Gaming characters are an expressive lot. They’re always talking about their lives, their loves, and their losses, whether they’re making you feel sorry for them or getting on your goat. Generally they’re the ones who link the player to the virtual world, captivating them with their emotional outbursts which tie in nicely with the games over-arching narrative.
Bastion however, doesn’t follow the same conventions you’ve come to expect from the RPG genre. The Kid isn’t going to spout vindictive curses to anyone who will listen because of an undying hatred for a certain individual. He’s not going to tell you that he “fancies Mildred, but is still in love with Dorothy.” He just fights for his life while silently walking a long weary road, attempting to restore balance to a broken world. Yet, even though our protagonist is mute, his every thought and action is illustrated to us in detail by dynamic background narration, voiced by Logan Cunningham.
The story of Bastion takes place after a catastrophic event, known as The Calamity, rips the world into pieces. The Kid wakes to find he is one of the few survivors of the tragedy, and is suddenly face to face with malicious entities with hostile intentions. With everything familiar collapsing around him, and little hope for survival, a thought occurs to him. The townsfolk used to say that they would seek refuge at an impenetrable safe house known as the Bastion, should the world be on the verge of collapse. Thinking this will be the best place to find other survivors, The Kid fights his way there and sure enough encounters the narrator of his tale Rucks (a name that makes him sound more like a childhood teddy bear than a wise old man) who is all the inspiration The Kid needs. Together they decide to try to rebuild the world to its former glory.
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