The Aesthetics of Decay: Why Are Beautiful Worlds Always Dying?

Fear is one of the most basic and important human emotions in the evolution of our species, being a crucial aspect of survival and human development. The fear of the end, of judgment day, or of the apocalypse, is something that has terrified and simultaneously fascinated humanity since the beginning, appearing in dreams and in artistic expressions of various kinds. Films, books, and even video games often present many stories in which the extinction of humanity is one of the central themes.

But what is so beautiful about the decline and ruin of humanity that so many artists and works portray?

The Human Fascination with Ruin

Art is a human expression of its own desires and longings, including fear and the need for purpose. It's almost biblical. It's ingrained in our subconscious that, at some point, we will face the end, where we will be judged for our actions in life.

Furthermore, it's common in human society to venerate and value the ruins of past civilizations, our ancestors. Eternal monuments to the existence of peoples like the Egyptians, the Greeks, or the Aztecs. Perhaps, for the same reason that we preserve the ruins of these cultures as relics of inestimable beauty, we live to accomplish something in our own era, so that future generations will also remember our existence.

Decadence as Narrative

In the world of video games, there are numerous examples of how the end of the world is a recurring element capable of generating true masterpieces.

The The Last of Us franchise depicts a world devastated by an infection that transforms humans into something like zombies, where the few survivors must try to stay alive in this hostile land, which, despite being cruel and frightening, is still full of beauty.

With the decline of humanity, several new issues arise that need to be addressed. The violence of this new world, nature reclaiming the space that was taken from it, and human relationships being reworked and rebuilt based on the legacy of the past and current experiences.

The RPG genre and its subgenres elevate this concept of the beauty of decay to the extreme. In Elden Ring, you find a world abandoned by the gods who carried the light and doomed to end. The protagonist, the Tainted, is someone summoned to try to restore the broken order, but among the multiple options of paths to accomplish all this, what you manage to cause is more disorder or accelerate the end. The apocalypse was indeed inevitable.

The Lord of the Frenzied Flame ending is probably the most controversial and famous of the game. In it, you become the avatar of the entity known as Three Fingers and are possessed by the Frenzied Flame, a force of primordial chaos that will bring a definitive end instead of a new beginning.

Perfection vs. Decay

Rich and vibrant worlds can indeed be striking and beautiful. Assassin’s Creed, The Witcher, and Baldur’s Gate are some examples of “perfection” in contrast to the concept of decay we see in other games with equally beautiful worlds, but which are dying.

But what’s the charm of decay compared to perfection? Why is the design based on desert worlds and ruined castles more attractive today than a city full of movement and lights? The answer is simple: we live in such a world; it's what we know as “normal.”

Therefore, we flee our own reality seeking a life opposite to our own. The solitude and decay found in Death Stranding are a great example: a vast, lonely world, yet still captivating, even if it's just a ruined version of what it once was.

There’s a special beauty in what is different and dangerous, as if we’re drawn by danger away from the comfort of what’s already known to us. There’s also the desire to fix what’s wrong, the hope of salvation, and the search for the grandeur that these stories offer, enriching the narrative and making everything more exciting and epic.

Time as an Invisible Character

Time is the primary agent of destruction. It's the natural process of decay, turning everything to dust, no matter how long it lasts.

In Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, a record-breaking award-winning game and recent Game of the Year winner, time is clearly shown in action within apocalyptic plots. The game takes place in a world ravaged by a catastrophe that eliminates the population of a remote island who has reached a certain age, and this event occurs every year. Time here acts differently, fulfilling its role as an agent of decay, but being exalted by the narrative.

The characters must stop the manipulating entity and the Gommage before they themselves disappear, creating an even greater sense of urgency while delivering a solid and memorable story.

Another example where time plays a brilliant role in the theme of End of the World is The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. In this chapter of the saga, Link must prevent the end of the world caused by Majora's Mask in a 72-hour cycle, during which a sinister moon is on a collision course with the world.

It's very interesting how time is present here and how the end acts in a cyclical way, which the player can use through the Ocarina of Time to solve the problem, altering events within the 72-hour cycle to prevent the moon's collision.

This feature was already present in Ocarina of Time, as well as in several other games in the franchise, but in Majora's Mask the plot unfolds in a masterful way, placing the player at the center of a world doomed by the clock.

A new beginning

Finally, there’s the restart. A new cycle, a new order, the reconstruction of the world that has withered, rebirth.

In Dark Souls, the narrative unfolds into the Age of Darkness, where the player allows the flame to be extinguished and the abyss to take over the world, ruling this world of shadows for a new era. In The Last of Us, we see Ellie move on after accepting Joel's death, and in Death Stranding, we see Lou carry on her father Sam's legacy as a Porter.

Starting over doesn't necessarily mean a happy ending, but it brings a different perspective when we look at the idea of ​​the end of the world, imagining that even after the end there might still be something left to move on.

The best stories are those that evoke a variety of feelings, a whirlwind of distinct emotions, leaving only nostalgia at the end. The fascination with decay and death in video game stories perhaps stems from the human need to imagine, to feel emotion, and perhaps even to feel hope for the present.

I conclude this article here. Leave your questions, suggestions, criticisms, and/or compliments in the comments. Thank you for reading and until next time.