Video Game RPG Storytelling

Personally i think your expectations might be too high for whats currently out right now. It may be possible that your storytelling RPG needs will probably be fullfilled somewhere in the near future but after reading some of your comments you've pretty much played what RPG's have to offer.
If your hoping to find story of equal or greater value then MGS4,well tell me if you find something but i dont see it happening. This was the final of a long saga so of course the story is gonna go through the roof, so i doubt that any RPG right now would be the "kojima" game your looking for. So i guess you just have to keep your fingers crossed and look to the future to satisfy your RPG needs. Because i am too :]

To me, NGE watches too much like a treatise and too little like a compelling story. It's presented as a combination discourses, platitudes, and allegories/symbols. In the end, I can agree with you that it is much closer to pure philosophy, but it makes for poor storytelling. I'd rather get my thought provoking philosophical ideas from reading Plato(or whichever philosopher one admires).

Thus, if NGE is your definition of a "philosophical" show, then by your definition, I probably don't like philosophical shows.

Of course, another problem results in defining philosophy. If we define philosophy as the notion of examining an important issue and saying intelligent things about it, then I don't think overt pure philosophic literary works have a monopoly.

Consider: Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" is probably around the same area as NGE on the pure vs. applied philosophy continuum. The writing is flowery, obscure at times, and the actual narrative is heavily overshadowed by symbolism, discourse, and the like. Moving toward the middle you have "Lord of the Rings." It has a decent share of symbolism and discourse, but it is always in the backdrop of the narrative, and the points that Tolkien wants to make about humanity and human nature are made mainly through the things the characters do and say rather than the things they perceive and think. And on the extreme other end you have something like Kosiński's "The Painted Bird" where the writing is stark and terse, symbolism is rare, and his points about the world and human nature are made almost entirely through actions and situations of the characters in the book. What few speeches that one finds are tangental to the main philosophical points of the book.

I don't think any of these methods is more valid than the others for creating a thought provoking work with an insightful message, I just happen to find the method used by NGE and Ellison much less compelling and enjoyable. And of course, the themes and messages seem much weightier when the work itself is compelling in addition to being insightful and intelligent.



You'd have to explain to me why you make a long list of philosophical points pertinent to Death Note but claim Trigun to be completely hollow.

Trigun features justice ethics, idea of innocence, utilitarianism vs. idealism, moral culpability, consequentialism, egocentricism, etc. In both Death Note and Trigun, important characters generally have well defined value systems that they advocate and fight for, instead of the vague notions of good, justice, friendship, etc that one would see on something like Dragonball Z. The clashes between and within these value systems create the philosophical examinations of the show in Trigun and Death Note. One can ask interesting questions about pacifism, capital punishment, the worth of life and the rights of judgment. Friendship vs. betraying one's friends and allies in abstract, or destroying the world vs. not destroying the world don't give you much to work with.



Getting back to the subject of actual RPGs, I got the Star Wars game, and while I don't have any opinion on the story yet, it's wildly fun to play.

I also do plan to play Xenogears sometime this year.


It's more "I wish this would happen and hope that, while we probably won't get there in one swoop, we continue to try new things and move towards this goal." My expectations are high because there are a lot of great game designers and a lot of great games get made.

THANK YOU! DX

And while I agree with you about there being a lot of great game designers and a lot of great games, the problem is that nowadays they don't seem to come together. You've got great games that are being made by virtually unknown publishers, and you've got big name companies *coughnintendocough* that are releasing some of the most boring games I've seen in a long time. *coughmariocoughkartcough*

Hopefully, they'll get their act together and start making good games in those "unnamed" companies, kind of like what Valve is doing. :P

Maybe its already too late for me to reply :twisted:. But don`t you know that from Xenosaga trilogy all has different gameplay. For me the first is like a crap too easy and the third its too dissapointing the skill is too great, I beat the last boss in seconds because the 0 mp skill which I use to summon all Kaiser. But the second of course the char design is ugly for me, but The gameplay is just so wicked, many said it is hard but when you get used to it, it is very entertaining, one of the few game that I the one that only chase the story in RPG beat the additional boss.

Idk bruh,
Tales of the Abyss had my sexy ass bawling on the floor

Looking for the perfect RPG storyline is hard because for one person the Tales series has an amazing story then for another something like Pokemon would have the same effect...For me the Shining Series has an sweet storyline that I enjoyed to the fullest...and for your guild lines, there are a lot of games that fall under that but even if they do that does not necessarily make the story fun or entertaining...

damn whitelion,

you HAVENT played Chrono Trigger or Xenogears. thats kind of like saying: I've seen Star Wars, but I havent seen episode IV or V.

Kidding aside, I will say that JRPGs have gotten a little... blah (lack of a better word). Yes, there are many titles that are classics, epics and all around good buys.

My thing is, Im starting to get tired of all the paragraphs of psycho-talk between the main character and villains. It's not that its not compelling, its that NEARLY EVERY game does it. How often do you get in bar fights or school fights where you and the shmuck your gonna fight with debate before you start swinging?

Mix it up, dont follow the recipe EVERY time. How refreshing would a game be if the main char was a wise-cracking, snarky, prick of a person instead of the hot-headed youth or stoic do-gooder? What if he was just out for himself, and just so happened to save the world through his shenanigans?

A personal wish list thing:
How about an RPG with 2 main characters like the trend with CO-OP FPS's? Could you imagine how much FALLOUT 3 would rock with a buddy?

How would you know? >.>

For all you know (and I hope this isn't the case) Fallout 3 is the worst thing to hit the world of computers since Steve Jobs (yeah, I just went there.)