Argh! Eye opening. I never realised dialogue and all the things that make a game make sense were simply 'draped' over at the last minute. How bizarre! Though, it definitely explains a lot.
I wonder how this compares to the Japanese game development process, particularly with JRPGs, which have hours and hours of narrative (whether it's good narrative or not is up to debate, of course). I suppose the franchises have the advantage there in that they tend to have an already established set of gameplay rules for the universe; Suikoden will always have turn-based battles and its unique magic system, Tales games will always be an action RPG, and really they only thing that ends up being done to the battle system is to tweak it a bit to make it seem less like a rehash of the old thing. So, in theory, more time could be spent on the story
( ... )
...well. With Tales games, increasingly the battle system and the characters are the only things that can gloss over the "story" ... (I love Vesperia with all my heart, but it gave up even the pretense of a coherent plot.)
Also, I wanted that ported PS3 version ;_; your Patty icon makes me jealous...
Oh man, I've been playing the port, they added SO MUCH STUFF. Admittedly I got it because I ♥ Flynn so much, and the extra scenes for him make my fangirl heart melt.
But yeah, lol, the story is kind of... The best I can tell, it's about global warming! Except, of course, OUR global warming isn't made by magical devices, and we can't just turn all of our terrible machinery into clean-air stuff overnight thanks to magical summon spirits or whatever. (I really do play Tales games because of the characters. The plot has never been the most original.)
This suddenly makes me reconsider how much work Rhianna Pratchett may have had to do on Heavenly Sword and other games to try and pull them together into cohesion. Maybe she isn't as terrible a writer as she's often made out to be based on the reputation of that game.
If games really are a visual experience first and a textual one a long time after, it explains so much about the way we're given information and why so much of it seems to be irrelevant. I could suggest playing Nier, for all its fetch-quest based gameplay, the storyline at least has some merit and there is a wonderful section entirely in text, but as yhibiki already indicated, Japan runs by different rules
( ... )
Presumably the roles of 'creator of plot' and 'creator of dialogue' are split, so the plot is determined in advance to hang the gameplay off (eg why the player is in particular locations, if they are interacting with NPCs in gameplay) and then the writers are brought in to do the dialogue (which must mean the cut scenes are done at the same time so that the timing is correct).
That's something I was recently wondering about - how much divergence is there between plot and dialogue in the construction of the game? I was (re)playing Mass Effect 2 recently and thinking about how poor the dialogue is at certain places. Perhaps that might have something to do with dialogue being added later and by someone who (a) didn't have any control over the plot, and/or (b) who isn't primarily a writer.
I also wonder what sort of effect that has on the voice acting. I'm guessing that the voice actors don't get complete information about context, since there are often some major divergences between the dialogue (both content and tone) and its context and the accompanying physical mannerisms of the characters.
I like Ferguson's suggestion for having the writing occur first and the programming later, but somehow I doubt that will happen to any greater frequency in the near future.
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Also, I wanted that ported PS3 version ;_; your Patty icon makes me jealous...
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But yeah, lol, the story is kind of... The best I can tell, it's about global warming! Except, of course, OUR global warming isn't made by magical devices, and we can't just turn all of our terrible machinery into clean-air stuff overnight thanks to magical summon spirits or whatever. (I really do play Tales games because of the characters. The plot has never been the most original.)
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If games really are a visual experience first and a textual one a long time after, it explains so much about the way we're given information and why so much of it seems to be irrelevant. I could suggest playing Nier, for all its fetch-quest based gameplay, the storyline at least has some merit and there is a wonderful section entirely in text, but as yhibiki already indicated, Japan runs by different rules ( ... )
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I also wonder what sort of effect that has on the voice acting. I'm guessing that the voice actors don't get complete information about context, since there are often some major divergences between the dialogue (both content and tone) and its context and the accompanying physical mannerisms of the characters.
I like Ferguson's suggestion for having the writing occur first and the programming later, but somehow I doubt that will happen to any greater frequency in the near future.
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