Dark Hero Party - To The Heroes Who Have Lost Their Way (Ending #5 / #6)
127Dark Hero Party is an allegory for real life.
DHP poses interesting questions about the world we live in and asks us to reflect on what we truly value.
The first and most obvious theme of DHP is whether Justice can exist for the powerless. The game posits that the answer is "no" - when the righteous are powerless, then natural order sets in - one where the strong rule over the weak with no regards to morality.
The next question then, would be whether or not it is truly worth it to pursue Justice at all costs - Thrash does terrible things to Imos, to the point where he can never again live a normal life. There are not many who would disagree that Thrash is a man worthy of death, but he will never be brought to justice...
...Yet Imos's pursuit of justice yields no real satisfaction. Lotia is killed as collateral and Imos finds that his actions has doomed himself as well. Unlike many revenge power fantasy stories, Imos's decisions do not end with the support of the commonfolk, and instead he finds himself loathed for setting the world on its path to destruction despite his pure intentions.
Would it simply have been better to let sleeping dogs lie? In Ending 4, we see that this brings everyone involved the most happiness, yet the fact remains that they still live in a twisted society that values the "worth" of a person over the inherent value of humanity.
Though perhaps there are more important things in life than strict considerations of one's own gains and losses. Consider that Imos actions has ensured a better life for Aina and his sister.
But it cannot be denied that small positives such as changing Aina's fate is almost certainly an afterthought where Imos is concerned - for all his virtues, Imos is unable to look past his own personal pain, focusing on Thrash as the sole cause of his problems. When you consider the situation, Lotia clearly has gotten off much lighter than her friends. So why did Imos not choose to make the rescue of Aina and Tori his top priority?
DHP asks us to consider who our true enemies are. In the past, men like Thrash are considered rare aberrations in the system. In modern day, we now realize that such men are not created through sheer unluck, but rather, are natural byproducts of the system they exist in. How could people like Thrash not exist when the entire world rewards them with affection and power?
When the system itself is so inherently flawed, the only end result of attempting to remove such individuals... is that others will rise up in their place. A constant cycle of neverending violence.
Diattha claims that Thrash was not originally a thug, but was shaped into one because it better suited their needs. It may be inconceivable, but perhaps a world where Thrash was a valuable member of society could have been a reality, if only there weren't powerful people always playing puppetmaster for their own selfish ends. If you think about it, Thrash too could be considered a victim of society - one that thought himself to be top dog, only to find that in the end he was just a big fish in a small pond.
Many are confused with the final choice - Let the world be destroyed, or return it to its original state? Why are they unable to create a world where everyone lives happily ever after?
That's because the ending is not about the fictional world of DHP - it's about acceptance of the reality of the world YOU, the player, live in.
We will never live in a world free of conflict. It's just a childish fantasy. Human nature ensures as much. A world without pain and conflict will realistically look like the world portrayed in #5/6 - one where Humanity has lost all its drive, content only with waiting for the inevitable end. You can refuse to accept this fact. Then, there is nothing more to say, leading to an abrupt cut of #5.
Thus we come to the final Ending, where the player chooses to accept that the real world is one where heart-rending pain will always exist. DHP isn't just a single story about one man's girlfriend being stolen by Chad, it's about the countless of Imos around the world, being stepped on by the Thrash and Dragons of it, over and over again.
So, who is Behernicht addressing in her final speech?
It's quite likely that many of us know an Imos in our lives. Having experienced "DHP", you now understand the feeling of being utterly alone in the battle against injustice. Imos was too consumed by his own despair to seek out allies. But it could have ended differently.
However, another major theme of DHP is the ability to see past yourself. To find out the true nature of things, rather than acting on impulse. In today's world where false narrative run rampant, it's easy to become an Assym, or the villagers who turn on Imos despite the flimsy smear attempt by Thrash, simply because it's more convenient to do so.
Yet even though the odds are miniscule, and beyond all reasonable hope...
...Perhaps things might truly turn out better for the world at the very end.