Blacktailhas many memorable quests (a key part of why it’s on our2022 GOTY list, largely thanks to it beingmy personal #1 game of the year!), yet no side story evolves quite so unexpectedly as that of the stones. Rather than your traditional stone giants, these stones are more literal, made of boulders towering and wide, who can only move when not observed by human eyes. This makes you a crucial ally in their fight against a clan of stones corrupted by the wicked roots corrupting the land. What starts as you fishing for them and guiding their young across an upside-down bridge over a valley escalates into all-out war.
While this storyline plays out, Yaga’s only confirmation that it’s actually real is the Voice in her head telling her it is. With so much ambiguity over what is imagined and what’s genuine, you’re left to play along. It all seems so silly, like you’re playing kids games instead of actually engaging in a conflict. How could fishing or ‘scaring’ rocks across a bridge be important? What’s more, how could stones truly be at war?
Yet when you’re thrust into the Stone Wars, Yaga finally starts to perceive the reality at hand. you’re able to hear the stones shouting and clashing out of view, only freezing when you look at them. Stare away while they’re close, and they’ll strike you from behind to sap your health. They clutch crude weapons of war, great and small, overwhelming a once peaceful field with granite and marble clashing fiercely. The HUD even depicts each hostile stone as an enemy, though your arrows deal no damage.
ALSO READ:Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Shows That PvP Works Without Killing
This isn’t a simple battle of two factions over a difference of opinion, but an entire clan led astray - their minds corrupted by malignant forces, threatening to spread that curse to their kin. You’re in the middle of an earthenGame of Thronesbattle against their own Whitewalkers, with the worrying implication that if the corrupted marble doesn’t yield, that they might be able to pervert the soil itself. This is all as the Voice keeps urging you on, really getting into it as you both delve deeper into the battle, holding a control point, stealing a flag, and finally collecting three stones of power.
It’s all such a thrilling jaunt, told with pitch-perfect writing and vocals, that you get swept up in it as much as Yaga. Once the stones are claimed, victory is achieved, but there is no celebration. The stones all but vanish. The leader you’ve answered to has abandoned his face, and has gone silent. You hear the heartbreak in Yaga’s voice as she realizes that in victory, the stones just go back to being nothing but that - a pile of rocks in a field. They’ve no need to reveal their true nature beyond that.
What I particularly appreciate though, is that there is one cheeky acknowledgment that it wasn’t all a dream. When you return to the broken bench the stone general was nestled between, he and many of the other stones are gone. You can quietly rest assured that a good deed has been done.
It’s a beautiful little tale, teaching Yaga to respect other species’ traditions, and that winning a war isn’t always some celebration, but instead just the relief that you can go back to living your life safely. Blacktail managed to craft one of the most memorable battles in ages, all without you actually having to ‘fight’ anyone. If that doesn’t epitomize the wry wit of Blacktail, I’m not sure what else could.
