As promised, the rant about storytelling methods in RPGs.

In my experience there are two ways to tell a story in RPGs. The first kind is "theatre" mode, the second is "movie" mode. Theatre mode explains things clearly and gives pause, without worrying too much about cinematics. Dramatics are the key, and the characters should have clearly defined personalities without having to rely on appearances too much. Movie mode on the other hand, relies on swift pacing and lots of cinematics, and generally escapes using comedy to entertain the audience.

Let's compare two giants of our history: Cloud Strife and Terra Brantford.

Cloud suffers from amnesia, delusion, and an extreme identity crisis. Most people remember him as being the guy with the screwed up past, having spiky blonde hair, and wielding a giant sword. Very rarely do fans understand what Cloud is all about. Most people think he's a clone, or that he's really Zack. Well, no. He's not. Pay more attention. But that's the problem: Cloud is not clearly explained or defined. The game almost glazes over his history and moves right along with the quest, something that shouldn't happen.

Terra suffers from amnesia, self-revulsion, and an extreme identity crisis. She also uses magic, which causes said self-revulsion and the identity crisis. She's from a mixed heritage which also causes the identity crisis. She was used by the Empire which causes the amnesia and self-revulsion. The player is able to remember who she is as a person in detail because all of her facts are linked together, and not a one is glazed over. While it's debatable if Terra is a better character than Cloud, she is at least better explained.

I'm not saying movie mode is a bad thing though. Chrono Trigger wouldn't work in theatre mode, nor would Wild ARMs or Vagrant Story. Yes, believe it or not, Vagrant Story used movie mode. Atmosphere does not necessarily dictate the mode. Pacing and development does. However, some games can be ruined by using the wrong method. Xenosaga is a very good example. Xenosaga has major flaws in its gameplay, but even when that's set aside, the story suffers from bad dialogue, and badly defined characters. What role is MOMO supposed to play for instance? Helpless child victim? She has an interesting function when you think about it, but her execution is extremely poor. She comes off as horribly irritating and lacking in any sort of actual courage.

A major problem occurs when the players is called upon to care about MOMO's parental troubles. Not only has the player probably avoided using MOMO because she's so horribly irritating, her frequent "cloud 9" attitude makes her dramatics seem forced. It defeats her whole scenario. The same problem happens with Shion, who despite being a supposedly brilliant scientist, seems wholly brainless throughout the story. In fact, the game suffers overall because of Shion being the main character. Had they appointed someone like Ziggy, Jr., or KOS-MOS to be the central figure, the story might not be so stilted. Furthermore, they should have allowed for much more balanced character development, and less sensationalistic pacing.

This is one instance where movie mode has ruined a game. It happens again with Suikoden III, which departs from its predecessors not only by having three perspectives, but by not using theatre mode to explain itself. But theatre mode can also hurt a game. Final Fantasy VIII was subject to this. While the character development was extraordinarily good, it moved too slowly. Then, when the crucial point came to wrap things up, it seems the writer didn't know how to pull everything together properly and instead wrote the cop-out "nursery" scene. Not to mention Ultimecia.

I'm a fan of the theatre method myself, although like I said, it shouldn't always be used. It's a shame that games like Final Fantasy and Suikoden seem to have gone the way of the movie, because they've always benefitted from the theatre style. And then there are games which should be continued period, like the "Chrono" series, regardless of the mode they use.

Let's do a quick recap of my week: A friend died (still getting over that with mild breakdowns every now and again), I started English 12 (U) classes (Thursdays and Saturdays), I'm trying to finish my portfolio projects quickly (Thursday nights), as well as attend life drawing (Wednesday nights), help my dad at his work (Mon, Tues, Thurs during the day), do my English homework (varying), draw the comic (twice a week at least), write previews for RPGFan (it's been about a month or more now), and carry on my social life (which I haven't done at all this week, I won't even touch my e-mails).

Funny thing is, I find this comic relaxing. I know I should do it way more often than I have been, but hey, that's life for ya. I'm not swish with colouring or CG like the guys at Mac Hall or Applegeeks, nor do I have the time or commitment like Fred at MegaTokyo to do it every few days. Twice a week is what I can handle - barely. Plus the comic is slightly more complex visually than say, Penny Arcade, so bi-daily funnies are out of the question. I'm a bit caught between what I want to do, and what I can do, both in terms of time and talent. Plus the comic has to remain a hobby, because I'm simply not going to commit to it as part of my day to day routine yet. I have an entire backlog of things to sort out before I do that.

All that aside, I've been replaying Final Fantasy VI and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. The game moves really quickly, despite seeming slower than more recent titles. The game's not especially hard, although I do find myself dying more often than in other games, yet at the same time I don't mind. Save points are exactly where I need them to be, GP is plentiful, and environments aren't unnecessarily gigantic. This brings me to something interesting by the way: Theatre vs. Movie, the two methods used to tell stories in video games. Stay tuned for a rant on that with the next comic. Anyway, I think I'll get to work now and finally look through my e-mails tonight. God knows I need to.

Monday, February 02, 2004 | Archived Commentaries