Is Dark Souls the Pokémon of modern gaming?

The phrase ‘just like Dark Souls’ is a cliché, dull phrase that has been bandied about far too often. Gamers will rightfully groan when they hear these terms, as Dark Souls gets compared to increasingly unrelated and nonsensical games such as Crash Bandicoot and Cuphead. 

 

Is there more between Dark Souls and Pokemon than we think? Source: in-game screenshot

However, artistically, Dark Souls means and reveals a lot, and its effect on different players is profound. As a cultural phenomenon, Dark Souls is a game more than worthy of examination; in fact, its tropes parallel many other games including, unusually and controversially, Pokémon Red and Blue for the original Game Boy.

It may seem ludicrous at first to suggest this, but the original versions of Pokémon have a lot more in common thematically and design-wise with Dark Souls than one would think. There are many tropes in common between the two that are executed in an eerily-similar way. 

One of the most striking parallels between Pokémon and Dark Souls is in the way the open world is administered to the player. In Dark Souls, players begin with relatively few places to go in Lordran, but there are also areas where low-level, first-time players aren’t recommended to visit (the graveyard and catacombs). Additionally, free form exploration in Dark Souls is gated organically and appropriately by the game’s design and pacing. Shortcuts soon begin to open and allow easy traversal across the world, in interesting ways that reveal a kind of elegance in the map design. This gives the world of Dark Souls an authentic, memorable feel. On the same note, Kanto in Pokémon Red and Blue does many things similarly; free form exploration is allowed and designed into the game, where there is an elegance to the design guiding the player along, where shortcuts across Saffron City, and between Vermillion City begin to criss-cross the player along the world’s geography engagingly, lending the world more of a natural feel rather than a series of levels to be overcome. The way in which Cinnabar Island can be accessed from Pallet Town, the beginning area of the game, is executed with an applaudable design. 

Instead of being a linear progression, exploration and geography in both Pokémon and Dark Souls are handled as both a storytelling medium and a player reward, and the result is that both maps are authentic and offer their own exposition into the logic of the worlds in which players of both games reside. 

Not only this, but the way in which the game mechanics are designed between the two titles are also similar; in Dark Souls, if you keep getting back up after each death, and getting as far as you can into each area, and if you keep levelling up when you can, eventually the player will gain enough skill to beat the area, or they will level up high enough to fight through with less difficulty; theoretically, the game rewards persistence in its design. Although there is a penalty in how players will lose their souls if they don’t retrieve them from the spot where they died last, they will never lose the level-ups that they have already gained. In the same way, this kind of persistence exists in Pokémon, though with the easier design of the game it’s seen to less of an extent. Players may be punished after a loss in that they lose half of their in-game money, their Pokémon never become weaker throughout the game; keep getting up and eventually you will prevail. 

In many gameplay tropes, in their designs and mechanics, Dark Souls and Pokémon seem to parallel; the open-world design, gated progression barriers, shortcuts and geography, and in the very way that persistence pays off. Indeed, both being based on RPG designs, both will have many tropes in common in more obvious ways than this as well, ways that I would rightfully be mocked for pointing out as they are such simple and obvious tropes as part of RPG gameplay to begin with. However, I think one of the most important comparison points between the two games is in how their stories’ theming and styles seem to exist in parallel to one another. 

Okay, it’s clear from the outset that the games are vastly different in their style and execution; one offering a brutal, violent world where swords clash and people get driven to insanity by their failures, and the other offering a more child-friendly experience where people are much more co-operative, cute creatures play with children and you get given money if your cute creature beats others in competitive battle.

However, it is in how both stories found meaning in their player base that the parallels become clearer; how in both games, player growth seems to be one of the central points driving the game forward. Just as Dark Souls is a different experience for the first playthrough, so is Pokémon.

As Pokémon is a coming-of-age tale about becoming independent and celebrating the joy of doing so, Dark Souls presents a tale of learning the harsh realities of living, but also celebrating one’s persistence despite this lesson. That the latter game came out at the same time many of those who experienced Pokémon Red and Blue as children were starting out on their adult lives is all too fitting with this parallel. The lessons that Dark Souls teaches are particularly applicable to the same generation of gamers which Pokémon was aimed at years before. 

I speak about how the theming of Pokémon applied well to its main audience in another post, but I also find it fitting that both tales are equally relatable to their audience’s lives at the times they were played. At its centre, Dark Souls presents a harsh, punishing reality, where it can often be difficult to continue and where one’s ultimate purpose in all of this is shrouded in mystery. Moreover, it throws brutal, punishing challenge into the mix, testing even the most patient of players. The risk of losing all your souls and the crushing feeling that erodes at your patience and sanity is ever-present in the game’s system. But beyond this, Dark Souls is a game that celebrates players’ persistence and rewards those who keep getting back up. This is even mentioned in an oft-quoted critical review by Michael Thomsen of The Slate, which stated that:  

“There is real beauty in Dark Souls. It reveals that life is more suffering than pleasure, more failure than success, and that even the momentary relief of achievement is wiped away by new levels of difficulty. It is also a testament to our persistence in the face of that suffering, and it offers the comfort of a community of other players all stuck in the same hellish quagmire. Those are good qualities. That is art. And you can get all of that from the first five hours of Dark Souls. The remaining 90 or so offer nothing but an increasingly nonsensical variation on that experience.”

At the time of Dark Souls’ release, this all coincided with a generation of gamers entering adulthood, and finding it a harsh wake-up call to life, where many feel increasingly purposeless and depressed in a world increasingly indifferent to their struggles, and where many feel their souls being crushed by the hard reality of modern living. But, much as Pokémon related a coming-of-age tale that celebrated the time when gamers were gaining their first tastes of independence, so too does Dark Souls present a tale that resonates with its audience’s lifestyles, and celebrates continued perseverance in the harsh, punishing reality of the world and fittingly reveals such persistence’s reward. 

Is Dark Souls the Pokémon of modern gaming? Of course, I wrote this question in jest, as a tongue-in-cheek prod to videogames media headlines that present any moderately-challenging game as a Souls-like. As such, the answer to this question is a lot more complicated. But look at the parallels in both games; in their game design and in how this presents a loop such that obstacles can always be overcome with repeated effort, to their narratives that are fitting and resonating stories for their audiences. Looking at this with an analytical eye, it is hard to outright deny that there is some merit in comparing Dark Souls and Pokémon, and in how their experiences parallel one another.

My Favourite Boss Battles Part 5: Blue (Pokémon Red and Blue)

I have already gushed in previous posts about what Pokémon represented to me as a gamer. The first games in the series crafted an emotional coming-of-age tale that hit me at just the right moment to be a significant part of my development as a gamer. The first games in the series are a big hit with nostalgia fans and many would argue that the series has never quite managed to get back to the lofty heights that these two games reached. With that in mind, two of my favourite boss battles in mind came from Red and Blue; the fight against Brock and the final fight against Blue for the Championship of Kanto.

The reason I picked Blue for this list was, because while Brock was a suitable and challenging first gym challenge, that forced players to learn about the advantages of Pokémon elemental typing, Blue was the one fight that held the most significance for the game as a whole.

I spoke in my previous blog post how Red and Blue were emotional coming-of-age tales told in the form of an accessible RPG-lite adventure. With that in mind, the final battle represents the climax of that adventure, the moment you overcame that final obstacle that stood in your way through the whole game. Throughout your journey in Kanto, Blue was always one step ahead of you; whenever you read a gym sign you would see that Blue had beaten the gym before you had even arrived. Whenever you would feel at your least prepared, your rival would come sauntering up to you with a mischievous eye for battle, to push you that bit further and make you feel that bit more vulnerable. Blue was always ahead of you.

Beating him as the final boss was so much more than just finishing the game. It was the culmination of your journey and the moment you finally surpassed your rival. This annoying force that spent the whole game ahead of you was now behind you, leaving you prepared to take on the world once more to complete your Pokédex. You were now the pioneer, not the follower.

It helps that the battle is suitably built up. Before there was a formula behind Pokémon, it was a big surprise that after beating the Elite Four you were told that someone had come before you to be crowned champion. When I found out that my rival was the last challenge standing between me and glory, I felt equal parts annoyed and overwhelmed. I was down to my very last few items, and my Pokémon were almost all out of their most powerful attacks. I felt like there was no chance.

I chose this battle because this boss is the one that I have always remembered. The one that I can still, to this day, describe the exact moment I became champion of Kanto. It was a thrilling fight; left with only his Blastoise, Blue had almost wiped out my whole team. I was on the edge of losing with only a Fearow that I had caught in victory road standing between me and a bitter loss. In resignation for the blast that I knew was coming, that I knew would knock out Fearow in one hit and consign me to defeat, I arbitrarily picked ‘Mirror Move’ as my choice for battle.

Then Blastoise attacked with Ice Beam. It was a devastating attack, but one that left me with HP in single digits. Somehow, through luck, my Fearow scraped through to fight for one more turn. Then it hit back with Mirror Move. Given that it was Ice Beam, and that Blastoise had more than half of his HP I wasn’t holding out for a knock-out hit. But then, Blastoise was frozen solid! I was half-stunned as Blue had used his last Full Restore and was now helpless to the final blow. At the very moment when doom seemed assured, through sheer luck I had won. Fearow knocked out his adversary and I was champion.

What made that boss battle so memorable was the adversity. Knowing that Blue, by this point, was the strongest challenge I could face, with strong typing advantages to boot, I thought that I was well-and-truly defeated but by a sheer stroke of minute luck I had come out the other side. The end result was a thrilling battle fought to the bitter end.

Other people wouldn’t have had the same experience as I did on this boss, and in all fairness, there was nothing that made this single battle stand out other than the meaning that I put to the game, which is a personal interpretation more than it is anything unique. I think that the battle system is one of the weaker aspects of the first Pokémon games, in fact. But for me, the game struck gold with its story being so perfectly timed, with the lucky fact that the final battle happened to take place the way it did, that it bottled lightning and managed to become that one fight with the most personal significance to my introduction into the world of gaming.

Thanks to all of that, Pokémon’s final boss battle is my personal pick for this list. It is that one battle that, despite not being technically masterful on its own, stuck with me because of all of the elements outside of the game that made it so memorable to me as a gamer. I think every gamer will have their own version of this battle, the one that meant the most to them and the one that would be hard to critique in an objective way without telling others what that battle meant to them. I think that is what makes this battle a fitting conclusion to my list of personal favourite boss battles. 

My Favourite Gaming Sequels: Pokémon Gold and Silver

Following the original Red and Blue editions was always going to be hard work, and I am a self-confessed genwunner, but Gold and Silver are excellent examples of how to do a sequel, and in many ways even surpasses the first generation games.

What made these great sequels is the way that they expanded upon the Pokémon available without going overboard, with the number of ‘mons one has to catch standing at a perfectly reasonable 251. On top of this, the designs themselves of the Pokémon are some of my favourites. Even the early game creatures, like Sentret and Hoothoot, are enjoyable to look at, and then on top of that, we have Lugia; to date one of my favourite Legendary Pokémon in the series.

With his sleek design and use of complementary colours, Lugia just looks badass.
Image credit: http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Lugia_(Pok%C3%A9mon)

Like Link to the Past, Gold and Silver are classic sequels in that they iterate and improve upon so many different mechanics. The graphics themselves were given a much-needed update, with the use of colour becoming much better and giving a ‘rustic’ feel to the games. The sound is excellent, and to this day Goldenrod City is one of my favourite game tracks. 

A relaxing song that makes easy listening even to this day. I love Goldenrod City's theme music.

Video credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezmCRcMTjXI

The plot is a direct sequel to Red and Blue, unlike other titles in the series which all seem to take place in parallel worlds. Gold and Silver instead created this sense of building a legend on top of a legend. It is interesting to see all the ways in which your adventure in the first games have become stories told by passers-by, and the hints and call-backs are interesting and satisfying, perhaps even building up to something more.

The plot hearkens back to the original generation and then builds on it to make up a more epic story; the surprise return to Kanto was much welcome. It was astounding to have another 8 badges to find on top of the Johto collection and it felt like Gold and Silver truly were double the size of the previous game. It all comes together in a climactic battle atop Mt. Silver against none other than Red/Blue from the previous game, with a selection of the most iconic Pokémon from the first games.

Typing and combat is improved; the addition of the Dark type a much-needed foil for the overpowered Psychic types. Steel types have come to be some of the most iconic Pokémon in the series. Not to mention that this game introduced Umbreon and Espeon, my favourite two Eeveelutions. The addition of a day/night cycle, and the use of a phone system as a way to repeat battles against old trainers (including the top percentage of Rattata), are two gameplay innovations that have stood the test of time in the series. 

Umbreon and Espeon: managing to look both cool and cute at the same time.
Image credit: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/02/16/how-to-easily-evolve-into-umbreon-or-espeon-in-pok-233-mon-go.aspx

Pokémon Gold and Silver earns pride of place on its list for being a Pokémon sequel from a time when the sequels weren’t stale. Not only that, but the way in which it improves upon so many elements of its prior titles, and the way it moved the formula forward in the best way seen from the Pokémon series, Gold and Silver are difficult to top as gameplay sequels. 

The Games I Consider Unforgettable: Part One

One of my previous blog posts was why I wanted to forget about a game (Pokémon) so that I could play it again for the first time. I figured that it would be good to do a follow up post about games that I find unforgettable, either because of the time of my life when I played them or because they represented such a significant shift that made them totally important to me as a gamer.

This list is, of course, going to be mostly just a few titles with a lot of overthinking between each one, as per my usual method. Of course, this is all from my own perspective; games, like any other media, do not exist in a cultural vacuum and suck in all kinds of associations, good or bad, of the world around them. Why don’t you let me know what games you find unforgettable? I want to test out my commenting system after all!

Minecraft

The first game that is on my list is also one of the most obvious. Minecraft is such a massive title, so many millions of gamers play it daily and it has made entire YouTube careers for some people. Minecraft is one of those titles that has totally threaded itself into the public consciousness, so much so that many would consider it more as a phenomenon than as an actual game. You may roll your eyes at reading this, as the block-building game is one of the most talked about, unavoidable things on the Internet, much to the annoyance of many, but that is exactly why its impact cannot be understated.

(Video credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLRwxgccZt0)

For me, however, Minecraft’s big impact predates it hitting the big public consciousness, and is less about the mainstream phenomena and more about the game itself and what it represented and came to represent. For me, Minecraft represented a shift that gaming needed.

Looking at the time before Minecraft was available to the public (2009, almost 8 years ago…), there was a big problem in gaming regarding creativity. Gamers everywhere were fatigued with Call of Duty rip-offs and generic FPS titles, and it felt like gaming was at risk of becoming stagnant. This video, released just a few years later, attempted to pull apart the reasoning behind this fatigue.

Minecraft certainly didn’t solve the issue of innovation in gaming; if it had, the video that I had linked wouldn’t have been made. However, it had started a trend towards innovation. Between all of the ‘me-too’ copies and survival games that came out trying to emulate the success of gaming’s newest darling, what Minecraft showed was that indie gaming was viable. Pre-Minecraft, yes there were a few indies, but not at the level that it is now. I think that Minecraft was the smoking gun that launched the rise of indie gaming to the level that it has gotten to now, for better or for worse.

Why else I won’t forget Minecraft as a game? That reason is simple; it is a good game. I loved it, the charm of the graphic design (again, a show of aesthetic over horsepower), the satisfying loop of mining and crafting, the music and the sense of doing something productive, turning what would otherwise be hours spent shooting monsters into hours spent making something, even if nobody got to see what I made, at least I made it. It was a paradigm shift in terms of the trend and in terms of the game, and I love it for that.

On top of that, Minecraft was enjoyable and relaxing. It was a game that understood that games can be played to unwind. For a long while, my go-to option when booting up a PC and trying to decide what game to play was to shrug my shoulders and play Minecraft until I made my choice. It had a very easy point of access.

For me, Minecraft represents gaming in its purest form; discovery, creativity, enjoyment and relaxation, and ultimately coming away feeling like you got something out of the whole experience. That is why I find it an unmissable, unforgettable game.

Halo: Combat Evolved

I spoke previously about Halo: CE as an excellent co-op split-screen title, and that is part of why it is on the list; the multiplayer aspect of the game has been some of the purest fun that I have had with other gamers, ever, and the maps are so memorable I still have the memory of how Blood Gulch looks in my mind’s eye to this day.

(Video credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6T5WHpKK-E)

But the second part on why I put it on this list is because of the time my Xbox 360 red-ringed; lacking a current-gen machine I was forced to play the original Halo on the original Xbox. However, that was where I discovered a love for the single player campaign. For the time, the graphics may not have been at the top of what the generation could offer, but the atmosphere, the use of colour, and the way the sound melded into the gameplay, rendered the experience one of the best I have ever had in a single player campaign. My favourite time in Halo will always be flying a Banshee across a snowbound crevasse at twilight.

Halo is on this list because it is overall a great game that is brilliantly made and designed, and while it isn’t particularly amazing or paradigm shifting as other games, it is still very worthy of praise for being just a good game.

Pokémon Red and Blue

The reason that I blogged about this being a game I want to forget is because this game is so unforgettable. That is a strange statement to say, but so much about the game was so iconic that the enjoyment of any Pokémon game is subject to criticisms of the game being formulaic. So much about the original Pokémon games were so memorable that they created a formula that was as instantly cliché as it was iconic, like the ‘I am your father’ moment of The Empire Strikes Back; if any other property attempted to do the same thing as Pokémon it would result in a lot of eye-rolls and derision, much like how any attempt to pull off a villain being a hero’s father in a film is incredibly difficult thanks to the fame of the given example. This is probably why it is difficult to find a Pokémon clone that truly captures the original’s magic.

(Video credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj8k9ajTe2g)

Pokémon was uniquely placed in the time that it was significant, and is so wrapped up in its time that it has been used as a descriptor for a generation of people. It is telling that one of the greatest fads of mobile gaming hit at just the right age to capture the generation that were the right age for it to become a fad on mobile. It may have been excellent marketing, but I think that there was something so magical about the first two games that I have already gushed about; the sense of adventure, of coming of age and becoming stronger, the strong relationships developed with the Pokémon themselves thanks to the design of the game, the collect-‘em-all gimmick along with creature variety so wide enough to make it vital, the music, the graphics, all of it was so uniquely Pokémon that it became a massive, significant part of many gamers’ lives, mine included.

The Emotional Journey of Pokémon

What game do you wish you could forget so that you could play it again for the first time? There are many games where the magic of playing for the first time is unmatched and you never feel quite the same no matter how much time you leave between replays. Unfortunately, you will never capture quite the same magic that you felt on that first play through ever again.

That is why my pick for this question would be, without a doubt, Pokémon Red. This game is perhaps the most memorable one that I have ever played, and when you ask me what a videogame is, screenshots of Pokémon will be the first thing to pop into my head.

Even though the technology behind the game is lacking, the fundamental backbone of trading, collecting and training was masterfully implemented. Back in the days before the internet, Pokémon had just enough room for exploration that allowed fascinating urban legends to evolve around it. How many people surfed across from S.S. Anne to a truck, trying fruitlessly to budge it using Strength in the hope that they would encounter the mysterious legendary Pokémon, Mew? How many people recall first hearing about the MissingNo glitch in the playground, or those mysterious Pokémon versions that one kid at school always claimed to have but never showed?

What made the game so magical for me was experiencing it for the first time. The Red and Blue versions were coming-of-age tales that hit me as I was a young boy, and so stuck with me emotionally. The fact that your Pokémon would grow with you through the journey provided a narrative of you growing up, becoming more powerful, and learning how to take on the world. Your Pokémon grew with you, and your success was so intertwined with these imaginary animals, that every victory was as much theirs as it was yours. You would live and die by your Pokémon because you grew up together. You took this journey and emotionally, they were always by your side.

The fact that Pokémon was so portable helped; for the first time I felt like I was totally immersed in an adventure that I never had to leave. Everywhere I went, my loyal partners followed. The combined effect of having Pokémon grow with you and able to follow you in the most literal sense possible through that Game Boy that you kept in your pocket; it led to an emotional connection to the game that I have never felt in anything since.

It is harder to feel this same way nowadays because of my imagination. As a wide-eyed, lonely child, I found strong, loyal friends in my Pokémon, and in my mind, they were real. I lived by the lessons that I learned on my journey with these partners. The true master-class behind Pokemon Red and Blue was in placing itself as a coming-of-age tale, and in focusing so squarely on the relationship that you develop with the creatures in the game; you felt that you grew emotionally alongside every Pokémon you met along the way.

So I wish I could forget Pokémon, so I could experience that unique, incredible journey again. To learn more about myself, to become the best there ever was and grow with my loyal Pokémon toward one of the most meaningful victories that I had ever achieved in gaming. Beating the Elite Four was the moment I came of age. That is why I wish I could play Pokémon for the first time again.