So, I finally finished Pokémon Violet last night. By which I mean I beat the first part of the postgame (I beat the Elite 4 and Champion the night before). Spoilers—both light and intense—to follow.
To start, I was totally blown away by Area Zero at a visual level. I know a bunch of people have complained about the ecosystem of the Paldea region (I wasn’t too bothered TBH), but now I know where all the budget went. Area Zero was absolutely gorgeous, from the initial verdant foliage, down into the depths of its crystal caverns. In more ways than one, it reminded me of the Abyss from Made in Abyss. Not only is there the immediate parallel of the descent into this wild and the (mostly) untouched-by-humans landscape (minus certain labs the further down you go), but even the idea of there being ferocious beasts within the cavern, seen by only a handful of people, resonated here. But what especially caught my attention in this comparison was not visual—it was aural:
Upon my initial steps into Area Zero, I was greeted by the above music. I was so taken with the music it actually made me stop playing just to listen. As I progressed further into the cavern, I was greeted by what sounded to be something like a Bulgarian chorus. The juxtaposition of the otherworldly chorus and the electronic music immediately conjured up one composer in particular: “What in the Kevin Penkin??” I actually exclaimed out-loud. To be fair, the first piece of Penkin’s that comes to mind for this vibe isn’t actually from his Made in Abyss scores—it’s “Irregular Gods” from his Tower of God score. But I can’t hear it as coincidence.
The track in question, “Area Zero,” was (shockingly) not composed by Penkin. Somewhat to my surprise, it was composed by Toby Fox. I say to my surprise because it’s quite different from my mental schema of his compositional style. With that being said, I will admit I do not know his music especially well, mostly only the highlights… I, ah, must confess I have not actually played much of Undertale. Still, I associate him more with a kind of fun and funky style, as seen in his previous contribution to Pokémon (SwSh), “Battle! (Battle Tower),” and his infamous “Megalovania” from Undertale:
Let’s backtrack. I called the choir “otherworldly.” I’ve always loved the harmonies employed by Bulgarian choirs—just look at the first song I use to test new speakers/headphones. “Otherworldly” perhaps problematically others this music. Bulgaria is, after all, of this world. But this has been an ongoing scoring trend for a while now. And the score that really put this soundscape on the map was Kenji Kawai’s score for Ghost in the Shell back in the 1990s. The opening sequence, among other scenes in the series (watch my favorite example below), make prominent use of a faux-Bulgarian chorus. Since then, Bulgarian choirs (or their harmonies at least) have come to indicate a kind of posthumanism. We hear this with Penkin’s aforementioned “Irregular God,” but we also hear this with some of the NieR music, such as in “Alien Manifestation,” composed by Keiichi Okabe and Keigo Hoashi.
Big spoilers for Pokémon SV (technically just Violet) to follow.
The influences here are so obvious I’d argue they have to be intentional. Not only do we have postpokémonism with the paradox Pokémon (which, as we come to find out in Violet, are Pokémon from the future), we also have posthumanism with Professor Turo, or, rather, AI Turo, who is the final boss of this area (well-meaning though he is). If you know me at all, you’ll know I have a not small interest in the posthuman, as I’ve written about in a previous post. Area Zero’s theme was immediately contextualized for me with this reveal. Again, I refuse to believe this was unintentional on Fox’s or the developers’ parts. Better still, it was incredibly effective; I was affectively overwhelmed for quite a bit.
Friends on my Instagram might have seen me post about the NieR anime earlier in the day saying “Watching the NieR anime in the era of AI is profoundly saddening”; later that night, while playing through the Area Zero storyline, I posted again, prompted by AI Turo’s “What is an AI, really?” My commentary?
“Are you fucking kidding me”
It related all too closely to NieR and, frankly, the new digital revolution we’re currently undergoing. I have discussed my take on the ethics of posthumanism elsewhere. (Which I should really publish sooner than later considering how things are going at the moment.) Mostly, I am saddened by the callousness of humans. And while that didn’t really play into the game’s narrative here, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about the ending sequence of Area Zero. I think there could have been a bit more nuance towards the end. Maybe I’ll come back to this at some point and give an update on my thoughts. But that it was a beautiful and stimulating experience I can’t deny. Area Zero has probably become one of my favorite postgame sequences in Pokémon, standing toe-to-toe with the legendary battle with Red on top of Mt. Silver. But whereas Red is infamously silent, here we can listen to voices—and music—beyond the human.
Anyways, I'm going to follow Penny's advice now and binge S2 of Made in Abyss. I think I'm finally in the headspace for it.
