Is anyone else getting the feeling

[Kyomagi]

The game is a work of fiction. I am a Christian too, and i don't see how this is "anti-christian". They do not make reference to the Christian God or Jesus in anyway.

[Iscah]

Honestly (and as a fellow Christian) I think Heavensward was a lot less anti-(pseudo-)Christian than I initially expected it might be.

The enemy is "the Church" but the wrongdoing comes from humans within the church, not the religion or the goddess Herself. The same plot could play out with a secular government and vey little would change.

At the same time we have (in post-ARR) Aymeric giving a more moderate, less militant take on the faith, and Lucia who has converted from atheist Garlean to believer.


And at a larger scale, a lot of Japanese media takes the "God is actually evil / not what people believe" route often enough. Makes for good storytelling and good imagery, especially if you're not attached to it, and I've been expecting them to go somewhere down that route for a long time. The question was only ever how drastically.

Hold tight, wait and see what the story makes of it, and hopefully Hydaelyn will come out the other side still essentially being our all-loving mother goddess even if She isn't quite what She claimed.

Anything else, you just have to sigh and bear it, and appreciate the story for what it is.

[SoloWingMetatron]

The game is a work of fiction. I am a Christian too, and i don't see how this is "anti-christian". They do not make reference to the Christian God or Jesus in anyway.

Yet FF does make reference to other Gods directly, such as Odin, Shiva, Lakshmi (to name a few)...apparently these are ok?....but when it comes to the slightest hint of Christian/Islamic/Jewish iconography or visual cues, all off a sudden it's a problem?...

Those are rhetorical questions btw, not directed at anyone specifically. I just want to bring light to the hypocrisy of such a debate.

[WhiteArchmage]

Japan has a rather fuzzy view of Christianity (sort of to how the West generally has little clue about Shinto), but they like the aesthetic THEMES of it. So you often see non-denominational but vaguely Christian-like Priests in Japanese games, in Gothic looking cathedrals, but the religion itself is very vaguely developed or downright inaccurate in a few aspects (I remember Ghost Hunt has a 19-year old Catholic exorcist, when you can't even be ordained at 19).

In short, religion in (Fantasy) games is usually not meant to reflect any real world religion besides the superficial.

[Kalise]

Last I checked, not worshipping false idols was literally one of the 10 commandments.

Thus, Heavensward would be pro-Christian (If it was actually based off of Christianity, as opposed to a fantasy setting where there are 12 "Gods" that people worship)

Shadowbringers seems to be working somewhat on the idea of fanaticism and blind faith being not particularly good ways to live.

Also, you're skipping out on the fact that Stormblood was pro-religion. From the citizens of Gyr Abania worshipping Rhalgr (But being forbidden to do so because the bad guy Imperials dislike it), to the Kojin having their own religion where their gods inhabit pieces of garbage treasure. Even the Xaela's religion is shown in a positive light, as it gives tribes which would otherwise wipe each other out, some semblance of common ground.

P.S. Christianity isn't even a particularly popular religion in Japan so it's unlikely that it would be directly targeted by the Japanese developers (About 1% of the population are Christians... It's likely they don't even know much about Christianity as a whole in the nation with Shintoism and Buddhism being by far the more common religions in Japan)

[Zsplash]

Solid advice is to go play a SMT game, lol.

[Crystal_Raven]

The more I look at the forums the more I am disgusted by the human species.

[SoloWingMetatron]

The more I look at the forums the more I am disgusted by the human species.

This place truly does attract some.......interesting individuals haha

[AnimaAnimus]

Waiting on Primal Jesus to make an entrance so we can CRUSH him and his followers like we do with Gods from many many other religions.

Christians feeling persecuted always amuses me considering the past 2000 years of history and even nearly any hot topic in the news today which is always "something something should be outlawed, so and so shouldn't have rights to..., something something cause my christian values something something"

[SoloWingMetatron]

Waiting on Primal Jesus to make an entrance so we can CRUSH him and his followers like we do with Gods from many many other religions.

Christians feeling persecuted always amuses me considering the past 2000 years of history and even nearly any hot topic in the news today which is always "something something should be outlawed, so and so shouldn't have rights to..., something something cause my christian values something something"

This exactly!....Hypocrisy is rife within devout Christian communities.