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Marc_a_b
Skeptic Friend
USA
142 Posts |
 Posted - 02/14/2002 : 13:22:59
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A few weeks ago I finnished Final Fantasy X, the latest in a series of excellent games that include beautiful animation and a good story at it's center.
*Warning, spoilers for anyone interested in playing the game*
I read somwhere once that pretty much every one of these games ended with the characters battling 'god', or someone trying to become god. I'm not sure if that is true, but this one seemed to have a very strong anti-organized religion message.
It starts off with the main character being plucked out of his city and plopped down in the middle of some ruins. Early clues hint that he was taken 1,000 year into the future. Large cities are very rare now due to a huge monster known as Sin. You end up getting involved with Yunna, who is following the path of special preists in the church of Yeven, who can summon creatures to try and fight Sin. Sin is occationaly defeated and goes away for a number of years, but no one has yet destroyed it for good.
The church of Yeven has outlawed the use of technology, it is blamed in part for bringing Sin down uppon the people. One race, the Al Behd, does not follow Yeven and often make use of any technology they find. So they are often mistrusted and considered outcasts. At one point forces sent by the #2 guy in the church are sent to destroy athe Al Behd's secret homeland.
Hmm... anit-science/technology, intollerance, attempted genociede... But wait, it get's better.
Yunna is captured and forced into a wedding with the #2 church guy. In the attack the church guardians use machine guns, flame throwers, and attack robots! So they are hypocritical of their own teachings. During a 'trial' of Yunna you see about 2/3 of the church leadership is pretty much corrupt.
The characters of course get away and continue to follow the quest to destroy Sin. When they get to the final temple, to gain the Final Summoning, they found out the entire quest is based on lies. Sin is simply the outter shell of Yu-Yeven. Sure, if they do the final summoning one of the people will gain the power to destroy Sin, and then Yu-Yeven will posess them and turn them into the new Sin. It is an unending cycle, the church knows that and does nothing to break the cycle. They think it is best to keep their position and keep people happy with the false hope of defeating Sin. Needless to say, the characters blow this off and go and defeat Sin anyway, and destroy Yu-Yeven.
Ok, now on top of anti-science, intollerance, and attempted genociede, we also get hypocracy, corruption, and faith built on lies and false hopes, used to keep the people content. Gee, you would almost think the game designers were aithiests! :)
However, the series does tend to have some kid of spirituality as part of the story too. Like the 'Gaea' idea from the FF movie.
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PhDreamer
SFN Regular
USA
925 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2002 : 13:37:33 [Permalink]
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You suppose the Japanese origins of these games have anything to do with the blasphemic themes?
Laws of Thermodynamics:
1. You cannot win.
2. You cannot break even.
3. You cannot stop playing the game. |
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Marc_a_b
Skeptic Friend
USA
142 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2002 : 14:08:14 [Permalink]
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Naaa...
Japan is a pretty spiritual country. Shinto is best described as Disoranized Religion. People there have no problem putting a christian cross next to a Buhdda and other symbols. Temples and shrines for all kinds of things, mysticism and fortuntelling are not uncommon. From their games an anime magic, spirituality, and psychics are often displayed. Just saw earlier today there is some scientific study going on in Japan trying discover the nature of Chi (ki).
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Archistrategos
New Member
28 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2002 : 15:42:55 [Permalink]
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Hey Marc_a_b, if you belive this game have some anti religious teme, and church conspyracy, you should play FF tactics, that story is truly blasfemus, I like it!
quote:
I read somwhere once that pretty much everyone of these games ended with the characters battling 'god', or someone trying to become god.
Yes it its true, most of them end with some one looking fore the destruction of existence, time and space or becoming a god by destroying everything else. They are pretty ambitious guys.
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Lars_H
SFN Regular
Germany
630 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2002 : 18:50:12 [Permalink]
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I think the Japanese origin of FF matters very much in this case.
Japanese take their own religions and superstitions as serious as we westerners do, just in a different way. They tend to treat foreign religions the same way that the treat their own. And concepts like Blasphemy don't really fit very well into this.
There is also the problem that japanese games/Manga/Anime tend to be a lot deeper then comperable western products. A simple shoot-em-up game can incorporate deep philosophical problems in its backstory. You will find a number of anti-clerical works but if you look for them you will also find a number of works that take the opposite point of view.
Then there is that habit of japanes to incorporate names, designs or ideas with total disregard of their original context into their popculture. You sometimes get very strange combinations this way.
Like the reincarnation of Jean de'Arc as a magical thief on a mission from god with a love interest named Sindbad and a fightingstyle based on rhythmic gymnastics.
For a really blasphemous Japanese work watch the Anime 'Neon Genesis Evangelion'. References to Christian and Cabbalistic mythology abound. Just don't expect to understand what is going on at the end.
Edited by - Lars_H on 02/14/2002 19:10:12 |
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 02/20/2002 : 21:30:43 [Permalink]
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quote:
Then there is that habit of japanes to incorporate names, designs or ideas with total disregard of their original context into their popculture. You sometimes get very strange combinations this way.
Like the reincarnation of Jean de'Arc as a magical thief on a mission from god with a love interest named Sindbad and a fightingstyle based on rhythmic gymnastics.
What you describe is similar to other Asian cultures too.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'concepts like Blasphemy don't really fit very well into this'. I do have a good friend who lives in Japan and once when I tried to talk about religion with him he was evasive, to this day I don't know what he believes. It could have been a language 'problem', his English is not the best but I find they also are quiet people, don't like to be as open as many Americans are. But that's a typical Asian trait.
quote:
People there have no problem putting a christian cross next to a Buhdda and other symbols. Temples and shrines for all kinds of things, mysticism and fortuntelling are not uncommon.
Marc_a_b
That's also found in many other Asian places too. I can't speak for other religions but as a Buddhist I can say, we are more tolerant of other beliefs, maybe because there is no Buddhist god but I also think more Buddhists practice what they preach unlike Christians.
As far as games, I wanted to get Myst but has a feeling that it had some 'message'. Only talked to one person who ever played it, they said it didn't. I still don't know and have never played it yet.
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Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 02/20/2002 : 21:55:23 [Permalink]
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Snake, Myst was pretty good. No message I could see. Then again, I'm pretty shallow, so it takes a brick upside the head to get my attention.
Anyway, Myst has some great images, but I hope you have a fast computer. I haven't played it in years, but on my old (oldoldold) computer, it took forever to download the images.
Lisa
If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room. |
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 02/21/2002 : 00:48:36 [Permalink]
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quote:
Snake, Myst was pretty good. No message I could see. Then again, I'm pretty shallow, so it takes a brick upside the head to get my attention.
Anyway, Myst has some great images, but I hope you have a fast computer. I haven't played it in years, but on my old (oldoldold) computer, it took forever to download the images.
Lisa
Yea, I'm kind of dense sometimes too, all depends on the time of day I guess, haha. Seriously, it's a matter of being exposed to certain information if we can relate. Some things we know some we don't.
Sometimes I'm too skeptial and worried if I start to play a game or whatever I'll be brainwashed. Yikes!
My computer is old by computer standards, I think almost 4 years, well it seems like it anyway. I don't know if it's fast or not, I like it. My sons is about a year or two newer, if he'll talk to me, I'll ask him what's with the computer.
The last game I played on a computer, I think this one, was 7th Guest and it's sequal, 11th....something or other, can't remember the name.
I'll check into Myst but it's old now so we'll see if I can still get it, even if I'd have time to play.
Speaking of games......Holly shit! I just saw a new commerical on TV tonight for 'The Simpsons' for Playstation. How cool is that. So I call my son right away and screem , GUESS WHAT?! He proceeds to tell me, there have been many Simpson games. Where the hell was I and how come no one told me????
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Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
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