Even if you haven't played a game, you've probably heard the name "souls-like," a unique genre created by game producer Hidetaka Miyazaki that is almost synonymous with "suffering." The latest release, 12 million copies of "Eldon's Law Ring", which was sold worldwide in half a month, is his masterpiece. In addition, there are works like the Dark Souls series and Only Wolves.
Unlike most games, which are full of power, players need to survive, fight, and die in a dangerous world. If you are not careful, the mobs on the side of the road can kill you at any time, not to mention the boss battles in the game, a battle often takes hours or even weeks to pass.
But "suffering" is obsessive, like a large "Miyazaki old thief PUA scene", players curse while burying their heads in pursuit of a trembling victory.
Last year, at the Golden Joysticks, the oldest video game awards ceremony, the public voted Dark Souls the greatest game of all time, surpassing classics such as Tetris Tetris, Doom Doom and Super Mario 64.
Why is the constant "death" in the game fascinating rather than frustrating? How does the "soul system" break through the open-world mechanism and the myth of reality and freedom that today's AAA game manufacturers are encroaching on the industrial assembly line? In addition to "difficulty", what kind of world has Miyazaki Created, and what is its connection to reality?
Ye Zitao, a game designer who has been a guest on the "Problem Youth" podcast, based on his understanding of game design and experience experience, tries to present a path that can make us understand the charm of "soul system" games.
By rooting the game in human experiences: shame, failure, and even death – he makes the game closer to life.
Hidetaka Miyazaki: Seeing Death as a Trait Rather Than a Flaw
Simon Parker, The New Yorker (2022)
Translated by Ye Zitao
01
The misunderstood truth
With dwarfed freedom
When AAA game manufacturers or entrepreneurs preach that "the future of games and virtual spaces are as real as the real world", they are mostly talking about a kind of visual surface hollow truthiness :through the computation and combustion of graphics card units, the cutting of tens of millions of triangle patches brings this visual realism.
They fantasize about creating a world like the holographic deck in Star Trek, walking down the street, the characters, the traffic, the weather logic, all driven by AI or rule generation, like the immersive illusion in the movie "Runaway Player".
But that doesn't fit the logic of the game's design.
"Soul System" reveals a unique authenticity and credibility of the game world, which is not the kind of truth and credibility that technologyists are obsessed with or advocated by traditional game makers.
Back in 2006, experimental art game developers Auriea Harvey and Micha l Samyn made this clear in their article REALTIME ART MANIFESTO: Make the experience feel real. (it does not need to look real). Make the experience feel real (without having to look real).
Even the "soul system" game, which can be molded at will with important scene animations, obviously does not worry that players will play because of it.
Wearing a mold is a bug commonly used in 3D games, which refers to the penetration and superposition of objects or characters due to the collision volume setting error.
In addition, AAA's fascination with the authenticity of open-world games is also reflected in the endless pursuit of "freedom". They expect a virtual space, an Avatar, that offers many, many things to interact with. As long as there are a lot of things to do in this world, NPCs that can chat automatically, then the world can be attractive.
But true freedom is not that players can eat, wear, chat, and drive different vehicles to anywhere in this empty world, not the kind of you can do anything, but everything is not substantially different. Like a long Check List, there are question marks all over the map; or longing for a machine-generated fill, a chaotic random event that can infinitely "emerge" to continue to attract players to play, such as Westworld or Ready Player One.
True freedom lies in: you can do anything which is meaningful and crafted by the designer: Players have a rich enough experience and meaningful choices in the game. It's not about technology, it's not about whether the game is an "open world", it's about artistry that embodies the craftsmanship, a kind of creation and polishing that is truly fully engaged in artificial creation.
No one is going to ask why players in Eldon's Circle of Law can't video chat, why NPCs can't talk freely between them. The volume of the game is always limited, and it is the ability to measure and decide on different limits in different dimensions that forms the "game design". Imagining a gameplay world as free as reality and automatically generated by AI-driven is a disdain for game design.
02
Isn't that the reality?
Compared with some manufacturers' pursuit of visual and visual realism, Hidetaka Miyazaki's works may be closer to "reality".
Take the super difficulty and inconvenient guidance that the "soul system" is most often complained about by players. Many of the seemingly unconventional, anti-game designs in the game can be answered with the same answer: Isn't that what reality is?
Complaint 1: The character in the game has an energy slot, and swinging a sword will consume the energy slot that needs to be restored, and it is too difficult.
But isn't that what reality is? It is precisely because of physical limitations that you will carefully consider the current decision- decision, when people have unlimited opportunities and do not need to take the corresponding risks for their own choices, there is no cost to sell and close, and there is no time to choose at all.
Complaint 2: Boss battles in the game are particularly difficult, and if I don't know the method, I can't be reckless.
But isn't that the reality? When we are faced with a huge problem, without knowing the method at all, nature will soon encounter setbacks until we practice, think, and find ways and paths.
Complaint 3: The map in the game is really just a map, don't tell me what to do now, there is no clear location and logo, no navigation, I actually need to listen to the description of passers-by to identify the location?
But isn't that what reality is? Maps are not boundaries, maps are abstractions of reality, before modern people rely too much on GPS and navigation, you do need coordinates and orientation judgments, as well as the guidance of passers-by, and sometimes you may get some misleading information.
Of course, this list of "isn't reality like this" can not be listed indefinitely, nor can it "whitewash" the guidance of soul games, camera locking and modeling, in terms of user experience, these do need to be improved. But in the ultra-high dimension of video games, Hidetaka Miyazaki found a series of footholds for his design principles (stamina slots, slow starters, strong punishments, strong bosses, weak values, fragment narratives, complex box-style loop levels, etc.), and built an undisputed grand palace in this field.
Eldon's Ring of Law
03
Fragmented narratives with ordinary people
Of course, the most common complaint about soul games comes from the obscurity and "not speaking human words" of its game plot, and many old players have not even figured out the background of the times and the logic of the story when the game is open, so Miyazaki Hidetaka is often called "old riddle man".
No one has ever been able to understand the exact cause and effect of things as God's perspective, and we are all constructing their impressions and logic in contact with the world, slowly identifying vague faces. Shouldn't the player, a stranger who has come from outside the world, gradually develop an understanding of the history and present of this world from poetry, notes, and conversations?
A few years ago, when I read "Keywords in Cultural Studies" edited by Professor Wang Min'an, behind this thick tool book full of difficult concepts was written like this:
These concepts were invented not to invent the obscurity itself, but to discover the obscurity of the world. In other words, these abyss-like theoretical concepts become obscure not because of the obscurity of the words themselves, but because of the obscurity of the world itself. The world itself is so complex and obscure that it is difficult for any word to exhaust it, and when a word tries to capture it, it is bound to be breathless and loaded.
Coincidentally, in an interview, when asked which is his favorite game in his own game, Miyazaki Responded:
It's a pretty hard question, like if you ask me which one of the best looking ones I have 3 or 4 kids, I'll answer that they all look good (laughs). But if I had to say which one would remain in my heart forever, I would say Bloodborne Curse, which is the game that touched me the most. I believe I did it the way I wanted.
The Bloodborne Curse he mentioned was released in 2015, and its story background perfectly corresponds to this obscurity and unknown. As the science fiction and fantasy novelist Lovecraft (who wrote The Call of Cthulhu) said, "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear; and the oldest and strongest fear is the fear of the unknown." ”
Bloodborne Curse
In the interview, Miyazaki recalled that when he was a child, because he was poor and could not afford to buy books, he could only borrow English fantasy and science fiction novels that he could not understand in the library, and weave stories with illustrations and words that could only be recognized for children. He may have realized at that time that good stories come not only from plain words, but in everyone's imagination, stories have a richer presentation and unpredictable extension.
The unknown brings the imagination, and once even the imagination is out of control, it becomes sublime. This Cthulhu-esque story forms a wonderful resonance with the background, a patchwork of unknowns to the game world.
In a sense, soul games open the door to video game storytelling, just as Ulysses brings to modern literature the jumbled interlude of time and space and the flow of stream-of-consciousness writing. Video games have gone from being only fairytale-like narratives (e.g., beginning with a "once upon a time...") to beginning to reveal a unique literary narrative.
It is in such situations that the characters played by the player are often from ordinary and ordinary backgrounds, and are not the saviors of the world. This has a certain fascinating similarity to kenshi, another open-world game:
Whether we come or go, the world works as usual, isn't that the reality?
This is completely different from the entertainment logic of a typical game: the game is the garden of dreams as an escape from reality, softening and feedback more intensely. When faced with soul works, "the game is precisely a strong sharp knife outside of escape." As Simon Parker revealed in the interview, currently traditional games "often use childish power fantasies to please their players, but Hidetaka Miyazaki relies on virtues of failure, patience, and rare precision." ”
As described earlier, most of the players' consumption and experience habits are more like children whose tastes are spoiled by sweets. Chests should be rewarded (not monsters or traps); battles should be like chopping melons and chopping vegetables to achieve a thousand-man chop (rather than being bitten by a dog on the road), and the map should tell me directly where to go and what to get (rather than learning to read maps, understand directions, and remember routes).
In this sense, perhaps we can be surprised to find that Hidetaka Miyazaki's work, with its "unique" and inhuman difficulty, reveals the fact that our past imagination of games may have been distorted and domesticated, and we find such works too difficult precisely because a large number of game merchandise today is always stirring and pleasing us in various ways, and an expectation has been trained for what the world in the game "should be": it should be beautiful and pleasant, full of pleasure and filters.
The game product feeds the player, and the player is like a giant baby in the supply of this external organ, using the "short circuit" of boredom (Joanthan Blow) to cover up the difficulties and uncertainties of life. Because life is short, the game should bring stronger feedback rather than difficulty.
But maybe games can also make you face reality, and even ordinary people can overcome these seemingly insurmountable difficulties little by little, and it is the "difficulties" that give meaning to the effort.
04
Facing a common dilemma
Three years ago, I fell into the predicament of depression, and by chance, a friend gave me "Only a Wolf" on my birthday. I don't know what it is to prove, or to take it for granted "self-redemption", once the game starts, I want to pass the level, even if it is a clumsy learning.
"Only Wolves" cleanly removes the complex RPG system (no traditional upgrade points, weapon changes, etc.), and the system design of the posture bar is simple and attractive, so that players cannot cower, face the enemy without retreat and choice.
In "Only Wolves", the posture bar needs to be full,
However, players who do not attack for a period of time will gradually decline
There is no leveling and promotion, only to find a way to practice and react on the spot, and sometimes it is often reduced to numb repetition, and even throw the handle out in a hurry. But the bosses in "Only Wolves" are like mirrors, coldly illuminating the players in front of the screen with an absolute threshold, without time and unable to deceive themselves, and no matter how beautiful the excuse will be broken by the repeated "dead" word.
"Only Wolves" became my psychological safety zone during that period: what can't be done so far is that it can't be completed. There is no escape, there is no arrogance, there is no longer any reason, and all cognitive dissonance is verified by reality.
In the video "How Dark Souls Helped Me Alleviate Suicidal Depression," the narrator calls it the most fearless hymn to life in the history of gaming, because Dark Souls convinces him that it's normal to be brave enough to face seemingly "invincible."
New Yorker writer Simon Parker asked Aboutyo Miyazaki's original design intentions, and Miyazaki believes that the fun of play comes from problem-solving: "We all face problems in our daily lives. Finding the answer is always a satisfying thing. Parker also describes his gaming experience this way: "In a world where all the forces are trying to expel you, it's a great relief to feel to resist and then overcome those forces." ”
And I was faced alone in "Only Wolves", and I was a bit unaccustomed to it recently in the platinum "Eldon's Ring", and to me this new game seems to be too "player-oriented": players leave messages to each other, multiplayer invasion and cooperation. Many side plots need to go online to exchange and view the strategy, otherwise it is impossible to find out on their own.
Perhaps this is also the creator's encouragement of connection in the face of today's isolated reality. Everyone has their own problems to face and solve, but there are also common dilemmas that require millions of other players around the world to venture with you in different planes.
When you encounter difficulties, you can summon another player to help. However, players cannot easily converse, and when the challenge is completed, the summoned player will disappear in a rain of light. "Miyazaki had this idea a few years ago after his car was stuck in mountain snow. A group of strangers pushed their cart to the top of the mountain and disappeared into the night without a sound."
And in Eldon's Circle of Law, there was also a moment that moved me: while looking for a hidden path, a transparent floating bridge, I found my way smoothly, because the ground was full of guidance laid out by other players in different airs with messages.
Philosopher Paul Virilio spoke positively about video games in an interview nearly thirty years ago titled The Game of Love and Chance (1995), an era when 3D games were only emerging, and he foresaw the danger that video games could bring about a look at the world/war/life of a shadow:
Perception is divided into two realities, resulting in a kind of poisoned blurring: we are seeing double. It is impossible to imagine what this will eventually produce in a few generations.
And in the days when reality became so magical, this question also bothered me.
What do we need to think about games? What kind of game responds to the world in a unique way? Or should we remain silent, pretend that nothing ever happened, and continue to indulge in the beautiful garden.
Velilion went on to say that the future is as lonely as the universe. But perhaps at some point, the difficulties in the game can also resonate with reality.
As the poem of the friend Zigua:
At this moment, somewhere,
She was walking out of the cabin with the new players.
Go through it, she thought, to repeat this human suffering.
—— "The Night We Played Together"
Resources:
How do we feel after playing Eldon's Ring of Law for a week丨The game Tea Party Vol.34
Hidetaka Miyazaki Sees Death as a Feature, Not a Bug | The New Yorker (2022)》，
Video "How Dark Souls Helped Me Alleviate Suicidal Depression".
*This article is also part of a series of sunset games by author Auteurs
Written by | Ye Zitao
Edit | Less yang
Typography | Uwu
Design | Sam
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