Recently I have been pondering the role of dialouge that it used through out video games. Games such as Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid are known for their hundreds of pages worth of dialouge to engulf the player into their worlds. Personally I believe that Metal Gear Solid 2 has the most realistic conversations ever written in a video game. Sure there was vast amounts of techno-babble about Arsenal Gear and it's "Purified Hydrogen bomb" but the real prize was the banter between Rose and Raiden that could take place between any two people. Dialouge in itself has become almost a necessity, not only as a means to give depth to characters but in some cases, as a means to plot progression. However, I haven't been pondering if we need dialouge or not but rather how much of it we actually need.

This idea flourished a month ago when I watched The Animatrix's "Beyond" and was mesmerized. Never before had I seen such an elegent, beautiful and simple piece of media in my life. The story is fairly simple and easy to understand. Yoko, a teenager, loses her cat and sets out to find. When she does find it, she also finds a haunted house and a group of kids playing in it. The house itself acutally isn't haunted, rather a glitch in The Matrix but the kids aren't aware of that. As they explore the house, they discover that they can perform inhuman feats such as falling and stopping in mid air and other acrobatic feats not possible under normal circumstances. Yoko herself even takes advantage of this glitch by falling to the side and stopping in mid air in a position similar to if one was lying on a bed side ways. The short story ends with agents locating the house and repairing the glitch. The next day, Yoko and the kids return to the house but instead find a parking lot were the house once stood.

The one aspect of Beyond that struck me hardest was its lack of dialouge. While the three Matrix films made a name for itself using it's philosophic babble to confuse movie goers who were only in it for the action, Beyond's use of words are both slight and very easy to understand. All of the conversations that took place were simple exchanges that anyone would use in a similar situation. The real prize of this short film was the character movements and the music used that evoked such an emotional response out of me. The fluid, child-like animation of the characters gave them a since of innocence while the music was almost something straight out of someone's dream with it's sutble vocals. This sense of atmosphere is something that I would like to see more of from game developers from now on.

One game that pulled this off beautifully is the much praised ICO. Again very little dialouge is used here but the characters probably have just as much depth as you would see in a heavily story-oriented game. The dialouge spoken between main characters, Ico and Yorda, is quick and extremely easy to understand (well not entirely easy since Yorda's speech is never translated into english). To get the most out of these characters though, players are required to pay attention to their actions and movements rather than their words. Yorda herself seems as graceful as a princess should be, although frail at times. Ico carries himself as a courageous young boy out to save both of them from what it seems like an eternity of eternal damnation within the confines of the Queen. The music is a mix of the environments own natural sounds and a haunting musical score. My favorite piece, Entity (played during the final fight with the Queen), is a shining example that excessive amounts of dialouge isn't needed for story telling. The music itself seems to tell her story, with the vocals remnicent of the tortured souls she commands seemingly crying out for a saviour. Maybe I'm reading too much into this but that is what I got out of it.

Storytelling in video games need not be hours of dialouge and text. A character should not have to repeatedly declare the words "I Love You" to another character. It should be uttered once and shown later down the roads in their actions.

Happy Gaming,

Systems_Id