What videogames are you playing in 2026?

[doctorbadwolf]

You can have an amazing game with basically no story or even a bad story, but you cannot have a novel without a story.

Certainly, video games can and have had great stories, but it is orthogonal to their medium as such.

Only true if you zoom out more broadly than RPGs, which was the discussion.

RPGs are their story, just like novels.

 

[Gradine]

I’m not a big fan of the Dragon Age games - or at least I bounced of Origins hard and that’s apparently the best of the bunch.

Really depends on the reason that you bounced off it. I think it's fair to say that it has the worst combat in the series. It's Real Time with Pause that's pretending it's more active. It's also the entry that leans the most into the grimdark tone. I think that Origins has some extremely good vignettes and a pretty great cast but the overall story is mostly pretty dull.

Dragon Age 2 is a really good game when it isn't apparent at what a rushed hack job it ended up being (see also: Old Republic II, Knights of the). It's really great conceptually and the cast is fantastic but it would have been so much better with another year or two in the oven.

If I had access to all four games in their original form, Origins is the one I'd probably hesitate to go back to the most. I'd desperately love a remake that updates the gameplay though.

 

[Gradine]

I finished up Baldur’s Gate 3 (my birthday present) over Christmas and rolled right into Clair Obscur (my Christmas present!) Currently somewhere in Act 2.

How it's treating you so far?

 

[Parmandur]

Only true if you zoom out more broadly than RPGs, which was the discussion.

RPGs are their story, just like novels.

Even zooming into RPGs, still very much the case: RPGs can have great story, but they still need a compelling gameplay loop. They can have a good gameplay loop and zero story, as well. Having a story at all is still orthogonal to RPG games.

Bards Tale and Wizardry, or Dragonquest and Fire Emblem, did not have much in the way of story to start. But there was a gameplay loop.

 

[Artamo]

How it's treating you so far?

Well, for starters…

Spoiler

I sure don’t trust Verso, but on the other hand, he’s so cool! But I sooooo don’t trust him. Especially after loving Gustave. Just waiting to have the rug pulled out from under me.

Gameplay wise I started over at one point shortly after starting Act 2 because I found out I left a bunch of stuff behind me because I was rushing, and trying not to die, and basically being in a total panic most fights. Also I really didn’t get the Lumina system but now I get it. Now I just got Monoco, and I’m trying to get his level on par with the rest - I think I got a little ahead of myself in terms of exploring the second time around.

The game is gorgeous and I’m literally listening to the soundtrack in my car - it’s that good.

 

[MarkB]

I mean, I guess that's true isn't it?

I feel like the odds of getting a good story in a novel are higher, but the complicating factor is that most RPGs are essentially story + game kind of superglued together, and thus you can end up with quite disparate levels of quality, so you're more likely to end up with a good game with a weak story or occasionally vice-versa. Complicating the issue is stuff like BG3 where the overarching story is maybe only okay, but the wonderful characters (not just the companions, loads of NPCs and villains and so on) more than make up for it.

Whereas with a novel all you have is the story (including characters etc.) so you just avoid novels with bad stories mostly, which means it's less likely you bump into a bad story there.

Sony seems to put a really high value on stories in the games they publish or support, and have done a good job of delivering some very good stories to their platform. Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima and Spiderman all managed to combine story and gameplay very well to deliver the equivalent of very good novels in immersively interactive packages.

 

[Gradine]

Well, for starters…

Spoiler

I sure don’t trust Verso, but on the other hand, he’s so cool! But I sooooo don’t trust him. Especially after loving Gustave. Just waiting to have the rug pulled out from under me.

Gameplay wise I started over at one point shortly after starting Act 2 because I found out I left a bunch of stuff behind me because I was rushing, and trying not to die, and basically being in a total panic most fights. Also I really didn’t get the Lumina system but now I get it. Now I just got Monoco, and I’m trying to get his level on par with the rest - I think I got a little ahead of myself in terms of exploring the second time around.

The game is gorgeous and I’m literally listening to the soundtrack in my car - it’s that good.

Picking up Monoco is absolutely a great excuse to go backtracking for the stuff you've missed. Especially if you've unlocked the paint spike ability (and if I remember correctly that's around the earliest point you can get that)

I'd recommend also avoiding any tracks you haven't heard in the game yet.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Even zooming into RPGs, still very much the case: RPGs can have great story, but they still need a compelling gameplay loop. They can have a good gameplay loop and zero story, as well. Having a story at all is still orthogonal to RPG games.

Bards Tale and Wizardry, or Dragonquest and Fire Emblem, did not have much in the way of story to start. But there was a gameplay loop.

Doesnt matter if they need good gameplay, the statement isnt true of RPGs. You claimed that story is orthagonal to the quality of a game. That is unambiguously false wrt RPGs.

 

[Gradine]

I have played and loved many RPGs with poor stories, or little-to-no-stories, or where the story clearly isn't the point/purpose. Is there a dungeon crawler in existence with even just a good story, let alone exceptional?

 

[Parmandur]

Doesnt matter if they need good gameplay, the statement isnt true of RPGs. You claimed that story is orthagonal to the quality of a game. That is unambiguously false wrt RPGs.

Yet it is definitely ortagonal to the success of eveb an RPG. Some of the most successful RPGs ever released barely have a story, but have an excellent gameplay loop: Pokémon.