Horizon Zero Dawn Story Analysis - A Masterpiece of Storytelling

I don't think any story reveal in a game has knocked me on my arse like the Faro twist in this game, absolutely perfectly executed

1:59:15 "The Stormbird however cant be avoided" sounds like you aint never just full sprinted through there never looking back

YOUTUBE! WHY DIDN'T YOU RECOMMEND THIS VIDEO 10 months ago ???

You buy a phone and 5 years later it starts to malfunction. Meanwhile, the focus is still working 1000 years after its construction. Kudos for the old ones!

Funny thing is if aloy didn't talk to herself, we wouldn't really get a sense of her personality or struggles. Her talking to herself tells us so much about her that wouldn't work as well through conversation with others

Oh, ddi you not go to Rost's "grave"? It's near the og hut of Rost, and whenever Aloy goes there, it's so sweet and makes me cry. I'm Hindu and we usually cremate our dead, so it was an experience to see why people would want a grave.

Okay just need to admit this. The scene with Elizabet sacrificing herself for zero dawn and a future for the planet paired with Aloys theme genuinely makes me tear of a bit each time. Even listening to it for this video got me once more

What do you mean we don't know what caused the "glitch"? It's all but explicitly stated in HZD that it's because he made his robots smarter than legally allowed to gain his competitive advantage in war, but because he did so they became capable of disobedience. It's after the escape of Vast Silver that the world instituted regulations on machine cognition. The exact legal limit was stated somewhere in the Frozen Wilds DLC, measured in Turing units. The DLC further cementing the idea of that limit for those who may not have found the optional data points that reference it.

"Hiii! Happy Birthday Isaac! Daddy sure does love his little big man" Always make me tear up 😢

I love Rost as a character. He’s an amazing example of a positive masculine father. Something that’s all but absent in most modern media: Roat is competent, loving in his own way, raising his child to learn her society’s traditions, teaching her the skills she needs to survive, giving her the self-confidence and inner strength she will need as an adult, willing to give his life to protect her, but also teaching her to stand on her own two feet in life and to stand up for what she believes in. In our modern society, where fathers are looked at a almost unnecessary, Rost shows us the powerful effect a good father has on the lives of his children.

40:29 not trying to change minds, just illuminate some lore tidbits. 1. The Nora actually limit the number of children a family can have. The limit is 2 and for a couple to bare a new child, they must have this act blessed by a high matriarch first. 2. The Nora heavily revere the balance of nature, hence why they don’t have farms, only hunting and gathering. My takeaway is that the Nora worship the power of motherhood and family. Bigger families garners larger amounts of respect and political sway. Because too many children would not be balanced in their eyes, the only way to get a bigger family is to have as many surviving generations below you as possible. Also the rank of matriarch and high matriarch are different. Matriarchs have grandchildren and high matriarchs have great grandchildren. Both ranks can get demoted should your children die. This stops some guy with 18 kids from marching into mothers heart and becoming “el presidente” but to play devils advocate, this system encourages people to have children as early as possible. Tearsa, while looking older, is still active and capability of fulfilling her duties dispite being a great grandmother. To me, she can’t be older than 80. Teens must especially feel a lot of pressure. While far from perfect as Nora society is wrought with issues it’s a tad more nuanced than “more babies = more political power” again, not trying to change how you feel, just shedding light on some (arguably extremely missable) deeper lore. Overall love the vid tho! Keep it up, and I can’t wait for ur burning shores vid!

Great analysis, this makes me want to play through the first game again.

i will never forget the feeling that came over me when i learned what project zero dawn was. My stomach sank under my seat and i gasped with dread; until then i couldn't imagine how they finally won - well, they didn't.

I love Aloy as a protagonist. She's curious, intelligent and driven; a far cry from the passivity/reactivity that a lot of player characters sadly end up showing. She has clear things that she wants, and she goes and GETS them.

What pissed me off so much was how Rost was treated. Which essentially means the writing is brilliant. It added situations that would add moral conflict for Aloy. A man who is kind, wise and wonderful was outcast just because he seeked revenge on those who took everything from him. His actions probably did end up saving more lives by removing those awful people from the world. Aloy after becoming a Brave and losing Rost could have told the tribe that treating her dirt to go to hell. But she didn’t. Aloy rose above everything, because Rost gave her loving guidance growing up.

it's so rare to get a truly unique sci fi story that is both compelling and moving. mass effect and arrival come to mind and it's hard to think of many more. Horizon is among my top 5 games and among the best stories i've experienced in any medium.

Very late to this but Great video! Horizon‘s stories are so so underrated and often classed as „boring“ to many but I find them so endearing - the horizon universe has so much amazing lore and world building. You really captured the essence of horizon‘s world in your video, well done!

The voice actress for child Aloy did such a good job she was so cute talking to the hologram

I think Horizon is pretty underrated. I mean Zero Dawn sold like 24 million copies, so I don't mean in terms of popularity, but in terms of quality, I rarely think the quality of these games overall is done justice. The biggest problems with the original are all but fixed in the DLC and in Forbidden West, it's damn near perfection as open world games go.

24:42 I appreciate and I agree that it is crucial for more people to recognize the logical basis behind Aloy's self-talk in the game. The settings and context of the story provide a solid rationale for this narrative element. However, it's unfortunate that some individuals either fail to grasp the significance or choose not to acknowledge it, possibly due to their lack of familiarity with the game or simply not being fans of it.