I recently made a different kind of video game tier list. Not a list of my favorite games, or the games I think are the highest quality, but the games that have impacted me the most. It's a funny list because I haven't played many of the games on here, let alone beaten them.
I liked how this post went, so I'm doing another little analytic piece, but on a character. Well, it includes the game too.
If you want a synopsis of the plot to contextualize this, see
here, and the characters, see
here.
Kirby 64's characters fit into two groups.
Kirby (center) + Ribbon (top left) dyad: They're both eager and energetic, Ribbon for the specific goal of recollecting the shards and Kirby just because he is. They're actively doing things, Ribbon leading the group in cutscenes and popping out every time you collect a Crystal Shard, while Kirby is the character you control, whereas the rest of the group occasionally pops in to help at specific times. There's some romantic implications of Ribbon's kiss at the end. This group is the closest thing to the nucleus of the cast.
King Dedede (bottom left) + Waddle Dee (bottom right) dyad: They're both former enemies of Kirby, but they're also a bit reserved about this whole adventure. King Dedede actively tries to avoid getting involved in his grumpy old man way, and Waddle Dee is just reserved and hesitant in general. They also provide comic relief together.
That leaves out someone. You may notice it's the person who is my username – Adeleine. She doesn't seem to fit in here. She's eager sometimes, leading the charge after you free for from Dark Matter's possession, but she's reserved sometimes, quietly painting in a calm forest. Getting possessed by Dark Matter gives her some similarities with other characters, but she's not the first person to get possessed to establish the theme (that's Waddle Dee), and she's not the climactic or most important person to get possessed (it's either Dedede or the queen fairy, but not Adeleine either way.) She's a girl and a new character like Ribbon, but the game doesn't really highlight that – that's more a Kirby Star Allies thing.
There are other ways Adeleine is an odd fit. She has really
no direct story role. She's possessed by Dark Matter, but this doesn't, like, cause any plot consequences, and Waddle Dee and King Dedede already establish and execute the possession role. She accompanies the journey and occasionally helps in the background, but it's not like she provides some essential ability or role to save the day. Kirby and Ribbon fight the (true) final boss, and even the comic relief characters help them get where they need to be. Adeleine gives you a health item, but, like, you could just get one from a previous level. You may come in with full health anyway, in which case she'll give you a 1-Up, which is, like, nice? But not that big of a deal?
So she's weakly integrated into the character dynamics, plot, and mechanics. One could argue that removing her barely changes the game. One could even say she is filler.
But they are wrong! She's actually the
most important character in the game. The dynamic between the characters, plot, and mechanics are important, but the game's
themes are what allow it to shine, and Adeleine's unimportance elsewhere
makes her critical here.
Kirby 64 develops an already excellent theme from its prior game, Kirby's Dream Land 3. Go beyond conventions, expectations, and baselines, but not to win, compete, excel, or perform. (Not for
this.) Instead, exceed conventions with love, goodwill, care, and kindness. Your heart will drive you to do more than you have to, and, once the storm is clear, you'll be happy and thrive.
Dream Land 3 primarily does this through the Heart Stars. If you play Dream Land 3 like a conventional video game (especially for its pre-2000 release date), you will complete a series of levels and fight a final boss, but the game won't be over. The game will hint there is a greater evil lurking. How do you truly win? You go back and collect each level's Heart Star, too, which you earn by performing a little kindness for a resident of that little world. Maybe help flowers grow, or even just avoid stepping on them. You might win their little quiz challenge, sweep a floor for them, or chauffeur a friendly character their way. The game patiently prompts you to show compassion to these little residents. You combine all these Heart Stars to form the Love-Love Stick, and you use its love to defeat a final boss that has zero love, Zero.
Kirby 64 uses a similar structure for a similar theme, having you collect all the Crystal Shards in each level to defeat Zero's reincarnation. However, while Ribbon surely appreciates you collecting them all and joins you in the final battle, these shards are much less directly tied to kindness than the Heart Stars. What Kirby 64 does is supplement this with love for its characters and world. I'll get to the characters, but I just want to listen to the world for a second.
Like another game I appreciate, the game dunks itself in energetic, overtly fun joy, but it's just as willing to accept the quieter, subtler parts of the world as they are, loving them just as much. The embrace of joy makes it even more remarkable how it embraces something that isn't quite joy. Just look at the respect and admiration Kirby 64 has for its quieter world!
Kirby 64 - File Select
Kirby 64 - Quiet Forest
Kirby 64 - Ruins
Kirby 64 - Shiver Star (Map Select)
Kirby 64 - Inspecting the Factory
This all comes back to Adeleine, doesn't it? She's a mixture of enthusiasm and caution that the game doesn't have to include here, but it does, because it loves her. Just
look at how it stops everything to include her! She's the creative anima of the game, figuratively and literally. She left her home, ostensibly to study art. She is the only human, and the clearly-Earth planet is not inhabitable, so maybe she had to leave. Either way, the game takes her in as its own child. This
gorgeous fan animation drives it home. (Note: as the animation highlights, it's an arrangement that has a little sadness in it, too.)
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That's a bit of an ambiguous note to leave it on, but that's all I have to say for now. This game is brimming with stuff, though – I certainly could've posted more. I appreciate this little place to say such things.