Do you pay attention to video game stories?

In most cases, not really lol, but there are a few exceptions!

Stories I can follow:

• MGS franchise: I can mostly follow the story from at least MGS 1 - forward.
• Zelda: another franchise that I can follow but I have a hard time remembering the different timelines.
• Final Fantasy 7: not hard at all.
• Resident Evil franchise: can be convoluted but you get the general idea.

Stories I have no idea what's going on:

• Souls games: I really wanted to understand Bloodborne but just end up Wiki-ing it lol.
• Kingdom Hearts: forget about it!
• Xenoblade games: Found it very difficult to follow but I also thought it was boring.
• Most JRPGs: lol all I know is teens fight bad guy/thing who wants to take over the world.

How about you, SW? Do you pay attention to video game stories?

I try to but sometimes I zone out during important story sections - or cutscenes / story beats that go on for way to long than they have any right - and then I'm left with countless enemies and I just kill them without clear motivation. But I don't care.

I do like games that let you pause and replay cutscenes from the beginning though, as to not miss things.

If a story can grab me. If it can.

It turns out though: there aren't many good storytellers in games that know how to take full advantage of the medium.

Halos

Mass Effects

Gears

Tomb Raiders

But even those don't compare to the stellar story telling in Forzas. lol :P

Of course. Although these days there's so much woke or other agenda driven shit in plots that I tend to gloss over it.

Does Zelda actually have a story?

Of course.

Yup. I like narrative-driven games, so I do try to pay attention.

Not always successful, but I do try.

I pay attention to stories in visual novels or point-and-click games.

Disco Elysium and NORCO were two games I recently completed that had great stories.

In other games, I pay attention to the stories because I consider the narrative and cutscenes “content.” If I skipped those sections, I would feel as though I were not playing or experiencing the game as I should. 99% (that’s my honest estimate) of game stories I have experienced were not good. I could probably list like seven total that I have considered good in my 25+ years of gaming. Some are serviceable and let the gameplay breath and are not a focus in their respective games. I can appreciate the nothingness of those stories more than I can the bloated Hollywood-wannabes out there.

It depend on games. There are games I just turn my brains off like Soulsborne, Yakuza, Uncharted or heck most jrpg series.

I think the beauty of Bloodborne is the game is easy to make assumptions once u pick up threads. The game dont have those time bending and most of fantasy trope bullshits in souls game so its easier to piece together.

On the other hand Xenoblade stories just stupid it lacks the complex and grandiose previous spiritual predecessor entries. Maybe cause they trying to appeal to nintendo users whom mostly kids and (probably) pedos they can't write difficult topics. I mean xenoblade 2, AKA one of the worst jrpg I ever played the end game twist is just the same scientist dude in the first game got split personality or body and created another dimension where 1st game takes place. What the fuk is that that is so stupid and dude all emo cause he destroyed the world or some shit.

All my favourite games except Elden Ring are narrative-driven and have the best stories in gaming. So yes.

Rarely anymore.

Souls games are fun enough that you don't need to know what's going on. Then you can watch the myriad of high-quality user created content for a deep lore dive. Love it.

I think its very safe to assume that the only ones that don't care about the story of games are the sheep, and that's simply because Nintendo believes that saving the princess for 30 years is actual story telling🤦‍♂️

JRPGs have the most compelling stories and characters. 😏

Typically, yes. But I like to do multiple playthroughs as differently as possible. Sounds stupid, I know but it's actually a pretty fun way to create replay value for some of my favorite games.

Some playthroughs: I like to skip the story as much as possible. (Mostly for action games like Uncharted and Halo.)

Others would be with fiddled audio so I can just enjoy it without commitment.

I like to have fun!

Here is what I think of stories in games...

I like it when they have...

Yep, I very much follow the stories in the games I play.

@hardwenzen:

Nintendo games don't focus on story, it's all about the gameplay. You can enjoy any Nintendo game just fine without paying attention to the story.

OK. But how about offering both once per 10 years?

Yes, even in games I know the stories are confusing, silly, or poorly-written.

It really depends on the game. Yooka-lay-lee was such an annoyingly dialogue heavy game, despite being a platformer, that I skipped the whole thing. And the annoying voices are fine when in moderation, but the characters never shut up. I don’t remember Banjo being as annoying as Yooka. Some games are just really fun gameplay wise and I don’t care for the story; Dark Souls for example. Again, it’s just a case by case situation for me.

In shooters I don't care about the story. In rpg's & action/adventure games I do.

@hardwenzen:

They know their audience. If no one in their demographic complains about the lack thereof story, then there's no reason to change it up. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I know where to go for story and where to go to just play something mindlessly.

I'll be honest- a few video game stories I have looked up before.

Most notably Final Fantasy X, Hollow Knight, Souls games, and Resident Evil. For these games I would like to understand the story.

But this is not a question of being broken or not. You don't need it in a Mario game, but now that they're trying to flesh out Zelda with a bunch of different characters and such, ain't nobody gonna tell me with a straight face that a quality story wouldn't be fitting in ToTK. That would be like saying that Bloodborne gameplay is excellent, so the story is not needed.

I do, yes.

That's not to be confused with story-telling.

Not "video games shouldn't have a story!", even a basic frame of a story can enhance them.

The problem is when they become more important than the gameplay with story-telling methods actively detrimental.

Obvious one no one likes, but by fucking golly you're getting it, cinematic walking.

Depends on the game.....but i try to if i think it's interesting at least. How it's told is also very important. Long cutscenes are a bit of a nono. Level based story telling, keeping nice to know details in optional side material (items, scanned things, a journal...whatever)...nicer.

Something like Monster hunter....yeah..no. Something something balance....LETS KILL LOADS OF GIANT MONSTER AND LOOT.....for the balance of course. That's basically monster hunter.

FF7 has a great story though. Really enjoyed that. Deus Ex was also great as was morrowind. Horizon Zero Dawn (from what i played so far) has a surprisingly good story.

Not really

Honestly, in a lot of cases no. No trouble following stories in books or movies/tv shows, but I tend to get caught thinking about what I want to do next in the game during cutscenes unless the storytelling is really compelling, or its a very narrative focused game.

If the story is more obtuse like in From Software games, no chance. I just run around killing things till credits roll.

I decided to replay Fallen Order while waiting for Jedi Survivor, partly because I half-assed my first playthrough and never even finished it, but also because Survivor is a direct sequel and I couldn't remember a damn thing about the first game's story or characters.

I love a good story, but most games have weak ones that just get in the way. That's one the many great things about Souls games. Most of them are decent, but aren't really forced on the player. You can engage as much or little as desired.

The old Blizzard did it pretty well too. The mission briefings gave enough information to get you going, and then you got right to playing. The voice acting was great too. I was always happy to "stay awhile, and listen"... until a purple butterfly ruined it.

Most of the time. Depends on the game though.

@hardwenzen:

Meh, I never really cared about Zelda so it can be what ever it wants.

Maaaaaaybe they'll be good stories??

I follow the stories. Most game naratives are kinda dumb, but I still pay attention.

Its not like MS has released a game with a good story in generations😎

Always.

@SolidGame_basic: I followed Bioware games like DA and ME, ES and Fallout, Zelda.

But, I hate - HATE - when games are CGI-fests. The story should be told in-game, not through 20 minutes of CGI. If there's more an 2 min cutscenes, I get bored, more than 5 and I start to get irritated.

I follow a few. Most are absolutely terrible. I mean, they are sooooo bad. Very rarely do we get something cohesive and engaging from a narrative perspective. I'd rather souls games of breath of the wild that leaves things vague and allows the environment tell the story.

only in rare cases.

Most of the time they are just a poor take on a better story found in another medium.

I like all game stories. The only ones I skip are in mmo's. Ffxiv had me skipping every single dialog.

Sometimes. But I prefer if the stories are told without many cut scenes.

I'm not so sure. For me it's more of an emotionally told journey. OoT was more feeling and audio that made it memorable. The story was fairly simple.

@girlusocrazy:

I don't know how you play but the camera was never an issue for me, neither was the skip button. Auto-follow is an option for most games but some people like me prefer the freedom to admire the graphics.

I almost always follow the story, so if I'm not it's for one of two reasons. 1. I've already played that part of the game and don't need to hear or see it again. 2. I'm not really enjoying the game or I'm just trying to see what the gameplay loop is in a quick test of the waters before either never playing the game again or starting over.

I play a lot of under the radar games and games a lot of people probably haven't even ever heard of, so the vetting process is a necessary evil at times... lol.

Always have.

I wouldn't care, I read books and watch movies for good stories.

I play video games for fun gameplay.

Has to be a game that's story based to matter much to me. Maybe something like Disco Elysium or maybe something like Mass Effect, games that give meaningful story options to choose from.

Sony always focuses on story and it's not even a great story, just meh

start off fully intending to, but often the games are too long, the story is stretched to fit, and the quality of delivery is not the best fit for the medium. can find it hard to maintain focus, either through lack of interest, day dreaming during cut scenes or not being able to play for several days and forgetting the detail.

a recap feature like some tv shows have - "last week on show x... <reminder of key scenes>" which you can access from the menu that pieces together all the cut scenes up to that point in the game, with a bit of commentary for context would be a god send.

generally as long as i have a basic, consistent story frame that gives me purpose, i'm good. i've said it before i'll say it again, crysis does that well. a simple story that's easy to follow and allows the gameplay to flow and take centre stage. know your role. it's not going to win any awards but it's interesting enough to carry the game all the way through to the finale and ends on a cliffhanger. for any other medium, meh, for a video game shooter, it works well, particularly with warhead showing events happening on the other side of the island and how the two intertwine. plays its part in helping crysis be a great shooter just flowing subtly in the background