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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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