Video games aren’t known for their great plots and storytelling. Even games that wrap themselves in mythology and world-building often fall down in confusion and bizarre plot lines. There’s a lot that is teenagerish about video game writing. Plots and character don’t evolve, they just get MORE POWER! pulled from some writer’s dark crevice. Weirdness is used instead of good story design. It’s a mess. So here’s Ken Levine of BioShock fame to talk about video game storytelling. Digital Spy has the story.
Take Final Fantasy. You know a fantasy I’d like to see? A wounded soldier left behind enemy lines in a losing war has to make his way back home. It’s a magical world, there is awe and wonder and strange danger. But explosions and random coolness isn’t the point. It’s the characters. Because at the end of the day, which is really more magical? A dragon with knives for wings and turbojets summoned to do 4128 damage to an enemy, or a water nymph that heals our soldier’s wounded leg in the pool of her spring after he rebuilds her abandoned shrine?