10 Video Games That Feel Like Fairy Tales
Glass slippers. Enchanted slumbers. Prince Charmings. Why can’t real life be more like a fairy tale? In the real world, all we got are Crocs, sleepless nights, and random dudes from Hinge. It isn’t fair! If you’re looking to escape the mundane doldrums of modern life, allow me to be your internet fairy god mother and whisk you away to a place of digital wish fulfillment! The wonderful world of video games! Who needs real life when you’ve got virtual magic right at your fingertips? Suck on that, dude from Hinge! Wanna step into a storybook? Here are 10 video games that feel like fairytales.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt feels like a fairytale, but it’s more Brothers’ Grimm than Walt Disney – you’ve been warned. This dark fantasy kingdom is absolutely crawling with creatures of myth – vampires, griffons, ghouls and dragons. Your job is to slay them all. You play as Geralt of Rivia, a man mutated into a perfect monster killer known as a Witcher – ruthless, pragmatic, and highly feared by the local populace. While the game’s main quest to take down a group of ghostly riders straight out of Nordic myth feels fairy tale-ish enough, the game’s DLC Blood and Wine is a true Grimm’s Brothers trip. On a quest to hunt vampires, Geralt is sent into the illusory Land of A Thousand Fables – a fairy tale world created by an illusionist containing references to the classics. Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks, pixies, fairies, unicorns, the game pulls out all the enchanted stops.
Okami
Inspired by centuries of Japanese folklore, Okami is an adventure game set in the land of Nippon, where a resurrected sun goddess named Amaterasu must save the world from a primeval darkness. Being a canine, Amaterasu serves as a sort of Big Bad Wolf to demonkind – huffing and puffing them out of existence with the help of a divine paintbrush. Aside from featuring just about every spirit and monster in Japanese mythology, the game also features some of Japan’s most famous folklore characters. There’s Kaguya, a little girl found within a stalk of bamboo! Momotaro, a boy born from a peach who goes on a quest to destroy a demon plagued island! And of course, there’s Susanoo, a sword swinging drunkard who faces off against an eight-headed maiden devouring serpent named Orochi! It doesn’t get more fairytale than that.
The Wolf Among Us
The Wolf Among Us is classic fairytales with a modern twist. After fairytale beings were exiled from their fabled home by a force of evil, they ended up where many rudderless and lonely people do: New York City. The Fables have taken human(ish) shapes and settled in a small neighborhood in Manhattan, and are kept in check by the watchful eye of sheriff Bigby Wolf (I’ll give you three guesses who his fairytale counterpart is). After one of the Fables turns up on a doorstep without the rest of her body attached, Bigby Wolf goes on the hunt for a supernatural killer targeting fairytale creatures. Made by Telltale Games, The Wolf Among Us trades traditional combat for quick-time events and branching dialogue options. It’s more of a playable movie than a game, an R-rated Disney flick where you’re the only thing standing in-between the local populace and a deranged killer.
Bramble: The Mountain King
Bramble: The Mountain King was inspired by Scandinavian folklore’s most sinister figures – one of whom inspired a famous piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg. Like “The Hall of The Mountain King” itself, the game starts off slow and sinister. A young boy named Olle is searching the forest for his lost sister, who was captured by a troll after the pair were shrunk down by a magic tree. This Alice In Viking-land tale goes from bad to worse when Olle’s quest leads him afoul of creepy water demons, baby-sacrificing witches, and a very angry giant who is slowly chocking the world in bramble. A folk horror game capable of creeping out The Witch‘s Black Phillip, Bramble: The Mountain King crescendos into a cacophony of terror just like the freaky piece of classical music it’s inspired by.
Lies of P
What do you get when you cross Pinocchio with Dark Souls? Lies of P, that’s what. A genre mashup that no one expected, Lies of P is set in the steampunk city of Krat, following a puppet boy as he fights to rid the place of a petrification plague. Like a Bloodborne hunter ridding Yharnam of beasts, P uses an arsenal of weapons and gadgets to fight the city’s monsters – most of whom are puppets come to life like him. Yes, it’s a weird game. Like the Fromsoft games it’s inspired by, it’s also painfully difficult – featuring an intense combat system based around aggressive attacks and lightning quick reaction times. Punishing, strange, and surprisingly addictive, Lies of P is perfect for anyone looking to get their grimdark fairytale fix.
Kingdom Hearts
Speaking of genre mashups that no one expected, what do you get when you combine peak 90’s Disney with Final Fantasy sensibilities? You get Kingdom Hearts – one of the most beloved franchises in gaming. While the plot of this franchise is famously, ludicrously confusing, essentially you play as a young man armed with a giant key sword who is tasked to defend the universe from a reality-eating darkness. So where do the fairytales come into play? You get to visit some of Disney’s most famous fairytale worlds – including Wonderland from Alice In Wonderland and King Triton’s Kingdom from The Little Mermaid. Have you really ever experienced a fairytale until you’ve fought alongside princess Ariel herself, whacking Ursula the Sea Witch in the face with an oversized house key while Goofy and Donald Duck scream battle cries beside you? I think not.
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch”
Sick of the same old beanstalks, golden gooses, and straw houses blown down? Ni No Kuni: Wrath of The White Witch is an entirely original fairytale, a modern day classic sure to be beloved for decades to come. After the drowning death of his mother, the orphaned Oliver is whisked away to a fantasy world by Drippy – a doll brought to life by his tears. In this other world, each person from Oliver’s world has a a “soulmate” – a sort of spiritual doppelgänger with whom they share a link. According to Drippy, Oliver’s mother bears a striking resemblance to the great sage Alicia, so guess who Oliver goes on a quest to find? It’s a charming game with all the magic of a Studio Ghibli movie – complete with dragons to ride, magical critters to befriend, and evil wizards to defeat. Could it get any more fairy tale than that?
Fable
One of the most celebrated Xbox titles ever made, Fable takes place in the fantasy world of Albion – where a young boy’s village was recently attacked by bandits. They killed his father, stole his mother and sister, and left him to make some complicated moral choices. Will he rise above the horrors of the world to become the hero that it so desperately needs? Or will he submit to his own inner darkness in exchange for the power it brings? That’s for you, the player, to decide! The game that put the morality system on the map, Fable forces you to make a series of tough decisions that will reorient your moral compass, and walk the world toward whatever good or evil end you see fit. Like all great fairytales, Fable teaches that choices have consequences – be careful what you wish for.
Child of Light
Child of Light is a fairytale platformer set in the kingdom of Lemuria, a parallel world that was once ruled by the long lost Queen of Light. After passing away in real world Austria, 19th century princess Aurora reawakens in Lemuria, which is now under the control of the Queen of The Night – who turns out to be Aurora’s evil stepmother! Armed with a magic sword, Aurora has defeat her sinister stepsisters and stepmom in order to save her real mother, and potentially herself in the process. Is there anything more fairytale than sticking it to your evil stepfamily? Honestly, I can’t say that there is.
The Path
An avant-garde horror game, The Path is a surrealist take on the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood. After choosing between one of six sisters, the game tasks you with walking through the creepy woods to grandmother’s house – all the while avoiding the wolf that lurks in the trees. If you make it to the end of the path, congratulations! You’ve failed! In this game, directions are meant to be ignored. And wolves, which are psychic manifestations of your characters’ deepest inner traumas, are meant to be sought after. It’s a not really a game that you can win, more of a narrative experience where “losing” uncovers more of the story. Like the oldest and darkest of fairytales, The Path is not for the faint of heart.
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