Double Agent
A fascinating story - January 13th, 2000 - Drew Cosner

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not neccessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Please put your shirt back on -- you repulse me. Don't say we didn't warn you.


Storyline: to some genres, it's indispensable. To others, it serves merely as a backdrop to give the player some form of motivation. However, of late weaving a good tale has become increasingly important to gaming as a whole. We're beginning to see genres that were formerly known for being rather weak on plot successfully intertwine a strong storyline with the actual gameplay itself to fantastic results. Will this continue to be the case? Are there more innovative uses of such narrative in store for the future? These questions and more are answered into today's Double Agent.

Chrono double-cross

Alright, if the Xenogears people are the same people that did Chrono Trigger (well, minus Toriyama) they all went to the dark, errrm, Namco/Monolith side right? Who the hell is working on Chrono Cross?

BTW: I bet it's that evil janitor guy...

-Spidermonkey


Well, the quick answer would be to say that not all of the original Chrono Trigger team left. Masato Kato, Chrono Trigger's producer, not only continues to work for Square, but was also the producer for Chrono Cross as well. And Mitsuda, who did the majority of Chrono Trigger's soundtrack, is essentially a freelance worker at this point; Square simply contracted him to work on CC. And just as a side point, Sakaguchi also played a role in the creation of Chrono Cross. I'm sure there's probably a few others who didn't join in the mass exodus, but there's the answer in a nutshell.

Arrogance with style

Games have a long way to go before they're even close to being "great literature." And for someone to say that Xenogears is one of the greatest (if not *the* greatest!) work of literature he has ever experienced doesn't really say much about Xenogears. It just means that person hasn't experienced a lot of literature. At best, games like that are on par with decent anime TV series - the Japanese equivalent of X-Files or E.R. Add to that the frequently awkward 4th-grade level dialogue and script for the game and symbolism which was about as subtle as the Green Mile giving its sacrificial lamb the same initials as Jesus Christ and you have a story which was as heavy-handed as it was trite. It was pretty good for a video game - but that doesn't exactly put it in the pantheon of literary classics.

Frankly, I think the biggest problem with game stories is that most developers still think in terms of novels and traditional literature. That's why we get statements like "to get the aspects of a literary masterpiece, you MUST sacrifice gameplay" - which is about as limiting a perspective as I can imagine. One or the other, but not both? That's rubbish. I'm hoping more games will take Tactics Ogre as a model. It certainly isn't a perfect game, but that's due more to the unbalanced experience system than anything else. The story itself is quite good - and more importantly, the story develops based on the player's actions, offering numerous outcomes based on your decisions as well as minor variations based on the characters who survive combat. Books can't do that; Brutus always stabs Julius Caesar on the Senate steps, no matter how many times you read the play. But in Tactics Ogre, Denim Powell may betray his duke, or he may betray his code of ethics instead. He may kill his sister or save her. The problem is that this sort of game requires more work and more imagination, and fewer dogmatic perspectives. Games don't have to *be* literature when they can transcend it.

On the other hand, I think some of the game dialogue displayed at Zany Video Game Quotes *is* in fact a work of genius - compare the opening to Zero Wing to the works of James Joyce, and I think you'll find a number of similarities. Games may never best the old classics, but the avant-garde? They've got it licked.

Arrogantly yours,

-J. Parish


There are certain comforting constants in this universe. When I leap into the air, gravity will return me to the ground; friction will always allow me to come to a halt once in motion; Jay Leno's monologue never fails to be approximately as humorous as accidentally sucking your eyeball out of the socket with a wet-vac. But most reassuring of all is that no matter how cynical and supercilious I may be in expressing my unpopular opinions, Mister Parish always shares them.

If you were truly that impressed by Xenogears' storyline, you may need to take a break from gaming and try scanning other forms of media and literature. It amazes me that anyone would consider the game's leery eye cast towards God and Christianity to be profound or perceptive in any sense of either word. The startling realization that humanity knows nothing of "God," and that he could be evil as far as the extent of our knowledge goes, is on about the same level as the insightful discovery that your parents probably had sex once or twice. Every plot point, be it the truth behind the Ethos, or the shocking discovery that Soylent is people, was as clever and deep as the lyrics to a song by Jewel. My point is that the plotline was as placeholder as every other stock RPG, and existed only as a vehicle for further battling and moderate character development. There was nothing particularly special or outstanding about it.

Xenogears simply didn't take advantage of its own medium. Just as film excels in certain areas that literature doesn't, and vice versa, so is the case in this situation. Rather than trying to create visual novels, developers could take advantage of the interactive nature of games to create something unique with storyline. Of course, it's not so cut and dry as all of that. Multiple branches and outcomes often turn a game into the digital equivalent of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, and we all know how shitty those things can be. Does this mean that linearity is key? Am I going anywhere with this, or just prattling on because it amuses me to do so? I guess you'll just have to check out the closing comments to know for certain.

You are incorrect, sir

uh. Tifa didn't wear a skirt, she wears shorts.

AL


I don't know what kind of shorts you've been looking at, but generally speaking there needs to be a sewn separation between each leg for a piece of clothing to constitute as such. When that separation is not present, we call this a skirt. Look at all of the artwork, both official and unofficial, and tell me those are shorts. Although it could conceivably be argued that it's actually a black sash which has slid down a bit low, there's no way those are shorts. Sorry. Next letter.

The battle rages on

Story vs. Gameplay. The battle rages forward. To me both are very important, as it is to most console rpg fans. We are also the most demanding. If your playing an arcade style fighting game along the lines of tekken tag, you don't care why you are fighting, the fighting is the focus. Console rpgs are the only type of game I know of that deman very good gameplay and stories. Wheras games such as Zelda wich are action oriented can live on the save the princess mini-story, an traditional rpg cannot. Maybe this is only my oppinion, but of all the rpg's ive played, if they had no story, they'd quickly become dull. Very few games have battles and gameplay that is good enough to drive the game on very weak stories (Legend of legia and FF8 come to mind), as much as I like Star Ocean, a game where you just had those battles wouldn't be fun at all. Xenogears had a very good battle system, but parts were weak (magic was never practical except for healing), To me story matters most, and thats why I liked shadow madness. In other genres games can get away with just atmosphere (i.e. Soul reaver), But a truely great rpg requires both (Xenogears, Septerra Core)

Up until the point we're at in gaming, what you say has pretty much been the case. With many titles, the storyline serves only as a background motive for the focal point, which is the action or fighting itself. However, this trend seems to be slowly changing. Action games, platform games, and even fighting games have begun to include more intricate backstories. An excellent example would be Metal Gear Solid. Former games of the genre had stories along the lines of "Person X is evil and has a big, nasty bomb. Go kick his ass." While this is essentially still what drives Snake on in MGS, the story plays a more integral role throughout the game itself, rather than being given to you upon starting a new game, or in the instruction manual.


Developers are learning that a more developed storyline draws the gamer in, and makes the title all the more immersive and enjoyable. I expect to see many more titles follow suit on the upcoming generation of consoles.

how to get rich

Drew,

Props to Down South Hustler's comments about Xenogears. While I'll ignore the irony of someone preaching a game's literary merits repeatedly misspelling "novel", I'll agree with the points about sacrificing control for the story. Some gamers(such as myself) might wish to be able to destroy things that logically would be in our power to destroy in some games, but if to do so would alter the story, we're denied that ability somehow, someway. Usually this is such a negligible point in RPG's because of the quality of the story that we're treated to by following the rules, Xenogears being an excellent case in point. I think it's in the relationship of creator (or producer) and the consumer that differentiates games from literary pieces or educational sources. In the latter two, the creator is essentially "God," while the consumer is subject to the world the creator draws up or writes about. The goals of the creator or producer take the fore, while the consumer is simply led where the producer wishes, if they chose to continue after the first few lines or scenes or what-have-you. A great book or educational piece is to be judged more on how well it conveys an author or producer's intent or message.

In a game, the relationship is different. It's the player's wants and interests that are more important. Only RPG's like Xenogears, etc are something of a real hybrid, with story and interaction intertwined. But it's the gameplay, how well the game satisfies the player's want for interactive vicarious experience that marks a great game. Here, it's the consumer's priorities that are to be more satifsfied if a game is to be great. RE3's Mercenaries game, for example, doesn't teach you jack, but is a pure adrenaline rush that matches, if not surpasses, the fun of the regular Nemesis game.

In short, games are games. Books are books. You get certain things out of each that you can't get from the other. Games can enhance the learning experience, but can't take away what books provide. Let's be honest, aside from the fun of planning the trip and seeing how many of your family caught cholera, didn't most of us play Oregon Trail to see how many buffalo we could shoot in that cheesy mini-game? What the hell did *that* actually teach us?

Yrs.,

-Tweek

P.s.: First, it's short for "post-script" ya' freakin' morons! Second, welcome back Cosner! This column's disturbingly friendly when yer out for too long.


While this letter is a confusing farrago of run-on sentences and strange similes, it does make a certain point. Books and novels are the thoughts and viewpoints of the author; the reader is simply along for the ride. When it comes to games, the developers need to realize that the player needs to feel as though he or she is in control, or it becomes another piece of semi-interactive rubbish that the Sega CD was infamous for. This is yet another reason why narrative must differ in some way between standard writing and what needs to be employed in a videogame. What is that difference, you ask? Hey, if I could tell you that, I'd already be the next Shigeru Miyamoto instead of babbling about why Xenogears sucks in a letters column.

And since you brought up Oregon Trail, I've been reminded of a point I forgot to make in the previous column. Would you have actually plopped down the coinage to buy that game for your own home computer, or did you just play it because it was the most exciting thing to do in class? I think you know the answer to that question. Further proof that edutainment sucks.

Pretty damned wordy

Yo Drew,

I never pass up the oppurtunity to talk about Xenogears...and this topic lends itself to the issue quite easily.

There is a lot of text in Xenogears. A hell of a lot. The fact that they made somewhere around 2 typos and 2 grammatically wrong sentences is pretty good for Square. The problem with this much text is two things. One, if there's no story to speak of, it'll just be mindless prattling that gets really annoying. Two, unless the gameplay is lessened, it'll be a damned long game.

I think that Xenogears is obviously a bit heavy on the story, but the gameplay doesn't seem to lag very much. The battle system (systems, if you count Gear battles as separate) is very fast and fun. By disc two you can kick anything's ass. However, for those that are obsessed with menus and other such things, the game's story can be tedious and the gameplay shallow. I think that FF7 had a very good mix of complicated system and great story. FF8 lacked the story, but had a fairly worthy system.

So in the end, I think that companies should just continue along doing what's been done before, because games will be released that fall on each end of the spectrum, and anywhere in between.

-The "Caped" Steve


My problem with the dialogue in Xenogears was that it was slow as hello, and the good majority of it was completely banal and need not be said. Of course, it was also stiff, lifeless, and stilted, but that's another story. There are just too many instances where one well-written sentence or paragraph would have sufficed, rather than the 5 straight minutes of idiotic babbling back and forth that was used instead.

Not-so-superman

Gameplay and story? I say screw 'em. If I can't have them both, than I don't want them. Viva Superman!

-CTZanderman

P.S.- I do not, nor ever have, play/played Superman in my life, nor will I ever. Gameplay and story can be melded together quite effectively... just look at Metal Gear Solid.


Superman is just an example of what happens when a game fails at everything it attempts to accomplish, let alone storyline. The people responsible for that piece of trash deserve to be buried alive alongside the thousands of E.T. cartridges in the middle of the desert. Okay, so maybe I'm being a bit harsh. Everyone makes mistakes, after all, and it's entirely possible that the development team simply didn't realize how much their game sucked. After all, when you spend that much time on a project, you get a bit prejudiced and blinded to the reality of the situation. However, if they did realize how much their game blew and allowed it to be released anyhow, I hope that there's a Hell so they can burn in it along with Hitler and all the other people of their kind.


Closing Comments:

All of this discussion has given me an idea for tomorrow's topic. See, certain people despite linearity and feel that it ruins a game and removes the player from the overall experience. Others feel that it's necessary for an enjoyable plotline. What do you think? Let me know.

-Drew Cosner

 
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