
Artist's commentary
"No. 01424
Babel (First Phase: Old Man)
バ・べル (前半 老人)
Megami Ibunroku Devil Survivor
The face of this old man, who looks to have a wealth of knowledge and experience worthy of being called an "elder," is confronted in the Gin route. In the first place, Babel's three faces, representing each stage of life: child, middle-aged and old, reminds us of the Buddhist concept of the four sufferings, birth, aging, sickness, and death, as well as the Sphinx's riddle of "a creature that goes on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening". In fact, Babel's role is similar to that of the Sphinx, being the one who determines the path followed by the player and their growth in response to the "stages of human life," the solution to the riddle. Their values are not biblical monotheism, but rather paganism and polytheism, as the judgment itself is carried out without issue, even with the presence of ideological biases such as LAW and CHAOS."