Keith Lee, the creative director of the upcoming PS5 launch title Godfall, recently revealed three sources of literary inspiration for the game’s world were Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive series, Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series, and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. Keith Lee specifically states that they “set the tone and texture of” Godfall’s fantasy world. To understand how these sources of influence may play out in Godfall, it is first important to understand what these sources are best known for within their own context and fantasy genre.
Abercrombie likely sets the “tone” of the world, while Sanderson sets its “texture.” Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series could be a bit of both “tone” and “texture” with its science fiction focus on political philosophy which explores why civilizations rise and fall, and the best form of governance for societies.
Joe Ambercrombie’s The First Law Series
To understand what Joe Ambercrombie and his The First Law series is to fantasy, and what it may mean as an influencing factor in Godfall, it is important to have an understanding of the sub-genre “grimdark fantasy” in its most contemporary context. Tolkien’s Lord of the Ring’s established fantasy literature with storytelling that emphasized a sense of hope and clear etched lines between good and evil.
Much of fantasy changed in the 1990s, specifically with George R.R. Martin’s acclaimed Song of Ice and Fire—better known by its TV adaption as Game of Thrones—as it created a more bleak take on world building. Furthermore, it blurred the lines of war and conflict between good and evil as a more ambiguous grey area, where darker imperfections in hero characters presented themselves in higher contrast, while villains at times showed some likable traits and may even contributed to some good deeds.
There is much debate over the broad term of “grimdark fantasy” and exactly what it is, but many literary fantasy fans will agree that George R.R. Martin essentially established “grimdark fantasy” and changed the status quo of fantasy to a darker tone. In 2006, Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series made its first release with The Blade Itself, and it once again changed the status quo of fantasy, or more specifically, “grimdark fantasy.”
In addition to continuing the darker tone of fantasy that George R.R. Martin helped establish, Abercrombie’s The First Law series took all those elements further, but also added a unique dash of dark humor to the mix, perhaps in the same vein of dark humor that the television show and film of Fargo adds to the mix of the crime-drama and crime-thriller genre. Also, there is an emphasis on characters that are more life-like in The First Law series, often showing signs of being unwilling or hesitant, adding more nuance to the concept of anti-heroes.
In the most simplistic terms, fans could conceptualize The First Law series as perhaps being “Grimdark fantasy 2.0”, or its second major evolution. In terms of Abercrombie being an influence for Godfall, one could speculate that it will borrow elements of black humor in its style of storytelling, which could make Godfall more appealing to gamers by offering something unique to the fantasy genre. This could lead to moments that seem ridiculous but are believable, while introducing players to nuanced heroes who may not always be brave in all circumstances, nor make the right decisions always.
Even in Godfall’s trailer, there are small hints of bleakness in its world and characters if one follows the characters’ short scripts closely, as one referred to as Oldblood jokingly makes a comment suggesting his expectation to be killed soon. There is a further sense of eerie doom in the world’s setting, as a female character states of the current situation as, “A thousand year war, just to start the apocalypse.” This suggests a world going from hopelessly grim to even darker times to come, perhaps providing little heroic incentive or sense to save the a world that only knows war anyway.
Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive
Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive may give us more insight into the actual setting of the world at face-value than Joe Abercrombie’s more aesthetic influence on fantasy storytelling. Lee describes PS5’s first game, Godfall, as allowing players to control avatars, responsible for protecting what remains of the world. The Stormlight Archive is epic fantasy deeply entrenched in its magic system, which goes into heavy detail in their overall natural laws.
But it is important to understand that Brandon Sanderson is especially known in the fantasy community for writing book series that are heavily invested in explaining deep magic systems, and The Stormlight Archive is not his only series. Yet it is the one that Lee specifically mentioned among his series.
The most common magic system in The Stormlight Archive is called Surgebinding, which makes use of the universe’s ten forces or magic types. Characters utilize magic by tapping into the planet’s substance, known as Stormlight, and can utilize two of its ten sources at a time, in tandem. This means that classes are heavily dependent not just on what type of magic they use, but which two combinations of magic-types they use in conjunction with each other.
For example, Windrunners are able to utilize and combine Adhesion and Gravitation-type forces together, in order to create a pressure vacuum around their enemies to pull them apart. Surgebinding is not the only type of magic system in The Stormlight Archive, though it is the main one. In a similar vein, Lee has stated that Godfall will allow players to become all three types of classes eventually by obtaining different sets of equipment. Also, Godfall’s world is split up into five realms based on Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Spirit, which magic types will likely draw themselves from.
In terms of Godfall being referred to as a “looter-slasher” in similar vein to a “looter-shooter”, it can be speculated that Godfall will have a very deep magic system allowing for many combinations and hybrid-use of magic types within a player’s abilities and equipment across its three classes. Afterall, Godfall is being produced by Gearbox, the same makers as Borderlands, a “looter-shooter” game popularized with its addictive near-endless supply of weapon types and configurations.
It would not be hard to imagine Gearbox investing in a medieval-fantasy formula that borrows off some of the traits and successes of Borderlands, which can draw much inspiration from already-established magic-systems in medieval-fantasy novels that The Stormlight Archive borrows from.
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series from the 1950s is a bit trickier to gauge in how it may play out as an influencing factor in Godfall’s world, but it certainly paints a picture a game that will have no shortage of history, lore, and political maneuvering spanning a scale of epic proportions, possibly thousands of years. For fans of The Elder Scrolls’ long history and lore, they may be pleased with Godfall’s offerings in this regard.
To start with the most simple and intriguing point about the Foundation series is that they are science fiction novels, and not medieval-fantasy. Given some of the visual aesthetics in Godfall, perhaps we may be in for something entirely new. Godfall may be a different type of world that is not quite medieval-fantasy, yet not totally a futuristic science fiction setting either. After all, Japanese JRPGs, especially the later Final Fantasy and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, have played with similar concepts for years.
Furthermore, the Foundation series is heavily influenced by historical themes and political philosophy, such as how the Roman Empire fell. The series is heavily entrenched in the politics and traits that explore how and why civilizations decline and fall. Specifically, the Foundation series is known for its themes of attempting to create utopian futures that would unite the world based on science, as a means to leave behind archaic problems of past times.
Godfall may tell a deep story focused on debates about ideologies and worldviews as a means of fixing the world and providing solutions for the future and how societies should be governed, yet also throwing the world into various conflicts of war in the process of doing so. After all, as stated by a character in the Godfall trailer, the world has been at war for a thousand years already.
There may likely be some form of of ongoing debate among the game’s main cast over whether civilization was simply meant for war, naturally, and if it will be the status quo forever or if there are solutions and a way out. There may be an ideological divide around those who believe there is hope, and those who remain hopeless, yet attached to their duties.
After all, the Foundation series was also focused on the concept of psychohistory, which is the concept of whether largescale events in human history were merely the result of natural destiny, or if they were uniquely created or established by chance, by the freewill of humans. In other words, in the most simplistic of terms, it is reminiscent of the common philosophical question of whether war or conflict is naturally inevitable, or whether it is by choice or a little bit of both.
If that was too much philosophy for a gamer who just wants to enjoy a “looter-slasher”, simply expect that Godfall will be deeply invested in ideological ideas, ethics, and concepts of morality, and this will most likely be a mature story-driven game in all regards, with plenty of political philosophy and backdrop to make for a richly drawn out world. Along with that, its magic system, combat and class-structure will offer casual players plenty of experimental fun with PS5’s new controller designs, and fast gameplay, even for those who may not be interested in a deep story. And the aesthetics of Godfall’s world will most certainly be bleak and dark.
Godfall is currently in development for PS5 and PC for a late 2020 release.
