In some cases we gamers could relate to fantasy by a way of reality, so this is where I will be updating certain topics on games that are referenced by history or current events. Natewlie on the bottom elaborates with this topic and anyone could feel free to add as much as they want with sincerity of coarse. I will start off by saying... When I recently played Final Fantasy Factics I have noticed the game bears a resemblence to what English history has to offer. The game protrays the Crusades in classical fashion with knights and bishops, while the events themselves have similar names. Like the dude who tells you tutorials is otherwise known as some prophet (e.g. the Bible), the Thirty Years war exactly like in the game, monarchs of the past for world domination, and corruption within the royal families or churches of the time. Final Fantasy Tactics delivered the goods in a solid plot. Some games fail to educate people in general, but how come! If games where more like this instead of puzzles, shoot'em ups, and fights I would be astounded.
A lot of games are in fact allusions to human history, or allusions to writing or just extremely similar to other works. That being said, it's up the the interpretation of the player to judge if it's correct. Hell, Super Mario Bros 3 is sort of an allusion to plays in general. I can't find the image but, The Bard wrote: Oh hey, Mario has different parts, look at his suits. Although, I'm just stretching it to the extreme. Killzone's factions share similar stories to WWII, the Helghast have a similar story as Germany. A country sought with suffering until a leader comes to unite the country for redemption and vengeance. Halo has a million allusions for Bungie's past games (Marathon and Myth), also to other books of literature and the series has tons and tons of Alien references (I just played the space mission in Reach and heard "In space, no one can hear you scream!"). Uncharted 2 shares a lot of similarities to Firefly. Take a look at this, for a million allusions to Dante, and The Divine Comedy. This all being said, there's probably a billion more that's in video games, I'm just not willing to look for all of them. It's not education, it's moreso a nod to other works. Also the games I mentioned were mostly shooters. Any sort of game is able to have allusions to other works, you just have to be looking or know about it.
You too eh! I knew it, HALO did copy some of that oldschool stuff from ALIENS. I also realized that most of the names in RPGs tend to revolve around some religious Christian names of earlier games like Chrono Trigger with Balthezar and Melchior. I also have been thinking about the use weapons as a material symbolism in terms of what power they manifest like the Masamune.
Xenogears draws a lot from religious sources. Diablo at its core is biblical fantasy. Chrono Trigger mix fiction and the Earth's history by making human evolution as artificial and it was Dinosaurs who were more intelligent than early human 60 million years ago. Lavos came and caused human to accelerate in intellectual development.
Sid Meier's Civilization series is based on human history. From the beginning of human history to the age when we colonize other planets.
Well, Civilisation isn't historically accurate. Japan can start at America and England can start in Asia. And any civilisation can make any Natural Wonder if you do the right things. It's always funny seeing England with the great wall.
It's call emergent gameplay. The succession of what comes first and what comes later is accurate in Civ more so than other games.
Sid Meier's Civilization helped me like history. I read every data about the technologies, the leaders, country's capital city, government, and other information. Empire Earth also is based on history. Romance of the 3 Kingdoms is also based on Chinese history.
First game I played of this sort was Final Fantasy Tactics (the first one on the PSOne), towards the middle part of the game, you'll learn about the Gremonik Scriptures which tell of the ascension of power of Saint Ivalice that parallels how Christianity was formed. Second Game I saw this theme was in Vagrant Story.
I hear phoenix wright was based on a true story about a defense lawyer that went insane, believing in spirits, channeling and communicating with dead people. He also shouted "OBJECTION!" loudly in court, much to the jury and judge's dismay. Also, Noah's ark is extremely accurate to history. http://www.somethingawful.com/d/rom-pit/noahs-ark.php
The Seiken Densetsu series used "Mana" from the Pacific Islanders belief system. Some form of deity that involves spiritual manifestations for specific purposes or tasks. This is religious for the most part and it does seem related to how elements of nature effect humans no matter how hard we try to control it. The image of the tree always reminds me of how sublime our surroundings could be and every enviornment marvels at our size. Mother Nature will always be on top of the food chain. Look a Dawn Redwood Tree
The Seiken Densetsu, or The Legend of Mana series borrows ideas from several religious beliefs as well as from mythology. The Idea for the Mana Tree came from either Hinduism or from Norse Mythology's Yggdrasil (tree of Life). The Word "Mana" is also cited in the Judea-Christian Bible as a "holy" & miraculous food that the Hebrew people ate during the great Exodus from Egypt. The 8 elemental spirits in game as 2DamCerius mentions is taken in part by animistic beliefs like Shintoism. Also five of the 8 elements in Seiken Densetsu's lore namely, Fire, Earth, water, Metal & wood are a part of what Chinese Astrology looks at in devining a person's "fate". Other games that have religion or bits of concepts & teachings of various religons in it are: Treasures of the Rudras (Rudra no Hihuo) = The game actually talks about a lot of concepts from Hinduism. Terranigma = talks about reincarnation. Shin Megami Tensei = the games summons are taken from various religion's iconic beings.
thats because technically vagrant story takes place in the same world as tactics and final fantasy 12.
Another favorite of mine is Valkyrie Profile, which includes all of the elements of Greek and Roman architecture, as well as, Norse mythology. The game does a very good job at introducing the religious system of antiquities. Folklore was prevaillant during the Viking Age and later on into the 13th Century. The story of their religion was only passed on by word of mouth, which surpizes me because I find it difficult to memorize long ancient poems, such as this,http://www.cybersamurai.net/Mythology/nordic_gods/LegendsSagas/Edda/ProseEdda/ContentsEnglish.htm. The opening sequence with Lenneth, who is the battle maiden Valkyrie, is the protagonist of the story. She pretty much seeks all of the dead soldiers or worthy enough to enter a fight for her father, Odin. While she finds people on Midgard, Loki plots a diabolical scheme against the Gods. He plans to rule in tyranny (like all other evil villains) by using the most powerful device available to him-The Dragon Orb. Along the line Valkyrie must ward off other demons, ghouls, dragons, beasts, and other Gods. It uses those enemies to draw a picture between the immaterial world and the material realm. Midgard is seen as Earth where people are tested to see if they have attributes neccessary for a hero in the afterlife. Valhalla could be compared to heaven as Nifleheim could be to hell. Just as the Vikings thought of the creation of the world came from ice and fire. Similar to Christianity, although a different interpretation of how the world was created and how it will end.
