Quarantine Control #83: Walkin’ on the Netherworld’s End Forge

DC Staff | November 4, 2021 | Features, Graphic Novels, Videogames | No Comments

It happened this week: The CDC cleared the way for 5-11-year-olds to start getting vaccinated. It’s good that kids will finally be able to get this, and it will be a relief to parents, teachers, and other caretakers with justifiable fear of picking up COVID-19 from children. It would have been better, of course, if this happened before the school season started, but it’s a moment of celebration that it’s happening at all.

On the other hand, this could lead to an unholy alliance of anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists overwhelmingly concerned with kids’ “safety” who will be very concerned about children being poisoned, though overlap between them already existed. Hopefully that won’t be as bad as it sounds, even though things usually are.

Geoffrey Barnes

Hey, so I watched a phat load of nothing spectacular over the last week despite making plans. I have been playing a very cool video game for over a little more than that time, though.

Hades (2020)
Source: Nintendo Switch (though it’s also on every other current platform)
Episodes: 1 video game

There was no way for me to avoid discussions about how good Supergiant Games’ Hades was before getting to play it myself. You know a non-AAA game is special when it can get nominated and, in some cases, win over its big-budget brethren during Game of the Year awards time. I also got a chance to see this through several streams of the game, including those from our own Angela Moseley. Video games, of course, are always better when you actually play them, so I made this among one of the first games I picked up alongside the Nintendo Switch OLED. I know it’s on every other platform now, but this is what I wanted to play it on. The game is indeed very good.

A game that involves players running through similar areas over and over again to complete it, and where death sends them back to the beginning each time, sounds lame ostensibly. That’s not the case in Hades thanks to the development team’s desire and effort to make every run feel different. The designs of the rooms change each time, and there are countless amounts of differently-assembled enemy encounters for Zagreus to take on as he seeks to escape from the Underworld and the clutches of his father, the titular Hades. Between the enemy choices in each room, the room design themselves, the different kinds of enhancement boons Zagreus can obtain, and the choice between six weapons, no run feels the same.

Yet, Hades also feels special because it’s clear Supergiant made a painstaking effort to make it approachable for people who don’t play a lot of roguelikes or roguelites. It’s a tough game, but comes with the best incentives to encourage players to continue their attempts to finish it. In addition to permanent upgrades, there’s plenty of story and a lot of dialogue, most of which changes for each run. That it’s all voice acted makes it even more special, a welcome switch compared to prior Supergiant games that had narrators do most of the talking or small voice quips. The game and its developers understand that punishment can be just as rewarding as winning. It doesn’t have the most riveting story around, but it’s entertaining and comes with solid voice performances.

The game itself requires a bit of adjusting thanks to being more of an immediate challenge compared to prior Supergiant titles. As a roguelite, it’s designed so it’s very difficult to complete early on; not to mention that completing it so early isn’t recommended because of how that would involve missing out on a bunch of story and characters. It will take time to find the best weapon that works for you, pray the RNG gives you the boons you like the most in what could be a good run through the underworld. Either way, it’s open to a lot of experimentation.

I don’t have many issues with Hades, but a key one emerged for me after making multiple runs: I wish there were more than four areas. Don’t take this as me wanting each run to be longer; runs can be finished in an hour or less whether or not the game is cleared. It was a big help with making this game approachable for anyone who isn’t well versed in roguelites and especially roguelikes. But one feature I wish this game took from fellow roguelite Dead Cells is having different alternative areas accessible in multiple runs, counterparts to the fiery pits of Asphodel and the beautiful-looking Elysium, each with their own bosses.

That said, I understand why they didn’t go through with that. The development team prioritized having an insane amount of dialogue with their resource allocation compared to features like more areas, and having different areas with their own separate characters and bosses would require more piles of dialogue. It’s also possible the team underestimated just how successful this game would be, even after the well-received Early Access stage.

For me to say that Hades has been a lot of fun to play through again and again and again would be putting it lightly, but it’s easy to see why so many people liked the game so much. I’m still not finished with it at this point despite putting at least 30 hours in. If I’ve cleared it so many times — nine as of this posting — I might as well go for the true ending and finish it two more times. We’ll see if the story stops after this point, though.

Joseph Daniels

Just a quick message this week before I go back to questing.

I suppose it won’t come as a surprise to you that there are Final Fantasy XIV podcasts. If journeying the world of Eorzea isn’t enough, you can get caught up on all the news Square-Enix announces regarding their game.

This week…

Aetheryte Radio (2009)
Source: Their Official Website
Episodes: 200+ (bonus episodes include Lorecast and more)

Aetheryte Radio is an off-shoot of a pair of Final Fantasy XI podcasts and was created back when the fourteenth game in the series was first announced. No one knew how to pronounce anything, no one knew quite what to expect and speculation was high. Then the game sucked, but the podcast persevered and survived long enough to see it Reborn.

The podcast has since made it past two hundred episodes and has been speculating heavily on what’s coming in Endwalker. If you’re newer to the game and don’t want any spoilers, you could try going back to the beginning, or at least go back to episode 20, when the first announcement of A Realm Reborn happened. Or episode 52, when A Realm Reborn was fully launched. Either way, the archives are there to browse at your leisure, and you can get a good idea of how the game changed over time.

If you are caught up and are looking forward to Endwalker, I’m right there with you, ready to defend Eorzea once more.

Angela Moseley

I was supposed to be on vacation this week. While I’m comfortably away from the job, it seems other work has found me. To make a long story short, home ownership is great until something major breaks. The pandemic-caused supply and labor shortages have made getting my house issues fixed harder than they should be. Having to wait 24 weeks to have an electrical issue resolved is a bit extreme if you ask me. But hey, some power is better than no power.

Oren’s Forge (2015-Ongoing)
Source: DeviantArt, Tapas
Pages: 190 (As of this writing)

I haven’t had time to watch or read much in the last week, but I have made an effort to catch up with a few webcomics in my backlog. I don’t normally write about webcomics here because the quality of them ranges from professional to amateur. (I do keep a completely separate side blog for that type of writing.) However, Oren’s Forge is something special and its author has worked in the professional realm in the past. Teagan Gavet is best known for her collaborations with Tess Garman under the working name “Blotch.” They wrote and illustrated Norguard: Across Thin Ice and The Dog Days of Summer. Gavet also illustrated novels written by Kyell Gold– namely the Out of Position novels series, Dude Where’s My Fox? and Where’s My Pack? in addition to various furry anthology series. Since then Gavet has parted ways with Garman.

Oren’s Forge is a refreshing change of pace from Gavet’s previous works.

In a world occupied by animals that are either carnivores or prey, life is harsh if you’re considered prey. However, rabbits, squirrels and other small animals have decided to band together in the forest in an enclave known as Stone Hollow. There they are led by Oren, who has used fire and metal to create weapons for self-defense. Two pine martens who are both carnivores and prey seek shelter from being hunted by larger carnivores in this haven.

On the way to Stone Hollow Quanag, the older pine marten dies. He entrusts his nephew, Rask to make it to the enclave. The small embers of fire his uncle carried with him are the key to entry. After nearly being eaten by wolves, Rask eventually makes it to Stone Hollow. The reception he receives isn’t what he expected. The prey animals are weary of him at best and want to outright murder him at worst. There he learns that the creatures he merely thought of as food are so much more, and he finds himself confused and hopeful about his place in a changing world.

The issues Oren’s Forge touches upon feel right at home in works like Beastars or Zootopia— just with a more primitive edge regarding the animals’ societies. I’m not saying OF was inspired by any of these works. The tension between predator and prey is a common theme in anthropomorphic stories. Also, Gavet’s comic predates both these stories by a year. I am saying this story does come at an interesting time as Beastars and Zootopia are popular. I can easily see someone who may have never heard of OF enjoying it because it touches upon the realm of prey-predator relationships while tackling the issue from a very different angle.

All and all, Oren’s Forge is a fun read. The artwork is has a smooth cel-shaded feel and everything comes together nicely. The character designs are fantastic and they occupy a space between feral and anthro. They’re also toony with touches of realism. Backgrounds are detailed and Gavet doesn’t rely on brushes for foliage—something I’ve seen way too many other webcomic artists do. This comic is heavy on dialogue between characters, but when action does occur it’s exciting and well-executed. If I had any gripes, it would be that Oren’s Forge could use more sound effects, aka onomatopoeia. Also, word bubble placement can be weird at times. Still, it’s a few minor issues in a sea of perfection.

With this being a webcomic, it suffers from a problem that haunts a variety of webcomics—slow pacing. New pages are released roughly once a week, sometimes weeks are skipped. This comic has been in production since 2015 and hasn’t made it to 200 pages. Depending on how long Gavet plans to continue this project, audiences could be looking at years until Oren’s Forge is completed, if it’s completed. The overwhelming majority of webcomics are abandoned before they’re ever finished due to the author growing tired of the project, or an inability to work on the project. Even so, things look hopeful as a hard copy of the first volume of OF was successfully funded on KickStarter and will also be sold for a time through FurPlanet. The comic itself is free to read and I do recommend at least trying it out.

There’s been a healthy dose of good and bad news this week, but the best part of children being able to get vaccinated is how another factor that was keeping the pandemic churning after so much time has the potential to be closed. That doesn’t mean it will be, however, but let’s hope normalcy returns sooner rather than later. Let’s not get into how “normalcy” can often be bad too, okay?

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