I’ve recently gotten into the Danganronpa series of visual novels, and the first game (if cut down to its most basic elements) has at least some potential. You’d really need to streamline the story though, considering the plot would have to solve five or six different mysteries over the course of its runtime. I know there was a Japanese play adaptation, and perhaps it would work much better without singing, but the game’s soundtrack is enough to convince me there’s something there!
NameGreg said: "I believe somebody made a Portal musical. I may be remembering wrong and if it’s true I haven’t seen anything of it, but that’s a game that could work. More so the second one."
I was literally about to say Portal! That specific production you’re referring to is a parody show where they gave Broadway songs new lyrics. However, the idea to adapt this material is REALLY cool. I think if they got Jonathan Coulton to write further material (he’s been on Broadway before as one of the composers for SpongeBob), you could easily expand on “Still Alive” “Want You Gone” or any of the other songs he wrote for the games.
The only issue with the idea is that you have to deal with a Chekhov’s Portal Gun. It’s a great tool when you’re playing the game and (spoiler) it does factor into the defeat of the final boss, but it’s not super necessary. You’d really have to not only justify it, which can be done from multiple angles, but you’d also have to make sure the audience gets the idea that your protagonist is moving around in that way.
There’s also the issue of why video games are so hard to adapt: main characters are avatars for your own experience, and oftentimes super boring on their own merit. Chell is a character who‘s made to be personal, to the point where she canonically chooses to be mute out of spite, giving her a fairly malleable personality.
If they can get over those hurdles, though? That’s a story worth telling.
Updated On: 5/13/21 at 08:10 AM
