Demon's Spurs
There’s a series of video games from a Japanese publisher called FromSoft that are known for their nigh legendary punishing learning curve. They are action role playing games that do not appeal to casual gamers that require hand holding. There is no easy difficulty setting to select. These games will break you. They will force you to quit rage. Their level design and depth and lore is a showcase of how ingenious and creative such an experience can be.
The atmosphere they set and the story they tell is one of discomfort. It’s barely enjoyable at times. And yet, you’re mesmerised if you allow yourself in and you’re prepared to work as hard as this reinvented concept of ‘fun’ can get. There is undeniable beauty in amongst the dark setting. These games are comparable to The Scream by Edvard Munch whereas say something like FIFA or Call of Duty are broken crayons smashed and scribbled on a chalk white wall.
I am of course referring to the SoulsBorne games; Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls I - III and Bloodborne. You can also add Sekiro into the mix. The mechanics and designs are familiar from one to the other, with certain key differences but their essence remains the same. The stories and settings also differ, but that’s for another day and another blog unrelated to football.
All of these intellectual properties are at the very pinnacle of challenging gameplay. They demand you are supremely disciplined and that the way you can progress with dogged determination is by doing the following; you git gud.
If you’re a newb and you’re fearless and want a challenge, you have to surrender that instant God mode feeling that other super commercial games often bestow on you (with the aid of microtransactions). If the jump scares and sheer brutality scare you off, your copy will end up on Ebay.
Demon's Souls is the one I’m currently immersed in on my Playstation 5 (ooh humble brag). This is an old game that has been remade for the new next gen console. it’s set in Boletaria, a kingdom consumed by a dark-being named the Old One, following its release through the use of forbidden Soul Arts. Players (that would be me) take on the role of a hero brought to Boletaria to kill its fallen King Allant and pacify the Old One. You create your hero, what she or he looks like and select a class (say a knight or a royal or a hunter etc) and then buff your character as you progress. We don’t need to get bogged down with the nerd details here.
Mostly all of these games are set in apocalyptic/medieval settings and Demon’s Souls is no different. There’s a heavy emphasis on challenging combat and the core mechanics relate to player death and respawning. If you dislike video games or you’re just pretending to be a grown-up, the reason something like Demon’s Souls does not appeal to the casuals, is because it doesn’t empower you to win easily. It’s not there to make you instantly gratified. Like I said, there is no God mode unless you earn it after sinking a good 100 - 150 hours into the game.
You see, in these games, you’re like a rat in a maze. You have to go around and around until you work out how to get past whatever it is that stands in your way. You do so by repetition. Prepare to die is pretty much the tagline. What is ultimately fulfilling about the experience is this astonishing level of achievement and sheer satisfaction when you overcome the odds. Be it a certain part of the map or one of the boss battles. I often wonder if playing this can even be quantified as ‘fun’.
These games remain level pegging with Tottenham Hotspur in the sense of pushing me to breaking point and screaming profanities at the tv. Sadly, the comparison does not end there.
You can get very good at traversing the world you’re engaged in. You open up short cuts which means you’re not having to fight your way through the same corners and circles. However, you also have to combat bosses in epic fights that are frankly soul destroying (gaming pun there).
Now, actual gamers will say that this particular addition to the FromSoft legacy is not the hardest of all the releases they have created. it was the very first one they released way back in 2009 (before the 2020 remake that I currently own). But this blog is about football and not a dissertation on game design. The reality is, most players will struggle to beat a boss first time. It can often take an age but they are beatable and there are methods. You have to study the boss and its move set and work out the best form of attack and defence. A bit like what Jose Mourinho does with Tottenham and their opponents.
So, as an example, there’s a a goliath of a boss called the Tower Knight. He’s huge. Massive shield and spear type sword type thing. And he’s got archers protecting him too. So you need to kill the archers whilst dodging his attacks and then you attack the Knight by hacking at his ankles. When he falls, you attack his weak spot. His head. You rinse and repeat till he’s dead. But you have to make sure you’re not struck by one of his attacking move sets. It’s a dance of violence. And you’re reactive to it. You attack when there is an opportunity to punish. Again, much like a Mourinho Spurs side.
There’s another boss which I think fittingly allows me to shift more towards the football autopsy cake you are probably waiting to digest. This boss is found in the Stonefang Tunnel area of the game. This spider shoots fire balls and also leaks oil that she (yes, she’s a she) sets alight. And obviously the spider also shoots webs too, that causes you to stop for a moment as you cut yourself loose. She has a few moves too if you happen to move in close to melee her. It’s a tricky fight if you do want to get close and attack. Magic helps (you can spec into different things to build up your characters resolve). But there is another means of defeating this boss.
You can cheese the spider.
You can cheese a fair few of the bosses.
What does this mean? To cheese? It’s the gaming equivalent to football’s sh*thousery. Instead of charging forward and displaying traits of courage and flair, if you so wished you could arm yourself with a bow and arrow and settle into a corner at the end of the tunnel and out of the spider’s reach - and then you can aim arrows constantly at the spider and not get hit yourself by the fire balls because you’re protected by the corner you’re hiding behind. The arrows hitting the spider will eventually deplete its health and you’ll have won because you did as little as possible to place yourself in harms way.
Is this cheating? Well no, because you’ve beaten the boss. You’ve just not risked much. You’ve not gambled everything on a glorious attempt at victory. You’ve done everything to make certain you will not lose and that you will win because you’re holding back enough to give yourself an opportunity through the art of patience and shrewd, unattractive cunning play.
You see, this is what Spurs under Mourinho do most of the time. We cheese off opponents. We settle into a specific mindset and tactic and then we relentlessly execute the plan of attack, even if that attack is limited. It doesn’t always work - be it in the video game or on the football field - but it’s the tactic that has the lowest risk of failure because you’re not setting yourself up to a certifiable defeat. It doesn’t always work though. Not every boss will allow you to hide away. Also, sometimes you don’t need to plan your strategy this way.
Sometimes you have enough strength or endurance or dexterity to do more with your sword or shield or whatever magic you have available to you to strike an enemy down. I’m talking about Spurs now. Sometimes you can seek to take a risk because the odds are on your side with the damage you can inflict. That choosing to hide in the corner with a bow and arrow is doing a disservice to the abilities you possess.
You see, in a game like Demon’s Souls, it’s not just the bosses that can cause breakdowns of the mind. It can be any particular NPC (non player character) that you so happen upon. Or it can be a particular area that requires wit and masterful timing. And sometimes there’s an alternative option. To just run in another direction and come back when you feel you are more prepared.
Alas, there is no running away on the field of play outside of a video game. As much as I have defended and also appreciate the deliberate sacrifice and the patient and contained tactics…we don’t need to cheese everyone off. Because the thing with boss battles or even your standard enemy is that sometimes they have the ability to one-shot you. Sometimes you don’t notice your health is depleted and you get hit and your stamina drops, you stagger and you’re hit again and you’re done. But had you not allowed them to gain the momentum against you, and had you been the one to step forward, you might have been the one to one-shot them instead.
The thing with video games and football is; there is always - always - another opportunity. You learn from repetition. Be it the same personal move set when attacking or defending or an adjustment of it that sees you do something different in the moment. Perhaps because you’re a little bit stronger than last time or you have a more refined weapon available. Or possibly, you do something out of the ordinary, expressive and daring. Because if you die / lose, you go again and you know and understand the potential consequences of doing the same thing next time.
I’m far off from completing Demon’s Souls. It’s an exhaustingly long campaign of punishment and occasional joy. I’m doing my utmost to git gud. I’ve died a fair few times. Hundreds probably. But then, video games are the type of escapism that only truly exist when I’m sat there playing it. It’s a story that comes into existence when you boot your console or PC. Football doesn’t have that ilk of protection that presides in digital fantasy. The consequences are deep rooted into our reality and shared experience. Death in football is akin to losing a game, if you attempted to compare the two. But much like Demon’s Souls and other video games, you are soon resurrected. It’s never game over. You always get the opportunity to go again and best your previous performance. There is a perpetual second chance every time you step out onto the pitch.
We lost. We lost because we tried to cheese the opposition. If you keep trying to cheese the enemy from around the corner then you’ll forget how to dance around in its face and smack it in the head with a massive shiny sword, with bravado and arrogant confidence. We know how to, we’ve done so. We’ve got to be doing it more.
See that special ingredient in a game like Demon’s Souls is that you have to be prepared to die. You have to risk it all to learn from it, to then go again. Then you know what to do with perfect riposte.
Tottenham need to git gud. They need to stop hiding. They need to start attacking.
"What is bravery, without a dash of recklessness!"
— Hawkeye Gough (Dark Souls)