Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

In february a new video game is being released called Dante’s Inferno and it looks like it is going to be a terrific game. It is based on one third of the Triptych poem by Dante, the Inferno (Hell). One of the most interesting things about this video game is the ease of creativity that came with it. It is almost as if Dante were designing a video game when he wrote the Divine Comedy. And it is easy to see how the story could be adapted to a video game.

First off it has an overarching theme “Beatrice has been kidnapped to the depths of hell and our hero “Dante” has to enter and rescue her. - pretty much a perfect overall theme.

Secondly, Hell is broken down into nine levels. Hmmm… can it get any more video game than that? Nine levels to battle through and each level with it’s own theme like Lust, Gluttony, Wrath, Violence etc.

Finally when you are making a video game a lot of thought has to go into the environment or world that the game takes place in. Will it be set in a medieval world? A far-off planet? In the case of this game it takes place in what might be the best environment of all - Hell! Does it get any better than that?

An awful lot has been made of Joseph Campbell’s Heroes Journey. And well, it’s a great idea and a near perfect formula that just about every epic fantasy book or movie follows. Heck, even stuff that is not epic fantasy follows the Heroes Journey. But, it seems to me that Dante had this formula figured out a full seven hundred years earlier!