Posted By: Becky
Final Thoughts on Seven Games of the Soul (Faust) - 11/19/01 07:34 PM
"Could someone tell me what game we're playing here?"
--Marcellus Faust
SERIOUS SPOILERS
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Seven Games of the Soul is the most convoluted game I've ever played. There are seven episode-like games going on here, but there's also the BIG GAME that is connected to the seven games. And then there are other games within the game -- I figure at least four others. Just trying to piece everything together is a tremendous challenge.
All the games take place in Dreamland, that "little kingdom of illusion and suspended time." Theo More calls Dreamland "a ferris wheel for the imagination." Here strange powers lurk -- angels, demons, geniuses, homunculuses (homunculi?). Dreamland draws to itself various exiles from the fast-paced modern world. Its residents are quirky, eccentric, even freakish. They have failed to fit into the rat-race, cog-in-a-wheel quality of twentieth-century life.
The tourists who visit Dreamland come there, not just for amusement and relaxation, but also to immerse themselves in its horror, enchantment and fear. Dreamland at its best forces a kind of self-examination. One asks: am I living a worthy life in which I am loved and loving; doing/creating something of which I can be proud? Am I focusing on surface appearances or living in accordance with deeper truths?
Dreamland is both sustained and threatened by the conflict between good and evil. The game defines evil as destruction, and includes episodes involving the destruction of life, love, creativity and trust. Yet Theo says, "An absence of evil can be as dangerous as its continued company." Someone needs to goad, tempt and tease, revealing the truth about human character.
According to Theo, even more worrisome than evil in our world is a growing coldness. Our world is in danger of becoming modern, safe, sanitized, mass-produced and standardized. To Theo this represents the ultimate horror -- nothingness.
I have a feeling that the people who wrote this game really hate McDonalds.
Anyway, here are the games:
GAME ONE -- Uncover and understand the evidence of each park resident/player's defining test of character (based on the Seven Deadly Sins). The evidence used to judge each player can be accessed in the main menu. My results:
1. Jody -- Sin of Greed. Evidence is lottery ticket.
2. Nathaniel -- Sin of Anger. Evidence is newspaper with the story of the London Controlling Section, organizer of Operation Fortitude, during which the woman who was the love of Nathaniel's life was tortured to death.
3. Frank -- Sin of Sloth. Evidence is the letter in which Frank details how his pact with Mephisto fooled him into abandoning his work as an artist.
4. Kalinka -- Sin of Lust. Of interest; Mephisto announces at the beginning of this episode that Lust isn't really a sin. Evidence is the moon that is the key to Kalinka's secret refuge where she meets Frank.
5. Hannibal -- Sin of Pride. Convinced that he is superior to every other person in his life, that he should have power over other people and that he should be above the law. Evidence is his whip.
6. Tod -- Sin of Envy. Regrets losing his family name and status. Was adopted into a poor gypsy family that was much richer in sympathy for the weak. Evidence is Tod's St. Christopher's medal (patron saint of travelers).
7. Giselle -- Sin of Gluttony. Cannot stop eating because of psychological damage from watching her mother starve to death. Evidence -- magic spoon.
GAME TWO: Figure out the ultimate dispensation for each of the seven residents/players. Does the Boss send them Up or Down? My guesses follow:
Jody -- Down
Nathaniel -- Up
Frank -- Really, really hard to tell.
Kalinka -- Up
Hannibal -- Down
Tod -- Up (Confirmed by the game's "good" ending)
Giselle -- Up (Confirmed by Mephisto)
Mephisto tells Giselle at one point that growing up will inevitably involve sacrifices. The characters that go to heaven all have made some sort of sacrifice.
GAME THREE: Find out the terms of the pacts Mephisto made with each character.
1. Jody -- gave up love interest in Hannibal for Mephisto's promise that she would become incredibly wealthy.
2. Nathaniel -- (from hints dropped) gave up his love of tinkering in human affairs to prevent evil in exchange for acquiring exhaustive knowledge of the universe.
3. Frank -- agreed that his greatest masterpiece would exhaust his creativity in order to become irresistible to women.
4. Kalinka -- doesn't appear to have made any pacts, unless you count her acquiescence in hiding Frank's true identity as the father of her child.
5. Hannibal -- agreed to pay Mephisto a dollar in order to be able to be above the laws of man.
6. Tod -- no pact with Mephisto that I could tell. Seems to have had some sort of understanding/pact with Eliot Ness, in which the government overlooked his bootlegging activities while he maintained an orphanage.
7. Giselle -- attempted to make a pact with Mephisto so that she could die and be reunited with her parents. Mephisto refused the pact.
8. Theo -- made an early pact with Mephisto that Dreamland would be established/continued. In exhange Theo would take Mephisto's place as a demon after Theo's death, thereby freeing Mephisto to once again become mortal.
Game Four -- Figure out Mephisto.
Mephisto says: "There's no viler object than a poor devil stricken with despair." There are players in the game who fall into despair. But I think Mephisto was mostly talking about himself. Demons (at least in the theology of this game) start out as humans. They have feelings and dreams and longings. No one can wipe away all the goodness from them. Demons are terribly lonely -- what worthy individual wants to form a happy relationship with Evil Incarnate? (In this sense, Giselle and Mephisto are a spiritual Beauty and the Beast story -- just as Kalinka overlooks Frank's horribly ugly face, Giselle overlooks Mephisto's questionable past as the chief Tormentor of mankind.)
I'm still not sure about Mephisto's feelings for Giselle. When he talks to her, he sounds more like a kindly big brother than a lover. But in the confrontation with Faust, he states quite emphatically that he loves her. In Dreamland, Mephisto has taken on the role of a guardian angel to Giselle, while Faust, the angel of the place, has allowed him to do so.
Who is Mephisto? Is it possible to identify him in his first life as an actual historical figure? Let's see (I'm really going out on a limb here): a famous genius, about 1000 BC, who has thought deeply about the balance of good and evil, and who fell into despair. Maybe somebody who famously ended up worshipping Ishtar (Ashtoreth). My guess -- King Solomon (see Ecclesiastes and 1 Kings 11:1-13). Evidence against my theory -- Theo says Mephisto never had any children. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and (from what I can tell) many children.
The BIG GAME
Mephisto has lied to you. This is not simply a game of souls. The true reason for reliving the events in Dreamland: to see if Faust is willing to let Mephisto and Theo's pact stand.
Faust was stripped of his immortal status because he allowed Mephisto to break the rules and comfort Giselle. Now Faust alone has the power to save Dreamland. How will he respond? By accepting great wealth and looking the other way as a conglomerate takes over and destroys the park? Or by assuming management of the park himself and handling all the surprises and adventures that are certain to ensue?
In the BIG GAME (good ending) Dreamland is remade for a new era (a sequel?). Mephisto goes on to his just reward (I shudder to think). Theo is mankind's new demon. And Tod is Dreamland's guardian angel (assisted by the Homunculus).
Unsolved Mysteries:
1. Are Kalinka and Frank meeting in "real" time, or are they traveling in time to tryst with one another?
2. How did Nathaniel know that Faust was coming? How did he know there would be a chance that Faust would help to assemble the ingredients for the Homunculus?
3. Why are there so many bathrooms (eight of them in seven locations)? Do the characters in Dreamland need to be really, really clean? Or is this a joke about Americans and their hygiene issues? Maybe Dreamland is the place where all the characters from the Myst games link when they need to use the facilities?
4. The "little voice" in Faust's mind that encouraged him to choose to manage Dreamland -- did that have anything to do with Tod and the Homunculus?
[This message has been edited by Becky (edited 11-19-2001).]
[This message has been edited by Becky (edited 11-20-2001).]
--Marcellus Faust
SERIOUS SPOILERS
@
@
@
@
@
@
@
@
@
@
@
@
@
@
@
Seven Games of the Soul is the most convoluted game I've ever played. There are seven episode-like games going on here, but there's also the BIG GAME that is connected to the seven games. And then there are other games within the game -- I figure at least four others. Just trying to piece everything together is a tremendous challenge.
All the games take place in Dreamland, that "little kingdom of illusion and suspended time." Theo More calls Dreamland "a ferris wheel for the imagination." Here strange powers lurk -- angels, demons, geniuses, homunculuses (homunculi?). Dreamland draws to itself various exiles from the fast-paced modern world. Its residents are quirky, eccentric, even freakish. They have failed to fit into the rat-race, cog-in-a-wheel quality of twentieth-century life.
The tourists who visit Dreamland come there, not just for amusement and relaxation, but also to immerse themselves in its horror, enchantment and fear. Dreamland at its best forces a kind of self-examination. One asks: am I living a worthy life in which I am loved and loving; doing/creating something of which I can be proud? Am I focusing on surface appearances or living in accordance with deeper truths?
Dreamland is both sustained and threatened by the conflict between good and evil. The game defines evil as destruction, and includes episodes involving the destruction of life, love, creativity and trust. Yet Theo says, "An absence of evil can be as dangerous as its continued company." Someone needs to goad, tempt and tease, revealing the truth about human character.
According to Theo, even more worrisome than evil in our world is a growing coldness. Our world is in danger of becoming modern, safe, sanitized, mass-produced and standardized. To Theo this represents the ultimate horror -- nothingness.
I have a feeling that the people who wrote this game really hate McDonalds.
Anyway, here are the games:
GAME ONE -- Uncover and understand the evidence of each park resident/player's defining test of character (based on the Seven Deadly Sins). The evidence used to judge each player can be accessed in the main menu. My results:
1. Jody -- Sin of Greed. Evidence is lottery ticket.
2. Nathaniel -- Sin of Anger. Evidence is newspaper with the story of the London Controlling Section, organizer of Operation Fortitude, during which the woman who was the love of Nathaniel's life was tortured to death.
3. Frank -- Sin of Sloth. Evidence is the letter in which Frank details how his pact with Mephisto fooled him into abandoning his work as an artist.
4. Kalinka -- Sin of Lust. Of interest; Mephisto announces at the beginning of this episode that Lust isn't really a sin. Evidence is the moon that is the key to Kalinka's secret refuge where she meets Frank.
5. Hannibal -- Sin of Pride. Convinced that he is superior to every other person in his life, that he should have power over other people and that he should be above the law. Evidence is his whip.
6. Tod -- Sin of Envy. Regrets losing his family name and status. Was adopted into a poor gypsy family that was much richer in sympathy for the weak. Evidence is Tod's St. Christopher's medal (patron saint of travelers).
7. Giselle -- Sin of Gluttony. Cannot stop eating because of psychological damage from watching her mother starve to death. Evidence -- magic spoon.
GAME TWO: Figure out the ultimate dispensation for each of the seven residents/players. Does the Boss send them Up or Down? My guesses follow:
Jody -- Down
Nathaniel -- Up
Frank -- Really, really hard to tell.
Kalinka -- Up
Hannibal -- Down
Tod -- Up (Confirmed by the game's "good" ending)
Giselle -- Up (Confirmed by Mephisto)
Mephisto tells Giselle at one point that growing up will inevitably involve sacrifices. The characters that go to heaven all have made some sort of sacrifice.
GAME THREE: Find out the terms of the pacts Mephisto made with each character.
1. Jody -- gave up love interest in Hannibal for Mephisto's promise that she would become incredibly wealthy.
2. Nathaniel -- (from hints dropped) gave up his love of tinkering in human affairs to prevent evil in exchange for acquiring exhaustive knowledge of the universe.
3. Frank -- agreed that his greatest masterpiece would exhaust his creativity in order to become irresistible to women.
4. Kalinka -- doesn't appear to have made any pacts, unless you count her acquiescence in hiding Frank's true identity as the father of her child.
5. Hannibal -- agreed to pay Mephisto a dollar in order to be able to be above the laws of man.
6. Tod -- no pact with Mephisto that I could tell. Seems to have had some sort of understanding/pact with Eliot Ness, in which the government overlooked his bootlegging activities while he maintained an orphanage.
7. Giselle -- attempted to make a pact with Mephisto so that she could die and be reunited with her parents. Mephisto refused the pact.
8. Theo -- made an early pact with Mephisto that Dreamland would be established/continued. In exhange Theo would take Mephisto's place as a demon after Theo's death, thereby freeing Mephisto to once again become mortal.
Game Four -- Figure out Mephisto.
Mephisto says: "There's no viler object than a poor devil stricken with despair." There are players in the game who fall into despair. But I think Mephisto was mostly talking about himself. Demons (at least in the theology of this game) start out as humans. They have feelings and dreams and longings. No one can wipe away all the goodness from them. Demons are terribly lonely -- what worthy individual wants to form a happy relationship with Evil Incarnate? (In this sense, Giselle and Mephisto are a spiritual Beauty and the Beast story -- just as Kalinka overlooks Frank's horribly ugly face, Giselle overlooks Mephisto's questionable past as the chief Tormentor of mankind.)
I'm still not sure about Mephisto's feelings for Giselle. When he talks to her, he sounds more like a kindly big brother than a lover. But in the confrontation with Faust, he states quite emphatically that he loves her. In Dreamland, Mephisto has taken on the role of a guardian angel to Giselle, while Faust, the angel of the place, has allowed him to do so.
Who is Mephisto? Is it possible to identify him in his first life as an actual historical figure? Let's see (I'm really going out on a limb here): a famous genius, about 1000 BC, who has thought deeply about the balance of good and evil, and who fell into despair. Maybe somebody who famously ended up worshipping Ishtar (Ashtoreth). My guess -- King Solomon (see Ecclesiastes and 1 Kings 11:1-13). Evidence against my theory -- Theo says Mephisto never had any children. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and (from what I can tell) many children.
The BIG GAME
Mephisto has lied to you. This is not simply a game of souls. The true reason for reliving the events in Dreamland: to see if Faust is willing to let Mephisto and Theo's pact stand.
Faust was stripped of his immortal status because he allowed Mephisto to break the rules and comfort Giselle. Now Faust alone has the power to save Dreamland. How will he respond? By accepting great wealth and looking the other way as a conglomerate takes over and destroys the park? Or by assuming management of the park himself and handling all the surprises and adventures that are certain to ensue?
In the BIG GAME (good ending) Dreamland is remade for a new era (a sequel?). Mephisto goes on to his just reward (I shudder to think). Theo is mankind's new demon. And Tod is Dreamland's guardian angel (assisted by the Homunculus).
Unsolved Mysteries:
1. Are Kalinka and Frank meeting in "real" time, or are they traveling in time to tryst with one another?
2. How did Nathaniel know that Faust was coming? How did he know there would be a chance that Faust would help to assemble the ingredients for the Homunculus?
3. Why are there so many bathrooms (eight of them in seven locations)? Do the characters in Dreamland need to be really, really clean? Or is this a joke about Americans and their hygiene issues? Maybe Dreamland is the place where all the characters from the Myst games link when they need to use the facilities?
4. The "little voice" in Faust's mind that encouraged him to choose to manage Dreamland -- did that have anything to do with Tod and the Homunculus?
[This message has been edited by Becky (edited 11-19-2001).]
[This message has been edited by Becky (edited 11-20-2001).]