LogFAQs > #977788716

YoukaiSlayer posted...

But you don't need to shake things up with the story. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

If the story never gets shaken up, it is broke, or at least not very good. A completely predictable story can be serviceable, in a context where you don't particularly need a good story (like Pokemon or Mario), but it's generally not very interesting, and a story-focused game should have an interesting story.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

I would have been very pissed if my getting the sandwiches ultimately made no difference in the dogs health. Hell, I'd be pissed watching that in an anime. Don't waste my time on story beats that ultimately come to nothing.

But it doesn't come to nothing. It forms part of the characters' development in the grander scheme of things. Arven would be a different person for having tried and failed to save the dog than if he had just given up from the outset, and that would be the focus of a story where the dog died (again, not exactly original, but a well-established idea for an emotionally evocative story). Again, you'd eventually succeed, victory just might not look like you thought it would, which in a lot of ways is a significantly more uplifting experience than everything just going well all the time.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

To shift it again though, how do you feel about freiren airing right now? That's a show that realistically has no need for the characters to ever fail a combat encounter and it has quite a good story. I think it's even rated #1 on MAL right now, largely because of the emotional story.

Haven't seen it (or any anime in like 10 years, actually >.>), but I'm loosely familiar with the premise, and I'm sure it's doing a fine job without anyone getting beaten up. Combat failure isn't necessary to tell an interesting, compelling story, it's just one tool available to do so. I'm not about to suggest that every story should have a token failure to add dramatic tension, just that having failure isn't a bad thing and there's no reason to categorically rule it out.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

Hell, iyashikei anime has proven people can enjoy a story with no conflict whatsoever, internal or external. Just pure pleasant escapism.

That's not so much enjoying a story, though, as it is enjoying that banal escapism. Even putting aside for a moment that there often is conflict (just nothing high-stakes) because that's critical to have any sort of plot whatsoever, people watching slice-of-life do so because they just want to chill out and laugh at characters dealing with boring everyday lives in ways that are kind of funny and/or charming. Nobody watches K-On or Lucky Star for the plot, much the same way that nobody plays Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley for the plot. Media that is more story-focused, however, does need to be held to a higher standard and its writers should strive to make their stories interesting. That generally means higher-stakes conflicts and unpredictability.

YoukaiSlayer posted...

Something fantasy rpg video games are even more suited to.

Depends on the game. Something like Fantasy Life (which you'd probably enjoy, though that recommendation isn't very helpful with the 3DS eShop dead and the Switch sequel 6-8 months out) expressly bills itself as being a slice of life RPG, and accordingly it's a pretty chill, banal story where you're mostly just messing around with fun characters. That's exactly what it should be. Something like Xenoblade, Final Fantasy, or Tales, though, is presented as being an epic fantasy adventure, with the fate of the world on the line and deep secrets about its true nature to uncover. Give one of those a low-stakes story with minimal conflict, and you've got a problem. Those need higher-stakes conflict, unpredictable twists, and a genuine threat of failure, otherwise you end up with a story that lacks the credibility needed to hold up that pretense. "Fantasy RPG video game" covers a pretty broad spectrum of styles and themes. In some of them, scripted losses are indeed inappropriate and just serve to artificially lengthen the game in a way that feels contrived and awkward. In others, they're a useful tool for developing dramatic tension and preventing the story from becoming predictable.