“Waiter, There’s a Message in my Game”

Gaming, like any other art form, can be appreciated on several different levels. Typically, when a journalist reviews a game, we judge the aesthetics and functionality of the title. But, just like other art forms, games can also be appreciated for their less apparent qualities. One such subtlety can be in any ideology, philosophy, or other message that a game can impart to its players. While some games are known for their overt messages about humanity (I’m looking at you, Bioshock), there are plenty of games with way more subtle messages. The Video Games Team here at Comic Booked decided to smash our heads together and collaborate on an article highlighting some of our favorite messages we’ve found in games.

Final Fantasy VII by Josh Ortis

Every year on February 15th I dust off my copy of Final Fantasy VII and continue a tradition that started for me almost fourteen years ago. While the system I play it on has changed over the years (from the Playstation to the PS2, then the PSP, and now the PS3), my feelings have never diminished in any sense as to how monumentally life altering this experience was for me. Every time I play through the game, I tend to find new reasons to adore it as much as I do; different messages within the story speak to me as I grow older. In all honesty, no other game has ever come remotely close to having the impact on me that FFVII has and I doubt any ever will. I could wax philosophic all day on the title and its importance to me, but the point that I’m going to discuss today was one of the first things that really struck me about the game, and that is how your past will always have an impact on your future and the resonating theme of “self” within the story.

 

Nearly every character in the story is either running from their past or experiencing uncertainty about it, and what makes that even more impressive is how intricately connected they all wind up being. The exceptional sense of foreboding about everyone’s past seems to permeate in the story, and, as you play on, you slowly see these threads begin to pull together. The characters begin recognizing that they are part of something far greater and how bound they really are. As a twelve year old, seeing this sort of intricacy in an art form, which, to me, consisted of Street Fighter and Mario Bros., was quite literally life altering. I felt an appeal for the pixels on the screen and experienced an overwhelming urge to see them through to their conclusion. As someone on the cusp of puberty and struggling with his past in order to gain a sense of self at a time in life that is typically filled with questions and doubt, it was the perfect storm of character and story.

Bastion by Kyle Black

(Warning: Herein lie spoilers!)

When you beat Bastion, you’re given two choices: Restore Caelondia to its former glory or Evacuate with the survivors and make a new home. Being the stalwart hero that I am, I chose to restore Caelondia, at the cost of breaking the friendships that The Kid and his companions forged. It was a sobering moment, but in my heart, I was convinced that it was the right decision. The last words Rucks says to The Kid are, “I’ll see ya in the next one.” Once the credits wrap up, you’re informed that you’ve unlocked a New Game+ mode. Hoping to get some replay value out of my investment, I hopped right in, and then my heart was broken. The first words you hear in New Game+ are Rucks’, and they are, “I’ll see ya in the next one.” I made the ultimate sacrifice of friendship and memory in order to restore Caelondia – and it was all for naught. The Calamity destroyed the world, and I had to power up the Bastion – again. Needless to say, I decided to evacuate Caelondia and head for greener pastures when I finished my New Game+.

 

So, what’s the take away here? George Santayana once theorized, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Bastion is a manifestation of this philosophy. Bastion told me no matter how much we sacrifice, we’re always doomed to make the same mistakes. If we want to move forward, we need to shake off the familiar and embrace the new, even if it is frightening and dynamically different than what we know. When I look at the world, especially when I consider all of the atrocities from the 20th century, I can’t help but feel like we need to start thinking differently about the world and head for whatever greener pastures await us.

Catherine by InfaPlat

I could go on forever about how Atlus’ Catherine is the most frightening game I’ve ever played, but I also believe it’s the most mature. Before playing Atlus’ latest RPG/puzzle platformer for the PS3, games were pretty much mindless, linear progression for me. Run down some variation of a straight corridor, watch cut scene, fight boss. Repeat. Then Catherine came along, and brought with it a slew of questions that didn’t have a simple answer. There was no ‘good’ or ‘evil’ choice. There was just some sad, almost pathetic guy that really had no idea what to do with his life or the choices being thrown at him. Most of the time he just wanted to hide his head under his pillow and wait for it all to go away. We’ve all been there.

 

Catherine was trying to tell me something. Life is chaotic by its very nature. You can’t see all of the information all the time. There are always variables. The best you can hope to achieve is to make good decisions based on what you want, and on the information you have, while hurting as few people as possible along the way. Sometimes the latter isn’t completely feasible. And you know what? That’s life. Deal. And in the end, that’s what Catherine said to me. Make your decisions. Then live with them.

Animal Crossing by Alex Siravo

Imagine, if you will, that you are out strolling through town, smacking rocks and collecting fruit, hoping to net yourself a nice sum of money for that new wallpaper you fell in love with at Nook’s shop. While you are out, you notice a crack in the ground and jump for joy. “Oh happy day!” you exclaim, disregarding the fact that your neighbor, the one with fleas, is standing nearby. You hurriedly dig up the bag of money that you know lies in wait, thinking of the many things you could buy, but, alas, it is yet another useless fossil. Well, at least you can sell the fossil, right? Wrong. After waiting 4-6 weeks for the nearby university to send you back your identified fossil, you learn that it is amber, the least useful and least exciting of all the fossils. What do you do in response? Reset, of course!

 

If you ever rationalized like this in Animal Crossing, you paid a hefty fine: an earful of annoyance ala Mr. Resetti, a mole brandishing a pick-axe and a scowl. This is the crucial lesson taught by Animal Crossing: don’t you dare hit that reset button you little punk if you decide to hit that I’m going to smack you don’t think I don’t see you reaching for that reset button for the love of good and all that is holy if you- WHAT DID I TELL YOU I SAID NOT TO HIT THE BUTTON AND YOU HIT IT ANYWAY!

 

Don’t reset. It’s a simple lesson. Don’t reset, you will mess up your computer. Don’t reset, the game is just lagging. Don’t reset, I’ll pop out of the ground and yell at you for a half hour. No, I don’t care that you need to pick weeds and harvest fruit, you reset when I told you not to. Apologize. Now. Punk.

 

Or you could take the alternative route and realize that the only thing Animal Crossing teaches you is that shaking trees is a legitimate way to buy furniture.

Rampage World Tour by Thomas Schley

Chances are that you never noticed because you’re busy toppling world landmarks and using their exposed girders as trampolines to bounce up and swat at pesky futuristic fighter jets, but the cast of Rampage World Tour definitely has more going on beneath their furry, scaly visages than you might realize.

 

Smashing buildings and destroying the National Guard with two friends is timeless fun, but did you know that the iconic brown gorilla, blue werewolf, and green lizard that we’ve loved for years actually havenames? That’s right: they’re George, Ralph, and Lizzie, and they’re not just enormous mutated animorphs. In a world congested with skyscrapers, tourist traps, and road traffic, the dudes and dudette of Rampage are like freaking pariahs of environmentalism and alternative lifestyle.

 

I know at this point you’re probably like, “What the frak is he talking about?” But think about it: the only semblance of plot we get in Rampage is that there’s some cigar-smoking, curmudgeonly CEO holed up in his lavish office in a Scumlabs headquarters building located in an undisclosed city, and we need to smash the hell out of it to ensure the demise of both him and his evil corporation. Thing is, we don’t know which global branch he’s actually at, so it only makes sense that we visit all the major cities in the world and raze every renowned structure before jet-setting (as in literally riding on jets) to the next locale. We’ll get him eventually, right?

 

How did George, Ralph, and Lizzie gain the powers to do so? If you pay attention to your character when you die, you shrink and revert back to your human form and scurry offsreen (if your friends don’t eat you first). These guys were just normal people before Scumlabs’ undoubtedly unethical experimentation caused them to grow to monstrous heights. So you’re out to bring the largest, most evil company in the Rampage universe down, and you’re doing so powered off of a steady diet of toxic refuse, pizza, burgers and fries, giant cookies, and the staple of any self-respecting mutant’s diet: hot babes in tiny red dresses. Forget conventional video game healing—Rampage is all about chugging milkshakes as fast as you can to get back out there and punch windows so hard that you destroy entire floors of buildings.

 

And while “chugging” is still fresh in your mind, there are certain things in Rampage that you can’t consume because they’ll immediately make you barf, claiming a small portion of health and rendering you immobile for a few seconds. Along with the obvious things like dishwasher detergent and motor oil, the majority of the list is comprised of alcoholic beverages. In short, Rampage is discouraging drinking, and you know what that means?

 

That’s right: straight edge revenge.

 

I think that’s actually the best way to summarize Rampage World Tour as a whole. Scumlabs has trashed the Earth to build a global conglomerate on, uh, giant glowing barrels of nuclear sludge, and it’s up to you to dethrone the monopoly. Thankfully, it really helps that George, Ralph, and Lizzie are in it to win it and capable of leveling entire buildings with a few well-placed kicks to the roof or foundation. Up the punx!

 

What about you, readers? What messages have you found in games?

Tags: alex siravo, animal crossing, Bastion, catherine, comic booked, ff7, final fantasy vii, games as art, Infaplat, Jessica Lynn Argondizza, Josh Ortis, Kyle Black, messages, messages in games, rampage, rampage world tour, Thomas Schley

About the Author

Written by Kyle Black

Follow me on Twitter | Find me on Facebook