Randomization

I have recently been slowly working my way through a Four Job Fiesta run in Final Fantasy V. Currently, I am in the Merged World, finishing up the last few dungeons until it's time to get to the end of the game. I've never actually made this far in a run before; I usually give up because I get bored of having to grind for good skills, or I get stuck on a boss that gives my predetermind classes a problem. While it hasn't been the smoothest ride, I've been enjoying things more than I have in all these years prior.

Final Fantasy V got me thinking. While there's nothing unique about this version of the game; all I'm doing is limiting myself by not using its main battle system conceit to its fullest potential, the four classes that I ended up having to play through the whole game with were randomly assigned to me by an internet dice roll. In that sense, it felt similar to something I love doing with games: running them through a randomizer and trying to survive.

There are three games in particular that I like to randomize: Resident Evil 2, Dark Souls, and Aria of Sorrow. These are games that, at this point, I can essentially sleepwalk my way through. I've A-ranked RE2 more times than I have actually finished every other game in the series. There are times where I feel like I know the layout of Lordran better than I do the layout of my own neighborhood. I play and replay these games over and over because they're awesome, and sometimes you just need a quick run through something you're familiar and comfortable with. And then sometimes you need to inject complete and utter chaos into them.

These are no longer the same game. Before, each of these games were a progressively more difficult series of challenges for the player to overcome. A randomizer does not care. Things like "difficulty curve" or "fairness" go out the window. New strategies are required. Often times, these strategies are completely out of the box thinking, requiring the use of glitches or exploiting of enemy attack patterns. You learn to manage resources you wouldn't have had to before. You have to play the game in ways the developers never intended. Battles that you used to have to (and be able to) prepare for now become commonplace, strength or weaponry be damned. It can be frustrating, satisfying, and hilarious all at once.

Despite being crafted by caring, loving human hands, the machine is cold, unfeeling. A randomizer is not concerned with whether or not you can finish the game. It doesn't care if the game is now too hard, or too easy, or too buggy. If you can finish the game, then you get the same endings and rewards as if you had played through it normally. You are the only person who cares. Unless you're playing a randomized game on stream, in which case you probably have an audience that cares, but I think you may understand what I'm getting at, here. This self-imposed challenge asks you one question: why? Why are you doing this? Why are you playing the game like this?

My answer is simple: it makes the game new, all over again. Resident Evil becomes scary not because there might be a monster around the corner, but because you don't know what kind of monster it is, and how dangerous it will be. When items and souls are shuffled around, with doors taking you to completely different areas than before, exploring Dracula's castle in AoS becomes a mystery again. When endgame enemies and bosses like Gwyn and Kalameet stand in the way of you ringing the first Bell of the Undead, but balances things out a little bit with excellent drops like a Black Knight Sword, Dark Souls brings back its vaunted difficulty that you already mastered 15 years ago. If I have to be forced to be stuck in the past, I may as well make things interesting and fresh for myself.

Maybe I will get around to trying out a Pokemon randomizer sometime soon...