Fourth Thursday

So, anyone who knows me knows I play a lot of Video Games. My last video game writeup on Modern Warfare 2 was pretty popular, which I'm pretty thankful for. During a discussion I had with a few friends, though, a little notion was thrown around. A few of my friends made the claim that Modern Warfare 2 was the most important game to come out in the past 4 years because of the No Russian mission and what it did for Video Games as a visual artform. Although I do credit Modern Warfare 2 for doing great things through a very uncomfortable moment, I think I have to look at different game that didn't get a lot of steam but is opening floodgates through it's cult following and ambitious premises.

Atlus's Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 came out in 2008 and is considered by many to be the last great PS2 game. Following Persona 3, which was controversial for requiring the main characters to shoot themselves in the head to summon monsters that fight for them, Persona 3 lightens the shock value but keeps the engaging turn-base RPG game play. It also boasts a very compelling story with a lot of twists and turns and a beastly soundtrack.

What sets this game apart and makes it so important to me isn't inside of it's base mechanics, it's some of the decisions that the writers and localizers made.

1) Keeping Japanese culture interwoven throughout the game instead of "Americanizing" it.

One of the first things you'll notice in the dialog is the honorifics attached to everyone's names. Every character has a "-senpai," "-kun," "-chan," etc. attached to their names which will be very unfamiliar to American players. Also, all health products, spell names, and cuisine retain their Japanese identities. What feels like another world to the player is actually normal life (besides monsters and gruesome murders) for the Japanese, which is long over due in American gaming.

American Gaming suffers from cultural imperialism. It likes to impose American culture onto Japanese games. To market it better to American audiences, most localizers will strip all things Japanese since most American gamers will claim they feel alienated from the game. Atlus refuses to do so in Persona 4, opting to immerse the gamer into Japanese culture and have them learn about it as well as complete a well crafted game. Not only does the gamer get the opportunity to learn abut Japanese school, home, dating, and holiday customs, they learn that in many aspects, life for the Japanese and the American are extremely similar. Even the game play retains it's original Japanese flavor by not nixing the date sim elements that make up about 50-60 percent of the game. Half the game is traditional turn-based RPG, the other half is based on building friendships with your classmates, family, and (if you chose to) significant others. Date sims are just not done in America, so including these Date Sim elements in such significant portions was a huge risk that, by critical standards, paid off.

Yes, I listed two characters. How can two characters be listed?
Sexuality isn't explored in video games, for real. You may have a stereotypically gay character in a game, but most stories tend to stick with a heterosexual cast. One of the reasons for this is for an ESRB rating. Homosexuality is the quickest way to get a M or a AO rating, which will completely limit (or diminish) sales. Why homosexuality automatically garners a M or an AO rating is beyond me (*cough*HOMOPHOBIA*cough*), but to have a gay character in a game and explore their sexuality is not done.

Kanji is a male who has stuggeled with his gender and sexual orientation since he was a little kid and, even after his own personal resolution and the friends he gains, he continues to question his sexual identity and his feelings for Naoto. Naoto, a female who id entifies as a boy, opens up another can of worms in relation to Kanji and as one of the only non-stereotypical depictions of a Transgerered Male in video games. Their relationship with each other, their friends and the main character open up a lot of veins for discussion on sexuality that video games never touch upon. It is also, easily, the most provocative thing in the game. It begs the question: What is the ESRB really screening for? Why can such beneficial and useful dialog be restricted to "M" or "AO" rated games? Why is it okay to brandish swords and guns in Teen rated games but the moment that homosexuality and transgendered identity is discussed it's too hot for regular store shelves? Not only does Persona 4 bring a video game spotlight on sexual identity and politics, but it puts the spotlight on the discriminatory practices of the ESRB.

(We, as conscious gamers, *snicker* should probably be a little more outraged at the ESRB for this and call on their redefinition of their rating system, but that's a blog post for another day)

Persona 4 is an amazing game, one that was a perfect capstone for the Playstation 2 gaming console. It's not just because it's an RPG that gives SquareEnix games (FFXII, where where you at?) a run for their money, but because it retains it's true identity even through translation and breaks barriers with ambitious characters and situations. In my eyes, it's easily the most important game in the past few years and any game that steps up and makes the next few steps in the movement for Video Game legitimacy will have Atlus and Persona 4 to thank.