Dear Internet,
"Valkyria
Chronicles" continues. I have
already covered the gameplay twice along with the story and art direction. At this point I wonder about what else I
could cover without repeating myself again.
I could talk about how the game adds smokescreen coverage into the mix
in a way to overcome heavily dug in enemies.
I could mention how the game has a Normandy Invasion level where the
squad has to attack a heavily defended beach.
I could mention how the game throws the player back into the first
town. I could mention how the homecoming
is less like "See, the conqu'ring hero comes!" but more, "See,
the hero comes to re-conquer." But I
will not do so. Instead, let me talk
briefly upon the Darcsen people in the game.
I might have only gotten a brief part of the picture, considering that I
have not finished the game, but let me try and convey a few of my thoughts
concerning the game's use of the Darcsens.
Needful to say, I will be talking about an event in the game that would
spoil the reveal to those that have not played the game.
I
mentioned previously how the game was sidestepping or basically ignoring the
Holocaust. Well, that did not last very
long. Eventually the game gets to the
point where the Empire is shown to have driven the Darsen people into work camps. The game goes one step further by alternatively
calling them concentration camps. So,
far there have been no death camps, but I do not think the game will have any
of this. The game's age rating does not
seem to indicate this. The Darcsen are
shown to be working in the mines and are said to have been pushed to exhaustion
enough to die from it. This of course
mirrors the real life camps that were in use in WWII. However, the game has some problems with the
parallels that it wishes to showcase. It
gets especially problematic if the game is trying to make the Darsens into a
Jewish substitute.
The
first problem that the game has its representation of the Darcsen people comes
from the origin of the people. The
Darcsens are told to have been an action people that were overcome by the
Valkyrur, another ancient race but with near-magical abilities in war. This and their dark hair are about the only
distinction that the game gives for them.
There might be some sort of religious distinction, but the game has not
said anything so far that I have noticed.
Short of one moment where one Darcsen mentions how violence is not in
their nature, the game seems to make little philosophical distinction between
Darcsen and everyone else. This
non-violence philosophy is also invalidated before and afterward it was
mentioned. Beyond the Darcsen Calamity,
which occurs thousands of years ago, there is next to no reason as to why the
Darcsen receive such cruel treatment or even as to how they continue to exist
as a separate entity.
The
Jewish people continue to this day because they are primarily a religious group
before being an ethnicity. Anyone can
enter into their faith, provided that they meet the requirements of belief and
understanding. Even Jewish ancestry is
plenty mixed enough around the world that it is near impossible to create a
portrait of a "Jew" without it being an archaic caricature. If the game wants to make the Darcsen to be a
direct parallel, there needs to a greater emphasis on religious differences,
but even that is only half of the reason as to how anti-Semitism comes
about. The primary source comes from the
fact that numerous Jewish people in the Middle Ages held strong positions in
the community because of the skill set that comes from being a people of the
written word. Requiring the average
Jewish male to be able to read the Torah teaches something that many
individuals for many centuries were unable to do. They could think and write in the written
word, and usually not just in Hebrew. This
ability, compounded with having mathematical aptitude, allowed the Jew to enter
into work for the leaders of the land as moneylenders and scribes. The Jew held high positions but received little
support from the common people.
"Valkyria Chronicles" goes the complete opposite route without
elaborating on it.
The Darcsen
people are said to have been subjugated millennia ago. Afterwards, they typically became manual
laborers or technicians instead of those in power. This is directly contrary to the people that
the game is trying to parallel. Jews
have been advisors to kings and regents.
A Darcsen can best hope for a position as lead mechanic before hitting
the glass ceiling. The opposite position
in society between the two groups causes a few problems. It brings forth the question as to how an apparently
purely ethnic group could have survived for so long without intermingling of
races. Even the Valkyrur blood is said
to have been mixed to the point that no pure-blood remains. It
also raises the problem of how a subjected group was not driven completely out
from the society without some sort of caste system in place. As it stands, the game does not distinguish
the Darcsen enough to show how the racial prejudices have continued for so long
while they have not been in enough of a superior position to gain ill
will. Having a sense of superiority over
them can be plausible provided that the continual subjugation is elaborated on,
but the game seems to paint over the few thousand years since the last notable
event. After looking into the Darcsens,
it seems that they were at first going to be another race entirely, marked by
animalistic ears atop their heads. Such
a physical difference would have worked better than just having the Darcsens
being marked by dark hair.
Since
the game is not using the fictitious Darsens to stand in for the Jewish people,
or even the rest of the people subjected to concentration camps because of how
the game does not indicate any non-Darcsens were placed there, they should be
better examined as an entirely different entity. With this in mind, the game should not be
seen as attempting to elaborate on the WWII atrocities but should be purely
seen as how well it does telling the story it presents of itself. Take the Fouzen town arc. The game portrays the first half of general
concentration camp conditions before the main cast appears in the town. It does so rather generically at that. There is the evil taskmaster that drives the
enslaved to their deaths. There is the
innocent child that must face the cruelties of man. There is the one leader of the bunch that has
to speak reason to the bad guy so to save as many people as he can. It has all been done before, but at least the
game does not make it overdramatic and instead lets the drama do its job. What happens with the intervention of the
main cast is nothing short of what I would like to think as a "Bridge on
the River Kwai" moment.
The
game then does something that I was expecting, or at least was wondering when
it would occur. A number of Darcsens
were moved into a building and left to burn alive with the construction
ablaze. What I did not expect was how
the game then turned it around onto a specific character that had been openly
racist for much of the story. What
pleased me even more was that the game did not have that character blatantly do
a 180 degree turn. It acknowledged the
difficulties of changing long-held preconceived notions. It was done with respectfully with all the
understandings of reality instead of becoming an after-school special. This made it all the more poignant when the
event that completely turns around that specific character's feelings to
Darcsens occurs.
Overall,
the Darcsens have no real-world counterpart when they are examined under a fine
microscope. But that does not mean that
the game has to speak directly concerning history. Instead, it tries, somewhat awkwardly, to
create a general ethnic group to show how racial prejudices have an impact on both
people receiving and giving unwarranted anger.
"Valkyria Chronicles" does something that has been done by
numerous other games, but at least it does so in a manner that makes me
connected with the characters it presents.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
No comments:
Post a Comment