29/01/2014

Avalon Code (3): THAT plot twist (with massive chunks of SPOILERS!)



Before we start, be warned: this post is basically one huge spoiler. If you ever intend to play Avalon Code, avert your eyes, lest the impact of the most intense event of the story be entirely ruined. That being said, on with the show!

Well, well, well. THAT Plot Twist. That soul-wrenching, nerve-wracking Plot Twist. That Mother of all plot twists, which makes your head reel and your heart break. I definitely couldn’t avoid talking at length about the plot twist that shocked me the most since the one in Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening on Game Boy, twenty years ago. 

Plot twists are not uncommon in RPGs, and I’ve seen my fair share of them over the years. I can’t even say this one took me by surprise: as a matter of fact, I saw it coming from afar. When Chapter 5 started, with the Tournament looming in the horizon, I knew we had a plot twist coming. Call it experience, or intuition, but I was absolutely certain something would happen at the end of that fated Tournament. But despite being so sure and trying to guess what could be in store, I certainly didn’t expect that. Not in a million years. This plot twist is astonishing in more ways than one, and here’s why.

Too much of a bad thing

Story-wise, what happens in Avalon Code's god-forsaken plot twist is not really that original. I mentioned the plot twist of Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening earlier, which actually happens to be a highly original one; but I would be hard-pressed to find the same amount of sheer originality in Avalon Code’s plot twist events. Everything that happens in the course of that plot twist has been seen before in other RPGs, sometimes much more than once. Let’s review it all: 

—Your best friend makes an alliance with the enemy, backstabbing you in the process? We’ve totally seen this before.
—Your lover is ripped away from your loving arms and left for dead? We’ve seen that too, sure.
—Your town is destroyed by the enemy, and you end up being wrongly accused of being the source of that disaster? This, too, has been seen before.
—The whole town turns against you and everybody line up to spit their anger, hate and despise to your face? Humm, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this before.
—The most important item in the whole game world is stolen from you, and the faithful guardian spirits who were always by your side are scattered all around the world? Well, there are likely some variations of this around.
—You lose all your weapons, equipment and items? This is a bit more unusual, maybe, but I’m sure it’s not unheard of. 

So, there is nothing unseen in the fabric of that plot twist, no event likely to shake you by virtue of its massive originality. We’ve seen all of these elements before, without a doubt. 

But we’ve certainly not seen all of them unfold at once, in the course of a single plot twist. 

This is the first stroke of genius of that plot twist, and the first factor that contributes to the huge emotional impact of the whole event. What you see in that plot twist is basically the painful and total unraveling of your life as a character. All hell breaks loose, and you have to sit and watch powerless as everything you patiently built during the first half of the game is being torn to pieces and tramped down before your very teary eyes. I’ve never seen a plot twist go that far in terms of stripping the main character of everything they care about and strived for, and you certainly have to give the developers kudos for having had the guts to go to such lengths for the sake of emotional impact and storyline consistency.  

More gain, more pain

So, the developers designed this heart-breaking plot twist to start with; but you, as a player, also lent a hand in making it so devastating, although you may have been totally unaware of it at the time.

This is made possible because of the peculiar nature of the 5th chapter of the game, which precedes that fated plot twist. Unlike all the others chapters, the 5th is not tied to the clearance of a dungeon; it’s somehow a “breather” chapter, in which you can spend time interacting with NPCs and run errands for them, as well as initiate the romance process. In fact, you are very explicitly encouraged to do so by a certain NPC, who even lets you know that you can indeed get a sweetheart before the Tournament; and if you like the game, which is obviously the case if you’ve come that far, you will want to indulge into these interactions. You will definitely want to clear as many sidequests as possible, and to dive head first into the romance thing, hitting on your favourite bachelor and handing over presents like there’s no tomorrow and no overdraft limit. You will crave for that, and you will work hard on it, o yes indeed, precious.

And by doing so, you will pave the way for your own misery when the plot twist comes your way: for the more you involve yourself into this 5th chapter and pour your heart and soul into these interactions with the NPCs, the more your heart will ache when all hell breaks loose. You will have to endure the searing pain of losing your newfound sweetheart just after you worked so hard to woo them, becoming quite fond of them in the process. After you’ve grown attached to the townspeople without even realizing it through numerous interactions, it will be incredibly painful to watch them accuse and accurse you unfairly for the destruction of the town. There is a nearly perverse mechanism at work here, and once again, kudos must be delivered to the developers for having arranged things so neatly and designed this 5th chapter so very cleverly, making it another stroke of genius. It is a bittersweet treat, which is bound to bring you both joy and pain; and the higher the joy, the deeper the pain, really. 


You took it for granted, didn’t you? 

But that’s not all, folks; for your misery goes even further and deeper than this. In the course of that soul-shattering plot twist, not only do you lose your lover, your best friend and anybody else you may care about, along with the trust and respect of your fellow townspeople; you also lose the Book of Prophecy and the Spirits. It hurts to have this Book, which you’ve been carefully taking care of and came to consider your own, brutally ripped away from you, especially since some of the pages are torn and lost in the process; it basically feels like all your hard work until now is being tramped down without pity. Seeing the friendly Spirits being scattered away is also quite heart-breaking, especially since there’s nothing you can do about it. 

While this event obviously inserts into the in-game storyline, the impact of it goes much further than that, for it drastically alters the gameplay itself. You suddenly find yourself unable to fight with your weapons, heal yourself and equip your gear, much less scan enemies and objects and modify them at will; and instead of being accompanied by the constant babbling of the Spirits, you are now left in a complete, slightly surreal silence. This is a major rupture in the game, all the more so as by that time, you have grown accustomed to the use of the Book, and essentially take it for granted.  Once again, this is a very bold step taken by the developers: it’s not so often, if ever, that an element in the storyline translates into a change at the meta-level of the gameplay itself. A third stroke of genius, and one bound to remind the player in the most shocking way that the Book is definitely more than a mere menu interface, should they have forgotten it. 

I’m a poor lonesome hero

The aftermath of all this mess is immediate, and desolate: you find yourself in a nearly complete solitude, forlorn and dispirited—literally—as you try to get your head around what happened. The game then gives you a glimpse of relief when Lauca Meia and Heath take you under their wing and help you, respectively by offering you shelter and teaching you a new fighting technique, and Rex comes out of the blue, seemingly ready to make amend for his damn stupid behaviour by retrieving the lost pages of the Book. But this warm companionship is short-lived indeed, for you soon find yourself alone again after everybody part to follow their own way. This parting left me disappointed and slightly anxious, yet there was no choice but to move forward.

What follows is one of the most intense moments of the game, as you find yourself going through the unknown Eastern Desert in order to reach the Ruins and retrieve the Book, which is currently in Olly’s hands. You have to do so bare-handed, using this new fighting style that you’re still trying to grasp; and you have to do so nearly blindly, as you can’t count on any map to orientate yourself.  This, added to the desolate surroundings and the eerie music theme, creates a very powerful sense of fragility and insecurity. During this trip, your head is reeling with mixed feelings and emotions: sadness, resignation, resolve, and even a pang of guilt, especially regarding your lost lover, who you seemingly wooed only to drag them into this mess. 

I have to say that this desert trip, and the emotions it elicited, reminded me a lot of my post-plot twist experience with Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. I felt the same mix of sadness, resignation and resolve as I went through the Face Shrine dungeon, with its convoluted design and eerie music, my mind still reeling from the impact of the devastating plot twist. There was also an similar feeling of guilt; though not about some misery I did bring upon the people, but rather about the unavoidable misery I was about to bring to them by going forward with my quest. All in all, two very similar experiences, both incredibly intense and memorable. 

The road to recovery

At the end of this feverish desert trip, you fight Olly and finally recover the Book. To do so is an exhilarating experience: at last, you are able to equip you weapons again, to orientate yourself and to scan like there’s no tomorrow, not to mention that hey, it’s your precious Book after all, right? This is the very first step of a long road to recovery, in every sense of the world: from now on, you will have to set everything right, first by hunting for the Spirits and the missing pages in order to gain back the Book’s full power, then by beating the bastards who created all this mess to a pulp. A heavy agenda, indeed; but after enduring such misery at the hands of Kullervo and his little cronies, you’ll find yourself incredibly eager to recover what you fought so hard for in the first place. In fact, I can't remember having ever wanted that much to set things right while playing an RPG.

The rest is history, as you’ll go through dangers and dungeons, reclaiming the faithful Spirits, the trust of the townspeople, and even your lover in the end, and finally erasing Kullervo from the face of the world. And when everything is said and done, you will undoubtedly remember that plot twist as one of the most striking, intense and mind-blowing that ever unfolded before your eyes. Hey, it’s THAT Plot Twist, after all.

Here ends my praise of Avalon Code. There would be plenty more to say about many more matters, from the romance to the hidden secrets of the game, but there are tons of excellent FAQ around there dedicated to this very purpose and doing a much better job at it that I could ever do on that blog. My task was to praise that game and shout my love for it to the face of the internet, and I definitely feel that the deed is done. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

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