The Evolution of Early Game Narratives from 1UP.com

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 30 | NARRATIVE IN GAMES

The Evolution of Early Game Narratives

Cover Story: How a few radical ideas set the framework for decades to come.

hen gaming began, narrative was almost nonexistent. In Tennis for Two and Pong, it was just an electronic competition. It wasn't until titles like Pac-Man, Pitfall, and Donkey Kong that gaming started getting stories. Sure, the tale of Jumpman fighting a big ape wasn't enthralling, but it gave context and color to the gameplay proceedings. As time wore on, stories got deeper, especially as RPGs grew in popularity. Even still, the story was mostly constrained to the instruction manual. Even The Legend of Zelda, which is now one of Nintendo's most story-heavy series, had little in-game context.

That began to change in the late '80s, though, in a surprising place: the Ninja Gaiden series. Two versions of the game, one for the arcades and one for the Nintendo Entertainment System, came out and wound up being very different despite the shared name. Ninja Gaiden for the arcades was nothing more than a side-scrolling beat 'em up, something that was on the same level as a Double Dragon. However, Ninja Gaiden for NES wound up revolutionizing narrative in video games, delivering a hardcore platforming experience that was equal parts stellar and frustrating.

It was commonplace during that time period for arcade games to get home ports, and Tecmo, off the success of Rygar, wanted to do this with their in-development Ninja Gaiden game. Under the direction of Hideo Yoshizawa, credited as Sakurazaki in the game, Tecmo crafted a wholly unique version of the game for NES. This version featured something that was referred to as "Tecmo Theater," where, before and after each set of levels, an animated sequence would play, introducing characters and providing story developments. It wasn't the first time that a game featured a cutscene, but it was the first time a cinematic was completely different from the main gameplay and given such a focus.

Ninja Gaiden's legacy is far-reaching. Yoshizawa later directed Klonoa, which has a surprisingly deep story for a game that stars a floppy-eared rabbit-looking hero. A young Masato Kato worked on the original Ninja Gaiden and subsequently led the story development of the second two NES games. Kato later wrote the script for Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, and parts of Final Fantasy VII. Ninja Gaiden didn't just kick off a story focus in gaming; it spun up the people responsible for some the medium's most memorable stories. Just think: the emotional moments in Zeal in Chrono Trigger and when Cloud slips into the Lifestream in Final Fantasy VII all came from someone who started out by working on Ninja Gaiden's cutscenes.

Ninja Gaiden wasn't the only place where story was developed, though. Sega was also at the forefront of story in games with the Phantasy Star series, which may have fallen into obscurity over the years, but was actually the first major story-heavy RPG series to hit North America. Phantasy Star II was where the series took off, leaving its first-person RPG shackles behind and becoming a narrative-driven sci-fi/fantasy epic. It features a few twists and turns along the way, with a particularly crushing death scene near the end that, when it came out in 1990, was completely unheard of in gaming. People think Aeris was the death that set gaming ablaze, but Sega and Phantasy Star did it seven years earlier.

Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom wasn't nearly as well done as what came before it, but it did introduce a new narrative structure where the game progressed through three generations of a hero. Depending on who you married at the end of each generation, you would continue as a different hero. It was an innovative take that could only really be done in video games because of the choice involved. At the same time, Enix was making strides with the Dragon Quest series as it moved into its second trilogy. Dragon Quest V, an early Super Nintendo game, did something incredibly similar to Phantasy Star III, as the game spanned the life of a hero, beginning with his birth and continuing to his adolescence, courtship, marriage, and fatherhood. Unlike most RPGs where the players control a band of ragtag heroes, your party consisted of a man, his wife, and his two kids.

The game's NES predecessor, Dragon Quest IV, featured a chapter system where the game's first four sections set up the main character's supporting cast while mixing up the gameplay. In one of those chapters, you play as a shopkeeper and spend part of the time gathering items in dungeons to sell. The seemingly innocuous segment of the game wound up spinning off into the Mystery Dungeon series, which spanned more than 20 different titles. And it was all made possible because of the game's different story presentation. Not only did the narrative get strengthened by the measured approach of the chapter structure, it also led to new game mechanics and styles that directly influenced other games and genres.

Around the same time that Phantasy Star and Dragon Quest were developing, Square took the Final Fantasy series into bold new directions on the Super Nintendo. They sort of fumbled around with dramatic storytelling in Final Fantasy IV, which was ostensibly Square's take on Star Wars and featured more ridiculous character sacrifices than you can shake a Moogle at. They definitely hit their stride with Final Fantasy VI, though, which successfully dealt with the end of the world, contemplated suicide, and other heavy issues. Final Fantasy VI managed to turn a warbling operatic performance into an emotional scene that was more effective than most other mediums.

The major early narrative worlds of gaming collided in 1995. Dragon Quest's scenario writer and creator Yuji Horii teamed up with Final Fantasy IV writer Takashi Tokita, Final Fantasy VI writer Yoshinori Kitase, and Ninja Gaiden writer Masato Kato to author Chrono Trigger, a game that most herald as one of the greatest of all time. The game has been well-documented, but even still; the pedigree behind the team working on that game is absurd from every standpoint.

After Chrono Trigger came out, the gaming world began to shift to include a heavier use of storytelling in games. Over the course of the following years, landmark titles such as Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and many more showed how stories could add a significant amount gaming. What once was just teased in instruction manuals has become as much of the experience as gameplay.

Author

Neal Ronaghan

Nintendo World Report's Neal Ronaghan still tries to claim that Super Mario RPG is the pinnacle of game storytelling. He's been known to tear up when Mallow finds out he's not a frog.

Comments (14)

Almost there
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Xocolatl

Sorry to be a jerk, but where does Ultima/Buldur's Gate/Western games fit into this?

I guess it's refreshing for me to see that 1UP does not only have editors who hates jRPGs, but this article (at least this part, if you decide to write more) just doesn't complete the picture.

Also...seriously, no Suikoden? I know the game is a bit under the radar, but the storytelling in the game is top notched.

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Aaahhhh,.....1989
Posted: userComment.createdDate by BlakeEGM

Ninja Gaiden. I didn't realize at the time I was playing the game that would introduce storylines when I was a kid. Probably, most of us didn't. But, I do remember how different it felt.

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Every now and then ...
Posted: userComment.createdDate by deafwing

... you guys write a great article .. a part II on this should be written as this feels like an introduction to something deeper.

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- Totally agreed
  Posted: 11/12/2012 by Xocolatl
  
  Can't agree more with this. Need moar.
  
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The story of game stories is pretty cool.
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Emblem180

"When gaming began, narrative was almost nonexistent. In Tennis for Two and Pong, it was just an electronic competition."
That's a fascinating aspect of video games in general, I think. The very title ("games") implies some kind of activity or contest, which doesn't lend itself immediately to storytelling. But people love motivation for whatever they happen to be doing, and what popped up as mere context in games like Donkey Kong began to feel like a settting; even a story. Video game plots still have a long way to go, I would say, but they've evolved at a break-neck pace when you put it in perspective.
Also fascinating is that Sonicbug's example of an even earlier narrative is Zork, an American game-- but everything mentinoed in Neal's article comes from Japan. While the west was busy crafting choose-your-own-adventures, JRPGs were pushing linear adventures with casts of developing characters. In a lot of ways, that's still the case; just look at Final Fantasy Xenoblade Chronicles compared to Skyrim.

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Ah... sure.... define gaming.
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Sonicbug

It wasn't until titles like Pac-Man, Pitfall, and Donkey Kong that gaming started getting stories.
It is pitch black, you are likely to be eaten by a grue.
> 1979

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very good
Posted: userComment.createdDate by yolanda89

this is great. Final Fantasy VI. In the traditional "story" sense, though i would probably make exceptions if this included less traditional game narrative techniques like those found in Shadow of the Colossus and Majora's Mask.

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Criminally Underrated: Phantasy Star IV
Posted: userComment.createdDate by orient

The script is funny, the cast is interesting and the cut-scenes are gorgeous (No Spoilers -- I'm only halfway through!). The same list of games always crops up when talking 16-bit RPG stories and it's a shame just how little that list includes PSIV. I guess most people missed out on it the first time round.

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- I'm apparently the only person who enjoyed III
  Posted: 08/01/2012 by trminal_patience
  
  I've heard so many things about Phantasy Star II and I'm sure that it lives up to everythings (okay, mostly everything,) that's ever been written about it. But I still remember loving Phantasy Star III. The ability to carry over abilities based on which bride you chose was a cool mechanic that I only recently heard being reused (Record of Agarest War I think???)
  Phantasy Star IV was cool too, but I remember getting blocked somewhere along the way on that title and never completing it. Maybe it's time to do some old school love on the Sonic Genesis Collection and see what the entire title brings.
  
  ~Ben~
  
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- @trminal_patience
  Posted: 08/02/2012 by Alpha_Nerd
  
  nah, I enjoyed it too, its just so vastly different from previous titles due to being coded by an entirely different team from parts I, II, and IV.
  
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My favorite game story
Posted: userComment.createdDate by kingsharkboi

Final Fantasy VI. In the traditional "story" sense, though i would probably make exceptions if this included less traditional game narrative techniques like those found in Shadow of the Colossus and Majora's Mask. There's not enough praise I can give the cast of FFVi and the music backing each theme and event. All done with little sprites and 2D graphics with no voice acting. A splendid job that not even Chrono Trigger matched (in my humble opinion).
Anyone else agree or hold FFVI in their favorites list of stories?

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All Hail the Original Ninja Gaiden series
Posted: userComment.createdDate by adidaas

So freaking amazing and so epic when I was just a wee lad. Why does the new series not seem to have any focus on a decent story whatsoever is beyond me. Not to mention Ninja Gaiden 2's first stage song is still one of my favorite NES jams ever.

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I wonder...
Posted: userComment.createdDate by Belnazar

Mentioning the pedigree behind Chrono Trigger makes me wonder what we would get these days if something like this occurred today. Something worth thinking about I think. Also never thought I would have Ninja Gaiden presented to me in this way. Intriguing article.

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