toblix

Kentucky Route Zero

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I'm only just now realizing that I remember very little about what's happened so far in episodes 1-3.

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I want to replay at some point but I really don't know when I should. Is it better to run from 1 through to 5 when that comes out?

 

I was younger and less media literate when I started playing them so I think I might get a bit more out of what's happening now, especially because I've played the third episode and know where it's going.

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Every time a new episode is about to be released I have gone back and replayed the previous episodes, making choices based on how much I have changed and how much better I understand the world of KRZ. That's what I'm going to do again soon. I include those interstitial episodes that they released for free in that too.

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Looks like so, official webpage says: "PLAY THE FIRST FOUR ACTS NOW. REMAINING ACT WILL BE RELEASED THROUGHOUT THE NEXT YEAR OR SO."

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Act IV is out, apparently.

 

I really wish I remembered more about the first three acts. I'm torn between installing it and playing right away or waiting and plaything through I-IV so I have a better sense of what's going on.

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Cara Ellison wrote about KRZ recently.

 

You might save all year for a Beyonce ticket, just to see a certain miracle be performed in front of you, just so that you can go on with life knowing that there is magic, if you have time for it, if you find time to breathe it in.

 

But so few things are new to us, as we get older, and we’re not willing to risk paying to find the new in case it hurts when we don’t. The things that were new and wondrous – the deep, mysterious, stuttering space of the original Elite, for example – now live only in memory, because the BBC computer you played it on is no longer accessible, or you bent the floppy disk, or spilled coffee on it, or you have forgotten how to tell it to function. Or more likely, you do not have an attic in which to store this once fearsome beast, and online versions are missing the magic of the disk read noise, and you as a person are missing the time to relearn its ways. It is this remembered magic, the magic of the past, that Kentucky Route Zero successfully articulates. Kentucky Route Zero understands what it is like to watch things break and become unusable, their magic still intact in RAM but somehow out of reach. It remembers for you, so that you can feel like a child, while still an adult.

 

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Thanks for pointing Cara Ellison's essay out. KRZ is so good partially because it's so dense with ideas, and sparse, and so ambiguous, and concrete. I just replayed Act 1 and I picked up a few things I missed, like the mention of characters and concepts from Act 3 in a conversation with Joseph (?), the man at the petrol station at the beginning.

 

Also

 

artisanal.png

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Finally got around to completing Act IV. Travelling with my wife's family in Puebla, Mexico. Sick today, so I happily have lain in bed all day and finally got around to it.

 

I love it! The world they create is my favorite. It makes me feel so alive and connected. Strange silence from the press on this act this year it feels, but please play it. I read a few wikis to bring me up to speed from my 1-3 playthroughs. But it's still, as always, a game that stands complete in each chapter. No cliffhanger nonsense, just moment-to-moment wonder.

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I just played through the four acts in a row. Previously I had crashed in act II a couple of years ago and stopped there.

 

I have no words for how amazing this game is. I think it might be the Citizen Kane of narrative-focused games (if we're still looking for that). The thing that appeals to me most is the little stories about people and the way they are just spread all over the place. It definitely made me reflect on my own life a few times. I also expect it to have some replayability, not necessarily to make different choices but just to explore what I missed. And I do think a lot of players will miss stuff because the plot has a sense of urgency, which is not supported by the gameplay - IMHO the only mistake in this game's design.

 

At some point early in the game I wished it wasn't a magical realism, but I think it starts working really well.

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I haven't even played through act IV yet because every time I play through one of the new acts I'm sad that it's over. I guess I could just replay them again and again.

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13 hours ago, TychoCelchuuu said:

I haven't even played through act IV yet because every time I play through one of the new acts I'm sad that it's over. I guess I could just replay them again and again.

 

If it helps, the structure of 4 lends itself to replays more than the previous ones did.

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In the same boat as some of y'all of not having played Act IV yet. I knew after III that I just wanted to wait and replay the whole game when it was all out. (Cool to hear IV has more replayability to it, though.) 

 

First three Acts were incredible; even if they don't stick the landing at the end of V I know I'll still wholeheartedly recommend the game to folks. I guess the Switch TV edition coming out sometime before summer means we won't have to wait too long for Act V. Hope those folks get a massive boost in press and people talking about the game when it's all out. They greatly deserve it.

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9 hours ago, Siromatic said:

I guess the Switch TV edition coming out sometime before summer means we won't have to wait too long for Act V.

 

It is actually earlier than that:

 

Quote

Meanwhile, as you may have heard elsewhere, we have started working together with Annapurna Interactive to produce a console port of the game, which we’re calling the “TV Edition.” It will be available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. We’ll release it at the same time as we update the PC version with Act 5, which we’re planning to do in the early part of 2018.

 

From here: http://cardboardcomputer.com/2017/09/07/notes-on-the-tv-edition/

 

That was back in September, so who knows if plans have shifted since.

 

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13 hours ago, Siromatic said:

In the same boat as some of y'all of not having played Act IV yet. I knew after III that I just wanted to wait and replay the whole game when it was all out. (Cool to hear IV has more replayability to it, though.)

 

I should be more specific in that it lends itself to a replay. Along the path you're on you have some chances to do option A or B activities so you can go back through and see what the other stuff is (I haven't...like y'all I haven't wanted to face that I've done it all)

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