[SPOILER THREAD] I expected more...

[EggBeard]

Hey guys, I really liked the mechanics of the game and the aesthetic, really beautiful game, and the short length doesn't bother me at all (a game should last only as long as the game needs to last, afterall)

I would say that the game was definitely worth the money and time and I don't regret it but... I really expected more from the story and from how it touches my emotions. I'm not a heartless robot, games like To The Moon have produced tears from me in the past...

However this game just seems very heavy-handed to me. Usually subtle suggestions and gentle moments will pull at my heartstrings, Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons attempts to smash my heart with a Sledgehammer and it just bought me out of the story.

The main problem is the ending, which has a lot of problems. First of all, the fact that the older son died completely negates the entire point of the journey which is to save the father... why does that negate it, because the father would have rather died than to have lost either of his sons. It was selfish for the two boys to risk their lives to save their father. This is compiunded by the fact that the father is only upset over the ending and does not thank his remaining son in any way. The ending would have made much more sense if a choice had to be made (Even by the player) to save either the elder son or the father, to come to terms with the loss of the father, so that the father can return to the side of his wife and both sons can continue to live and carry on their legacy.

Several other parts of the story made little sense too, like when the borthers save the man who is trying to commit suicide. The man is obviously unhappy that he has been saved and as soon as the brothers leave I do not doubt that he hung himself those making the entire moment completely pointless. Something had to be done to show that the man had come to terms with his grief and was not going to immediately just fall back into despair.

These are obviously just my subjective thoughts on the game and how it affected me.

I'd love to see if anyone else feels the same way as me, or to hear people's thoughts who were affected emotionally by the game.

(Also, I was affected emotionally, just not as much as i would have been if some things were tweaked)

p.s. In spite of all that, Left Trigger to swim over the river was a genius decision.

[phadin]

That left trigger to swim thing should indicate why the older brother had to die. A part of the story and it's epiloge is the growth of the younger brother, particularly in the absense of the older. That though he's lost both his mother and now his brother, they are still part of him and he can draw on his brother's spirit to go on. The impact would be so much less if the brother lived and the father died.

[EggBeard]

The impact for that one moment (Which I agree is a good moment) would have been lesser but the impact of the story overall, in my opinion, would have been stronger if the brother had lived.

The issue I have is how heavy-handed starbreeze is. the last 30 minutes of the game is just grieving and no acceptance of loss at all.

Also, the fact that the Sacrifice girl was a spider completely took me out of the story, yeah there was tonnes of symbology towards it, it was obvious it was the case, but neither brother spotted the fact she's superhuman and the cave paintings or the 500 spider references. I think that was also really heavy handed.

[OllyTrolly]

In the last scene I took it that the remaining son had accepted the loss, you can play with the stones as if your brother was never there, you comfort your father and do not look sad as you have grieved already. It didn't affect me as much as To the Moon in its sadness, but this game was full of awe and majesty, I was gawping at the screen the whole time and drinking it in. I think this game was meant to be in some part predictable and fairytale like given its obvious roots in folklore and legend, and it managed to play on that atmosphere well. Plus, I think the control scheme was genius, with how (on controller at least) you were left using only the right analogue stick at the end, which felt incredibly unnatural and compounded the sense of loss (if not emotionally, in a gameplay sense). I think you're not giving it enough credit and perhaps someone gave you high expectations before playing it.

Anyway, I also think nitpicking is not always the point with these things, this was a cohesive vision delivered by someone, possibly as an allegory for familial loss, to be taken as it was presented. A more technical game is easy to pick at, but I feel a piece of art like this is very subjective - saying something like 'it would've been better like this' doesn't seem quite fair if that was in the opinion of the creator an adequate tool for expressing how they felt. Just my opinion anyway :P.

[EggBeard]

Nice post OllyTrolly. I do think this game was hyped by the likes of Giant Bomb and TotalBiscuit amongst many other review sites and Youtubers.
I do think it was a good experience and I feel like I would have actually enjoyed it more without the hype, it was mostly because I was expecting something absolutely amazing and beautiful in every way (As that's what I had been told it was) and I got something that was very moving, beautiful, but with flaws and blemishes.
I see what you are saying about the younger brother, perhaps I have been looking at the story in the wrong perspective. If you look at the story as having the younger brother as the main character, from his perspective and his development as a character, it may hit more profoundly.

[Bisgos]

a unica coisa que tenho a dizer é que esse jogo é uma história de superação do irmao mais novo
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