So it ends up being a question of what kind of critical traction you can get over Brutal Legend by calling it “epic” when what you’re talking about is a folkloric narrative pattern that slips into epic through the _Odyssey_ and then makes its way through Apollonius and Vergil, and not talking about the nature of the oral recompositional tradition that gives us what homeric scholars see as the most important part of “epicness.”

Or, to put it another way, “epic” as a critical term doesn’t seem to me to get us anywhere unless we’re talking about a material culture of interactive storytelling–as opposed to narrative motifs that are shared across times, genres, and media technologies.

If that’s so, then perhaps the story is just there to support the multiplayer, but I can’t really believe that, either, as the game story seems to be really good up until that point where it just… stops.

To me, it’s the biggest failing of the game.

One thing I want to try and explore, but realized I couldn’t was the concept of Brutal Legend as the epic. One part of that is the presence of the epic hero, which I covered, but I think there is much more there in the story. I speak for of the Odyessy than the Iliad, becuase I’m more aquainted with that work, but I think Brutal Legend actually fits the latter in terms of ideas and concepts. The special armor crafted by the gods for Achilles being the Deuce for Eddie Riggs. Ophelia takes the form of Briseis and in the second half both Helen and Paris. Lars an amalgamation of Agamemnon and Ajax. It could even conform to certain mythic ideas in the Aeneid. I’m rambling at this point, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on this.

I ended up deleting nearly a page of material examining the Nordic and Greek mythilogical influences in the backstory. Such backstory is usually neccessary for the classical epic that I couldn’t help but feel that there is such a connection to Brutal Legend, as you say, being a full formed legend.

But that’s really just a question of terminology–”legend” may be better than “epic,” even, in this case. Whatever you call it, though, the hero’s journey narrative shape is just inherently satisfying to our human firmware, and I think you’re right to point out the need not to flout it.

I remember the mission where you and Lita travel back to Bladehenge and see it over run by the Tainted Coil. Eddie assures Lita to not worry because they’ll be back once they’ve defeated Ophelia. I honestly couldn’t wait for some epic liberating the homeland sequence, for me that would have been a far more satisfying final, not to mention it would have given you the chance to play a few battles against the tainted coil.

It’s truly puzzling why it’s not there.