Understanding the Symbolism of Ikaruga...
Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 3:12 am
I recently beat Radiant Silvergun and was taken aback at just how impressive its story was - although I'm not a massive fan of linear story progression and video games communicating their meanings through cinema as opposed to actually being a video game and allowing the gamer to express themselves within the world the game creates. But even though there's a stark dichotomy between the actual gameplay itself and the presentation of the game's meaning, that does not mean that I respect the genius of Radiant Silvergun's story any less. Radiant Silvergun draws strong story elements from Genesis and its themes of apocolypse and rebirth have strong artistic merit - so, I was excited to experience the story of Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun's spiritual sequel.
As the Wikipedia article summarizes Ikaruga's story:
"Several years ago in the small island nation of Horai, one of the most powerful men of the nation, Tenro Horai, discovered the Ubusunagami Okinokai—the Power of the Gods. This energy emanated from an object he dug up from deep underground and granted him unimaginable powers. Soon after, Tenro and his followers, who called themselves "The Divine Ones", began conquering nations one after another. "The Chosen People" carried out these conquests in "the name of peace".
Meanwhile, a freedom federation called Tenkaku emerged to challenge Horai. Using fighter planes called Hitekkai, they fought with the hope of freeing the world from the grips of the Horai - but all their efforts were in vain. They were no match for the Horai and were eventually almost completely wiped out. Miraculously, however, one young man survived. His name was Shinra.
Shot down near a remote village called Ikaruga, inhabited by elderly people who had been exiled by the Horai's conquests, Shinra was dragged from the wreckage and nursed back to health. Shinra regained his health and pledged to defeat the Horai, and the villagers entrusted him with a fighter plane that they had built themselves, called the Ikaruga.
The Ikaruga was no ordinary plane, designed by former engineering genius Amanai with the help of Kazamori and the village leaders. Hidden in a secret underground bunker and launched via the transportation device called the "Sword of Acala", it is the first fighter built that integrates both energy polarities, and is capable of successfully switching between the two.
In a two-player game, Shinra is joined by Kagari, a mercenary of Horai defeated by Shinra. After Shinra spared her life, she decided to change sides and join the resistance. Her ship, Ginkei, is modified by the people of Ikaruga to give it identical capabilities to Shinra's ship."
Okay, so if Radiant Silvergun had deep roots in Genesis, then Ikaruga is obviously based off of ancient Chinese philosophies of polarity, most recognizably one of the fundamental elements of Taosim: Yin and Yang. In these ancient Chinese philosophies, there is a balance between two polarities which make a harmonized whole - it is mostly a Western misconception that Yin and Yang are specifically good and evil; this is perhaps just as philosophically sound as the intended symbolism of Yin and Yang, but those versed in its history will point out that it is more akin to the relationship between hot and cold or male and female.
Before learning about Eastern culture in my History to 1500 and World Literature courses and doing a little research on the game, I was deeply impressed by Ikaruga from a gameplay perspective and had somewhat distantly acknowledged the probability of Taoist imagery but was too ignorant on the subject to have any real understanding of its philosophical implications - in fact, I had asked myself, "Wait, so am I like, half good and half evil?" Now that I have boned up on my Chinese philosophy, however, I can acknowledge the strong artistic merit of Ikaruga, and best of all, Ikaruga communicates the fundamental basis of Yin and Yang through actual gameplay! Allow me to explain...
Yin and Yang communicates that we can ONLY succeed if we have true balance - equilibrium; it is true as well that in Ikaruga the player can ONLY succeed if he strikes a true balance between the dichotomy of black and white. While such a design may be looked down upon as non-expressive by Western standards of effective game design (and philosophy itself) in which true freedom and expression is the foremost principle, in its Eastern context the implications of finding balance in order to prevail is incredibly poignant and relevant. In this way, it accomplishes what a movie cannot do - a movie cannot allow you to test this Taoist philosophy out for yourself. In a movie you can say, "Hey it worked (or didn't work) for this guy who I'm watching", but the application of the philosophy to an interactive medium makes the argument all the more persuasive: "You (yourself) can try to play this game (a representation of life itself) anyway you want, but you'll never succeed unless you strike a balance. Try it all you like, but there is no other way." It gives actual meaning to the arbitrary video game standard of trial and error, and in doing so, gives all the more credit to video games' ability to be a legitimate artistic medium in a truly unique fashion... but there's one thing that bothers me...
This guy:
Okay, now it makes perfect sense from a symbolic standpoint to view Ikaruga's gameplay as analogous for life in which one must strike a balance when the enemies are strictly black and white - that means that your enemies are not righteous and you must find a balance to best them. The implications of your ENEMY being balanced in and of itself, however, I do not understand. It makes sense that unbalanced polarities (as in something that is JUST white or JUST black) should be one's enemy, but if the game is drawing on the Chinese philosophy that to be truly righteous is to strike a balance between Yin and Yang, what sense does it make to have to defeat something that is itself Yin and Yang? How is this guy a villain in the context of Eastern philosophy?
Thoughts?
EDIT: To add on to Ikaruga's roots in Eastern philosophy, in the beginning the text states, "I will not die until I achieve something. Even though the ideal is high, I never give in. Therefore, I never die with regrets." This wording, "I never die with regrets" implies that the protagonist has died and will die again, which of course implies that he lives multiple times - reincarnation, a concept deeply rooted in Eastern philosophy. The high ideal (or the "something") which the protagonist must strive attain is righteousness (which, as previously touched upon, includes balancing Yin and Yang) and, as is known by anyone who has played Ikaruga, this protagonist dies ALOT before you truly understand (and that's a loaded word in this philosophical context) the levels. This is in direct accordance to Eastern ideals - it is the belief of many popular Eastern-founded religions and philosophies that man is reincarnated infinitely until he finally achieves a righteous life - a righteous life is very, VERY difficult to attain and nearly impossible for human beings, being the self-driven animals that we are, but it IS theoretically possible. This actually gives Ikaruga's difficulty artistic merit... which is an absolutely stunning notion to me, personally. Unfortunately I have goddamned Euclid to study so I don't have time to delve deeper into reading and studying the messages at the beginning of each chapter at the moment, but I intend to do so in the near future... hell, I might even get around to playing the damn thing. Perhaps this will lend to answering the question I posed about the apparent righteousness of the bosses? Perhaps I'll just find that I'm thinking too damn much about the bad guys and that the developers only intended to make the philosophy apply to the protagonist... we'll see!
As the Wikipedia article summarizes Ikaruga's story:
"Several years ago in the small island nation of Horai, one of the most powerful men of the nation, Tenro Horai, discovered the Ubusunagami Okinokai—the Power of the Gods. This energy emanated from an object he dug up from deep underground and granted him unimaginable powers. Soon after, Tenro and his followers, who called themselves "The Divine Ones", began conquering nations one after another. "The Chosen People" carried out these conquests in "the name of peace".
Meanwhile, a freedom federation called Tenkaku emerged to challenge Horai. Using fighter planes called Hitekkai, they fought with the hope of freeing the world from the grips of the Horai - but all their efforts were in vain. They were no match for the Horai and were eventually almost completely wiped out. Miraculously, however, one young man survived. His name was Shinra.
Shot down near a remote village called Ikaruga, inhabited by elderly people who had been exiled by the Horai's conquests, Shinra was dragged from the wreckage and nursed back to health. Shinra regained his health and pledged to defeat the Horai, and the villagers entrusted him with a fighter plane that they had built themselves, called the Ikaruga.
The Ikaruga was no ordinary plane, designed by former engineering genius Amanai with the help of Kazamori and the village leaders. Hidden in a secret underground bunker and launched via the transportation device called the "Sword of Acala", it is the first fighter built that integrates both energy polarities, and is capable of successfully switching between the two.
In a two-player game, Shinra is joined by Kagari, a mercenary of Horai defeated by Shinra. After Shinra spared her life, she decided to change sides and join the resistance. Her ship, Ginkei, is modified by the people of Ikaruga to give it identical capabilities to Shinra's ship."
Okay, so if Radiant Silvergun had deep roots in Genesis, then Ikaruga is obviously based off of ancient Chinese philosophies of polarity, most recognizably one of the fundamental elements of Taosim: Yin and Yang. In these ancient Chinese philosophies, there is a balance between two polarities which make a harmonized whole - it is mostly a Western misconception that Yin and Yang are specifically good and evil; this is perhaps just as philosophically sound as the intended symbolism of Yin and Yang, but those versed in its history will point out that it is more akin to the relationship between hot and cold or male and female.
Before learning about Eastern culture in my History to 1500 and World Literature courses and doing a little research on the game, I was deeply impressed by Ikaruga from a gameplay perspective and had somewhat distantly acknowledged the probability of Taoist imagery but was too ignorant on the subject to have any real understanding of its philosophical implications - in fact, I had asked myself, "Wait, so am I like, half good and half evil?" Now that I have boned up on my Chinese philosophy, however, I can acknowledge the strong artistic merit of Ikaruga, and best of all, Ikaruga communicates the fundamental basis of Yin and Yang through actual gameplay! Allow me to explain...
Yin and Yang communicates that we can ONLY succeed if we have true balance - equilibrium; it is true as well that in Ikaruga the player can ONLY succeed if he strikes a true balance between the dichotomy of black and white. While such a design may be looked down upon as non-expressive by Western standards of effective game design (and philosophy itself) in which true freedom and expression is the foremost principle, in its Eastern context the implications of finding balance in order to prevail is incredibly poignant and relevant. In this way, it accomplishes what a movie cannot do - a movie cannot allow you to test this Taoist philosophy out for yourself. In a movie you can say, "Hey it worked (or didn't work) for this guy who I'm watching", but the application of the philosophy to an interactive medium makes the argument all the more persuasive: "You (yourself) can try to play this game (a representation of life itself) anyway you want, but you'll never succeed unless you strike a balance. Try it all you like, but there is no other way." It gives actual meaning to the arbitrary video game standard of trial and error, and in doing so, gives all the more credit to video games' ability to be a legitimate artistic medium in a truly unique fashion... but there's one thing that bothers me...
This guy:
Okay, now it makes perfect sense from a symbolic standpoint to view Ikaruga's gameplay as analogous for life in which one must strike a balance when the enemies are strictly black and white - that means that your enemies are not righteous and you must find a balance to best them. The implications of your ENEMY being balanced in and of itself, however, I do not understand. It makes sense that unbalanced polarities (as in something that is JUST white or JUST black) should be one's enemy, but if the game is drawing on the Chinese philosophy that to be truly righteous is to strike a balance between Yin and Yang, what sense does it make to have to defeat something that is itself Yin and Yang? How is this guy a villain in the context of Eastern philosophy?
Thoughts?
EDIT: To add on to Ikaruga's roots in Eastern philosophy, in the beginning the text states, "I will not die until I achieve something. Even though the ideal is high, I never give in. Therefore, I never die with regrets." This wording, "I never die with regrets" implies that the protagonist has died and will die again, which of course implies that he lives multiple times - reincarnation, a concept deeply rooted in Eastern philosophy. The high ideal (or the "something") which the protagonist must strive attain is righteousness (which, as previously touched upon, includes balancing Yin and Yang) and, as is known by anyone who has played Ikaruga, this protagonist dies ALOT before you truly understand (and that's a loaded word in this philosophical context) the levels. This is in direct accordance to Eastern ideals - it is the belief of many popular Eastern-founded religions and philosophies that man is reincarnated infinitely until he finally achieves a righteous life - a righteous life is very, VERY difficult to attain and nearly impossible for human beings, being the self-driven animals that we are, but it IS theoretically possible. This actually gives Ikaruga's difficulty artistic merit... which is an absolutely stunning notion to me, personally. Unfortunately I have goddamned Euclid to study so I don't have time to delve deeper into reading and studying the messages at the beginning of each chapter at the moment, but I intend to do so in the near future... hell, I might even get around to playing the damn thing. Perhaps this will lend to answering the question I posed about the apparent righteousness of the bosses? Perhaps I'll just find that I'm thinking too damn much about the bad guys and that the developers only intended to make the philosophy apply to the protagonist... we'll see!