VINDICTA

We've been bombarded with a lot of stories during our gaming life. It's usually the same thing, unknowing hero gets propelled into a world of adventure that he does not understand but at the end of everything he becomes this super guy who is able to defeat the bad guy through a sacrifice of self, of friends and of other things.

What is your idea of an awesome RPG story? What kind of characters would you want to play with? And what makes a game / story boring?

Like most people, I also liked the Final Fantasy series even though how overused their concept is. I cannot deny that that formula works. But other games that have awesome stories would be Persona 4 (mihihihi biased) but I liked it more because of the side stories and the character backgrounds than the main storyline. Also, it's a feat to make me believe in shit like going inside TVs and actually NOT laugh. Heh.

I liked the Silent Hill series too for reasons that are obvious.

Epic-ness and character depth, and not only in RPGs.

I define epic-ness about how the game explores the relationship between the main characters and the world; I rather like it that the characters have direct effect on the world they're living in and vice versa, instead of the world being just a background palette. Square-Enix, and most of their franchises even before their merger, are good examples of this. It doesn't always need to have the end of the world scenario as in Valkyrie Profile. The mere indication that character actions and worldwide changes, as in the Broken World expansion of Dungeon Siege 2 and about half of Final Fantasy VI, have direct bearing on each other is a good gauge of "epic".

Character depth is measured in how the game explores the "inner space" of a game character and presents him, or her, as a total, and breathing, human being (or for those that are not human, an approximation of the human qualities that we hold to be as real as us, because no matter which fictional race we're dealing with, human audiences always identify with human traits because they're familiar with it). In other words, while the grandeur is the macrocosm, the intricate clockwork of a game character is the microcosm, and both are important and must synergize with each other to create a brilliant story.

There are some RPGs that have notably bad stories, even though they're set in an otherwise "epic" (i.e. spanning thousands of years and millions of affected individuals, cultures, societies, etc) scale, because they have histories that are quite unnecessary to the character's present time, and how it relates to the character relating to the story. The greatest offenders of this are the Korean MMOs, who always try to provide players with ten pages worth of background story that doesn't even tell worth dick why the characters are like that, why they wear such a stupid shirt, why mix technology and magic, and dozens of permutations of the same formula. My Creative Writing professor always told us that the best stories are always the ones seen through the characters' senses, not through a book.

There are two aspects I believe that make a good rpg story. Firstly, it's the character and secondly its the "twist".

I got to play Mass Effect for the PC a few months back at a friend's house and I haven't stopped obsessing about it. I still find myself thinking of reasons I could use so I could spend a night at his house just to finish the game.

The characters in Mass Effect are just so well-developed and complex. You have your own character, Commander Shepard, whose history and origins you can choose and will slightly affect the story later on in the game. Then you have your crew. Each of the your NPC crew member has their own story to tell and their own personalities that you have to deal with - and you will deal with them.

Because there is a certain depth and complexity and interactivity to the characters it gets you engrossed into the story; it submerses you into the game world and you simply find yourself feeling for the characters. Next thing you'll know, you'll be feeling sad when something terrible happens to a character or feel irritated or even angry at another

Now for the second aspect, I'll be using MGS3: Snake Eater as my prime sample (I know, I know... its not an rpg but I can't find any other video game that could serve as a better example). Any one who has finished the game knows what I'm talking about. They know how much the ending was a OMGWTFBBQ!!!111` moment. They play through the 5+ hours of nonstop cloak and dagger action, eye watering cut scenes and then they slap the ending at your face like a supersonic palm on fire with the word K O J I M A on it. Yes, it was that much of a shock and yes, it is that brilliant of a game and yes, Mr. I-see-dead-people twist has nothing on Hideo!

Sad that Hideo Kojima's fabled direction didn't get much of an appearance in his other game.

What other game?

Zone of the Enders.

Hmm.. interesting. I've read an interesting article somewhere about writing for games. I'm uhm.. doing some writing for an upcoming game right now too (nothing big LOL) and I find myself faced with great difficulty. ~.~ My problem stems from the fact that my boss wants me to create a compelling story that doesn't end but it should also be something with finality. I remember going, "Uhm, what?" when I was given the instructions. And then I realized that my boss, like me and like many other amateur writers, got confused with a storytelling game and a game running on story. ~.~

I picked this up while I was trying to come to terms with this whole writing for game thing:



So how do you think should the game and story work together? I'm just curious, I need other people's opinion on this. I've always been baffled about how a story works when it is placed in the context of a game. Because we all know a great story does not necessarily give birth to a great game.