Chapter 100: Humor and Irony
After helping the black soldier, they discovered he was American and had joined the Allied Powers.
This section of the station is quite cheerful, especially the way the soldiers swayed to the band's music, which made Lily burst out laughing.
However, this humor and joy were short-lived, as the game is set in World War I.
Following the narration, Emile's regiment was sent to fight against the German 71st Division, led by Baron von Dorf. Everyone's excitement quickly gave way to fear at their first battle.
On the battlefield, Emile was the standard-bearer, and at the commander's order, the soldiers charged. The control system for this section is similar to Undertale's bullet-dodging.
The entire game is a 2D side-scrolling game, where players must maneuver back and forth to dodge projectiles falling from the sky. Projectiles rained down on Emile and his men like a waterfall, but they had no choice but to charge.
The charging commander at the front died instantly, and Emile, the standard-bearer, took his place. Facing German machine guns and artillery shells, it was a desperate, brutal charge.
Before the attack, the sky had been bright and sunny blue. Now it was cloudy, and the ground was littered with French corpses. The roar of gunfire and the background music, which varied from grandiose to melancholic—despite being a 2D side-scrolling game with a cartoon style—kept Lily immersed in the horrors of war.
As Emile charged, a bullet mercilessly struck him. Amidst a torrential downpour and desolate background music, the scene shifted to a German formation. One of the blonde soldiers stood out: Karl.
'So, Emile was conscripted by France, and Karl, after being expelled, was also conscripted by Germany. This family must serve their respective countries and fight on the battlefield?'
'And Emile is already dead?' Lily thought instantly.
'Could this be the plot of Valiant Hearts: The Great War? A plot of family members killing each other, intertwining national positions with family ties, ultimately reflecting the cruelty of war? It seems very possible, but if it were true, wouldn't it be a bit melodramatic?'
Lily pondered it, but remained silent. Instead, she simply described the current situation to the live stream audience. Having played games like Undertale and To the Moon, she believed this game would not be what she expected. And the game had only been on for ten minutes.
[Miss Marie Sheron, Private Emile Sheron of the 150th Infantry Regiment, was wounded in combat on August 21st and captured by the enemy.]
[We hope to hear from him soon.]
The narration began with the melancholic orchestral music in the background. The scene shifted to Emile's farm, where his daughter burst into tears upon reading the letter in her hand.
However, this brought a sigh of relief to Lily and the live stream audience. He was only captured, not dead; that was good news.
Just as Lily wondered what would happen next—whether Emile would escape from the Germans with Karl or if Karl would help him escape—the camera switched to another character: the black soldier Emile had helped at the train station.
[Freddy, an American soldier, volunteered to join the Allied forces at the start of the war.]
[Behind his brave appearance lies a heart deeply scarred and broken by war.]
[He has one conviction: to punish those who destroyed him.]
[It wasn't until the Battle of the Marne that Freddy finally found the body led by Baron von Dorf.]
Listening to the narration and observing the interspersed comic book pages, Lily got a rough idea of this character's background. Karl and Emile were forcibly conscripted. And Freddy, an American, came to Europe to join the Allied forces, clearly not for some supposed justice.
He was simply seeking revenge, probably against the German army, particularly the one led by Baron von Dorf, who had murdered his wife.
Thinking about the photo that had just appeared during the character's introduction, Lily began to speculate.
But she herself wasn't sure if that was the case. After all, the game, so far, felt incredibly unique to her. The minimalist, almost non-existent dialogue, and the serious narration gave her the feeling of watching a documentary.
Meanwhile, the game was full of humor that made her smile, but before she could fully grasp the laughter, the player's laughter quickly revealed itself. The cartoonish, graffiti-like art style immediately presented the brutality of war. This, in turn, imbued the previous humor with irony.
Then there was the gameplay, which was different from Emile's previous, more like a full-speed dodge-and-evade style. After becoming Freddy, she became familiar with puzzle-solving and stealth. As the game's introduction suggested, Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a puzzle game. Emile didn't offer much of this aspect before.
But Freddy, on the other hand, required her to exploit various game mechanics to infiltrate enemy territory. For example, in this level, after a brief study, Lily quickly found the trick.
First, use a grenade to knock down the ladder, then time your turn to wait for the gunner's shots and climb the ladder to your destination. Afterwards, using objects like rocks to create a distracting noise for the enemy, you can descend the ladder and hit him with your giant fists.
Apparently, just like Nebula Games' previous game, Outlast, although this is a World War I-themed game, at least for now, players have no weapons. You just have to fight with your fists and even use pliers to cut barbed wire.
Perhaps because it was the beginning of the game, the puzzles were not difficult, and Lily quickly figured it out.
However, she noticed something. While the game's visual style is humorous and cartoonish, it offers no moral lessons in the plot or story. Instead, it is full of irony, like the scene at the train station where you bribe an officer with beer.
Then there's Freddy's level. German soldiers fight further ahead, while Baron von Dorf drinks wine in his room. When the Allied forces break through the lines and charge, he decides to flee in an airship.
After completing Freddy's level, you see him furiously tear a German flag in half. The game screen, as before, goes dark.
A voice-over appears, along with a comic-style background.
[Due to British reinforcements, the German plan fails, the front shifts north, and winter arrives.]
[Karl's group retreats to the outskirts of Neuf-Chapelle, where Emile is imprisoned.]
'Ah, so Emile and Karl can meet?' Lily muttered to herself as she watched the background introduction.
The next instant, the game screen appears and the player character returns to Emile's side. Unlike his previous military uniform, Emile now wears a simple cooking apron, with his feet chained and a large iron ladle in his hand, apparently as a German cook.
In addition to Baron von Dorf, Lily also saw a familiar character: the German rescue dog that appeared in the intro and UI before entering the game.
First he served water to the dog and then went to the warehouse where Emile was preparing to cook. At that moment, Karl also took the opportunity to run to see him.
Both were very happy to meet. Karl asked about Emile's wife. Emile handed him a letter and a photo his daughter had sent him.
But before they could say anything else, the soldiers waiting for dinner outside began to rush them, so Karl and Emile had to quickly separate.
But when Emile came out with the large pot of cooked rice, the British artillery fire had already arrived.
During the British bombardment, Emile was buried by the collapsing rocks.
The screen plunged into darkness and silence, which made Lily and the audience in front of the computer worry about Emile.
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