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 Content Warning:  MAJOR SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK animal abuse, blood and other disturbing imagery, child abuse, death of a child, drowning/aquaphobia, spider imagery, suicide.This is one of the best games of all time. I do not say that lightly. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is a minimalist action/adventure game originally released for Xbox 360 in 2013, and has since been ported to all major platforms. It was developed by Starbreeze Studios and directed by Lebanese-Swedish independent filmmaker (and vocal critic of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) Josef Fares. In some ways, Brothers is a spiritual predecessor to Josef Fares' later co-op games, A Way Out and It Takes Two, developed by Hazelight Studios with much of the same creative talent as Brothers. One player controls both brothers at the same time: the elder brother with the left stick and LT, the younger with the right stick and RT. Things get complicated when you have to navigate both brothers at the same time through different areas, but it's surprisingly natural once you get the hang of it. This game is also quite short, ending where it needs to and never overstaying its welcome. The story is simple and deliberately vague. After their father falls ill, the titular brothers set out to retrieve the Water of Life, which will heal their father's wounds. Where are they? What year is it? What is the name of their village? It doesn't matter; the game's story carries itself through pantomime and vocal grunts, doing so brilliantly. Joining me as always is pdPreciousRoy, who of course is going in blind. This will be a 100% LP (there's no collectibles, but you can get every achievement in one playthrough) and I will do my best to show off as much of it as I can. I will try to have updates every Saturday going forward. As usual, please use spoiler tags if you absolutely have to talk about something from later in the game.
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Nov 11, 2022 21:25
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 15:53 |
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VIDEOS Full Playlist        
theenglishman fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Dec 30, 2022 |
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Nov 11, 2022 21:25
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I see someone is a fan of the Smothers Brothers
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Nov 12, 2022 09:52
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Imagine going from making this to making YIIK.
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Nov 12, 2022 12:49
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anilEhilated posted:Imagine going from making this to making YIIK. It begins 
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Nov 12, 2022 17:08
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Holy crap, this game! I remember watching Skippy's lp of it, and... I'll just say I was impressed.
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Nov 12, 2022 18:51
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anilEhilated posted:Imagine going from making this to making YIIK. WHAT
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Nov 13, 2022 10:25
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Samovar posted:WHAT The maker of YIIK made a previous game, Two Brothers, that also came out in 2013. Other than the similar name it has no connection to this one I'm aware of.
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Nov 13, 2022 17:52
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Sum Gai posted:The maker of YIIK made a previous game, Two Brothers, that also came out in 2013. Other than the similar name it has no connection to this one I'm aware of. There are some unintended thematic connections between the games, but that’s getting into spoiler territory.
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Nov 13, 2022 19:14
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theenglishman posted:There are some unintended thematic connections between the games, but that’s getting into spoiler territory. I feel like the connections would be exist nonetheless because of the similar titles, but I am in the dark here.
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Nov 13, 2022 19:56
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Flair posted:I feel like the connections would be exist nonetheless because of the similar titles, but I am in the dark here. At some point the Allanson siblings, cofounders of Ackk Studios, were planning to remake Two Brothers in Unity, retitled Chromophore: The Two Brothers, specifically to avoid confusion with this very game. That remake was announced in 2013 (some sources say 2012, a year before the original came out?! Not entirely sure what's going on there) but has yet to materialize as of this writing. For those who are curious, timrod did a screenshot LP of Two Brothers on LPBeach. theenglishman fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Nov 13, 2022 |
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Nov 13, 2022 22:21
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I do wish more games took the "single player co-op" concept and ran further with it. A Way Out and It Takes Two are fine, good, great (and I do specifically enjoy the twist at the end of A Way Out a great deal) but nothing as wholly unique as I've wondered occasionally if during development they experimented with having which control stick controls which brothers switch depending on which half of the screen they're on. There was more than a few occasions where Little Brother was on the left side of the screen or Big Brother was on the right and I kept trying to use the opposite stick to control them.
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Nov 15, 2022 05:58
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Don't worry, everyone. The little girl is okay.
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Nov 18, 2022 21:42
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I'm not afraid of water but I feel like I'd have something to say about a troll carrying me down into that pit.
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Nov 20, 2022 02:11
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Nov 26, 2022 15:33
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I swear you could catch a fish in that pond. Or maybe I just tried for way too long.
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Nov 28, 2022 06:14
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Dec 3, 2022 16:45
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It's a neat trick of aesthetics generally meant for children's stories that with just a few careful lighting changes they can be transformed into something as scary as anything could be. That said I think today you could rightfully call that scene at the end far too openly manipulative. The symbolism is hardly lost on me and the use of the simple gameplay remains terrific but even in a genre built on coincidence stumbling into that is a heck of a thing.
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Dec 4, 2022 09:36
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Kibayasu posted:It's a neat trick of aesthetics generally meant for children's stories that with just a few careful lighting changes they can be transformed into something as scary as anything could be. That said I think today you could rightfully call that scene at the end far too openly manipulative. The symbolism is hardly lost on me and the use of the simple gameplay remains terrific but even in a genre built on coincidence stumbling into that is a heck of a thing. In hindsight, the thing that really frustrates me about that setpiece is that it’s completely optional! Not only can you ignore him, it’s possible to miss the camera cue entirely.
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Dec 4, 2022 21:01
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Dec 10, 2022 16:58
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Hey kids, wanna see a dead body?
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Dec 10, 2022 21:50
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That entire rope section was horrifying. Fear of heights/falling kicking in hard.
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Dec 11, 2022 14:26
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Dec 17, 2022 19:55
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I like that at 5:25, you can see one of the giants tied an entire bear to their shoulder as a pauldron.
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Dec 18, 2022 07:20
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I'm definitely reminded of A Plague Tale as I see this part of the game again, though obviously Brothers came way before. You've got an older sibling with their younger sibling in a medieval time period on a world spanning journey to cure a deadly disease and along the way there are many obstacles and puzzles and a whole lot of gore for something involving children. Not quite as many rats in Brothers though. I posted earlier that I was surprised that others didn't take up the "single player co-op" genre but now that I think about it A Plague Tale certainly took up the themes and aesthetics.
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Dec 18, 2022 10:05
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Dec 24, 2022 19:01
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What a stroke of luck the probably-yeti is invisible, makes things so much easier on the developer.
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Dec 25, 2022 04:44
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The final update is dropping tomorrow instead of Saturday, as I have New Year's plans.
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Dec 29, 2022 14:59
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It's the final update, the emotional payoff to our story. A reminder that there are content warnings in the description if you feel you need them. My next LP will be of Disney Epic Mickey for the Nintendo Wii. Not sure when that thread will drop, but I'm super excited to get started on that one.
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Dec 30, 2022 15:13
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So the cultists were right all along! What an interesting nice little game; thanks for showcasing it!
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Dec 30, 2022 19:56
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 15:53 |
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Dang kid, you dug a 3 foot grave in solid rock with your bare hands. Next time just punch your problems away, you're dark ages Luke Cage. So I think its a rare thing that video games do tragedy well because it almost always come on the heel on some fairly typical video game things - such as fighting a giant spider - or immediately goes into some video game things - the beginning of Mass Effect 3 comes to mind. And forcing the younger brother to bury the older brother honestly almost comes off as absurd in a "Oh my god you're making me do this [small chuckle]" kind of way, its a bit too much. But as mentioned before engaging with mechanics is something games can do uniquely and simply pressing a button attached to a character no longer there came across far more meaningfully than any number of bodies needing to be dragged.
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Dec 31, 2022 22:46
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