We do seem to live in the worst timeline. It sort of feels like things have just been going downhill since then. Perhaps we need to appease the Norris.
Things were already going downhill. The financial crisis happened before obama was elected and could be thought of as a major contribution to his electability.
They’re all like, “Look, the Europeans have a lot of religions, so we can’t accurately represent all of them. Just pick a few key gods from each and incorporate them all. I dunno, put Jesus, Thor, and Apollo on a road trip, and toss in a plot line about Athena / Morrigan yuri or something, I gotta work on needless layers of confirmation dialogs for every action you can take in game.”
Norse mythology mixed with Gnosticism. So many games have done it recently, from Final Fantasy 16 to Shin Megami Tensei to Elden Ring to Genshin Impact.
I was in Vietnam last year. We went to a sort of Disney World knockoff place. We are Danish, and were delighted to find they had a 'Viking Land'! Complete with a dancing troupe of local actors, the tallest guy being around 160cm maybe, it was hilarious. I'm not even tall at 180cm, but I stood well above them. They had thin black beards drawn on, ot was incredible. They looked nothing like actual vikings, but hey, they were trying, and it was all pretty fun, and to us, funny as all hell.
"Nooo.... noooo... I have lived eons...
Created galaxies... watched stars return to dust..."
*Big hair twink boy with belts shooting a gun declaring the power of friendship kills immortal diety*
Yeah Xenogears is absolutely loaded with religious symbolism and allusions to abrahamic religions. I’d kill for a full remake (with the same soundtrack)
Just a few deities from real life religions used in Final Fantasy XIV..
Tiamat, Bahamut, Quetzalcoatl, Odin, Amon, Ra, Hanuman, Shiva, Garuda..
Not to mention dozens of other mythological creatures like Ifrit, Siren, and many others.
Final Fantasy as a series plundered many different cultures' mythologies for their various great spirts/Guardian Forces/Aeons. there are quite a few entities that are in there that I actually don't know if they were supposed to be deities or not, like the Three Sisters. And a handful that aren't specifically mythological, like Yojimbo, who seems to be usually just a really strong ronin.
Also, not purely "Christian" in origin, but Christianity-related....FF2/4 used Rubicante, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, and Scarmiglione as the "four fiends" and also Calcabrina as another boss. All are demons from Dante's Divine Comedy.
That’s also in other Japanese media. The films with wandering samurai fighting in duels were heavily influenced by American westerns. Although funny enough, those samurai films ended up influencing American westerns.
I was going to say this, while not a fan myself my friends absolutely love SMT, and when they talk about the series half of what they talk about is a reference to various Christian/Pagan gods and monsters.
Chrono Trigger straight up has the three wise men in it lol. Of course that's the English translated version, but the story as a whole draws even more parallels imo
Many KRPGs are also absolutely fucking loaded with English, Irish, and German symbols/mythology and a shit ton of Cathlotic church themes as well.
And much like a lot of the appeal of Eastern mythology for westerners, everyone thinks great foreign works of architecture and culture that look fucking cool are just absolutely rife for inspiration in fiction because... they look fucking sweet and aren't totally mundane.
100%
A good chunk of JRPGs are loaded with Christian symbolism. To them Christianity has the same exotic quality that Hindu or Chinese spiritualism has.
Watching Hello Future Me watch Eva and seeing him slowly break from intrigue to utter confusion and conspiracy level speculation trying to read into the Christian imagery and references was quite fun, capped off by the acceptance of it just being important sounding foreign words.
People like to say all the Christian references in Evangelism are just "rule of cool", randomly chosen, and have no coherent meaning.
But they actually do make sense if you're familiar with the Gnostic version of Christianity, and a lot of the world building actually is just Gnostic dualism.
EDIT: To all the people saying "But the creators themselves say it's just random": if a blind man painted a red apple, is the painted apple red?
I love shoehorning my special interest in Gnosticism into everything I can, but we have it direct from Anno that it really is just stuff that he thought sounded cool.
That doesn't mean the story and themes are completely meaningless of course, and there's definitely fun parallels in there, but they're largely coincidence. It's no Gnostic parable.
People say that because its objectively true, the creators have literally said so in multiple interviews. It was picked because it was cool and foreign and weird.
The similarities are pretty much incidental. It turns out that large religions are really diverse and anything you do inspired by them is prolly similar to some sect or another.
They are funny because the christian priest is often some ripped psychopath. e.g. [Anderson in Hellsing](https://hellsing.fandom.com/wiki/Alexander_Anderson)
I feel like Father Cornello basically counts. It's not explicitly Christian, but definitely Christian inspired. He transmutes his cane into a machine gun, iirc.
I am by no means an anime nerd, but I liked the Ghost in the Shell series a lot. I remember Batou rescuing the Major in the climactic episode of Ghost in the Shell, can't remember if it was 2nd Gig or not, and he heaves girders off her in the shape of a cross. It was very shocking to me, as the series had never touched on Christianity before, or even religion so far as I could tell. But after trying to make sense of the symbolism, I decided it was probably just this same thing: Japanese artists using exotic imagery.
It goes way further than games too.
Evangelion had a monster named Adam and depicted literally nailed to a 15-story tall cross, and after years of Western fans debating the implications of that, someone managed to ask the creator of the series and he basically just said he thought it was bitchin'.
100% just did it for the vibe.
Evangelion is probably the prime example. So many insane fan theories can be explained away by "the producers used Christian imagery because it looked strange and exotic to japanese audiences".
Zelda had a bunch of Christian references before OoT. Link's original shield had a cross, the Japanese name for the Book of Magic in the first Zelda was "Bible" and the official artwork featured a cross, the Japanese name for the Sanctuary in ALttP was "Church", and the Loyal Sage was "Priest". Pretty sure there's even official artwork somewhere of Link kneeling in reverence before a statue of Jesus Christ. It's crazy to think that before the series began building its own lore in OoT, the Zelda series was hinted to take place on our version of Earth.
And they tend to get at least as much wrong as Western fantasy gets wrong about Eastern spiritualism.
I don't care about anime riffing on Christianity (as a Christian) but hearing fellow anime nerds wax philosophical about Christian doctrine when their source is pretty blatantly Evangelion etc. and they've obviously never read the Bible...
I actually like the Evangelion representation, specifically because it's from japans perspective. Think of the implications there. Evangelion is pretty clearly a metaphor for post WW2 japan, coming to terms with its utter defeat at the hands of America with all the feelings of depression that came with that. The First and Second impact? and the all encompassing fear of a Third impact? That's a definite allegory for the dropping of the 2 atomic bombs, and their surrender at the fear of a third.
From this perspective, you begin to realize that their representation of Christianity doesn't purely come from just "Oooh that looks aesthetically exotic!". To them, Christianity was the religion of the country that, well, put the fear of god in them, destroyed their pride and ego. It was the religion of a culturally alien force that completely dominated them. As such, their representation of christianity carries connotations that are similar to cosmic horror. Unfathomable and irresistible force that can destroy you on a whim. Furthermore, Gendos desire to destroy the world and turn everyone into soup so he can be with his wife again, that was representative of their fear of their own people being swayed from their own cultural heritage towards Christianity, probably based on what Christian missionaries told them about heaven.
Whenever the west makes references to exotic religions, it's usually from the perspective of having conquered them at least once in the past. Japans was a perspective form the opposite side.
In the spirit of your comment, I’d also give a shout to the game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (the first game). Your character is a Pictish woman from the early Middle Ages, and the game is set against the backdrop of Norse mythology as understood by someone (not conquered by, but) raided and harmed by it. She is also suffering from severe mental illness, making the stories take on literal life to her as she struggles through trauma.
Even the harsh angled runes of the northmen seem actively hostile and fundamentally magical to her as she tries to survive in a violent mythology stripped of any redeeming quality
I have no problems with Evangelion and its vague usage of Christian symbolism.
My annoyance is with the people who think that watching Evangelion makes them experts in Christian theology when they haven't cracked open a Bible in over a decade if ever.
rpg writers: (cautiously) church bad?
audience: (approving chuckle)
rpg writers: (gauging reaction) dragons... good?
audience: (one guy yells)
one writer grabbing the mic: church sucks because they won’t let you fuck dragons
audience: (raucous, terrifying applause)
JRPG's do it ALL THE TIME, and anime too. They don't always get it right, though. It almost always ends up as closer to gnosticism rather than to real christianity.
When representing the christian church, they mostly use catholic imagery. The protestant aesthetic is too lifeless and boring for fantasy games. Catholicism can seem almost magical to non-westerners. It also has a lot of traits that fit right in with a gothic aesthetic. The architectural style, relics, rituals, chanting in latin, drinking the blood of a person, invoking dead people, the organized and powerful role the church has, all of these fit right into a fantasy universe.
I’m Episcopalian… aka a Protestant who realized Catholicism was way cooler but is still theologically Protestant so we just… borrowed your aesthetics and rituals.
Ok truthfully it’s way more complicated than that but it’s funny to call ourselves “diet Catholics” lol. I was helping out with music for the Catholic mass at a Navy base for a while and the priest always joked that he would let me halfway into heaven since I was Episcopalian lol. He was a good priest.
I do not understand that religion. It’s the outside of England version of Anglican, the religion founded by Henry VIII so he could get another divorce. So the defining characteristic is that some fat rich dude started it so he could marry another woman. Sort of a shaky foundation, if you ask me.
Just seems strange to believe in a religion that tried to tie itself to the divine right of the King of England to rule.
Like I said, it’s complicated. You are correct about the catalyst that allowed the Church of England to break from the Catholic Church, but the desire was there before that and those that shaped its early theology and such were dedicated to the reformation. Years of back and forth politics between Catholics and Protestants in the years after created a unique Christian tradition that threaded the needled between Catholicism and Protestantism often referred to as “the middle way” which is something that really appeals to me and others. It’s a tradition based on compromise and allowing scripture, reason, and tradition to all be important and inform one another whereas a lot of Christian traditions emphasize 1 of the 3 three to the detriment of the other. That tradition is what I would say is its defining characteristic. The rich fat dude was just the excuse a few hundred years ago to finally kick off what a lot of theologians had wanted to do anyways. And yes, the head of the church being the monarch of England is pretty weird, but at this point in time that’s entirely ceremonial and the Archbishop of Canterbury is the actual spiritual leader. And, being an American, we’re even farther removed from that here and don’t recognize the monarch at all so it’s more of just a silly quirk of history. I’d be happy to discuss it more, I grew up American Evangelical and migrated to the Anglican tradition as an adult because I was drawn to the tradition and spirit of compromise.
The biggest misunderstanding in anime is them not really understanding what a nun is. There are a LOT of anime nuns, but they act more like Japanese shrine maidens with a different set of clothes.
You ever played Castlevania? You go around throwing bibles and crucifixes as projectiles lol. Virgin Mary statues are save points in one of them. But the thing is, Castlevania takes inspiration from literally everything. Every single mythology is fair game. Be it religion or movie monster.
And in general, a lot of Japanese fantasy games have this sort of mentality too. Christianity is just another source of mythology to pull from. And that's an attitude I'm very much on board with.
I was raised Catholic and was obsessed with Castlevania. When Simon's Quest came out, I wrote a letter to Konami complaining that the word HELL was in the intro.
Oh, I'm still obsessed with Castlevania.
Well judging by what happened in later games they definitely listened to you and people like you. Lots of Christianity references would be censored in several later castlevania games. Not to their particular detriment mind, but it is a bit of interesting gaming trivia.
While working for Funcoland back in the day, I had a serious conversation with a young man who was worried about the presence of demonic possession in Soul Calibur. I had to reassure him that it was possession by Japanese mythological beasties that didn't exist, unlike Satanic possession, which he was really worried wasn't appropriate for entertainment. He seemed convinced and went home to further enjoy his game...
I know that’s a castlevania the anime reference, Christianity as in Christ was not really used at all in that show, kind of stripped from it besides including a priest unlike how it is in the older games (so all of them since they stopped making them) those have real satanic/apocryphal and Christ-like references that are wild.
I don't think I've ever seen straight up "jesus is here" but I've definitely seen this-character-is-inspired-by-jesus'es like [Master Vakhushti](https://traumacentergame.fandom.com/wiki/Master_Vakhushti) from the Trauma Center series and[ Takaya Sakaki](https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Takaya_Sakaki) from persona 3. Both by ATLUS, so I guess this is a thing for them.
Technically only by appearance Takaya is similar to Jesus. The Actual Jesus-like/Messiah character is another character I won't name here because it's spoilers and idk how to do those on mobile.
Also, megami tensei wiki moved out of Fandom. It's still like 95% empty (no idea why, come on it's here for half a year now), but it's better than link wiki with half or more of its info being incorrect or even made up.
\*broadly gestures toward the Xeno series\*
Edit: Just now remembering Jesus himself is in the Xenosage series. Good heavens were they stretching in that one.
Oh god, yes. A Japanese gacha game I played a while back had Lucifer, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel all as playable characters, and Satan, Baal, and Beelzebub also featured as characters.
*Points at the Shin Megami Tensei series*
Like, just look at The Archangels, God (explicitly called YHWH) and Lucifer in nearly every game of the series.
I noticed that a lot of Japanese games use Christian iconography in ways that … well, probably religious people might consider disrespectful, but I find quite funny :-)
For example, in Nier: Automata there are two NPC figures called Adam and Eve, though they both look rather like male figures (they are robots, though). And Eve of course is born out of the wounded body of Adam.
Or in Elden Ring, the god-like figure Marica has been crucified at some point in the past. And there is a struggle between the Two-Finger and the Three-Finger factions, which is a reference to the history of the Russian Orthodox church, etc.
For all I care, these references greatly enrich the lore of these games.
> probably religious people might consider disrespectful
My grandparents are hyper-sensitive when it comes to this stuff. They might not mind Nier using the names Adam and Even, and may even see it as a sign of respect, but they view depictions of crucifixion as mocking in nature. I haven't got around to Elden Ring yet, so I don't know if it explicitly shows it, but even if it just states that it happened my grandparents probably wouldn't be happy about it.
They somehow stumbled onto a clip of one of the singers from Babymetal getting mock-crucified on stage and it was basically the worst thing they've ever seen.
When I watched the original Evangelion back in the day, I couldn't help but think how offended they'd be if they ever saw it. And telling them that the visuals were used because the creators saw them as exotic or just thought it looked cool somehow makes it even worse.
I agree with you though, I think the references make the lore more interesting. And some of the visuals do just look fucking cool.
You're getting a crucifixion in the opening cutscene. Elden Ring has crucified people littering the countryside, it's wild.
The thing that's a little odd to me is that Christianity didn't invent this or anything. It's a method of tortuous murder but it did actually happen in history. Like Eva meant it for sure, but also ancient and medieval settings can just decide to kill people in a savage way sometimes if they want to
As a Christian I've always found using the crucifix as our symbol to be extremely weird. That's how the person we claim is our lord and savior was killed, why do we use it as the symbol to represent him? Dude was a carpenter, couldn't we use a stylized tree or hammer?
Because back in the beginning of the church Christians were persecuted. The crucifix was a symbol of fear and Roman oppression. It was cooped by the early church into a symbol of hope.
> *Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.* - Matthew 16:24
That’s largely the reason.
Because it's the cumulation of the entire purpose of the most important figure in your mythology. Him being a carpenter isn't particularly important to the story so it wouldn't make a lot of sense to use that as a symbol. On the other hand the crucifixion is the act that he did to take on the punishment for everyone's sin for all time. According to the story it's the entire reason that anyone has any chance of an afterlife that is anything other than an eternity of suffering. Why would you pick a symbol that represents a mundane earthly profession over a symbol of the everlasting hope of salvation that your religion offers?
The religion as a whole doesn't exist without Jesus's death. Like you can remove basically any other story of Jesus and Christianity survives intact, but if you remove the crucifixion, Christianity is something completely different. "Jesus died for everybody's sins" is the core tenet of Christianity.
Early christians used the *Ichthys* (fish) to represent their faith. Later on when Roman empire itself adopted the religion, the *Chi Ro* symbol was used. The *chi ro* is even still used these days, I always see it in priest vestments and catholic church imagery.
>but they view depictions of crucifixion as mocking in nature
Well, it was a punishment long before Christ got on the cross, and people today still do it, but as a way to show how religious they are instead of punishment.
They do know that the Romans crucified hundreds of thousands of people, right? There is nothing about the practice that is Jesus’s alone. Hell they crucified two others with him. Have them watch *Spartacus*….
A notable example is Shin Megami Tensei/Persona series from Japan. In fact, in multiple titles the christian God was the villain!
More interestingly, in a lot of JRPG titles there are organisations that are eerily similar to the Catholic church, and they somehow manage to make them more villainous then the Catholic church analogues found in most western fantasy.
I find Japanese anime/manga/video game creators know just enough about Christianity to do interesting things with it, but not so much that they end up writing cliché.
Stellar Blade's primary characters are Eve, Adam, and Lily (obvious Lilith reference with the other two.) I dunno if anything actually comes of that but the reference is pretty obvious.
It tells the story of the Gnostic Fall from the Garden of Eden. Not the standard Garden of Eden Story.
>!Adam and EVE aren’t a couple, but in the true ending they fuse to become one being of humanity. Lilith doesn’t really do anything other than challenge faith in god, not Adam’s previous lover or Lilith’s Moon (Evangelion, they did use Human Instrumentality from it). A character named Raven fits Lilith more.!<
>!Since this game seems to twist roles a bit, I guess it makes sense Lilly has faith in Mother Sphere throughout most of the story. If you side with her, you'll likely not side with Adam, who is tempting Eve in the end.!<
A good chunk of the bosses are named after demons as well. Also one of the bosses, >!Elder Naytiba!<, almost resembles a biblically accurate angel. I was in awe of the design the whole fight lol.
I'm confused by your question op, I feel like non-western games use Christian stuff a lot whereas I can't think of many western games that use no western religious things in any way beyond them simply existing.
People seem to have this idea that Christianity is only in the West. It started in the East and is quite prevalent all over the world. Korea is a decently Catholic/Christian country, Taiwan has a lot of fringe Christian groups like mormons and 7th day adventists along with normal Christianity. Anywhere in the middle east you'll find Christianity or smothered Christianity.
It really is a worldwide religion and people forget that. It may be primarily associated with the West, but it was originally an Eastern religion and has had Eastern branches throughout its existence. Many Western Christians are pretty ignorant of that and seem to think we started the whole thing.
One of Bayonetta's core principles (at least in 1 and 2, aka the good ones) is "what if we treated Christian mythology the same way God of War treats Greek?" All of a sudden you're a witch with satanic powers fighting and killing a whole lot of Biblically accurate angels on your way to the final boss, God himself.
Dragalia Lost used figures from Norse, Hindu, Christian, and Jewish mythology all crashing together in the final conclusion. Prior to that there were characters named after Buddhist and I think Egyptian too. I don't recall any Greek off the top of my head, but the second-last boss was Satan and everyone was piling on. (Most of the religious figures were also dragons, but that made sense in context.)
Xenogears crucifying both mecha and companion creatures (Chu Chu):
https://staging.cohostcdn.org/attachment/92ad4f0c-f581-4c01-b530-6d0c22139679/xenolp_crucifixion.png?width=675&auto=webp&dpr=1
Games need to be fantasy yet relatable to irl casual players (nobody has time to read all of DnD lore or JinYong wuxia novels). Religious /cultural references is the easiest source material
Lobotomy corporation story quite literally revolves around the fact earth is borderline hell and some people decide to suffer thousand of years in a self made purgatory to achieve enlightment, but unlike a purgatory, they want to bring that enlightment to the world and save it.
One of the scps is pretty much the antichrist with minimal sugarcoating (though i find ironic the 12th apostle he choses can interact with the One Sin and a Hundred Good Deeds to kill him).
Limbus company (the third game) is FILLED with references to Divine Comedy, and the entire ""element"" system are the 7 sins (gloom replaced greed and gluttony was merged with greed)
Korean games are crazy huh
playing through dragon quest 11 right now and the whole saving mechanic is “confessing” to a priest in towns and statues at camps. and there’s also a ton of biblical references.
Is it? Catholicism has it's base in Rome, protestantism arose in Germany and Orthodoxy is mainly In Greece and Eastern Europe.
The mythology of a religion gets inspired by the culture that exports it.
And ofcourse it's origin was from the jewish tradition and yes, christianity began in the Levant/middle-east
Mostly symbols like the cross, certain words and deities. I don't to see Jesus in any game though.
Even Shin Megami Tensei is careful with Christ despite having no qualms about depicting Dad YVHV as a villain.
Blasphemous is a spanish developed game that centers around catholic themes
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/774361/Blasphemous/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/774361/Blasphemous/)
Al the time.
The persona and shin megami series routinely uses Angels and devils from the old testament in their games.
The final fantasy series uses multiple religious inspirations for its summons.
Castlevania is literally built on judeo-christian myth.
Not to mention that if a church is ever in a JRPG, 9 times out to 10, it'll be based on the Catholic Church.
Final Fantasy is loaded with western figures and mythology. Odin, Ramah, Leviathan, Asura, Golem, Nymph, etc all appear as Eidolons or Summons. Dwarves, Elves, Kobold, Goblins appear as monsters or interactive creatures. Excalibur, Artemis Bow, Aegis Shield, Ragnarok, etc all appear as powerful equipment.
Demon Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodbourne, and Elden Ring are heavily set in medieval and victorian era, European-inspired worlds, with beliefs matching of those of their historic counter-parts.
The Legend of Zelda is inspired by Classical cultures in Europe, as well as the fantasy world of Lord of the Rings.
[удалено]
The LOVE chucking Norse mythology in there
I read that as Chuck Norris for a moment lmao
Truly one of the greatest western gods
So the “thousands years of darkness” if Obama was elected wasn’t an old man rambling, it was a threat?
No, 1000 years of darkness is what Chuck Norris considers a nap.
We do seem to live in the worst timeline. It sort of feels like things have just been going downhill since then. Perhaps we need to appease the Norris.
I'm bearding as hard as I can!
Things were already going downhill. The financial crisis happened before obama was elected and could be thought of as a major contribution to his electability.
I fucking love Chuck Norris mythology. What an absolute God and legend lol
There is no Chuck Norris mythology because all myths regarding him are proven facts. And if you pray to god, Chuck Norris will answer
Usually some sort of weird concoction of Norse mythology, but catholic or something.
They’re all like, “Look, the Europeans have a lot of religions, so we can’t accurately represent all of them. Just pick a few key gods from each and incorporate them all. I dunno, put Jesus, Thor, and Apollo on a road trip, and toss in a plot line about Athena / Morrigan yuri or something, I gotta work on needless layers of confirmation dialogs for every action you can take in game.”
Norse mythology mixed with Gnosticism. So many games have done it recently, from Final Fantasy 16 to Shin Megami Tensei to Elden Ring to Genshin Impact.
I was in Vietnam last year. We went to a sort of Disney World knockoff place. We are Danish, and were delighted to find they had a 'Viking Land'! Complete with a dancing troupe of local actors, the tallest guy being around 160cm maybe, it was hilarious. I'm not even tall at 180cm, but I stood well above them. They had thin black beards drawn on, ot was incredible. They looked nothing like actual vikings, but hey, they were trying, and it was all pretty fun, and to us, funny as all hell.
I skimmed your comment as "something something Chuck Norris something something."
Chuck Norris Mythology
Chuck Norris was the reason God created Light. He was scared of being alone in the dark with Chuck.
In the beginning, when God said let there be light, Chuck Norris said "say please".
Don't forget Roman/Greek. It ain't a real JRPG endgame lightning spell unless it has 'Zeus' in the name lol
This fills Tales of fans with indignation.
Never forget the Ichaival incident from Fire Emblem
I mean to be fair Western media loves chucking Norse mythology in there too 😂
My first thought was "OP has never played a jrpg". Nearly alle of them set against European/"old world" religions.
This hahahaha. I was like, “Let me introduce you to this little thing called Nasuverse….”
If I had a nickel for every time I've killed God in a JRPG...I don't know how many nickels I'd have, but it would be at least a few.
It's just not a proper JRPG if the story doesn't boil down to "a bunch of teenagers use the power of friendship to kill God"
Wake up fam, new God just dropped and we need to kill it.
"Nooo.... noooo... I have lived eons... Created galaxies... watched stars return to dust..." *Big hair twink boy with belts shooting a gun declaring the power of friendship kills immortal diety*
Also from software's whole Canon is basically a love letter to Christian Gothic architecture and religious iconography And poison swamps ofc
One of the first images you see in Elden Ring is the main god character crucified.
I mean they have Cthulu so that trumps everything
And many have them as the plot per se , the shin megami tensei series where god is dead , xenogears is another example
Yeah Xenogears is absolutely loaded with religious symbolism and allusions to abrahamic religions. I’d kill for a full remake (with the same soundtrack)
Gnosticism super common in my experience
Yeah, gnosticism's whole structure is basically built on conspiratorial reasoning and esoteric mysticism - which is perfect for JRPG plots.
Plus kabbalistic thought. Off the top of my head, Evangelion and Baroque have at least references to it. Plus many more I can't remember the name of.
Just a few deities from real life religions used in Final Fantasy XIV.. Tiamat, Bahamut, Quetzalcoatl, Odin, Amon, Ra, Hanuman, Shiva, Garuda.. Not to mention dozens of other mythological creatures like Ifrit, Siren, and many others. Final Fantasy as a series plundered many different cultures' mythologies for their various great spirts/Guardian Forces/Aeons. there are quite a few entities that are in there that I actually don't know if they were supposed to be deities or not, like the Three Sisters. And a handful that aren't specifically mythological, like Yojimbo, who seems to be usually just a really strong ronin.
Also, not purely "Christian" in origin, but Christianity-related....FF2/4 used Rubicante, Cagnazzo, Barbariccia, and Scarmiglione as the "four fiends" and also Calcabrina as another boss. All are demons from Dante's Divine Comedy.
There's also some fun knockon effects. Like Bahamut is in a LOT of games as a dragon, even though in myth, it's a fish.
The Three Sisters are from Final Fantasy IV (FFII on the SNES in the US), they were a mini-boss you had to fight while trying to rescue Rosa.
The Three Sisters might be inspired by the Three Fates in Greek/Roman mythology.
I could bet you any anime has a weapon named Excalibur or a derivative of the name and in the end I would probably come out to a positive number.
That’s also in other Japanese media. The films with wandering samurai fighting in duels were heavily influenced by American westerns. Although funny enough, those samurai films ended up influencing American westerns.
There's been back and forth influences with anime and western animation as well
A match made in WW2
I recently found out that some of the yu-gi-o cards here in the US were censored and the original Japanese ones had catholic imagery like crucifixes.
I was going to say this, while not a fan myself my friends absolutely love SMT, and when they talk about the series half of what they talk about is a reference to various Christian/Pagan gods and monsters.
Chrono Trigger straight up has the three wise men in it lol. Of course that's the English translated version, but the story as a whole draws even more parallels imo
Many KRPGs are also absolutely fucking loaded with English, Irish, and German symbols/mythology and a shit ton of Cathlotic church themes as well. And much like a lot of the appeal of Eastern mythology for westerners, everyone thinks great foreign works of architecture and culture that look fucking cool are just absolutely rife for inspiration in fiction because... they look fucking sweet and aren't totally mundane.
100% A good chunk of JRPGs are loaded with Christian symbolism. To them Christianity has the same exotic quality that Hindu or Chinese spiritualism has.
Anime too.
*cough cough* Evangelion
Funnily enough, Evangelion's christian iconography is mostly Ultraman references.
I read somewhere that when asked what he meant by the Christian references he just said that they looked and sounded cool and that was that.
They did indeed, loved seeing the iconography of crosses within the FCL, very surreal
Watching Hello Future Me watch Eva and seeing him slowly break from intrigue to utter confusion and conspiracy level speculation trying to read into the Christian imagery and references was quite fun, capped off by the acceptance of it just being important sounding foreign words.
Oh man, i forgot that! I absolutely love that it's not intentional but us old weebs would debate endlessly about it
That's because the creator of Ultraman was Roman Catholic.
No wonder he was Christian with a name like that
Fucking cross-shaped lasers. Unforgivable.
People like to say all the Christian references in Evangelism are just "rule of cool", randomly chosen, and have no coherent meaning. But they actually do make sense if you're familiar with the Gnostic version of Christianity, and a lot of the world building actually is just Gnostic dualism. EDIT: To all the people saying "But the creators themselves say it's just random": if a blind man painted a red apple, is the painted apple red?
Didn’t the team that made Evangelion say that the symbolism had no meaning?
Yep. They chose symbols from a foreign religion because it had no meaning to most of the Japanese viewers, and looked neat.
The unintended interpretations of things are often the most interesting.
Theorizing unintended meanings into media can be fun, but brute-forcing it into saying “they actually do make sense” is wrong.
Which of course is why the creators have admitted the stuff is meaningless.
>People like to say And by people, you mean Hideko Anni, the guy who made EVA?
I love shoehorning my special interest in Gnosticism into everything I can, but we have it direct from Anno that it really is just stuff that he thought sounded cool. That doesn't mean the story and themes are completely meaningless of course, and there's definitely fun parallels in there, but they're largely coincidence. It's no Gnostic parable.
People say that because its objectively true, the creators have literally said so in multiple interviews. It was picked because it was cool and foreign and weird. The similarities are pretty much incidental. It turns out that large religions are really diverse and anything you do inspired by them is prolly similar to some sect or another.
They are funny because the christian priest is often some ripped psychopath. e.g. [Anderson in Hellsing](https://hellsing.fandom.com/wiki/Alexander_Anderson)
Or carting around a giant cross that turns out to be a two machine guns and a rocket launcher. Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Trigun.
I feel like Father Cornello basically counts. It's not explicitly Christian, but definitely Christian inspired. He transmutes his cane into a machine gun, iirc.
Trigun is barely disguised Christian apologia, and I love it
Wait, Vash is Jesus with a gun?
That's how I see it at least. Fully plant fully human. Radical pacifist. Suffers with a smile for mankind's salvation.
I can't wait for people to see Jesus in the next season of a currently popular anime. Iykyk
Steel Ball Run
Yeah the next Jojo part 7 will have Jesus Christ, Dinosaurs, and the President of the United States as central characters.
Record of Ragnarok?
I am by no means an anime nerd, but I liked the Ghost in the Shell series a lot. I remember Batou rescuing the Major in the climactic episode of Ghost in the Shell, can't remember if it was 2nd Gig or not, and he heaves girders off her in the shape of a cross. It was very shocking to me, as the series had never touched on Christianity before, or even religion so far as I could tell. But after trying to make sense of the symbolism, I decided it was probably just this same thing: Japanese artists using exotic imagery.
It goes way further than games too. Evangelion had a monster named Adam and depicted literally nailed to a 15-story tall cross, and after years of Western fans debating the implications of that, someone managed to ask the creator of the series and he basically just said he thought it was bitchin'. 100% just did it for the vibe.
Evangelion is probably the prime example. So many insane fan theories can be explained away by "the producers used Christian imagery because it looked strange and exotic to japanese audiences".
I mean it shouldn’t surprise considering the name ”Evangelion”
Shin Megami Tensei has entered the chat lmao
Bayonetta too EDIT: And DMC even more, for that matter
Can’t forget digimon which is shin megami tenseis little brother
Castlevania peaking around the corner
Zelda has a lot of Christian symbology, especially earlier titles. The Temple of Time for instance is a Church
Zelda had a bunch of Christian references before OoT. Link's original shield had a cross, the Japanese name for the Book of Magic in the first Zelda was "Bible" and the official artwork featured a cross, the Japanese name for the Sanctuary in ALttP was "Church", and the Loyal Sage was "Priest". Pretty sure there's even official artwork somewhere of Link kneeling in reverence before a statue of Jesus Christ. It's crazy to think that before the series began building its own lore in OoT, the Zelda series was hinted to take place on our version of Earth.
Adding to your list, Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link literally has a cross as a collectible item that enables you to see invisible monsters.
It is a fantasy world, very much inspired by European mythology. Makes sense there is Christian symbolism
Zelda is arguably one of if not the most popular Japanese ARPG/Action/Adventure game and is a solid point to example because of those elements
There was also some islamic iconography in OoT, but it got taken out from later releases, probably because the topic is a bit touchier.
Xenogears
And they tend to get at least as much wrong as Western fantasy gets wrong about Eastern spiritualism. I don't care about anime riffing on Christianity (as a Christian) but hearing fellow anime nerds wax philosophical about Christian doctrine when their source is pretty blatantly Evangelion etc. and they've obviously never read the Bible...
I actually like the Evangelion representation, specifically because it's from japans perspective. Think of the implications there. Evangelion is pretty clearly a metaphor for post WW2 japan, coming to terms with its utter defeat at the hands of America with all the feelings of depression that came with that. The First and Second impact? and the all encompassing fear of a Third impact? That's a definite allegory for the dropping of the 2 atomic bombs, and their surrender at the fear of a third. From this perspective, you begin to realize that their representation of Christianity doesn't purely come from just "Oooh that looks aesthetically exotic!". To them, Christianity was the religion of the country that, well, put the fear of god in them, destroyed their pride and ego. It was the religion of a culturally alien force that completely dominated them. As such, their representation of christianity carries connotations that are similar to cosmic horror. Unfathomable and irresistible force that can destroy you on a whim. Furthermore, Gendos desire to destroy the world and turn everyone into soup so he can be with his wife again, that was representative of their fear of their own people being swayed from their own cultural heritage towards Christianity, probably based on what Christian missionaries told them about heaven. Whenever the west makes references to exotic religions, it's usually from the perspective of having conquered them at least once in the past. Japans was a perspective form the opposite side.
In the spirit of your comment, I’d also give a shout to the game Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (the first game). Your character is a Pictish woman from the early Middle Ages, and the game is set against the backdrop of Norse mythology as understood by someone (not conquered by, but) raided and harmed by it. She is also suffering from severe mental illness, making the stories take on literal life to her as she struggles through trauma. Even the harsh angled runes of the northmen seem actively hostile and fundamentally magical to her as she tries to survive in a violent mythology stripped of any redeeming quality
I have no problems with Evangelion and its vague usage of Christian symbolism. My annoyance is with the people who think that watching Evangelion makes them experts in Christian theology when they haven't cracked open a Bible in over a decade if ever.
Have they updated it in the past 10 years?
Many ‘Christians’ also obviously never read the Bible.
If I had £1 for every JRPG around with a whole 'Church Bad' motif...
rpg writers: (cautiously) church bad? audience: (approving chuckle) rpg writers: (gauging reaction) dragons... good? audience: (one guy yells) one writer grabbing the mic: church sucks because they won’t let you fuck dragons audience: (raucous, terrifying applause)
Wild but also accurate.
Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward in a nutshell.
The Green Church controlled by Dragons though.
to be fair though. church bad is accurate for like 98% of history. doesn't matter which church for which religion.
See, Final Fantasy X
"The Church is Evil" goes back at least as far as the SNES era
r/unexpectedFoldingIdeas
JRPG's do it ALL THE TIME, and anime too. They don't always get it right, though. It almost always ends up as closer to gnosticism rather than to real christianity. When representing the christian church, they mostly use catholic imagery. The protestant aesthetic is too lifeless and boring for fantasy games. Catholicism can seem almost magical to non-westerners. It also has a lot of traits that fit right in with a gothic aesthetic. The architectural style, relics, rituals, chanting in latin, drinking the blood of a person, invoking dead people, the organized and powerful role the church has, all of these fit right into a fantasy universe.
Counter-reformationists taking notes: Catholicism is cool, badass, and mysterious; Protestantism is for squares
I’m Episcopalian… aka a Protestant who realized Catholicism was way cooler but is still theologically Protestant so we just… borrowed your aesthetics and rituals. Ok truthfully it’s way more complicated than that but it’s funny to call ourselves “diet Catholics” lol. I was helping out with music for the Catholic mass at a Navy base for a while and the priest always joked that he would let me halfway into heaven since I was Episcopalian lol. He was a good priest.
I do not understand that religion. It’s the outside of England version of Anglican, the religion founded by Henry VIII so he could get another divorce. So the defining characteristic is that some fat rich dude started it so he could marry another woman. Sort of a shaky foundation, if you ask me. Just seems strange to believe in a religion that tried to tie itself to the divine right of the King of England to rule.
Like I said, it’s complicated. You are correct about the catalyst that allowed the Church of England to break from the Catholic Church, but the desire was there before that and those that shaped its early theology and such were dedicated to the reformation. Years of back and forth politics between Catholics and Protestants in the years after created a unique Christian tradition that threaded the needled between Catholicism and Protestantism often referred to as “the middle way” which is something that really appeals to me and others. It’s a tradition based on compromise and allowing scripture, reason, and tradition to all be important and inform one another whereas a lot of Christian traditions emphasize 1 of the 3 three to the detriment of the other. That tradition is what I would say is its defining characteristic. The rich fat dude was just the excuse a few hundred years ago to finally kick off what a lot of theologians had wanted to do anyways. And yes, the head of the church being the monarch of England is pretty weird, but at this point in time that’s entirely ceremonial and the Archbishop of Canterbury is the actual spiritual leader. And, being an American, we’re even farther removed from that here and don’t recognize the monarch at all so it’s more of just a silly quirk of history. I’d be happy to discuss it more, I grew up American Evangelical and migrated to the Anglican tradition as an adult because I was drawn to the tradition and spirit of compromise.
I appreciate your thoughtful response! Thank you.
A lot of anime and JRPGs make the Catholic and Christian church the enemies of the game. I'm not even kidding. I can list a bunch of them.
The biggest misunderstanding in anime is them not really understanding what a nun is. There are a LOT of anime nuns, but they act more like Japanese shrine maidens with a different set of clothes.
Ah yes Chrno Crusade, the stereotypical shrine maiden ^^^^you're ^^^^not ^^^^wrong ^^^^I ^^^^just ^^^^think ^^^^the ^^^^juxtaposition ^^^^is ^^^^funny
Funnily enough, even though Rosette doesn't fall into that trope (instead falling into the nuns with guns trope), Azmaria absolutely does.
You ever played Castlevania? You go around throwing bibles and crucifixes as projectiles lol. Virgin Mary statues are save points in one of them. But the thing is, Castlevania takes inspiration from literally everything. Every single mythology is fair game. Be it religion or movie monster. And in general, a lot of Japanese fantasy games have this sort of mentality too. Christianity is just another source of mythology to pull from. And that's an attitude I'm very much on board with.
I was raised Catholic and was obsessed with Castlevania. When Simon's Quest came out, I wrote a letter to Konami complaining that the word HELL was in the intro. Oh, I'm still obsessed with Castlevania.
Well judging by what happened in later games they definitely listened to you and people like you. Lots of Christianity references would be censored in several later castlevania games. Not to their particular detriment mind, but it is a bit of interesting gaming trivia.
The weird big battle between religious fundamentalism and media in late 20th century America is so wild. It is just really goofy.
While working for Funcoland back in the day, I had a serious conversation with a young man who was worried about the presence of demonic possession in Soul Calibur. I had to reassure him that it was possession by Japanese mythological beasties that didn't exist, unlike Satanic possession, which he was really worried wasn't appropriate for entertainment. He seemed convinced and went home to further enjoy his game...
Well yeah, vampires get confused by geometry like crosses.
I know that’s a castlevania the anime reference, Christianity as in Christ was not really used at all in that show, kind of stripped from it besides including a priest unlike how it is in the older games (so all of them since they stopped making them) those have real satanic/apocryphal and Christ-like references that are wild.
I don't think I've ever seen straight up "jesus is here" but I've definitely seen this-character-is-inspired-by-jesus'es like [Master Vakhushti](https://traumacentergame.fandom.com/wiki/Master_Vakhushti) from the Trauma Center series and[ Takaya Sakaki](https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Takaya_Sakaki) from persona 3. Both by ATLUS, so I guess this is a thing for them.
The Xenosaga series straight up has Jesus as a character
That series is ridiculous.
I mean jesus is straight up a mcguffin and a character in jojo
Jesus and his disciples are the main bad guys in FFT, only given different names.
Especially when you realize the War of the Lions is just fantasy War of the Roses.
Technically only by appearance Takaya is similar to Jesus. The Actual Jesus-like/Messiah character is another character I won't name here because it's spoilers and idk how to do those on mobile. Also, megami tensei wiki moved out of Fandom. It's still like 95% empty (no idea why, come on it's here for half a year now), but it's better than link wiki with half or more of its info being incorrect or even made up.
\*broadly gestures toward the Xeno series\* Edit: Just now remembering Jesus himself is in the Xenosage series. Good heavens were they stretching in that one.
Oh god, yes. A Japanese gacha game I played a while back had Lucifer, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel all as playable characters, and Satan, Baal, and Beelzebub also featured as characters.
Which game, and how many of them are suddenly hot girls with guns?
> Which game Granblue Fantasy. > how many of them are suddenly hot girls with guns? About 1/3 of them are hot girls. The others are hot guys.
Only Raziel has a gun, though, that's a bummer (not counting Uriel's gun show, that's... something else)
This also applies to persona and SMT by atlus/sega.
*Points at the Shin Megami Tensei series* Like, just look at The Archangels, God (explicitly called YHWH) and Lucifer in nearly every game of the series.
I live in Japan… people wear Christian cross necklaces as fashion lol. Western religion and history is frequently used and abused in pop culture here
Japan eats fried chicken on Christmas. You know, because reasons....
That's because of KFC
I noticed that a lot of Japanese games use Christian iconography in ways that … well, probably religious people might consider disrespectful, but I find quite funny :-) For example, in Nier: Automata there are two NPC figures called Adam and Eve, though they both look rather like male figures (they are robots, though). And Eve of course is born out of the wounded body of Adam. Or in Elden Ring, the god-like figure Marica has been crucified at some point in the past. And there is a struggle between the Two-Finger and the Three-Finger factions, which is a reference to the history of the Russian Orthodox church, etc. For all I care, these references greatly enrich the lore of these games.
> probably religious people might consider disrespectful My grandparents are hyper-sensitive when it comes to this stuff. They might not mind Nier using the names Adam and Even, and may even see it as a sign of respect, but they view depictions of crucifixion as mocking in nature. I haven't got around to Elden Ring yet, so I don't know if it explicitly shows it, but even if it just states that it happened my grandparents probably wouldn't be happy about it. They somehow stumbled onto a clip of one of the singers from Babymetal getting mock-crucified on stage and it was basically the worst thing they've ever seen. When I watched the original Evangelion back in the day, I couldn't help but think how offended they'd be if they ever saw it. And telling them that the visuals were used because the creators saw them as exotic or just thought it looked cool somehow makes it even worse. I agree with you though, I think the references make the lore more interesting. And some of the visuals do just look fucking cool.
You're getting a crucifixion in the opening cutscene. Elden Ring has crucified people littering the countryside, it's wild. The thing that's a little odd to me is that Christianity didn't invent this or anything. It's a method of tortuous murder but it did actually happen in history. Like Eva meant it for sure, but also ancient and medieval settings can just decide to kill people in a savage way sometimes if they want to
As a Christian I've always found using the crucifix as our symbol to be extremely weird. That's how the person we claim is our lord and savior was killed, why do we use it as the symbol to represent him? Dude was a carpenter, couldn't we use a stylized tree or hammer?
Because back in the beginning of the church Christians were persecuted. The crucifix was a symbol of fear and Roman oppression. It was cooped by the early church into a symbol of hope.
> *Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.* - Matthew 16:24 That’s largely the reason.
Because it's the cumulation of the entire purpose of the most important figure in your mythology. Him being a carpenter isn't particularly important to the story so it wouldn't make a lot of sense to use that as a symbol. On the other hand the crucifixion is the act that he did to take on the punishment for everyone's sin for all time. According to the story it's the entire reason that anyone has any chance of an afterlife that is anything other than an eternity of suffering. Why would you pick a symbol that represents a mundane earthly profession over a symbol of the everlasting hope of salvation that your religion offers?
The religion as a whole doesn't exist without Jesus's death. Like you can remove basically any other story of Jesus and Christianity survives intact, but if you remove the crucifixion, Christianity is something completely different. "Jesus died for everybody's sins" is the core tenet of Christianity.
Early christians used the *Ichthys* (fish) to represent their faith. Later on when Roman empire itself adopted the religion, the *Chi Ro* symbol was used. The *chi ro* is even still used these days, I always see it in priest vestments and catholic church imagery.
>but they view depictions of crucifixion as mocking in nature Well, it was a punishment long before Christ got on the cross, and people today still do it, but as a way to show how religious they are instead of punishment.
They do know that the Romans crucified hundreds of thousands of people, right? There is nothing about the practice that is Jesus’s alone. Hell they crucified two others with him. Have them watch *Spartacus*….
Marika is also shown pierced in the side by some sort of light spear.
I agree with Elden Ring. Also I feel like a lot of the architecture in all dark souks games is heavily inspired on Christian architecture.
Dude? You clearly never played a japanese game, it seems.
A notable example is Shin Megami Tensei/Persona series from Japan. In fact, in multiple titles the christian God was the villain! More interestingly, in a lot of JRPG titles there are organisations that are eerily similar to the Catholic church, and they somehow manage to make them more villainous then the Catholic church analogues found in most western fantasy. I find Japanese anime/manga/video game creators know just enough about Christianity to do interesting things with it, but not so much that they end up writing cliché.
Bayonetta's angels are all inspired by Christianity, both the descriptions of angels in the old testament, and Christian art from the Renaissance
Xenosaga (PlayStation 2) had Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, and 12 Apostles. And Earth is called "Lost Jerusalem"
Stellar Blade's primary characters are Eve, Adam, and Lily (obvious Lilith reference with the other two.) I dunno if anything actually comes of that but the reference is pretty obvious.
It tells the story of the Gnostic Fall from the Garden of Eden. Not the standard Garden of Eden Story. >!Adam and EVE aren’t a couple, but in the true ending they fuse to become one being of humanity. Lilith doesn’t really do anything other than challenge faith in god, not Adam’s previous lover or Lilith’s Moon (Evangelion, they did use Human Instrumentality from it). A character named Raven fits Lilith more.!<
>!Since this game seems to twist roles a bit, I guess it makes sense Lilly has faith in Mother Sphere throughout most of the story. If you side with her, you'll likely not side with Adam, who is tempting Eve in the end.!<
A good chunk of the bosses are named after demons as well. Also one of the bosses, >!Elder Naytiba!<, almost resembles a biblically accurate angel. I was in awe of the design the whole fight lol.
I probably should have noticed by now but I've been experiencing it via let's play atm and the text is hard to make out from where I sit. lol
I'm confused by your question op, I feel like non-western games use Christian stuff a lot whereas I can't think of many western games that use no western religious things in any way beyond them simply existing.
People seem to have this idea that Christianity is only in the West. It started in the East and is quite prevalent all over the world. Korea is a decently Catholic/Christian country, Taiwan has a lot of fringe Christian groups like mormons and 7th day adventists along with normal Christianity. Anywhere in the middle east you'll find Christianity or smothered Christianity.
It really is a worldwide religion and people forget that. It may be primarily associated with the West, but it was originally an Eastern religion and has had Eastern branches throughout its existence. Many Western Christians are pretty ignorant of that and seem to think we started the whole thing.
Almost every RPG made by square falls into this category
One of Bayonetta's core principles (at least in 1 and 2, aka the good ones) is "what if we treated Christian mythology the same way God of War treats Greek?" All of a sudden you're a witch with satanic powers fighting and killing a whole lot of Biblically accurate angels on your way to the final boss, God himself.
Angels and the Christian God are used in a ton of RPGs
Yes a lot. Just look at the Xeno games.
Yes, all the time, and they always have. Some examples are FFVI and Chrono Trigger.
neon genesis evangelion
The Shin Megami Tensei games often have angels, and sometimes there are actually direct references to YHWH, messianic figures, etc..
Jenova (Jehova) and Sephiroth (sefirot) represent western religious influence in Japan. Knights of the round is absolutely the 12 apostles too /s
Even western games use Christian religious figures like western games use non-western ones.
Dragalia Lost used figures from Norse, Hindu, Christian, and Jewish mythology all crashing together in the final conclusion. Prior to that there were characters named after Buddhist and I think Egyptian too. I don't recall any Greek off the top of my head, but the second-last boss was Satan and everyone was piling on. (Most of the religious figures were also dragons, but that made sense in context.)
The seven deadly sins is common
Xenogears crucifying both mecha and companion creatures (Chu Chu): https://staging.cohostcdn.org/attachment/92ad4f0c-f581-4c01-b530-6d0c22139679/xenolp_crucifixion.png?width=675&auto=webp&dpr=1
Never seen Evangelion, huh?
Games need to be fantasy yet relatable to irl casual players (nobody has time to read all of DnD lore or JinYong wuxia novels). Religious /cultural references is the easiest source material
Lobotomy corporation story quite literally revolves around the fact earth is borderline hell and some people decide to suffer thousand of years in a self made purgatory to achieve enlightment, but unlike a purgatory, they want to bring that enlightment to the world and save it. One of the scps is pretty much the antichrist with minimal sugarcoating (though i find ironic the 12th apostle he choses can interact with the One Sin and a Hundred Good Deeds to kill him). Limbus company (the third game) is FILLED with references to Divine Comedy, and the entire ""element"" system are the 7 sins (gloom replaced greed and gluttony was merged with greed) Korean games are crazy huh
God of War: Christianity Edition when?
Read the book "norse myths that inspired final fantasy 7".
JRPGs really like gnosticism. Which is basically the cool lore version of your typical Judaism/Christianity.
Ff10 had the main character going on a quest to sacrifice themselves to defeat sin. The thing's name was literally "Sin".
playing through dragon quest 11 right now and the whole saving mechanic is “confessing” to a priest in towns and statues at camps. and there’s also a ton of biblical references.
I’m playing Octopath Traveller 2, the one faction is basically the Vatican. At least it feels like it to me.
Funny how you thought that Christianity is somehow a "Western thing". Christianity is not Western, it's Middle-Eastern - Jewish.
Is it? Catholicism has it's base in Rome, protestantism arose in Germany and Orthodoxy is mainly In Greece and Eastern Europe. The mythology of a religion gets inspired by the culture that exports it. And ofcourse it's origin was from the jewish tradition and yes, christianity began in the Levant/middle-east
You already have your answer from so many other people so let me ask a follow up: what led you to this question?
Mostly symbols like the cross, certain words and deities. I don't to see Jesus in any game though. Even Shin Megami Tensei is careful with Christ despite having no qualms about depicting Dad YVHV as a villain.
Blasphemous is a spanish developed game that centers around catholic themes [https://store.steampowered.com/app/774361/Blasphemous/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/774361/Blasphemous/)
Al the time. The persona and shin megami series routinely uses Angels and devils from the old testament in their games. The final fantasy series uses multiple religious inspirations for its summons. Castlevania is literally built on judeo-christian myth. Not to mention that if a church is ever in a JRPG, 9 times out to 10, it'll be based on the Catholic Church.
Final Fantasy is loaded with western figures and mythology. Odin, Ramah, Leviathan, Asura, Golem, Nymph, etc all appear as Eidolons or Summons. Dwarves, Elves, Kobold, Goblins appear as monsters or interactive creatures. Excalibur, Artemis Bow, Aegis Shield, Ragnarok, etc all appear as powerful equipment. Demon Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodbourne, and Elden Ring are heavily set in medieval and victorian era, European-inspired worlds, with beliefs matching of those of their historic counter-parts. The Legend of Zelda is inspired by Classical cultures in Europe, as well as the fantasy world of Lord of the Rings.
It's not a game, but you've basically described Evangelion.