Anthem(Or as I'm now thinking of it, Stormlight the game)

[Aminar]

Spoilers for Anthem, Edgedancer, and Stormlight as a whole, but nothing major.

So, I've been following this game loosely for a while. And it's always had a vaguely Sandersonesque feel. The world is "Half completed" and abandoned by some kind of deific space tech entities, which have always really reminded me of Shards. 

The game itself is best described as Destiny meets Mass Effect meets Iron Man on a core level.

But let's get into some crazy parallels here.

Parallel 1: The Map. It's got a bunch of guys in fancy armor nobody really understands and almost nobody can make flying through enormous canyons. This is minor. But it creates a specific feel.

Parallel 2: Giant Storms. The game was inspired by hurricanes. There's events called Shaper Storms that sound like they're going to cover the map. They posit a real world inspiration for this, but it's another parallel, and one that's getting pretty close. https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/24/18194445/bioware-anthem-storytelling-interview-ps4-xbox-pc?fbclid=IwAR0sw8d_d_mEs7CYxIFUQ7dvOgZla2q6K6t2jFV5_fcMDjiqcaTAd1-4Mc4 

Parallel 3: All right. Time for the bigger stuff. Cymatics. This is a quote from one of the game's developers, in regards to what the Anthem is. "I can answer that! So we call it the sub woofer of doom internally. :smiley: But yea the thought is that the anthem is based around sound and cymatics. I guess based is a strong word. So having that weird amplitude to it and the energy coming off of it plays into that. We aren't going to try and explain things as in this world it's just kinda like the way a lot of things are and it's kind of so above our level of understanding as humans we can't wrap our mind around a lot of it. But yes a lot of the visual language we have for that kind of thing is based off of CymaticsI" Yep. The giant powerful artifact that made the world full of crazy canyons. The same principle that made the Dawn Cities. That's super specific. Cymatics are not a commonly used trope.

Parallel 4: Now it's getting silly. https://anthem.fandom.com/wiki/Scars  Uhuh, you read that right. One of the game's main antagonists are humanoid looking beings made up of swarms of insects. I'm not saying that's an incredibly original idea, but we're looking at 4 defining features of the Stormlight Archive all in one place. Granted, nothing in game really feels like they're an insect swarm, but that's even more suspicious.

Technically there's more. Giant Crab things. Hovery Space Wizards. The fact the development started just a couple years after the Way of Kings. It really feels like Stormlight played a huge role in defining this game. Not to the point I feel they're doing anything wrong. More, it excites me to think the developers of a game I enjoy are taking inspiration from things I enjoy.

Edit: Oh... Also there's this group called the Legion of Dawn. Which... Dawnsingers, Dawnshards, Etc.

Edited January 29, 2019 by Aminar

[Ashertliden]

Nice catch! I'd also say that the following is reminiscent of Stormform/Rythms.

"Other Javelins include the Storm, which uses powerful technology to unleash the 'rage of the hymn'"

 

[Wander89 he/him]

Well if I wasn't excited for Anthem before, I am now!