Why does such an extremely vast majority of Japanese video games have stories (or plotlines at least) that boil down to an infinite cycle of life, death, and rebirth?
The most obvious example is Legend of Zelda, with the rise of Ganon followed by birth of another Link and Zelda to fight him every so often but there are far more examples than that to be found in Japanese video games.
I get that Bhuddism is really big in Japan, but it seems to be an exclusively Japanese thing to hamfist in such heavy religious undertones into every type and genre of thing. There are certainly Western video games that use biblical references or have a focus on religion, but there's no way it's even half as frequent as overseas.
user, please don't fall for the timeline meme. Zelda always fights Ganon the same way Mario always fights Bowser. You don't see autists clamoring for a Mario timeline.
Zachary Gonzalez
This would explain rehashes.
Landon Adams
Well user, in video games you often die and then have to do repeat that life over again, getting a little better each time. And since that happens a lot in video games, and it's a common theme in Japanese religion (including Shinto as well as Buddhism), and since lots of games are made in Japan, it might just be a good fit, culturally as well as narratively, to incorporate those themes in to the game. Dark Souls is another example, not only in a single game, but across the series as a whole (DaS1 and DaS3).
I'm not talking about timelines, I'm talking about the cycle. It's always a cycle. Evil rises, Evil Reigns, Good rises to fight Evil, Good Wins and there is peace for a time, rinse and repeat ad infinitum.
Every single JRPG I've ever played has had this cycle bullshit in it. Prophecies and fate in an endless, pointless cycle of eternity.
And so many games start off with the same concept of an evil that has been asleep for a hundred or a thousand years, and the only way you can beat it is to reseal it – a doomed cycle of constantly setting forth a band of plucky teens to put the bad guy back to sleep.
Samuel Ramirez
It's greater food for thought that elevates entertainment to work on more levels which ultimately makes it more fulfilling. The idea of entertainment is to entertain, Japan is very conscious of this and will seek to create their games as entertaining as possible. It is also why fan service is such a thing embraced so heartily, it is more entertaining this way. Provided the audience finds it entertaining they will embrace natural real life philosophical concepts to provide more meaning for those that it might appeal to.
Cooper Scott
I stopped paying attention to the story a decade or so ago. King's Field I got, simple premise, go to it. Dark Souls, yeah, I just clear this area and move on to the next, and something being hollow and an old king.
Carter Ward
because the universe is cyclical
Austin Watson
TICC!
John Wright
That's what i think, Nintendo just reuses popular characters, it only matters how the world is going to be in danger at that particular time, but its basically anything that works for "choosen hero saves the kingdom and the princess from evil", next game just redo it but introduce a few unique characters so it doesn't feel like you judt dont care, oh and also change the art direction to piss off people.
