Video Game Academics - Gnosticism (Persona 5, Genshin Impact, Final Fantasy VII and More)

Like this comment if you hate the demiurge.

I find Gnosticism so interesting

YOU ARE A P3D0PH1L3!

So very cool.

The paths in the tree of life are known as sefirot, which sounds like Sephiroth.

I swear to GOD Black Ops 3 used gnostic imagery. It feels mostly meaningless but it too has an AI character named sophia, there are enemies called the apothican servants, and I think the strongest link is Monty and the Shadowman, I believe that Monty is actually the demi-urge while the Shadowman is a Lucifer type being, a contrasting character that is meant to hide Monty's true goals and intentions. Even the personality of Monty is very manipulative and distorting. Something I noticed a while ago and thought I'd share. The story went to shit after that, but BO3 still holds pretty well.

I don't know if it's just me, but I only found out about Gnosticism through Elder Scrolls.
Like the whole creation myth is more or less parallel of the Gnostic world's origins.

@Max Derrat you ever read “The Secret Teachings of All Ages”?

"People who say the world is good because GOD is good. To say otherwise is heresy."

That is the most monumentally colossal moronic statement I've ever heard.

Believers in Jesus know GOD is good and that sin has entered the world through Adam & Eve. Therefore, we know the world is filled with evil. All of creation is now afflicted. If the world is "good," why did GOD send the flood? Or help the Hebrews escape slavery in Egypt? If the Hebrews thought the world was good, then why did they cry for freedom? If the world is good, why did GOD destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? You should probably open up the Bible and start reading.

That is why GOD sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice. Jesus is perfect and without sin. So he paid for our sin. Now we are covered by his atonement and have a place in the Father's House.

You can't get to heaven any other way. Gnosticism is the lie of the serpent.

The Trails series have very clear references to Gnosticism. In fact, there's so many elements of the Trails universe that draws inspiration from psychological, religious, historical and geopolitical ideas from our world, it's a joy to delve into and discover how they parallel or differ from our world. The world-building and lore is incredibly intricate and carefully crafted.

Any fellow Trails fans here watching this as they lose their minds?

No mention of xenosaga, where the enemies are literally named gnosis

No Xenoblade?

Destiny 2 is loaded with gnostic language and symbolism.

I think genshin impact is more similar to final fantasy honestly I would really love to see collaboration to final fantasy 15 or final fantasy 7 some day in the future

Jesus mentions people and events from the Old Testament many times and He never hints that the God of the Old Testament is evil or is not His Father. If there was some sort of switch in the balance of power, He would have made that clear. It's also hard to believe that a God of love and mercy would allow the demiurge to have control for thousands of years and give no alternatives to humans other than pagan fantasies, agnosticism, or atheism. We know from the Bible that God does confront and suppress Satan, like when He cast out demons through Jesus and when he empowered Aaron to defeat the pharaoh's magicians in a supernatural battle. Obviously, Satan would have much more power if God did not intervene, as shown in the Book of Revelations, where God uses the antichrist's rebellion to separate the saved from the damned, allowing mortal life to come to a close and the rest of eternity to begin as well as showing he is justified in ruling the following world government directly through Jesus. The antichrist, who is heavily manipulated by the devil, gains control over the world's government and empowers his followers to use sorcery, but only for a small number of years. Why would God allow the demiurge to have power in excess of this(remember the flood?) and not say anything until thousands of years later? Gnosticism seems pretty sus to me.

Genshin Impact is a Gnostic World where Pleroma give each of the seven Archon Gnosis so they Will understand their origin thus willing to work for Pleroma

I always haven seen some similarities with the daedra and lorkhan from elder scrolls with archons and the demiurge from gnosticism.

Jews don't use "Jehovah" as a name of God. Jehovah is a Western transliteration of yud-hey-vuv-hey, which is pronounced in Hebrew as "Adonai."

Also, as a sidenote, Gershon Scholem's last name is pronounced "Shoh-lehm" which is a derivative of the Hebrew word, Shalom, or peace/hello.

Happy to help give any pointers on Jewish sources or proper Hebrew pronunciation, and as usual, fantastic video man!

Kingdom hearts has aspects of Kabbalah and Gnosticism, Elden ring too, Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, wow shadowlands, there’s an element of it in cyberpunk 2077 too

There are A lot of secrets in video games. Many codes and messages. I have actually obtained a great deal of esoteric teachings through games. Hidden in plane sight

Christianity doesn't teach the world is good. The world is a rebel realm. It falls short of its intended good.
Instead it teaches there is an intended good in everything. Reality is like a genius supermodel who got ALS and burns on half her body and became an alcoholic.

Gnosticism has an opposite interpretation of the same problem. But they're both accounting for the same set of mystical/historical evidence about life.

You have forgotten all The Elder Scrolls Lore

Speaking of final fantasy, and Bhunivelze from FFXIII?

I love how you casually spoil ff10 man I was just in the good part of that game when I was watching this video

I grew up Catholic and that church has a couple of “extra” books in the Old Testament and one them is the Book of Wisdom (another one is the Sirach with similar themes) and the Sophia part reminded me of that as I’ve read it

the reference on Gnosticism is more obvious on Persona 5 Strikers/Scramble where Sophia joins you to help fight against The Demiurge

Dragon’s dogma analysis please.

Xenosaga series is full of this stuff too. So please do try a deep dive on that one too. Would be interesting to see what you find out as I’ve enjoyed what I found myself via strong intuitions and research

No. The church an religion of Yevon was created to control their big lie about everything. Yevon had a portion of his soul remaining in the final Aeon called Which is stuck constantly summoning. The writer Renmiri went into full detail of this stuff and even the histories of the Ronso and Guado! Times before during and after the events of the game. It’s very well written and even with a glossary of sours.

Another writer is Yumemiru or something like that. The name of The boy who became Bahamut. Seriously good stuff. If I find the links again I’ll post them as a reply to my original comment.

max, this is a fantastic work for many reasons.. but being someone who has also looked into gnosticism & other esoteric ideas - this brings me a lot of joy to stumble upon today. i have always believed games to be the best form of art and these days i think they are also one of the best teachers. teaching via archetypes, raw experience, and narrative. this gives me healthy optimism & joy. keep up the good work, if you want.

Engagement comment #13. This seems to be an unlucky number but you see there's a trick: my very first comment didn't follow the same Engagement comment format, it was an actual comment, albeit a short one, so #13, much like the corresponding storey on a US skyscraper, does not really exist.

Game theory a decade ago asked if fans wanted to see a theory on the religious nature of final fantasy. You did the entire rrason I subbed to him for, but only by a small amount.

Was waiting for xenogears…that game introduced me to Gnosticism and made me realized how powerful games could be. Gotta check out the others and reply ff10.

Check out the game Hylics

A few other comments mentioned it as well, but Xenoblade Chronicles (created by Tetsuya Takahashi, the Director of Xenogears) is full of allegory and references to Gnosticism.
I highly recommend Max give it a try sometime. The origin story of the world in Xenoblade Chronicles is very similar to the Gnostic version described in this video. But you have to get to the end of the game for it to be explained.

the universe hates existence and trends to 0, spite it

I can't wait for your book 😃

In Portuguese Deus is the word for God.

nice promethea shout out, be cool to see you tackle alan moore some day

Jehovah was a Jewish name for god? I was brought up as a child in the Jehovah Witnesses. I assumed that's where gods name came from or the translation of Hebrew YHVH or Yahweh to English, being "Jehovah". Most of the mainstream churches erased the name Jehovah in their literature and just used terms like "Lord" instead. A lot of the games you mention in this video I've played and I always notice these religious symbolism in all the games I played because of the religious faith of my upbringing. Especially in my childhood game Final Fantasy IX and the game Persona 3. I notice a lot of these games with many religious themes are mostly always by Japanese developers for some reason.
I've never heard of Gnosticism. I'll have to look into it.

You meet an AI named Sophia in P5 Strikers as well

Judt dont overlook Witcher (3!) in that series;)

Excellent video Max! One that occurred to me while watching was the concept of Sophia birthing the demiurge and your reference to Samael in Silent Hill 1. The image you used for Sophia certainly looks like the depictions of God in the paintings in Silent Hill 3's church segment, so that is a fascinating link.

Gnosticism is edgy and is a sea of ideas for edgy games for teenagers and that has some level of existencialism, but saying the nature of the world is evil is really dumb af for actual life.
Extra: In Christianity "evil" was not created and is not created by anyone but is the absence of creation and absence of God. Theres no logos, creation, substance or truth in anything that is evil.

As a non-Gnostic Christian Game developer, this content is beautiful fuel for my work. Thank you! 😃

Crap. I just spoiled Persona 5 Royal for myself LOL. I didn't know that guy turned out to be the villain! I wish I could unwatch that 😭. I'm currently playing it through for the first time.

Yo Logos is the other name of Alvis in Xenoblade Chronicles and is the reason shulk doesn't get clapped, Sophia in P5S is a AI with infinite knowledge!

I too would like to see classes studying videogames. I actually use clips from videogames to model narrative writing skills, and even afford my students a videogame project option as creating videogames allows students to contextualize certain critical thinking skills that they practice in language arts and history classes. I may reference some of your videos in my next video on using the Unity Game Design engine as a project option, to lend credence to my point that games are literary and are thus conducive to applying various content related skills.