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stories in video games

Joined
Oct 4, 2016
I believe that story is essentially the driving factor for a game in my opinion. The story is really what pulls you in and keeps you on your toes about what will happen next. If a game doesn't have a great story and the gameplay alone is not solid enough to sustain it alone, then I usually end up getting bored and dropping the game. This is why I love games such as Heavy Rain so much. You pretty much get to choose your own destiny in the game and that's great to me. Also having multiple endings keeps the replayability high so you can come back to it at a later date and figure out what would have happened.
 

pyjamas5189

Secretly a cat
Joined
Oct 8, 2016
I do tend to lean more towards games that have good story telling like the final fantasy games, but having said that I also like games like sims and city building games that may not be story driven but it's pretty easy to make a story up in your head.
 
Joined
Oct 3, 2016
I believe that the gameplay should be the driving force and that if you have good gameplay players will seek out story. This means you should have a story but not force feed it to the player.
 
Joined
Oct 5, 2016
Gender
Male
I can play a bad game for a good story, and but I cannot play a fun game with a bad story. Now by bad story I don't mean it has to be great. I can appreciate games that don't take themselves seriously like Sunset Overdrive or games with no real story like Smash because that is how they are designed and it works.

What I mean is a game that tries to have a story, but it is just downright horrible! A perfect example of this would be Dead Rising. The gameplay seemed fun, but I took no interest in playing it.
 
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
I think the story and the gameplay go hand in hand. Using the Zelda series as an example, games like the original LoZ incorporated story to a lesser extent, but still gave players freedom. As the series grew, the games became more controlled. I don't mind it, but when every move you have to make is predetermined, it can get boring no matter how great the graphics are. This is why BotW is so appealing to me! It has an uncontrolled story and seemingly awesome gameplay. Classic Zelda is coming back with BotW.
 
D

Deleted member 14134

Guest
A good story and believable characters are a nice touch but I find that story telling in gaming is quite inferior to other mediums of entertainment. As long as a game is fun to play the story doesn't matter. Sometimes I even find the forced story to be intrusive as it impedes gameplay.
 

Amy Lu Minati

The Triangle conspiracy
Joined
Oct 3, 2016
Gender
TriGendered
I'm the kind of person who just loses interest in an open world once it gets to the point where you have no story. I'm always bored of minecraft 10 minutes in. And after killing Alduin AND Ulfric while completing the Dark Brotherhood quest in Skyrim... I just got bored of exploring. But on the other hand you have Kingdom hearts which has hours and hours of cutscenes and story. But the gameplay isn't all that great. It's practically button mashing with a few combos you can do. The fighting sure looks cool, but it feels extremely repetitive, especially when most of the worlds in kingdom hearts feel very similar and are a bit tedious at times (totally in my opinion, a lot of people love KH gameplay). So is there a way that you can actually have a really really good story and have an open-world with really fun gameplay? That's probably a tough thing to accomplish. I mostly play for story, but if there is a game that has kind of an abstract story but pretty exciting gameplay I'd rather do that. Like SOTC, I don't think I've ever felt more epic than when playing this game. There wasn't a lot to do in it and the game was emptier than SS's sky, but the weird story blended with the epic gameplay harmoniously! Ah. Good stuff right there.
 
Joined
Oct 2, 2016
Yeah, like Uncharted 4 is an interactive movie
Yes, that was one of the highlights for that game. the transition from cinematics to gameplay was so smooth you could not tell it happened at first. however, uncharted 4 especially had an amazing story and the gameplay was really good as well.
 
Joined
Oct 2, 2016
I'm a gamer who plays games for the story. I care little about difficulty, graphics unless they're impeding my progress, (I've even suffered through bad gameplay to see a story which was connecting with me to see it through to the end).

But some stories in video games are disappointing. I've played games which I view negatively (even if they looked good and were fun to play) to an extent, because their stories were absolute garbage.

So, ZDers do you play games for their story above all else?

Do you want your video games to be story driven?

Which video games have had the best and worst stories for you?

One of the best games I have ever played is Xenoblade Chronicles. It's graphics were really really bad for its time but the story was top notch, really engaging, emotional and well written with several twists along the way. The gameplay was really cool too, new original battle system that can keep you going for days by trying all the different characters and all the ways you can play each one. finally, the music in that game was soooooo good. It's definitely in my top 3 for video game music up there with Zelda and Kingdom Hearts.
 

Feverish

Source of stink
Joined
May 21, 2016
Location
5th layer
Yes, that was one of the highlights for that game. the transition from cinematics to gameplay was so smooth you could not tell it happened at first. however, uncharted 4 especially had an amazing story and the gameplay was really good as well.
Gameplay? What gameplay?
 

Feverish

Source of stink
Joined
May 21, 2016
Location
5th layer
the regular exploring and 3rd person shooter gameplay that games like that have. what do you mean by what gameplay?
I mean that I don't like the gameplay, and that I think it's so linear and scripted to the point that it's just there to get to the next cutscene
 
Joined
Oct 2, 2016
I mean that I don't like the gameplay, and that I think it's so linear and scripted to the point that it's just there to get to the next cutscene
Hmm, ok i see what you mean. the gameplay was relatively linear but it is still good gameplay. a lot of games have very linear gameplay and Uncharted 4 wasn't so bad in terms of that.
 

Feverish

Source of stink
Joined
May 21, 2016
Location
5th layer
Hmm, ok i see what you mean. the gameplay was relatively linear but it is still good gameplay. a lot of games have very linear gameplay and Uncharted 4 wasn't so bad in terms of that.
Yeah usually I don't have a problem with linear games but this one just wasn't enough
 
Joined
Oct 2, 2016
I play a game for the experience. If the game has a great story but mediocre gameplay then I will love it. If it has great gameplay but a bad story, I'll love it. I don't play games for one aspect but I love games for whatever aspect they excel in. Does that make sense? Take a game like Mario for instance. There is little to no story in those games but they have an enjoyable simplicity that I will always admire.
 

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