I seem to be in a writing mood tonight, and now I have the briefest chance to write about something I like, so I think I'm going to take it. On the eleventh, Assassin's Creed: Lineage. I can say with little hyperbole that it was quite possibly the best video game media produced that was film anyways. Halo Waypoint started showing the Legends episodes a few days prior, on the seventh. It too was much better than most other video game based shows.
We all know that expanded universe materials with video games have been a mixed bag. From comic books to full length novels to feature films and television series, maybe one in ten of these is bearable, and maybe half are actually enjoyable. Amongst these have been the Legend of Zelda mangas, chronicling each game in its own unique style, the Halo novels by Eric Nylund, the Mass Effect books, and the Sonic Saturday morning series.
However, there have also been comics and mangas for Castlevania, Kingdom Hearts, Doom, Silent Hill, and the mostly dreadful Sonic comics (which while based in a similar universe as the Saturday morning series, lacked something that made the series interesting). There too have been game novelizations that are atrocious, like the non-Nylund Halo books, the Splinter Cell novel, and the Resident Evil series. And while the Saturday morning cartoon was good, the Dic Sonic Cartoon, and the Sonic anime were nigh disgusting. Zelda, too, was disgraceful, and the Mario series had hits and misses between the two of them.
This new Halo series and Lineage give hope for a potential rise in quality much like the comic book rise of media in the '80's. There is a much closer proximity this time between two good sources, however, they haven't reached a film level, yet. If Prince of Persia does well, too, we may have the chance to see a truly great video game film. To compare our main interest to comic books, our version of The Dark Knight.
So what would it take and what would it be? Well...for starters, Prince of Persia is going to have to be a blockbuster success. If it doesn't, we'd be set back a few more years. Though what would it be if we were so lucky...well, there are a couple of easy choices. For starters, I'd say Zelda would again be an easy choice. Halo, too, might be wise. But the game might work the absolute best and has the set up in its story for a film is Castlevania.
There are a number of reasons I say this. The first is the rights are already purchased and owned by Rogue Pictures, however, they have it set to be a retelling of the first game. The second is the arc the game has set up, a timeline that it will follow to keep certain games part of the canon. There are three games specifically which build on this. Curse of Darkness, Aria of Sorrow, and Dawn of Sorrow. In each, there's mention of a battle at the end of the Millenium between all the forces of good, the Belmonts, the Morris's, the LeCarde's, Alucard/Genyo Arikado, the Renards, and Dracula to finally kill him. The somewhat ambivalent spectator of all events, Saint Germaine, seems to make mention of this at the end of Curse of Darkness, and given the date of it's release and the release of Dawn of Sorrow, I can't help but think Konami has built in a connection there they have yet to reveal.
However, this is entirely speculative, and just the hopes of seeing our interest become something beyond itself.
-Sara
Edit: You can now see Lineage in it's entirety here:
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