The 2025 Desert Island Video Game Draft

[pdxKingsFan]

I was going to take this game in round 7 originally, had the write-up and pictures ready to go and everything... but I bumped it to take Riven after @Capt. Factorial picked Myst and then I just kept pushing it back for other games that seemed more likely to be drafted by others (or games for which I had no acceptable substitute). I was sweating every time @Warhawk came up in the order though since we seem to be operating in similar lanes with our choices. I guess it worked out in my favor that you chose not to participate in this one, though I don't think I would have minded terribly if more of my favorites had gotten picked by others. It's also fun when other people share the same taste.

As it was, I managed to get 14 of my top 15 ranked games in this draft (#15 was Final Fantasy VI drafted by @SLAB ). If I were to re-rank my picks based on my preferences they would go in this order:

(1) Interstate '76 (2) Deus Ex (3) Metal Gear Solid (4) Final Fantasy VII (5) Uncharted 4
(6) The Dig (7) Fallout (8) TIE Fighter (9) RollerCoaster Tycoon (10) Alien: Isolation
(11) Riven (12) Xenogears (13) Bushido Blade (14) The Settlers II (15) AC4: Black Flag

I had another game ranked in there at 12 pre-draft (also undrafted so I won't say what it is now) but I changed my rankings a bit when I remembered that Xenogears exists and I also decided that I'm less excited about re-playing that other game in 2025. I have it in my Steam collection, bought it a year ago on sale and haven't touched it, so that's more of a gaming memory than a Desert Island pick. This list doubles as my top 14 games... plus Assassin's Creed: Black Flag which I ranked #27 but it filled a niche that I wanted filled for Desert Island purposes. Most of the games I have ranked from 16 to 26 are adventure games and I already have a few of those.

There was another game I was playing when Tie Fighter came out (which oddly not my favorite of that series) and I had both on my list of unpicked games so far. Tie Fighter is the only one I would figure gets drafted but will discuss when this is over.

Honestly (and I know you grabbed the deluxe super special edition but this point stands) I don't understand how they didn't manage to improve on Tie Fighter after this, they just leaned into arcadey space combat afterwards.

 

[hrdboild]

There was another game I was playing when Tie Fighter came out (which oddly not my favorite of that series) and I had both on my list of unpicked games so far. Tie Fighter is the only one I would figure gets drafted but will discuss when this is over.

Honestly (and I know you grabbed the deluxe super special edition but this point stands) I don't understand how they didn't manage to improve on Tie Fighter after this, they just leaned into arcadey space combat afterwards.

Yeah, I don't get that either. You'd think when a company develops a game where pretty much everyone gives it a perfect score and proclaims it a classic in its genre that you would continue to refine it and update it. LucasArts did make two attempts to do that actually, now that I think about it, but both lost as much as they gained in development as other aspects of the design were prioritized so I guess its not always easy to pinpoint why a game is successful.

Now LucasArts is no more and Star Wars titles are all outsourced to other developers. Simulation style flying games do still have an audience but maybe not the size of audience that is targeted for major IP titles these days so I'm not real optimistic that we'll ever get the true sequel that some of us want.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Yeah, I don't get that either. You'd think when a company develops a game where pretty much everyone gives it a perfect score and proclaims it a classic in its genre that you would continue to refine it and update it. LucasArts did make two attempts to do that actually, now that I think about it, but both lost as much as they gained in development as other aspects of the design were prioritized so I guess its not always easy to pinpoint why a game is successful.

Now LucasArts is no more and Star Wars titles are all outsourced to other developers. Simulation style flying games do still have an audience but maybe not the size of audience that is targeted for major IP titles these days so I'm not real optimistic that we'll ever get the true sequel that some of us want.

I only remember that the next one was an online only game that scrapped the campaigns, which was also one of the main reasons that Tie Fighter blew its predecessor out of the water.

 

[Warhawk]

I was going to take this game in round 7 originally, had the write-up and pictures ready to go and everything... but I bumped it to take Riven after @Capt. Factorial picked Myst and then I just kept pushing it back for other games that seemed more likely to be drafted by others (or games for which I had no acceptable substitute). I was sweating every time @Warhawk came up in the order though since we seem to be operating in similar lanes with our choices. I guess it worked out in my favor that you chose not to participate in this one, though I don't think I would have minded terribly if more of my favorites had gotten picked by others. It's also fun when other people share the same taste.

Looks like fun but I never played it so it wasn't on my list!

Actually, I've never played ANY of the games you picked, now that I look at your final list.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Looks like fun but I never played it so it wasn't on my list!

Actually, I've never played ANY of the games you picked, now that I look at your final list.

I can actually say that about four people in this draft, including you.

I've watched my son play several of these games, but I don't think that counts.

 

[Warhawk]

I can actually say that about four people in this draft, including you.

I've watched my son play several of these games, but I don't think that counts.

Out of the games picked so far, I've played four on @Capt. Factorial's list (Super Mario Bros., Tetris, Myst (briefly), and Pac-Man), plus Diablo, Diablo II, Quake, Oregon Trail, Ms. Pac-Man, and Burger Time. That's it. That's 4 lists other than mine I've played at least one game of. I bet that trend holds unless some folks start picking old school stuff the last round.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

My consumption of video games pretty much became encased in amber when the PS2 became obsolete. I've played but a small handful of games that were released after 2005, the only one of which I'd even consider being stranded on a desert island with was taken by @Sluggah in the fourteenth round (I guess technically two, if you count @Spike's eighth-round selection).

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I don't really play the AAA titles any more, haven't since maybe GTA 5 came out in the final days of 360. I think that's ultimately why I elected not to participate. The only one I really got was Elden Ring. Otherwise its a handful of sports games and whatever is on Game Pass.

 

[hrdboild]

Looks like fun but I never played it so it wasn't on my list!

Actually, I've never played ANY of the games you picked, now that I look at your final list.

Given the other games you've picked, I'm a little surprised that TIE Fighter at least wasn't on your radar, but not that surprised I guess. As has been said before, there are more than enough games existing in the world for us all to have different subsets of favorites without much overlap. To a certain extent it seems like Video Games could be like albums where people of similar ages would at least have the same reference points but there's so many different formats when you count up all of the consoles and portable systems which have existed over the years and that adds an extra barrier of entry in the form of hardware requirements which doesn't exist in most other mediums.

Of the 154 games picked so far from the other 11 members in this draft I counted only 34 of them that I've played (and many of those only briefly). There are quite a few more that I've heard of and many that I would like to try but who has the time anymore? I can't even find time to watch a 2 hour movie these days much less play all the way through a game.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I think I counted 91 but my girlfriend in the other room kept yelling at me (she has a broken foot) when I got into the 70s and no way am I counting them again.

 

[whitechocolate]

I don't really play the AAA titles any more, haven't since maybe GTA 5 came out in the final days of 360. I think that's ultimately why I elected not to participate. The only one I really got was Elden Ring. Otherwise its a handful of sports games and whatever is on Game Pass.

I think modern AAA gaming is a cesspool of unoriginal, unchallenging, pandering bloat with little to no artistic integrity. There are rare exceptions, but in general, AAA games are designed by board rooms and are certainly not passion projects. Not to mention, professional game critique is a complete facade with critics who completely lack expertise, with little sincerity, and with compromised motives. I'm still participating.

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

Picking this to try and add variety to my ensemble. Added a sports game last pick, for this one I'll add an e-sports pick (if a very early version of that)

Tribes 2 -- PC -- 2001

A Multiplayer shooter with ambition. Tribes 2 is a multiplayer (up to 128 players in 64 vs 64) team based game where players take on the role of science fiction soldier types with jetpacks. The innovative skiiing mechanic allowed players to keep picking up speed as they hit a downslope, which meant that the large arenas could be traversed quickly by bounding across the terrain. Tribes 2 also included vehicles, and custom weapon loadouts within a light-medium-heavy character class system

Hitting a fast-moving, flying target with a disc launcher is one of the best feelings in gaming.

At the time, this was probably better played in the LAN party setting ( a 128 person LAN party sounds like a quite a production) All I had at the time was dial-up internet, which limited my effectiveness. LAN parties every Thursday on my Desert Island! (Is an island with 128 people still deserted?)

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Tribes was fun!

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

I'll wait until final results are in to post my total score of games played; but I can say that everybody participating has at least one game that I would be happy to have on my own list.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

I think I counted 91 but my girlfriend in the other room kept yelling at me (she has a broken foot) when I got into the 70s and no way am I counting them again.

What kind of autist are you?

 

[pdxKingsFan]

What kind of autist are you?

Ha. I don't think I am. More of an ambivert who spent a good chunk of my introvert hours between 1979-2013 playing as many games as I could get my hands on.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I think modern AAA gaming is a cesspool of unoriginal, unchallenging, pandering bloat with little to no artistic integrity. There are rare exceptions, but in general, AAA games are designed by board rooms and are certainly not passion projects. Not to mention, professional game critique is a complete facade with critics who completely lack expertise, with little sincerity, and with compromised motives. I'm still participating.

It's less about modern AAA gaming and just kind of feeling like I'd lost the passion. Reading through picks re-ignited it a bit so I will submit my unofficial 15 undrafted games or franchises (looking like a few entire ones I played the heck out of will be left off).

 

[macadocious]

Tom Clancy - The Division

2016
Ubisoft
Action, role play, 3rd person shooter

I chose this game for two reasons. A. My son loved it and I tried to play it with him, and as I recall, this for me was the downturn of video games for kids. Because it was multi player, but not together. Meaning someone on a different system at a different location could play with you, but two people in the same room could not play (unless two systems and two TVs)

B. A buddy of mine was so obsessed with it, his discussions on a fan forum got him an invite to build patches for the game. His solid work on that game led to contract work on their new Star Wars games, and he’s a Star Wars nerd, so it doesn’t even matter that they are paying him.

I’ll find a video later

 

[Sluggah]

Title: Battlefield 2
Format: PC
Year of Release: 2005
Developer: Digital Illusions CE

I’ll end how I began…with an online multiplayer FPS. I guess I’m basic like that. The Battlefield series is a bit hit or miss for me, but this was my first and remains my favorite (though BF6 is currently in beta and the online hype is at fever pitch). Massive diverse maps in size and number of players, squad + class based mechanics, contemporary setting, control point gameplay, supports multiple play styles. Tired of running around with your machine gun? Hop in an Mi-24 gunship and lay waste.

Hours of worryingly jingoistic fun!

 

[SLAB]

The Last of Us Part II Remastered (PS5)

Going to bookend my list with the second half of the greatest video game story ever told!

This game is an absolute masterpiece, very much in line with the first one. I do think they went a little heavy handed on making everything absolutely miserable… the story is just so sad at every turn, but in this world they’re in what else do you expect?

This game is also essentially 2 entire games in one as well, as you’re playing though two perspectives of the same story… something I didn’t know going in, and was pleasantly surprised by when it happened!

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Going to bookend my list with the second half of the greatest video game story ever told!

But you already drafted FF6.

 

[Warhawk]

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Developer: Lucas Arts
Year: 1997
Platform: PC

Yes, I had my eye on a Star Wars game, but not the one @hrdboild was thinking of!

I admit I never owned this game. I have a friend who is a huge Star Wars nut and he loved this one, so I would occasionally play over at his place but I never got close to finishing. I don't care that my list is heavy with FPS type games (although it is also playable in the third person). This one belongs as well, as I would actually like to play through it using the 3 different sets of force powers available and wield a lightsaber again!

Unlike the first Jedi Knight, this one uses a true 3D game engine and battled it out with one of the games still on my list that hasn't been selected (

Spoiler

Quake II

) for game of the year. Extremely well-reviewed, and obviously imbued with the Star Wars universe, this is a great last selection for my list.

 

[Löwenherz]

I find it rather fitting in a thread that inadvertently dredged up the old, tired Video Games as Art debate, I end my draft with the game that, quite possibly, most affected me on a personal level.

I don’t necessarily mean the game that had the greatest emotional impact, although it certainly is in the running. But in the same way Apocalypse Now shifted my view on the status of film from pure entertainment to evocative art, this game altered my understanding of how a narrative can be developed and presented.

It also just so happens to be really rather gorgeous aesthetically.

Odin Sphere (PS2) - 2007



For clarity, I’m not taking the Leifthrasir version for reasons I’ll address later. But I do like that cover better.

Odin Sphere is a 2D action RPG beat ‘em up from Vanillaware. The most important word in that sentence is the last one. I’m not someone who pays much attention to specific studios; I’ve consistently gotten BioWare and Bethesda confused - scandal I know. But I am a huge fan of Vanillaware - the small indie studio out of Osaka that traces its roots to a Japan-only Sega Saturn game no one played, and a Capcom arcade series few recall. Regardless of the genre, if Vanillaware is involved, I’m going to be interested.

Vanillaware’s mission statement is to emphasize the artistic element of video games with detailed hyper-stylized characters and environments inspired by myth and fantasy with a heavy focus on narrative development enriched by gameplay mechanics. And in my mind the results have become timeless.








But the visual art style is only a part of what makes Odin Sphere and Vanillaware uniquely extraordinary. With influences from: The Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, and Norse Ragnarok myths; Shakespearean stage plays; and the Song of Ice and Fire series; Odin Sphere is among the most detailed and ambitious narrative structures I’ve seen since the Sound of Fury.

Odin Sphere has five protagonists on different sides of a multi-national war that ultimately leads to actual Armageddon. You play through their individual stories in order and linearly, getting each protagonist’s perspective on the course of events: Faithful allies in one story become intimidating nemeses in another. Heroes become villains. Villains become lovers. That alone would be a cool narrative flourish.



The stories themselves are compelling enough if not exactly earth-shattering:

- Gwendolyn the Valkyrie of Ragnanival, and basically the game’s face and mascot, compelled by the death of her sister in battle, continually defies her father, the demon king Odin, in the hopes of saving her kingdom.

- Cornelius the Noble Prince of Titania, cursed by his secret lover’s brother to prevent Cornelius marriage, is cast into the underworld in the form of a rabbit-like Pooka and fights to remove the curse.

- Mercedes the Fairy Princess of Ringford, a spoiled obnoxious brat destined to be queen and must learn to be a true leader for her people.

- Oswald the Shadow Knight, a mercenary found and raised by his adoptive father to be a blood-thirsty, vicious, and sadistic warrior, questions his upbringing when he falls in love with his enemy.

- Velvet the Forest Witch of the Lost Kingdom of Valentine, a stateless rogue trying to stop all sides from using a super weapon that would lead to the apocalypse.

But what made me utter the patented Keanu “Whoa” was realizing these five stories are running nearly simultaneously, intersecting, entwining, and influencing each other. Even the Sound of Fury had its 4 narratives occur during different time periods

You can track the movements of other player-characters, NPCs, and vital objects between the chapters of each individual book and they align rather perfectly. Vanillaware even allows you to zoom out and review each completed chapter’s cinematic set in a handy events map page so you can see exactly when each occurs during the events of the story and when they overlap. Only once did I find an instance where an evil wizard appeared in Ragnanival in one chapter, then immediately in the Underworld in the next and I thought that was unlikely. But it stood out because it was so rare.



Of course none of this would matter if the gameplay was bad, but I found it positively exhilarating. Each protagonist’s has completely different play styles that add an interesting layer of complexity as you progress. There are light RPG elements that allow you to grow your character’s strengths and attacks, as well as craft potions and other helpful items in battle. Bosses range from giant monstrosities, to the respective leaders of each kingdom, to even the other player-characters.

There is also an ingenious narrative/gameplay fusion with each player-character’s weapon. They all have magical items called psyphers powered by spirits of the dead, or more specifically, the enemies you just defeated. The player has to stop fighting to allow their psypher to absorb the spirits otherwise they disappear, which adds an element of balance in combat in either keeping up the attack or pausing to power up while the battle rages. It also has an impact narratively because every time the player is actively choosing to do this, which comes in play later.

As In mentioned, I’m not taking Leifthrasir largely because I haven’t played it, but from what I saw, in order to speed up gameplay, Leifthrasir removed the active absorb gameplay element and simply has spirts be collected passively. To me, that is a deal breaker.

I am perfectly happy with the Vanilla version, thank you.

 

[whitechocolate]

Gungrave G.O.R.E. - 2022, PS4



​

This game is like a brainstorm of cool ideas turned into a video game. Nothing deep, and a bit edgy. It's essentially a third person shooter, but it's old school. Aiming is highly assisted, as the player is encouraged to cause damage at all times. Enemies and stages also keep the player on the move. The game is about shooting enemies and destructible assets in long chains. The game also wants players to play with style, using a variety of moves, and every cool way to fire a gun the developers could think of. Score is based on how well the player chains things together and how artfully they play. It taps into the feeling of an arcade action game very well. The graphics look really cool, with lots of black and neon highlights. The music is hype and matches the action. It's simple fun with lots of replayability.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

My YouTube Mix put this back in my head, so sharing:

 

[Löwenherz]

My YouTube Mix put this back in my head, so sharing:

I don’t always know which song it is, but I always know Chrono Trigger music when I hear it.

Even when Wiz Khalifa sampled Schala’s Theme for Never Been.

Edit: Slim’s linked song is Secret of the Forest.

 

[Padrino]

Late to my final Desert Island pick, but I'll get to it later today. If @Spike is itching to make his next pick, he's welcome to do so, since I'm overdue.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

So @Padrino timed out and, IIRC, @Spike is a school teacher... This could be a while.

 

[Padrino]

With the 167th pick in the 2025 Desert Island Video Game Draft, I select:

Dark Souls: Remastered (2018)

Developer: FromSoftware
Publisher: Bandai Namco Games
Game Director: Hidetaka Miyazaki
Musical Score: Motoi Sakuraba
Genre(s): Action RPG
Platform: Nintendo Switch

“Death is no escape, no matter how far you run. Eventually, it will find you.”

Like some others, I'm choosing to create a bit of symmetry with my final pick. I began my draft with a Miyazaki joint, and I'm ending my draft with a Miyazaki joint. That Dark Souls remains on the board at the 167th pick is something of a miracle, since it's going to appear on just about any Top-100 list of the greatest video games of all time, with many breaches into the Top-50s and Top-10s, depending on who's curating the list. It is then an absolute privilege to be able to select a masterpiece of the form here at the end of my contribution to our video game draft.

Of course, Hidetako Miyazaki has been well-represented amongst our desert islands. My very first pick, Elden Ring, is surely a masterpiece, as well. And @whitechocolate snagged Demon's Souls, while @SLAB grabbed Bloodborne, though I've played neither of those games. They're PlayStation exclusives, and I've never had any interest in purchasing a PlayStation. So 2011's Dark Souls was my first foray into what is now commonly referred to as the Souls-like subgenre of action RPG. And I first gave it a spin in 2018 when a remastered version of the game was released for the Nintendo Switch.

Though the cynical may find remasters, remakes, and re-releases of any kind to be mercenary propositions on the part of the publishers, I'll say it again: as a latecomer to post-millennium video gaming, this particular trend has been a wonderful way to get acquainted with so much of what I missed in my time apart from video games. And given Nintendo's reputation as the "family friendly" choice amongst video game consoles, the Switch itself might seem like an odd fit for a uniquely gothic, deeply esoteric, and brutally difficult action RPG with central themes that revolve around despair and decay. But Nintendo does possess a long and storied history of releasing peculiar third-party games that cut against the company's squeaky clean image, so I was thrilled when Dark Souls received the "remastered" treatment in 2018.

I set out to craft a Desert Island draft of games that were somewhat in conversation with one another, but were not carbon copies of each other stylistically or with respect to their gameplay elements. This meant no sequels on my island. That said, much of what I wrote about Elden Ring does, indeed, apply to Dark Souls. They bear no strict relationship to one another, yet Miyazaki cannot help but operate within the specific set of parameters that govern his philosophy of game design. He has very particular aesthetic and thematic interests and always marries those interests to his gameplay features. Form and content must wind tightly around each other in any Miyazaki game, so a game about the Sisyphean task of fighting off stagnation in a futile, corrupt, and ever-decaying world must be met with a gameplay loop in which death is not only commonplace, but requisite to the experience of grasping the game's contours.

And so in Dark Souls, you die. Early. Often. And with such startling frequency that it starts to feel less like punishment for failure and more like a cycle of feebleness to break. After all, each death is punctuated by the almost comically unnecessary inclusion of two red words on the screen: "YOU DIED". As if I wasn't aware of how much I sucked at Dark Souls in those early hours. But in between the deaths is where Miyazaki works on the discerning player. He crafts worlds and characters that are almost hazy recollections of what places and people are like, with just enough information missing to leave the player wanting. And in so doing, he draws the player deeper into the fog, where they are forced to find their way. In my write-up on Elden Ring, I described the experience of feeling like an archaeologist when I step into one of Miyazaki's worlds. You feel possessed of a thirst to peel back further and further layers in a setting that just doesn't want to give itself over to you.

But eventually death becomes educational. Almost without intending for it to happen, the player starts to recognize patterns in their failure, and more importantly, the player discovers patterns in the success of those who've conquered the player time and again. Will the player be hollowed out by failure? Or will they let death inform their learning so they can find what they're looking for in the Kingdom of Lordran? Functionally, it's not all that different to @Capt. Factorial's first pick, Super Mario Bros. You throw yourself at each level and through each death until you understand its rhythm and timing. Indeed, so much of video gaming history can be boiled down to rhythm and timing. And though video gaming may have evolved to center story and accessibility, Miyazaki has never forgotten what the experience of conquering seeming futility can feel like within the world of a video game. It's not replicable for the audience in any other artistic medium.

Now, a great many modern gamers are repulsed by the notion of a game that refuses to bend to the player's whims or the player's desire to be sated. Those same gamers would likely be repulsed by film or music that similarly pushes back against the audience's desire to have their expectations met. Dark Souls doesn't bend. Instead, it bends the player until they break. And break. And break again. But it offers all of the available tools to rebuild onself, through undeath, until the player ultimately decides what the player character should do with the fire they've unlocked inside themselves. It's not for everyone, and I think Miyazaki would contend that it shouldn't be for everyone. But for those who feel called, there is a Fire Keeper waiting.

“In the abyss, the only light is the one that you carry.”

 

[Löwenherz]

With the 167th pick in the 2025 Desert Island Video Game Draft, I select:

Dark Souls: Remastered (2018)

Developer: FromSoftware
Publisher: Bandai Namco Games
Game Director: Hidetaka Miyazaki
Musical Score: Motoi Sakuraba
Genre(s): Action RPG
Platform: Nintendo Switch

Like some others, I'm choosing to create a bit of symmetry with my final pick. I began my draft with a Miyazaki joint, and I'm ending my draft with a Miyazaki joint. That Dark Souls remains on the board at the 167th pick is something of a miracle, since it's going to appear on just about any Top-100 list of the greatest video games of all time, with many breaches into the Top-50s and Top-10s, depending on who's curating the list. It is then an absolute privilege to be able to select a masterpiece of the form here at the end of my contribution to our video game draft.

Of course, Hidetako Miyazaki has been well-represented amongst our desert islands. My very first pick, Elden Ring, is surely a masterpiece. And @whitechocolate snagged Demon's Souls, while @SLAB grabbed Bloodborne, though I've played neither of those games. They're PlayStation exclusives, and I've never had any interest in purchasing a PlayStation. So 2011's Dark Souls was my first foray into what is now commonly referred to as the Souls-like subgenre of action RPG. And I first gave it a spin in 2018 when a remastered version of the game was released for the Nintendo Switch.

Though the cynical may find remasters, remakes, and re-releases of any kind to be mercenary propositions on the part of the publishers, I'll say it again: as a latecomer to post-millennium video gaming, this particular trend has been a wonderful way to get acquainted with so much of what I missed in my time apart from video games. And given Nintendo's reputation as the "family friendly" choice amongst video game consoles, the Switch itself might seem like an odd fit for a uniquely gothic, deeply esoteric, and brutally difficult action RPG with central themes that revolve around despair and decay. But Nintendo does possess a long and storied history of releasing peculiar third-party games that cut against the company's squeaky clean image, so I was thrilled when Dark Souls received the "remastered" treatment in 2018.

I set out to craft a Desert Island draft of games that were somewhat in conversation with one another, but were not carbon copies of each other stylistically or with respect to their gameplay elements. This meant no sequels on my island. That said, much of what I wrote about Elden Ring does, indeed, apply to Dark Souls. They bear no strict relationship to one another, yet Miyazaki cannot help but operate within the specific set of parameters that govern his philosophy of game design. He has very particular aesthetic and thematic interests and always marries those interests to his gameplay features. Form and content must wind tightly around each other in any Miyazaki game, so a game about the Sisyphean task of fighting off stagnation in a futile, corrupt, and ever-decaying world must be met with a gameplay loop in which death is not only commonplace, but requisite to the experience of grasping the game's contours.

And so in Dark Souls, you die. Early. Often. And with such startling frequency that it starts to feel less like punishment for failure and more like a cycle of feebleness to break. After all, each death is punctuated by the almost comically unnecessary inclusion of two red words on the screen: "YOU DIED". As if I wasn't aware how much I sucked at Dark Souls in those early hours. But in between the deaths is where Miyazaki works on the discerning player. He crafts worlds and characters that are almost hazy recollections of what places and people are like, with just enough information missing to leave the player wanting. And in so doing, he draws the player deeper into the fog, where they are forced to find their way. In my write-up on Elden Ring, I described the experience of feeling like an archaeologist when I step into one of Miyazaki's worlds. You feel possessed of a thirst to peel back further and further layers in a setting that just doesn't want to give itself over to you.

But eventually death becomes educational. Almost without intending for it to happen, the player starts to recognize patterns in their failure, and more importantly, the player discovers patterns in the success of those who've conquered the player time and again. Will the player be hollowed out by failure? Or will they let death inform their learning so they can find what they're looking for in the Kingdom of Lordran? Functionally, it's not all that different to @Capt. Factorial's first pick, Super Mario Bros. You throw yourself at each level and through each death until you understand its rhythm and timing. Indeed, so much of video gaming history can be boiled down to rhythm and timing. And though video gaming may have evolved to center story and accessibility, Miyazaki has never forgotten what the experience of conquering seeming futility can feel like within the world of a video game. It's not replicable in any other artistic medium.

Now, a great many modern gamers are repulsed by the notion of a game that refuses to bend to the player's whims or the player's desire to be sated. Those same gamers would likely be repulsed by film or music that similarly pushes back against the audience's desire to have their expectations met. Dark Souls doesn't bend. Instead, it bends the player until they break. And break. And break again. But it offers all of the available tools to rebuild onself, through undeath, until the player ultimately decides what the player character should do with the fire they've unlocked inside themselves. It's not for everyone, I think Miyazaki would contend that it shouldn't be for everyone. But for those who feel called, there is a Firekeeper waiting.

Finally. Nearly every Souls-like had been drafted except the one that actually made it a genre.