/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.4549510]

Here's a strange request-
I've always enjoyed vidya more than reading, I hate to admit. That's not to say I'm illiterate, I do plenty of reading, but I'm not susceptible to immersion with books the same way I am with games.
So I thought, why not make a thread where people post their favorite game, and others on /lit/ suggest books based on said favorite game, whether it is the style, the execution, or whatever have you.
Picrelated is my current favorite game, it's fucking amazing.

[Anonymous No.4549534]

>>4549510
Take your shit back to >>>/v/

[Anonymous No.4550664]

>>4549510
one hundred years of solitude

I don't know, I just like both earthbound and this book

Also mine is super mario bros 3

[Anonymous No.4550670]

>>4549510
tao lin
>>4550664
neal oath

[Anonymous No.4550930]

>come at me bros

[Anonymous No.4550962]

[Anonymous No.4551015]

Doom

[Anonymous No.4551273]

>>4549510
Earthbounds literary influences are hard to pin down, but the influence of Schulz's Peanuts is without question. I would say any coming of age books as well, but it's tricky. Earthbound's enemies are essentially exaggerated adult concepts contorted and twisted through the mind of a child. So if there's a book about a child growing up, with the different foreign aspects of maturity literally manifesting into some sort of nightmarish design or hostile entity, it would be that.Also, typical fantasy books lay a similar "grand tale" except without the modern/scifi trappings.
>>4551015
The Divine Comedy, because Hell.

My favorite video game is Mega Man 9. If I could think of influences myself, P. Dicks "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" would probably the most explicit influence. Then old-school Japanese manga (Speed Racer, Cyborg 009)

[Anonymous No.4551563]

The Metro 2099 book is pretty good

[Anonymous No.4551597]

>>4549510

[Anonymous No.4551615]

I can't make any for the games already posted, but I'll do some general game -> book ones.

>Catherine
>Secret Rendezvous by Kobo Abe
"From the moment that an ambulance appears in the middle of the night to take his wife, who protests that she is perfectly healthy, her bewildered husband realizes that things are not as they should be. His covert explorations reveal that the enormous hospital she was taken to is home to a network of constant surveillance, outlandish sex experiments, and an array of very odd and even violent characters. Within a few days, though no closer to finding his wife, the unnamed narrator finds himself appointed the hospital’s chief of security, reporting to a man who thinks he’s a horse. With its nightmarish vision of modern medicine and modern life, Secret Rendezvous is another masterpiece from Japan’s most gifted and original writer of serious fiction."

[Anonymous No.4551617]

>Okami

>The Adventures of the Ingenious Alfanhui
"a picaresque classic -- a children's fantasy for adults-- written in 1951. The hero, a magical little boy, goes in search not of his fortune but of knowledge. He meets a master taxidermist, who teaches him the trade. Alfanhui attempts extraordinary experiments - making trees sprout feathers and creating birds that grow feathers like leaves. When his house is burned down, he travels around Castile, learning about colors, oxen, herbs, and other people: a lonely giant in a wood, a puppet who thinks he is a man, and his own grandmother with her collection of mysterious locked trunks. This is a celebration of the natural world through a boy's experiences."

[Anonymous No.4551625]

>>4549510
People who like games should focus on playing a lot of games and read criticism and theory from a few disciplines and learn how to articulate why what they like is good instead of trying to force themselves to read fiction for entertainment.
You should watch movies, too, because they're a more mature art that's much more closely related to games than literature, because they're grounded in the image instead of in text.

[Anonymous No.4551653]

>>4551617
Actually I'm out now. Can we do this backwards as well, for you people who are more familiar with video games? I have a few posts from a thread on /v/ where I imagined the video game version of some of my favorite books. If anyone knows of video games similar to my descriptions, please let me know.

Also these can be general recs if the video game version sounds appealing to you, probably.

>In Watermelon Sugar
"Welcome to iDEATH -- a place where the sun shines a different colour every day and where people travel to the length of their dreams along paths lined with pines and stones. Rejecting the violence and hate of the old gang at the Forgotten Works, they lead gentle lives in watermelon sugar. Brautigan expresses the mood of a new generation."

Probably a lot like Alfanhui ("I think it would work as some kind of surreal synesthetic RPG with some sort of drawing mechanic like Okami and loads of puzzles/riddles."), but with more action and fighting, with an art style reminiscent of El Shaddai and a time system that does change the sun's shine. Would have a rambling narration and lots of repeated symbols through the areas.


>Tainaron: Mail From Another city
"TAINARON consists of a series of letters sent beyond the sea from a city of insects. TAINARON is a book of changes. It speaks of metamorphoses that test all of nature from a flea to a star, from stone and grass to a human. The same irresistible force that gives us birth, also kills us. "

also a rpg-like game, but with more melancholy and mystery elements. The insect inhabitants of the island would be very stylized and it would be open world/city (with valid invisible walls, seeing as she can't actually leave the city and there are vast expanses of sand with bug-folks who would kill her at some edges). After she's met a requisite number of citizens, had experiences, gone on missions and feels an understanding of the city, the player can choose to end the game by embalming themselves in a cocoon.


>The Topless Tower
"When a mysterious stranger arrives laden with paintings, Leandro finds his quiet life instantly and mysteriously disrupted. Awakening locked in a windowless room in a topless tower, he finds himself trapped—the subject in one of the stranger’s eerie paintings. Heavily influenced by nonsense literature such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and the surrealist movement in South America, The Topless Tower features all the typical hallmarks of Silvina Ocampo’s fantastical writing."

Dungeon-crawler/rougelite based in the topless tower. Features permanent death, nothing carries over from each play and the rooms are randomized. The rooms in the tower could be styled after Ocampo's short stories, since many have a definite mood and setting, as well as including the rooms mentioned in the book. RPG-combat and all sorts of items and nonsensical companions taken up from each room. The end boss is the girl from the book and is solved the same way the book ends.

[Anonymous No.4551656]

>>4551653
>Motorman
"It's concerns the flight of a character named Moldenke away from a series of meaningless activities in Texaco City to a safe-haven away from the omniscience of one ever-present Mr. Bunce. More than his flight though, Motorman is about a vision of a future, or perhaps a dream, in which our conception of time, survival and humanity is greatly accelerated and/or extended. With the appearance of multiple suns and moons (invented or otherwise) along rapidly moving calendars, it is either a cosmic time-shift or mild concussion upon which the reader must decipher and refocus. That, along with the buzzing and fluttering of one's numerous implanted hearts, especially upon an ubiquitous onrush of mindless jellyheads. Ohle doesn't provide many answers, but he does depict fragments of a life under continual decay amid continual surveillance. Ohle writes his chapters briefly, often corresponding between characters as if in the middle of a war, though eerily the setting is oddly quiet throughout. As such, Motorman is a hazy, prescient and disturbing work that bridges our dreams to a fantastic reality."

Dystopic, anxiety-ridden and very stylized open world adventure game. Would feature missing days, strangely elongated or truncated hours and other ways of messing with time perception. Lots of contradictions would make the player question areas they've explored or characters they've talked to. Should be as confusing yet intriguing as possible with the goal of information discovery. Combat would mostly involve the jellyheads.

[Anonymous No.4551895]

bump, this thread's pretty interesting.

[Anonymous No.4551992]

Bump

[Anonymous No.4551996]

>>4551625
#rekt

[Anonymous No.4552184]

Planescape: Torment.

gib lit pls.

[Anonymous No.4552225]

please

[Anonymous No.4552227]

>>4552225
playing this right now, just finished the first "chapter" as it were
fuck dude, this is a fantastic game so far but I can't deal with tragedies ;_;

[Anonymous No.4552241]

>>4552227
>>4552225
I herard of the feels from /v/, and after the first chapter I had to put the game down

If that's how it fucking starts, I'm not sure I can deal with the feels

[Anonymous No.4552248]

>>4552184

Book of the New Sun maybe

[Anonymous No.4552249]

>>4552241
I'm glad I'm not just a fucking babby about it. Fuck is the game good though, solid as fuck in every way

[Anonymous No.4552275]

>>4552241
please have the courage to finish the game. its incredibly heart warming

[Anonymous No.4552324]

Dhalgren reminded me a lot of the old first-person tile-based rpg's where you'd just kind of wonder around and stumble into shit. I happened to have played Shin Megami Tensei the month before and it the atmosphere was practically a perfect fit... excluding the demonic components, anyways

>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeA5jHkkMfk

[Anonymous No.4552325]

ICO

[Anonymous No.4552337]

>>4549510
People keep comparing Homestuck to Earthbound, so maybe try that. Not quite literature given its reliance on visuals, but there's some good comic dialogue in there, and distinctive if cartoonish characterisation.

>>4549534
He's open to the prospect of reading, so this isn't one of /those/ threads.

[Anonymous No.4552369]

>>4549510
>>4551273

Itoi, the creator of the Earthbound games has done a number of Japanese only books. His most popular is a short story collection he did with Murakami in the mid 80s called Lets Meet in a Dream. It has yet to be published in English, but there are blogs that are dedicated to translating some of the stories.

http://yomuka.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/lets-meet-in-a-dream/
http://yomuka.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/philip-marlowe-part-i-by-haruki-murakami/

http://letsmeetinadream dot blog spot dot com

[Anonymous No.4552405]

>>4549510
so, earthbound games need to be played in order to get the best experience? is the story continuous or contained?

[Anonymous No.4552423]

>I've always enjoyed vidya more than reading, I hate to admit. That's not to say I'm illiterate, I do plenty of reading, but I'm not susceptible to immersion with books the same way I am with games

You're not illiterate, just an idiot

[Anonymous No.4552427]

>>4552405
Both. All of the games can stand alone very easily, but it doesn't hurt to play them in order. I started with Mother 2, and it all still made perfect sense

[Anonymous No.4552445]

>>4552405
>earthbound games need to be played in order to get the best experience?
The experience isn't that great.

I remember being 13 years old and thinking the games were so DEEP and ATMOSPHERIC and SUBVERSIVE but then I grew up and started reading books.

[Anonymous No.4552451]

>>4552423

>still being prey to the romanticization of literature as the "sophisticated" art form.
>not realizing it comes down to which fantasy one prefers to escape to and which medium offers it

[Anonymous No.4552464]

>>4552445

>dat transitional reactionary phase against one's past

So predictable.

[Anonymous No.4552489]

>>4552445
It is "that great," though. The story plays out more like a book than a lot of other games could hope to do, and it's not just because of all the dialogue boxes and stuff.
All of the characters are original as they come, there aren't a lot of sci-fi stories that don't take inspiration from shit like star wars, this doesn't. Motherfucking MISTER SATURN, nigger, it doesn't get any more original than that.
The music is perfectly orchestrated for whatever environment or situation calls for it, and the way the games reincorporate certain melodies and such works incredibly well. Earthbound makes a lot of musical-callbacks to the original Mother, and Mother 3 calls back to Earthbound, as well as foreshadowing future events with melodies that keep returning throughout the game, which are given different tones each time, enough so that it's clear that it's the same melody but it's still subtle and enjoyable.
Talking about the actual story of the games is ridiculous because there's a ton of subplots that weave themselves together to make the whole story. IIRC there have been books documenting how goddamn meticulously crafted the story to the series is

[Anonymous No.4552494]

>>4552445
ironically, all that post did was reinforce how much of a child you really are

[Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ No.4552527]

What books are like Animal Crossing?


...I actually remember hearing about a game going into development based on Kafka's The Castle, and it sounded interesting... Till years later when I saw the filthy mess of a slash 'em up that came out.

[Anonymous No.4552549]

>>4552527
>>>>still playing wild world

[Anonymous No.4552587]

>>4551273
>So if there's a book about a child growing up, with the different foreign aspects of maturity literally manifesting into some sort of nightmarish design or hostile entity, it would be that

Pic related? Maybe not the "literally manifesting into some sort of nightmarish design or hostile entity" part, but it does seem do deal with stresses a kid shouldn't normally go through. I actually have this, but I keep putting off reading it.

Also, I'd like to ask for suggestions to anything similar to the Megaten games. Specifically Persona or Digital Devil Saga, if possible, but any sort of apocalyptic setting that mixes occult and mythological themes works too.

>>4552225
Supposedly, Itoi drew some inspiration for M3 from a series of books titled "The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie". Dunno how valid that claim is though.

[Anonymous No.4552642]

>>4552587
>Supposedly, Itoi drew some inspiration for M3 from a series of books titled "The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie". Dunno how valid that claim is though.

Decided to just look up the books myself, and M3 definitely sounds eerily similar to the them, right down to the names of the main characters:

>These three internationally acclaimed novels have confirmed Agota Kristof's reputation as one of the most provocative exponents of new-wave European fiction. With all the stark simplicity of a fractured fairy tale, the trilogy tells the story of twin brothers, Claus and Lucas, locked in an agonizing bond that becomes a gripping allegory of the forces that have divided "brothers" in much of Europe since World War II. Kristof's postmodern saga begins with The Notebook, in which the brothers are children, lost in a country torn apart by conflict, who must learn every trick of evil and cruelty merely to survive. In The Proof, Lucas is challenging to prove his own identity and the existence of his missing brother, a defector to the "other side." The Third Lie, which closes the trilogy, is a biting parable of Eastern and Western Europe today and a deep exploration into the nature of identity, storytelling, and the truths and untruths that lie at the heart of them all.

[Anonymous No.4552657]

>>4552587
>"The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie". Dunno how valid that claim is though.
Dear god those books are hardcore exit level and need to be discussed here more. Also it has a movie that looks promising.

Mother 3 is very clearly and very heavily inspired by The Notebook, but what he takes from Kristof he expounds upon in a very different manner. Which is good, because between what his ending was originally supposed to be and the nature of the rest of Kristof's trilogy, there would have been a lot of completely buttwrecked autists out in the world.

[Anonymous No.4552703]

>>4552445
>DEEP and ATMOSPHERIC and SUBVERSIVE
Did you play the game, even? You played this game at 13 (or any time, really) and thought those thoughts?

It's a fun, quirky, satirical RPG with tons of pop-culture references. The story takes a serious tone towards the end, but only really at the almost very end.

How in the fuck did you find it to be subversive or deep? How did you think these things at 13?
inb4 you've never even played Earthbound

[Anonymous No.4552704]

>>4552642
Also there's titties, bestiality, some stuff I guess you'd call molestation but you're too desensitized to care at that point, existential loneliness, a creepy cripple boy, meaningless death, war, war, a silver plated skeleton or something I was kinda high when I read that part, depressing sex, another war, the cold war, and the last book is a six layer double mindfuck royale with cheese.

Should only take a day or two to read all three. If you anons aren't already downloading this instead of reading the rest of this sentence, I'm going to sign you up for Oprah's book club.

[Anonymous No.4552713]

>>4552657
I feel bad that I still haven't picked them up. Head them mentioned once here a while back, in a thread about Earthbound of all things.

[Anonymous No.4552795]

>>4552713
Now's your chance. It's a hell of a ride.
https://anonfiles com/file/af3698222d03a1f4de8b684375049131

[Anonymous No.4552814]

>>4552451
>Using artistic mediums as an "escape"
>Playing video games

[Anonymous No.4552832]

>>4552795
Thanks man. I've been holding off because I want to buy the books, but at least this'll hold me over until I pull my head out of my head and stop procrastinating. Thanks again.

[Anonymous No.4552852]

>>4552832
>until I pull my head out of my head

Gotta love typos.

[Anonymous No.4552865]

Video games ruin your attention span. I used to be an avid gamer, then I decided I would become a writer and make lots of money (and I'm sure you can tell by my prose how well that's turned out!). Naturally that required that I sit down in a sort of meditative state for several hours per day, in order to read and write. I found this much easier during periods of abstinence from games.

Video games are surrogates for life challenges. During the course of a life, a person is presented with many obstacles which he must overcome. Overcoming obstacles gives a sense of pleasure. Video games provide that sense of achievement easily and frequently. Playing video games, you get used to levelling up every twenty minutes, or shooting someone every ten seconds. This spoils you for when you go to do anything more demanding.

Games like WoW and Diablo 3 have almost gotten this reward system down to a science. Blizzard and other companies looking to exploit the same market know what the ideal reward frequency is for maintaining a player's interest. It is like an experiment with lab mice.

I don't intend to defend these opinions, nor did I really care to read this thread. I have merely thought of this stuff a bit, and I felt now was a time to briefly type it out. Of course I'm sure a lot of video game enthusiasts will gnash their teeth at this. That is a certain sort of human behaviour I am not happy about. I find it ridiculous that people take their hobbies so seriously. The way people get angry over video games, movies, music, sports, and stories -- you'd think they meant anything. Well, so long. I don't think this is a very eloquent post I've made, and for that I'm ashamed. But what I've said is, at the least, if not true, at least close enough to being true to be worth considering. Adios. Ciao. Sayonara. Goodbye. I will not be posting here again.

[Anonymous No.4552869]

>>4552832
I bought the single volume edition as soon as I could find it. It took forever waiting for a new print run to make an appearance.

You won't stop reading the first book until you're done. Just warning you.

[Anonymous No.4552956]

>>4552865
see ya tomorrow

[Anonymous No.4553514]

>>4552814

Using artistic mediums for anything except for escapist reasons is futile. There is no objectivity in art, such a notion is brough up by the ego.

[Anonymous No.4553520]

>>4552865
This is a very well articulated post, thank you. I've been trying to explain the very idea to my older brother who is addicted to video games but haven't found the right words until now.

[Anonymous No.4553532]

>>4552225

Shigesato Itoi was actually inspired by the books The Notebook, The Proof and The Third Lie by Agota Kristof.

If you read them, prepare for some feels.

[Anonymous No.4553534]

>>4552865
good job.

[Anonymous No.4553546]

>>4552865
Wow thanks for saying something poorly, and then abandoning the conversation.

[Anonymous No.4553552]

>>4553546
I don't see how he could have said what he intended to say any better, that is unless I completely misunderstand what he intended to say.

His problem is that he can't conceive of a world where a person just plays videogames a little and also does other stuff. He probably has an addictive personality.

[Anonymous No.4553592]

>>4552587
The story of Earthbound (and I would argue the MOTHER series entirely) doesn't deal with children facing odds a child rarely faces, but rather very natural fears and emotional reactions. Again, the enemies are a twisted childlike fear. A dirty hippie, a cockroach, a pile of garbage. I would argue it is kafkaesque, not because of this surrealism, but because of the humor behind the surrealism. Nobody minds the walking stop sign attacking children.

Spoilers at this point. I don't want a wall of black so just deal with it. The game is old. I'm not spoiling it for the sake of spoiling it but rather discussion.

Ness's struggle in Earthbound is actually one of existence. That sounds pretentious, but I must admit I was influenced by the "Giygas looks like a fetus" theory when I played the game. Giygas in a lot of ways throughout the game reflects Ness, so when Ness goes back in time and does the figurative "abortion", he's questioning his own birth (perhaps the first, honest, moment where a child not only realizes the world doesn't revolve around them, but may very well keep spinning without them)
The only thing that really allows Ness to overcome the conflict is the goodwill and joy he's brought to people. It's amazing, most of the world is hostile to Ness, his father is omnipresent but never truly there (the most typical kind of paternal figure if there ever was one) and his mother legitimately serves a need no other character in the entire game can fix for Ness. Ness is the only character that even gets homesick. Hell, I would even argue the other party members are just extensions of Ness's self.

His emotional journey covers all bases of growing up, rather than it being a conflict that nobody can relate to, I think everybody can relate to the way Ness's emotional maturation develops.

Lucas's role in MOTHER 3 is much more specific, does more as a sequel to a franchise, and considers Itoi's original vision MOTHER 1 clearly represented that emphasized the importance of a maternal presence. Even then,the challenges Lucas faces are still very real and very common (even if portrayed more surreal or fantastic)

[Anonymous No.4553603]

>>4553552
More like he assumes all video games are by nature addictive, and manipulate. He played way too much WoW, not even Braid. He played way too many games with micro transactions and not enough Shadow of the Colossus.

Would he say Chess is a waste of time or only useful for the escapist mind? Monopoly? What about the Chinese Go?

[Anonymous No.4553624]

>>4552865

>power-fantasies

I think that's the term you're looking for to be honest, and they are because you are the dominator of the virtual realm, not just in cases where you must slay the beasts of the darkened caves but also when you might submit your perception to solves the clues of the mysterious cave-killer.

Video-games are a medium that gets too much credit for things that really come down to allowing for dominance over something. There are numerous interactive-multimedia games where the experience is purely sensory and not one of pleasure or domination but video-games typically take on too conventional a role as an escapist, power-fantasy where the player may submit their frustrations from the real world onto something entirely virtual and rewarding in the most hollow of ways.

I like to play games from time to time but I find myself turning away from games that play out like those I've experienced before. I find it all very banal to experience the same bloody thing. Video-games have potential but not in the 'industry'.

[Anonymous No.4553626]

>>4553624
There are video games good at doing other stuff. Like Killer7.

[Anonymous No.4553629]

>>4553624
Honestly, I would argue the SAME EXACT THING for films. The movie industry has been like that for decades, worse than the game industry.

[Anonymous No.4553647]

>>4553629

Agreed, though it'd be silly to suggest things don't exist outside of the industry that are interesting. It is this that I was trying to get at to be honest. If video-games are to progress then it sure as hell won't be in the industry and it won't be with retail games and it's the same with films unless there's a cultural-revolution in Hollywood akin to the 1970s again.

>>4553626

Aesthetics aside, how does it play? What's the central purpose of the game (or what does it 'do')?

Strikes me as being different in order to defy the conventions of a shooter, passing comment about the way most games do just that. This is a common theme in many games. Makes me wonder if you couldn't draw similarities to Brecht's idea of what epic-theatre should be.

Maybe I'm clutching at straws.

[Anonymous No.4553671]

>>4553647
It's a shooter/puzzle game where you play as a syndicate of imaginary assassins who can be summoned as personalities of a wheelchair-bound old man. Every level is an open area you navigate by holding down A to move and choosing from separate pathways when prompted, while fighting surreal invisible monsters known as 'Heaven Smiles' and solving complex puzzles with the help of the ghosts of your past victims. The goal of each level is to assassinate the target given at the start, but that rapidly becomes little more than an excuse as the plot veers off into a surreal satire of both modern America and Japan, as well as their ambiguous and dark political relationship. In fact the game is really about the relationship between Asia and the West in general, epitomised by the relationship between the American protagonist Harman Smith, the old man inn question, and his opposite the Tibetan Kun Lan, both of whom are implied to be godlike and immortal

[Anonymous No.4554145]

>>4553592
>his father is omnipresent but never truly there (the most typical kind of paternal figure if there ever was one)

I wish someone had given me Earthbound to play as a child.

[Anonymous No.4554151]

>>4553603
>He played way too much WoW,

This. He seems to think every game is WoW, and every developer is Blizzard.

[Anonymous No.4554331]

>>4552865
This anon seems to think that all games are MMOs. Yes, MMOs condition you for a shorter attention span, but not all games do. A lot of SNES games do exactly the opposite. It's the "new brand" of games which take no thought and undermine, what I believe, is the very nature of what a video game should be. How can you be expected to pay attention when all things you must do are simple "quests" that you may trach your progress on by quickly checking the log? When you don't have to remember *anything* and the game does it for you, of course your attention span turns to shit -- I can press a button and have a line drawn straight to my current objective for Christ's sake!

If you're never expected to remember even one detail and are constantly "rewarded" with little mini achievements/level ups throughout the entire course of the game, you are conditioning yourself --much like Pavlov's dog-- to remember nothing, yet to be rewarded for it. You've done this to yourself by playing WoW/D3/etc.

I love video games, but I will sympathize with you and admit that the type of game which would make your assertion true is becoming the "norm" in the industry, something that will never stop simply because those are the games that anyone may pick up and beat, and therefore the ones which sell the most.

>>4553624
I very much agree with this post, despite its apparent negativity (see above). It's sad that a medium with such potential "power" --the most powerful medium, if I had to say-- is being squandered like this.

You've got the capability of creating an experience that has the visuals of a movie, the depth of a novel, and the aesthetics of the finest paintings --while being *interactive* and actively engaging-- ... and instead they're used to make endless Cawwaduty clones or WoW knockoffs.

>I like to play games from time to time but I find myself turning away from games that play out like those I've experienced before.
This x10. A medium perverted by the idea of sheer profit

[Anonymous No.4554334]

>>4549510

Crusader kings 2

>inb4 ASOIAF

[Anonymous No.4554411]

>>4552865
I read your post in that nasal high pitched Jew York accent Louis CK uses for bitchy women.

[Anonymous No.4554565]

>>4552527
Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas
No actual animals in it though.

[Anonymous No.4554783]

>>4550930
Manfred
Prometheus Unbound

[Anonymous No.4555720]

I like Silent Hill 2 what books are like that

[Anonymous No.4555908]

>>4555720
Crime and Punishment.

[Anonymous No.4557538]

>>4552795
>>4552869
Goddamn you.

[Anonymous No.4557561]

>>4553624
Domination prepares you for life better than escapism.

[Anonymous No.4557961]

Paper Mario (n64)
Banjo kazooie
Wind waker

[Anonymous No.4558027]

Favourite game is Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha
cba with any other games

[Anonymous No.4558528]

>>4552527
Zoo City

[Anonymous No.4558569]

Looking for anything with a good mix of military/espionage/sci-fi/cyberpunk/whatthefuckamIreading.

[Anonymous No.4558581]

>>4557538
Wait until you hit the end. It's a hell of a ride. Hope your therapist is ready.

[Anonymous No.4558645]

I have no mouth and I must scream.
Converted into a point and click game based on a short story by Harlan Ellison.

http://users.pop.umn.edu/~matt0350/images/forumcrap/october/scream.pdf

You're welcome nigger.

[Anonymous No.4558677]

>>4558569

Deus Ex 1 and 3 would be the obvious answers

[Anonymous No.4558701]

>>4558677
>>4558569
also the first Shadowrun vidya

[Anonymous No.4558732]

[Anonymous No.4559395]

>>4558677
>>4558701
That's nice but they're not books.

[Anonymous No.4559409]

>>4559395
Genocidal Organ by Project Itoh. Started as Snatcher fanfiction and the guy loves Metal Gear so much he wrote the Japanese novelisation of 4. Also his second and last book Harmony is really good, if less MGS and more 'oh God I'm dying of cancer have some really despairing scifi'.

[Anonymous No.4559414]

Earthbound is a terribly mediocre game.

[Anonymous No.4559437]

>>4559409
I've actually looked into those books, but I've heard terrible things about their translations, so I keep holding off on actually picking them up. I've also been tempted to pick up the novelization of MGS4 as well. Kinda disappointed the guy didn't get a chance to do Snake Eater, since that's probably the one adaptation of the series I would actually read. Heard the MGS1 & 2 adaptations are abysmal, completely missing the point of the games and all that jazz.

[Anonymous No.4559448]

>>4559414
He who says "it is mediocre" without explaining why.

He is the worst kind of person.

[Anonymous No.4559463]

>>4558732
The Name of the Wind

[Anonymous No.4559474]

>>4559437
Genocidal Organ's translation is fairly clunky and it suffers from "first novel" syndrome, so it's pretty unsubtle and expository - but if you're used to Metal Gear you'll know exactly what to expect. Harmony on the other hand is much more polished, both translation-wise and actual story-wise. Still fairly unsubtle and blunt, but I really liked it. The MGS4 novel is kind of bad because MGS4 really does not work in that form, and yes, the MGS1/2 novels are, well, shitty tie-in novels. Not worth looking at.

[Anonymous No.4559482]

>>4559463
I laughed.

[Anonymous No.4559495]

>>4559474
I'll give Harmony a read. Thanks.

[Anonymous No.4559516]

>>4559448
>antiquated battle system
>basic storyline
>real savings graces are the trippy nature of world around you

And half of that novelty is lost because you're not some Japanese kid peering into the wild and wacky world of fictional American suburbia.

[Anonymous No.4559540]

>>4559516
This unfortunately. You have to already be balls-deep into video games to even begin to appreciate a game like Earthbound. If you muster your way through all three games you'll be rewarded for your efforts, but there's no way in hell you could get someone who only plays CoD or Angry Birds to even glance at a game like Earthbound.

[Anonymous No.4559630]

>>4559540
Please go back to Starmen.net

[Anonymous No.4559702]

>>4559395
>MGS
>cyberpunk

[Anonymous No.4560208]

>>4552325
That's easy.

Ico by Miyuki Miyabe.

[Anonymous No.4560227]

Probably not very hard, but I'm still curios what ou guys have to say.

[Anonymous No.4560230]

>>4552248
Seconding this.

[Anonymous No.4560239]

>>4552248
I think specifically of Urth of the New Sun, what with all the talking and what the fuck is going on and the redemption angle. But you'd be pretty remiss if you tried to read Urth before anything else.

[Anonymous No.4560245]

>>4560227
Lovecraft maybe?

[Anonymous No.4560256]

I would love a book that resembles harvest moon.
Just the plain old farm life, perhaps some business, starting a family.

But I guess most people would find a book like that pretty boring.

[Anonymous No.4560260]

>>4560256
The Good Earth

[Anonymous No.4560261]

>>4558569
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan

[Anonymous No.4560265]

>>4558732
Dune and Elric.

I hated it at first but started to love it when I read the ingame books as well as pursued the main quest and realized that it's basically a hybrid between Dune, Lord of the Rings and Elric of Melnibone.

[Anonymous No.4560280]

>>4560227

SotC is basically a mixture between ancient epics and medieval chivalry stripped down to its most basic archetypes

so any of those I guess

[Anonymous No.4560289]

>>4560280
Thanks Sherlock.

[Anonymous No.4560292]

Fallout

[Anonymous No.4560304]

Ya'll need to check out MrBTongue.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrBtongue?feature=watch

[Anonymous No.4560420]

has any of you guys read lucky wander boy? it's about a guy who recently discovers emulators and starts playing classic games and keeps a journal philosophizing the nature of such games. it takes a surreal turn towards the end. good read for nostalgia and the way the author muses on some of the classic games' elements shows some pretty interesting insight.

anyway, im interested if any of you guys have played terranigma in the snes and could recommend me any similar books. thanks!

[Anonymous No.4560890]

>>4559702
Its not a major element of the series, but its still there. And even if there weren't any elements, its still possible to recommend cyberpunk books that use similar themes from the games.

[Anonymous No.4560892]

>>4560256
Weirdly enough, "The Town" chapters of Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End of The World vaguely reminded me of the Harvest Moon games while I was reading.

[Anonymous No.4560895]

>>4560292
Swan Song. Or Wool.

[Anonymous No.4561145]

>>4557538
I hope Mother prepared you for what was to come in some small way. Maybe I should have added that it played some part in me dropping out of school for a little bit.

[Anonymous No.4561149]

>>4560892
Yes! I know, I felt the same way.
Which is why I loved that part best.

Just a guy, chilling in solitude in a far away village with just a few friends.

[Anonymous No.4561159]

>>4561145
I just read The Proof last night, and now I'm hesitant to move on to The Third Lie.

[Anonymous No.4561163]

EARTHBOUND N DOWN, LOADED UP SPACE TRUCKIN'
HEADIN' FOR THE THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN

[Anonymous No.4561317]

>>4561159
It gets very...postmodern. Infinite sadness punctuated with a self-referential mindfuck.

[Anonymous No.4561408]

I'm curious to see what people say.

[Anonymous No.4562073]

>>4561408
Some perspectives in ASOIAF give of this feeling, particularly Arya. But /lit/ in its infinite knowledge of categorization and books in general has decided we're not allowed to talk about that here. The dragons and two or three crudely written passages are clear markers for 'pulp fiction'.

[Anonymous No.4562104]

>>4561408
I remember before I started Mistborn that it sounded somewhat like Demons' Souls. I ended up being mostly wrong.

Maybe try The Road? I know its as far away from the fantasy genre as you could possibly get, but the book does deal with living in the fallout of a devastating cataclysmic event without the slightest hint of romanticism.

[Anonymous No.4562190]

>>4562104
the road is a pretty good one
>>4562073
I guess I can see what you're going for, but I don't really agree

[Anonymous No.4562530]

>>4562073
No. Just no.

It's just so mediocre that it's pretty much of no importanc whatsoever.

[Anonymous No.4562655]

>>4562530
>trying to derail the thread
>importanc
>No. Just no.
>supplying no proper argument
>trying to qualify your argument with adjectives and implied group consensus
>>4562190
Yeah, the Souls games are their own breed of fantasy entirely.

[Anonymous No.4563114]

Bastion is one of my favorite platformers.

I really like the game, the atmosphere and the bluesy style of music.

Pardon the youtube link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8cELTdtw6U

[Anonymous No.4563121]

>>4560420
Thanks for the book recommendation. That sounds intriguing.

The best book I can think for Terranigma is Velium (The book of all hours) by Ian Dunham. >>4558569

The book of all hours By Ian Dunham might be up your alley.

[Anonymous No.4563189]

pls

[Anonymous No.4563247]

Try it.

[Anonymous No.4563259]

>>4561408
In another thread someone suggested Gormenghast. Guess give that a look.

[Anonymous No.4563269]

>>4563247
I would if i weren't saving it for the experience of enjoying it in superior moonspeak. You tempt me to play it in english, but I already know how much is lost.

[Anonymous No.4563279]

>>4549510
Dark Souls

[Anonymous No.4563285]

>>4563279
>Tfw no Demon/Dark Souls novelization

[Anonymous No.4563287]

YUME NIKKI

>the game follows a young girl named Madotsuki as she dreams. The goal is to seek out and acquire all 25 'Effects'.

>The game otherwise has no plot, and nearly the entire game is left up to fan speculation.

Something like this?

[Anonymous No.4563298]

>>4559395
>>4558569

>sci-fi/cyberpunk/whatthefuckamIreading.

got your back

http://sifter.org/~simon/AfterLife/

>If you could upload your mind, where would you put it?

>A postcyberpunk Extropian sci-fi with psychological and philosophical suspense.

[Anonymous No.4563329]

>>4563287
I'd suggest something by Kobo Abe, but I've only read Kangaroo Notebook, and well, I don't know what the fuck I read. So it might just be perfect.

[Anonymous No.4563343]

>>4561317
I didn't drink myself into a stupor, or try to blow my brains out. Is something wrong with me?

[Anonymous No.4563364]

>>4563329
thanks for the rec :o)

[Anonymous No.4563367]

>>4563343
Not at all. I was just left feeling unfulfilled, a little dead inside, and simultaneously like I'd gotten my money's worth and like I needed to dig up a dead woman to punch her in the mouth and/or pussy. Best read I've had in awhile.

[Anonymous No.4563376]

>>4563367
Funny, I was left with the exact same feeling. I kinda saw where things were headed at the end of The Proof, but damn, what a downer. And so fucking un-cathartic. That was probably the intention, but goddamn.

I want to read more of Lucas's writing

[Anonymous No.4563387]

>>4563376
All day erry day.

It's been awhile since I read it; what was the line that summed up the whole thing?

No work of fiction can remotely capture the absolute horror of real life.

That is what stuck with me more than anything else. The bestiality, the paraplegic woman who watched her retarded slut daughter get raped by soldiers and like it, the washer woman, empty relationships, Mattaias, like three wars, some more shit. I liked the preacher though.

[Anonymous No.4563417]

>>4551625
>tfw I'm retarded because I can never describe what I like and don't like about something

[Anonymous No.4563428]

>>4563387

>To decide whether it's "Good" or "Not good", we have a very simple rule: the composition must be true. We must describe what is, what we see, what we hear, what we do.

>"I can still write a book. Not books, but a single book, perhaps. I am convinced, Lucas, that every human being is born to write a book, and for no other reason. A work of genius or mediocrity, it doesn't matter, but he who writes nothing is lost, he has merely passed through life without leaving a trace."

>"No book, no matter how sad, can be as sad as a life."

Coupled with the underlying narrative, I think I am gonna be hit with a crippling depression while I lay in bed later tonight.

[Anonymous No.4563468]

>>4551615
Perhaps I would recommend "The Good Soldier."

[Anonymous No.4563500]

>>4563428
>>"No book, no matter how sad, can be as sad as a life."
That's what it is.

>I think I am gonna be hit with a crippling depression while I lay in bed later tonight.
I haven't read even a third or any really[/spoiler of this list, but after reading this, but I wonder if it will even compare. Does it?

Take this to heart. Even if your own twin disowns you , there will always be an anon and his asex ladyfriend who share your feels.

[Anonymous No.4563516]

I found Asimov's Robots Of Dawn read kind of like a long-ass dialogue tree.
Sort of like if LA Noire was actually well written, clever, and had robots.

But I haven't read many mystery books outside of the robot novels (and The Naked Sun had a similar vibe) so it might just as well be a trait of the genre in general. It's sort of the nature of a mystery to be pseudo-interactive.

[Anonymous No.4563537]

>>4563259
Huh, I was already planning on reading that sometime.

[Anonymous No.4563544]

>>4563500
I haven't read any of those

[Anonymous No.4563548]

Killer 7


>>4560227

The Wasteland by Eliot in particular What the Thunder Said

"What is that sound high in the air
Murmur of maternal lamentation
Who are those hooded hordes swarming
Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth
Ringed by the flat horizon only
What is the city over the mountains
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
Falling towers
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Unreal"

[Anonymous No.4563639]

>>4563189
Chuck Palahniuk came to mind. I think the subject matter of what he writes feels a bit like Hotline Miami's violence.

For a personal take on violence, I'll recommend Diary or Invisible monsters.

He's the guy who wrote Fight Club.
I dunno if you want to watch the movie or read the book. But I can leave it up to your decision.

[Anonymous No.4563646]

>>4563189
>>4563639
Shoot. Sorry. I meant Rant instead of Diary.

[Anonymous No.4563656]

>>4563537
I can't recommend the Gormenghast Trilogy highly enough

[Anonymous No.4563657]

>>4560265
did you read and learn about chim and have you converted to the cult of our lord and savior dagoth ur as a result?

anyway, already read a bunch of elric stuff and lotr. i like moorcock but i don't really feel the morrowind vibe with it.

[Anonymous No.4563659]

>>4563548
I feel like I missed a lot of gems like this when I read the Wasteland.

I have a tendency to get overwhelmed and lose myself in places during poems. I guess I should slow down

[Anonymous No.4563668]

>>4563548
It's not all that similar, but for a violent and surreal look at Japanese politics I'd recommend Ryu Murakami's From The Fatherland With Love. A bunch of eccentric social outcasts with weird hobbies take on a North Korean invasion of Fukuoka.

[Anonymous No.4563672]

>>4563668

Fascism of Love and Fantasy is better

[Anonymous No.4564034]

>>4562655
It's been discussed to death here that GoT is awful.
I don't want to reapeat myself each and every time.

There is just nothing original nor creative about it and on top it's terribly written.

[Anonymous No.4564038]

>>4563657
Read Dune then.

[Anonymous No.4564063]

>>4549510

[Anonymous No.4564064]

[Anonymous No.4564072]

>>4563672
>tfw no English edition

[Anonymous No.4564074]

>>4564063
And just Stephen King's horror work in general.

[Anonymous No.4564078]

>>4564074
I was joking tho

[Anonymous No.4564082]

>>4563247
I love the idea of this game, but I've given up on it three times. It simply isn't "fun".

[Anonymous No.4564083]

>>4564064
I seriously want a book like this. Actually i want a book about this. For anyone who doesnt know it its about this alien race slaved by another alien race and turned into factory workers the main character realizes their lorda where going to start harvesting their meat to sell sausages or something and scapes and travels the land and he learns that they where some kind of indians with temples dedicated tothe animals they now grow and kill andthen he returns to save the others. At the end he fibds out that there are other factories with more slaves and goes to save them too

[Anonymous No.4564187]

>>4564034
>It's been discussed to death here that GoT is awful.
there we go. Appeal to the hive mind.
>There is just nothing original nor creative about it and on top it's terribly written.
>strong limited 3rd person perspective writing
>some of the strongest character development in modern reading (yes that includes the /lit/ menagerie)
>cab be closely read for reprating themes or motifs, unlike most genre fiction

[Anonymous No.4564193]

AC4.

Most lit in any way related to pirates that I've read so far has been shit.

[Anonymous No.4564205]

>sci-fi recommendations

[Anonymous No.4564222]

I absolutely fucking loved Deus Ex & Human Revolution.

So far, I've figured out Do Androids Dream [..] was a big influence on on DE:HR because it was influenced a lot by Blade Runner which was based on the Dick book.

and I've heard Gibson too.

Anything, ANYTHING similar? I'd love it if it would deal with the concepts and not just be a detective story of sort.

Another one is also military sci-fi like Battlestar Galactica, but haven't found anything like it yet.

[Anonymous No.4564626]

>>4564222
Aktered Carbon

[Anonymous No.4564634]

>>4564064
Destination: Void
maybe ...

[Anonymous No.4564690]

>>4564626
Yeah, Altered Carbon is a great recommendation for Deus Ex.

[Anonymous No.4564877]

Are the Witcher books pretty good?

Well, at least the ones that have been translated into English.

[Anonymous No.4566258]

>>4564877
Heard they're pretty fantastic.

[Anonymous No.4566277]

>>4549510
My fave is indeed earthbound.

I'm spanish-spoken in nature, so my fave books are:
-Pedro Páramo
-Catcher in the Rye
-Blue Book and Unique Item
-Dictionary of the Khazars
-Pale Fire
-House of Leaves

Glad to see an Earthbound lover. I can't count the hours and replays I've done on that game. Not to mention it's the only game I've fully completed without leaving it in half-progress, replayed and completed 100% on every replay. I couldn't do any of the Zelda series more than once.. really fucking awesome game

[Anonymous No.4566304]

>>4564222
The Foundation series has this deep, thought provoking DE feeling in it. A Brave New World has this same touch.
Viceversa, since these books came earlier than

The Game

[Anonymous No.4568209]

Good thread. Going through and saving the suggestions.

[Anonymous No.4570369]

Pic related for me. I really loved the atmosfera given In all three games. Everything from the environments to the music goes so well together. and the lore was also great. I though it was very interesting and was presented to you in a way that does not interrupt the gameplay. This being a problem in too many modern games that focus way too much in long, drawn-out, unskipable cinematic to tell a story that will most likely out you to sleep.