In this series of posts, I’m attempting to explain why I found Bastion, Supergiant Games’ first title, so compelling. Note that I say “attempting”, because I’m not sure if I could ever adequately explain why. I’m giving it a try anyway, though, so that the next time someone asks me what game they should play, I can link them 6000+ words on the subject_._ __
The first post, which covered Bastion’s pretty solid gameplay, was spoiler free, and got most of the non-story discourse out of the way. This post, on the other hand, is a discussion specifically targeting Bastion’s story - can’t really do that in a spoiler-free fashion. However, here’s the format I’m going to attempt with this series of posts. I’m going to go through the entire game, section by section. First, there’ll be a paragraph or two explaining what you do in the game; what you’re doing, where you’ve gone. Then, there’ll be a paragraph or more discussing interesting happenings within the chapter.
You might get away with reading the first couple paragraphs or so, to get a feel for the mood of the game, but I really, really recommend you go into it without any preconceptions. The story is the game, or at least it is for me. If you’ve already played through the game, and are wondering what just happened - great! Follow me as I inexpertly analyze it.
Proper story’s supposed to start at the beginning. Ain’t so simple with this one. Now here’s a kid whose whole world got all twisted, leaving him stranded on a rock in the sky.
You’re presented with some guy lying on a bedroll, and the words: “The Rippling Walls”. The game doesn’t tell you you have control. It just waits until you a press a key; then, the Kid gets up. You don’t stop to think about the controls; you know, already, how to move, and you do. You set off in search of the Bastion, where everyone agreed to go to in case of trouble. Throughout all of this, there is a narrator explaining or expounding upon your actions. You notice that you’re in the air, and that tiles float up as you walk. The ground forms up under his feet as if pointing the way. He don’t stop to wonder why. _You find your hammer. _Finds his lifelong friend just lying in the road. Well, it’s a…touching reunion. You see what’s left of the Rippling walls; Years of work undone in an instant. In the Calamity. Kid just rages for a while.
You run into some of the locals, which you regrettably - or perhaps otherwise, you have no idea of what your motivations are at this point - have to kill. These enemies are kind of weird-looking; there’s one that’s kind of cute and tiny, one that’s large and menacing with a hammer. Eventually, you find a repeater which shoots bullets of bone. You run into some robotic security chesspiece-looking things, too, inside an empty bar. Now - what’s this? There’s a stone dude in the corner of this bar. The Calamity got him before his drinking did.__ Ah.
There’s a brief scuffle inside the bar, during which you find a shield. There’s nowhere left to go, so you just jump out the window -It’s a bit of a drop - landing facedown on the ground below and finding a bow. After an incident with taking the power source that’s holding the ground up, you find the Bastion, and… Now the Kid sees something stranger still. His mind races. Did anybody else survive? Sure enough, he finds another. He finds me. You meet a mysterious old man who sends you off in search of some things, called Cores, which might help you… in some way. You barely even find out anything about him - not his name, not who he is. Just that you need to go find those cores.
Before journeying onward, the old man bids you put that core you took inside the monument, and see what happens. It turns out, it gives you enough power to build something. There are two different buildings to chose from; choose to build the Arsenal, and you can switch between the weapons you’ve got. The Bastion’s a place of peace… But we can hold our own if we have to. Build the Distillery, and you can sample from different spirits that boost your powers. Kid makes time to sample spirits from my… personal supply. _In addition, the core powers up the Bastion’s Skyway. _Now the Kid can ride the wind to distant lands. You use it, you build something, and off you go in search of more cores.
I actually met someone who said the narrator was simply a nuisance; “shut up and let me play my game!” he said. And it’s true, to some extent; if you’re looking for mindless fun, look somewhere else. I recommend Happy Wheels. Bastion is a different breed of game; it’s heavily story based in nature. The narrator gives you all sorts of insight into the setting for the game, without disrupting gameplay; you simply listen to him while you do your thing. He talks about the world, the city, Caelondia, the two races which dominate this land. The monologue is wonderfully crafted; slowly, through playing the game, you get a feel for the world and how it was before the calamity. You get deep inside the minds of the characters, what their needs, fears, and hopes are. You get a picture of a continent dominated by racial tensions, and a city, destroyed because of it.
I also want to talk about how well the game does this section, its tutorial. Yes, it has prompts that tell you what the buttons are, but the tutorial never feels like work. Especially poignant in my memory is that the game does not tell you that you are in control. In the beginning, it simply waits for you, and somehow, you know to hit a movement button. The game is full of examples of this. The narrator tells you: Kid’s worked up quite a thirst by now, so that fountain looks real inviting. At this point, you’re at half HP or so, and you’ve got to heal. You already know what the use key is from picking up your hammer, so you just go over to the fountain and use it. You fall off the edge of the platforms; And then, he falls to his death. Nah, I’m just fooling! The game doesn’t need to tell you that you won’t die from falling. It shows you.
One last thing before we continue. At times during the story, you’ll notice that the narration isn’t completely linear; the “Kid just rages for a while” section, I didn’t even know existed, until I looked it up. Apparently this happens if you stick around the area and wreck some boxes, which is a natural thing to do - you’ve just picked up a hammer. These moments are fairly rare, but fit into the narration seamlessly.
Now he lands at the intersection between Bad and Wrong. Ought to be a Core down one of these twisted streets. But which one?
First up is the workmen’s district. You journey through streets twisted by the calamity, inhabited by three strange races; the Squirts, teardrop-shaped, speedy things that are kinda cute; the Gasfellas, vaguely humanoid floating creatures wearing hoods and sporting hammers; and the Scumbags, huge, spherical enemies with tiny arms that spit a mysterious substance at you. You fight each of these races; why they’re aggressive toward you, it’s not really revealed, but you learn a bit about each of them.
You find out that these were the real workmen of the city. The scumbags cleaned up all the trash. The gasfellas have a “foreman”, and they’re wielding those hammers, so they probably did mining. The squirts… well, not much is said about them, but it’s made clear that they were tamed for some purpose. So, if these were the workers of the city, what did the humans do?
You see the core… But it’s locked down tight in an Alloy cage. A blustery old Foreman’s keeping his Fellas in check. Almost like he’s showboating for the crowd. You defeat him, and take the core; He hears the whole place groan, but it’s too tough to fall. After taking the core, you explore the side streets for more valuables; you find the Forge, and the War Machete. After exploring all the areas, you head back to the Bastion, where you present the Core to the old man and build another building.
Not too much to say about this part; it’s fairly straightforward. The only thing really of note, here, is that you’re introduced to the Windbags, one of the races in Caelondia. They’re enemies, but they’re not just enemies. The city used to be home for them, and now they’ve got nothing to do, nowhere to go. Sure, they worked for the Caels, but without them, they’re just animals, attacking on sight and forming tribes around the nearest strong man. In many ways, the beast races of Bastion are a foil to the Ura - but we’ll get to that.
The dead welcome him with open arms. The Calamity took everybody after all. Kid sees it plain in frozen faces all around. He don’t much care to see them. Not like this.
We’ll run through a couple levels here. You journey onward, through the trading district and onward to the leisure spots of the city of Caelondia. Thick in the atmosphere through these levels is the feeling of despair. These are the spots most frequented by those in the city; the glass paths, the gardens, and there, too, are the people. The Tunder brothers didn’t make it. They never saw what it was like beyond the Walls. Nordy the bird boy? Didn’t make it. The Jawsons, they didn’t make it. Grady Senior, Grady Junior, they didn’t make it. Everywhere there are faces, forever frozen in stone. At one point, you encounter a core, surrounded by people who seem to be worshiping it, and have no choice but to smash through. Kid does we he has to. Ever-present is Rucks’ accompaniment, explaining what each district was for, lamenting the loss of the city, and hinting - only hinting, mind - what might have caused this all.
But, wait… Is that a survivor? Just think. Without that man, we wouldn’t be here right now. Would we. In the Hanging Gardens, you meet another of Bastion’s small cast; a pale man, named Zulf. But more than that, you’re introduced to the people that aren’t of your kind. The other. He’s a proper gentleman, that man. His name is Zulf. No hiding he’s an Ura. Folks like him ain’t ever been a common sight in Caelondia. He’s relieved to see a living face or two. The Kid and I introduce ourselves in kind. Both to him…and to each other, for the first time.
The game eases you into the introduction of the Ura. If you explored well enough, then you’ll have found the Ura sigil, a shovel; if you show it to Rucks, the old man, you get just this: We fought the Ura decades ago. But that was then. Things are… different, now. And from Zulf: For Zulf, Caelondia was like a second home. He’s real worried about his first home, too. Far to the East. Just a hint of tension. Just enough to get you wondering.
That’s enough for this post.; nearly 2000 words already. I can see that this series is going to be pretty darn long, but hopefully I can convince you to stick along for the ride.