Rebuilding: SMTIV, Part Four (The Rot)

I've been occupied with other matters - The Singing Mountain is one, my illness is another - but I wanted to say more about this before I left it abandoned.

Shinichiro Watanabe, on the creation of Samurai Champloo.

To address the plot of SMTIV, we have to acknowledge one of the biggest elephants - a real Girimehkala - in the room with this game; that it is, to put it most kindly, politically narrow-minded.



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Kasumigaseki - Summary

The Samurai, following the leads from Ueno, arrive in Kasumigaseki. They may optionally enter a Ring of Gaea stronghold, providing out first non-random-encounter meeting with this group, but primarily they head right to the site of the Counter-Demon Force. Kasumigaseki is where the cabinet ministry offices were - the home of bureaucracy. It appears, to my eyes at least, that the base lies beneath the Ministry of Justice or perhaps more specifically the Public Security Intelligence Agency, implying that the Counter Demon Force was operated in conjunction with Japan's CIA/FBI equivalent.

The Samurai find that the area is under Ashura-Kai control, but the guards are easily dispatched, and only a few elevator rides bring them to a secret area in which they find other DEMONICA suits, like that of the Black Samurai (no suspicion of the Black Samurai being in league with the Ashura-Kai is ever raised, and is of course not the case). They also find an armory and a large computer databank, where Burroughs downloads information to send directly to the Monastery. The Samurai are never made privy to this data and do not ask about it. Gabby congratulates them on their success, states that more quests are posted in K's Tavern, and Walter and Jonathan bicker about the Monastery's taking of liberties. The Samurai are then prodded onward to Shinjuku, a larger settlement where they may find more answers.

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Things Fall Apart

SMTIV is a very nationalistic game. To some degree, this is to be expected. When you're pitching a story where your home is the only one that survives - or is seemingly the only one that matters - after the apocalypse, a certain amount of pride in one's home is understandable. And especially so for Japan, whose pop culture even today still breathes in like air itself the understanding that nuclear weapons were deployed, wiping two populous towns away. Japan has survived tsunamis and earthquakes that have done monumental damage, and each time they pick themselves up and rebuild - part of the nation's character, and part of Tokyo's character, is that of the Surviving City.

But a lot of their culture of late also reflects a changing political climate, a resurgence in conservatism that has poisoned a great many wells, many with ideas thought mostly-buried. They're hardly alone in this, mind; America itself is very loudly going insane with little sign of abatement. And so take my criticisms in the spirit in which they're intended - it's not okay no matter who is guilty of it, and it is not a specifically Japanese problem. But it exists nonetheless, and it might be fair to argue at least that the dwindling Japanese video game industry is, in this specific instance, a contributing factor. Atlus, like many other Japanese game devs, have relied increasingly upon pandering to an entrenched otaku fanbase to survive, and conservative creative choices often find themselves hand-in-hand with conservative politics for a number of reasons - this is currently on display frequently with American superhero comics, as well, another global phenomenon struggling to adapt to current times.

Rather than reiterate, I refer back to this previously-mentioned article for a listing of many elements in SMTIV where nationalistic politics intrude upon the story in odious ways - perhaps most notably in sanctioning a Chinese genocide in-game with no alignment debate, and later on in which a series of demons are essentially posited as active presences in Japan's military history without comment. These issues complicate the original, compelling premise as well - the Samurai and Mikado, as portrayed, borrow influence from European Medieval designs as well as actual Medieval Japanese Samurai (and Jedi), and the plot as read suggests that this cultural mix is instead the perversion of western angels in total, which is more blatantly anti-Christian than the contentious battling of YHWH in Shin Megami Tensei II - an act that has been "resurrected" for this game's sequel, anyway.

The reason I bring this issue up now, rather than in Shinjuku where the wheels come off the wagon of this game's plot completely, is that the Counter-Demon Force base as it currently appears in SMTIV is all but a non-entity, plot-wise - it's meant, in some sense, to set up points for the later alternate universe reveal to connect, but doesn't, especially - and to make it a more relevant section of the game, one would have to tackle the concept of the NDDs - the "National Defense Divinities."

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Rebuilding: Kasumigaseki

I'm less clear at present if I'm going to be able to continue this series to a full end. Time commitments, illness, and exhaustion play key roles in how I proceed from here on out. Given that, I want to lay some cards on the table earlier than I'd intended, specifically because I want to make clear my intent. It was my intention to build slowly from small fixes to newer ideas, so that there was context for my line of thinking - the idea behind "Rebuilding" is to take the games in the spirit intended, and so the more that came from my own envisioning, the less trust you could have as a reader in my criticism. But if this series does not fully complete, these ideas become the context, rather than being informed by it. Thus:

• Either SMTIV and its sequel need to become one game (largely involving Flynn) with extraneous material cut, or the first game needs to set up its sequel and then the sequel would work as a natural conclusion - be it in the Avatar Tuner mode or the Persona 2 mode. Despite its failures and missteps and mishandlings, the sequel currently has - if on paper only - some of the conclusions that this game lacks. Even its tonal incongruities might be salvageable - again, speaking in theory - if they're confined to a particular route and (much) better handled. Taking the game "as intended" would invariably have to contend with its new goal of being more approachable to the Persona audience - Strange Journey's neutral route had your crewmates cheer you on and salute the human spirit, and it did not break the series atmosphere the way that this "duology" eventually does.
• STEVEN Stephen's quest to create a "Tokyo Goddess" flies in the face of his previous characterization and thematic purpose as portrayed in SMTIV, but does not explicitly have to do so. If multiple factions or entities wanted the role of "Tokyo Goddess" filled, then the worshipping of Tokyo would be less a nationalistic ideal and more about a symbolic "battling for the soul of the city," which is generally what these games are about. Thus, Stephen using Burroughs as a manmade, scientific solution would be about rejecting the gods, which is more in line with his role. Even if you chose to maintain his role as pawn of the Great Will, he would be doing so by reasserting mankind's free will (blessing of the Great Will but antithesis of YHWH (Chaos) and also reasserting order over Tokyo via guiding force (Law) - done correctly, it could offer a Neutral option. The existence of a "Tokyo Goddess" at all seems to be an attempt to return to the Shin Megami Tensei title - "Resurrection of the True Goddess" (Or "True Resurrection of the Goddess?" Sorry, my grammar's terrible but in this case both apply equally to my point) - so if factions are battling over who will fill the role, the question is literally raised, who is the "True" Goddess - and there are characters like Yuriko/Lilith, Nozomi, Izanami (who used to be a significant player in this series), etc who might want the role or be suitable in the eyes of their followers. Even Kaga could be a runner in the eyes of Ring of Gaea members who believe their worship of her strength will cause her to rise again (perhaps becoming a "Gaea Cult?"). Hell, this could even be why False Lucifer takes a feminine form here.
• Speaking of, False Lucifer as pawn of YHWH is fine - not as-handled, but an interesting twist, and possibly a good way to provide some self-commentary on how series fans view Lucifer - even at his most useful and in-line with your alignment, he's not exactly a hero. But even in a diminished role, the "actual" Lucifer should probably appear - why not make him the Cynical Man who provides your alignment check? His identity can be a surprise reveal late in the game, where he reveals he's observing with interest.
• A number of other main plot elements would need to shift as well, in order to both A) make sense and B) fit the way elements are steered. Conceptually, there's nothing wrong with visiting alternate futures that reflect alignments, just as conceptually there's nothing wrong with the other "gods"/demons finally rising against YHWH's constant machinations. But each opportunity the game presents is squandered by taking the most simplistic, least thought-out version of the idea presented. These elements, however, serve no purpose as ends to themselves, only as tools to allow reflection upon alignment choices.
• SMT: Nocturne, as a world where (essentially) law had already lost, was able to turn the alignment mechanics on their head by providing a plethora of ending options, all of which had strong negatives - that fans saw through some of them and largely fall on a Neutral/True Demon axis suggests that the options need to be stronger, as well as more varied, which requires developing each faction more fully. I envision something like: Early Law, Late Law, Early Chaos, Late Chaos, Neutral-Survival, Neutral-Heroic, Neutral-Self-Destruction, White, Cycle-Repeats, etc - a spectrum based on siding with different factions before and after a neutral path choice, with some abbreviated dead-ends.
• If the Tokyo Goddess is going to be a major factor in the plot, gameplay should reflect this, not just the ending cutscenes. If Flynn chooses to give Burroughs to Tokyo, she should become a party member or a party guest by the time you're in your final routes of this path (ie, the battle with YHWH) or an opponent if you turn against her, which should also be an available option.
• Dovetailing with this is the game's final decent conceit - that SMTIV begins where a previous, largely unseen SMT title leaves off - Akira(Aquila - nice pun, dudes, too bad the localization team didn't get the memo)'s story is essentially a game we do not get to play, and that element is interesting. If the sequel is going to posit a reincarnation of Akira as a protagonist, then wouldn't the relationship between reincarnated-Akira and reincarnated-Goddess be a driving force? Think of them as the Nakajima and Shirasagi for a new generation. Whether he's the protagonist of a sequel or just a supporting character in Flynn's journey, their interplay should be the core of that character. If you're committed to Reincarnated-Akira having a party of mismatched friends, having the character choose between childhood-friend-anime-girlfriend and Tokyo Goddess would be about keeping or giving up his humanity. Personally, I wouldn't pitch it as a love triangle in that way if he's the protagonist, because that's not tonally consistent with mainline MegaTen at all - though a drastically understated version of it might be interesting if he remains supporting character only - but if the game provided world-decimating consequences for the player choosing a route based on (ugh) "waifu" preferences, and committed to those consequences and the suffering everyone endured for the decision either way, it might almost be worth it.
• This isn't really relevant to any of the previous, but in case I don't get to it anywhere else - the cosplaying terminal guardian doesn't really go anywhere except some kind of sentai joke, and I thought that since it was a sidequest, you could probably pay it off by having a confrontation with him at a hidden terminal, where it's suggested (perhaps not even overtly) he's a Devil Summoner who's looking to use the terminals to access the multiverse, and you stop him - nodding to stuff like Amala or the first Raidou title without making it relevant to the story, and also tying to the idea that this game provides alternate universes already.

All this to say, you would need to start slowly building to these ideas once the player is acclimated to Tokyo. Kasumigaseki should be about learning some facts about how the world got this way, and setting up a quest that serves as an initial throughline until the capture of the Black Samurai.

The Counter-Demon Force base should be an an actual dungeon, not a three-second hallway. You can make it the kind of dungeon where clearing parts of it enable easy passage through the second time - presumably via means of an elevator - so that the Kasumigaseki terminal is not worthless, but after the in-and-out easy healing "dungeon" of the park in the last entry, this should be the first real dungeon after Naraku, confirming that the game will feature genuine level design. Given the location of the base, there's any number of things that the characters could conceivably comment upon in NPC rooms, as well, but primarily this should be the moment when the game ratchets the difficulty up a little. This makes the Gaea enclave at Tokyo Station useful at this early stage - if their limited services are a place to retreat to, it will color the player's opinion of Gaea early on (or, conversely, if they offer no help at all, it can color the player the other way - also a valid creative decision).

In an earlier entry, I suggested making fewer sidequests rely on demon domains, so that the usage of them in the game could be better directed. If demon domains aren't the catch-all, then each time they appear is more of an event. For instance, what if you needed to collect the ID cards to get through the base from demons who had nested domains in various parts of the base. Mapped corridors give way to sudden randomization and loss of mapping - in the middle of a dungeon, this becomes a frightful challenge, rather than a perfunctory jog before a boss. One of the domains could even be held by a former counter-demon force member who had turned into a demon, continuing the throughline with the Black Samurai and the books - this could be someone who once knew Skins and Akira. Not a major new character, just a person whose name can come up later and continue providing consequences for the actions that humans and demons take.

The boss, I think, would be Take-Minakata, who would generally be appropriate for the player's level, based on his usage in the past. The Samurai tread down a frozen corridor, and the player probably thinks it's King Frost or something, but he is in the "main area" of the base (what, in the actual game, comprises the whole thing - at least until optional exploration later in a different area). He's come to the CDF base looking for Take-Mikazuchi. Take-Minakata had heard that Take-Mikazuchi had found home here. He suggests that Take-Mikazuchi and "the others" had failed their lands so many times that he must be weak, and Take-Minakata might have a chance to exact vengeance for the loss of his arms. One of the Samurai reacts with surprise that the "Counter Demon Force" had employed demons, and Take-Minakata laughs, pointing out their hypocrisy. Humans always hate demons, but when they choose to rise up, they always call on demons to battle demons for them. You could even have an alignment choice here - Flynn (and a Samurai backup) can duel the demon without any summoned assistance.

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Sorry, Eirikr, borrowing your pic

The Defense Divinities

The main point in this is that we're establishing the concept of the "Defense Divinities" earlier - and establishing that they're failures. The game as written posits a great nationalist team of demons guarding their own lands, corrupted by unsavory elements that Japan could do without, like the Yakuza. But the Defense Divinities as written are not only a factor in the game's weird, gross nationalism, but they also raise so many plotholes and confusions that the game cannot support their existence.

There is, however, not a problem, in principle, with some certain demons being focused on protecting their homeland - Take-Mikazuchi's not a terrible choice for one, as claiming the land was part of his whole purpose. Masakado has always been portrayed as the "great guardian" in the series, so a more active spin on the issue can be interesting. Others that were chosen are less sensible, per se, but here: Take out the specifics of the World War II anecdote, because it's hot-button at best and also raises a bunch of franchise timeline questions that will give certain people headaches. Down the line, via sidequest or main plot, establish that the Japanese government, upon learning of the existence of demons, summoned some of the gods/demons that would protect their land and entreated with them, perhaps even forged contracts. This works well with the existence of DEMONICA suits to suggest that the governments knew what was going on - whether you consider this a consequence of Strange Journey or not is irrelevant. It also makes the reason for the US firing missiles at Japan a more conflicted issue (better tying it back to its supposed inspiration, Ambassador Thorman) - was there a demons arms race? Were all nations culpable? Is it only Masakado's quick actions that left Tokyo the last surviving city, or did other events take place? Did other nations survive? We don't need to learn these facts - they can fuel fan theorizing - as long as what we're told is internally consistent.

The idea that there are western deities in Japan troubles me less - it's important not to take all demon appearances fully literally. After all, in these games you can slay Loki or Amaterasu or whomever dozens of times to no consequence - but when you posit the gods as gods in a Neil Gaiman sort of way (especially in the sequel with a "polytheist alliance"), and suggest that some of the local ones have actively been helping the military for decades, it all shakes out into a big mess. These games never suggest what's happening outside of Tokyo's borders except when everything's been wiped out entirely, so this sort of wishy-washy writing can't sustain a plot with mythic figures. And yet, pivoting the same idea away from all the pit-traps leaves it fully workable.

The thing about SMTIV is that even when it's gross, it's gross in a way that it's easy to fix. The "Chinese demon" stuff in Ikebukuro is decidedly not pleasant, but it doesn't have to be - if it's posited as a choice for the player, with reasons for and against. If the people requesting a purge suggest they have an interest in "purity," but the action has benefits to some, if there is ethical conflict that is raised, rather than an unethical act approved without comment, then it becomes interesting. SMT games are dark, the suggestion of racism and genocide doesn't have to be removed - only the tacit approval of it, which is terrifying. The player should be made uncomfortable by the suggestion, and opposition should be raised because the acts are performed against demons, not humans. Is a symbolically horrific act as evil as a literally horrific act? That's an interesting question to explore, and a better game would do that, rather than impress upon young players some very uncomfortable ideals (here in the west, to be fair, we just play games where we shoot brown people and then celebrate the game's ambiguity - we're all sinners here, but we address these things one at a time).

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After the Battle

This game is revolutionary in at least one way: I cannot for the life of me think of another game in which you battle your way to a computer terminal that holds information, and then refuse to partake in that information. I don't mean where it turns out to be a trap, or it turns out the machine is damaged, or whatever. You just... don't bother learning anything.

Burroughs relays data to the Monastery, and Sister Gabby thanks you - we've said the only plausible information she could want is the location of the other archangels (who are currently held prisoner, and whom she will soon enough be sending you to free). Putting aside for the moment that it's strange that she would need a human to search a computer database for this information (couldn't she, like, "sense" them or something? How did the Ashura-Kai keep it secret? Does this have something to do with Mastema? Why does every plot point in this game after the first three hours rely on nobody thinking about it? If I just wanted to look at colored lights for eighty hours, there are more popular Final Fantasy games I could play, and then at least people would care about how much time I'm spending on this nonsense) --ahem, putting that aside, why does nobody ask what the information is, Chaos Hero or otherwise? It's never deemed "classified" or "heretical," and if it pertains to their situation, all of them would want to know what it was. The Samurai don't explicitly know what a computer is - although the screen's just a bigger version of what's on the Gauntlet, right? - but Burroughs tells them what she's doing, and she's perfectly capable of translating things for them.

The computer is functionally an event flag, when it should be an important moment, when they can learn a great deal of information about the "Land of the Unclean Ones" all at once - the only reason they don't do so is because the plot wouldn't work if they knew everything from the start - records of Akira would surely be in the database, but it's not a huge logical leap to assume that there would be records of all the events leading up to, and directly following, the missile attack and Masakado's creation of the Tokyo Dome. These characters have access to the Day of Lavos archives and show less initiative than the cast of Chrono Trigger, who basically begin the plot by leaning on the desk too hard and hitting a button by accident. How would Jonathan and Walter's reactions to everything in Tokyo change based on knowing literally everything - including Mikado's origin, mind you - save for the Black Samurai's identity right here and right now? A lot, a little? We'll never know! But certainly Flynn and the player's reactions would change!

The game "falls apart" in Shinjuku when "Hikari" comes up and does the heavy lifting for the cast, but this is the moment when the game loses me completely. Lots of RPGs have characters who do stupid things and don't ask questions - my wife and I are replaying Final Fantasy VII right now, for God's sake, and that game is a disaster - but rarely so overtly when the characters are actively seeking knowledge and have unobstructed access to it. And moreover, while MegaTen games have no unimpeachable record when it comes to plot construction, they've never been this shabby and lazy, not even in their weakest games.

So the only solution here is to have Burroughs show them everything they ask for - and just make sure that their questions, in character, leave room for things that they do not think to ask. Establish here that the missiles came, that demons rose, that the dome formed. Maybe have people assume Masakado created the dome, but don't know that he is the dome? Have the reveal that the dome has only been up for X years versus X years in Mikado, and leave that as a mystery for the Samurai to solve. Establish that the government entreated certain demons, establish that the angels left but the people of Tokyo don't know where they went.

The only thing that I can think to do is to overwhelm with information, instead of underwhelm, in order to keep the plot on track. Have the records of things that the Counter-Demon Force was tracking - or that the Ashura-Kai was tracking, using the equipment. Stuff like where the Faerie community is hiding, or possible locations for an "artifact" that will turn out to be Masakado's head, and the locations of our "Fixed" versions of the NDDs - maybe even the existence of Akira's reincarnation, I don't know. A bunch of side-quest triggers as well as the main plot triggers, so that the player isn't initially sure what will be most relevant.

This is also where Burroughs can get a whole bunch of updated Tokyo information, and the world map can be upgraded to a more useful form, as we'd previously discussed.

Moreover, if the Ashura-Kai have claimed this area, then Tayama should view the Samurai as a threat specifically for accessing information here - because there is the potential to know information about the "Reds" from this database, if the Samurai had known what to ask. When he later challenges them to join him and learn the truth, holding one of their compatriots hostage - and that hostage should really, really be Navarre, because for Christ's sake, that's how you make an alignment choice - he should consider them one of the greatest threats to his little empire.

If the information and the existence of the DEMONICA suits pointed the Samurai towards the Ashura-Kai, they'd have a better reason to travel northward from here, leading towards Juraku Bookstoreand the end of the "Act." How a game's storytelling is meant to work is that large goals are accomplished via nesting smaller goals:

• Stop Lavos by stopping Magus by recruiting Frog by forging the sword by going to prehistory.
• Find Yuko by finding Hikawa by talking to Gozu-Tennoh by traversing the underpass by helping the Collector by stealing a bill from Loki's suite.
• Defeat Queen Brahne by defeating Kuja by following the dragon to the sanctuary by passing Conde Petie by pretending to get married.
• Stop Joker by investigating Tatsuzou Sudou by looking into his son by checking out the sanitarium by climbing Mt. Mifune.

It's true that some games do not do this as a rule: Both Final Fantasy VII and Persona 3 operate based on the principles of episodic anime, where the adventure (or the school year) has them bump into the problem of the week. But despite the popularity of these two titles - and one of them is genuinely good, by accident or no - it's rare that this structure can support a game of an RPG's length and have its story command weight. Because of this, it's good to deal in nesting goals and gradual progression: Save Mikado by finding the Black Samurai by getting answers from the Ashura-Kai by heading north to their controlled area.

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Next Time(?), on Rebuilding: SMTIV - We'll try again to address game balance, if I get to it. The sequel made a number of improvements, but I'm not sure that all of them are solutions. I may not write that piece until I've had a chance to play it. We'll see.