Release Date: 02/11/2015
Played On: Win
Available On: Mac / Win
Time Played: 58m
Progress: Completed
Developer: Nina Freeman
Publisher: Star Maid Games
As much as I love a short little game that tells a personal story from the developer's own experience, I'm often left wondering if it can actually work in a meaningful way. Sometimes it seems that unless I've had the exact same experience, I'll find it hard to connect and understand the story I'm being told, which only ends up confusing me a little. Is it simply the case of niche experiences not relating to many people, or does it indicate a lack of story-telling skill, when your audience is unable to connect?
I had a similar experience when I played One Night Stand, which was an interesting enough tale, but I felt short-changed by the fact that I wasn't able to act in the way that I would have. Instead I was forced to make choices that fit the narrow margins of the experience that the creator was trying to portray, which only managed to shove me out of the game as a whole. I'm not sure if there was anything wrong with One Night Stand per se, but it did leave me wishing that things had been different and I could have had more input into the outcomes and decisions that formed the story.
The same can be said about CIbele, which is another personal story told through a simple little game. However, instead of being full of options and choices, this one chose to keep things purely linear, and I think it ended up working in the game's favour. Once again, I couldn't relate to the story directly, as I've not had the experiences being talked about in the game, but it didn't seem to matter as much this time. In fact, I was more than happy to see how the tale unfolded, because I wasn't being asked to have any input whatsoever. It's almost as if my own lack of agency was in perfect balance with my suspension of disbelief.
Cibele is a story about a girl called Nina, who spends a large portion of her time on her computer and playing games with a guy called Blake. As time goes on, the pair become closer and form feelings for each other, while they each live their offline lives apart and at a distance. We're given a view into Nina's world where she talks to her friends about how much she likes Blake, and gossips about what they might get up to if they ever met. Suffice to say that things get serious, photos are exchanges, and they eventually meet in the real world. I won't spoil the ending, but you can probably figure out what might happen, especially thanks to Nina's naivety and the fact that Blake is kind of an asshole.
What really works in this story for me, is the fact that neither of the main characters are actually all that perfect. They're both immature and make some questionable decisions, but that only seems natural for a couple of nerdy teenagers getting all flirty online. What's interesting to me is that even though I can't really relate to the story in a direct way, I found that I was able to understand and somewhat empathise with Nina and her choices. I mean, we've all been stupid teenagers, so we can't say that any of this is completely foreign to us, but perhaps there are things we would have done differently.
The part of Cibele that sold me in the end was the overall characterisation of Nina. Obviously I've never been a teenage girl, but I got a sense of what it might be like for someone who is lonely and young, to form a relationship online. She seems like a nice enough girl who isn't trying to do anything wrong, but it's hard to ignore how immature and naive she is, but maybe that's because I'm looking back from roughly twice her age. However, I still found myself worrying about her and the kinds of outcomes that her decisions were leading her to.
Hence why I think I would have been a bit left out of the experience if I were able to influence those decisions at all. If there were choices, but all the choices were immature and bad, I think I might have been frustrated by the limitations. By making Cibele a linear experience, all I had to do was listen to the story and see what came of all that happened along the way.
Although, this isn't an entirely passive game, as you do get to engage in a bit of actual gameplay. While scenes in the real world are full motion video, Nina's computer desktop is available to interact with and explore. She has folders full of photos, emails to read, instant messages that keep popping up, and even a backup of her Geocities web site blog that actually dates the story well and is very much something I can relate to.
Most of your time in Cibele will be spent playing the fictional MMO where Nina and Blake spend most of their time together. They play characters called Cibele and Ichi respectively, and have a bunch of random conversations while you kill enemies in the game. It's certainly not the most detailed gaming experience I've ever had, but I was actually surprised to discover just how functional and detailed the in-game MMO turned out to be.
Essentially, you are tasked with killing enemies together, which will eventually summon the boss of that stage. Once the boss has been fought, you continue killing enemies until the boss returns and is finally vanquished. It's not even all that fun, but is reminiscent of grinding out quests and dungeons in just about every MMO that was ever invented. Suffice to say that even though it's not the kind of game I would play on its own, the fact that it exists at all is a great way to communicate the experience of getting to know someone through and online game.
It also helps that we are treated voice conversations between Nina and Blake, which occur as they grind out their game and accomplish tasks. At the same time, Nina is constantly receiving new emails from friends, notifications from social media, instant messages, even photos from Blake. Nina will often comment on something she's been sent, sparking a conversation between the two, or Black might comment on something in the game, which is a nice way to entwine the audio with what we're seeing and doing.
Now, I said earlier that Blake was a bit of an asshole, but I say that with a small caveat of forgiveness. After all, he is also an immature teenager who is trying to crack onto this girl online and see photos of her boobs. He says that corniest and most cringe-worthy lines to Nina, who doesn't seem to pick up on the fact that he's simply buttering her up with no real interest. Plus, when they actually start to get close, he flips out and starts making lame excuses about why he's contradicting himself and going back on all the nice things he said to her.
You might think that's typical teenager bullshit, and in a way I agree with you, because it really is. After all, we've all been teenagers and we've all at least heard someone say something immature and stupid before, but at the time we probably thought it was charming. The story itself actually feels quite honest and true to life, but by the end of the game I was left wondering why it needed to be told at all.
I mean, yes it's a little bit funny to talk about the dumb things that teenagers do, but at the same time there's nothing that can be learned from that kind of story. Not that everything has to be educational, although it might have been nice if it was super entertaining as well, instead of just mildly sentimental. This story seems like the kind of tale that gets told, purely so that the audience can go "oh, that seems familiar, how nice to think that I'm not alone in my stupidity". Ultimately that's fair enough, but I don't care much for stories that don't leave me with something worthwhile, like at least a smile on my face.
Despite any of that though, Cibele turned out to be a pretty competent and well put together little bit of story-telling, even if it didn't really hit me all that hard. I really enjoyed the integration between FMV scenes and the interactive desktop and MMO, although it would have been nice to tell Blake to bugger off and leave me alone. Nevertheless this was an interesting enough bit of fiction, and I always enjoying seeing video games used to tell stories in different ways. Thankfully the lack of choice was actually a good thing, as I didn't feel like I was being pushed one way or the other. Sometimes it's a lot nicer to just experience a story than to be forced into making a decision you never wanted to make in the first place.
There's something special about these kind of indie games that feature a personal story being told by the creator. It's something that makes sense from an artistic point of view. When any artist has something to say, they naturally utilise the art form within which they practice. In this way, these are game developers who are telling their personal stories and saying something that's important to them, and I will always enjoy that on a fundamental level. I'll never get tired of seeing how different creators manage to tell their tales.