Hello everyone! Welcome to Game Design Breakdown! In Game Design Breakdown I, Chad Wolfe, break down the mechanics of games to deduce what makes them good or bad by analyzing them and their usage in games. Today, I'm going to be covering how we can learn from a few narrative driven games, by discussing how their narrative plays out in the game, whether it be organically (The Last Gaurdian), or mostly cinematic (Final Fantasy). Neither solution is bad, and every narrative solution we will be duscussing is great, we will be analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each one.
The Introduction/Conclusion Method - Uncharted Series
There's one method used by almost every game, ever. It's the method of providing the player some down time between action sections. Typically this is just a collection of scenes made to tie instances of the game together. This is common in many games, and done incredibly well in Uncharted.
This method is probably the easiest when it comes to discussing with artists, but Naughty Dog knows that the story is much deeper than just the short, well made cinetimatic scenes.
|
|
Drake is often hendered physically by the events that go on in the narrative, which adds empasis to the story. This is something that often draws players into the narritive easier, but as can be seen in The Last Gaurdian, this sometimes tends to draw players away from the experience. Either way, Uncharted's strong narrative is fantastic, and doesn't often get in the way of the experience.
This method of storytelling is not only quite straitforward for implementation, but allows the writers to have almost direct access to the game's design, which can leave quite a positive affect on the progression of the game, allowing the players to stay invested in the game, even in the more grindy-parts, more centered on the gameplay mechanics. It effeciently draws in both gamers that play a game more for it's gameplay, and gamers that play games mostly for the story.
This method of storytelling is not only quite straitforward for implementation, but allows the writers to have almost direct access to the game's design, which can leave quite a positive affect on the progression of the game, allowing the players to stay invested in the game, even in the more grindy-parts, more centered on the gameplay mechanics. It effeciently draws in both gamers that play a game more for it's gameplay, and gamers that play games mostly for the story.
The Simply Story Method - Final Fantasy
This is a method that many developers have often gotten in trouble for by fans. This style of narrative might as well have originated in Japan, and ported to America through the rise of JRPG's, mostly thanks to Nintendo and Square Enix. This style of game is basically only story, with gameplay typically being much weaker, while still being good. Well, most of the time.
|
Most Final Fantasy games are essentially just fucking fantastic movies (or books, I guess), and fans love that about them. At the same time, this has often kept fans of action oriented games from feeling welcome to the series, and they've been driven away in the
|
past because of it. Nintendo worked to solve that problem with a series of incredibly famous RPG games, Pokemon, which served as an easily aproachable entry into a genre of gaming that often takes a great deal of investimate and patience.
Final Fantasy's narratives serve as a strong trade off for the typically slow mechanics of such games, and have gone so far as evolving into a form that accomodates all kinds of gamers.
Final Fantasy XV though, does not fall under this kind of Mechanics and Narritive combo, though. Or, at least not on it's own. It fits quite nicely under this method AND the method we will discuss that is used in The Last Gaurdian to an extreme extent.
Anyways, this method is obviously useful as a method of... Well, simply telling the story. I'm not saying the gameplay is bad in these games, or that they're all the same. Personal, Tale Of, etc., they're all quite different. They're all great. Narratives are incredibly important in games, and the more games like this, the merrier. I'm very welcome to more RPG's. Though, of course, it's important to understand why those developers choose to make their mechanics different between each iteration, and from other titles in some ways.
Final Fantasy's narratives serve as a strong trade off for the typically slow mechanics of such games, and have gone so far as evolving into a form that accomodates all kinds of gamers.
Final Fantasy XV though, does not fall under this kind of Mechanics and Narritive combo, though. Or, at least not on it's own. It fits quite nicely under this method AND the method we will discuss that is used in The Last Gaurdian to an extreme extent.
Anyways, this method is obviously useful as a method of... Well, simply telling the story. I'm not saying the gameplay is bad in these games, or that they're all the same. Personal, Tale Of, etc., they're all quite different. They're all great. Narratives are incredibly important in games, and the more games like this, the merrier. I'm very welcome to more RPG's. Though, of course, it's important to understand why those developers choose to make their mechanics different between each iteration, and from other titles in some ways.
The Mechanical Narrative - The Last Gaurdian
So, The Last Gaurdian has been a game who's quality has been a topic of stifled debate between journalists lately, ranging from the experience lovers like Kotaku, to the gameplay lovers like Polygon, and even the all talk and no walk lovers like The Know... Haha, just kidding.
Anyways, The Last Gaurdian presents itself with nothing more than it's mechanics. Cutscenes are pratically nonexistent. This has left gamers to complain about the game's length even, saying that it should be longer, whilst ignoring the fact that this game has had a lot of hard work put into the hands on experience it dilivers, rather than making it rain in producing a pratical film to go along with the game.
Trico is a brilliant character, and the influence and quality of the 100% player progressing story allows the player to become invested in the game quite easily. It may fall short because of it's appearant age, but we have a lot to learn from the way Team Ico has constructed the narrative of the game.
Anyways, The Last Gaurdian presents itself with nothing more than it's mechanics. Cutscenes are pratically nonexistent. This has left gamers to complain about the game's length even, saying that it should be longer, whilst ignoring the fact that this game has had a lot of hard work put into the hands on experience it dilivers, rather than making it rain in producing a pratical film to go along with the game.
Trico is a brilliant character, and the influence and quality of the 100% player progressing story allows the player to become invested in the game quite easily. It may fall short because of it's appearant age, but we have a lot to learn from the way Team Ico has constructed the narrative of the game.
|
We can adapt this to gameplay pretty well. This comes from a time, the PSX/PS2 era, when it was quite regular for storytelling to come almost second to gameplay, and be otherwise implemented in such a way that wouldn't cut the player off with cinematics.
|
Of course, this wasn't always the case, but Legacy of Kain, Ape Escape, and many more, all had this kind of storytelling (maybe to a more subtle extent), a form of storytelling that has often been praised in the past. Developers have become so used to making cinematics for games though, gamers have become quiet with this subject. It is nice, though, to see a AAA game come out at least once in a while that captures many things that gamers appreciated in older games that ended up fading with time.
The Buttfly Method - Nothing. Ever.
Yupp.
Conclusion
These methods are commonly seen in narrative based games, but all too often we see journalists and reviewers overlook the importance of their quality. It's important to keep in mind that even though gameplay IS important in games, narratives, and other well made content is equally so. The content of all of these games are fantastic as well as the narratives.
My only hope is that developers continue to develop a game THEY love. If one makes a game simply because someone wants them to, they're a sell out. That's not what being an indie is about, let alone a creator.
My only hope is that developers continue to develop a game THEY love. If one makes a game simply because someone wants them to, they're a sell out. That's not what being an indie is about, let alone a creator.