Put on your conquistador helmets
and brush up on your geography
cuz we're exploring some world wonders.
What a wonderful world.
Hello internet and welcome to Game Theory, gaming's tangential learning experience.
Through these videos, it's my goal to teach you
a little bit about a diverse cross section of subjects and yet
I'll admit, I too have been learning.
For example, after last weeks episode
I got a much better sense of what
you, the viewer, want most from these videos.
But, I digress
In any event I'll keep you abreast of any new developments.
Back to the point.
Illusion of Gaia was my third favorite game growing up and
some now consider it a forgotten 16-bit gem from the Super Nintendo.
What truly boggled my young mind, aside from it being packaged with a really nifty tee-shirt,
was the games use of real world locations.
After years of Mushroom Kingdoms and Hyrules
for the first time, I was able to look around outside and feel like video games could actually be real.
Illusion of Gaia passes through at least 10 real world historical sites, but
today we're gonna look briefly at the games portrayal of 4.
The story follows the adventures of Will, the son of an explorer, as he works to
uncover the mystery behind his Father's disappearance,
the first leg of the journey finds him exploring an invisible Inca village
and eventually discovering a ship made entirely of gold.
So fact or fiction?
Well, there's no doubt about the Incas, they were the largest empire
in the early Americas centered in the Cuzco region of modern day Peru.
And yes, if the name Cuzco rings a bell you would be on the right track.
Even though an invisible village and a ship of gold seem far fetched, they're not that far from the truth
as a culture, the Incas worshiped Inti, the sun god, and gold, which was thought to posses the holy image of the
sun, was used for religious worship not for currency
their wealth made them a target for Spanish conquistadors, namely Pizarro
who kidnapped the Incas last emperor, held him random for three rooms filled floor to ceiling with silver and gold,
then killed him anyway.
This tragic fall of a great Empire coincides perfectly with the timeline presented in the game.
Gaia takes place during the age of exploration,
a period between the early 15th and 17th centuries in which
Portuguese and Spanish sailors searched for new worlds, new trade routes, and new sources of
silver, gold and spices.
It's explained in the game that the village is invisible to protect it from all the outsides trying to invade.
As for the ship of gold, it seems likely that they would have enough supply to complete such a structure,
but there is no lore about any such ship.
Instead their ships tended to be made of reeds and balsa wood.
After helping to combat some slave trade near the diamond coast, the team makes its way back to Peru
to explore our second location the mysterious Nazca Lines, specifically one formation named the condor
the game describes them as ground paintings, but they are really shallow channels made by
removing the reddish rocks on the desert ground to reveal the pale layer underneath.
There are hundreds of these figures, ranging from simple lines to elaborate designs
of spiders, humming birds, and even monkeys.
The mysterious formations date back to the year 400 and are still around today
due to the windless and stable climate of the area
Though the game only allows you to explore the condor it is re-created almost perfectly.
The game also agrees with real life theories as to their purpose, communicating with a higher power.
Anthropologists studying the Nazca culture have said that the lines were created for the benefit of their gods in the sky
On the other end of the spectrum
Some theories have postulated that they are run ways for aliens.
Illusion of Gaia links the paintings to a mysterious garden in the sky
possibly alluding to another world wonder, the hanging gardens of Babylon,
which also relates to the final location of the game, but what isn't as exact
is the games attempt to connect the drawings to the constellation Cygnus or The Swan.
Stones placed around the condor in the game are suppose to relate to positions of stars in the sky,
but in fact don't come close to matching their real world arrangements.
A third leg of the journey leads Will to Angkor Wat, an ancient temple filled with
Guorgans, zombies, and fighting shrubbery.
It was my favorite level in the game
So finding out that it actually exists in Cambodia and is even featured on their national flag blew my mind.
Built in the early twelfth century it is the world's largest religious building
designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the Devas, the benevolent super-natural beings of Hindu mythology.
Again, the game recreates the location well,
from fighting through its multiple tiers of courtyards,
to the reliefs decorating the walls,
to even the shrub monsters that mirror the actual plant life found around the complex,
but most importantly of all it recreates the location's significance.
At Angkor Wat's center in the game,
there isn't a relic to find or a secret weapon
but rather a spirit who provides wisdom and a mystical cure.
The game's equivalent to Angkor Wat's real life Devas.
Finally, Will makes it back to the Tower of Babel,
the place of his father's disappearance and the final stretch of the game,
but why did the developers choose to end the game here?
Well, lets look at the facts.
The Tower of Babel's story originates in the Bible's
book of Genesis, but it is said to have
once stood in modern day Iraq.
Generations after Noah's Great Flood,
the world existed as a united people
who possessed only one language.
Their objective was to build a tower that would
reach the heavens.
That is until God put an early halt to the construction by
scattering the builders across the world,
and creating multiple languages
as an act against human hubris.
Soon after, the kingdom become known as the storied Babylon,
but why is it in the game?
Without spoiling anything, the events in the tower
result in a massive change from an old way of life to a new and unfamiliar world.
Like the Babel tale, Illusion of Gaia is an etiology
a story meant to explain some phenomenon.
The Babel lore explains the birth of the languages of the world.
In Gaia, the events surrounding the tower usher in another type of birth,
a rebirth of the Earth itself.
A big task for a video game, and quite an epic place
to conclude an already epic journey.
And now it's time for my final thought.
This game is all over the map.
No really, look at the map.
Why visit all these ancient civilizations?
And this video doesn't even mention the Great Wall of China or the Pyramids at Giza,
two more landmarks that it includes.
Other games like Duck Tales or Bart vs. the World
also visit famous landmarks
but the locations are simply settings.
Excuses to make the obligatory jump between ice level, water level and mountain level.
Never are the places themselves, vital pieces of the narrative.
Illusion of Gaia is different.
From starving tribes to slave trade.
From personal loses to the loss of a way of life,
this game isn't about Will and his missing father;
it's about a planet and the beautiful, mysterious, and terrible things that happen on it.
Earth is the main character.
I mean, for crying out loud, Gaia, the Greek goddess personifying Earth is in the title,
so that should be the first clue.
In brief, our world is an amazing place if only we're curious about it.
That was how this game captured my imagination as a kid,
and is one of the reasons that I do these videos in the first place,
to learn more about a planet that's easy to overlook.
The real world can be just as cruel
as a Midgar, Ferelden or Cyrodiil,
you just have to pay attention.
Anyway, it's just a theory ... a Game Theory.
Thanks for watching.
and P.S. Don't come to expect this
every week, but I may just throw in one every now and then
to keep you tuning in and paying attention,
so with that said tata for now.
(music playing) "I like big butts and I cannot lie,
all you other brothers can't deny
when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist
and a round thing in your face you get sprung!
Wanna pull out your top, cause you noticed cause you noticed that butt was stuffed
deep in the jeans she's wearing, I'm hooked and I can't stop staring!
Oh baby I wanna get wit ya and take your picture!