Nintendo has always taken a "Gameplay over Story" approach. On the bright side, this means the gameplay is always fun. It's always enjoyable. On the downside, this causes some poor storytelling.
Let's start with the Pros and look at some games that benefit from this approach.
Thanks for reading. If you find any incorrect info, please let me know so I can correct it.
Let's start with the Pros and look at some games that benefit from this approach.
- Super Mario Odyssey. As far as the story goes, this one is minimal: Bowser wants to marry Peach to control the world, and Mario needs to stop him. Along the way, he travels the world and stops Bowser from stealing random things for the wedding. This one benefits from the gameplay over story approach: the move list is plentiful and the world is beautiful. Without having to focus on the story as much, it allows the team to experiment with locations, environments, styles, and more.
- Splatoon. I'll discuss the entire Splatoon franchise, as it's pretty consistent as far as gameplay and story. Squids paint the floor to win games. That's the gameplay. Things are more complex than that, but at its core, it's painting the ground to gain territory and sometimes push objectives. The story mode on the side consists of linear levels that teach you various mechanics of the game, and the boss battles are clever.
- Breath of the Wild. While I haven't played TOTK enough to give a good opinion on it, I have done most of BOTW. You're traveling the land, looking for secrets, fighting the occasional mini-boss, checking out the scenery and locales, fulfilling side quests, and more. The story is also fairly straightforward: Ganon took over Hyrule 100 years ago, and Link, who's just returned from a century-long stasis, must regain his former power and defeat Ganon. Along the way, he must travel to the four races of Hyrule, enter powerful machines, and configure them to aid him in his battle. The puzzles in these dungeons are clever and really require some thinking. The world is full of things to do and varied environments, all while running and looking amazing with the black magic they pulled to get the game to run like it does.
- Pikmin 4. Captain Olimar, in his 4th adventure into the world of Pikmin, has once again, to the complete surprise of everyone who knows him, crash-landed on a world full of Pikmin. You've got to track him down. Along the way, you collect treasure to power up your ship to reach new areas. The fun of playing Pikmin returns, now with time-based battles where you refine how fast you can obtain a series of treasures.
- Splatoon. Quite possibly one of the biggest offenders, the development team spends so much time creating a rich and believable world, then falls short when they need to justify the gameplay. In the story mode, you're going on floating linear levels that go against everything the game is trying to teach you about the Octarians. Vast TV screens mimic the sky in underground worlds, eliminating the player's concern for their power problems. All the levels are floating and linear, which, even if you consider the Octarian tech, makes you wonder why the Octarian's time and money was spent creating these locations. Later installments also do little to justify the linear, floating levels. In Splatoon 3, you're in an underground cavern where humans used to live. Yet, nothing makes sense. Why is the ground white? Why is the sky there? Why is there a rocket when you're underground? Why are these levels designed to test you, when Inkfish weren't even available to the AI's knowledge until recently? Some of these are explained by the Alterna logs, but it still doesn't make sense. This is really a shame, because the devs also make an effort to enrich the world using scrolls, poems, even a blog in some DLC. Yet the story mode never makes a ton of sense.
- Breath of the Wild. Story beats are infrequent, not very often, and rarely add to the story. The game adds detail using memories, recollections, that Link has in key locations. However, while this are fun to watch, they don't add to the story. They describe the great champions who were alive a century ago, yet they have no relevance on the present day. Some key battles or experiences also don't help. One of the final memories shows Link right after receiving the wound that nearly kills him, yet we still have no idea what caused it. In another, Hyrule Castle has just been taken over and... not much happens. They're just running away. Zelda has a breakdown. No stand, just running away. Then, there's the divine beasts. For starters, you're telling me you need someone to push a button and fire a laser? That is the best use for the descendants of these legendary champions? Then, you've got to do a segment to get inside these things. Yet the reasons it's a problem to the various races are nothing. The Ruto are annoyed that it's flying above them? The Gerudo are worried it'll come near them when it's always a safe distance away? The Zora have an actual reason, to prevent flooding, but it still doesn't really matter to them, since "water and air are the same" or something. And the Gorons are more inconvenienced than heavily affected.
- Pokemon Sword/Shield. While Pokemon SV revised the plot a lot better, Game Freak's second installment on Switch falls very short. Now, to be fair, this is the indie devloper Game Freak we're talking about, not the biggest IP in the world, but this is also one of Nintendo's first-party games for some reason, so I figure it would be good to include here. There's no tension. Cutscenes are lackluster and infrequent. At one point, there's a big battle at the end of the tunnel, then you get there and... it's all over. Nothing interesting. The game tries to build mystery around the legendaries, but it isn't hard to figure things out when they're on the box. Then again, I don't want to beat a dead horse too much. This is Pokemon we're talking about, we need to be more gentle on the biggest IP in the world.
- Kirby. Gameplay? Fun! Story? Eh... The story is basic at the beginning. Something happens and it leads to Kirby travelling, eating enemies, stealing their abilities, and defeating more enemies. Things drastically pick up halfway, and next thing you know, there's a world-ending calamity/god/creature you've got to defeat. There's little buildup, it's just "final boss/end of the world be upon ye!" and you defeat them and move on with your life. At leat the story beats are more meaningful. In Forgotten Land, King Dedede has regains control from his mind control and decides to help you before nearly sacrificing himself so you can get to the elevator and get to the boss.
Thanks for reading. If you find any incorrect info, please let me know so I can correct it.
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