Bastion: Difference between revisions

'''''Bastion''''' is an [[Action RPG]] hybrid developed by Supergiant Games and published by [[Warner Bros]]. Interactive Entertainment, and is the first game released for the [[Xbox Live Arcade|Xbox Summer of Arcade 2011]] event.

* [[After the End]]: The game takes place after the Calamity.

* [[An Aesop]]: {{spoiler|Trying to hold on to the past just mires you in all its problems. While moving on can be difficult to accept, it's the only way to progress.}}.

* [[Anti-Villain]]: {{spoiler|Zulf.}}.

* [[Apocalypse How]] / [[Apocalypse Wow]]: Of the "Planetary Species Extinction" variety.

* [[Arc Words]]: ''Undone.''.

* [[Art Style Dissonance]]: This game's a lot cuter than you'd expect from its subject matter. (Itit's anyone's guess whether it was actually intended to be a kids' game--it's pretty gentle about the whole "end of the world" thing, but it still violates [[Frothy Mugs of Water|certain]] [[Never Say "Die"|taboos]].).

** There's also the dream sequence in {{spoiler|Jawson's Bog.}}.

* [[BFG]]: The Calamity Cannon.

* [[But Thou Must!]]: Justified by the narrative structure of the game; Rucks is telling this story as it actually happened, not merely narrating your progress as you do things. As such, certain plot items MUST be picked up, and whether or not you choose to show them to the other characters, the story behaves like you did. The only point in the game where you can make any real choices is at the end, when you've gone beyond the period that Rucks knows about.

* [[Cataclysm Backstory]]: The Calamity and the events that lead up to it are the core backstory for the plot.

** [[Bow and Sword Inin Accord]]: The Breaker's Bow and Machete combo.

** [[Multi Melee Master]]: The Kid.

* [[Crapsack World]]: Naturally, the world after the Calamity, which is rife with marauding beasts and burnt to cinders, but it also seems to be the case for the world before as well. Of all the main characters, only Rucks has anything good to say about Caelondia, and despite his constant claims that it was a grand old place open to all, his story reveals martial law, violent force applied to trivial crimes, and barely-concealed racism. Zia says in no uncertain terms that she feels the world is better as it is, destroyed and all, and {{spoiler|in the end attempts to convince The Kid to join her in trying to forge a new destiny in the new world, rather than restore the old one.}}.

* [[Dark and Troubled Past]]: The battle arenas in Who Knows Where has Rucks revealing these, little by little. The Kid's is bad. Zia's is worse. {{spoiler|Zulf's is heartbreaking.}}.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: More snark than deadpan, but Rucks does have a field day with some of The Kid's more questionable decisions, plot-requisite or otherwise. And if the conversation topics when showing items to the others are to be believed, The Kid has a bit of a snarking streak, too, such as when he asks Rucks about the gramophone ("It's not like the neighbors will complain.") or gives Zia her harp back ("Pardon me, miss, but didn't you drop this?").

** This peaks in the very end of the game, {{spoiler|if you decide to save Zulf. The Kid slings him over his shoulder and walks through the remains of the Ura army, taking countless blows on his way to the exit. Eventually, the Ura are so impressed by his mettle that they stop attacking; the one remaining hostile soldier is even cut down by his commander.}}.

* {{spoiler|[[Doomsday Device]]}}: {{spoiler|The Calamity, a weapon of last resort designed by Caelondia to use agaist the Ura in case of a second war. Unfortunately, as it turns out, one of the techs who worked on it was an Ura himself, who designed the fatal backfire that destroyed Caelondia into the system in case someone was ever stupid enough to activate it.}}.

* [[Drowning My Sorrows]] / [[I Need a Freaking Drink]]: Implied. [[Booze-Based Buff]] aside it is perhaps significant that, in the post-Calamity mess that is the world, one of the first buildings that can be added to the Bastion is the Distillery. Getting a drink is apparently a top priority for our hero. And it is interesting to note that as The Kid levels up, which means he has dealt with/will be dealing with yet more crap, he's drinking more and more.

** And inverted {{spoiler|during the [[Mind Rape]] [[Dream Sequence]] in the bog; theThe kidKid runs through portions of the game he's already been through, but they're... changed subtly. If you destroy the corpse this time, Rucks' soothing narration ''condemns you for murdering the man yourself''.}}.

* [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower]]: Arguably ''three'' distinct ones. In the penultimate level, you obtain the {{spoiler|Calamity Canon}}, a BFG which supposedly {{spoiler|utilizes the power of the calamity itself}} (though it's not strictly better than the other weapons). Then in the final level, you get an item that {{spoiler|replaces your roll with an extremely useful jump}}, and then give ''that'' up in exchange for the massively powerful Battering Ram weapon, which kills hardy enemies in one swing and hits the whole screen with its special. {{spoiler|One of the endings requires inverting this by giving up not just the ram but your ability to move fast or attack against a long gauntlet of enemies.}}.

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: {{spoiler|Zulf, after learning the Calamity's true purpose.}}.

* [[Failure Is the Only Option]]: {{spoiler|The Restoration Option... does not go as planned.}}.

** {{spoiler|Though The Kid does get to keep various items afterward, which at least makes him better equipped for dealing with the Calamity until ultimately breaking the [[Stable Time Loop]] by choosing Evacuation.}}.

* [[Flechette Storm]]: The Fang Repeater becomes this with the fire-rate upgrades. Not the most accurate thing around (Unless you get the seeker ammunition), but eventually, it stops being a machine gun and becomes just a [[More Dakka|shotgun-like flurry of bullets.]]

* [[Friendly Enemy]]: {{spoiler|Zulf bears no hostility against The Kid and Zia. His grudge is with Rucks, and everything he and the Mancers helped create.}}.

* [[Functional Magic]]: Wind magic at least is common place enough that it's a means of travel, security turrets are common, and much of the Mancer's technology goes way beyond that. {{spoiler|Rucks even manages to fix up a Rocket Launcher late in the game.}}.

{{quote|Not really the time for Pecker hunting, but theThe Kid just can't help himself.}}

* [[Groundhog Day Loop]]: {{spoiler|The [[New Game+]] all but says outright that the Restoration function failed to stop the circumstances leading to the Calamity, trapping Rucks and The Kid in an endless cycle of saving the world until things go right or they use the Evacuation function.}}.

* [[Here We Go Again]]: {{spoiler|At the start of the game, Rucks tells you that all stories start at the beginning, at least they should, since this story's a bit more complicated. With [[The Reveal]] that the Restoration will only cause a time loop, who knows how long The Kid has actually been stuck in Bastion.}}.

** {{spoiler|Choosing the Restoration Ending shows you images of events described in the Who Knows Where narration as things that happened immediately before the Calamity: theThe Kid working on the Rippling Wall, Zia sitting alone in a basement, and Zulf in the Hanging Gardens with his fiance. This, combined with some slight dialogue changes in the [[New Game+]] ("Wait, did I already tell this part?", among others to the effect of "I swore I told this before") all heavily suggest that Restoration doesn't change the course of history; it just sets it back.}}.

{{quote|"Mother... this one's for you." }}

** All of the characters, really. Rucks is the best example though. While he often passes himself off as a kindly old man in his narration, the story reveals that he is more callous and ruthless than one might think. {{spoiler|His hand in the Calamity and his sugar-coating of Caelondia is the biggest example, of course. Another lies in theThe Kid's Who Knows Where, in which Rucks acknowledges that his initial treatment of theThe Kid<ref>That is, sending him off to risk his neck for a man who couldn't even be bothered to ask theThe Kid's name.</ref> wasn't too kind of him.}}.

* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: {{spoiler|Zulf draws his strength from the remnants of the Ura, telling them of the Calamity's true purpose and setting them against the Bastion. But eventually, they get sick of wasting their few survivors on a worthless cause, and turn on Zulf. They're beating him to death when The Kid catches up to him.}}.

** For that matter, {{spoiler|the Caelondian Mancers are the ones who designed the Calamity device in the first place as a weapon of last resort in case of another Ura-Caelondian War. Venn was pushed too far and sabotaged it. While the Ura didn't exactly get off lightly, there were certainly fewer Caelondian survivors accounted for.}}.

* [[Jerkass Gods]]: The gods have been rendered broken and obsolete by the Calamity, and none of them are too pleased by it. Invoking them places various negative effects on The Kid and positive ones on his enemies... though this could be a "trials"-type system, since you get EXP and money bonuses for invoking them.

* [[Lemony Narrator]]: Rucks serves as one.

* [[Lyrical Dissonance]]: Zia's Song. The melody is slow and mournful, and Zia's vocals give it a light touch, but as you get further into the game, you realize it's a series of thinly veiled threats from Ura to Caelondia.

** {{spoiler|Zulf's Song is a mournful tune about his death, sung when he's getting dragged to safety}}.

* [[Magikarp Power]]: The Fang Repeater starts out fairly underwhelming, but with the right upgrades, it becomes one of the most powerful weapons in the game.

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: {{spoiler|An unnamed Caelondian man in Zia's past seduced her, turned her against her father, and then turned them both into the authorities when she tried to elope with him. Since this might have been what drove her father to activate the Calamity, that nameless man is probably the closest thing the game has to an actual villain.}}.

* [[Mind Screw]]: {{spoiler|In Jawson's Bog, The Kid gets dosed with some kind of plant toxin that causes him to take a [[Journey to the Center of the Mind|nasty trip through his own head]], where the maps are twisted versions of old areas and the rehashes of Rucks' narration grows increasingly hostile and fragmented.}}.

{{quote|{{spoiler|''Kid sets foot inside one of Caelondias' famous watering holes. He has the nerve to flash that shield he stole. He's a petty thief. Security's gonna have to straighten him out. Kid succeeds where The Calamity failed. [[You Bastard|Would you look at what he did to poor old Rondy the bartender?]]'' }}}}

** More [[Mind Rape|rape]] than screw, considering how negative and emotionally bruising the [[Dream Sequence]] is, and how theThe Kid [[Unfortunate Implications|never wants to speak of it]].

* [[Mirror Match]]: {{spoiler|The hammer you found before comes to life and attacks you as a dark copy of yourself during the [[Mushroom Samba]] sequence in Jawson's Bog. In Zia's Who Knows Where, you have to fight three at a time.}}.

* [[Mission Control Is Off Its Meds]]: Rucks during Jawson's bogBog.

** Mancer Missile fires a powerful shot... which breaks up into many smaller shots... which break up into even more smaller shots... one-shotting pretty much everything.

* [[Multiple Choice Past]]: Was Rucks a Trigger, a Mender, a Mason, or what? {{spoiler|He was a Trigger at one point, but when the Calamity came, he was a Mancer.}}.

* [[The Musketeer]]:

** The Trappers: Huntershunters who kept Caelondia safe by eliminating dangerous beasts from the Wild Unknown. The [[Automatic Crossbow|Fang Repeater]] is their weapon.

** The Menders: Expertsexperts at repairing both flesh and stone, whichever is needed. The [[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me|Bullhead Shield]] is associated with them.

** The Breakers: Eliteelite archers and couriers who brought messages back from the war or untamed regions. The [[The Archer|Breaker's Bow]] is their weapon.

** The Gravers: Spiesspies/secret agents, both internally and externally. The [[Machete Mayhem|War Machete]] is their weapon.

** The Marshals: Peacekeeperspeacekeepers within the city. The [[Shotguns Are Just Better|Scrap Musket]] is their weapon.

** The Slingers: [[Dual-Wielding|Dualdual-pistol wielding]] rangers in the wilds. The [[Revolvers Are Just Better|Dueling Pistols]] are their weapons.

** The Triggers: Thethe Caelondian Army's Sharpshooters. Rucks used to be one, he says. The [[Sniper Rifle|Army Carbine]] is their weapon.

** The Brushers: Frontiersmenfrontiersmen who performed recon in unfriendly territory. The [[Blade on a Stick|Brusher's Pike]] is their weapon.

** The Cinders: Militarizedmilitarized sanitation engineers. The [[Kill It with Fire|Flame Bellows]] is their weapon.

** The Skippers: Expertexpert bombardiers and leaders of Caelondia's naval fleet. The [[Grenade Launcher|Galleon Mortar]] is their weapon.

** The Mancers: Leadersleaders of Caelondia, also the scientists/researchers. {{spoiler|This is what Rucks ''really'' was. So was Zia's father. The [[BFG|Calamity Cannon]] is their associated weapon, but was invented by Rucks so probably wasn't used by any actual Mancer.}}.

* [[Powered by a Forsaken Child]]: Sort of. {{spoiler|The Cores and Shards are actually rocks containing an immense quantity of baby Windbags. They were used as energy generators for Caelondia long before the Calamity.}}.

* [[Religion Rant Song]]: ''The Pantheon,'', a song sung by Rucks. Unusual for this trope, gods have ''actually'' turned against humanity, though, and he's completely right.

* [[Reset Button]]: {{spoiler|The Bastion is a literal in-universe one, resetting the entire world back to a template of what it was, like a snapshot of a computer's harddrive. Presumably the ones already on the Bastion would remember life before the reset, and thus be able to change things, but Rucks admits that he doesn't actually know that this is the case: the [[New Game+]] eventually proves him wrong, and continuing to reset the world only results in everyone being stuck in an inevitable time loop.}}.

* [[Save Scumming]]: {{spoiler|In-universe, the Bastion's primary function mimics both the concept of keeping a backup file in a videogame and starting a [[New Game+]].}}.

* [[Save the Villain]]: {{spoiler|You can choose to do this for Zulf during the final stage. It doesn't have much of an effect on things, but it does make for huge [[Video Game Caring Potential]].}}.

* [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: {{spoiler|This is Zia's desire after restoring the Bastion. Its evacuation function would let survivors roam the rest of the world and beyond, but leave the world broken.}}.

* [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]]: {{spoiler|This is Rucks's hidden agenda in restoring the Bastion. Its restorative function rewinds time to before the Calamity started... but with no guarantee it won't happen again.}}.

* [[Shout-Out]]: PC version only: once you've rebuilt the arsenal, check out the skills list. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-c26R80OmQ&feature=related One of them] summons a [[Portal (series)|turret.]] {{spoiler|There's a hidden achievement for killing a lot of enemies with one turret.}}.

* [[Stop Poking Me]]: If you keep "talking to" the Squirt in the bastionBastion, Rucks will tell you: "C'mon, give the little tyke a break."

* [[Suddenly Voiced]]: {{spoiler|Zia finally gets to speak (rather than sing) in the ending<ref> Entirely justified as, until that point, Rucks had been telling the story to her in the past tense.</ref>.}}.

** {{spoiler|Zulf's voice sings during the final portion of the final level as well, if you take him with you.}}.

* [[Sufficiently Analyzed Magic]]: The various magical devices in the game such as the skyways or turrets definitely act like [[Magitech]], but magic is never actually mentioned, and the Mancers who design such devices are referred to as scientists. Notably, {{spoiler|even the calamity is referred to as a 'science project' rather than a ritual or spell.}}.

* [[Survivor Guilt]]: The Kid suffers from this pretty heavily near the beginning, especially because he keeps coming across the petrified remains of people he knew. {{spoiler|This may be the reason he suffers the above-mentioned [[Mind Screw]] in Jawson's Bog.}}.

** Which doesn't keep it from coming back to haunt theThe Kid in Jawson's Bog.

* [[Team Pet]]: You can get up to four of these (five if playing the PC version.).

* [[The Unfought]]: {{spoiler|Zulf.}}. Made somewhat humorous by the fact that immediately after you figure out there won't be such a fight, Rucks starts talking about how The Kid must be having a final showdown right about now.

* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: Rucks doesn't outright lie, but his moral assurances get a bit self-serving, and at times he seems to be leaving things out. In particular, he never does explain how {{spoiler|a supposed "weapon of last resort" got used during peacetime. He only says they built it because they wanted to "rule it [war] out". It might have had something to do with a few people too many ''believing'' the stories that demonized Zia and her father Venn [[Fantastic Racism|for being Ura.]]}}.

** [[Historical In-Joke]]: {{spoiler|The logic behind the large-scale Calamity Cannon was basically the same logic that got the atomic bomb built, and look how that turned out. Just be glad the bomb wasn't the same scale as the Calamity.}}.

* [[The Usual Adversaries]]: Windbags are a race of creatures that used to mind their own business, working in underground mines, but have turned violent after the world was destroyed, and they no longer had mines to work in. No one really likes having them around, however useful they've sometimes been.

* [[Video Game Caring Potential]]: At the very end of the game, you come across {{spoiler|Zulf, who's being beaten to death by the remains of the Ura for convincing them to waste their lives trying to destroy the Bastion. You have the option of leaving him behind to die and fighting your way out, or taking him with you, making you unable to fight back as the rest of the Ura do their damnedest to kill you... right up until you would have almost no life left, when all they can do is simply watch as you continue to carry Zulf on your shoulder, not fighting back for the first time in the game, just trying to get a misguided friend home. One soldier DOES attack you as you leave, but he's immediately cut down by another Ura.}}.

* [[Visual Pun]]: The [http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120107072224/bastion/images/a/a2/Batteringram.png Battering Ram.].

* [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]]: The Kid and Rucks. Subverted for the former, as his hair color made The Kid a target for bullying, and eventually caused him to take up his military career.

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: {{spoiler|If you decide to [[Save the Villain|rescue Zulf]] and abandon the Battering Ram, the Ura decide theThe Kid is this, enough to let him and Zulf leave peacefully, even cutting down the lone Ura still trying to kill you.}}.

** {{spoiler|In the [[Mind Screw]] portion of Jawson's Bog, the narration outright calls The Kid a murderer and a thief.}}.

* [[You Have Researched Breathing]]: Jumping is only available in the final chapter of the game, after finding a drink. {{spoiler|However, since up to that point the story is being told in past tense, that means the kid simply never jumped before.}}.

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