Video Game Novelizations?

[JPchicre]

Anyone ever read one those, either official or fan-made/fan-fiction, Is there any decent or good ones? Or even weird ones? Heard that the Doom one really goes off the rails.

 

[MasterEn]

Anyone ever read one those, either official or fan-made/fan-fiction, Is there any decent or good ones? Or even weird ones? Heard that the Doom one really goes off the rails.

i read the dot hack novels when i was younger. they were pretty good. it told the game's story from blackrose's perspective; adding in some lore and backstory and a few new moments between characters.

 

[jon2]

Bionic Commando novel

Never played the game, but the novel is decent for a kid's action book

 

[BeauBeauBradley]

Street fighter: Where strength lies is a banger! The metal gear solid and doom novels are pretty good as well!

 

[ZombieFish]

Can confirm Doom is worth a read. Matter of fact I think I’ll reread it now.
There’s a short story in the Tie Fighter manual I enjoyed when I was 12. Dunno if that counts. Also the Resident Evil novels.

 

[Isegrim]

Decades back, I first played Simon's Quest (Dracula 2: Noroi no Fuuin) on the Famicom Disk System. I loved Castlevania 1 on the FDS but the second game was more puzzle based full of clues in Japanese text. I really wanted to know more about the in-game story and finish it so I bought anything that could help me. (No Internet yet. The U.S. version of the game, Simon's Quest was not sold in my country but gaming books and magazines from all over the world were.)

One of them was a novelization of the game: Worlds of Power (4) - Simon's Quest. The author turned it into an Isekai (long before that word was known commonly) and made it about a typical teenage high school boy who somehow ends up in Simon's Quest. It was really weird, almost comedic putting in elements that made it resemble a Saturday Morning Cartoon. It definitely wasn't the actual story so I had to filter out the idiotic parts and process the original plot line out of it somehow. There were clues on beating the game at the end of the chapters and one of them proved to be a key clue but it wasn't enough to win the game (which I eventually did in time). If it wasn't for that clue, I'd be more critical of the novel.

In any case, as anyone who's played Simon's Quest, most of the clues in-game were lies and useless so even if I did understand it, it would probably confuse me even more. In the end, I pieced together the clues from the novel, absorbed some tidbits from other game magazines and even learned some Japanese to translate some parts in order to win the game.

 

[destinyduelist]

I read the Resident Evil 3 novelisation, it's actually pretty good to be honest.

 

[soulsas]

I recently read the novel version of God of War, and honestly, I thought it was pretty solid. Some parts felt off, probably because I have the game burned into my memory, but in other areas, it actually added something new. The book works both for people who already know the game and for those who’ve never played it—though it definitely helps if you’re already a fan.
There are a bunch of references to Greek mythology, and it gives you a look into Kratos’ mind and his view of Olympus. It’s like an epic legend brought to life for people who didn’t get the chance to experience the game firsthand. So yeah, overall, it’s a good read... but it’s not without its flaws.

Pros:

Epic legend vibe
Dual perspectives (Kratos and Olympus)
A story about grit and determination
Lots of Greek mythology references

Cons:

The pacing is uneven (starts slow, ends super fast—like they rushed the ending)
Some forced events just to match the game
Repetitive words and phrases here and there
A few typos and awkward translations
Lacks emotional punch and drama in the narration
Abrupt ending

 

[Drewski90]

I've only read books 1-5 and 7 of the resident evil book series

I'm currently finishing up resident evil code veronica

 

[Ezri_Muldoon]

The old bungie era Halo books were incredible

From a better time where Halo not only had a clear, driven story with few if any lore contradictions.
But back when we were excited for a potential film.
What 343 studios/The silver timeline has reduced the franchise too is a travesty.
Halo is dead, please stop parading around its corpse.

And a massive shout out to Killzone Ascendancy

For bringing awareness to what up to this point was just a footnote on Killzones website.
The Helghast were the original inhabitants of Vekta
They were forcefully displaced by the ISA when rumours of legal, peaceful secession reached earth.
Vekta never even got to declare independence, they were primitively invaded, displaced and forced to rot on a death world.
For the entire franchise you play as the Villains, the Helghan and their entire Stratocracy was a reactional necessity to being forced onto & then left for dead on a barely habitable world.
They didn't just want to go home, they wanted to live without disease or hardship. Funny how the ISA conveniently re-populated Vekta with new colonists to lend legitimacy to their "ownership" of the world.

Greatest bait and switch in gaming.

 

[Deleted member 560402]

Anyone ever read one those, either official or fan-made/fan-fiction, Is there any decent or good ones? Or even weird ones? Heard that the Doom one really goes off the rails.

Star Wars Dark Forces has a trilogy of books, Shadows of The Empire has a novel too. The books don't follow the games much, the writers wanted to write their own stories.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

The Resident Evil ones by SD Perry are pretty good. Read a couple.

 

[Vardalis]

They weren't direct novelisations of entire game plots, but I did read two a few years ago.

World of Warcraft: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King was the first because I was playing WoW at the time and thought he seemed interesting. I remember really liking the book. It really contextualised the whole tragic hero to villain thing and gave a broader sight of what happened to some of the other factions and characters around at the time. I'd probably read it again someday if I found the time.

Star Wars - The Old Republic: Deceived was one I read because it had Darth Malgus on the cover and I was really intrigued by his character at the time from the game. I remember it being pretty decent even if most of it is a blur besides what Malgus did at the end. Funnily enough right around when I stopped playing they brought the "good" central characters back for the very first time in game, which was about a decade after the novel was published.

 

[Spyrone]

The MGS4 novelization is pretty tight, actually. So are a lot of the Halo books, particularly Contact Harvest, The Flood and The Cole Protocol, even if only one of them is a direct novelization of one of the games (The Flood). I remember reading some of the RE novelizations when I was a kid, namely City of the Dead and Caliban Cove. I remember enjoying them, but it's been such a long time I can't remember much of them.

 

[iisoide]

BioShock has a really nice one. It's more of a prequel from what I remember but I enjoyed reading it.

 

[Additional Damage]

Baldur's Gate, Silent Hill 1 and 3, Final Fantasy VIII and IX, a lot of Assassin's Creed and StarCraft... I've read many of game novelizations

 

[Sonicrain]

I have a whole shelf of game/movie/comic novelization or based on, but I never gotten around to because i have way too many books to read lol

 

[CG4R12I4N]

There are quite many western-made game novelizations, but I found them a bit lacking in Japanese games probably because the cost of localizing them in the first place and thus only mainstream games got them (or at least fantranslations if lucky).

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Yes, it's real

F-zero got a romance novel...

 

[Sonicrain]

Yes, it's real

View attachment 110971

F-zero got a romance novel...