撰文：Dluck
Cover: Screenshot of the game "The Past Stays with Me".
introduction
"What do I use to keep you? I give you the thin streets, the desperate sunsets, the moon in the wilderness. I'll give you a sad ...... of a man who has been looking at the lonely moon for a long time" opens with a modern poem by Jorge Luis Borges, setting a sad tone for the entire work. Among them, the story of "me" and "you" has become an important plot thread in the whole game.
In the game's story, "I" represents the current self and the little girl the player will play, and "you" represents the past self, which is the afterimage of the 2-second delayed action. The game shows the attitude of the present self towards the past self through the act of playing, and tells a story about self-redemption.
This game combines platforming and puzzle-solving gameplay with a narrative, and the ingenuity is that starting from the needs of the game's plot, the author created an "afterimage" with a delay of 2 seconds, that is, the past self. In different scenes, the "afterimage" is given different meanings and functions, so that the "afterimage" transforms from the initial obstacle to the final help - in the process of playing, players can gain the same growth feeling as the protagonist through the operation behavior at that time, and the story of "me" and "you" is constantly conveyed.
In addition, the game is scattered with a large number of philosophical metaphors, and its spiritual connotation is continuously refined through art, copywriting, and gameplay. Compared to Super Mario Bros., a classic platformer that takes "jumping" to the extreme and focuses on gameplay, "Once Upon a Time" is more like a work of art for people to admire.
Homegrown opening: ambition that is hard to hide
A game full of artistry will of course have an artistic opening, and the prologue also has the ambition of the development team that cannot be hidden. Artistic creation is usually about conveying and sharing the creator's experiences or experiences to evoke empathy with the audience, and these experiences will naturally have the author's unique style.
In a previous interview about "The Past Stays with Me", Luo Zhaoxiang (producer, planner, artist, program), the core creator of this game, introduced the game's development team. He said that the game was made by him and his friend Liu Jiaming, who studied music, and that teachers and classmates at the school also helped. Although it is difficult to imagine that this is the work done by two students under the guidance of the teacher, it seems that the strong critical thinking of the production team can be seen in the style and metaphors of the game. For example, the makers were able to accurately extract typical scenes in the cramming education system: parents sneering at people who jumped off buildings, classmates rejecting mavericks, teachers not understanding students who don't enter the stream, etc. At the same time, these special situations are used to criticize the disregard of traditional Chinese education for children's health.
The game starts with a plot where the girl chooses a path that does not conform to secular values and ultimately fails, implicitly criticizing the educational path of overemphasizing "standard answers" and using them to distinguish between right and wrong. The development team didn't just want to make a game, but to show the gameplay and reflect at the same time - whether it's for the protagonist himself, for society, and for life.
Of course, the game is not just a plot to express a critical attitude towards society, but also works together on multiple levels to mobilize the diverse senses of the player. For example, the slow-motion design allows players to experience the powerlessness of touching the crown but missing it; Fast-paced challenges, allowing players to reap the oppressive feeling of inner stimulation reaching its peak..... All the expressions in the game are intertwined.
2 seconds delay: an ingenious design
Once Upon a Time with Me is not limited to the usual platforming mode, and the gameplay is closely aligned with the theme. Luo Zhaoxiang said that he hopes to use the afterimage of 2 seconds ago as a metaphor for his past self, and hopes to use this mechanic to discuss the theme of "how to face one's past" with players.
Once the mechanic was finalized, the development team designed different levels and character mechanics for each chapter, giving the game a rich layering of narratives that follow from beginning to end. For example, in the first three chapters, the 2-second delay of the remnant will accidentally touch the trap, causing the player to control the character to always be unable to easily pass the level, and must use the remnant to press the trap at the right time to quickly jump through the level. This implies that the "past self" always hinders the "present self", and the opportunity is always fleeting.
With the third chapter "Jumping off the Building" as the inflection point, the afterimage with a delay of 2 seconds will become a good companion in the subsequent chapters to help players solve puzzles and clear the level: after entering the fourth chapter, the player can control the character to go back to the afterimage. This seems to represent a desire to go back in time and make changes to prevent the tragedy from happening.
Not only that, in the fifth chapter, we have to step on the afterimage, using our past self as a step, and jump to a higher platform. In addition, this chapter also includes a large number of moments where you need to kill your past self. Do these game behaviors convey that true growth may be about internalizing one's past self into a force that can be driven?
Not only do the "afterimages" and the characters controlled by the player reflect metaphors, but the various items in the game are also full of metaphors. For example, the development team used lasers as a metaphor for the gaze of others: the player controls the "current me" to be touched by a laser, which causes the level to reset, while the old self does not react because he is not being watched by others - the gaze of others is also a weapon that kills him. To put it another way, if "I" want to pass the level, I must let my past self attract lasers, which can also be interpreted as "I" want to kill my past self with a laser, but I find that my past self cannot be killed by foreign objects, and the only thing that can finally destroy my past self is "me" myself.
Aesthetic art: a new life
"Once Upon a Time with Me" features a delicate pixel style. The retro visuals are charming, combined with emotion and philosophy, allowing the game to give birth to its own aesthetic art. For example, a philosophical introduction appears before each chapter, and a statue of the corresponding philosopher is released at the end of the chapter, and the low-resolution pixel images are reminiscent of "vintage" and "classic", just like obscure philosophical thoughts. When players play, they don't feel that the philosophy is abrupt, but there is a sense of shock in reason.
The game makes full use of every space to project thinking, and uses the same picture for the background of the same chapter. In the first chapter, the background image is still sunset and dusk, and in the second chapter, it becomes a crescent moon, which not only expresses the passage of time, but also shows the progress of the story. In the third chapter, the moon in the background changes from bright yellow to blood red, which is even more depressing with the sparse light rain, which perfectly fits the plot of the character's uncontrolled jump from the building at the end. In the fourth chapter, the moon disappears and the picture turns to a deep black, as if falling into hell, which not only shows the solemnity of death, but also lays the groundwork for the sudden dawn that follows. In the fifth chapter, the fog of the early morning is used to cover the whole picture with a gray cover, and where it touches the eye, there is a confusion that has not yet seen the light. Finally, the sixth chapter is clearly a picture of the rising sun, giving infinite hope. The background image fits the experience and feeling during the game, and when connected, it also happens to be a transition from dusk to darkness to dawn. As Nietzsche said, everything that is good is tortuously approaching its goal, everything straight is deceiving, all truth is crooked, and time itself is a circle.
The aesthetic art of "Once Upon a Time with Me" doesn't stop there. According to the classification of linguistics, linguistic signs include spoken and written words, while non-linguistic signs refer to images, colors, lights, music, etc. Philosophical ideas are usually expressed through linguistic symbols, but this work transforms linguistic symbols into "non-verbal symbols" that are closer to images by setting fonts, sizes, colors, and arrangements. Compared with simple text, this combination of pictures and text is easier for players to resonate with the meaning conveyed by the text - when playing, the player's comprehension cost is significantly reduced, and the artistry of the game is quietly improved.
Philosophical thoughts: witty interpretations
The value of a work is not limited to being pleasing to the eye, but also to inspiring the emotions and thoughts of the viewer. The development team added a lot of philosophical thoughts to "Once Upon a Time", and there were many deep meanings in the game.
Level Philosophy: Mirror image expresses the reincarnation of things
The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said that "one cannot step into the same river twice", and the game shows this through a mirrored level design. Although the protagonist walks into the "same river", the "I" is already a different "me". In the first four chapters, the characters we control choose to escape the past, and in the last four chapters, they face it head-on. In order to better present this dialectical transformation, in addition to the background images of each chapter, part of the terrain design of the preceding and subsequent levels is almost identical. Admittedly, this is a simplification of design, but it can also be said to be a philosophical expression that is not superficial.
Details: Multiple easter eggs waiting to be excavated
In the fourth chapter, the player has to keep pushing the blocks forward. However, each time it is pushed to the top, the block falls due to gravity, reminiscent of Sisyphus and his boulder. This gives the player a sense of helplessness, and at the same time stimulates the player to think.
There is also a special design in the game. When the prologue introduces the background introduction and gameplay instructions, the TV broadcast of the large-scale outbreak of the global epidemic is specially arranged at the end. Players playing so far, it is easy to unconsciously substitute for the lonely moment at home during the epidemic period, and that is also the moment when most people frequently fall into self-reflection.
Three Spiritual Changes: The Development and Experience of the Game Story
Each chapter of "Once Upon a Time" opens with an illustration and a philosophical quote that is linked to the theme of the chapter. The continuous illustration is Nietzsche's "Three Spiritual Changes" (German: Verwandlungen) proposed in "Thus Said Zarathustra", which uses three creatures: camels, lions, and babies to metaphorize the changes in the human spirit. Among them, the camel represents the shackles of traditional morality, the lion symbolizes the spirit of courage to break the traditional paradigm, and the last baby embodies the power to create new value after breaking the framework.
The development of the story of this work "just happens" to fit the "three changes in spirit". The protagonist is originally a camel burdened by humiliation and bound by morality; By the third, fourth, and fifth chapters of the game, the protagonist has become a lion who dares to resist and kill his past self; Finally, in the sixth chapter, the protagonist returns to his true "self" by killing his past self, completing a "reincarnation" like a newborn baby. The opening pictures and dialogues of each chapter of the game also support this fit, such as the opening pattern of the fourth chapter, and the words "conquer Asia" and "conquer Africa", which seem to confirm that the protagonist is still a young lion at this time.
Statue of the Philosopher: The Perfect Chapter Curtain Call
The game has a total of 6 chapter achievements, except for the third chapter, which ends with a jumping building, and at the end of each chapter, there is a statue of a philosopher as a curtain call, and a philosophical achievement is triggered. For example, after the end of the first chapter "Nightmare", a statue corresponding to the achievement "Pascal's Wager" will appear. The author has tried to find and explain the relationship between the achievements of these chapters and the chapters, but there has never been a convincing answer, so I will not go into details. This kind of thing that cannot be accurately deciphered may be more conducive to the player's own play. In every player's heart, there may be their own Hamlet.
Self-reinvention: dual psychotherapy
The theme of "Once Upon a Time" is about "how to face one's past". When presetting an answer to this topic, the author incorporates the linear behavior pattern of platforming to design an inescapable path to self-redemption. In this redemption, the player controls a character who cannot escape and must face the pain head-on and fight to overcome it. Finally, at the end of the adventure, the prologue scene is reproduced and the characters give different answers - the development team clearly tells us that the characters have successfully solved their own psychological problems by constantly revising their views and attitudes towards people and things. The whole game experience shows the process of self-reinvention in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT).
The green dialog box in the picture is a monologue that only appears at the end of the chapter
At the end of the game, after the player completes the memories that also appear in the prologue, there are new cutscenes and additional levels. In this cutscene, the player can see himself operating the character to break away from the memories and enter a "spiritual realm" space built by the memories of events, at this time, the past events are built on their "spiritual realm" like a bridge, but this "bridge" seems to be collapsing. What the player has to do is to manipulate the character to fix the "bridge" that is about to collapse - restore the picture of waking up at the beginning of the game, end this dream-like adventure, and sleep peacefully. The whole process seems to indicate that the characters have successfully corrected the "distorted" wrong thinking of the past in this journey of self-redemption.
Participating in artistic activities such as painting, sculpture, music, and dance, and focusing on it is a kind of psychological healing in itself. In the game, the characters we operate find clues to break through the level in the text, and then solve a series of puzzles, perhaps gradually unraveling the knots that plague us and releasing our inner emotions. The game world and game experience created by the game works belong to each player alone, and it is not a "therapeutic space" from the inside out, with the rhythm of ups and downs, inducing gentle medicine into our body.
Bottom line: Small stories can make a big difference
In 2018, "Celeste" was released, winning a number of achievements such as "Best Indie Game" and "Most Influential Game" by the TGA, showing the public that platforming mechanics can also make story-writing artworks and become a vehicle for psychological healing.
So, even though With My Past's plot isn't quite compelling, telling a story of past and self with a twist and turn on the platformer, the development team has built a solid structure that gives players a good experience - not just focusing on the game's replayability, but focusing on the overall performance to bring players a comprehensive collaborative experience.
Whether it's the ubiquitous metaphor, the unique 2-second delay "afterimage" mechanic, or the philosophies and statues quoted at the beginning and end of the chapter...... The game is not pretended to be sophisticated and wanton mixed, but really "takes the essence" and creates something for the theme of the game and the player's feelings. This is probably a very interesting point of this work.。
Images: Unless otherwise specified, the pictures in the article are from the corresponding game screenshots
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