A Plague Tale Innocence - Amicia's First Kill

Scene Emotion Analysis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1is8eA_Mis

The Context

To understand the significance behind this scene, it is important to explain the context. This scene (Amicia’s first kill) occurs about an hour and half into the game. Right before this there was an intense chase scene where an entire village is out to kill Amicia and Hugo. They manage to escape into the shelter of an old lady’s house, where Amicia finally gets her sling fixed (a weapon - for the first time, though the player is unaware of its potential). And then Hugo throws a tantrum as he wants to see mummy.

This marks a key point in the game where their frustration for each other is brought out. Amicia doesn’t particularly like Hugo from the start but watching her entire family die to protect them…he is all she has left and so she (and the player) slowly develop feelings of attachment and mild affection throughout the first hour. Hugo too has no particular attachment for Amicia and it is why he runs away from Amicia when confronted with the truth of Amicia’s outburst.

I shall now breakdown the scene: Amicia’s first kill, into five parts:

Part I – The Chase

In this part, you chase after Hugo, immediately after he runs away. Each time you get close, he gets away, while the sounds of the villagers are getting ever so closer making you panic. You can hear the villagers searching for the two of you in the distance and the fear for both of your safety creates this constant feeling of dread building up, knowing you could be discovered at any time and something bad could happen.

A lot of this environment has you move uphill, through narrow archways and tight corridors creating this feeling of claustrophobia which only increases your dread. That is until, you reach the next location which is in an open space.

Red text, sword effects, highlights and various ‘trigger’ style sound cues dominate this sequence. They help play up the sense of urgency, through the traditional form of game UI as well as bring attention to the important aspects of future gameplay. Hugo can also be heard telling you to go away and that he hates you, as Amicia is heard constantly apologizing, telling him to come back and that they are in danger.

Part II – First Kill (The Moment)

“Monsters. Leave him alone!” says Amicia as you move from the chase sequence into an open area for the setup of your first kill. As you see Hugo get captured, all the pent-up resentment is finally unleashed, not just by Amicia but also by you, the player. You don’t understand why the villagers are out to kill you and feel only anger and contempt towards them.

In this way the first kill is almost inevitable, you get the prompt to use your slingshot and its quite impactful, as up until this point you had no idea it could be used to kill someone, especially not in one shot. At the same time Amicia’s anger quickly dissolves as the man leaves Hugo and moves towards her. She pleads with him to stop and that they just want to leave. But when he insinuates that she will die at his hand; there being no alternative, the killing blow is finally delivered and the man falls to the ground in a grotesque way, with blood spurting out from the impact point.

Part III – First Kill (The Consequence)

And so, realization soon hits you chilling your very bones. The game uses a heartbeat thump style sound effect and camera zoom towards Amicia, forcing you to contemplate what you’ve done, even for just a brief moment. The rest of the sounds are sent through a low pass filter of sorts, forcing you to focus on Amicia’s inner monologue. She feels instant regret ((“I… I didn’t want to…”)), but I’d argue the player isn’t necessarily meant to feel regret, but more so guilt. And this guilt, though it only lasts a brief moment (before you hear the screams of Hugo), is quite a new experience to gamers used to the normalcy of killing.

Part IV – Hugo Screaming

You are quickly brought back to reality with the screams of Hugo (“AMICIA! AMICIA!”), in the distance. There is no time for guilt. Your sense of urgency immediately returns, and the chase continues with Amicia hoping and praying that Hugo is okay, once more.

Part V – Boss Fight

Amicia arrives at the location where, Conrad, fully decked in knight’s armour is holding a struggling Hugo. The dialogue in this scene is phenomenal at conveying emotion and speaks for itself:

Conrad: “I’m not scared of dying you know…you took away from me the only thing I had…” Amicia: “No please don’t make me do this…Please…” Conrad: “Yeah keep it up…only death will stop me, deaths sweet embrace…Yes take me to my son…DO IT FINISH ME KILL ME!“

We can feel the conflicted emotions of both characters. Conrad, who lost his son, blames Amicia and Hugo for all the death. You feel pity towards him but also to the situation Amicia is in. She pleads with him not to make her kill him, but he refuses. And in his last words, when he sees his own defeat, you realize he wants to die, he wants to see his son again.

You have no choice but to strike him down, just as he has no choice but to blame and direct his hate towards you, be it justified or unjustified. You are both victims of circumstance, thrown into an inescapable situation where neither will back down, until the other is dead.

Conclusion: Duality of being powerful and yet powerless

You see it most prominently in the last sequence, but I think the most unique emotion the game tries to deliver, is making you feel both powerful and yet powerless at the same time. It’s why the boss fight with Conrad is not particularly difficult, all you need to do is dodge his slow and heavy attacks, taking out each plate of his armour as his emotion fuelled rant continues to reveal more about his life. You (or Amicia) are powerful enough to take Conrad out in a single blow once his armour is off and even avoid all his attacks. Yet you cannot stop this from happening. You cannot avoid killing this grief-stricken man, no matter how much Amicia begs and pleads for him to stop.

And what about Conrad? Well even a single blow from him will kill Amicia, and that is where Conrad too is immensely powerful, yet powerless in his inability to see past his grief fuelled hatred. He has no choice but to lash out and hope for ‘death’s sweet embrace.’