The path there definitely has parts to appreciate though.
The narrative goes in an enjoyable direction without being completely predictable, but its conclusion does feel a little disconnected from the substance of the rest of the game. Many moments are all the sweeter or much more heartbreaking because Enslaved: Odyssey to the West isn’t just going to have these two become fast friends and won’t toss away the natural barriers these two have put up in the harsh world they inhabit. It has faith in the player reading the complexities of the expressions and unspoken words, and its careful pace makes it both worth getting invested in without it rushing to go the expected path with its narrative. The harsh situations they find themselves in test them on how they truly feel about their companion, and many moments show the growing friendship without commenting on it. There are moments that test the two as people and subvert the expected story path. Over the course of the adventure they do begin to see each other more as people, but the build up and developments along the way are anything but cookie-cutter. The two are thrown together in a situation neither likes and forced to work together, both believing the other a hindrance at worst or a tool at best. The partnership between Monkey and Trip is the backbone of the plot, and its development is definitely a major highlight of the experience. Trip does promise to free him if he can help her get home, so Monkey begrudgingly agrees, the two taking off into the ruins of New York City together. After a crash landing, Trip realizes she’ll need Monkey’s assistance to survive, but rather than asking the rough and wild man to help, she places a slave crown on him that will force him to do as she says. The game’s hero, a man known only as Monkey, begins to escape from his captors, but another escapee named Trip ends up taking the last escape pod with him. Set in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity has been all but wiped out by war and robotic creatures roam the world wiping out the remnants they can find, two individuals end up captured by the Mechs to serve as slaves. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West definitely isn’t shy about it being directly inspired by the work, but rather than just presenting the already familiar elements to us again, it presents a brand new interpretation of those classic ideas while standing on its own as an independent work. Japanese game developers frequently draw on the Chinese novel Journey to the West in their games, the most common element often being the monkey king Sun Wukong being transplanted into their title, sometimes with barely any alterations.
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