Overarching Story or Smaller Character Stories?

Let's talk about these two things. A game that mostly focuses on an overarching story and a game that tells the story through several smaller character stories. I like both, obviously, and they both have their merits. But I think I prefer stories told through smaller stories that come together and make a big picture. It's one of the reasons I love Majora's Mask. You can play just the overarching story, but it won't have the same magic and charm as if you play all of the smaller NPC stories.

Legend of Mana is also an interesting case because in that one the overarching story is barely there, but there are many many smaller stories to explore and those basically make the game. I'm not sure it was my favourite but I did like having the story told in a unique manner like that.

But in the end I like both a lot, I'm a big fan of video game stories, so I certainly won't be disappointed in just having an overarching story, and some of my favourite video game stories are told that way.

So which one do you prefer? Is it about even? What are some of your favourite examples of each?

Resonance of Fate. Extremely repetitive gameplay, barely any story worth following, and I absolutely adore it, because the characters, and little chapter stories are so amusing and engrossing, you are barely aware there is any overarching story congealing together amidst it all. And I would love more games to embrace this. Mostly because this means your characters have to be interesting. And so few games care about making fleshed out lovable and believable characters these days. This would highly encourage them to take strides towards this end

Characters are the most important thing to me. I will trudge through a horribly written cliché ridden story if the characters are interesting. Tales of Legendia is my example, the story is dumb and the combat is okay, I played it after Abyss and being back on a 2D field was off putting. Anyway, with the exeption of two characters I loved the main cast. And I think the writers realized that because the "story" ends halfway through the game and second half is just character arcs.

Senran Kagura is another example. I've said it before, but for one reason or another the characters is why you're there. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun and fast paced beat 'em up and all the characters play different, but it can get a bit repetitive. But in Shinovi Versus, I had more fun going through the character arcs more than the school arcs. And Bon Appetit had nothing but character arcs.

The Neptunia games have a good balance, I think. The main threat is there and you have your end goal, but you spend the first half or so travelling around the world getting to know the main cast and establishing their traits and the second half builds upon those traits as they work together...or bicker about videogames and boobsize. But then again, my favorite Neptunia game is Action Unleased and the plot there is minimal and it's mostly character oriented. It also probably worth mentioning that Action Unleased was made with the Senran Kagura team.

This is like asking me if I want soft or hard shell tacos.

I like both. As it turns out my top 3 favorites all fall into different categories.

Smaller character stories work wonderfully if you have interesting characters all with a good story to explore. See CLANNAD, which is basically a collection of character stories where (almost) every single one of them is just a pleasure to go through. While an overarching plot does exist, it's still told completely through the individual storylines of all the characters.

The ones that combine both into one are similarly amazing. See Little Busters, a game made of character arcs, but its overarching story comes into focus more and more as you play until the final plot arc puts great focus on it while also serving as the "character arc" for the main characters at the same time. It works beautifully and makes every instance of character development in every character arc feel meaningful.

Stories that simply focus on an overarching plot, however, can be equally good. See Umineko; while it does have different story arcs in its episodical format, they're not character-focused but mainly push the overall story instead. It's still overall a very character-focused story and there's no shortage of development, but it's integrated into its main plot rather than being separated into neat individual plotlines. And for Umineko, it just works perfectly.

So yeah, I can find instances of any of the approaches working very, very well. Can't say I have an overall preference. It all boils down to execution.

Yeah, a game with both is the way to go. I think an overarching story keeps me more interested in general, and I definitely like that approach better on TV series, but for a game I also appreciate the smaller character-driven stories.

It's tough to compare the two because usually if a game does one right, it does both right, but here's an example from the top of my head that specialize in each of these:

Character-driven: Final Fantasy XIII
Overarching: Suikoden II

If I had to choose between the two I would pick SII's story but that might be more because SII was the better game. However, I do think its focus on the larger story was a factor in making it so good. For FFXIII, it definitely had a character focus but a lot of it feel flat since the overarching story was so poorly written.

However, a game like Chrono Trigger or FFVI that has both going on is all around excellent.

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Originally Posted by Bolivar

This is like asking me if I want soft or hard shell tacos.

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Hard shell obv.

I like both, but I think I lean a little more to overarching stories since I usually follow the main quest in a game and don't bother with side stories unless I play the game again.

I've always been more into the lore and worldbuilding of games than the story (because I want to roleplay my own character and my own story), so in that case I'm going to go with smaller character-based stories. Because the characters are what make the flavor of the world.

I can forgive some flaws in the storyline, but I can't stand boring/annoying characters, especially when they're protagonists.
Yakuza 2 has the most impressing storyline and the most interesting characters amidst all games I've played.