Lately I've been seeing many posts going around in the FFXV fandom that compare the game to The Lion King, so in this (long) blog post, why not take it a step further?
There's no doubt in my mind that The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is my favorite William Shakespeare play, probably because I grew up watching The Lion King and loving the story of Simba. So how are Hamlet and Simba related? It's no secret that Disney was heavily inspired by that particular Shakespearian play; you could even go as far as saying that The Lion King is an adaptation of the Hamlet story.
And now to address the elephant in the room, where does Final Fantasy XV fit in all this?
Just like The Lion King, one could claim that FFXV is also heavily inspired by Shakespeare. In fact, back when FFXV was still known as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, the early concept trailers (including the 1st trailer ever OMG) for the game took a direct quote from one of Shakespeare's plays. And that play was none other than Hamlet.
"Why, then, 'tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison." -Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2, Page 11But how could one Shakespeare play be a main theme of this upcoming game if the game itself has only utilized one quote from the play? Not to mention that this happened during FF Versus XIII days, before the game went through some dramatic changes once it was renamed to FFXV. However, this case doesn't end with just one quote. So now let's study the story and characters of FFXV and compare and contrast them to Hamlet and The Lion King.
BEWARE! THE CONTENT BELOW CONTAINS SPOILERS!