Tale of Tales

[Sean]

The Tale of Tales show is recording next week, so, feel free to leave your impressions / thoughts / feelings about any of the games (The Path, The Graveyard, FATALE and Bientot L'ete) here!

[James]

If you haven't played these games, fear not! There are demo versions of The Graveyard and The Path which are excellent representations of each respective game:

The Graveyard

The Path

Both are very short games, and hence short demos. Take a look if you want a flavour of Tale Of Tales work before next week's show.

[Chopper]

This is an interesting one.

I picked up The Path a few years ago on a whim; didn't know anything about Tale of Tales or any debate around The Path. I was just intrigued by the screenshots.

I loved it, despite the gameplay, for three or four of the girls. I found it both spooky and horrifying, and was amazed at the way it treated its theme of sexual predation and/or violence. It really worked for me. I loved the visuals and the sound.

The gameplay really let it down though, and I got fed up with it - wandering through that fucking mobius strip forest collecting flowers. In the end I was just speeding through it trying to find the area that would activate for each girl.

I wasn't impressed by the whole 'subversion of gamer expectations' that everyone mentions, because who stays on the path when there are places to explore - looking up reviews after the fact, there seemed to be a lot made of this. I think that is a distraction from the dark, dark themes of the game. I also looked up Tale of Tales forums, and people there absolutely loved the game. So it spoke to a lot of people, I think. Of course, you often see backlash against Tale of Tales on various forums to this day.

I came across an article the other day that describes Tale of Tales games (amongst others) as "gamelike performance art" and I kinda agree with that - The Path is an experience rather than a game. I loved it, to a point, but it really did its best to wear you out.

It's interesting because the podcasts I've listened to here have made me want to replay the games - and I never replay games. Though I liked it, I have no desire to replay The Path, so we'll see how that goes

[Chopper]

Ach, I'm kinda sorry I brought up the whole game/notagame thing. It might only really be relevant to those who debate games on that deconstructionist/semantic level.

It suffices that The Path is delivered in videogame form and it should be debated as a game, I think.

With that in mind, I guess it interested and repelled me in equal measure - it was both tedious and intriguing. The characters were really well drawn, I thought, and somehow communicated their ages, their vulnerabilities and stage of development very very well. I'm thinking of the girl with the brace in particular. Can't fully remember, but are their characters expressed almost wholly through their physical appearance?

Hmm, The Path is kind of the antithesis of Journey, in a way.

[James]

It suffices that The Path is delivered in videogame form and it should be debated as a game, I think.

My sentiments exactly. Debating definitions of the terms 'game' and 'video game' is completely moot to me, because there is zero chance of anything approaching universal agreement. I'd much rather discuss the merits and meanings of The Path than perform a semantic dance over what form of entertainment it represents, and which of the infinite descriptive terms could/should be applied to it.

I wasn't impressed by the whole 'subversion of gamer expectations' that everyone mentions, because who stays on the path when there are places to explore

I did! The first time I played The Path I took absolute heed of the instructions and objective, and walked straight to Grandma's house. It'd be interesting to find out what the split is in regard to that 'choice'. Tale Of Tales have always tried to play with the expectations of their audience and with some generally accepted conventions of video games. I can't wait to discuss this aspect of their games on the podcast.

The notion of The Path as antithetical to Journey intrigues me greatly - in what ways would you say that was the case?

[Chopper]

The notion of The Path as antithetical to Journey intrigues me greatly - in what ways would you say that was the case?

Journey's is a journey towards transcendence. The girls in The Path are going on a journey too, ostensibly to Grandma's house, metaphorically to adulthood. However, instead of transcendence, they reach their journey's end battered and broken, then have to drag themselves through a house of horrors to some unknown but violently-suggested end.

Journey's journey is pretty happy-clappy for the most part, whereas in The Path four of the six interactions imply the harsh shattering of innocence. Journey's monsters are fairly abstract, and The Path's monsters, though allegorical (the Wolf) or metaphorical, are couched in real-life horrors.

Journey is optimistic, whereas The Path is nihilistic in the extreme. You spend Journey chirping and tweeting and jumping, while you spend The Path lost, and with some horrible event imminent.

There are other parallels, I'm sure. No doubt it also depends on your interpretation of what went on in the two games. I wasn't a big fan of Journey, I found it unoriginal in theme and lacking impact - it was the same old transcendence myth. The Path (I see now!) is the much better game. It actually has a journey from innocence to experience, though it may be presented in a way that is excessively bleak.

[ratsoalbion]

I can only speak of Bientot L'ete.

I'm dead into the idea of games that are different from the norm and challenge the emotions and/or cerebral functions as well as game design conventions.
After 35 years of playing variations on Space Invaders, Pole Position and Miner 2049er I'm always interested to try something new.

Unfortunately, I didn't gel with Bientot L'ete one little bit. I found it cold, repetitive and wilfully oblique, with its mumbled utterances over chess with Gauloises and Bordeaux playing out like a bad pastiche of a pseudo-intellectual French art-house film.

The developers' intention possibly just went way over my head, but it just didn't engage me on any level beyond, "Ooh the beach is quite pretty".
I'd still be interested to try Tale of Tales' other works though, it may simply be that this one didn't speak to me.

[James]

Sad news for those of us who are fond of the games produced by Tale Of Tales, the studio is leaving the game development world due to the struggles it has had over balancing the type of games they want to make with keeping the lights on.
http://taleoftales.tumblr.com/post/1221 ... e-sun-sets

For anyone wishing to hear Tony, guest Paul Rooney and myself discuss four of Tale Of Tales' games, tune in to Issue 81: http://caneandrinse.com/tale-of-tales-cane-rinse-81/

[Todinho]

That's a bit sad I actually liked Luxuria Superbia for it's weirdness and skipped this one because it seemed more of an adventure game,but wasnt this game sucessfully kickstarted or something?You would expect that would mean there`s a niche at least for it but I dont get I saw the reviews for it and it got good reviews so why did fail so bad,I would expect that sites like polygon would be pushing this pretty hard to be honest I thought this game of them was probably gonna be the most successfull they made...but yeah sad to see them go I dont like most of their games but they are one of the few devs trying completrly different things them everybody else.

[James]

Yeah, Sunset was supposed to be a more conventional game, in terms of the controls and interface at least.

According to that blog post, they took a risk on over-spending during development to the tune of $40k, hoping that they would make that back in sales. Sadly, only 4000 copies of Sunset have sold in the first month (including the Kickstarter copies), which just wasn't enough to keep them afloat.

I'm not sure what, if anything, this says about crowd-funding. For a niche product that most interested persons will have backed during the Kickstarter, perhaps further sales to non-backers can't be assumed.

Either way, I completely agree, Todinho; Tale Of Tales were making fairly unique games, and it's sad that they won't be doing so any longer.