Themes in Video Games. Part 1

After a long day of Robotics, I am sitting here trying to come up with something to write for my blog. I only have 30 minutes left, and I have came up with nothing to write about. Trying to get my brain thinking, I put my iPod on shuffle. The first song that came up was part of a soundtrack for the video game Final Fantasy X. I thought back about this game, and noticing it has lots of themes worth mentioning, I decided to write about it and how its worth playing.

Final Fantasy X is a RPG game developed by Square Enix and is the 10th game in its series. This specific game has been one of the highest selling game in the series, and also regarded as the best one in the series.

I would like to describe the story, but to describe it just enough so people would understand it, it would take a couple blog lengths to make it understandable. So, I would have to skip this part and go on directly to the themes of the game. (Summary of story: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_X#Story)

As I mentioned previously, while this games purpose is totally commercial, it holds literal values just like a good book. While there are many topics worthwhile to be discussed, I will focus on one theme specifically. The literal value illustrated in this game is the concept of Gnosticism.

For those that do not know what I just said, Gnosticism is a belief that human existence itself is sinful and that the spirit world should be embraced. This idea can be seen throughout the game, such as with Yuna's summons (Aeons) and the setting of the world itself (Spoiler, so will not mention).

The antagonist believes in Gnosticism  and to make an extremely complicated story simple, the protagonists are trying to stop the antagonist from eradicating physical existence. This epic struggle between the characters makes the player think deeply about our own human existence, and just like the manga that I mentioned in last blog (Kiseijuu), the purpose of human existence.

I am running low on time here, so I will need to save additional discussions for a future blog. I STRONGLY recommend EVERYONE to play this masterpiece. I am a pretty hardcore gamer with experiences in a variety of games, but this game definitely makes it into my top 3. The story line is great, the music is great, the game play is great, everything is great about the game. Again, I wish that everyone would play this game to appreciate the grandness of this masterpiece of art.

P.S. - I legitimately cried at the end of this game, it is that good.

P.S.S - If you are not a gamer, give the music a try. Nobuo Uematsu is a charisma in the field of game music, and he did it once again in FFX. His music significantly amplifies the game experience.

Some samplers: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxRd_5ERYKw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xRCjjiTR7I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C34BzC7rnos