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I have 2 rules of RPG video game writing
1. At the end, the hero should get to look the villain in the eyes and kick them in the dick
2. the player should get to really appreciate how the world has changed after their play
I’m surprised how often major releases mess this up
1. At the end, the hero should get to look the villain in the eyes and kick them in the dick
2. the player should get to really appreciate how the world has changed after their play
I’m surprised how often major releases mess this up
I am *still* upset at how badly Mass Effect: Andromeda messed this one up
Anime understands 1 very well. In fact lots of anime’s draw out final battles tremendously, throwing in things like entire episodes worth of flashbacks mid-battle. And it’s not just about the violence - it’s about the clash of philosophies, worldviews
A video game is a particularly large ask. You’re asking players to invest 50, 60, 70 hours of their time, sometimes doing really tedious and menial tasks, fetch quests and so on. It has to all be for *something*. And you have to know what that something is
For a micro-example of 2 - take a look at strategy games, build-your-base type games. It’s very satisfying to build a base even over 20-30 minutes. You can’t neglect this in a 70-80 hour story. The player should get to feel like her time *mattered*
In God of War, the heart of the game is about Kratos’s relationship with his son - about what it means to be a father, what it means to be a son. Guys play this game and then want to be better dads, feel closer to their own dads. Storytelling can do that
Once you understand that storytelling can do this, why settle for anything less? Every moment is an opportunity to really dig deep and really move people. But story sometimes seems like an afterthought for some games, which I think is a waste. So much precious attention, wasted
When I say “look the villain in the face and kick them in the dick”, the emphasis is actually on the “look them in the face” part. In recent memory, Black Panther handled this particularly well 
X-Men: First Class also did this very well.
Don’t take this too literally: the point is that all conflict is ultimately a conflict of perspective, & simply killing or capturing the bad guy doesn’t actually resolve the conflict. You as the storyteller have to actively present it
Don’t take this too literally: the point is that all conflict is ultimately a conflict of perspective, & simply killing or capturing the bad guy doesn’t actually resolve the conflict. You as the storyteller have to actively present it
There are all sorts of ways you can play off this fundamental principle, even subvert it. Maybe the hero rejects the fight. That’s totally fine! Interesting, even! But you have to explain it. It has to make sense
I think we can actually explain this into a whole framework of storytelling: characters have to face each other, face themselves, face reality, face consequences
*expand
often, origin stories for a hero begins with a loss of innocence, when the world “gets in their face”. They have to face an ugly reality that pulls them out of the idyll of blissful childhood, out of the womb of security and comfort
back to rule 1
rule 2
