Dev Log 3: My Strange World

Something that was brought to me by a member of a forum where I posted the game on had asked a question about how the dream elements were handled.

Then at a separate point, Konvel, when giving me a shout out ( < 3 ) had labeled the game as a surreal psychological horror. 

I myself defaulted to using the label of psychological horror, but in these dev longs and elongated descriptions of the game, I refrained from using the term horror. So my goal for this dev long in particular is to really go in depth as to how I describe the treatment of all things strange.

Firstly the term horror conjures up to mind jump scares, viral video games of such, and cheesy flicks. I actually am not really into the genre because I can’t handle jump scares well even. Therefore it wasn’t something that I didn’t want to be a heavy part of Achlys.

However, what about psychological horror?

Wikipedia defines it as a subgenre of horror that, to put it most simply, focuses on psychological states. That’s rather circular.

To list some things I consider similar to Achlys, according to wikipedia Serial Experiments Lain is considered psychological horror, Evangelion is a psychological drama, and Boogiepop Phantom is a psychological thriller. Monster and Ergo Proxy also fall under psychological thriller. Well it certainly seems like I have a certain taste. (Will take any anime recommendations.)

What seems to separate Serial Experiments Lain from something like Ergo Proxy is that certain elements are more pronounced as oppressive and disorienting. While there were many unusual aspects in a show like Ergo Proxy or Monster that were a bit terrifying and unusual, the line that is drawn for me is that it is less unsettling and alien. Something like Serial Experiments Lain, which EVA does only in my favorite parts, is that the underpinnings of the reality of the world is thrown asunder and things are presented in strange, uncomfortable, and symbolic manners.

How that relates to Achlys is that while I never went for jump scares, or heck even showed anything truly even slightly scary, it could be interpreted as horror because of how I pushed the envelope in terms of underpinning the reality of the world. So while it isn’t horrific, it could be defined as unsettling, and even heavy and oppressive.

It is never made exactly clear what the world itself is, and many of the empty spaces and contradictions seem to exist without much clarification, despite many things having such focus. For instance, we know the barista that works at Jessie’s favorite coffee shop, but we don’t know the name of the coffee shop or even the name of the city or the school. It’s unclear how the world runs. Even the images for each character’s scene selection is to emphasize how alone and empty the world is. I never really even shied away from showing the fog skybox, rather I put it front and center. How much of that is me showing that the world of Achlys is figurative or literally empty is up to debate.

But the effect is clear. Characters like Jessie, Lauren, or Anna look deeply into the fog to try to piece it all together, coming so close to conclusions but then just losing it as they get close, spinning themselves in circles, or just stopping. The fog is many things, but it serves something similar to a fourth wall, where the characters are close to understanding their reality, like Plato’s cave, and unveiling (or revealing) what is behind the mist that covers people’s eyes, known as Maya, Achlys, or Caligo, take your pick.

Across the fog, the characters of the dream world and as you journey through the floors, look in strange and disorienting ways, but also look back into the regular world from a new angle. The focus of the floors was to examine Ellie, as well as the other characters and provide indirect hints as to the world and the lore. Granted, I did not imagine half of it would make sense unless I made sequels.

The psychological horror of Achlys comes from this constant oppressive force of the fog that creeps behind the characters. They know something is wrong, and choose to react in different ways, but are ultimately powerless. The fog itself is self-referential, labyrinthian, and symbolic. Some scenes in fact indicate that this division is breaking down. (At the time of first planning of Achlys, I liked Spinoza’s resolution to mind body duality as both being parts of a third substance, and many of his ideas and those of neoplatonists and gnosticists would form the foundation of many an edgy anime game since, but I didn’t know how to revolve the strict mechanistic determinism with a story.)

So my friend tells me a ton about his lucid dreams and how he fights with magical anime powers he has seen in anime and all that. In a very logical revelation, I lucid dream a lot too. For me, I do not awaken in a dream like an on-off switch where I realize it's a dream, allowing me to do whatever I want, but I always seem to understand it's a dream, and then work within its rules. As if I fell asleep on a bus and woke up in a new city. The rules of lucid dreaming influence a lot of my philosophy on the magic system and world of Achlys, but this personal view also influences how I treat dream scenes. As Mira says early on, just because it is a dream doesn’t mean it is real. In fact, all the dream scenes are meant to point to real things in symbolic fashion, even if what they’re pointing to is not yet apparent. (Because I haven’t made Book 2 yet.)

(The Magic of the world will be better defined in projects that feature it more heavily. Or so I plan to.)

As for another part of the strangeness, and something I think is unintentionally horrifying, was my heavy usage of philosophical undertones. While there is a distinction between psychological and philosophical aspects in a show, in my mind, the underpinning is ideas. While I could have for instance had Anna discuss which Ship is the Ship of Theseus, it wouldn’t have much of a connective thread to the game unless she were to then use the idea to reference her sense of self, as she sees her ideas changing over time. (Actually a good idea there.)

If I were to bring up the aforementioned Spinoza substance, it really just feels out of place unless I were to tie in determinism, which in of itself is something that carries emotional resonance. 

For instance with Jessie, I tried to do the reverse and had her talk about her mental and emotional states and then use a philosophical concept to round it out, such as the ever popular and quoted Hedgehog’s dilemma. To which I humbly find one of the less interesting ideas of Schopenhauer but probably the easiest to quote.

This is why most of the time a philosopher is mentioned in a show or piece of media, chances are it is one of the philosophers whose ideas are more emotionally engaging. This includes life philosophers such as Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Schopenhauer, or existentialists like Satre, Camus, etc. Truthfully, has anyone really heard Kant or Aristotle mentioned by an edgy anime character? (Ideas for Book 2. Kidding… unless?)

When taken in pieces, Achlys’s strangeness can be defined in a few different pieces working in parallel. This would be the surreal and symbolic nature of the dream world, the oppressive weight and presence of the fog, and the abstract philosophy and psychology of the dates. In a future work, were I to improve upon what I have done, I would like to attempt to weave them all together more tightly.