Streamers May Cry - Devil May Cry 5 Full Spoilercast

Devil May Cry 5 has been out for quite a few weeks now, and by now there's been enough time for most players to complete the story and start on some of the higher difficulties.

With that in mind, I requested a few of my friends, ZeroAsher (Sam) and AShadowLink (Matt), join me for a discussion about the game in its totality.

That's right: This is a full spoiler, comprehensive run down on our combined thoughts every single aspect of Devil May Cry 5. From the story to the casts and the gameplay, everything is fair game.

I apologize for the poor audio mixing for the first part of this recording. Once we were made aware, it was addressed.

#94: Batman: Arkham Knight: The Ghost of Confidence

(Spoiler Alert: This article contains major spoilers of crucial plot elements in Batman: Arkham Knight.)

Though I do not talk about them much, I am a huge fan of the Batman: Arkham games. So when Batman: Arkham Knight came out on June 23rd, I was eager to purchase and play through what developer Rocksteady states to be the final entry in the Arkham series. With all of the spare time that I had that week, I completely finished the game. Ultimately, I was very happy with the game that I had played, and the way it ended the series. Despite fulfilling the promise of a satisfying conclusion to the franchise's story, there is an underlying problem with the writing of Arkham Knight.

To be blunt, Rocksteady's inclusion of the Joker was not necessary to the game's story. For those of you who haven't finished the game and don't care about spoilers, one of the early reveals is that Batman is slowly turning into the Joker. Back in Arkham City, Joker injected his Titan-infected blood into both Batman and a large supply of blood bags going to hospitals across Gotham City in order to motivate the Dark Knight to develop a cure of Titan-poisoning. Though the cure was eventually developed for the Titan half of the infection, Joker's blood acts as a virus that transforms those infected with it into a clone of the clown prince of crime, taking on many of his physical and psychological traits.

On its own, Batman has enough willpower to resist the mutation and still retain his moral code, albeit with slightly sharper edge. However, when Scarecrow gases him with a powerful dose of fear toxin, the combination with the virus manifests as visions of the Joker himself. Because Batman's greatest fear is succumbing to baser instinct, every hit of fear toxin strengthens the Joker's hold on him, leading to a climactic battle in his mind.

While these plot elements are fine, and there is nothing inherently wrong with them, they are unnecessary when both Scarecrow and the titular Arkham Knight are both effective villains with their own schemes and set-ups. At the very beginning of the game, Scarecrow is able to force authorities to call for a mandatory evacuation of Gotham's 6.3 million citizens with the threat of literal terrorist attacks via fear toxin. Proving himself to be one of Batman's most capable adversaries, he then manages to convince Penguin, Two-Face, Harley Quinn, and even the Riddler to unite together in an effort to finally destroy not only the Batman, but his legend and legacy. In the game's grand finale, Scarecrow succeeds at apprehending and publicly unmasking Batman, revealing his secret identity to the world.

Yet Scarecrow isn't the only character whose limelight is stolen by the inclusion of the Joker. The Arkham Knight also loses out on screen time, despite being two-thirds of the game's title. Even before his true name is revealed, it is obvious that the Knight has a grudge against the caped crusader. Most of his lines to dedicated to exactly how badly he wants Batman dead. Furthermore, he has a clear in-depth knowledge of Batman's gadgetry, skills, and tactics. When Batman battles his militia forces, he will often coach them on, directing them to avoid Batman’s most common tactics.

Even if the game does make his identity fairly obvious about half-way through, this element of mystery is an important plot point. However, it isn't until the mask comes off that this plot is allowed to develop beyond a mere "Who is the Arkham Knight?". For those who are unaware, Jason Todd, the second Robin, is the Arkham Knight. Having been tortured by the Joker for an entire year before even the events of Arkham Asylum, he grew to blame Batman for all of his pain, assuming the guise of the Knight in order to take his revenge. During and after his boss battle, the two reconnect and reconcile, leading Todd to realize the error of his ways and don the persona of the Red Hood. During the finale, after Scarecrow has revealed Bruce Wayne to the world, he uses this new identity to swoop in and save the day.

Both of these story arcs are strong on their own, and each serve to examine the mind and psyche of Batman. Scarecrow helps us, as the audience, to better understand what drive Batman and what he is truly afraid of. With the Arkham Knight, Rocksteady is able to illuminate some of his previous failures, adding extra context and forcing the narrative to be more introspective. Putting the two together gives Scarecrow a powerful advantage by giving him access to knowledge of and the ability to get at the most important people in Bruce Wayne's life, like Commissioner Gordon and the Oracle. At the same time, the fact that Jason Todd does care about those same people affords a justification for why they aren't brutally, systematically slaughtered in order to break the bat. There is an odd chemistry between these two characters, their abilities, and their motivations that works to drive the events of the game.

And then, the Joker comes in with his signature dark humor. While his writing is solid and the legendary Mark Hamill once again delivers on the voice acting, I cannot help but feel disappointed by his inclusion. The moment the clown prince of crime makes his first appearance on screen, he steals the show. Almost every story beat is punctuated by a quip about current events or his past misdeeds and relationships with various characters. Since he is only an illusion in Bruce Wayne's head, this is mostly unobtrusive from a gameplay standpoint. It can even lead to some interesting and amusing little diversions.

Unfortunately, it also robs both the player's attention and valuable screen-time from the other main villains, who aren't dead and have their own designs upon Gotham City. One particular instance stands out that really demonstrates this point. About halfway through the game’s campaign, the Arkham Knight manages to pin down Batman. Taking out his sidearm, he pinpoints the weakness in the Dark Knight’s armor, where he is most vulnerable, and fires straight into him. Leaving Batman to wallow in his injury, the Arkham Knight departs, leaving his militia forces to clean up. It is then that Joker appears on screen, commenting on how foolish it is to think that a single bullet can defeat the Batman. With this one line, all the threat and mystique that Rocksteady developed for the Arkham Knight in that scene is immediately shot down. Other similar examples happen so frequently that the non-Joker villains are severely undermined by these quips.

What this tells me is that Rocksteady didn't feel confident in their ability to conclude the Arkham storyline without using the Joker. That's honestly sad, because the set-ups and plot threads with Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight demonstrate an obvious understanding of how to write a good Batman story and why Batman is an interesting character. Adding Joker into the story make the other two major villains feel less like threats in their own right and more like tools for Joker to assert his dominance from beyond the grave. It is Scarecrow's fear toxin that awakens and empowers the jester's control over the Dark Knight. Even Jason Todd only resents Batman because he was trained over an entire year to do so by the Joker. In this light, neither one of them can be seen as inherently threatening.

The resurrection(?) of the Joker also deprived Rocksteady of a valuable opportunity to explore not only how Batman is coping with his inability to save everyone, but how Gotham and its criminal underworld are adjusting to the fact that the single biggest threat has been eliminated. There are shades of this sprinkled throughout that narrative. Not only do many of the random mooks expressed surprise and remorse about his passing, but it is implied that Scarecrow's opportunity was only opened by the power vacuum left open. It is interesting to think that his insanity might have been accidentally aiding Gotham PD by preventing any one criminal enterprise from obtaining too much power over the others, yet the game does not give much time to the thought.

I won't say that Batman: Arkham Knight is a bad story. Nor will I claim that I didn't enjoy seeing Mark Hamill return to show why people love his take on the Joker. All I want to say is that the narrative as a whole would have been stronger is Rocksteady had the confidence to soldier on feeling the need to bring him back. As I write this, I know that my opinion on this matter is going to be in the minority. However, it is important to point out ways in which even a good story can improve itself. With so much talk about the other flaws in the game, it is only right for the story to get its due.

Bioshock: Infinite Podcast with Marc Price and Javy Gwaltney

This weekend, I had joined a discussion with two friends of mine, Marc Price and Javy Gwaltney, over the recently released Bioshock: Infinite. All three of us had finished the game at least once and we all had our own thoughts on the game. (Warning: There were a LOT of spoilers.)

The resulting two hours conversation was a delight. I hope you guys out there enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed having it.

You can listen to it, here:
http://www.vgrevolution.com/2013/04/behind-the-bits-bioshock-infinite-spoilercast/

#52: When Good Plots Go Bad: How “Those Who Came Before” Ruined Assassin's Creed

(A SPOILER WARNING is in effect for the entity of Assassin's Creed from the first game to the most recent outing. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!)

A week ago, a friend of mine finished playing Assassin's Creed 3, which sparked a pretty interesting discussion regarding the plot of the franchise and its somewhat controversial ending. While we were talking, I had made the statement that the inclusion of “Those Who Came Before” (which I will be abbreviating to TWCB) and the destruction of the entire world was the beginning of the end for the franchise's main plot. That is a fairly bold statement to make without providing proof, since it became a major element of the story from the second game onward, so this week's article is my defense of that claim. While I have addressed this series several times in the past, this is the first time I have discussed the larger over-arching story of the whole thing. I am going to assume at this point that you have at least a passing familiarity with the franchise. If you do not, please cease to read on if you are afraid of spoilers. This is going to contain a few of them. Anyway, the inclusion of TWCB/Apocalypse plot had a number of after-effects on the main plot that, taken as a whole, really restricted what they could otherwise do with it, which severely damaged the franchise.

The first of these after-effects is that Assassin's Creed began to move away from the Templars vs. Assassins plot and towards this new Mayan Apocalypse plot. It is a very subtle shift that one may not notice unless they look closely. In the first game and second Assassin's Creed games, the war between the Assassins and the Templars was the central guiding element of the plot and everything that happened was in service to that. In Assassin's Creed, the conflict and the morally/intrigue behind it was introduced. In the sequel, the war was further elaborated on both through the main story and Subject 16's recordings. Also, Desmond was being trained (via the Animus) to take part in it as an active participant. As we progress forward from here, we see that there is a subtle shift in how the plot begins to unfold. Instead, the main story begins to unfold around the impending apocalypse, which becomes the new driving force for the plot. For the events of Brotherhood, Desmond needs to find the Apple of Eden in order to learn what he needs to do to stop the apocalypse. During Revelations, our protagonist needs to wake up so that he can do what needs to be done. Lastly, in the most recent outing, the reason Desmond goes back into the Animus is to find the key to the ancient temple that contains the device capable of saving the world. Instead of the Assassins vs. Templar plot being the highest priority, the sub-plot of TWCB and their efforts to stop the world from being burned is at the forefront of the player's mind. Considering that the former and its moral ambiguity is at the center of what is interesting about the franchise, it is a bit of a mistake.

But this was not the only problem with the “end of the world” storyline. Another major issue invited by it is that it an even larger focus was placed on the present-day storyline that is set in 2012, stealing momentum from the story-lines of the ancestors in their periods of history. Again, this is antithetical to the strengths of the franchise. The other big draw of Assassin's Creed is that the Animus, the game's signature plot device, allows the writers to explore any period of history they choose. This has led to quite a few interesting, and relatively unused, settings being highlighted in the franchise from the Third Crusade, to the Italian Renaissance, and even the American Revolution. Many people come to the franchise specifically for this reason. Shifting the focus away from this and over to a grand, world-spanning apocalypse plot is a grave mistake as it takes away from what makes the game shine. In the original game and it's successor, the focus was squarely on the ancestors presented. While Desmond was there and he had an outside motivation for going through his ancestors' memories (and a debatably large amount of screen time), the real star was the ancestor presented, be it Altair or Ezio. Moving on past that point, Desmond and the modern day story surrounding him became much more important. Brotherhood allowed made him more involved, giving him several segments outside the Animus and giving the assassin crew a bit more of a showing, allowing players to interact with them and get to know them better. The entire point of Revelations was to get Desmond back into the real world after the plot twist of Brotherhood literally sent him into a coma. In that game, there is a whole five part side mission dedicated to Mr. Miles and getting to know him better. Lastly, the third main game had entire sections where Desmond used stealth to get around the real world and find artifacts that would prove useful to the main plot. The problem with all of this is that the real world/present day story have always been the weakest part of Assassin's Creed. As a character, Desmond has always been as bland as a leading man can get. Ubisoft tried to make him an “everyman” that people can relate to, but as a result he does not have anything that distinguishes him from any other protagonist. This is a problem that the series is notorious for and has been since the beginning. So to make a plot twist that would throw that element into the limelight seems like a very poor decision. Because someone needs to deal with the apocalypse in the modern day story, they were forced to make it more important instead of just regulating it to the side-lines as a vague justification for going through an ancestor's memory.

Lastly, one of the biggest problems with the inclusion of TWCB is that it codified the legendary “mind fuck” endings that the series would grow to be known for. The first game ended on a fairly surprising note with Desmond discovering that his room was covered in hidden symbols he could only see with Eagle Vision. This led to a number of fans speculating and trying to decipher what those symbols might mean for the lore of the series. It was an odd and surprising “WTF” ending, but it was not entirely out of place for the game as we knew it. When Assassin's Creed 2 introduced its plot twist at the end, that TWCB created humanity, but died in a solar flare that now threatens to come back, it came entirely out of left field and no one saw it coming. This set the trend going forward into Brotherhood with the death of Lucy, who was secretly a triple agent, joining the Templars after being sent to spy on them and then reintegrating herself into the Assassin order. Revelations would try for this with Altair's, Ezio's, and Desmond's stories, with Altair sealing himself and his Apple of Eden into a secret library and Ezio talking to Desmond directly in order for a member of the First Civilization to tell him about the apocalypse, but in general they did not elicit many strong reactions. And in the third main installment in the series, the plot twist was something that players could partly see coming and partly felt like it came from nowhere. As the game foreshadowed, Roman goddess Juno was planning to backstab the human race and Desmond decided triggering her trap was worth keeping the world intact. Every game past the second tried for a “mind screw” ending and for the most part failed. The whole concept of TWCB drove most of these plot twists and gave them fuel. Without this element, it seems less likely, though still entirely possible, that similar twists would have happened.

Ultimately, the inclusion of this one, singular element really derailed what could have an interesting game about a world-spanning, secret war between two shadow organizations with ambiguous stances on morality. Instead, it changed the franchise into an entirely different science-fiction apocalypse plot that seemed wildly divergent from its roots. As someone who is a massive fan of the series, it is perplexing to see how different it turned out from anything that could have possibly been predicted based on the original game. Truly, the game moved so far from what it originally promised that it can sometimes be hard to believe. It seems to have evolved and lost itself as it progressed. I admit that I am curious as to exactly how this happened...