Issue 387
Dialogue
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Word up
I’ve been thinking a lot about narrative games lately, specifically with regard to how obvious it is when a game is made with narrative systems at the very top of the dependency chart. When narrative comes first, or is treated with equal reverence to other disciplines like art and design, that’s how we get some of the (in my – correct – opinion) best games of all time: Return Of The Obra Dinn, Hades, Heaven’s Vault, Ghost Trick, Ace Attorney, What Remains Of Edith Finch, and more.
It’s just rare that we see this narrativefirst approach in western triple-A games these days, even though past examples (eg, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Spec are lauded as brilliant games. Is it just that studios keep firing all their writers, because “anyone can write”? Is it not efficient enough to invest in story versus investing in art/ design, which
