In theory, Alto’s presence and the whole Tuning part of the story are meant to concentrate these ideas through a familiar Persona -esque lens, IE letting your friends help you on your path to psychological reconciliation. It acts as a mediating force that resolves their internal strife, allowing them to sing for other people while remaining true to their innermost self. Yet the power of song also provides them the answer to their problems. Becoming a Witch only compounds that pain, both because of the perceptions surrounding Witches and because the pop idol motifs associated with them exert enormous pressure on the girls to perform for an audience. They have some idea of who they are, but they’re expected to reconcile that idea not only with society’s expectations of them, but also whatever assumptions had been ingrained into them throughout their lives. Having just come out of puberty, the Witches exist in this uncomfortable space between child and adult. The youngest Witch in the game is Popo at 15, and the two oldest ones are only a couple of years ahead of her.Īt this point, it should be clear that the Witch and song motifs are meant as extended allegories for coming of age. Most of them are quite young when they become Witches. Not because girls choose to be Witches, mind you, but because the Qualia (magical jewels aligned with one of the four elements) enters their body and gives them the power to sing. Yet the most important fact about Witches is that any girl has the potential to be a Witch. It’s such an effective tactic that several Witches go into hiding to avoid this scorn. From a young age, parents teach their daughters what a destructive and terrible force Witches are and how they’d never want to be anything like them. Winning over said Witches almost always entails Alto Tuning them – diving into the deep recesses of their mind to sort out their emotional damage.Īnd considering the general perception Regnant has of Witches, there’s bound to be a lot. After main character Alto witnesses Hilda’s destructive power, he becomes a Regnant Kingdom knight and a member of the 9th Regiment, a squad of soldiers dedicated to winning over the remaining Witches that they might sing the Anthem and reverse Hilda’s crystallization.

One such Witch, Hilda, abuses that power by using her song to turn everyone into crystal.

The premise is standard fantasy fare: our characters live in a world where music is a magical force that only a handful of Witches can wield. Stella Glow introduces several important fantasy elements very early in its story and understanding them will help us understand what the writers were trying to accomplish. While it may approach the topic with good intentions, the results are dismal: female characters end up objectified, stripped of their autonomy and reduced to stereotypes.īefore I go into any of that, though, it would help to go over some of the basic concepts of the game. Despite centering female characters in the story, the game pays no attention to its own gender politics nor how its story (plot, themes, characters) fit into them. Unfortunately, Atlus’ calculated effort backfires horribly. More specifically, it borrows the previously described emotional resolution of Persona and Madoka Magica‘s emotionally turbulent young witches. It’s a mathematically precise combination of popular anime motifs. Quietly released for the 3DS last year, Stella Glow is a fairly conservative game from Atlus. Stella Glow shows us some of the problems that arise by turning a blind eye to these issues. On what terms does the emotional resolution take place? What does that process look like (is it the same for all people or does it vary from person to person)? What should the result look like? Whose perspective is centered in all of this? These aren’t questions we should be ignoring. I can understand why this topic may be ignored – only a small set of games center social interaction as something with inherent value, and the main character is bettering other people’s lives through their actions – but there are a number of questions such a scenario raises. By this, I’m referring to the specific kind of resolution you see in Persona 4, where characters are forced to confront deep emotional issues, overcome them, and grow as an individual. I feel like emotional resolution in games is a critically under-explored topic.

Stella glow xeno