Few things are creepier than the scratching sound of a needle running on vinyl while an enchanting melody echoes through dark, haunting halls and corridors. The very essence of a gramophone is embedded in the most charming and, at the same time, terrifying way in several horror games, where this specific object may be just a passive part of the environment, or it could play a crucial role in the plot, in its own distorted, usually twisted way.

The gramophone as an item is a beautiful thing to look at. Almost always decorated with a large, flower-like pavillion, a carefully crafted manivelle and a solid-looking, impressive base, it is not only an object to admire, but also one that is automatically connected to the old times with a good deal of nostalgia. The fact that it comes from years ago yet it is still a functional item that can be operated and work properly, adds a lot to its vintage charm, as does the several imperfections that its reproductions have in the sound. Once frowned upon, the scratchings and crackings that can be heard on the vinyl as the needle runs on the record, are now considered elements of great sentimental and aesthetic value. Any kind of music can emit a completely different feel when accompanied by those.

Many times gramophones are just part of a room's setting, possibly an object of heritage or maybe expressing the house owner's love for vintage items, like the one that appears in Dr Ramusskin's living room in Gray Matter. Such gramophones are peaceful, with no creepy aura about them, and they simply add a touch of retro charm to the environments where they are found.

In Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Lara Croft spots a gramophone with a golden pavillion at the back of Renne's Pawnshop, while looking for information that will lead her to the mysterious Frenchman Bouchard. The pawnshop hosts several items that come from different eras and styles, like two old armchairs, a bicycle, or a washing machine. It is unclear whether the gramophone belongs to the owner of the store or is one of the many pawned items in there - although most likely it is the second case.

Similarly peaceful on first look, the gramophone which stands on the desk in the claustrophobic office of the Antarctica Facility in Resident Evil: Code Veronica plays no music but the overall setting of the room, which is tiny yet full of bizarre, scary details, like the bear trophy head or the framed vintage sword, makes it look rather ominous. The gramophone stands out in its bright colours, yet one more vintage object in a room where modern technology is also present in the form of a fax machine or a computer.

The setting is reproduced in "Game of Oblivion", the episode of The Darkside Chronicles which retells the Code Veronica story. The gramophone is again there, this time in the corner of the room, one more time positioned below the framed sword.

Gramophones seem to be an essential part of the environment in old villas and manors, so it is no surprise when we stumble upon one in the trap-filled yet enchanting Spencer mansion in the first Resident Evil game. Found in a small office, officially called "reading room" with several other vintage objects, said gramophone contributes to the already spooky, haunting atmosphere of the house. The record that sits on its turntable is "Jupiter", a symphony by Mozart, but we do not get a chance to listen to it.

In Thief Reboot, Garret comes across several steampunk-styled gramophones in the gloomy buildings rooms that he infiltrates. They are all identical, with a thin horn, pretty much like the one in the Spencer mansion.

In Resident Evil: Outbreak, one can be seen in the vintage-looking office which is on the upper floor of Jack's Bar. As the zombies swarm the bar and the other rooms below, the survivors start exploring the upper areas, looking for a way to escape. The gramophone is on a wooden stand, in front of a bookcase, and plays no music - it could very well be dysfunctional, used only for decoration purposes.

 

In the half-real - half-ghostly world of Murdered: Soul Suspect, gramophones look quite spooky, as they are reminders of older times by default and sometimes they are revealed as elements of past visions or parts of the real world that belong to their ghostly counterpart. They don't play any music, but this doesn't make them any less compelling.

Gramophones that play music on their own or that can be interacted with to do so are naturally much more interesting. In Tomb Raider: Reborn, the gramophone becomes an important element of the environment and its creepy atmosphere in what looks like a slaughter room filled with butchered meat and tons of garbage. The room is underground, and passing through it is unavoidable, as there seems to be no other way forward. There is a record playing on the gramophone, and the music that is heard is an eery chant that sounds like ritualistic vocals.

A much cozier and friendly gramophone can be found in Lara's library, in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Not only it is a more than fitting addition to Lara's mansion, it also plays the iconic "Venice Violins" tune from Tomb Raider 2.

One of the first scenes of The Evil Within includes a gramophone which plays Bach's "Air on a G String". Said gramophone sits on the bench of a horrifying butcher who wanders around his nightmarish "workshop", ready to slaughter and cut in pieces his potential victims. As Sebastian, the protagonist, attempts to grab the man's keys in order to escape, the melody becomes louder, and accompanies him as he stealthily makes his way to the exit door, only to stop abruptly as soon as he crosses a laser trap which alerts the butcher who immediately stops whatever he had been doing and runs after him. 

Similar gramophones can be found throughout the whole game, although the melody that can be heard from most of them is Debussy's "Claire de Lune". Strongly associated to the traumatized childhood of Ruvik, the game's antagonist, this beautiful yet haunting melody dominates most places that have somehow to do with Ruvik, both directly and indirectly. Portals leading to the safe haven, rooms in visions that reveal portions of his past, include gramophones in their space from which either of the two melodies is heard, usually distorted and broken. A few times they are just part of the decoration, sitting silently on a desk or a side-table.

Gramophones also appear in Juli Kidman's episodes, where they also convey their messages via distorted tunes.

Bach's emblematic melody through a gramophone is also present in a crucial moment in BioShock Infinite, as the hero, Booker DeWitt, begins to get deeper into his adventure in Emporia, as he enters the building of the Order of the Raven. Crow cries can be heard in the distance, as Booker approaches the exit door leading to an isolated terrace, while "Air on a G String" plays from an unidentifiable source. When Booker arrives at the terrace, ha can see a golden gramophone on the left side, from which Bach's melody plays. Moments later, a fierce type of enemy, the Crow, makes his first appearance.

 

 

Gramophones can be seen in several other places in the game, and they play various melodies as soon as you turn them on. Sometimes this music is contemporary, but recorded and heard in such a way as to sound like a vintage tune.

Set in a total-white, cold-looking environment, the white gramophone that Adam Jensen comes across in Megan Reed's private room in Omega Ranch in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, is in an unexpected way comforting. The whole room and its furniture look like reliefs, and the gramophone is no exception. Its solid, white pavillion is decorated with flower-like designs that seem like they are carved on it. When you interact with it, it plays a tune that resembles a familiar piece from the first games of the series.

Like almost all vintage objects in video games, the gramophones echo the past in their special way, evoking a great variety of feelings, depending on their setting and their use. It is notable that, although technology constantly evolves, and environments in video games become more and more modern and futuristic, retro items like gramophones still appear in various rooms, serving their own purpose, both for nostalgia and greatly contributing to the overall feel and atmosphere of the stories that they are part of.

 

 

Elements of the Archetypical Fairy Tale in Resident Evil 7

I have mentioned previously in this blog that video games are like fairy tales of the new era; a good amount of them follow the structure of classic fairy tales, but in some this is extremely dominant, resulting in being an essential part of their plot, their mood and the development of their characters. BioShock Infinite is a very characteristic case, which I analyzed in a previous article, and Resident Evil 7 shares a similar trait: it is built around the logic of an archetypical fairy tale, including in its plot several such elements as crucial axes. 

Fairy tales in general, and specifically those that are or based on folk material, no matter where they originate from, have a few standards as far as both their plots and their characters are concerned: there are some good characters, some villains who usually chase and wish to kill the good characters, there is someone (most of the times, but not always, a girl) who is locked in some sort of prison, sometimes there is a cruel giant, a witch, an evil stepmother with an equally evil daughter, other times there is a knight or prince who arrives at just the right moment to kill the villains and free the imprisoned girl. A mysterious house is a place of interest in several tales, together with its strange residents - whether those are humans, animals or creatures that belong to another world, doesn't really matter although it may make a difference as far as the development of the plot is concerned.

What usually dominates is an evil force; one which may have numerous manifestations in a tale: the aforementioned evil antagonists are such a case, also a supernatural and very powerful entity can represent it, while sometimes all the aspects of evil can co-exist in the same story. In Resident Evil 7, the spirit of evil that dominates Ethan's story, is Eveline, the bioweapon that takes human forms, first appearing as a lost little girl, then transforming into an old, seemingly harmless invalid woman who seems to be everywhere in the Baker family home where the story unfolds. Eveline, who slyly invaded the house a while back, infected the members of the family, turning them into monstrous, cannibalistic creatures with absolutely no sense of humanity inside and about them, making them carriers of evil.

Snow White and the Sleeping Beauty were metaphorically imprisoned, as they were doomed to remain asleep for a long time. Rapunzel was literally imprisoned, high up in a huge tower. In Resident Evil 7, the role of the imprisoned princess initially belongs to Mia, whom Ethan finds literally asleep in the dark and gloomy dungeons of the Baker property grounds, among suspicious-looking stuffed bags and weird tools. During the same time, Ethan has the role of the liberator prince or knight; instead of on a white horse, he arrives in a fancy car, and he does not find a castle or tower but a grim guest house. The rescue process goes anything but well, as Mia, possessed by Eveline, unexpectedly abandons the role of the victim/princess and takes that of the bad witch, attacking Ethan viciously and subsequently attempting to kill him. Eventually Ethan stops being her rescuer, and is forced to attack her so as to save his life. At the end of a frustrating battle between them in the attic of the guest house, Jack Baker arrives and drags an unconscious Ethan in his actual "castle": the family's house, where Ethan comes face to face with its inhabitants: Jack, Marguerite and Lucas. He also indirectly meets the family's daughter, Zoe, infected as well but much less than the others and is able to control herself, who promises to help him escape.

Jack is the fairy tale's giant - a terrifying and merciless cannibal who is constantly hungry for human flesh. When he walks around the house looking for Ethan, he is a reminiscent of the giant who returns home and senses that there is a human hiding somewhere because he can tell of their scent. Later on after he mutates, he becomes a literal giant, a huge, monstrous creature that is uncontrollable in its appetite and attacks.

The dragon Jack establishes his position in the main house, while Marguerite guards the old house and Lucas locks himself up in what used to be the barn and storage area. The main house is filled with traps, monsters and intimidating doors decorated with dead animals, and to be able to escape from there, Ethan has to find three key items that unlock the exit and fight against Jack in the basement and temporarily defeat him. Then, following Zoe's plan, he goes to the old house where he has to evade Marguerite's tricks and eventually confront her in the greenhouse. Marguerite, whose mutation involves giving birth to giant flies and swarms of spiders, gradually identifies herself with her insects, growing extremely long arms and legs, additionally developing her cannibalistic habits even more, which is also an attribute of a specific genre of fly. Her attacks are vicious, and she grows a particularly wild appetite for Ethan's family jewels. Of course this is not random; as she gradually strips off her human nature, the primordial instincts come forward; but her cannibalistic tendency messes with her lustful appetite and she wants to devour Ethan for real. At this point, she borrows the trait of her husband and expresses a hunger for human flesh, therefore taking herself the role of the giant since he is temporarily out of the picture.

The role of Lucas Baker in this dark fairy tale is a complex and twisted one. Although Ethan does not belong to the dragon Jack's family, he and Lucas seem to be two sides of the same coin. In several fairy tales, there is a beautiful and kind maiden, unlucky enough to be the stepdaughter of an evil witch who also has a daughter of her own, a girl who is ugly and wicked like her mother. This girl is generally aware of her unpleasant physical appearance, but prefers to turn a blind eye to this fact and instead play along her mother's various devices that aim at making her believe that she is pretty. At some point, the beautiful girl sits on a tall tree with a well below it, and the ugly girl goes to the well to get water; she sees the reflection of the pretty girl and thinks that it is her own. When the revelation comes, the ugly, evil girl hates the pretty, kind girl even more, and does everything to humiliate and/or exterminate her. 

With Lucas taking the part of the ugly, evil child, Ethan becomes his counterpart - the male version of the kind, beautiful maiden. Although we can never see Ethan's face, we can assume that he is good-looking; a fair-haired young man with white skin, obviously coming from a rather well off urban environment, whose life was undoubtedly happy until he got involved in this nightmare. Lucas does have a natural sister, Zoe, but her role in this fairy tale is that of the companion and helper of the hero: she is the one who guides him via phone calls and offers him valuable assistance during his quests. From the moment when Zoe escaped the Baker family home, distancing herself from her disturbing family, she became an outsider; and she is literally one, since she is never seen actually getting inside the house, unlike Ethan who wanders around getting to know every single room and secret passage in there. Zoe, with her medical knowledge, is also the positive counterpart of her mother - Marguerite is the evil witch while Zoe is the good witch who performs "magic" for a good cause and creates "spells" that are able to rid of "curses": she uses two objects with magical significance - a head and an arm - to create the serum which will be used to free herself and Mia from the virus with which they have been infected.

Lucas, unlike his parents, never transforms into a monster in the main game; Ethan has to deal with his human form only, but this does not correspond to a typical boss fight. The son of the Baker family is playing hide and seek in the chaotic and mazey storage area, where he has set up all sorts of twisted and lethal traps in order to torture and eventually kill his victims. Ethan is forced to fight several monsters and go weaponless through a stressing trial before he is able to take back one of the valuable ingredients for the serum, which Lucas has stolen. So just like in the fairy tales, the evil character is constantly trying to prevent the good protagonist to reach his goal, which now is to save both his wife and Zoe whom Lucas abducted in the meantime. 

At this point, Ethan still carries the role of the liberator/knight, but it won't be long until this condition is reversed, because after he leaves the Baker property with either Mia or Zoe, the fairy tale takes an unexpected turn:  Ethan becomes the male counterpart of the imprisoned princess, and Mia acts the part of the knight who battles all sorts of evil forces in order to save him. Eveline traps Ethan in a cocoon in the wrecked ship in an attempt to keep manipulating Mia; but Mia, who still has her free will, manages to liberate her husband and nearly sacrifices herself in order to make sure he will be safe.

Puzzles and trials many times form the core of fairy tales, and this is one more element that makes video games relate to them so strongly. Ethan's story is full of both, and most of them are dangerous and cunning. The main house itself is one big puzzle, as nearly all of its passages are locked and Ethan has to look for keys to open the intimidating doors that block them. There are items hidden in bathtubs, grandfather clocks, books, corpses even. The basement of the house is yet one more puzzle, accessed through more than one entrances, that has been transformed into a huge slaughterhouse.

Although the main house of the Bakers is the dominant environment, it is in fact the old house that is the most compelling and iconic stage of action. Broken wooden floors, hidden crawlspaces, melted candles, torn wallpapers, swarms of bugs and flies that either fly around or hang on nests, a secret altar with items that echo the voodoo ceremonies of the rural Louisiana, where the story takes place, bridges decorated with dolls and doll heads, an abandoned greenhouse with wild vegetation, narrow passages filled with crawlers, vintage objects that are used as pieces of puzzles, like a wooden crank or an oil lamp, are only some of the elements that describe the chilling atmosphere of the old house, which is Marguerite's domain. If the main house was a death trap, the old house is like a witch's lair, where any intruder is unwelcome.

The old house is partly the fairy tale's maze; although not a literal labyrinth, its setting is equally confusing due to the many doors, locked passages and similar-looking rooms. Ethan has to cross its hostile grounds several times, while being hunted by Marguerite and her bugs, as he is looking for a series of items that will lead him to one of the ingredients that Zoe has requested. Prior to getting inside the old house, however, Ethan has the chance to watch a revealing video cassette which shows Mia wandering around the place while Marguerite is looking for her. This creepy footage offers some hints as to where he should go and what he could look for in order to solve the many puzzles of the old house. Marguerite appears eventually, unleashing her bugs to make him go away from her realm and blocking his path on several occasions. Ethan has to find ways to outsmart her in order to complete his exploration, but it is not until he faces her mutated form and kills her that he is able to find the ingredient for the serum.

The less fairy tale-looking environment is the wrecked ship, a stage that somehow switches the story back to reality with its grim grey/blue colors that contrast the faded sepia/yellow tones of the Baker family property sceneries. It is interesting that after Mia's part is complete on the ship and we return to the Baker house with Ethan again, the colors of those areas are not sepia/yellow anymore; their tone resembles more that of the ship; and additionally, the whole look in the guest house, which was the very first area that Ethan explored when he arrived, is now like it belongs to a hallucination. The atmosphere is dense and thick, Ethan has disturbing visions on his way, and eventually he finds himself back up in the attic where it all began - where he had that very first battle with the possessed Mia. Now it is Eveline waiting for him there, taking her human forms before she reveals the literal monster that she really is: a huge mutant that has taken over the guest house and whatever is around it, a creature of unidentified identity that reeks of poison, destruction and death, the personification of Evil in its most extreme form. Like in fairy tales, Evil is defeated in the end and Good prevails, but as we know Evil never actually dies for good, always finding ways to resurrect itself from its ashes.

Vintage Elements in Video Games: The Carousel

Pretty much like the banker's lamps, the carousels are among those elements that appear regularly in video games, either as part of the environment or as something functional that may also have some kind of "role" in the scene where it is seen. The carousel, both as an object and a concept, has something about it that is heart-warming and nostalgic, but also mysterious and spooky. Its continuous circular movement, in combination with the joyful colors and the complex design, especially when its decoration features vintage pictures that depict landscapes or portraits, give out a magical fairytale-like feel. But it is exactly these elements that can turn it into an eerie spectacle, most of the times in direct connection with the environment where it is set, the game's scenario and the sequence in which it takes part.

In The Evil Within, there are two unforgettable sequences that involve carousels. The first one is in Chapter 10, The Craftsman's Tools, where a giant carousel in the middle of a dark room full of traps, becomes a lethal construction since it has a huge blade attached to its center, which blade moves unstoppably along with it, as soon as it is set in motion. This carousel features a faded and partly damaged vintage roof, and instead of horses, it has cages with mannequins locked inside them.

A bit later, in Chapter 11, Reunion, Sebastian exits out to the city which is all completely ruined, with rubble and random objects lying here and there along the cut streets, and the only thing that seems to be "alive" is a colorful carousel that is doing its circular movement with all its lamps lit, although its base is flooded.

Both carousel sequences are accompanied by a beautiful, melancholic tune that sounds like it's coming out of an old music box, and they are both connected to Ruvik's ruined childhood and his twisted mind.

In Resident Evil: Code Veronica, a still carousel decorates the middle of a well-hidden room in the Ashford mansion. Alfred's secret "palace" is full of toys and dolls - others in a good state and others broken and dirty - and it is as if the carousel that leads to the attic shelters the disturbed childhood of Alfred's past self, since the room where it is set and the one where it leads hide important items associated to his memories.

Later on, playing with Chris, we arrive at a secluded area of the Antarctica base where there is also a replica of the Spencer Mansion. Just outside, there is a smaller carousel which looks more like a huge toy.

In Game of Oblivion from Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, the Ashford palace carousel becomes the ground of a brief battle where Claire and Steve have to face Alfred disguised as Alexia. The carousel is in motion in this sequence, along with its faint tune, and Alfred uses it as a cover as it moves while attempting to defeat his potential victims.

Another memorable carousel can be seen in the stage Soldiers Field in BioShock Infinite. It does not play a part in the action or the story, but its imposing presence at the far side of the area catches the eye from the start, and its movement is also accompanied by a vintage tune.

Two particularly creepy carousels appear in the Looney Park stage from Painkiller: Battle Out Of Hell. Not only is the appearance of the carousels absolutely ominous with their bright colours illuminating the darkness, but the insane battles that take place there transform them into hellish grounds in an instant.

Similarly, the red and golden carousel in the mission Found from DmC: Devil May Cry is anything but soothing and pleasant to look at, not to mention the numerous demons that show up when you get close to it.

In the classic game Sanitarium, an old-school carousel appears in Chapter 4, The Circus of Fools. Just like the name of the stage implies, the carousel looks and feels like it comes out of a horror movie.

A bright-colored carousel appears in the garden of an abandoned mansion in Frankenstein: Master of Death.

In Riddles of the Past, we can see a carousel in a deserted amusement park, with its colors faded and everything around it destroyed.

When the story concludes and everything is settled, the amusement park is alive again, and the carousel appears restored, with bright colors and people having a good time around it.

A most famous carousel is that which appears in the Silent Hill games. It is the Happy Carousel in Lakeside Amusement Park.

A carousel in full motion appears in Chapter 4 of The Last of Us: Left Behind. Ellie and Riley can ride it for a bit as a bonus.

While carousels can be seen in all genres of video games, their most interesting appearances are in those games that are focused in action and survival, as it is in such cases that the contrast that is created between their bright, usually playful, view and the tension of gameplay, becomes more prominent. But they are always notable elements wherever they appear, as well as points of interest and reference.
 

All screenshot by me, except:
Sanitarium, Frankenstein: Master of Death, Riddles of the Past: afterdarkmysweet
Silent Hill: AlexSheperd (Silent Hill Wiki)
The Last of Us: usgamer.com

 

 

Choices Matter For Your Love Life Vs Your Morality In Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

In my review of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, I mentioned how certain choices that you make affect the development of your protagonist's character in more than one ways. In this article, I will elaborate a bit more on this matter, focusing on how their decisions affect the outcome of their love life in connection to their morality, as I think it is a very interesting subject. When characters are shown to have emotions and, subsequently, a romantic side, they are more realistic and thus become more human. When faced with related dilemmas, they can follow the path of either Vice or Virtue; and since the main hero of this game comes from Ancient Greece, any association with said myth of Heracles couldn't be more fitting. In this article, I will not analyze all the romances or their outcomes (there are that many choices you can make in each case); I will focus on certain stories which are the most interesting and stand out among the rest, when it comes to love versus morality. For the purpose of the article, I will use only my own choices as examples, and I will have Alexios as my hero, as I mostly play the game with him.

On the island of Hydrea, Alexios meets a young woman, Roxana, who comes from a family of warriors and is in the process of tough training as preparation for a savage battle called "The Battle of One Hundred Hands" that will take place soon on the neighboring island of Melos. Accepting to spar with her and deciding to participate in the upcoming battle yourself, marks the beginning of the questline which starts with the quest Sparring With Roxana. Almost from the start, the game tries to trick you towards flirting Roxana, although your initial choices will not make much difference really. Your crucial choice is right before the battle quest begins, when you will have to decide between fully romancing her or keeping your distance. At that point, you already know that you and Roxana will unavoidably be rivals in the battle, the purpose of which is to bring forth only one winner, with all the other participants being gradually eliminated. This practically means that, in the end, you and Roxana will be called to fight against each other in a duel where only one will survive.

The only way to save Roxana at that point and open up the possibility to avoid the fatal duel is to romance her before the battle. If you do that, when the time comes for her and Alexios to fight, Alexios will be able to persuade her to cancel the duel and then he can ask her to join his crew (she is a legendary lieutenant, by the way), a proposition that she will gladly accept. In similar cases involving other people, you can choose between several options in various combinations: flirt the other person, part with them peacefully, recruit them, attack them; but in Roxana's case, you only have two: recruit her or kill her. There is no way to simply part with her in friendly terms and let her go; you either have to take her with you or murder her. So if you did romance her earlier, which will make way for her accepting to cancel the duel, the only way to spare her during the duel sequence is to recruit her as a crew member. Following this path, Roxana becomes one of your available lieutenants, and you forget about her as you go on with your journey, until you get involved in another quest, much later.

Said quest waits for you on the island of Lemnos: Neleus, a promising athlete who also happens to be the nephew of your dear friend Barnabas, seems to be in serious trouble and you are called to offer a helping hand, foremost for your buddy's sake. Starting with the quest Tough Love, the story involves several people and is one of the most complex and interesting questlines of the game. Upon arriving at the house where Neleus is, Alexios meets Mikkos, who is the boy's caretaker and your very spicy romance option for that questline. Mikkos is a few years older than Alexios, and doesn't hesitate to make bold advances even during your first meeting with him. As the story unfolds, you have the chance to fully romance Mikkos at a party, and in the finale, assuming you did everything to get a happy ending for Barnabas's nephew, you will be able to have one more romantic encounter with Mikkos in the sunset, before saying a goodbye that, since you never cease to be a traveler, may not be definitive.

During your first runs of the game, you can complete the Hydrea & Melos questlines fairly early, as their level is relatively low; but you are recommended to travel to Lemnos only when you are strong enough to survive the demanding quests there. This means that, upon arriving on Lemnos, you may have already done Roxana's quests, and if you romanced her and spared her, she will be with your crew. If this is the case, when the questline on Lemnos reaches its conclusion, Roxana will arrive with Barnabas to greet you. After everything is settled, she will literally send Mikkos away to stay with Alexios herself, claiming her antagonist's place in the sunset scene. This unexpected twist has one extremely disappointing downside: the game takes for granted that you prefer Roxana over Mikkos, as you are not given the chance to choose between the two of them at that point. Mikkos gets too intimidated by Roxana's authoritative stare and warrior aura and he withdraws with a sad look on his face that speaks much more than any words could. I am pretty sure that Alexios would have picked Mikkos if he could choose, given that the main questline's title is Have You Seen My Mikkos?. Not to mention how much fun, deliciously wild and adorably campy the romance with him is. You can still reject Roxana during the ending scene and make her leave you alone, but even so you have already lost your last chance of romancing Mikkos in the sunset, as he will be nearby afterwards, but apart from complimenting Alexios on his looks, he will not say anything else to him.

The way the two stories are entwined challenges your moral status in a rather frustrating way, as in the end of the Lemnos story you are robbed of your free will if you spared Roxana on Melos. Even if you want your character to follow a specific path in their sex life, but decide to romance Roxana strictly out of human compassion so as to not sacrifice her (and for practical reasons, so as to hire her on your ship), she will totally ruin your affair with Mikkos later and, what's worse, you are not even given the chance to decide yourself which lover you will pick. Your story with Mikkos will end happily only if you have killed Roxana on Melos, or if you start her story after Mikkos's questline is safely complete. But even if you do the latter, you will still have to kill her if you don't want to romance her. Plainly put, the game practically forces you to romance Roxana if you don't want to be a murderer.

On a different pace and atmosphere, the enchanting adventure Trouble In Paradise which takes place on the Silver Islands, is a beautiful and immersive story that could even stand alone as a DLC episode. Alexios arrives on Mykonos to hunt down and kill one of the Cultists, the ruthless Podarkes, who rules the islands with an iron fist, after receiving a message from Kyra, the leader of a group of rebels who fervently want to get rid of the evil man. Kyra has one more reason to hate Podarkes, as he had guards kill her mother when she was little. Alexios meets Kyra and he also meets Thaletas, a Spartan polemarch who had also received a similar message from Kyra and arrived on Mykonos to help her free and secure the Silver Islands. You can flirt with both of them, but you can fully romance only one, and your decision will naturally have consequences. Like in the previous case, I will analyze my own choices only, with their own outcomes and side-effects.

Kyra is a smart, funny and pretty girl, and among all the possible female romance options for our character, she seems to be the second most fitting choice after Odessa. Similarly, Thaletas is handsome, intelligent, brave and proud; hands down, the best match for Alexios among all male romance options, and all romance options, for that matter, since my Alexios prefers boys anyway; so I always romance Thaletas in this questline. In my headcanon, Thaletas is Alexios's destined soulmate and lover, partly due to their common background, since they are both Spartans, and mainly because there is this intense chemistry between them. Thaletas is a seemingly arrogant young man who, however, hides a very sensitive and romantic side behind his beautiful features, and it becomes rather obvious that he is smitten with Alexios from the moment when the two of them meet for the first time.

 

Interestingly enough, this becomes initially clear only if you take a specific path at the start of the questline. As soon as the story starts, you have to check two locations: Kyra's hideout in a secret cave and the beach where Thaletas and his men are fighting against Athenians. If you go to meet Kyra first, she and Alexios will eventually run to the beach to assist Thaletas and will fight alongside him. After the brief battle is over, the scene plays out in a rather neutral way for our hero, as Thaletas's attention is mainly focused towards Kyra, with whom he has an affair, and he doesn't seem to take Alexios into much consideration. Whereas if you go to the beach before visiting the hideout, the first contact with Thaletas will be between him and Alexios only. Kyra will not be present, and in the scene after the battle Thaletas will openly express how impressed he is with Alexios and his battling skills. You can definitely see those love sparkles flickering all around the white sands, and it is more than certain that it was written in the stars for the the two boys to come across each other. Although the rest of the story will unfold the same way even if you and Thaletas had a typical first meeting, choosing to go to the beach first to meet Thaletas on your own, sets the mood and gives you a hint about what the young Spartan might be hiding from his girlfriend. Moreover, if you go to the beach first, Thaletas will arrive a bit later at Kyra's hideout, and there is a brief extra segment in the scene, during which Thaletas offers an almost missable cue about his unexpected feelings towards our hero.

The next part of the story takes place at the rebel hideout where you are called to choose between Kyra's strategy and Thaletas's plan, both aiming at weakening the Athenian forces and, subsequently, making it easier to kill Podarkes. If you decide to aid Thaletas with his aggressive plan, you will have a golden chance to find him alone at the beach and directly flirt with him for the first time. Notably, out of the three crucial dialogue options that you are offered, the two have strong sexual undertones and, even more notably, Thaletas will respond accordingly to either of them, confessing that he is attracted to Alexios, but cannot leave Kyra for the time being. He will then send you on a couple of risky missions that will harm the Athenians, therefore setting the ground for a battle that will favor the Spartans.

At this point, you are recommended to go and talk to Kyra and agree to help her too with her own plan. Her strategy is more stealthy, as it involves secretly destroying the Athenians's supplies and stealing their money. You may skip all her quests, but it is recommenced that you do at least one in order to further weaken Podarkes, therefore making him easier to kill. In any case, after certain missions are completed, an extra one will be unlocked, which will reveal to you a shocking secret about Kyra's past: she is Podarkes's illegitimate daughter, something that she was unaware of all these years that she was seeking revenge from the man who was responsible for the murder of her mother. Meanwhile, your romance with Thaletas keeps blooming, and when all his tasks are done, you can then openly ask him to become your lover, which he will finally accept and admit that he is in love with our hero after teasing him a bit more. But as it turns out, it is more than worth the while, and after their love is consummated, he and Alexios will exchange a warm vow to meet again after the war is over.

On the Kyra front, however, things are rather nasty. You are facing the moral dilemma to reveal her secret to all the rebels or talk to her about it in private. If you do the former, her troops will abandon her and she will get mad at you. Although this looks like a bad move, it is a choice that somehow highlights your intention to take the girl out of the picture, to ensure that Thaletas will never go back to her. Later on, after Podarkes is dead, you will need to speak to her as she is about to burn her father's corpse. There are a few things you can tell her at that point, but only one choice each time will have a good ending as far as she is concerned. All other choices will lead her to commit suicide by falling off a cliff. As bad and malicious as the latter feels, it is the only way for you to have a little hope considering your future with Thaletas, who now seems to have finally made up his mind and has decided to go back to Sparta, praying that he and Alexios will someday cross paths again. So your last chance to keep the flame burning is to make Kyra fall to her death and then lie to Thaletas about her demise. If you tell him the sad news, he will get extremely upset and will not want to see you again, which means that you totally messed up everything. If Kyra is alive, however, not only will Thaletas go back to her, but he will also decide to stay on the Silver Islands with her instead of returning to Sparta. On the positive side, you remain good friends with both of them, and as a bonus, Kyra is thankful that Alexios taught Thaletas new tricks. I guess she is either too confident or too naive to believe that her boyfriend will not seek an encore with the master in the future.

 

So the choices that you make in this story are decisive for your love life but at the same time are constantly testing your moral standing. If Alexios chooses to save Kyra, he will lose Thaletas for good. But if he makes her kill herself and, assuming he and Thaletas do find each other again after the war as they promised, will he be able to live with the burden of her death in his conscience? My guess is that, since the mercenary's life has definitely hardened him, and seeing that he is able to lie so easily about such a serious matter, he will get over it sooner or later, especially since the prospect of a blissful love life still remains bright for the days to come.

Yukio Mishima and The Evil Within

Some other time in this blog, I mentioned how the backstories of the characters in video games give us a rich insight concerning the research that the developers went through while shaping them. Sometimes, said backstories involve details that may be offered randomly and thus pass unnoticed, until you get a clue to put them together: then it is like puzzle pieces that are placed in the right spots to form an image, thanks to which the character that they concern is set under a new, revealing light.

In The Assignment, one of the extra episodes of The Evil Within, where we get to play as Juli Kidman, we have the chance to view parts of the main game's story through her eyes. While literally floating in a state between reality and nightmare, Juli comes across some particularly nasty surprises in her way. The most revealing of them is having to fight Joseph Oda, who appears before her as a Haunted, determined to kill her. In her attempt to distract him so as to perform her attacks against him, Juli can resort to several diversions, one of them being turning on a film in a small cinema, which depicts Joseph as a Samurai, yielding a katana.

 

It is interesting that, although we are already aware from the main game that Joseph is the descendant of a historical family of Samurais, this is the first and only time that we see him literally paying homage to his heritage, and it is through an indirect means, in the distorted reality created by Ruvik in STEM. As Ruvik is exploiting the memories of his victims, blending them with his own so as to be able to control them, it becomes clear that the appearance of this specific film comes straight from Joseph's memory stash, serving as a way to confuse him at that point (because he is a Haunted, therefore not himself), while offering Juli the chance to stealthily attack him.

Joseph is described as a considerate and composed man, but it is hinted that he is constantly suppressing himself in order to comply to the norms and stereotypes of society. Coming from a strict upbringing, he feels forced - partly by his environment and partly by his own self - to keep his sensitivities and weaknesses hidden. This is something rather typical of the Samurai upbringing, so it is natural that Joseph, due to his family's historical past, had it too, to some degree at least. The film that we have the chance to see in The Assignment shows that he had been through Samurai training as part of his celebrated family's tradition.

Mostly known for his ritualistic suicide via "seppuku" (or harakiri), Yukio Mishima was nonetheless a multi-talented writer, considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. Both as an artist and a personality, he was obsessed with beauty, eroticism and death, as well as their becoming one. Mishima was a homosexual, but growing up in the extremely strict Japanese society of the 1930ties made it particularly tough for him to accept and express himself as far as his sexuality was concerned. In 1949, he wrote his now considered iconic novel "Confessions of a Mask" which, although not entirely autobiographical, narrates episodes and memories of its protagonist that are greatly connected to the author himself. Written in first person, the novel explores a young man's continuous agony as he struggles with his ever-growing and forbidden sexual desires while evolving in a society and a family environment that are not only particularly strict, but moreover guide their members towards very specific, predesignated paths from which it is quite hard - if not impossible - to divert.

The young narrator starts his confessions going back to his childhood and early teens, during which time he had his first sexual awakenings triggered by random visual experiences. Although not the very first, the strongest, most memorable and critical one was an image of Saint Sebastian that he saw in a book, a painting by Guido Reni which depicted the saint during his torture, tied on a tree with his body pierced with arrows. The hero describes with both precision and subtlety all the emotions that rushed through him while looking at that painting, resulting in a rather intense first experience of culmination which defined his subsequent view of people and the world and made him more than conscious of his sexual identity. However, living in a society that condemned such deviations from the accepted norms, he knew that he would be forced to live his life in disguise, always putting on a mask that would hide his true self from the rest of the world.

Joseph of The Evil Within has grown up in a similar environment - probably not so strict, but still the values and beliefs that characterized old-time Japan should have been ever present in the life of his family and surrounding environment. Apparently he took some important education, then trained to become a detective. We can see from his attitude and approach that he likes to dig into things, examine them deeper and he also has a notable combinatorial mind. He has a small notebook where he writes down everything that he sees or thinks that can be related to a crime case. He got married at a relatively young age and made his own family, but he still seems to be quite vulnerbale socially, despite his smartness and the choice that he made to follow a dangerous line of work. But maybe he chose the specific line of work for this reason: so as to give him inner strength and help him overcome his fears and anxieties.

 

Teaming up with Sebastian was a turning point in both his professional and personal/social life, as Sebastian was quite different as a person, and came from an equally different environment and background. Although he was not too open as a character either, he was much more free sentimentally and spiritually and, unlike Joseph, obviously not hunted by strict rules and norms. The two partners formed a close bond and became good friends, always caring for and helping each other. From a symbolic aspect, Sebastian was for Joseph what Saint Sebastian was for Mishima, a new force in his life which brought forward a mental strength that he always had but kept suppressed and maybe woke up in him some darker and forbidden desires (maybe towards Sebastian as well). Sebastian, aptly named after the saint, was in a similar way tortured - not literally like him, but psychologically broken - but he was also a hot-blooded, passionate man who would always show his feelings and never suppress himself. Although he too was positively affected by Joseph's presence in his life - the calmness and love for order that were due to Joseph's upbringing helped Sebastian have better control - the biggest influence was the one that he had on Joseph, something that the latter obviously came to realize while being trapped in STEM, during which time his subconscious took over and brought him face to face with new revelations about himself.

There are several instances in the game, where we can see a progression of this newfound self-awareness, albeit they all occur in the dream-like sequences that STEM creates. What triggers the initiation of this development is his succumbing to Ruvik's power and becoming a Haunted for the first time. This transition could very well symbolize the awakening of his darker side and all those elements that he kept hidden in the real, "civilized" world. During the sequences when Joseph is a Haunted, he seems to possess an insane power which makes him become extremely violent and lethal. Unlike any other random Haunted, however, he is totally aware of this transformation and seems to be able to control it, as he can go back to normal and vice-versa. In a most revealing scene at the start of Chapter 7, after he and Sebastian found refuge in an abandoned church, he acknowledges that he does like it when he turns, since this transforms him into someone that he cannot be in real life. Although it scares him, it also fascinates him, and this is one more reason why, in the previous chapter, he tried to put an end to his life. Embracing his dark side would mean accepting all that would come along, and this is something that can also be applied to his normal, real life. Just like Mishima, Joseph is in a constant struggle between faithfully following the rules with which he grew up and freeing himself from everything that keeps him enslaved

Elements of Classic and Contemporary Culture in Life Is Strange 2

Apart from its extensive references to JD Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye and its Resident Evil easter eggs, which I covered in two separate articles (here and here), Life is Strange 2 features many more references to both classic and contemporary culture, which are also worth exploring, as all of them are not simply there for the sake of it, but are moreover connected to the game's story and its characters in several ways. Some are more obvious while others require a bit more observation and search.

Finn's name nods to Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer's best friend from Mark Twain's famous novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huckleberry, best known as Huck, is a young boy who lives in the margins of society; son of a drunkard, abusive father, he found it was better to live in the streets. He is smart and cunning, sometimes gets misguided, but he has a heart of gold. Pretty much like Finn from the game, that is.

Finn with Sean (left) and Huck with Tom from a recent film adaptation of Tom Sawyer

Additionally, Finn's full first name is Finnegan, referencing Finnegan's Wake, the novel written by James Joyce which is considered the most complex work of fiction of British literature and the hardest to interpret. It is written in a bizarre, complex style which consists of puns, made-up words and idioms and its story is like a maze. Something which, to some extent, applies to Finn who may have an extrovert attitude and social charisma, but he is also multi-dimensional, with many secrets and unexplored paths in his character.

This is not the only case where James Joyce comes into play in the game. When Sean and Daniel enter Karen's room at the end of episode 2, they find one of her toys, a bear called Ulysses. Ulysses may be the legendary hero of Homer's Odyssey, but it is also the title of one of Joyce's most famous novels. Both the Odyssey and Ulysses narrate numerous adventures that their main heroes go through, just like Sean and Daniel do during their journey.

By the end of episode 3, Sean is seriously injured and loses his left eye. Later in episode 4, Karen gives him an eye patch to cover it with. Interestingly enough, James Joyce used to wear an identical eye patch over his left eye, since he had many problems with his vision and had undergone several operations for this purpose.

Sean (left) and James Joyce with their eye patches

Sean and his destroyed eye also allude to Carl Grimes from The Walking Dead, who lost his right eye after being shot. From that point and on, Carl is always seen wearing a bandage over his eye, just like Sean during the months after his injury.

Sean (left) and Carl, both with bandaged eyes

This resemblance alone might have been random, but it is not, as it is related to a few more Walking Dead easter eggs.

While Sean and Daniel reside in the abandoned cabin in the woods in episode 2, they (well, most probably Daniel!) carve the message "Keep out, Wolves inside". In the first episode of The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma at a hospital and, while wandering around the deserted, bloody halls, he arrives outside the Cafeteria, where someone has written "Don't open, Dead inside" on the padlocked doors. Since Daniel's fascination with zombies is well known, we can easily assume that he wrote the message on the cabin wall, inspired by the one in the series.

Additionally, after Sean escapes from the hospital to find Daniel in episode 4, he comes across two hostile locals in the desert, one of whom is particularly violent and when he realizes that Sean is Mexican, he attempts to humiliate him in any way he can think of. If you choose to obey to him to avoid trouble, in the end he forces Sean to sing a song in Spanish. This scene reminds of one in The Walking Dead, where the bloodthirsty villain Negan forces Carl to sing a song for him in private. Although Negan's motives are different from the evil guy's in the game, the sequence plays out in a similar way.

The scene from Life is Strange 2

The scene from The Walking Dead

When episode 3 starts, we do not know much about Finn yet, but as the story unfolds, we have the chance to learn about him and his habits. While exploring his friend's tent, Sean spots a copy of The Lord of the Flies, the famous novel by William Golding. The book tells the story of a group of students who find themselves stranded on a tropical island after their plane crashes, and are forced to find means to survive in an environment where the wild and the unknown are not the most dangerous enemies. Apart from the book's literary significance, it also relates to the story of the game as the group of drifters led by Finn live a solitary life out on the road and are called to face several dangers every day.

That said, there are also references to Jack Kerouak's novel On The Road, where the main characters are in the course of a road trip that follows a route similar to the one Sean and Daniel take, which also ends in Mexico. The drifters' bohemian lifestyle, smoking weed, traveling through the desert, getting to California, all this alludes to Kerouak's story, which is, to a high degree, autobiographical, although he has altered the names of the real people who correspond to his fictional characters.

Kerouak (top left) and his friends in Mexico City

One of them is Dean Moriarty, whose real life counterpart was Neal Cassady. Cassidy's name is partly a tribute to him, since her own attitude is laid back and carefree like his was. Her most significant reference, however, is to Eva Cassidy, a singer and guitarist who used to play and sing in the streets for a good amount of her life, but died very young. Since the game's Cassidy is a talented singer and guitarist, we can assume that she used to sing from an early age, and probably adopted her nickname to honor the famous but ill-fated musician. Or maybe her friends called her that way because she would always sing and play her guitar.

Cassisy (left) and real-life musician Eva Cassisy

Pennywise took his nickname from the penny he is wearing as a pendant, as a reminder of the dear friend that he lost and is desperately trying to find. If we attempt to analyze his nickname more thoroughly, it hints at his street wisdom, since he tends to express philosophical questions several times during the game. The nick itself, however, nods to It by Stephen King and its main evil character Pennywise. Of course the game's Penny is anything but evil; sharing a name with such a terrifyinh character is pure irony. Maybe he was a fan of King's horror stories, and besides he is the kind of person who tends to believe in conspiracy theories and urban legends.

Having a copy of The Lord of the Flies is not Finn's only exhibition of literary interest. If we take the time to look around the drifters' camp in the forest, we will come upon a tree with the words "Bonjour Tristess" (sic) sprayed on them. We can be sure it is Finn who wrote them, as they are made with the same style and the same colours that he used to spray the target on the tree near the lake, so that Daniel could practice knife-throwing. The words allude to the novel Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan, which tells the story of a frivolous teenager who unwillingly causes a family tragedy. Though not directly related to Finn as a theme, the book and his life's story do have the tragic factor in common, only in his case the drama was caused by his father. But it's very likely that Finn didn't care much about the story of the book, and was more attracted to its pessimistic title (Hello sadness) which he liked to use as a quote, albeit he did misspell it on the graffiti. Or maybe he was directly quoting Paul Éluard's poem À peine défigurée, from which the phrase originally comes.

The scissors in the middle of the graffiti are also one more proof this was made by Finn, as he uses actual scissors a bit later in episode 3 to cut Sean's hair.

Kerouak also has written a novel titled Tristessa, which narrates the story of a real-life prostitute from Mexico whom the writer had met, and gave her the name Tristessa in the book. See Mexico is ever present in the game, from the very beginning; and several reminders show up as we proceed.

 

A rather unforgettable sequence in episode 3 is right after Cassidy, Finn and Jacob find out about Daniel's power and they swear to Sean that they will keep it a secret. When all are back at the camp, the sub-section that begins is titled Paradise Lost, and it is when Sean has to decide whether he and Daniel will agree to go to Merrill's house to rob his money. The title of this section is borrowed from John Milton's famous poem which tells the biblical story of the fall of man. In this case however its significance is not religious but rather literal. It foretells how the drifters, and together with them Sean and Daniel, are about to lose their freedom, and subsequently the relatively happy days that they were living in the camp, since the heist is going to happen anyway.

The whole episode 3 is titled Wastelands, taken from TS Eliot's masterpiece The Waste Land, a long poem full of symbols and allegories which is one of the most important works of literature of the 20th century. The whole structure of the poem bears some resemblance to the specific episode from Life is Strange 2, but also to the game overall: it deals with themes such as disorientation, distress and disillusionment, it features several characters who talk about various themes in turn and in the end comes judgement. Additionally, it is split in five parts, like Life is Strange 2 has five episodes, and there is imagery in each of them that can be related to the game's story sequences.