Games heavily inspired by real events?

[TechnologicalMF]

One of the most interesting things about Tactics Ogre to me is the fact that Matsuno was heavily inspired by the Yugoslav Wars when creating Tactics Ogre. He had studied a lot of the political situation during the time and a lot of things in the game are straight up parallels to real events that were happening at the time.

It shares a lot of themes like the fragmentation of a unified political entity, like Yugoslavia was along with different nationalist movements coming up along with the collapse. It also deals with the themes of how muddy and vague the end goal eventually became in both wars.
Also elements in the game which are heavily based on the Bosnian genocide and a lot of the war crimes you see in the game have a lot of parallels with the Yugoslav Wars. In general, if you are a fan of this series I highly encourage you to look into this period in region.

I'm interested, what are some other video games that are either heavily inspired by real life events or straight up based on real events setting wise that aren't the usual World War I/World War II?

 

[Raziya The Seeker]

I mean, Final Fantasy Tactics was basically a retelling of the War of the Roses and before it, the Hundred Years' War. Heck, the "War of the Lions" subtitle and Shakespearean dialogue for FFT's remake makes it even more explicit.

 

[bjork]

It didn't stay inspired by the events, but there was that Columbine game where you played as the shooters.

 

[SpcDaicon]

Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist of the Roses comes to mind

It's basically a retelling of the events of the War of the Roses but with card game.

 

[RustySK]

Rise of the Ronin is centered around some of the most pivotal events of Japan's Bakumatsu era.
(The only reason that game popped into my head is that I've been trying and failing to wrangle that shitshow of a PC port they plopped onto Steam a couple days ago. Why does seemingly every modern PC port have to be so goddamn awful?)

I was gonna mention the Kingdom Come: Deliverance games as well, but I can't claim to be all too familiar with Czech/Bohemian history, so I don't know how accurate those are or which events they're even based on.

 

[psvitaforever]

"Samurai Warriors" games, they tell about events happened in real history to real characters.
After playing my first SW game (SWChronicles for 3ds) I've looked for a book that could introduce me to that period and to most of the characters.

I think the same is true for "Dynasty Warriors", it should be based on a novel titled "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

 

[fake-kun]

This thread is gonna descend into a political argument and get locked, isn't it?

 

[Prism_Red]

This thread is gonna descend into a political argument and get locked, isn't it?

Yes, I'll start.
JFK Reloaded.

 

[UnDubious]

Koei's old niche was all historical strategy games like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition, or the Uncharted Waters series which were more so simulations about the Age of Discovery. Then this carried over into Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors and all the other stuff they did later. I would say it's very, very common in games with a war setting of any kind to be based on WW2 or some other real-life war. Although "inspired" could mean something more indirect.

 

[Blamhammer]

D...D...Deus Ex?

 

[destinyduelist]

This no joke happened to @Gorse

Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist of the Roses comes to mind

View attachment 46429

It's basically a retelling of the events of the War of the Roses but with card game.

This was gonna be my answer though, but SpcDaicon beat me to it. Awesome game.

 

[Asian girls lover]

The entire Dynasty Warriors saga.
Also Hyperdimension Neptunia, it talks about console war.

 

[TechnologicalMF]

This thread is gonna descend into a political argument and get locked, isn't it?

Eh, imo there's no reason for anyone to be provocative. It's just a really factual thing imo like some games were just straight up inspired by things. I would also wish for everyone to just keep it civil.

Main reason I'm interested btw is because I know the most obvious ones are war games, but I'm really curious about some more specific games inspired by real events. Like for example while this isn't a real game, you know how Petscop has a really disturbing background inspiration and message? Things like that, but in real video games is what I'm mainly interested in digging up.

Post automatically merged: Saturday at 2:37 PM

So this isn't a game per se, more so a visual novel, but Steins;gate.

Now obviously while the events represented are not real, it was very heavily inspired by the real forum posts of John Titor which is really cool

 

[fake-kun]

Eh, imo there's no reason for anyone to be provocative. It's just a really factual thing imo like some games were just straight up inspired by things. I would also wish for everyone to just keep it civil.

I've been here long enough to know a potential flame war when I see one. Some people here (not naming names) are just not mature enough to handle threads like this.

 

[TechnologicalMF]

Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist of the Roses comes to mind

View attachment 46429

It's basically a retelling of the events of the War of the Roses but with card game.

I will admit a Yu-Gi-Oh! game showing up here was not on my list of bets lmao

 

[DunkeyKong]

Call of Duty, Battlefield and Medal of Honor games

 

[Potapota]

 

[Cu-Neo]

The first SMT games have some real life inspiration for some demons

Also that event on 1 where the US ambassador drops "the explosive word of god " on Japan.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Odin Sphere is basically Romeo & Juliet, that count?

 

[fake-kun]

Odin Sphere is basically Romeo & Juliet, that count?
View attachment 46446

No.

 

[destinyduelist]

So this isn't a game per se, more so a visual novel

Visual novels are games, I've had this debate with so many people.

I will admit a Yu-Gi-Oh! game showing up here was not on my list of bets lmao

It's funny because it's one of the few good Yu-Gi-Oh videogames, and it probably is the best one.

 

[jon2]

There's a difference between "based on" (most old KOEI games, Call of Duty/Medal of Honor) and "inspired" (the aforementioned Tactics Ogre:LUCT, games like Ring of Red which is inspired by Cold-War Korea although they don't wanna admit it, Ace Combat Zero based on Imperial Germany, Rainbow Six inspired by the War on Terror and previous terror incidents, Godfather inspired from Mafia history, etc.)

More often than not, "inspired" usually has a lot of leeway and is often "what-ifs" when contrasted to actual history

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

It didn't stay inspired by the events, but there was that Columbine game where you played as the shooters.

I played it out of curiosity... It was very poorly made, both in taste and actual quality.

 

[Parasite_Steve]

You could probably put the entire metal gear solid saga here. The list of real life inspirations is exhaustive.
In the case of MGS2 it was even accidental. There were heavy parallels to the September 11 attacks in the original ending which was made before the attacks took place, so much so that the game was in danger of not being released at all. They changed a lot about it for the final version of the game.

The Onimusha games are also inspired by real life events and real people of the late warring states period in feudal Japan, but with a heavy dose of fantasy/folklore put in the mix. It’s a rather creative take on history.
Basically there was a rumor at the time that series' main villain the warlord Oda Nobunaga had died at the battle of Okehazama in 1560 which in reality didn’t turn out to be true of course. The game branches off from history there because in their timeline he was actually killed but brought back from the dead by demons in a Faustian bargain which sets off the events of the first game. It kinda all makes sense thematically since Nobunaga was so infamous for his cruelty that contemporaries had given him the nickname "demon king".
Historical events are woven in with the fictional narrative.

 

[Samatonic]

She led the French army in a momentous victory at Orléans in 1429 that repulsed an English attempt to conquer France during the Hundred Years' War.