*Subtitles dedicated to YouTube user “Milk Tea”, encouraging me to make this Dark Aspects episode!* Much like 2013 being declared the “Year of
Luigi”, commemorating 30 years since his very first appearance- Nintendo has now officially
and hilariously named October the “Month of Luigi”. It’s fitting, as his claim to fame- what really
turned Green Mario into the better brother is a starring role in a horror-parody(?) game
of his own (I said his own horror parody game not horrific parody of itself)- Luigi’s Mansion. So, to pair with the third installment releasing
on the spookiest day of the year, let’s dust off a classic and see where the journey of
our hesitant hero began- with Dark Aspects of Luigi’s Mansion. The premise is that Mario turns up missing
(again), after investigating a mansion the two supposedly won from a contest they never
entered. So Luigi (now armed with a souped-up shop
vac gifted by a fellow ghost-hunter) has to finish the job and find his brother- lighting
up these haunted halls one room at a time. This is Nintendo’s take on the horror genre. And as such, we’re looking at a more comical,
fun definition of “scary” where much of the adventure is played for laughs rather than
shock. At the very least though, the game does maintain
an even eeriness throughout, excelling in atmosphere and managing to be genuinely creepy
at times which is what I’ll be delving into today. Much of the ominous vibe comes from what is
probably the game’s greatest strength- its sound design. I’m sure anyone who’s played for any amount
of time really can recall Luigi calling out to his missing brother or humming along to
the background music- utilizing seperate tracks the lower his heart points run. At mid range, his voice changes from semi-confident
to shaky and cautious- ♪ Luigi scaredly humming ♪ any lower and the man sounds like he’s about
to faint. His voice trembles, and whimpers completely
off pitch. ♪ Luigi whining ♪ This is played with further as the ghosts
too in any uncleared room will creepily moan along as if to taunt you. These lesser spirits that croon to the music
occupy every floor are silly in design, likely because they’re actually creations of the
powerful portrait ghost Vincent Van Gore (also known as Pablo Psicasso is the Spanish version
which is awesome)- and have two ways of being cleared out. The first, more “standard” method is vacuuming
via Poltergust 3000, but an additional way is continuously spraying an element (ice,
fire, or water) onto a ghost that hosts an affinity for the opposite. It causes them to dissipate, which I always
found a little unsettling. You can destroy their essence! Those are only the minions though- it’s
recapturing these humanesque ghosts (freed from their portrait prisons by King Boo) now
taking occupancy in the mansion that work as the other main objective to finding Mario. But where did they come from, and are they
also art pieces brought to being like their lesser lackeys? No- it’s heavily implied that these are
indeed the spirits of deceased people captured and turned into paintings later by E. Gadd-
with the instruction manual outright stating this to be the case. Further support is seen in human photographs
to the likeness of certain ghosts displayed in their respective rooms, with biographies
detailing life before their afterlife. In a couple of rather grim cases, we’re
even told how they died. The darkest bio in the game is that of Sue
Pea, a 7 year old girl who passed away in her sleep. As described, what was supposed to be a short
nap turned into an eternal slumber. This poor girl is one of only two portrait
ghosts with an explicit cause of death, (the other being Luggs the glutton, having eaten
himself to death and still left unsatisfied), though the idea or seed was planted- so it’s
interesting to imagine how the others could have perished. A most interesting talking point is this family
of five- a father, mother, baby, and twin boys residing in the first area. Since child deaths clearly aren’t off the
table, what horrible accident had to have occurred for this entire household to all
wind up as ghosts together? The idea of a ghost baby is a sad enough sentiment
too- there is a picture suggesting Chauncey (like the others) was once living and therefore
had to have died. Perhaps Nintendo realized or thought that
killing babies was too far so they covered it up with his bio! Chauncey was born a ghost…? Unfortunately, this is a pretty big contradiction
and where a lot of the confusion on what these portrait ghosts are supposed to be stems from. What is the purpose of this? Are the photos simply a product of illusion
from King Boo like the mansion itself, to make everything appear historied (and as a
result, scarier for Luigi)? Nonetheless, to be “born a ghost” has
tragic implications in and of itself, a likely unintended result from their censoring. Being “born a ghost” could rather morbidly
be construed as a stillbirth or miscarriage, but whatever you believe it’s still a Dark
Aspect for simply being a topic of discussion. Even when dismissing all this speculation,
Chauncey as a boss character is quite frightening in general- he first makes a presence by laughing
while dropping the foyer’s chandelier on Luigi- and is introduced with the camera panning
towards the nursery (to the eerie sound of a toy box) following the capture of his mother. This demon baby is built up to host powers
unlike anything else in the game, apparently surpassing his older brothers and surprising
his parents. We see the extent of his ability during the
actual fight, where he shrinks Luigi down to fit well inside his crib, letting out a
few nightmare cries before attempting to flatten you by rocking horse. On par with intimidating bosses but moving
away from paranormal infancy is Bogmire, The Cemetery’s Shadow as the area 2 boss. He’s one of a few portrait ghosts in the
game that clearly isn’t human, with its casted shadow resembling that of a gravestone. But what exactly is it supposed to be? The purple penumbra looks more monstrous than
anything, and based on its name, an amalgamation of bog and quagmire I’d guess it was birthed
from the bottomland. But physical attributes aside, this creature
from the black lagoon actually has a bit of lore attached to it- a bio hinting at how
it came to be. According to Mr. Swamp’s description, Bogmire
is a product of the very mansion you’re exploring- specifically the fear and despair
within. A manifestation of hopelessness, which is
a pretty terrifying thought. The line that follows, “he’s not sure
who to fear or what to despair these days” is made to be funny, perhaps to lesson the
existential horror but a spirit born from intense emotion it doesn’t know what to
do with is kind of melancholy in its own right. His “heart” can’t even be scanned with
the Game Boy Horror like the other ghosts, so Gadd knows what this thing is feeling.