How much do you Value Storylines?

Dragon

Dragon

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    Playing in certain typical video games, I often like playing through story modes where I can get a backstory of a story that the game provides, which helps on enhancing gaming experience. But my question to you all is, do you care much about a storyline on a video game in general, as much as playability?

    What are some of the best storylines of games that you've played? What were some of the worst?
    Did these storylines help enhance your gaming experience?

    Share all thoughts~
     
    Since I play more JRPGs than anything else, I love a good story and, whilst I love a good soundtrack even more, a good story is especially important to me. In recent years, some of the best I've come across include Xenoblade Chronicles (which jerked me every which way with its numerous plot twists and tantalizing yet incomplete visions of the future which invited guesswork which almost-always turned out to be wrong) and NieR (which took a while to get going but unleashed hell by the end of the game...then twisted the knife with subsequent playthroughs) for depth, although I find the Atelier series to be refreshingly charming for their casual approach to storytelling. When you're given so many cutscenes, I think it's important that either the story is good, or the characters are engaging. Better both, but one can supplement the other.

    Some of the worst...the FFXIII trilogy springs to mind. The idea is to weave exposition into the narrative, not hand the audience a bloody glossary and expect them to figure it out. The first game lacked proper explanation, but it DID make some sense. The second tried and failed to use time paradoxes to cover its plotholes. I gave up after about thirty minutes on the storyline of the third and just concentrated on playing the game. The gameplay kept me going, by my god, the story was atrocious.

    Although in some cases, I'm quite willing to overlook a bad story - or a lack of one entirely - because of excellent gameplay. This is particularly true of most Nintendo franchises, which never have strong storylines (unless you religiously follow the series and are intimately familiar with the characters, at least) but usually deliver a great gameplay experience. The Zelda and Metroid series are two examples I would tout here, as well as Kirby to a lesser extent.

    Outside of Nintendo, a lot Nippon Ichi Software games have quite weak story modes, but gameplay that is ridiculously deep. Disgaea games are timesinks, but the only one I would say that has an even passable story is the fourth; the rest have a very disjointed narrative with a lot of jokes but little in the way of actual content. That doesn't stop me losing sleep and several hundred hours of my life to them.
     
    I seem to be the only person who does not care a bout story at all. All that really matters to me are if the graphics are good and the game is fun to play. Every time I see someone complaining about a game's story I always think to myself "Why the hell does it matter?".

    Don't care about music either as I always keep the sound turned off.
     
    I can't think of a non-Visual Novel game that had a good story. Maybe Earthbound, but I need to finish it.

    I don't really care for stories in games. The best video game stories are usually satire and not meant to be taken seriously.
     
    I love me a good video game storyline, because as a RTS gamer, you would love a good storyline in the campaign to get the hang of what happens instead of just base building and so. There is another mode for that stuff without an actual storyline, and it is called playing against the AI in Skirmish mode. I love the weird storylines the C&C series gave you, especially RA1 with their time traveling to erase some important people off the world to change the future.

    Storylines for a RTS game are very important, at least for the campaign. If it isn't... well then it just feels like a Skirmish battle over and over again and that is no fun :/
     
    Storyline matters to me a lot. I don't consider gameplay, graphics, or anything of the sort to be much important; as long as the story could keep me entertained, I will stay hooked. :] As for games that actually don't have a story, I play them because they have some form of an objective, which could be fun to try achieving.
     
    Spinosaurus said:
    I think you're confusing story campaign with actual storyline writing.
    Click to expand...

    Still a story being presented in the form of gameplay and it still required a storyline being written up. Maybe not up to RPG standards of storytelling, but still storytelling all the same.

    As for me, the level to which story matters to me depends on the game's genre, though I definitely have a bias toward sandbox type games.
     
    "Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important." (John Carmack)
     
    I gotta say, probably a little less than most people. If the game is fun, I'll play it. I don't need the full story line to go with it. Just give me a cool game.
     
    Biggest example of why stories aren't important in games: Pokémon. In a story-driven genre, it gets away with "complete the Pokédex" in the first game. The gameplay in Pokémon is far, far more important than any story. The series didn't become a success because of story, but gameplay.
     
    Story matters a lot to me. A game doesn't need amazing graphics, it has to have a fantastic story. I mean, nobody played titles like Cave Story expecting the best thing that has been viewed by their eyes. They fell in love with it for the story.
     
    Depends on what Kind of hame I'm playing.
    In a adventure game the story is more important for me then in a Hack and slash game.
     
    Darkwing Ducklett said:
    Since I play more JRPGs than anything else, I love a good story and, whilst I love a good soundtrack even more, a good story is especially important to me. In recent years, some of the best I've come across include Xenoblade Chronicles (which jerked me every which way with its numerous plot twists and tantalizing yet incomplete visions of the future which invited guesswork which almost-always turned out to be wrong) and NieR (which took a while to get going but unleashed hell by the end of the game...then twisted the knife with subsequent playthroughs) for depth, although I find the Atelier series to be refreshingly charming for their casual approach to storytelling. When you're given so many cutscenes, I think it's important that either the story is good, or the characters are engaging. Better both, but one can supplement the other.

    Some of the worst...the FFXIII trilogy springs to mind. The idea is to weave exposition into the narrative, not hand the audience a bloody glossary and expect them to figure it out. The first game lacked proper explanation, but it DID make some sense. The second tried and failed to use time paradoxes to cover its plotholes. I gave up after about thirty minutes on the storyline of the third and just concentrated on playing the game. The gameplay kept me going, by my god, the story was atrocious.
    Click to expand...

    Personally, majority of the time I don't understand the story, but it does come into play at times considering my preference of games are that of the RPG genre. Like you mentioned, good story + beautiful soundtrack + gorgeous graphics are all equally important to me when it comes to choosing and game and playing through it completely. I guess my attention span for games is next to nothing because while I'm playing the game with those cutscenes, I normally just mash the button to get through it without actually reading the dialogue \: Terrible way of playing, I know, and that's why I end up reading up on the story afterwards ;-; I'm trying to change that, especially with Final Fantasy X; I already know what happens, but have never understood the story in its entirety so I'm making an effort to change that the second time around.

    Also, I do agree with you in that the FFXIII series has been lackluster, to say the least when it comes to story and gameplay. I appreciate the mechanics that they're trying to introduce, but at the same time the game was nothing but linear. I absolutely hated the first game where you were forced to use certain characters and that made it hell for me to stagger enemies. Though I did particularly like FFXIII-2 way better, in comparison to the original; I'd much prefer Noel + Serah over Lightning any day. But Final Fantasy is one of my favourite series, so somehow I always manage to pull through even when stories are not up to the standards I have.
     
    For me gameplay and storylines are the most important things in games. It either has to have a balance of both, or be extremely good in either departments. That's probably one reason why I'm such a big fan of Quantic Dream with Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Fahrenheit. Even though the gameplay isn't too great, the story makes up for it.
     
    Cerberus87 said:
    Biggest example of why stories aren't important in games: Pokémon. In a story-driven genre, it gets away with "complete the Pokédex" in the first game. The gameplay in Pokémon is far, far more important than any story. The series didn't become a success because of story, but gameplay.
    Click to expand...


    True, but I would like a good story outta Pokémon. Too bad that'll probably never happen...
     
    Funny, Boyfriend and I were just 'arguing' about this a few days ago. He said every game needs a good story line for him to enjoy it, I asked him if he even knew what the story was in any of the CoD games. Argument ended there. :P

    Let me start by saying: I'm sure there are some games that need a good story line. They're probably not games I'd play, but I'm sure they're out there. Like Asura's Wrath, with its total lack of gameplay because it was basically just meant to be watched.

    For me, the gameplay trumps all.
    As a survival horror junkie, I just don't care about the story line. I don't need to know why I'm in a bloody cabin, with a broken circuit breaker box, in the middle of the woods, at night, etc. in order to be immersed in a game. Maybe it isn't broken, maybe they just haven't paid their electric bill. I don't care who/why/what made the weirdly shaped "monsters" in the game. Whatever. None of that matters. I just care about the puzzles and the fighting, y'know, the gameplay elements.

    The same goes for every genre I play, though.. action/adventure, RPG, FPS, survival/psychological horror, etc.. I want to play it, not watch it. I don't care about the graphics, the story, the music.. Just the gameplay.
    If I just wanted to watch something, I have a TV for that. That's probably why I hated Mass Effect. There was too much talking for me. And then when I could finally shoot things, it just resulted in more talking. Not exactly my kind of game.
     
    Depends on the genera. I love a good story, Ultima 7 and Final Fantasy 7 had some great stories. But the Mario platformer games have some truly amazing gameplay and pretty much no story. That's no big deal, they really don't need it. One thing I love about Ultima are the great stories they have, Quest of the Avatar was revolutionary in that it introduced a story that wasn't about saving the world; but was about a quest of self-mastery, and the Warriors of Destiny had an amazing story as did 6, 7, and yes, even 9. So that's what I think, but really Pokemon and Mario would benefit from a story however it's completely unnecessary, but who play's Mario for the story? Or Pokemon for that matter?
     
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