About a month ago I purchased The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS. Since I don’t currently have a TV, my other consoles are useless to me, and the game sounded fun.
I came across the Isle of Frost, and it turned out that there were two races of people here. The Anoukis were apparently in control and had banished the Yooks to the more frigid areas. The more I talked to people on this island, the more I felt concerned for the Yooks. One of the Yooks had decided to take matters into his own hands and kidnap an Anouki, stole his identity, and lived in the comfort of the Anouki’s home. The Anoukis suspected that one of them was really a Yook in disguise, and you have been asked to figure it out.
After solving that puzzle, the Yook was revealed, and he left, but not before blasting me with some super breath that knocked me out of the building. When I went back to the leader of the Anouki, he thanked me for helping and then mentioned that I could go get my revenge on the Yook and also take out my aggression on any other Yooks I find. His words were dripping with hate, and the entire affair bothered me. So he asked me if I wanted to get revenge.
My options were either “Well…” or “Maybe…” Wow. Link would get squashed like a grape if he continues to be so ambivalent. Now, it turns out that it doesn’t matter what you say here, because Ciela, the fairy, decides for you:
“Hmmm….YEAH! Of course we want to get revenge!” What? No, we don’t! NO, WE DON’T! She does not speak for me!
But she does. You are sent to get revenge against the Yook who blasted you with his bad breath, and any other Yooks who get in your way. It’s all about finding the pure metal, after all, so it doesn’t matter who gets hurt.
I was sure that something would happen that would reveal the Yooks to be just as hateful of the Anouki. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this whole section would be a bit of commentary on Isreal-Palestine issue.
Oddly enough, the Yook aren’t just a different set of villagers in a different area. They’re enemies. You can’t talk to them. You just attack. And kill.
Once you do everything you set out to accomplish, it turns out that the Yooks were under some kind of mind-control. They actually prefer being where they are because their fur protects them from the cold. They apologize for trying to hurt you.
Apologize to ME? I killed a large number of you! Why aren’t you upset?
And why wasn’t I given a choice in the matter? Why did Ciela decide to take the Yook’s attack so personally and go along so easily with the Anouki leader’s call for revenge? I’m surprised I wasn’t asked to perform genocide!
It was a very strange situation, I thought. To me, the appeal of revenge and of hate was raised without a strong argument against it in the game. Why doesn’t Ciela become repentant? I don’t need a happy ending, and I felt the way the situation ended was a cop-out, but did anyone else feel a bit uneasy playing through this part of the game?