Journey (PS3/PS4)
- Thread starter X-SOLDIER
- Start date
Alex Strife
Ex-SOLDIER
I wanted to get it now, but... not enough money, and it's nearly 9pm. So I'll have to go get a 20€ card tomorrow.
I'll go buy me some Jihl <3
I'll go buy me some Jihl <3
Octo
KULT OF KERMITU
- AKA
- Octo, Octorawk, Clarky Cat, Kissmammal2000
You better get this tomorrow boyo! Otherwise I'll come round and do terrible things to your house!
Oh and Mr Octo said he's going to wait until saturday to play because he feels the weight of work the next day will hamper his experience. Mega frustrating because I want to tell him all the things but I can't
Probably going to squeeze in another playthrough myself before friday I was quite surprised reading
that you guys had many companions on the same journey, I guess the turning into sand thing must just be if they go offline or something, still it must be traumatic! At one point my companion did sit down but then he got up again, I was whistling at him like crazy! 
X-SOLDIER
Harbinger O Great Justice
- AKA
- X
When another player sits down, I'm assuming that they've either paused the game (thus the occasional vanishing into sand when they exit), or they're meditating. Unless you look through the Trophies, you'll be unaware that Meditation is even an available option in the game, since you always do it automatically at the shrines and it's never shown to you. If you press Select, you will sit down and Meditate, which leaves you were you are with the game unpaused. If a character is randomly sitting down by you, they might be attempting to get the Meditation Trophy (or maybe they just really needed to grab a snack, or answer the door). 
X
Ryushikaze
Deus Admiral Parsimonious, PHD, DDS, MD, JD, OBE
- AKA
- Tim, Ryu
Enjoying it thus far. Lost my companion in the transition from level 2 to 3, and I just finished 3.
The Twilight Mexican
Ex-SeeD-ingly good
- AKA
- TresDias
The most frustrating thing about losing my post earlier is turning out to be that I had planned on reading about the experiences the rest of you had while I'm at work today, but I refuse to read anyone else's until I share my own. I'm afraid I'll write something differently than I would have if I kept my mind on just my experience. But I want to read what you guys said so bad!
Oh, and thank you for that tip, X. I have no doubt it will prove useful.
Oh, and thank you for that tip, X. I have no doubt it will prove useful.
Ryushikaze
Deus Admiral Parsimonious, PHD, DDS, MD, JD, OBE
- AKA
- Tim, Ryu
Just beat it, watching the ending.
Fucking gorgeous game.
At first, I thought I'd somehow lost, since buddy and I were not huddling together for voicewarmth at the end.
Not yet sure if I'm dead or trancendental just yet.
Not yet sure if I'm dead or trancendental just yet.
Though I have to say, Journeyman is a bit silly for beginning his desert trek during the day as the sun sets, rather than setting out before it rises. His mountain trek would have been much more amenable at least.
Holy crap, who were these people?
I had 7 different companions?
Holy crap, who were these people?
I had 7 different companions?
X-SOLDIER
Harbinger O Great Justice
- AKA
- X
I feel your pain Tres. I'd been aching to communicate with other people about Journey for the week that it was a PS+ Exclusive. I've been checking back and forth for your post today while I've been at work too. It will be worth it to write your completely unaltered opinion.
@ Ryu:
X
@ Ryu:
I struggled with that question for a while as well. It's also always interesting and difficult to guess how many people you encountered when there's more than one. Also, I think that the Journey does begin during the morning, because if I recall correctly, you see the sun rising in the end credits by the Mountain and that's the same direction it's in at the start of the game, although I may be mistaken.
X
Ryushikaze
Deus Admiral Parsimonious, PHD, DDS, MD, JD, OBE
- AKA
- Tim, Ryu
Second time through- The answer to my previous question was yes.
It was an Either/Or question, recall.
It was an Either/Or question, recall.
I think I had the same dude the entire time this time. The symbol was the same, I think. It was amusing, when we met, the first thing he did was Meditate to get us the trophy.
Unlike my first seven haphazard dudes, Acht was considerate, constantly voicing me as I voiced him back so we could proceed swiftly and smoothly. The only time we were not expressly a team was on the mountain, when he and I ran in distinct directions to avoid being caught. He did. I didn't. Twice. I kept by him as much as I could so he could jump.
Ah, I had two this time. Regardless, both were most considerate.
I am also quite close to 'platinum'ing this game. I need to cross the bridge without fixing it, find the hidden tower and the cloth people in the desert, the ten glyphs, and what few runes I missed.
Oh, and leaving it for a week.
Unlike my first seven haphazard dudes, Acht was considerate, constantly voicing me as I voiced him back so we could proceed swiftly and smoothly. The only time we were not expressly a team was on the mountain, when he and I ran in distinct directions to avoid being caught. He did. I didn't. Twice. I kept by him as much as I could so he could jump.
Ah, I had two this time. Regardless, both were most considerate.
I am also quite close to 'platinum'ing this game. I need to cross the bridge without fixing it, find the hidden tower and the cloth people in the desert, the ten glyphs, and what few runes I missed.
Oh, and leaving it for a week.
Ryushikaze
Deus Admiral Parsimonious, PHD, DDS, MD, JD, OBE
- AKA
- Tim, Ryu
@ Ryu:I'm missing Mirage (flower), Adventure (gates on the slope), Return (wait a week), & Transcendence (all the symbols).
Where do you find the Flower in the Desert (Mirage trophy)? I haven't managed to find it any of the times I've been through.
X
One of the lights from the mountain leads you to flower.
Adventure is easy to get, just make sure to aim for the gates.
Adventure is easy to get, just make sure to aim for the gates.
Unrelated note, stay in the IRC for more than a minute before quitting next time!
X-SOLDIER
Harbinger O Great Justice
- AKA
- X
IRC: I would've stayed, but work got busy right after I decided to check in, and then I forgot about checking back in... ^^;
@Ryu:
X
@Ryu:
Thanks!!! I'm only missing the Wait a Week trophy now, (which I can only see myself getting, if UNS:G manages to properly distract me). *^^* All I'll say is that it's worth putting in some time to work towards finding all the Glowing Symbols. (You can tell which ones you have based on the statue at the end, and the non-building in the level select section). If one is escaping your sleuthing abilities, I'll happily describe it for you.
X
The Twilight Mexican
Ex-SeeD-ingly good
- AKA
- TresDias
Okay, here we go at last:
Thanks for reading. Looking forward to reading about your adventures.
Prior to this writing, I've made a deliberate effort to avoid others' chronicles of their experience with "Journey" so as to (hopefully) keep my observations unique and perspective fresh. I hope that all who read this will derive at least a fraction (let's say 1/8) of the appreciation from it that I have for the Journey I am about to describe.
Come. Walk with me.
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. Wait, wrong story. But, at the same time, maybe not too far off either. Certainly something of the same quintessential sense of questing and adventure into the unknown is found here, as well as a sense that one is walking in and out of any and every such story that has come before. At its end, though, I was still left with something unlike anything and everything that has come before.
At any rate, "Journey" certainly took me to other worlds than these.
Most importantly of all, however, it asked me to relarn the meaning of words like communication, friendship and trust. Even as the holder of a degree in Communications, I can only marvel at the degree of understanding the developers of "Journey" have for what makes us who we are. If you could get everyone in the world to sit down and play "Journey," you would achieve world peace. I truly believe that.
If "Flower," the previous work from lead developer Jenova Chen and his staff, is a visual poem on the emotions video games can arouse in players, then "Journey" is a tome. Simultaneously both a dissertation on being one tile in a larger mosaic and a celebration of the individual at the same time, both ideas were presented to me in the form of emotions the experience espoused in me rather than a heavy-handed message thinly veiled behind dialogue.
My Journey began not with the forging of great rings, but in far more humble a fashion. Too humble, I thought at first. I didn't even have a jump button for Christ's sake! All I could do is slowly saunter about the desert and sort of sing.
I was initially disappointed with these limited options, but I soon found that they could be transcended somewhat by way of acquiring power-ups that came in the form of pieces of cloth energized by a mysterious force. An initial power-up gave me the ability to momentarily float, as well as a scarf-like bit of fabric hanging off the back of my cloak. So long as the scarf trailing behind me was lit up, I could defy gravity.
While this didn't get me far early on, the more of these scant cloths I discovered around the desert, the longer became my scarf -- which my wife (she watched me play) dubbed "your tail" -- and the further/higher I could go. My tail could be re-energized after use, I discovered, via floating pieces of fabric (wifedubbed "the floating tickets") that are scattered about with blessedly greater frequency than the power-ups.
What began as an annoying handicap on mobility soon became a fun little puzzle of sorts, which in turn would evolve into an ever more gratifying range of movement.
Soon, I found myself at a broken bridge in an area that seemed to me an obvious love letter to "Shadow of the Colossus." Perhaps fitting then that this is where my lonely venture would end, and my real Journey begin.
As I explored the desert valley I now found myself in, seeking a way to cross the ruined bridge to the exit, I noticed from time to time a blue glow in the corney of my "eye" (i.e. the screen). Each time, I would turn to look for the source, expecting to find some mystical object that would perhaps be the container for some new useful ability. Each time, there was nothing.
That is, until I noticed a flutter of cloth that seemed distinctly different in its purposeful movement from the willy-nilly fluttering of some nearby tickets. It took a moment, but the realization hit me that I was no longer alone. I had found another me.
Another moment passed and the mystery of the blue glow was solved. The glow had come from the chimes of this other traveler's song as he used it to activate the function of surrounding tickets and their larger, ribbon-like kindred.
I quickly noticed that his tail was longer than mine, and that he seemed to have a better idea of what he was doing than me as well. I immediately decided that I would follow him; no better plan than that when you're lost and find someone who seems to know where they're going.
At first, I just hung back and followed from a distance, taking care not to annoy my adopted mentor. After a minute or so of this, however, he stopped, looked in my direction, and began to chime. Not too rapidly, but quickly enough to express a pointed message. Though he had no better means to communicate with, and I had no means by which to really decipher his "words," his meaning remained clear: "Come on over. It's alright."
As I plodded to a stop mere inches from him, a startling fact revealed itself to me. Just by being in close physical proximity to each other, we would recharge one another's tails without the constant need for floating tickets. My mind quickly swirled at the possibilities.
What power one alone lacked, a duo together packed! The idea even came to mind that so long as we remained in contact, perhaps we could fly forever.
For a little while there, I'll admit, I was worried my new companion may ditch me. But he didn't. Though he almost always took the lead, he never left me behind, nor I him. Even when we got separated, I would find him waiting for me somewhere down the line. On the rare occasion he missed his step and I ended up ahead, I would wait for my friend to catch up at what seemed the next logical "checkpoint."
We crossed deserts of both sand and snow together, nagivated underground passages patrolled by flying dragons, and ascended structures too strange to describe. There were moments thrilling and fun, as in all adventures there should be, and there were also moments so spine-tingling I began to feel that the Journey would be impossible alone.
What began as a personal quest to reach a Holy Grail of sorts on a mountain along the horizon had become a goal of helping one another conquer the obstacles between us and that distant golden peak. It became our Journey.
As we passed through a narrow passage at one point in our shared adventure, I lost track of which cloaked figure was mine and wondered why we looked the same. I then realized the answer immediately after asking.
Our bond grew. Our road was long. Our silent understanding of one another's next actions became more intuitive. At murals, we instinctively knew which of us would go left and which would go right. My wife let me know we were a couple of adorable dorks.
As our trust in one another grew, my confidence did as well. Somewhere along the way, the tail fluttering behind me had grown longer than the one behind my friend. I even found myself striking out our path from time to time before I realized it. My comrade offered no obvious protest when I did this, and the only time he went crazy with his chiming while I was in the lead was when we found ourselves facing a vicious snowstorm.
After we were buffeted by the winds for some time, he figured out that the monoliths dotted along the snowfield would protect us from the onslaught until the more brutal gusts had passed. Taking cover with him, I chimed back a "Thanks, bro. Good job."
Fortunately, the harsh winds soon abated. Unfortunately, the greatest challenge of all was waiting for us as we faced a brutal climb up what was obviously an ancient monastery. Of course, for all I knew, to my partner it could have obviously been an ancient shopping mall or fortress, but I get the feeling first impressions are a significant element of "Journey," and it said ancient monastery to me.
All that seemed to lay between us and the road's end now was another snowfield -- and the flying dragons who patrolled it. We knew from our time in dark caverns earlier in the adventure that we needed to stay out of sight of their seachlights. Though the outcome of facing their jaws remained uncertain, we had been discovered once there and narrowly avoided what looked like a very unhappy collision.
Worse still, they seemed somehow more imposing framed against the open sky with the mountain towering over us than they had in the darkness from before.
Now, the anticipation building, we set out. As we had no means of fighting back against these sky wyrms, and given we couldn't fly nearly fast enough to outrun them if discovered, our only option lay in staying out of sight one more time. We just had to cross this field. Soon, our Journey would come to its final end.
Taking cover in small, makeshift shelters along the way, we managed to avoid the wandering gaze of our majestic predators. For a while, anyway. We were doing so well when disaster struck. I don't know if it was that one of us took a step outside our shelter a second too early, or if a particularly long tail might have given us away. Whatever the case, the outcome remains the same.
We were spotted.
Again, having no way to fight back and unable to outrun the charging descent of this massive creature, we stayed in our shelter -- hoping against hope for it to provide us some protection. It didn't. The lofty serpent tore through our shield without the slightest sign of slowing down, and the mystery of what would happen if they caught us was solved. We were cast across the snowscape like a scarf in a maelstrom.
In fact, that's exactly what happened. I lost most of my tail, and my friend lost all of his. We quickly picked ourselves up out of the snow and ran for it. We had no other obvious options now, and the end of the road was so near. What better plan than to make a break for it?
There probably was a better plan, actually. I had no interest in finding out what would happen if we were struck again while our tails were this depleted, but it happened anyway. We were caught once more, and panic took me. Not for myself, but for my comrade.
I was knocked to the ground, my tail now completely gone. I didn't have time to be sad about the loss of my beautiful extension, though, because my friend was being carried away on the creature. I picked myself up as soon as I could and ran into the distance looking for him, chiming frantically. I'm not sure how long this went on, but just as I had given up hope, I noticed rapid chiming ahead of me.
He was okay! It seems rather silly to say now, but my relief at the time was palpable. We journeyed on. There was one final test waiting for us, it seemed, during which I would soon return my partner's favor from the earlier snowstorm.
We faced a staircase under bombardment by the worst winds yet. This challenge seemed determined to end our Journey, just as the mountain was finally coming into reach.
I discovered, on accident really, that stepping off to the balconies positioned at intervals along the side of the staircase would protect us from the worst of our remaining obstacles This rather counter-intuitive solution was making fast progress for us as my comrade took the lead once again -- but we then faced an unforeseen development that created one of the most memorable moments of our Journey for me.
As my fellow traveler moved to duck onto yet another balcony, a powerful gust slammed down upon him and shoved him over the side of the balcony. Without a second's thought, I instinctively threw myself over the edge after my friend.
"Ico" had put me in the position of heading back into an enemy castle to save a friend when escape for myself had become free and clear. I understood the choice then, but it wasn't until "Journey" that I was able to experience the emotional process -- emotional reaction may be more accurate -- that led to such a decision.
Despite knowing the mountain was nearly at hand, I had discarded the finish line in an instant when it seemed my nakama may not make it there with me. It was only as we were falling that I thought this could end up sucking.
Thankfully, our fall was not too much of a setback after all, and the road less traveled took us where we wanted to go. Sort of. Nothing remained to oppose us but the exhaustion in our own bodies as we trudged up the final hill.
We had overcome so much, coming further together than it seemed we ever could have alone. I had feared twice in the past few minutes that I had lost my comrade, only to be greeted with an unforeseen reunion. But fate has a way of being cruel sometimes. Or maybe it's just the nature of the beast, and there's no actual malice in it.
As we walked on, our limbs stiffened. Each step became harder. Before long, there was nothing left but to collapse into the snow, and collapse we did. First my friend, then myself a few seconds later.
Upon awakening shortly thereafter, I found the mountain itself at last laid out before me. I didn't know if this was a dream of the mountain I may be experiencing as I died in the snow below, if my ancestors had taken pity on me and healed me, or if this was some kind of Heaven. Those thoughts quickly fled, though, as I realized I didn't see my friend.
Flying down the path ahead, I caught sight of him and breathed yet another sigh of relief -- but it was to be short-lived. Though I caught up to him and we flew ahead alongside one another, I lost him. I'm not sure how. I didn't fall off the path. Maybe he did. I don't even know if it would be hard to get back if one did. Whatever the case, he was gone.
I searched and searched, for far longer than it should have taken to find him if he were still near, but I couldn't. At this point, the mountain, magical as it was, seemed hollow without my friend beside me. It was time to say goodbye, and it wasn't going to be easy.
As I ascended with a heavy heart to the highest, final plateau, I looked not to the narrow pass ahead of me in which the light on the mountain's peak resided, but back at the path below. And I chimed. Over and over again.
For a moment, I began to head into the pass, but I felt compelled to return once more to the cliff edge to check for my friend. He was still nowhere to be found. I was just going to have to believe he would make it on his own in the end, as I had.
My ever-tactful wife, sensing that I must have felt like Tom Hanks in "Cast Away" when he lost his volleyball, then began to say, "Wilson! I'm sorry, Wilson! I'm sorry. Wilson. I'm sorry." I love her. Fucked up though it was, it left me in pain from laughter for a good couple of minutes before I could at last step into the light at the end of the path.
As the credits rolled, sad music swept my room, and my wife commented that it almost seemed like the music knew I would be sad. I don't know enough about others' Journeys to be aware one way or the other, but the thought then occurred to me that maybe things would be different if I took the final step with a companion. I remembered a mural from an earlier cutscene that seemed to show two cloaked figures traversing an area, and I wondered if it too may have been different had I been alone.
I guess these are answers awaiting me in a future Journey. No matter what lays ahead, though, I'm certain the experience I had this first time will be the definitive feelings I take away from this title. Everything else will just be an attempt to "fix it," when it's what it was supposed to be all along.
I compared this experience to Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" in my opening paragraphs, and while there are significant similarities, there's one great difference that stands out to me: With over two thousand pages to work with, King wasn't able to convince me that the journey means more than the destination, despite his insistence on such. "Journey" was able to convince me in two hours.
Capturing the exact reasons for this difference may escape me, but "Journey" did something right.
Come. Walk with me.
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. Wait, wrong story. But, at the same time, maybe not too far off either. Certainly something of the same quintessential sense of questing and adventure into the unknown is found here, as well as a sense that one is walking in and out of any and every such story that has come before. At its end, though, I was still left with something unlike anything and everything that has come before.
At any rate, "Journey" certainly took me to other worlds than these.
Most importantly of all, however, it asked me to relarn the meaning of words like communication, friendship and trust. Even as the holder of a degree in Communications, I can only marvel at the degree of understanding the developers of "Journey" have for what makes us who we are. If you could get everyone in the world to sit down and play "Journey," you would achieve world peace. I truly believe that.
If "Flower," the previous work from lead developer Jenova Chen and his staff, is a visual poem on the emotions video games can arouse in players, then "Journey" is a tome. Simultaneously both a dissertation on being one tile in a larger mosaic and a celebration of the individual at the same time, both ideas were presented to me in the form of emotions the experience espoused in me rather than a heavy-handed message thinly veiled behind dialogue.
My Journey began not with the forging of great rings, but in far more humble a fashion. Too humble, I thought at first. I didn't even have a jump button for Christ's sake! All I could do is slowly saunter about the desert and sort of sing.
I was initially disappointed with these limited options, but I soon found that they could be transcended somewhat by way of acquiring power-ups that came in the form of pieces of cloth energized by a mysterious force. An initial power-up gave me the ability to momentarily float, as well as a scarf-like bit of fabric hanging off the back of my cloak. So long as the scarf trailing behind me was lit up, I could defy gravity.
While this didn't get me far early on, the more of these scant cloths I discovered around the desert, the longer became my scarf -- which my wife (she watched me play) dubbed "your tail" -- and the further/higher I could go. My tail could be re-energized after use, I discovered, via floating pieces of fabric (wifedubbed "the floating tickets") that are scattered about with blessedly greater frequency than the power-ups.
What began as an annoying handicap on mobility soon became a fun little puzzle of sorts, which in turn would evolve into an ever more gratifying range of movement.
Soon, I found myself at a broken bridge in an area that seemed to me an obvious love letter to "Shadow of the Colossus." Perhaps fitting then that this is where my lonely venture would end, and my real Journey begin.
As I explored the desert valley I now found myself in, seeking a way to cross the ruined bridge to the exit, I noticed from time to time a blue glow in the corney of my "eye" (i.e. the screen). Each time, I would turn to look for the source, expecting to find some mystical object that would perhaps be the container for some new useful ability. Each time, there was nothing.
That is, until I noticed a flutter of cloth that seemed distinctly different in its purposeful movement from the willy-nilly fluttering of some nearby tickets. It took a moment, but the realization hit me that I was no longer alone. I had found another me.
Another moment passed and the mystery of the blue glow was solved. The glow had come from the chimes of this other traveler's song as he used it to activate the function of surrounding tickets and their larger, ribbon-like kindred.
I quickly noticed that his tail was longer than mine, and that he seemed to have a better idea of what he was doing than me as well. I immediately decided that I would follow him; no better plan than that when you're lost and find someone who seems to know where they're going.
At first, I just hung back and followed from a distance, taking care not to annoy my adopted mentor. After a minute or so of this, however, he stopped, looked in my direction, and began to chime. Not too rapidly, but quickly enough to express a pointed message. Though he had no better means to communicate with, and I had no means by which to really decipher his "words," his meaning remained clear: "Come on over. It's alright."
As I plodded to a stop mere inches from him, a startling fact revealed itself to me. Just by being in close physical proximity to each other, we would recharge one another's tails without the constant need for floating tickets. My mind quickly swirled at the possibilities.
What power one alone lacked, a duo together packed! The idea even came to mind that so long as we remained in contact, perhaps we could fly forever.
For a little while there, I'll admit, I was worried my new companion may ditch me. But he didn't. Though he almost always took the lead, he never left me behind, nor I him. Even when we got separated, I would find him waiting for me somewhere down the line. On the rare occasion he missed his step and I ended up ahead, I would wait for my friend to catch up at what seemed the next logical "checkpoint."
We crossed deserts of both sand and snow together, nagivated underground passages patrolled by flying dragons, and ascended structures too strange to describe. There were moments thrilling and fun, as in all adventures there should be, and there were also moments so spine-tingling I began to feel that the Journey would be impossible alone.
What began as a personal quest to reach a Holy Grail of sorts on a mountain along the horizon had become a goal of helping one another conquer the obstacles between us and that distant golden peak. It became our Journey.
As we passed through a narrow passage at one point in our shared adventure, I lost track of which cloaked figure was mine and wondered why we looked the same. I then realized the answer immediately after asking.
Our bond grew. Our road was long. Our silent understanding of one another's next actions became more intuitive. At murals, we instinctively knew which of us would go left and which would go right. My wife let me know we were a couple of adorable dorks.
As our trust in one another grew, my confidence did as well. Somewhere along the way, the tail fluttering behind me had grown longer than the one behind my friend. I even found myself striking out our path from time to time before I realized it. My comrade offered no obvious protest when I did this, and the only time he went crazy with his chiming while I was in the lead was when we found ourselves facing a vicious snowstorm.
After we were buffeted by the winds for some time, he figured out that the monoliths dotted along the snowfield would protect us from the onslaught until the more brutal gusts had passed. Taking cover with him, I chimed back a "Thanks, bro. Good job."
Fortunately, the harsh winds soon abated. Unfortunately, the greatest challenge of all was waiting for us as we faced a brutal climb up what was obviously an ancient monastery. Of course, for all I knew, to my partner it could have obviously been an ancient shopping mall or fortress, but I get the feeling first impressions are a significant element of "Journey," and it said ancient monastery to me.
All that seemed to lay between us and the road's end now was another snowfield -- and the flying dragons who patrolled it. We knew from our time in dark caverns earlier in the adventure that we needed to stay out of sight of their seachlights. Though the outcome of facing their jaws remained uncertain, we had been discovered once there and narrowly avoided what looked like a very unhappy collision.
Worse still, they seemed somehow more imposing framed against the open sky with the mountain towering over us than they had in the darkness from before.
Now, the anticipation building, we set out. As we had no means of fighting back against these sky wyrms, and given we couldn't fly nearly fast enough to outrun them if discovered, our only option lay in staying out of sight one more time. We just had to cross this field. Soon, our Journey would come to its final end.
Taking cover in small, makeshift shelters along the way, we managed to avoid the wandering gaze of our majestic predators. For a while, anyway. We were doing so well when disaster struck. I don't know if it was that one of us took a step outside our shelter a second too early, or if a particularly long tail might have given us away. Whatever the case, the outcome remains the same.
We were spotted.
Again, having no way to fight back and unable to outrun the charging descent of this massive creature, we stayed in our shelter -- hoping against hope for it to provide us some protection. It didn't. The lofty serpent tore through our shield without the slightest sign of slowing down, and the mystery of what would happen if they caught us was solved. We were cast across the snowscape like a scarf in a maelstrom.
In fact, that's exactly what happened. I lost most of my tail, and my friend lost all of his. We quickly picked ourselves up out of the snow and ran for it. We had no other obvious options now, and the end of the road was so near. What better plan than to make a break for it?
There probably was a better plan, actually. I had no interest in finding out what would happen if we were struck again while our tails were this depleted, but it happened anyway. We were caught once more, and panic took me. Not for myself, but for my comrade.
I was knocked to the ground, my tail now completely gone. I didn't have time to be sad about the loss of my beautiful extension, though, because my friend was being carried away on the creature. I picked myself up as soon as I could and ran into the distance looking for him, chiming frantically. I'm not sure how long this went on, but just as I had given up hope, I noticed rapid chiming ahead of me.
He was okay! It seems rather silly to say now, but my relief at the time was palpable. We journeyed on. There was one final test waiting for us, it seemed, during which I would soon return my partner's favor from the earlier snowstorm.
We faced a staircase under bombardment by the worst winds yet. This challenge seemed determined to end our Journey, just as the mountain was finally coming into reach.
I discovered, on accident really, that stepping off to the balconies positioned at intervals along the side of the staircase would protect us from the worst of our remaining obstacles This rather counter-intuitive solution was making fast progress for us as my comrade took the lead once again -- but we then faced an unforeseen development that created one of the most memorable moments of our Journey for me.
As my fellow traveler moved to duck onto yet another balcony, a powerful gust slammed down upon him and shoved him over the side of the balcony. Without a second's thought, I instinctively threw myself over the edge after my friend.
"Ico" had put me in the position of heading back into an enemy castle to save a friend when escape for myself had become free and clear. I understood the choice then, but it wasn't until "Journey" that I was able to experience the emotional process -- emotional reaction may be more accurate -- that led to such a decision.
Despite knowing the mountain was nearly at hand, I had discarded the finish line in an instant when it seemed my nakama may not make it there with me. It was only as we were falling that I thought this could end up sucking.
Thankfully, our fall was not too much of a setback after all, and the road less traveled took us where we wanted to go. Sort of. Nothing remained to oppose us but the exhaustion in our own bodies as we trudged up the final hill.
We had overcome so much, coming further together than it seemed we ever could have alone. I had feared twice in the past few minutes that I had lost my comrade, only to be greeted with an unforeseen reunion. But fate has a way of being cruel sometimes. Or maybe it's just the nature of the beast, and there's no actual malice in it.
As we walked on, our limbs stiffened. Each step became harder. Before long, there was nothing left but to collapse into the snow, and collapse we did. First my friend, then myself a few seconds later.
Upon awakening shortly thereafter, I found the mountain itself at last laid out before me. I didn't know if this was a dream of the mountain I may be experiencing as I died in the snow below, if my ancestors had taken pity on me and healed me, or if this was some kind of Heaven. Those thoughts quickly fled, though, as I realized I didn't see my friend.
Flying down the path ahead, I caught sight of him and breathed yet another sigh of relief -- but it was to be short-lived. Though I caught up to him and we flew ahead alongside one another, I lost him. I'm not sure how. I didn't fall off the path. Maybe he did. I don't even know if it would be hard to get back if one did. Whatever the case, he was gone.
I searched and searched, for far longer than it should have taken to find him if he were still near, but I couldn't. At this point, the mountain, magical as it was, seemed hollow without my friend beside me. It was time to say goodbye, and it wasn't going to be easy.
As I ascended with a heavy heart to the highest, final plateau, I looked not to the narrow pass ahead of me in which the light on the mountain's peak resided, but back at the path below. And I chimed. Over and over again.
For a moment, I began to head into the pass, but I felt compelled to return once more to the cliff edge to check for my friend. He was still nowhere to be found. I was just going to have to believe he would make it on his own in the end, as I had.
My ever-tactful wife, sensing that I must have felt like Tom Hanks in "Cast Away" when he lost his volleyball, then began to say, "Wilson! I'm sorry, Wilson! I'm sorry. Wilson. I'm sorry." I love her. Fucked up though it was, it left me in pain from laughter for a good couple of minutes before I could at last step into the light at the end of the path.
As the credits rolled, sad music swept my room, and my wife commented that it almost seemed like the music knew I would be sad. I don't know enough about others' Journeys to be aware one way or the other, but the thought then occurred to me that maybe things would be different if I took the final step with a companion. I remembered a mural from an earlier cutscene that seemed to show two cloaked figures traversing an area, and I wondered if it too may have been different had I been alone.
I guess these are answers awaiting me in a future Journey. No matter what lays ahead, though, I'm certain the experience I had this first time will be the definitive feelings I take away from this title. Everything else will just be an attempt to "fix it," when it's what it was supposed to be all along.
I compared this experience to Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" in my opening paragraphs, and while there are significant similarities, there's one great difference that stands out to me: With over two thousand pages to work with, King wasn't able to convince me that the journey means more than the destination, despite his insistence on such. "Journey" was able to convince me in two hours.
Capturing the exact reasons for this difference may escape me, but "Journey" did something right.
Thanks for reading. Looking forward to reading about your adventures.
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Interslicery
.....
how do you meditate? I hit every button but nothing happened.
Russell
.. ? ..
- AKA
- King of the Potato People
Ryushikaze
Deus Admiral Parsimonious, PHD, DDS, MD, JD, OBE
- AKA
- Tim, Ryu
My Journey though Journey did not start until I had finished it.
That is to say, I had not begun on my journey until I was helping others with theirs.
My first time through the game, I had seven different companions. I rarely had time to get to 'know' one before my time with them was done. The ones I knew best were my last three, with whom I got terribly lost in a subway, floated through a tower with, and then nearly froze to death with in turn. My partner- possibly my second partner- in the subway, seemed very convinced that the beginning was the end of the level. I believe he got turned around during the bit with the cloth eating dragons.
It got me a symbol, though, so it's all good.
My second time through, as mentioned before, I had two companions. One for the first two levels, one for the rest. Both of these were immenently personable, pinging out to me as soon as they could. The first sat and meditated with me immediately upon meeting. I, in turn, led them to all three symbols in the level. He accidentally completed the bridge so I did not get the trophy there, but we nearly found all the cloth people next level. We lost each other in the rush of cloth at the end, which seems common.
My next companion, however, was made of win.
We thought in unison nearly the whole time, and when we weren't, it was to show off something we'd discovered or knew about to each other- though getting them to notice the symbol in the second subway car was a bit of a thing.
Buddy and I gloriously floated through the majority of our levels. Buddy showed me nearly all the secrets of the tower, even made sure to find me so find our ancestor spirit thing.
We trudged up the mountain, resolute, together. Floating. Seriously, we were good at keeping each other warm and floating. The only downside was when we got spotted by the dragon. I ran right, Buddy ran left. Dragon went to the right. I immediately ran for Buddy. Stayed close so floating could still happen. Sadly, but got dragoned a second time, so the opportunity to float was all but gone.
We pressed on. we made it to the blistering thundersnow. We pressed on as close as we could. We even fell to ground in unison.
We rose the mountain. Glorious. Buddy got the lead for a time, but then I pushed out ahead, I made it to the very peak well before Buddy did. But I waited. Why? Because Buddy was my travelling companion. I was going to do this properly, and that means not leaving buddy behind.
So we walked, humming, uselessly, but jovially, at each other, as we plodded the last few hundred yards to the goal, making a merry tune together. We crossed the line. We had done it, and we had done it together. I had braved the desert, freed the cloth people, rid the dunes, braved the tunnels, rose the tower, faced the mountain and ascended the summit, and I was crossing the finish line with someone who'd been there nearly every step of the way.
And that's when the journey began.
Because the journey isn't about getting to the end. It's about helping someone else get there. Helping someone else find things.
Shortly thereafter, I became trancendental, I rocked the white cloak and everything. I found another awesome companion with whom I stayed several levels. We crossed the broken bridge with only a single cloth connector because we could hum ourselves the entire way. This was pre trancendentalism, just to note. I completed the game a few more times, getting the last few symbols and glyphs, and cresting the mountain a couple more times with buddies. All but a few trophies remain.
So what now?
Now I help people. I try and lead them to symbols, glyphs, and other secrets, like the cloth fliers, and the flower. Sometimes I am followed. Sometimes I am not.
I stayed on til well after 3, aiding a person, just so I could be sure they would get the trophy for having spent most of their journey with a single person.
Why? Because I was helping someone. That's the journey. The path is merely the stage on which the journey happens.
I called my little avatar Journeyman because he or she is on a journey, but also because they are learning, they are not yet a master, and are thus a journeyman of enlightenment.
I see journeyman as much like one of the bhudda, willingly staving off their own ascension so that others may be helped along the path.
Like I said, the journey truly starts when you finish Journey for the first time.
Whether it has an end or not is another question.
Whether you want it to is a third, and more important still.
That is to say, I had not begun on my journey until I was helping others with theirs.
My first time through the game, I had seven different companions. I rarely had time to get to 'know' one before my time with them was done. The ones I knew best were my last three, with whom I got terribly lost in a subway, floated through a tower with, and then nearly froze to death with in turn. My partner- possibly my second partner- in the subway, seemed very convinced that the beginning was the end of the level. I believe he got turned around during the bit with the cloth eating dragons.
It got me a symbol, though, so it's all good.
My second time through, as mentioned before, I had two companions. One for the first two levels, one for the rest. Both of these were immenently personable, pinging out to me as soon as they could. The first sat and meditated with me immediately upon meeting. I, in turn, led them to all three symbols in the level. He accidentally completed the bridge so I did not get the trophy there, but we nearly found all the cloth people next level. We lost each other in the rush of cloth at the end, which seems common.
My next companion, however, was made of win.
We thought in unison nearly the whole time, and when we weren't, it was to show off something we'd discovered or knew about to each other- though getting them to notice the symbol in the second subway car was a bit of a thing.
Buddy and I gloriously floated through the majority of our levels. Buddy showed me nearly all the secrets of the tower, even made sure to find me so find our ancestor spirit thing.
We trudged up the mountain, resolute, together. Floating. Seriously, we were good at keeping each other warm and floating. The only downside was when we got spotted by the dragon. I ran right, Buddy ran left. Dragon went to the right. I immediately ran for Buddy. Stayed close so floating could still happen. Sadly, but got dragoned a second time, so the opportunity to float was all but gone.
We pressed on. we made it to the blistering thundersnow. We pressed on as close as we could. We even fell to ground in unison.
We rose the mountain. Glorious. Buddy got the lead for a time, but then I pushed out ahead, I made it to the very peak well before Buddy did. But I waited. Why? Because Buddy was my travelling companion. I was going to do this properly, and that means not leaving buddy behind.
So we walked, humming, uselessly, but jovially, at each other, as we plodded the last few hundred yards to the goal, making a merry tune together. We crossed the line. We had done it, and we had done it together. I had braved the desert, freed the cloth people, rid the dunes, braved the tunnels, rose the tower, faced the mountain and ascended the summit, and I was crossing the finish line with someone who'd been there nearly every step of the way.
And that's when the journey began.
Because the journey isn't about getting to the end. It's about helping someone else get there. Helping someone else find things.
Shortly thereafter, I became trancendental, I rocked the white cloak and everything. I found another awesome companion with whom I stayed several levels. We crossed the broken bridge with only a single cloth connector because we could hum ourselves the entire way. This was pre trancendentalism, just to note. I completed the game a few more times, getting the last few symbols and glyphs, and cresting the mountain a couple more times with buddies. All but a few trophies remain.
So what now?
Now I help people. I try and lead them to symbols, glyphs, and other secrets, like the cloth fliers, and the flower. Sometimes I am followed. Sometimes I am not.
I stayed on til well after 3, aiding a person, just so I could be sure they would get the trophy for having spent most of their journey with a single person.
Why? Because I was helping someone. That's the journey. The path is merely the stage on which the journey happens.
I called my little avatar Journeyman because he or she is on a journey, but also because they are learning, they are not yet a master, and are thus a journeyman of enlightenment.
I see journeyman as much like one of the bhudda, willingly staving off their own ascension so that others may be helped along the path.
Like I said, the journey truly starts when you finish Journey for the first time.
Whether it has an end or not is another question.
Whether you want it to is a third, and more important still.
Oh, and Tres:
No, things don't change when you have two folks at those times, but the music, though the same, feels different. Serene, rather than sad, as it were.
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Octo
KULT OF KERMITU
- AKA
- Octo, Octorawk, Clarky Cat, Kissmammal2000
Am I the only person who wants my own Journey cape/outfit?
Also
Also
I'm guessing all those post things dotted about were the graves of Journeymen who 'died' before reaching the mountain. Has anyone here managed to die yet? (aside from the blizzard part)
X-SOLDIER
Harbinger O Great Justice
- AKA
- X
@Tres:
@ Ryu:
X
It's stunning how similar some aspects of our first Journey were. I'm REALLY interested in seeing how future Journeys affect your feelings.
@ Ryu:
I'm excited that you're at the dame point I am now. I just became Transcendental last night, and there's nothing more thrilling to me than leading newcomers to secrets that they've never found. I honestly can't get enough of it. The Transcendental Cloak is such an excellent reward for the hard work. It's amazing how Journey is a whole community of people who don't know each other, but are often playing for the sole purpose of guiding other travellers. It's kind of an indescribable feeling just thinking about it.
X
Ryushikaze
Deus Admiral Parsimonious, PHD, DDS, MD, JD, OBE
- AKA
- Tim, Ryu
So, I'm going to play a little more tonight, then not do anything with this for a week and play more Skyrim
Wonder if anyone's made a Journeyman cloak for that game yet. It's been two whole days, after all.
Wonder if anyone's made a Journeyman cloak for that game yet. It's been two whole days, after all.
Alex Strife
Ex-SOLDIER
I'm downloading it right now. 16 minutes to go. I'm not sure if I'll be able to start it, because I have to leave in 1 hour, and I want to put some time into this. I don't want my experience to be hampered by rush...