[SamandMax]

The problem I had with the narration in Bastion is that right from the start it created a barrier that prevented me from getting too emotionally attached to the story and the characters. It's a neat gimmick but I found the game to be such a detached experience, where I was stuck in a world I knew nothing about with characters that meant nothing to me and I never felt involved in any of it because my only real connection to anything happening around me was this disembodied voice whose overwritten and overwrought narration meant nothing to me. There were moments of the game that were supposed to be shocking or touching that had absolutely no impact because they're expressed through this lifeless third-person narration which robs them of any power. I had fun playing Bastion, it reminded me of stuff like Secret of Mana or the aforementioned Landstalkers, but it left absolutely no mark deeper than that on me.

And frankly, the better games get, the more frustrated I am when I play one and it doesn't trigger any sort of response with me. I had to endure a lot to get through Skyward Sword - there's so much pointless fetch quests and backtracking which leads to hours of dull filler you have to slog through - but there are small moments of beauty throughout which are so genuinely moving that they make any of the frustrations you have to face seem miniscule in the long run. Skyward Sword is as traditional as you can get, following the same series blueprint that's been around for 25 years, yet its last 10 minutes are so brilliant that they'll stick with me for a very long time while I can't even remember a single thing about Bastion's plot.

It doesn't matter how a story is presented, if it's as traditional as possible or gimmick-heavy and intentionally vague, it either works or it doesn't and in my opinion, Bastion doesn't. I still think video games as a whole need a ways to go in the storytelling department before they can successfully pull off the subversive narrative tricks Bastion attempts.