The problem with Journey

[Zetona]

It's time for gaming sites to hand out their game of the year awards, and Journey is on many GOTY shortlists. It's already won IGN's Game of the Year award and I expect more accolades to follow. However, I can't quite agree with all the gushing about Journey since its release, for one simple reason: thatgamecompany's previous effort, Flower, did in 2009 practically everything that Journey does, and more importantly, did it better.

A little context: I played Flower soon after it came out, and played the first few levels with a friend of mine. We were blown away by the phenomenal visuals and the incredible freedom of movement, not to mention the shocking "twist" in the fourth level. When Journey came out, we resolved to play through it together, and while we both enjoyed it, we were both kind of disappointed. A second playthrough by myself did little to alleviate matters.

Later, I realized that Journey employs almost exactly the same structure as Flower, but does it less effectively. In the spoilered section below are my reasons for?well, not disliking the game (it's still a fine game in its own right), but being quite disappointed with it. (They are slightly altered from a review I wrote of the game in June.) I don't think it managed to make Flower's peculiar lightning strike twice. I'd love to debate these opinions and see what other people think. I'd especially like to hear from anyone who loved Journey and decided to play Flower because of it. Was Flower less effective than Journey if you played Journey first? Does playing one of these games diminish the emotional impact of the other? If you only played Journey, do any of these criticisms apply?

Let me know also if you think I should clarify anything I've written here.

Spoiler: SPOILERS FOR JOURNEY AND FLOWER. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The control scheme falls short of Flower: while that game made excellent use of the Sixaxis motion controls, in Journey they are neither required nor the best option. Add this to the fact that flight is severely limited (you can only replenish your scarf at certain locations or with the help of a fellow traveler) and Journey lacks the intangible sense of freedom and immersion that made Flower's controls so magical. You cannot fly to wherever you choose, and slogging across the desert with scarf drained quickly becomes tiring once you have tasted the freedom of flight.

Some songs work well, but others feel cluttered, dissonant, and confusing, clashing with the intended emotional impact of the gameplay and the visuals. No doubt this is partly due to the chime that is your means of communication in multiplayer, where you can randomly be joined up with someone playing the same section as you. You have little effect on their game, although huddling together or using your chime replenishes their scarf. The company is certainly nice, especially for the increased freedom that comes from replenishing your scarf. On the whole, however, I did not find the co-op as moving as some seemed to, and it disrupts the music. [This, in particular, is a personal gripe. I expect many to disagree with it. Even minus the chimes, though, I found Journey's music forgettable, and I'm not sure why it's on so many best-soundtrack lists.]

Journey's narrative is essentially a carbon copy of Flower's-joyous opening, a descent into oppression and melancholy, than an exciting, redemptive conclusion. The only difference is that Journey has two descents, separated by a teasing return to joy and redemption. The mood in Journey is loosely correlated in my view to a combination of the player's vertical position in the world and/or the speed at which they can move, which is pretty neat and shows how the narrative influences the gameplay and vice versa.

Anyway, the first big problem is that Journey's narrative descents are nowhere near as abrupt, shocking, and ultimately effective as when the power line sparks and burns out in Flower. Journey's are more about trepidation, and though the first such moment (when you are chased by beings clearly less natural than anything you'd seen before then) is definitely unnerving, it is less immediate and lacks the same genius. The second one, where you slowly freeze while fighting a bitter wind, is frustrating because you can be blown back and lose your forward progress, and because you lose your freedom of movement. It is a great example of gameplay and story merging, and it makes the subsequent scene of redemptive, joyous freedom of movement all the more enjoyable, but Flower's was less frustrating because the restriction of movement was mostly in your mind?the forbidding atmosphere and dark colors discouraged freewheeling flight. Less gameplay had to be sacrificed for the sake of the narrative in Flower.

The second big problem is in the narrative conflict. At the end of each "area", there are cutscenes that appear to tell the story of the decline of this world. These cutscenes serve little purpose because the end of the game is a hugely ambiguous fade into white, conveying personal redemption or transcendence. Your connection to the ruins is tenuous at best; unlike Flower, you can do almost nothing to restore them, and so the cutscenes add almost nothing while clashing with the ending, which is all about personal redemption. Perhaps the ending is meant to signify that you have risen above your fellows whose folly led them to ruin. Unless you interpret it that way, though, these cutscenes feel like little more than narrative dead weight.

The result of this narrative clash is a lack of investment. You are merely a passerby in this ruined world; you can do nothing about the dead and ruined monuments, whereas Flower was all about restoring color and life to a dying world. Perhaps Journey is more about personal redemption, but in my opinion you spend much of the game doing little more than sightseeing before you consider the story's meaning.

Tying into this, the developers missed an absolutely golden opportunity with the credits. Flower's interactive credit sequence is one of the best in gaming, and a perfect, serene cap to the experience. Journey's credits are wholly uninteractive, minimizing their emotional impact. Certainly, the scenes shown in the credits tie into the theme of redemption, but wouldn't it have been so much better to play it?

TL;DR: Journey essentially copies Flower's story arc, but inferiorities in gameplay, music, and underlying structure mean that Flower remains the better game. What do you think? Are there any problems with Flower that I'm forgetting here?

 

[chikusho]

Don't really have the time for an extensive reply, but I for one find an actual avatar with the ability to emote more relatable than a few twirling petals. Also, there's the matter of connecting with another player in such a meaningful way by simply minimizing communication to movement and sound.

 

[Lazy]

It's been a while since I played Flower so I can't really weigh in on the story elements, but what sets Journey apart from it the most is the player interaction.

As for the theme, I didn't really get the "redemption" aspect of it, it felt to me more like a metaphor for the various stages of life, death and, ultimately, rebirth/reincarnation/whatever you want to call it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

So you acknowledge the games intent was a harsh journey but you complain the control scheme doesn't have you in superman mode... should I put you over my knee now or will we save that for a rainy day?

The music seemed fine to me, I took the "off" tracks as a mark of the fucked up world they are presenting.
Now that might have been the intent or my imagination is glossing over their shortcomings, either way I'm no music buff so let's leave it at that.

But on the narrative/interactivity I do agree with, if the game gave you an actual however small impact on the world it would have carried a much heftier blow.

 

[Casual Shinji]

You're not supposed to fly indefinately in Journey. You're supposed to be given small tastes of the freedom of flight, but then be pulled back to the ground again. Highs and lows. Having the ability to fly constantly would make the game boring within the first 5 minutes. In Flower you didn't have the power of flight, you had the ability to steer the wind. You have way more control in Journey than you ever had in Flower.

Plus, the best part of the co-op was chiming together to keep eachother charged up to fly and see how high you could get. In certain levels me and my companion would hardly touch the ground at all and make it all the way to the end of the area while keeping eachother afloat. It was wonderful, because it took effort to fly.

Flying in Journey actually means something, because it's not indefinate.

And slogging up the sand dunes was all the more worth it knowing you could surf down the otherside. Hell, there's an entire level dedicated to sand surfing.

 

[Zetona]

Apologies for waiting so long to respond. I do want to discuss this.

Don't really have the time for an extensive reply, but I for one find an actual avatar with the ability to emote more relatable than a few twirling petals. Also, there's the matter of connecting with another player in such a meaningful way by simply minimizing communication to movement and sound.

Thinking back on it, I wonder if the game media did me a disservice.

All the reviews mention the wonder of the interaction with another player, as do many GOTY blurbs and webcomics (Critical Miss and Penny Arcade, to name two). I didn't play Journey until a couple of weeks after launch, so I had plenty of time to read all these and I knew what to expect. I've read GOTY blurbs talking about how magical it was to discover that your companion was a real person, but that was from someone who didn't know this when they started the game. On the other hand, I first played Flower within a day or two of its release, so I went in with less knowledge of the game. It's also possible that the companionship in Journey just didn't "click" for me. I'm not sure why that would be.

So you acknowledge the games intent was a harsh journey but you complain the control scheme doesn't have you in superman mode... should I put you over my knee now or will we save that for a rainy day?

The game's intent and the control scheme aren't in conflict. Key to the emotional arc is how much tougher things get when you start climbing the mountain. That makes the free-flying part afterwards even more emotional and enjoyable. But even before all of that, it felt like a slog?like having a meter for the scarf was unnecessarily limiting my freedom of movement (even with another player helping you, it's still a limitation: you have to remain close to them for the scarf to keep charging.) I can totally accept that this reaction is the product of having played Flower, and expecting a similar experience.

You're not supposed to fly indefinately in Journey. You're supposed to be given small tastes of the freedom of flight, but then be pulled back to the ground again. Highs and lows. Having the ability to fly constantly would make the game boring within the first 5 minutes. In Flower you didn't have the power of flight, you had the ability to steer the wind. You have way more control in Journey than you ever had in Flower.

Flying in Journey actually means something, because it's not indefinate.

And slogging up the sand dunes was all the more worth it knowing you could surf down the otherside. Hell, there's an entire level dedicated to sand surfing.

You make a good point, and once again my opinion on Journey may come down to me expecting Flower 2 and getting something different. I disagree about the level of control, though: Flower made probably the best use of the Sixaxis of any game on the PS3, which created this incredible connection to your simple train of flowers. I didn't take to Journey's motion controls, and though the gameplay is by its nature more suited to analog inputs, it means that you're not as connected to your avatar's movement as in Flower.

 

[Casual Shinji]

You're not supposed to fly indefinately in Journey. You're supposed to be given small tastes of the freedom of flight, but then be pulled back to the ground again. Highs and lows. Having the ability to fly constantly would make the game boring within the first 5 minutes. In Flower you didn't have the power of flight, you had the ability to steer the wind. You have way more control in Journey than you ever had in Flower.

Flying in Journey actually means something, because it's not indefinate.

And slogging up the sand dunes was all the more worth it knowing you could surf down the otherside. Hell, there's an entire level dedicated to sand surfing.

You make a good point, and once again my opinion on Journey may come down to me expecting Flower 2 and getting something different. I disagree about the level of control, though: Flower made probably the best use of the Sixaxis of any game on the PS3, which created this incredible connection to your simple train of flowers. I didn't take to Journey's motion controls, and though the gameplay is by its nature more suited to analog inputs, it means that you're not as connected to your avatar's movement as in Flower.

Well then there lies the misunderstanding; I really don't care for the sixaxis, and I'm glad Journey's controls were good ol' fashion analog stick and jump button.

 

[Tilted_Logic]

I played the demo for Flower, and from the little information I gleaned from it I honestly thought it was just a game for relaxation; the entire goal being to fly around collecting petals. You saying there's a twist in the fourth level rekindles my interest in the game.. It's more than simply floating around? (I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw of the demo, just didn't seem to have enough direction to sway me into purchasing it at that juncture.)

I did however love Journey from the moment I caught a clip of it in a Veronica Belmont segment. Purchased it the day it came out and it absolutely made my top 10 (if not top 5) games of all time.

You saying that Flower was better.... I must definitely check it out now. Have you any opinion on Flow in comparison?

 

[roushutsu]

From what I've read and heard in thatgamecompany's commentary on Journey, the two games were developed with different intentions. While Flower may have some semblance of story, their main goal was to evoke feelings of calmness. Basically, emotion first, story second. That's why the controls were simple. That's why the color pallet is the way it is. That's why the music is so quiet and rarely ever dramatic save for the final level. It's all to bring out emotions in the player and have them relax.

Journey, though, they went for a different angle altogether. They intended to tell a story that parallels one's journey of life, death, and beyond, and one's life journey is shared with others. That's why they made it multiplayer. That's why they made it co-op rather than competitive. That's why they chose the harshness of the desert for the setting. And that's why the music is more dramatic and varying, as it's there to help tell the story along with the visuals.

Perhaps that's why you felt different towards Journey?

 

[Peithelo]

It has been quite some time since I played either Flower or Journey so I can't go too much into the specifics. Especially the story in Flower is something that I don't remember very well at all. However I did actually do some research about the story in Journey and its themes near the time it was published. The final conclusion I made was that Journey basically tells a story very similar to the story of Sisyphus [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus] in Greek mythology, but it also has underlying themes such as mans desire to fly and industry versus nature.

It is known from the scattered ruins, cutscenes and the picture panels the player can activate that at some point in time there was a great civilization in the world of Journey that got along well with the worlds other inhabitants, the flying cloth animals. At that time the cloth people and nature seem to have coexisted in peace. It is also evident that the cloth people greatly aspired to fly and used other willing cloth animals to achieve this. Several ruins and pictures however would suggest that later on the cloth people started to forcefully abuse these flying cloth animals and even used them to do work for them. This is also supported by the many cages that have these flying cloth animals locked inside of them.

There were also several things that would suggest that the civilization seperated into two groups that had different views on how to live, but I never found anything conclusive. Mostly one cutscene that displays a ribbon between two groups of people that is suddenly ripped in half. If this is true then it would seem that the other group was destroyed by the other. By the time we get to make the journey the world is almost death and the once prosperous civilization is nowhere to be found. They seem to have caused their own demise.

The player can be attacked by flying mechanic looking animals that are very similar in their design to certain cloth animals that the player can also meet at several points throughout the journey to the mountain. This and the cutscenes would suggest that the civilization at some point corrupted some parts of nature as well as these cloth animals. This is further emphasized when two of these mechanic looking animals seem to transform into their cloth form once the player character is brought back to life by the white robed people and the final part of the game begins.

Parts of the story are presented through cutscenes. These cutscenes at first show only what has happened to the world in the past but at some poing the player is also shown explicitly what was going to happen as well. These visual story sections were also supported by how the white robed cloth people behaved during them. At first they seem distant, then sorrorful or perhaps inquisitive, and in the end the white robed cloth person together with the player character face what they know is to come. They literally stand next to each other and stare at the mountain, as far as I remember that is.

The player character does reach the mountain and the light on top of it, but then during credits we see a ball of light traveling back to exactly where the journey first began. The cloth person the player controls simply appears where they were in the first place, which may suggest that this loop has continued for quite some time already. This is where I see the connection with the story of Sisyphus. My take on all of this is that the player character is either punished by the white robed people to make the hopeless journey time and time again or that they are giving these cloth people the chance to redeem themselves and their past mistakes.

 

[Zetona]

I played the demo for Flower, and from the little information I gleaned from it I honestly thought it was just a game for relaxation; the entire goal being to fly around collecting petals. You saying there's a twist in the fourth level rekindles my interest in the game.. It's more than simply floating around? (I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw of the demo, just didn't seem to have enough direction to sway me into purchasing it at that juncture.)

I did however love Journey from the moment I caught a clip of it in a Veronica Belmont segment. Purchased it the day it came out and it absolutely made my top 10 (if not top 5) games of all time.

You saying that Flower was better.... I must definitely check it out now. Have you any opinion on Flow in comparison?

To say anything more about Flower's twist would be to spoil it. Even specifying where it is in the game might alter your experience, because you'll be expecting it. I was caught completely unawares and I was stunned?it is a moment of sheer genius. I'd love to hear what you think of it having played Journey first. Admittedly, I found more in Flower to begin with than just floating around, specifically the joy of flight and the excellent music, which complements the action much better than Journey's IMO.

As for Flow: it's a calming game, like Flower; it's very, very pretty; and it makes decent use of the Sixaxis controls. However, there's nowhere near the emotional impact of either Flower or Journey. It's more like an art display you can control. You might get a little out of it, but I wouldn't buy it unless the price has been very much marked down ($3 or less).