That is, they’re sort of writing the story as each attempt plays out. Thus everything that happens is determined by the player. The story begins with his very first attempt (under the player’s guidance) and it can only end once he finally makes it out. Hades is the story of Zagreus’ escape (or attempt to escape) from the Underworld. All they’re really doing is playing out what’s already been decided. In Bastion, the player is basically just along for the ride. The nature of Hades’ story is also different from that of Bastion. Neither player nor Zagreus knows why exactly most of the characters do what they do and that mystery serves as a major motivating factor. There’s one key element left out of their descriptions, though, and that’s motivation. All of is laid bare through either their dialogue box or the convenient codex Zagreus obtains early on in the game. Players need to do little guesswork regarding Hades’ inhabitants and the roles they fill. The world of Hades is more fleshed out as well. In fact, it’s mostly used to set up protagonist Zagreus for one of his snarky quips. It’s more window dressing than it is an important storytelling device. Narration is used in Hades too but only sparingly. There might be subtle changes here and there, but the major beats are set in stone. Until then, all they can do is play it out. Thus the Kid, and by extension the player, has no real influence over the outcome until the end. For all he and the player know, it’s been centuries since the original Calamity destroyed Caelondia. Rucks strongly implies that everything has happened before and not just once. See, in Bastion the plot is set from the beginning it’s not just set, but ultimately inevitable. It also defines the player’s role in its telling. This is how Bastion’s signature feature, the constant narration of everything the player does, is integrated into the story. It’s Rucks alone who explains what’s going on from moment to moment, with the Kid simply acting as a character in the story Rucks is telling sometime after the fact. It can be said that Rucks is even more central to Bastion’s story than the Kid himself. One has to listen to him carefully if they want to pick up clues about Caelondia’s past and who exactly the Kid, Rucks, Via and Zulf are. Everything else comes from an old man by the name of Rucks’ narration, and that’s mostly focused on the silent Kid’s present adventure. It can be inferred that Caelondia had magic thanks to the ruin’s otherwise inexplicable floating nature, seeming lack of technological features and the Bastion itself, but that’s it. The world, the former “Caelondia,” is almost entirely destroyed before the game’s outset, leaving the player few clues as to its nature. In Bastion, the story is mostly delivered via narration. Does the more recent Hades, a game developed by a much more experienced studio, do it better? Not necessarily. The studio’s latest game, Hades, has plenty of storytelling differences between it and all its predecessors, but perhaps it would be best to focus on how it differs from Bastion since it’s been nearly ten years now since the latter title’s release. Most immediately look to gameplay to exemplify this, but there’s just as much difference in how each title’s story is told. They all have that signature feel fans have come to expect from Supergiant, yet still manage to differ widely from one another. It started with Bastion’s live-narration and has manifested differently in each of the company’s games thus far. Ever since Bastion arrived on the Xbox 360 in July 2011, Supergiant Games has been known for exploring gaming’s storytelling potential.
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