A drop of desire, a pinch of passion, some sugar spice, and everything nice, these are the ingredients chosen to create the perfect dish for our multiple course soiree. A banquet as sweet as its lessons. Welcome to Sweeten That Aesop.
Tonight's main course we have for you a Video Game Parfette. Layer after layer of graphics, combat, a Story to Gameplay Ratio aged to perfection. Platformers with humor as black as Devil's Food Cake and first-person shooters that leave a bitter taste in the mouth of your parents.
Perhaps we can Sweeten That Aesop.
To see a significantly less sweet version, visit Warp That Aesop.
Visit entries from: Main Page || Fan Works || Video Games
Aesops Pertaining to Video Games in-general:
- Just about every game ever: Good triumphs over evil in the end, even if it's a bumpy ride and requires sacrifice.
- Kleptomania is an asset - steal everything
- You can overcome most problems with persistence and changing your strategy when you need to.
- Any game with easy revives (Call of Duty, Gears of War in particular):
- The Power of Friendship.
- You can do better the next time.
- Any Player-vs-Player team-based video-game shows that team-work can overcome even the hardest obstacles.
- Any Metroidvania: Familiarizing yourself with the world around you can be very rewarding.
- Any Rogue Like: Life is short, so make the best out of it!
- Any Soulslike RPG: The bigger the challenge, the more rewarding it can be to win.
Aesops Pertaining to Specific Games:
- Ace Attorney:
- You don't have to be book-smart, socially savvy or even popular to win the day. All you need is an unwavering belief and the desire to do the right thing.
- Don't give up on your old friends, no matter how much they've changed for the worst. With enough patience and kindness, you'll get through to them.
- No matter what life throws at you, keep smiling. You'll come out on top.
- Death isn't the end of friendship.
- Being an attorney is not about winning cases, it's about finding the truth ensuring justice is served.
- Age of Wonders: Nations must overcome racism in order to achieve greatness.
- Alan Wake: Art is an awesome power that can shape the world around you.
- Alan Wake II: Great art is built upon a foundation of flaws and discarded first drafts. If your current one doesn't work out, the next one might.
- Assassin's Creed: History can be entertaining and interesting.
- Best of Three: Talking your emotions out can help you feel better.
- BioShock:
- Extremism, no matter the intentions behind it, will cause more harm than good.
- Family is worth fighting for.
- The Binding of Isaac:
- Never use the power of religion to harm others. It should only be used for good.
- While divorce may help end a troubled relationship, it can have negative effects on the outcome of your children's lives.
- Blazblue:
- It may hurt, but letting the past go can be the key to growing healthily from here on out.
- No matter how badly you've been screwed over or who it was that did it to you, just a few dependable people who honestly want to help can be enough to give you your life back.
- A patient series of small differences can be all it takes to escape what otherwise feels like an interminable loop.
- Helping people is admirable, but forcing your will on the world ultimately only benefits you. And you won't be here forever.
- Bloodborne: Science and religion have both their pros and their cons, especially when they work hand-in-hand.
- Bramble: The Mountain King: In a harsh world out to get you, never forget that there are people who help and need help in return. Maybe all that harshness is just because there are people that desperately needed that help and never got it. You don't want to contribute to that Cycle of Hurting, do you?
- Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: You don't have to be super to be a hero.
- Control:
- The best way to change a corrupt or incompetent system or institution is from within.
- Be nice to your things and your things will act in kind.
- Illiteracy is bad.
- Counterfeit Monkey: It's rewarding to have a good vocabulary.
- Dark Souls:
- Dark Souls: No matter how bad things get, it is still possible to pull things back from total destruction.
- Darkest Dungeon: Any victory is still a victory, no matter how rough it was or what it took to get there.
- Darkest Dungeon II: Even if you made regrettable actions in the past, you can still overcome your shortcomings and improve yourself.
- Deltarune:
- Even if your choices are meaningless, you can still choose to show kindness and mercy.
- Your choices may not be critical to the story at large, but they can still make surprising differences later on.
- Destroy All Humans!: Sowing fear, paranoia and ideological submission to authority into your own people doesn't help you control them better. If anything, all it does is make it easier for your enemies to do the same.
- Destroy All Humans! 2:
- You can accomplish anything with teamwork.
- What's a species-divide between friends?
- Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed: Do you really need a reminder that fast-food is unhealthy without throwing cannibalism into the mix?
- Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon: Your job will always be needed, even when an alternative exists.
- Destroy All Humans! 2:
- Dwarf Fortress: When things get hard, stay calm and keep your head. Internal strife can destroy a community more surely than any external threat, so sometimes it's best to just let things go.
- The Elder Scrolls
- Determination will get you far. With determination, you can do anything from becoming head of a guild, to fighting a world-eating dragon.
- The world is a lot less of an exciting place without you around. They depend on you, and want you here.
- Endless Legend: Never give up, even when it feels like the whole world is doomed to a cold, painful death!
- Epic Mickey: No matter how famous you are, never forget your family members that are worse off than you.
- Eversion: If there's someone you love who needs help and you can give them that help, do it no matter the personal cost.
- Fable: Morality is much more complicated than a mere good/evil binary.
- Fallout:
- When looking to the past, don't try to return to it, learn from it and try to build a better future.
- No matter what catastrophes happen, know that you can always rebuild and recover.
- Fallout 4:
- Far Cry 4: Sometimes, the best way to achieve your goals is to sit and wait for 15 minutes.
- Far Cry 5: You don't have to solve every problem with violence. Peaceful de-escalation can yield the exact same results with far fewer losses.
- Far Cry Primal: Prehistoric Monsters make Cool Pets.
- First Encounter Assault Recon:
- No matter what else happens, remember this: Mommy loves you.
- Family can overcome anything to come together, be it mistrust, violence, armies, and even death.
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: It's better to face your problems than try to run away from them.
- Fire Emblem:
- Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War: Never falter in your resolve, for you will save the world, even if it takes seventeen years and a son to do so.
- Fire Emblem Tellius:
- No matter how much your life's sucked, if you can find one person to believe in who won't ever leave your side, it's worth everything.
- Letting go of old prejudices will earn you the trust and friendship of those you once shunned.
- Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: In difficult times, abandoning your kinder side may seem like an easier option, but sticking by it can change the world.
- Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn: There is always a third option.note
- Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: Even when everything seems darkest, there is always one last hope.
- Fire Emblem: Awakening:
- Destiny can be altered if you work hard enough and believe in the bonds between you, your friends and your family.
- If you help a woman win the affections of another man, she just might end up falling for you instead!
- Unrequited love can hurt, but it's not fatal and you can always love again.
- No matter how prickly you are and how hard it is for you to get close to people, there will always be one person who sees past that and reaches out to you.
- Sometimes, using dark magic can lead to wonderful things, including falling in love!
- No matter how much your friends and teammates yell at you for "always running away", deep down they truly care for you and want to help even if they're not good at expressing it.
- If you take off the mask, someone just may fall madly in love with you.
- Even if your self-sacrifice would save the world, it may not necessarily be the right thing to do. Sometimes, getting rid of the Big Bad isn't worth others losing a best friend, a spouse or a parent, and a thousand years is a long time. So enjoy your life while you've got it.
- Fire Emblem Fates:
- You can save the world and stop a war with minimal casualties and no betrayal. It won't be easy, but with enough time and effort you'll convince both sides of a greater enemy and bring them together-not just for the sake of winning the war, but forming a lifelong bond of friendship!
- Even the lowest of street rats can find a home and a purpose.
- Stalking isn't the best way to get someone's attention, but don't change too much. They love you just the way you are.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
- Not everything is as it seems. Even when you think you know the whole story, there may be more layers underneath with their share of surprises waiting to be discovered...
- Sometimes, you simply cannot satisfy everyone no matter how hard you try. You have to make a decisive choice, so just follow your reason and heart.
- Teach your students well today, and they'll return the favor tomorrow.
- Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes:
- Revenge can only carry you so far. Sometimes it makes more sense to let go of your grudges before they consume you.
- Even if you start out on opposite sides in a war, it's still possible to work together toward a common cause if both sides are willing to reach out.
- Taking good care of others is well and all, but it should not come at the expense of your own well-being.
- Fortnite: Seemingly inconsequential actions like thanking the bus driver will make you look like a better person to everyone else.
- Ghost of Tsushima: When your sense of honor interferes with the safety and well-being of people it is meant to protect, perhaps then you should really think about it critically.
- Grand Theft Auto V:
- Even the most broken of relationships (be they family or friendship) can slowly be patched together with talking and time.
- Loyalty and honesty are very important virtues. Don't lie to your best friend(s). If you are in trouble in any way, simply talk to them about it. Don't stab them in the back when they're not watching because it looks like the easy way out.
- Hollow Knight:
- Thinking that you're tougher than you really are will put you in danger.
- It's not cool to get a cheap hit on someone while they're politely bowing to you.
- Horizon Zero Dawn: Even in Patriarchal societies, strong women can make something of themselves if they are capable.
- Horizon Forbidden West: Teamwork makes the dream work!
- I Wanna Be the Guy: Even an obstacle that seems impossible can be overcome with perseverance.
- Kingdom Hearts: Not all friendships last forever... but even the memory of a friendship long over can comfort you in harsh times.
- Knights of the Old Republic: Screw Destiny. When life gives you a second chance, it's entirely yours to decide what you do with it.
- Left 4 Dead: The Power of Friendship is the most potent force in the world. Relying on friends can save you from anything.
- The Legend of Zelda: Courage is doing something, even when you're scared shitless, because you know it's the right thing.
- Metal Gear:
- Metal Gear Solid: Don't base your self-image around something that isn't your fault and that you have no control over. The alleged inferiority that you're obsessing over might not even be true, anyway. Also, no matter how mad you are at the world, and how cool your military tech is, don't start nuclear wars.
- Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty: No matter how much you admire your role models, it's still healthier to be yourself.
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater: A person's current political allegiance is not necessarily a reliable guide to whether or not they're a good person.
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: Sometimes we have to make a lasting legacy for a new generation.
- Minecraft:
- Be creative.
- You can build anything if you set your mind to it and can defend it from saboteurs.
- Exploration is awesome.
- Machinery is awesome.
- Trade is awesome.
- The New Order Last Days Of Europe: Not only is it morally indefensible, but at the end of the day, fascism just plain doesn't work.
- OMORI: Friends are nice, but putting your own mental well-being first is also nice.
- Pandemic: No matter how bad things seem, mankind will always find a way to endure.
- Persona 4: Everybody has a dark side to them, but learning to embrace your flaws will help you overcome anything in your way.
- Pikmin:
- General: Teamwork makes the dream work!
- Pikmin Bloom: Flowers bring all of us together!
- Pizza Tower:
- Fear, stress, and anger can be your strongest weapons.
- There's nothing wrong with pineapple on pizza!
- Psychonauts: Exercising is important if you want to become a secret agent.
- Psychonauts 2:
- Forgiveness is possible, no matter how hard you mess up.
- You don't need superpowers to accomplish great things.
- Pumpkin Jack: Being Evil Sucks.
- Punch-Out!! Wii:
- Mac's Last Stand: It's okay if you quit while you're ahead; you're better off being remembered as a legend than a has-been.
- Glass Joe as a character: No matter how many times you get knocked down, you gotta keep picking yourself back up.
- Bear Hugger as a character: Animals are our friends, and we must treat them as such.
- Rain World:
- Saints Row:
- Stand by your friends, and they'll stand by you.
- If you're drunk, don't try to do anything involving fire.
- Skylanders:
- Swap Force: A vacation doesn't always have to be a time to relax. A new adventure in a new world can sometimes even be better.
- Sly Cooper:
- General:
- When asked To Be Lawful or Good, good comes first or else the law is meaningless.
- Documenting family history is beneficial for both you and your descendants.
- Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus:
- No enterprise, no matter how corrupt, can't exist within a vacuum.
- Hate is a finite resource that breeds only obsession no matter how beneficial it seems.
- Sly 2: Band of Thieves: Global warming is everybody's problem and can feed into itself.
- Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves: Forgiving old grudges can open you up to new opportunities.
- Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time: Protracted pettiness and pride will get you killed.
- General:
- Sonic the Hedgehog: If you constantly chase a guy, it will make him even more uninterested in you.
- Sonic Lost World: Never trust evil people over your best friend, because they will use you to advance their evil goals.
- Spec Ops: The Line:
- No matter what mistakes you've made, you can still redeem yourself.
- Nobody means to truly hurt anybody and everyone has meaning behind their actions.
- Spyro the Dragon:
- Spyro the Dragon (1998): Just because you're small, doesn't mean you aren't capable of great things.
- Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!: Just because they kidnapped you, doesn't mean they can't still be your friends.
- Spyro: Year of the Dragon: Don't completely remove an animal (especially the sentient ones) from its ecosystem. It just might have been integral to it.
- Spyro Reignited Trilogy: Don't let a difference in species get in the way of love.
- The Sims: If you work hard at the things that truly matter, especially at having good friends, you will have a far better, more fulfilling quality of life than if you let the universe push you around or let life pass you by while living on autopilot.
- Stubbs the Zombie: Automation only works to a point.
- Sunset Overdrive: For every one disaster, there are millions of opportunities for all involved.
- Superliminal: An apple a day makes for good problem solving tool.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Super Mario Bros.: Winning someone's affections and/or finding true love takes time and a lot of effort.
- Super Mario Bros. 2: Dreams can truly be a source of wonder, even if they're outright bizarre or not quite as pleasant as you expected.
- Tekken: Not all families are loving.
- Tyranny: Don't judge people too harshly. Even someone who seems like a Complete Monster may well be trying to make the best of a bad situation. What would you have done in their position? What could you have done?
