Dustborn is a disaster! Here's what they should have done.

It's not only subjectively bad theme wise, but also the delivery. The music, writing, and Voice Acting have to be one of the most bland, corporate, boring, "Hello fellow youth", I have heard in a while.

Unbeatable have the whole "Rock band against the system", but the difference between Unbeatable and Dustborn,it's that at least the first does seem to have creativity in mind, instead of making the most bland and abroad product you can think of

Lastly, Dustborn just seems like a.holes saying they are 'progressive' to justify their a.holery

If this game was made the exact same way, but marketed as a PARODY of it’s ideals, it would be praised and selling well.

The whole "build a wall" thing has been a slogan since at least the Cold War. HeII, even "make America great again" was originally said by Ronald Reagan back in the 80s!

People really need to brush up on their history. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Mass Effect and Dragon Age are very political games, when they advertise, the first thing they mention is the gameplay and storytelling. They have very diverse casts, LGBT crewmates, and some very dark lore about eugenics, and genocide. Politics can work in a game, but it cannot be the main selling point. Also, JFK was president when segregation was being lifted.

The game fallout New Vegas is a great way on how to do politics in games because it does not shove in your face which one is right it instead lets you choose for yourself.

Creators and gamers, yes will learn from this. Anyone into politics, no.

Ironically, Hades does the paperwork of the Underworld. Thanatos is the God of death while Tartarus is the equivalent of Hell and the Devil himself.

Orpheus is the son of Apollo too who ends up getting murdered by worshippers of Dionysus.

I think people not wanting politics in entertainment because all they see is politics implemented in a cringe and preachy way by activist. Similar to activists making crappy stories due to shoving minority characters in makes people thinking that presense of minorities is a sign of bad writing.

The fact they use 'Anomals' for their superhumans irks me more than it should. Maybe it's me getting tired of everything trying to have a unique word to describe super-human abilities, but something feels especially pretentious about Anomals.
It comes of as they were so desperate to come up with a unique, special word that they wanted to use "Anomalies", realized that it's generic even for a special superhuman word, then decided it sounded cool just to shorten it because shortening words automatically makes it cool and quirky.

I love how the term “Republic” is meant to oppose the “Democracy” of real America,

If you don’t know, America is a republic, Democracy doesn’t work because it means if a majority of people are stupid, the stupid vote wins, republics have representatives who are typically going to be democratically elected but the standards of being a representative are higher, thus, smarter people represent people locally, the representatives are the ones who vote for the people and not the people directly, but the people influence the vote,

It’s a layered system but it’s just to avoid people from majority voting on a mass dog rape mandate or something equally dumb.

JFK a fascist 😮 no way

Besides the trigger button, they come with NORMALIZE, CANCEL, BULLY to name a few l features.

I watched a few people play it and the script is AWFUL. The characters talk too much and they writers seem to despise subtlety and organix emotions.

You can have non political games like animal crossing and huniepop
You can have political games like Nier Automata and Bioshock

There should be no obligation for either, just make a good game
And if it gets political, fine. Just be more than a 2 sided cardboard cutout version of extremes

So what I can gather from Dustborn's protagonists is this: They're supposed to be punks, but they're really just posers.

Never use the words "Newborn" and "Porn" in the same scene again.

This was just a government funded mask off moment of the progressive left. Despite their desperate attempts to portray themselves as rebels, they are the status quo now. Until people start to realize that fact, and who is in charge of a lot of this evil en masse, we won't see any positive change.

huh you make a interesting point when it comes to politics and entertainment. i do watch entertainment to escape politics but thats not to say that entertainment isn't allow to cover issues like racism and such, but the problem with today's media is so heavy handed with it and they keep bringing out their basis in their shows, that is the problem i feel. they aren't trying to tell a story anymore but instead use it to talk politics. i miss when we could enjoy something and not be forced to hear a message every two seconds.

Florida calling itself Pacifica is like the Isle of Skye calling itself London

And now I want to see Hadestown. I'm a big fan of Greek myths!

I played it and it's fine. You're just farming clicks from conservatives.

I have never seen such a stupid and unhealthy game. bad in its text, its gameplay, its characters, even its music... it's almost fascinating. the guys insulted the players who criticized them and stole content for their game (gta interior decorations) while they are funded by the government! monstrous

So dustborn was caused because John remarried and took the hand one of the most sought after and successful woman of her generation? What message are they trying to convey here?

How in the ever loving f*ck does marrying ms monroe cause a dictatorship about 2 decades after he helped defeat the nazi and axis powers especially considering that john was a veteran of the second world war

Also it’s entirely messed up to 2 dead people as your villain origin story for why the government is a screwed up dystopia especially when it comes to Marilyn since kennedy was likely used to people slandering his name for political gain

Dustborn feels more like an anti-woke parody of woke game than seriously taken game with legit story.

This game is an insult to everyone and it deserved to fail, shame on the team behind it.

It's a shame because the art direction is really beautiful

These are two titles I did not expect to see side-by-side today. But I'm glad I clicked!

Whats funny is that anyone who uses the arguement that "muh everything is political" is usually just using it as an excuse to push their politics down your throat.

Can't wait to see Pippa's reaction to this game

Rolfson Ramp

Glad to make a comparison between Dustborn and Hades Town, MJTanner. I like your presentation about this topic and you handled it well with your knowledge. For me i compare Dustborn to No Straight Roads because of their similar aesthetics (being music focused and a story about rebels) but i gotta say why No Straight Roads is better at handling the political themes better than Dustborn:

To put simply in No Straight Roads you played as Mayday and Zuke of the rock band Bunk Bed Junction. They want to represent rock in Vinyl City ruled by music corporations "No Straight Roads" (NSR). NSR dissaprove Bunk Bed Junction 'cuz rock isn't their priority and outright saying "rock is outdated" so Mayday and Zuke tries to reach into NSR ranks by beating all of NSR artists and bring back rock into Vinyl City. The highlight was shine the most during our two folks battling against Tatyana the leader of NSR and (spoilers alert!) she's a former rock guitarist who got enstranged by her rock band's awful management thus the reason why she ruled NSR and in an extent Vinyl City in such an iron fist way 'cuz she wanted to effectively developed vinyl city even her way has some flaws like uneven energy distribution (the energy source in this game is called "Qwasa" which is no doubt a direct reference to a malay word for "power"). When the scene shows that the amount of Qwasa that Bunk Bed Junction generate was equal like all artists of NSR, thus making Mayday and Zuke taking restrospects about their hijinks against NSR. And heck even Mayday in the end says that she didn't like EDM that dominates NSR but understanding the appeal the same goes to Tatyana that allows her to acknowledge her mistake for too much gatekeeping one music genre and started to accept all of music genres within Vinyl City which is in contrast to Dustborn that even main characters doing some heinous thing they don't get any consequences 'cuz "they doing this for a greater good". The right is always right, i'm right and you're wrong. And that's the vibe i've got from Dustborn

Also the artists of NSR (which is the antagonist for No Straight Roads) aren't just cookie cutter villains. They have their oen motives about their origins and the reason why they joined NSR in the first place. They wanted to develop Vinyl City into a place that everyone happy the same goes Bunk Bed Junction wanted for. Even the simpleton like DJ Subatomic Supernova has a unique personality that makes him unique from being a stock villain. In Dustborn it's just a typical totalitarian arseholes with no personality whatsoever and just a poster boy for the game's opposite politics you against for and it's vapid, cliche and downright brainded narrative of the said game. And it's depiction was outdated from many years ago.

Yeah what i'm saying is basically "Just play No Straight Roads instead of Dustborn". NSR has more varied and impactful gameplay

Yes politics used to be in a lot of media. But then they used to want to share a message and change hearts and minds. Now it is this political tribalism BS. During a time where political tribalism is everywhere. Then they keep pelting us with thier spiteful and patronizingly pandoring partisan shit. Then call us ignorant for being tired of their repacked story that chooses to deride part of the audience rather than informs them.

Also, I am left leaning and even I am annoyed with (usually the worst kind of leftists) trying to own the concept of "punk." I'm sorry, wasn't this game funded by the goverment? They are as mainstream as it gets and their such unoriginal yes-men, that most of their dialogue are just these used and safe platitudes. That you are harped on for even questioning. They wouldn't say anything that was actually brave to say. A community that wants to force you to assimilate or be ostracized. Yet, they want to be seen as punk.
Fuck off Borg, with that fake shit and them trying to claim yet another niche culture they largely didn't build or even participate in, just to plant their flag of political trabilism. Just because "the past had political plots too." Doesn't mean you can retroactively make apolitical cultures political. Fucking cultural colonizers.

Thanks for introducing me to Hades Town!

Shame such a cool art style was wasted in this game. Usually love it when bigger studios do something artistic with a larger budget.

This game is racist

Wait, the PROTAGONISTS use tactics like “trigger”?
What is this game???

Metal Gear did a better job with politics then what ever the hell Dustborn did

the best part of this game is the artstyle and even that's not exactly good

I love it when a poorly made game helps to give attention to something that was made with love and passion. I'd never heard of Hades Town until now, but the music sounds beautiful.

I can't believe that a project that used people's taxes couldn't even have decent music if they wanted to add the nonsense that they were a band.

Please, every company must many more Woke games!
So we can laugh at their failures and play the great games instead, like Black Myth Wukong and Stellar Blade.

It’s a shame because, based on my (limited) knowledge of the game, it seems like it could have been the next Hi-Fi Rush or Sunset Overdrive. A neat art style, cool character designs, unique fighting mechanics, and even extremely on-the-nose villains can be really fun if done correctly. Unfortunately, it chose to be… that.

Today I learned that Trump probably invented walls

Hey J, speaking of musicals related to Greek mythology, what're your thoughts on The Wisdom Saga for Epic the Musical?

All they had to do was listen to Good Kid, m.A.A.d City, Section 80, or To Pimp A Butterfly and they'd have been golden.

Any writer that wants to heavily weave political messages into their music needs to take a step back and listen to some Kendrick Lamar before even TOUCHING a pencil, imo. Wesley's Theory, i, Good Kid, and Institutionalized are some of the absolute gold standard in cleverly incorporating politics and social issues into lyrics. Oh, and all those songs SOUND good too.

I don't know what it is with some video games and putting out mediocre music.

Zenless Zone Zero has more heterosexual ships than Genshin Impact.

To the hell with this game!
(I don't know why I couldn't see my comment before)