Plague Tale: Innocence – a TV commercial and Japanese PS2 classic. The unusual inspirations behind famous video games
Table of Contents
- Genre: action-adventure game
- Release year: 2019
- Producer: Asobo Studio
"Look! The Last of Us in Middle Ages!" Two heroes: a child and his guardian, a mysterious disease and a long, dangerous road to travel in a dark and dangerous world. The commonalities between the two games seem quite obvious, especially now that Naughty Dog has refreshed Joel and Ellie's adventures in a new quality, and Asobo has released a sequel to Hugo and Amicia's adventures. We actually mentioned numerous similarities between them in the review of A Plague Tale: Requiem. Except... maybe it's just pure coincidence? The creators from Asobo Studio spoke openly about their inspirations on the occasion of the premiere of the first part in 2019, but the The Last of Us wasn't listed as inspiration. But there were other games.
Among them, Ico – a PlayStation 2-era classic, considered one of the greatest games in history. In Ico, we play the title character, born with a curse and horns on his head, for which he is not only expelled from his village, but also taken prisoner in an abandoned fortress. Ico meets princess Yorda, whom her mother – the evil queen – wants to sacrifice for a promise of a longer life. Together, they escape from the stronghold full of danger, and Ico still cares about the Yorda, still holding her hand. Another similar game that comes to mind is Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which also wouldn't have been created without Ico.
We wanted to make an intimate game about the relationship between two young characters, and Brothers; A Tale of Two Sons was too much of a little gem to ignore it. Another game like Ico managed to build a lot of emotion around this, using gameplay. The way Amicia and Hugo hold hands partly comes from this.
Sebastian Renard – narrative director, Asobo Studio
Ico was one of the first games that really elevated emotions that video games could generate to a different level. This game was a watershed moment for the industry and proof that computer games are able to provide more than action-based thrills in shooters. Since then, "feels" have become an inseparable part of a slew of different games.
Ico was certainly one of the main inspirations [for Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons – ed. note].
Josef Fares - Hazelight Studios
Where did the idea for the game that revolutionized the industry come from? The creator of Ico and its spiritual successor, Shadow of the Colossus, namely Fumito Ueda, mentions a Japanese TV commercial in which a woman, holding a girl's hand, walks through the woods. Another similar source of inspiration was the manga titled Galaxy Express 999, where the little hero, 10-year-old Tetsuro, travels the galaxy with his guardian, Maetel, who totally looks like his mother, killed some time earlier. The creators just wanted to show the formation of a bond between the characters without having to resort to long conversations. And it worked out beautifully.
