Let's overanalyze Lost Silver Hidden!
Nov. 2nd, 2010 06:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shamanicshayminMight as well, since I'm up and getting ready for NaNo Day 2.
Hidden turned out better than I expected. I was cautious that it might take the narmy WANGST AND VIOLENT DEATH route, but it took an interesting route that enhanced the original Lost Silver instead. It helps that absolutely no detail was given about Hidden at all, with no written creepypasta or anything. When Lost Silver got made into a game, I knew what to expect. But with Hidden, you're at it completely blind except for vague fanart, making the experience a lot more authentic and a hell of a lot scarier, giving you the feeling anon must of had when he first played his fucked up Silver cartridge. So yes, I was playing it with the lights on in the middle of the day on Halloween, and I was still uneasy and creeped out like fucking hell.
The music contributes to this atmosphere. I got O SHIT when the Unown Radio theme speeding up and I started walking backwards. Maybe the blood-red Unown are a little silly, but ugh god. God. That music. I liked that the graphics were also more faithful to what actual glitched Pokemon graphics would do, like the bottom half of Typhlosion's body cleanly cut off like a real half-sprite. There's no OMG TYPHLO'S BLEEDING AND YOU CAN SEE HER SPINAL CORD!!11!1 and there's no hollow shaded part where the eyes of the characters used to be... it's just the regular Pokemon trainer sprites without eyes, that's all. (Too be honest, I imagined the skulls on Gold's Trainer Card to be the skulls that showed up when your Pokemon is poisoned in battle rather than the custom-made white skulls, but that's just me. *shrug*)
But yeah, the music. The music. That's the scariest part in the whole game for me. The slowed Mt. Silver theme on the second floor made me think "Uhh..." and it didn't help that the water had frozen (I think I discovered a glitch where Gold can walk along the side of a big cliff, but eh). Then it slowed even more on the first floor. Thanks game, I was just getting used to the other one except not. Then there's the slowed down theme where you fight Feraligatr. Just... ghdskjghdskjghkjdsg this is even worse than the reverse Unown theme while fighting Red. DDD: I don't know what the heck you used to put Feraligatr to sleep, but after you "win" it turns to Totodile for a split second like you just murdered a friend.
The worst/best part of Hidden is Goldenrod City. I will never get both versions of that looping "song" out of my head now. *shudder* Basically you go around talking to the Gym Leaders and all the important people in Gold's life, who each have an Unown. After you talk to everyone, Goldenrod turns purple, and the message becomes unscrambled: WHO ARE YOU KID? Ending with Gold's Mom. Ouch. It's like, "Why are you even bothering? Why don't you die, Gold?" The game is telling you it's futile. The game is condenscending you. The game is telling you that you don't matter. The game is telling you to die.
Then you get to follow Red, and it turns out Bellsprout Tower was Tin Tower all along. Tin Tower, the home of Ho-Oh, a phoenix legendary aka the Pokemon God of Life? Ironic. You get told "SAVE YO--" by what I thought at first was a Feraligatr cry (DERP DERP) and Cyndaquil forgets Nightmare. Celebi tells you to "LEAVE NOW." Then Lost Silver starts right back at the beginning, and you can't say NO to the sign again no matter how you try.
On a lighter note, someone pointed out that the first Pokemon cry was Typhlosion. As soon as he heard the voice of his mother, Cyndaquil forgotten Nightmare, like he was ready to accept his mother's death and comes to terms that he'll see her for the first time when he passes on herself. By the end of it all, after the cries for help and the horror and denial of death, Gold was finally able to move on... and only then did his name and his life's work appeared on his tombstone in the end. It's worth mentioning to point out that the sign in front of the Tin Tower reads, "GOLD?" Kind of like a faint recognition or glimmer.
Speaking of denial, death and the Unown, anyone else reminded of the Kübler-Ross model/Five Stages of Grief?
1. Denial – "I feel fine."; "This can't be happening, not to me."
It all begins after Gold beats Red and Gold recieves the egg. The second Typhlosion vanishes, the Unown spell out the word, "DENY," the longest staying word in the game.
2. Anger – "Why me? It's not fair!"; "How can this happen to me?"; "Who is to blame?"
When Cyndaquil hatched. Whether or not he blames Gold for never being able to see his mother's face is uncertain, as he is, after all, a newborn. At the bottom floor of the cave, he "thrashes about" and the move itself disappears from his roster, leaving him with Nightmare. Is that what the Feraligatr battle was about, lashing out with violent memories of what happened and what they experienced and feeling guilty about it when Silver & Feraligatr disappear? That Feraligatr, once Totodile, was no different from Cyndaquil and Gold after all?
3. Bargaining – "Just let me live to see my Pokemon evolve."; "I'll do anything for a few more years."; "I will give my life savings if..."
Gold struggles to move on and raise his Cyndaquil, asking the Gym Leaders for rematches, thinking maybe if he worked hard enough and spent time working with the professors and see his own Mom more often, it'd give Cyndaquil a chance to live life without being an orphan.
The Unown spelling "HELP" and the Typhlosion's nickname being "PLEASE!" seem to be related to each other. What would happen if she lived? What about if she AND Cyndaquil would live and spend a normal life together free of worry? Won't you take her dying child, Gold? Is it possible that Typhlosion was dying from childbirth, and that Cyndaquil was born prematurely and thus have an early death? When you think about it, Gold's special talent in PokeSpecial is breeding. How would he react to miscarriage/premature birth? After all, miscarriage is tragic and fucking scary, which could have an effect on Lost Silver as a whole. Hmm...
4. Depression – "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"; "I'm going to die... What's the point?"; "I miss my loved one, why go on?"
"WHO ARE YOU KID?" Enough said.
5. Acceptance – "It's going to be okay."; "I can't fight it, I may as well prepare for it." "R.I.P. PKMN TRAINER GOLD."
The final half of Hidden and the beginning of Lost Silver. "For the last onset, when the King be witnessed in his power." Would the king be Red or the Unown? Celebi? Level 255 Pikachu?
The only thing I don't get are the Easter Eggs when you read the signs after Goldrenrod turns purple. They're clear shout-outs to Crystal Hack and Tarnished Gold, but they don't seem to be there for any reason other than to complete the cycle (G/S/C = Tarnished Gold/Lost Silver/Crystal Hack) and blatant ads for two lamer creepypastas. The quote on the Crystal Hack sign was fine, and so was Tarnished Gold's, up until the point where it quoted the part that murdered Tarnished Gold for me in the first place, which was "MEWTWO: You are no longer useful." If it was just "You are no longer useful," that would have been more haunting. But no, it had to be "MEWTWO: You are no longer useful." wtf was that. Not to mention Mewtwo had no purpose in the Lost Silver pasta so that was jarring. It's like Mewtwo came by with Jigglypuff's black marker to scribble graffiti over a sign with, "MEWTWO WAS HERE. SILVER IS A LOSER!" Not so scary. :P
Finally, there's a secret ending (or glitch? I dunno if it's intentional or not or if I'm DOIN' IT RONG) where instead of going to the middle of Tin Tower at the entrance, you turn right and you walk through a gate--and off the background--until you warp. I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing. Everything's pitch-black, and I may or may not have shown up at the top of the red room completely invisible. I remember bumping into walls but basically, I was stuck and I couldn't see a thing. I couldn't load the menu and none of the buttons worked. Is it intentional to leave me in the dark (literally) all helpless and alone while the Unown Radio loops forever until I exit the game, like the "Purgatory" ending in Eversion H.D. where it's frozen in World 4 until you manually close the game (instead of the other endings where the game shuts off automatically)? Someone enlighten me on this please.
I also noticed that I still have that mystery item that I used on Feraligatr in my pack. Can it be used for anything else or does it serve no purpose from here on out?
As you can see, I've gone through this game three times to pick up any Easter Eggs I've missed, and I'm feeling too chicken to pick it up again. <.< It was raining and thundering while I was writing this, aaaaaaaugh. DD:I was scared there would be a power outtage and then I'd freak out.
With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,
Between the light and me;
And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.
~ Emily Dickinson "I heard a fly buzz when I died"
Between the light and me;
And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.
~ Emily Dickinson "I heard a fly buzz when I died"
Hidden turned out better than I expected. I was cautious that it might take the narmy WANGST AND VIOLENT DEATH route, but it took an interesting route that enhanced the original Lost Silver instead. It helps that absolutely no detail was given about Hidden at all, with no written creepypasta or anything. When Lost Silver got made into a game, I knew what to expect. But with Hidden, you're at it completely blind except for vague fanart, making the experience a lot more authentic and a hell of a lot scarier, giving you the feeling anon must of had when he first played his fucked up Silver cartridge. So yes, I was playing it with the lights on in the middle of the day on Halloween, and I was still uneasy and creeped out like fucking hell.
The music contributes to this atmosphere. I got O SHIT when the Unown Radio theme speeding up and I started walking backwards. Maybe the blood-red Unown are a little silly, but ugh god. God. That music. I liked that the graphics were also more faithful to what actual glitched Pokemon graphics would do, like the bottom half of Typhlosion's body cleanly cut off like a real half-sprite. There's no OMG TYPHLO'S BLEEDING AND YOU CAN SEE HER SPINAL CORD!!11!1 and there's no hollow shaded part where the eyes of the characters used to be... it's just the regular Pokemon trainer sprites without eyes, that's all. (Too be honest, I imagined the skulls on Gold's Trainer Card to be the skulls that showed up when your Pokemon is poisoned in battle rather than the custom-made white skulls, but that's just me. *shrug*)
But yeah, the music. The music. That's the scariest part in the whole game for me. The slowed Mt. Silver theme on the second floor made me think "Uhh..." and it didn't help that the water had frozen (I think I discovered a glitch where Gold can walk along the side of a big cliff, but eh). Then it slowed even more on the first floor. Thanks game, I was just getting used to the other one except not. Then there's the slowed down theme where you fight Feraligatr. Just... ghdskjghdskjghkjdsg this is even worse than the reverse Unown theme while fighting Red. DDD: I don't know what the heck you used to put Feraligatr to sleep, but after you "win" it turns to Totodile for a split second like you just murdered a friend.
The worst/best part of Hidden is Goldenrod City. I will never get both versions of that looping "song" out of my head now. *shudder* Basically you go around talking to the Gym Leaders and all the important people in Gold's life, who each have an Unown. After you talk to everyone, Goldenrod turns purple, and the message becomes unscrambled: WHO ARE YOU KID? Ending with Gold's Mom. Ouch. It's like, "Why are you even bothering? Why don't you die, Gold?" The game is telling you it's futile. The game is condenscending you. The game is telling you that you don't matter. The game is telling you to die.
Then you get to follow Red, and it turns out Bellsprout Tower was Tin Tower all along. Tin Tower, the home of Ho-Oh, a phoenix legendary aka the Pokemon God of Life? Ironic. You get told "SAVE YO--" by what I thought at first was a Feraligatr cry (DERP DERP) and Cyndaquil forgets Nightmare. Celebi tells you to "LEAVE NOW." Then Lost Silver starts right back at the beginning, and you can't say NO to the sign again no matter how you try.
On a lighter note, someone pointed out that the first Pokemon cry was Typhlosion. As soon as he heard the voice of his mother, Cyndaquil forgotten Nightmare, like he was ready to accept his mother's death and comes to terms that he'll see her for the first time when he passes on herself. By the end of it all, after the cries for help and the horror and denial of death, Gold was finally able to move on... and only then did his name and his life's work appeared on his tombstone in the end. It's worth mentioning to point out that the sign in front of the Tin Tower reads, "GOLD?" Kind of like a faint recognition or glimmer.
Speaking of denial, death and the Unown, anyone else reminded of the Kübler-Ross model/Five Stages of Grief?
1. Denial – "I feel fine."; "This can't be happening, not to me."
It all begins after Gold beats Red and Gold recieves the egg. The second Typhlosion vanishes, the Unown spell out the word, "DENY," the longest staying word in the game.
2. Anger – "Why me? It's not fair!"; "How can this happen to me?"; "Who is to blame?"
When Cyndaquil hatched. Whether or not he blames Gold for never being able to see his mother's face is uncertain, as he is, after all, a newborn. At the bottom floor of the cave, he "thrashes about" and the move itself disappears from his roster, leaving him with Nightmare. Is that what the Feraligatr battle was about, lashing out with violent memories of what happened and what they experienced and feeling guilty about it when Silver & Feraligatr disappear? That Feraligatr, once Totodile, was no different from Cyndaquil and Gold after all?
3. Bargaining – "Just let me live to see my Pokemon evolve."; "I'll do anything for a few more years."; "I will give my life savings if..."
Gold struggles to move on and raise his Cyndaquil, asking the Gym Leaders for rematches, thinking maybe if he worked hard enough and spent time working with the professors and see his own Mom more often, it'd give Cyndaquil a chance to live life without being an orphan.
The Unown spelling "HELP" and the Typhlosion's nickname being "PLEASE!" seem to be related to each other. What would happen if she lived? What about if she AND Cyndaquil would live and spend a normal life together free of worry? Won't you take her dying child, Gold? Is it possible that Typhlosion was dying from childbirth, and that Cyndaquil was born prematurely and thus have an early death? When you think about it, Gold's special talent in PokeSpecial is breeding. How would he react to miscarriage/premature birth? After all, miscarriage is tragic and fucking scary, which could have an effect on Lost Silver as a whole. Hmm...
4. Depression – "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"; "I'm going to die... What's the point?"; "I miss my loved one, why go on?"
"WHO ARE YOU KID?" Enough said.
5. Acceptance – "It's going to be okay."; "I can't fight it, I may as well prepare for it." "R.I.P. PKMN TRAINER GOLD."
The final half of Hidden and the beginning of Lost Silver. "For the last onset, when the King be witnessed in his power." Would the king be Red or the Unown? Celebi? Level 255 Pikachu?
The only thing I don't get are the Easter Eggs when you read the signs after Goldrenrod turns purple. They're clear shout-outs to Crystal Hack and Tarnished Gold, but they don't seem to be there for any reason other than to complete the cycle (G/S/C = Tarnished Gold/Lost Silver/Crystal Hack) and blatant ads for two lamer creepypastas. The quote on the Crystal Hack sign was fine, and so was Tarnished Gold's, up until the point where it quoted the part that murdered Tarnished Gold for me in the first place, which was "MEWTWO: You are no longer useful." If it was just "You are no longer useful," that would have been more haunting. But no, it had to be "MEWTWO: You are no longer useful." wtf was that. Not to mention Mewtwo had no purpose in the Lost Silver pasta so that was jarring. It's like Mewtwo came by with Jigglypuff's black marker to scribble graffiti over a sign with, "MEWTWO WAS HERE. SILVER IS A LOSER!" Not so scary. :P
Finally, there's a secret ending (or glitch? I dunno if it's intentional or not or if I'm DOIN' IT RONG) where instead of going to the middle of Tin Tower at the entrance, you turn right and you walk through a gate--and off the background--until you warp. I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing. Everything's pitch-black, and I may or may not have shown up at the top of the red room completely invisible. I remember bumping into walls but basically, I was stuck and I couldn't see a thing. I couldn't load the menu and none of the buttons worked. Is it intentional to leave me in the dark (literally) all helpless and alone while the Unown Radio loops forever until I exit the game, like the "Purgatory" ending in Eversion H.D. where it's frozen in World 4 until you manually close the game (instead of the other endings where the game shuts off automatically)? Someone enlighten me on this please.
I also noticed that I still have that mystery item that I used on Feraligatr in my pack. Can it be used for anything else or does it serve no purpose from here on out?
As you can see, I've gone through this game three times to pick up any Easter Eggs I've missed, and I'm feeling too chicken to pick it up again. <.< It was raining and thundering while I was writing this, aaaaaaaugh. DD:
