Triggered to Thinking

For this post I would like to examine the concept of phenomenology as it relates to video games. Phenomenology is defined as “the study of ‘phenomena’: appearances of things, or things as they appear in our experience, or the ways we experience things, thus the meanings things have in our experience” (Smith, n.d.).

One way to explore the study of phenomena is through the method of immersion. Thomas Arnold has argued, “My hypothesis is that immersion in many video games is (a) multi-layered and involves almost every structure of the constitution of the real world, from bodily movement to practical navigation, on to moral agency; and that it is (b) at the same time based on the massive reduction of complexity in both the virtual worlds and the virtual selves” (Cavallaro & de Warren, 2025, p. 7). This can definitely relate to game consoles like the Nintendo Wii that involve bodily movements. Other examples can be arcade games like Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution. Arnold argues that immersion can constitute “moral agency,” and it is important to examine agency in relation to video games. Agency can refer to “our ability to act in the world, within the societal context that prescribes our everyday life. As such, thinkers interested in the human condition, such as philosophers, sociologists, and anthropologists, have long been preoccupied with the meaning and impact of the term” (Bódi, 2023, p. 13).

However, in relation to video games, scholars have analyzed agency in relation to different approaches related to different gaming communities, narratives that change the direction of games, and game mechanics (Bódi, 2023, p. 13).When examining the concept of agency as a narratively oriented approach that allows players to change the game, this concept is especially relevant to my favorite video game: Chrono Cross. This game gives the player the choice to save a character named Kid or not when she is afflicted with poison. The decision to save Kid or not has implications for how the story proceeds in different ways and for events that can happen. One Reddit commenter noted, “Narratively speaking, saving Kid is the better choice. It has proper pacing and introduction to the world concepts and mechanics, where leaving Kid just kinda lurches forward the plot and avoids the dimension hopping mechanic for a while. It’s the ‘correct’ choice, I feel” (SpawnSC2, 2024). This is just an anecdotal opinion, and players of Chrono Cross can disagree. Immersion into the story of the game, playing the game multiple times, as well as exploring Chrono Cross discussion boards on Reddit, can give researchers a glimpse into how this question can be approached.

Arnold bases his phenomenological investigation on the topic of virtual violence and the issues stemming from the morality involved in virtual experiences. When one is immersed in a game world, the game world gains a type of presence (Cavallaro & de Warren, 2025, p. 9). Arnold’s argument in relation to virtual violence is that “in the case of games, we can become perpetrators as well as victims of such fictional violence, which makes such questions even more acute and shows us that virtual experiences concern us as (virtually) moral agents” (Cavallaro & de Warren, 2025, p. 17). This can tie back to an infamous scene related to the N64 version of Super Mario 64 which later became a meme. Mario can choose to throw a penguin off the map if he chooses, but one doesn’t need to do this to advance the story. Personally, the experiences of the deaths of Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy VII and Princess Elina in Breath of Fire IV were significant to me. These “virtual experiences,” as Arnold phrased it, are significant among the respective fans of these games and remain important, albeit tragic, events in these games’ stories.

Mikhail Fiadotau explores the concept of phenomenology by employing phenomenological hermeneutics as a bridge to examine video games and religio-aesthetics. Hermeneutics can often be employed in Biblical and Quranic studies but generally refers to the science of interpretation that is concerned with the meaning of a text or text-analogue (Fiadotau, 2018, p. 102). Karhulahti (2015) recommended using a “double hermeneutic” approach which, “Whereas the former ‘aesthetic’ interpretation ‘aims at generating aesthetic understanding of game elements,’ the latter ‘ludic’ interpretation ‘aims at generating ludic understanding of game elements’” (Fiadotau, 2018). Fiadotau employs this technique to examine the Japanese concept of ma and analyzing the video game Ever 17: Out of Infinity. This game is a visual novel and it received some acclaim in the West as it was translated into English, Spanish, and Russian (Fiadotau, 2018, p. 108). Ma is linked to Shinto’s diverse sacred spaces where various kami (deities) could descend at any moment. Tatsumi Yoshikawa notes, “Kami is present inside the water and the air. It blends in with Nature. It is an existence which does not need to be emphasized nor highlighted” (Yoshikawa, 2021, p. 10). Fiadotau concludes, “Linking the visual novel experience to ma is helpful in positioning the genre in wider Japanese religio-cultural context, as well as the national mediascape where ma is widely found, for instance, in empty cinematography shots” (Fiadotau, 2018, p. 110).

When using the “double hermeneutic” method of analyzing a video game as a textual artifact and the other analyzing play as a phenomenological process, the classic game Child of Light can produce interesting results. For one, the game employs a rhyming technique that allows the game and dialogue to feel different than other role-playing games. The writer Jeffrey Yohalem explained that 95 percent of the game is written in ballad form (Bosman, 2018). 

One humorous example occurred at the start of the game when Aurora spoke to her firefly Igniculus: “A scepter round, a translucent sphere, clear as glass the answer, Sir Firefly ignite thy rear.” While I enjoyed examining this game as a textual artifact and examining its rhyming patterns, other gamers felt differently, and some didn’t enjoy the rhyming patterns (UnstoppableBeef, 2014). This relates to Fiadotau’s approach to the double hermeneutic method, as the results are not universal and data could be subjective (Fiadotau, 2018, p. 111)

Frank Bosman contends that the story of Aurora mirrors Christlike imagery and actions in his article ‘The Bell Tolled Six on Easter Sunday’: The Motif of the Harrowing of Hell in the Video Game Child of Light. It’s important to be careful because sometimes writers have overplayed similarities and read too much into similarities which could be broad. Bosman argues, “Christ seen in the image of a bright morning star leads us to Aurora and her task in Lemuria. Various secondary characters refer to her as ‘the child who fights the dark’, who ‘[is] to save our land and people, our light.’ Two times Aurora herself speaks of her mission in terms of ‘rescuing my people’. The term ‘my people’ is frequently used in the Old Testament, and is usually uttered by God in reference to His chosen people” (Bosman, 2018, p. 182). I believe after playing Child of Light  that one can hermeneutically view Aurora as similar to Christ due to her mission and objective.

Hermeneutics is a wide field and applying it to video games creates a world of possibilities. Similar to biblical and Quranic hermeneutics, there may not be only one “correct” interpretation. However, this is what can make engaging with hermeneutics related to video games exciting. When video games can be viewed as textual objects they allow the researcher and player to view them in exciting and interesting avenues.

References

References

Bódi, B. (2023). Videogames and agency. Routledge.

Bosman, F. G. (2018). “The bell tolled six on Easter Sunday”: The motif of the harrowing of hell in the video game Child of Light. In M. Sarot & A. van Wieringen (Eds.), The Apostles’ Creed: ‘He descended into hell’ (pp. 160–184). Brill.

Cavallaro, M., & de Warren, N. (Eds.). (2025). Phenomenologies of the digital age: The virtual, the fictional, the magical. Routledge.

Fiadotau, M. (2018). Phenomenological hermeneutics as a bridge between video games and religio-aesthetics. In V. Šisler, K. Radde-Antweiler, & X. Zeiler (Eds.), Methods for studying video games and religion (pp. 101–114). Routledge.

Karhulahti, V.-M. (2015). Hermeneutics and ludocriticism. Journal of Games Criticism, 2(1). https://gamescriticism.org/2023/07/24/hermeneutics-and-ludocriticism/

Smith, D. W. (n.d.). Phenomenology. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/

SpawnSC2. (2024). Comment on “Does choosing to save Kid or not matter?”. r/ChronoCross. Reddit.

UnstoppableBeef. (2014, May 11). Child of Light: A review in awkward rhyme. On The Game. https://onthegameblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/child-of-light-a-review-in-awkward-rhyme/

Yoshikawa, T. (2021). Introduction to Shinto: A cosmology of harmony and order (M. Bisnaire, Trans.). Amazon Kindle Edition.