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Thursday, June 23, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS

Top Four Games of E3

VIDEO GAMES COLUMN

E

3 is a strange beast. It’s 
often been called the 
“Super Bowl” of the 

video game industry. Though it 
certainly has the commercial-
ism to match 
America’s big-
gest sporting 
event, I’d be 
more compelled 
to compare it 
to the Detroit 
Auto Show 
— another 
tradition of 
American 
capitalism, a 
future-embrac-
ing technological display in 
which the biggest companies 
in the industry show off their 
shiniest, most advanced prod-
ucts yet. This year in particular 
felt packed with new titles in 
development, so much so that 
my original list of ten excellent-
looking games blossomed into a 
list of twenty. The following are 
unveiled video games that I think 
you should pay attention to in the 
coming months and years, avail-
able on a diverse selection of plat-
forms and release windows.

Final Fantasy XV (Square 

Enix, PC, PS4 and Xbox One, 
September 30th, 2016)

I love the idea of a road trip 

within a video game — an idea 
that likely thanks to technologi-
cal limitations hasn’t been imple-
mented in many games besides 
“The Last of Us.” Surprisingly, 
the latest game in the ludicrously 
prolific “Final Fantasy” franchise 
seems to be fully dedicated to 
such an idea. The game is focused 
on a group of four anime-inspired 
male characters on a road trip 
together — the inspiration of 
films like “Stand By Me” being at 
once subtle and completely overt. 
This is one of two games on this 
list that I’ve had the chance 
to actually play, and upon first 
glance the gameplay is heavily 
inspired by “Kingdom Hearts.” 
It’s unsurprising, since “KH” 
director Tetsuya Nomura took 
the franchise over from longtime 
franchise director Hironobu Sak-
aguchi for this one. After the last 
console entry in the series failed 
to impress most of the people that 
played it, it’s wonderful to see a 
“Final Fantasy” game that looks 
to be coming from a place of real 
heart and inspiration.

Resident Evil VII (Capcom, 

PSVR, PC, PS4 and Xbox One, 
January 24th, 2017)

That the latest game in the 

“Resident Evil” franchise would 
be built from the ground up for 
Virtual Reality is a surprise almost 
no one saw coming. In fact, it’s 
probably the biggest news from E3, 
period — and on top of that, they 
released a playable demo to anyone 
with PlayStation Plus at Sony’s 
conference. It was so cool not only 
hear this incredible news, but to be 
able to get my hands on the game 
the very next day. And I’m happy 
to report that the game looks and 
sounds absolutely incredible. In 
fact, the demo was tense enough to 
make me never, ever want to play 
it with a Virtual Reality headset. 
That amount of immersion doesn’t 
vibe with how much of a scaredy-
cat I am at all. Regardless, it’s 
insane to see the huge franchise 
pivot once again from the much-
maligned action game format of 
“RE6,” instead going for a much 
subtler psychological horror expe-
rience reminiscent of Konami’s ill-
fated “Silent Hills.”

God of War (Sony Santa Moni-

ca, PS4, ~2017)

IIf you had told me two weeks 

ago that I would give any amount 
of a shit about a new “God of War” 
game, I would not have believed 
you for a second. I can’t believe I’m 
sitting here putting it at the top 
of this list. I’m absolutely floored 
that “Sony Santa Monica” ’s sequel 
not only looks absolutely amazing 
graphically, but looks completely 
reimagined from the ground up. 
Deviating thoroughly from the 
character action genre in favor of 
over-the-shoulder third-person 
action, “God of War” takes the 
angsty, ultra-violent character 
of the demigod Kratos and gives 
him some much-needed depth, 
establishing an intense, caustic 
relationship between an older 
version of him and his son. The 
combat now takes inspiration from 
“Dark Souls” rather than “Devil 
May Cry,” emphasizing dodging 
and timing over mindless button 
combos. The new weapon, an Ice 
Axe that can be recalled from any-
where like Thor’s hammer, is stu-
pidly awesome. The shift to Norse 
mythology from Greek mythology 
is inspired. Everything about this 
game looks like a both a major risk 
and a product of absolute passion 
for big-budget game design.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of 

the Wild (Nintendo, NX and Wii 
U, ~March 2017)

“The Legend of Zelda” is my 

favorite video game series. It’s 
the favorite video game series of 
so many people. It’s an eternal 
franchise so storied and treasured 
by fans that it holds one of those 
special places where it’s subject 
to the highest of scrutiny — when 
people care very deeply about 
something, like Batman or Harry 
Potter or Zelda, they are harsher 
towards it than anything else. 
Reviewers often claim particular 
entries in the series are “great, but 
not for a Zelda game” or something 
similar. Anytime any trailer is 
released for a Zelda game these 
days, it’s instantly criticized by 
anything deemed by fans to be 
outside of the norm, and it has 
proved difficult for Nintendo to 
innovate within the franchise 
without pissing off large portions 
of their fanbase. It’s a small wonder 
to me that the reaction to the new 
footage of the excellently named 
“Breath of the Wild” has been 
universally positive, from both 
critics on the E3 show floor and 
from fans at home, even though 
the game seems to be taking the 
biggest risks the series has ever 
taken. A prominent physics-based 
puzzle system? Ragdoll? Cooking 
and crafting? Weapon degradation? 
Weather that affects player health? 
Are you kidding me? “Breath of the 
Wild” looks innovative, heartfelt, 
and strikingly gorgeous, adopting 
the aesthetic of Hayao Miyazaki’s 
animated classics like “My Neighbor 
Totoro” and “Spirited Away.” 
And it’s Zelda’s biggest world yet. 
According to Nintendo, the huge, 
lengthy demo they showed was 
merely 1% of the game’s final scope 
— a daunting notion to say the 
very least. The development of this 
game is emblematic of a Nintendo 
that’s backed into a corner and 
hissing, coming off of the failure of 
the Wii U platform and seemingly 
more ready than ever to deliver an 
absolute classic (which, if I may 
add, they haven’t done since 2010’s 
“Super Mario Galaxy 2”). Nintendo 
needs “Breath of the Wild” to 
be a timeless masterpiece, and it 
certainly looks (and feels, according 
to the lucky bastards that have 
played it) to be shaping up to be one.

‘Puberty’ grows

By VANESSA WONG

Daily Arts Writer

Usually if you mention any-

thing 
from 
your 
pubescent 

years, you face universal cring-
ing at best and 
total revenge 
at worst. But 
Mitski’s latest 
album, Puber-
ty 2, willingly 
revisits 
the 

emotional 
turbulence 
of self-doubt, 
loneliness and sadness — a 
cocktail of confusion that never 
truly leaves us as we age. Jump-
ing easily between plucky punk 
rock, mellow guitar riffs, bright 
electronic beats and shimmer-
ing dream pop, Puberty 2 is a 
lifetime’s worth of introspec-
tion in a lean 30 minutes.

Though she sings of sad times, 

Mitski eyes her self pity with 
razor sharp wit, never devolv-
ing entirely into melodrama. 
In “Happy,” a supposed lover 
leaves in the morning before 
she wakes up. Hollow mechani-
cal whirring and quiet vocals 
swing into boppy electric guitar 
riffs as she accepts the situa-
tion. Wryly, she sings, “I sighed 
and mumbled to myself / Again I 
have to clean.”

Her gift for lyrics reaches new 

heights in “Your Best Ameri-
can Girl,” a sorrowful crooner 
about coming to terms with 
her Japanese-American heri-
tage — the only thing standing 
in the way of a fairytale ending 
with her soulmate. She sings, 
“Your mother wouldn’t approve 
of how my mother raised me 
/ But I do, I finally do / You’re 
an all American boy and guess I 
couldn’t help try to be your best 
American girl.” It’s a complex 
and introspective tug-of-war 
between assimilation and defi-
ance, one road being easy and 

showered with benefits and the 
other 
being 
mind-blowingly 

difficult, but honorable all the 
same.

Though Puberty 2 speaks of 

sadness, it isn’t glossy, rose-
tinted sadness dolled up like a 
Lolita poster. In “Once More to 
See You,” a daydreamy waltz, 
her voice trembles so gently 
and hopefully for an unrequited 
lover that it feels like we must 
avert our eyes and afford her the 
dignity of private shame. But in 
the pain of overhearing also lies 
the beauty.

The punk-rock angst dials all 

the way up in “My Body’s Made 
of Crushed Little Stars,” a defi-
ant middle finger to the laws 
of physical mortality. Cavern-
ous vocals thrash above a thick, 
staticky wall of sound, angrily 
yelling, “I wanna see the whole 
world / I don’t know how I’m 
gonna pay rent.”

In a world where people 

and ideas move on to the next 
faster than ever, “I Bet on Los-
ing Dogs” is a gravestone to the 
lonely souls that get left behind. 
Floating out from shimmer-
ing synths and hazy acoustics, 
Mitski sings, “I bet on losing 
dogs / I know they’re losing and 
I’ll pay for my place / By the ring 
/ Where I’ll be looking in their 
eyes when they’re down / I’ll be 
there on their side / I’m losing 
by their side.”

Listening to Puberty 2, I sud-

denly feel very small, like I’ve 
transported back into a warm 
dark cocoon of blankets on a sad 
night. The sum of every teen-
age sorrow returns, clearer than 
ever, but then pours back out in 
an exhilarating catharsis. These 
emotions may be painful, but 
Mitski’s voice creates an impen-
etrable force field, circling lov-
ingly around me, a space of utter 
sanctuary — and, my god, if that 
isn’t the sweetest gift anyone 
could give.

A

Puberty 2

Mitski

Dead Oceans

DEAD OCEANS

If only we were this happy during our adolescence.

 MUSIC REVIEW

JACOB 
RICH

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