Fairy Tale Spotlight: Katamari Damacy

Here is another game that I have grown fond of over the years. Katamari Damacy is a series of games from Japan (and it shows) about rolling everything into a big ball and turning them into stars. The game mechanic is extremely simple. Anything that sticks to your Katamari ball increases the mass of your ball, allowing you to eventually pick up bigger things. But the real joy of this game comes from its bizarre story which in some ways mimics the spiritual truth of our reality.

The plot of each Katamari varies but ultimately has one thing in common: The King of All Cosmos (basically God) somehow manages to destroy all the stars in the sky. There could be a number of reason for this. In the first game for PS2, he did it while sleepwalking. This always leads to needing new stars created, but since he is the King and kings don't normally do their own work, the act of collecting raw matter for new stars falls upon the Prince.

The King of all Cosmos (incorrectly) exists somehow within his own creation, something that doesn't make much sense but works for the purpose of the game. He is an impossibly huge entity and comes across as extremely insane. His son, however, is the antithesis of his father's size and demeanor. He is about the size of a thumbtack. Despite the prince being so very tiny, he is about as strong as his father which allows him to roll those ever growing balls around.

It is the Prince's job to save the universe by collecting raw material from earth to be re-purposed into stars. The King of All Cosmos is not nice to the Prince. He bullies him a lot and often calls him the "Loser Prince." Yet the tiny Prince is a hard worker and goes out of his way to make his father proud of him. And if he does a good job, the King really does reciprocate, sometimes with tears.

What is very interesting about this game is that the King will give the Prince a goal, but he is only really happy if the Prince far exceeds that goal. He wants his son to go much farther than he feels he is realistically capable of (often double or triple the quantity of which he asked.) So while playing the game, I will often attempt to do this if only to get a good reaction from God himself because it does rather hurt to disappoint him.

The emotional relationship between Prince and King is really the draw of this game... at least for me. As insane as the King of All Cosmos is... he is still the one in charge. And he is the one I have to look up to. He also reminds me a lot of God the Father who is almost just as crazy... if not crazier. Both of them love beauty. They both adore women. They see the universe as a canvas that needs to be painted. Katamari Damacy gives you a chance to take part in that painting. And you can either do it in just the way you were asked, or you can go all out and make the universe into something much better than anyone ever imagined... including God.

I recommend the Katamari Damacy games. The later ones are better than the original, but they are all good.

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