*Disclaimer: when I say story-driven I'm not necessarily talking story driven in the Telltale/Waking Dead sense but I'm also not talking Mario has to save Peach again either.
When it comes to gaming, I have traditionally been a PC/Nintendo Console gamer. Well my PC is now outdated and being a grad student not only do I not have the money to upgrade it I also don't have the play time to justify upgrading it either. This means I have leaned much more heavily on my WiiU then I have on past Nintendo platforms. This has been fine, as Nintendo's first party output has been phenomenal and the decent number of multiplats from Ubisoft and WB replaced my PC AAA fix in the WiiU's first year. However, no more AAA multiplats are coming to WiiU, meaning for the next few years I'll likely be playing mostly Nintendo games (oh no, how will I ever survive).
Due to my setup, I would get my gameplay (Smash, Mario, Kart) and local multiplayer oriented games on console and my more story driven and online multiplayer games on PC. With my PC no longer being able to play modern games, I'm now dependent on Nintendo for story driven games. Traditionally on console, this basically means Zelda and Metroid which each would get 1-2 iterations per generation. However, looking at Nintendo the past 3-4 years and looking at their 2015 lineup they seem to be getting a lot more story driven.
The first half of the Wii era Nintendo was riding the casual wave and their lineup was virtually void of story games outside of TP and MP3. However, even in this era there were two signs Nintendo was introducing story driven modes into their games: the Subspace Emissary Mode in Brawl and the storybook in SMG. I actually really liked the Subspace mode (more so then the more traditional "classic" mode in smash games) but alas it was removed for Smash WiiU. Nonetheless it was an early example of Nintendo trying to create a high budget, story driven experience.
Since 2010, however the tides have shifted towards story driven games. Metroid Other M was an early failure, taking a already story driven franchise and adding too much story but the production values followed in the vain of Brawl's Subspace mode, which was a different direction for Nintendo. The Operation Rainfall trinity were all story driven games. Though it took work to get them localized once they were they were successful. Xenoblade is highly acclaimed and is getting a big budget AAA squeal next year and The Last Story is Xseed's highest selling game. All three of the OP Rainfall games were launched while the Wii was dying.
Now with the WiiU we've seen an increase of collaboration between Nintendo and third party developers, and they've been creating mostly story driven content. Think Lego City (TT games), The Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2 (Platinum) and Hyrule Warriors (omega force, Team Ninja). Looking at 2015, we see a wide ranch of story driven content for WiiU. Sure we'll have Yarn Yoshi, Clay Kirby and Mario Party 10. However we're also getting that big Xenoblade sequel, Splatoon has a single player story mode, we're getting another third party developer collaboration with a story mode in Devil's Third and of course new Star Fox and Zelda titles. SMT/Fe remains alive as well for beyond 2015.
So, do you think Nintendo is moving more towards story-driven games, and if so is it because they're trying to fill a gap in their lineup that third parties no longer fill? Do you think Nintendo should move towards more story driven games in general? What story-driven genres would you like to see Nintendo get involved in? Do you think Nintendo could pull off a game where writing takes the spotlight like say in Bioshock or The Last of Us?
When it comes to gaming, I have traditionally been a PC/Nintendo Console gamer. Well my PC is now outdated and being a grad student not only do I not have the money to upgrade it I also don't have the play time to justify upgrading it either. This means I have leaned much more heavily on my WiiU then I have on past Nintendo platforms. This has been fine, as Nintendo's first party output has been phenomenal and the decent number of multiplats from Ubisoft and WB replaced my PC AAA fix in the WiiU's first year. However, no more AAA multiplats are coming to WiiU, meaning for the next few years I'll likely be playing mostly Nintendo games (oh no, how will I ever survive).
Due to my setup, I would get my gameplay (Smash, Mario, Kart) and local multiplayer oriented games on console and my more story driven and online multiplayer games on PC. With my PC no longer being able to play modern games, I'm now dependent on Nintendo for story driven games. Traditionally on console, this basically means Zelda and Metroid which each would get 1-2 iterations per generation. However, looking at Nintendo the past 3-4 years and looking at their 2015 lineup they seem to be getting a lot more story driven.
The first half of the Wii era Nintendo was riding the casual wave and their lineup was virtually void of story games outside of TP and MP3. However, even in this era there were two signs Nintendo was introducing story driven modes into their games: the Subspace Emissary Mode in Brawl and the storybook in SMG. I actually really liked the Subspace mode (more so then the more traditional "classic" mode in smash games) but alas it was removed for Smash WiiU. Nonetheless it was an early example of Nintendo trying to create a high budget, story driven experience.
Since 2010, however the tides have shifted towards story driven games. Metroid Other M was an early failure, taking a already story driven franchise and adding too much story but the production values followed in the vain of Brawl's Subspace mode, which was a different direction for Nintendo. The Operation Rainfall trinity were all story driven games. Though it took work to get them localized once they were they were successful. Xenoblade is highly acclaimed and is getting a big budget AAA squeal next year and The Last Story is Xseed's highest selling game. All three of the OP Rainfall games were launched while the Wii was dying.
Now with the WiiU we've seen an increase of collaboration between Nintendo and third party developers, and they've been creating mostly story driven content. Think Lego City (TT games), The Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2 (Platinum) and Hyrule Warriors (omega force, Team Ninja). Looking at 2015, we see a wide ranch of story driven content for WiiU. Sure we'll have Yarn Yoshi, Clay Kirby and Mario Party 10. However we're also getting that big Xenoblade sequel, Splatoon has a single player story mode, we're getting another third party developer collaboration with a story mode in Devil's Third and of course new Star Fox and Zelda titles. SMT/Fe remains alive as well for beyond 2015.
So, do you think Nintendo is moving more towards story-driven games, and if so is it because they're trying to fill a gap in their lineup that third parties no longer fill? Do you think Nintendo should move towards more story driven games in general? What story-driven genres would you like to see Nintendo get involved in? Do you think Nintendo could pull off a game where writing takes the spotlight like say in Bioshock or The Last of Us?