6B — Thursday, January 16, 2020
b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

B-SIDE: DIGITAL CULTURE NOTEBOOK

The terribly crazy year that was 2019 has 
come to a close, and though most are glad 
to have it in the past and see what the new 
decade brings, it would be a shame to not 
muse on the strange and wonderful year it 
was for gaming. From the revival of classic 
franchises to the success of numerous indie 
darlings, as the year comes to a close, let’s take 
a look at the best gaming experiences it had to 
offer. Here are The Daily’s picks for the best 
video games of 2019.

1. “Fire Emblem: Three 
Houses”
There are a million things I could say 
about “Fire Emblem: Three Houses” — 
how it perfects the standard gameplay of 
the series to make it more accessible for 
new players without sacrificing difficulty 
and depth, how you can play the game four 
different times and experience four distinct 
story pathways all totaling up to hundreds 
of hours of content, how the game got me 
to buy DLC just so I could pet cats — but I 
think the best testimonial I can offer is how 
it has firmly embedded itself into my mind. 
Ever since I first booted up the title screen, 
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about 
“Fire Emblem: Three Houses.”
The quick and dirty summary of “Three 
Houses” is that you play as a mercenary-
turned-professor at a medieval military 
academy, smack dab in the middle of a 

continent on the brink of war. Over the 
course of many years, you follow the 
professor and their students (from one 
of the titular three houses you choose to 
teach, each representing a certain slice 
of aforementioned continent), and how 
you and these students grow, change and 
challenge each other.
Even though you can kind of facetiously 
boil it down to “be gay do war crimes,” the 
classic video game suspension of belief 
kicks in and allows you to fall for the most 
loveable group of idiot students you’ll want 
to both strangle and hug as you remind 
them that everything is going to be alright. 
Though the gameplay and quality of life 
improvements to the franchise are top 
notch, the character design does the real 
leg work here, imbuing these kids with 
some of the most intimate and relatable 
stories, despite the overarching narrative 
ultimately being a tale of knights and kings 
and war.
“Three Houses” is a phenomenal game, 
and one made made all the more special 
because of the life it has taken on outside of 
my Nintendo Switch cartridge. I can’t go five 
seconds scrolling through my Twitter feed 
without seeing some fanart of characters 
pulling pranks on the professor, crushing on 
each other or having a wholesome holiday 
celebration. I would die for Marianne, and 
I want the chibi charm I have of her on my 

backpack to make that fact known to the 
world.
I had only played half a previous “Fire 
Emblem” game before picking up “Three 
Houses,” and if you went back to the 
summer and told me I would be so in love 
with this game to the point of drawing 
my own fanart of my favorite characters, 
or hypothesizing with my girlfriend and 
roommate about how the students of the 
Blue Lions house would squabble and 
gossip with one another on a class road trip, 
I don’t think I would’ve believed you. With 
fulfilling tactical gameplay, a painfully real 
story and an incredible cast of characters, 
“Fire Emblem: Three Houses” is my game 
of the year and it should be yours too. The 
fact the fanbase has stayed strong with a 
steady pipeline of memes and art months 
after the game’s release really tells you all 
you need to know.
— Cassandra Mansuetti, Daily Digital 
Culture Editor

2. “Sekiro: Shadow Die 
Twice”
Controversial? Yes. A new beginning? 
Yes. Mentally strenuous and engaging? Yes. 
A game for everyone? No. “Sekiro: Shadows 
Die Twice” is a masterpiece of gaming 
because it does not compromise.
After 
concluding 
their 
critically 
acclaimed series “Dark Souls,” developers 
FromSoftware 
had 
a vision and stuck 
to it. That vision is 
“Sekiro”: the 15th 
century 
Japanese-
themed 
stealth 
action 
adventure 
that 
left 
gamers 
either glued to their 
screens or screaming 
at it. “Sekiro” is 
hard. 
Very, 
very 
hard. But it’s exactly 
this 
struggle 
that 
allows the player to 
appreciate the craft 
and 
sophistication 
that went into this 
game. “Sekiro” does 
not 
accommodate 
for 
its 
audience, 
the audience must 
accommodate to it. 
To endure it is to 
admire it. “Sekiro: 

Shadows Die Twice” is committed to an 
artistic message. It is that commitment that 
makes it the best game of 2019.
— Eli Lustig, Daily Arts Writer

3. “A Short Hike” 
While we all love video games because 
they let us inhabit and explore worlds where 
our wildest dreams become possible, where 
we can slay dragons or quest after legendary 
lost treasures, sometimes all we need is a 
good game that shows us the beauty in the 
ordinary, letting us take it in at our own 
pace. “A Short Hike” is exactly what the title 
says it is, and I love it for that. 
You’re a bird named Claire on vacation 
with your family, and you want to climb to 
the top of the mountain to get some decent 
cell service. Aside from some small bits of 
narrative, there’s no greater story than that.
Though the game has a clear objective, it 
doesn’t really care how or when you decide 
to do it. You can walk up the mountain by 
taking one of many trails or by forging 
your own path. You can go swimming or 
play volleyball or help a character find 
their missing headband. You can sit by 
the campfire and take your hands off the 
keyboard for a minute. The pixel art is a joy 
to marvel at, and it exudes the same charm 
as one of Nintendo’s finest outings: it’s what 
I imagine the villagers in “Animal Crossing” 
do when you’re not around.
“A Short Hike” is like your favorite 
dessert — it may only be a small treat that 
you can finish in a minute, but it’s made 
better if you take it slow, savoring every bite. 
It’s the special chocolate cake you always 
asked for on your birthday, a flavor you 
could never forget. “A Short Hike” leaves 
your heart full as much as that cake did your 
belly.
— Cassandra Mansuetti, Daily Digital 
Culture Editor

4. “Baba Is You”
It’s perhaps an objective truth that 
no one will ever be able to make a more 
perfect puzzle game than “Tetris.” 
Universally 
simple 
and 
endlessly 
replayable, even your computer-illiterate 
grandma could pick up a Game Boy and 
know exactly what “Tetris” is about 
and how to play it as soon as the first 
block drops from the top of the screen. 
I could write a whole article about this 
(I actually won’t and would rather you 
watch Matthewmatosis, one of the 

best video game channels on YouTube, 
concisely sum up said hypothetical 
article in six minutes) but that’s not my 
point. It wouldn’t be controversial to say 
the best puzzle games in recent years, like 
“Portal 2” or “The Witness,” still exist in 
the shadow of “Tetris” Peak, gracefully 
attempting but ultimately failing to 
summit it. Instead of launching yet 
another futile expedition, “Baba is You” 
just moved the whole damn mountain.
“Baba is You” starts as simple as 
“Tetris,” quite literally telling you 
everything you need to know: “Baba 
is You,” “Flag is Win,” “Rock is Push,” 
“Wall is Stop.” Simple enough, right? 
Well yes, until you realize that these 
simple three-word facts are only facts if 
the player wants them to be. Each word is 
morphed into a block that can be moved 
around however you see fit. Want to push 
the flag instead of walking through it? 
“Flag is Push.” Want to be a wall and just 
vibe around? “Wall is You.” So on and so 
forth, as you clear more and more levels 
and the game throws keys and lava and 
crabs into the mix.
It’s one of the smartest core video 
game mechanics in recent years, and 
“Baba is You” succeeds because the 
puzzle is not just finding a way to get 
to the end of the level, it’s pushing and 
pulling and morphing the rules of the 
level so the end gets to you. The game 
isn’t any pushover, but prevents itself 
from being frustratingly hard thanks 
to a handy Ctrl+Z-like feature and its 
inherent silliness. Still, “Baba” never fails 
to make me feel like a MD-PhD in puzzles 
through the tiny victory of completing a 
level.
Sure, I could look up the optimal 
solution to each level that takes the least 
amount of moves possible, but where’s 
the fun in that? The best part of “Baba 
is You” is that there’s never just one 
solution to any given level. You don’t 
find the right way to do it, you find your 
way. And even if your way is hilariously 
stupid, no one can deny it got you over 
the finish line.

— Cassandra Mansuetti, Daily Digital 
Culture Editor

FROM SOFTWARE

‘Fire Emblem’ and other video game highlights of 2019

The most notable events around Ann Arbor in 2019

“War Requiem”
Few 
pieces 
of 
music 
carry 
the 
magnitude of meaning that can be ascribed 
to Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem.” 
The work combines traditional requiem 
texts with poetry by Wilfred Owens about 
World War I. It calls for three separate 
performing groups: a full orchestra with 
choir and soprano soloist, a chamber 
orchestra with baritone and tenor soloists 
and a children’s choir accompanied by 
organ.
This past February, the UMS Choral 
Union, Ann Arbor Youth Chorale and Ann 
Arbor Symphony Orchestra decided to take 
on this work under the baton of conductor 
Scott Hanoian. The performance lasted 
about 90 minutes. It spanned all sorts 
of textures and styles, from traditional-
sounding Roman Catholic choral singing 
to dissonant, 20th-century orchestral 
pandemonium — it was impossible to 
escape the brutal irony of war as justified 
by 
traditional 
secular 
and 
religious 
institutions.
At the end of the work, the melodic 
interval of a tritone — the most dissonant 
interval, known by Church composers 
at one point as “the Devil in music” — 
becomes a consonant form of closure. 
Over the course of the piece, Britten 
slowly inverts the fundamental laws of 
functional Western harmony. What was 
once consonant is now dissonant, what was 
once dissonant is now consonant. 
The “War Requiem” was by far my 
most intense audience experience of the 
past year. I’ve never left a performance 
with more thoughts running through my 
head. It took days before I wanted to listen 
to music again — before I was ready to 
interrupt the perpetual experience that is 
the “War Requiem.”
— Sammy Sussman, Daily Arts Writer

Rachmaninoff at Hill 
Auditorim
In late February 2019, the Ann Arbor 
Symphony Orchestra and pianists from 
the Doctor of Musical Arts program in 
the School of Music, Theatre & Dance 
performed the best and most moving 
orchestral works over the course of 
two days of shows. I vividly remember 
listening to a live arrangement of a Sergei 
Rachmaninoff piece for the first time. I 
sat truly entranced in Hill Auditorium as 
“Finale: Alla breve” echoed off the high 
ceilings. I left the performance with a 
new fascination in Rachmaninoff. The 
performance was a characteristic example 

of how the arts — particularly the arts at 
the University can have a lasting effect on 
the audience. As I imagine the case was for 
many students in prime midterm season, I 
was able to escape the stress of consecutive 
nights spent studying by placing myself 
in Hill Auditorium. It took only these few 
hours to be rejuvenated and energized by 
listening to the masterful work done by the 
Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and the 
University’s own pianists. This combined 
recital was the best of 2019, not only as a 
result of the quality of music being played, 
but also because of how well it represents 
the utility of experiencing the arts as a 
university student. The recital pulled me 
away from my work for a little while, and 
released me back with a new perspective 
and a new song playing in the back of my 
mind.
— Zachary M.S. Waarala, Daily Arts 
Writer

Teac Damsa: “Loch na 
hEala”
There is no bodily noise in ballet. 
Ballerinas do not talk, clap or whistle. They 
land each jump softly and gracefully and 
keep heavy breathing to a minimum. These 
rules are the epitome of “Swan Lake,” 
a show that is as much about its tragic 
storyline of lost love as it is about ballet itself. 
Irish dance group Teac Damsa’s modern 
interpretation of the story — performed at 
the Power Center this past November — 
pushed these conventions to the wayside. 
Characters spoke, grunted and screamed, 
swans clapped and stomped, people shook 
plastic tarps and threw cinder blocks. In 
doing so, they stripped “Swan Lake” of its 
classical identity to present the story’s most 
organic form: “Loch na hEala,” a gripping 
story of darkness. 
During the one-act show, protagonist 
Jimmy struggles to fight his depression in 
the aftermath of his father’s death. Using 
the gun gifted to him by his mother, he 
attempts to kill himself while standing 
by the side of a lake’s gloomy waters. As 
he raises the weapon to his head, a swan 
named Finola diverts and captivates him. 
Together, the two characters dance in an 
ephemeral moment of darkly emotional 
movement 
before 
being 
aggressively 
separated by Finola’s rapist, a priest who is 
also the show’s narrator. 
I first went and wrote about the show 
for a class, but by the time Teac Damsa 
was done with its 90-minute performance 
I knew its impact would continue to touch 
me for far longer than the semester, or 

even the year. While the synopsis might 
sound disconnected from the original 
19th-century ballet, I was most captivated 
by its similarities. In the original ballet, 
Odette is also a swan cursed by a male 
predator. Prince Siegfried is also a man 
who struggles to find his purpose, and 
both characters suffer because of their 
misunderstandings. Teac Damsa’s founder, 
Michael Keegan-Dolan, reached deep into 
the original story to find these similarities, 
producing a modern essence of an old 
show: darkness, depression and the lasting 
effects of power abuse. In doing so, he 
reminded audiences about the timelessness 
of dance itself. Without a doubt, it was the 
best performance of 2019. 
— Zoe Phillips, Senior Arts Editor

The Final BLED Fest
2019 saw the last installation of BLED 
Fest, a small festival showcasing some 
of the biggest up-and-coming names 
in punk, indie rock and metal. The 
festival began over 15 years ago as a 
small house show, eventually expanding 
into the all-day festival it is today with 
multiple shows spanning across the high 
school campus turned festival grounds. 
Performances from modern punk legends 
and local newcomers alike took place in 
gymnasiums, cafeterias and classrooms. 
While this festival took place just outside 
of Ann Arbor and gained considerable 
national 
attention, 
its 
do-it-yourself 
roots still shone through as local bands 
from southeastern Michigan, including 
Ann Arbor, littered the lineup. Groups 
like Dogleg, Ness Lake, the Doozers and 
Complainer all played heavily attended 
sets. 
While it does involve a community just 
slightly larger than Ann Arbor, the final 
installation of BLED Fest proved to be a 
significant event that was different from 
any other summer music festival, not 
only because it took place inside of a high 
school, but also because of its unique lineup 
that featured members of the southeastern 
Michigan music community. 
This installment of BLED Fest also 
proved to be the most diverse, both in terms 
of genre and artist personnel. While the 
original BLED Fest featured heavier music 
performed by mostly white males, the final 
installation of the festival featured hip-
hop, spoken word and singer/songwriter 
acts with a wide variety of identities, 
allowing the festival to end on a different, 
more diverse chapter than it started on. 
— Ryan Cox, Daily Arts Writer

The Polar Vortex
The Tuesday night before the Polar 
Vortex, my housemates and I were in the 
kitchen making dinner when we were 
alerted about the cancellation of classes for 
the next two days. Within a minute, Jacob 
had made us a Facebook event: ENTER 
THE VORTEX. The cover photo showed 
our house in the middle of a storm system 
map that posited Michigan to be colder 
than the Arctic for the next 24 hours. We 
were having a darty.
The following day was filled with ski 
shots, blankets and mulled wine. The 
crowd was composed of individuals who 
had actually left their houses that day to 
come over. This sense of comradery was 
not bound by the house’s walls.
Everyone at the university seems to 
remember last January’s Polar Vortex 
fondly. Some stayed in and spent quality 
time with their roommates. Some painted 
the scenery. Others trekked across campus 
to the promise of warm drinks and good 
company elsewhere. I personally went to 
see “Your Name” at the Michigan Theater 
after the party. We all proved creative and 
robust.
At the same time, though, we were 
shielded from the storm’s ugly side by 
warm abodes and comfortable clothes. It 
proved a hardship for many others, and 
even though it was memorable, let’s hope 
to leave such callous weather in 2019. 
— Ben Vassar, Daily Arts Writer

18th Annual Clown 
Show
As someone who is truly terrified of 
clowns, it feels strange saying this, but 
my favorite event of 2019 was hands 
down the 18th Annual Clown Show (also 
known as the final presentation for the 
class “Physical Theatre”). The Clown 
Show acts as the final assessment for a 
senior BFA acting class in which majors 
develop a clown persona and perform 
short improvisations for about an hour. 
The clowns perform short 15-30 second 
“noodles” (brief solo improvisations) as 
well as loosely structured partner scenes. 
They perform in the heart of finals week — 
right after classes end and right before the 
first week of exams — in the Arthur Miller 
Theater. The house is always packed, the 
admission is always free and the evening 
is always bubbling over with laughter. 
This year, as with every year, the acts were 
wonderfully unpolished; the audience got 
the delicious chance to see actors’ minds at 

work. We got to laugh when they failed and 
laugh even harder when they found a spark 
of success (which sometimes took the form 
of an earnest failure). 
As a member of SMTD, this event always 
means a lot to me. Regardless of the finals 
or the papers, everyone finds a way to make 
it out for the clown show and share warm 
laughter together before the cold isolation 
of exam time. In the stressful period when 
everyone is asking the students to plan 
ahead, we get to turn that off and be present 
for an hour to watch people try to make us 
happy, if only by accident or for a fleeting 
moment. I can’t quite explain what exactly 
makes it so joyful; perhaps it stems from 
that mischievous sense of schadenfreude 
inside all of us, or perhaps because it is the 
beginning of a series of goodbyes to the 
senior acting class, and the happiest one 
we’ll probably ever get. 
Regardless of the reason, the Clown 
Show — and all of the community, warmth 
and delightful distraction it brought — 
slipped over a banana peel and landed at 
the top of my 2019 list.
— Stephanie Guralnick, Daily Arts Writer

2019 Protests
I came home for fall break in October to 
an unusual sight: My parents were nestled 
in the living room, art supplies strewn 
haphazardly around them, drawing a large 
peach on a white board. My mother’s eyes 
glistened mischievously as she looked up 
at me. “I’m going to draw Trump on this 
peach,” she giggled, then proceeded to 
pick out a brilliant orange from the sea of 
colored pencils in front of her. Political 
action and protests have always been an 
important part of my family’s life, and 2019 
was a big year in politics. Protest events 
littered my facebook feed the whole year: 
I attended the climate strike in Ann Arbor, 
the gun control rally in Detroit and the 
women’s march in Ann Arbor, and that 
wasn’t enough. These issues are far from 
mutually exclusive, and I urge everyone to 
resist confining them to their own isolated 
spheres. If you care about tackling climate 
change, chances are you’re in favor of 
background checks for gun purchasing as 
well. If you’ve never been, attend a protest 
or two in 2020, to listen and observe if 
nothing else. Let 2020 be the year where 
you give a sh*t. 
— Trina Pal, Daily Arts Writer

B-SIDE: COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK

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