Story vs Plot in Video Games
Posted: November 19th, 2014, 9:11 pm
For me the emotional or spiritual journey has the most to do with "what's at stake?" In tactics games when characters can die and not be replaced I value their personal stories more. I'm not writing about the stories that the game directly provides like biographies. I'm writing about the stories that they have had as a part if my team, how they contributed and even their demise. Games like Dark Souls that penalize death make the risks much greater, which also makes the story more important. When you can just reload a save point or just restart from a check point then the death is meaningless so who cares about the story that they are living. When you can get shot five times and hide behind a rock for 30 seconds to magically regenerate health then what difference does it make what that characters story is?