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Podcast Questions - How To Tell A Story Without Words

Added 2019-04-17 22:18:52 +0000 UTC

Hey everyone!

The topic for this week's podcast is "How To Tell A Story Without Words". If you have any additional topics you'd like us to touch on, or have any questions related to the topic, hit us up!

Podcast Questions - How To Tell A Story Without Words

Comments

Wow, another great topic! I don’t have a question so much as a comment/contribution. It may or may not be useful depending on where you go with the topic. (You don’t have to read this whole thing on the Podcast, but maybe it will be helpful to mention during the main topic.) When I read the question, “How to tell a story without words”? I think of visuals, audio, and interaction/gameplay. I want to make a point on the last one. When we look at storytelling in video games, I think that telling the story through the gameplay and player interaction is usually the most effective and important tool to that end. More So than storytelling through visuals, music, or writing. (Though those things are still important). In other words, if the purpose of the story is to convey an idea or emotion to the player, then that idea or emotion should be conveyed to the player through all aspects of the experience. But gameplay is the most frequent way we engage with a videogame (We generally spend most of the total hours focused on playing a game rather than reading, or passively watching/listening to them.) So with that in mind I’d like to bring up an example from FFXV for how to tell a story without words. (We criticize FFXV a lot in the Resonant Arc community, so I think it’s good to give the game credit when appropriate). FFXV Spoilers for Chapter 9 and 10: In chapter 10 of FFXV, the group is on a Train headed for Tenebrae. Morale is at a real low point here as Luna was killed and Ignis became blind a few weeks earlier. The train stops at a station called “Cartanica”, where there is a dungeon that needs to be completed. Before you go there, you have the opportunity to eat a meal on the train. But your only option is a lousy cafeteria food plate that gives you very poor buffs compared to what Ignis would be able to cook for you if he could. As you progress through the dungeon, Ignis tries to help the party, but he is ineffective and struggles with his new handicap. And his animations and slow movement speed show how much he struggles to keep up with Noctis and the others. There is tension between the group, and Noctis/the player is criticized if they try to progress at a normal pace. Later, you come to a campsite in this dungeon, and if you choose to camp there you will hear a somber version of the normally upbeat camping theme. (The acoustic guitar has been replaced by very slow and low pitched electric guitar which sounds like it’s either struggling or almost unwilling to play the normal melody.) All of the recipes that the player has collected are unavailable as Ignis is unable to cook them (perhaps he could try, but no one wants to ask him due to the circumstances). Leaving you with the options of warming up a can of beans or Cup Noodles. A regular event that is normally a cheerful bonding experience for the group now has them sitting in silence with their heads down or looking away from each other. (Noctis even dismisses Prompto’s offer to look over the photos like they normally would.) Nearly everything the player has grown accustomed to in the normal gameplay loop has been disrupted in order to convey the feelings of sadness, frustration, and “past the point of no return” to the player. The music is sad/slow, the environment is dark and swampy, there is no more cheerful banter, a loyal party member can no longer contribute effectively, there are no good food options to buff the party, no place to sleep for an experience multiplier, the open world has been taken away, and the character that once drove you across the map now impedes the pace of your progress. By limiting and removing the player’s options, the game does a complete reversal from the first 8 chapters to really drive home the feeling it’s trying to convey. Chapter 10 is one of the few parts of FFXV where I really felt like the writing, music, environments, and gameplay were all strongly working in unison towards telling the story. And it’s why it’s the most memorable part of the game for me. By altering my gameplay experience to match the experience of the characters, I actually felt closer to their struggles. Because my interactions with the game actually made me feel depressed. Like I had lost something personally. This is the kind of thing that I think of when I hear “storytelling through gameplay” or “storytelling without words” (in a gameplay context). There is still dialogue and cutscenes being used to tell the story in FFXV, but I felt the events of chapter 10 on a deeper level when the actual gameplay mechanics and systems were being used communicate the story to me. Since that is how I primarily engage with the game on a moment to moment basis.

2019-04-18 21:36:45 +0000 UTC

JRPGs are often criticized by Western fans for having too many words - scenes where every character has to say something, long explanations (tell vs show), etc. Is this because the writing is not the priority with JRPGs or because of a cultural difference between English-speaking countries and Japan?

2019-04-18 17:25:54 +0000 UTC

What are some of the best examples of environmental story telling that you've seen?

2019-04-18 04:25:53 +0000 UTC

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