What is Battle Royale, the origin of the battle for survival game genre?

What is the battle royale genre? Since its inception, it has penetrated into countless game franchises. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and DayZ helped make the genre popular, Fortnite Battle Royale turned it into a cultural phenomenon, while Apex Legends proved newcomers can still join and battle royale isn’t just about shooters, “Tetris 99” ” is an example. Now, many major studios are pursuing “last survivor” gameplay to capture this fertile market.

With such rapid development, the origin of battle royale is becoming more and more obscure. How did we get to this day? Battle Royale doesn’t really start with PUBG or Minecraft’s survival mode or the Hollywood movie The Hunger Game. Its origin comes from a novel series that was adapted into a manga, then slowly turned into a blockbuster Battle Royale. But the whole book has its own plot.

Author Koushun Takami released Battle Royale in 1999, a refined version of the story he used in a 1997 writing contest (he didn’t win that year). A year after its publication, the novel series was officially adapted into a manga and film, as well as being criticized for its horror and violent content.

Takami’s Battle Royale has darker content than many other killer games. At the beginning of the novel, Japan in a fascist regime wants to prevent acts of subversion of any kind. In order to bring fear to the public, the government activated the “Fighting Test Program No. 68”. The program collects a group of high school students, sends them to an island, and gives them random items and weapons. Having an explosive device placed on their necks, the students must fight each other until there is only one survivor.

This competition rule is the origin for the battle royale genre in the developed game world. The game developers apply many rules of the game in the story, from the death ring (the circle) that automatically activates dynamite on the student’s neck, to the student being given a random starter weapon. (In the novel, an unlucky student only gets a boomerang. Anyone who drops into Apex Legends only picks up a hat and Mozambique can understand the situation.)

But how did Takami come up with Experimental Combat Program #68? In the 2009 version of Battle Royale, the author writes a farewell to this extremely popular story. He wanted to say everything he could about his work so that he could completely leave it and start another story. (Unfortunately, Takami hasn’t released any new work since Battle Royale.)

Takami initially wanted his story to be a detective thriller, but faced many difficulties. However, like many writers, he also draws inspiration from the unexpected: hallucinations caused by lack of sleep.

I was lying in bed, half dreaming, half awake, and I had an image of a teacher in my head from a school movie I watched on TV a long time ago. He said, “Okay class, listen up.” […] “From now on, I will force you to kill each other!” The image of that teacher appeared very vivid, I laughed, but also felt scary. […] And just like that, I knew what I had to write about.

Battle Royale comes from images in the mind. When Takami learned that the plot would revolve around students killing each other, he discussed with his friends about thinking of it like a wrestling royal rumble match (if you watch WWE). Matches like this have been around for a long time in the wrestling career, and they continue to attract more than 20 fighters entering the ring before one by one is eliminated.

What excites Takami about this idea lies in the social aspect of battle royale, the way old foes band together to overcome a stronger opponent, and friends and teammates are forced to betray each other in order to win. take life for yourself. This, more than anything else, makes the book so terrifying: their laws require you to betray someone important to ensure your survival.

Takami faced this fear for a while. Later, Takami shared his story that was originally intended to be a gentle love. Once a wrestling fan, Takami wanted to instill a sporty spirit around this story. But he continued to return to the betrayal element: Being “betrayed” by friends and made into a laughing stock in public, compared to being betrayed and shot dead by friends are two completely different feelings.

The level of distrust of many friends cannot be compared. I realize, there’s nothing sporty about it. And I thought at that point, I could have written this story.

His inspiration does not stop at the wrestling arena, but also comes from Japan. Takami grew up in the 1960s, when many major revolutionary groups fought back against police brutality. After the economic boom, revolutionary groups mostly disappeared, perhaps out of laziness, or, according to Takami, because they realized that throwing molotovs over and over wouldn’t change anything.

This fact, when combined with the inspirations from the series of horror novels by Stephen King, The Long Walk (1979), about a run organized by a totalitarian government, helped him sketch out the fascist world of Battle Royale. This is a world where “although everyone opposes it, no one dares to speak up. That’s why nothing has changed.”

Given what Takami tells his story, it doesn’t seem like a game adaptation of the original Battle Royale novel would look like Fortnite at all, but rather follow the Danganronpa series: each game in the series includes a study group. Students are forced to kill each other, and the game is built around suspicion and betrayal. Sportsmanship or honor does not exist in Danganronpa’s world. Of course, the Danganronpa games already have a loyal following of their own, but the series is still not as global a phenomenon as the battle royale games.

Danganronpa and Fortnite represent two different aspects of Takami. From the psychological horror and Stephen King novels, we have the suspicion and intrigue of Danganronpa. From the hobby of professional wrestling, we have Fortnite, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and countless other titles. However, while Takami knew he had to throw away the sports concept to make the story more emotional, the game developers weren’t limited by that.

As mentioned, until now, no game has fully articulated Takami’s vision, a game that truly contains the soul of Battle Royale. Maybe the next great battle royale game will do just that, where one team member is a traitor and deceiver, tearing the members apart from within to protect themselves from external dangers and The source material will stick to Takami’s original.

In addition, there is a lesson to be learned that battle royale games that lack innovation and creativity (like Radical Heights and countless other titles) often die prematurely. The “last survivor” genre alone isn’t appealing enough, and Takami knows that well. The real gem of Battle Royale lies in the way Takami blends different aspects of his interests together, using them as puzzle pieces to create something new and terrifying.

According to Polygon

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