Beautiful and sad.
There are many reasons I love living in Toronto. Number one, it works very well with my love for the underdog. Now, it’s arguable that living in Canada has, in fact, given me this underdog complex, but then it could be counter-argued that I live in the biggest city in the country and even the most American-like. But all nationalist reasons aside, I think I love the seasons most. Sure, I could deal with it if we managed to remove a month from Winter and place it…ANYWHERE ELSE, but I definitely wouldn’t want to remove the season altogether. The changes in climate, scenery, and collective mindset are so necessary for me. I love that the cyclical nature brings a sense of familiarity and nostalgia, but more importantly progression. I love that Winters remind me of previous Winters to not just comfort me with memories, but to feel proud or even discouraged when I think of where I am compared to where I was. Autumn, in particular has traditionally been my favourite. I love that the season literally brings about the death of so many things, but it does so with beautiful colours, smells, and the perfect weather. It’s more a celebration of life than anything else. It represents maturity and acceptance, but still vibrance and wonder.
But I’ve written too much about Toronto and Autumn without relating any of it to video games. I suppose my ultimate point is that I connect the strongest with any art – and particularly games – that can embody the same love of life in the face of death that Autumn does. Flower is a celebration of beauty and mood painted on a drab backdrop of melonchony and, penultimately, death. Shadow of the Colossus is the simple story of passionate courage in the face of – and at the price of – death. The most emotionally powerful Zelda games are the ones with themes of the celebration and eventual loss of innocence. Even Final Fantasy IX is an example of loving life in the face of death.
What is it about this that resonates with me? I feel like it’s not disconnected from my morbid desire to see the apocalypse in my lifetime. I suppose I feel like Autumn and Autumn-like things best sum up what it means to be alive without making melodramatic sweeping statements. There’s depth in simplicity. There’s truth behind the beautiful celebration of life coexisting with the desperate struggle to stay alive.
All said, Autumn represents calm passion to me. It revives inspiration in me and resonates deeply in me when somebody is able to bundle up these thoughts into indescribable forms of interactive expression. It reminds me that life is more than just a zombie-like drift through life, and that even death is rarely a cause to mourn.
Anyway, that’s my vague ramble. The comments are there for your mocking pleasure.
Tags: Editorials, Final Fantasy IX, Flower, Shadow of the Colossus
Genius. I absolutely agree with you. Death made beautiful is an emotional ride because its a final almost immortal pleasure that resonates with us. It’s like death is triumphing over itself; it’s almost paradoxical. I love it.
I’m with you too, and I remember that this came up in #rpgstaff at some point and we felt the same way.
Autumn is my favorite season. To tie it in to games, my favorite game is Planescape: Torment where the protagonist has been stuck in an unending Autumn for millenia. The goal of the entire game is to solve the puzzle of his immortality and send him gracefully to death. I think FF9’s various viewpoints on life and death were the highlight of the plot, and a completely lost opportunity in FFX. Tidus was the anti-FF9. “I don’t really exist? I’ll just solve the problem with laughter. Ha ha. Ha-ha ha ha. BUAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAA!” I hate Tidus. Unlike Autumn, which I love.
I think this ties into my love for Fallout 3’s visuals too. I thought the constant death and desolation in the world was a beautiful thing — very sad and very real, and yet with opportunities for the player to set things right in many ways. Or make things worse, depending on whether you are being good or evil. I loved that, and couldn’t imagine the visuals being any different while still fitting in with the setting. People who complained that it was too dirty, dark, and drab, and not toony and bright like Valkyria Chronicles can burn in Hell.
Tidus is awesome.
Was that a veiled blow at Valkyria Chronicles?
Watch yourself, Glenn.
While I don’t hate Tidus, like Glenn, I also would not say Tidus is awesome.
You may, in fact, say I sit in the middle of those two opinions. Like a duck.
I like bright and cheery protagonists like Tidus and Zidane who aren’t all mopey and emo like Squall and AC Cloud.