Gigant is a Korean point & click adventure game about generational conflict and the desperate lengths we’re driven thanks to capitalism and quick time events . It currently costs $2 on Steam and it’s about 2 hours long (if you cheat like I did.)
The game begins with our protagonist losing his barista job due to nepotism. He turns to harvesting giant crab guts to turn a quick billion won. I have no clue how much that is United States dollars but I’m guessing it’s like $10k. I’d probably touch just about any kind of guts or parts for that much money so this is a very relatable character, and I am rooting for them.
There’s a magazine article in the game that talks about the “2030 generation” or some shit and I couldn’t tell if that means this game takes place in the future or if that’s like…a Korean term for zoomers? Or millennials? Is there any difference if you’re over the age of XX? Probably not. Especially not in this game. All these older folks are freaking out about vaping and the knockout game and selfie sticks and all the youths are constantly going “ok boomer” and “how do magnets work” and that all feels kinda passé except it probably isn’t, nothing fuckin’ dies anymore, this game probably isn’t as out of step as I suspect, half the planet is probably still griping about this shit, gonna give this game credit for avoiding avocado toast at least, maybe they ain’t into that in Korea.
Anyway if this takes place in the future search is as useless then as it is now. The only thing they let me zoogle were apps that were advertised in-game. And I didn’t even get to use one of them, I didn’t even get to do some Talkboy shit with the recorder app.
Our protagonist forges fleeting relationships with fellow crab egg hunters, such as this scene where he goes to sea with Jamiroquai. The other day I learned Jamiroquai’s real name is Jay Kay. Jamiroquai is actually the band’s name. I also knew this already but forgot. I think maybe he dated Heidi Klum once? They weren’t a good couple in my opinion, Seal was the much better match, yes I am once again crying over their divorce, and the loss of their Halloween parties, those two were meant for each other. Those two were perfect together.
Our millennial/zoomer/moomer protagonist’s foundational trauma is esports. His brother jumped out of a window cuz daddy said “You can’t do esports anymore, because they don’t make sense to me, as a boomer.” But then his boomer ass immediately leapt out the window after the kid. And they both died. I do not know what esport this aspiring e-thlete played. They do not share his ELO. We will never know if this kid had legit chops or was just a delusional joker. I suppose it doesn’t matter to some people but it does to me. I want to know if I could have beaten this 14 year old at League.
I really respect adventure game developers, even if their puzzles are…uh…how should I put this…a little bit wild. They make me feel like such a square, I could never possibly come up with anything as imaginative as some of the shit you do in this game, I’d probably be too hung up on trying to make something fair or sensible but this mother just goes for it, this mother is not afraid to go big, this mother def included like 4 different puzzles where you tape varying rods together in increasingly convoluted ways and I respect that.
Check this shit out: I found a surgical mask on the ground. I removed its elastic band and used it to repair a broken slingshot I found on a schoolgirl’s corpse. Soon after I found a bloodied dog collar at a bus stop. I assume it belonged to a dog I befriended earlier by feeding it bread I stole from a cafe by smashing its glass window using a brick I found at the very same bus stop where the dog later died. Disassembling the dog collar gave me a bell. I tied the bell to a piece of fishing line I got from a fishing rod that had been left at the side of the river beside an electric scooter and a giant crab that was too busy looking at an offscreen unnamed-whatever to notice me. I tied the fishing line to a tree below some elevated train tracks, then used my repaired slingshot to launch the bell over the sparking tracks and into a river, which was then electrified due to the fishing line + bell combo. I then went back to the giant crab and activated the electric scooter using an app that was advertised at the dead dog bus stop. This finally caught the attention of the giant crab, who chased me to the pier, where I hopped into a rubber raft and lead it to the electric dog bell, killing it. I then harvested its guts using a signpost I found in the park. Video games can be about anything.
The game ties up nicely at the end. It turns out the cop who was hassling you was actually using the crabs to murder teens, because teens killed his daughter by peer pressuring her into doing a knockout game. Right when it looks like he’s going to shoot you to death he pops himself instead and goes “the kids…gonna be alright.” But then the kids show up and take photos of his corpse so they can get likes on social media apps, which fills the protagonist with such disgust that he picks up the gun…and pulls the trigger…and now he is the law or some shit, I dunno, I guess generational conflict never ends huh.
One year later our protagonist is alongside the same river, in the same spot as the cop, noticing another young man who had carelessly dropped a gadget of youth, which he then passes to the millennial, who then gets cut in half by a crab. The end. Can the circle be unbroken? I dunno, I’m just saying that here, right now, cuz that song started playing on my computer, it is one of my favorite songs, anyway I believe in God, time to say my prayers and lay myself to sleep.
