Video Game Narrative
Posted: April 19th, 2015, 2:58 pm
I saw this topic come up in the Gamergate thread, but it was cut off for being off topic, so I'd like to bring it up again here. So... do you think it's possible for a video game to tell a great story? Not just good as in "entertaining," but something amazing that does more than give you an adrenaline rush to kill the bad guys. Here's my take on it:
As I've said countless other times on these forums, I play video games almost exclusively for story. I mostly play RPGs and JRPGs like Final Fantasy and the Tales Of series. These, I think, feature some of the best stories that I've ever heard, be they movie, book, or game. While action oriented games like Heavenly Sword (another favorite of mine) are fast paced and need to always keep the story moving forward, RPGs are slower in nature and therefor can get away with having slower, more thoughtful moments. Like in Tales of Xillia, when Milla gets paralyzed by the bad guy, and Jude has to carry her all the way back home where his father can heal her. There's no pulse pounding adrenaline laced action there, just a few random encounters with regular enemies. What it DOES have is a long, heartfelt part of the narrative where you get a true sense of how loyal Jude is to his friends. Even when the horse carrying Milla gets chased off by a monster, Jude just picks Milla up and finishes the long trek with her on his back. Then you get to the town, deliver Milla to the hospital, and find out you have to go find a certain type of item for Jude's father to make his magic gizmo work. Again, nothing fast paced, but I was hooked during every minute of it. So, in my opinion, yes, games can have great stories.
One thing that people will complain about in story heavy games is the cutscenes. They pull you out of the gameplay and force you to watch a movie. Personally, this doesn't bother me, but I totally understand how other gamers would be annoyed by that. I like to feel like I'm moving the story forward, bringing the characters to the next big event, taking down bad guys, etc. Like, say, I run Link all the way across Hyrule field to Zelda's castle, watch a cutscene of Midna breaking down the magic barrier, and then regain control to fight my way up to the throne room. Then I watch the cutscene of Ganondorf fighting Midna, blowing up the castle, and then regaining control again to fight him. I even love longer cutscenes like in Final Fantasy because it's setting the stage for an amazing fight. There is a line, however, Like in Metal Gear Solid 4, they REALLY went overboard on the cutscenes. Do we really need to a fifteen minute long scene just to introduce the weapons dealer? And this isn't just because it's a game, I would have been bored to tears if I'd been watching that in a movie or TV show too. The key is to know your audience and how much tolerance they'll have for watching videos instead of playing the game. Also, you have to keep things interesting, because it doesn't matter how pretty the graphics are or how "deep" the narrative is if all you're watching is a merchant give you an infodump on what's going on in the game's world.
Now, there is ONE thing I think books and movies have that games will never achieve: flawed characters. Pick a hero in any video game, and chances are they'll be a complete Mary-Sue. To those who don't know, that means a character with no flaws. And it makes sense, too. After all, when you play a video game, you're pretending to BE that character, and who wants to pretend to be someone with glaring flaws? Video games are meant to be an escape, not a reminder that nobody is perfect. The rare game that actually attempts to have flawed characters, like Final Fantasy 13, get blasted by critics for having bad narratives because of "annoying, unlikable" characters. But in books and movies, you're not pretending to be the hero, you're watching or imagining them do everything, which makes them distinctly separate from you, the audience. Therefor, people are infinitely more tolerant of character flaws in books and movies, which is something that I don't ever see happening in video games.
And that's my take on it. What do you guys think?
As I've said countless other times on these forums, I play video games almost exclusively for story. I mostly play RPGs and JRPGs like Final Fantasy and the Tales Of series. These, I think, feature some of the best stories that I've ever heard, be they movie, book, or game. While action oriented games like Heavenly Sword (another favorite of mine) are fast paced and need to always keep the story moving forward, RPGs are slower in nature and therefor can get away with having slower, more thoughtful moments. Like in Tales of Xillia, when Milla gets paralyzed by the bad guy, and Jude has to carry her all the way back home where his father can heal her. There's no pulse pounding adrenaline laced action there, just a few random encounters with regular enemies. What it DOES have is a long, heartfelt part of the narrative where you get a true sense of how loyal Jude is to his friends. Even when the horse carrying Milla gets chased off by a monster, Jude just picks Milla up and finishes the long trek with her on his back. Then you get to the town, deliver Milla to the hospital, and find out you have to go find a certain type of item for Jude's father to make his magic gizmo work. Again, nothing fast paced, but I was hooked during every minute of it. So, in my opinion, yes, games can have great stories.
One thing that people will complain about in story heavy games is the cutscenes. They pull you out of the gameplay and force you to watch a movie. Personally, this doesn't bother me, but I totally understand how other gamers would be annoyed by that. I like to feel like I'm moving the story forward, bringing the characters to the next big event, taking down bad guys, etc. Like, say, I run Link all the way across Hyrule field to Zelda's castle, watch a cutscene of Midna breaking down the magic barrier, and then regain control to fight my way up to the throne room. Then I watch the cutscene of Ganondorf fighting Midna, blowing up the castle, and then regaining control again to fight him. I even love longer cutscenes like in Final Fantasy because it's setting the stage for an amazing fight. There is a line, however, Like in Metal Gear Solid 4, they REALLY went overboard on the cutscenes. Do we really need to a fifteen minute long scene just to introduce the weapons dealer? And this isn't just because it's a game, I would have been bored to tears if I'd been watching that in a movie or TV show too. The key is to know your audience and how much tolerance they'll have for watching videos instead of playing the game. Also, you have to keep things interesting, because it doesn't matter how pretty the graphics are or how "deep" the narrative is if all you're watching is a merchant give you an infodump on what's going on in the game's world.
Now, there is ONE thing I think books and movies have that games will never achieve: flawed characters. Pick a hero in any video game, and chances are they'll be a complete Mary-Sue. To those who don't know, that means a character with no flaws. And it makes sense, too. After all, when you play a video game, you're pretending to BE that character, and who wants to pretend to be someone with glaring flaws? Video games are meant to be an escape, not a reminder that nobody is perfect. The rare game that actually attempts to have flawed characters, like Final Fantasy 13, get blasted by critics for having bad narratives because of "annoying, unlikable" characters. But in books and movies, you're not pretending to be the hero, you're watching or imagining them do everything, which makes them distinctly separate from you, the audience. Therefor, people are infinitely more tolerant of character flaws in books and movies, which is something that I don't ever see happening in video games.
And that's my take on it. What do you guys think?