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[DragoonKain]

After beating Horizon several weeks ago, it had me thinking that games that have the current setting as either medieval, primitive, or modern, but have ancient highly advanced civilizations in terms of their technical prowess as part of the story have always been interesting to me. Not sure why exactly. Maybe it's the curiosity in how those civilizations collapsed. Also, the potential is there to explore(if the games allow it) to discover old advanced tech and use it. I think this theme, while used in a handful of games, isn't something that has been played out for me. Ys VIII had it as well and I thought they implemented it in a really interesting way.

I wanted to compile a list of the games that do this. What are some others aside from Ys VIII and Horizon?

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

 

[Danjin44]

I know this might sound strange but most recently Kirby and Forgotten Land. It's not story heavy until near the end but it does have lore in some of those gacha figures you get.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

Zelda series seems to love this trope, featured most prominently in Breath of the Wild, but also seen in Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess, Wind Waker, and more.

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

Metroid series

 

[Topher]

That kind of describes the Reaper cycle in Mass Effect, I guess. Although the setting of the game is futuristic the galaxy has mysterious advanced Prothean technology left behind from the previous cycle.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Assassin's Creed series.

 

[Captain Toad]

Why

 

[SJRB]

Assassin's Creed had a pretty crazy and very awesome high concept backstory about an ancient highly advanced civilization, but Ubi pretty much dropped that entire narrative in favor of.. eh.... nothing, I guess.

 

[ButchCat]

Mass Effect - Protheons. In fact, they are such a big part of the trilogy that none of the events of the game could take place if it weren't for what they accomplished in the previous cycle.

 

[Nezzeroth]

Final Fantasy X (Zanarkand) and XIV (Allagans I believe they are called?).

 

[LordOfChaos]

Halo's world is a few centuries past modern, but it's set in the aftermath of a far more advanced civilization, the Forerunners that made the Halo rings

Metroid is similar with the Chozo that touch things here and there and largely ascended away from the material galaxy or something

ME Reapers don't fit because they specifically try not to leave the vestiges of the previous more advanced civilizations

Splatoon, I think?

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

 

[jufonuk]

BoTW

 

[Stuart360]

The Atlantis dlc for AC Odyssey is pretty awesome, if you have never tried it. You can even buy the game and expansion, and auto jump to level 30 and start the Atlantis dlc right away, if you want.

 

[Guilty_AI]

No Mans Sky to a degree.

According to the lore you find, the universe's races and civilizations were once much bigger and more advanced, until they were forced to spread and live apart from each other because of the sentinels. You'll often find monuments, ancient constructions and ancient artifacts throughout the game.

 

[LordOfChaos]

B...Bugsnax?

 

[Radical Dreamer]

Chrono Trigger/Cross

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Assassin's Creed had a pretty crazy and very awesome high concept backstory about an ancient highly advanced civilization, but Ubi pretty much dropped that entire narrative in favor of.. eh.... nothing, I guess.

They hadn't dropped it at least until Odyssey, which was the last game I played.
The only AC I played that almost completely forgot all other timeliness was Liberation.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

but Ubi pretty much dropped that entire narrative in favor of.. eh.... nothing, I guess.

When?
AC odyssey and Valhalla have furthered the ancient civilisation storyline more than any other entry; Valhalla even ends with one of the ISU coming back to life in the present day.

 

[intbal]

Halo 4
Fallout (specifically 1 and 2)
Enslaved (the game Horizon ripped off for its art style)
Elex

The last three are a bit different. The "ancient" civilization is closer to present day, but the games take place in a future where civilization has collapsed and technological knowledge has been lost. But the end result from a story/gameplay perspective is mostly the same.

 

[ManaByte]

Enslaved (the game Horizon ripped off for its art style)

 

[Mister Wolf]

 

[unintelligent orange]

Jak trilogy?

 

[SeraphJan]

Does Grandia count?

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Halo and Mass Effect are the first two series that pop onto my head. In both series the player character visits many locales teeming with super-advanced technology/architecture that is mysterious and sometimes eerie.

 

[intbal]

 

[Metnut]

Kingdom of Zeal was the first to do this that really stuck with me. I played the game unspoiled and 32,000 BC really blew my mind.

 

[Dr Bass]

Was gonna post this one. Good call.

 

[akaFullmetal]

Hmmm maybe MegaMan legends?

 

[Buggy Loop]

Torment Tides of Numenera

Layers upon layers of advanced and not advanced civilization over billions of years where the residents have no fucking clue what they see as artefacts came from where or how.

 

[German Shocks]

I came to post this.

 

[Hendrick's]

Every sci-fi game ever made had something like this.

 

[MrA]

Overgrowth of a city isn't a first for enslaved. Those 2 screen show 2 very different looking ganes

 

[Fuz]

Might and Magic VII

 

[Shadowplay1979]

Pretty much all the old final fantasies



Ff1 - the floating city, robot under the waterfall, airship
Ff4- ancient civilization from the moon, Tower of Babel,great whale
Ff5 - ancient world,airships
Ff6 - ancient tek civilization
Ff9 - old earth/terra

Crystalis/godslayer - long after ww3 woken from cryo

 

[N30RYU]

Outcast?

 

[mave198]

OG Tomb Raider?

 

[TintoConCasera]

Shin Megami Tensei IV kinda do this, and I love how it's introduced.

Too bad the promo material spoiled it.

 

[Husky]

When I was playing Far Cry Primal, I had a dream that the game's ending revealed an extremely advanced forgotten civilization. In the dream, the civilization was already long dead by the time of the game.
Otherwise, I can unfortunately only jump onto the Assassin's Creed contribution. The Precursors/Isu in Assassin's Creed are pretty neat.
You could argue the Dwemer in Skyrim count

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Comments are turned off, and I ain't watching an hour-and-a-half video without knowing what I'm getting into. Quick run-down on his spiel?

 

[Frank Horrigan]

Advent Rising
Dragon Age
Too Human

 

[Jinzo Prime]

Advent Rising
Dragon Age
Too Human

Man I wish someone would re-do the concept and ideas in Too Human. Norse gods being cyborg warmachinies is too cool to leave as a one-off failure of a game.

 

[Midnight Bliss]

pretty much almost any rpg, it would be difficult to find one without it

 

[Frank Horrigan]

Man I wish someone would re-do the concept and ideas in Too Human. Norse gods being cyborg warmachinies is too cool to leave as a one-off failure of a game.

The game needs a remaster and the trilogy should be finished off. But yeah, the Norse god x Machine idea fit really well and wasn't shoe-horned in. Even stuff like the VALKYRIE Coming to carry you off to valhalla when you died was a nice touch.

 

[Ladioss]

It used to be a common trope in Japanese anime (typically the whole "a couple of children go on an adventure" subgenre, like Laputa and Fushigi no Umi no Nadia, frequently used it as a backdrop), manga and videogaming pop-culture that went out of fashion two decades ago, unfortunately.
I see Chrono Trigger (Zeal), Ys 8 and Grandia have already been mentionned. Xenogears probably count, too. Other than that, I would say La Mulana, Illusion of Gaia, Tail Concerto, Lunar, several DQ cities... probably a lot of other 8/16 bits titles, too.

 

[UnNamed]

 

[Drizzlehell]

BoTW

Best of the Worst, the highly acclaimed internet review show?

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

All the Xeno series, actually.

 

[Thief1987]

Utawarerumono