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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Darkest Nintendo franchise?

 

Which Nintendo franchise is, consistently, the darkest?

Metroid 83 49.70%
 
The Legend of Zelda 13 7.78%
 
Fire Emblem 10 5.99%
 
Earthbound 30 17.96%
 
Xenoblade 12 7.19%
 
Sin and Punishment 10 5.99%
 
Pikmin 7 4.19%
 
Star Fox 2 1.20%
 
Total:167
Nuvendil on 27 July 2016
AZWification said:
Nuvendil said:

Uh...the opening of XCX depicts the genocide of over 9 BILLION human beings.  Xenoblade Chronicles also has some dark undertones and extreme evil acts.  Xenoblade is, imo, a bit darker than Metroid so far, though Metroid is close behind.

Haven't really played XCX.

Oh...well don't worry that's like a 5 second in spoiler :P



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Mr_No on 27 July 2016

Madworld



Mr_No on 27 July 2016
CaptainExplosion said:
Mr_No said:
Madworld

Only published by Nintendo, and only one game, so it's not a franchise.

Well sorry for not reading the unwritten rules.



Volterra_90 on 27 July 2016

Earthbound imo.



SanAndreasX on 27 July 2016
AZWification said:

Metroid is as close as it gets to a dark Nintendo franchise. Majora's Mask is also dark, but it's just one game.

I'd argue that Wind Waker is just as dark of a game as Majora's Mask, its cartoony look notwithstanding. The darkness in Wind Waker really gets brought home when you visit the castle. Even the opening is kind of somber for a Zelda game.



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TruckOSaurus on 27 July 2016

Luigi's Mansion



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SanAndreasX on 27 July 2016

Metroid and Fire Emblem would get my vote, overall. But Nintendo also has a knack for hiding some disturbing stuff in some of its brightest, cheeriest-looking games. Read what Shigesato Itoi said about the ending to Mother 3.



Wright on 27 July 2016
CaptainExplosion said:

Only published by Nintendo, and only one game, so it's not a franchise.

There's two games actually, Madworld and Anarchy Reigns.

 

I remember Golden Sun in general being dark. Even when they tried flavouring the drama and such, the implications where mostly unpleasant.



LMU Uncle Alfred on 27 July 2016
CaptainExplosion said:
onionberry said:

there are a lot of dark symbolic messages, at least on zelda games.

It started with A Link to The Past, where Link is able to go between his world, and a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Then Ocarina of Time, where Link wakes up in the future and all hell has broken loose (frickin ReDeads >.<). We need no further explanation on Majora's Mask. Wind Waker was a step back at first, then we learn which Zelda timeline it is. Finally Twilight Princess, which may retain it's title unless things are worse in Breath of The Wild.

The problem with all of that is they're ideas more or less presented in the games as existing.  The games don't push the worlds/stories far enough in the whole of each Zelda game to make them dark enough.    It's sort of like many of the 90s Disney movies where they may present dark ideas, but they don't go deep enough into them to make a more mature impression: Aladin and Beauty and the Beast come to mind the most.  It's why they're still rated G.  Although as overblown as it is, regular blood and gore is more mature, we're just desentized to it because it happen so often in games.  It's almost like looking at ketchup in an anime lol.



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ARamdomGamer on 27 July 2016

Kirby series, cute exterior, but the backgrounds and lore of the franchise can get really dark.

For example in Planet Robobot, you fight against a computer gone crazy that is going to commit mass genocide on all life forms on the universe, and the guy that discovered the machine lost his daugther on an accident.

In Triple Deluxe we have a queen gone mad due to constant exposition to the dark mirror from Amazing Mirror, which made her go mad with power and beauty, betraying his loyal friend Taranza in the process.

And in most games we end up fighting against the souls of our enemies, blood bleeding eyes, the personification of nightmares, ect.