Why all western game developers now call their adventure games and visual novels as "narrative games"?

Vetusomaru

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2009
Messages
186
Trophies
1
XP
587
Country
Greece
Why all western game developers now call their adventure games and visual novels as "narrative games"? Sounds pretentious and cringe as hell.
 

Ryab

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2017
Messages
3,240
Trophies
1
XP
4,479
Country
United States
Why all western game developers now call their adventure games and visual novels as "narrative games"? Sounds pretentious and cringe as hell.
Likely just as a method to better explain the theme it is going for. When people thing visual novels they think 99% text. When people think Adventure they mostly think gameplay.
 

Latiodile

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 27, 2022
Messages
448
Trophies
0
Location
Ontario
XP
1,300
Country
Canada
When people think Adventure they mostly think gameplay.
i have an old-school view on this, when i think adventure i think "point and click game that's super cryptic so you have to click everything and combine everything with everything to progress"
personally i don't consider adventure games "gameplay" based
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vetusomaru

Vetusomaru

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2009
Messages
186
Trophies
1
XP
587
Country
Greece
When people think Adventure they mostly think gameplay.
No, they don't. Adventure games always focused at story and cinematic experience.
Post automatically merged:

i have an old-school view on this, when i think adventure i think "point and click game that's super cryptic so you have to click everything and combine everything with everything to progress"
personally i don't consider adventure games "gameplay" based
Not to mention all these cryptic "puzzles" that literally make no sense.
 

Ryab

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2017
Messages
3,240
Trophies
1
XP
4,479
Country
United States
i have an old-school view on this, when i think adventure i think "point and click game that's super cryptic so you have to click everything and combine everything with everything to progress"
personally i don't consider adventure games "gameplay" based
In the modern day they tend to be. The meaning behind the genre has skewed quite a lot.
 

Veho

The man who cried "Ni".
Former Staff
Joined
Apr 4, 2006
Messages
11,386
Trophies
3
Age
42
Location
Zagreb
XP
41,268
Country
Croatia
With all the gaming genres blending and bleeding into one another, as most popular gaming mechanics get incorporated into all newer games, old naming just doesn't cut it any more so new terms and shortcuts are made to describe them.

Someone once said "Story in a game is like story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important," and there is a crap ton of games, wildly successful games, that prove this true.

So "narrative game" is used to say a game's story is a major driver of game progress, and not just an optional framework to string a bunch of levels together.

And you will find games described this way in a whole bunch of genres.

If you search for the "best narrative driven games" you'll get some wild answers.

https://screenrant.com/best-story-driven-games-all-time-ranked/

(This also goes to show that half the gaming industry has no idea what they're talking about.)

Anyway, I couldn't find any game that was explicitly labelled a "narrative game" and not by their own genre. Do you have examples?
 
  • Like
Reactions: CoolMe

Kwyjor

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 23, 2018
Messages
4,323
Trophies
1
XP
4,454
Country
Canada
There was endless debate at one time over what constituted an "adventure" game. Is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link an Adventure game? Is Adventure Island an Adventure game? Is 2600 Adventure an Adventure game? Far more elegant to call a narrative game what it is.

(And then there's the absolute disaster regarding what constitutes an "RPG".)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Veho

Luke94

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2016
Messages
1,135
Trophies
0
Age
29
XP
1,612
Country
Poland
Like reinterpreting words one of former Epic Games employees for instance nowadays Cliff Bleszinski that they are more like live-action movies video games/computer games I mean?
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    realtimesave @ realtimesave: they need to have a strong line up on the launch titles too. I think they should move metroid...