What Inspires Your Story?

[Storytailor]

Some people may have more obvious ties to an existing game or franchise, but some have subtle hints of a mixture of things lingering in their creations. I'd love to hear from the community: what games, books, or other media have had a large influence on your current (or upcoming) project?

For me, the obvious answer is the Final Fantasy series, but I have to pinpoint FFV (fun-filled, rich story with great characters) and FFIX (emotional scope, nostalgia, and well-rounded).

 

[punchybot]

While my first RPG I've played was FFVII, I don't find much inspiration in those games when it comes to thinking of a story. FFVII is a lot like your typical JRPG, and as such I have always been attracted to that style. For what follows is for my current project, Reapers.

The Tales of series definitely is a series I enjoy for simple reasons. There are funny moments, there are sad moments, there are happy moments, and there are dark moments. The bad guy... doesn't always seem that bad, and you can even sympathize with them. Sometimes, the man villain doesn't end up dying. It was such a twist to a monstrous villain like Sephiroth that I easily fell in love with the series.

While that is my main inspiration, I absolutely pull other inspirations from various mediums.

Supernatural TV show is definitely one of them.

Some values from Kingdom Hearts series.

And of course, inspirations from various RPG Maker made games.

 

[Rise Evil]

Square Enix from the SNES, PS1 and PS2 era mostly :D

 

[pyn]

A lot of my game-making philosophies come from the Star Ocean and Tales of series. Both of those series have an emphasis on building relationships between the characters through private actions and skits, and I was always obsessed with seeing as many of them as possible. Skits are a staple in any game I ever dream up.

For world-building, at least for my current project, I channel my inner George R.R. Martin. Westeros has such a rich history, and I consider building a world like it something to aspire to. I actually created the entire world for my project before I came up with one single character.

 

[Cunechan]

The most games I make are mostly inspired by the telltale games and such games like beyond two souls or heavy rain but since everything is inspiring me I actually can't tell anymore which the main influences are. I also look what my sister is playing or watching. Other rpg makes inspire me a lot too even if it's just a trashy game. Even screenshots of other games inspire me for making certain plots. So actually I can't tell anymore XD It's just like everything can be an inspiration for me.

 

[HitokiriGensai]

Post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk, sci-fi, and survival horror are big inspirations to my art in general, especially in regards to music. As far as games go, I'm a sucker for rich atmosphere and world-building concepts, and those genres are all about that. It sucks, though, I'll go and write pages and pages on a story premise without knowing where it came from, and then the next day be like, "oh right, that's a lot like Castlevania"... or "that's the plot of Far Cry 3, but... in space." My struggle right now is finding a balance of inspiration vs ripping off ideas.

 

[HotfireLegend]

FF12, with a hint of 9, really, it should've been the other way around I think, but 12 had more of a futuristic vibe than 9 so I probably leant toward that one. That said, the plot is completely different, but there are a few similar elements of gameplay, albeit it isn't real-time.

 

[LTN Games]

FF7 for me, okay and this may seem wierd but some Shenmue always inspires me. Shenmue back when I was younger was an epic adventure for me, I enjoyed the story quite a bit, but then there is ff7 and that story is so stunning everything about ff7 to me was perfect, well just about, so I do get a lot of inspiration from ff7 no matter what kind of game i'm developing.

 

[Companion Wulf]

I have a number of major influences, games wise, so I can't really pinpoint one. My main genre influence, however, is horror/paranormal because of my background. I'm a huge Stephen King fan (have been for as long as I can remember!) and was a parapsychologist awhile back. A lot of my theories about the paranormal were actually born from both personal encounters and my experiences and research as a parapsychologist/investigator. I love the fantasy/sci-fi mix too. Oh, and I've been getting into Steampunk recently - fascinated by it - so am wanting somehow to interweave some of these elements into a future game.

 

[richter_h]

There are lots of stuffs that inspired me, may it be games (The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft lores), films (there are lots of them I can't sure to mention it all), or literature.
Dunno but not many JRPGs that really got me. The notable titles are Treasure Hunter G and Super Mario RPG thanks to their quirky features, but the stories are barely got me. Had checked Atelier Iris, Summon Night and some other titles but mostly for the gameplay/system instead of story.

I am fond of historical stuffs and artifacts dated from ancient civilizations to Age of Discovery, by the way.

 

[NunoAle1]

I love lots of games, but Final Fantasy was a huge inspiration for my RPG love (VI and IX are the ones I like best). I've always been a fan of intricate plots with a lot of elements, storywise speaking, and I love different points of view and paralel action.

Still, in the past years I've felt somewhat uninspired about story making - I feel it's really hard to make a consistent plot that doesn't fall into fantasy clichés, but on the other hand I think a true RPG needs to have at least a little bit of these characteristics. Does anyone else feel this?

 

[C. D. Cerda]

Many of my games and stories are inspired by three chief sources: FF, Dark Souls, and Persona. I add in various elements from each one, like how most of my main characters are just normal people who get caught up in some crazy event(persona).

I like to have well detailed world backstory with tons of mysteries and possible inaccurate accounts of events from both npcs and text(dark souls).

And I often enjoy making combat fast and fun while still maintaining the tbs, along with simple character architypes with some added spices of depth(early FFs).

 

[Kevs]

Seems a lot of people have strong bonds with FF, if i'm not mistaken.

I do admit that FF has inspired me, but recently i fall deep into indie genre.
i would like to make RPG that isn't look like RPG, such as Undertale.

 

[OneCarLost]

Despite I'm a huge fan of RPG franchises like FF, I try to avoid take them as an inspiration. This might sounds weird but I have the feeling that If i get ideas of them I might make the same thing (with a zero budget and an one-man army team lol) again.

I read books, watch movies and TV shows, non-RPG games... I get ideas from this formats to express them later in a RPG. Lately, I've found that One Piece (even though it's a cliché shonen) it's a great inspiration to develop a deep lore with lot of details.

 

[Wize1]

Feelings, Also twists in a story, Suspension, Cliff Hangers, Mystery, Big wars, Underdogs, Saviors, Heroes, Revenge, Cat and Mouse, Secrets, Romance, Betrayal... Thought I would put everything that inspires me into words.

Few games inspire me as they don't always have the right chemistry.

 

[Storytailor]

I love lots of games, but Final Fantasy was a huge inspiration for my RPG love (VI and IX are the ones I like best). I've always been a fan of intricate plots with a lot of elements, storywise speaking, and I love different points of view and paralel action.

Still, in the past years I've felt somewhat uninspired about story making - I feel it's really hard to make a consistent plot that doesn't fall into fantasy clichés, but on the other hand I think a true RPG needs to have at least a little bit of these characteristics. Does anyone else feel this?

Unfortunately, it's hard to do something that feels 100% new; the closest I've seen recently is Undertale, though even that has what everyone seems to label as "Earthbound vibes". This, however, should not discourage you; what would be discouraging is if you thought you were making the greatest story ever told and you were oblivious to the fact that you were making FF 2.0, or something of the sort. If you're worried about sounding too cliché, feel free to ask for some feedback here in the forums. Lots of people have some sweet brainpower that they love to share. Lots of original ideas! I know you have some, too.

 

[punchybot]

Even if your story is similar to another, it is still different in its own way as it is yours. You shouldn't worry if there is another story out there similar to yours. Just tell the one you want to tell.

 

[HitokiriGensai]

I feel like making games for the first time (or at least not on a pro/commercial level), or just writing fiction in general, one shouldn't judge their own work too harshly in terms of originality. It takes time to do things well, so practicing tried and true genres might be the ticket to finding your own style. A lot of the most creative artists in history, such as Picasso for instance, started out training as "traditional" artists, and then went on to do seriously original work after they got that stuff down. Just another approach to consider :)

 

[Companion Wulf]

Originality is the hardest part of it. Not everyone can think so far out of the box that they completely turn it on its head. But variations on a theme can equally make a game, story, etc. good. In the end, we all learn from one another and are influenced by others' styles, at least maybe until we can find our own, as Hitokiri said. We all still have our own perspective on things, as well as experiences, which we can add that "original flare" with.

 

[Wize1]

You could literally just copy final fantasy to the T.... as long as it's all new content people will still play it like it's brand spanking new....... i mean within reason of course. you don't want to copy the entire story.. but if you want to be successful you have to steal from other artists. even final fantasy are thieves. look at irvin in FF8.. he's a cowboy with a shotgun.... and look at cloud from ff7... drives a motorcycle... you think the designers of this game invented motorcycles and cowboys?? they just put it together interestingly.

Your challenge is not to be praised and lifted up on a throne for your great, unique ideas... instead your challenge is to work hard and actualyl finish something comprehensive with enough content to keep the player interested in a story you can relate and understand.
[doublepost=1445842657,1445841511][/doublepost]The reason final fantasy games are so good are not because of ground breaking innovations. The reason they are the best is because of the direction. Let's take FF8 for example. The director studied in film school, but he saw games were getting popular so he applied to a game studio. He didn't even want to make games originally! He ended up choreographing ff8. He directed their facial expressions.. the timing of music.. the camera angles... the character themes.... it was basically a movie except instead of hitting a play button you gotta move the people around and play the story.

Also, final fantasy was a last ditch effort! What does that mean to you? Get ready to fail! Accept failure, become ONE with failure... you and failure are best friends now........... but one day------you're gonna hit that piece of gold at the end of your pick axe.... and its gonna shine baby