Story to Gameplay Ratio: Difference between revisions

Does this work? It depends. Games with great gameplay and no story, such as the ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' series, sell fantastically. Games with bad gameplay and no story tend not to last. Games with bad gameplay but a high Story to Gameplay Ratio, especially if the story is considered great, sell to those who are willing to slog through the boring game to get at the crunchy story bits and [[Cutscene]]s. Enough of those people exist to make many of these games profitable, though with the exception of a few popular ones, most of these never go anywhere near a bestsellers chart.

 

 

Periods where a game takes control away from the player for the purposes of advancing the plot or tutorials are known as [[Exposition Break]]s.

 

'''''Please note:''' This list is ranked. That means the closer is an item to the top, the more gameplay it has; the closer to the bottom, the more story it has. So, if you know about a really, really plot-heavy game don't place it under "Lowest Story to Gameplay Ratio"; instead, place it right above "Highest Story to Gameplay Ratio".''

== Lowest Story to Gameplay Ratio ==

 

** The Flash fighting game ''Death Vegas'' is on the other end of the scale. Not only are there extensive cutscenes setting up each fight and placing it, but every single character's fights, and their outcomes, are a canonical part of the overarching story.

* Strange to think of it, but long-running console [[RPG]]s like ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' used to belong on this end of the scale. You had some exposition from a quest-giver to tell you what your newest goal is, some [[NPC]]s to hand out clues and advice, and the other 99% of the game was you exploring the world and thrashing monsters. The "story" was just a series of obstacles and objectives that ensured you gradually progressed from the easy areas to the hard ones. ''[[Etrian Odyssey]]'' is a modern throwback to this style of game.

{{quote|''[[Get on the Boat|The SHIP storyline]] is also a really good indication of how [[RPG]]s used to be versus how they are now. Playing the game blindly, there's nothing to indicate that the player needs a SHIP, and nothing that points to getting one in this town. If this scenario popped up nowadays the heroes would have a [[Exposition Break|long unskippable discussion]] about how they desperately need a ship, run a few [[Fetch Quest|fetch quests]] in town before overhearing someone talking about the [[Pirate|PIRATEs]], then come up with an elaborate scheme (probably involving a [[Unexpected Gameplay Change|stealth minigame]]) to sneak aboard and take control of it somehow. Personally I prefered the old way: roll into town, beat up some chumps, sail away laughing. Also note: now that I have the SHIP I'm still not told what to do with it. It's "You have a SHIP now! Yay! Explore!" and not "You have your SHIP, now you can sail to the place you knew you needed to go!" Just feels like more of an adventure, you know?''}}

** ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' spin-off ''Dirge of Cerberus'' is one long cutscene with occasional [[Third-Person Shooter]] elements.

** Also, when ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' was released, they cut down the cutscenes; [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|and the fans didn't like it one bit.]]

* Like the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series, ''[[Ultima]]'' and its prequel ''Akalabeth' began on this end of the spectrum. As both gameplay and story depth evolved, later Ultimas shifted toward the middle.

** Nintendo in generally makes many games of that kind even today. If there is any real depth to the story, chances are that those parts are completely optional, like the ''[[Metroid]] Prime'' scans.

** ''[[Wario Land]] The Shake Dimension'' has this, to probably the most minimal point ever. You've got an intro scene, an ending movie... and after watching them just once, you never get forced to see them again (going straight in an optional bonus menu). Same for the credits.

* [[Cult Classic]] ''[[Another World (video game)|Another World]]'' contains no dialogue (with the exception of an introductory sequence in the SNES version) and no cutscenes; however, the game is rich with narrative, all expressed through its (linear) gameplay and setpieces. Its minimalism influenced many future games.

* ''[[Bangai-O]] Spirits'' does not even pretend to have a plot in contrast to its predecessor which at least had an [[Excuse Plot]]. The little character interaction that there is tends to include [[No Fourth Wall|discussions of this issue.]]

* The Japanese Dreamcast version of ''[[Ikaruga]]'' is basically five stages of outright blasting and combo action with a few lines of story at the start of each stage. The most story-heavy section of the game is the last stage, where there are a few lines preceding each of the boss's four phases, and there's some "dialogue" right at the very end... And that's about it. Control is taken away from the player twice per stage; Once at the end of the intro section, again when the boss appears, (except in the last stage, since the boss appears immediately after the intro section) and at the "stage clear" screen. Any other time, the player is free to move and shoot however they like.

** In the English Gamecube port, even this little amount of story is ripped away; The only story to be had is in the manual, and in the very final cutscene.

** The 3D ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' games, which seem to have taken the opposite approach to their predecessors; the story is incomprehensible, uninspired and entirely uninteresting, but strictly relegated to cutscenes that are short, flashy and far-between. The main incentive for the players to keep going is simply to challenge themselves. It works for what it is, but it's ironic and somewhat sad that the [[Continuity Reboot|reboot]] of a series that helped pioneer the concept of story in action games would completely abandon such a defining feature of its predecessors.

* ''[[Myst]]'' and most of its sequels/imitators. There is a story, but it definitely takes a back seat to wandering around beautiful, lonely worlds solving fiendish puzzles. (Individual sequels waver a bit - ''Myst'' gives you almost nothing to start with, and each subsequent game adds a little more story and a little less puzzles.)

* ''[[Vietcong]]''. The briefing and debriefing cutscenes are rather long, but the rest of the game is mostly a standard jungle [[FPS]].

* ''[[No More Heroes]]'' has several-minute-long cutscenes before and after boss fights, but most of the game is spent doing odd assassination jobs around the city, exploring the city, fighting through the levels, etc.

* The ''[[Panzer Dragoon]]'' series is a shooter series with a vast amount of backstory, but most of it is optional, aside from 2-minute cutscenes at the beginning of each stage.

* ''[[Halo]]'' sits much higher on the list than one would expect with its rather frenetic violence and combat. This is mostly because in addition to a lot of cutscenes, the games makes a point of having plenty of exposition and dialogue taking place ''during'' the levels.

* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' sits a bit lower down than some would expect, as a lot of its dialogue is skippable. However, it is quite hefty on the talking side of things, but still has plenty of action.

** Well, not to mention that the dialogue is playable, so it's really not ''not'' gameplay.

** Hell, pick a [[BioWare]] game. ''Any'' [[BioWare]] game. For good or ill, they put a lot of their efforts on characters. For every half-hour spent on dungeon-crawls and slaying monsters, expect an hour and a half of helping your [[Dysfunction Junction|colorful crew]] through their [[Character Arc|CharacterArcs]].

* The ''[[Trauma Center]]'' series has long dialog scenes before and after operations, but after you've beaten the operation once, you can skip right past them.

* There are two types of ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' players: the type that only see the support system in terms of the bonuses it gives to combat, and the type that launches [http://forums.feplanet.net/index.php?showtopic=26098 The Support Conversation Project].

* Due to [[Gameplay Roulette]], the ratio of [[Rance]] games varies, but it's usually quite even. On one hand, there are a good number of cut scenes. On the other hand, they are [[Visual Novel]] style cutscenes and can be quickly read through. There's also the fact that the games involve a significant amount of [[Grinding]] to get through due to their [[Nintendo Hard]] nature.

== Even Story-to-Gameplay Ratio ==

* ''[[Zone of the Enders]]: The Second Runner,'' while not as exposition-heavy as [[Metal Gear Solid|Hideo Kojima's ''other'' franchise]], frequently splits up the action with scenes upwards of ten minutes long, but the game also has some versus mode with no story. In fact, this is roughly the middlepoint of the scale, being completely balanced between story and gameplay.

** It's prequel ''Birth By Sleep'' has a similar problem.

* [[Dating Sim]]s are rather similar to [[Visual Novel]]s as far as gameplay goes, differing in that they you a greater variety of choices and actually allow your mistakes to play out instead of slapping you with a bad ending immediately.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is a little odd in this regard. There's lots of story in terms of dialog from NPCs and other characters, but all of it can be (and often is by most players) ignored by those who just want to jump into the quests.

** The Warcraft universe have a really good story-lines but it is safe to say that the game's immense popularity is not because of its story. The game would likely still be as popular as it is even if it had virtually no story.

*** And in an insane twist of irony, ''Xeno''-creator [[Tetsuya Takahashi]] has specifically described his next game, ''[[Xenoblade]]'' (no relation to previous ''Xeno''-titles) as being on the exact opposite end of the scale from his (in)famous previous works, calling the pursuit of excessive story-to-gameplay ratio "a dead end". That he is now working with [[Nintendo]] (see above) may or may not have anything to do with this new direction. Or maybe he just played...

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'', a game which deserves a special place, due to the sheer length and quantity of its cutscenes being [[Serial Escalation|substantially greater than the previous games in the series]]. Cutscene-wise it's less like one game and more like ''five full-length movies''.

*** The ending cutscene alone is so long, there is actually a save point in the middle of it.

** Honourable mention should go to ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater]]'', whose limited edition version included a bonus disc with all of the cutscenes edited together into a feature film ''version'' of the game, thus saving gamers the hassle of having to play anything at all!

** While it is a different franchise, ''[[Metroid: Other M]]'' did the movie thing as well.

* ''[[Dragon's Lair]]'' is basically a movie where the player has to [[Press X to Not Die|press certain buttons at certain times or die]].

** Despite being almost entirely focused on its plot, the story is surprisingly flexible and control is only very rarely taken away from the player due to the almost entirely contextual control scheme.

* [[Visual Novel]]s. Someone defined the genre as "That kind of Japanese game where you pick a choice and then pray that you didn't screw it up".

== Highest Story to Gameplay Ratio ==