Games Featuring Narratively Relevant Poetry
Poetry used to do little else besides serve the gameplay don't count.
I'm also trying to count exclusively original poems, so no epigraphs quoting other writers.
Suggestions welcome.
I'm also trying to count exclusively original poems, so no epigraphs quoting other writers.
Suggestions welcome.
11 Games
"The defiled of this Impure Land
Seeking rebirth in the Pure Land
Cherry blossoms are offered to the dead
Should we mourn for the world that comes after us"
Seeking rebirth in the Pure Land
Cherry blossoms are offered to the dead
Should we mourn for the world that comes after us"
"Beneath these robust bamboo stalks grow even sturdier roots.
Only foolish humans and youkai see nothing but the surface."
Only foolish humans and youkai see nothing but the surface."
"Sacred sword algeam
Barbarous and bathed in blue
Cleaving right from wrong"
Barbarous and bathed in blue
Cleaving right from wrong"
"Fallen villain's souls
Unite as one again
To fell greater sin"
Unite as one again
To fell greater sin"
"I cannot quench your thirst
Because even if you yearn for the truth, you refuse to believe in it.
I cannot quench your thirst
Because no such truth exists that you are in anticipation for.
But I still want to quench your thirst.
Because I am the one that put you into the desert."
Because even if you yearn for the truth, you refuse to believe in it.
I cannot quench your thirst
Because no such truth exists that you are in anticipation for.
But I still want to quench your thirst.
Because I am the one that put you into the desert."
"At the first time, I do my best to try again
against the inevitable tragedy.
In the second time, I become disgusted
towards the inevitable tragedy.
The third time, disgust is overwhelmed into painfulness.
But by the seventh time, this all becomes a farce comedy."
against the inevitable tragedy.
In the second time, I become disgusted
towards the inevitable tragedy.
The third time, disgust is overwhelmed into painfulness.
But by the seventh time, this all becomes a farce comedy."
[DISHONORABLE MENTION]
"It's just a little hole. It wasn't too bright.
It was too deep.
Stretching out forever into everything.
A hole of infinite choices.
I realize now that I wasn't looking in.
I was looking out.
And he, on the other side, was looking in."
"It's just a little hole. It wasn't too bright.
It was too deep.
Stretching out forever into everything.
A hole of infinite choices.
I realize now that I wasn't looking in.
I was looking out.
And he, on the other side, was looking in."
[Note: The majority of this game is written in an "A-B-C-B" rhyming scheme.]
[Note: The entirety of the Medieval chapter is written in Iambic Pentameter.]
"Though parted by the ocean deep,
My oldest friend, we meet again.
I touch your face; you rouse from sleep."
My oldest friend, we meet again.
I touch your face; you rouse from sleep."
TimAlien
7 months ago
Every loading screen has a short poetic quip and the segments between levels are basically just poems about the main character's feelings and everything that's going on. I played it in Japanese but I heard the English translation did it pretty good justice.