The Strange Melancholy of Slaying Monsters

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From the towering colossi of Shadow of the Colossus to the pixel‑perfect denizens of Undertale, video games have been turning the ancient ritual of monster‑slaying into a moment of moral reflection. In a recent playthrough of Bloodborne (2015) I entered a moon‑lit cavern, only to find a sleeping creature whose tentacled crown and floral wings made me pause. The monster—later identified as Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos—was never attacked. I left the cave without a screenshot, without a kill, and with a lingering sense that the usual triumph was missing.

What the article claims

Švelch argues that many modern titles embed a tension between the expected "hero‑vs‑monster" script and a growing awareness that killing the monster may be ethically dubious. He points to three games—Shadow of the Colossus, Bloodborne/Dark Souls, and Undertale—as case studies where design, narrative, and sound design deliberately undermine the simple pleasure of a kill.

What is actually new

1. Sparse world design as a statement – Shadow of the Colossus contains no filler enemies. Producer Kenji Kaido explained that this was both a resource decision and a way to highlight the quiet travel between battles. The absence of “easy” combat forces the player to confront each colossus as a singular, weighty encounter.
2. Physical integration with the monster – The player must climb, cling to, and balance on the colossi. Director Fumito Ueda described the creatures as “part building, part living organism,” making the hero literally part of the monster’s body before the final thrust of the sword.
3. Audio cues that betray triumph – When a colossus dies, the game plays mournful music rather than a fanfare. Ueda recalled his team initially thinking the track was a bug because they were accustomed to celebratory cues after a kill.
4. Mechanics that reward empathy – Undertale (2015) lets players spare monsters. Toby Fox designed the combat system to mirror classic bullet‑hell shooters, yet each enemy carries a personality note (e.g., Snowdrake’s bad puns). Sparing them yields no EXP, forcing the player to weigh progress against compassion.
5. Narrative subversion of “kill or be killed” – Flowey the Flower’s opening line in Undertale declares the world a zero‑sum fight. The game’s true ending reveals that “EXP” actually stands for “execution points” and “LV/LOVE” for “level of violence,” turning the stat system into a critique of the monster‑killing premise.

Limitations and open questions

• Player agency is still constrained. Even in Undertale, the pacifist route is deliberately harder, requiring the player to endure more damage without the safety net of experience points. This design choice raises the question of whether empathy can be a viable primary strategy or merely a forced extra challenge.
• Narrative framing does not always translate to gameplay impact. In Bloodborne and Dark Souls, the melancholy atmosphere is evident, but the core loop still rewards aggressive combat. The ethical tension remains more aesthetic than systemic.
• Cultural context matters. Švelch notes that Shadow of the Colossus draws on Japanese folk ideas of boundary transgression, while Tolkien’s essay on Beowulf provides a Western literary parallel. The article could benefit from a deeper comparative analysis of how these cultural lenses shape player expectations.
• Scalability of design principles. Implementing a monster‑free world or integrating the player physically with enemies demands significant development resources. Smaller studios may find it difficult to replicate the emotional weight without the budget of a Team Ico or Bluepoint production.

Why it matters for practitioners

Designers interested in subverting the PvE formula can take three practical lessons from Švelch’s survey:

1. Reduce filler content – Removing generic enemies can concentrate player attention on the few encounters you care about, turning each into a narrative beat.
2. Make the monster a stage, not just a target – Allowing the player to climb, hold on, or otherwise interact physically with a boss can blur the line between protagonist and antagonist, fostering a sense of shared space.
3. Use sound and visual cues to question triumph – Replacing celebratory fanfares with somber music or ambiguous visual feedback can prompt players to reconsider the moral weight of their actions.

These tactics are not without trade‑offs. They may increase development time, raise difficulty for players accustomed to clear reward loops, and risk alienating audiences who seek straightforward combat satisfaction.

Broader patterns

The “false hero” motif Švelch highlights appears across genres: God of War (2018) has Kratos shrugging that "we have no choice" before fighting a troll, while Spec Ops: The Line forces players to confront the horror of their own decisions. The recurring theme is a growing awareness that games can use their mechanics to critique the very systems they employ.

Conclusion

Shadow of the Colossus, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and Undertale illustrate a shift from pure combat gratification toward a more reflective, sometimes uncomfortable, engagement with monsters. By stripping away easy kills, integrating the player with the enemy’s body, and subverting reward signals, these games ask us to ask: Do we need to slay the monster, or can we learn to coexist with it? The answer remains game‑by‑game, but the conversation is now part of mainstream design discourse.

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Jaroslav Švelch is Associate Professor in the Department of Media Studies at Charles University, Prague, and Lecturer in the Department of Game Design at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He is the author of Gaming the Iron Curtain and Player vs. Monster, from which this article is adapted.

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