computer/video games incorporating astrology?

October 29, 2009 10:06 AM

Video/computer games that incorporate astrology?

I'm just looking for some titles of video or computer games that use elements from astrology, or even games that make use of their own fictional astrological system. (I'm expecting that there are a bunch of jrpgs that do this, but I couldn't actually think of any instances of it!)

posted by voltairemodern to computers & internet (24 comments total)

Part of the character creation processes in Morrowind is choosing your in game birthsign.
posted by Midnight Rambler at 10:09 AM on October 29

The Monkey Island series has a recurring use of fortune telling through voodoo, and the third game involves a puzzle gag with Tarot cards. Not sure if this is what you're looking for as these are comedy games and don't bear much resemblance to real-world astrology.

Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia have fortune-teller characters you can visit who will read your in-game future and/or offer clues.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:12 AM on October 29

Princess Maker 2. Also part of the character creation process. Wouldn't be surprised if it alters the final result of your game, as well.
posted by Coatlicue at 10:12 AM on October 29

Okami involves astrological themes.
posted by whiskeyspider at 10:12 AM on October 29 [1 favorite has favorites]

Gemini Lost has some, but I haven't played it enough to know how much.

Also, Sims has determined each character's star sign based on the various attributes since Sims 1, I think.
posted by soelo at 10:19 AM on October 29

Taboo: The Sixth Sense
posted by mkb at 10:26 AM on October 29

If memory serves, Final Fantasy Tactics has some stat tweaks based on characters' birthdays (and thus signs)
posted by Tomorrowful at 10:28 AM on October 29

The old (and underrated IMHO) PS2 game 'Fear Effect' (1 and 2) used not only astrology but quite a bit of Chinese mythology and mysticism in the game play.
posted by elendil71 at 10:34 AM on October 29

I believe there is an astrologer in the 3rd Quest For Glory game.
posted by Grither at 10:36 AM on October 29

Somer Assualt has twelve stages each with a boss representing a different Zodiac sign.

Cleopatra: Riddle of the Tomb you play as an astrologer and at the beginning you choose a sign which determines whether you have good or bad days.

Magical Starsign has its own astrology system based on the position of planets. The position of planets can increase the effectiveness of certain spells and attacks.

Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy is another game with an astrologer protagonist and has puzzles that involve the creation of star charts.
posted by CarolynG at 10:49 AM on October 29

Ancient Domains of Mystery had an astrological system that gave your character special characteristics depending on his/her birthday.
posted by Johnny Assay at 10:52 AM on October 29

The older Ultima games (IV-VI, at least) had a teleportation system that was governed by the phases of the two moons. Not quite astrology, but close.
posted by restless_nomad at 11:00 AM on October 29

Oddly enough, in Gradius III for SNES if you achieve a high score, you record your astrological sign along with your initials in the leader board. I don't know if this is the case for the other games in the series.
posted by Demogorgon at 11:23 AM on October 29

Midnight Rambler's right about Morrowind. Choosing your star sign in the sequel (Oblivion) is even more obvious. It not only gives you attribute boosts ("People born under the sign of the Steed have greater endurance" or something), but there are a couple of characters later who "discern" your sign, which influences dialog.

What it doesn't do is drive quests, unfortunately. Seemed obvious, and I kept waiting for it to happen, but it wasn't used that way.
posted by rokusan at 11:32 AM on October 29

Final Fantasy Tactics, as mentioned above, uses signs to some tweaks. You can also get your horoscope and it mentions best matches, if I remember this right. Hello Kitty Online asks for your birthday and gives your character a sign. It also asks for blood type, following Asian cultures in which certain traits derive from that factor.
posted by cmgonzalez at 11:33 AM on October 29

Astrology (among other things) plays a large part in the plot of Persona 2: Innocent Sin.
posted by Dreamcast at 11:43 AM on October 29

Katamari Damacy and the sequels have levels where you recreate the astrological constellations by rolling up appropriate objects, like crabs or twins.
posted by Who_Am_I at 11:49 AM on October 29

rokusan covered most of the radness of Oblivion's use of astrology as well as the shortcomings (birthsign quests would have been the radness) - one last thing about astrology in Oblivion is that the night sky object in the game rotates around the gameworld in such a way that different constellations are visible at different times. I always thought that was pretty rad, even if it didn't directly impact play.
posted by EatTheWeak at 11:55 AM on October 29

Animal Crossing: Wild World and Animal Crossing: City Folk both have a nighttime sky with randomly distributed stars, which the player can then connect to form constellations. The constellations then move around the sky in real-time, becoming visible only some of the time (on particular times of night or particular parts of the year).

As far as I know, however, the position of the stars and constellations don't materially affect gameplay at all.
posted by aparrish at 12:07 PM on October 29

Great answers, all, thanks very much. This is exactly what I was looking for.
posted by voltairemodern at 1:32 PM on October 29

To elaborate on Final Fantasy Tactics (in-game subtitle, "The Zodiac Brave Story"), compatibility would affect the effectiveness of spells. Best/good compatibility would increase healing or damage done, as well as the percentage chance of a status-changing spell hitting. Bad/worst compatibility would decrease these.

A common min-max strategy for FFT is to have a party of all female characters with an opposite Zodiac sign of Ramza (main character), thus providing "Best" compatibility with him. Ramza has some very powerful buffs, so making sure he nearly always succeeds in buffing your party, and that their buffs on him succeed leads to easier leveling and battle victories.

Compatibility is a two-way street in the game though; if your character was compatible with an enemy, you'd do more damage with a spell, but would also take more damage from the opponent. Certain otherwise non-lethal spells could easily one-shot a character due to compatibility bonuses.
posted by explosion at 2:01 PM on October 29

Thanks for that refresher, explosion. Several years ago, when we were first dating, my boyfriend named Ramza and a female after both of us and he gave them our real birthdays, and I remember it being cute how he laughed at virtual us turning out to be "best" in terms of compatibility.

We're nerds.
posted by cmgonzalez at 2:49 PM on October 29

The Kingdom of Loathing has an 8 day week, 2 different moons which affect certain things (as well as a mini-asteroid like thing that affects other things), various holidays built around an entirely fictional calendar which has saint's days (which again, have certain effects). Was this what you were after for a fictional variant?
posted by BigCalm at 4:05 PM on October 29

Sorry, messed up the link to the kingdom - they also have a proper zodiac where you can be "born" under a particular moon sign. Etc. Etc.
posted by BigCalm at 4:07 PM on October 29