Ian replied:
So, the thing is, I have played the games episode by episode as they've come out, and can't visit the alternate timeline where I play them all at once and see how the experience is different. As it is now, playing each Act in one afternoon with literal years between them is unique: each act starts to feel like a folk memory by the time I start the next one. I remember images, beats, individual characters, and some sense of what I was trying to do, but if, between Acts, they added an entirely new member to the cast and acted like they'd always been there, I'd probably go "yeah... I think I remember them." In a way that feeling really suits the digressive, tall tale vibe of the game, like the story your great uncle tells every time you see him but never tells quite the same way twice.
I don't think that's something the designers originally intended, since they never planned KR0 to take a decade to finish. But either they've made it work with the themes or they've lucked into it, but I find it really remarkable.
With four Acts finished and the fifth releasing imminently, that experience is impossible to recreate now, unless you decide, of your own volition to wait 1-4 years between each Act. So, at this point, you might as well play them all in a row. I think I'll do that as well once Act V is out, see what it's like when you actually remember everything going on. But it'll be like playing a different game.
I really like Kentucky Route Zero.
Anonymous commented:
i guess that's not what you use CC for, but as you come to mind as resident Kentuck Route Zero enthusiast: would you recommend playing them episode by episode, or wait until all is complete (in 3 days time) and play through all at once?