LogFAQs > #977819608

adjl posted...

Many stories start out with a goal that ends up changing as you learn more about the world and what's going on, often invalidating the work you put toward the initial goal

I don't think thats really necessary in a lot of these cases and it does depend on how certain the goals are to begin with. If your goal is to go save a town from some impending disaster and then you learn that actually the whole world is in greater danger, theres really no reason to put that reveal before saving the town. You can have your cake and eat it to.

In the cases where you are actively pursing a lie the whole time, ie, the town was never actually in danger and the person who sent you to save it is the actual bad guy that just wants you out of the way to destroy your town, I feel thats almost always pretty contrived. It's very difficult to tell that story as a game very well, because again, I AM the character. What happens if I am smarter than they are letting my character be and I suspect that guy the whole time but theres nothing I can do about it? I try to return to town immediately but my character doesn't let me and gives me some text box "the town in danger isn't that way". That sucks. Tell me that story in a setting where I'm not that character.

Arvan's story would be a bit of a middle ground. After all, my character might know it probably won't work, but Arvan just won't listen and give up. If my character doing the actions knows they are pointless in achieving the goal, it could be fine. If I were to play that same story AS Arvan though, I'd hate that.

adjl posted...

I can think of several JRPGs where a twist like that played a huge role in making the story interesting

I can't think of several jrpgs that even have an interesting story, annoying twist or not. A lot of times much less important gameplay decisions negatively impact the story, like needing to visit every set piece location.

adjl posted...

instead of encountering some stumbling blocks along the way to a grander victory is exceedingly limiting

The stumbling blocks should all be gameplay solvable. Thats why it's a game.

The only jrpg (sort of) that I can think of that has a pretty good story for most of it's run (the last part is pretty nonsensical) is FFT:WotL and it's story hinders the gameplay which also hinders the story. Both are excellent individually but the whole is less than the sum of it's parts. As soon as you get invested in one part, the other part shows up and halts all that momentum. Thats something that really would have just been better as a stand alone story not tied to a video game.