Xenogears

Sometimes, one comes across a piece of media that eclipses all that preceded it. Xenogears is by any definition just such a game. I would call such a work geniune art; indeed, one does not know the true depth of presentation’s importance until one experiences this game.

I say “game”, but it is hardly such. It is only a game in that you must emulate the characters’ own struggles to overcome to see their stories continue. The piece is an immensely human work: the kind of thing one experiences, and afterwards if one understands the work at all, has no doubt of the importance of typology to an accurate understanding of the human condition.

Picture this: a biocomputer intelligence designed to terraform entire planets into weapon systems awakens from its dormant slumber and seizes control of its transport vessel’s very physics. After losing the ship’s crew of thousands to the computer’s onslaught, the ship’s captain takes one last look at the locket containing photographs of his wife and daughter, and destroys the ship. The debris falls to a nearby planet, where from the wreckage a lone woman emerges. This woman, Miang, will be mother of a new race of humans whose specific purpose is to one day be harvested for parts on behalf of their fallen “god”, Deus.

Xenogears asks profound questions about human nature. Why are humans violent? What is their purpose? Because the humans in Xenogears are designed, many of them, to fulfill specific functions, they have very one-sided — and thus determined - personalities. These personalities make for interesting case study. For example, the Gazel Ministry are the first humans given birth to by Miang. They are genetically purposed to return to Deus as his “parts”, and long for the “paradise” this purposed wholeness will grant them. They are both mechanical units, in that they are aspects of a larger defined whole, and persons in that they have consciousness, fear, hopes, dreams. Could it be that we are just like them: pawns in a system designed to produce a greater “good” that is beyond our imagination?

The plot centers around a young man named Fei. We aren’t told who Fei is or how he came to be until much later in the story. Fei’s village is attacked by giant robot weapons called “Gears”. (think Gundam Wing, though Neon Genesis Evangeleon fits the psychology behind them) His best friend, who was going to be married the next day, is killed in a fight between Gears. All of a sudden, everything goes black for Fei.

When Fei comes to, his village is utterly destroyed. The younger brother of his slain friend, Dan, tells Fei that he is the one who destroyed the village. Dan and the rest of the community turn against Fei, leaving only the village doctor on his side. Fei, having no idea who he is or what he has done, has no choice but to leave the village for the world beyond.

Comment: Fei is most likely ENFj. He has a very nontechnical way of speaking and is plagued by memory problems. It is a problem of creative Ni that ENFjs often blot out traumatic experiences which would otherwise grip their Fe in despair. As ENFjs mature, they learn how better to confront their emotional pain and with that confrontation unlock their sealed memories.

In the forest beyond the village, Fei meets a young woman who survived the carnage. She was a pilot of one of the Gear robots who attacked the village. After some venting, the two agree to put their contempt for each other aside for the purpose. They eventually make camp, and share each other’s thoughts. The woman, Elly, becomes angry when Fei blames her for the destruction of the village. Elly shouts back that it is Fei who is to blame for the destruction for getting inside the Gear. Fei is crushed by this realization; meanwhile, Elly goes off on her own, and is attacked by a giant lizard.

This is the first of many turning points in the remarkably complex story. Fei is no match for the lizard until the village doctor, Citan, retries the Gear Fei used to destroy the village. Fei hates and distrusts the machine, but risks its use anyhow to save Elly’s life. Afterward Citan, who secretly hails from Elly’s native land, asks that she should forget about Fei and return to her country.

Comment: Citan is an INTj-ENTj. (like Lezard Valeth, just not crazy) He is very technical in his speech, yet explains himself well. He enjoys tinkering with various gadgets, mostly for purposes of repair. It is difficult to imagine a non-Ti type taking on the roles he does over the course of the game, many of which require impeccable objectivity and self-control. He is highly theoretical and is capable of quickly proposing an answer or explanation to just about anything.

Fei and the “Doc” travel onward to an excavation community in the midst of the desert, where Gear robots are being excavated from 500 year-old ruins. Fei’s Gear, named “Weltall”, has been damaged in the fight with the monster and needs a new part. The part can only be found in the ruins, they are told, and Citan goes off to find it. On advice from the locals, Fei goes after him into the desert. When night comes, a group of Gears surround Fei. Fei escapes on a motorcycle and drives deeper into the desert, when he meets up with Citan at last, who has repaired Weltall. Fei defeats the Gears, but is soon confronted with a new foe: the Seeker of Power, Graf.

Graf’s Gear stands atop a stone spire in the scarlet moonlight as he describes to Fei many arcane things. He speaks of Fei as having a “nature”, and refers to him with the pronoun “you” as though Fei is a technical instrument of sorts. Then he tells Fei he must destroy “Mother God” and pits him against a giant sandworm. Fei defeats the worm, but Weltall breaks down again from the stress of fighting it and Fei and Citan are captured by Graf’s associates, who have been looking for Weltall.

Comment: this is one of the game’s more impressive moments. The use of camera angles throughout this scene lends it a sense of the abject supremacy and omnipotence that comes to be associated with Graf.

Citan is seen talking to Cain, the leader of Solaris and the first child of Miang. Cain, who is surrounded by what appear to be floating cards, is over 10,000 years old: he is like unto a mummy in his own body, which has aged almost beyond recognition. He talks ominously of a fate destined at humanity’s genesis, and of the importance that it be avoided.

Weltall’s transport ship is attacked, and amidst the swiftly rising sand Fei and Citan escape to Weltall. No sooner do they escape, however, than they encounter the leader of the “sand pirates” who attacked to transport, Fatima crown prince Bartholomew. (Bart for short) Bart and Fei start off rough, but their feud is quickly rendered moot by the common crisis of falling through quicksand into an underground cavern.

Making their way through the cavern, the two meet an old man named Balthasar. (yes, a reference to the astrologer from the Christian Nativity). Balthazar informs them that there are no records of humans living on their planet from beyond 10,000 years ago. Balthazar is dumbstruck when he sees Weltall, calling it “the Chariot of the Slayer of God” and declaring that “Calamity” will see to them.

Calamity does indeed befall the pair in the guise of a giant robot. The two destroy the robot and escape, having forged a friendship through crisis and put their differences aside for the time being. They are met by Bart’s Sand Cruiser, the Yggdrasil, which takes them to the pirates’ base.

At the base, Fei and Citan learn of the substance behind this determined and surprisingly well armed band of pirates. Bart was the prince of Aveh and heir apparent when his house was overthrown by Shekan, a close adviser. Bart escaped with the help of his loyal retainer, Mason, and with the help of the influential Sigurd began hobbling together a resistance army. Until Fei’s arrival the pirates had no hope of challenging Shekan, who has been backed up by a military force called Gebler. The Gebler have space-age technology and have enacted a strategy to keep both the kingdom of Aveh and the Kislev Empire to the north firmly entrenched in hostility. Now with Fei’s Weltall gear and his own phenomenal skill, the pirates have a new opportunity to defeat Shakan.

Fei is torn by his potential to do good for his friends and his hatred of fighting. Before he can reach a decision, however, Gebler infiltrates the pirates’ lair and launches a suprise attack. Fei is forced to ride Weltall once more to save his newfound friends.

Comment: the scene of Bart conversing with the memory of his own father atop the Yggdrasil is one of the most moving moments I’ve ever witnessed in a videogame. Bart offers a frank observation of what people look for in friends and what friendship means to us.

Fei realizes that he cannot ignore his troubles at the expense of his friends, and resolves to help Bart and his crew retake Rekjavik, Aveh’s capital. Fei enters a tournament to distract the populace while Bart infiltrates Fatima Castle through its waterway. Fei encounters Dan in the tournament, who still hates him for the death of his sister. Although Dan is no match for Fei, Fei is thereafter met with the mysterious Wise Man, who is cloaked in black and wears a fish mask.

Bart infiltrates Fatima Castle in search of his cousin [name], who is being held by Shekan for her knowledge of the treasure of the Fatima dynasty, the Fatima Jasper. Bart finds Margie but is cornered by Gebler’s leader, Kharan Ramsus and his leutenant/girlfriend, Miang. Bart resists Ramsus until Fei arrives and knocks Ramsus silly.

Upon seeing Fei, Ramsus is reminded of a terrifying experience. He was one of the gear pilots who attacked Fei’s village, and there experienced combat with “another” Fei. However, Ramsus is further troubled by deeper issues in his past….

The company escape from Fatima Castle and return Margie to her rightful place as Holy Mother of Nisan. At Nisan, Citan and Sigurd offer a daring scheme: destroy Aveh’s sand fleet, and Shekan’s regime might well crumble.

Comments: the Church of the Holy Mother is a striking scene of two angels, each with one wing, reaching out to each other amidst a horizon of pure, radiant light. It is meant to emphasize the co-dependence of humans on each other, especially specialized dependences such as gender. In this sense, it is a representation of the deeper genetic concept of complementarity or duality. It is a statement that the way of complementarity is the deepest and holiest experience we can realize.

Der Langrisser

(also known as “All About the Transcendent Function”)

There are two english translations of this game in existence, Der Langrisser and Langrisser II. Der Langrisser is a remake of Langrisser II, with a branching story path. Both translations are unofficial.

Langrisser II was translated by someone with a very poor grasp of english… you get the impression their education extended slightly farther than fifth grade. (either that, or they had no confidence in their ability to translate Japanese to English. Either way, it shows.) You get the impression is only half thinking most of the time, as though they are rambling along almost incoherently without any time to really consider what the hell they are saying. Thus you end up with such gems as “There’s nothing better than killing, and there’s still lots more to do!” and “If there is a great strength, then you can bring people together!” Although the presentation is a little off… you can still make some sense of it. Imagine if all of a sudden people chose to be completely dominated by their basest political instincts and determined to start gearing up to kill each other– oh wait, that’s war in general, ain’t it?

The story revolves around two metaphors for the transcendent function: swords of light and darkness. The sword of light, Langrisser, was created centuries before to combat the emergence of the sword of darkness, Al-hazard. (pronouned “all hazard”) This backstory is itself an intuitive allusion to the role of the transcendent function as a counter to the influence of psychopaths. Al-hazard has been acquired by an Emperor, Bernheart. (meaning, as you might suspect, “burning heart” or “burning soul”) Bernheart, an ENFj, desires power by which to bring the world together under his rule, and he sees Al-hazard as the means by which to claim it.

Bernheart is portrayed very unsympathetically in the game’s early segments. Only later do you begin to understand that this is not your typical RPG villian: the man has values and his only wrong is his attempt to impress his own values over those of others’ whose values are equally valid. In this sense he is an extremist, but I digress….

Bernheart’s ambition is to unite the continent of El Sallia under him and to reign over it as the Rayguard Empire. (no clear symbolism in the name “Rayguard”, although it would seem to suggest insulation against a private actor, who could be considered a “ray”. This may be a commentary on the — from one vantagepoint — disruptive potential of the individiual who removes themselves from the group.) At present, El Sallia is divided amongst many independent lords, as is typical in medieval settings. Bernheart’s desire to unite these seperate governments betrays his innate identity as empiricist traditionalist who desires order and regulation at any price. His chief stalwarts are other empricists and many, many libertarians, the most signficant of thse being the mage, Eggbert, and the knight, Leon.

Eggbert is an ISTj and a master calculator of intention. He is the brains behind Eggbert’s push and, as his dual, Eggbert’s most useful adviser. Eggbert lends his support to Bernheart, who was in his origin a soldier (presumably a captain) to create a force that can repell the rise of a sociopath king called Bozel. (the "lord of darkness”) Bozel serves (who else) the god Chaos and has revived along with the rise in energies drifting towards conflict. (for the record, Bozel’s an ENTp “self-aggrandizer” personality who desires that disharmony (+Si) bathe the continent for eternity. He’s also obsessed with bringing about the “legendary darkness”/rule of sociopaths over El Sallia.)



Egbert’s chief motivation is to dissuade what he sees, as an ISTj, as the -Ne threat posed by the returning Bozel. Because his experience with -Ne as an ISTj is so troublesome for him, his egocentricity obliges him to project his troubles with -Ne on the world around him as a whole: “upstart insurgents”, he thinks, are everywhere, and they all have only the most ignoble of intentions. (+Fi) When considering Egbert’s character it is important to factor both his type and his political trait of libertarianism, because traits color type.

The knight Leon’s personality actually differs between the games. In Langrisser II, he’s ESFp; in Der Langrisser, he’s ENTj. However Leon’s type is not as vital to his overall character as is his libertarian loyalty to Bernheart. Bernheart’s ideas are to Leon an important part of his onw character, and he would rather die than see them fail. He is also a descendent of the kingdom Baldea, which guarded Langrisser for centuries, and is the chief rival of the game’s protagonist, Elwin/Erwin. (he’s also a damn tough knight who can pretty well run just about anybody down.)

Also in the imperial entourage are Imelda, the amazon; Vargas “the Valiant”; and several other minor flunkies besides. I won’t get into the flunkies just yet, but Vargas and Imelda are clearly worth examining.

Vargas appears to be an ESFj. I say this because of his determination to be of assistance to others and the shadow of his fate in the main campaign. Vargas death, which he resists violently but is unable to prevent, is one of the game’s most emotional scenes. It is especially tragic because at the time he is dying, birth is being given to his child, whom he wanted very badly to know and to love as a family man. He is denied this fate because he senses that there is nothing he can do to interface with +Ni, chiefly due to his priority of his relationships over observation of objective -Ti conditions on the ground, which suggest he is sure to lose. He cannot distinguish thus paths which will allow him to triumph over his opposition from those which will not, determined as he is to keep his friendships “in context” despite his larger obligations to his own family: suggestions of a greater or higher relationship are de-emphasized in favor of commitment to the role called upon him by his traditionalist instincts. His is a passive immanent mentality. It is the way of passive immanence to leave its mark on the subconscious, however, and in this sense he is indeed survived by his own son and moreover, Leon’s determination to avenge him. Nevertheless, his demise is also the first sign to Rayguard that it may be fighting a losing battle against psychically superior forces. (particularly Erwin.)

Imelda is an uncharacteristically cruel and narcissistic INTj. This is probably due primarily to her +Se: she is a general in charge of an army and is unconfident in her capacity to keep it in character, so she uses force which is disproportionate to the situation to try to keep her soldiers in line. In this sense she has the same problem as Vargas in that she believes herself incapable of supplanting her vulnerable function effectively, and in practice has so little skill with it that she cannot count on her determinative function (+Ni) to give her a helping hand. (as is revealed when she fails to escape from a shipping port before her ship is loaded for departure.) Her critical flaw is that she cares nothing for how she is perceived and is thus unmoved to passion. Although this is typical of INTjs in their youth, she takes it to the extreme. Even in the Emprire winning scenarios offered in Der Langrisser, she is like as not to be killed by her own subordinates because she fails to appraise the hatreds she is engendering. If anything, she feels that these hatreds must be repressed without questioning the motives behind them. This leaves her fatally naive to others’ feelings and ignorant of their psychology, a state of unstable relative coexistance that someone as cold as an INTj cannot hope to sustain indefinitely.

Having discussed the antagonists (we will not use the word “bad guys” for reasons that should be evident in light of the above), let us consider the protagonists. The lead protagonist is a consensus leader named Erwin (Elwin in Langrisser II) who a direct descendent of the protagonist of Langrisser and the heir to the Kingdom of Baldea. In Der Langrisser he is presented as the chosen avatar for the will of the reigning goddess, Lushiris: in this sense he is a prototypical divinely-inspired leader. What of this relationship can we find relevant to the socion? The consensus leader has an uncanny knack for observing common political ground between opposing parties: when he defeats his opponent, they and all their followers will accept his victory as final. They also face a variety of pressures to “set the example” by being basically as pure and noble as possible. (observe, for example, attitudes toward Barack Obama by his opponents in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.) There is a definite sense in Der Langrisser/Langrisser II that Erwin does not have control over his own destiny: he is expected to be all things to all people, and is perceived of as the last best hope of El Sallia by both his allies and his enemies. It is a fierce standard to live up to that only a consensus leader could pull off consistently.

However, Erwin’s portrayal differs between paths. In the Light path he is clearly a consensus leader who even Bernhart learns to admire for his courage if not his ideals. In the other paths, Erwin is variously a creative leader in the Imperial and , and a charismatic sociopath in the Chaos path. The non-Light paths ultimately put Erwin on a collision course with the Goddess Lushiris, whose chosen incarnation is adaptist, and her prophet, the consensarian Jessica, the scale of whch imminently transcendent conflict leaves El Sallia with a mixed outcome.

Yes, Lushiris has picked a side. The INFp Lushiris is an incarnation of duality and thus, is simply desiring the victory of life in whatever form that might best take. However the restraint of a physical — and thus specialized — mind requires that she pick a side in this classic squabble of tradition vs change. It is questionable, however, whether Lushiris really understands the pursuit of quality over quantity at all as an ultimate end. The Independent path is one of just such ends, with Erwin observing the situation before him by means of the 1st transcendent function (which begins to awaken in him when he takes Langrisser at Baldea) and playing the various forces of the world against each other as opportunity presents itself. It is difficult to judge which side, if any, of the consciousness axis Erwin takes because the consensus technology of govenment in El Sallia is clearly monarchy, therefore it is impossible to observe a clear divide between old and new paradigms in El Sallia. We observe only that Erwin is (on this path) gravely concerned about the effect the conflict between Lushiris and Chaos is having on the people as a whole. He cealrly believes the conflict to be a source of destruction and, possibly, civil decay. Erwin endevors to reconcile El Sallia’s mainland with the estranged Demon Tribe, the kind of ethnic-divide bridgework admired by liberals and conservatives alike. It is clear that he values his commitment to the people above his own individuality, because he accepts his defeat of the only person he ever truly loved.