Castlevania 64: The Castle of Hell

Castlevania for the Nintendo 64 (commonly known as "Castlevania 64") has in recent times gained the reputation as being somewhat of a black sheep in the Castlevania series. Even official sources flip-flop on whether it still counts as part of the official Castlevania timeline (when Konami still cared about Castlevania anyway). Nevertheless it's one of my favorite games. Yes, it suffers a bit from being an early Nintendo 64 title, and the Nintendo 64 controller doesn't help the game much, but still (a lot of control issues would have been solved if it were just rereleased for Virtual Console).

Important note: this is supposed to be an analysis, not a review. Therefore I will not mind bringing up spoilers if they are relevant. Proceed with caution if you have yet to play this game and do not want to be spoiled.

The Castle of Hell
Castlevania 64 (1999)

0. Personal History

1. Story and Setting 

2. Main Characters

3. Level Select: Stage 3 Villa

4. Castlevania, Vampires and Dualism

5. Links & References

0. Personal History

Back in 1999 I didn't know anything about Castlevania, but it looked interesting and I was convinced to buy it after the store clerk mentioned it was "like Zelda" (which confused me after playing it, but in retrospect he probably just meant that the franchise has been around for about as long and has been similarly acclaimed). At first I didn't like it all that much, mainly because I was 11 and I had just bought my first horror title, but very soon I came to adore the creepy atmosphere, the interesting characters, the epic music that typifies Castlevania and yes, even the gameplay (although as I said, playing it on the actual N64 makes it a struggle against the controller).

I also chose it as the subject for a Nintendo 64 retexture project, which is unfinished but still available at http://c64project.blogspot.be/

1. Story and Setting

The story takes place in Wallachia, Transylvania in 1852. Dracula has awoken after a century of being locked away (later releases such as Order of Ecclesia (18??) and Circle of the Moon (1830) would reduce it to mere decades). Two heroes descended from the legendary Belmont and Belnades clans take it on themselves to once again rid the world of Dracula's influence.

The Castlevania series functions as an extended universe to Bram Stoker's novel Dracula ¹, which makes its 1852 setting especially interesting as it is a mere 40 years before the count's return in the novel. Unfortunately there's very little to connect this particular game to the novel, except perhaps the Belmont clan having a reduced presence this century due to being split up into clans with different surnames. In that way Reinhardt Schneider might make it more digestible to have the novel's Quincy Morris be part of the Belmont lineage.

Some anachronisms exist within the setting, the most goofy of which is the giant skeleton boss of the first stage being accompanied by two smaller skeletons riding on motorcycles. Certain areas of the Castle Center and the Tower of Science itself reveal Dracula to have access to advanced science for the time period, which doesn't seem all that out of place considering his vast powers and connection to demonic forces.

Also there must be something odd in Wallachia's water anyway because four of the major characters, including Dracula himself, have blue hair.

2. Main Characters

The Character Select screen

We have the option of 2 playable protagonists: Reinhardt Schneider, a descendant of the Belmont clan who dedicated themselves to defeating Dracula, and Carrie Fernandez, a descendant of the witch Sypha Belnades (In Japan they have the same surname) from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.
Most of the game is the same no matter which character you pick, except they'll interact differently with certain characters, they'll have a different personal nemesis and 3 of the 10 stages will differ (Reinhardt will visit Tunnel, Duel Tower and Tower of Execution, while Carrie visits Underground Waterway, Tower of Science and Tower of Sorcery).

On the gameplay front I found Reinhardt and his whip rather boring and I never got too far with him. Carrie and her homing magic bullet make combat more manageable, as you can properly focus on evading enemy attacks rather than struggle to aim your whip. Because of that my perspective of the game is heavily skewed towards it being Carrie's game rather than Reinhardt's.

An interesting difference between these two heroes are their attitudes in how they go about their quest. Reinhardt, despite being the classic hero archetype, has clear doubts about his ability to live up to the legacy of his Belmont ancestors. Meanwhile 12-year old Carrie storms Dracula's castle with the full conviction that she has the power to destroy Dracula. This is even reflected in their quotes as the game starts up (and their only pieces of voiced dialogue):  

"Courage, don't leave me."

- Reinhardt Schneider

"Whatever awaits, I have no regrets!"

- Carrie Fernandez

Only a few simple words, but they nevertheless reveal a great deal about their respective speaker. Reinhardt is clearly having doubts about himself, which are feelings Carrie doesn't share. In Carrie's quest it becomes a recurring theme in her dialogue to reflect her absolute conviction that she's powerful enough to defeat Dracula. She even mocks her nemesis for being a mere pawn to delay Carrie from reaching the Count.

Their difference in personality is also reflected in the challenges they face. On top of merely having to deal with the general quest of having to kill the resurrected Dracula, at the various points where their respective storylines differ, the villains start playing on our protagonists' personal doubts and fears. Reinhardt, doubting his ability to live up to his ancestors' legacy, is presented with a damsel in distress whom he can't possibly save. His personal demon is presented in the form of Dracula's right hand and series regular Death. Carrie, having had to deal with losing her family, is forced to put a vampirized relative out of her misery (a cousin, but originally supposed to be Sypha Belnades herself). And while Carrie has lost her loving stepmother who died protecting her, her personal demon comes in the form Actrise, a woman who sacrificed her own child for eternal beauty.

3. Level Select: Stage 3 Villa

It would take far too much effort to analyze all the stages in detail, so for now I'll stick to just one. By far the  best remembered level for most people (including me) is the Villa. After the approach through the Forest of Silence and breaching the Castle Wall, players are immediately attacked by a series of Cerberus enemies (3 headed dogs, some of which can breathe fire) that guard the gates to the Villa. Once inside those gates, you are greeted with nothing but the serene sound of the fountain in the middle of the front garden with the face of the villa behind it  (the outside is supposedly based on the château of Azay-le-Rideau). Before a moment of peace can set in however, you'll soon realize the garden is in fact a graveyard holding the former inhabitants: the Oldrey family. Though a minor nuisance, it turns out their ghosts aren't particularly fond of intruders.

11-year old me says 'eeep'

Once inside you find yourself inside a hall that looks suspiciously similar to the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil 1. Before you manage to explore anything, a man-sized creature crawls across the walls and jumps right in front of you, revealing the first of the game's many vampires (Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness reveals this one to be Master J.A. Oldrey himself, who has been haunting his residence for 8 years). This was my first experience with a horror game as a child, and this scene left the biggest impression. Every time I played the game after, I dreaded this particular moment. The vampires in this game just look absolutely terrifying.

The previous stages weren't entirely linear, but this one changes things up by requiring exploration and figuring things out based on characters giving clues. Combined with the setting itself, I think it's fairly safe to say the game designers did indeed take notes from Resident Evil. On top of that there's a surprising amount of detail spent on making this place actually feel like a luxurious, though haunted by vampires and demons, villa. The walls are lined with art, including portraits of previous residents and the furniture is surprisingly elaborate for a Nintendo 64 game

This stage introduces us to most of the game's important characters: fellow vampire hunter Charlie Vincent, the noble vampire Rosa, the village child Malus and the demon salesman Renon. All of whom are interesting in their own right.

Charlie Vincent is likely the first non-enemy character you encounter in the entire game (outside of being briefly taunted by Dracula himself at the Castle Wall). He appears unexpectedly when you open a door in the bedroom, waving a cross ² in your face to determine whether you are one of Dracula's henchmen or not.
He is presented as the self-professed expert vampire hunter who to us comes across as being in way over his head. We are the descendants of the Belmont/Belnades clan after all while this guy is an unknown. He carries around a stake and multiple crosses (including a giant one on his back), so while obviously being prepared, he comes across as rather foolish. This image is not helped by his general look (although with an added mustache) and name 'Charlie Vincent' calling to mind Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall's character) from Fright Night, who is an actor who plays a fictional legendary vampire hunter but freaks out when confronted with actual vampires. It thus comes as a surprise when later it turns out he is in fact instrumental in revealing the true identity of Dracula (in the good ending at least, which can be triggered by spending less than 4 in-game days reaching the Castle Keep).

Following Vincent's clue of spotting a young woman at dawn, you can, at dawn, encounter Rosa who has allegedly come to water the garden's "white" roses. Something is clearly wrong here because the roses are obviously red. Then it turns out the water from her watering pot is actually blood, and there was apparently so much of it that it stained all the white roses red.

Surprise! Rosa is one of the villa's vampires. Unlike any of the other vampires however, she's not at all hostile to the player character and surprisingly compassionate. She urges the player character to leave the castle, but decides to help out when they declare they can't do so until Dracula has been stopped. In Carrie's story, this is the only time we ever encounter her. In Reinhardt's story however, she's a recurring character and becomes his love interest. There we learn that Rosa has managed to maintain her human soul despite being turned. Nevertheless Death uses her as a pawn against Reinhardt and thus she turns into a tragic villain we have to fight as a boss at the end of the Castle Center (the aforementioned damsel in distress Reinhardt can't save).

I mean their similarity is too uncanny
to be a coincidence, right?

Descending down the stair that lead to the maze garden, you find a mysterious scroll on the ground. A man who introduces himself as a demon named Renon (who for some reason bears a striking resemblance to French actor Jean Reno) appears and explains to us that he sells useful items to adventurers such as us because "one needs gold even in hell these days". He's the game's store who can be summoned from scrolls such as the one you've just found.
The one detail he neglects to mention however is that the small print in the contract specifies that spending more than 30,000 gold in his store means he gets to claim your soul as well, meaning abuse of his services punishes you by adding an extra boss in the Castle Keep before you get to face Dracula.

Then comes the maze garden itself, which quickly becomes the most intense part of the game. After wandering around for a bit, you encounter a child abducted from the village named Malus.

After a short introduction where he fails to remember what exactly happened to him to end up in this horrible place, you are suddenly attacked by two stone dogs you may remember as the statues in front of the maze. As Malus runs away in panic and the dogs give chase, you come face to face with the gardener: a giant Frankenstein's monster with a chainsaw for a right arm. Worse of all, he's invincible and can only be temporarily delayed, never defeated. The only thing you can do is try to keep up with Malus while you have to dodge all three enemies at once. Then the little bugger crawls under a hedge too low for us, forcing us to backtrack to find a way around and likely having to directly dodge the gardener coming right for us.

Malus having escaped, there's only one thing left to do: head towards the stage's dual bosses in the crypt. At first the crypt seems empty. Once you investigate the empty coffin at its opposite side, suddenly a corpse drops from the ceiling. Master Oldrey, the vampire we encountered at the start of the stage, was enjoying his meal and has now decided to make you his main dish. He's not all that much harder than previous vampires, he just has more health, dodges a lot quicker and can fire projectiles at you. Once you defeat him however, his previous victim has had enough time to turn herself.

Master Oldrey and his most recent victim

4. Castlevania, Vampires and Dualism

Castlevania as a series based on Bram Stoker's vampire Dracula inherently introduces Christian elements and imagery into the game world, superficial as they may be. Traditionally it is thought vampires do not cast a reflection because they lack a soul. Indeed in the Villa stage we have a cutscene where a seemingly ordinary, though clearly deranged, villager is revealed to be a vampire in disguise because he doesn't appear in a nearby mirror. It's even a rather effective jump-scare, even though we can see it coming from miles away.

We also have several characters, especially demonic villains who are likely authorities on the subject, who comment on souls and the harvesting thereof. Like a lot of vampire fiction, Castlevania thus maintains a view of the mind-body that is dualistic in nature.
Dualism is essentially the idea that there's a difference between the mind and the brain, or the soul and our bodies. It is an idea closely associated with René Descartes (1596-1650), who believed the mind has a two-way relationship with the body through the pineal gland in the brain, but has since fallen out of style, largely because it is essentially the 'God did it' of neurobiology and thus a scientific stopping point of investigation. Finding an explanation of what consciousness is and how it came about is to this day an enormous mindscrew (excuse the pun), but it is a fairly safe assumption that 'we' aren't a metaphorical homunculus operating a body from inside the brain (or, a metaphysical player operating a real world player character).

Phineas Gage

An often-cited example that cast doubt over dualism is the case of Phineas Gage (1823-1860), an American railroad construction foreman who because of an accident in 1848 had a large iron rod driven through his skull, destroying parts of his brain. Gage amazingly survived but his personality and behavior saw drastic changes. This is of course odd if the self is immaterial to the brain. It should be noted however that the body of facts regarding the "American Crowbar Case" is surprisingly slim for one so noteworthy in neurology. Later evidence (such as the pictures of him discovered in 2009 and 2010) revealed that Gage's sudden personality change did in fact level out and he recovered his social abilities later in life (which on the surface to me sounds like he makes an amazing example of neuroplasticity in action).

Back to Castlevania. The existence of Rosa makes things interesting. Here we have a vampire who has somehow maintained her human soul despite having been turned. This raises a couple of questions. Would she appear in a mirror despite being a vampire? What gives the other scheming and articulate vampires their intelligence? Perhaps the lesser enemies are simply driven by basal desires while Dracula's inner circle consists of turned humans who like Rosa have their souls intact but who simply were just that evil. Carrie's nemesis Actrise murdering 100 children, including her own, to attain his favor certainly makes a case for that possibility. Where this doesn't hold up is with Master J.A. Oldrey in the Legacy of Darkness version of the game, who was described by his wife as a good man before he was turned into a decidedly evil vampire but who retains his intelligence.
What then of the count himself? In the usual Castlevania game, he is merely resurrected after having been slain by the previous Belmont. This game however has it as an actual plot twist that he hasn't been resurrected, but has been outright reincarnated ³. On the duality scale, clearly he must still have his soul intact (though warped due to the events of Lament of Innocence and Symphony of the Night) if he is subjected to reincarnation.

In this game it is actually possible for the player characters themselves to be turned into vampires. One of the tactics enemy vampires will employ is that they will try to get close in order to suck Reinhardt or Carrie's blood. If not fought off rapidly enough, their status will change from 'Good' to 'Vamp'. This status effect will disable the character's main attack and unless cured by an item known as 'Purifying', at the stroke of midnight the character will turn into a vampire themselves (unless bitten less than an hour before midnight, then you are afforded an extra day). At this point the screen goes black and the player is booted to the Game Over screen. In a meta sense, you could argue this means the player is the character's "soul" and the process of turning into a vampire severs that connection. Without our moral guidance, Reinhardt or Carrie are now just mindless monsters themselves.

But that's getting a bit too deep into a goofy horror game about blue-haired anime vampires. 

1. Quincy Morris from Bram Stoker's Dracula is stated in the Castlevania games to be a relative of the Belmont clan. His son (John Morris) and grandson (Jonathan Morris) are playable characters in Bloodlines and Portrait of Ruin respectively.
2. I wrote this entire paragraph with "crucifix" in place of "cross" before I learned it's technically only a crucifix when it consists of a cross and a corpus (the body of Jesus Christ). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifix)
3. He is reincarnated again as Soma Cruz in the games Aria of Sorrow (2003) and Dawn of Sorrow (2005), perhaps one of the reasons why Castlevania 64 has a dubious place in the timeline, as it rather conflicts with the nature of reincarnation in those games.

5. Links & References

http://castlevania.wikia.com
Dennett, Daniel - Consciousness Explained (1991)
Doidge, Norman - The Brain That Changes Itself (2007)
Kaku, Michio - The Future of the Mind (2014)

Images from:
Castlevania, Konami (1999)
Wikimedia Commons

Castlevania Judgment Redux

This is an edited/updated repost of an old blogpost I made over at my Castlevania 64 Hi-Res page (Original). Since I feel the content is pretty much in line with the rest of what I do here, I might as well has it here as well.

My Problem With Castlevania Judgment
A Rant About Maria Renard

But not about this version.
She's cool.

If you followed my progress on my old Castlevania 64 retexture project (which has since more or less stopped due to all the technical difficulties that popped up that I became unwilling to deal with) you might have noticed that I took a fair share of visual influence from Castlevania Judgment (2008) for the Wii. So let's talk about Castlevania Judgment. Mainly the biggest problem I have with the game.

You see, screw complaints about the odd fighting engine, the characters being redesigned by the artist of Death Note (which resulted in Shanoa looking like a nun so they didn't have to render her hair and Dracula somehow sporting udders), the good guys being bigger jerks than the forces of evil, alternate costumes just being palette swaps and the overall game not feeling overly polished. Those things didn't bother me that much and being given the opportunity to play as Cornell from Legacy of Darkness made up for a great deal.  No, for me the greatest evil in this game isn't represented by Dracula, Galamoth or the Time Reaper, but by Maria Renard.

Yes, 12-year old Maria Renard from Rondo of Blood.

Her character design (what's that supposed to be anyway? Pink BDSM loli?) and high-pitched voice acting alone make me want to scratch her entire existence from the disc, but then there's her moveset. Most of the time she's just randomly flying around the screen, being lunged at her opponent by the owl in her staff. Her special attack has her falling to the ground so her owl can do all the work for her. Every hit she makes sprinkles Microsoft Clip Art all over the screen, and she NEVER EVER SHUTS UP.

So it's a fighting game and in fighting game fashion there's a story mode which details the motivation of why each character in question is there. We are introduced to newcomer Aeon who provides the plot device as to why people from different time periods can interact, and from there they just kind of have a go at each other until the most powerful warrior is chosen who will attempt to defeat the Time Reaper, thus saving history itself.

Now Simon Belmont takes the opportunity to test his abilities against the legendary three warriors from Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. Shanoa just wants to get out of the Time Rift as fast as possible to continue her mission to hunt down Albus. Cornell seeks someone to help him control the werewolf form. A Golem who has gained sentience fights for his right to exist. Dracula obviously seeks revenge for his many defeats (yet because of the greater threat of Galamoth he also seems to be the most reasonable and practical of the playable characters).

Maria Renard's story and motivation? Beating up the other Castlevania girls because they have larger breasts than her. No, really, that's her story mode. We have the most annoying 12-year old on the planet running around seeking fights with both allies and enemies because she is insecure about her body image.

vs. Sypha Belnades

vs. Carmilla

I mean seriously? Who thought this was a great idea for a Castlevania game? Did we really need to ruin a beloved Castlevania character (... even more, YMMV) for this game just so we could have some more extreme close ups of Sypha and Carmilla's boobs? Nothing about having to find Richter or Annette. No tie-in with either Rondo of Blood or Symphony of the Night. Just a 12-year old girl throwing a tantrum over tits.

There's a lot of Castlevania characters that I would have liked to see in this game (Carrie Fernandez being my #1, although I love that her game was at least acknowledged at all by having Cornell) and it didn't have a ton of features anyway, but I would have seriously preferred just not to have Maria Renard at all. At least not like this.

Metroid: Other M

About two years ago I made a post (Damsel in Distress) in which I highlighted cultural differences between Western and Japanese audiences. I mentioned Metroid: Other M as an example of a game that was made by a Japanese studio in an attempt to appeal to Japanese audiences, while the Metroid Prime series was developed by a Western studio for a primarily Western audience, which resulted in a pretty heavy culture clash that caused a heavy backlash against Other M. However because I mentioned that I personally didn't hate the game, I occasionally get a couple people who over-zealously insist that my opinion (which I barely elaborated upon anyway) must be wrong*.

So let's get into my actual opinion, shall we?

Metroid: Other M
An Action Heroine After The Movie's End

I got Metroid: Other M on release date (September 3, 2010) on a Friday, put it in my Wii and played (with breaks to sleep and eat, of course) until I had finished it the next day. My initial thoughts were that it certainly wasn't as good as Zero Mission or Super Metroid, but I still had more fun with it than the Metroid Prime games (I think the Prime games are better, but they just never really grabbed me as much as the 2D games ever did). A few months later when the backlash against the game flared up (again), I put the game back in my Wii to have another go, with the backlash in mind, and lost another weekend because I still had just as much fun with it.

That's not to say it's flawless. Far from it. I just have an appreciation for what it tried to do, even if at certain points it became a bit of a mess because of it.

Basically the reasons why I like the game are also the reasons why other people hate it. I appreciate the story as a depressing character study of a completely broken woman in a sci-fi setting where the people act closer to real fallible people who do stupid things rather than characters conforming to our conditioned story expectations and preconceptions. Yes, Samus is acting out-of-character. The events of Super Metroid were clearly the last straw that broke her mental health and by this point she should ideally be in therapy, but instead she continues doing the only thing she knows how to do and by this point she's so much of a legend that nobody even questions whether she's actually still fit to do it. Sure she's badass enough that kicking the crap out of everything that comes her way is intuitive and comes naturally to her, but everything that requires actual cognitive reasoning is way more than she can deal with at this point in time.

In light of that, yeah, I can appreciate what Other M was attempting to portray. Samus' voice acting is detached because that's where her mental state is. The abusive relationship between Samus and Adam Malkovich becomes the result of Malkovich no longer trusting his former apprentice, and Samus being suicidal enough to try to prove her loyalty even when logically it makes no sense. Her not activating the the Varia Suit until already midway into a lava section can thus be read as both of them testing the other to see who breaks first (which ends up being Malkovich).

In her weakened state, the resurrection of her nemesis Ridley momentarily proves to be too much for her to deal with. Yes, he reappeared before but those were during times when Samus was healthy enough to handle it. Revenge on this thing is Samus' entire driving goal, but it just never sticks, and this time that realization hit Samus harder than ever before. Super Metroid left him as dead as he could possibly be, yet even the planet he was on blowing up wasn't enough to permanently end him. So yes, I understand why Samus would momentarily lose it when her personal tormentor shows up again while she's already experiencing a massive mental breakdown (People also tend to forget that the mere seconds of Samus locking up are followed with her trouncing the Ridley clone so badly that it flees in absolute terror).

Even some of the plot threads being inadequately resolved and Samus having little impact on them anyway is rather clever in this regard.  She has trouble figuring out the identity of the Deleter because her mental faculties aren't as sharp as they usually are. It highlights how much Samus just shouldn't be there in the first place. The entire Bottle Ship mission is Samus going through the motions, suicidally trying to cling to a sense of normalcy, even though any reasonable neutral observer would quickly determine she should be in therapy following the events of Super Metroid.

The PTSD Argument

The problem I've seen with many people poking holes in the game's story is that most of them try to analyse the events from a narrative perspective where everything has to make perfect logical sense in relation to the story, as they've been conditioned to do through a lifetime of consuming media (Tvtropes calls this "Reality Is Unrealistic"), whereas Other M takes the uncharacteristic approach of showing failing mental health in a more realistic (and thus unpredictable) fashion with plot-consistency as subservient to that. In reality, PTSD triggers aren't constant and predictable. People do act irrationally under stress (stress sometimes not even required). Subplots like The Deleter in reality would probably play out anticlimactically and confusing as it did in the game. As such you aren't going to convince someone making the PTSD-argument by repeating arguments like "but she fought Ridley several times before" because both parties view those events through a different lens. It's a pointless back-and-forth.

In short, the way I see it, the series goes from Metroid (Zero Mission) to Super Metroid (Fusion taking place when she pulled herself back together). Metroid: Other M takes place after the series proper, deconstructs the formula and shows the damage of what their events inflicted on Samus' psyche and the result is not pretty.

Or if you want me to put it another way, I view Metroid: Other M as if they made a Fight Club featuring Samus Aran.

Conclusion

And that's why I don't mind Metroid: Other M as much as most people do. It's not entirely executed well and it plays rather loose with continuity, but I understand what they were going for. I also simply don't think of Other M as Samus' definitive characterization. It's the tragedy of Samus Aran at her absolute lowest point continuing what she feels she's supposed to do even though it's borderline suicidal and endangering others. That doesn't ruin her character for me. In fact it improves her character because rather than the emotionless robot she's usually portrayed as in the Metroid games, I now appreciate how much pure willpower was really driving her and keeping her together all this time.
Personally I think a worse issue than the story is how linear the gameplay ended up being compared to Zero Mission (which I played about 10 times in a single week when I first got it just to try to improve on my time) whereas so far I only completed Other M thrice in the 5 years since release. It's just not as much fun to try to speedrun.


*Seriously guys, it's been 5 bloody years. Get over it.

Images From

- http://metroid.wikia.com/

A Diverse Cast of Characters

On Tumblr there's a couple of images going around showcasing video game mascots from the late 80's to now, and how apparently every single one of modern gaming mascots is a 20-35 year old white dude with short hair, a stubble and a scowl with the exception of Chell from Portal 6 years ago. So I'm going to take the time to do some ranting of my own.

A Diverse Cast of Characters
A Rant to an Invisible Fanbase

Okay, I don't disagree with diversification in gaming but the people arguing in favor of it really need to clean up their act. The "We Can Do Better Than This" on one of the images itself is fairly innocuous, but a couple of blogs spreading the images complain about there only being 1 female character and have the line "THIS IS NOT OKAY" underneath them. Yes, I want more diversity in video game protagonists too, but the apparent lack of diversity doesn't annoy me nearly as much as its opposition pretending we have to start from scratch in fixing it.

So ... presenting a list of 8 characters as representative of the last 10 years of video game "mascots". Right. Five of which I managed to avoid because they are from games I haven't even played.  

Okay, elephant in the room number one: none of these previous characters have gone away. Only Raziel is really starting to drop into obscurity. A lot of the others even had major releases in the last year. You can't really mourn women being archaeologists when you could last be one in March of this year. Or how about that Nintendo crossover fighter coming up that features literally half of the characters from before the early 2000's?

Cole MacGrath, Nathan Drake, Marcus Fenix and Chell could arguably be considered mascots, but I think for the BioShock franchise the Big Daddy has more of a right to call himself a mascot (but he's evidently too interesting for this list). I had to look up what the guy from The Last of Us' name is, I guess marketing has put too much emphasis on the female character Ellie. As for Soap MacTavish ... really? He might be the main protagonist of the 3 Modern Warfare games but while actually playing the first Modern Warfare (in which he's actually the main player protagonist), he might have as well been a bar of soap for how much I actually learned about him. I hardly call that mascot material.

Like I often said in previous posts, this is once again people giving free advertising to the things they don't like to see and pretending the good things don't exist, just so they can give more weight to their complaints. You can just as easily fill up those 8 slots with 8 athletes from the covers of sports games released this year alone and say it is not okay that all these jocks are filling up gaming protagonists. That's not even a stretch considering the average FIFA game sells at least thrice as many copies as The Last of Us did.


The Supposed Market

Mass Effect was indeed marketed with that particular representation of Commander Shepard, but the problem there is that we are talking about a game that allows for character customization. The female version of Commander Shepard turned out to be so popular that for Mass Effect 3, she was also put in the spotlight. So on one hand I'd grant Shepard mascot status, on the other I have reservations about calling a character a mascot if he doesn't necessarily appear in the game at all. Especially since this list seems to already mix up mascot with player protagonist.

Inclusion of Female Commander Shepard in Marketing

The effect female Shepard's popularity had in the attitude shift in marketing is also emblematic of what happens when enough people actually do speak up. I said it before and I'll continue to hammer it in. The people publishing these things want to make a profit above all else, they are perfectly willing to change their strategy if it means more money in the bank. You aren't going to change them by attempting to pull the ground beneath them. You have to highlight what you do like and ask for more of that.

We have a lot of people complaining about what they don't like, but these same people vanish in smoke when they actually get what they claim to want. Are you out there and do you actually want these things or are you just here to complain about sexism? The Internet exploded when it was revealed publishers didn't want to publish Remember Me because a female protagonist wouldn't sell (Link broken). Instead of all the blogs chewing these publishers up, a more convincing counterargument would be the game's massive success.

Except that's not exactly what happened.

Remember Me vs. Duke Nukem Forever

No, I don't consider it a fair comparison between Remember Me and Duke Nukem Forever. I just want to show Remember Me couldn't even scratch at the sales of a widely hated game. This is hardly a rare occurrence. Games with a female protagonist do very often sell worse than games with a male protagonist.

The Castlevania games on DS shows the same strange phenomenon quite clearly to a certain degree. These games are all similarly rated and fairly similar in gameplay style (so I won't entirely rule out gamer fatigue), nevertheless its sales numbers are strangely ordered by player character. Solo male protagonist at the top, both male and female protagonist in the middle with only a slight drop in sales, and a larger drop with a solo female protagonist. This is especially strange, when at the time of release, Order of Ecclesia was widely praised for breathing new life into the franchise. They even cross-promoted the game by having main character Shanoa as a roster fighter in the Wii game Castlevania Judgment.

Sure, every time you mention things like this it will be pointed out that the lack in sales have to do with a lack of marketing budget or the game being released at the wrong time. However it also showcases how this huge supposed untapped market really isn't there, or at least not visibly so. After all, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic didn't become a powerhouse of a franchise among adult males because Hasbro started marketing to them. They simply showed up when a few people discovered it was actually pretty good and its popularity spread through word of mouth.
One of the few times I can remember when this happened anywhere recently in the gaming community with a female protagonist is with Bayonetta, after it was sold at a reduced price and not profitable enough anymore to be picked up for a sequel until Nintendo decided to bite.

Yes, there is the occasional game that really manages to do decently out of the gate like Portal, Mirror's Edge (you know, that low-hanging fruit a certain colorful character keeps parading as the best games ever) and Tomb Raider, but exceptions aside the problem is not just a one-way street solely to blame on marketing or developers not trying. For there to be effective marketing, there needs to be a visible market.

And I again want to reiterate: I also want more variety in the mainstream gaming community. I also think the quality of white male characters has dropped to exceedingly bland. I love strange ideas for player characters. I love female player characters. I just tire of seeing lots of people complaining while I seem to be the only one walking to the store to actually pick up these games. It's the annoying cycle of people yelling at me because I'm supposedly on the wrong side of the fence while I'm actually investing my money on the things they claim to want while I'm the one watching it all fail. Boy, that was one hell of a sentence.

Ignoring the Indie Market

Unless there's something to chastise the indie scene for, it often goes largely unnoticed when it comes to positive examples. No, we'd rather directly force the big budget triple A developers on top to instantly drop everything they are doing and cater to our sensibilities. The problem with doing it like this is that we are tearing down existing infrastructures for what is essentially a gamble on their part. 

So with my suggestion above to highlight the things you like, how about you also help cultivate the little guy? After all, a triple A developer doesn't magically fall from the sky.

This ...

... also started out like this.

So instead of complaining that Nintendo isn't drastically altering its formula right away to accommodate a solo playable Princess Zelda, is it too much to ask to put some of that effort into showing some support for an existing game inspired by The Legend of Zelda that already has a female protagonist?

Ittle Dew (2013)

I mean, why are we approaching these issues as if we absolutely need to redistribute a very finite amount of resources? Is it honestly that impossible for several different groups and fanbases to coexist together that we must tear down what other people enjoy instead of building stuff of our own? Diversity isn't just a tool to bludgeon other people with. Diversity includes the norm and things you don't like.

Now in a few hours Contrast will be officially released. I got my pre-order waiting to unlock. So how about we stop complaining and finally put our money where our mouths are?

Contrast (2013)

While you're at it, go check out Blood of the Werewolf. It's not normal I can easily break into top 10 on leaderboards.

The Ordeal of Queen Zelda

I have seen examinations of Link from The Legend of Zelda in regards to the monomyth before. While I think that's interesting, what bothers me is how we examine a fairly blank character while reducing the worth of the titular Princess Zelda to just a damsel in distress. As I see it, although not our focal point in the story, princess Zelda is in fact the true protagonist of several Legend of Zelda games, as their names imply. We merely hook into her story from the perspective of Link. Similar to how Hideo Kojima introduced Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2 to give us a perspective on Snake without having our own projections as a player cast upon him.

The idea of this examination was sparked because of a video by Dangerous Analysis on YouTube, which can be found here in which he discusses a similar idea.

The Ordeal of Queen Zelda
(The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)

One of the biggest mistakes in pop culture labeling Zelda as a "Damsel in Distress" is the characterization of it as her character archetype when in fact it is not. Damsel in Distress is not her role, it is a role she occasionally takes on during her story arch of a particular game. Other roles she takes on include mentor, messenger, and even hero.

In Majora's Mask for example, she still bestows Link with a magical gift that helps him on his quest without ever physically appearing and thus never being in danger. Furthermore games like Spirit Tracks blur the lines of "in distress" by having Zelda's body taken while her spirit takes on the role of guide (similar to Navi, Midna and the King of Red Lions) while also being playable through the ability to possess certain types of armor.

In this particular context, I shall be looking at princess Zelda's role in relation to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, although it is my belief that the same principles here apply to Wind Waker and Twilight Princess as well (although in Twilight Princess, Zelda takes a back-seat to Princess Midna).

Story situation

In Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, we catch up with the current incarnation of Link as he has been hidden by his mother and the mystical Great Deku Tree among the Kokiri of Kokiri Forrest to protect him from a war that raged years ago. After he vanquishes the curse cast upon the Great Deku Tree, he sets off to meet the princess of Hyrule, Zelda. He learns of a man from the desert who swears allegiance to the king, but Zelda's prophecy reveals him to be a traitor. Together they formulate a plan to keep the Triforce save from Ganondorf, who plans to use its power to take over Hyrule.

The plan fails when they accidentally provide Ganondorf with access to the Sacred Realm where the Triforce is hidden, Link is locked up for 7 years until he is physically mature enough to wield the Master Sword in order to become the Hero of Time, and Zelda goes into hiding while fighting back against Ganondorf under the guise of Sheik.

The Damsel in Distress

"A usually beautiful young woman is placed in a dire predicament by a villain or a monster and has to be rescued by a hero". By that definition, this certainly happens at one point in Ocarina of Time. Zelda, as the rightful heir to the throne of Hyrule and the keeper of the Triforce of Wisom, is certainly of value as a prisoner to Ganondorf. The problem is that this only happens at the very end of the game*. During the rest of the game Zelda's role could very well be seen as her being the hero of her own story. Of course the frequency with which she is kidnapped in the Zelda series as a whole does become annoying after a while but that still shouldn't mean "Damsel in Distress" is an accurate descriptor of her character.

There is also the issue of the final battle. During the first fight between Link and (Gerudo) Ganondorf, Zelda is locked up in a crystal. After the battle Zelda is freed and they escape Ganondorf's crumbling castle together. Ganondorf survived and reemerges to battle Link again in his pig form. Zelda herself is not very helpful during this time but it is important to note that when Ganon is weakened, she is the one to imprison him. This and considering Zelda is an active combatant in Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, one could speculate that her sitting back to watch the battle rather than be a participant has more to do with 1998's limits on technology rather than an attempt to portray her as a weak character. 

One argument that has been made is that Link, unlike Zelda, has the ability to escape being imprisoned by himself during his visit to Gerudo Fortress. What is left out in that argument is that Link's imprisonment is not necessarily a part of the narrative. The mission in Gerudo Fortress is to infiltrate without being seen to rescue the imprisoned carpenters. Link being imprisoned here is merely a failure on part of the player to do this effectively. In essence the player is transported to the beginning of the board as a sort of soft Game Over. What is in play here are gameplay mechanics, not story elements. 

* During my latest playthrough  I took 30 hours to complete the entire game, which included 100% completion. Out of these 30 hours,  Zelda is 'in distress' for 1 hour and 30 minutes at the absolute most.

Princess Zelda and the Monomyth

So let's take a look at the various step of the Hero's Journey as proposed by Joseph Campbell and how the several elements can apply to princess Zelda. An often strangely ignored aspect of the Legend of Zelda story structure is the reward for the hero. For Link's quest, Zelda is not the prize to be won (further evidenced in Majora's Mask). Link's reward is the restoration of the status quo.

But what is Zelda's reward? We know that there was a king during the time of Ocarina of Time. He wasn't mentioned again after Ganondorf's takeover so we can assume he was murdered. Therefore after the end of Ganondorf's reign of terror, it is Zelda who ascends the throne as queen of Hyrule. This also applies to Wind Waker, in which the King of Red Lions dies with the destruction of Hyrule, and Twilight Princess, in which Hyrule is taken over during Zelda's corronation.

Departure

1. The Call to Adventure: Zelda's dream of dark stormy clouds warning her of Ganondorf's treachery.
2. Refusal of the Call: Zelda doesn't take action against Ganondorf until Link comes along. (Humorously enough, Link's refusal of the call is him turning over in his bed while Navi nags him to get up)
3. Supernatural Aid: Zelda's prophecy from her dream as well as her gifts by being a princess Zelda. 
4. The Crossing of the First Threshold: The escape with Impa from Hyrule Castle.
5. Belly of the Whale: Link is sealed after retrieving the Master Sword, Ganondorf takes over Hyrule Castle. Zelda is forced to flee and unable to return home. Her Sheik persona is born.

Initiation

1. The Road of Trials: The resistance against Ganondorf during Link's 7 year absence. We see the results in her actions as being victorious in rescuing Princess Ruto and we see her fail against the shadow from the Kakariko well.
2. The Meeting With the Goddess: Just like how Zelda represents Link's 'goddess' in this instance, so does Link's return represent hers. 
3. Woman as Temptress: Although not shown or hinted at in the game, in the (non-canonical) manga, Zelda/Sheik hides by becoming a follower of Ganondorf and thus has a taste of the winning side.
4. Atonement with the Father: Zelda receives her part of the Triforce and sets out to face Ganondorf along with Link. 
5. Apotheosis: The Sheik persona disappears to make place for Zelda's return.
6. The Ultimate Boon: Sealing Ganondorf into the corrupted Sacred Realm and saving Hyrule. 

Return

1. Refusal of the Return: Zelda's hesitance to give up her Sheik persona in fear of Ganondorf finding out about her. 
2. The Magical Flight: The escape from Ganondorf's crumbling castle. 
3. Rescue from Without: well this is where her status as a Damsel in Distress comes into play. Zelda has to be rescued by Link in order to help defeat Ganondorf.
4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold: Zelda has gained an understanding of her kingdom by traveling it as a Sheikah warrior, and now returns to take dominion over it.
5. Master of Two Worlds: Zelda understands her power and, unlike Ganondorf, how to control it for the good of others.
6. Freedom To Live: Zelda ascends her father's throne as Queen of Hyrule 

Even other aspects commonly associated with the hero myth such as the miraculous birth can be applied to Zelda through the nature of the trinity that Zelda, Link and Ganon represent as the elements of the Triforce.

Surely you can argue over this model, but if so many aspects of Joseph Campbell's monomyth can be applied to the character of Zelda (and not every hero's journey incorporates them all anyway), is it not disingenuous to just label her as a simple "damsel in distress" or a "helpful damsel"?

Princess Zelda simply does not qualify as a flat character and that makes reducing her worth to a single sentence meaningless and short-sighted. Princess Zelda is a three-dimensional character with her own emotions, motivations and story who grows throughout the story. What she goes through as a damsel in distress is merely part of her character. It is not her entire definition.

Conclusion

While none of these arguments make the need for a game with Zelda as a playable character any less severe (no, the CD-i games aren't proper substitution, make this happen instead), I do think we need to rethink Zelda's position in the games that carry her title as a character worthy of recognition. At the very least there's no need to pretend she is any less than what she is.

Links / References

Tvtropes: Damsel In Distress

Wikipedia: Damsel in Distress

Wikipedia: Monomyth

YouTube: CornerTalker - The Hero's Journey/Monomyth

YouTube: Dangerous Analysis - Feminist Frequency Debunked - Part 1 - The Foundations

Zelda Wiki: Ocarina of Time

Patmore Chris, 2005, Character Design. Hilversum. Librero.
Forster, E.M., 1927, Aspects of the Novel

E3: Nintendo Land

It is amazing to me how the gaming community has been throwing a tantrum over Nintendo's Wii U presentation in general and the announcement of Nintendo Land in particular. They are so caught up in how casual it looks that barely anyone has caught on to what might have been the true intend of this new game. So allow me to spell out how I see it.

Thanks to the Wii Series and the Touch! Generations for both Wii and DS, Nintendo has managed to capture a previously untapped audience, namely the Facebook generation of gamers. Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit were the 'safe' games for them to buy. However, when the Wii U was unveiled, Nintendo has made it their mission statement to build a bridge between the casual and the core audience. What better way to do it than with a game that looks and feels like a Wii Series game but utilizes and extends into beloved Nintendo franchises? In this sense, Nintendo Land IS the bridge between casual and hardcore. After all, don't you think someone who liked the Zelda: Battle Quest minigame would also be interested to try out an actual Zelda title?

Furthermore, what is the implication of mini-games based on F-Zero, Metroid, Donkey Kong and Animal Crossing appearing in this title? It seems to me Nintendo used Nintendo Land for the purpose of hinting at games that are in production or they intend to produce at a later date. Luigi's Mansion 2 (which is also represented in Nintendo Land) is already on its way to 3DS. Even if this is not the case (it seems rather unlikely we are going to see a return of Nazo no Murasame Jō the same way we saw Kid Icarus return), I do not understand how Nintendo fans can look at a game called 'Nintendo Land', which is bound to be filled with fanservice, and not be in the least excited.

It might be too early to make a judgement on this as Nintendo themselves have not given a definite answer when asked about it, but it seems quite likely that Nintendo Land will be the pack-in title for the new Wii U. Nintendo Land might just be the right combination of a game for both the casual gamer and the Nintendo fan, while also being a clever commercial and a peek into things to come. 

In this sense, I feel that while Nintendo Land may have felt like a disappointment at first, it might actually be the bomb we were expecting it to be, albeit in disguise. Personally I'm very hopeful and I can't wait to try it out for myself.