{"id":1842194,"date":"2025-06-06T18:00:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T18:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/1842194\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T18:00:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T18:00:22","slug":"journey-is-a-game-about-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/1842194\/","title":{"rendered":"Journey is a game about nothing."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  width=\"580\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TEzz-5xlDwI\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\nJourney is a game about nothing.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nYou have played \u201cJourney\u201d before,\u00a0<br \/>\neven if you think you haven\u2019t. You and everyone you have ever known\u00a0<br \/>\nhas already set foot in this place,\u00a0\u00a0 seen its dunes and walked its path. Let\u2019s\u00a0<br \/>\ndo it all again, together this time. \u201cThe Hero with a Thousand Faces\u201d is a\u00a0<br \/>\nbook written by comparative mythologist\u00a0\u00a0 Joseph Campbell in 1954. In it was the first\u00a0<br \/>\nproposal of the Monomyth, a proposed cyclical storytelling pattern that popped up over time\u00a0<br \/>\nin societies with no contact with each other,\u00a0\u00a0 spread out both across the planet and across\u00a0<br \/>\nthousands of years. It\u2019s more commonly known as the Hero\u2019s Journey, the backbone of\u00a0<br \/>\nstories that serves as an imperfect and\u00a0\u00a0 not quite all-encompassing, but universal\u00a0<br \/>\npattern written into our very subconscious. Nearly every story you have ever\u00a0<br \/>\nread has in some way fit these steps. Comparative mythology, the field, is exactly as it\u00a0<br \/>\nsounds. It\u2019s the study of myth itself, the stories that are spread and refined and changed and\u00a0<br \/>\nperpetuated through every culture on the planet,\u00a0\u00a0 and seeing both where they connect and where they\u00a0<br \/>\ndon\u2019t. To analyze mythology on a practical level, comparison is not just helpful but necessary,\u00a0<br \/>\nthese stories otherwise being impossible to frame\u00a0\u00a0 within our own existence. The people that made\u00a0<br \/>\nthem, spoke them, and changed them are long gone, any evidence that most ever even existed\u00a0<br \/>\nin the first place entirely erased by time. In these individual myths are echoes,\u00a0<br \/>\nwisps of minds we can no longer speak to,\u00a0\u00a0 but in these patterns is conversation, webs of\u00a0<br \/>\nhumanity strengthening the bonds of people that never met and never had the chance to feel\u00a0<br \/>\njust how like each other they really were. Mythology is a thing deeply important to\u00a0<br \/>\nthe story of Journey. It begins with you,\u00a0\u00a0 a hill, and one single meaningful button: the\u00a0<br \/>\nforward key. Being surrounded by barren desert, you\u2019re given nothing but anticipation for what\u2019s\u00a0<br \/>\nat the peak. The walk is excruciating and long, slowing even further once you begin to climb\u00a0<br \/>\nto the top. The camera, near the peak, starts to linger behind, leaving only your unnamed\u00a0<br \/>\ncharacter to see what\u2019s truly ahead, until\u2026 Journey is a game where you\u00a0<br \/>\nwalk towards a mountain. If you enjoy artsy indie games,\u00a0<br \/>\nyou have Journey, in part, to thank for it. Games are still to this day\u00a0<br \/>\nnot treated quite like an artform by many,\u00a0\u00a0 most especially in the West, but compared\u00a0<br \/>\nto how it was in the past, games today have a much wider window of what can be expected of\u00a0<br \/>\nthem. In the wake of the games crash of 1983, Nintendo took over Western markets by\u00a0<br \/>\nadvertising games not to the whole family,\u00a0\u00a0 but rather entirely to young boys. It was painted\u00a0<br \/>\nfrom that moment on as a fancier version of a toy, and for the longest time, it was cursed with that\u00a0<br \/>\nimage with every single video game to release. For AAA studios, moving, intricate stories\u00a0<br \/>\nwere being made and released, but even those weren\u2019t often treating video games as their\u00a0<br \/>\nown medium, but rather just emulating movies\u00a0\u00a0 via cutscenes with gameplay segments in between\u00a0<br \/>\nthem. They were able to separate the game and the narrative as much as possible, separating what\u00a0<br \/>\nmade video games video games, in order to isolate the cinematic story. The player and character, the\u00a0<br \/>\ntwo agents that can affect the story, were parted. For any new medium or genre trying to break\u00a0<br \/>\nthrough in popular culture, there is a fight for\u00a0\u00a0 acceptance that needs to be won, but for video\u00a0<br \/>\ngames, they were already a step in the wrong direction. There had, without a doubt, been many\u00a0<br \/>\nartistic masterpieces released before Journey:\u00a0\u00a0 Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, Braid, each\u00a0<br \/>\nmaking somewhat of their own splash beyond the scope of just video game culture, but\u00a0<br \/>\nwhile their artistic impact on what video\u00a0\u00a0 games can be during their times was notable,\u00a0<br \/>\nJourney\u2019s impact was a relative explosion. Indie games, much like any other independent\u00a0<br \/>\nart scene, is where those tried and true\u00a0\u00a0 withmethods could really be broken. Wild\u00a0<br \/>\nexperimentation followed the indie game explosion, coming with the wake of the Steam\u00a0<br \/>\ngreenlight system, but throughout all of this,\u00a0\u00a0 for years afterwards, not much progress\u00a0<br \/>\nwas made in the wider gaming community. Journey did not come early into that explosion.\u00a0<br \/>\nThatgamecompany, the studio to make Journey, is not even quite an indie studio. While they\u00a0<br \/>\nbegan as one in the time before Steam Greenlight, still taking advantage of the general\u00a0<br \/>\nincrease in digital distribution methods,\u00a0\u00a0 Sony took interest in them after the\u00a0<br \/>\nrelease of their very first game: Cloud. From then, they were contracted to make\u00a0<br \/>\nthree new games for Sony\u2019s playstation\u00a0\u00a0 store. Journey is the third in that set,\u00a0<br \/>\nwith much higher funding, resources, and development time than most indie\u00a0<br \/>\ngames at the time had access to. What\u00a0\u00a0 we had was one of the earliest examples of indie\u00a0<br \/>\ndevelopers being given access to real funding. Only after four years of the indie game\u00a0<br \/>\nexplosion did Journey finally hit the scene,\u00a0\u00a0 showing up on the playstation store exclusively\u00a0<br \/>\nin 2012. And yet, the moment it did, it broke the record for the fastest selling game in\u00a0<br \/>\nplaystation store history, getting several\u00a0\u00a0 game of the year awards and placements, and\u00a0<br \/>\nits soundtrack being nominated for a Grammy, the first ever video game to accomplish such a\u00a0<br \/>\nthing. In this new and rapidly changing medium, the game to finally break through this barrier\u00a0<br \/>\nof acceptance if even only for a moment is\u2026 well\u2026 Journey is not a long winding experience, being\u00a0<br \/>\nbeatable in less than 2 hours. It is not packed with stimulating gameplay, it is not even\u00a0<br \/>\nnecessarily a lush story, being entirely\u00a0\u00a0 wordless and composed of very little explanation\u00a0<br \/>\nat all, a game where your only goal is only to keep moving forward. And yet, in spite of going\u00a0<br \/>\nagainst everything the larger game industry was\u00a0\u00a0 trying to be, it has become one of the single\u00a0<br \/>\nmost influential video games of all time. You are an unnamed cloth creature, and your\u00a0<br \/>\ngoal is to get to the top of the mountain\u00a0\u00a0 you see in the distance. The only thing you\u00a0<br \/>\nknow is how to move forward, and the first thing you&#8217;re shown is that you can briefly slide\u00a0<br \/>\ndown hills. Approaching the ruins of a building,\u00a0\u00a0 you find one thing further: your character\u00a0<br \/>\nclimbs things *for* you. The basic movement controls seem to cover *everything* you need to\u00a0<br \/>\nactually do in the game to progress normally:\u00a0\u00a0 climbing, sliding, and walking. However,\u00a0<br \/>\nyou&#8217;re given something new, a scarf, one that allows you, briefly, to fly in the air. Beyond you is what seems to be a now\u00a0<br \/>\ndilapidated temple in a small valley, one with a gate blocking your way. You speak,\u00a0<br \/>\nvia meditation, with some mysterious being; one that reveals a chunk of what this\u00a0<br \/>\nplace is and what happened to it. The mountain appears to be the source of all life\u00a0<br \/>\nin this desert, of you and of all the other cloth\u00a0\u00a0 beings you&#8217;ve seen so far. Past this gate\u00a0<br \/>\nis 6 major areas, roadblocks and trials on your path to the peak of the mountain. First\u00a0<br \/>\nin all of your challenges is [The Bridge]. In the first area of real gameplay, just\u00a0<br \/>\npast the gate, your problem is simple:\u00a0\u00a0 you need to cross a bridge, the bridge is not\u00a0<br \/>\nbuilt. Journey is a game with two controls and two controls alone that you always have access\u00a0<br \/>\nto. Fate is a theme that pervades Journey,\u00a0\u00a0 but unlike many games that try to separate\u00a0<br \/>\ngameplay and story, it\u2019s integrated into the narrative of how the video game feels to play as\u00a0<br \/>\nwell. The most dynamic and most in your control is your shout. This is the entire way that you\u2019re\u00a0<br \/>\nable to interact with the world, being able to\u00a0\u00a0 heal the long-dead cloths stuck in this barren\u00a0<br \/>\ndesert, as well as your way to talk to them, being able to be carried and flown well above the world\u00a0<br \/>\nfor brief moments of lofty freedom before falling\u00a0\u00a0 back down to the landscape. The only other control\u00a0<br \/>\nthat you always have access to\u2026 is moving forward. This scarf must be recharged not by waiting, but\u00a0<br \/>\nby moving to the right spots in the environment,\u00a0\u00a0 given energy through the tiny little cloth\u00a0<br \/>\nfriends you make, and giving you a short burst of freedom from the monotony of just holding\u00a0<br \/>\nforward. This cloth gets progressively longer as\u00a0\u00a0 the game goes on and as you find more of these\u00a0<br \/>\nsymbols, allowing you to feel more and more in control of your surroundings and encouraging\u00a0<br \/>\nyou to search and study the world you\u2019re in. The bridge is contrasted heavily with the wall\u00a0<br \/>\nyou\u2019re trying to scale. While the bridge stands immobile, the cliff is cast with an endlessly\u00a0<br \/>\nflowing river of sand, making it feel not just\u00a0\u00a0 unscalable, but actively working against\u00a0<br \/>\nyou. The only other bits of grey joining the bridge are metallic lumps in the sand, each\u00a0<br \/>\naccompanied by a dusty ribbon reaching endlessly\u00a0\u00a0 toward the sky. Your shout, like an extension\u00a0<br \/>\nof soul, revives and resonates with the ribbons, allowing you to free your species from the\u00a0<br \/>\nunexplained cages they were trapped in. As you look around for more, you might come\u00a0<br \/>\nto notice something odd: there are bridges stretching out seemingly infinitely to your\u00a0<br \/>\nleft and right, all dilapidated and falling\u00a0\u00a0 apart in their own ways. Despite being able to\u00a0<br \/>\nsee those other bridges spanning far beyond you, you can\u2019t actually make your way to them, of\u00a0<br \/>\ncourse you can\u2019t. Those who have played video\u00a0\u00a0 games for most of their lives and know about the\u00a0<br \/>\nlimitations of the development process know that there could never be a world where these are\u00a0<br \/>\nexplorable, but they are there for a reason. Each is their own story, their own path, one taken\u00a0<br \/>\nmany times before by people you will never meet, but one that you, the player, will never\u00a0<br \/>\nbe allowed to see here. An invisible wall\u00a0\u00a0 of wind mounts the closer and closer you get\u00a0<br \/>\nto either side, eventually pushing you away. While you\u2019re allowed to see and allowed to\u00a0<br \/>\nponder, to explore them would entirely defeat\u00a0\u00a0 the point. It is literally and metaphorically\u00a0<br \/>\nout of bounds. Because, Journey is not a game about going sideways, a game about choice.\u00a0<br \/>\nJourney is a game about moving forward. The eternal struggle of game design is reckoning\u00a0<br \/>\nwith the fact that even for the games with the\u00a0\u00a0 most expensive of budgets, you can really do\u00a0<br \/>\nvery little. Freedom is a commodity slaved over for thousands of man hours for even the\u00a0<br \/>\nsmallest wisps of wide-scale interactivity, and so, for most games, games with a focus\u00a0<br \/>\non not just freedom but visuals, narrative,\u00a0\u00a0 and making sure the gameplay is actually fun, the\u00a0<br \/>\nbest you can do is simulate the idea of freedom. The single greatest sense of control given to\u00a0<br \/>\nthe player at any given time is through movesets,\u00a0\u00a0 quite literally the only means we have of\u00a0<br \/>\ninteracting with almost every video game in existence. If there is a character\u00a0<br \/>\nand they go to places and do things,\u00a0\u00a0 a moveset is necessary for games to function\u00a0<br \/>\nat the minimum. The feeling of true freedom of movement has been sought after\u00a0<br \/>\nsince the very first platformer,\u00a0\u00a0 and yet, it has a paradoxical relationship\u00a0<br \/>\nwith video games as a designed product. Nearly all games have what is, essentially,\u00a0<br \/>\na bubble of expectations for what the player\u00a0\u00a0 can and will do over the course of its existence.\u00a0<br \/>\nMovesets are one of the single greatest indicators of these expectations, and level design is\u00a0<br \/>\ncreated not just in tune with your movement,\u00a0\u00a0 but positioned actively against\u00a0<br \/>\nit. It is, on a literal level, the source of conflict and true enemy combating\u00a0<br \/>\nyour sense of control. The bridge is not built, you need to find a way to cross it. In\u00a0<br \/>\nany game focused on movement, a level\u00a0\u00a0 that allows too much freedom becomes painfully\u00a0<br \/>\nboring, while one that leaves too little, well\u2026 Beating the area is quite simple. On some machines\u00a0<br \/>\nare, rather than small banners, ones that are monstrously large. The gaps between the bridge\u00a0<br \/>\nare formed not by stone, but by a merging of\u00a0\u00a0 the ribbons you\u2019ve freed, allowing you to glide\u00a0<br \/>\nto the top without very much effort at all. To call this difficult would be to outright lie,\u00a0<br \/>\nbut the conflict exists for reasons otherwise.\u00a0\u00a0 By forcing you, the player, to interact with\u00a0<br \/>\nthis place, you\u2019re given the time and space to mentally wander; to look at the bridges cascading\u00a0<br \/>\nout from you, to find the hidden tablet, to learn the range and extent of your movement. Without\u00a0<br \/>\nthe need to interact, you lack the need to linger. At the top of the bridge is a spot for\u00a0<br \/>\nmeditation, and with it comes another\u00a0\u00a0 meeting with a spirit of the past; however,\u00a0<br \/>\nmore important, is the gate to [The Desert]. The desert comes, in large part, with\u00a0<br \/>\nan even simpler task than the bridge, just moving forward. While the actual\u00a0<br \/>\nplay area you can encompass is small,\u00a0\u00a0 the desert around you is incredibly vast.\u00a0<br \/>\nCompared to the cliffs before, you have almost too much freedom in vision. The desert stretches\u00a0<br \/>\nseemingly infinitely around you in all directions,\u00a0\u00a0 with the only thing breaking from the horizon\u00a0<br \/>\nbeing the mountain itself. With it once again in your eyesight beyond the bridge, you can\u00a0<br \/>\nstart to catch a glimpse of something odd. Glowing lights seem to be coming from the\u00a0<br \/>\npeak. One flies over and beyond your head to somewhere you can&#8217;t see, while others start to\u00a0<br \/>\ncrash directly into the sand. As it turns out,\u00a0\u00a0 some of the lights to crash from the mountain are\u00a0<br \/>\nthe very same symbols that gave you your scarf, the biggest sense of freedom you&#8217;re granted\u00a0<br \/>\nin the game. While from the prophecy we see\u00a0\u00a0 that the mountain provides life, it\u00a0<br \/>\nliterally provides it in the gameplay. Even further, these upgrades tend to\u00a0<br \/>\nbe placed in spots that are difficult\u00a0\u00a0 to reach on your own. This life piece\u00a0<br \/>\nis stuck atop a collapsed building,\u00a0\u00a0 and unable to reach it on your own, you\u00a0<br \/>\nneed to rely on someone or something else. The creatures you free are not just helpful\u00a0<br \/>\nand adorable, but often necessary to reach\u00a0\u00a0 your goal. With each to help you in\u00a0<br \/>\nreturn, you bond not just emotionally, but functionally. You are made as much of a piece\u00a0<br \/>\nof this environment as everything else, and these interactions give life in a very real sense to\u00a0<br \/>\nthis wordless desert you&#8217;ve been placed into. Even further, there&#8217;s one more aspect of the\u00a0<br \/>\ngame that I have not yet spoken about. While it can be played and completed entirely alone&#8230;\u00a0<br \/>\nyou can have a friend. This is a multiplayer game, or a&#8230; one more player game. There is no chat\u00a0<br \/>\nfunction or means to even see the username of the other player until the very end credits, but\u00a0<br \/>\nthey\u2019re there and you can interact with them. The one way that you can communicate, in lieu of\u00a0<br \/>\nother options, is through movement. While it takes developers great deals of effort to make you,\u00a0<br \/>\nthe player, be able to affect the environment\u00a0\u00a0 in interesting ways, that&#8217;s not the case for\u00a0<br \/>\nother players. We, as sentient beings, are built to respond to our environment, and every form of\u00a0<br \/>\nlimited movement we have is a way to communicate\u00a0\u00a0 to the other. The shout is the most intuitive\u00a0<br \/>\nmeans. It can be used to catch the attention of your friend, but it also just be&#8230; like silly\u00a0<br \/>\nand fun. Look at this, absolutely nothing of value is being transferred here. Is this why dogs\u00a0<br \/>\nbark at eachother? I- I get it now, I think. The shout can also be used to give your\u00a0<br \/>\nfriend energy, and for your friend to give it back. The game, what is normally a push and\u00a0<br \/>\npull between flight and excruciating walking is tilted heavily on its side, letting you\u00a0<br \/>\nliterally lift eachother up above the endless\u00a0\u00a0 desert for longer and longer. You can breathe\u00a0<br \/>\nthat freer breath only and entirely through collaboration and it makes these sweeping\u00a0<br \/>\ndunes a playground instead of a marathon. But just as you&#8217;re finally soaking in the light\u00a0<br \/>\nof the day&#8230; you cross into what seems to be a perpetual sandstorm. Two towers churn and churn\u00a0<br \/>\nin an endless cycle, cast in the endless shadows caused by its own work. As you scale it with the\u00a0<br \/>\nhelp of your newly freed friends, you see that they are the very things powering this creation,\u00a0<br \/>\ntrapped in a cage for an unknown amount of time. Their lifeforce is being used to make&#8230;\u00a0<br \/>\nsomething, the heads of which seem to have\u00a0\u00a0 some sort of life of their own. The segments\u00a0<br \/>\nthat trapped creatures earlier in the desert before are made from the same material, implying\u00a0<br \/>\nthat whatever is being made is designed for that\u00a0\u00a0 very purpose. However, as you make it to the very\u00a0<br \/>\ntop of the tower, and through consulting the past divine spirits.. you&#8217;re\u00a0finally able<br \/>\nto free them. Just past the towers, crossed with\u00a0<br \/>\nthe help of your newly freed friends,\u00a0\u00a0 is one of the most enjoyable chapters in\u00a0<br \/>\nthe game. Scripted events in video games are often a way to get around a moveset. A\u00a0<br \/>\ngame consisting entirely of the same 4 or\u00a0\u00a0 5 button inputs, especially for a world\u00a0<br \/>\nthats trying to be convincingly alive, simply cannot mend a real relationship between\u00a0<br \/>\nthe character and the world they\u2019re in. When the\u00a0\u00a0 player cant ignore the fact that Kratos can ram\u00a0<br \/>\nsomeone through boulders during cutscenes while in gameplay he can\u2019t climb a single rock, that\u00a0<br \/>\ndissonance brings you out of the experience. At the same time, though, while many gamers\u00a0<br \/>\nwish for and constantly ask for more freedom, more possibilities, more game in their games, it\u2019s\u00a0<br \/>\nmoments like these that make blockbuster games what they are. Some games are based almost\u00a0<br \/>\nentirely on completely scripted movement,\u00a0\u00a0 only able to do the majority of movements in\u00a0<br \/>\nthe game, the things that make up the entire gameplay loop, at specific locations entirely\u00a0<br \/>\nplanned out for you. We exist mentally in two realities in gaming culture, and so,\u00a0<br \/>\nAAA games simply make both a reality. The illusion of full control is handed to us until\u00a0<br \/>\nthe moment it gets in the way of the cinematics. In this section of Journey, you slide, smile (:)).\u00a0<br \/>\nIn a stark contrast to the pulling tension of\u00a0\u00a0 movement in prior chapters, you&#8217;re sliding down a\u00a0<br \/>\nseemingly endless valley descending to the core of this ancient civilization. Shifting movesets\u00a0<br \/>\nis a common trope in platformer games, with\u00a0\u00a0 games like Super Mario Odyssey founding its core\u00a0<br \/>\ngameplay on it, movesets that would not be robust enough for a full experience, but in brief doses,\u00a0<br \/>\ngive a nice break from the usual gameplay loop. Oftentimes, there\u2019s a scripted events button, most\u00a0<br \/>\noften called \u201cinteract\u201d, the thing that gives you permission to actually leave some effect on the\u00a0<br \/>\nworld around you, only in incredibly limited ways.\u00a0\u00a0 Press F to pay respect, press X to [\u201cShaun!\u201d],\u00a0<br \/>\npress middle click to- [spiderman explosion meme]. Even for things like opening doors or shelves,\u00a0<br \/>\nanytime you interact in a specialized way,\u00a0\u00a0 your mind connects itself for the briefest\u00a0<br \/>\nof moments to the world you\u2019re in. For games not specifically movement focused,\u00a0<br \/>\nthis is often literally the only way to\u00a0\u00a0 create an amount of adventure or tension\u00a0<br \/>\nwith the world you\u2019re moving around in, moments where control is actively removed\u00a0<br \/>\nfrom you for the sake of tangibility and\u00a0\u00a0 narrative and stakes. Many of these full\u00a0<br \/>\nwell could be triggered automatically, but it\u2019s given to you not just to add\u00a0<br \/>\nsome interactivity, but also because it\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0 not that much more limiting than your regular\u00a0<br \/>\nmoveset. Yes, it\u2019s basically a mini-cutscene, but it\u2019s not like you\u2019re necessarily much freer\u00a0<br \/>\nthan that in most narrative games normally. While you can jump any time you want, there\u2019s only\u00a0<br \/>\nvery specific points where it actually matters. The camera can sometimes be moved freely, but\u00a0<br \/>\nthe level is aligned to have one or more specific\u00a0\u00a0 chosen places for you to go. Navigation is put in\u00a0<br \/>\nyour hands, but to a defined waypoint conveniently handed to you on a map. Any game with a linear\u00a0<br \/>\nnarrative, with a place that starts at A and goes to B can only give you so much freedom. In a truly\u00a0<br \/>\ninteractive world, anything could hypothetically happen, but we simply don\u2019t have the ability to\u00a0<br \/>\ncreate something like that, even to this day. Everything done to give players a sense of\u00a0<br \/>\ncontrol, to add difficulty, to give variance is ultimately an illusion. Nearly every game with\u00a0<br \/>\na story to be told is an exercise in linearity, in fate, and we simply put that thought away\u00a0<br \/>\nto be able to engage with the world. The arguably free-est game of all time in a genre\u00a0<br \/>\nthat best emulates the feeling of freedom,\u00a0\u00a0 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild\u00a0<br \/>\nactually understands this idea more than nearly any other game in existence. It\u2019s known\u00a0<br \/>\nfor its ability to be tackled and progressed in\u00a0\u00a0 a million different ways, with endless physics\u00a0<br \/>\ninteractions and enemy nuances and places to go, cleanly and evenly distributing content\u00a0<br \/>\nall across the entire game world. However, if you look at the linearity\u00a0<br \/>\nchokepoints, the parts where you start at A and need to go to B, there is only one\u00a0<br \/>\ntrue required destination in the game. Point A is Escaping the The Great Plateau, and point\u00a0<br \/>\nB is defeating Ganon. Nothing else is truly, absolutely required. Freedom is much\u00a0<br \/>\nmore possible in Breath of the Wild\u00a0\u00a0 because the entire game is the journey,\u00a0<br \/>\nwithout a moment of required destination. Journey is a very linear game. It is perhaps\u00a0<br \/>\none of the first capital W capital S Walking Simulators to ever exist in the way we think\u00a0<br \/>\nof them now, a term for a game that you simply\u00a0\u00a0 move and interact through rather than fully\u00a0<br \/>\nplaying within. However, in\u00a0truth, most games are merely a few steps removed from being the very same way. Journey, in contrast to the ever pulling desperate need to hide that feeling from its audience, decides to bare itself openly. And in that embrace,  it explores what our limited control on these worlds can really make us feel. While the entire game is linear\u00a0<br \/>\nlike a path through the forest is,\u00a0\u00a0 this chapter is closer to a rollercoaster. You&#8217;re\u00a0<br \/>\ngiven small differences in paths you can take, some of which give you more pieces of life, but\u00a0<br \/>\nthis entire section is meant in large part just\u00a0\u00a0 to be fun. After the disheartening visual\u00a0<br \/>\nof that endless prison factory sandstorm, you&#8217;re able to tangibly feel the newfound\u00a0<br \/>\nfreedom of the creatures you freed,\u00a0\u00a0 them joyfully weaving in and\u00a0<br \/>\nout of the sand alongside you. And this game is just beautiful, right?\u00a0<br \/>\nI can speak at length about symbolism and\u00a0\u00a0 gameplay mechanics and everything, but you\u00a0<br \/>\ndon&#8217;t need me and my words to experience this excellence. It\u2019s present on the face of\u00a0<br \/>\nit. The music and environmental design and\u00a0\u00a0 adorable cloth creatures and- it&#8217;s just\u00a0<br \/>\nso fun. You&#8217;re overwhelmed with it all, soaking in this synthesis of so many different art\u00a0<br \/>\nmediums and forms of entertainment combining that\u00a0\u00a0 you forget&#8230; oh&#8230; yeah&#8230; I&#8217;m going\u00a0<br \/>\nsomewhere. I\u2019m going to the mountain. This moment of staring at the mountain is an\u00a0<br \/>\ninflection point; one of the most beautiful\u00a0\u00a0 shots of the game, but also one of the most\u00a0<br \/>\nsobering. You&#8217;re so awash in the fun until it hits you just how temporary this moment\u00a0<br \/>\nis. It holds on this view for more than long enough to bring you back to the moment, back\u00a0<br \/>\nto your goal. You begin to slide down again, but this time you know that it&#8217;s soon going\u00a0<br \/>\nto end. The dunes get steeper and steeper and\u00a0\u00a0 steeper and steeper until you&#8217;re completely out of\u00a0<br \/>\ncontrol, careening towards the heart of the city, but&#8230; you don&#8217;t get to see it yourself. With\u00a0<br \/>\nthe briefest moment of feeling somewhere, you quickly fall down, down, far below the\u00a0<br \/>\nruins, to a place where, for the first time, the Sun isn&#8217;t shining over you; a place where\u00a0<br \/>\nthe mountain has no influence. At the end of every chapter up until this\u00a0<br \/>\npoint, you&#8217;ve been granted visions of the past,\u00a0\u00a0 given to you by what seems to be goddesses or\u00a0<br \/>\nold spirits. Each spells out one new passage of an ornately told, but ultimately simple\u00a0<br \/>\nstory. As previously said, the mountain, some time long ago, suddenly gave birth to all\u00a0<br \/>\nlife in the desert, pieces of light forming the species that you\u2019re a part of. Ribbons\u00a0<br \/>\ntoo, sources of power and further life,\u00a0\u00a0 sprouted out from the sand. With this power\u00a0<br \/>\nsprouted buildings, bound by this living cloth and made traversable, filling and powering\u00a0<br \/>\nstructures to expand this growing civilization. Either built or formed directly by the light,\u00a0<br \/>\ntowers sprung up, and given power by the influence of the mountain. However, right at the peak of\u00a0<br \/>\nthis civilization, a rot seemed to manifest. Life began to fundamentally break down, to be\u00a0<br \/>\nhunted and captured by giant metallic snakes, from a place seemingly entirely unknown.\u00a0<br \/>\nAnd, with no way to fight against them, the civilization, just like you,\u00a0<br \/>\nquickly fell into a dark ruin. As said, Journey is a game about fate, and unlike\u00a0<br \/>\nmost games to come before, it understands that truth. These narrative video game worlds are\u00a0<br \/>\ncaught eternally in a pulling tension with each\u00a0\u00a0 other, all due to one thing and one thing only:\u00a0<br \/>\nthe fact that you, the player, exists. In order for this world to exist at all, it needs to\u00a0<br \/>\nbe justified. Budgets must be set, developers must work for months to years, and for projects\u00a0<br \/>\ngeared to actually make money, it must be designed for the consumer. For that to be interesting,\u00a0<br \/>\nthe story and gameplay need to widely appeal,\u00a0\u00a0 and for that to happen at all, the world that\u00a0<br \/>\nyou&#8217;re in must be in a state of constant conflict. In these underground chambers, the only things\u00a0<br \/>\nto guide you are the tiniest cracks of light able\u00a0\u00a0 to shine from up above. Enough sand has fallen\u00a0<br \/>\ninto this place to make it as much a desert as everywhere else, but there is a certain protection\u00a0<br \/>\nthat everything to have found itself fallen down\u00a0\u00a0 here has. While the world up above is vulnerable\u00a0<br \/>\nto erosion, the desert consuming itself and returning everything to sand, the structures and\u00a0<br \/>\nmore importantly the creatures here remain safe. Your newfound friends, in between the cracks\u00a0<br \/>\nof light, all take their time to guide you\u00a0\u00a0 along your path. The not-so-moving ribbons\u00a0<br \/>\nare also distinctly different. While on the surface the sunlight is abundant, it only\u00a0<br \/>\nexists in the smallest of pockets here. So\u00a0\u00a0 while this is merely open air, the life below\u00a0<br \/>\nthe surface more closely resembles sea life: seaweed and jellyfish decorating the\u00a0<br \/>\nchambers on your path beneath the surface. On average, the video game worlds we play in are\u00a0<br \/>\nhellish, and it is due to our presence within these places. Many games and shows wrestle\u00a0<br \/>\nwith this concept, this aura of conflict\u00a0\u00a0 that surrounds the main character that seems to\u00a0<br \/>\ncause suffering to everyone around them. Nearly every story told necessitates this in at least\u00a0<br \/>\nsome way, but in the case of Journey, an entire civilization had to rise and fall all just to\u00a0<br \/>\ngive you a reason to be here. The underground, though, seems to stand in sharp contrast to the\u00a0<br \/>\nconflict of the surface. In hiding from the light, these creatures have found an oasis, perhaps the\u00a0<br \/>\nonly beings in the city still left alive. Which makes you remember&#8230; there&#8217;s a reason that\u00a0<br \/>\nthis civilization died. It&#8217;s easy to forget that danger exists\u00a0<br \/>\nhere, because for the majority of the game,\u00a0\u00a0 it simply doesn&#8217;t at all, not towards you at\u00a0<br \/>\nleast. These creatures, ones that likely came from the underground by evidence of the statues\u00a0<br \/>\naround you, prey and feed on the life energy of\u00a0\u00a0 you and your species. What comes next, in\u00a0<br \/>\nstark contrast to the rest of the game, is a stealth section, avoiding the first enemies\u00a0<br \/>\nto ever exist to you, more than halfway through the entirety of Journey. Light, what was\u00a0<br \/>\njust earlier a guide, a source of life, is now a death sentence. The search lights of these\u00a0<br \/>\nmetallic creatures spell disaster for anything\u00a0\u00a0 to get in their way. But in that proposed danger,\u00a0<br \/>\nthis newfound tension, there is one small issue. While most games hinder progress in\u00a0<br \/>\na way that feels like you\u2019re the lone\u00a0\u00a0 being fighting against greater threats,\u00a0<br \/>\nusing resets and quote unquote \u201cdeaths\u201d, it is impossible to actually die in\u00a0<br \/>\njourney. You cannot fall off of the map,\u00a0\u00a0 you cannot be reset, you cannot even\u00a0<br \/>\ntake damage in the traditional sense. While most games give you a moveset and use\u00a0<br \/>\ndifficulty as a means of controlling it,\u00a0\u00a0 Journey removes difficulty in place of the actual\u00a0<br \/>\ncore of progress: giving or taking away movement. When you get caught by these terrifying metallic\u00a0<br \/>\ncreatures, you aren\u2019t killed. Everyone knows\u00a0\u00a0 that\u2019s a farce, just the fail state that has\u00a0<br \/>\nto be put into a game for stakes to exist, the conflict that needs to happen; you are fated\u00a0<br \/>\nto reach the end of the game. When you\u2019re caught in Journey, you do not die. Instead&#8230; you lose the majority of your scarf. A massive chunk of the only tie to freedom\u00a0<br \/>\nyou have is violently ripped away from you. And, once you\u2019ve been caught, you can\u00a0<br \/>\nnever get it back. The rest of the game is made permanently more restricted, more\u00a0<br \/>\nuncomfortable, less free. In that way, Journey is more punishing to mistakes than\u00a0<br \/>\nalmost any video game out there. And yet, despite you being punished, the truth of\u00a0<br \/>\nthe matter never changes. You have a fate, and that fate has been inscribed into both\u00a0<br \/>\nstone and stars. You will reach the mountain. With patience and a bit of luck, you can make it\u00a0<br \/>\nall the way through the underside of the city.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re saved at the last second by a field of\u00a0<br \/>\nprotective runes, and, in one final meditation, your civilization&#8217;s story is put to rest.\u00a0<br \/>\nEntirely unable to fight back against the menace of the metallic creatures, the dead fell\u00a0<br \/>\ninto and were covered by the ever building dunes. The sands of time only built higher and higher,\u00a0<br \/>\nuntil any trace of their life only existed through innumerous small graves dotting the landscape.\u00a0<br \/>\nWith the influence of the light fading away, only small wisps could manage to return to the\u00a0<br \/>\nground once again&#8230; wisps that came to form you. The Tower is where past, present, and future\u00a0<br \/>\ncombine. Despite the fall into the underground feeling unplanned, like an unexpected mistake, you\u00a0<br \/>\nfind yourself exactly where it is you need to be: a tower constructed specifically for you to find\u00a0<br \/>\nit. While the past of this civilization has caught up to the beginning of your story, this tower\u00a0<br \/>\nseems to know where it continues from there. Following the theme of light as water, your\u00a0<br \/>\ngoal is to ascend by unveiling new tablets,\u00a0\u00a0 and with each comes more energy that bouys you\u00a0<br \/>\nfurther and further towards the top. However, on each of these tablets is something very\u00a0<br \/>\ninteresting: depictions of every single\u00a0\u00a0 chapter of the game, every exact step you\u00a0<br \/>\nhave gone through to get where you are now. Comparative mythology has something\u00a0<br \/>\nof a holy grail for comparativists,\u00a0\u00a0 those who fixate on similarities over differences\u00a0<br \/>\nbetween myths. If comparison is the goal, then the ultimate achievement would be to find\u00a0<br \/>\nsomething of an origin point. The \u201cprotomyth\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 is a hypothetical story, event, or commonality\u00a0<br \/>\nbetween us as people that led to every branching myth that we\u2019re aware of today. It could either\u00a0<br \/>\nbe a literal event or universal part of our world,\u00a0\u00a0 like the sun rising and falling in the sky, or\u00a0<br \/>\nsomething more universal, some undeniable part of our very minds that seems to create these\u00a0<br \/>\npatterns and seems to endlessly pass them down. it could have been something within our minds that\u00a0<br \/>\nnaturally bent those concepts. There is almost certainly no single protomyth, but\u00a0<br \/>\nlikely a combination of many things,\u00a0\u00a0 either worldwide events or universal parts\u00a0<br \/>\nof our world mixing together with our minds, combining the things that bind us externally\u00a0<br \/>\nand internally all in one. Collections of\u00a0\u00a0 words spiraling and interlinking into a web\u00a0<br \/>\nmuch stronger than any one person could make. What is spoken about now in Comparative\u00a0<br \/>\nmythology is protomyths as patterns:\u00a0\u00a0 each one a common point in that\u00a0<br \/>\ngrowing constellation of storytelling, each one analyzed to its own specific\u00a0<br \/>\norigins and delved into with the goal of\u00a0\u00a0 finding what makes it so special. You had what\u00a0<br \/>\nmay have appeared to be many different routes, thousands of potential bridges, but the world\u00a0<br \/>\nknew exactly where you were destined to go, and now you&#8217;re here. And finally, at the top\u00a0<br \/>\nof this tower, when filled to the brim with light&#8230; you&#8217;re finally able to meet this spirit\u00a0<br \/>\nphysically, outside of visions, face to face. What surrounds you, through a vision, is the\u00a0<br \/>\nmural. *The* tablets shown to you, the past, present, and now future combined into one full\u00a0<br \/>\ncircle, a circle at the top of the tower. You see the fall of the civilization, your arrival, your\u00a0<br \/>\ntrials, your triumphs, all in one unbroken cycle. Perhaps more importantly though, you\u00a0<br \/>\nalso see something else\u2026 what&#8217;s beyond. There is just one more segment past this\u00a0<br \/>\npoint, one without a clear ending given:\u00a0\u00a0 right beyond this tower, right through the gate\u00a0<br \/>\nahead of you, is the M- The mountain is not a place that you survive. While every other area in the game uses brief\u00a0<br \/>\nmoments of extra movement to make you feel free and hopeful, the mountain is where all hope\u00a0<br \/>\ngoes to die. Your scarf, the source of power lifting the chains of this world begins, slowly,\u00a0<br \/>\nto freeze. In fact, everything living around you seems to already be long frozen. You can briefly\u00a0<br \/>\nbring them back to life with a shout, what would normally give a flourish of energy, but they soon\u00a0<br \/>\nreturn futilely back to their lifeless state. Insurmountable winds blast through the cramped\u00a0<br \/>\ncrevices you&#8217;re forced to trek through,\u00a0\u00a0 a seemingly endless valley that has taken the\u00a0<br \/>\nlives of creatures far stronger than you&#8217;ve ever been. Your weakened state only\u00a0<br \/>\nmakes the trek seem more impossible,\u00a0\u00a0 your only chance of moving forward coming\u00a0<br \/>\nthrough the towering gravestones that litter this long-deadly path. Each death of some\u00a0<br \/>\ngreat being before you grants you a mere\u00a0\u00a0 few extra feet against the crushingly strong\u00a0<br \/>\nforces trying their hardest to hold you back. In most games, when it comes to death, control\u00a0<br \/>\nis in no way actually taken from you. We get to glimpse into a hypothetical world where\u00a0<br \/>\nit happened for all of a few seconds, your\u00a0\u00a0 impact on this world fading and that world fading\u00a0<br \/>\nalongside it, but it&#8217;s understood from all parties for what it really is: purely imaginary. It cannot\u00a0<br \/>\npossibly give you permanent consequences without some way to find a real, satisfying conclusion.\u00a0<br \/>\nEveryone simply engages in the fiction within\u00a0\u00a0 fiction that death has consequences, that there\u00a0<br \/>\nis tension and a reason to fight with desperation. If death truly means the end, then the only\u00a0<br \/>\ntrue death in a game is not when you lose to the game\u2019s world, it\u2019s when you succeed. When\u00a0<br \/>\nthe game has no more reason to exist, a true, final nothingness casts over everything. In\u00a0<br \/>\nthat way, death in video games often has very, very little stakes up until the very end of\u00a0<br \/>\nthe intended experience&#8230; Each straight through the mountain pass is\u00a0<br \/>\nunbearably long. You&#8217;ve been without any\u00a0\u00a0 powers for the entire game, but only now have\u00a0<br \/>\nyou truly felt powerless. The frost consuming all life on the mountain is creeping its way\u00a0<br \/>\non to you, your cloth frosting at the edge,\u00a0\u00a0 your shouts weakened, and your flight becoming\u00a0<br \/>\nincreasingly shorter. The wind doesn&#8217;t stop you, but it does slow you, and in this\u00a0<br \/>\nplace, that is just as dangerous. While the underground is the\u00a0<br \/>\nhome of those serpent monsters, they have no reservations about being\u00a0<br \/>\nin the sky. You see them hovering,\u00a0\u00a0 hunting in the distance over and over, the\u00a0<br \/>\nlife lucky enough to avoid the frost falling right into the hands of these monsters.\u00a0<br \/>\nThis is a place that drains everything. You&#8217;re given, on occasion, reprieves from\u00a0<br \/>\nthe endless winds. One, a narrow ravine,\u00a0\u00a0 peppered with the graves of\u00a0<br \/>\nyour fallen brethren; another, a heated lamp, restoring your life for the\u00a0<br \/>\nrest of the trip ahead, and one further,\u00a0\u00a0 a river frozen in time, caged off from\u00a0<br \/>\nthe chaos of your surroundings. However, with each oasis you&#8217;re given, the next\u00a0<br \/>\nstretch through hell is harsher than the last. Each and every field comes\u00a0<br \/>\nwith less cover, more danger,\u00a0\u00a0 and constant winds. While you start with at least\u00a0<br \/>\nthe assurance of protection from the monsters, you quickly enter a wide open space past the\u00a0<br \/>\nribbon bridge, one patrolled by an especially\u00a0\u00a0 insistent monster. Your primary form of cover is\u00a0<br \/>\nthe corpse-shells of ones that came before it, single segments as the smallest\u00a0<br \/>\nshelters from everything around you;\u00a0\u00a0 not strong enough to prevent the frost, but just\u00a0<br \/>\ndelaying long enough to keep pushing forward. Past the final oasis is what seems to be the\u00a0<br \/>\nfinal sign of civilization: a pass on the side of the mountain, one that seems to be impossible to\u00a0<br \/>\nactually exist. This was something built entirely for travel, for making this exact Journey, having\u00a0<br \/>\nto be built by someone or something that cannot be killed by the perpetual snowstorm. Even then,\u00a0<br \/>\nweather has taken its toll over the years,\u00a0\u00a0 with holes carved out from the path. The wind is\u00a0<br \/>\nat its harshest here, being nearly impossible to just barely inch your way to the next piece of\u00a0<br \/>\ncover. But, finally, bending the temple wall, you&#8217;re left with a stunning sight: the\u00a0<br \/>\nmountain peak, closer than it ever has been. The path here has already worn you down, and\u00a0<br \/>\nthere is nothing to hide behind anymore. There\u00a0\u00a0 is nothing in sight but snow, the peak,\u00a0<br \/>\nand the countless graves surrounding you. Each before you a traveler, one much like\u00a0<br \/>\nyourself, and each one succumbing to the\u00a0\u00a0 impossible odds. The wind doesn&#8217;t just push you\u00a0<br \/>\nback, but throws you violently back and forth, taking everything in your power not to tumble,\u00a0<br \/>\nwasting your final ounces of energy. The game, through all of the freedom introduced, has\u00a0<br \/>\nbeen stripped back down to you, a hill,\u00a0\u00a0 and one single button. And even then,\u00a0<br \/>\nthat button is starting to fade too. As you push forward, slower and slower, the\u00a0<br \/>\ngraves begin to thin, from many to some to few to eventually none: you being the furthest\u00a0<br \/>\nto have ever made it. Your body begins to slow, and as it does, the light of the mountain\u00a0<br \/>\nseems to disappear. Able to be seen from the very beginning of the game, despite how\u00a0<br \/>\nclose you are, it&#8217;s infinitely far away now. The camera patiently lingers behind you\u00a0<br \/>\nas you slow to shuffle, then a drag,\u00a0\u00a0 then a crawl. Your control in the\u00a0<br \/>\nworld, the life of this universe, falls away. The traveler collapses.\u00a0<br \/>\nYou&#8217;ve suffered a true death. In a game spent chained to the ground, moments\u00a0<br \/>\nof freedom coming in the briefest of flashes,\u00a0\u00a0 the ground has become entirely impossible\u00a0<br \/>\nto see. You are infused with light, saved by the spirits that have guided you along\u00a0<br \/>\nto the point where you are now. As if you&#8217;re in\u00a0\u00a0 resonance with the world itself, nearly\u00a0<br \/>\neverything from the creatures to the very air you fly through recharges your flight.\u00a0<br \/>\nWhile toiling away in the belly of the city,\u00a0\u00a0 dodging monsters and having your sense of\u00a0<br \/>\nfreedom literally ripped away from you, your scarf now often flows entirely off\u00a0<br \/>\nthe screen, becoming nothing more than an\u00a0\u00a0 afterthought. Every single moment of this, both as\u00a0<br \/>\nthe traveler and as the player is pure euphoria. With everything in the game until this point being\u00a0<br \/>\nbuilt on restriction, your freedom here feels,\u00a0\u00a0 tangibly, like divinity itself. The shackles\u00a0<br \/>\nof gravity are undone before your very eyes, and the narrative is transferred into and\u00a0<br \/>\nthrough your control on the game itself. Every\u00a0\u00a0 section of the game is revisited for brief\u00a0<br \/>\nmoments. You glide above the land bridges, slide down the snowy mountainside, swim up\u00a0<br \/>\nthrough the faux-water, grazing the jellyfish\u00a0\u00a0 and riding alongside the cloth version\u00a0<br \/>\nof the very monsters that hunted you. These obstacles exist only for the sake\u00a0<br \/>\nof play, entirely optional now and yet\u00a0\u00a0 something most people willingly choose to do\u00a0<br \/>\nagain, gliding their way through memory lane. In what feels like the first time since\u00a0<br \/>\nthe desert that you&#8217;ve seen the full sky,\u00a0\u00a0 now a perfect blue, the land left to fly over\u00a0<br \/>\nseems to finally be running out. At one final gate overlooking a small pond of water is a\u00a0<br \/>\ndivine beam of light, like a god themself is\u00a0\u00a0 staring right down upon you. And, much like the\u00a0<br \/>\nburst of energy to make you ascend the first time, you are engulfed in a pure glow as you\u00a0<br \/>\nmake your way across the final gap,\u00a0\u00a0 a complete void below you, hardly\u00a0<br \/>\neven noticed. Finally landing at the peak is a somewhat\u00a0<br \/>\nsobering moment. The scarf you were given\u00a0\u00a0 at the very start of the game dissipates,\u00a0<br \/>\njumping and flying no longer a necessity. Again, you are left only with the shout and the forward\u00a0<br \/>\nkey, and just one more place to go. That light you&#8217;ve been chasing is now surrounding you\u00a0<br \/>\nentirely, near-blinding and all encompassing. The walk, nearly as slow as the crawl up the\u00a0<br \/>\nmountain, is, this time, a peaceful moment. In a way, though, you&#8217;re walking to your death\u00a0<br \/>\nin both. Whatever is inside the mountain is the end of the world, the end of your influence\u00a0<br \/>\nand as such the end of all reason for this\u00a0\u00a0 place to exist. The sound of everything\u00a0<br \/>\nbut the music fades away with the light, the medium itself consumed by the\u00a0<br \/>\ndestination being finally reached. Our view into this universe, the camera, lingers\u00a0<br \/>\nbehind, behind with the walls meant to hold the traveler, not us, within the game world. They\u00a0<br \/>\nbegin to walk on their own, into a place we aren&#8217;t allowed to, or perhaps aren&#8217;t able to see.\u00a0<br \/>\nAs the glow of the mountain consumes them whole, all that&#8217;s left is the pure white light,\u00a0<br \/>\nas everything finally comes to an end. When the game first released, there was a relative\u00a0<br \/>\nchaos in story interpretation. Despite being such\u00a0\u00a0 a smashing success for hardcore, casual, and\u00a0<br \/>\nnon-gamers, very little consensus was reached on what the story was actually specifically\u00a0<br \/>\nabout. Journey is a game about mythology,\u00a0\u00a0 fate, and prophecy, it\u2019s a game about friendship,\u00a0<br \/>\nabout life and\u2026 deserts. It\u2019s a game about cycles, or\u2026 something. But if you were to\u00a0<br \/>\ninterrogate the core of the game,\u00a0\u00a0 the soul at the very center of what is trying\u00a0<br \/>\nto be told to you\u2026 you run into some trouble. Theories circulated about religious\u00a0<br \/>\ninterpretations and all other sorts of\u00a0\u00a0 things, but even those were hard to specifically\u00a0<br \/>\njustify in one way or another outside of imagery, for the simple fact that there is no\u00a0<br \/>\ntextual evidence to really support\u00a0\u00a0 anything. It&#8217;s impossible to argue semantics when\u00a0<br \/>\nan idea itself isn&#8217;t particularly present. What\u00a0\u00a0 Journey undoubtedly is, however, is a deeply\u00a0<br \/>\nmoving experience. There must be something tangible in the process that Journey takes us\u00a0<br \/>\nthrough, something so core to us that despite\u00a0\u00a0 no actual information existing to latch on to,\u00a0<br \/>\nwe experience something very real regardless. What each person gets out of the game&#8217;s\u00a0<br \/>\nexperience seems perfectly tailored to them,\u00a0\u00a0 each detail to stand out being a natural\u00a0<br \/>\nreflection of the landscape of that person&#8217;s mind. Despite the beautiful visuals and\u00a0<br \/>\nsoundtrack and clear intentionality,\u00a0\u00a0 Journey seems to simultaneously be a blank canvas.\u00a0<br \/>\nThe natural conclusion to come to eventually is that Journey, the game, was designed not to be\u00a0<br \/>\na creation, but to be a process of creation. As you\u2019ve likely pieced together by now,\u00a0<br \/>\nwhile the game isn\u2019t quite about mythology,\u00a0\u00a0 mythology is important to Journey for a\u00a0<br \/>\nreason. While the backstory of the game is given to us via hieroglyphs, it\u2019s deeply\u00a0<br \/>\nimportant to note that it does not end with\u00a0\u00a0 the civilization turning to dust. It continues\u00a0<br \/>\ninto our time, the one we get to play through. The story in that tower of light we ascend\u00a0<br \/>\nis not a separate story, it\u2019s a continuation,\u00a0\u00a0 left off at the exact moment that we arrived.\u00a0<br \/>\nMost often, prophecies and hieroglyphs serve as symbolic representations of much more\u00a0<br \/>\ncomplex stories and moments and feelings,\u00a0\u00a0 remnants left over from lives so nuanced that\u00a0<br \/>\nthey could never be accurately represented. However, with each tablet revealed as you ascend\u00a0<br \/>\nthe tower, you may realize that despite each\u00a0\u00a0 entire chapter of the game existing inside of\u00a0<br \/>\none single picture each, the entire summation of its story is shown more or less without leaving\u00a0<br \/>\nreally anything out. In chapter 1, you arrive in the desert. In chapter 2, you construct a bridge\u00a0<br \/>\nmade of cloth. In chapter 3, you move through a desert and up a tower with your cloth creature\u00a0<br \/>\nfriends. In chapter 4, you slide down a hill.\u00a0\u00a0 In chapter 5, you enter the underground\u00a0<br \/>\ncity and avoid the metal snake monsters. The game of Journey and these prophetic\u00a0<br \/>\nglyphs have the same amount of dialogue\u00a0\u00a0 and plot progression. In the case of the\u00a0<br \/>\nbackstory, speaking plot point for plot point, it has even more story than the game has. The only\u00a0<br \/>\nreal difference between these tablets and the game of Journey itself is that one is written down\u00a0<br \/>\nand one is made for us to play through. Journey is not a cycle of the monomyth, like every\u00a0<br \/>\nother iteration of video game narrative, yet\u00a0\u00a0 another reincarnation of the hero\u2019s journey with\u00a0<br \/>\ndifferent names and faces and story beats within that structure. Instead, it is, in a literal\u00a0<br \/>\nsense, the Hero\u2019s Journey. The structure itself. Journey being named as simply as it\u00a0<br \/>\nis is not some random artsy choice,\u00a0\u00a0 it is the entire point of the game. What\u00a0<br \/>\nis presented to you is a literalization, a world constructed entirely for the purpose\u00a0<br \/>\nof symbolizing and showcasing the simplest,\u00a0\u00a0 most beautiful painting of the monomyth\u00a0<br \/>\nthat you yourself can take part in. One of the single most talked\u00a0<br \/>\nabout elements of the game,\u00a0\u00a0 and perhaps the most important for the\u00a0<br \/>\nsake of its emotional impact is the game\u2019s original soundtrack. Each track is beautifully\u00a0<br \/>\ntailored to every moment, being filled with an\u00a0\u00a0 anachronistic blend of timeless strings, modern\u00a0<br \/>\nambient, distant horns and drums and woodwinds, making every song feel as big and as small\u00a0<br \/>\nas it needs to be at any given moment. If you were to look up this soundtrack as many,\u00a0<br \/>\nmany people have, you\u2019d get something that hardly exists at all in the game of Journey itself:\u00a0<br \/>\nnames. The soundtrack has names for its songs, as most do, but rather than calling it something\u00a0<br \/>\nas brutalistically simple as Gameplay 1,\u00a0\u00a0 Gameplay 2, Gameplay 3, and so on, or as\u00a0<br \/>\nindividual as Resurrections, Starjump, and Reach for the Summit, the song names are\u00a0<br \/>\nall connected in a deeply interesting way. Nascence, The Call, Threshold, The Road of\u00a0<br \/>\nTrials, Temptations, Descent, Atonement, The Crossing, Reclamation, Nadir, and Apotheosis,\u00a0<br \/>\nwith 5 confluences weaved between them. There are exactly 17 songs that play over the course\u00a0<br \/>\nof the main game, with nearly every single\u00a0\u00a0 one named in some way in relation to the steps\u00a0<br \/>\nof the Monomyth. Not anything within the story, but the structure of storytelling itself\u2026 however.\u00a0<br \/>\nIf you\u2019re familiar at all with Joseph Campbell\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0 17 steps, Apotheosis is not the final one. In\u00a0<br \/>\nfact, it is hardly past the halfway point. Out of the song names presented, only 6 or arguably 7 are\u00a0<br \/>\nactually steps in the Hero\u2019s Journey specifically. The Call, Threshold, The Road of Trials,\u00a0<br \/>\nTemptations, Atonement, and Apotheosis,\u00a0\u00a0 and arguably the Confluences themselves.\u00a0<br \/>\nBetween these are songs of additional meaning and significance. While the game\u00a0<br \/>\nis undoubtedly a realization of this cycle,\u00a0\u00a0 it has more to speak on than just a recreation\u00a0<br \/>\nof it, and we can peek into these cracks through the meanings of the remaining songs\u2026\u00a0<br \/>\nincluding the 18th and final one. Nearly all stories play pretend in a very\u00a0<br \/>\nspecific way. They assume that the world\u00a0\u00a0 being opened to your mind is one that has existed\u00a0<br \/>\nfor thousands to millions to billions of years, that we are being shown a brief window into\u00a0<br \/>\na long-living place. Even further we enter\u00a0\u00a0 into the life of someone that has lived\u00a0<br \/>\nfor many years before this point as well, often implied to have a life stable enough most\u00a0<br \/>\nof the time as to not require a story being\u00a0\u00a0 written of it, only the most conflict-ridden\u00a0<br \/>\npoints of time being given that distinction. However, for the traveler in Journey, we come\u00a0<br \/>\nto learn by midway through the game that we\u00a0\u00a0 were not joining this being as it arrived to this\u00a0<br \/>\ncivilization: it was born at the very spot that we began controlling it. Nascence is the first song\u00a0<br \/>\nin the OST, the very opening to the game. The word means \u201cTo come into existence\u201d. Each confluence\u00a0<br \/>\ncoincides with the meeting of the goddesses,\u00a0\u00a0 or potentially past spirits if the composer\u2019s\u00a0<br \/>\nview holds some weight. The three songs after the Final Confluence, where you learn of your fate\u00a0<br \/>\nto face the mountain head on, are The Crossing,\u00a0\u00a0 Reclamation, and Nadir. Reclamation is a song that\u00a0<br \/>\nplays in the few spots of oases on the mountain, those brief moments of warmth that allow\u00a0<br \/>\nyou to keep moving just a bit longer. As for the The Crossing and Nadir,\u00a0<br \/>\nthey seem to be steps borrowed from more modern interpretations of\u00a0<br \/>\nthe Hero\u2019s Journey: The Approach,\u00a0\u00a0 a conflict you must face as you get close to your\u00a0<br \/>\ndestination, and The Ordeal, the final conflict that decides whether you live and grow or die\u00a0<br \/>\nwhere you stand. Nadir is an astronomical term, meaning \u201clowest point\u201d, a place that, in game, is\u00a0<br \/>\nthe highest you\u2019ve ever managed to get to. It\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0 the song that plays as you do die where you stand,\u00a0<br \/>\nthe peak closer in sight than it has ever been. And then\u2026 there\u2019s the credits. The next step in\u00a0<br \/>\nthe Hero\u2019s Journey, the one we don\u2019t get to see, is \u201cThe Ultimate Boon\u201d. In the monomyth, this\u00a0<br \/>\nis the thing that was ultimately sought after,\u00a0\u00a0 the reason for the entire journey. It is,\u00a0<br \/>\npresumably, what is inside the mountain. As on the nose as it is to state this,\u00a0<br \/>\nthe game is literally about the Journey\u00a0\u00a0 and not the destination. It is only a\u00a0<br \/>\nshowcase of the middle of the Monomyth, that journey into the unknown world,\u00a0<br \/>\nand it\u2019s for a very specific reason,\u00a0\u00a0 one we\u2019ll speak about in a moment. What we\u00a0<br \/>\ndo get to see, however, is the journey back. The credits are scored by the song, \u201cI Was Born\u00a0<br \/>\nfor This\u201d. Unlike every other song in the game, this one has lyrics. Each section of the song is\u00a0<br \/>\nsung in a different language, the native tongue of various famous myths and historical figures. The\u00a0<br \/>\nfirst is from The Aeneid in latin, then Beowulf, The Iliad, the Japanese poet Matsuo Basho, and\u00a0<br \/>\nthe tagline of the song, \u201cI Was Born For This\u201d, being the final words of Joan of Arc, speaking\u00a0<br \/>\nto destiny and fate. The song is a connecting point of cultures all across time and nations,\u00a0<br \/>\nand serves as the backdrop for the journey home. Our traveler, now a being of pure energy like\u00a0<br \/>\nthe ones we\u2019ve seen throughout the game begins\u00a0\u00a0 to fly back &#8211; fly back through the mountain, down\u00a0<br \/>\nthe tower, under the city, over the ruins, beyond the factory, above the dunes, and back, right\u00a0<br \/>\ndown behind that very first hill in the game. We watch the night time slowly turn\u00a0<br \/>\nto day as the credits come to an end,\u00a0\u00a0 and as the sun peaks over the sky\u2026 we\u2019re back to\u00a0<br \/>\nthe starting menu, seamlessly connecting to the very beginning of the game. Just like it\u2019s your\u00a0<br \/>\nfate to reach the mountain, it\u2019s further your fate\u00a0\u00a0 to do it all over again. Due to the short nature\u00a0<br \/>\nof the game, it\u2019s not just possible but fairly common to decide to return to it and play through\u00a0<br \/>\nthe entire game again in one sitting. What begins as a life changing experience becomes a comforting\u00a0<br \/>\none, its soundtrack, visuals, and co-op experience being a welcoming hug and trip down memory lane; a\u00a0<br \/>\nway to re-experience what you originally had, and to pay mind to each and every moment of not just\u00a0<br \/>\nthe literal journey, but your internal one too. And even further, very importantly, you\u00a0<br \/>\nget to share these moments with a nameless\u00a0\u00a0 friend. These artistic storytelling cycles\u00a0<br \/>\nmanifest over and over and over in different people and places and structures, but\u00a0<br \/>\nart as a whole happens as a community,\u00a0\u00a0 and Journey gives you the ability to do so.\u00a0<br \/>\nWhile everyone was new to the game around launch, there is still to this day hundreds of\u00a0<br \/>\npeople online that serve as shepherds for\u00a0\u00a0 newer players. Often adorned in the white robe,\u00a0<br \/>\nthe one you get for collecting all life pieces, they serve almost as a tour guide. They\u00a0<br \/>\nshow you what this world has to offer,\u00a0\u00a0 what to collect, what to see, and where to go.\u00a0<br \/>\nEven for a pair first travelers, the moments shared together far outweigh how they feel to be\u00a0<br \/>\nexperienced alone. There is truly two different video games played here, changing entirely\u00a0<br \/>\nin its DNA the moment you have a companion. The mountain&#8217;s design is rather special. It\u00a0<br \/>\nhas two peaks, but is rounded off at the top of both of them. As revealed in the design notes,\u00a0<br \/>\nthe mountain is shaped this way for a reason;\u00a0\u00a0 it&#8217;s meant to resemble the embrace of two people,\u00a0<br \/>\ntwo bodies in a state of permanent connection; the source of life, the power of the\u00a0<br \/>\nmountain is, in a way, love itself. Art is the interaction between two or more minds.\u00a0<br \/>\nYou connect to the artist, but you can also use art to connect to each other. In this game,\u00a0<br \/>\nthere is no reason not to keep moving forward, no specific thing keeping you tied to this\u00a0<br \/>\nworld, except for another player. You can mess around with someone, sit around, do cute\u00a0<br \/>\nlittle rituals, explore, their presence,\u00a0\u00a0 the presence of another living being to experience\u00a0<br \/>\nthis art with gives a whole new dimension to it. Not many games out there have co-op with\u00a0<br \/>\nstrangers against no opponent at all. We&#8217;re so\u00a0\u00a0 often compared against each other for the sake of\u00a0<br \/>\nplay and competition, but we all see and know the consequences of that. Online play is so commonly\u00a0<br \/>\nseen as unfixably nasty, but Journey is this oasis of almost intimacy with each other. You&#8217;re\u00a0<br \/>\nonly able to communicate in shouts, you don&#8217;t\u00a0\u00a0 even have the privilege of a name, a customized\u00a0<br \/>\nlook, anything that states that you are a person outside of this place. No, to them, and them to\u00a0<br \/>\nyou, both are just travelers on the same path. By removing our individual senses of identity,\u00a0<br \/>\nwe exist in Journey in the *context* of Journey. Our need to feel special melts away into the\u00a0<br \/>\nsand. All we can do is take this path together. Once the tools and societal pressure to be\u00a0<br \/>\ncompetitively selfish disappears, we become\u00a0\u00a0 as we always have been; travelers together,\u00a0<br \/>\nhelping eachother across wind, sand, and snow. While the song names are based off of the\u00a0<br \/>\nsteps of the Hero\u2019s Journey, what\u2019s important\u00a0\u00a0 to note is that a lot of what happens in those\u00a0<br \/>\nsteps are simply not communicated in Journey\u2019s actual story. The Hero\u2019s Journey as a story is\u00a0<br \/>\nnot based exclusively on external conflicts; just as much as the hero struggles with the\u00a0<br \/>\noutside, they struggle from within as well.\u00a0\u00a0 And yet, our nameless, wordless, expressionless\u00a0<br \/>\ntraveler simply can\u2019t provide that for us. In lieu of the protagonist having that progression,\u00a0<br \/>\nthat conflict is placed on you, the player. Most games place you in the position of the\u00a0<br \/>\nobserver, feeling secondhand emotions from the\u00a0\u00a0 actions and reactions of the protagonist. However,\u00a0<br \/>\noutside of those brief moments with the goddesses, you are the only being controlling every\u00a0<br \/>\naction the traveler takes. It only exists to be an extension of you, a tour guide through\u00a0<br \/>\nthis world, and a way to tangibly interact with it. Truthfully this is the goal of all stories,\u00a0<br \/>\nto be a conduit to move you, to change you, to give you new perspectives and ideas. It\u2019s\u00a0<br \/>\nsimply that, like everything else in Journey, it does away with any need to pretend. The\u00a0<br \/>\ndirectness of this game, through game design\u00a0\u00a0 to story to philosophy, all serves to connect\u00a0<br \/>\nwith you more than any game to come before or after. The names of these songs are as much about\u00a0<br \/>\neach individual section of the world as they are mission statements, detailing the emotions that\u00a0<br \/>\neach song wants to evoke in you and you alone. While the world you travel through is digital,\u00a0<br \/>\nthe journey you take within yourself is real.\u00a0\u00a0 Each moment of connection, each detail of this\u00a0<br \/>\nworld lives within you, a projection of emotions and friends and beauty casting into the inside\u00a0<br \/>\nof your mind, becoming real for those fleeting\u00a0\u00a0 moments where everything else seems to fall\u00a0<br \/>\naway. The music swells and you soar in flight, the world darkens and you shrink yourself. You\u00a0<br \/>\nembody this vessel, these living clothes for your soul to wear if only for a moment, one moment\u00a0<br \/>\nbridging your life before and your life beyond. You are the being that has existed long before\u00a0<br \/>\nthis story, in a universe that came into existence\u00a0\u00a0 an inconceivable amount of time before you\u00a0<br \/>\ndid. Journey is merely the special world, one that you transport into for exactly\u00a0<br \/>\nas long as you control the traveler. Once\u00a0\u00a0 you\u2019ve found the ultimate boon, you return back to\u00a0<br \/>\nyourself, having changed, if only in a small way. It is hard to imagine, even today, that this\u00a0<br \/>\ngame was the success it was. I\u2019ve spoken of so many weird, fascinating, life changing\u00a0<br \/>\nartsy video games in my time on this channel,\u00a0\u00a0 but absolutely none have had the universality\u00a0<br \/>\nand popularity that Journey did. As said before, it was not quite an indie game itself, at\u00a0<br \/>\nleast not in the way we think about it today,\u00a0\u00a0 but its origins were unique and\u00a0<br \/>\nrooted in indie game design. You could attribute its success to its\u00a0<br \/>\nuniqueness at the time, its budget,\u00a0\u00a0 its support from Sony, but that simply doesn\u2019t\u00a0<br \/>\ntell the full story. 2012 was a year much like any other. The same companies produced\u00a0<br \/>\nthe same monumentally popular AAA titles,\u00a0\u00a0 series tried and tested and proven to sell\u00a0<br \/>\nyear after year after year. And yet, in the same breath as the titans of Black Ops, Far Cry,\u00a0<br \/>\nHalo, and Mass Effect is Journey. This single, wordless game made by a small group of people\u00a0<br \/>\nthat shied away from every single known aspect\u00a0\u00a0 of what a successful game could be:\u00a0<br \/>\nthis is the thing that broke records. No, in my opinion, what made this game successful\u00a0<br \/>\nis the very foundation of why it was made. Every game is inherently exclusionary in some way.\u00a0<br \/>\nEven for the most popular games out there,\u00a0\u00a0 run through board meetings and playtesting and\u00a0<br \/>\nstudies to be as widely appealing as possible, an invisible wall surrounds every game\u00a0<br \/>\nin existence, as well as video games as\u00a0\u00a0 a whole. Be it difficulty or learning\u00a0<br \/>\ncurves or just price, there is more to get into and way more to learn before you\u00a0<br \/>\ncan even begin to enjoy gaming as a whole. Journey is a game that doesn\u2019t even last 2 hours.\u00a0<br \/>\nThe controls are painfully simple, the puzzles are easy, the gameplay is borderline nonexistent, and\u00a0<br \/>\nthe story is entirely wordless. Yet in this game, in this world is the connection point of all of\u00a0<br \/>\nhumanity. A net cast out across space and time, the invisible patterns that have existed\u00a0<br \/>\nwithin us since we as a whole have existed.\u00a0\u00a0 A story constructed of and built on a cycle that\u00a0<br \/>\nbuilds bridges between every single one of us. Journey was developed, like many\u00a0<br \/>\nof the most interesting games,\u00a0\u00a0 by people with experience in other\u00a0<br \/>\nart fields, multi-media developers and creative visionaries that simply crossed\u00a0<br \/>\npaths with video games rather than a life lived\u00a0\u00a0 within them. Each walk of life brought\u00a0<br \/>\ndifferences, uniqueness in experience, but in the process of creating Journey,\u00a0<br \/>\nthey focused on what makes them similar. Journey is a wordless playground, walking\u00a0<br \/>\nand flying through the cosmic structure that binds us all, and through that universality,\u00a0<br \/>\nthrough that connection to the souls of everyone\u00a0\u00a0 to touch this barren desert, it achieved\u00a0<br \/>\nwhat no video game quite had before. It broke through. It became the source for artsy,\u00a0<br \/>\nstory-centric indie games to sprout out from, a place for each cycle to begin anew,\u00a0<br \/>\nwith genuine hopes that these artists\u00a0\u00a0 might actually see a reward for their efforts.\u00a0<br \/>\nJourney, in a way, has become a protomyth. A lineage of unique, weird, scrappy excellence\u00a0<br \/>\ncan be traced both to and beyond the game of Journey. Just as it was fed into by\u00a0<br \/>\nthousands of years of storytelling,\u00a0\u00a0 it has continued the path to many of\u00a0<br \/>\nthe most beloved games of all time\u2026 It\u2019s my belief that most progress humanity\u00a0<br \/>\nfinds, in both the biggest and smallest ways,\u00a0\u00a0 is eventually inevitable. If it weren\u2019t Journey,\u00a0<br \/>\nthere was a chance that another game would have followed that did more or less the same thing:\u00a0<br \/>\nopen up the consumer market for games that reject\u00a0\u00a0 the need to just be toys and to blend gameplay\u00a0<br \/>\ndirectly into the message. It\u2019s not like Journey was the first to try it, or thatgamecompany would\u00a0<br \/>\nbe the only group of people to do it. However,\u00a0\u00a0 with that different timeline would come\u00a0<br \/>\ndifferent games. If it would have taken another year, many of the chains of\u00a0<br \/>\ninfluences would be entirely broken,\u00a0\u00a0 so many art products only being possible\u00a0<br \/>\nin the briefest of times and circumstances. To me, no video game narrative can or should\u00a0<br \/>\nbe a movie or a book. You do interact with these worlds, even if through tiny button\u00a0<br \/>\nprompts or just walking the way the map\u00a0\u00a0 guides you. The fact that you do the inputs,\u00a0<br \/>\nyou guide the camera, you control the pace, it makes you a conduit. There is a connection\u00a0<br \/>\nthat forms between yourself and this universe that no other medium we have ever made can quite\u00a0<br \/>\ncapture the same way. Journey could be nothing but a video game, and it understands\u00a0<br \/>\nthat fact. That means something to me. In its simplicity, we\u2019ve come to fill in\u00a0<br \/>\nthe details. In playing as the protagonist,\u00a0\u00a0 we\u2019ve come to fill that internal\u00a0<br \/>\nworld. In taking this Journey, we\u2019ve come to change ourselves by the end.\u00a0<br \/>\nInside our minds are inscribed patterns, tropes and beats and moments that bind\u00a0<br \/>\nall of us together; myths all borrowing\u00a0\u00a0 the millenia of earth and winds and water that\u00a0<br \/>\ncarved out the narrative worlds we all travel through. They manifest in different forms,\u00a0<br \/>\nbut their core is what draws all of us in. In truth, nearly every story is about climbing\u00a0<br \/>\na mountain. They struggle in different ways,\u00a0\u00a0 face different trials, may have their journey be\u00a0<br \/>\nshifted and changed and layered through all sorts of complexity. They might make it, or the very\u00a0<br \/>\nwell may die along the way. You as the character are birthed from life, and upon completing your\u00a0<br \/>\njourney, you\u2019re awarded with returning to it,\u00a0\u00a0 no longer existing, your purpose, your fate\u00a0<br \/>\nas the protagonist, successfully fulfilled. Your fate was scribed onto digital screens\u00a0<br \/>\nwith modern glyphs, your fate sealed by\u00a0\u00a0 proofreading and deadlines, a being controlled\u00a0<br \/>\nby the creator or creators of your universe. Those stars interlinking between us create\u00a0<br \/>\nthe constellations in Journey\u2019s sky,\u00a0\u00a0 the millions of dunes formed from bits of\u00a0<br \/>\ndialogue from every character to ever exist, crushed and repurposed and reimagined in the\u00a0<br \/>\nminds of the people, the gods, the mountain,\u00a0\u00a0 who modeled it. Each atom in the world of\u00a0<br \/>\nJourney has been dissipated and reassembled in every story you\u2019ve ever read, stretching back\u00a0<br \/>\nto the first human and forward to the eventual last. The Hero\u2019s Journey is now something you\u00a0<br \/>\ndon\u2019t just see, but do. We have all taken this Journey before through someone else, but now\u00a0<br \/>\nwe can do it ourselves. We can set foot in\u00a0\u00a0 this place like we never have before. The\u00a0<br \/>\nquestion is&#8230; Would you like to do it again?<br \/>\n<br \/>\n&#8230;and what that nothing can mean for us.<\/p>\n<p>Support me on Patreon (please): https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/user?u=74033438<br \/>\nJoin the Discord (there are furries there): https:\/\/discord.gg\/Nt6BhKKee7<\/p>\n<p>Thumbnail by the ever-talented artist, streamer, gamer extraordinare RigorMarcy:<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/rigormarcy.carrd.co\/<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/rigormarcy<\/p>\n<p>Free high quality download of the thumbnail (and variations) for desktop backgrounds (be sure to send Marcy a thanks): https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/posts\/130857423\/<\/p>\n<p>Music Used: https:\/\/pastebin.com\/5fxgpBzc<\/p>\n<p>Chapters:<br \/>\n0:00 Introduction<br \/>\n1:59 What is Journey?<br \/>\n5:32 Nascence<br \/>\n6:54 The Bridge<br \/>\n11:36 The Desert<br \/>\n15:07 The Dunes<br \/>\n21:20 The Ruins<br \/>\n27:17 The Tower<br \/>\n30:02 The Mountain<br \/>\n40:10 Analysis<br \/>\n53:48 Conclusion<br \/>\n58:59 Ending<br \/>\n1:00:18 Support<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Journey is a game about nothing. You have played \u201cJourney\u201d before,\u00a0 even if you think you haven\u2019t. You and eve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1842195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[593415],"tags":[948239,948240,948241,135,963,949018,949019,877052,949017,9,30213],"class_list":{"0":"post-1842194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-2025-summer","8":"tag-2025-summer","9":"tag-2025-summer-anime","10":"tag-948241","11":"tag-anime","12":"tag-journey","13":"tag-journey-is-a-game-about-nothing","14":"tag-journey-video-essay","15":"tag-sand-land-the-series","16":"tag-the-cursed-judge","17":"tag-9","18":"tag-30213"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1842194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1842194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1842195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1842194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1842194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/anime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1842194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}