Japanese refrences to advanced cultures in RPGs.

[Arkhon Arkhozh]

After thinking about the possibilties of ancient technology and Atlantis, it occured to me that many of my favorite video game rpgs have stories that revolve around this subject. So for fun ive decided to make a topic devoted to examples of refrences to advanced ancient cultures presented in video game role playing games. This is purely for fun and just for exploring all the interesting things out there. This also makes me think about what goes through the minds of the Japanese creators of these stories and what they personally know and think about on subjects such as Advanced culture and Atlantis. I do know they believe in the Mu for example. This is also for friendly discussion on that too.

Ill start with the Final Fantasy series first. 1,4,5 and 6 in particular.

Final Fantasy1- Final Fantasy one for the regular nintendo was a classic rpg about four heros banding together exploring a traditional medieval fantasy world, containing elves,dwarves,dragons,magic and many traditional fantasy monsters such as ogres,trolls and giants. Later on in the game though when you visit the kingdom of dragons Cardia where a dragon will tell you that in the distant past great civilzations flourished with mechcanical castles. Later on you meet a robot living behind a cave in a water fall. You then visit an ancient town where the people wear ancient style clothing and speak a mysterious archaic Language you need to decipher where they speak of their ancestors having built many wonders. You then head to the desert where you find the Mirage Tower, the insides appear to be normal ancient ruins but with friendly robots walking around talking about how they miss their masters. eventually in the center a robot shows you a machine in which where you stand in it you are transported in another room, you are now in The Floating palace of Tiamat. This place looks like the inside of a modern mechanical structre, the windows all around show that you are in open Outer space(in the nes version). Thoughout the halls you see all sorts of machines and strange writing and do battle with strange mechnical and robotic guardians, one being the horrible War Machine which could devaste your men with a nuclear blast. Very Unique and interesting for one of the first video game rpgs made with a traditional fantasy setting.

Final Fantasy4- Another traditional medieval fantasy world. Later in the game you encounter
the tower of Zot, a mysterious tower with a mechcanical interior filled with robots to right, then latter you enter the tower of Babil(apprently named after the real one) The is so huge extends very deep underground to where the dwarves live. Inside is also a mechanical futuristic interior filled with all sorts of horrible war machines as well as mythological monsters. Later on in the plot, The tower of Babil reveals the storage of huge robotic war machine known as the giant of babil made for massive destruction. You must get inside to destory it which reveals more mechanical imagery. Later in the plot you find the spaceship called the big whale which you use to travel up to the moon to the lunar palace. It was built by the Lunarian race. A human like alien race with a mastery over both science and magic who came from the planet that used to exist between Mars and Jupiter that formed the asteroid belt in its destruction.

Final Fantasy5- Another traditional medieval fantasy world. In the course of the games plot you visit ancient ruins with machines and robotic creations to fight. You even encounter a floating fortress made by the ancients proteced by several laser shooting cannons. Eventually you enter a pyrimid and other ruins where you fight very strong robots called prototypes. When you enter the void where all the worse demons and monsters have been sealed you fight one of them called Omega the Heartless. It is a very powerful creation firing lasers. When its defeated you get a badge that says your wisdom and strength has beaten the culture of the ancients.

Final Fantasy6- Here things get different. In this games plot, the era is similar to our industrial age but with everything fantasy remaining intact. There are machines and even trains about. Some machine even built for war known as magitek armor. Most of the technology presented in this game has been recently made and doesnt come from ancient origin. But even this game does contain ancient technology though Its just we hear more about the magical power of the ancients rather then the science they knew. The games back story was this, 1000 years ago many people were able to use and abuse magic This was at the expense of controlling espers through their magical remains that housed their souls in the form of a rock called magicite. Anyway the war was horrible and countless people died. It was said that this war set mankinds advancement backwards 1000 years in time.(like if the result of a nuclear war placed us in the stoneage afterwards.) Implying that the people must of used industrial like machines you see throughout the games current story. The main proof comes later in the game where you can visit the ruins of a castle 1000 years ago and learn about its history, while it was true the ancients were a magical people they also made use of technology and machines, for throughout the ruins you fight several mechanical war contraptions attacking with gamma rays and the like. The culture in the games back story must of praticed the deadly combination of magic and science just like Emperor Geshtal does in the games current story.

I shall make a post how Ive seen examples in other video game role playing games.

[Arkhon Arkhozh]

Final Fantasy 6- I have a little bit more to say on this game. I sort of think their are some hidden Hindu refrences. When they speak of the War of the Magi, a war where everyone used magic and did battle that resulted in the loss of alot of life that was so bad, set mankind backwards in time 1000 years. It makes me think about the Hindu story the Mahabharata. This is how the Mahabharata ended.

"The Mahabharata itself ends with the death of Krishna, and the subsequent end of his dynasty, and ascent of the Pandava brothers to Heaven. It also marks the beginning of the Hindu age of Kali (Kali Yuga), through the steady breakdown of truths of which the eighteen-day war of Kurukshetra, the clash of hundreds of thousands of men, elephants and horses, consisted. This is the fourth and final age of mankind, where the great values and noble ideas that humanity represented have crumbled, and man is speedily heading toward the complete dissolution of right action, morality and virtue in general."

Lets not forget those Mammoths in Narshe too. But Seriously I think the breakdown of truths and the clashing of thousands of men represent the aftermath of the war of the magi. I also think the refrences to dissolution of moral actions parallels What goes on the current story of FF6, with the mistake of ancient humanity reapting all over again through Emperor Geshtahls and Kefkas quest for power and dominance. Also its said the Mahabhrata caused alot of knowledge to be lost. If we were to think of the Mahabharata as the possible hightec war abusing nukes, we can then compare it to the war of the magi and the abuse of magic, both causing mankind to regress in a more mideval primative state. I really wonder if the japanese creators thought of this while making this game.

More later.

[Arkhon Arkhozh]

The Atma Weapon.

Final Fantasy6- AtmaWeapon may be a refrence to the hindu and buddhist term that sort of adds a little extra meaning to the plot when looked at in a certain way.

The word Atma looks like the word Atman and is sometimes spelled and prounced as such.

In Hinduism.
In Hindu philosophy, Atman in Sanskirt means the underlying metaphysical self.The word Atman (pronounced in Sanskrit Atma) is interpreted by some schools as the main Essence of man, as his Highest Self. Atma or Atman means opposite to darkness or shining. There is also an Ultimate Atman which is the (simalar to the meaning of Brahman)all-pervading soul of the universe the universal life principle, the animator of all organisms, and the world-soul. This is different from a persons individual Atman.

In Buddhism
Atman is a sankirt word that can be translated to self,soul and ego.In Buddhism, the concept of Atman is the prime consequence of ignorance and the cause of all misery.

These are brief simplified bits of info Ive taken from wikipedia. There is much more to read on the subject there if your interested.

The possible meanings of Atma's name

Its interesting to think of the buddhist definition when looking at the two Atma monsters and thinking of the war of the magi. Perhaps the creature represents the height of the arrogance and foolish abuse of magic and science during the war of the magi leading to the creation and abomination that is Atma. A way that relates to him being the source of all misery. Atmas presance can easily be seen as the consequence of ignorance on part of the people during the war of the magi. Maybe even the worst aspect of the human ego personalized. His name could also represent that he is so powerful that he is at his highest or ultimate form of self since he is a being of pure magic and was named Atma for that reason.

The Hindu defintion sort of relates to Atma the sword. As the laser like sword got stronger and stronger as a person got stronger. In terms of the game, as his hit points increased, the more damage he can do with the Atma sword increaed. Eventually it became the strongest sword in the game. The swords power depends on characters personal strength and how strong he/she is. In a way thats like strengthing his personal atman, the sword representing their growth. Eventually when the sword gets at it best meaning the characters hp is very high, its as if he reached his highest self. Also as a lightsabre looking sword, it sure is shining and the opposite of darkness.

Here is a picture of Atmaweapon from the floating Island.

www.videogamesprites.net/FinalFantasy6/Bosses/19%20-%20Atma%20Weapon.gif
Quote from Atma Weapon on the floating Island. (before the battle)
"My Name Is Atma, I Am Pure Energy And As Ancient As The Cosmos, Feeble Creatures, Go!"

Here is a picture of Atma in Kefkas tower.

www.videogamesprites.net/FinalFantasy6/Bosses/34%20-%20Atma.gif
Quote from Atma from Kefkas tower. (before the battle battle)
"Im Atma, left here since birth, Forgotten in the river of time I've had an eternity to ponder the meaning of things and now I have an answer"

Here are two midis of the song played when you fight him. I find it to be one of the best songs ever amongst video game music.
www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/snes/ff6atma5.mid

www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/snes/ff6atma7.mid

During the course of the story you meet a scholar who says 1000 years ago, during the War of the Magi two so called Atma Weapons existed. One changed a person's power into a sword, the other was a monster,bred for mass destruction. You find the Atma sword in the esper cave. And then you find and fight Atma Weapon the Monster on the floating island.

In truth four atma weapons existed. Another monster and another sword can be encountered. The other Atma Weapon monster is found in Kefkas tower, ready to fight you. The other Atma sword is in possesion of kefka and needs to be solen from him in the midst of battle.

I personally like to think of the two Atma Weapon monsters as genetically manipulated creations by ancient scientists by means of both science and magic and were made to be the absolute most perfect beings both physically and magically. Intelligent beings made just to fight and destroy. Of course taking place during or before the war of the magi. The two swords would also be forged with techniques combining magic and science as well.

There has been recent debate that Atma Weapon's name might be a mistranslation and was really Ultima Weapon. So far Ive seen no final word on this, and they had a chance to ammend this mistake in FF6s rerelease on psx through Anthology but left him as Atma Weapon. I prefer to think his name to be Atma Weapon anyway.

I will post more on games later.

[Arkhon Arkhozh]

Final Fantasy Tactics- A traditional medieval fantasy world. This games story has a more real world mideval feel then fantasy feel but is still heavy in magic. The plot of the game is your part of a band of heros trying to save the kingdom from a corrupt catholic like church which seeks to undermine the authority of the royal family and the nobles at the expense of lives. People in power are manipualted and tempted by Lucavi (a band of 13 zodiac demons) in order to spread as much death as possible as sacrifices to revive their master Ajora also known as Altima the bloody angel. Whats interesting is in the churchs religion, they worship St.Ajora and refer to him as the son of god, and he had 12 apostles also known as the zodaic braves. There is also a book found where Ajoras deeds really mimics those of Jesus. However the truth is revealed that the zodaic braves are the same as the zodiac demons and that Ajora was no savior but the true leader of the Lucavi demons. Whats said about these times about 1500 years ago when Ajora was alive was that high technology was dominate and people flew in airships and used guns. There was also talk about magical guns that were able shoot fire,ice and lightning based bullets. There were even able to contain the ablity to summon a monster within a single bullet though this is never seen in action in the game. The game had workers known as egineers whose job was to study the ruins and finds of the ancient past and were basically reviving all sorts of weird contraptions and machines that orginated in Ajoras time. Eventually in the game you encounter a robot built from those times and he joins you as a friend.

[Arkhon Arkhozh]

Final Fantasy Adventure/Sword of Mana- A traditional medieval fantasy world. The plot is about a former slave who escapes and goes on a quest to over throw the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord is trying to find the tree of mana and absorb its power to be able to command great magic. The hero looks for the legendary excalibur in some ruins and befriends a robot that was built during the Vandole empire. In the Sword of Mana version, this is further expanded, with dime tower being a vast technological fortress filled with rusted robot warrior bodies scattered throughout.

Secret of Mana- A traditional medieval fantasy world. In the course of the games plot you eventually encounter the Mana Fortress. The Mana fortress was supposed to be a structure that houses or contains all the power of Mana in the world. In the games story, mana is a mystic force that keeps the world together, descibed somewhat like the force in starwars. Its also where magic comes from. The Mana fortress was said to have been made by the ancients and it angered the gods. When you enter it, it appears to be a high tech structre filled with machines. Not only that but during the course of the games story, you encounter and use an ancient subway that was said to of been used by the ancients. It looked like a modern one from our times.

[Arkhon Arkhozh]

Chrono Trigger- A traditional medieval fantasy world. That was all about time travel. You begin the story in 1000A.D. and find a time gate and eventually travel to 65,000,000,000B.C. 12,000B.C. 600A.D. 1999A.D. and 2300 A.D.

Of Particular interests is the Kingdom of Zeal in 12,000B.C. Now this is truly the stuff of Atlantis. The dress and the look of the people of Zeal was very exotic and very fitting for lost ancient culture close to Atlantis. The timeline corroponds well to an ideal time of Atlanis. The succesful ruling class lives on floating islands above an artic frozen Earth. Those are able to use magic are permited to live on the floating Islands. Those who cant live on the ground and are known as the earthbound dwellers. they serve as slaves. The people are able to extract their ablity to use magic from Lavos. an large mighty Alien from space that lives deep within the Earths core. It grants to some people to ablity to use magic. The people here have both magical advancment and scientific advancement and while know that Lavos is the source of their power, can not see his selfish intentions or manipulation. They have made many technological advanced objects. One being the Black bird, a massive very modern like airplane. They also made something known as the Mammon machine, which allows them to better extract power and magic from Lavos. Given that these people treasure magic and power above everything else, its kind of interesting that they named their machine the mammon machine which is a refrence to money, something that people in our time treasure too much above whats important. Then of course was the huge Ocean palace. A giantic shrine devoted to Lavos that was to serve as a path way to the core of the Earth to better reach Lavos and extract his power. The interior is very technological. Infact eventually when Queen Zeal got some power from Lavos, was able to raise the Ocean Palace out into the sky where it served as a floating fortress known as the Black Omen which until it was destroed by the heros, floated in the sky throughout all time until 2300A.D. More rooms of the fotress were visible in that state, and all sorts of war machines and robots where inside ready to attack. There were also the three Gurus alive at this time. Melchoir,Belthasar and Gaspar. It was Belthasar that invented the wings of time. Which was a time machine, although he didnt finish creating it until he was sent to the future, but he was already in the process of its creation in 12,000B.C. Eventually in the games plot when the ocean palace rises, all the floating islands fell into the ocean, and the entire kingdom and culture was lost, the enlightend ones live on the earth with the earthbound dwellers. With everything destroyed, society regressed to a more mideval state as you see in 600A.D.

The song used for exploring the kingdom of Zeal was very fitting given its Atlantis like nature. here is a midi of it.

www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/snes/CorridorsOfTime10.mid

[Arkhon Arkhozh]

Paladin's Quest- A Not so traditional medieval fantasy world. The game takes place on Lennus. a very strange and interesting fantasy world. It is another planet all together, with over 10 different sentient thinking and reasoning races sharing it. The society currently is reflective roughly of our midieval era, but it has deep past that expands 10000 years in the past. All over Lennus are monuments that praises Kormu of Courage, Sophia of love and Gabnid of Wisdom as god like beings to be remembered and honored. Eventually As you go on with the games plot, you go deep underground, and find massive under ground buildings that are very modern looking and down right futuristic. There are robots and war machines to be fought. and a several friendly robots to meet, even one who wants to fight with you. You will even meet some robots who talk about missing their master Gabnid, and one who has a recording of Gabnid and kormu having an argument. Later in the plot you go to a strange shrine out in sea guarded by several old men who send you 10000 years in the past in order to defeat Dal Gren. What you discover here is the world was indeed much more advanced, and that Kormu,Sophia and Gabnid were aliens from another planet that laned on Lennus long ago being stranded without a way to make a ship to go back, they found themselves accidentally viewed as gods to the natives of Lennus, where the three were worshiped in exchange for their guidance and knowledge of better technology. The Three helped Lennus thrive. Ganid the main scientist was the one directly responsible for most of the machines seen in the game. Unfortunately Gabnid didn't have have the bests interests in mind for the people and had to be defeated in battle. In the end of the game its revealed that the structres and buildings deep underground were even before their before the arrival of Gabnid,Kormu and Sophia. A very Unique game.

7th Saga-A traditional medieval fantasy world. It haves you exploring a normal fantasy world filled with monsters while searching for runes. you choose to play as a knight, elf, dwarf,priest,demon,alien or robot. The robot is on a quest to learn about his origins. Eventually you find the ruins of Melenam. located underground, it appears very ancient and once to be the homes of people. Many rusted no longer working robots are lying around amongst the rubble. Later on you see more robots lying around in various caves. You even get to visit Melenam as it was in the past. You dont get to see all of it, but you see alot of working functional robots and the way the city thrived before it was destroyed. When the city was destroyed all its knowledge was lost, except for the few thinking robots that you find walking around admist the mideval world.

[Arkhon Arkhozh]

Shining Force- A traditional medieval fantasy world. Very traditional, in the style of Lord of the Rings. Much like FF1 it contains elves,dwarves,dragons,magic and many traditional fantasy monsters. Even cenataurs too. The story of the game is about starting a large army to fight against the forces of Runfast, a kingdom intent on taking over the world. In addition to this though, Runefausts king is being manipulated by a devil named Darksol, possing as a wise and helpful wizard, what hes trying to do is use the kingdoms resources to find the gate of the ancients and force it open in order to bring back to life the Dark Dragon. The Dark Dragon is a horrific creature in the games legend. Eventually in the games story you reach the city of Proft, where the descendants of the gods supposedly live. When you first arrived the people act as bummbling idiots, but when you learn too much they reveal all that they know. Also in the basement of Proft Castle there are all sorts of weird machines, and in the ancient city of Metapha you see the Cryogenic chambers from where the hero max and his brother were frozen for a thousand years waiting to deal with the problem in the future. They were scientists and warriors from the ancient times they froze themselves for the upcomming event of DarkDragons return. However Max lost his memory when he got free and was raised by the kingdom of Guardina in his amnesiac state. They speak on the truth of the ancients which was that they were a highly advanced culture and that they genetically made all the known fantasy creatures such as elves,dwarves,cenatuars, beast men and all the monsters. They also reveal the truth, when the people made so many genetic creations capable of thinking like humans do, but physically stronger, they began to be afraid of them as the mingled into society. The response of the ancient humans to their genetic creations was a massive holocaust. The genetically created the Dark Dragon to be the perfect creature and use him to destroy all the non humans. However this plan backfired and the Dark Dragon decided its purpose was to destroy all known life, and it took all the combine might of all the races, to finally have the darkdragon killed and sealed. The destruction of the war, made the entire world regress to the middle ages, and it became as a traditional world of fantasy with other races surviving. Of course the Dark Dragon vowed to come back as he did, and was defeated by the heros in this game. Also towards the end of the game, you fight many war machines that fire lasers that were used by the ancients.

[Arkhon Arkhozh]

Ok thats all I can think of for now. If you know of any examples feel free to throw them in.

[fenris]

There's the Wild Arms series. In the first game they explain how ARMs are not normal guns. I forget the explination but the point is they are some strange technology that dosen't fit in a westren style world. As the series progresses it turns out that the Humans here are descendants from umans who lef another world. In Wild Arms 3 the Ark of Destiny is a spiritual group who's base is an unearthed ship that is believed to carry Humans here in the first place.

[wiz]

Very nice Analogies.