video game stories

[Lord Chainsaw]

A story doesn't have to be very complex to be good. An example of that would be the Actraiser series. The game Actraiser on the SNES is my favorite video game story of all time. Compare it to anything by Matsuno and you'll find it's pretty basic. That's not the point. Matsuno's stories are very, very good, but that's about the extent of them.

Actraiser is a work of art. The story extends beyond the textual updates the tiny cherub gives you between stages. This is, and I know it is, where the majority of games fall flat on their face. The storywriter thinks he can entice the player with some incredibly complex plot with twists and turns, character backstory, and 30-40 hours of play. You need more than that. Take a look at Actraiser. Every single element in that game comes together beautifully to express that story. The gameplay, the music, the environments, all of them are a part of that story. This is one of the very few games that takes full advantage of every single element a video game offers to tell that incredible tale.

Mr. Developer, by god man, you've got beautiful visuals, lush graphics, and musical aid to use to tell your story. Books don't. You've got the potential for incredibly addictive gameplay elements to put the player in the position of the protagonist and define his role. Movies don't. You have these advantages that other mediums don't. Why don't you USE them?

If you want my opinion on two games that are absolutely beautiful works of art, then check out Actraiser on the SNES, and the Final Fantasy Legend on the big clunker gameboy. Sure, they obviously won't be as complex as Xenogears, but they do utilize every single output to deliver an incredible experience.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

yeah I think the only storyline in a game that the general public would find all that good would be the xenogears story. And I am sure many people who are real novel reading avids would find even the xenogears story as being pure garbage.

Uh... no. I've been an avid reader of novels since I picked up a copy of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in third grade. Also, the Xenogears storyline is probably way over the head of the general public, but I found it to be quite interesting and involved. As I understand it, it was originally written as a book, and it is executed quite well in the game itself.

As much as it pains me to say this, a novel isn't the "golden standard" of a good story, a lot of crap (like romance novels) get published with little difficulty.

[Masamune·1600]

I'm fairly sure that the novel that formed the basis for Xenogears was written by Hideo Kojima, best known for his work with the Metal Gear/Metal Gear Solid series. Another reason to love Xenogears, really.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

Hideo Kojima is quite talented. Another good series of his is the Zone of the Enders series.

[nik0tine]

It really depends on the game. Most of the Final Fantasy games have excellent stories. However, MOST games just don't have good storylines. Most FPS' have terrible storylines, and alot of the RPGs of today dont have great storylines. The above average games however, do.

[Masamune·1600]

It really depends on the game. Most of the Final Fantasy games have excellent stories. However, MOST games just don't have good storylines. Most FPS' have terrible storylines, and alot of the RPGs of today dont have great storylines. The above average games however, do.

Well said.

[darkchrono]

I don't know. When you stop and think about it I am not sure you can really say that they all have really good storylines.

Take ff7 for instance which has arguably the best storyline out of any of the final fantasy games. When you stop and think about it what really happens during the game? Not really much at all. You meet the characters. They do a few backstories on them so you can get to know them better. Then they go from town to town searching for information about Sephiroth until at the end of the game they find him and defeat him.

Now I admit I really like ff7 because the characters are so well done and thought out. But when you think of the overall storyline what really happens during the game? The answer to be honest is not really a whole lot.

I think alot of people get drawn into the game because the characters are alot more developed than most other video games. But not really a whole lot happens during the game. They pretty much just spend the majority of the time developing the characters.

[Destai]

The only games Im interested in are the ones with a story driving them and my idea of games with a good story would be the first two discs of Final Fantasy VIII, I thought FFVII's story was genuinely good, .hack// has an excellent storyline, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy VI. I thought the FF's before VI often corny. I havent played the game but Id imagine Xenosaga and Xenogeasr have very good stories.

[Zifnab]

Games can certainly have great plots, but most don't utilise it fully. I used to play RPGs for their story, but after reading books more often their plots do lose quite a lot. A book can go beyond the images, delve into the thoughts of the character, and every single word is an event that's currently occuring.
While some games do have excellent plot, what needs to be remembered is that it's still a game. While in a book, a dungeon would be an atmospheric adventure where we learn more about the characters, in a game it's only filler. Most RPGs will have dialogue before a dungeon, usually something pointless like "Let's go!", and maybe a bit when they reach the boss monster.
Xenogears does have one of the most compelling stories in my mind, however. Metal Gear Solid manages to do away with the "filler" by breaking it up with a nice amount of cutscenes. But I'm still waiting for a game that has a brilliant piece of story telling to once again leave me in awe.

[Lord Chainsaw]

But I'm still waiting for a game that has a brilliant piece of story telling to once again leave me in awe.

You need to look past the plot to see it. Brilliant storytelling in a video game does not necessarily mean brilliant plot.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

I don't know. When you stop and think about it I am not sure you can really say that they all have really good storylines.

Take ff7 for instance which has arguably the best storyline out of any of the final fantasy games. When you stop and think about it what really happens during the game? Not really much at all. You meet the characters. They do a few backstories on them so you can get to know them better. Then they go from town to town searching for information about Sephiroth until at the end of the game they find him and defeat him.

Now I admit I really like ff7 because the characters are so well done and thought out. But when you think of the overall storyline what really happens during the game? The answer to be honest is not really a whole lot.

I think alot of people get drawn into the game because the characters are alot more developed than most other video games. But not really a whole lot happens during the game. They pretty much just spend the majority of the time developing the characters.

I don't know what you're expecting then, because it's the same for books. Books just don't have random encounters since you don't need to level up in a book, so they can just skip it.

Take Lord of the Rings, for example. They do approximately the same amount of stuff as they do in FFVII (bear in mind, in Final Fantasy you're visiting every town in the world). Same basic formula, Lord of the Rings just has an extra 300 pages or so to make up for time lost with random battles. Every story can be broken down into conflict, journey (either physical or metaphysical, basically the journey to resolve said conflict), and resolution.

[Zifnab]

But I'm still waiting for a game that has a brilliant piece of story telling to once again leave me in awe.

You need to look past the plot to see it. Brilliant storytelling in a video game does not necessarily mean brilliant plot.

I'll agree there, as something very simple can be made into an epic scenario with the right words and images. I'm just tired of the very basic "go into a cave and find a rare herb to save a dying child" type plot with most RPGs, so blatantly filler with predictable dialogue I just skim over and feel nothing towards. There's only so many times "Thank you for saving my son, here's 3000 gold!" can be read before it gets old. I feel nothing towards the mother or the child, I'm merely happy that I can finally afford whatever item I've been saving up for.

[darkchrono]

To be honest with you I think the storyline in the Lord of the Rings is about 20 times better than the storyline in ff7.

There is really no comparison between the two.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

To be honest with you I think the storyline in the Lord of the Rings is about 20 times better than the storyline in ff7.

That's not the point. The point is that it's the same basic formula. Lord of the Rings was simply executed better(?) than Final Fantasy VII.

And for the record, I dislike the way Lord of the Rings was done, and while the story itself was intriguing, it lost a lot of power in the way it stretched on tediously for many more pages than it should have.