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. 

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.