Video games can be studied from different angles: historical, game design, narratological, etc., but let’s look at them as works of culture, including the entire layer of development: art, mythology, and religion.
Firstly, it is worth paying attention to how the game interacts with a cultural legacy. For example, does it develop the history of art and culture of different countries and people? Does it create unique techniques and forms of working with artistic heritage? Does it have a cultural impact on a person and whether it performs educational functions?
In Journey by Thatgamecompany, which was released in 2012, we can see a clear appeal to cultural heritage and an interpretation of traditional art. From both – thematic and visual points of view, the game is filled with the conventional art and philosophy of the East. The developers are trying to comprehend and transfer the philosophical and religious meanings of China and Japan and the artistic canons of the visual language that have developed throughout the history of Japanese art into the format of modern and popular media.
We play as the traditional, established in Eastern philosophy and religion, the character of a solitary traveler – a hermit who, in silence and peace, purifying his heart and mind, tries to overcome a long and exhausting path in attempts to reach the top of the mountain, as a symbol of truth and enlightenment. The image of the pilgrim is often found in Japanese painting and graphics, for example, in works of Kano Naonobu. Also, the mood and atmosphere of the game reflect some of the poems of Matsuo Basho.
The clothes of the main character of the game also play an important role. Let’s turn to its color and the main element, accented in the game, not only from the point of view of the costume but also gameplay. A long red scarf waving in the wind, creating a rhythmic structure of wavy matter in the works of the most significant artist and art theorist of the early Middle Ages, Gu Kaizhi, is highlighted precisely the same way as that of the game’s main character.
The compositional solutions of the game’s frames, the minimalism of the visual style, and the laconicism of the images refer us also to the samples of Japanese graphics.
Asymmetry, linearity, and flatness are the principles of artistic expression in Japanese engraving. If we turn to the style of the game, then we will find all these in it. For example, the asymmetrical composition of the frame in Journey, depicting a pilgrim and a majestic sacred mountain, reminds us of a view on the Fuji mountain depicted by Japanese artists.
The asymmetry can also be seen thanks to the second canon – the minimalistic style.
The third canon reflects the style of depicting objects. The mountain, the character are outlined with a clear line without modeling and filled with pure color without creating volumetrics with the help of light and shadow. The graphic side is strong here, which forms the flatness and decorativeness of the style.
The expressive means of the visual style of the game is the golden scale prevailing throughout the gameplay. This technique also refers us to traditional Japanese paintings, namely gold-plated screens.
In the case of the composition, Journey conveys the canonical golden color through the main object of the location – the desert. The game decides not to be limited to just color but chooses the desert as the only possible golden location. Endless golden dunes sparkling in the sun in the game also play the role of an unending and pacifying picturesque emptiness that envelops the entire space around and, as it were, reveals the monumental image of a mountain on the horizon.
Journey uses traditional symbolism, such as the stylized Shinto torii gate leading to the main shrine – the mountain; or the canonical motive in Chinese and Japanese art – the dragon. The dragon in Japanese art symbolizes power and personifies the order of the universe. A perfect example here would be the work of K. Hokusai, “The Dragon Ascending Mount Fuji”, from the series “100 Views of Fuji”, which completely coincides compositionally with the frame from the game.
Journey, as an interactive landscape created in the traditions of the art of the East, allows you to really enter the scenery and walk through it. Journey is not just virtualization or digitization of works of the past – it is a new landscape, a new work of modern culture that comprehends and interprets the heritage and creates tactile engravings with the help of video game tools.
The inclusion of video games in the general cultural context is an important part of the development and maturation of the gaming industry.
It is crucial to interact with the rules of the outside world, modern and past, introduce them into its format in order to develop further eventually. It is what Journey demonstrates to us, applying the artistic language of Japanese art in videogame format.
