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| Nihei's influence on Bungie (and vice versa)? http://blame.heeen.de/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1234 |
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| Author: | Red Scharlach [ Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:07 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Nihei's influence on Bungie (and vice versa)? |
I know he's a fan - I wonder if he ever played the Marathon games, he'd probably get a kick out of them - and I'm aware there's been an instance of co-influence between Bungie and him. You can tell from the architecture throughout the Halo series and this was eventually spelt out with Nihei's contribution to the Halo graphic novel. But despite all this, does anyone know here whether this influence has been acknowledged by Bungie in any of their discussions around their level design and visual flair? I ask because level design and architecture are things I find very interesting and adding to this Nihei's seeming inspiration from video games in everything he's done so far, I'd be curious to read just how far this has been discussed. And on the flip side, any thoughts as to whether Nihei later took on some ideas from Halo when writing Biomega? There are elements there which are vague and archetypal enough to know whether there was a deliberate influence, but I'd be interested to know if this was the case? And finally, with ODST out and its total focus to urban environments, is this as close as we'll get yet to a Nihei game? |
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| Author: | ShakKen [ Wed Sep 23, 2009 3:38 am ] |
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There was 'architecture' in Halo? All I remember was one repeating room that looked like an artist had fallen asleep doing CTRL+C CTRL+V. While the common verbage is monolithic and monumental the similarities end there. Nihei's architectural footprint is wider and more varied. The geometric brushed steel cubism typical of Halo with it's occasional natural environment and bright Nerf toy alien accents is only a tiny fraction of Nihei's overall repertoire. Nihei has expressed a wide variety of environments from baroque to gothic and even some reminisce of art deco along with the stark industrialism he's known for. Personally, outside the HaloGN I don't think what Bungie does is anywhere close to what Nihei has shown us. |
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| Author: | Vaxillus [ Wed Sep 23, 2009 7:33 am ] |
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While I mostly agree with you Shakken, I would give Bungie a bit more credit. I'm no Halo fanboy (I thought the first was cool, but the story got boring in the 2nd/3rd) but I think they succeeded in what they were trying to do, which was create a very cohesive style not only between each faction but also throughout the entire universe. The kind of variety that Nihei presents is perfectly suited for a endless city expanding beyond control, but such variety would not fit a less dystopian setting such as Halo/Marathon. I will say there seem to be a couple of similarities in the geometric plating as well as the scale and openness of the structures of the precursors or whatever they're called in Halo, but beyond that I don't see much. The human and Covenant ships do not seem to bear any resemblance. I think any influence here is pretty minor and probably not particularly worth noting. And to answer your final question, I don't think ODST is anything like BLAME! or BIOMEGA. It's a squad based shooter, whereas Nihei's characters are often very independent and isolated. I think, if anything, the Metroid games at least capture the mood and feel of the Nihei universe, though I would hesitate to draw a truly deep comparison. Now that I think of it though, this might be a bit of a stretch but Demon's Souls, an extremely brutal Japanese RPG, may capture some of the desperate and lonely mood as well. |
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| Author: | Red Scharlach [ Wed Sep 23, 2009 1:21 pm ] |
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| Author: | ShakKen [ Wed Sep 23, 2009 2:25 pm ] |
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| Author: | Quell [ Thu Sep 24, 2009 2:19 am ] |
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I strongly doubt Bungie has been influenced by Nihei. However Nihei openly admits to being a huge Halo fan and it shows, particularly in Biomega where the main character is basically Master Chief crossed with Killy (even has a Cortana-lookalike). I played a lot of Halo:CE and while the architecture was certainly grand for its time, it doesn't even come close to the scale or complexity of the stuff in Blame! It's odd that you seem to consider it a given that Bungie has been influenced by Blame! considering there's zero evidence to suggest that whatsoever. As far as flavors of sci-fi go, Blame! and Halo are practically on the opposite ends of the spectrum. |
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| Author: | Red Scharlach [ Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:33 pm ] |
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Lorraine McLees, who joined Bungie around the time they developed Oni, had made the claim that Nihei had been an inspiration. Add to that that around the same period they started hiring architects to assist in more credible level design and that Halo was code-named BLAM! during its development, and that's the sort of thing that has me drawing parallels. |
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| Author: | Net Sphere Imagineer [ Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:59 pm ] |
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Here's a story about Bungie & Nihei meeting: |
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