Shin Megami Tensei 4-2's Dagda's Hypocrisy

"Oh, great, it’s that idiot Isamu all over again."

That was basically what went through my mind while playing Shin Megami Tensei 4-2 and learning about Dagda’s plan. Oh, sure, Dagda’s not a carbon copy of Shin Megami Tensei 3’s Isamu, the whiny codependent loser whose plan to remake the world can be summed up as “everyone sits alone in their room with the lights off and listens to Erik Hassle’s Hurtful,” but Dagda’s still a little too close to Isamu for comfort, in that he is every bit, nay, more of a hypocrite than Isamu was.

See, what made Isamu such a tiresome clown isn’t just that his Discipline is born out of a baseless, passive-aggressive grudge he has against SMT3’s protagonist because said protagonist was a little too busy with his own survival to hold Isamu’s hand for every second since the game started. And it isn’t just the irony that Isamu’s supposedly glorious vision of a new world of isolated self-sufficiency is born from an indignant 1-man parade down Pity Street over the unforgivable fact that he was left alone for a while. There was also the insane hypocrisy of the fact that Isamu dreams of and wants to make a new world in which every person lives in their own little bubble of existence, never able nor needing to interact or even know of any other living human, and yet is unable to make this dream a reality without relying on someone else to make it happen. Hell, Isamu is extra reliant on the Demifiend protagonist, since of the 3 Discipline leaders you can choose to support in the game, he’s the only 1 who dies regardless of whether his side wins or not. If you took the protagonist out of the picture, you can at least debate whether Chiaki’s strength or Hikawa’s machinations would triumph in the 3-way power struggle for the world’s future, but there’s no ambiguity about whether Isamu would stand a chance.

And just as Isamu’s inescapable dependence upon SMT3’s protagonist makes him a complete hypocrite, so does Dagda reduce himself to the same status in Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse. Because for a guy who’s constantly denouncing the idea of having friends and relying on anyone but oneself, and for a guy who so staunchly believes in getting by on one’s own abilities and drive rather than seeking power and assistance from gods and demons...Dagda sure does rely on an awful lot of other people.

I mean, let’s count it up, shall we? Obviously, of course, Dagda is relying on protagonist Nanashi. His whole plan hinges on the kid, in fact, much as Isamu requires his own game’s protagonist to fulfill his goals. And Nanashi’s not just some random stooge, either; it can’t just be anyone that Dagda uses for his godslayer. It’s Nanashi or bust. Because--and this is, I believe, official word of canon--if Nanashi doesn’t accept Dagda’s proposal, SMT4-2 ends immediately, and the world’s events proceed as they did in the first Shin Megami Tensei 4, with the games’ conflict resolving itself without Dagda’s influence. So it’s safe to say that it’s not just any goon Dagda needs, he’s specifically reliant on this single and singular individual.

And beyond even that, Nanashi’s still not just a mindless pawn of Dagda’s, because there are 3 instances in the game at which point Nanashi is given the option to cut ties with Dagda and be removed from the guy’s control. So Dagda’s frequent self-important posturing and lectures about not relying on others aren’t solely because he likes hearing himself talk--the fact of the matter is that he NEEDS Nanashi to be in his corner for all of this to go down. Nanashi has to choose to back Dagda through to the end.

Why specify all of this? Because I think it’s important, for the sake of emphasizing Dagda’s hypocrisy, that we are firmly aware that this is more than Dagda relying on Nanashi as a human chess piece. This is Dagda relying on Nanashi as a person, a specific, unique person who has the opportunity to choose otherwise. Yes, Mr. Don’t Connect With Anyone cannot accomplish his goals without a consciously invested, personally unique ally.

Also, Nanashi’s existence as the icon of Dagda’s philosophy of not relying on deities is dependent on his...relying on Dagda, a Celtic god, to keep him alive and able to summon demons. Yeah, Dagda basically counsels Nanashi for an entire game not to ever make the choice that Dagda’s entire scheme hinged upon Nanashi initially making.

But it’s more than just Nanashi that Dagda requires for his plans. Isamu made do (sort of) with just the protagonist of his own game, but Dagda? He needs a hell of a lot more to make his dreams come true.

For starters, he requires Krishna to put his own plans into motion, and to come very close to succeeding. After all, without Krishna and his followers, there’s no Cosmic Egg, and there’s no safe manipulation of humanity to get Merkabah and Lucifer out of the picture. In order to put himself and Nanashi in the right place to gain the power to remake the world, Dagda requires that Krishna actually get the whole situation set up. It's sort of like if Dagda was a diehard,overbearingly vocal supporter of do-it-yourself home projects, but nonetheless had to rely on the delivery guy, Krishna, to assemble every chair and bookshelf Dagda owns because he couldn't manage it himself.

Which, of course, leads to other reliances for Mr. Your Own Power Or Bust. Krishna can’t get himself out of his prison, so he, in turn, relies on Odin to send young Nanashi and Asahi to unwittingly perform the jailbreak, meaning that Dagda indirectly relies on Odin. And, of course, the Cosmic Egg can only come into existence through Shesha transforming into it, and remaking the universe requires the Cosmic Egg, so Dagda’s also relying on Shesha for his plans to come to fruition.

So, we got Nanashi, Krishna, Odin, and Shesha, all as separate entities that Dagda, patron saint of self-reliance, can’t accomplish his plans without. Anyone else? Well, there’s the Ame-no-Habakiri, aka Excalibur. For Shesha to really maximize his soul buffet, he has to be killed and resurrected a couple times, and for that to happen, the Ame-no-Habakiri’s required. Oh, sure, you can argue that’s just a sword, but as the sidequest for powering it up proves, the Excalibur’s also got its own consciousness and its own free will, so I reckon that its unwitting participation in Krishna and Shesha’s strategy, and by extension Dagda’s, is another case of Big D’s plan absolutely necessitating the capabilities of others because he himself lacks them.

And it does not end there. Yes, Dagda, who advocates a philosophy of depending solely on one’s own merits in life yet cannot enact the plans inspired by that philosophy without depending on the merits of children, thinking swords, and flute-playing hipster gods, is also voluntarily a hypocrite. What I mean is...well, as stupid as it is of Dagda to insist on so loudly and stubbornly clinging to an ideal of caring and believing in only oneself when he’s forced at practically every damn turn to depend on others throughout the game, at least in the cases of Nanashi, Krishna, Shesha, Odin, and Excalibur, it wasn’t his choice to do so. He has to rely on Nanashi because only a human can kill gods, and he has to rely on Krishna and Odin and Shesha and Excalibur for the reasons I’ve mentioned so far. His hand is forced in each case by the simple facts of the universe. Of course, a halfway intelligent, self-aware person might realize that since basic reality doesn’t conform to his beliefs, it might be time to adjust said beliefs to be a little more functional, but still.

After Nanashi and Dagda succeed in usurping the Cosmic Egg from Krishna and potentially gaining the power to remake the universe, however, it is 100% Dagda’s conscious, non-necessitated choice to resurrect Flynn as Nanashi’s servant. Yeah, it’s basically, "Hey, congratulations, Nanashi, you’ve done me proud and proven to the world that you can do anything by your own power, that true strength is in the individual and no other, that it’s foolish to connect with and depend on anyone else! And to celebrate your monumental achievement for hermits everywhere, here’s a devoted follower to rely on."

Do you even listen to yourself Dagda

And it’s not just once that Dagda voluntarily makes himself a hypocrite on this point. He doesn’t only resurrect Flynn to support and be an ally to the same kid to whom Dagda’s been explaining for 30+ hours of game time the follies of allies and being supported by others. No, no, he does it twice, for not only does Daddy D zap Flynn’s corpse with some fresh vim and vigor, he also has Nanashi choose 1 of his former allies to resurrect as a goddess to accompany and support him. Now, I know the prospect of making Hallelujah into an unquestioningly devoted goddess is, much in the same fashion as futanari, absolutely thrilling to thousands of male gamers out there trying desperately to lie to themselves about what their sexual preferences are. But though it may provide that succulent waifu thrill, this scene is still a second case of Dagda going out of his way to be a hypocrite.

"Hey, kid, remember all those friends of yours that I said were holding you back? Remember how I convinced you that you didn’t need any of them, and had you monstrously murder each of them to prove that fact? Good times. Yeah, well, even though I just convinced you 10 minutes ago to cut your ties with them in the most permanent and horrible way, now I’m telling you that it’s okay for you to hang out with and implicitly depend on 1 of them forever!"

So if we tally that up, we’ve got...5 different entities that Dagda is forced to hypocritically rely on, and another 2 that he willingly makes the choice to depend on. Great job living up to your own ideals, you ass.

In closing, here’s a tribute to the profound philosophy of Dagda.

Fallout 76's Wastelanders Downloadable Content

If Wastelanders had come out the day that Fallout 76 was released, it would still be too little. If Wastelanders had been the greatest adventure ever created, it would still be too late.

"Don't waste your time and money" continues to be the only advisory that I can in rationality and good conscience offer regarding Fallout 76.

Rakuen

So, here’s the deal: I want to recommend Rakuen to you all. More often than not, when I come across a notably good Indie RPG, I like to make a rant devoted to praising its better qualities, because such games need whatever advertising they can get, not having the budget for such, nor general media coverage, that games from larger (and almost always less deserving) companies are gifted. And Rakuen is most certainly one of those notably good Indie RPGs, and then some.

But I do a lot of these rants, and while some games have a specific characteristic that I can hone in upon to shine a spotlight of praise, such as Pathfinder: Kingmaker’s perfection of the tabletop-to-video-game format, or Cosmic Star Heroine’s simple fun factor, at other times, I can’t really do that. Not because Rakuen lacks for signature elements of greatness, mind you--I daresay it’s certainly as singular in its positive qualities as any of the other Indie games I’ve hyped up in past rants. Rather, it’s because to share most of Rakuen’s best exclusive traits would be to lessen their weight as you experience the game as a whole. I fear this rant will surely fall short of properly conveying how worthwhile Rakuen is of your time and attention. But it still deserves what little justice I can do it.

If I were to describe Rakuen’s basic premise and style without detail, I’d say it’s a game that’s sort of like what you’d get if you mixed that “Young person goes to a magical land that emotionally and personally mirrors his/her own reality” trope that late 80s and early 90s kids’ movies were so fond of, with Undertale, and made it into the kind of RPG that the people at Roseportal Games think they’re making.

To describe the game by the soul of its matter, however, I’d say that Rakuen is basically a story about the beauty and tragedy of life. Not life in the grand, romantic sense, as you might normally associate with an RPG. Not life in the poetic and/or philosophical sense, as you might think of if you’re familiar with RPGs like Shin Megami Tensei: Persona Q, Nier: Automata, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, or Knights of the Old Republic 2. No, Rakuen is not trying to make great overtures to the act of living, nor unravel the secrets of life’s purpose and truths. Rakuen is a story about the beauty and tragedy of life as we may live it, life in the simple, profound possibilities of average existences, ones which we recognize from some level of personally having witnessed pieces of them. Rakuen’s characters are people you’ve known and talked to. The dilemmas, triumphs, strength, and bravery of Rakuen are those that you or someone close to you may face, or have faced. Rakuen’s lore is a disaster documented, historical.

...that’s as far as I can get. I’ve been sitting at this screen for more hours of my day off than I care to think about, trying to no avail to continue this rant. Every time I try to be eloquent about what Rakuen is, what makes it wonderful, the rant unravels into an unruly, purple-prosy mess. When I try to corral my babble with specific details of Rakuen’s characters and story, my and its purposes both wind up eluding me. I cannot get the words to work with me on this, and that’s frustrating, because words are basically all I’ve got going for me. Calistria knows I ain’t gonna get by on my looks or physical prowess.

But maybe that’s how it should be. Because I can at least verbalize this much: Rakuen is about feeling. Its ambition is to open your heart, to move you, and it succeeds very well in that aim. This is a game of poignance, a study of humanity as a being of connection and emotion. And as such, it is beautiful, and I cannot conceive that there will be a one among you who will not cry at least once during your time with Rakuen.

That’s what my recommendation must come down to, I guess. All I can convey confidently and eloquently, and all that really matters for me to express properly, is that you will feel Rakuen, and it may leave you a better man or woman for having witnessed it.

I can make judgments on its peripherals, I suppose, if you want more details (and I don’t blame you for that wish, given my general failure to describe the game past my own raw, unspecified reaction to it). Graphically-speaking, it gets the job done in conveying the color and whimsy of its fantasy, and is adequate the rest of the time, but it’s an RPG Maker creation, and you can tell it--not a quality that puts me off at all, mind you, and I don’t think it should bother you, either, but there’s no denying its visual simplicity. The character art is basic, but solid. Also, Rakuen shines strongly on its musical front, with many beautiful themes, and also tunes that become beautiful to you in association with the game--the game’s creator, Laura Shigihara, is also its composer, and her talent and classical training shine strongly. Apparently she also was tapped to do some musical work for Deltarune, which, honestly, should tell you everything you need to know about Ms. Shigihara’s musical abilities--I think that when Toby Freaking Fox is coming to you and asking for a tune, that’s a good indication that you know what you’re doing.

What else, what else...oh, battle system. There isn’t one. What challenge Rakuen may pose to the player comes in the form of exploration and puzzles alone. If this is a dealbreaker for you, well, best steer clear of Rakuen. But I’d urge you to reconsider that viewpoint, because you’re avoiding a hell of a great game--and for that matter, you’ll be missing out on some other really exemplary RPGs, too. Embric of Wulfhammer’s Castle, a great emotional RPG in its own right, has, like, less than half a dozen battles in its entirety, and the excellent Torment: Tides of Numenera can basically be played from start to finish without taking part in any more than a single fight. While admittedly 1 of the most easily recognized signatures of the genre, an RPG’s worth is surely greater than the frequency of its combat.

On the gameplay front, I suppose I will point out that the outside-of-battle stuff is sometimes slow-going. It all works as it should, mind, it’s just that Rakuen wasn’t designed for someone who’s especially in a hurry. Which I get, and I can respect on a certain level, but at the same time, I’ve got a LOT of RPGs still on my plate, and the gaming industry isn’t slowing down any time soon, so it’s hard, sometimes, not to feel that a developer who neglects to put a Run button in their game just doesn’t respect that her audience’s time is valuable. For a dedicated gamer--and I think it’s fair to say that the majority of games like Rakuen have an audience of this kind; you don’t see a lot of “casuals” playing story-driven RPG Maker games--the basic feature of a Sprint button is going to ultimately save them hours, even days of wasted time over the course of their lifetime.

Luckily, though, this already minor fault is made all the less significant by a patch that creates a Run button in the game, so it doesn’t end up being a problem to Rakuen. I would certainly recommend making use of this mod; it was a very pleasing addition to the game for me.

I think that’s going to be it. I know this probably isn’t a very good rant, given my reticence to really speak in specific terms, and perhaps it isn’t even a very good recommendation for Rakuen. Nonetheless, I hope you’ll trust the earnestness of my assertions, if not their substance, and given Rakuen an honest chance. Because I think that it’s wonderful.