KONSHUU | Volume 58, Issue 2
BEAUTY IN THE ABSENCE OF SMILES: GEN DESIGN'S PHILOSOPHY OF EMOTION RAHM JETHANI
Editor-In-Chief
2nd Year, English & Japanese
Alternatively: The Magnificent yet Conflicting Language of Video Games
SPOILER WARNING FOR ALL TEAM ICO/GEN DESIGN GAMES! (ICO, SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS, AND THE LAST GUARDIAN)
ion. Despite Ueda’s philosophy though, many of the most commonly cited “emotional” games have an exact opposite approach to game design, due to heavy influence from cinema. Most AI companions in video games are either invincible, or hopelessly inadequate. And in nearly every single case, the companion character is completely removed from player management, which fundamentally breaks the emotion-gameplay fusion shown to be so effective. There seems to be, initially, no reason why this trend is now the expectation, especially in the face of games like gen DESIGN’s.
The projects made by video game auteur Fumito Ueda are as magical and fantastical as they are profound explorations upon the video game art form. His emphasis on linking feelings to game mechanics have quietly gone on to massively impact titans of gaming, with notable examples being The Last of Us and Dark Souls. In addition to their influence over the industry, each of Ueda’s games have been awarded incredible praise and favoritism by many. With this being said, Ueda’s accomplishments are stunningly impressive given the fact that his studio, gen DESIGN (formally known as Team Ico), have only created three games. Each gen DESIGN game is focused on emotional bonds between two characters. In Ico, the bond is between the titular character and his companion Yorda. Shadow of the Colossus’s bond was presented as the main character’s relationship with the dead girl Mono, but many players instead felt a deeper kinship with the main character’s horse, Agro. This sentiment inspired Ueda to design his next game around the bond between a human and a beast called Trico, which resulted in The Last Guardian. All of these games weave their emotional connections into gameplay. A prime example can be seen in Ico, where in order to lead Yorda around, the player needs to physically hold down a button to hold her hand. Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian also deploy similar gameplay techniques in order to emphasize the feeling of emotional intimacy between the characters. These gameplay choices led to poetic role reversals, feelings of true companionship, and reciprocal gameplay that reinforced character dynamics. Due to intense minimalism and steadfast removal of sentimentality, every element of these games points towards the same philosophy: fostering the emotional connection between the player and their compan-
Video games are, more than any other art form, built around interaction. If a player hits a button, they want to receive a fast, consistent, and responsive output. Therefore, it makes sense that many of the most acclaimed games heavily consider immediacy, convenience, and agency. These games often have the ability to skip cutscenes, bind controls, and maintain a stable framerate. Our modern console generation’s main selling point is having almost non-existent load times, just so we can play just that much quicker. Because of gaming’s emphasis on these features, it conditions players to attribute frustration or boredom in gameplay to just “bad game design.” All of gen DESIGN’s games do, to some extent, throw modern conventions away. While cohesive to the story each game tells, there are long sections of intense slowness, unreliability, and jank. These factors have the potential to rub people the wrong way, and have especially done so with the release of The Last Guardian. It was met with a lot of criticism because the emotion-gameplay fusion often disregarded player convenience. The bond between the player character and Trico was defined by its inconsistency, which while accurate to the experience of having an animal, doesn’t make