Game:

Kirby and the Forgotten Land (2022)

Duration: 10:01

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- SPOILERS FOR KIRBY AND THE FORGOTTEN LAND -

The world ended, and everyone you know and that has ever existed has been lost to nothingness... but hey at least Kirby's here.

When we think about the post-apocalypse, in art or media, we are often doing it as a means of expressing how difficult it is to imagine a world that is sustainable and built to last.

As we look around and see the world beginning to burn and decay beneath our feet, due to, in large part, our own greed and capacity for corruption... the way we imagine our collective future changes, too.

We see this future, in subtle ways, as humanity's over-consumption habit continues to fester, and it doesn't instill hope in finding a better tomorrow.

We're gone from the speculative science-fiction of the 1800s or even the 1950s and 60s. Now, we imagine things not quite being like the Jetsons.

One can't help but only imagine it all going to crap rather than actually getting better.

It's the expression of “the way we live now just can't last” in an aesthetic. A setting.

Whether it be zombie apocalypse, an A.I. uprising, climate change, nuclear war, or just summoning digital demons; the end is neigh.

There are many video games that have settings in the post-apocalypse, or during an apocalypse.

For games in the Shin Megami Tensei series, the end of the world is well-tread upon territory. And those are games with a lot of dialogue and gameplay that centres around existential questions and strategy.

So why would a game like Kirby And the Forgotten Land be set in what looks like a post-apocalypse? It's not Fallout or Disco Elysium... it's Kirby.
Bright colourful visuals, cute child-friendly design... end of the world?

Feels kinda weird at first, yet it surprisingly works for the game.

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