Not Pertaining to Nietzsche

While my long absence from this whole blogging thing was almost exclusively a product of my own laziness, there was a contributing factor that should be taken into account: namely, that I was taking, from around January until about a week ago, an online composition course from my local community college. Seeing as a few of my essays have achieved a modest level of popularity (for a novice, niche teen writer, anyway), and also seeing as a fair percentage of those who view my blog aren't really there for lengthy video-game evaluations (Hi, Grandma Nana), I'm planning on posting the essays I wrote during that time here sometime rather soon. Just not now- I've got other things to write about. Like video games, for instance.

In addition to the previously mentioned Patapon, lately I've been spending a fair amount of time with Beyond Good and Evil. This is the video game Beyond Good and Evil, mind you, not the evidently-quite-famous philosophy book by Friedrich Nietzsche that I ran across when trying to access the Wikipedia page for the game.

If you're a gamer who's spent a decent amount of time touring game websites, chances are you've heard of this one. It is quite possibly the most harped-upon underselling game of all time, often topping "Overlooked Treasures" lists at game websites and almost always at least making it into them. It being a mildly spooky-looking, semi-post-apocalyptic-ish game, I ignored it in my early teens, not being a terribly brave sort of fellow when it came to spooks. Eventually, having successfully completed a Metroid game and in doing so raised my courage to new (barely subterranean!) heights, I decided to check it out. So I bought it- on the same trip to the store on which I purchased Final Fantasy VII, sometime in late autumn of last year. I put it in my cubbie thing with my other games, and it sat, and sat, and sat, and sat. Then, less than two weeks ago, I decided that I'd probably better get to it already, so I pulled it out, popped it into my PS2, and set about giving it a go. Thus far I am impressed, intrigued... and just a teensy bit disappointed.

When I say it's disappointing, I mean just that- not bad, poorly made, or inept in any way. My dissatisfaction doesn't stem from any shortcomings of considerable size on the game's part, but rather from the almost unanimously positive remarks its nearly cult-like following of fans have spoon-fed me and the internet at large in the past several years (I'm carefully bracing myself for disappointment regarding the now-likely Virtual Console release of Earthbound for roughly the same reason). Worse still in its contribution to my overlarge expectations, at some point in my readings the name Zelda got dragged in as a comparison piece.

This is an absolutely horrible thing to do to poor BG&E. The Zelda games to this day remain my (and many other people's) all time favorites, handily eclipsing any others that dare to attempt its patented brand of adventure gameplay. As of this writing, I've only played one other game that even approaches the lofty standards set by the irreplaceable Zelda.

By the standards of any 3-D Zelda game, Beyond Good and Evil falls decidedly flat. There's only rudimentary puzzle-solving in the first stages of the game and next to none later on. The game world is an ocean, but a far smaller and more restricting one than that of The Wind Waker. And, besides a zoom function for your camera obtained near the beginning and some hovercraft upgrades needed to advance later on, I've only picked up one "arsenal expansion" (a disc launcher), and I think that's all I'm ever going to get.

The trick to enjoying Beyond Good and Evil to its full extent, then, is to not view it as a Zelda-esque game. Indeed, when taken on its own terms, the game is really quite excellent. The festive, south-of-the-border (or perhaps Latin) style music found in the barroom hub and minigames is both unexpected and ridiculously catchy, and the art, while a little choppy, crafts for the game a style all its own. But BG&E's best feature is undoubtedly its unique and moving story, which (as of my point in the game) follows a photographic journalist named Jade as she works with a secret society to expose a massive government conspiracy. Despite what you may infer from this plot point, however, the strength of the story lies far more with its more intimate characters than in any grand-scale goings-on. Pey'J, an anthropomorphic pig who acts as a sort of father to Jade, and Double H, a valiant and enthusiastic soldier-agent, are two of the best sidekicks to be found in any video game- their presence adds depth, warmth, motivation, and humor to the story, and they're wonderfully fleshed out through the excellent voice-acting that permeates so much of the game. Jade herself is easily one of the best female leads in gaming, and her inquisitive personality and strong sense of action and purpose make her as good a reporter as they come.

Occasionally same-y gameplay (Sneak in, take pictures, fight boss, leave, sneak in, take pictures, etc.) and a few (possibly PS2 version exclusive) audio glitches and game-freeze problems hamper the game somewhat, but thus far it's been an overall superior experience. Don't expect it to topple Zelda or reshape your beliefs of what a game can be, but Beyond Good and Evil is certainly worthy of attention for the originality and quality of its characters and setting, and it certainly deserved better than it got.

-Smashing Brother