| Normchacho said: There is no objective way to measure the quality and structure of a narrative. You're just putting too much weight behind your opinion.
*I added this next bit to my last post but I moved it her so it's easier to respond to."
I think you misread the beginning of the troll fight by the way. First off, the line isn't "Are we going to fight that?" It's "We're going to fight that?" And the way he says it isn't in excitement, he's surprised and a little worried. It's not "We get to fight that" it's "How are we supposed to fight that."
Him hacking at the troll is the first time we see his anger. We see him lose control and show us a glimpse of his internal conflict that's going to play an important role over the course of the rest of the game.
They even show you the build up to that scene DURING the fight. As the fight goes on he starts to get noticeably frustrated to the point where at one point Kratos says "control yourself boy" and Atreus responds "I'm FINE, kill it!"
I honestly think that more than anything else you just needed to pay more attention during that whole encounter. |
If there was no objective way of measuring the quality of narrative, any old rubbish would be published. There is a standard of writing that will get you published and this game doesn't always meet that standard. TLOU did and this game has been compared to TLOU. My criteria for judging whether a narrative driven game is a masterpiece is how well the narrative beats are structured. If you have different reasons for calling a game a masterpiece then that's fine but MY reason for considering this a masterpiece have not been met. I still give it a 9/10 by the way. It's still a good game, perhaps even great.
Please don't tell me I should pay more attention.
The lead up to that scene is important to the scene itself. We have a boy who is grieving for his mother, needing love from his father and desperate for approval:
On hitting the deer, Atreus is excited, not because he hit the deer but because he feels he's demonstrated to his father he's worthy of praise. When faced with the reality of what he's done, he falters. Kratos then places his hands on the boys hands to help ease the dagger into the deer's heart. The excitement and potential worthiness is immediately taken away from the boy. It's not just a dagger to the deer's heart but the boys heart. It's symbolic. Kratos, understanding this, reaches out a hand to comfort the boy but can't bring himself to do it, instead opting to take the weapon, a reminder to the player of who Kratos has always been. This isn't just something for the moment, it's to show us he's NEVER comforted the child which gives the need for approval more merit. The boy isn't aware of this which is why we know that moment is for the player and not the boy. This is a highly charged emotional scene and is very well done, but it's not the pay off to this particular narrative arc.
We are then immediately thrust into battle. We are met with a splash screen showing us how to 'play the game', taking us completely out of the emotional state the game has worked hard to accomplish. The lines in the battle completely break this sequence because they're not connected to it in any meaningful way. They're typical throw away lines often found in bad movies or bad games. They're busy work and in my opinion the result of thinking: 'we have the writers and the actors, so we might as well use them.' Less is more.
Once the battle ends, the pay off to this narrative arc begins but that pay off has now been removed surgically from the first scene because of cliqued lines, a reminder that we're playing a game, and the time it took to beat the troll. Our emotional connection has been completely broken, meaning the following lines feel separate from the beginning of the arc when in fact they're a continuation. These lines are not just thrown down by the writer, they're the result of graft, craft and above all else, draft, draft and more draft. If you just take lines on their face value then you risk losing all the underlying messaging the writer may have worked hard for.
Atreus: 'That's what you get.' (an odd line really but functional I suppose)
Kratos: 'Boy.' (understated and perfectly fine for Kratos)
Atreus: 'Think I'm afraid of you?' (Who is the boy addressing here? Remember, this is the pay off to the previous scene)
Atreus continues to hack at the troll furiously and frenetically.
Kratos: 'Boy.' Kratos reaches out his hand to stop Atreus (Kratos is brought directly into the scene, not only for us but for Atreus.)
Atreus: 'You are nothing to me'. (Again, who is he talking to? Of course the troll 'means nothing to him'. It's just a beast he's beaten.)
Kratos: 'BOY'.
Atreus: 'NOTHING.'
Kratos: 'Look at me boy. Look at me.'
Atreus looks wild eyed at his father.
He's NOT talking to the troll, he's talking to his father when he says 'you mean nothing to me'. But it shows quite clearly how much Kratos does actually mean to Atreus. He's angry he's lost his mother, angry with himself for failing his father in the previous scene and angry with Kratos because he doesn't seem to understand or care about how he feels. The perfect pay off to the opening scene of this narrative arc. That pay off is ruined though because of bad game and narrative choices between the two scenes.
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