Soraya Saga on Xenogear - balance between gameplay and story

You can read the full interview here, but I'm going to highlight the important part:

The previousXenoworks were heavy on cutscenes. How do you balance a dramatic story with gameplay and what have you learned over the years?

"Keeping balance between those elements is the most important task we must work at. As you know, the heavy volume of story has been a core factor ofXenoworks. But now we realized that too heavily orienting toward visuals and stories would ruin the fundamental reason for the existence of games."

Even as a guy who plays games for the plots and character development, gameplay is what ultimately distinguishes a jrpg from a graphic novel. Although it brings to mind the question: What companies/developers are good at 'balancing the elements'? Most genres focus on one or the other...there doesn't seem to be much variety. Why is it so rare that we get a game with good gameplay AND a good story?

I don't know. Xenogears and Xenosaga are both known for having long cutscenes. Story has a very strong presence in both of these two IPs. But story is also the reason why these two IPs are popular. And while they're very story oriented, the gameplay involved is very strong. I think the lessons learned from Xenosaga are most evident in the last work: narrative doesn't necessarily mean full blown cutscenes. The first two episodes had more than a few cutscenes that did a great job of immersing the player in the story, but they also weren't necessarily as important as others. Ep. III designated some story to full blown cutscenes, and others to voiced textboxes that the story could go through more quickly.

I think there are games where the story presence is simply too much. For the amount of MGS4 that I have played, some cutscenes were long and drawn out that didn't necessarily need to be. But I think there are also games where there needed to be more story. FFXIII simply doesn't have enough cutscenes to tell the story that it wants to tell. Some of the stronger story elements of the game fell short because the game didn't provide enough setup or discussion. For example, Cid Raines.

To conclude my post, why do people recommend games like Xenogears or Silent Hill 2? Is it because of the gameplay? No, it's because of the story. I don't think games created for the purpose of storytelling is a bad thing as long as there is a strong gameplay presence to back it up. If we view story as an afterthought, then it will be an afterthought and storytelling in games will suffer.

Ive never noticed a extreme emphasis on story in her games, the stories in her games were simply really good.

Now the Metal Gear series, thats a series with a extreme emphasis on story. Fantastic story and standard TPS gameplay.

Hmm I would say that xenosaga games are heavy on cinematics...infact to the point they are just interactive movies...but xenogears was no where near as heavy in either ingame or anime cutscenes.

Hmm I would say that xenosaga games are heavy on cinematics...infact to the point they are just interactive movies...but xenogears was no where near as heavy in either ingame or anime cutscenes.

WilliamRLBaker

Pfft. Xenogears was just as heavy on cutscenes as Xenosaga, if not more. Both had long dungeons with scores of battles and puzzle solving involved - i.e. gameplay.

[QUOTE="WilliamRLBaker"]

Hmm I would say that xenosaga games are heavy on cinematics...infact to the point they are just interactive movies...but xenogears was no where near as heavy in either ingame or anime cutscenes.

hakanakumono

Pfft. Xenogears was just as heavy on cutscenes as Xenosaga, if not more. Both had long dungeons with scores of battles and puzzle solving involved - i.e. gameplay.

Agreed.

I actually didn't mind Xenosaga's cutscenes at all. The pacing was so good that I hung on every word, trying to figure out the conspiracies and connections betweem the characters. Any scene involving chaos I was hooked, he was my favourite character by far. There was just so much mystery surrounding him and his origins, and when his real name is revealed, if you're knowledgable about christian mythology, it's a big "O.o Whoa." This of course sets the third game up nicely.

There's a difference between cutscenes, and informative cutscenes. Take Star Ocean 4's cutscenes. A lot of the time they were pretty pointless, adding unnecessary pauses, interruptions, and incidents that really detracted from the gameplay. However, Xenogears and Xenosaga really didn't have this problem. Their cutscenes were engaging, exciting, myterious. The first time you see all of the Zohar Emulators in the Durandal, and the names they bear, you start to really get drawn into the story, and you just don't care if the cutscenes are 3 minutes or 30 minutes, they were just that engaging.

Well, I wouldn't say that Xenosaga didn't have some needlessly long cutscenes. Shion's curry for example. ._.;

Well, I wouldn't say that Xenosaga didn't have some needlessly long cutscenes. Shion's curry for example. ._.;

hakanakumono

Okay, yeah lol. Some were a little indulgent, but for the most part they were pretty informative and interesting.

I can't anything about the Xenosaga titles because I didn't finish them. As for Xenogears though it was the perfect blend of gameplay and story, and what a great story it told. The only other RPG that matches Xenogears caliber is probably Planespace Torment.

[QUOTE="WilliamRLBaker"]

Hmm I would say that xenosaga games are heavy on cinematics...infact to the point they are just interactive movies...but xenogears was no where near as heavy in either ingame or anime cutscenes.

hakanakumono

Pfft. Xenogears was just as heavy on cutscenes as Xenosaga, if not more. Both had long dungeons with scores of battles and puzzle solving involved - i.e. gameplay.

Talk is cheap.SaltyMeatballs

[QUOTE="hakanakumono"]

[QUOTE="WilliamRLBaker"]

Hmm I would say that xenosaga games are heavy on cinematics...infact to the point they are just interactive movies...but xenogears was no where near as heavy in either ingame or anime cutscenes.

WilliamRLBaker

Pfft. Xenogears was just as heavy on cutscenes as Xenosaga, if not more. Both had long dungeons with scores of battles and puzzle solving involved - i.e. gameplay.

No ... it's not like that at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOINZXXJ9X8&feature=related

All three games had plenty of lengthy gameplay portions. There may have been cutscenes within all portions of the game, but dungeon areas were predominated by gameplay.

Did you get to the 2nd disc of Xenogears? There's a substantial period of gametime where there is no walking around - it's a series of boss battles in a cutscene. And Xenogears has very, very long cutscenes throughout.