Unlike myths or legends, fairy tales are a type of folklore that focus on short and simple fantastical narratives that typically don't mention any real-life individuals, histories, or locations. For example, "Little Red Riding Hood" is a fairy tale because it's short, has a simple narrative, contains unrealistic elements, and isn't believed to be a historic tale.
Long before literate societies, many people would orally share fairy tales, and some of those stories have survived to this day. With how powerful these tales are, it's no surprise that there're many games based off these stories without even mentioning Disney titles.
Developed by the Japanese developer Punchline, which also created the anti-RPG Chulip and was founded by a former Love-de-Lic employee, Rule of Rose is a 2006 survival horror game for the PS2. Set in England before World War 2, the game follows a 19-year-old woman named Jennifer who relives her traumatic childhood memories while exploring the orphanage she grew up in.
Instead of focusing on a particular fairy tale, Punchline was inspired by the cruelty in Grimms' Fairy Tales, which is reflected by the other girls in the orphanage treating Jennifer terribly. To lighten the mood, the developers also gave Jennifer a dog companion, Brown, who is one of the best animal sidekicks in any game.
Part of the reason the 2006 game Sonic the Hedgehog was such a disaster was because most of the team that was originally assigned to the project left in the middle of its development. Yuji Naka left with part of the team to start his own company, and Yojiro Ogawa left with part of the team to create an entirely different title for the Wii called Sonic and the Secret Rings.
Based on the collection of Middle Eastern folktales titled One Thousand and One Nights, the game follows Sonic as he tries to defeat an evil genie named Erazor Djinn. Despite the game's mixed critical reception, it did receive a sequel titled Sonic and the Black Knight, which was based on the legends of King Arthur.
Developed by Nippon Ichi Software, who are most known for creating the Disgaea series, The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince is a 2018 side-scrolling puzzle-adventure game that is meant to be brand-new fairy tale experience inspired by the classics. The game centers around a wolf with a beautiful singing voice, and a prince who falls in love with that voice without knowing that she is actually a wolf.
When the prince attempts to see the wolf, she accidentally blinds him while attempting to cover his eyes. In order to heal the prince, the wolf sacrifices her singing voice to a witch so that she can transform into a human girl. Using the ability to switch between forms, the wolf guides the blind prince to the witch, who can heal him.
Based on the classic fairy tale "Cinderella," Cinders is a 2012 visual novel that is all about breaking traditional fairy tale rules, tropes, and morals. Players control a young woman named Cinders who lives with her controlling stepmother, Lady Carmosa, and her two stepsisters, Sophia and Gloria. Despite the similarities to the original story, the characters are much more complicated, and Cinders has the ability to take control of her own destiny.
During the game, players will encounter over 300 different choices, which will lead to multiple endings. While Cinders has a couple love interests she can end up with, the main focus is on Cinders herself and how her character is shaped by the player's choices.
One of the best horror-esque games on the PS Vita is Mary Skelter: Nightmares, which is a 2016 RPG that takes place in a giant multi-leveled fairy tale inspired dungeon known as the Jail. To escape the Jail, the main character Jack and his childhood friend Alice join a powerful group of women known as the Blood Maidens who all work together to defeat enemies known as Marchens and to find the exit.
Besides the levels and bosses being inspired by multiple different fairy tales, all of the main characters are named after fairy tale protagonists. With this game's vibrant visuals and fast-paced gameplay, it quickly became a success, which led to two sequels.
Based on well-known tale "Little Red Riding Hood," The Path is a 2009 obscure horror game that has inspired many other video games such as The Stanley Parable. In this game, the player controls six different sisters who are sent to the forest by their mother in order to deliver supplies to their grandmother. Players are only given one rule: "Go to grandmother's house, and stay on the path."
But, if the player follows this rule and goes straight to grandmother's house, they will fail the game. Instead, the sisters must deliberately break the rule, explore the forest, find items, and meet their unique wolves.
Based on Nordic folklore, Röki is a beautiful point-and-click adventure game that follows a young girl named Tove who lives with her father, Henrik, and her younger brother, Lars. After the death of her mother, Tove has become the primary caretaker of her grief-stricken father and imaginative brother, who always claims to see creatures from fairy tales.
But, after a fantastical creature named Röki attacks their home and kidnaps Lars, Tove must go on a journey across the snow-covered wilderness to rescue him. As she explores the mystical landscape, she must enlist the help of various magical creatures that she thought only existed in storybooks.
With The Wolf Among Us 2 currently being worked on, now is the perfect time to play the classic Telltale episodic mystery adventure game The Wolf Among Us. Created as a prequel to the Fables comic book series, the game follows Bigby Wolf, who was the Big Bad Wolf, as he attempts to solve a series of murders in Fabletown, which is an enclosed community in 1980s New York City filled with fairy tale characters.
Over the course of five episodes, Bigby works with Snow White to solve the murder mystery by completing point-and-click puzzles and making dialogue choices. Although this series may not be as popular as TellTale's The Walking Dead series, it still has a fairly large cult following.
Out of all the many Alice in Wonderland inspired games, one of the most well-known and beloved titles is arguably the third-person action-adventure horror game American McGee's Alice. After Alice's family is killed in a house fire, the traumatized girl falls into a coma and retreats to Wonderland.
But, because of her damaged psyche, Alice's Wonderland is horrifically distorted, so she must go on a journey to defeat the Queen of Hearts and restore the fractured world. After a decade, the game received a sequel titled Alice: Madness Returns, and there're currently plans for more installments.
Inspired by fairy tales such as "Sleeping Beauty," Child of Light is a 2014 RPG platformer that follows a young girl named Aurora, who was the daughter of an Austrian duke. Sometime after her mother died, her father decided to remarry, and Aurora died from an illness on the night of the wedding.
Despite her death, Aurora wakes up in a magical land known as Lemuria, which is based off a hypothesized lost continent. To find her way back home, Aurora must journey across this beautifully designed world and defeat the Queen of the Night, who has plunged Lemuria into darkness.
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