That's odd. =o
So there exist, like... 3 Live-A-Live fans in the world! =D
If anyone still plans to play that game, skip the rest of this post.
Also, note that it's been a long time since I've played it, so my memory's a bit foggy.
Well, the scenario I mean is Orsted's, the Knight chapter.
It all starts out all nice and good. You're a knight, your best friend's a wizard, you duel at a tournament, knight wins, knight gets princess's hand in marriage.
That very night, though, the princess is captured right from the arms of Orsted by the Demon King, who was said to have been slain by the Great Hero Hash and his companion Uranus, who have since retired. Hash is said to have moved to a lone hut in the mountains due to his hate of humans, which people can't seem to be able to understand.
Whatever the case, Orsted is declared the new hero and is asked to save the princess, kill the Demon King and thus save the country. Not really having a choice, Orsted accepts and ventures to find Hash and his old companion, who are the ones who know how to enter the Demon King's lair.
His wizard friend Straybow joins up with him as he leaves the town.
They find Uranus in a small village with his wife, and he reluctantly decides to lead them to Hash's hut despite telling them about his hate for humans, which was caused by the fact that people always gladly rely on someone else to do what they are too weak and dumb to do.
They wander up the mountain only to find a hut with a gravestone behind it for the great hero Hash and a disgruntled old man inside.
Of course, Uranus recognizes him. The old man is Hash himself. They try to convince him to help, but he refuses, even after being called a "coward" by his old friend.
But after leaving, he soon holds them up, having changed his mind, since even though people are selfish and weak, somebody has to be the hero, and he will help them even if only to prove that he is not a coward.
Skipping forward, they infiltrate the lair and kill the Demon King... but it didn't seem to be the Demon King himself.
Straybow, the wizard, begins to examine the demonic statue in the room when suddenly the cavern begins to collapse, and Hash collapses as well, having failed to mention his illness. With his dying words, he urges Orsted to save the princess, the one person who believes in him.
As the three who are left attempt to escape, Straybow is trapped behind the door of the room, leaving him stuck in the cave-in.
Orsted and Uranus return to the castle, exhausted, and rest for the night.
The hero wakes up in the middle of the night as he is visited by the Demon King. He follows the beast outside his room and proceeds to fight it... only to see the illusion vanish. He had unwillingly murdered the king.
The guards rush in and immediately back away. "It's the Demon King! Orsted is the Demon King!", they cry, accusing him of killing Hash and Straybow.
Uranus rushes out and tries to defend Orsted, but is captured and thrown into jail for being an accomplice, while Orsted has to flee into the mountains where Hash once lived.
Lamenting over the hero's grave, the knight remembers Hash's words that he must fight to protect the one person who believes in him.
Having found new courage, Orsted returns to the castle... and is imprisoned in the same cell as Uranus. The old man, on the verge of dying, tells him about how he was tortured and he realized what drove Hash into his hatred. With his last strength and while telling Orsted to rescue the princess, who believes in him, he uses magic to open the prison cell and free Orsted, who has to escape once more as people flee from him or fight him, all while yelling at him for killing Uranus as well.
Orsted then proceeds to the lair once more and fights through hordes of monsters only to end up in the room they fought the false Demon King in... he discovers a staircase behind the statue that wasn't there before.
On top of it stands Straybow, his old best friend.
Straybow got fed up with always standing in the shadow of his knightly friend. He figured out that the Demon King was false, he figured out where the real one was, he defeated it and accepted his powers, he produced the fake earthquake and faked his death and he was the one who created the illusion of the Demon King, all in order to punish Orsted for never letting anyone recognize his wizard friend.
They fight... and Orsted wins.
The princess enters the scene... and is crying. She yells at Orsted for always pushing his friend aside, always acting like he's the best, always overshadowing and then even killing his best friend, who was the one who saved her from the demon. She loved Straybow and cannot live without him. That said, she rams a knife into her chest and dies immediately.
Standing in front of the statue of the Demon King, Orsted looks back.
He just participated in a tournament that had the Princess's hand as the prize.
He was forced to rescue her by the people who declared him the hero and told him to save them.
He was forced to kill the king.
The only friend he had left, he caused to be tortured and to die.
He was forced to kill his former best friend...
...and saw the only person who he thought still believed in him hate him and kill herself.
While all he ever did was to try to do what's right.
Full of hate and despair, his now cold heart accepts the Demon King's powers.
The Ancient Greeks tried to use drama to cause catharsis in the audience.
The very definition of the tragic is a story in which the hero tries to do what he believes is right, only to be forced into his demise by powers beyond his control... and the more he tries, the worse it gets.
This story really shook the very foundations of my psyche, something I would never have expected from a Snes game. Up until the end, you expect the story to still take this hopeful positive turn, when it all suddenly comes crashing into your face.
I guess I can seriously say that a catharsis took place there.
...although I still should have just copied the summary from Wikipedia. *rubs head*
