Spirituality and Video Games

[SirWontave]

Two video games influenced my spiritual development as a child.

Final Fantasy IV

Final Fantasy IV is about redemption. When Cecil, the main character, goes into a town and unleashes a bomb that kills the townspeople he feels he cannot be redeemed. He takes care of Rydia, a girl who survives the attack. She begins to forgive him but she is thrown overboard and appears later.
Cecil is alone and next to the town where he stole a crystal of light. He has to rely on the town elder to help him. The town elder tells him to go to Mt. Ordeals to face his darkness. On top of Mt. Ordeals, where Cecil still thinks he cannot be redeemed, he faces his darkness. In that battle he has to refrain from attacking.
By refraining from violence he can be redeemed for his past. He changes from being a dark knight into a paladin, a warrior of light. This helped me realize I could be redeemed as well. That we can all be redeemed. If Cecil can be redeemed in the world of Final Fantasy we can be redeemed here.

Ultima: Quest of the Avatar

Ultima: Quest of the Avatar starts with morality questions. Depending on your answers you become one of eight characters who represent one of eight virtues: honesty, compassion, valor, justice, sacrifice, honor, humility, and spirituality. I always ended up being the wizard which represented honesty although I have not always followed it in later years.
If you failed to honor the eight virtues in the game you lost virtue which meant it would take you longer to get to the end. You could choose to steal from the blind shopkeeper by giving him a penny but you would lose honesty and justice. You could choose to beat up weak enemies but you lost valor.
The skull of mundane was a nice touch. If you used it all the townspeople or enemies would die but you lost virtue in all eight categories. I used it and it was a power trip but I always reset the game and learned that such power can turn you dark. Once you accomplished the required virtue you could go to the final dungeon and bring virtue back to the world.

There are extra games I might write about later. If you want you can respond by mentioning video games with a spiritual element and how that influenced you.

[Gemcrusader]

The only thing video games gave me was to fight boredom and lonelyness. When i didnt had any games left to play i felt sad, but i knew my pain was relieved enough to move on.

[Justme1981]

Hey, this is a revolutionary thread. I really dig it. I haven't played video games since Shining Force II and Phantasy Star IV. Well, there was one awesome game I got into from Playstation called Fear Effect. And there was that period of playing World of Warcraft, which if you play right now uses telepathy which is cool. I can't play it anymore because my form of telepathy interferes (omniscient not direct like everyone else has).

Here is something I want to share with you. Those games have truth to them just like comic books have truth to them. For all the pain and weakness, ineptness this planet hand the one thing some of us, some of us (like artists, writers, musicians) have is the third eye of the imagination. With this third eye of imagination we look into what is going on in the universe and the only way we can stay alive sharing it with others is to bow down to scientists by calling it fantasy. The more power you take away from a scientist, the more vile and violent they get.

I'm a Medium so I have seen the universe and a lot of seeing through this site is seeing very advanced planets where they look almost exactly like us but have a far more advanced understanding of Spirituality which I have learned from them.

I tell you, if you do not have telepathy like most of us out here do here is how to develop it. Anyone can. Lay somewhere quite with your eyes closed. Ask you spirit guide questions, they can be anything. Now here is the crucial part, imagine and tell yourself in the voice of your spirit guide what he or she would say to you. Keep having a dialogue with your spirit guide, listening to him or her. Then in a few minutes you will hear other voices and these people out there who have telepathy. Just talk to them as friends, we are all brothers and sisters and telepathy is no special thing. So, don't look to them for wisdom just hang out. Many people out here have telepathy and we use it all the time.

Cheers!

[Dargor]

God of War (franchise)

One of my all time favorite videogame series, it's about a Spartan demigod named Kratos who after accidently murdering his wife and daughter, spends most of his life seeking revenge in a blind rage against the gods of Olympus (notably Zeus and Ares) and in due time completely losing his humanity and becomming a remorseless monster, not caring about the damage he's done to the world after mercilessly slaughtering most of the Olympian gods. In order to defeat Zeus, the king of the gods, he drew power from the one thing he never believed in: HOPE. Only when he had his revenge did he came to realise how meaningless it all was in the end and how his selfish actions caused much ruin to the innocent. In an attempt to redeem himself, he tried to commit suicide and releasing the powers of hope to humanity (though he still lives, as a new game is on the way)

Ok it doesn't relate much to me as I have recently more friends than enemies, but still I love the whole message behind the game, because to most clueless people it just looks like a bloody violent and gory hack and slash game while there's definitely more to it, such as revenge, personal redemption, and hope (something I don't believe in yet neither).

[Justme1981]

Originally Posted by SlayerOfLight

God of War (franchise)

One of my all time favorite videogame series, it's about a Spartan demigod named Kratos who after accidently murdering his wife and daughter, spends most of his life seeking revenge in a blind rage against the gods of Olympus (notably Zeus and Ares) and in due time completely losing his humanity and becomming a remorseless monster, not caring about the damage he's done to the world after mercilessly slaughtering most of the Olympian gods. In order to defeat Zeus, the king of the gods, he drew power from the one thing he never believed in: HOPE. Only when he had his revenge did he came to realise how meaningless it all was in the end and how his selfish actions caused much ruin to the innocent. In an attempt to redeem himself, he tried to commit suicide and releasing the powers of hope to humanity (though he still lives, as a new game is on the way)

Ok it doesn't relate much to me as I have recently more friends than enemies, but still I love the whole message behind the game, because to most clueless people it just looks like a bloody violent and gory hack and slash game while there's definitely more to it, such as revenge, personal redemption, and hope (something I don't believe in yet neither).

Hey, the way you describe that game I really dig it. What would be cool if after giving the world Hope, the hero finds himself in Hades where Hades (Zeus's brother) is holding his family captive and enslaved in revenge for his brother and the hero is finally getting his family back. That would be a good next installment.

[Dargor]

Originally Posted by Justme1981

Hey, the way you describe that game I really dig it. What would be cool if after giving the world Hope, the hero finds himself in Hades where Hades (Zeus's brother) is holding his family captive and enslaved in revenge for his brother and the hero is finally getting his family back. That would be a good next installment.

lol it would definitely make a good next installment, but to be fair the ''hero'' has already been to the underworld three times and during his third and final visit he killed Hades. He pretty much slaughtered most of the gods except Aphrodite (for obvious reasons). In the end he doesn't get to be with his family because they're residing within Elysium and he is still alive.

[Justme1981]

Originally Posted by SlayerOfLight

lol it would definitely make a good next installment, but to be fair the ''hero'' has already been to the underworld three times and during his third and final visit he killed Hades. He pretty much slaughtered most of the gods except Aphrodite (for obvious reasons). In the end he doesn't get to be with his family because they're residing within Elysium and he is still alive.

Sorry about that I am out of the loop. But in thinking about this game it reminds me of this older game, which is spiritual as well so does fit into this thread. Have you heard of Sour Reaver or the Legacy of Kain series, there might be ROM of it out there I'm not certain? This game reminds me a little bit of it. Here is a Wikipedia Article on the Main Character:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raziel_(Legacy_of_Kain)

[Shivani Devi]

Zelda - all of them, but particularly the first, A Link To The Past.

I also played Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

The Triforce - enough said.

The fairies filling up my 'Pieces of Heart' and all of the different dimensions and warp zones.

Beating 'boss monsters' using different strategies was cool.

Yu-Gi-Oh! - I played the actual Trading Card Game on consoles and in real life.

It was full of Egyptian themes and was a mixture of Egyptian, Hermetic and Thelemic symbols and beliefs.

[SirWontave]

It is true that even with all the violence games like God of War can have spiritual messages. Even Mortal Kombat has gods and Raiden tries to protect Earthrealm. He gets the red angry eyes in MK Deception (which has a great story about being spiritual and how, even with the best intentions and a good heart, one can still be thrown off by darkness but still be spiritual the whole time) and he learns patience and forgiveness with the humans he protects. So in Armageddon he does not destroy Earthrealm as his ending.
Zelda definitely has the spiritual element with the triforce. I remember the scene in the Super Nintendo version where Link becomes a bunny in the dark world because he is a pure soul of light. Also, only a pure soul can take the sword.
I still have a series of comic books based on Astrology and that had a strong spiritual element just like certain video games as you point out. Perhaps it is time to get more in tune with the spirit world and check out your sites about telepahy. Thanks for the info.

[Shivani Devi]

Originally Posted by SirWontave

Zelda definitely has the spiritual element with the triforce. I remember the scene in the Super Nintendo version where Link becomes a bunny in the dark world because he is a pure soul of light. Also, only a pure soul can take the sword.

Yup. The Super Nintendo Version was my favourite one - 'A Link To The Past'...I was going to mention the bunny, but I thought 'too much info' and I just left it alone. Gee it was difficult navigating the Dark World the first time as a bunny...

I must save up and get a Super Famicom (SNES clone) and that game again. I am now having fond memories of the temple 3 Boss...a giant centipede with a huge bulbous tail you have to strike 5 times without being knocked off the edge of a narrow, floating precipice and into the void of 'oops I got no life left' territory....one can only die so many times...so many times. lol

It was a real spiritual adventure and joy to play this.