Support NeoGAF

[Dark_castle]

Mainly for RPG's or action adventure titles. Rather than having a direct story that is told through cutscenes after cutscenes and narrative expositions, have the player explore the environment and learn the lore by talking to people and reading item description. For story-centric, cinematic games (like The Order 1886), I suppose this wasn't an option for them, but what about everyone else?

Many people liked this indirect approach of story-telling, and for gamers who really just care about gameplay, a great way to keep them entertained by cutting down time spent watching the screen rather than playing.

Food for thought.

 

[Bacon]

I don't think there should be one way of telling a story for every game, no. I think a lot of games can learn and take some cues from Dark Souls but that style wouldn't work for every game.

 

[Kyzon]

Nope. We should have variety instead of anything being a set standard.
It's what makes the industry so interesting.

 

[bobawesome]

Nah. I'm too lazy to decipher every little thing in the Souls games. It's simple enough to get the broad strokes but I prefer conventional storytelling.

 

[TI82]

No standards like that. Its interesting because its unique. If every game was so cryptic it would just be annoying.


"Just got the new final fantasy xxxxxxxi game!"

"Oh yeah how's the storyline?"

"Dunno haven't had a chance to watch 18 hours of YouTube explaining it I've been too busy trying to watch the tales of xxxxx one!"

Etc

 

[Sephzilla]

No.

The fact that the Souls series style of story-telling was different and cryptic was what made it stand out.

 

[desmax]

Not really. Different games require different types of storytelling

 

[MattKeil]

No, for a wide variety of reasons, but primarily because not everyone is good at that kind of storytelling.

 

[KidB]

No, unless it's accompanied by the proper atmosphere

 

[Runbash65]

No. It seems like something that is too niche and would be hard for a lot of people to do right.

 

[Shadow Ranger]

Kinda thought you meant Soul as is SoulBlade/Soul Calibur...

I shall leave peacefully.

 

[Meicyn]

Hell no. I don't have the patience to piece together numerous parts to decipher a whole on my own, nor do I feel like browsing through a Wiki page to finally understand what's going on in every game I play.

 

[duckroll]

No particular style in any creative industry should be a standard. It's good to have quality standards, it's terrible to have stylistic standards.

 

[Watevaman]

In my ~15 hours (not a lot, I know) of souls game playing, I had no idea what was going on in the world they tried to build, so for me that's a negative. I enjoy having occasional expositional areas.

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

No. I think game creators should tell the stories they want to tell in the way that makes the most sense to them. The minimalist approach (which seems to follow Hemingway's iceberg approach to story telling) is one of the features that makes the Souls games unique. If every other game tried to ape that, it would take some of that magic away from the Souls games, especially if/when other games attempt it in a by-the-numbers approach and fail.

 

[Karsticles]

You mean where I have to wiki search the game to figure out what happened? Eh. At least, that's what I had to do in Dark Souls. I understood Demon's Souls just fine.

 

[Coppanuva]

I think I would quit playing games if it were the standard. I don't want to just read item descriptions and feel world building. Though to be fair I'm not much of a fan of environments as characters, I prefer more lively interests.

 

[Ralemont]

I feel like it would work for two types of people:

1. Devs that do very well making artistic stories like Journey and Shadow of the Colossus.

2. Devs that can't write a good story to save their life, so they might as well spare us the pain. Who knows, maybe they will stumble across an interesting lore premise that they'll never have to depict with story or dialogue.

 

[Jawmuncher]

No.
Hell I honestly don't like that Souls game do it.
Love them but I still have no clue what any of them were really about.
It's just been about the challenge and gameplay for me.

More power to the people who hunt for all the info though.

 

[boosh5]

Absolutely not. I prefer the story in games to be more than a handful of text and tons of speculation.

 

[Akuun]

Not really. It kind of works for Souls games, but to be honest it's not a great form of storytelling.

I had no idea what was going on with the Dark Souls story until after I finished a full playthrough and started looking through wikis and forums. Spending hours piecing together a hint for why you're spending ours struggling through some level is usually not enough motivation to do most in-game tasks. Souls gets away with it because of its bleak, solitary atmosphere and great combat. It totally wouldn't fly for most other games.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

For some games. There should be no one set way of narrative. The beauty of narrative is that it can be told in several different ways. Some games excel at one for of narrative, some excel in others. Some fail.

 

[GeordieMark]

No. Dark Souls 2 completely failed at story telling as far as I'm concerned.

There is room for more than one method.

 

[Teremap]

No particular style in any creative industry should be a standard. It's good to have quality standards, it's terrible to have stylistic standards.

This. So much this.

 

[Tidus_Great]

hell no the souls games have bad stories. I want the story in my face like a movie.

 

[Brandon F]

No particular style in any creative industry should be a standard. It's good to have quality standards, it's terrible to have stylistic standards.

Was going to post something similar.

 

[Molemitts]

I would love to see more games use Dark Souls' story telling. It's taking advantage of the medium of gaming. That style of story telling it unique to video games and that's pretty much the reason I want to see more of it. I know other games like Metroid Prime have done that.

Story telling through level design is great. Interacting with NPCs to learn about the world is very good too.

 

[Manu]

No. Not everyone can pull it off, not even From sometimes, as seen in DS2.

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

No. Not everyone can pull it off, not even From sometimes, as seen in DS2.

Yes, but to be fair, it was the work of the B team.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Some games could do this, sure, but not every game. This is the same as saying every game should adopt MGS' style of overblown storytelling and 90 minute cutscenes because that series is popular.

 

[pantsmith]

I don't think there should be one way of telling a story for every game, no. I think a lot of games can learn and take some cues from Dark Souls but that style wouldn't work for every game.

Yes, this, absolutely.

There is a lot done right, and a lot to learn, in the Souls games, but there are a lot of other examples of similar games with great stories that are told in completely different ways.

I think one of the biggest take away's from the Souls games should be that your bosses/badguys don't need to repeat saturday morning cartoon bullshit just to give your writers something to write. Diablo in Diablo 3 is the exact opposite of scary because he talks too much. Learn how to use negative space and silence to enhance a story.

 

[Sh0tGuN]

Nope. We should have variety instead of anything being a set standard.
It's what makes the industry so interesting.

This!

I love Dark Souls and its unique way to "tell a story" is one of the key point of the game and it doesn't have to change. I don't deny that I would love to have a Souls with a more classic story approach like in Bioware games but this reason is mostly because in DS there are too many misteries: without a defined, narrated story they remain just like this without ever knowing the truth on something you may find in the game.

Also, a good solution to this issue, are books: I'd love so much to read books based on this universe! *_*

 

[Skii]

I don't understand people who champion a lack of variety. I don't want cryptic story-telling for all the games I play. It would make it tedious and there would be a lot of youtube videos being watched.

 

[Unai]

It's pretty much like Metroid Prime, right? I haven't played dark souls yet.

 

[LiK]

No, because even Dark Souls 2 tried it and they sucked at it. Miyazaki has a much better grasp of this storytelling method and not even people who worked with him can execute it well.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

No ,variety is spice of life so we should have different things.

 

[Cizeta-Moroder]

Story is worthless unless it is integral to the gameplay.

 

[Servbot24]

Nothing should be a standard. Standards are creative poison (obviously not referring to quality standards).

Genre itself is a horrible concept that should be ignored (but of course never will be).

It's pretty much like Metroid Prime, right? I haven't played dark souls yet.

The story is much more hidden than in Prime, but yes, it's a similar idea.

 

[fredrancour]

I love storytelling-by-exploration to death, and generally prefer it to most conventional storytelling in games. Elements of it could probably be used in far more
Still, it's better as one element of a toolbox than the only permissible storytelling method. There are probably games where most of its manifestations would just be annoying.

 

[inky]

Nope.

Seriously, some of you guys just wish every game was DS.

 

[jiggles]

I can think of a recent game where most of the story was told via optional text like this and nobody thought it was a good decision.

 

[Ooccoo]

Video games are always evolving. Having one "best" way to do something will never be true because this is a creative endeavor. Creativity = risk. Demon Souls was a risk. It didn't reinvent the wheel but it was (and still is) pretty impactful for gaming among quite a few gamers.

With that said, I personally don't think the narrative in the Souls series should be applied to all genres. It works well in this universe, but I wouldn't want anything close to that in, say, The Legend of Zelda, which IMO is better suited for a classic narrative structure. Not all players enjoy having to piece together a story or learn about its world themselves.

 

[Orayn]

I don't like the idea of any particular storytelling (or gameplay) convention becoming "standard," but I certainly like the Souls series' approach and I wouldn't mind seeing more games try it.

 

[QuickSilverD]

Not sure why, but I interpreted the "Souls" in the title as "SoulCalibur" series and was like WTF??

 

[duckroll]

I would love to see more games use Dark Souls' story telling. It's taking advantage of the medium of gaming. That style of story telling it unique to video games and that's pretty much the reason I want to see more of it. I know other games like Metroid Prime have done that.

Story telling through level design is great. Interacting with NPCs to learn about the world is very good too.

Yes, I think it would be good if more developers were encouraged to explore more subtle storytelling techniques if they want to, without fearing that it is too difficult to "get" for the audience. But it should definitely start with an interest in telling that sort of narrative, and not as some sort of expected standard of a genre.

 

[hobblygobbly]

A standard? No. I don't think any storytelling should conform to a standard.

Does the Souls series of telling a story and leaving it up to interpretation work for it? Definitely. That and the exploration aspects of the game is my favorite part, as well as the atmosphere. Can other games benefit from it? Yes, and many have before Souls as well. But as a standard, I disagree. Storytelling has the potential to be anything, the concept is immeasurable, standards are unnatural for it.

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

I am trying to imagine a Souls-style Uncharted game.

Come to think of it, Destiny may have come close with the addition of the grimoire acting as a wiki, but the execution is nowhere near the level of a Souls game.

 

[Baraka in the White House]

The Souls series doesn't really tell a story. It just short of shoves kibbles of lore into a leaf blower and blasts them haphazardly across the land.

 

[brickarts295]

Hell No, I enjoy my linear story driven games. The souls series may be the king when it comes to gameplay but the story each game was boring and uninteresting.

 

[Adaren]

Yes yes yes.

If I want to be spoonfed story/world background, I can watch a movie.

Dark Souls (mainly 1, less 2) does something only a video game can do: allow you to find your own story. It's immersive, satisfying, and interesting beyond all else.

This is the reason Dark Souls is one of my favorite games of all time, not the supposed difficulty.