In response to a pair of Videos from The team @ExtraCreditz and @IdeaChannel i quickly discuss what came to mind regarding the use of Narrative and Mechanical Story telling in games and how they have changed in J-RPG’s over the last 15/20 years Share and comment on the video if you would like to see more posts Like this.
-Derm (DelhiBelly) McG
See the Original Videos that spawned this Below:
Extra Credits – Digging Deeper – Do Games Have Less Value than Other Media?
Are Videogames About Their Mechanics? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios
Narrative is something a lot of mediums can do, mechanical storytelling is unique to games and provides an experience with a lot more impact to it, seen as it is what you are involved in for much of the game.
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Its much harder to write for mechanics rather than story but theres some excellent examples that are unobtrusive But become a decay in the narrative like lost odessey. The main characters immortality displayed by self-rez in battle If given enough turns.
This informs the game and the world concurrently. While it becomes a mechanical cruch in later in the game to intentionally down your own teammates or to simply spam heal your one non immortal character till the others return from the grave. Is this impact the intented narrative choice? Is it the point of the mechanic as like you said you’ll spend an awful lot of time with it unlike a traditional cutscene but what once was there to inform you of character has now broken the level of danger for the rest of the game.
Im not aggainst barrative mechanics but I fear they dont get considered in the fullness of story. For consistancies of character/world and the like.
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Implementation is key after all, yes there are examples of good mechanic storytelling but to balance them into gameplay without shifting the intended playstyles can be tricky. I know that a lot of stories break down when they reflect gameplay and you realise “holy crap, my guy is an immortal why do I even have other party members?”
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