Quiet: The Power of Fumito Ueda in Video Games That Can't Stop Talking

[@Thaibiohazard123]

The serene emptiness in Shadow of the Colossus really made the game stuck in my mind. It hammers home how far away and cut-off from civilization you really are. You are completely alone in a land long forgotten by everything, except the colossus. It is both beautiful and horrifying at the same time. You truly are on your own in that game.

[@doodlemunchkin2222]

“Are you contemplative and introverted like Elden Ring? Or people-based and extroverted, like God of War Ragnarok?” Idk but becoming a traffic cone in Kirby and the Forgotten Land really spoke to me last year.

[@ggapodcast]

that spoke to me too! kirby and the forgotten land absolutely rips!

[@athanasialavou6785]

Playing Shadow of the Colossus was one of the most beautiful experiences i have had in this life

[@thatfrancisguy44]

Great video! In the last few years I've been leaning towards "quieter" games because they allow you to experience the world you're exploring and that's why exploration is so much more rewarding (to me at least). Ueda's games are some of my all time favourites, as are Fromsoftware's for this reason. Hope you get more subscribers and views!

[@ggapodcast]

absolutely spot on! and appreciate the kind feedback!

[@thomas.deliot]

Exactly, I've realized that both SotC and Dark Souls are in my favorite games for the same reasons, and are somewhate counter-intuively very similar despite being very different games.

[@half_bloodgamer]

that rare moment when youtube recommendations were spot on. thanks for the video!

[@ggapodcast]

thanks for watching, appreciate the feedback!

[@sircrashtonii9718]

Really interesting stuff! As someone who designs games more on the maximalist side, I've always had an itch to make a game that revels in the quiet moments, and this video might be the thing that gets me to pursue that itch.

[@ggapodcast]

that’s incredible, thanks for sharing that! and hope to come across whatever you create some day!

[@MsPancakeGirl]

Hope this pops, it's very well made

[@MrPabgon]

Man, the dialogue in Ragnarok is absolutely perfect. Quieter videogames require more silence. Narrative games like God of War Ragnarok require those awesome dialogue.

[@timmadone8930]

There's certainly been plenty of talk concerning "Shadow Of The Colossus", just not in the game itself. This will be the 18th year since the games release & it still gets talked about & discussed. Perhaps the main reason for this is the fact that we aren't given any answers. We know that we need to bring a girl back to life & what's required to make it happen, & that's all we know. So many unanswered questions, leaving us to come up with our own thoughts & ideas. Creative philosophy aside, the game has had me under it's spell for almost 20 years.

[@ggapodcast]

excellent point, it's honestly so smart to intentionally leave key information out of the story so that the audience has room to interpret it. it's wild how well this thing holds up

[@obenohnebohne]

I bought ICO & Shadow of The Colossus HD in 2010. In 2021 I finished both of them for the first time (from start to finish). They became two of my favorite experiences ever. Design by Substraction is powerful and it speaks to me. No HUD on screen while exploring a world is one of my favorite things in videogames. Another big moment was in Ghost of Tsushima, when the wind guided me, instead of any other UI element. Great video. I am a big fan of open world games, but lately they feel so cluttered and videogame-y. Map markers are convenient, they helps me find all the places in the game and it would take me way to long to find everything by myself. But after finishing such a UI beast, my experience makes me think back to ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. They are both so powerful.

[@AZAMA___]

Beautiful, your style nicely fits with our dear Ueda-san works, thanks !

[@ggapodcast]

that’s very kind, thank you for the feedback 🙂

[@asgharabbas9885]

This review is genuinely so amazing, I loved how you articulated all of this so well. Thanks! I really hope this video pops off!

[@ggapodcast]

thank you for the kind feedback, means a lot! 🙂

[@entelin]

I'll have to take your word for it, I skipped all the dialogue.

[@Vas1]

Praise the algorithm for suggesting this great video!

[@Oisin2]

Nice work. I love Susan Cain's book, it's a wonderful thing to read.

[@redalchemy7322]

A friend of mine once said: "A novice adds more and calls it an answer, a master takes away and calls it a question"

[@ggapodcast]

your friend sounds like the coolest person alive 😂 thanks for watching!!

[@iug5672]

I think both extrovert and introvert games have a place in my heart. Different moods for different times. I think a lot of extrovert games, as you said, try too hard to distract you all the time. Pacing has been screwed with a lot. Just like an introvert game needs to pace itself well so you don't make your player fall asleep, an extrovert game needs to know a bit of restraint lest it overwhelms the player. But games nowadays really try their hardest to just keep the action going, trying to make you not bored all the time, and consequentially, make it kinda mind-numbing.

[@ggapodcast]

really well said! i’ve been thinking a lot about pacing after watching oppenheimer and past lives, which feel like two separate ends of the pacing spectrum

[@KitsGravity]

I personally prefer emptiness not just in video games but in real life as well. Even as a kid, I was drawn to abandoned houses and overgrown gardens no one would visit for a quiet time, spending an evening with a stray dog that I would find. Ueda is a master of creating quiet and contemplative environments which tell their own story. This is the same reason I love Bloodborne so much too. I prefer single player, quiet games such as Journey, Shadow of the Colossus, Breath of the Wild, Dear Esther, Alto's Adventure for phone to name a few. A minimal narration does wonders to video games in particular. One of the reasons why Skellige Isles in Witcher 3 is my favourite game location.

[@ggapodcast]

bloodborne, breath of the wild, and shadow of the colossus hover around my top 5 favorites as well. on the surface it might be hard to see the connective tissue, but you’re right, it’s absolutely because of the minimalist storytelling. appreciate the comment!

[@KohakuShowtime]

So glad this popped up in my recommended this morning, a lovely video indeed.

[@nealzonwheelz1k244]

Was just playing the Sotc remake and had this same thought. Sometimes more is less. Great video! 👍🏽

[@ggapodcast]

thanks for watching, appreciate the feedback!

[@dappercrook6238]

I love this! This has always been something I've been able to relate to, but I've never heard it described in this way for games before. One other point though, God of War Ragnarok made me think about the difference between itself and the first game from 2018. God of War (2018) excelled in the quiet moments, was paced very slowly, and allowed the story beats to hit that much harder. Ragnarok however, in the efforts to fit two games into one (as stated by the developer) therefore the game becomes very fast paced/cluttered with little room to breathe like the previous game did. I loved both of the games and this doesn't mean that one style makes one better, but you could definitely see this in the two games core differences in pacing and tone.

[@ggapodcast]

i also really enjoyed god of war 2018! i thought maybe my tastes have just changed since then, but now that you mention it, i do feel like the pacing was a bit slower and way more effective. thanks for watching!

[@jonathanwilson7949]

Super Metroid is one omy favourite examples of this. Aside from a brief intro at the start there's barely any dialogue and you're just left to your own devices :)

[@zenithquasar9623]

If you haven't played, try the Myst series. Wonderful quietude with beautiful scenery and environmental story telling.

[@ggapodcast]

somehow i’ve never heard of myst, I’ll have to look into it!

[@jaimeXDgo]

The design by substraction reminds me of Antonine de Saint-Exupery's literature. He often deleted passages from his books just to have the most minimalistic, compact writing. It happened more than once that his editor fought him by saying that he had no right to erase such beatiful passages from his books.

[@ggapodcast]

yes, that sounds exactly like design by subtraction! sounds like some effective writing to me, i’ll take a look if I can remember!

[@jaimeXDgo]

@@ggapodcast It's the author of The Little Prince, a pretty well known, short novel. I'd recommend starting from there, as it's his most popular work and pretty easy to read, imo.

[@Pollymacho]

This is the second video I've seen of yours and I'm really impressed! I finished Ico this year and was enthralled in a way I couldn't articulate in words. But this video was able to express that idea of quite so well. Excellent work, hope the algorithm offers the recognition you deserves with great videos like these!

[@ggapodcast]

thanks for watching and sharing such kind feedback! 😌

[@RedJester68]

As I've gotten older, I've appreciated quieter media more and more. I adore everything by Team ICO, I enjoyed Hyper Light Drifter, and Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and the early Silent Hill entries are some of my favorite games. I think the fact that they're so light on dialogue is a big contributor. The atmosphere created by these introverted games speaks louder than more extroverted games, and I'm a sucker for atmosphere. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy extroverted media like Tarantino's films, Metal Gear Solid, No More Heroes, and Yakuza, but I find quieter media like Team ICO's work to be particularly impactful. Great job on the video! The maximalist Shadow of the Colossus UI made me feel ill.

[@ggapodcast]

then it worked as intended 😂 thanks for watching!

[@sraegamitlu]

Dang your videos keep getting better and better. Loved this video topic. While elden ring was not for me I definitely agree we could use more quiet games that let the world speak for itself.

[@ggapodcast]

thanks so much for the kind feedback 😌

[@aaronatkinson177]

The the 3 team ico games are prefect examples of show don't tell when it comes to video games 😄

[@kekker_]

After years of bloated RPG/action games, it's nice to see minimalism starting to get some recognition. I tend to like games that aren't exactly minimal, but are built so that every mechanic supports the main gameplay loop. Monster Hunter is a great example of this: though it's not visually minimal and the menus can get complicated, every mechanic and UI element is built to support the loop of hunt monsters->build gear->hunt more. God of War is a perfect example of doing it wrong. It's a very story-heavy game with roots in DMC-like action combat. Upgrading your armor by 2% doesn't really add much to that. The combat tree works great though. How interesting would it have been if instead of upgrading your Runic attribute by 3, the armor sets had some effect on the combat tree with a real impact on how you played in combat? Like maybe if runic attacks were tied to your equipment instead of being equippable on their own?

[@SimpleArt93]

You're speaking straight up facts my friend. To add to what you stated, this feels even worse when you consider GOW Ascension balanced the RPG and mechanical aspects of an action slasher in a godlike level - in its multiplayer mode. Each level bolstered its own mechanics, each weapon felt unique and had unique abilities. Being a champion of each God had its own utilities and advantages. It's a shame very few actually played it back in the day, it was such a unique experience I sorely miss nowadays.

[@freshboy3968]

@@SimpleArt93 Never believed someone to talk about GoW: Ascension.

[@CartrND]

Love this. Keep up the good work man :)

[@Whoslet]

Came from the reddit post, awesome video!!

[@pagatryx5451]

Very nice video. One of the most frustrating things about Elden Ring's reception last year was how everything was being praised aside from its approach to storytelling. People just...didn't get it. It's like, for a story game to work, it has to follow a very 'movie-like' structure. Rife with dialogue and cutscenes to explain everything to the player. But that's a movie. And just a basic hollywood movie at that. When looking at some of the most highly praised cinematic works, 'minimalism' and this design by subtraction is often a key factor behind them to make the most out of the visuals, soundtrack, body language, symbolism, etc. What was just a niché genre of literature for written literature becomes almost paramount, in my opinion, when the written word is no longer the sole focus of the reader's attention. When entering the new medium of film, directors and cinematographers used the extra narrative tools that film provided to tell more, with less. Games go further. Providing developers with even more tools to convey a story to the player, most notably through a non-linear world to explore. I found it disappointing that a strong narrative in the eyes of the general gaming audience is just the equivalent of a Marvel movie with some interactive fights in between. And that's probably way too harsh but I find it frustrating. Games USED to tell stories better. Elden Ring and indie games currently tell stories better. But people are praising games like The Last of Us and God of War as if we have suddenly made great progress in regards to stories in video games when I feel like we're just regressing.

[@ggapodcast]

you’re speaking my language! people tend to conflate movie-like games (that currently feel synonymous with the sony first party stuff) with having great narratives because they emulate the medium that tends to tell stories well, but that doesn’t mean that they tell interesting stories by default. to me, elden ring’s narrative was the most compelling in games last year, in part due to it’s constraint and willingness to be obscure

[@murkywaters5502]

Nice video! Silence is so underrated in almost every piece of media, except when it's overused to an annoying degree trying to be ostensibly "deep". That's one major reason why I sometimes prefer media from East Asia: because they let the viewer/player "breath".

[@washaa]

I'm soon 300 hours into Elden Ring and I just reached the Altus plateau. I've been walking around exploring every nook and cranny, recording video and taking photos. Did the same in Botw where I almost went 350 hours before I visited Hyrule castle. Love the quit ambience some games conjour. You might enjoy what Bungie did with Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity. Where the original had a snazzy synth soundtrack, the sequels had all music removed to instead let the player inhabit an audioscape made from the humm of the citadel-like structures and machines. The silence is only broken by smattered gunfire and shouts down dark corridors. Very ingrossing.

[@ggapodcast]

woah that sounds fascinating, i'm going to check that out! thanks for the recco!

[@akira4142]

Found this on reddit great video

[@bosmith2587]

Man, I love this video! Great editing, sound design, and will definitely read 'Design by Subtraction'! Seriously man, great stuff! Earned yourself a sub from me for sure!

[@ggapodcast]

really appreciate the kind words, this was so nice to read. thank you for watching and subscribing!

[@martymcintosh5026]

Played ER and GOW 2018, never bothered with Ragnarok as I generally heard its not as good as the prior game. I like both games. Loved exploring ER's environments, and I do like Miyazaki's sparse use of cutscenes and talking. As for GOW, I did not mind the talking at all, the father/son story resonated with me and I liked learning about Norse mythology. In general I like both approaches to storytelling, as long as it resonates. On a side note, I also recommend checking out Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

[@smeepUCA]

Great video Fumito Ueda is the goat

[@RuneKatashima]

Beautiful talk, my guy.

[@ggapodcast]

🙏 🙏 🙏

[@vodago]

After seeing the production quality here, I went down and checked your sub count and jesus christ, you're underrated! I also saw how few comments there are and how *quiet* it was, and man. You deserve more. I'll be sticking around.

[@ggapodcast]

that’s really kind of you to say, and thanks for choosing to stick around!!

[@CerithMaximum]

Love this angle in your video, would be awesome to add this lens of thought to Tears of the Kingdom

[@ggapodcast]

BOTW/TOTK definitely fit the bill of an introverted game to me! I’ve been having a blast just wandering around in TOTK

[@jamclark14]

Incredible stuff! Makes me wonder what Elden Ring would look like with Chris Pratt as Torrent in the live action movie.

[@ggapodcast]

currently googling "how to replace your best friend on a podcast"

[@haolihfaioefh]

Awesome vid centred around one of my fav games of all time.... also got me thinking- where the hell is Fumito Ueda these days???

[@ggapodcast]

i'm worried he got burned by the last guardian dev cycle 😞would love to see him put more art into this world!

[@sozaj]

@@ggapodcast a bloody shame, that. :(

[@ggapodcast]

@@sozaj truly 😞

[@haolihfaioefh]

@@ggapodcast SO, apparently he has a studio call gendesign and they hope to reveal something this year! ^_^

[@kwedl]

He and his team left Sony after Last Guardian. In 2018 they showed the first teaser screenshot of their new game. i.imgur.com/6eNAOAg.jpg He said in late 2022 that he would like to finally reveal his game in 2023.

[@atom6799]

Human personality and behavior are complex and multifaceted, and most people fall somewhere along a spectrum between introversion and extroversion that is forever changing back and fourth. It's almost damaging to identify as solely one aspect in how we behave. And this goes for game design as well. People really do love reducing things down to the smallest understandable things, but also lose the reality of what things actually are.

[@st.haborym]

I did really like how minimalistic sotc was

[@lunch_trey]

While the quiet atmosphere of SotC helps you reflect on the game's events and sort if decompress after a colossus fight, the atmosphere in ICO is downright nerve-wracking to me. I just frantically worry about Yorda the whole time and she could be holding my hand during those moments. It's like I'm expecting the shadows to come out any moment.

[@TheChodex]

Underrated channel, very well made video, keep it up! :)

[@ggapodcast]

thanks for the kind words 🙂

[@HDPLAYGamingTV]

Nice Vid

[@ivoryowl]

Show, don't tell, is probably a sentiment more games should emulate. Rather than holding the player's hand and telling them everything, let them explore and draw their own conclusions. Part of me thinks years of underestimating the player's ability to learn and achieve things on their own has made them actually lose those skills. People are so used to being told what to do, where to go, whom to talk to, that most just can't play properly without guidance, and 20 mins stuck will just result in them complaining about the game's design or simply looking up a walkthrough, which can be immersion breaking. On the flip side, going around in circles not knowing what to do because you didn't find some relatively obscure item can be frustrating as heck. I think the hard part is finding a happy medium between both design choices.

[@ggapodcast]

that’s a really interesting thought, maybe people have been generally conditioned into expecting some of that hand holding!

[@SubIndy]

😂7:42

[@choppedandspewed]

great video essay, this might sound kinda goofy but if you're ever interested in doing a gamejam and some fun narrative collaboration, def holler :)

[@ggapodcast]

thanks! and that sounds super interesting, i don’t have any experience in serious game design, but have always wanted to participate in a game jam to learn some skills. happy to keep in contact!

[@sozaj]

I'm an introvert who thinks that there's great merit to both, but I prefer the contemplative nature of introvertive games a bit more.

[@shredjward]

I hate to be a pedant, especially on such a well made video: but it's slain. Really great work though! Definitely subscribing

[@ggapodcast]

it is slain, isn’t it 😭 thanks for the catch, and thanks for watching!

[@nanorbogin896]

What's the song at the beginning? It sounds so familiar

[@ggapodcast]

it’s “heal”, the save music in ICO!

[@mob8502]

The power of Ma

[@artifica0]

Intro music?

[@ggapodcast]

heal from ICO!

[@artifica0]

@@ggapodcast thanks

[@jondoe7036]

Haven't played God of War Ragnarok, nor do I have any intention to; I played its predecessor and the more I look back on that one, the more it feels to me like an amalgamation of all the things I can't stand about Sony's modern triple A line up of games, I just positively hate what they're doing with the legacy and the main character of the series in this new Norse storyline and I also found the gameplay to be a mess of confused design priorities. Don't have it in me to put up with that for a second game, that's supposed to be twice the length of the first. As for Elden Ring, can't say for sure yet how it'll go over for me, since I'm still too far from finishing it. I've also clearly not gone through it in the way intended, seeing as I'm almost 120 hours into it and have just gotten to Leyndell for the first time. Then again, just the fact I've managed to sunk those hours into it, am not nearly done with it and still want to see it through, ought to be a testament that it's evidently doing something right for me.

[@ggapodcast]

120 hours spent making your way to leyndell honestly sounds like a fantastic pace to play elden ring to!

[@jondoe7036]

@@ggapodcast Glad to hear^^

[@racaroon22]

I feel like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom is a great middle ground between these two philosophies

[@ggapodcast]

totally! the hands/off approach of tears of the kingdom has felt like such a breath of fresh air

[@MonkutPaik]

This is a hidden gem! (sorry for ruining your 69 counter)

[@ggapodcast]

thanks for watching and subscribing! even if it meant un-nice-ing the count!

[@l.g.7428]

Constant talking in videogames is the worst.