Philosophy and Religion on SMT Nocturne
Summary Introduction: Shin Megami Tensei is both a game and a series of other RPGs developed by Atlus, focused on subjects as Religion, War, Sexuality, Good and Evil and Humanity. It grew on popularity on the western continent mainly after the success of the 'Persona 3', and the subsequent Persona 4, which brought most of the catalog of games for the Playstation, such as SMT Devil Summoner, SMT Digital Devil Saga, and the one I find most important to remark, SMT Nocturne.
The Protagonist, around the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse
This last one got released three years before the P3 on Japan but only arrived to our shores years later, if even arrived. The game consisted on a turn based Role Playing system where the player takes the command of a unnamed hero destined to shape the new fate of the world after its destruction. There's obviously a lot more going on, but you can read it here.
Now, something that brought my attention is the amount of redirected hits to a spanish article entitled as "Filosofía y Religion en Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne", or literally translated as "Philosophy and Religion on SMT Nocturne". I took a moment to see what it was going on and I found myself deeply inmersed on the reading: It is one of the most descriptive works I have encountered which seriously focuses on something as undervalorated as a video game main and sub plot. Here's a little extract ouf ot it:
The cultural and religious differences among the japanese, european and american societies got reflected on the age recommendation for the title. While on the US the game was classified as M-Rated (above 17-18, the same GTA San Andreas got), on Europe the game got a 12+ and on the Japanese ground, the title was labeled "E", for everyone. Therefore, it wasn't the sex or the violence the decisive factors while judging the audience targeted, but the philosophic and religious themes underlying which were more or less controversial on the different societies.
The only problem? The real text is written on Spanish. What I threw up there was just a translation of mine.
Still, you can use a translator, like the google one, and understand most of it.
via: "Philosophy and Religion on SMT Nocturne", on videojuegosysociedad.com
