1000xRESIST: The legacy of wrath
In the complex and saturated world of contemporary video games, 1000xRESIST emerges as an exceptional work, weaving together a set of themes as diverse as the transmission of trauma, narrative dilemmas, cultural alienation, artistic influences and psychological impact. The game stands out for its ability to integrate these elements into an interactive experience that challenges players’ own perceptions of memory, identity and responsibility.
1000xRESIST unfolds in a post-apocalyptic universe where the Earth has been ravaged by a mysterious disease brought by extraterrestrial entities called the Occupiers. On the brink of extinction, humanity survives thanks to the ALLMOTHER, a matriarchal figure who has created a society of clones of herself. These clones, known as “Sisters”, live isolated in an underground complex called the Orchard, under the constant and sometimes oppressive surveillance of the ALLMOTHER, herself a complex figure, both reassuring and authoritarian. She is the founder and protector of this new society, but also its greatest danger, keeping her “children” in a state of dependence and ignorance. This duality raises questions about maternal protection juxtaposed with authoritarian control. The play explores in depth the transmission of trauma. ALLMOTHER’s sins and trials, particularly her experiences during the 2019 Hong Kong riots, resonate across generations. The Sisters, although they have no direct memories of these events, feel their repercussions through communions, collective memory sessions orchestrated by the ALLMOTHER. Narrative choices in 1000xRESIST play a crucial role, raising questions about the nature of freedom and destiny. These choices significantly influence the history and social structure of the Sisters, confronting the player with his or her own decisions.
The theme of cultural alienation is also prominent, exploring how individuals and communities shape and reshape their identities in the face of cultural erasure and pressures to assimilate. At the same time, artistic influences ranging from the cinema of Satoshi Kon to the visual opera of Robert Wilson enrich the narrative and visual texture of the game, offering a rich, immersive experience. The psychological impact of 1000xRESIST is profound, delving into the consequences of past traumas and present decisions on the characters’ mental health and emotional balance. This game doesn’t just ask tough questions; it invites the player to experience the answers viscerally, transforming the act of playing into a form of catharsis and deep reflection. What begins as a struggle for survival in a devastated world metamorphoses into an introspective quest about the weight of heritage, the value of choices, and the power of art to shape reality.
Hekki Grace
Memory sequences, known as Communions, structure the game’s ten chapters, which span several centuries and feature generations of characters across time. However, an early revelation in the narrative upsets the player’s perspective: the ALLMOTHER lied. Initially tasked with faithfully recording the ALLMOTHER’s actions, the player, as Watcher, takes on a new quasi-detective role, striving to uncover the blasphemous truths buried in the memories of this ancestral figure. Each Communion in the game is distinctly designed around a thematic mechanic that enriches the narrative experience (the first transports us to a high school, and is extremely effective in setting the tone of the game and getting us to understand its mechanics).
1000xRESIST is an exploration of how time is perceived and structured by those who live between different cultures and eras. One of the game’s main characters is a Canadian immigrant from Hong Kong. She faces racism and deals with complex feelings towards her friends. There’s also a character who struggles with her own identity and insecurities, passing them on to her friend, which is a big part of her immigrant trauma – an intergenerational trauma from her family, which spills over into the society forming around her in the future. The Sunset Visitor team of performance artists had to redirect their creative energy from theater and dance to video game development. “We were trying to process our grief at not being able to do what we’ve dedicated most of our lives to,” confides Remy Siu (the game’s creative director), expressing a palpable nostalgia for the human contact lost during confinement. I also warmly invite you to find out more about my long interview with Remy Siu right here.
The impact of ALLMOTHER’s actions on generations is profound and complex. Every decision she makes, every secret she keeps, resonates through the Sisters, shaping their understanding of the world and their own identity. The trauma is not only in the events of the past, but also in their ongoing revelation (or not) through communions. These communions are intense spiritual and psychological experiences in which the Sisters experience the ALLMOTHER’s memories as if they were their own. This includes everything from scenes of her previous life in Hong Kong, marked by struggle and resistance, to the first days of the apocalypse. These memories are not passive; they are experienced with an emotional intensity that can be traumatic, especially when they reveal painful truths about the origin of their existence and the sacrifices made in their name.
The mechanism of communion is crucial not only for preserving shared history, but also for exploring themes of memory and trauma. It serves as a bridge between the ALLMOTHER’s past and the Sisters’ present, offering a unique insight into cycles of suffering and survival that are repeated across generations. This transmission of memory raises essential questions about the impact of inherited traumas and how they shape communities and individuals. 1000xRESIST offers profound reflection on human nature, resilience and the indelible links that unite the past with the present. This game doesn’t just tell a story of survival; it questions how we carry, transform and transcend the traumas of those who came before us.
Six to One
In 1000xRESIST, the themes of emigration and cultural alienation are poignantly explored through the ALLMOTHER’s personal history and the experiences of the clones. These elements are not just fragments of the narrative background, but active forces shaping the characters’ motivations and the development of the plot.
The ALLMOTHER, the game’s central figure, carries with her the scars and lessons of her emigration history from Hong Kong. This part of her past is crucial to understanding not only her motivations for creating an isolated clone society, but also how she shapes that society. Memories of the oppression, freedom struggles and bitter failures she experienced during Hong Kong’s political tumult are interwoven into her worldview and the laws she imposes in the Orchard.
The ALLMOTHER’s cultural memory survives not only through her personal narratives, but is also embodied in the rituals, symbols and teachings she passes on to the Sisters. This transmission is not without loss and transformation – memory becomes mythology, shaping the collective identity of the clones in a way that is both a repetition and a recreation of the ALLMOTHER’s past. This process illustrates the persistence, but also the mutation, of cultural memory when transplanted to new soil. Clones, though genetically identical, develop distinct identities, shaped by their environment, but also by the memories they share through communion. This duality between their cloned nature and their aspiration to individuality creates fertile ground for internal identity conflicts. Each of the Sisters struggles to understand who she is in the context of a shared history that is intimate and at the same time alien. This quest for identity is exacerbated by the fact that their memories are not only their own, but include reminiscences of ancient Hong Kong struggles for freedom and autonomy, lending a political dimension to their personal crisis.
The game explores these conflicts through narrative interactions, decisions made during communions, and even gameplay elements that allow the player to choose how the clones interpret and act on their memories. These moments of choice are not just forks in the plot; they are expressions of the struggle for self-determination within an imposed culture.
The alienation of the Sisters from their own history and from wider human society is a central theme in 1000xRESIST. This is made palpable through the way the gameplay isolates the player, often confined to the Orchard or to enclosed spaces of memory. The game’s design, with its confined spaces and communions, reflects and reinforces the sense of alienation, echoing the emotional and cultural distance the Sisters feel from their own heritage and identity. In this part of the game, 1000xRESIST doesn’t just tell a story of alienation; it brings it to life for the player, using every element of narrative and playful design to immerse the player in the characters’ experience.
There is an us with a pattern we are threading
Sunset Visitor’s psychological and cultural analysis of the game takes us deep into the complex interactions between identity, memory and alienation, highlighting how these forces shape characters through the prism of W.E.B. Du Bois’s theory of double consciousness. This theory, originally conceived to articulate the specific experience of African-Americans, finds astonishing resonance in the context of 1000xRESIST‘s clones, themselves navigating between various heritages and imposed identities.
W.E.B. Du Bois describes double consciousness as a sensation of always seeing one’s own identity through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul with the ribbon of a world that looks on with amusement and contempt. In 1000xRESIST, this duality is experienced by the clones, who carry not only their own consciousness but also that of the ALLMOTHER through communion. This shared memory forces the Sisters to grapple with two visions of the self: their existence as individuals and their predestined role in cloned society. The Sisters, analogous to the descendants of immigrants, face a struggle to preserve their cultural heritage in an environment that favors homogeneity and conformity. This struggle is made palpable through their daily interaction with the ALLMOTHER teachings, which attempt to standardize their experience while suppressing the specificities of their Hong Kong heritage. This mirrors the experience of immigrants, who often have to navigate between assimilation into a new culture and the preservation of their original cultural identity.
Cultural duality is explored in the game through characters who express different degrees of assimilation and resistance to the cloned culture. Some characters, like Principal, fully embrace ALLMOTHER norms and values, while others, like Fixer, show signs of rebellion and nostalgia for a past they never experienced personally, but felt through communions. Cultural duality leads to significant stress for the characters, often manifested in psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, and a sense of profound alienation. These psychological manifestations are skilfully represented in the game, where players can observe the effects of alienation on the characters’ behavior and choices.
L’influence de Satoshi Kon
The imprint of Satoshi Kon, a Japanese animation virtuoso renowned for his complex explorations of the psyche and reality, is undeniably felt in the narrative and aesthetic conception of 1000xRESIST. Known for works such as Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Paranoia Agent and Paprika, where the line between fiction and reality is constantly blurred, Kon’s method profoundly influences this game, plunging us into a universe that is both familiar and strangely unsettling.
Through its sequences of communions and gradual revelations, 1000xRESIST challenges us about the nature of what is real and perceived, forcing us to question not only our senses but also our beliefs about the characters and the world we travel through. As in Perfect Blue, where the protagonist navigates between scenes from her real life and hallucinations, we’re often caught up in a whirlwind of subjectivity, where truth is fluid and elusive. The characters in the game, similar to those in Kon, are confronted with identities that are imposed and chosen, real and reconstructed. This struggle for self-definition in a world where memories can be manipulated is directly reminiscent of films like Paprika, where characters oscillate between different levels of reality and dream. The game’s narrative structure owes much to Kon’s approach, where the line between reality and illusion is constantly blurred. By integrating this uncertainty into the fabric of its narrative, the game creates a narrative space where every element can be interrogated, every memory scrutinized for its veracity, forcing players to actively participate in the construction of the story, a method Kon used to emotionally involve his audience.
Kon’s deconstruction of reality to reveal deep psychological and emotional truths finds its parallel in 1000xRESIST, which uses its revelations and gameplay to explore themes of memory, trauma and identity. Deconstruction techniques are essential to both creators, enabling a deeper exploration of the inner states of their characters and, by extension, their audiences or players.
Iris’s reminiscences
1000xRESIST not only explores the intricacies of memory and identity, but also plunges into the tumultuous waters of the struggle against oppression. This theme unfolds through complex power dynamics and acts of resistance that are not just elements of the plot, but profound expressions of the internal and external conflicts experienced by the characters.
Iris’ story begins with her memories of living with her parents, migrants who fled Hong Kong after the end of the 2019 pro-democracy protests. They leave home in search of safety and a new existence, far from political persecution, state violence and imprisonment. As the game unfolds, immersed in Iris’s memories, the player explores her impressions of her parents’ experience and their stories of life as political refugees and migrants in a new and unfamiliar country. In a flashback scene in the middle of the game, Iris’s parents reflect on their past as they stand amidst the devastation caused by the Occupiers. Her mother wonders if the sacrifices were worth it.
“What was the point?” she asks. Her father replies, “It wasn’t just about winning. If we stayed quiet, if we didn’t fight back, they’d say that’s the way it’s always been… that’s what people wanted. No. They can’t say that. Because history will record that we resisted fiercely. That we fought for a different future, until we couldn’t anymore. That legacy lives on in us.”
The Iris colony lives in a huge ship hidden at the bottom of the ocean. These clones have never seen the surface, nor other living humans. Yet they still inherit the memory of Hong Kong, the affection for this city, the thoughts about whether leaving was the right decision. They inherit Iris’s fragmented dreams, her thoughts about home, her parents, where she came from. Growing up with migrant parents means living in an uncomfortable embrace of old dreams and older memories. When parents leave the countries where they were born, they often leave something behind. Often, they become strangers to their families, their own parents, the homes they grew up in, the neighborhoods they knew, their value systems, their religion, their gods. Their children then experience these memories of loss indirectly, as memories of a memory. These memories don’t necessarily belong to us, as children of migrants, but we can’t help but keep them in our minds. We leaf through family photo albums, watch home videos showing familiar streets and horizons; we recognize a sense of home, made slightly strange by our distance.
Just as her parents leave Hong Kong and everything they know, Iris chooses to leave her home, to detach herself from her oppressive parents to join the government soldiers and scientists who will take her to the underwater laboratory where she will be studied and eventually cloned. Eventually, she runs willingly into the arms of the alien Occupiers, who promise to emancipate her from her parents, but at a price. She will continue to live, but within an eternity of untreated trauma, in a kind of suspended animation, not growing, not progressing, but looking back, forever.
We all end up repeating at least some of our parents’ mistakes. It’s inevitable. We grow up in many of the same ways, with many of the same ingrained patterns, and yet we think that this time we’ll do things differently. The game teaches us that to truly grow up, to become something separate and new, we have to leave our memories in the past. Iris is haunted by unprocessed memories, and so are her clones. She spreads this haunting like an infection. Memories become vestigial, cancerous, growing and multiplying, weighing down their hosts. The Occupiers don’t act out of hostility. They unwittingly destroy humans by separating them from their memories, which continue to exist in a deathless stasis. But memory, like mortal life, is supposed to fade. It is enriched because it is something we must actively grasp, like the ephemeral threads of a dream escaping us as we leave our beds. Life is precious because it is momentary and fleeting.
Understanding my heritage
At the heart of historical conflicts, we find stories of resilience and fragmented identities. The story of the Harkis, caught up in the turbulence of the post-Algerian war period, profoundly embodies these themes of struggle and abandonment. This historical reality, marked by rejection and suffering, finds a particular echo in the lives of their descendants, whose family memories bear the scars of these heartbreaking events. By exploring these themes through the prism of 1000xRESIST, a game that interweaves the threads of collective memory and personal resistance, I find myself confronting my own heritage, laden with pain, but also with potential lessons about identity and healing. What follows is an exploration of how this game has helped me articulate and understand the echoes of these memories in my own life.
The Harkis, Muslim auxiliaries hired by the French army during the Algerian war, found the end of the conflict in 1962 tinged with precariousness. Abandoned by France during the Evian Accords, many were exposed to reprisals by the new Algerian government. Those who were able to flee to France often found themselves in transit camps in deplorable conditions, ostracized and despised by both their host country and their homeland. My own family’s story is set against this backdrop. As a descendant of Harkis, confronted with stories of rejection and struggle during the Algerian war, I struggled for a long time to understand and express the anger and confusion inherited from my grandfather and his family. Rejected by both France and Algeria, they were confined to camps, awaiting a decision from a government that seemed indifferent to their fate. This past, marked by injustice, is a burden of memories that I didn’t know how to tackle.
1000xRESIST emerged in my life as a space to explore these complex feelings, while providing me with a language to articulate them. With its themes of collective memory, the transmission of trauma and the struggle against oppression, this game resonated deeply with me in unexpected ways. It allowed me to see parallels between the struggles of my family past and the stories of the characters in the game, who are fighting their own imposed and manipulated histories. The ALLMOTHER’s suffering and the Sisters’ resistance against memories seeking to define their identity and destiny helped me better understand the duality of my own identity. The mechanism of communion particularly touched me, illustrating how our lives are shaped by stories we haven’t personally experienced, but which are inscribed in our identity. The Sisters’ rebellion against Iris offered me a metaphor for my own quest to reconcile with, and perhaps redefine, the legacy of anger left by my grandfather. It made me realize that this anger need not define me, nor limit my ability to build something positive out of the ashes of the past.
The resonance of the game’s themes with current social issues, such as the struggle against oppression and the quest for identity, reinforced my sense of connection to a wider community that is also fighting for recognition and justice. It brought me a sense of solidarity and hope, a realization that, although our stories are marked by tragedy, they are also filled with resilience and healing potential. Playing 1000xRESIST was a cathartic experience, a way of exploring my heritage. The game offered me a mirror in which I could see myself not only as the bearer of a painful past, but also as an actor capable of shaping a different future. 1000xRESIST situates the core of hope in a future full of compromise and failure. It shows us how protest movements can fail, how capitalism and state power will do their best to crush us. But it also shows us that running away, escaping into a fantasy, wrapped in the arms of an eternal, unreal past, is no way to live. We need to accept the past as gone, while understanding that we will always carry a part of it with us as we move forward into an uncertain future.
Sources
https://www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr/fr/les-harkis-de-lalgerie-la-france
https://shs.cairn.info/revue-raisons-politiques-2006-1-page-97?lang=fr