Girl in the Machine - This guy are sick.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Alice Elliot's Divinity

The Messiah of Shadow Hearts

Out of all of the soft-spoken, kind heroines in role playing games, Alice Elliot may be my favorite. She supports Yuri in the first Shadow Hearts game, and she holds within her the powers of light that maniacs like Albert Simon need to dominate the world.

Messianic women aren't terribly unique in the role playing genre, but let's take a look at Alice's credibility.

To start with basic information from the storyline, we know from the beginning that Alice is the daughter of Father Morris Elliot. She began hearing otherworldly voices at a young age, and so she assisted her father with exorcisms. She has a natural connection to the spiritual world shared only by the powerful Koudelka herself. It is this kind of power, different from the dark-elemental mysticism tied to Koudelka, that makes Alice so valuable to Albert Simon.

In one of the game's most pivotal scenes, Alice enters the graveyard (the dark place in Yuri's mind from which his fusions originate) and sacrifices herself to the spirit Atman in order to protect his life. If we follow the canonical "sad ending" that leads to Shadow Hearts: Covenant, we know that she will fight Atman alone and lose to it; this act of martyrdom leads to rapid deterioration of her health and her death at the end of the game in order to save Yuri.

Her character's element is light, and she uses primarily healing class magic during battle. Her two attack spells, Blessed Light and Advent, are the only offensive light spells available outside of Yuri's fusions.

Her weapons are holy books. She begins the game with a small Bible, progressing trough other texts like the Tome of the Shooting Stars, the Tome of the Sun, and the Holy Book of Flesh. Her best armor is the Gold Thread Coat, "a long robe filled with the memories of martyrs past. The wearer feels as if she is wrapped in a warm light."

In addition, the game's cinema scenes often show her face cast in light. Back in the early days of the PS2, I know for some gamers it's tough to see past the now-deficient graphics, but the cinematic elements are there, and they carry over into Shadow Hearts: Covenant.

I don't know what it is about Alice that makes her stand out in my mind as such a successful divine heroine. Characters like Yuna and Colette sicken me with their blind devotion to their tasks, so I appreciate seeing how Alice is rounded out by her experiences from her beginnings fleeing Simon, struggling to save Yuri, and resolutely standing against her foes. I think it may be the single-minded determination of other characters like Yuna and Colette that make them so frustrating for me. To call them dynamic characters is to misuse the term.

I also find myself wondering when and where we see male characters that act in this way--not just the so-called knights in shining armor who come to save the day and rescue the girl, but quiet men who make a stand and are willing to lay their life down to protect others without turning into annoying bad asses. Can anyone think of someone?

Labels: Calabar, Character Spotlight, RPG, Shadow Hearts

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Friday, May 16, 2008

I’m Sure You’ve Got Plenty to Say

Natan: …

(Sorry for the late post. I was experiencing some difficulties acquiring an internet connection this week)

Remember the good ol’ days after the first world war when European vampires still embarked on sabbaticals to the American south-west, cat-people ran Hollywood from behind the scenes, and cheeky teenage detectives could break into high-security compounds like Alcatraz without consequences?

Oh wait—that’s not real life. It’s Shadow Hearts: From the New World (thank goodness).

There’s something about this irreverent series that I find incredibly appealing, but sometimes it leaves me scratching my head. The way the developers choose to represent characters can be a little disingenuous. In particular, minority characters have their differences from the mainstream magnified one hundredfold. Whether it’s the swishy Magimel tailors or the so-Mexican-it-hurts mariachi singer Ricardo, everything is so overblown that it’s difficult to take it seriously.

While discussing the game with BomberGirl and PlasmaRit, we became interested in the “strong and silent” Native American character Natan. We wondered how much he actually had to say throughout the course of the game, and I honestly couldn’t recall. It’s been a while since I’ve played it.

To investigate our suspicions, I combed through one hundred and ten pages of the Shadow Hearts: From the New World script. From beginning to end, the script is 30,324 words long.

Natan says 768 words. Let’s break that down further.

Of those 768 words, about 573 of them are related to the storyline. The other 195 words are spoken during dungeon exploration when Natan offers suggestions on how to complete the puzzles.

Throughout the entire game, Natan is represented through a mere 2.5% of the dialogue. This number isn’t fully accurate, though, because the script I used doesn’t include the short snippets of conversation shared with party members during side quests, including Natan’s UMA side quests.

That doesn’t make it any less problematic in my eyes. Natan first appears when Shania is explaining the Malice to Johnny within the first hour of the game. He watches their entire conversation, including their decision to travel to Arkham University together, before introducing himself with a simple, “I am Natan. It is my honor.” We move through another two or three hours of gaming before he says, “We're wasting time. Let us go,” during Frank’s introduction scene.

This pattern continues all way through the entire game, with Natan’s voice entirely absent from a few chapters. On the one occasion that he speaks up and explains the source of Shania’s blind desire for revenge (eighty-eight words, or 11.4% of his total—the most he speaks at any one time in the game), she puts a cap on him with, “Well, aren't we in a talkative mood today...”

The treatment his character receives perpetuates the strong, silent Native American stereotype. At the very least, he’s not quite Tanto from The Lone Ranger. He rarely speaks, but he uses good grammar throughout the game, with one strange exception. After the party has been captured in the Caribbean, Natan lifts the gate from its hinges and says, “Long time no use... so gate was warped.”

The only quality of the Shadow Hearts series that makes this passably acceptable to me is that no one is safe. The developers must have had a Big Book of Stereotypes when they were drafting the characters. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, it’s not a game to take seriously.

Still, while there’s certainly nothing wrong with being quiet, I feel like a character who has been present for the whole game would have more to say.

I wanted to get some more insight into other Native American characters in video games, but I’m currently without reliable internet access. I invite all of our readers to comment and share their thoughts. Who are some of the other Native American faces and voices out there? How do they compare to one another?

Labels: Calabar, Race Issues, RPG, Shadow Hearts, Stereotypes

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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Ultimate Test, the Cruelest of All Trials

Joachim and the Man Festival in Shadow Hearts: Covenant

[Editor’s Note: October is LGBT History Month, and so I have decided to spotlight a series of LGBT characters.]

Joachim is one of your supporting members inShadow Hearts: Covenant, and from the very beginning he comes off as a little odd. His flamboyant gestures, unusual catchphrases, bear-like physic, and butterfly mask may lead the ignorant to pin him with some stereotypes. . . but in this case it isn’t far from the truth.

In fact, Joachim holds the third highest position on GayGamer.net’s Top 20 Gayest Video Game Characters.

Each character in Shadow Hearts: Covenant has a sidequest or two at the end of the game, and Joachim’s revolves around the Man Festival. The video below includes all of the relevant scenes from that event.

The Man Festival is one of the few instances I can recall in which a gay video game character's sexuality is so explicitly addressed. It's also one of two or three moments in the game where Joachim's sexuality is completely transparent. I appreciate that, much like Brad Evans in last week’s article, Joachim’s homosexuality doesn’t take center stage throughout the entire game. It’s just as well--an entire game revolving around Joachim’s sexuality would be too campy for words.

Just as when I first played this game, I am delighted by Joachim's gayness. I always had my suspicions about him, even after the bondage scene with Veronica, but the Man Festival left no room for doubt. I forgive his stereotypes and flaws within the context of the game, as the Shadow Hearts series isn't known for its historical and cultural accuracy.

Consider, for example, the fact that Joachim, a German vampire over four-hundred years old, seeks the tutelage of the Great Gama, perhaps from India. The Man Festival of 1913 is held in Tokyo, Japan, in a one-hundred stories tall wrestling ring. On your way to the top, you fight scrawny men wearing curried dishes on their heads as mini-bosses. Your companions in this endeavor include (among others) a wolf, a female German officer, and most startlingly of all, the Russian princess Anastasia.

Clearly, this is not a game to be taken seriously. While I am inclined to say that stereotypes should always be analyzed and understood, I consider the Shadow Hearts series exempt from that rule. It’s absurd to the point of satire. I'd like to believe that on some level Joachim's role is to point out the ridiculousness of those preconceived notions about the gay community that he embodies.

Either way, Joachim comes off to me as a fun and interesting character. He's by no means a model for the ages, but he does demonstrate that homosexual characters have come a long way--he's a sort of stepping stone on the road to unbiased representation. Next week, we'll talk more about early representations of gay and lesbian characters and see just how far we've come.

Labels: Calabar, Character Spotlight, LGBT, Shadow Hearts, Stereotypes

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Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Graaah! I'm naked!

Or, Fusion Monsters in Shadow Hearts.

Ah, Shadow Hearts, my beloved series. You had me enthralled since your beginnings in Koudelka, and I’ve followed you ever since. I can look past your flaws--embracing inaccurate histories and bastardized religions, all the while reinforcing stereotypes across the board. I mean, it’s not your job to keep a perfect record of the past or explain religion to me. It’s the crazy settings, darkly humorous stories, and disturbing monsters that attract me to you. Most of all, it’s the harmonixers (humans that fuse their souls with those of demons) that keep me coming back again and again.

Thus far, we have met five harmonixers in the three Shadow Hearts games: Yuri Hyuga and his father Ben, Kurando Inugami and his mother Saki, and Shania. As the games progress, the fusion monsters become less “scary” and more “cool,” ultimately falling into the “sexy” category with Shania in Shadow Hearts: From the New World. Let's take a closer look at Yuri's evolution first.

When Yuri uses his “Fusion” skill, the results are often frightening. The first Shadow Hearts in particular contained some intimidating fusion monsters, ranging from the horrible Lobo to the grotesque Czernobog. When we see him again Shadow Hearts: Covenant, however, he has left the “scary” realm and transitioned into “cool.” That in and of itself isn’t a bad thing--Veneficium can still kick just as much ass as Egil!--but the aesthetics of the monsters are worth noting. Where Sandalphon is a frightening bug-like creature, Miserati is purely deific.

Over time, I feel that the Shadow Hearts games have become progressively more and more openly sexual (but let’s not fool ourselves--the first thing Yuri thinks about when he rescues Alice is essentially rape). When the game designers realized Yuri's fanbase, the already gorgeous pscyho got a slight makeover for the sake of Shadow Hearts: Covenant. I’m not complaining! It’s perfectly fine for characters in games to be attractive. It’s part of many games' escapist appeal; however, it does become a problem when the character’s representation is exploitative.

As is often the case, however, when a video game designer decides to create a female character, we end up with women like Shania. She's easily the strongest character in your party, and her active pursuit for revenge at any cost makes her an aggressive go-getter. But damn, those shorts would make Yuna from Final Fantasy X-2 blush. And that skimpy top? Woo!

Impractical wardrobe decisions aside, Shania is subjected to one of the most awkward transformations scenes I've ever seen. Nothing on the subject is more divergent than the manner in which Yuri and Shania transform. Until Yuri gains confidence in himself late in the game, he begins his fusions by clutching his head, stumbling and screaming in pain and fear. Shania, on the other hand… well… her clothes fall off.

Now, what the hell was that? Were those sparkly shoujo lights and colors? Did I have to see her boobs separate as her top falls off? Why did I get so dangerously close to her nether regions? ... More importantly, why doesn’t Yuri transform by floating around in barely-underwear after dropping his pants!?

One thing the game designers did well was having Ta Tanka scream like a madwoman after the awkward strip tease. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be in her way! Her fighting style with this form isn’t exactly pretty, either. All of that is irrelevant, though, when comparing her to her analog in Yuri, Gaudion (and the same things can be said for Thunderbird and Libertis, as well as La Sirene and Venificium!). I mean, Yuri isn’t even recognizable as human in this form! From her exposed breasts to her high heeled shoes, Shania is not only humanoid, but also an alluring earth/bull goddess! Her pretty face remains virtually the same, as well. She should be fighting the forces of evil, not seducing the players. In terms of design, it's as though the need for her to be sexy supercedes the need for her to be strong and intimidating. At least she has bulky forearms.

Let's compare the "ultimate forms" of the two protagonists. Here they seem to be on equal footing.

One might argue that while Yuri's Dark Seraphim fusion is totally naked, Shania's Tirawa fusion is at least wearing armor. They're both definitely bad asses, but I'd say that Tirawa still suffers from more sexing-up than Dark Seraphim. Her armor, while preventing complete nakedness, is effectively useless (I guess she's safe as long as no one tries to kick her in the shins or stab her nipples.). The armor is an accessory to her body and exploits her nudity. One might argue that Dark Seraphim's tattoos serve a similar purpose, but the neuter character model has little to offer the viewer. Tirawa's perky breasts are pointed right at my eyes, though, and I don't even look for that kind of thing!

In the end, we face two problems because of these fusion monsters. With the exception of Yuri's androgynous Miserati and Kurando's feminine Tsukiyomi, all of the male fusions are hypermasculine, frightening beasts that are coming to beat you to a pulp, suggesting that their power is wild and something to be feared. The female fusions are still going to beat you to a pulp, but they’re going to do you first.

Again, there's no problem with being attractive. I wouldn't want to play a game where all the characters were ugly. I see enough ugly people in my everyday life. It's this notion that female characters must always remain pretty--whether they're dying or fighting--that needs to be changed. It's a shame that Shania's fusions didn't reflect her dark intentions and obsession with revenge. I hope to see another female harmonixer in future installments to the Shadow Hearts series--perhaps she'll possess fusions that actually embody the souls of demons instead of merely granting her a costume change.

Oh, and in the process of putting this article together, I stumbled across this lovely Shadow Hearts gem. No, it has nothing to do with anything, but it’s campy as hell.

(Thanks to Zone of the Gamers for the Shadow Hearts screens.)

Labels: Calabar, RPG, Sexuality, Shadow Hearts