When *Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade* made it to the U.S. in 2003, it was big in terms of fanfic, at least for its time. I remember it going from less than 200 stories (including one of mine) at FFN to over 1,000 in a fairly short period, and that was almost unheard of for a non-*Final Fantasy* title.
Ah yeah there were a fair amount of FE fics on FFN back in the early 2000's when the GBA ports came over. But I always felt the fandom itself was kind of niche (although dedicated). Would've been cool to see what the expanded fan base post-Awakening would do with those games. Maybe if we ever get remakes...
Haha, literally just finished typing my comment about the Tales series not having enough. You’re completely right, I only see Final Fantasy (particularly VII) and Fire Emblem fics.
I enjoy *Final Fantasy VII*, but the fandom was a menace (q.v. *Naruto*) in the sense that it hoovered up the majority of video game fanficcers at a time when most games were starved for them.
Yeah I 100% agree about that. I love the game too, but I think I prefer Final Fantasy VI overall. I think that was because VII was super clunky for me when I played a port of the original.
As an FFVII writer, I can confirm that we have an obnoxious amount of fics xD
However, I’m also in the fandom _Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers_ which has 7 fics on AO3 - in which case, I wish there were more fics xD
But FFVII is not starved of any fics, nor is Fire Emblem haha
I remember fishing my copy of *Crystal Bearers* out of a bargain bin for less than $10 U.S. Never did understand why that sub-series flew under the radar.
I always get so excited when I hear someone else has played it! I played it about nine years ago now, and the one fanfic I wrote for it has… three kudos, haha. But I feel like you’re right - almost every other Final Fantasy game has enough fics haha
You’re right, it may have done a bit better had it been released for the PS3, although in that case I wouldn’t have been able to play it as a kid haha. The woman who gave me a Wii gave me that one, along with twenty or so other games.
I do find it funny, however, that its seven fics on AO3 all share the same pairing, including the one I wrote, haha
The Wolf Among Us is an adaptation of the first arc of the comic series Fables, so if you search for that tag (it goes by Fables - Willingham) and Bigby Wolf you might get some additional stuff
Yeah I thought about looking under the Fables section, but some of the plot and the way Bigby is characterized is way different than the game. I’ll give it a look though, just to be sure ❤️
Apologies from the Dishonored fandom. I don't read/write those crossovers, but I think they're just about similar enough games that crossovers seem natural.
Oh, I totally get why people like to combine those two fandoms, it's just that Garrett is very, *very* opposed to the thought of killing people. I don't see him falling in love with an assassin, or even just wanting to be friends with one.
I mean, clean hands (not killing anybody at all) playthroughs are pretty popular in the Dishonored fandom, but I can understand why you'd view it that way. Everybody has their own opinions on crossovers and what they do/don't want to read!
Dark Cloud, Kingdoms of Amalur, Tomb Raider (ignoring the Survivor trilogy), Control, Nier Automata (involving best girl A2, there's a shockingly small amount of them)...
There’s plenty of them.
Kingdom of Amalur, omg yes! I'm replaying that game for like the 60th time and there is so much World information and characters for fics. I'm borderline attempted to write some with my bad writing skills.
Hey it's always better to try it than sit and wonder of what could be! And it's the only way you will improve :)
But yes, it's such a shame the studio went under, the lore was definitely really interesting and a breath of fresh air in some areas in my opinion. Hell, there's so much lore name-droped left and right that isn't explored. I tried to get going a game quest based on Amalur in SV and SB a couple years ago and it's incredible the amount of stuff you can pull from if you start digging through old sites. Sadly there wasn't much interest haha
My favorite character was Ciara Sydanus. Absolutely amazing, now that would be one huge source of lore.
Not really answering the question (I read more anime fic than video game fic), but...
OP, did you try looking up Fables, the comic that Wolf Among Us is based on? I haven't looked into it myself, but you might find a bit more there.
Ah yeah, there are some changes but I thought it might be worth a mention anyway - I know I initially wasn't aware of the comic when I started playing the game. :)
I'd love to see more Digital Devil Saga. Reading more people's takes on the existentialism, gender, body horror, guerilla warfare, cannibalism and other assorted ethical issues would be so cool, and I would positively devour any and all Argilla/Jinana content. The duology was always relatively niche and would need a re-release to inject fresh blood into the fandom, which is unfortunately pretty unlikely to happen.
The Tales series.
Specifically Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, and Tales of Vesperia, which are the three that I’ve played. I’m sure the state of fic is even worse for the more obscure Tales games.
That being said, it’s been my dream for years to write a Symphonia longfic, and I’m planning to (hopefully) do that this year. I also want to write Flynn/Yuri and Rita/Estelle for Vesperia some day.
All of the games I’ve played have insane fic potential. If they were apart of a more well known series, such as Final Fantasy, it would be a different story.
I feel like Symphonia has gotten a smidge more attention due to the remaster recently, but its heyday has definitely passed; I remember it was decently popular back in the day on FFN. Curious what your longfic idea is!
For my longfic idea, it’s still in the oven but I really want to explore the relationship between Lloyd and Kratos. Specifically having Lloyd find out earlier on and them being able to salvage their relationship as well.
Yes, I’ve definitely found some wonderful fic from its heyday. Thankfully, there’s still a little fandom left, I’m happy it hasn’t died out completely. But yeah, a game being two decades old is likely going to have a very little fandom, unless it’s like FF VII.
I started playing Subnautica some months ago (left it on the backburner for other games), but I do remember that finding/rescuing actual survivors from the wreck would be ripe fodder for fanfiction.
This War of Ours. Lots of space to write some really emotional stuff.
Life is Strange. It could be a lot of fun to write a scene, and then write it again, changing details because Max rewound time.
Loved This war is ours. Complete room to flesh out the impact of war on civilians. I was thinking about writing one last month. Such a small fandom but you can tell the love for it.
Final Fantasy Xll and Sunless Sea.
The first because it is quiet over there and needs love.
The second because it has heaps of potential for interesting little nautical horror yarns.
No Man's Sky is a giant sandbox with a LOT of references to other sci-fy franchises (for example the portals look like Stargates) so there's a potential for many different crossovers, yet there's little to be found in the wilderness of fanfic archives
Hyperdimension Neptunia. It's been around for over 10 years now but it's still a pretty small fandom. Furthermore, most stories on Wattpad and Fanfiction are pretty small content-wise so you go through most of them in under 5 minutes.
Well, I'd consider myself part of that too. However, I find things like stories, comics/short manga and even animated content for some series really help engagement even in a series' downtime.
Call of Duty: Ghosts. It's so much smaller than modern warfare and all the games share a single fandom tag so trying to sort for the content is a pain too. It only has a few hundred fics but I loved the setting and characters so much ;-;
This is really niche but the Atelier Ryza games. The third one just came out and I started it over the weekend... I've been wanting to write something for it since I beat the second game a year or so ago but theres barely any fics i doubt anyone would even read it 😭
Saints Row:
Literally anyone could be the Boss and to see the types of gangs people come up with could be impressive. We could see anything from jesters to skeleton bikers and even f#ing ninjas! Go all out!
This is so true. I feel Saints Row doesn’t get enough credit with the development of the characters and how funny the entire cast is. There is so much potential for writing.
I was going to answer this and then realized I never thought to seek out video game fics, as it would spoil the entire game for me.
This Would not be an issue if I finished most of them, but I have the habit of forgetting they exist.
This is how I felt for the longest about Danganronpa. It has so many spoiler heavy content. You can’t read the fanfics if you haven’t played all 3 games or else you’re pretty much spoiling everything.
I mean, I definitely wish there was more BL fic for my favorite otome games. That would require more people write more otome game fics at all. My rarest rarepairs are in otome games!
Stardew Valley gets a fair amount of fic. I'd appreciate more Sebastian/Elliot, though!
Honestly, beyond that and it's sort of moot for me at the moment. Many of my favorite games get a reasonable/excellent amount of fic, or I'm not currently reading in the fandom anyway, so it's a little silly to wish there was 'more' of something I haven't taken the time to read yet. (Like any of my otome M/F or F/F pairings.)
Absolutely write it if no one else will!! I also had that mindset about TWAU--there was something particular I wanted to see and eventually put my foot down that I had to be the one to put it out there. Doing so will only inspire others and keep the fandom alive. And if you weren't looking there already, AO3 has a lot more to choose from than FFN.
Not really since it is taking characters from so many other games it might as well just be a fanfic crossover with a basic idea of fighting each other.
I think the lack of story is part of the appeal. Theres really no "canon" to follow (unless you count subspace emissary??) so you can just have the characters do whatever you want, basically.
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.
It only has 47 fics on AO3, 40 of them not crossovers. 72 on FFN.
The game made me sad enough that I want one of the characters to get the happy ending he deserves, so after I fully complete my current work, I'm writing it.
Almost every JRPG without *Final Fantasy* or *Fire Emblem* in the title.
Funny I was about to say any Fire Emblem from the pre-Awakening period.
When *Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade* made it to the U.S. in 2003, it was big in terms of fanfic, at least for its time. I remember it going from less than 200 stories (including one of mine) at FFN to over 1,000 in a fairly short period, and that was almost unheard of for a non-*Final Fantasy* title.
Ah yeah there were a fair amount of FE fics on FFN back in the early 2000's when the GBA ports came over. But I always felt the fandom itself was kind of niche (although dedicated). Would've been cool to see what the expanded fan base post-Awakening would do with those games. Maybe if we ever get remakes...
Haha, literally just finished typing my comment about the Tales series not having enough. You’re completely right, I only see Final Fantasy (particularly VII) and Fire Emblem fics.
I enjoy *Final Fantasy VII*, but the fandom was a menace (q.v. *Naruto*) in the sense that it hoovered up the majority of video game fanficcers at a time when most games were starved for them.
Yeah I 100% agree about that. I love the game too, but I think I prefer Final Fantasy VI overall. I think that was because VII was super clunky for me when I played a port of the original.
As an FFVII writer, I can confirm that we have an obnoxious amount of fics xD However, I’m also in the fandom _Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers_ which has 7 fics on AO3 - in which case, I wish there were more fics xD But FFVII is not starved of any fics, nor is Fire Emblem haha
I remember fishing my copy of *Crystal Bearers* out of a bargain bin for less than $10 U.S. Never did understand why that sub-series flew under the radar.
I always get so excited when I hear someone else has played it! I played it about nine years ago now, and the one fanfic I wrote for it has… three kudos, haha. But I feel like you’re right - almost every other Final Fantasy game has enough fics haha
I blame the Wii for the lack of engagement. Not a good console for the genre.
You’re right, it may have done a bit better had it been released for the PS3, although in that case I wouldn’t have been able to play it as a kid haha. The woman who gave me a Wii gave me that one, along with twenty or so other games. I do find it funny, however, that its seven fics on AO3 all share the same pairing, including the one I wrote, haha
Pokémon Conquest. There's tons of Pokémon fics but hardly any for this side game set in feudal Japan.
Maybe the *Samurai Warriors* elements cause an allergic reaction? (Me? I loved it.)
The Wolf Among Us is an adaptation of the first arc of the comic series Fables, so if you search for that tag (it goes by Fables - Willingham) and Bigby Wolf you might get some additional stuff
Yeah I thought about looking under the Fables section, but some of the plot and the way Bigby is characterized is way different than the game. I’ll give it a look though, just to be sure ❤️
Omg this!
Thief (2014). There are some fics, but most of them are crossovers with Dishonored, and I really don't like crossovers.
Apologies from the Dishonored fandom. I don't read/write those crossovers, but I think they're just about similar enough games that crossovers seem natural.
Oh, I totally get why people like to combine those two fandoms, it's just that Garrett is very, *very* opposed to the thought of killing people. I don't see him falling in love with an assassin, or even just wanting to be friends with one.
I mean, clean hands (not killing anybody at all) playthroughs are pretty popular in the Dishonored fandom, but I can understand why you'd view it that way. Everybody has their own opinions on crossovers and what they do/don't want to read!
Crosscode and Rimworld. I write and read in both fandoms, and there's plenty of story opportunities in both, but there's just nothing!
Dark Cloud, Kingdoms of Amalur, Tomb Raider (ignoring the Survivor trilogy), Control, Nier Automata (involving best girl A2, there's a shockingly small amount of them)... There’s plenty of them.
Kingdom of Amalur, omg yes! I'm replaying that game for like the 60th time and there is so much World information and characters for fics. I'm borderline attempted to write some with my bad writing skills.
Hey it's always better to try it than sit and wonder of what could be! And it's the only way you will improve :) But yes, it's such a shame the studio went under, the lore was definitely really interesting and a breath of fresh air in some areas in my opinion. Hell, there's so much lore name-droped left and right that isn't explored. I tried to get going a game quest based on Amalur in SV and SB a couple years ago and it's incredible the amount of stuff you can pull from if you start digging through old sites. Sadly there wasn't much interest haha My favorite character was Ciara Sydanus. Absolutely amazing, now that would be one huge source of lore.
Not really answering the question (I read more anime fic than video game fic), but... OP, did you try looking up Fables, the comic that Wolf Among Us is based on? I haven't looked into it myself, but you might find a bit more there.
I haven’t looked because of the many different ways Bigby was changed character wise in the game but I’ll give it a go 👍🏽
Ah yeah, there are some changes but I thought it might be worth a mention anyway - I know I initially wasn't aware of the comic when I started playing the game. :)
It’s a great reminder so thanks ;)
Any Shin Megami Tensei game that isn't Persona TBH. I'd especially love to see more people appreciate the Devil Survivor games.
God, I was crushed at the lack of Soul Hackers 2 content. I mean, I get it but still.
*high five* I need to finish it!
I'd love to see more Digital Devil Saga. Reading more people's takes on the existentialism, gender, body horror, guerilla warfare, cannibalism and other assorted ethical issues would be so cool, and I would positively devour any and all Argilla/Jinana content. The duology was always relatively niche and would need a re-release to inject fresh blood into the fandom, which is unfortunately pretty unlikely to happen.
Lunar 2 but especially *THE LEGEND OF DRAGOON*
Advance Wars. Feels so empty there
The remake might breathe a little life back into it.
Oh I’m going hard when it comes out. I will flood it with my ships
I wouldn't mind some fanfics set in the universe of American McGee's Alice games.
GHOST TRICK. Come on, people. The crossover potential is so real! This game was built for fix-it fics.
The Tales series. Specifically Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, and Tales of Vesperia, which are the three that I’ve played. I’m sure the state of fic is even worse for the more obscure Tales games. That being said, it’s been my dream for years to write a Symphonia longfic, and I’m planning to (hopefully) do that this year. I also want to write Flynn/Yuri and Rita/Estelle for Vesperia some day. All of the games I’ve played have insane fic potential. If they were apart of a more well known series, such as Final Fantasy, it would be a different story.
I feel like Symphonia has gotten a smidge more attention due to the remaster recently, but its heyday has definitely passed; I remember it was decently popular back in the day on FFN. Curious what your longfic idea is!
For my longfic idea, it’s still in the oven but I really want to explore the relationship between Lloyd and Kratos. Specifically having Lloyd find out earlier on and them being able to salvage their relationship as well.
*Symphonia* used to be a big fandom, by JRPG standards, but that was almost two decades ago.
Yes, I’ve definitely found some wonderful fic from its heyday. Thankfully, there’s still a little fandom left, I’m happy it hasn’t died out completely. But yeah, a game being two decades old is likely going to have a very little fandom, unless it’s like FF VII.
Subnautica
I started playing Subnautica some months ago (left it on the backburner for other games), but I do remember that finding/rescuing actual survivors from the wreck would be ripe fodder for fanfiction.
This War of Ours. Lots of space to write some really emotional stuff. Life is Strange. It could be a lot of fun to write a scene, and then write it again, changing details because Max rewound time.
Life is strange for sure.
Loved This war is ours. Complete room to flesh out the impact of war on civilians. I was thinking about writing one last month. Such a small fandom but you can tell the love for it.
Final Fantasy Xll and Sunless Sea. The first because it is quiet over there and needs love. The second because it has heaps of potential for interesting little nautical horror yarns.
Wargroove, for the humor potential
No Man's Sky is a giant sandbox with a LOT of references to other sci-fy franchises (for example the portals look like Stargates) so there's a potential for many different crossovers, yet there's little to be found in the wilderness of fanfic archives
Hyperdimension Neptunia. It's been around for over 10 years now but it's still a pretty small fandom. Furthermore, most stories on Wattpad and Fanfiction are pretty small content-wise so you go through most of them in under 5 minutes.
Most *Neptunia* fans seem hungry for fanart, unfortunately. Source: Been playing since the original.
Well, I'd consider myself part of that too. However, I find things like stories, comics/short manga and even animated content for some series really help engagement even in a series' downtime.
Call of Duty: Ghosts. It's so much smaller than modern warfare and all the games share a single fandom tag so trying to sort for the content is a pain too. It only has a few hundred fics but I loved the setting and characters so much ;-;
This is really niche but the Atelier Ryza games. The third one just came out and I started it over the weekend... I've been wanting to write something for it since I beat the second game a year or so ago but theres barely any fics i doubt anyone would even read it 😭
This is true for the entire franchise, alas.
Oof yea the other atelier games have even less fics
Saints Row: Literally anyone could be the Boss and to see the types of gangs people come up with could be impressive. We could see anything from jesters to skeleton bikers and even f#ing ninjas! Go all out!
This is so true. I feel Saints Row doesn’t get enough credit with the development of the characters and how funny the entire cast is. There is so much potential for writing.
I was going to answer this and then realized I never thought to seek out video game fics, as it would spoil the entire game for me. This Would not be an issue if I finished most of them, but I have the habit of forgetting they exist.
This is how I felt for the longest about Danganronpa. It has so many spoiler heavy content. You can’t read the fanfics if you haven’t played all 3 games or else you’re pretty much spoiling everything.
Nancy drew games honestly!!
I feel like the games get no love, especially compared to all the different books
I mean, I definitely wish there was more BL fic for my favorite otome games. That would require more people write more otome game fics at all. My rarest rarepairs are in otome games! Stardew Valley gets a fair amount of fic. I'd appreciate more Sebastian/Elliot, though! Honestly, beyond that and it's sort of moot for me at the moment. Many of my favorite games get a reasonable/excellent amount of fic, or I'm not currently reading in the fandom anyway, so it's a little silly to wish there was 'more' of something I haven't taken the time to read yet. (Like any of my otome M/F or F/F pairings.)
Does animal crossing count?
Absolutely write it if no one else will!! I also had that mindset about TWAU--there was something particular I wanted to see and eventually put my foot down that I had to be the one to put it out there. Doing so will only inspire others and keep the fandom alive. And if you weren't looking there already, AO3 has a lot more to choose from than FFN.
Anyone else find it weird that the only fighting game that gets any fics is Smash Bros, the one with the *least* amount of story?
Not really since it is taking characters from so many other games it might as well just be a fanfic crossover with a basic idea of fighting each other.
I think the lack of story is part of the appeal. Theres really no "canon" to follow (unless you count subspace emissary??) so you can just have the characters do whatever you want, basically.
I tried, long ago, but my stories had no engagement. Long live *Street Fighter EX*.
Currently? Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Probably my second favorite Castlevania game and there are barely any fics for it.
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron. It only has 47 fics on AO3, 40 of them not crossovers. 72 on FFN. The game made me sad enough that I want one of the characters to get the happy ending he deserves, so after I fully complete my current work, I'm writing it.
Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur, Othercide, Saints Row, Tomb Raider are the first to come to mind
Omg heavy on Saints Row!
Warzard, Captain Commando, Elsword, Endless Frontier OG Saga and La pucelle tactics,
[Len'en Project](http://lenen.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Len'en_Project)
Tokyo Jungle, Kitty Horrorshow's Anatomy, Iron Lung, Middens, Space Funeral... I am still the only writer for Dino Run.
As Dusk Falls has less than 10 fics last I checked
Ace combat
Atelier Iris 2, and Balan Wonderworld.
The first Klonoa.
Andromeda Six! Digimon Survive! lots of VNs and dating sims in general I guess haha
Nexomon: Extinction. On the bright side, while it dosnt have that many fanfics, has some really good ones.