VII:  THE CHARIOT

Symbols

Negative images related to the pain that Alessa suffered

Since the first game, stretchers and wheelchairs appear as symbols of the 
otherworld.  These objects are not there merely for the sake of invoking an 
element of weirdness; the truth is that they are an important hint that 
indicates the reason why the otherworld itself exists.

Alessa, who originally suffered from severe burns, is the one whose delusions 
produced the otherworld in the first and third games.  One can think that 
images related to fire, hospitals and the like indicate the pain that she
constantly endured.  Let's introduce a few examples.

Flame

IMAGE:  the fight with God
"God" manipulating flame has to do with the fact that Alessa was burned in
the ritual of resurrection.

Writhing shadows

IMAGE:  a door in the otherside hospital
The writhing shadows on the surfaces of walls and creatures are related to
the burns that Alessa received.

Wheelchairs

IMAGE:  the wheelchair in the office building
The wheelchair is an image that has to do with Alessa during her 
hospitalization, hospitals, and death.

The setting sun

IMAGE:  Heather in the hamburger shop
After the bad dream in the opening, Heather awakens in the blood-like red of 
the setting sun.

SECTION TWO:  An afterimage of the nurse Lisa appears in the otherworld's 
hospital

IMAGE:  the video of Lisa
Forebodingly, a video image that appears in the first game is inserted during 
the interval when the hospital undergoes the shift from the right side to the 
reverse side.

IMAGE:  the figure behind the ladder in the hospital
Lisa appears along with Valtiel.  Could it be that her spirit must continue
to endure endless suffering?

Creator's Commentary:  Just before the shift to the otherworld in the hospital, 
the nurse Lisa who appears in the first game can be seen.  The purpose of 
including this is to show that Alessa's influence on the otherworld grows 
stronger as she regains her memories.  It indicates that even after the first 
game she continues to suffer in the otherworld.  Although a nurse appears in a 
similar fashion in the church as well, this does not have anything to do with 
Lisa.

-Masahiro Ito

(note:  The word "temae," which Ito uses in the first sentence in this 
paragraph can have a number of different implications.  It can mean "near," 
"before," "this side," or "in front of" and so I've translated it as "before 
the shift," but the fact that Ito describes the nurse in the church as 
"appearing in a similar fashion" seems to indicate not the video of Lisa but 
her appearance just after the shift to the otherworld.  I suspect that it 
could also mean "after the shift" in the sense of "in the forefront of the 
otherworld" if the point at which Heather climbs the ladder is considered to
be after this "interval," but I can't be positive so I wanted to mention 
the ambiguity of this sentence.)




back