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(3 edits) (+3)

Hello!

Thank you taking the time to write up your thoughts on the game and for completing the story all the way to the end. I apologize that the game was not a good experience for you, so I wanted to give my response to your feedback.

Soma Spirits is indeed an older game of mine, having been written in 2015 and released in 2016, and it was in no way intended to be a narrative, commentary, or form of political insight in regards to events and discussions that would be taking place in 2020. As, of course, I could not anticipate any of those discussions four to five years prior.

Soma Spirits is largely an allegory for both depression and bipolar disorder, both of which have affected me and my everyday life as an individual, and Soma Spirits was a way of conveying my personal experiences and hardships. Though the game does pertain to solving conflicts, these conflicts were primarily meant to be internal, solved by the heart and soul. The word Soma means Body. The game's title is literally "Body Spirits."

While I respect your unique interpretation of the game and your insight that the framing devices used in it might align with current discussions, those framing devices, such as redemption, grey-area problem solving, and others, are common to RPGs to achieve this message. I do believe that many of them can be commonly found in other RPGs as well. And I think you will find that these aspects are not exclusive to Soma Spirits.

Soma Spirits is a lot of things: It's a love letter to RPGs, a deeply personal story, and a story-driven experience. But an argument in favor of fascism is something that it is not nor was it ever intended to be, nor is it a stance I believe in or ever stand for.

I hope this will help assuage your concerns. And I hope the next game will be a better experience for you!

- Sgt M

(+1)(-8)
But an argument in favor of fascism is something that it is not nor was it ever intended to be, nor is it a stance I believe in or ever stand for.

No, obviously not. I do, however, feel it is an argument in favor of centrism, which is often an unintentional enabler of fascism.

The worlds as a metaphor for bipolar disorder... Some things do make more sense in that light, but I would not have guessed that was the intended allegory if you had not told me. The repeated theme of personal happiness vs. societal responsibility is what muddied that for me; that is something I associate with political ideologies, not with personal experience, especially when the player is taking the role of an arbiter for other people.

If you wish to avoid political implications in the future, I would recommend avoiding plots about a group desiring to change the world fighting against a group desiring to restore a past era, because that is kind of the core of politics.