Kentucky Route Zero - magical realist episodic adventure game

[Belegarsson]

Horror movies and games usually don't scare me at all, the only thing that I've ever found frightening was House of Leaves.

The Zero fucking gave me shiver. It feels like you're being stuck inside a gigantic cobra. HOW THE HELL DID THEY DO THIS.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I've finally finished the Act V.

It is amazing, profoundly sad and very consistent with the overall tone of the game. The funeral scene is outstanding.

If this story should end anyhow, let it be this way. The only thing I can compare KRZ to is Twin Peaks Season 3. We are kitty guests and observers in character's lives, all but Cooper Conway whose fate is predestined. I can write a lot about it, but just play the game if you still didn't.

(maybe it needs some time to sink in, with the Act V)

Now to the final interlude...Upd: Ok, I don't get what to do with this interlude. If anyone dig it, please let me know. Like, really, maybe I miss something?

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Horror movies and games usually don't scare me at all, the only thing that I've ever found frightening was House of Leaves.

The Zero fucking gave me shiver. It feels like you're being stuck inside a gigantic cobra. HOW THE HELL DID THEY DO THIS.

House of Leaves is great, by the way! Thinking about ordering The Familiar bricks.

 

[Alpan]

Ok, I don't get what to do with this interlude. If anyone dig it, please let me know. Like, really, maybe I miss something?

The happenings of the interlude mirror the events of Death of the Salesman Hired Man, the play poem that Carrington tried to adapt. Like a few vignettes in Act V, it reinforces the looping, recurring aspects of the overall story.

However, you did not miss anything. The dissonance is due to the fact that you actually liked Act V, so the flimsy interlude seems off to you.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Ok, I don't get what to do with this interlude. If anyone dig it, please let me know. Like, really, maybe I miss something?

The happenings of the interlude mirror the events of Death of a Salesman, the play that Carrington tried to adapt. Like a few vignettes in Act V, it reinforces the looping, recurring aspects of the overall story.

However, you did not miss anything. The dissonance is due to the fact that you actually liked Act V, so the flimsy interlude seems off to you.

I believe it is Death of a Hiredman (Robert Frost), not Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller) which also influenced the plot, however the gloom content is similar)

 

[Alpan]

I believe it is Death of a Hiredman (Robert Frost), not Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller) which also influenced the plot, however the gloom content is similar)

You're right, my bad. Edited.

I misremembered it as Death of the Salesman, as the game does reference it in the earlier acts. I believe Cardboard Computer is familiar with the work of a stage designer (EDIT: Beowulf Boritt), responsible for a showing of the play in 2012.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I believe Cardboard Computer is familiar with the work of a stage designer (EDIT: Beowulf Boritt), responsible for a showing of the play in 2012.

They surely are. I think I posted the photos in this thread earlier, from this show or similar.

 

[Terenty]

I remember this game. Its the one you have to praise and pretend to like to seem cool and hip. Stream of talentless consciousness

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Is this the sequel of Katana Zero?

 

[True Ukrainian]

I remember this game. Its the one you have to praise and pretend to like to seem cool and hip. Stream of talentless consciousness

If you don't like this game you are not sympathetic to the struggles of the working class.

REE

 

[taxalot]

I own it on GoG but I really can't be arsed to play it, knowing the ending is coming out in a few years.

Well, see you guys in 2020. Probably colony ship rpg is gonna be finished before this

Well, well, well...

I guess I can play it tonight now.

 

[taxalot]

I have played the first two episodes.

So far, it's beautiful, boring, and uninteresting. But beautiful.

But boring.

 

[taxalot]

Do "choices" carry over ? I have a bug in the very last scene (last seconds) of Episode 2 that prevent me from properly completing it.

Spoiler

Discussion between Conway and Doctor... he never gives him the sedative, nothing happens and game stays stuck there.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Do "choices" carry over ? I have a bug in the very last scene (last seconds) of Episode 2 that prevent me from properly completing it.

Spoiler

Discussion between Conway and Doctor... he never gives him the sedative, nothing happens and game stays stuck there.

Probably a bug.

 

[Ivan]

Kentucky Route Zero intrigued me with its opening chapter. It plays like a cross between a visual novel and an interactive play. It's frustrating when the game doesn't let you interact or move at your own pace (Chapter 4 especially). I enjoyed the characters and the story spun in the first 2 acts, but then things get too esoteric for my liking thereafter. I was charmed by the opening 2 acts, getting to know Conway, Shannon and Ezra was a delight and I looked forward to adventuring with them. But then more characters get introduced, and the focus turns away from them. Could anyone speak to Conway's transformation? I'm not sure what to make of the devs slowly loosening the player's control over him, with ultimately the Distillery claiming him entirely. So yeah, it's fun to think about, but I was often extremely bored by the non-sequiturs that made up Acts 4 and 5.

 

[True Ukrainian]

I suppose Conway was being devoured by alcoholism? And Conway abandoning his quest and joining the Distillery is meant to to show how people drift away from the rust belt regions since they need work that pays? I remember Conway started transforming way before the party reached the Distillery.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Could anyone speak to Conway's transformation? I'm not sure what to make of the devs slowly loosening the player's control over him, with ultimately the Distillery claiming him entirely.

This is how I see the Conway's story and ending overall (huge spoilers ahead):

Spoiler

He was devoured by death. His last delivery is the allegory of the "last voyage" of old man into the darkness of the unknown. His consciousness is troubled with guilt and debt, and even the inter-world between the realms of Life and Death is governed by capitalism logic. On his journey Conway, both ghost and human, perceived by others, meet many friends, other lost souls, living or dead. They walk/drive/swim together for some time, enough to resolve the inner quests of everyone.

Or is it? The last chapter is kinda vague. You can see that all but Conway make it...to the other side of the earth through the tunnel/ancient well/Zero. I like to think that maybe (just maybe) these are the spirits that finally manage to reach the Heaven, long lost and longed for, but found it destroyed by the new Flood.

People of Nothing, that's what they are now. No more angels and no more peace and rest. You should create your own afterlife with your hands and deeds. The horses (which are very old symbol of body, the spirit is the rider) are dead and buried. The hiredman (Conway) is dead. The story is over. But not really. You are the story. We all are. Amen.

 

[taxalot]

I have skipped the side chapters so far and focused on the main acts. I actually hadn't realized those existed before I was into Act 3.
Are the inter episodes worth playing ?

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I have skipped the side chapters so far and focused on the main acts. I actually hadn't realized those existed before I was into Act 3.
Are the inter episodes worth playing ?

Yes, they give additional details to the plot. The gameplay, though is much more "experimental" so be patient.

 

[Alpan]

I have skipped the side chapters so far and focused on the main acts. I actually hadn't realized those existed before I was into Act 3.
Are the inter episodes worth playing ?

Each interlude is its own unique set-up for the new characters that will feature in the subsequent act. They are also fairly interesting media experiments in their own right, though this is somehow diminished now that they are bundled with the game. (The first interlude used to be an actual art installation, the second is a play others can print out and perform, the third was a live telephone auction etc.) Cardboard Computer was mistaken to label (and locate) them as interludes; I would suggest that you not skip them.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

just leave it here

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls073644558/

 

[AdolfSatan]

Finished it today. Not much to add to what has been said; perhaps contrary to several opinions I've seen on the net, I felt the ending was very fitting and satisfying. Conway's arc was closed very well. Love the amount of media content available outside of the game as well, the wevp tv channel was quite amusing to watch.

Mostly giving this a bump for the sake of awareness, this is a great display of how vidya can work as a media to tell a story, visual novelists could take a cue or two from this.
Don't play this if you ain't an art-fag tho or it will bore you. Otherwise sit back and enjoy, it's quite an experience.

Regulars from the poetry thread should give this if try if they haven't yet Life of the Party Magnat Sukhāvatī

 

[Boleskine]

 

[Something Else]

House of Leaves is great

Terrible book for pseuds.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

House of Leaves is great

Terrible book for pseuds.

Just as "Infinite Jest".
So what?