[[2026 Cafe Posts]] Did you know that **Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei** — a game that turned into a little series called **Shin Megami Tensei** — is based off of a book? It’s true! It was written by Aya Nishitani, who wrote a trilogy of books in the 1980s called **Digital Devil Story**. Recently, Nishitani made an interesting post, saying that [taking inspiration from other media](https://automaton-media.com/en/news/drawing-inspiration-from-great-games-is-whats-holding-developers-back-megami-tensei-original-writer-on-why-taking-inspiration-from-other-media-is-crucial/) is crucial to creating interesting new games and gameplay mechanics. > [!Quote] Aya Nishitani being based AF > I believe that if you draw inspiration from other forms of media, you’ll be able to come up with brand-new game systems, but if you draw inspiration from outstanding games, you’ll usually just end up making the exact same system. Do you know why I hate [[Earthbound]] and [[Mother 3]] clones? They fail desperately at capturing what made those games so great, and this is one of the main reasons. They’re inspired by the game and the game alone, thus regurgitating the same thing, but with none of the intent or meaning behind it. **Undertale** stands out because it steps away from this trend, following closer in Itoi’s footsteps. Itoi wasn’t just inspired by **Dragon Quest**. He was digging into life, poetry, politics, sociology, and so on. **Final Fantasy IV**, the game that arguably put the series on the map for a greater audience, has the enhanced cutscene production that it does because one of its leads had a background in theater. Inspired by stage plays, you can see how this mix up had a huge impact on the presentation of the story. That may not seem like much now, but it was groundbreaking in its era. It’s stuff like this that makes games like **Sea of Stars** and **Chained Echoes** feel like pale imitations to the source material they keep taking from. I wish to say this as sincerely and inoffensively as possible: there is more to life than the narrow slice of media that you like to consume. And I say “media” broadly because this isn’t a problem unique to videogames by any measure. The anime industry certainly has this issue. **Bubblegum Crisis** was heavily inspired by the cult classic film **Streets of Fire** by Walter Hill. Compare that to something like **My Hero Academy**, which, while somewhat unusual in the way that it pulls from superhero comics, still follows the same trappings and style of every other shonen battler from the 2010s. Making anything is a beautiful thing, and to do so is impressive in and of itself. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being inspired by games to make a videogame — hell, I’ve had a spiritual successor to **Grandia** percolating in my brain for years now.[^1] It’s being inspired *only* by other games that I feel causes you not to reach your full potential as a creative. A well-rounded, diverse background will let you bring unique perspective to whatever you’re creating — and in the case of games, might help you develop entirely new gameplay mechanics, like **SMT** did with its demon conversation system. You’re less likely to fall into a rut of chasing trends or trying to recreate a past that you love. Not that I don’t get it, 2026 is looking to be a repeat of [[The Nostalgia Arc|the Nostalgia Arc]] for me, so… I realize a lot of this just sounds like I’m using 600 words to tell you to pick up a book — because in a way I am — but there’s something to that, don’t you think? There is so much of the world and life to experience and pull from. Hell, even using your own life experiences can lead to something revolutionary! Hidetaka Miyazaki’s experience of working together with strangers he’d never speak to again in order to help someone who’s car got stuck in the snow inspired the message system in **Demon Souls**. Live a varied life, consume varied things, and make something extremely cool. [^1]: If anyone wants to collab on this hmu lmao real shooters shoot!!!