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The Kudets is revealed in the last few moments to be a hollow pyramid, which could mean to the player that the relic's miraculous nature is 'hollow', or not-real; a con. Additionally, you can find a whole slew of Christian relics throughout the game's decrepit villages and buildings, as well as many portraits of Christ & the Madonna - implying that holy relics are common enough (or faked often, in this alternate 19th century Russia).
But can a simple object not truly be divine, in of itself?
On the other side, you have the temple guards exclaiming the Kudets' powers of healing the enfeebled, and it does seem to free Indika from her Devil, whether that be real or not.
Kind of up to you to decide (though I lean toward the Divine, legitimate nature of Indika's goal & outcome).
Its unfortunate she seems to rip/tear her rosary at the end - it was a pretty cool tri-sided cross
Consider the metaphor of the Devil. Notice the Devil voice never lies, and it was Indika's lies that led to the death of Mirko and her being in a nunnery. The empty kudets was what allowed Indika to understand that what she was really running from all this time was the truth. Why did "the Devil" knock over the shelf onto the guard? Because at that time, Indika was still blaming the Devil for the "decisions" she was forced to make out of desperate in-the-moment self-protection. The reveal of the empty kudets fully and finally stripped the illusion of a higher good-and-evil from her - there was never any God, and therefore never any Devil. She sees herself in the mirror because there's no longer a grand worthless cosmology to which she can plead for forgiveness, salvation, absolution, etc.
I feel this is supported by the level-up points thing. You can shake the kudets and get as many level-up points as you want. But as the game keeps trying to tell you, the points mean nothing. You usually get points largely by completing acts of worship, and the level-up rewards are all based around earning more level up points. It's a way of underlining the point that Indika was seeking her redemption from an arbitrary, self-sustaining system that merely granted fake worthless rewards for indulging pointless compulsive habits.
A valid point (lol), regarding the arbitrary nature of the point system. However, I would posit that the points existing, in the first place, immediately makes them not useless. You derive your own meaning from the objective experiences before you - losing the points near the end, for myself, was annoying, as I had went out of my way to explore and find more. INDIKA's developers created the points system as a system for the player to derive meaning from, even if they claim there is no meaning - then there wouldn't have been a point to create such a system in the first place.
Just as there are achievements for INDIKA, on steam; these are also useless, really. No one cares about your achievements, or how high a level your Steam profile is in the grand scheme of things. However, people achieve and level up these things because they themselves derive meaning from them.
I feel if what you say is true, regarding the game's narrative, Indika (or you
I apologize preemptively for this becoming a very metaphysical conversation
Putting aside the semantics of my using "useless" as a slapdash synonym for "arbitrary" for a moment, I do not subscribe to the idea that a thing's existence automatically ascribes it a utilitarian function. Something may exist merely as a by-product of an unrelated action, for example.
Interestingly, this does parallel the religious viewpoint on the topic; by believing that God created everything, one must therefore assume every creation of God serves a purpose - why, indeed, have an intelligent designer who just designs things with no purpose? If one believes in such a designer, then one can assume based on that belief that "existence = purpose". But, I'm a nihilist, so I need more than that to agree.
And honestly this is a whole different discussion so I'll move on, lol. Just know that I'm speaking from the personal assumption that I don't count existence alone as signifying purpose or usefulness.
OK, so you know the whistling nun that appears after you solve the Escher room puzzle? I cite her as one of several examples of how there's elements of the game that ONLY the player can see. There's no way Indika could have perceived that nun. Likewise, I don't think Indika actually sees the number in the upper-left corner of the screen, the sparkling pixel-hex-coin thing when she gains points, or remembers things in retro 16-bit. I believe these are storytelling devices meant to speak directly to the player and their (admittedly presumed) experiences.
My interpretation isn't so much that the points are without use or purpose, but that their presence is a metaphor to help the player connect more closely with Indika's mindset and motivation.
Yes, players will seek achievements and 100% completion. Yes, their only reward is knowing they got 100% completion. They still compulsively do it, perhaps without ever really thinking about why, but they do it, and they expect to be able to achieve that 100% completion. Furthermore, "100% completion" isn't even the point of most games; it's an achievement specific to a type of person who is driven to obtain it.
Which brings us to the "purpose", as it were, of the points system.
Indika starts the game at Level 8, which is how the game tells you she's been playing for a while. The points are specifically stylized to match her flashbacks, so you know it's her past/backstory that's motivating her. The tier rewards have names like "Guilt" and "Humility", so you know the in-world reason why the "power-ups" work.
And, the kudets gives an infinite amount of the points when you shake it, underscoring how Indika could shake that kudets until the heat death of the universe and still never get what she's looking for.
Connect this with how the Devil reasoned that God and Devil only exist within her, and how she also broke her rosary shortly after dropping the empty kudets, and it becomes clear why she stopped seeing the Devil after the revelation.
I'm more offended by the apology than the sentiment, as it implies you saw offense in engaging with me, lol. But to keep it on-the-level, no apology necessary, this is clearly a game that invites metaphysical discussion.
But back to the topic, the Devil addressed this directly when he asked Indika to define "bad". Indika's answer is, as you've alluded, not a correct conclusion. Well, incorrect is probably unfair; it's more "incomplete" or "uninformed". She argues in her own voice that "bad" is a thing that you just know, while the Devil's position is that "bad" is merely "a line on a thermometer" which is useless without good - in other words, the meaning of "bad" only makes sense when there's a bigger context to compare it to.
So, no, the points system isn't "worthless" - its worth is derived from its context. If you're looking for a purpose, you say the points system represents an exploitable medium by which its worshipers can be manipulated, or that it provides Indika with a goalpost she can move towards, or even that it serves as equal parts distraction from and punishment for the guilt she feels over Murko's fate.
However, it's in the big reveal at the end - the hex-shaped kudets, both infinitely full and completely empty - that the points system loses its meaning for her, and becomes useless. She's free from the burden of seeking 100% completion.
One more thing to consider - in the beginning, we learn that Indika's search for "100% completion" isn't something she wants to be doing. She just feels she was coerced through the illusion of choice/free will towards this particular path. So I submit that she didn't so much draw a wrong conclusion at the end, as she did free herself from a wrong conclusion she "chose" to make before the game even started.
Anyways I know this went on for a bit, but this game has occupied so much of my brain for the past few days and I'm welcome for an opportunity to go on about it, thanks!
My contention, initially, with your first post, was regarding your saying the points system was arbitrary (I realize now, I swapped your Arbitrary for my Useless, my bad).
My point was, regarding this game, the intelligent design; human, who designed the system had some meaning behind it's implementation, as humans don't do anything for
no reason.
I think we broadly agree. And now that you've elaborated much, regarding Indika's being free of an 'end-goal', she's been striving toward; some achievable enlightenment, coming just around the corner, but which is always out of reach, and that the points are a metaphorical interpretation of this journey, expressly for the player, I must say its hard to argue :D
Indika does seem to blindly acquiesce to the nun lifestyle, unquestioningly, as a means to reach said freedom, and/or as repentance for Mirko's fate. Further, the Devil seems to be (its clearer in the art book) clutching a nun's habit, tightly. This could signify her, incorrectly, as you say, ascribing fault to The Devil as the reason for her choice of lifestyle, rather than herself - with The Devil, symbolically, tightly holding her in this life-path.
Increasingly, I'm thinking the narrative is about free-will, and about choices seemingly made for us, rather than our having a choice about those choices. Indika's director said, in a video ('A Message from Odd Meter's Director') 6 months ago, that the game chiefly deals with Obedience and Patience, and constant repentance manifesting self-hatred (Also, I understand the reasons for this video's existence, but it annoys me a little, as it gives away a piece of the puzzle). While I certainly think this is wrong way to go about teaching the Christian faith; a kind of teaching especially common over in the US'
'Bible-belt' (The phrase, 'God-fearing people', comes to mind), this brings greater weight to Indika's conversation with the Devil, regarding a choice between a good/bad option
being no choice at all.
And don't worry, this game has also occupied my thoughts, as well, leading up to, and since its release. I'm going to replay it soon in Russian, with subtitles, to see if I
missed any cultural context.
This is the reality. The demon inside her was merely her partitioning her own personality. All "bad" acts were a result of him. When she gets to the kudets and realizes it isn't special, she realizes that none of it is real, she loses her faith quite literally (goodbye beads as they roll across the floor). This realization kills the demon inside of her because she realizes that it's all just always been her all along. She tosses the kudets away along with her faith.
Well said!
This is a fundamental belief, taught by most Christian churches: salvation comes from God, and God only, who saves whoever he wants to, when he wants to. Humans have to believe in him and keep hope.
Keeping that in mind, a few thoughts about the game.
Indika is really a mystic, and really has conversations with the devil, who tempts her with his usual tricks. Maybe she is a saint (the devil does not attack directly common people, common and petty temptations are enough to lead us into sin).
The system of points and levels is an invention of the Devil. He gives points when he wants, and takes them back whenever he wants. Of course, he can do so, he created this system himself! He says clearly that these points are irrelevant, and that is true. But he makes you believe that leveling up is the way to salvation, and that is a lie.
The devil keeps trying to make us think that that God keeps track of our sins with positive or negative points. It is a lie.
He wants Indika to believe that at one point, she has sinned beyond redemption, that she is himself a devil (Indika's reflection in the mirror) but this is one more lie.
God grants miracles whenever he wants to. Worshipping the kudets and expecting a miracle may not work as Ilya intended. In the life of all mystics, there is a time when God is absent, he does not talk, he does not protect from harm. But it is a test of faith.
And at the end of the game, I think a miracle really happens. Indika worships the kudets, which is just an empty box, but it is her faith in God which matters. God grants her a miracle, because of her faith : she is, at last, free from the devil.
The game ends there abruptly. I was myself disappointed: what happens to Indika and Ilya after that? But this is justified: the story as about Indika's mystical journey, and once the devil is gone, this journey is over.
kudets did not work.
Indika understood that is was empty.
the reasoning voice in her head was her own.