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Star Ocean 3 Spoilers Within
The ending of Star Ocean 3 was confusing. Pretty much everyone will agree that given the philosophical nature of the last half of the game and the nature of its 3D universe, a philosophical core would be found once the ending arrives and attempts to explain what all of the hullabaloo was about.
And yet, in more ways than one, it leaves as more confused than satisfied. Is
it because the ending is, itself, a mess of philosophical ideas without concrete
links and foundations? Or is it because no sufficient explanation can be found
to give it meaning? Perhaps a recap is first in order.
The philosophical debate on Star Ocean 3 begins on Fayt and company's entry into
4D space through the time gate on Planet Styx, the space of their Creator. Just
before they had learned that they were symbologically engineered by their
parents in order to be able to successfully fight off the power of the "Creator",
considered as the origin of their Universe. This Creator had issued a warning
that their 3D universe had advanced so far and had become a threat, so he has
decided that deletion was the fate of their universe. Not wanting to accept
this fate, they developed Fayt and company as a means to fight the Creator by
allowing them to enter 4D space and fight him on his own turf.
Scientifically speaking, the 4th dimension is, in this game and most real
scientific circles, considered as time itself. 4D space in this game is the
realm where time itself does not flow and is fully integrated into the reality
of this said space, that is, in the relative frame of reference of 3D beings.
Upon entering this space, it is learned the their universe, called the Eternal
Sphere, is actual a game made by the company Sphere 211 as a sort of interactive
"alternate reality", and the people within it are nothing more than programs.
In other words, their universe is nothing more than a collection of 0's and 1's.
It is then decided that the party must enter the company and find a way to stop
the creatures the creator had unleashed upon their dimension. They soon find
allies to help them, and with an uninstaller for these creature programs they
make their way back to their dimension. Upon using this program, however, more
powerful creatures appear to wreck havoc upon them. Having no choice, they seek
to confront the owner and lead programmer himself within the confines of the
Eternal Sphere itself.
That they do, and Luther threatens to delete the entire program due to the
insubordination of his "creations." Fayt manages to defeat him, however the
deletion begins and eventually, the universe and everyone within it soon
disappears.
But a thought appears. Fayt's thought breaches through the emptiness, and they
and everyone else realize that despite the deletion, somehow they still exist.
Here the philosophical discussion of the party begins. Despite being programs
subjected to deletion, They begin to believe that Luther was unable to delete
their consciousness, and was only able to delete the programmed illusions of
reality around them. They begin to believe that the reality of their lives that
they see around them exists within the conscious minds, despite the program's
complete deletions. They are still alive, though the universal framework that
they exited in is gone. They believe that they're perception of illusion that
was created for them was gone, but because they also perceived such things as
reality in their own physical constructs, they're perception of their reality
still exists in them.
Whoa that was long, but here is where the confusion begins.
If their programmed universe is gone, but their consciousness still exist, then
upon which set of universes do their consciousnesses still exist on? What I
mean is that if their universe is gone, then by correlation their existence
should thereby disappear. If they exist then their consciousness should also
exist on some physical realistic level. This is quite hard to explain, but it
makes me wonder how their consciousness can exist if their universe is gone. A
consciousness should only exist if their universe exists. The game fails to
explain how their consciousness continues to exist despite deletion.
There must be an explanation to this, and it may go into spiritual levels, and
consciousness is an abstract existence, and it may not be necessary for a
physical construct to exist for a consciousness to exist. Be reminded that
creatures of the Eternal Sphere were originally AI programs, but it was believed
by their programming team that they became separate entities once their own
consciousnesses were developed. In a sense they were no longer AI but fully
grown independent creatures rivaling those of the 4D space. In a way, they
went beyond being mere programs.
Perhaps this is what allowed their survival after the universe's deletion.
Because they were no longer programs, they could not be deleted, and their
consciousnesses allowed them to transcend beyond that of the program's confines.
Maybe at that point, we can consider them to have developed a soul, which some
may consider the home of our consciousness and also an abstract being.
This answers how their consciousness was not deleted, but it does not answer the
question of upon what frame of existence their consciousness lies in. In ways
it's understood that they do exist, and how they continued to exist, but many of
us still can't truly grasp WHERE they exist. A consciousness, not matter how
abstract, must exist within a set of predetermined realities, and we still don't
know which reality they exist in.
We can probably assume, however, that because of their evolution from mere AI to
actual beings, they might have been able to transcend from their deleted
universe to another existing universe. I find this to be the only viable
explanation for them, and where this universe is is not really within the scope
of possible explanations. Right now at least.
Another problem lies within their physical world. In the end they mention that
in ways the world that know of still exist, and that it is due to the fact that
their perception of their own reality still exists in their minds, and it is
projected onto their senses. This means that although their physical world is
gone, their physical world still exists in their heads because they still
somehow perceive their world.
Now this is confusing and abstract as hell, and this demands more debate into
the nature of perception and reality.
The fact is that you perception itself is fairly limited. Realistically
speaking, for Fayt and the other inhabitants of the universe, it would be
necessary for something to actually exist before it can be perceived. If we
used such reasoning, does that mean that their universe still exists somehow, or
is it just a plot hole?
Scientists, however, have claimed that perception is still subject to a mind's
subjectivity, and it is still possible that people can perceive what they WANT to
perceive, and this is partially true for all creatures. In this light, it is
quite possible to believe that there is no one true perception of things because
all perceptions are dependent on the perceiver. While there is truly a physical
being to all things, they cannot be truly defined because people see things
differently.
This may be the case for Fayt and the Eternal Sphere. If we are to assume that
they have transcended to a different 3D realm after the program was deleted, we
can assume that their perception of their original reality is projecting to
their new reality, and in that sense it's as if nothing has changed. It's like
a copy-paste of their original world where things have returned to normal. And
yet things aren't normal. Things have changed.
There are many other issues regarding the ending of SO3, and these are things
best left on the 2nd part of the editorial.
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