 |
| "This is not your story..." |
What if your life was nothing more than a script? A
predetermined set of conflicts and resolutions to be played out to a final
conclusion? What if you had no control over any of it? That you were meant to
play these events out to the end regardless of any outside factors or
interference?
And what if you were the only one in the entire world who
didn’t know what was happening?
And worse…what if even that
was something that was callously taken away from you?
 |
| The paint begins to chip... |
Pokémon: False Red is a ROM hack of the FireRed
and LeafGreen versions for the GBA.
It
plays out exactly as those games do in terms of mechanics…but it had had some
alterations made to it that are not quite what one would expect from a game in
this universe.
We enter into the life of
a young boy named Fire (or a girl named Leaf, if you choose that option).
He’s ten years old and eager to begin an
exciting journey in the world of Pokémon, specifically in the Kanto region of
the Pokémon world where the original first generation games (Red, Blue, and
Yellow) and some of the third generation (the aforementioned FireRed and
LeafGreen) were largely set in.
However,
we have not come back to the Kanto that was so beloved by fans of the series.
Starting in his room, the first thing that draws Fire’s eye
is a SNES. “This was his.” How very
strange…his, not mine. Not some generic,
chipper line about the SNES. Just, “This was his.” And a sign by the stairs stating only two
words:
“Come home.”
Fire is haunted by these words, surely, but we get no
visible reaction (as he’s in that tradition of silent protagonists) as he heads
downstairs and sees on the TV a boy standing on a mountain, but who is he?
And then turning to his Mother…who claims
that all boys leave home someday
just
like her son!
Bizarre…perplexing…even creepy, some might say.
After all,
Fire is her son…right? RIGHT?!
It’s snowing outside…it’s always snowing. No explanation, no mention, it’s not even a
feature that gets discussed by the NPCs.
But it’s there. A quick glance at
the Pallet Town sign reveals that this is “His
hometown”.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, this is something
right out of creepypasta. And a really effective one at that. But so far as I have been able to find, this
isn’t based on a creepypasta in the same vein as the “Creepy Black” or
“Tarnished Gold” creepypastas. In fact,
the closest I could find to it was “Glitchy Red”, which – while similar – isn’t
quite the same. It doesn’t stop there
with the unnerving atmosphere and the signs everywhere demanding the same thing
– “Come home”. This atmosphere is maintained throughout
pretty much the entire game, which otherwise runs exactly as Pokémon FireRed does.
The exceptions being in the dialogue, which is fairly easy for a ROM
hack to see changed, considering the original game had no voices for
characters. Just text…and how chillingly well it is used.
This is no better demonstrated than with the Rival
character, Gary.
Immediately upon
meeting him in Oak’s Lab, he calls Fire out as not being Red…wonders why he
looks so much like him, and claims that this is not Fire’s story.
Even after being defeated, he vows to stop
Fire from stealing Red’s story, no matter the cost.
It seems that Professor Oak doesn’t even take
notice of this…until you take a look at his computer and read the message “
I’m sorry.
We couldn’t find him.”
And, outside of his rival, Fire finds himself blasted by others
for having the same appearance and doing the same things as Red. The Nurse Joys at every Pokémon Center drop
their traditional farewell for “Please
don’t come back.” The posts in the
Gyms all refer to the Winning Trainers as “RED” and “Green”. The strange man in the Gyms encourages Fire
to “give up” at every turn. Characters
will wonder why Fire’s bothering to catalogue Pokémon when someone else already
did it. Even some compliments that Fire gets are mean spirited and backhanded.
Now, anyone who has played the Second Generation games (Gold, Silver and Crystal) or has played their Fourth Generation remakes (HeartGold and SoulSilver) will know that the true final battle of the game is not
the Elite Four, but is a mysterious trainer named Red who stands at the peak of
Mount Silver awaiting any challenge brave enough to make their way up the
mountain, a mountain where it snows quite often…and how very interesting it is
that it seems to snow everywhere in Kanto in False Red.
This, in combination with how many NPCs tend to speak of
Red, leads us to the implication that he has died at some point after defeating
the Elite Four and travelling to Mount Silver, and was never found. Is he missing? Is he dead? No one seems to
know, but given Fire’s journey and his striking resemblance to their fallen
hero, most of the people are very unhappy.
To them, he’s a copycat, but it’s more than just that in this world.
Again, the sign posts.
The strange flavor text about items and objects in the world. And those two words, repeated again and
again. “Come home”. And it is
indeed everywhere. Anyone playing the
game would be hard pressed to find a sign that doesn’t have those two words. And what does Fire say about this?
Nothing. He’s a silent protagonist,
nothing more, but that only leaves us to ponder the horror of the thing
ourselves. Just what is going on here? Is
Red dead? Is he missing? Is he the sinister hand behind all of this? And if Fire’s not Red, then who or what is he?
Well, the short answer is that there is no answer. No clue, no reason for any of this being. At the end of the game, once Fire has stopped
Gary in his insane tirade to stop him from “taking Red’s story”, Professor Oak
arrives and announces that both he and Gary are done playing – “This is not a game.” And with that line,
Oak takes Fire back to register his Pokémon for victory…and the save file is
erased. Fire’s journey for all it meant
and didn’t mean, for all he achieved and all ground that was retreaded, comes
to an end…with no record of it ever having happened at all.
So…what have we learned? What is this besides some mad hacker’s skill at editing a game’s
graphics and dialogue?
My theory is that the game is a metaphor, a living avatar of
the series of games and its relation to the fans. Consider the Pokémon games in general. Most players will substitute their own name
for Red’s or Gold’s or any of the other protagonists. In the end, though, it isn’t our story. Just
as the original Red and Blue were Red’s story. Not that anyone who plays a Pokémon game
would ever have a second thought about slapping their name on the player
character and playing through it. To us,
it’s just a game.
A game that, when you get down to it, has the same plot
repeated again and again.
A young trainer journeys out into the world to become the
best like no one ever was.
So it’s nothing more than a script…a predetermined set of
conflicts and resolutions to be played out to a final conclusion, and with no
real control of any of it. But this
time, the events don’t play out quite the same.
Outside factors and interference stop that, in the end. The entire world knows it’s happening, and it
stops it, forever.
Is Red dead? Missing? The story may never have really been
his to begin with. His image, everything
he is, taken over and controlled by someone else. The Player, as the game recognizes at the
end…is responsible for it all. The one
who has taken Red’s face and his path in life and made it entirely their own
for their own entertainment. It brings some weight to it all, leaves us to
really ponder just how many lives have been overwritten in these games and in
others we’ve played…how we have been
the real monster the whole time. Did the
Warden really save all of Thedas from
the Fifth Blight? Did Jack ever save Rapture? Did Link ever really defeat
Gandorf?
And did Red ever really become the best like no one ever
was?
He may very well have never had the chance…because of every
player out there who ever picked up a Pokémon
cartridge.
That may just be rampant speculation about the meaning of
the game. Crazed and
unsubstantiated. But as for False Red, I can’t say I dislike
it. The atmosphere is really good and with GBA graphics, no
less. It’s chilling, unnerving, and did actually make me ponder a possibility –
something which games rarely do. I will
say, though, that I was a little disappointed with the ending. While I’m all for the breaking of the fourth
wall, the ending seemed rather sudden and out of nowhere, and gave no real
resolution, though that might just feed back into the game’s cruelty in general
(after all, it’s not your story). Apart
from that, it’s a chilling walk that makes us wonder if the real antagonist in
video games…is really…us?
_poster.jpg)
