Video Games with Religion

[Lithium Hobo]

I'm doing my senior paper on Religion in Video games. Of course this will deal with real world religions in games, but I wont ask you all about that here. Instead, I would like you to list any game that features its own religion. Runescape would be an example of this, having its own gods and belief system towards them as well as morality scales, etc.

If at all possible, please list games that are high with their own religion first. Such as Morrowind, for example. A game with lots of information on the religion would be very very helpful in writing this arduous 15 page paper.

In advance, thank you very much and if you would like to be cited in my paper, I will use your SN and/or your first name if you list it. Of course if you ask not to be cited, I will oblige. Thank you all once again.

 

[morningstar2651]

Xenogears - controversial game, the main character is fated to kill God. (The second disc is absurdly rushed)
Final Fantasy Tactics (script)
Tales of Symphonia

 

[AimlessEMF]

From what I remember Everquest had a lot of deities. I don't know if that really constitutes a full religion.

3.18 On the creatures page there are deities. Is there some kind of religion in EQ?
There are many different religions, and deities who represent each. Actual "worship" is not really involved, but your character chooses a deity (in some cases you can choose to be agnostic)which can make gameplay slightly different, depending on the choice.

From http://eqlive.station.sony.com/library/faqs/faq_eqlive.jsp


This is more of real life religion creeping into video games:
I was just recently playing Fire Emblem Path of Radiance for GameCube and noticed that a couple of the characters said little prayers to "Ashera".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashera
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar - see the very last line
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherah


It might not matter that much in High School but Wikipedia usually isn't that great of a source to use for papers.

 

[The-Doctor]

God of war features various greek gods

Silent hill featured ancient evil gods

 

[Crono]

Planescape: Torment has some references to religion. Actually, pretty much any D&D game will probably have some religious references since the nature of the Cleric class is religious.

Breath of Fire II for the Super NES (and later remade for the Game Boy Advance) had a storyline that dealt significantly with religion. In this case, the "church" was being controlled by some kind of demon.

If you want to go way back to the NES days, Battle of Olympus featured many aspects of Greek mythology and had you interact with Greek gods.

 

[morningstar2651]

From what I remember Everquest had a lot of deities. I don't know if that really constitutes a full religion.



From http://eqlive.station.sony.com/library/faqs/faq_eqlive.jsp


This is more of real life religion creeping into video games:
I was just recently playing Fire Emblem Path of Radiance for GameCube and noticed that a couple of the characters said little prayers to "Ashera".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashera
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar - see the very last line
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherah


It might not matter that much in High School but Wikipedia usually isn't that great of a source to use for papers.

However, the References section of Wikipedia articles can be if people remember to cite their sources!

 

[Victory of the Cross]

Knights of the Old Republic has the Force, but then again all star wars games do

 

[Alchemist]

Hey Lithium,

With my studies, music and other things I don't get much time for video games, but I would strongly recommend Final Fantasy X as a source for your paper. Although the plot is primarily about human relationships (imo), the storyline it set against a very strong religious background, which raises some interesting issues. Most prominently, the game comments on the potential political and social power of organised religions, and how amongst those "at the top", the doctrines and virtues upon which they are based can often come second to maintaining authority over the population.

Unfortunately, as an RPG (and a Square one!), the game is very long, but the religious themes are strongly developed as the story progresses, and I believe it would give you some good ideas for your paper. If you want to, feel free to contact me by PM; I can give you some further details before you spend a week in front of your PS2 .

Peace,
Nick

 

[steverock]

^good call

i was gonna suggest FFX. it does seem to fit the bill.

 

[Lithium Hobo]

Oh I'll definatly be touching base on the Silent Hill games. I remember playing them all and being very intrigued with the plot it delivered regarding the cultist type nature. Also, as we speak, my sister is playing FFX, so she'll be able to give me some info on that.

 

[FamilyFriendlyGaming]

Megaman Battle Network 4 totally teaches Buddism.

Games like Street Fighter have religious images in them.

 

[FireLight09]

EDIT: Gee, that was a stupid post. Sorry about that.

 

[knightstemplar]

All the Final Fantasy games seem to have a lot of religion. However, there is one game called Corinthians or something that has to do with a Christians in different eras who wield the Sword of the Spirit and exorcise demons from opponents who aterwards bow and pray to God. To recharge the sword you gather scriptures, which are actually displayed on the screen. It's a fun game really.

 

[lin1235]

Neverwinter Nights has its own religion, I suppose.

 

[Mr.Cheese]

Morrowind.
Definitely Morrowind.

 

[PretzelMonger]

Well, it wasn't exactly its own but Valkyrie Profile seems to have somewhat "re-written" Asatru.

(The story only loosely adheres to the original Norse myths: The one-eyed Odin is fully sighted and exceedingly youthful in this game, and Valkyrie Profile's Frey is definitely not a man. But considering how most Japanese RPGs "respect" other cultures' mythologies, this is mostly a nonissue. )

 

[knightstemplar]

Morrowind's relgion, as mentioned before, is quite deep and interesting...

 

[PEANUT]

Yup Final Fantasy X does have some religious links to it.

The main enemy is called Syn and i think theres a group called the Fayth on there.

BTW i theres something at the end of the game that may be religious aswell, cant say what the ending could be cos that would be a spoiler

 

[Dust and Ashes]

Rune

I had a lot of fun with this game and the Norse religion was incorporated into the game very well, as part of the story. I wish they would have ported it to Xbox. It's a pity the Blade of Darkness port got cancelled. That game would have been so amazing on a console.

 

[Dust and Ashes]

Religion plays a big part in Dark Age of Camelot as well, especially with Midgard (Viking) realm since your class depends on which deity you follow. The tension between the Church factions and followers of Arawn on Albion (Britain) play into the story and a lot of druidic themes factor in on Hibernia (Ireland).