This review contains spoilers
Holy shit that was a lot to process.
Thing is I honestly haven't finished processing it yet either. I think I actually did a pretty good job understanding the plot all the way through Lifecut which scrambled my brain around 5 or 6 separate times. I'm still working out what exactly the shelter kids plan was meant to accomplish vs what it did accomplish/ what actually happened in the titular Silver Case event/what the fuck exactly Kusabi's motives were throughout that whole chapter. (Would love for people to sound off in the comments with their own questions and interpretations). Some of this stuff I don't think I'm meant to know definitively, but the game was throwing twists at me so fast that I hardly had time to hang on. Not a bad thing! I appreciated having a game that really challenged me on a story level.
What I do have a much more firm grasp on however were the themes of this game, and boy is this a masterclass of thematic writing. Kind of amazing that it was made in 1999 with how much it gets right about our post internet/post truth future. There will always be another Kamui, there will always be another Ayame, so long as the society and the powers in control create a need for them. Likewise, whether the faction is FSO, TRO, or CCO - it doesn't matter. It's all the same bullshit at the end of the day. Opportunities are seized and narratives are shaped to manufacture (in this case, quite literally) a controlled population. This is just some really good fucking stuff.
If I had any negatives - I do think that case #2 is significantly weaker, despite being a pretty good story in isolation, and I also think that some segments are somewhat needlessly drawn out. When going through the shelter towers at the end of the game, I thought about why Suda decided to make this such a slog... and I do think that slowly exploring those identical towers did give both a sense of how sterilized/uniform they were and the scale of just how many people were down there. That said, I think it came at the cost of slowing the narrative momentum to a halt right at the climax, which maybe wasn't for the best.
Anyway yeah this was pretty fucking cool, did I mention how insanely good the presentation is? A bit weird/confusing that character art is inconsistent between the Transmitter and Placebo stories, but man, what they do with blending various types of media, aspect ratios, and backgrounds in this is so stylish. The music is top notch too. Special mention to that one track I can only describe as "fucking evil" that plays during some of the board meetings in Parade and a few other places as well I believe.
Going to leave you all with some recommendations: if you're into this "serial killer is not a concretely real person but a memetic virus that's a metaphor for societal ills" deal, check out Paranoia Agent and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex! Again, kind of wild that this predates both of those because I was thinking in my head it must have been influenced by at least one of them before I checked the dates.
EDIT: This has only gone up in my estimation the more I reflect on it. Bumping my score.
Thing is I honestly haven't finished processing it yet either. I think I actually did a pretty good job understanding the plot all the way through Lifecut which scrambled my brain around 5 or 6 separate times. I'm still working out what exactly the shelter kids plan was meant to accomplish vs what it did accomplish/ what actually happened in the titular Silver Case event/what the fuck exactly Kusabi's motives were throughout that whole chapter. (Would love for people to sound off in the comments with their own questions and interpretations). Some of this stuff I don't think I'm meant to know definitively, but the game was throwing twists at me so fast that I hardly had time to hang on. Not a bad thing! I appreciated having a game that really challenged me on a story level.
What I do have a much more firm grasp on however were the themes of this game, and boy is this a masterclass of thematic writing. Kind of amazing that it was made in 1999 with how much it gets right about our post internet/post truth future. There will always be another Kamui, there will always be another Ayame, so long as the society and the powers in control create a need for them. Likewise, whether the faction is FSO, TRO, or CCO - it doesn't matter. It's all the same bullshit at the end of the day. Opportunities are seized and narratives are shaped to manufacture (in this case, quite literally) a controlled population. This is just some really good fucking stuff.
If I had any negatives - I do think that case #2 is significantly weaker, despite being a pretty good story in isolation, and I also think that some segments are somewhat needlessly drawn out. When going through the shelter towers at the end of the game, I thought about why Suda decided to make this such a slog... and I do think that slowly exploring those identical towers did give both a sense of how sterilized/uniform they were and the scale of just how many people were down there. That said, I think it came at the cost of slowing the narrative momentum to a halt right at the climax, which maybe wasn't for the best.
Anyway yeah this was pretty fucking cool, did I mention how insanely good the presentation is? A bit weird/confusing that character art is inconsistent between the Transmitter and Placebo stories, but man, what they do with blending various types of media, aspect ratios, and backgrounds in this is so stylish. The music is top notch too. Special mention to that one track I can only describe as "fucking evil" that plays during some of the board meetings in Parade and a few other places as well I believe.
Going to leave you all with some recommendations: if you're into this "serial killer is not a concretely real person but a memetic virus that's a metaphor for societal ills" deal, check out Paranoia Agent and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex! Again, kind of wild that this predates both of those because I was thinking in my head it must have been influenced by at least one of them before I checked the dates.
EDIT: This has only gone up in my estimation the more I reflect on it. Bumping my score.
5 Comments
so i only finished silver case last week am about 20% through 25th ward and FSR (playing them at the same time is a trip lol) but when it comes to questions like "what was the purpose of the shelter kids/kamui/kusabi" questions my feeling is that it's better not to interpret the stuff happening in the game as always being literal physical events happening in offline space or necessarily conforming to the logic of our current society... i.e. nothing happened. i know no one likes dropping when MGS2 is referenced in relation to other postmodern games but i feel like lifecut was essentially this game's arsenal gear
@kingbancho Yeah for sure! Engaged me on a more thought provoking level than 99% of games have. I think viewing Kusabi's arc in that way does help me understand it a little more, while I still am not sure exactly why he's doing what he's doing viewing the events through the literal theme of "kill the past" and his conversations with Sumio during/post Parade the emotions behind his actions become a lot more clear. For sure I noticed that it was done intentionally, though if there is a deeper meaning beyond illustrating (heh) the differences in perspective/furthering the theme of subjective reality then I definitely still need to work it out lol. My comment was more just that it sometimes led to confusion on who exactly I was speaking to in the first few cases but I eventually pieced it together and I think on the whole it was a good choice (again I really appreciate how much this game kept my brain working). Once I finish the other Kill the Past games I'd love to sit down with some people who are smarter than we and just have one big long discussion on the whole thing lol.
@letshugbro For sure I think there is a ton here that is not meant to be interpreted literally or is intentionally left ambiguous given the post truth theme and yeah the comparison to MGS2 is apt there lol. I think playing the other Kill the Past games will help me even more to sort out what to focus in on in terms of plot/character/themes. Making the David Lynch comparison is even more tired than Kojima comparisons lol but I definitely felt the same when going through his body of work a few years ago
Thanks for the comments!
@letshugbro For sure I think there is a ton here that is not meant to be interpreted literally or is intentionally left ambiguous given the post truth theme and yeah the comparison to MGS2 is apt there lol. I think playing the other Kill the Past games will help me even more to sort out what to focus in on in terms of plot/character/themes. Making the David Lynch comparison is even more tired than Kojima comparisons lol but I definitely felt the same when going through his body of work a few years ago
Thanks for the comments!
*when I say that for sure I noticed that "it" was done intentionally I'm saying that in reference to the 2nd point about the split in artstyle between Placebo and Transmitter in case that read weird lol, TIL the site does not have an edit comment feature
re-reads own comment yes, this site should have an edit comment feature
KB0
2 years ago
1.) placebo is my favourite of the two narratives but kusabi hands down has my favourite arc in the game. fantastic character, the slow shift from an explicitly authoritarian lens to something more nuanced is wonderfully handled
2.) inconsistency in artstyle between transmitter and placebo is absolutely intentional, i think ill leave that for ya to chew on