PEGBRJE: Yi and the Thousand Moons and Spectres of the Cold
Musicals and Colds
Yi and the Thousand Moons is an interactive musical theatre adventure made by David Su, a composer, software engineer and audio developer who collaborates with many others to create audio-related games. In this title alone, there are many others that helped to make this musical possible from singers to fill the voices and additional musicians to round out the instrumentals. They’re all credited on the itch.io page to check out after experiencing the tale they wish to tell here, revolving around a legendary archer that has become stuck with a dilemma that threatens the local village folk.
The story of Yi and the Thousand Moons is told in sections, each represented by their own song that drives the plot much as a musical would. This does lead to players having limited control of the events, and are mostly just restricted to utilizing movement and camera angles to explore the world at any given time. This is usually within the confines of the act’s goal, which may give some extra abilities depending on what is occurring, such as the ability to shoot arrows or collect rocks. Players are in control of Yi for the majority of the musical, seeing from her perspective as she takes on the task set to her by the gods. See, they have an issue with the expanding darkness that is slowly encroaching on the world, and believe that moonlight may be a way to stop it. To gain this moonlight, however, requires the shooting down of the moons themselves to collect — and who better to recruit than a legendary archer?
Now, as an aside I couldn’t help but realize (post completion) the similarities between this story and one of Chinese legend; the story of Hou Yi and the shooting down of the 10 suns. The context and motive are wildly different, of course, as while both were recruited by a ‘higher’ being to save the planet, their reasonings vary. Hou Yi needs the suns to be removed as they are the direct threat to the Earth itself, and he attempted to reason with them prior. In our tale here, Yi is instead trying to solve a problem created by a different force, the unstoppable tide of darkness, and utilize the destroyed moons to do so. While Hou Yi leaves a single sun remaining (the reasonings vary due to texts, the tale I’m most familiar with was the King and the matriarch of the suns asked him to), Yi is left with a new problem instead after attempting to solve another; the influx of stardust that the moons had been keeping from the Earth.
Still not sure how I didn’t notice the similarities of their names while playing, but I digress.
I’ve neglected the crucial comments that drive the story itself, and that is the musical aspect that is the pillar of the game. See, there are no conversations had in a ‘normal’ fashion as they are all done through singing. The cast does a fantastic job of emulating an ensemble piece — partly due to the set pieces and scenarios allowing for them to appear as if they were on stage at all times. Yi sings of her determination during every task, whether to shoot down the moons or save the village from ruin due to her actions, while the villagers and gods harmonize with each other during their scenes together. The song writing does a great job of blending together the sincerity of each character’s feelings with the camp that comes somewhat naturally to musical numbers in general; it’s hard not to have some camp in dramatic scenarios, especially when the three gods are singing over top of Yi’s attempts to ask them to fix the problem that she has caused on their behalf. I also want to mention that the saxophones were seriously on point and were easily my favourite aspects of each number.
It’s not a perfect piece, but Yi and the Thousand Moons does a lovely job of creating a musical within an interactive space. It tells a fantastical tale that feels directly out of an ancient text, of actions and reactions and the consequences that may come with them. It’s really quite short at about 15–20 minutes, but musical pieces rarely wish to extend too long as the production on each song can take much longer than if it was just spoken word. If you’d like to see a short musical story, this is definitely one to try out.
Spectres of the Cold is a small adventure puzzle made by Daniel Savage, an indie dev normally working in 2D but took the plunge in to 3D for this title. Interestingly enough, this game is actually more of a oneshot style, as Savage credits Jesse Taylor for giving them a sprite sheet and then creating a game entirely based on the sprites. Everything was created within that scope, and creates a narrative that follows a young fellow running away from a burning area.
As this little protagonist with horns, players are wandering through an unknown region that shifts in to a maze as narrative is given for some context. Trying to escape the terror that was the village, players are now locked in a maze with some very, very angry beastmen that will gut our protagonist immediately. Thankfully, our abilities for stealth and avoidance are great enough to slip past them in a variety of ways. The obvious method is to wait and run past them before their light-vision sees the protagonist. This ultimately fails when the walls are lowered in certain regions, requiring the second tool for the job; just, crouching down low. These monsters are unable to see all that well, so crouching below the walls is a surefire way to stay out of sight. Unfortunately, if they’ve gotten close enough that won’t save our little fellow from being utterly destroyed so be proactive with that crouch. Finally is a super secret super power that gives the ability to somehow make a beastman vanish for a bit, unable to run the player down until they return from that state. It can be aimed and placed, and I actually found it most useful to scout the map out, so think of it as a double whammy of super powers.
What draws people in to Spectres of the Cold is the vague narrative descriptions given in between levels. The game only takes 30 minutes, yet builds a relatively intriguing narrative for the amount of time that it dedicates to the topic. Who are these tribes, and why is marrying between so barbaric to them? What’s the deal with the beasts? We may never know, but the ability to create intrigue with little is merit unto its own. If you want to play a simple puzzle stealth game, try this out and see what you think.
