Other Which work of fiction has influenced you the most?

[GarnaalProductions]

G’day, all ye lovely goons!

Gotta a lil’ subject on my mind I wanna share with you folks. And it’s about- well, y’know, pretty much what the title says!

Which book, movie, comic, video game or whatever else has had the most impact on you? Which terrific (or terrible) piece of media has gotten you into a certain hobby or mindset, brought you into particular communities or environments, and/or basically had a solid part in helping to shape you into who you are today? I'm sure that a lot of people can name such a fictional work that has changed them, be it from their childhood or otherwise, so I figured that it'd be a fun idea to open up a spot where they can tell each other all about it. Who knows, you might just discover your new all-time favorite in someone else's post!

Anyway, for me, it's got to be the game Ōkami, which I used to play as a wee shrimpy on my dad's PS2. While the early Spyro games were on the menu too at the time, I think Ōkami was the game that pushed me to start drawing (and telling) stories of my own; simple picture books at first, which would evolve into full-blown novel writing. That game also indoctrinated me into loving the hell outta wolves, which got me into online text-based RPing, with my journey starting on, you guessed it, an online wolf-centered text-based RPing forum.

Having finished that game countless times over the years, I don't really play Ōkami that often anymore, but I'm not blind to the fact that such an innocent Japanese indie game has had a huge say in who I ended up becoming ~13 years later. Without it, I might not have grown an appetite for storytelling like I do today- though, if I'm being honest & a lil' less sappy, the other influential pieces I got into later (namely Harry Potter and Star Wars, classic, I know) had likely pushed me into similar directions anyway.

Whether it's one game or a whole Warrior Cats-sized book series, whether it changed you for the better or worst: all your stories about the biggest fictional influences in your life are welcome here! Happy writing, folks, and feel free to get dramatic & carried away like I myself did; suppressing emotions and being stiff'n business-like is for the weak, after all!

Yours truly,
~ GarnaalProductions

 

[nondescriptname655433788]

I've been trying to pin down all the media that makes me me for a long time now, but I find myself struggling to pin down every little thing. Maybe as life goes on I will have a better picture, but for now I aim to find what the number one biggest influence is. Currently my theory is Warrior Cats for it's focus on character development and the community around it that I was apart of for many years, but there's a lot of other media that crops up every now and again that makes me think "wait, was this important?"
One example is Katamari Damacy, I thought about the game every now and then because I watched my mom play it when I was very little, but I was shocked when at a convention I started crying as they performed one of the songs. I started playing it again recently because of that and I really loved it and realized it sparked my love of programming and open-world extremely interactive video games. How many more things like that am I missing? What has left it's mark on me but stayed hidden in the recesses of my brain?
I couldn't possibly list out every single thing for that reason but this post made me start thinking about it again!
Currently my biggest influence is Omori, obviously.

 

[Onmyoji]

JRPG. Most notably, Final Fantasy series. But not only. There were a lot of other great titles. Really, I never thought I could enjoy gaming at all until I tried Japanese RPGs. Once I played those games I never looked back to whatever games I played before that. Those RPGs influenced what I like in gaming, in storytelling, in art, in music. Just about everything. A lot of who I am today is literally because one day a friend let me borrow one of their games which happened to be a JRPG. XD

 

[GarnaalProductions]

I've been trying to pin down all the media that makes me me for a long time now, but I find myself struggling to pin down every little thing. Maybe as life goes on I will have a better picture, but for now I aim to find what the number one biggest influence is. Currently my theory is Warrior Cats for it's focus on character development and the community around it that I was apart of for many years, but there's a lot of other media that crops up every now and again that makes me think "wait, was this important?"
One example is Katamari Damacy, I thought about the game every now and then because I watched my mom play it when I was very little, but I was shocked when at a convention I started crying as they performed one of the songs. I started playing it again recently because of that and I really loved it and realized it sparked my love of programming and open-world extremely interactive video games. How many more things like that am I missing? What has left it's mark on me but stayed hidden in the recesses of my brain?
I couldn't possibly list out every single thing for that reason but this post made me start thinking about it again!
Currently my biggest influence is Omori, obviously.

Heh, glad I'm not the only one who's been giving this some thought! It's indeed also interesting how these fictional influences can 'sneak' their way into your heart, like with the song from that game your mom played. Can't say I actually know any of the pieces that you named (well, safe for Warrior Cats, f'course), but they do sound neat- especially the premise of an 'extremely interactive' open-world game, I think I'm gonna look into that sometime. Thanks for the reply, 'twas a nice read!

JRPG. Most notably, Final Fantasy series. But not only. There were a lot of other great titles. Really, I never thought I could enjoy gaming at all until I tried Japanese RPGs. Once I played those games I never looked back to whatever games I played before that. Those RPGs influenced what I like in gaming, in storytelling, in art, in music. Just about everything. A lot of who I am today is literally because one day a friend let me borrow one of their games which happened to be a JRPG. XD

Interesting! Gotta agree with you there though- for some reason Japanese games (in general) seem to hit different, I personally wouldn't say they're always superior over western games but they do have a certain vibe and view on things that western games lack, they take creative freedoms most mainstream western games wouldn't dare take, which is defo very inspiring. Haven't dipped many toes into JRPGs myself though, might give it a shot now I have the proper time on my hands, though.

 

[Onmyoji]

Interesting! Gotta agree with you there though- for some reason Japanese games (in general) seem to hit different, I personally wouldn't say they're always superior over western games but they do have a certain vibe and view on things that western games lack, they take creative freedoms most mainstream western games wouldn't dare take, which is defo very inspiring. Haven't dipped many toes into JRPGs myself though, might give it a shot now I have the proper time on my hands, though.

One of the things that I didn't mention but probably is important, the games I'm talking about are mostly PS1 era games. Final fantasy 6, 7, 8, 9; Valkyrie Profile, Legend of Dragoon, Lunar 1 and 2, Chrono Cross....
I honestly don't know how things are in JRPG and Western RPG gaming are right now because my interests shifted towards a very specific different genre and I no longer have time and patience for RPG, and I think right now the difference is not that noticeable but I believe that at that time those Japanese games had very different storytelling and aesthetics in general. It impressed me SO MUCH that up to this day no other games managed to replace some of those titles in my heart even though there are games with infinitely better graphics, music, characters, whatever else lol.
Some of those games got modern remakes and I wish I had time to play them again because I'm sure I'd enjoy them anyway.

 

[GOREPHIC]

Star Wars, if I'm being honest

 

[Caroline1539]

I've had a lot of influences over the years, but I'd have to say the most impactful media I've consumed would have to be Undertale! It had such an emotional impact on me that it's effects are still felt by me to this day!

 

[Calyx]

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak! It has been highly influential to my writing style.

 

[Lukedog]

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and A Silent Voice ​

The Weird and the Raw​

JoJo was the initial driving force of 'me liking weird stuff.' I didn't get it at first. It seemed like a long multitude of different stories where things are inconsistent, people do weird stuff and for what? But honestly it's my favorite. It embedded the idea, which I didn't put into words until I discovered my favorite band Tally Hall, that:

I love weird, or bizarre, things because I love it when people aren't afraid to be their true selves.

Yeah, sometimes the abilities or the style changes over time, but that's what makes the author human. His name is Hirohiko Araki and he never stopped making what he wanted. Just a dude having fun, making stories inspired by his favorite music and fashion. Even pushing gender norms. He creates so many different characters that tell so much. Not only inspiring me as a fellow creator, but also as a person.

---

A SIlent Voice, also known as A Shape of a Voice, was originally a manga. But in 2020, I saw the movie adaptation. Normally you lose a lot when adapting material, either cut content or you don't feel the artist's original touch. But I believe a silent voice knew that and used what it had. It's much different from Jojo as it's a realistic fiction about younger people going through trama, depression, and suicidal thoughts . It feels so real, the animation portrays the movements of each character so well.

The soundtracks is honestly one of my favorites of all time, and inspires me musically. But the thing is, it's so simple. Portraying one of the main characters who is deaf, Kensuke Ushio (the composer) wanted to capture a piano, but not only the notes. He modified a grand piano to expose the inner workings and put microphones all around. With this, he captured not only the softest notes, but the keys clicking back in place or the hammer moving around. I don't recall another soundtrack using that.

Besides the technical stuff. The story, the main character is so actuate to how many people, especially younger people feel. TW, this will get a bit more depressing and suicide

The main character bullied this deaf girl in elemtary school, but eventually his consequences catch up to him. After he broke another hearing aid, only this time hurting her. The school asks around and his whole class turns on him, even though half weren't stopping the bulling. The school suspends him for a couple of days, his mom apologies to the girls' mother, pays for the hearing aids, and is shown to have been hurt slightly by the mother of the deaf girl.

The main character is now label as a bully and get outcasted from everyone, being treated similarly how the deaf girl was. He finally sees. But she tries to still befriend him, he doens't understand why she's nice to him after what he's done and she ends up moving away. Over the years the main character is isolated, moving schools but is scarred from his past. By highschool, not many from his elementary are there but his thoughts are so negative, he can't look anyone in the eyes. He keeps to himself. He worked the money his mom paid orignally and tries to commit suicided, only to be snapped back by some fireworks. He wanted to make amends and return a notebook to the girl.

Over the course of the movie, the main character discovers what it means for people to be friends, do people deserve forgiveness, and finding help to live. I've had dark thoughts, I'm in not such a good place now, but every time I watch this movie, I bawl. He doesn't want to burden anyone, he fictional, but he feels Human.

---

These stories will always have an impact on me. Thank you.

 

[Ayama]

Yu-Gi-Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh GX, and Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds. I wouldn't be here (in many senses of the word) without them ^^

 

[Murdergurl]

A lot of classic literature. Or at least, I consider them classic. I read Tolkien's The Hobbit when I was in middle school (yeesh, that was back in like 1995 or 96, I think). Dune shortly after along with I, Robot, but I'm not sure when exactly. And I re-read a lot of this when I was older, too. Brave New World in Highschool. Oh! and let's not forget Edger Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars. I loved that one. Same with Conan the Barbarian novels and comics. I got into D&D 3.5 e when I was a young teen. I never played, but I collected a lot of the books simply to read over all the neat lore.

And not literature, per se (even though I do have various old codices for different armies, again for the lore) but Warhammer and Warhammer 40k is definitely a thing that influenced my fantasy and sci-fi notions.

With movies, I love love LOVE the Alien and Predator franchise. (Except that last predator movie from 2018.that one was a dumpster fire). I also love Terminator series... well, to a point. The first two movies, really. The one with Christian Bale was okay too. But then they went downhill. Judge Dredd... omigosh... the Dredd movie with Karl Urban was fucking great! Mad Max... all of them, the first three with Mel Gibson and the last one with Tom Hardy. All great! Oh, and back to Conan the Barbarian: I love the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. Not so much the one with Momoa. Star Wars, to a degree. Not any particular movie or character, but the Wild West notion of space faring has always been a favorite concept of mine to play in.


I'm sure there's lots of other examples I can list, but these readily come to mind.

 

[Murdergurl]

I feel like I should come back and add to my above statement that the artwork of Boris Vallejo, Frank Frazzetta, and Luis Royo were MAJOR influences of my early concepts of fantasy worlds. Also, the Heavy Metal movie that came out in 1981 (though I was probably around 10 the first time I saw it).