Minecraft: Story Mode
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Minecraft: Story Mode is an episodic point-and-click adventure developed by Telltale Games and published by Mojang Studios. It's based on the aforementioned publisher's game Minecraft. Season Pass ran from October 13th, 2015 to March 29th, 2016, while Adventure Pass ran from June 7th, 2016 to September 13, 2016. A physical copy of the Season Pass was released in North America on October 27th, 2015 and in Europe on October 30th, 2015. The Complete Adventure, which includes all the episodes, was released in North America on October 25th, 2016 and in Europe on October 28th, 2016. A Nintendo Switch version was released on August 22, 2017. On May 31, 2019, Mojang announced that the game would be removed on June 25, 2019 due to Telltale Games shutting down (though the Netflix's version is still available).
Good Qualities
Overall
- The overall concept of Minecraft having a story is a really huge risk and even controversial, as Minecraft was never meant to have a story, but thanks to Mojang's involvement, the game decently executed that concept.
- The games are really faithful to the source material (most of the time). In fact, you can see some references to the original game like the Far Lands (one of Minecraft's most famous glitches).
- Great graphics, that are better than the original game. The shadows cast realistically, the lighting is impressive, the entire game is more colorful and despite everything, they're still faithful to the original game.
- The story, despite defeating Minecraft's purpose and being flawed, is decent. It still follows the "defeat the monster that destroys the world" plot, but it goes in the same way Fire Emblem Awakening does, it expands it. The world building is good, the worlds are awesome and creative (as mentioned in GQ#10), character development is there (for the most part), and while it uses various clichés, it still doesn't feel like they ruin the plot.
- Very likable characters (especially Ivor), despite being stupid.
- Magnus/Ellegard's death (depends on your choice) and Reuben's death, both on Episode 3 and Episode 4 respectively, are very sad.
- In 2018, Netflix and Telltale signed a partnership in order to release the game on the streaming service, so people can easily watch the entire Season Pass without buying the game.
- The mobile versions are actually great, due to the fact that they're close to the consoles and PC versions.
- Rather than following a very serious tone like other games, Telltale decided to go into a much more lighthearted tone with the game. As a result of that, there are plenty of humorous moments (despite being hit-or-miss), such as in Episode 3, when the characters were screaming and Axel screamed "WHY ARE WE SCREAMING!"
- Creative and awesome worlds such as the portals in the Adventure Pass episodes and the intern of the Far Lands in Episode 4 (a creative way to reference the glitch).
- The villains (except for Aiden) are really cool.
- The Wither Storm is a Wither with a command block that was created by Ivor to reveal the ugly truth of the Order of the Stone later becomes a gigantic monster that can eat the world.
- Ivor is a man who spawned the Wither Storm to reveal that Gabriel is weak rather than strong and as time went on, it was revealed that Ivor was a member of the Order of the Stone and didn't like the fact that Soren, the leader, used the command block to defeat the Ender Dragon because the group is actually very weak.
- Awesome soundtrack.
- Good voice acting.
Season 1
- Deconstruction: Interestingly enough, Telltale took the time to deconstruct many fan-favorite Minecraft mini-games.
- Episode 5 does this to the popular Skyblock-type challenge, showing what a society would be like with extremely limited resources, and unable to leave a small area without falling to their deaths.
- Episode 8 does this to the majority of other minigames as a whole, showing how people would actually deal with dying horrible deaths over and over again (with the added twinge of being sent to the quartz mines if you lose).
Season 2
- Unlike other Telltale games, the dialogue impacts the adventure.
- The graphics improve significantly
Bad Qualities
Overall
- People criticized this game due to the fact that it has a story despite Minecraft being famous for not having one. Despite this, the story is decent and fortunately, this game is non-canon.
- Like other Telltale's games, your choices don't impact on the story.
- Because Minecraft was not meant for its character models' faces to move causes all the characters to fall into the Uncanny Valley. Their lip movements are blocky, but their eyes and eyebrows move much more fluently. The worse of these are the animal characters: Reuben and Lluna. Lluna isn't too bad since the most uncanny is the fact that she can move her mouth. Reuben, on the other hand, has human-like facial expressions. It doesn't help that he doesn't look like a regular Minecraft pig given how much bigger his head is.
- Not to mention that the original Minecraft game will have those mouth expressions accessories in Marketplace on Bedrock Edition version 1.1 in 2017.
- Cliché storm: The game filled to the brim to the point to where it makes the story predictable. There are numerous examples:
- The heroes try to win a competition in Episode 1.
- The twist that the Order of the Stone are fraudsters.
- The greaser-like Blaze Rods pick on the nerdy protagonists.
- Speaking of characters, there are some unlikable ones.
- Isa, a minor antagonist/supporting character, is a Mary Sue with unclear motivations for why she never used the Eversource(creative mode) and restricted building in her city, a bland character (due to her not having any personality) and she's some sort of a tyrant.
- Aiden, the leader of The Blaze Rods, is arguably the worst and most pathetic villain, even for Telltale's standards. He's arrogant, narcissist, a whiny hypocrite and a jerk. He's also a huge liar and very manipulative. Thankfully, he redeemed himself in Episode 5 and tells Jesse that he wants to become a write (determinant).
- The other members of the Blaze Rods (formerly The Ocelots, which initially Lukas was the leader but he later left) are unlikable characters as they are rude towards the main characters and treated Lukas like trash. They even became antagonists in Episode 5 and unlike Aiden, they didn't redeem themselves.
- Aside from a few jokes, the humor is mostly hit-or-miss.
Season 1
- Despite being a part of the Season, episodes 6-8 requires the Adventure Pass to be unlocked, meaning consumers who bought the Season Pass can't play these episodes and are forced to pay an additional $30.
- The "That's Some Pig" achievement is unlocked in a very obscure way. In Chapter 3, when you're in the room with the Enderman suit, you have to talk to Reuben repeatedly. However, Jesse and Reuben will eventually stop saying anything which usually means there are no more dialogue options. BUT if you keep trying to talk to Reuben eventually a cutscene will trigger to which then the achievement pops.
- Episode 6's mystery isn't so much of a mystery when the game gives you blatant clues as to who the culprit is (Cassie). Jesse and Petra eventually end up in a cave with a bunch of things like cats who all look like Cassie's cat Winslow. It doesn't help that she's the only character not based on a Minecraft YouTuber besides TorqueDawg.
- Even though the game is pretty faithful, one of the most criticized aspects is that the game severely lacks the creativity of building, and instead it's mostly used as quick time events. This is extremely baffling considering the creativity of building is one of the biggest aspects of the original game. Thankfully, this was fixed in season 2, where there are some moments where you can create whatever you want.
Reception
The game received mixed reviews from critics and audiences at launch. People praised the graphics and the world building, although the story received some criticism, due to it not being as good as other Telltale's titles. However, as time went on, it gained a cult following[1][2], especially after the game was delisted. Most people now consider it underrated.
Despite the cult following, most YouTubers were pretty negative on the game, mostly criticizing the story, the cliches, the characters and the lack of creativity of building.
Videos
TheGamedawg's "Minecraft Story Mode Essay Video" playlist.
Trivia
- Due to Telltale Games shutting down, Mojang announced in May 31, 2019 that the game (except on Netflix) would be removed on June 25, 2019.
- The Wii U port marks the debut of Minecraft on a Nintendo console.
- Despite having a decent character arc, Lukas became a meme in recent times due to it being hated by Technoblade.
- The Wither Storm, the game's antagonist, has become very popular in the Minecraft community and has been recreated in the original game through mods.
Refrences
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