[HN Gopher] The Weirdness of Kentucky Route Zero (2016)
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The Weirdness of Kentucky Route Zero (2016)
Author : olvy0
Score : 80 points
Date : 2021-01-10 17:01 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.joshhaas.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.joshhaas.com)
| platz wrote:
| Neighbor, is a meditative little vignette along the lines of
| Mountain (2014) or Animal Crossing.
|
| "You should play the new poetic game from the Kentucky Route Zero
| designers - Kill Screen":
| https://killscreen.com/previously/articles/cardboard-compute...
| bitxbitxbitcoin wrote:
| Here is some text from a review of Kentucky Route Zero I wrote in
| 2017.
|
| "Are we there yet? This game is all story with no challenges or
| obstacles, just like a road trip ought to be. Immerse yourself in
| an artful rendition of our very human world and step into the
| dusty shoes of a man we have all seen in passing, but never
| stopped to get to know. He drives for the elusive Kentucky Route
| Zero - an underground road filled with legend and Americana. How
| do you find the middle of nowhere?"
|
| For the purposes of understanding America's heartland a little
| better, what's better than playing Kentucky Route Zero is
| actually taking a real road trip through the flyover states.
| 7thaccount wrote:
| Kentucky Route Zero is an absolute masterpiece in my opinion and
| is more of an experience than a true game. It really helps to
| read some critical analysis of the game after playing it to to
| get a better understanding and appreciation for the historical
| background that is being referenced.
|
| The game is part adventure, part ghost story, part commentary on
| the fading american dream, and part artwork. It sounds
| pretentious, but it never felt that way to me. It is really hard
| to describe the game and the plot.
|
| It is my favorite game along with Journey.
| 2bitencryption wrote:
| I agree with everything you wrote, so you sound like me - in
| that case, try out the game Omori, which just released. It's
| right up there with Journey and Kentucky Route Zero. It really
| is That Good.
| glogla wrote:
| Innuendo Studios has a good 8 minute video essay on it:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl6OYyU4rl8
| fetus8 wrote:
| Experience is absolutely the right way to describe KRZ. I feel
| like it shares a lot of the same DNA as Visual Novel style
| games too. I just finished Snatcher for the first time, and got
| similar "feelings" while playing and reading through it all.
| immigrantsheep wrote:
| I love this game so much. It's a masterpiece. I played it episode
| by episode first on PC and then again the whole game over a
| weekend on a PS4. Fantastic.
| puzzlingcaptcha wrote:
| The most in-depth analysis of the themes in the first three acts
| of KRZ I've seen was published by superlevel.de. Unfortunately
| following a change to the website it's now only available through
| web archive (and a lot of interesting photographs are sadly
| missing):
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20190330120931/https://superleve...
| 7thaccount wrote:
| Ah Kentucky Fried Zero. This is what I was referring to in my
| other comment I believe.
| giantg2 wrote:
| Sort of interesting. I didn't think someone would make a game
| like that. I grew up (partially) in the Appalachian part of PA. I
| might look into playing it to see how relatable it is.
| user-the-name wrote:
| Also check out Night in the Woods, which was, confusingly,
| inspired by Kentucky Route Zero, while also being released
| before Kentucky Route Zero was completed.
| [deleted]
| gtfoutttt wrote:
| I've had this game in my list to pick up ever since I got a ps4.
| However I only ever buy discs, so maybe this is a good sign that
| it will finally be available in my local store.
| MrRadar wrote:
| KRZ only had a limited physical release through iam8bit and it
| sold out shortly after it was released last year. Though it
| looks like it's also included in a collector's edition bundle
| of games from the publisher, albeit at a very high cost:
| https://www.iam8bit.com/products/annapurna-interactive-delux...
| It's also available DRM-free from GOG and Humble Bundle (the
| Steam release might also be DRM-free, but I haven't checked).
| 013a wrote:
| It'll probably still be very difficult to find physically, as
| it only had one limited release and that sold out almost
| instantly.
|
| Fortunately, if you're not interested in the digital PS4 copy,
| you can purchase a DRM free download from their itch.io [1]
| which works on Windows, Mac, or Linux. Its a game that would
| run on a toaster, so not having a gaming computer isn't a
| barrier.
|
| [1] https://cardboardcomputer.itch.io/kentucky-route-zero
| the__alchemist wrote:
| This game made me decide never to play an episodic game until all
| episodes are out. I lost interest and track of the characters and
| story during the interludes.
|
| This article makes me want to play the final episode; the game's
| beautiful, subtle, and thoughtful in a way few developers dare.
| davidklemke wrote:
| I did exactly this by accident. KRZ came recommended to me by a
| mate after a few episodes were out but I never got around to
| playing it. I did take the dive though last year when all the
| episodes were out and I'm glad I did as I think what happened
| to you would certainly have happened to me!
|
| The final episode is definitely worth playing though. It's the
| emotional climax it needed, I think.
| TeaDrunk wrote:
| I highly recommend playing the final episode. Interestingly I
| recall the devs mentioned Trump's win and the subsequent
| political tension caused a big change in the way the game was
| developed and the themes they wanted to include. So I don't
| know if the wait was so bad- I don't know what the last episode
| was originally meant to be, but the way it is now is a
| beautiful examination of the most painful, human, vulnerable
| pieces of the american dream.
| mherdeg wrote:
| Yup. It's wonderful game and thought provoking and I just gave
| up and didn't ever come back in that long long long gap before
| the last episode.
| sanitycheck wrote:
| Possibly of interest to those who loved the music in the game...
| A Junebug album: https://junebug.bandcamp.com
|
| (I've hard it in my playlist since discovering it exists.)
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(page generated 2021-01-10 23:01 UTC)