, and fell into a conversation with Art, a co-worker of mine, about film and video games’ similarities and differences concerning audience engagement. Him and...
‘Orchids to Dusk’: An Allegory for Beauty, Death, and Meaning
“…c’est peut-être ça la vie: beaucoup de désespoir mais aussi quelques moments de beauté où le temps n’est plus le même. C’est comme si les notes de musique faisaient un genre de parenthèses dans...
The Fountain of Wisdom: How ‘Thomas Was Alone’ Represents Disability in Video Games
Video games still largely marginalize the identities of people with disabilities, leaving the conversation about disability and ludonarrative rather silent. This deep-seated sociocultural callousness toward disability has been demonstrated to be uprooted by exposure...
How ‘Inside’ Manifests the Literary Uncanny in Video Games
Playdead’s Inside is often considered in terms of its role as a puzzle-platformer, as art, and for its minimalist storytelling. These three laudable elements of the game intertwine themselves into a unique and unforgettable...
Short Stories and Scrambled Chronologies in ‘Beyond: Two Souls’
People condemn Beyond: Two Souls for superficial reasons that take the storytelling for granted and focus on the controls. Sure, the controls don’t demand much from the player, and cutscenes – rather than player...
Disintegration in ‘Doki Doki Literature Club’
The adorable dating sim Doki Doki Literature Club might be the perfect embodiment of what we here at Epilogue try to highlight and analyze: video games as art, literature, and a storytelling medium. It’s...
A Survival Economy: ‘Odyssey to the West’
Titles in games usually speak to a main theme. But what if the characters and certain game subplots undermine that main theme in the game? In Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, the game is...
Demoing ‘Detroit: Become Human’
Quantic Dream unveiled a demo of the long-awaited Detroit: Become Human this week. And it is fantastic. August 15th, 2038. Detroit. The game’s aesthetic heavily borrows from the developing company’s previous title, Heavy Rain....
Games You Forgot About – ‘Spider-Man’ (2000)
This month’s edition of the “Games You Forgot About” series breaks the mold. Most of the games in this series are old, dusty, lost games that deserve a fresh pair of eyes. But, with...
Collaboration, Cooperation, and Contention in ‘A Way Out’
Split screen gameplay is nothing new, but it doesn’t take a reinvention of the wheel to innovate in the realm of video games. Josef Fares’ second game, A Way Out, blends a compelling narrative...
Mega Man Masters Monotony
It took me four different Mega Man games, all of which I played in order, to realize that they’re pretty much identical to one another. In an era where consumers rip franchises like Call...
Spray & Pray: The Ludonarrative Significance of First-Person Shooters
Video games have taken repeated beatings by the news media for ostensibly causing violence and morbid psychological behavior. The easiest target in this (misled) conversation is the presumably mindless genre of first-person shooters. As...
Three and Out: Mega Man 3
Mega Man 3’s combat systems serve as a puzzle that can have its pieces either a) jammed and squished together through defiance or impetuosity or b) fit snugly into their place if you’re patient...
Where Things Grow: Failure and Frustration as Game Mechanics in ‘Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy’
Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy is an idiosyncratic video game – almost to a fault. This genre bending game knows exactly what it is: a trial in patience, suspense, and frustration. Frustration is...
Video Games as Art: Visualizing the Narrative
Imagine an image of a cocoon. Spring green plant life fills the background and the sun is rising, with light filtering in through the leaves. The photograph is stagnant and there are no words,...
Three and Out: ‘Kingdom Hearts 2’
Kingdom Hearts II is a fusion of components smashed together to make something charming, intuitive and comprehensive. At various times, I found myself flying through the air on an anti-gravity motorcycle, participating in musicals...
Games You Forgot About: ‘Kinetica’ (2001)
Kinetica is a racing game that was forgotten about nearly as soon as it was released in 2001. It was buried in the market by giant industry racers like Gran Turismo 3: A Spec...
EG After Dark #1
Thanks for listening to the Epilogue After Dark podcast. After Dark is a bimonthly podcast that has been funded via our Patrons on https://www.patreon.com/EpilogueGaming. For just $1 a month, you can hear these podcasts an...
A Guide to the ‘Shadow of the Colossus’ (2018)
Video games have a way of sticking with people for years at a time, sometimes decades. The 2005 Team ICO Shadow of the Colossus release is one of those games that just never disappears...
Three and Out: ‘Demon’s Souls’
Demon’s Souls wastes little time getting to the point: Boletaria, the imagined kingdom the game takes place, is a brutal place to spend time in. It goes without saying that the trailblazer for the...
The Dismantled Book of ‘Kentucky Route Zero’
When I opened Kentucky Route Zero I had no expectations or understanding for what it was going to get me to think about. After playing, I was inundated with thoughts surrounding how character dialogue...
“Life is Tumblr”: A Refutation
As established in my previous essay for Epilogue, most of the critical discussion surrounding Life is Strange (2015) severely misses the point. I articulated a ludonarrative defense of the game, arguing that Life is...
Epilogue’s Best Level Design of 2017
Level design rarely gets enough credit, but something to consider is that even a game with fantastic mechanics won’t get to show them off unless the level allows for it. When choosing our favorite...
‘Life is Strange’: A Ludonarrative Lighthouse in the Darkness
A common critique of the choice-based, point-and-click, episodic genre of games that Telltale Games have popularized is that choices don’t matter and gameplay is tedious. Life is Strange, though adhering to this genre, defies...
