Comments on: Storytelling in games: Bioshock vs. Final Fantasy

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:25:51 +0000

Devin, if I’m going to play a game without a story, I’ll play a game without a story. Super Mario Galaxy, for instance. Or Madden 2K8. If I’m playing a game with a story, I want one with a real story, not one of those stupid ‘The character is an avatar for YOUUUU’ stories where all the NPCs are base stereotypes just designed around pushing you to wherever you’re supposed to go next.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:21:12 +0000

In Western RPGs like Bioshock, the character you control never talks, has no personality, and the game consists of flatly characterized NPCs talking at you. All it does is give you an illusion of interactivity when really you have no control over the flow of the game besides some base good/evil choices that don’t even change the story much. I’d rather have no choices than fake choices. And even in games where you do have some control like Oblivion. You can do whatever you want, but the story isn’t strong enough to be any real payoff, so you have no motivation to do anything other than grinding for grinding’s sake.

I prefer the interactive movie approach. Characters all of whom have personalities written based on trying to tell a good story. If you really care what happens next in the story it gives you extra motivation to chug through dungeons. Whereas I’ve never played a Western style RPG where I’ve actually given a crap what happens next.

By: Devin

Devin — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:07:36 +0000

I hate cutscenes. Video gaming is an interactive medium, and the storytelling should reflect that. If I wanted to sit back and watch something, I’d prefer just watching a movie. Half-Life, System Shock 2, and BioShock all did a really great job at telling a story, while only very rarely taking control away from the player. I don’t think these are perfect examples of how to tell a story in games, but they’re at least going in the right direction.

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:26:55 +0000

Persona 3’s story had me reflecting life and thinking more than bioshock did, I can see the point of view bioshock has and how it can draw you in but I suppose the story was not grabing me much.

By: Geoffrey

Geoffrey — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:33:54 +0000

A lot of cut scene fans here. I think I’m one too — it’s a simple, natural way of telling the game’s story. However, I prefer when they’re skippable. There’s nothing worse than a decent game with long, terribly written cut scenes. It feels like torture having to sit through them when all you want to do is play the game.

Donnington - I never read Tank Girl, but I believe it’s a paper comic. So Camp Koala is the coolest, loneliest koala in print comic history, and Hella Koala can be the coolest, loneliest koala in web comic history. Problem solved! ;-)

Thanks for the shout out, Spencer.

By: Edeo

Edeo — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:53:36 +0000

I agree that it doesn’t need to be black and white. You can have both. I think that Final Fantasy XII did a good job of adding lots of little tidbits to draw you into the world of Ivalice. Many people said there wasn’t enough storyline. It’s true for the last tenth of the game. But if you spent the time, there was plenty to experience.

By: Hello Hello

Hello Hello — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:53:39 +0000

I prefer the old Final Fantasy method. There’s nothing wrong with stopping things for 2-4 minutes to tell a good story.

By: jinkusu

jinkusu — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:19:29 +0000

i’d say mix and match the two. it really bothers me that i might “miss” the story in bioshock. if you don’t pick up one of those recorders the story still happens… but you lose some of the detail and polish.

By: alice

alice — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 11:59:10 +0000

I enjoy cutscenes quite a bit, to the point that while playing Half-Life 2 I honestly would rather they have taken the control away from me instead of letting me move around but still require me to participate in the non-cutscenes to script.

By: Nika

Nika — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 11:37:17 +0000

I agree with dancinbojangles, it could become very fustrating to miss half of the story if you don’t know where to look.

personally I have no problems with cutscenes. but I think it adds more depth to the game if you can find some more details about the story/characters/etc during the gameplay. so I’m all for a mix of the two: main story in cutscenes, more in-depth information optional during gameplay.