Summary
Video games and ancient mythologieshave gone hand-in-hand for decades. The wonder of an ancient civilization and the epic scale of their myths and heroes are the perfect recipe for an engaging video game world, and developers have been pillaging ideas from Earth’s oldest cultures to make some of the best games of the modern era. However, some ancient mythologies get a lot more attention than others.
While mythologies likethat of the Ancient Greeksor the Norse have appeared in countless video games and have proven to be very successful in telling a modern story while also providing a solid backdrop for exciting gameplay, there are manyother mythologies that have fallen by the wayside. These less popular ancient tales may not have the same pull for a wide audience, but their gods and monsters are more than capable of making an exciting - and sometimes challenging - video game.
10Assassin’s Creed Origins
TheAssassin’s Creedfranchise wasmaking a major shiftfollowingAssassin’s Creed: Syndicateby sending the series nearly 2000 years into the past to Ancient Egypt. Despite the obvious appeal of the setting and mythos, few games have ventured into Egypt’s pantheon, and none have done so as thoroughly asAssassin’s Creed: Origins.
While the franchise typically takes a realistic approach to its representation of ancient cities and cultures,Assassin’s Creed: Originsdid not shy away from some of the more famous mythological figures from Egypt’s past. Players who explore thoroughly enough will battle the gods Anubis, Sobek, and more during Bayek’s adventure.
9Tchia
Heavily inspired byThe Legen of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,a game likeTchiacomes around only once in a blue moon. Set on the island of New Caledonia, where developer Awaceb is based, the game explores the island and culture of one of the lesser-known countries in the Southwestern Pacific Ocean.
While controlling Tchia and exploring the island doesn’t often result in encountering a ton of mythological creatures, they do exist in the game world. Players can eventually summon Xetiwa, a mythological flying creature, by playing their ukelele once they’ve completedTchia’s story. Tchia can thenSoul-jump into the creatureand fly around the entire island with ease.
8The Forgotten City
Initially,The Forgotten Cityplaces players in a city from Ancient Rome that appears to have been ripped right out of time. Exploring this city will take up a large portion of the game’s first half, but once players begin to delve deeper into the game’s mystery (and the city’s underground caverns) other mythologies will begin to crop up.
While there are several ancient cultures that make an appearance, none are more unique toThe Forgotten Citythan Ancient Sumeria. The deepest depths of the city’s caverns reveal much about the ancient culture, their beliefs, religion, and deities. While those deities don’t exactly make an appearance (althoughit could be argued that one does), their presence is strongly felt in the darkest corners of the game’s world.
7Jade Empire
Set in a world based on Ancient Chinese mythology,Jade Empirecasts the player as a Spirit Monk, one of the last of their kind, as they set out to rescue their tutor and fight back against the forces of an evil and corrupt emperor. While the game is not set in a literal representation of China, those influences are felt through every aspect of its design.
Jade Empire’s setting, environment, story, color palette, and character designs are all based on different dynasties from China’s history. Meanwhile, the game’s monsters are mostly original designs from BioWare themselves. While many games from this era would benefit from a modern remake, few are more deserving than BioWare’s most unsung classic.
6Blasphemous
“Ancient” Spain isn’t exactly old when compared to other mythologies, and yet the developers at The Game Kitchen used the history of their home country to craft a game world that is totally unique in the medium. While this mythology may only be several centuries old instead of a millennium or more, it still deserves some recognition.
Blasphemouspulls from the Christian mythology of 14th Century Spain as its primary inspiration. The Biblical nature of the game’s world and creature design stand out from the droves of Greek and Norse-inspired creature design and are all the more effective due to their ties to modern Christianity and its tenets.
5Worlds Of Ultima: The Savage Empire
TheUltimafranchise is one of the oldest and most iconic in gaming. Dating back to the 1980s, these games primarily dabbled in fantasy role-playing but would inject some science fiction into the mix as well. However,Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empiredelved into an ancient culture that no games have touched since Ancient Mesoamerica, specifically, the Mayans.
It’s pretty baffling that no game has tried to capture the brutal and fascinating culture of the Mayans sinceThe Savage Empirewas released in 1990. While rumors of anAssassin’s Creedset in that era have circulated for years, nothing has materialized yet. For now, this old RPG is all gamers have when it comes to exploring the ancient cultures of Central and Southern America.
4Nioh
Games set in Ancient Japan are common, and games that pillage from Japanese mythology are as well, but few games attempt to incorporate both those ideas at once, and fewer still pull it off. Team Ninja’s first Souls-like foray,Nioh,does just that. Set in Japan in the year 1600, the player will battle through iconic moments in Japanese history infused with epic mythology and a host of dangerous monsters based on Japanese culture.
Few games can boast combat as fun and satisfying as whatNiohhas to offer. The various weapons combined with three fighting stances allow foran endless array of attack combosand build varieties. Meanwhile, while the beasts the player will face off against can strike fear into their hearts, it’s the ancient Japanese legends that will truly test the player’s skills.
3Unrest
While its distinct hand-drawn art style and brutally difficult gameplay may be what draws in new players, the criminally underrated 2014 release,Unrest, bears the distinction of being the very first video game set in Ancient India. Pyrodactyl Games, based out of India, funded the game’s release through a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Unrestfollows the stories of five distinct characters as their lives intertwine throughout a mythological version of India. The player engages with the world primarily through dialogue, and while combat is an option, it is incredibly dangerous. If one of the game’s main characters is killed, they don’t respawn. Instead, the game’s story continues while taking into account that character’s death.
2Never Alone
A 2D platformer as much as an RPG,Never Alonewas developed by Upper One Games and released in 2014. It is based on an ancient tale from the Inupiaq, a culture of Indigenous Alaskans. The player controls both a young girl named Nuna and her fox companion as they navigate the harsh Arctic landscape.
Unlike other 2D games,Never Alonerewards players with vignettes of Inupiaq storytellers sharing their stories, which adheres to the game developer’s goal of sharing, celebrating, and extending Indigenous cultures. Nuna’s mission to stop the blizzard ravaging her village and restore balance to nature is directly inspired by the Inupiaq legend “Kunuuksaayuka.”
1Norco
How old does a culture need to be for its myths to be considered “ancient?” In the case of Louisiana, the State itself is only a couple of centuries old, and yet the myths that have sprung up out of the murky waters of the bayou just beg to be told, somethingNorcois more than happy to oblige.
Some parts ofNorcoare straight-up sci-fi, and while its roots are still very much based around the present day, that sci-fi trimming allows for the backdrop of the town’s history to stand in stark relief. All these elements play off of each other, but whenthe player eventually finds their wayinto a boat on the bayou, that’s when the old stories of creatures lurking in the swamp start to emerge and take hold.
