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Seventh Journal
3 years ago
Damn, just can't keep up with my promises. Oh well, doesn't matter. I'll try my best to at least have the correct count of journals at the end of the year and won't really bother uploading them consistently. Luckily, I don't have a lot of stuff to work on this week, so I'll try using it to catch up with my uploads.
Finally finished Leo's route in Echo. Something that I have been postponing for a long time. The only thing that I can say about it is: "wow, holy shit". Never have I ever been more touched by a game than by this ending, even if I haven't played that many story-driven games before.
Just so that I don't leave you without any context of why I think it was touching. Leo's route has two endings: the bad ending and the "good" ending. By the way, I'm going to talk about what happened in the game, so in case you don't want to get spoiled, don't read this. Also, the description that I'm providing assumes that you already know the characters and a little bit of Leo's route. Just a heads up: this is not a review, just my thoughts on the ending of it. The only reason why I'm leaving the description is mainly just to reference some events that happened in a context.
Essentially, after a whole week of paranoia, fighting, and terror, the week is slowly coming to an end, so is the final day of the spring break. The whole crew finally came together to come up with an escape plane. They have discovered that a train regularly passes the town in a time sequence, meaning that they could just wait for the train to come by and jump on it escaping the terror. And that is exactly what they are planning to do. However, after an argument with Leo, Kudzu is kicked out of the group. Chase decides to go find him and try bringing him back. After the reunion of Chase and Kudzu, they stumble upon Jenna wandering amidst the darkness in the desert. The three of them decide to head towards Kudzu's trailer to calm down a bit and settle some things down. As they go about how to meet up with Leo again and escape, Chase's bladder decides it would be a good idea for him to finally take a leak. As he does that outside Kudzu's trailer, since Jenna is occupying the toilet at the moment, he gets kidnapped by Brian the bear (who somehow isn't dead). As Brian takes Chase to an abandoned mine in the town, Chase starts realizing what the bear might be up to. In the mine, the bear starts digging a hole in the ground which he wants to use as a grave for Chase. Brian whips out a gun and aims it right towards Chase's head. However, due to an unexpected sequence of supernatural events, Chase manages to escape the situation he's in and finds Flynn searching for him. They both head towards Leo's house where the whole group is. After another not-so-heated argument with Leo, they finally decide to leave this town via the passing train. As they approach the tracks, Leo finally has it and asks Chase if they are going to stay together after this.
This is the point where the two endings split and where the player can decide to ruin Chase's life or ruin Leo's. If the player chooses the option where Chase proposes a discussion on that topic on the train, Chase ends up dying. Due to Leo's stubbornness, he grabs Chase by his shirt, as the group tries to jump on the train, and he falls in such a way, that his legs get cut by the wheels of the train. As Kudzu tries saving him (to no avail, however), he gets shot by Leo and Chase gets taken to Leo's house where he dies from blood loss in Leo's bed. However, if the player decides to pick the other option, where Chase finally breaks up with Leo, Leo pulls out a gun, to get revenge, only to drop it on the floor due to an overwhelming feeling of loss and sadness. The group heads towards the passing train in an attempt to try jumping on the train. As everyone gets a turn, Chase is the last one to jump. Looking back, however, to help catch Leo, he sees how Leo just stands there, not willing to attempt jumping, staying behind in Echo. That wrecks Chase even more knowing that he might never see his best friend, his partner, and his first love again. Of course, due to an immense loss he just went thru, he starts crying. As he finally calms down a bit the group reaches Payton, a nearby town where the train was heading towards. A few years pass, and we can see Chase and Kudzu being together. Both of them decided to visit Echo and Leo for the last time. After Kudzu parks in front of Leo's house, Leo and Chase decide to take a short walk and say their final goodbyes leaving a slight possibility of them meeting again one day.
By the descriptions, you can see how both endings aren't ideal. The only reason why I called the second ending "good" is that in that ending no one dies. But even then the second ending was such a pain in the ass to go thru. Probably even more painful than the first ending, because I kind of spoiled the first one way back. Tho I can't say that I wasn't disturbed by it. I must say, however, that another reason why I like the second ending more, is due to the huge emotional impact it had on me. Having to see Leo go thru an emotional breakdown on the spot, as the group tries to leave Echo, and later Chase going thru the same experience on the train made me feel so sympathetic towards them and just overall bad. The worst part (or best, depending on how you look at it) is probably the way Chase's feelings and the situation is described making it almost impossible not to feel sympathy for both of the characters. And the final goodbyes did a number on me too. When it comes to the first ending, however, I didn't feel as much sympathy and sadness as for the second one; only disturbance. Generally having to read such a graphical scene was hard for me. but the most disturbing part was probably Chase's backflashes on how happy he was with Leo while he is slowly being killed by him, dying in his arms, later in bed. That combination of love caused by selfishness and slow death where you're not even fully conscious and drifting away remembering all the good parts of your life just makes me feel chills.
Finally finished Leo's route in Echo. Something that I have been postponing for a long time. The only thing that I can say about it is: "wow, holy shit". Never have I ever been more touched by a game than by this ending, even if I haven't played that many story-driven games before.
Just so that I don't leave you without any context of why I think it was touching. Leo's route has two endings: the bad ending and the "good" ending. By the way, I'm going to talk about what happened in the game, so in case you don't want to get spoiled, don't read this. Also, the description that I'm providing assumes that you already know the characters and a little bit of Leo's route. Just a heads up: this is not a review, just my thoughts on the ending of it. The only reason why I'm leaving the description is mainly just to reference some events that happened in a context.
Essentially, after a whole week of paranoia, fighting, and terror, the week is slowly coming to an end, so is the final day of the spring break. The whole crew finally came together to come up with an escape plane. They have discovered that a train regularly passes the town in a time sequence, meaning that they could just wait for the train to come by and jump on it escaping the terror. And that is exactly what they are planning to do. However, after an argument with Leo, Kudzu is kicked out of the group. Chase decides to go find him and try bringing him back. After the reunion of Chase and Kudzu, they stumble upon Jenna wandering amidst the darkness in the desert. The three of them decide to head towards Kudzu's trailer to calm down a bit and settle some things down. As they go about how to meet up with Leo again and escape, Chase's bladder decides it would be a good idea for him to finally take a leak. As he does that outside Kudzu's trailer, since Jenna is occupying the toilet at the moment, he gets kidnapped by Brian the bear (who somehow isn't dead). As Brian takes Chase to an abandoned mine in the town, Chase starts realizing what the bear might be up to. In the mine, the bear starts digging a hole in the ground which he wants to use as a grave for Chase. Brian whips out a gun and aims it right towards Chase's head. However, due to an unexpected sequence of supernatural events, Chase manages to escape the situation he's in and finds Flynn searching for him. They both head towards Leo's house where the whole group is. After another not-so-heated argument with Leo, they finally decide to leave this town via the passing train. As they approach the tracks, Leo finally has it and asks Chase if they are going to stay together after this.
This is the point where the two endings split and where the player can decide to ruin Chase's life or ruin Leo's. If the player chooses the option where Chase proposes a discussion on that topic on the train, Chase ends up dying. Due to Leo's stubbornness, he grabs Chase by his shirt, as the group tries to jump on the train, and he falls in such a way, that his legs get cut by the wheels of the train. As Kudzu tries saving him (to no avail, however), he gets shot by Leo and Chase gets taken to Leo's house where he dies from blood loss in Leo's bed. However, if the player decides to pick the other option, where Chase finally breaks up with Leo, Leo pulls out a gun, to get revenge, only to drop it on the floor due to an overwhelming feeling of loss and sadness. The group heads towards the passing train in an attempt to try jumping on the train. As everyone gets a turn, Chase is the last one to jump. Looking back, however, to help catch Leo, he sees how Leo just stands there, not willing to attempt jumping, staying behind in Echo. That wrecks Chase even more knowing that he might never see his best friend, his partner, and his first love again. Of course, due to an immense loss he just went thru, he starts crying. As he finally calms down a bit the group reaches Payton, a nearby town where the train was heading towards. A few years pass, and we can see Chase and Kudzu being together. Both of them decided to visit Echo and Leo for the last time. After Kudzu parks in front of Leo's house, Leo and Chase decide to take a short walk and say their final goodbyes leaving a slight possibility of them meeting again one day.
By the descriptions, you can see how both endings aren't ideal. The only reason why I called the second ending "good" is that in that ending no one dies. But even then the second ending was such a pain in the ass to go thru. Probably even more painful than the first ending, because I kind of spoiled the first one way back. Tho I can't say that I wasn't disturbed by it. I must say, however, that another reason why I like the second ending more, is due to the huge emotional impact it had on me. Having to see Leo go thru an emotional breakdown on the spot, as the group tries to leave Echo, and later Chase going thru the same experience on the train made me feel so sympathetic towards them and just overall bad. The worst part (or best, depending on how you look at it) is probably the way Chase's feelings and the situation is described making it almost impossible not to feel sympathy for both of the characters. And the final goodbyes did a number on me too. When it comes to the first ending, however, I didn't feel as much sympathy and sadness as for the second one; only disturbance. Generally having to read such a graphical scene was hard for me. but the most disturbing part was probably Chase's backflashes on how happy he was with Leo while he is slowly being killed by him, dying in his arms, later in bed. That combination of love caused by selfishness and slow death where you're not even fully conscious and drifting away remembering all the good parts of your life just makes me feel chills.
