Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: aaron sorkin, Final Fantasy XV, kurt cobain, Nirvana

Kurt Cobain, Aaron Sorkin, And Other Influences Behind 'Final Fantasy XV'

It's awesome when something from the past can become a major influence on a story and you not even realize it until it's pointed to you. Some inspiration is obvious, some are subtle, and some you just can't see. So it probably came as a great surprise during GDC yesterday when Final Fantasy XV's lead writer, Dan Inoue, revealed where some of his inspirations for the game came from.

The biggest reveal by far as that during the Japanese recording sessions, the actor for Prince Noctis was given Nirvana's late guitarist and lead singer Kurt Cobain as a source of inspiration for the character's emotion and personality. Cobain was a rock star who shunned and even despised being famous, who had a fundamental belief about the world around him that got jerked out and twisted by the celebrity machine. It was those traits that reflected onto the prince who didn't act like royalty, and at times throughout the game, wishes the responsibility would go away. As a gamer and a Nirvana fan myself, it's nice to know that even though the prince looks emo at times, his personality was based more in an anti-celebrity.

But the pop-culture influences don't end there. Apparently, the conversations that Noctis and the rest of his friends have is based int he kind of dialogue you'd find from Aaron Sorkin. If you're not immediately familiar with Sorkin's works, you should be. Here's a quick list of TV shows and films: The West Wing, The Social Network, A Few Good Men, Moneyball, Sports Night, Steve Jobs, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip… you can look up the rest but that's already a list of media that give you an idea of how people in his works talk. That type of punchy dialog is the basis for the conversations the gang of four have with each other, having natural conversations that feel like they've known each other for years, or having "Sorkinization" as Inoue called it.

If you have a translator, you can read more about it and more touches put on the game at 4Gamers.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!