Gameplay vs. Story

Get this: you have a game like Super Mario Galaxy where gameplay is the driving force of the game, and then on the other side of the spectrum, you have something like a Final Fantasy title where the story is the driving force of the game.

Zelda always seems to be somewhere in the middle: the question is -
Which would rather have the next Zelda focus on more: Gameplay or Story?

... it seems to me that the gameplay isn't really all that different between the Zelda games. Are you suggesting that a "focus" on gameplay would mean a DIFFERENT type of gameplay?

Both are important, of course.

I would vote for story, all things equal (meaning, same type of gameplay as in all other Zelda games).

No. GAMEPLAY IS KING!!!! THIS IS A GAME, not a book. If you play a game, it is because the playing engages you.

Gameplay is 100,000,000% more important than story in any case. Supposing that the next Zelda game had a story greater than Don Quixote (I know that's impossible, but still), and no gameplay whatsoever, no one would play it, because people play things to do something. Story is why we read. At least, why I read all the time.

Psychology, is it not?!!!

Story is important in a game, but the gaming industry just started up about 30 years ago. Look back at cinema 30 years in. The stories sucked- it was all about seeing characters on screen, and I think that's the point that we're at with video games right now. Even if you did focus on story you end up with a Final Fantasy situation where the gameplay and story both suck.

Game play is more important than anything. It doesn't matter how brilliant a game story is, if the Game play isn't there than the game would be like reading the bible ten times in a row. Boring!

Originally Posted by Temple of Time

Game play is more important than anything. It doesn't matter how brilliant a game story is, if the Game play isn't there than the game would be like reading the bible ten times in a row. Boring!

What an awful thing to say. People don't appreciate reading enough today.

Don't get me wrong, though, I agree with the first sentence.

Originally Posted by PurpleHerring

What an awful thing to say. People don't appreciate reading enough today.

Don't get me wrong, though, I agree with the first sentence.

Excuse me but did I mention anything about not enjoying reading? I enjoy Final Fantasy VII because of it's excellent Story and great game play. The story is also very important in a game especially if it's an RPG. The Metal Gear Solid games are also a great example.

The formula for a game. 50% Gameplay, 30% Story, 20% Graphics. Now, that's not to say that graphics arn't important, just that every game doesn't need to have uber-amazing, hi-def graphics to be good. Take the Link's Awakening and the Oracle games as an example.

But, back on topic. Of course, a game's biggest element is it's gameplay, of course. If your playing the game for the story alone, your beter off reading a book; the storys are usually better anyway. That's not to say the story isn't important though, because without a good story, you only have 70% of a good game, and then if you take into account the fact that there are very, very few games with perfect gameplay or graphics... of course, now your games a 50 or 60, and that isn't a good score last time I checked.

I don't care if the same gameplay is used for the new Zelda. I just need a non-linear, emotional and overall good storyline.

Of course gameplay is more important but it's just something Zelda doesn't need to focus on right now, me thinks.

Originally Posted by King KK

The formula for a game. 50% Gameplay, 30% Story, 20% Graphics. Now, that's not to say that graphics arn't important, just that every game doesn't need to have uber-amazing, hi-def graphics to be good. Take the Link's Awakening and the Oracle games as an example.

But, back on topic. Of course, a game's biggest element is it's gameplay, of course. If your playing the game for the story alone, your beter off reading a book; the storys are usually better anyway. That's not to say the story isn't important though, because without a good story, you only have 70% of a good game, and then if you take into account the fact that there are very, very few games with perfect gameplay or graphics... of course, now your games a 50 or 60, and that isn't a good score last time I checked.

I don't know, if the gameplay is good enough having no story can be acceptable. For example, Mario has pretty much zero story, and yet they remain to be very entertaining, high-quality games.

Gameplay is much more important than story.

Originally Posted by 8bit

I don't know, if the gameplay is good enough having no story can be acceptable. For example, Mario has pretty much zero story, and yet they remain to be very entertaining, high-quality games.

Mario is a platformer, so it doesn't really need any story. Zelda is an adventure game, and all adventures have stories.

Story is more important in certain genders of video games.

i would have to say story. im more of a story person than a gameplay person.

As long as the dungeons, bosses, items, and puzzles are good, I care 0% for the story. It can be "save the princess" as much as it wants.

In other words, I agree with most of the people who have posted.

Zeldas gameplay hasn't changed much since Alttp.

To me, story is a huge part of the gaming expirience. If a game has a horrible story, it is not as fun to play. Gears of War is a good example. It was the best quality shooter I'd seen since Halo 2, but the story was a compleat piece of crap. Thus, while it was fun to play, the fact that I was thinking about what the hell just happened in the last cutscene rather than about the Beserker chasing me ruined the expirience.

As to Zelda, lets make a scale for this. If 0 is no story but great gameplay, and 100 is great story but bad gameplay, I want it at an 80.

Majoras Mask was the first zelda ever that offered up a story that I made me say "Hey, I actually care about these characters". Unfortunantly, the zelda series did not provide comparable writting quality until Twilight Princess. TP had an excelant story with incredibly deep characters. Midna was the first Zelda character who actually changed thier personality over the coarse of the game. This has been done in countles RPGs, but this was a first for zelda.

The legend of Zelda.
It's told by it's name.
"Legend" of Zelda.
Like a story. So there.

Game play. I don't care how good of a story Zelda has, if it played like Bebe's Kids, I wouldn't touch it.

As goes video games, much like cinema, I think the formal aspects are what merit it as an art and the narrative element exists solely to make the formal aspect more interesting. At least that's the way it should go.

^ It's nice to see someone else enthusiastic about storytelling say something like that.

Gameplay will always take precedence over a story in a video game, because participating in an interactive, entirely imaginative experience should always be the driving force behind enjoying a game. There's nothing wrong with adding in a good story, characters, themes etc. but if they start to be prevalent than outstanding game design, the developers have completely forgotten what type of media product they're creating. I don't pay fifty bucks to sit and watch something happen, I pay fifty bucks to sit and actually do something in that world.

Substance > style.

Generally I would think that most people would consider our stance to be style over substance, but I definitely see what you're getting at.

I think one of the reasons why Zelda is so successful at being a great game is because the idea for the game play presumably came first - being based off Shigeru Miyamoto's exploration of the woods as a child in Kyoto. If you notice, the first Zelda barely has any story at all, and is still considered to be one of the best video games at all.

Myself being a filmmaker, I see the film industry as being backwards right now, with most movies being filmed as a "story with images," where it should be "images telling a story." The purpose of cinema is to visually excite...

But that's getting off topic. I could rant on for days. The point is that in creating a video game, similar criteria should be used - it shouldn't be a "story with a game" but instead a "game with a story." Storytelling and video games are two distinct forms of art. If the story were most important, it should've been a book, and if that book were to inspire a video game anyways, more power to it.

Gameplay is the main factor. But still, when making a video game, the developers should work to make EVERY aspect of it good. Something that Miyamoto doesn't get, unfortunately. Oh well...