Economic Justice in A Plague Tale: A Narrative and Political-economic Analysis of Crisis, Class, and Morality

This study examines the representation of economic justice in A Plague Tale: Innocence (2019) and A Plague Tale: Requiem (2022) through a narrative and political-economic analysis that considers the games as both cultural texts and interactive economic products. Set in plague-ravaged medieval France, the games stage feudal oppression, resource monopolization, and class violence. Combining narrative theory, political economy of media, and critical game studies, the article examines how ludonarrative design, character arcs, and environmental storytelling render systemic inequality and ethical dilemmas for protagonists Amicia and Hugo. Their journey through war-torn villages, aristocratic estates, and plague-infested cities foregrounds a systemic critique of class-based privilege and dispossession. The siblings’ efforts to protect one another are framed against a world where institutions (religious, political, and economic) have abdicated moral responsibility. Gameplay mechanics and level design juxtapose elite control of resources with peasant precarity, framing economic justice as both redistribution and an ethical response to violence, institutional failure, and social alienation. The analysis also situates the titles within industry conditions by assessing their production by Asobo Studio and distribution by Focus Entertainment, arguing that market positioning within the mid-tier budget segment complicates the games’ critical stance. By tracing how interactive mechanics implicate players in morally ambiguous choices, the study shows that these works dramatize crisis capitalism, austerity, and institutional collapse while offering a space for resistance and moral reflection. The findings contribute to understanding video games as cultural commodities that simultaneously critique and participate in political-economic structures.