I'm scared of America…
I will never go there.

Warning. Long text. This is not a review. Many quotations.

Have you read the warning? Then let's begin.

To be honest, I wasn't going to write a review of this game. There are 3 main reasons.

The first is that I don't think I fully understood MGS2.
I can't say that I understood this difficult game myself, nor that I got the whole picture of MGS2 by thinking for myself. Besides, I thought I only needed to listen to Snake's solution/sermon at the end of MGS2. MGS2 is a fun game, even if it is difficult to understand. It's got a lot of gameplay finesse, cool visuals, and a lot of playful mind. I had no complaints at the time about being able to enjoy an evolution of the classic MGS. I didn't think for a minute that Snake had to be the protagonist. I liked the character Raiden. (I liked him even more in the later MGS4. I haven't played the Rising games, sorry.)
Story in games is certainly an important element.
The story of MGS is interesting, humorous and above all, always surprising. (I like to be surprised, not only in games.) But the great thing about Hideo Kojima, I felt, was that even if you put the story aside, the exploration, ingenuity and fun of the gameplay shone through. That's why, although I was baffled by the story of MGS2, especially at the end of the game, I thought that "the difficulty of the story is just a trivial matter" and that "it's a fun game and, above all, Snake gives the answers, so that's all that matters". At that time, I was not interested in the opinions of others on the internet, so that's all I could think about. As I write this, my opinion has not changed.

Secondly, My total love for the MGS series, including MGS2, is less than you Hideo Kojima(MGS) freaks in international.
I mentioned at the beginning that I was reluctant to write my opinion about MGS2. I'm reluctant to write or talk about this popular series. This is because, from my point of view, there seems to be more passion abroad than there is in Japan. I was even more convinced after the whole disturbance with MGS5. (Not just me, but all the MGS/Hideo Kojima fans in Japan were very surprised by the frankly angry attitude of you international fans towards Konami.)
I've played a lot of Hideo Kojima's work. I've played MGS2 to the point where I've completed dog tags on every difficulty level. But still, if you ask me if I like the MGS series as much as you, the international fans who write the reviews on this site, I can't say yes.

And finally, third reason, which is both the motivation and the purpose of this essay-like writing. In the past, there were enthusiastic Hideo Kojima fans in Japan.

A fervent Hideo Kojima fundamentalist, whom Hideo Kojima himself describes as "my alter ego, my disciple and my teacher". Yes, there were absolute Hideo Kojima freaks in Japan.

Itoh Keikaku/ItohProject.(Real name Itoh Satoshi/伊藤聡)

...At last I can get to the point.

He was a hardcore geek/otaku. He loved foreign films, novels, and was the biggest Kojima Hideo fan in Japan, having studied and reviewed every single one of his works, starting with Snatcher. Half the purpose of this article is to give you a glimpse of the astonishing analysis of MGS2 left behind by the enthusiastic Hideo Kojima fundamentalist, Itoh Keikaku.

The other half is to play a role. ...To be honest, it's hard to write this group of sentences. It's hard work. It doesn't bring in any money. So why am I writing this text? No, this isn't a text. This is a 'bridge'. Or a zip line, a rope, a ladder.
My role here is to act as a bridge between you, the rabid Hideo Kojima fans overseas, and the greatest/strongest Hideo Kojima fan that ever existed in Japan, Itoh Keikaku.
”I don't need a bridge!”
Some of you may say. Then don't bother reading this text, just read the Japanese text at the link below for yourself. (If you have an English translation of any of below sentences, please post a link in the comments section, as they are undoubtedly better than my poor English translations).

Fully translated into English. Bolded text is the part of the main topic that relates to MGS2.


"What is controlled reality?” Itoh Keikaku
When the aircraft crashed into the WTC, I was in hospital watching the footage.
I had just joined the ranks of the crippled at the time. I have just lost my right sciatic nerve and the major muscles in my right thigh, and said goodbye forever to all control and sensation below the knee. Below the knee became a darkman. There were many other issues that needed to be considered. The malignancy that led to this situation in the first place (in short, cancer) had such troublesome issues as metastasize problems and whether ABC and various other forms of hepatitis were latent in the transfused blood. If I metastasize, I don't know if my life will be saved next(or rather, almost no hope.), and if I have hepatitis C, I'll almost certainly develop liver cancer. Furthermore, furthermoree, if I look up the five-year survival rate of the sarcoma that bothered me on the internet, I'll find something like 50-70%.

Frankly, this situation was depressing. I would have been happy if I didn't know, but as soon as I heard the name of the disease, I connected my laptop to the hospital payphone and accessed the internet. I love Cronenberg(lol), and being the kind of person who wants to die knowing exactly what is happening to him, there was no stopping me from wanting to know. See, The Fly, there are? The protagonist is a scientist, so I understand all the grotesque festivities that happen to my body, such as the peeling of the nails and the dissolution of the skin, and I accept that "hmmm, this is what this is all about" and accept my path to becoming a fly man. I mean, what am I talking about(lol).

Nevertheless, once I knew the name of the disease, fear now came to me. Are my parents and doctors telling me the truth in the first place? I was struck by paranoia, almost like a Philip K. Dick's novel. Yeah, this is a bit amazing. After all, it makes me think that everyone involved with me is lying. This is exactly how I feel about Tokyo Total Recall, Rei Fukai being captured by the Jam Human and forced to eat chicken broth. REALLY. The slightest care from a nurse or the casual kindness of a parent would scare the hell out of meeee(lol). See, David Fincher's 'The Game', that Michael Douglas situation.

So I am still living in fear of death. I am certainly a little closer to death than most. I've managed to get out of the Philip K Dick state(I mean, there's no way for me to know if I've been deceived.), but there are many days when 'death' comes at me furiously in the middle of the night and I have to cry under the duvet.

Because I don't want to die at all yet.

I've been in hospital for about 10 days every month for the last year, with anti-cancer drugs in my system. Unlike in the past, recent anti-cancer drugs are not so hard, but the nausea is still strong and hair falls out. What's a bit interesting is that even though I'm dosed each time with an anticancer drug with almost the same ingredients, the hairs that fall out are in different places each time, really. The first time I lost hair, beard, armpit hair, breast hair(lol) and pubic hair, but the second time I lost no hair or beard at all, but instead a lot of nose hair. But at first I was happy. I thought, "I don't have to take care of my hair", but it turned out that this condition is fiercely vulnerable to dust. I can hardly stay in my room, which is the Lidley Scott room(in short, a dusty room), where I can see streaks of light from the window. Ugggghhh.

I have always had asthma and a sultanol inhaler was a must-have. Now I am injected with anti-cancer drugs and fighting the possibility of cancer in my body(maybeeee?). If it had been the beginning of this century without these drugs, I would be dead. It is the drugs produced by science and technology that sustain my existence.
Bodies maintained by science and technology. Bodies that would disappear without science and technology. What this means, in essence, is that I am a cyborg. Not only machine bodies with superpowers are not cyborgs. If not the word 'cyborg', then 'cyborg-like body'. 'cyborg feminism'(wow, I miss it) style thing. Not like Mitsubishi Genentech's 'Sarariman', which has embedded micro-processing equipment (lol). I maintain my body through chemical technology. Incidentally, do you know that the hospital code for anti-cancer drugs is 'chemo'? Chemotherapy, chemical, so chemo. My existence has been predicated on the existence of science and technology from an early age. (On another note, I was apparently born by caesarean section. I was a child who could not have been born without technology.) I was a child who would have disappeared without technology. And I still am.
I am one of the 'children of technology'. I am one of those people who have already demonstrated by their bodies that my lived reality has always been cyberpunk. Of course everyone's life is defined and limited by technology, but I have demonstrated this in my body almost from birth.

The body that is me. Needless to say, I have cancer, and this is a reality that never moves. It is nature itself, because nature is unpredictable and uncontrollable.
For survival, however, I have to anticipate, control and converge with its nature. It is to exclude nature, to construct the world as one in which nature does not exist from the outset. It is an impulse and an ideology rooted in human survival. (Survival is not an instinct, as humans are creatures capable of wishing for death. It is a desire.) Humans have extended their individual viability by assembling models, simulating, predicting, describing and controlling.

MGS2 is about a kind of paranoia. It's a Newtonian delusional pipe dream that says that everything in the world can be reduced to numbers, and therefore everything can be simulated, everything can be observed, everything can be predicted, everything can be controlled. Laplace's demon. The idea that, with infinitely precise data, we can perfectly predict the trajectory of a billiard ball. The delusion that the world is computable. Of course, this is impossible, not to mention quantum mechanics and chaos theory. But MGS2 shows that it is possible, albeit only in a social model.

I've seen some people say that MGS2 itself was just a VR experience for Raiden. That is, "Is this real? Or is it a dream?" It's a philosophical discussion about the definition of reality. I don't need to quote Mamoru Oshii, but I feel that this kind of theme has been depicted so many times in various works that it has already become obsolete. And Raiden does indeed come close to addressing such issues when he says that the Colonel doesn't exist. Another "common story" about people's sense of reality being diminished by virtual reality is told in Raiden's small story about VR training.

"It doesn't matter if this is a dream or not, what you think is real is real." Unfortunately, MGS2 doesn't jump to any of those "often" conclusions. and, nor does it let virtual reality encroach on reality. MGS2 ignores the concluding recipe of the "virtual reality" story. If you've ever said, or thought, that the whole "reality vs. dream" theme is a cliché, good job. If you thought I was saying that "the theme of reality or dreams is clichéd", well, good job, because MGS2 has a unbelievable conclusion that makes that point nullification. And good job to whoever said or thought that the theme of self-discovery was clichéd. Because MGS2 ends with a conclusion that invalidates itself.

With S3, the patriots have been able to control human society from an individual level. It's not about controlling the brain, it's about what kind of events can be accumulated to lead people to do what they want them to do. They have acquired such methods. The story of MGS2 was to test the effectiveness of this method and to establish a version of the protocol that could be used. Everything in human society can be reduced to numbers, and therefore everything can be simulated, everything can be observed, everything can be predicted, everything can be controlled.

Where then is the difference between reality and virtual reality?

Virtual reality does not come to reality. The possibility that this reality may be a virtual reality and that there may be another reality does not matter. MGS2 does not make the question of "what is reality?" a matter of ego perception. It doesn't make it a philosophical question. Because if everything is predictable and controllable, then it is a virtual reality. That this reality is at the same time a virtual reality.

That this reality can be defined as a virtual reality. To violently redefine it as a virtual reality. Such acrobatics are the substance of the idea of the S3.

When Neo realised that this world was a virtual reality, he was led by Morpheus to escape to another "reality". When Moroboshi Ataru realised that this world was only a dream, he returned to the real Tomobiki High School (even though it was also only a dream). But for Raiden and his friends, there is no other world to escape. Because, the "reality" they live in has become a virtual reality, and there is no "another world" to escape to. It is not even allowed to be a dream, no matter how far it goes, like the skin of an onion (which is what Avalon is). This is the story of April 30th, MGS2, the day when this only reality became a virtual reality.

"What is the world when everything can be counted, predicted and controlled?"

After pushing this assumption, MGS2 comes to this conclusion.

It's a virtual reality.

The perception that people already living in a virtual reality. A vision in which reality itself is virtual. This is not the same as some kind of escapism: "This world could be a dream (virtual reality)". It is not the same as the phrase that has been used a thousand times: "There is no such thing as reality."

It's about the fact that even though this world is a virtual reality, it's still real, it's still a unique reality with nowhere to run, and it's still a virtual reality. It is this despair that tints MGS2 to no end.

Shadow Moses Island, the setting of MGS1, was a hollowed-out facility on an isolated island. There was snow, rocks, trees, natural caves and permafrost. MGS2, on the other hand, is a man-made landscape in every way. It place in New York City, and a huge man-made structure floating off the coast. There is nothing in this place that does not involve human hands. At most, there are seagulls flying in the sky. Raiden's fight takes place in a thoroughly artificial environment. Unlike MGS1, which was about genetic determinism (and freedom from it) and was set in a harsh natural environment, MGS2 deals with the determinism of man, by man himself. It was inevitable that the place could only be so thoroughly man-made. There is no longer any need for the word "fate" to demand a god. There is no need for a cosmic mystery or a law of cause and effect. A world in which man predicts and controls himself. There, everything needs to be a product of human thought. Because nature is an unthinkable and therefore inherently uncontrollable and unpredictable factor. To live in a world where everything around you has been created by human hands. That is to say, to live in human thought. Elements that are unpredictable and difficult for humans to control are completely eliminated. There is no need to bring up virtual reality. Because this world is already a virtual reality.

Look around us, how much of it is natural? Is the grass, potted plants, roadside trees and weeds in the car park planted by man 'natural’? Is the river that runs through your neighbourhood a natural river? It is out of the question that some irrigation canals have been built recently, but in fact they may have been used for agriculture in the Showa, Meiji and even Edo periods.
We live surrounded by man-made things. We live surrounded by the environment that we have created by our thoughts. We live surrounded by the results of our thoughts. Why are we all surprised that 5,000 people die in a major earthquake, but not surprised at the huge number of deaths in road accidents per year? It is because nature is a "calamity that has come to pass", an unpredictable factor, whereas road accidents are merely a "socially predictable and acceptable by-product". Earthquakes are natural disasters, but road accidents are the preserve of human thought. That is, we live inside what the human brain has created. The roads, the buildings, the houses, the food, everything is just an artificial product.
Nature is not an entity created by the human brain. Nature is an inherently unpredictable and uncontrollable realm. It is not a symbol. The city is dyed with human thought to every extent. It's no coincidence that MGS2 is set in New York, a city within city.

It's the kind of writing that makes you feel crazy. I felt dizzy right after I read it for the first time. Hideo Kojima himself, who made MGS2, is crazy, but I think it's also crazy for Itoh Keikaku to grasp it so accurately.

Report on the talk show celebrating the publication of "The Chronicles of Itoh Keikaku : Phase 2"
The content of MGS2 was controversial among fans, and Kojima recalls, "I was worried about what Itoh-san would think". Fortunately, Itoh-san had praised MGS2 on his blog, but his blog under fire because he had written that "only I(Itoh Keikaku) could understand this".
Kojima expressed his gratitude and admiration, saying "It's not easy to find fans who continue to fight even in such a situation. The only people who understand what I'm trying to do are Itoh-san and Yano-san. (aka Nojima Hitori)


Since writing the above commentary, he has written commentaries in the limited edition booklets of MGS3 and other titles, and reviews of films, but in 2005 his cancer returned. In the midst of his battle with the disease, he dedicated the rest of his time to creating. This was Genocidal Organ, MGS4's nobelize, Harmony and his last work, The Empire of Corpses.

In an essay written around the same time as Harmony was released in December 2008, he wrote

"Human Story” Itoh Keikaku
https://itoh-archive.hatenablog.com/entry/2015/11/13/170413
"People die. But death is not defeat."
That's what Hemingway once said. What Hemingway meant by winning and losing, I do not know, but I understand what he meant. A man can dwell in another as a story. We can live in someone else's body as a story. It can be told in many ways and become part of a fiction that shapes many other human beings.

It is not only genes that people pass on. People procreate because they seek a familiar other to whom they can tell their own stories. A man begets a child in search of a listener, a most attentive and faithful listener. Listening, of course, is a metaphor, and there are many ways in which a person can tell his story to his children. The "way of life" is a synonym for fiction, and there are as many fictions as there are ways in which parents show their children their lives.

And I, as a writer, tell my own fiction as I write it here. I don't know whether this story will be remembered by you or not. But I'm writing this text because I'm betting on that possibility.

This is me.

This is the fiction that I am.

I want to live in your body.

I want to be passed on to others by your mouth.

About six months after writing this essay, he passed away.

This is a bit of a departure from MGS2, but when I was playing Death Stranding, I often thought about Itoh Keikaku. 'I wonder how he would have critiqued Death Stranding if he had lived longer'. It didn't take long for me to think: "...He'll laugh and do Thumbs up."

When Hideo Kojima looks at the deceased, there's no doubt in his mind that in the forefront is Itoh Keikaku.

He doesn't exist in the world now. But he is here nonetheless.

G.K. Chesterton, the great mystery novelist, wrote in his essay "Democracy of the Dead"
The argument can be summed up in one short sentence: "It is not only those who live now who will determine the country."

It makes sense to me to apply this to games as well. Rather, it seems to me to be far more adaptable than political systems. It's not just the gamers of today who are playing games. Don't the dead enjoy playing games and talking to each other as much as we do? Perhaps some of the reviews on this site have been written by dead people. When I look at the reviews of the MGS series I hear a voice laughing. The voice of Itoh keikaku. Bonkura, silly jokes, and the laughter of otaku laughing themselves silly. When you read his main book, you're pulled in by the surface image and you get the impression that he's all seriousness, but in reality he's a just otaku. Cinephile who loves Monty Python, Fight Club and The Dark Knight. His novels are masterpieces, but it's his geeky, silly short stories and film reviews that I love. Many of the subplots, especially in the Genocidal Organ text, are really ridiculous. The content of the game is really full of bonkurasness: 'Revolver Ocelot makes a cameo appearance', 'Initial D cars appear', and 'last boss mumbles Tokimeki Memorial’s song'. And, "セカイ、蛮族、ぼく。/World, Barbarians and Boku" is the best, and I still laugh out loud every time I read it again. I think, maybe he have written a review on this site.

Oh, I'm not.
I have substance. And, There is no alcohol in this substance.

小島秀夫 @Kojima_Hideo 2011年3月22日
From "The Second Phase of Itoh Keikaku's Chronicle".
”I don't feel comfortable with the word 'blessed'. I don't think there is a nether world, and as an idiom it is too meaningless. I don't think I've ever used the word "blessed" when someone died in all the years I've been writing my diary.

That's what I wrote about in the novelization of Metal Gear. When someone dies, what words should we use to mourn and remember them? I've always used these words.
Thank you very much.”

Thank you, Itoh-san.


From me too, thank you, Itoh-san.

Ha ha ha,
You've read the Player's review who most likes Mother3 of this site,
the second Player who likes Mother3 of this site,
the fourth Player who likes Mother3 of this site,
and the Player who most hates Mother3 of this site!
I'm truly the third Player who likes Mother3 of this site.
Now you see the true advantage of being third!
And, In my review of Mother2/EarthBound I'll write the third most detailed review of the MOTHER series on this site!

...It may be next year before I can up a review.
This is also the third strongest! Ha ha ha!

I've written a rather long article, but after rereading it, I felt it was too long, so I've cut it down to just the conclusion and a quote. What you think of Atlus, Megami Tensei and its offshoot, Persona, is up to each individual.

Conclusion (summary)
Persona 3 is the savior of Atlus (brand). Without Persona 3, Atlus would be dead.
If we hadn't changed the course with Persona 3 and continued with the default Megami Tensei series, everything would have disappeared.
What Persona 3 did, it attracted a new audience. I don't know if this was the intention, but the way it was done was similar to that of Shonen Jump.
Because we died once with Persona 3, we are now Atlus.
*
https://www.4gamer.net/games/367/G036702/20170810127/
"A look back at the journey to Persona 3 by Katsura Hashino."

Katsura Hashino - "To sum up, Shin Megami Tensei III-NOCTURNE didn't give us a satisfactory result. To make the game more accessible to as many people as possible, we've added new elements, such as the ability to train devil, and created press-turn battles that take advantage of attribute compatibility.
It made the game itself not so bad.
It was so good that all the staff said, "This is really interesting, even though it's our own work", and they went crazy debugging it. And we were able to finish the master on schedule, which gave us a sense of satisfaction that we had done a good job.
But we didn't get the result. After that, "DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA Avatar Tuner" was in the same vein.
From that point on, I started thinking like a producer: "Of course it's important to make a good game, but we need to make it known to as many people as possible. What approach should we take to achieve this?”.
It was at this time that I was asked if I would like to be a producer for "P3".
One day, I was called in by the executive at the time and he told me that if things continued as they were, it would be difficult for Atlus to continue making games.

This was a time not only when I was struggling personally, but also when the company itself was struggling to expand its user base.
In the midst of this conversation, the chairman suddenly asked me, "Mr. Hashino, by the way, how old are you now?"
I was a little over 30 at the time, and I said, "About 30".
Then he said, "You know, Che Guevara succeeded in the Cuban Revolution when he was about 30 years old, just like you. ......" He suddenly changed the subject to Guevara. He went on to speak something like "one revolutionary can change a company".
So I had no choice but to say, "Well, why don't I try it?"
*

There are other interesting stories(God's curse and exorcism etc.), but I don't want to get caught up in the politics between old Megami Tensei fans and Persona fans, so I might write them on request.

I'm not going to write a review of the game itself.
Oh, but I would like to see a remake.

In my opinion, there are two main types(ideal) of fantasy stories.
One is the type that doesn't show the seedy side of medieval times, which is the basis of fantasy.
The other is the type that pursues realism and shows the dark side thoroughly.
The Witcher series, of course, falls into the latter category.
The sadly unfinished Berserk also falls into the latter category. (Although its ancestors are completely different.)

My first impression was, "I'm beat!".
"Finally, Western games have come this far. At this rate, the dominance of Japanese game companies will be wiped out in a few years.”

Japanese culture has always had a weakness for realism (both cultural and political). With the exception of a few geniuses, such as Kentaro Miura of Berserk.
This is because the essence of Japanese culture is caricature, deformation.
There is very little cultural soil for realism and realism in expression. In this sense, Kentaro Miura and Hideo Kojima is a rare breed.

I'm hesitant to complain too much about the poor combat action.
Small drawback and Japan’s game culture aside, I think the main attraction of this game is its worldview.
The detail is extraordinary.
The reality of war in a medieval world reminiscent of the Thirty Years' War, the language of the people of a poor village turned into a war zone.
For example, just after the opening scene. When I saw the corpse hanging from the tree, I was reminded of Jacques Callot's painting.
At that moment, I thought: "I've bought a tremendous game!”.
The second thing that struck me was the word of the peasants. I'm not going to write about this because it would be a serious breach of political correctness(laughs).
The funniest line came from a beggar in the city. "Help me! I'm being killed!!!...... To poverty.” Do you ever find yourself laughing when you shouldn't? lol.
I don't know of any game that expresses the world in such detail. And from the point of view of the Poles who made it, it's a dark part of their own past.
By the way, my favorite characters are Lambert, the lovable son of a bitch. And the ruthless and ruthless patriot, Dijkstra.
There are fewer and fewer characters with such strong habits in Japanese manga and games. I miss.

Maybe the negativity towards this game is a repudiation of the reality/facts of their past and present through the game. (It's just a guess.)
However, I applaud the great courage of CDprojektRED in making this expression.

It's a shame that the next cyberpunk had to go down like that, but it doesn't take away from the brilliance of The Witcher 3.

When I read it again, I see that I wrote it as I thought of it, so the sentence development is very messy.
I would like to make an additional correction later.

This is a work from the time when Square was the strongest game company in Japan, both in name and reality.
If there is a point or an ultimate in storytelling in a game scenario, this work is the closest to it.
For me, this is one of the standards of "game scenario". When I play a game that deals with robots, especially a later one, I always think of this one first.
In this sense, "13 sentinels" was a failure. (I'll write more about it in my review of The 13 sentinels).

As a child at the time of its release, I was simply overwhelmed by the worldview, which was based on mythology and religion, with parodies and homages to multiple science fiction and anime.
To digress a little, let me explain the historical/cultural context in which this game was made.
Christianity is not generally understood in Japan (although some people are very passionate about it), so the heretical Gnosticism is not understood, nor is Nietzsche, who criticised Christianity itself, except for a few crazies. Freud, Jung and Adler have also gained acceptance in recent years, but only subtly.
I have no idea how this tendency to disregard religion has evolved in other countries.
In the case of Japan, the Aum Shinrikyo affair has led to a view of religion that can be seen as fearful, contemptuous or allergic.
In this context, with the exception of a series of works by Atlus (Megami Tensei and its offshoot, Persona), the culture of understanding and incorporating mythology and religion into games has died out.
Nowadays, myths and religions are treated as ornaments that look good and "seem to have a deeper meaning that we don't know what it is".

Again, For me, the standard of game scenario is this work. It's like a trauma.
It is both happy and unhappy.
When it was released,
“Wait, wait. I don't understand all that theological and philosophical!"
"Do you usually put in stories/parodies of minor works like this?”
"It's crazy! Whoever made this is crazy!"
I was like.
As of 2021, I played it again.
"It's crazy…”

The conclusion of the game is quite simple, however, despite all the mythological and philosophical themes and episodes.
Human weakness and strength, cruelty and kindness, ugliness and beauty. Above all, men and women. Fei and Elly are two people who make you feel all kinds of emotions.

It's easy to get caught up in the huge number of settings and deep themes, but the heart of the xenogears is the story. The later Xeno series forgot about this.
Xenoblade 2 has been released, but it's probably a strategic defeat. (I don't feel like playing.)
Not that it matters, but the Xeno series is like Woody Allen. (Repeating the cycle of masterpieces and bad movies)
I hate believers. A masterpiece is a masterpiece, and if it doesn't live up to that, it's a defeat, and if it doesn't, you're just a bad.

There's a lot more to say, but it's probably over 10,000 words, so I'll leave it to someone else.
Is it a something sign that this year (2021) there are some many good commentary videos on this game?

Explanations and videos of Xenogears that I thought were good. (Memo for myself.)

I think it's great what they're trying to do.
https://www.youtube.com/user/WarialaskyPlays

A clear explanatory video that goes beyond the Perfect Works. (Japanese)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnCo3HQnRF0

A very challenging Xenogears video that goes beyond the strategy guide. (Japanese. He's crazy.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdvNteIg9dw

Note. There are many quotations. In addition, there are many proper nouns and anecdotes about Japanese culture. And this is just my theory. This is not a complete account of the Mother series, and you may not enjoy reading it. The most important thing I wanted to say was part of "2", so if you can't be bothered to read a long text, please skip it.
Well, OK desuka?

MOTHER/EARTHBOUND BEGINNINGS
Itoi Shigesato' main inspiration for creating MOTHER was Dragon Quest.
Programme broadcasted on NHK Educational TV
INTERVIEWER - What was your motivation for making games?
ITOI - It's Horii-san's fault.

Before the release of MOTHER1, In a conversation with Yuji Horii, he talks at long length about how impressed he was with DQ.

*July '87 Advertising Review - Special Feature: The Great Famicom Study
ITOI - I've just started the second round of DQ2.
HORII - You like it. (Laughs)
ITOI - I changed the prince's name to "wee-wee". It's funny. Like, "My wee-wee took a beating." (Laughs), Like, "But what is this, brave wee-wee? Defeat do ill become you!", hilarious.*

Shigesato Itoi speaks happily.
The look on his face and the words he said were hardly those of a man over 30. In the NES game boom of the time, many TV personalities only submitted their plans and threw away the production itself. (Takeshi Kitano and Samma Akashiya are typical.) In contrast, Itoi did his best to make MOTHER. The essence of Dragon Quest has been sublimated in Itoi's style, bringing to fruition the world and adventures he envisaged.

MOTHER2/EARTHBOUND
The world Itoi envisages
I think there are many good things about the MOTHER series. Among them, I think many people like Itoi's unique humorous texts and his "world view”. The following text explores what lies at the heart of him humour and worldview.

MOTHER has the same auxiliary line all the way from 1 to 3.
There is, of course, the main line, Shigesato Itoi. We will now talk about what drew the lines of the world that Shigesato Itoi envisaged. On the whole, the world of 1 and 2 has many optimistic and Pollyanna side. That's why the horror of Moonside in the middle of the game and the last boss, Giygas, stand out so much. 3 was the opposite of 1/2, with a story that emphasized the darker side. The story of what that auxiliary line is, is at the core of this review.
Let's be frank. I mean, it's 落語/Rakugo.

What is "Rakugo"?
There are many different interpretations, and as I am not as well educated as Itoi, I will rely on the definitions of the Rakugo professional. 立川談志/Tachikawa Danshi. A master Rakugo storyteller who has been called a heretic in the world of Rakugo.
Danshi's Rakugo philosophy is that "Rakugo is an affirmation of human karma”. In other words, "Rakugo is a form of storytelling that acknowledges human weakness and stupidity, and depicts this humanity.” And, "Rakugo is the affirmation of non-common against common sense.” Last, he goes so far as to say.
"Anything that doesn't smell of Vice I don't enjoy as an 芸/art form."

Specific examples
A boss who cautions his subordinates but falls asleep with a pen in his hand.
A father who scolds his children for wasting money, but gambles himself into oblivion.

Example sentences
My neighbors' wife had an accident and her face was injured!
Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.
Then, a good doctor restored her face to its original state!
Oh, so you're back to normal? Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

A case study of my own as I write this.
Me - "Mr. K, you always lie like you breathe!"
K-san - "Thanks to you I can't breathe!"
Me - "...I lost."

A scene from an online program. It's a low-key show with just two people: a scholar with a PhD in political science and the show's host. The scene is a commentary on the current news with the expert knowledge of the scholar.
Moderator - "O-san, You know a great deal about political science!
Dr.O with a bitter smile, paused for a moment and then said, "A little."

During the first bombing of London in 1940, part of a department store had been destroyed. The next morning a large sign was erected at the entrance, which read: 'Entrance extended from today'.

A foreign joke I learned recently that I thought was similar to Rakugo.
A word to Scotland, the only UK to lose at the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
'Brexit achieved.'

Lately I have been reading a little bit of Don Quixote, and I felt smell the Rakugo in it too. Putting them side by side, they seem to be no different from jokes from abroad. (laughs)

MOTHER3
In Japan, 3 is not so popular compared to 2.
There is also the fact that the SNES is a legendary piece of gaming hardware compared to the GBA. But in the end, the conclusion is that the Japanese do not like dark stories. I think it's natural that people prefer to watch light-hearted and funny programmes rather than serious political dramas.
And, from what Itoi has said in conversations, he did not intend to make 3 as universally popular as 1/2 when he planned it.
*
https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm5093966 (Probably the content of this video has not been translated into English.)
32:00~
ITOI - "It's like brother/eldest son who died in the war. I mean, there was a war. World War II, for example. He died on a kamikaze pilot. And eldest son's wife is a fan of MOTHER1/2. And MOTHER3 is eldest son's young brother. The mother of the eldest son, who was killed in the war, was living with his wife, and on one occasion said to her: ‘His brother is single too, why don't you marry him?'
Its young brother is MOTHER3. I mean, eldest son was really kind. He's manly, he's heartwarming, I can't say enough! Perfect!"
IJŪIN - "When people reminisce, they say, 'he was a good man!'"
ITOI - "If we had a お通夜(Otuya. Is that the English word for wake? Finnegans Wake) every day, we have a drink every day! In this context, the young brother says, 'Marry me'. That's what it means to bring MOTHER 3 into this world."
IJŪIN - "Why do you take the trouble to use such a confusing analogy?(laugh)"
*

MOTHER3, Shigesato Itoi, human beings, karma
Shigesato Itoi is Ninten/Ness/Lucas, Phone Papa/Flint, Giygas, Fassad and Porky.
He is never perfectly good. He was such a militant student activist that he was arrested by the police five times. And he is a man who had an affair and married his partner. (I writes things that would be very difficult to write in Japanese. Well, forgive me, Itoi-san, because it's public information that you can find on the internet.)
When talking about the Fassad, Itoi refers to Shinran's "Tannisho".
*
http://mother3.fobby.net/interview/m3int_10.html
Itoi Actually, I haven't really prepared any answers about Fassad. So if you really want to know the answer, I'd like you to read the Tannisho and think it over.
[omitted]
- And that's where the mouse who's attached to Fassad comes in.
Itoi That's right. So MOTHER 3 might not appeal as much to people who can't enjoy gray areas. They'd just want to demand that characters are either good guys or bad guys. (laughs)
*

Itoi himself can be interpreted in terms of Tannisho, and so can I as I write this. And what about you? Perfectly good? Perfectly evil?
It is human nature to oscillate between these two extremes, and it is also human nature to continue to suffer from them. The theme of MOTHER 3 is pranks," says Itoi.
*
https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm5093966 75:00~
ITOI - "As long as you have good and evil fighting each other, it's not interesting whether good wins or evil wins. What I like best is that it's funny. What would happen if everything in the world was based on good values alone? You can't live. I can't live either. On the other hand, we don't want the Sex Pistols to rule the world. I mean, you're enjoying classical music on one side of the room, but 'Poop!' or ‘Anarchista!', then the people who are just enjoying the music will lose their position."
*

So how can we overcome these polar opposites of good and evil? That is "Rakugo".
Danshi's definition of Rakugo, "the affirmation of human karma”. If I were to rephrase this into a word that even a person with no Rakugo education could understand, it would be "しょうがない/shouganai”. It is a Japanese word that is difficult to translate into English. Or, to put it another way, "That's life” or "That's human.” this is it?
In other words, we should try to forgive ourselves and others as much as possible for our inability to do so with a single word: "shouganai".
"To err is human, to forgive divine."
This is what the poet Alexander Pope wrote. I do not know what A. Pope’s intentions were when he wrote these words. But I feel that we are looking in the same direction as Rakugo.
Well, it's not as simple as that, and that's the REALITY.

MOTHER4
Either there is a MOTHER 4 or there isn't!
*https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm5093966 98:00~
ITOI - "There is no MOTHER 4! FOOOO!" (He's imitating a comedian who was popular at the time.)*

*https://twitter.com/itoi_shigesato/status/1356435755292266496
Once again, I think you can see that there will never be a "MOTHER 4". It's each (points at) your job!*


In fact, MOTHER 4 has already been made.
Undertale, LISA, Yume Nikki, OMORI. In some ways, the Pokémon series may be the most famous MOTHER4.
They are MOTHER 4 if you look at the many children of MOTHER being born. If you say that MOTHER without Shigesato Itoi is not MOTHER, you are right, but MOTHER4 can be made without him. If you want to get the unique humour of MOTHER, I think the above text is the small answer. I hope this will be of some help to you.

That's all! Happy New Year. This is my New Year's gift(お年玉/Otoshidama) to you.



THIS IS! TRULY! THIRD STRONGEST!!!

This review contains spoilers

ME - First, Notes. No, It's Declaration of Defeat.
LOGIC [Medium: Success] - What were you defeated against?
ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Impossible: Failure] - Disco.
INLAND EMPIRE [Impossible: Failure] - Myself.

ME - Below, I have written a very long loooooong and TOOOOOOG text.
HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Nedium: Success] - TOG, British TOG2 heavy tank. Famous for being a long, big and slow tank.
REACTION SPEED [Medium: Failure] - However, there is no response that good writing has been achieved.
PAIN THRESHOLD [Formidable: Failure] - It may be that the senses have been numbed by over-rewriting the text.
LOGIC [Medium: Success] - I myself prefer short sentences that get to the point.
ENDURANCE [Formidable: Failure] - I get really tired of writing long sentence...
ENCYCLOPEDIA [Impossible: Failure] - However, as far as searching the internet is concerned, no articles can be found that involve the Disco Elysium/DE' matters I am about to describe. So a lengthy explanation became necessary.
ME - Logic is essential when analysing and critiquing anything, not just games. Rather, analysis and critique rely on logic. I felt lost in a logic maze as I thought and wrote about DE. There are three causes.
VOLITION [Medium: Failure] - 1st, my motivation. I personally respect when I read good critiques and analyses. But I can't help it if I myself am not interested in logical writing work itself.
LOGIC [Medium: Failure] - 2nd, my logical ability. I'm not proud of it, but I'm not very smart.
INLAND EMPIRE [Impossible: Failure] - And the 3rd problem. This was very biggest. DE is a game created by a will... or something that transcends logic and intelligence. In other words, it is a mistake to try to put such games in the frame of logic again.
ME - And, due to the large amount of text, there are likely to be many typographical errors. There may be parts to be fixed over the next few days.
SAVOIR FAIRE [Formidable: Success] - Final and compromised edit made on 25/08/2022. Note, the passive skills checks and Thought cabinet in bold are from within the Disco Elysium text. Those that are not are fakes written by me.

# Conclusion
ME - The gameplay and mechanism of DE is not touched here. I leave it to the critics to explain and analyse how DE is a great RPG. Below, my six speculations.

1. Fifth(zero?) column/Ravachole/Anarchism
Robert Kurvitz/RK and ZA/UM are anarchists. If there is a real person as a model for Harry, it is Bakunin, not Marx. Most references to political ideology in DE are from the perspective of anarchists and not communists.
2. Passion/Destruction/Creation
Passion for destructive creation. Or passionate destructive creation.
3. Chance/Coincidence
Coincidence as violence exercised through die rolls. Coincidences that destroy all outcomes, worlds and events.
4. Reason/Intellect/Rationality
Zaum. Language beyond reason and intellect and rationality. This experimental language and concept is used to destroy and re-create word sense, sentence meaning, context and narrative itself in creative writing, including existing theories of writing.
5. Again, a summary of speculation
In light of the above 4 points, the DE’s aim is "destruction against any object or idea".
6. On meaning and value
That the world of this game is meaningless. And that our world may be meaningless too. But, is meaninglessness worthless?

ME - I have written many more, but the main points are these 6 points. Although it is not a text that can be called an analysis, there are two people who were the main references. And I believe that these 2 persons may be the CORE of DE. See link for overview.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin
Daniil Ivanovich Kharms
ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] - In addition, I also consulted material on these three individuals.
Carl von Clausewitz
Henri-Louis Bergson
Charles de Gaulle
SAVOIR FAIRE [Easy: Success] - The following text is redundant and meaningless and can be skipped.

# 0. My DE playthrough
ME - I'm not a particular fan of novel games.
DRAMA [Trivial: Success] - 嘘だッ!/LIES!
REACTION SPEED [Legendary: Failure] - Ugh, I ain't lying.
COMPOSURE [Heroic: Failure] - T-then give me evidence that it's lies. Evidence/ショーコ.
ME - ...I think I've read more than the average amount of adventure, sound novels and visual novels, including some I haven't recorded in my logs. I can say that DE was the most difficult of them all. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that I'm not very familiar with foreign games, English is not my first language and the Japanese version of DE has not yet been release. However, DE felt there was something more to it. I want to know what that something is. As a result, it's a long. I don't think it's an enjoyable read because of the redundant explanations.
EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - But I had worked so hard to write it and I wanted someone to read it.
I forget what it was that led me to know about DE. Because it's the hottest game abroad? Because I read an article about DE on a Japanese game introduction website? I don't know anymore now. I think it was a foolish calculation to buy it even though I don't understand English very well. The stupid calculation of studying a language while playing a game.
VISUAL CALCULUS [Godly: Failure] - That foolish calculation, of course, backfires.
ME - But I am a würm, which is becoming extinct in Japan these days. Böök würm. Of course, I get angry at sloppy translations, esoteric technical books, or uninteresting bad books, and I throw the book itself. That's the weak of e-books. Throwing my device every time I come across a bad book would bankrupt me. kindle devices are expensive. Reading can make me angry and depressed. Yet I don't dislike reading itself. And foolish calculations that it might be a good way to learn a language. Unfounded confidence in reading. My million-word journey has begun.
VOLITION [Medium: Success] - Game start. Archetype is SENSITIVE.
ME - At the beginning, the protagonist's incoherent thinking is baffling. I have no idea what it means. I managed to get ready and left the room. A woman smoking a cigarette was in front of me as soon as I left the room. I associated her with Fiana from Armoured Trooper Votoms because of her facial modelling.
ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] - Armored Trooper Votoms. Japanese robot animation. Aired in 1983. Hard-core content that does not look like anime. Next episode preview is poetic.
RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - The predator, the prey, and the scavenger of the scraps. A violent city where one cannot survive without fangs. A city armed with every manner of vice: Uoodo. Melkia's Sodom, born of the Hundred Years War. With the scent of cordite still clinging to him... Chirico finds himself surrounded dangerous people. Next time, 'Encounters’. Chirico drinks, and the coffee of Uoodo is bitter indeed.
ME - I sense from her voice that she is a ヤベー/dangerous woman.
RHETORIC [Legendary: Failure] - ヤベー, not Yekokataa. What is Yekokataa?
HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] The original version of KLAASJE's voice gave the impression of a dangerous woman.
ME - At the bottom of the stairs is a no flower old Asian man.
ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] - no flower/華がない. The Japanese expression 'hana ga nai/華がない' refers to people who are not flamboyant in appearance.
EMPATHY [Formidable: Success] - The modern way of putting it is... The character KIM gives me mixed feelings. I plan to write about him elsewhere.
ME - I leave the café and head for the victim's body. There were gremlin there throwing stones at the corpse. The most disappointing thing about the final cut version was that this gremlin's voice was changed. I don't remember where it was written, but there was a comment that the original version of Cuno was a truant and the FCver Cuno is a proper school going child, which made me laugh out loud.
HALF LIGHT [Easy: Success] - FINAL CUT? NO! FINAL COMPROMISE VOICE EDITION!!
ME - For now, I ignored this noisy gremlin. Click on hanging corpse; Harry vomits as ENDURANCE check fails. At this point, my own MORALE values were running out of steam. With tears in my eyes, I successfully complete the ENDURANCE and HAND/EYE COODINATION checks, lower the body to the ground and begin the autopsy. And when the option to touch the pubic area of the body came up, my eyes staring at the monitor became vacant. The eyes of a dead fish.
DAMAGED MORALE -2
VOLITION [Impossible: Failure] - I closed the game window after losing my MORALE value due to DE' difficult English writing and dark jokes beyond comprehension.
ME - One day, a few days later, I read some DE developer interviews in the hope that they would help me play. One of the most striking statements came from the main writer.
ROBERT KURVITZ, DISCO OF GOD - "The main thing to understand about text is that people don't understand text."
ME - Looking back, I feel that these words were the catalyst for my positive attitude towards DE. I realised that I was being weirdly defensive because it was English in a game, and then I decided to change my attitude towards this game a little. Read with the senses, not with the mind. I responded to dark jokes that go beyond my common sense by consciously numbing my senses. Sense of seeing rather than reading the text.
PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Easy: Success] - Don’t think, feel.
ME - Whether in English or Japanese, what you see is the same text, whether on paper or on a monitor. The same thing I've done with all the books I've read and all the games I've played, I've applied to DE. I dared to read it diagonally, spit on it, shake the monitor, hitting pc, all sorts of things. I don't think I've ever muttered the F-word as much as I did in this game.
DRAMA [Heroic: Success] - THE TIME HATH COME.
HALF LIGHT [Legendary: Success] - TIME OF COMPROMISE.
VOLITION [Easy: Success] - INCREMENTAL READING.
ME - I then proceeded to investigate, in a style of compromise and incremental. After a long period of successes, failures and strays, he/I became a communist superstar cop and thus returned.
VOLITION [Easy: Success] - Started the 2nd round with a custom build.
ME - I completed the options and events I didn't read in the first round, failed the AUTHORITY check (93% chance!). and investigated with a gremlin who became KIM's replacement, obtained the flower and saw a surprising side of DESARTER. The result was an apocalyptic fascist cop. I read most of the text in 2 rounds. But I thought I didn't fully understand what the game was trying to say. It was around that time that I discovered this website, Backloggd. Around October 2021. I read through the many reviews in the hope that it would give me some insight.
REACTION SPEED [Heroic: Success] - This review in particular opened my eyes. Really excellent.
SUGGESTION [Godly: Success] - I don't think my writing is any better than Minaplo-san', so please jump to the link above immediately.
ME - Once I found Minaplo-san' review, I could say that I had almost achieved what I came to this site for. However, searches for 'anarchism' and 'Kharms', which I have been think and speculating about disco, did not turn up the articles I had hoped for.
INTERFACING [Godly: Failure] - Maybe my google searching is not the right one.
CONCEPTUALIZATION [Fomidable: Failure] - "Do I have to write my own, personalised DE' answer myself?"
ME - Despite that thought, DE is not a game that can be easily answered. ...Japan is on the Western side of the political spectrum, but is a non-European-American cultural area.
LOGIC [Heroic: Failure] - I'll not mention anything prior to 1945.
ME - For those living on such an island, the world of DE and Estonia are different worlds, and the Estonians who created it are otherworldly. Still, I didn't give up and wrote down little by little what came to my mind and what I had noticed. At this time, the total KB of DE-related text files had reached 500KB. It will not be long before it reaches 1MB. And it was only at the end of 2021 that I was able to output the whole skeleton -- outline, editing what I had written so far in Markdown format. This long text is the result of adding redundant sentences to the outline. The deadline is 30 May, the birthday of a certain revolutionary. It was then extended by another month and was finally completed today, 1 July, the anniversary of his death. Here is an itemised list of what I came up with.

## 0+ What I thought after 1 round of DE
-What is DE a game? Isn't really an RPG? What is an RPG in the first place?
-Considering RPGs with Uncle Bandage in Ultima Online. ©HIRANO KOHTA
-What is its narrative classification? Is it a mystery?
-About 24 SKILL. DE and Billy Milligan are not related in any way, are they? I'm a bit angry that some Japanese DE introduction articles mislead people into thinking Harry is a 24 multiple personality.
HALF LIGHT [Trivial: Success] - Japanese games journalism, especially Famitsu and Dengeki, is rubbish!
-24 discours instead of 24 skills? Pun?

## 0++ What I thought after 2 rounds of DE
-About the times and Don Quijote
-To make readers laugh out loud at the eccentricities of a crazy middle-aged man. That the roles and positions of Kim and Sancho are similar. DE is Don Quijote?
CERVANTES, LA LEYENDA ESPAÑOLA - "The benefits that Don Quixote will bring to the world when he comes to his senses are nothing compared to the pleasure his madness will give us." Don Quixote, Part 2
-The sorrows of the age itself. The sadness of the present day, which continues from the 20th century.
CHARLES DE GAULLE, L'HOMME DU 18 JUIN - "Uncertainty is the hallmark of the modern era. Conventional practices, future prospects, or the torrential denial of the doctrine of regulation. Moreover, never before have so many trials, losses and disillusionments, and also the various glimmers, shocks and threats of so many civilisations, so shaken the established order. The army, which is responsible for transforming the world, first suffers from this fact and weeps for its lost passion." - Le Fil de l'Epee
-I personally think Rene and de Gaulle are very similar. Ask a French person and they will say ‘Non'. The only thing that's the same is the way they died? They both died of heart attacks.
-And when de Gaulle died, when Rene died, they had someone to cry for them in their death. But when DESARTER dies, will anyone cry for him?

## 0+++ DE is really communist game?
VOLITION [Formidable: Success] - ...Writing from this point on was quite difficult.
ME - This section aims to observe the game of DE, with a focus on politics. The observation equipment is a Japanese-made old telescope. I'm unable and unwilling to examine the details of each political ideology and its forces.
CONCEPTUALIZATION [Formidable: Failure] - The additional quests in the final cut were interesting, but personally I think they are not necessary parts of the game.
ME - I'm not interested in political ideology. I threw Marx' Das Kapital away halfway through and don't remember it anymore, and I don't like communism. Nevertheless, I still find Marx's idea and thought useful and I read excerpts and summaries. And above all, I'm not European. Living in the Far East, I cannot act as a microscope. Only an Eastern European or European would be able to see DE in the high resolution of a microscope.
DRAMA [Imppossible: Failure] - Historically and --
EMPATHY [Imppossible: Failure] - Emotionally too.
ME - Before moving on to the main issue, I will briefly touch on the political forces in DE.
LOGIC [Medium: Success] - I'm not interested, but I need to preface this for what I'm about to explain...
ME - Firstly, communism. Based on Intellect. It is the most significant subject of DE and many people who have played DE consider it to be a communist game.
PERCEPTION(SIGHT) [Easy: Success] - Color is blue.
INLAND EMPIRE [Formidable: Success] - I only half agree with that impression, but I thought about the 'half I disagree with' in this long article.
ME - Secondly, moralism. Based on Psyche. DE and the biggest winners in the real world? Moralism has been criticised quite bitterly, although not very prominently.
SUGGESTION [Easy: Success] - e.g. Kingdom of concience’s solution.
PERCEPTION(SIGHT) - Color is purple.
ME - Thirdly, fascism. Based on Physique. Fascism is probably the most ridiculed thing in DE. At the same time feared? But I believe it is a reflection of RK and RK's home country, Igaunija/Estonia. The main reason for thinking this is due to the following ENCYCLOPEDIA.
ENCYCLOPEDIA [Godly: Success] - Igaunija -- a god-forsaken (and tiny) territory in Graad that has not once, but twice wasted its independence on microfascism. The less said about Igaunija the better. Matter of fact, let's stop saying things about it right now and continue what we were doing.
PERCEPTION(SIGHT) - Color is red.
ME - Fourth, liberalism. Based on Motorics. Surface winners in the DE world? The state dies, but capital does not.
RHETORIC [Legendary: Success] - "国破山河在 -- The country breaks, but mountains and rivers remain."
PERCEPTION(SIGHT) - Color is yellow.
ME - From here, many questions came to mind.
"Will communists honestly admit that communism has failed?"
"Are there communists who prefer disco?"
"I laughed a lot reading DE's writing and I've never laughed so much in any game I've ever played. But have any communist writers I know been so humorous?"
"Isn't it not always communists who can talk about communism?"
For example, religion. Some Buddhists and Muslims are familiar with Christianity. The reverse is also true.
The first example that came to my mind was a Protestant atheism researcher. He went from atheism to Marxist studies and became a diplomat in charge of the Soviet Union. Then he was arrested. Now he is a writer.
[Another example is a person who was more familiar with Buddhist teachings than the high priests of Buddhism. He is an artist.
CONCEPTUALIZATION [Godly: Success] - Art is an explosion!
ME - This has nothing to do with DE and communism, but there are probably many people on this site who are more familiar with the Japanese game than I am. Especially when it comes to Suda51' game, I have no chance.
ESPRIT DE CORPS [Heroic: Success] - I really enjoy reading the excellent analysis and reviews on this site and at the same time I appreciate
ME - When search 'communism and DE', we often saw accusations of being pro-communist in reviews and comments on DE. Each time, I thought half of those opinions and impressions were right, while the other half were wrong.
INLAND EMPIRE [Godly: Failure] - And I am probably half right and half wrong too. No, I may be all wrong.
ME - One day, I began to consider that DE was not written from a communist standpoint. They don't reflect, they don't admit failure. This is what I consider communist. Even assuming that RK was a former communist who had converted or abandoned his political beliefs, it was inconceivable to me that he would portray communism with jokes mixed in. ...Then I remembered that communism is not the only revolutionary force.
VISUAL CALCULUS [Godly: Success] - "So from which position do I assume DE was written?"
ME - Before moving on to the next item, I'll try to imitate DE here and do a red skills check.
HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Impossible: Failure] - Impossible to observe/snipe Europe from the Far East.
VOLITION [Challenging: Success] - But it should be worth a try.

1. [Inland Empire - Challenging 12] Is Robert Kurvitz really a communist? If he isn't a communist, what is he?
INLAND EMPIRE: 5
EVEN
??%

+1 Revachol? Reval? Ravachol?
+2 Pro-communism but at the same time critical.
+1 Harry's face isn’t resemble Marx(Mazov).
+1 Crypto-communist CINDY THE SKULL.
+1 DESERTER - "You're an inert lumpen with a gun."
+1 "Thank you to Marx and Engels for providing us political education."
+1 ENDURANCE [Godly: failure] - Uh oh. Organisation hasn't exactly been your strong suit, historically speaking...
-5 Not a matter of speculation. (No official data available).
-3 Political ideology isn't my interest.

This is a Red Check.
It can not be retried.

INTERFACING [Easy: Success] - CLICK AND SCROLL!

CHECK SUCCESS/FAILURE

INLAND EMPIRE [Challenging: Success/Failure] - ANARCHISM.
PERCEPTION(SIGHT) [Impossible: Success] - Color is darkness or blackness or --
CONCEPTUALIZATION [Impossible: Success] - Nothing.
ANCIENT REPTILLAN BRAIN - I know you do, baby... I know...
ME - Whether this skills check is a success or a failure isn't clear to me.

# 1. 5th(zero?) column/Ravachole/Anarchism
"Let’s dance the Ravachole
Long live the sound, long live the sound
Let’s dance the Ravachole
Of the explosion!" - La Ravachole


Gregory resumed in high oratorical good humour. “An artist is identical with an anarchist,” he cried. “You might transpose the words anywhere. An anarchist is an artist. The man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything. He sees how much more valuable is one burst of blazing light, one peal of perfect thunder, than the mere common bodies of a few shapeless policemen. An artist disregards all governments, abolishes all conventions. The poet delights in disorder only. If it were not so, the most poetical thing in the world would be the Underground Railway.” - THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY

ME - Modern anarchism originated in Proudhon. Anarchism is a forgotten force, less conspicuous than communism. First, let me lay out the famous words of anarchists who were active at the same time as Marx. Stance on capital and property rights below.
PROUDHON - "Property is robbery."
ME - When I first read these words, I couldn't help but laugh.
RAVACHOL - "Anarchy is the obliteration of property."
ME - Aren't you guys too radical?
Indirect Modes of Taxation - Taxes are racist.
ME - I-is this true? Tell me Savvy.
SAVOIR FAIRE [Godly: Success] - This is true.
ME - Is Japan a racist state then? Japan is the world's most heavily taxed country.
SAVOIR FAIRE - Unfortunately, it is true.
DAMAGED HEALTH -2
DAMAGED MORALE -2
ME - OH, MY GOD!/な、なんて事だッ!
COMPOSURE [Legendary: Failure] - ざわ・・・ざわ・・・
HALF LIGHT [Challenging: Failure] - The racist Ministry of Finance, the main source of this, must be destroyed as soon as possible!
ME - ...Tax discrimination aside, all four political forces broadly classified in DE recognise property itself. Even communists like DESARTER abhor the minions of capital but do not think of eliminating property itself. The only difference between any political ideology is how property rights are handled and who controls them. In other words, they recognise property itself, more or less. But not the anarchists, including Proudhon and Rabashol and others. Proudhon does not recognise property rights. When it comes to Ravashol, he denies property itself.
SAVOIR FAIRE - They are in denial of capital and property...
ENDURANCE [Medium: Success] - Änd they reject the pölitical institutions, the gövernment and the stäte...

BAKUNIN, DON QUIXOTE OF THE REVOLUTION - "The State a Historically Necessary Evil. It is not so with the State. And I do not hesitate to say that the State is an evil but a historically necessary evil, as necessary in the past as its complete extinction will be necessary sooner or later, just as necessary as primitive bestiality and theological divigations were necessary in the past. The State is not society; it is only one of its its historical forms, as brutal as it is abstract in character. Historically, it arose in all countries out of the marriage of violence, rapine, and pillage - in a word, of war and conquest - with the Gods created in succession by the theological fancies of the nations. From its very beginning it has been - and still remains - the divine sanction of brutal force and triumphant iniquity. Even in the most democratic countries, like the United States of America and Switzerland, it is simply the consecration of the privileges of some minority and the actual enslavement of the vast majority."

ME - The more I read the writings of anarchists, especially Bakunin, the more I came to believe that Harry's model was Bakunin. DE gives the middle finger to all political forces. Its stance is similar to Bakunin's attitude.
INLAND EMPIRE - But they could not kill PROPERTY and the state. Like the communists in DE.
ME - And It's also an unmissable fact that he predicts the future of communist regimes and proletarian dictatorships, including later Stalinism.
BAKUNIN, DON QUIXOTE OF THE REVOLUTION - "If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be worse than the Tsar himself."
ME - Criticism of communism had been made before the Russian Revolution by Bakunin, who had exceptional, if not theoretical, intuition. And history has moved on, as if to trace Bakunin's criticisms and predictions.
COMPOSURE [Formidable: Success] - The memo about Bakunin is still to follow, but before that I would like to take a break with a digression.

## 1+ What I thought after 3 rounds of DE
PERCEPTION(HEARING) [Godly: Failure] - errr....
-On geopolitics
-Mackinder and Spykman
-The geopolitical position of Estonia
-Estonia has a total population of approximately 1.3 million. In Japanese prefectures, this is equivalent to Yamaguchi, Ehime, Nara and Nagasaki.
-After all, DE and Revachol are merely a reflection of RK's homeland, Estonia.
-Japan's geopolitical position with history.
-On Tokugawa Ieyasu, the most boring man in the history of Japan.
PERCEPTION(HEARING) [Fomidable: Failure] - errrr.....
Kingdom of Conscience - Centrism isn't change -- not even incremental change. It is control. Over yourself and the world. Exercise it.
-The situation and assumptions are different in Japan and Estonia.
EMPATHY [Impossible: Failure] - The sorrows of a small country can only be understood by those born in a small country.
-Ideology is only ideology, not power.
HALF LIGHT [Formidable: Success] - Furthermore, for DE, all political ideologies are toys to be mocked.
PERCEPTION(HEARING) [Medium: Failure] - ....ERRRRR!!!
HIRANO KOHTA - "In Russia, soldiers can be harvested in the fields/畑. In China, soldiers can be harvested in the fields/田んぼ. In the USA, the entire land mass is made up of resources." - About Hearts of Iron
CONCEPTUALIZATION [Impossible: Success] - So ideology is colour. Not size itself.
ENDURANCE [Godly: Success] - POWWERRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
INTERFACING [Medium: Success] - HE IS A GODLY TORQUE DORK GUY.
AUTHORITY [Challenging: Success] - I don't care about political ideology. Look at the human.
ME - In this sense Cuno is saying the right thing.
YOU - "It‘s simple, Cuno. I have to find communism. Communism killed the hanged man."
CUNO - "Is that like a fucking street name or something?" The kid stops to think. "It's pretty cool to Cuno."
YOU - "The coolest, Cuno. But unfortunately it's an ideology, not a person."
CUNO - "C‘mon, pig..." The kid snaps his fingers. "Thoughts didn't kill Cuno's gimp. It was a person. Even Cuno can figure this shit out."
-Whichever political ideology you choose in DE, you will be ridiculed. In other words, we dance in the palm of anarchism's hand.
-The bottom line is whether or not to recognise the existence of the state.
-Is it better to have no state or to have one?

# 2. Passion/Destruction/Creation
BAKUNIN, DON QUIXOTE OF THE REVOLUTION - "The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too."

ME - Now, I will concentrate here on the lumpen-revolutionary Bakunin. First of all, I want you to look at this picture.
AUTHORITY [Heroic: Success] - Behold!
PERCEPTION (SMELL) [Medium: Success] - Smells like stray dogs...
RHETORIC [Impossible: Failure] - This is an indescribable smell.
SUGGESTION [Medium: Success] - Compared to this picture, I think Harry looks more like Bakunin than Marx. What do you think?
ME - Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. One historian described him as.
"A man who, through his dramatic personality and experience, through his often misdirected but passionate actions, connected with, reflected, added to and sometimes derailed almost every aspect of Russian revolutionary thought." A friend of Bakunin described his features as. "Strength. Wild power. A profound movement in which the spirit is wild and turbulent. Constant, far-reaching desire. Dissatisfaction with the present. And furthermore, an exacerbation of the self in the present. Demon and fallen angel in human form." Another said. "Anarchism culminated with Bakunin and fell after his death."
LOGIC - Why Bakunin?
ME - The first thing was that Harry did not see any resemblance between Marx, the guru of communism, and Harry. Next I read the scene where DESERTER refers to Harry as a lumpen with a gun and it stuck in my mind. So I began to link anarchism and DE and to wonder if Harry was Bakunin rather than Marx. Neither Marx nor Lenin. Bakunin rejected all possible ideas. Not only the rejection of ideas, such as the aforementioned criticism of Marx and communism, but for him everything in the world is subject to destruction. There is very little combat in DE. But to me DE seems subversive and creative. DE is haunted by the specter of Bakunin, not Marx!
INLAND EMPIRE [Legendary: Success] - "な、なんだってー!!/W-wtf!?" by MMR.
ENCYCLOPEDIA [Legendary: Success] - MMR -- マガジンミステリー調査班/Magazine Mystery Reportage was a legendary occult manga that used to be serialised in Weekly Shonen Magazine.
PERCEPTION(HEARING) [Medium: Success] - It is similar to the tone and way of saying PLAISANCE.
PERCEPTION(SIGHT) [Medium: Success] - All the characters in this manga are like PLAISANCE.
COMPOSURE [Medium: Failure] - I half-seriously believe that the loss of anything analogous to this manga has made it easier for conspiracy theories to spread on the Japanese internet.
PAINTHRESHOLD [Medium: Success] - Ridiculous fiction has a immunity effect.
ME - What did Harry, obsessed with the incarnation of destruction in political ideology, destroy? The only person Harry could break was himself. The world of DE that Harry had to destroy was already broken when he was born. In 1991 -- RK was 7 years old -- the destruction/collapse of one utopian state simultaneously meant the creation of many states, including Estonia. This may also be a reflection of reality? The Soviet Union collapsed, has Estonia, which was part of the Giant Communist State, turned into a micro fascism state? Whether 1991 should be seen as a success or a failure, positive or negative, I do not know.
INLAND EMPIRE - I have noticed that Revachol is Estonia. But Estonia is not Revachol. But at the same time Revachol is Estonia.

## 2+ Remarkable trinity
ME - One of my hobbies is reading, especially books on war, which occupy half of my bookshelves. Of these, Clausewitz's theory of war is one of the classics I often return to. I particularly like the trinitarian theory/Remarkable trinity he preached and use it a lot when thinking about things. It is a useful concept that can be applied to anything, so in writing this text I have attempted to apply it to DE. If Bakunin's passion for destructive creation was at the core of DE, he thought that coincidence and reason were alongside that passion.
LOGIC [Medium: Success] - In my home country of Japan, where knowledge and discussion of war is taboo, but abroad, I think it is essential education.
PAIN THRESHOLD [Impossible: Failure] - Japan is a country allergic to war.
SUGGESTION [Easy: Success] - For those who do not know, I quote Clausewitz's outline of Remarkable Trinity.

1) primordial violence, hatred, and enmity, which are to be regarded as a blind natural force;
2) the play of chance and probability, within which the creative spirit is free to roam; and
3) its element of subordination, as an instrument of policy, which makes it subject to mere intellect.


ME - According to Clausewitz, the various elements of war can be divided into three main categories. Passion, Chance and Reason. DE' passion, as already mentioned, relies on the spirit of Bakunin. The next section is on coincidence.

# 3. Chance/Coincidence
YOU - "Yes. Coincidence is all that safeguards us."
NOVELTY DICEMAKER - "Yeah." She stares out of the window, not really hearing your words. "Or maybe it's the entire world that's cursed? It's such a precarious place. Nothing ever works out the way you wanted. That's why people like role-playing games. You can be whoever you want to be. You can try again. Still, there's something inherently violent even about dice rolls. It's like every time you cast a die, something disappears. Some alternative ending, or an entirely different world..." She picks up a pair of dice from the table and examines them under the light.

ME - I wrote a text about dice, TRPGs, wargames and war itself (Russo-Japanese War and World Wars), but omitted it. I don't feel the need to, and I think this her word explains it all. The next section is on reason or intellect.

# 4. Reason/Intellect/Rationality
KHARMS, THE FUTURIST POET - I told myself that I see the world. But the whole world was not accessible to my gaze, and I saw only parts of the world. And everything I saw I called parts of the world. And I examined the properties of these parts, and examining these properties, I wrought science. I understood that the parts have intelligent properties and that the same parts have unintelligent properties. I distinguished them and gave them names, And, depending on their properties, the parts of the world were intelligent or unintelligent.
And then I realized that I am the world.
But the world-is not me.
Although at the same time I am the world.
But the world’s not me.
And I’m the world.
But the world’s not me.
And I’m the world.
But the world’s not me.
And I’m the world.
And after that I didn't think anything more.

YOU - "Are you a thought reader?"
EGG HEAD - "NO NATION, BUT TRANCE NATION! NO WAR, BUT CLASS WAR!"
YOU - "Does that mean you're a thought reader?"
NOID - "Don't be a lunatic. Of course he isn't. Germaine here just yells random things. Odds are, sooner or later one of them will come off as thought reading."
LOGIC [Godly: Success] - So, it's not this one. It's the world that's the thought reader in this equation?
YOU - "So it's the world that's the thought reader?"
NOID - The young man picks up level and inspects it against he floodlight. The water sparkles in the small measuring tube.
"Yes," he says after a while. "I think it's correct to say that."
SHIVERS [Medium: Success] - THE WORLD IS A COLD SINK.
YOU ARE IN ITS ARMS.

ME - The original language of DE is English. But isn't that only superficial? After playing DE for a long time, I came to such a question. I had no idea about Zaum (RU: зáумь), the original name of the ZA/UM company. There is no Zaum page on the Japanese Wikipedia. English Wikipedia was available and I read it. "zaum can be defined as experimental poetic language characterized by indeterminacy in meaning." I became interested in Zaum because of this statement. Next, I searched for Zaum in its katakana form Zaum. A page on Slavic cultural studies by Hokkaido University was found.(https://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/literature/literature-list.html) However, reading the papers here did not help me understand Zaum. I searched for a good, systematic book on Zaum. That is where I came across a book. Beyond Rationality(https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/biblioplaza/en/A_00143.html) This book dissects the concept of Zaum, with Daniil Harms at its centre.
INTERFACING [Impossible: Failure] - There is no feedback on Amazon reviews or on book review websites.
ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] - It seems to be a common practice in academic books. It's said that if you publish an academic book in Japan, there are only two intended readers.
ME - I read through to the end. And I thought.
CONCEPTUALIZATION [Godly: Success] - "Zaum is what RK and ZA/UM tried to express in DE. The name of the organisation ZA/UM has an important meaning for them, it is both a means and an end."
ME - In order to consider the zaum used in DE, the three methods of zaum presented in "Beyond Rationality" are laid out below. The following quotations are taken from the bibliography.

1. "Phonetic zaum", transcending the meaning of words by swapping sounds.
2. "Semantic zaum", transcending the meaning of a sentence by swapping words.
3. "Obstructive zaum", dislocating context and obstructing narrative.

ME - The most commonly used of the 3 zaums in DE may be the phonetic zaum.
SUGGESTION [Medium: Success] - This scene made me laugh so hard I had to hold my stomach.
ME - I would be strongly convinced if the culprit who made me laugh so hard I could hardly breathe was phonetic zaum. I seriously believe that the success of the Japanese version of DE will be measured by whether many Japanese who play the Japanese version laugh here. ...If the Japanese translation of DE fails, I will mutter quietly.
PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Godly: Success] - Quietly, she mutters to herself: "He isn't doing what he's designed to do... isn't the spell working..."
ME - It is difficult to give examples of semantic zaum.
INLAND EMPIRE - Perhaps the whole of DE?
HALF LIGHT - τὰ ὅλα...
ME - Obstructive zaum may be typified by a sentence from the FC version of Moralism Quest.
KIM KITSURAGI - "... It's been long winter... Long and cold..."
ME - When I first read this, I thought it was a zaum interpretation of a certain novel, but maybe not.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Next, On Zaum's concept.
ME - I stated in part 2+ that I was thinking of this text in reference to Clausewitz's theory of the Trinity. When DE is considered in terms of the Trinitarian theory, the most unique aspect is probably with regard to reason. This is because Zaum, as the name suggests, aims to transcend reason and intellect. The following quotes are taken from the bibliography.

OZAWA HIROYUKI, RUSSIAN LITERARY RESEARCHER - The Russian avant-garde of the early 20th century is said to be an artistic revolution, in contrast to the Russian Revolution that took place at the same time. However, the Russian avant-garde is not only an artistic revolution. It goes beyond art. Or it sought to extend the concept of art and renew the epistemological framework within which humans think about the world. As a result, it sought to transcend human beings. A prime example is the Cubo-Futurism language experiment, Zaum. Zaum is a neologism based on the phrase beyond reason and is a symbol for incomprehensible neologisms in general. And it is a concept that embodies the orientation of transcending reason and intellect. Zaum doesn't and should not remain at the level of language. Zaum goes beyond words, beyond sentences, beyond language, entering the realm of meaning. Beyond the level of language, Zaum-like paintings and Zaum-like architecture can be produced, as can Zaum-like poetry and novels written without Zaum. But they are all aiming for a Zaum-like horizon. P37-40
ME - Again, quoting from ibid.
OZAWA HIROYUKI, RUSSIAN LITERARY RESEARCHER - Definition of Zaum. Taken as a whole, the Russian avant-garde movement was driven by a destructiveness that sought to reject modern rational knowledge and an innovation that sought to grasp the world anew. Their interest in areas such as primitivism, intuition and theosophy, which are incompatible with the modern knowledge developed in Europe since the Enlightenment, speaks volumes. It is well known, for example, that the ability to intuit, proposed by the mystic Ouspenskii and the philosopher Bergson, as a means of grasping a reality greater than that which can be grasped by reason, strongly attracted the leaders of the Russian avant-garde. The orientation to transcend conventional intellect and grasp a new world was embodied in the Russian Futurists in the concept/method of Zaum. Naturally, many Futurist poets use Zaum, but not only are there marked differences in usage and form, but also in the purposes for which it is used. It is therefore extremely difficult to uniquely define Zaum. This book therefore focuses on the state of thought and art in Europe and Soviet=Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, when doubts were being cast on modern reason. In addition, considers words and concepts that have an orientation 'beyond reason and intellect' and that 'cannot be grasped by reason and intellect' as 'Zaum' or 'Zaum-like things'. P54-55

ME - I will further consider what it meant for DE to transcend reason and intellect. Marx, Engels, Lenin and communism failed and the USSR collapsed.
PERCEPTION(SIGHT) [Formidable: Success] - While turning away from some imperialist and communist state.
ME - This can be seen as a failure of intellect if expanded.
EMPATHY [Easy: Success] - Although my own true feelings are that there is no violent ideology that has had more violent results than communism.
ME - At the same time, this is still the case today. Europe, including Eastern Europe, continues to fail on the basis of reason and intellect.
SAVOIR FAIRE [Impossible: Failure] - My home country, Japan, continues to fail on a different vector.
ME - In this light, RK and ZA/UM' use of Zaum to create DE may be a manifestation of a strong will to transcend communism and, above all, to transcend intellect, psyche, physique and motorics power, even the five senses.
VOLITION [Formidable: Failure] - ...I would like to go into further depth about zaum, but I can't finish the sentence forever, so let me compromise here. And I don't even know how much of the quoted text is legal from a copyright point of view.

ME - Now, having played DE so far, read a great deal of text, and done a fair amount of research on Zaum, I thought. I wondered whether Zaum would work if Zaum-like texts written in DE were translated into Japanese.
REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] - I immediately thought, "Impossible."
HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] - I would certainly be internet lynched if this opinion was read by Japanese players looking forward to the Japanese version of DE. HA-HA-HA.
ME - It may not be something that a non-native English speaker can say, but normal English text can be managed with a good translator. However, in light of the above zaum methods and concepts, one has to be negative about translating DE in Japanese. In addition, this suspicion was further deepened by reading Harms' note on the 'language machine'.
KHARMS, THE FUTURIST POET - So far I know that there are four types of language machines. They are poetry, prayer, song and incantation. These machines are not constructed by calculation or thought, but by other methods. Its name is the alphabet.
ME - In other words, the question is whether Zaum and language machines work in Japanese, a non-alphabetic language. Translation problems, such as foreign literature, and differences and quality between languages are only minor issues. I cannot judge the extent to which DE incorporates the Zaum-like methods and concepts cited above. However, it is hard to imagine that they are so committed to Zaum that they use it in the name of their organisation, and that they do not use Zaum methods and concepts at all. As the concept of Zaum is alphabet-dependent and has methods/concepts that cannot be easily imitated, the Japanese version of DE will be a text of a different dimension, apart from the poor quality of the translated text. However, it is not without hope. Although it is not possible to determine this due to lack of documentation, it is said that Velimir Khlebnikov, a poet from the early days of zaum, referred to Chinese characters/漢字 and described them as 'the best conception transmission motif'.
INLAND EMPIRE [Formidable: Success] - In addition, and this is a scary speculation, ...RK may have also entrusted the success or failure of the translated version to chance and uncertainty.

# 5. Once again, a summary of speculation
LOGIC - Let me summarise again.

1. Passion for destructive creation. Or passionate destructive creation.
2. Violent event destruction is represented by dice. A system in which the success or failure of a thing is determined by a die roll.
3. Zaum. The linguistic method/concept, which transcends reason and intellect and destroys and creates existing sounds, meanings and narratives.

ME - Harry frequently speaks of prophecies that world will be doomed in the not-too-distant future. However, the only person Harry could actually destroy was himself. Self-destruction may have only made the situation worse. In Minaplo-san' words, Marx, DESERTER and communism could not kill capital. And Bakunin and anarchism could not kill capital, nor could they kill the state. Harry suffered with poverty, alcoholism, depression and, above all, a broken heart, and wanted to destroy it all. But he too could not destroy capital or the state. What he could destroy was himself, his own heart.

JEAN VICQUEMARE – "You know what he told me? 'I don't want to get better -- I want to get worse.' Those were his words."
YOU - "I don't want to get better -- I want to get worse."
KIM KITSURAGI - "I... uh, don't really know how to respond to that, lieutenant double-yefreitor."
KATSUTA KICHITARO, BAKUNIN' RESEARCHER - "Classical Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory may be reduced to the paradoxical proposition that 'the worse it gets, the better it gets.'"

ME - But maybe a different world awaits at the end of self-destruction. Even if the world itself doesn't change, maybe I can see the world in a different way -- that's what the end of the DE story has made it seem to me.
KHARMS, THE FUTURIST POET - Will miracles exist? This is the question I want to hear the answer to.
ME - And... is the future really dead?
EGG HEAD - "THE PAST IS THE FUTURE, BUT THE FUTURE IS DEAD!"
ME - No one knows what the world and the future will look like from now on. I don't even know what the day after tomorrow will be like. In any case, I look forward to the future of the ZA/UM, to its great development in the future, to the Great Leap Forward, to the Cultural Revolution.

# 6. On meaning and value
KHARMS, THE FUTURIST POET - I'm only interested in silly things. I'm only interested in things that do not have any practical significance whatsoever.

PISSF※※※※T - "What I mean by this is -- we are all Pissf※※※※ts. And that the world is inherently meaningless."
INLAND EMPIRE [Godly: Success] - That much is true.

ME - What I am writing now is probably pointless too. Readability, clarity, lack of contradictions, things I've thought of, things I've noticed, speculation. It's a jumble. I've given up trying to put it all together because there's no way I can put this stuff together. Compromise! My Volition and Endurance have reached their limits too. But does meaninglessness imply worthlessness?
EMPATHY [Heroic: Success] - Everything has no meaning. It is the lack of meaning that makes it valuable. And that value can only be understood by those who have experienced the same pain. Experience does not always lead to understanding, though.
HALF LIGHT [Heroic: Success] - The same is true of my country. The country is governed by two forms of violence: morality and order. And they are operated by the innate human traits of vice and jealousy. How wonderful.
VOLITION [Challenging: Success] - In honour of your shit, lieutenant-yefreitor. Which you kept together in the face of total, unrelenting terror. Day after day. Second by second.

# 跋文/Post script
ME - I am not very smart and have a remarkably low IQ. But I think that even I, who am not very smart, can see something if I try hard enough to think about it. I really wanted someone smarter than me to write a discussion of DE based on Zaum and anarchism. But no one writes about that, even after three years or so since the launch of DE. That's why I had to write such a long article to convince myself.
PERCEPTION(SIGHT) [Formidable: Failure] - It could be that I just can't find them because of the language wall.
ME - ...Between 2019 and 2020 I despaired of the game. I thought that I should graduate from the game. I will avoid specific explanations. I have no taste for hurting people who still love and enjoy Japanese games. So I wanted to distance myself from video games before I became completely disillusioned. About 20 years ago, a man was disappointed with Japanese animation and cinema. One day, that disappointment disappeared with a film.
ITOH PROJECT, GENOCIDER OF BONKURA - "I like animation, but the way the current narrative is being consumed as a style only leads to disappointment...... But now my unresolved feelings are gone. I have a 'Fight Club'."(https://itoh-archive.hatenablog.com/entry/2015/09/24/173952)
ME - His disappointment with anime and Japanese films and my despair with Japanese games are very similar. But just as he had Fight Club, I have Disco Elysium.
VOLITION [Godly: Success] - That is all, let us now put a full stop to this very long and abnormal sentence.
EMPATHY [Impossible: Success] - Thank you truly for your patience and for reading such a long and poor readability text to the end.

1 July 2022, Clausewitz's birthday and Bakunin's death anniversary. Original version posted.
25 August 2022, Disco Elysium Japanese edition release/distribution day. Final compromise cut version posted. And dedicated to all reviewers of this site.













It's truly, truly been... a very long roundabout path...
My million-word journey, this long text, for this one word......
Aitäh......
Thank you ZA/UM. Thank you Robert Kurvitz.
Truly...
......
Truly......
ありがとう...
I can't find any other words to say...

「お の れ 邪 鬼 王 !」

A game that makes me hate birds.
In fact, I've been unable to eat fried chicken for a long time.
It's a conspiracy by Tecmo to make KFC's business worse by artificially making me allergic to birds.

2021/11/06, I have added a note. But I would like to add it again.

What has shaped the otaku culture we know today?
You'd get a thousand different answers.
If I had to answer that question, I'd say this game.
"To Heart" has achieved two great things.

The first is "the establishment of formality".
The origin of the Japanese novel game is "Kamaitachi no Yoru and Otogirisō", but these two games are sound novels. To Heart evolved from them and established the visual novel format.
"Visual novels are relatively inexpensive to produce, and with a good scenario, still images, and a script engine, they can be made into game software, which is good news for the PC game industry, especially for adult bishoujo games, where many manufacturers have weak development systems."
-The conditions for cultural creation: a cultural production theory study of two-game 'places'-
https://hdl.handle.net/2065%2F27549
In short, "To Heart" was a revolutionary and ground-breaking work that invented the visual novel format and made the financial headache of game development much simpler.

Before describing the second achievement, we would like to make a long explanation of some aspects of the social situation in Japan before the launch of ToHeart. These facts are not the whole story. It is just one aspect.
Eight years before ToHeart was launched in 1997, in 1989, an incident occurred.
"Tokyo-Saitama serial child abduction and murder case"
I will not go into detail. ...This incident had a profound effect on the otaku culture and is a traumatic event for anyone over 40 years old today.
There is a story in an essay cartoon written by a Japanese cartoonist who is probably famous in the English-speaking world, which symbolizes the situation at the time. I will translate it into English. Please excuse my poor English.
*
Author "Why didn't our generation enjoy being nerds as innocently and happily as the youngsters of today?"
Friend1 "There are several reasons, some of which have accumulated since before our generation. It's probably the thing that caused the petrol to catch fire."
Friend2 "What is that?"
Friend1 "July 1989. A female reporter said in a TV report about the otaku who participated in the Comic Market held the following month."
"Here are 100,000 people, Tsutomu Miyazaki." ※

Scene change, recollection, place, gym. Signboards, high school club information sessions.
"The next club activity club explanation is Mr. Hirano, the head of Anime & Comic Research Club."
Author "Well, hello there new students. This club is called the Anime and Comic Studies Club, and we are a manga and anime..."
"Hey, that's the Anime Comic Club."
"Otaku, Otaku."
"Hahahahaha."
"Miyazaki, Miyazaki."
"Hey! Pedophile club! Don't kidnap little girls!"
""""GYA-HA-HA-HA!""""
Author "Fuck...Fuck...Fuck! Fuck!! Fuuuuuuuuucccccckkkkkkk!!!!"
*

"以下略(ikaryaku) Abbreviations: Episode 16, Susumeken," Kohta Hirano
(For the record, here is a supplementary explanation. The above is only one part of the story, and the whole story is a gag manga.)

※ It has recently come to light that this is a long-believed urban legend and not a fact. However, it was a commonplace argument in the weekly press at the time. It is a story that is hardly a complete lie.

Secondly, "it changed the course of time."
The invention of the game format was great, but what made To Heart truly great was that it changed the atmosphere of the times.
Above all, traditional novel games are "dark" and "damp" games. To put it badly, there was only an image of "precriminals" playing them. (Not so! There may be people who say.)
One of the origins of the so-called "moe characters" that have been around since the 00s and continue to this day is in "To Heart".

The game itself is very simple. It's all about reading the text.
There is nothing new about each character.
"Childhood friends", "witch girl", "robot girl", "psychic", "fighter", etc.

summary
While it was DQ that created the standard and format of JRPGs, it is no exaggeration to say that it was "To Heart" that created those of J-novel games.

Russian literature game.
It's a hardcore game that goes far beyond DISCO ELYSIUM when it comes to literary elements.(maybe) ...I was stunned by the ending. I felt like going out on the balcony and smoking a cigarette. I’m not smoker.

Anyway, what kind of game is this, where you are a kuniokun on the surface but a Gogol/Dostoevsky on the inside? lol
There's a term on the Japanese internet called "おそロシア = OsoRussia" , and I've seen a glimpse of the horror of Russia in this game.
It's a hard game to recommend. But it's definitely a game you won't forget.

A pun on Russia and the word 'horrible'. The term is used to joke about horrible events in Russia and its amazing culture and character.

This is an anti-Dragon Quest game.
In fact, the catchphrase was "I'm tired of slaying dragons!”.
But Dragon Quest doesn't often slay dragons, and the producer was a key staff member up to Dragon Quest 3, so there was an episode of panic when this ad was released. It's a bit of an outburst by the advertising manager (laughs).

A simple description of the content would be "Fallout" with tanks and armoured vehicles.
I'm embarrassed to say, the only Fallout I've played through to the end is Fallout 3. (1 and 2 were not translated for a long time. The Japanese translation we have now is also done by volunteers)
When I first played Fallout 3, my first thought was.
"It's like MetalMax in 3D! I love it!" That was it.
It's still an interesting concept game to play today.
I've been waiting for a remake of the original MM for a long time, but no matter how long I wait, it never comes, so for now it's best to play the SNES version.

The philosophy of MetalMax
The creator of the series, Mr Miyaoka, said in an interview.
"We do things that DQ doesn't do.
In terms of direction, I wanted to leave the DQ-like things to DQ. In short, I thought, "The fun of RPGs should not be limited to the fun of DQ. There must be something else that's fun. That's why I decided to go in the direction that DQ was not going.
So I decided to go in a direction that DQ didn't go. I said, "If you want to tell a good story about a brave man who is guided by God and saves a princess and makes the world peaceful, go with DQ. I said, "I'll do a story that's not like that.”
So I decided to make a story in which the hero is not a hero, but a useless son of a local factory, and he saves the world without any intention of doing so.
[omitted].
The protagonist of Metal Max is not a hero who is guided by fate. The story of a young man of noble blood wandering the lowly world and becoming a hero is one of the patterns that have been told in various stories since ancient times, but I've always had a problem with the "noble" part of the story.
[omitted].
Metal Max is an RPG, but you don't have to role-play. Because you are the hero of this game."

I've known him for a long time. That person was the one who used to shoot guns and do crazy things. And when I met him after a long time, he had become a monk or a hermit or a philosopher. That kind of feeling.

Where is Hideo Kojima now? And where will he go from here?

I respect from the bottom of my heart anyone who has completed this game to the end. My patience that endured 魔界村(Ghosts 'n Goblins) and 忍者龍剣伝(Ninja Gaiden) did not work for this game. Maybe that's why, every time Arino Kacho is ridiculed for being bad at games, I want to defend him.

Anyone who can clear this Pac-Man 2(JP title Hello! Pac-Man) is a strong gamer. Far more than me at least.

https://youtu.be/l-BjBoiMnZU
Son: "What's the last word of old grandfather?"
Father: "'Just get over my corpse and go'...that's what he said It's funny, isn't it?"
Narrator: The RPG of living, dying and leaving to the next generation, Ore no Sikabane wo koeteyuke.
Father: "Well, it just means 'keep living', after all."

Something I think about when the term 'JRPG' is used in a negative context.
"Where do you define the JRPGs you are referring to, and where do you see them coming from?"
In other words, I do not think that there is any clear definition of the term JPRG and that it means nothing more than 'it is a game made in Japan'. AND does that JRPG include Metal Max and this game?

俺の屍を越えてゆけ/OreSika

To summarise Oresika in a cursory way, the game takes place in Kyoto, and the aim is to keep turning Derby Stallion' horses into humans and changing generations, and to defeat oni/鬼 and yōkai/妖怪, which is a different level of psychological darkness from Yokō Taro's.

I mentioned Yokō Taro's name, but I have never played any of his games and have no intention of ever playing them. As well as my lack of interest in his games(Drag-On Dragoon1/Drakengard1 is about the only one I'm slightly interested in), the games that Yokō makes are essentially rooted in a rebellion against DQ and FF. (Refer to this interview.) Furthermore, I would add, I am not interested in his humanity either. Also, I'd tell this f※※kin' guy not to mock udon making! Further abusive language follows, but is omitted.) I congratulated myself at the time that my wild instincts about game were not wrong, as any doubts I had before reading this interview were now confirmed lol. Because I just can't see myself wanting to play a game where I know the answer before I play it. And I recently realised that there is another reason why I avoid Yokō Taro's games: because I know Masuda Shoji/桝田省治. Add it, I pondered what the peculiarity of the man Masuda Shoji was. And then I realised. That while every one of Japan's RPG creators is under the blessing and spell of DQ and FF, this man is almost the only one who ignores them.

Masuda Shoji is the man who created the now-forgotten purely Japanese-sytle RPG series Tengai Makyo/TM (It has also influenced that ninja manga.), supported the very maniacal anti Dragon Quest RPG Metal Max/MM (It was Masuda Shoji who created that provocative advertising message for MM.), and was a trickster and Japan's RPG outsider among outsiders.

After TM and MM, Masuda Shoji went on to create a cult RPG called Linda Cube; LQ is a game in pretty distastefulness. And this Oresika is also a game with a lot of bad taste. At the beginning of the story, the protagonist's father is killed by oni and his mother is taken prisoner. Two curses are then placed on the protagonist by the oni.

One, the curse of short life. This is the curse of always dying within two years. Two, the curse of seedlessness. This is a curse that literally renders them incapable of producing offspring. (You'd think this would be odd, given the curse of dying after two years, but it's also part of the game's very... VERY bad taste!)

The game play starts with the kami/gods taking pity on the protagonist, who have been cursed with these two curses, and offering the protagonist a helping hand. Its salvation lies in having children with kami. (Oh, and just to be clear, this game is for all ages.) They kill oni and yōkai, earn offerings for the kami, and connect with the kami. When a child is born, it is nurtured and passed on to the next generation. Within a few hours at the latest from the start of the game, the first protagonist dies due to the aforementioned curse.

*Male protagonist: "俺の死を悲しむ暇があるなら、一歩でも前へ行け。決して振り向くな。子供たちよ... 俺の屍を越えてゆけッ"
Female protagonist: "いつも前を向いて歩いていくのです。どんな悲しみにも負けちゃダメ。さあ、子供たちよ。私の屍を越えてゆきなさい"*


Even if your favourite child turns up, he or she will surely die within a few hours. The game progresses in one-month increments, with offspring living a minimum of 18 months and a maximum of 24 months, i.e. they always die after two years. BUT they are lucky if they survive for a maximum of two years. If they are injured on an expedition to kill oni and health is compromised, then death will be that much quicker. The clan/一族 then takes on the challenge of overcoming the corpses of the dead protagonist and brothers to further exterminate the oni. The whole game is a repetition of this process. This cycle does not end until the oni who avenged his father's death is vanquished. They have to keep stepping over the countless corpses of their parents or siblings.

Beautiful by each, not for anyone, blooms and blooms and blooms until it falls

I also remember that the worldview is impressive in both good and bad ways, and there is one novelisation, which is also a worldview commentary on Oresika, and unusually for a novelisation of a game, it functions as a supplementary explanation of the game. As with Xenogears, where you can infer the whole story in broad strokes without reading Perfect Works, you can also infer the game on its own, but Oresika is also myth, set in Kyoto. This means that kami is not necessarily morally righteous, nor does they necessarily extend his hand of salvation in good faith. The insidiousness of this Kami is a good description of the japan's politics and japanese nature that would have developed in Kojiki and Nihonshoki, and in ancient Kyoto/Miyako/京. If I were to cite a similar case study recently, I would say that Persona 5 was on a pretty good(dangerous?) track.

For me, too, it's a game I'm at a loss to rate, as if I don't want to play it again, or want to play it again. But I can say this with certainty. Oresika is a game that will always remain in the memories of those who have played it, although it will not remain in the numerical and records like DQ and FF. It's in bad taste, though lol.

It is a game that leaves me with mixed feelings. At the same time, there is no denying that the game evoked unforgettable emotions, which is why I gave it a rating of five stars. (Similarly, ICO that had not been set a star were changed to 5 stars. Also, the long-neglected MGS2 text has been substantially revised.) It will probably never be localised, but if you are interested in the game, if I can add one more word I can say this. I won't make you regret it. ...It's in bad taste, though lol. I have played both the PS1 and PSP versions and would definitely recommend the PSP version.

葉月十八日、士達へ、士魂の日に捧ぐ