Chrono Trigger- The Christian Allegory?

A while back I came across some comments suggesting that Chrono Trigger, the great Squaresoft RPG (originally on the SNES but now on at least two other platforms) should be read as a Christian allegory. I had fond memories of playing CT years back and decided to replay the game carefully in order to consider this claim. Interestingly, in my research I found one website dedicated to the idea of CT as a Christian allegory but also another website presenting an existentialist reading of Chrono Trigger.

After replaying the game through Its pretty clear that the game can't be read as any kind of full on allegory- it simply doesn't itself that seriously. Just looking at the naive way that the game presents time-travel should be enough to stop would be academics from pulling some grand philosophy out of it all. The Characters are happily under-developed and take on all manner of strange experience with the same detachment as the gamer.

So, if the game is 'Christian', it is on a subtler level. There are odd resemblances here and there to the Gospel or Christian virtues but it would be very silly to go around the cast of the game and identifying them as the masks of different New Testament characters- it falls to pieces very quickly. Like in The Lord of The Rings, reflections of Christ can be found in the actions of Gandalf, Frodo and Sam at different times, but as a whole no one character is Christ throughout. What makes LOTR explicitly Catholic is the way it presents reality, I'm going to look at CT under 5 criteria to see how strongly or if at all we soak up a Catholic vision of reality in CT.

Reality of Objective Moral laws.

It is clear that Lavos is bad and that Queen Zeal has become wicked because she has sold herself to him. The people of Zeal realise belatedly that their whole lives are based on using Lavos's wicked energy and that the magic has corrupted them. The judgement of Crono by the chancellor is very interesting in that we get an application of the moral law against the main character. Magus causes some problems in this area. He is clearly a wicked character from his efforts to invade peaceful Guardia and the way he treats Glenn/ Cyrus who are truely noble. The problem is that later he is able to simply becomes a member of your team and there is tacit approval in how he was essentially trying to accomplish the good end of destroying Lavos through wicked means. In a 'Christian worldview' Magus would have to remain an antagonist and be destroyed or make an act of repentence for the wicked and misguided actions he had taken.

Interior Struggle to pursue the good.

CT doesn't really give us insights into the characters' interior struggles within themselves to do what is right. This is no criticism, the game isn't trying to be profound or to present an explication of the human condition.


Divine Providence working through free will.

I think we can see the Gates as an example of Divine Providence. The game doesn't make this claim but there is enough evidence to see things this way. The gates to different time periods are not caused by Lavos randomly but they are purposeful. The characters realise this and although their speculation is that it is caused by "the entity" which is trying to preserve its existence we could see the purposeful gates as an example of providence. The providence moves interestingly with free will in that no matter what the characters do in the past the present is largely preserved and they continue to exist. Such an extraordinary maintainence of the status quo is absolutely illogical scientifically but could plausibly be preserved by a being that transcends time. In fact the existence of God transcending time is the only thing that could make the Chrono Trigger world hold together. CT doesn't take this stuff seriously at all but we can draw these thoughts from the game fairly I think.

Self Sacrifice for others

CT deals with this quite well. On a few occasions the theme tune music sets in as Crono agrees to undertake some self sacrificial mission for the good of someone else. Ultimately of course we have Crono's laying down his life in the first battle against Queen Zeal and Lavos. Perhaps it is in virtue of Crono's death that the gate opens up for the others to escape....

Marle is quite disobedient, this is her nature, it would perhaps be more ideal if she was able to overcome herself and accept her future responsibility as queen or if we got some hint that she intended to do this (Like prince Hal in Henry IV). We do see however her love of Crono in her immense efforts to restore him to life and her chaste devotion of him. Frog is a paragon of medieval virtue whose duty is to protect Queen Leene and who is fulfilled in this role, a Christian Gentleman as it were.



Basic Christian Theodicy- Monotheism, Goodness of creation, understanding of eternal reward/punishment based on moral behaviour.

We shouldn't expect pre-Christian stories to present Christian theology (Tolkien explains this well in 'on Fairy Tales'). Although CT has some trappings of being in a post revelation world (the time is written as BC/AD, there is a Cathedral in the Middle Age) it is probably fairer to asses the game as if it presented a world before the revelation of Christ. Tolkien's Middle earth is pre-revelation and that its why the general worldview and religious understanding is one of High Paganism- holding the the beliefs virtuous and good pagans would naturally tend towards from their analysis of the world.

CT generally does present a pre-Christian natural religion. We don't have any reincarnation talk, the planet is not deified and a few 'ghosts' of virtuous characters go upwards towards heaven (The hero Toma for example) suggesting their continuous and blessed existence. There is not a similar treatment of wicked characters, which is a pity. The game doesn't take itself seriously to present any understanding of where monsters come from, but ideally they would be seen as a disorder in creation- in the same way we would see a savage wolf attacking humans.
Robo undermines christian theodicy a little in that he seems to 'learn' emotions. This is obviously erroneous. He should have been presented as unable to understand human behaviour and existing soley to serve those who truely posses freedom, intellect and will. The fact that he has a 'girlfriend' is a bit silly, perhaps its sillyness is its redeeming grace. Again, the issue of Magus poses some problems in that Christian theodicy would present this wicked character as either meritting death or needing to repent. The game's acceptance of him actually doesn't flow with the story because it undermines the Frog/ Glenn/ Cyrus theme which is very positive and creates unhelpful relativism in the game.

The treatment of magic is very complicated in the game, I am not exactly sure if it is given a careful account. I don't think it took the issue that seriously. It seems on the one hand that magic originates from Lavos and this is wicked but also there is some kind of elemental magic bestowed by spekkio which is presented as good. There is something positive in the fact that the magic is bestowed from 'above' but the role of the Gurus is poorly explained in CT. In a Christian Natural Theology they would have been religious figures of some kind and were endowed with their respective gifts.

Conclusion

So whilst CT is not a Christian Allegory in that we do not see the life of Christ or Salvation History running through it, we do, in many places get true values embodied and the possibility of using some of the story's contents of acting as an intoduction to the Gospel. The treatment of Magus lets the game down a little. Chrono Cross's reading of CT messes things up quite a bit too- but CC is far far more illogical than CT but with the added problem that it does take itself seriously. When a game 'takes itself seriously' the gamer has to be much more cautious in discerning the undercurrent philosophy as it is trying to teach in a way a 'fun/ naive' game like CT is not.

Gaming after conversion.

I am sure many of our readers can recognise how, at some point in their life, they made a transition from a child apprehension of the Catholic Faith to an adult one. A good number of others will have approached the Faith from a nearly total neo-pagan upbringing but in both situations the 'converts' will come to see many of the things they used to do as incompatible with the Gospel of Christ.

It is interesting as to how deeper conversion effects catholic gamers. I was certainly someone who was playing video games long before I had any grasp or acceptance of the faith and 'converted', as it were, only around the age of 17. How then should the full Catholic faith alter my appreciation of gaming? I don't think I have come to a conclusion yet. On the one hand, if I reflect on the philosophies underlining a lot of the games I really love (Console RPGs mainly) I find really questionable stuff (I'll reflect on this later) on the other hand, I know that such games can be great for relaxation and can be a common point of dialogue with many guys my age.

I think there are two legitimate approaches then towards gaming (especially of the RPG and adventure variety which are essentially interactive novels), the first is to totally reject all games that are not explicitly and wholly in conformity with the Gospel (this was the approach of Tertullian on the subject of whether Christians should read pagan fiction or attend the theatre). A 'liberal' reading of Tertullian's approach would be to also allow the legitimate video game corpus to include morally ambivalent games like Duck Hunt, Driving Sims, Sports Sims, Puzzle games and a few cheesy 'bible based games'.

The second legitimate approach towards games, so far as they are not intrinsically evil, is to see the values, philosophies and ideas that are good and noble in them so as to enrich our appreciation of what Tolkien refers to as 'the true myth', the Christian Revelation. Vatican II, in the quotes on the side of the blog takes this positive approach and hopefully in my posts I will be able to look at some of the great video games and see what we can take from them that will enrich us as followers of Christ.

Catholic Gaming Community?

From the e-mail files:

"I’ve been looking around the web for any ‘Catholic Gaming’ groups, specifically on the Xbox 360, I came across one of the blogs you contribute to and decided to shoot you an email.

Do you know of any Catholic-based clans, or gaming communities? I’m interested in gaming with like-minded individuals, and if you’ve ever played Xbox Live, you know that most people tend to be vulgar, crass, disrespectful and the like. Right now I’m playing ModernWarfare 2, but I love almost all games. Let me know if you can point me in the right direction!"

Being the online gaming square that I am, I got nothin.' Readers! Knowest thou anything relevant about this topic?

Video Game Violence, Part Trio

Heavy Rain, QuanticDream's heavily anticipated "interactive movie" (their words, not mine) experience developed exclusively for the Playstation 3, released to a flurry of positive reviews this past week, and the flurries of snow here in Chicago didn't stop anyone here in the Chi from picking up the game - including one of my brother seminarians.

I have yet to play or even watch the game myself; however, the buzz about the game has reached my ears, and as it has some pertinence to the oft-discussed topic of video game violence here on CathVG, I'm going to offer the readership a chance to comment on it.

Now, the lexicon of the video gamer "chattering class" is awfully pretentious (the diction employed to describe the gaming experience is strictly limited to words like "innovative," "immersive," and "deep," and there's rarely any substantive attempt to distinguish between terms). Still, describing Heavy Rain as "immersive" is probably an understatement. The game takes a sort of "choose-your-own-ending" approach to the story; every action you as a player undertake has a dramatic effect on the story's progression. Anyone remember the "Goosebumps" books from the 90's, with the funky "alternative endings?" Yeah, it's kinda like that, only there's a seemingly limitless amount of endings to the story in Heavy Rain. Why is this important? Read on, gentle reader, read on...

Heavy Rain also "immerses" the player in its utilization of the Playstation 3's motion-sensing controller. Case in point: you character is a gun-wielding, neo-noir detective. You hold the controller as if you were holding a handgun (not too disimilar to the "light gun" arcade games of yore) as your character is forced with a moral dilemma: shoot an innocent bystander in cold blood (and thus save the character's son), or choose to back off and watch someone else die the same brutal death.

THE PLAYER pulls the trigger - or at least, this is what the game compels the player to think, as the motion-sensing control scheme demands that the player simulate the actual murder sequence.

So...with an immersive setting like that of Heavy Rain, is the moral culpability of the player any different? It's awfully clear that the developers are pushing the envelope in that direction, blurring the line between the "player-as-viewer" and "player-as-agent," per se. At the very least, the postmodern, "it's all just a matter of perspective..." thematic is certainly a part of this game, and for this reason alone I will say, without hesitancy: DO NOT buy this game for your 4-year-old grandson/nephew/brother. Even then, given that this game deliberately attempts to soothe away the pangs of a guilty conscience in its portayal (simulation?) of murder, well, I'm not sure if anyone else should be playing it, either.

That being said, I await the judgment of those who have actually, you know, played the game.

DRM - Reasonable or Unreasonable? (Part 1)

Gamers are not generally known for clean language. Most gamers I know, are pretty liberal with vulgarities. In the game community, though, there is a three letter acronym which has become the equivalent of a four-letter word: DRM, Digital Rights Management (anti-piracy measures, essentially). And it is not surprising that this is the case. In their rush to stop piracy, developers and publishers of software have included all manner of draconian and invasive methods of DRM with their products.

Piracy: My Own Thoughts in Relation to Catholic Teaching

There exist very diverse opinions concerning software piracy. They range from those who consider any unauthorized use of software to be unacceptable to those who see it as a badge of honor never to pay for software and everywhere in between. The in between is, perhaps, much more interesting than the extremes. It is there in which we see the various justifications people use for piracy.

Looking carefully at the matter, I would say that I consider software piracy to be a form of theft. As such, I would say that it is wrong under any normal circumstance. The various people in the chain of software production and sale deserve to be justly recompensed for their labors. This is a Christian principle as well as one which is in keeping with the general concept of individuals rights. Taking the fruit of someone's labor both without permission and without recompense is theft. I do not think that it matters if you are not taking a physical item, even though some people will try to justify piracy by saying that non-physical goods are somehow not afforded the same protection as physical ones.

While there are numerous different justifications which are used for piracy, I will list a few here:

1) Justification: The software is over-priced.
My Thought: It could easily be replaced with "I do not want to pay for it". This argument strikes me as especially weak in light of the fact that software is not a basic human right nor, generally, do you need it for your livelihood.

2) Justification: "Try before you buy". The idea is that you pirate the software and then buy it if you like it.
My Thought: This is a concept which, if you were to attempt it with most other goods, would likely not be accepted by those who are purveying them.

3) Justification: Certain publishers or, perhaps, all publishers are "rich" and/or "evil", therefore making it acceptable to pirate their products. Microsoft is a popular target for this.
My Thought: This mentality does not strike me as having particular merit any more than the over-priced reasoning. Simply because someone is wealthy does not make it right to pirate from them. Not even if it is Microsoft (and please note that I am writing this on a computer running Linux).

Along with my individual responses here and the moral perspective from a religious and individual rights point of view, I would also like to add a practical test for personal actions. It is always good to ask: "What would be the result if everyone else were to do as I do?" In this case, if everyone pirated, then it would become difficult to profit from the production of software and many high-end games and powerful applications would no longer be available to us. Further, it would be a great injustice to those who labor to create software for our use.

There is one more justification for piracy which I find, perhaps, the most interesting:

Protest.

Yes, sometimes people use software piracy as a means of protest against some policy or other which a developer or publisher undertakes. Ironically, as was the case with the game Spore, it can even be a response to draconian DRM (anti-piracy) measures. Once again, I would not endorse the idea of pirating software simply because the developer or publisher has made you angry. At the same time, a part of the reason I am looking at this issue on this blog is the very phenomena of piracy as protest.

NOTE: This article is NOT addressing issues such as "abandonware" and foreign titles not released in your native language. I will talk about that in a different article as it is rather a different circumstance.

NOTE 2: I am also not a fan of DRM, despite not supporting piracy.


God be with you,
Steely

For Freedom! - Two Great Classic Game Deals at Steam!

Freedom Force: Freedom Pack

Freedom Force, the light-hearted real time tactical game based around Silver Age style super heroes, is on sale this weekend on Valve's excellent Steam service. Right now, you can get the Freedom Force: Freedom Pack, containing both the original Freedom Force and Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich for only $2. Such a low price for two excellent classics of the PC gaming genre is a real deal.

For those who have never played any of the Freedom Force series, this would be a perfect chance to get into it. The game stars a cast of heroes and villains reminiscent of what was known as the "Silver Age" of comic books which is defined as being the era between 1956 and around 1970. As such, they are over-the-top and bombastic in the most endearing ways. Perhaps the best example is the main character, Minuteman, a patriotic themed hero who wears a tricorn hat and belts out slogans about freedom and justice. Add in abilities with names like "Strike for Freedom" and "National Defense" to create an awesome retro feel.


The gameplay itself involves controlling a small group of individual super heroes from a zoomable isometric perspective. While the action takes place in real time, the game can be paused at any time to issue orders - something which becomes essential when there is more than one character in the team. Each super hero is colorful and features their own set of powers and weaknesses. The powers and traits are upgradeable through an point system, adding an RPG element to the game. Due to the varied strengths and weaknesses, each character has their own set of tactics to work with and the chemistry of your team becomes an important planning factor in each mission.

From a Catholic perspective, I have to say that I like the light tone and heroic theme of Freedom Force. I definitely enjoy some dark games - such as Bioshock or Resident Evil 5. However, it is good for the heart to get something light sometimes. Freedom Force definitely fits the bill there.


X-Com Complete Pack

Also on sale at Steam for the ridiculously low price of $2, one of the great legendary games of the PC genre - X-Com: UFO Defense - along with a collection of four other games of that series. Serious PC gamers will likely have least heard of this title from ye olde days of DOS games. Well, if you have played it before and you want to play it again, here is your chance. And if you have never played it, then I think that you owe it to yourself to check this out.

X-Com: UFO defense (originally X-Com: Enemy Unknown) is a turn-based tactical game released in 1994. As the name implies, the game involves fighting against an alien force. Aliens are making the first moves towards invading Earth and you are placed at the head of an international military organization known as X-Com, tasked with defending against the new threat. You begin with a base, a team of soldiers, interceptor fighters, a transport, and international funding. From there, how things proceed is up to you.

The game takes place on two levels. X-Com is commanded globally from a rotating globe map. The player oversees operations such as base construction, research and development, personnel, supply and equipment, and, of course, defense. UFO's appear at regular intervals across the globe. Depending upon radar coverage, which is part of base building, the player can detect these intrusions and attempt to intercept the ships. There are also cases in which the aliens actually land and must then be dealt with. Eventually, the player will have to deal with alien terror attacks, alien bases, and attacks on X-Com bases by the aliens as well.

It should be noted that speedy and efficient defense is crucial. The world's leaders will become upset if the aliens get away with too much in their territories. If they see X-Com as ineffective, then they will decrease funding or, worse, sign a pact the enemy.

The missions themselves involve turn based tactical from an isometric view. Once a team has landed, they are controlled by the player one by one, with the amount of action each can take determined by an action point system. Each team member may be armed with a variety of weapons, including heavy weapons and grenades. In the beginning, the X-Com forces are heavily outgunned. But, with time, captured weapons allow for the use of more advanced technology.


While the graphics and sound are quite primitive by today's standards, they still serve to create the eerie atmosphere which sucked me in the first time I played. There is a certain tension created when you have first landed and look upon the landscape of the mission map, then obscured by fog of war. Somewhere, in that darkness, aliens await your brave team of commandos. Life and death will depend upon sound tactics and careful planning. Around each corner, a hostile might be encountered.

Indeed, I would venture to say that the minimalistic nature of the game with its old technology perhaps adds to the creepier aspects of the game. There's something about that pc speaker style music which has its own effect. Even if someone were to offer me a remade version of the game with better effects, I do not think I would want to replace this original version.

Additional details tying the missions to the overall strategy game elements include a robust research system. If the player captures alien equipment or even live aliens (using stun devices), then they can research them. This is crucial to success, as it can lead to better technology and more information on the nature of the enemy. Not only that, but it adds just that much more flavor and enjoyment to the experience.

X-Com has a certain heroic feel to it which I think is a good thing to experience in a game. It features bravery, honor, and duty in the struggle against the invading forces. Even though your soldiers are not fleshed out characters in any way, you can easily begin to think of them as brave defenders of the innocent in your fight against the alien menace. I always hated to see one of the soldiers die and would always do whatever I could to ensure the survival each member of the team.

Turn based tactical games are not very common these days. However, there will always be a place in the hearts of many gamers for this tense, thoughtful style of play. X-Com is a part of gaming history and its place is well-deserved.


God be with you,
Steely

U.S. Navy: Video Games are good for you

H/T to the NeoGAF forums

"Think interactive video games are a waste of time or more suited for children? Think again. Research by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) indicates that video games can help adults process information much faster and improve their abilities to reason and solve problems. Dr. Ray Perez, ONR program officer, discussed video game-induced “fluid intelligence” on the Jan 20 webcast."

Other notable excerpts:

"...Early indications suggest that cognitive improvements from video games can last up to two and half years, Perez said, but he admitted that so far the results have been relegated to observations and measurements in a controlled laboratory environment..."

“The major question is that once you’ve increased these perceptual abilities and cognitive abilities, do they transfer to everyday tasks,” he said, “and how long do they continue to influence the person working on these everyday tasks?”

For the record, this is hardly the only instance of the scientific method demonstrating the health benefits of video gaming; one such benefit that goes unmentioned in this particular study (and, thus, earns a peculiar mention here) is accentuated eyesight. Personally, I think my prolonged hours of video gaming have done wonders for my hand-eye coordination, though that's probably the only physical health benefit I derived from them. The intellectual and spiritual formation these games provided, however, was invaluable. The artistic imagery of some of the games also gave me a taste of the transcendent, instilling in me (during those precious formative teenage years, no less!) the idea that beauty was, in fact, NOT in the eye of the beholder. I learned a bit about storytelling and characterization, as well; as a budding English major at a major Catholic University, it is no exaggeration to say that I owe my interest in the subject at least partially to the video games I enjoyed well into my teenage years...and still enjoy, albeit with less frequency, to this day.

That being said, the social isolation and addictive potential of these same games also contributed at times to a kind of spiritual desolation; I will be the first to admit that I failed to employ moderation during my more "hardcore" gaming years, and no amount of acquired ocular aptitude can replace wasted time (not to mention neglected friendships, a deteriorating physique, and a regrettably over-extended introversion). Too much of a good thing is, well, too much of a good thing. Games became my god, and that was...well, not healthy at all.

I sincerely hope the Navy Officers in this study don't fall into the same trap I did. There's something about video games and an incarnational spirituality that really...doesn't quite mesh. They can't replace love of neighbor, even if they do teach the value of the practice of this or any other particular virtue. They can impart wisdom and knowledge, but they can't make you practice it. They can depict, and even bring to life, Christ on the cross, in a way peculiarly unique to the medium, no less. They can never, however, replace Him.