Videogame Storytelling Revelations From Beating “Killer7″ and “Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening”
I recently beat Capcom’s “Killer7” on the Gamecube, and Nintendo’s “The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening” on the original Gameboy. There’s a painful contrast between cliche existentialist storytelling and decent gameplay. Spoiler warning?
You may have encountered at least one of the following in a video game:
- you fight “yourself” (doppelganger, clone, shadow, evil twin, etc)
- something / everything your character perceives is not real (dream, hallucination, VR-simulation, etc)
- world run by omnipotent conspiracy (hidden cabal, evil spirits, illuminati, etc)
- you find out you are the “bad guy” from a strange turn of events
I’m not sure if these are primarily Japanese literary techniques, or whether they have a long history or are more modern. Almost every time one of these devices is used in game storytelling, it’s heralded as inventive or surprising and not cliche or trite. I think you need to have a very good reason to use these storytelling elements, because they feel like getting thwapped in the nuts. It’s like the author is saying to the audience “hey, I want to surprise you, but I can’t think of a plausible way to do it.” The metaphor each evokes is also ham-fisted at this point. I don’t need to have a literal fight with my self to highlight an inner struggle. I don’t need to have the complete story be a dream to highlight that perception is an illusion. I get it. Thanks, author. What makes it worse is that if these techniques weren’t overused, they could be useful in ways which would be genuine. The Sixth Sense was really surprising and shocking to people; almost every M. Night Shyamalan movie after it wasn’t.
However, gaming is a tricky medium. Zelda, man that was a good game! I’m amazed every time I play one of those how much fun it is to solve each dungeon and win each game piece. Killer7’s gameplay was decent; the puzzles were easy and gimmicky. The enemies eventually got to be a bit gimmicky as well (laser eyed zombie?). However, I feel the storytelling was delightfully convoluted, the art and music was cool, the game mechanic of switching personalities was unique, the zombie fights were neat, and the explosions were gratifying enough to get me through the 15 hours of game and feel pretty decent about it.
I don’t have a solution. Should developers not bother with a story? No, because then the game would be completely hollow. Should they bother making the story better if you can enjoy the game without it being great? They won’t make anymore money doing that, will they? Most people don’t buy games for their storytelling, they watch movies for that. It’s a tough question, and I’ve been a game developer and still don’t have a solid answer. I still pay attention, and the story of the average game is certainly fun, but it would be great if a game could make me deeply think and feel for the characters instead of being nauseated by its cheap tricks.