Storytelling In Video Games



Video Game storytelling and narrative has progressed immensely, games nowadays can rival movies with their cutscenes, characters, plots, cinematics. Games like Witcher 3, God of War Ragnarock, Last Of Us, Red Dead Redemption 2 are masterpieces of narrative in games. Though, at times it feels that game award, critics, fans tend to only focus on these games style of storytelling and see it as the only way for a video game to tell a narrative. This came to my attention when I noticed Elden Ring was getting criticism and hate for getting the best narrative nomination. Which doesn’t make sense Elden Ring and dark souls and all the Fromsoft games have great narrative they just approach storytelling differently. So today I wanted to give some examples as to how video games can tell stories in unique ways. and hopefully by spotlighting these methods and techniques I can show that there’s more to video game storytelling than just trying to be like a movie in its approach. We should Praise Both these styles of storytelling in gaming because they both have a place.

#gaming #eldenring #godofwar

Soundtrack of the video: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhr2nXSQmQdn2gsVrWfbNN_NpupSwac7u

Timestamps:
00:00 – Blue Curtains
0:46 – Teacher Was Right
2:35 – Video Game Stories Currently
5:30 – Player Choice
9:59 – Environmental Storytelling
11:15 – Detective IP
11:55 – Back to Environments
15:38 – MID BUMP
16:05 – Mechanical Storytelling
18:16 – Dorkfest Continues
18:58 – Mechanical Storytelling Continues
22:13 – Evil Brother Intermission
22:26 – Obligatory Ending IP Video With Souls
25:18 – More Than Just One Way To Tell A Story
27:13 – Thank You

Sources and footage:
https://www.youtube.com/@GamesfromMarsYT

https://www.youtube.com/@SunnyCrappy

https://www.youtube.com/c/NRMgamingHD2

https://www.youtube.com/@glp

https://www.youtube.com/c/Shirrako

https://www.youtube.com/@BossFightDatabase

https://www.youtube.com/
@DrWho2008t101

https://www.youtube.com/@ExtremeGamingHD3D

https://www.youtube.com/@FluffyNinjaLlama

https://www.youtube.com/@Shirrako

https://www.youtube.com/c/VideoGameSophistry

https://www.youtube.com/@RatchetGaming_Walkthrough

https://www.youtube.com/c/LiveWallpaperMaster

https://www.youtube.com/@worldoflongplays

https://www.polygon.com/features/2013/8/15/4528228/missile-command-dave-theurer

https://www.youtube.com/@holstered6165

Tags: gaming
elden ring
god of war ragnarock
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dark souls
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dark souls 3
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ico
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last of us
red dead redemption 2
ghosts of tsushima
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chronno trigger
fable
spiderman web of shadows
skyrim
fallout
witcher 3
uncharted
dead space
silent hill 2
missile command
brothers a tale of 2 sons
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30 thoughts on “Storytelling In Video Games”

  1. Thank y’all so much for the love on this video! The topic meant a lot to me and I wanna make a part 2 almost because ALL OF YOU SUGGESTED SO MANY GREAT EXAMPLES OF GAMES I COULD’VE MENTIONED AHHHH lol

    Reply
  2. My man coming through with the nakeyjakey vibes and I'm all here for it. God bless young man! Love your choice in soundtracks. Chrono trigger will forever hold a special place in my heart. Back when graphics weren't good at all the music, gameplay, story, etc ALL had to be banger after banger to have a successful video game.

    Reply
  3. Mine is lesser known Bandai Namco franchise, DotHack Tetralogy and it's successor DotHack G.U Trilogy
    The game is a bit linear, but the story is very good. It has similar story to Sword Art Online, minus the harem and other edgy things.
    You have to check it out, it has good characters, unique and amazing side stories and extremely good osts.

    Reply
  4. My favorite storytelling is when games change the usual playstyle to better fit the story. At its simplest, that means QTE where you press a button or mash/rotate your controls in sync with the action on screen(like Asura's Wrath or Dragon's Lair) else your character dies, or heavily limiting/taking away your movement/attack options, like in the original GoW trilogy whenever kratos is near death for whatever story reasons.

    There's also the genre shift where the gameplay changes entirely to suit the situation. Like for example combat based games changing to shooters (Nier Automata's 9s, Asura's Wrath, Sonic Frontiers, etc), or changing into janky ass racing section (PoPTT, Tomb Raider).

    Like, these points of the game could just be cutscenes, but the devs actually let you take part and decide whether your character dies due to your incompetence or you feel as much relief as them once you're out of the forest.

    Reply
  5. Outer Wilds has the best kind of story telling: you basically can’t reach the conclusion if you don’t connect the facts… and reach a conclusion. But for this you have to make sense of what the Nomai went through. Masterful storytelling.

    Reply
  6. On the subject of something games do that movies can't: your own death. You see what happens when you slip up. In mere seconds you go from adrenalin, to panic, disappointment, frustration, shock and then it slows to a halt, music fading out, as you decide to play again.

    Particularly in third person games, you witness the pain your character goes through.

    Reply
  7. One of my favorite examples of storytelling through gameplay is in the original Portal, when you have to incinerate the companion cube that you’ve used for the previous puzzle, as it has special properties that regular cubes don’t. I think it says that you aren’t safe here, no matter what you think. The game gives you something comfortable and something you’re supposed to grow at least marginally attached to, and then not only takes it away from you, but requires you to “kill” it in order to advance, and makes it to where you, the player, are pushing the button to incinerate a safe and comfortable cube with a heart on it, who is your only positive companion at any point in the entire game.

    Reply
  8. Another great video!

    “INSIDE” is an amazing game with an eerie and cool story without any cutscenes or dialogue.

    “The Stanley Parable” is another “choice” type game, but plays with the narrator in an interesting way.

    Reply
  9. Amazing vid here are some of my fav moment of gaming storytelling:

    -In "Portal" the more you play the more you find hidden messages in hidden walls telling you the true meaning of what's going on
    -In "Inscryption" you spend alot of time playing with someone to free yourself but in the end you findout after beating him for the last time that you were giving him all what he wanted and that is to play good games
    -ALL OF "ONESHOT" crazy way to tell a story
    -"Gost trick" a ds game has one of the most amazing plot twist that the game introduce while palying the game

    Reply
  10. Jeez you’d eat the FUCK out of Fire emblem 3 houses and the characters, lore and works buildings lmao good video as always! Ur editing, scripting and video concepts are 10/10. Ur very passionate too

    Reply
  11. In Risk of Rain 2, the moment you teleport into the last level of the loop, the moon station, the "…con lentitud poderosa" starts playing, being an updated version of Risk of Rain (I) "Coalescence". And it hits SO GOD DAMN HARD, with the idea that your character in Risk 1 was able to escape, but in process became a monster, killing many native creatures just to escape. And now you're repeating the same process, nothing really changed. And that idea hits much harder when you take into account that base ROR 2 have most of the core loop of ROR 1, just made into 3d. So it's basically the same game, but it's definitely not. And it has no business hitting that hard. But it does.

    Reply

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