I was reading this post as I started playing Demon's Souls, and I had one of those weird moments that gaming sometimes gives a person: the twinned thoughts of "This seems really appropriative" with "wait, this was made by the Japanese".
Because it's got this strong monotheistic theme combined with some visual design motifs that are very Western European (including some that's almost-but-not-quite Celtic), and so on, so it pings on the whole "Christian mythology as default" conceptual space that in RPG-type games usually means it's European or American, with a scattering of elements that draw strongly on Eastern religion and tradition, including some quasi-ninja monsters.
And the thing is, it's nearly, but not quite, balanced enough that to be a perfect fusion if it were made by Western game developers.
It's almost a perfect case study of why context matters. Because this game is not disrespectful of the thematic elements borrowed from Western tradition, but the sketch elements of Eastern tradition are completely recontextualised by the fact that the people who made this are being cavalier with their own cultural iconography.
Which leads off to this whole other thing, which may result in a post of my own, about that being the difference some people seem to miss with the "well they do it why can't I" thing. The rules are different when you're playing with your own toys than if you're playing with someone else's.
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Because it's got this strong monotheistic theme combined with some visual design motifs that are very Western European (including some that's almost-but-not-quite Celtic), and so on, so it pings on the whole "Christian mythology as default" conceptual space that in RPG-type games usually means it's European or American, with a scattering of elements that draw strongly on Eastern religion and tradition, including some quasi-ninja monsters.
And the thing is, it's nearly, but not quite, balanced enough that to be a perfect fusion if it were made by Western game developers.
It's almost a perfect case study of why context matters. Because this game is not disrespectful of the thematic elements borrowed from Western tradition, but the sketch elements of Eastern tradition are completely recontextualised by the fact that the people who made this are being cavalier with their own cultural iconography.
Which leads off to this whole other thing, which may result in a post of my own, about that being the difference some people seem to miss with the "well they do it why can't I" thing. The rules are different when you're playing with your own toys than if you're playing with someone else's.