Ahead of The Dark Pictures Anthology, and its first title Man of Medan, we examine the cult PlayStation title, Dark Tales: From the Lost Soul, and the larger question of why anthology horror has been absent from gaming.
The highly addictive, freeing format of anthology horror has really found a new life in recent years in both film and television, yet curiously this trend hasn’t transitioned over to the world of video games. While it seems like a natural fit for the easily digestible genre of gaming, anthology titles have been extremely few and far between. The Gamecube’s Eternal Darkness has arguably become the quintessential example of doing this right as it finds its inspiration coming from Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft through different stories that the protagonist experiences second hand. Resident Evil’s Umbrella Chronicles spinoff games kind of pull off the anthology feeling because every level features a scenario from a different moment in the series’ chronology, but it also pulls from and depends upon the past titles from a long-existing franchise. On top of that, it’s a rail-shooter, and trades more in action than horror.
There’s the Dreamcast game, Illbleed, where every level is essentially a different horror film, but there’s still a highly connected narrative. Silent Hill 4: The Room’s approach to its narrative gets very close to an anthology structure. Its protagonist is contained to his apartment for several days, while holes open up in his walls that take him to different worlds, like a subway, water prison, hospital. These distinct worlds reflect the variety of an anthology, but they all feature the protagonist, Henry Townshend, and are all an extension of the same singular narrative. It does reflect a nice compromise in the anthology approach, but it also reiterates that for the most part, games are afraid to commit to a straight anthology approach. Due to how this is a real rarity in gaming, it makes the existence of Dark Tales: From the Lost Soul even more exciting. It’s a survival horror title for the original PlayStation that uses the anthology structure and finds great success with it.
Dark Tales: From the Lost Soul is a horror game from Sammy Studios that came out in 1999 and has largely flown under the radar because of the fact that it only came out in Japan. This is probably due to the fact that the titles live-action sequences use a Japanese cast, but it’s a shame that other regions didn’t get to experience this creative title. The game basically creates its own Twilight Zone and then has you play through a few episodes of it, which may sound simplistic, but it’s an approach that really works for it.
Dark Tales kicks off with a rather atmospheric live-action introduction that would probably be the opening credit sequence if Dark Tales were a television show. It gives glimpses of the many different stories and visitors that enter this hub for the macabre, while it also infuses a fairly Lynchian vibe to the creepy nightclub aesthetic. There’s an MC character who operates as the game’s de facto Rod Serling surrogate and narrator through these three stories. He’s a nice touch and the actor gives a very unnerving, heightened performance, even if you can’t understand him. It’s also a little surprising to see how many genuinely unnerving visuals come out of these live-action segments, like a baseball covered in blood being repeatedly pitched into a catcher’s mitt, or a creepy assortment of clown dolls and bird cages.
For the most part, the different stories within Dark Tales operate with a choose-your-own-ending kind of setup where you move through mazes of dialogue tree-like scenarios and try to figure out what options will lead you forward and which will lead to your demise. This gives Dark Tales a very simple, yet immersive structure, that allows itself to focus on the scares and story, rather than complicated gameplay. In spite of the dialogue being in Japanese, newspaper articles in the game are in English, so you get the basic plot a lot of the time. In spite of how Dark Tales only came out in Japan, this structure makes the game somewhat playable, even if you can’t fully understand what’s happening. The menus and options within the game are also much simpler than those in most other survival horror titles, so there’s not a lot to get overwhelmed with for players who import the title.
Dark Tales: From the Lost Soul contains three episodes that must be completed, one by one, in order to unlock the next story. There are multiple endings for each episode too, which does add more replayability and variety to the game’s limited content and gets you to explore old stuff in new ways. There are also minigames where you’re tasked to survive that occasionally come up, which make for a fun, creepy diversion and feature unique premises. All of this just caters to the idea of finding more ways to offer up scares to the player. Another creative feature is the frequent “Decide” segments where you have to choose between two options, like shooting your pursuer, or calling the police.
When it comes to the games aesthetics and presentation, Dark Tales features a very creepy design, in general. There are randomly abrasive sound effects that get under your skin, text that drips down the screen super slowly, or the phrase “DECIDE” slowly turns into “DIE” while time ticks on your decisions. It’s a rough around the edges game, but these awkward touches give it more personality and make it feel even more disorienting and unpredictable. It’s almost like the game’s designer tried to put himself in head of a deranged killer and create through that lens.
The actual graphics in the game leave a lot to be desired. The graphics from the ‘90s were understandably limited by the decade’s capabilities, but in the same year, Parasite Eve II and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis came out on the PlayStation and Blue Stinger was released on the Dreamcast and they’re night and day to Dark Tales. In the game you also see characters’ weapons and their tools of fear, but never the characters themselves, which is an interesting stylistic choice. It’s impressive how a game that’s entirely void of in-game characters can still be frightening, but the sterile first-person perspective finds a creative angle for this horror. It’s a little jarring moving to these from live-action movies, but it’s really the only solution, other than doing the entire game through FMV, which would be a much worse experience and conjure a whole different vibe here.
The first episode in Dark Tales, “Cat & Mouse,” centers around a serial killer known as “Evil Eve” who’s decapitating bodies at Christmastime. She just claimed her 13th victim since she started killing two Christmases back and she begins to mock the police in a very Zodiac Killer kind of way.The story utilizes a bizarre setup where you’re stuck on the highway with a loaded revolver and trying to take down the serial killer and find a way to survive. On the occasions that Evil Eve appears, you can shoot her, but in the meanwhile, you navigate the foreboding open road. It’s an engaging premise that throws you right in the danger and makes you feel like you’re actually in pursuit by a killer.
In the second part of the story, you’re in the mysteriously abandoned amusement park, “Shadeland.” You walk down a dark street, masks on both sides of you, as you just wait for something to pop out or attack you. That’s not to say that something actually does, but it’s a lengthy sequence that’s designed to play on your expectations and create tension out of the mere experience of moving through scary territory, something that’s become a staple in survival horror titles since Dark Tales’ release.
The game’s second story, “Ghost Writer,” features a monkey’s paw-esque story about a struggling novelist who can’t find inspiration, yet he’s desperate to write a bestseller and meet his looming deadline. However, his new word processing program (L Word, Version 6.66) seems to help him with sinister repercussions. “Ghost Writer” is much more story-intensive than the other two episodes (and also easily the longest of the three stories), and it makes some incredibly creative use of dream sequences which is where the actual gameplay is contained, as you try to get inspiration through the dreams.
These trippy dream sequences are perhaps the highlight of the whole game. There are some surreal effects in play, but the Cronenberg body horror-like approach to things like a crane machine, is really evocative. As your deadline ticks down, your dreams get progressively disturbing and even though the chapter is fairly repetitive, a lot of this works, especially the segment where you’re on an operating table and a saw cuts into you before a crane turns your internal organs into prizes.
“The Honeymoon,” the final story in Dark Tales, follows the increasingly creepy exploits of a freshly married couple as they hit the open road and pit stops along the way, like motels and diners. While out on their honeymoon they start to face trouble and a powerful supernatural force as well as lengthy encounters with the police. This story definitely has the most variety, options, and endings for it, and even if it does feel a little colder than the other stories, the premise of a newlywed couple on the run from evil on the road is good!
Overall, Dark Tales is so brief that in many ways it feels like a demo or something you’d play all the way through in an arcade cabinet (or even a more complex visual novel game, since you’re mostly just weaving the set narrative together). The alternate endings help in this respect, but it’s still a very short game. Five stories, instead of three, would have made such a difference here. Impressively, Dark Tales is actually scary at times and sometimes the sparse environments add to the frightening experience. It’s steeped in the hokey presentation of the ‘90s, but it’ll still manage to surprise and startle you, despite that.
With the subtitle From the Lost Soul, it seems that the plan was to turn Dark Tales into a full-on franchise, but unfortunately, that never got to happen. Information on the title is so scant that it’s unclear if the game sold very well, but it assumedly failed to meet expectations due to how their was no follow-up. With a lot of FMV games getting deluxe anniversary editions, why not give this a US release through PSVR or something, and go all out with the idea that it’s trying to bring forward? Even a sequel that picks up on the same anthology structure, but with more polished and modern gameplay would be amazing. There’s a very strong foundation here, which makes it so sad this IP has been abandoned and that more anthology horror, in general, hasn’t been taken advantage of.
Even though anthology horror is still in short supply, Supermassive Games is leading up to their “Dark Pictures Anthology,” which is an anthology experience, but broken up through several games across a series. Each title is still just one story. This is a nice advancement to some degree for anthology horror, but you can just get so much more variety and jam-packed storytelling in one title that tells three or five stories that are totally different.
Resident Evil’s Umbrella Chronicles titles were addressed earlier, but these titles raise a better question of why an anthology horror approach hasn’t been tested in waters that are already known to be successful, such as Resident Evil or Silent Hill. These series have rich histories that have plenty of areas to mine for a more scattered, episodic approach. Plus, they have the notoriety of these established franchises to fall back on if audiences are skeptical. What about a game where a bunch of survivors from Raccoon City encounter each other in a bar and each recount their various experiences in the zombie-infested community? Or somebody just take the Tales From the Crypt license and run with it! Anthology horror can work, but somebody just needs to take a chance on it.
