Story – Naff’s Gaming Blog

A second post for this week? Crazy right? After a look at the Narrative in relation to player interaction in Dark Souls that can be found here, I will be looking at Ludonarrative Dissonance. Ludonarrative Dissonance refers to the conflicting approach that can be found in Video Games between Gameplay choices (ludic) and Narrative choices. This term was first coined in a blog post by Clint Hocking called Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock. Feel free to give it a read before reading this post as I will be referencing it heavily.

I myself had always been under the acceptance that a Game is a Game, meant to be enjoyed through gameplay and that it’s narrative can come second. Even when these two features of the game clashed I never really thought about it. Having read Hocking’s post I now seem to understand the importance of the term ‘Ludonarrative Dissonance’.

Looking strictly at Bioshock with relation to Hocking’s post for starters. I have only played through about half of the original Bioshock so this might seem biased to the critique. The game seems to “suffer from a powerful dissonance between what it is about as a game, and what it is about as a story”. It does this by “throwing the narrative and ludic elements of the work into opposition”.

Bioshock as a whole is an examination and criticism of ‘Randian Objectivism’. This refers to the practice that whatever helps you get ahead is morally the correct choice. During gameplay the player is given the choice to either save or harvest characters called ‘Little Sisters’. These ‘Little Sisters’ are used to gain upgrade points in the form of Adam, which is used to upgrade your unnatural powers. This enforces the Randian way of thinking as harvesting the ‘Little Sisters’ rewards the player with more Adam than saving them would.

**A ‘Little Sister’ in the arms of her “protector” a ‘Big Daddy’**

Narratively, the player is given no such choice. You MUST help someone, this being Atlas, to progress through the game. This directly opposes the Randian way of thinking, since the gameplay shows that you can have the choice to not help anyone and do what is best for you, the player is more aligned with the game’s antagonist ‘Andrew Ryan’. So why should we oppose him if our philosophical beliefs align?

The answer is: Because the narrative says so.

The way I would and did go, and most others would go, is to accept that it’s a game and since the mechanics are great they’ll overlook the break that is the narrative forcing them to do something out of character. Hocking suggests that this is a mocking of the player for accepting the weakness of the medium.

As I stated earlier, I personally don’t mind when these two features of Video Games don’t align properly. If I wanted a compelling story without the fun of going through it myself I would watch a movie. Or if I wanted to play through a game while focusing on gameplay alone I’d play Tetris or Dark Souls (an interesting comparison but anyway).

Regardless of my feelings towards this blog post and it’s contents. I will say that this kind of term, that being ‘Ludonarrative Dissonance’, is important for games criticism. Being able to point out the shortcomings of a highly narrative driven game such as Bioshock is important. Bioshock happens to be a loose fit I would say as both elements, Narrative and Gameplay, are fantastic from my experience and you can enjoy it for both while not being unimmersed while playing. Being able to describe the difference in Gameplay and Narrative in a single statement is very important as it lets whoever is critiquing a game get the point across easily without threat of confusion.

I can say that I have run into this Ludonarrative Dissonance before. In Pokemon of all places. In Pokemon Black and White, the first instalments of the Fifth Generation Pokemon games, presented a narrative that greatly opposed the core gameplay of the series.

**Cover art for both *Pokemon Black and White* for the Nintendo DS**

The Player is presented a philosophical question. The question being “Is training and battling Pokemon in the way we have morally right?”. This is posed to the player by the character ‘N’, a mysterious person working with the game’s villainous team, ‘Team Plasma’. For most of the game N and Team Plasma suggest to the player and other characters about the moral correctness of battling Pokemon. With questions like; “What if Pokemon don’t want to battle?”, “What if Pokemon don’t want to come with you?” and “Would you feel comfortable being sucked into a ball and live there for most of your life?” it was hard not to think about these questions and what it relates to in real life. What if we were chicken fighting instead? Or Dog racing even? It definitely challenges the players moral compass.

Official Artwork for N with a Legendary Pokemon Reshiram.

In relation to that, the game does NOT offer the player the choice to just lay down their Pokeballs and finish up. To progress through the story the player must continue to utilise their Pokemon and defeat other Pokemon through battle. Although the story does end up showing that Team Plasma were working in their own interests, not for the Pokemon’s.

It might be a bit of a loose comparison but I found it interesting to use the term Ludonarrative Dissonance in relation to a Pokemon game of all things. I wouldn’t normally say Pokemon Games are huge narrative driven games but Black and White certainly made me question some things.

To sum up, the term Ludonarrative Dissonance is an interesting and important one when it comes to Video Games critique and journalism. As Hocking mentions in his post “BioShock is not our Citizen Kane. But it does…show us how close we are to achieving that milestone” and I think that’s an interesting statement. In recent years the matching of Gameplay and Narrative has certainly begun to come more clear with less of this Ludonarrative Dissonance and a much more clear focus of themes and player choice.

That’s it for me this week! I hope you enjoyed reading and I’ll see you next week!

Thanks for reading!
– Nathan “Naff” Hibbert

In today’s post I will be taking a look at the story of my favourite game of all time, Dark Souls. This game is often highlighted for it’s phenomenal gameplay mechanics, but what often goes unnoticed is it’s also phenomenal story. But first, I will touch on these gameplay mechanics:

An Illustration of *Dark Souls* characters by Nolan on Etsy

What does the Player do?

During the duration of Dark Souls the player ventures through a dark and dense Medieval landscape known as Lordran, collecting treasures and slaying both humanoid and monstrous enemies. They do this using a variety of tactics, from one-handed and two-handed weapons (such as Straight Swords and Great Hammers), to powerful magic (such as Sorcery and Pyromancy) that either do direct damage to an enemy or buffs (or sometimes hurts) the player, and even utilising shields to block damage altogether.

Of course, while fighting these ferocious enemies the player must do so while taking minimal damage. If an attack is unblockable or not worth blocking with a shield another mechanic is usable. This introduces us to the roll mechanic. By pressing the appropriate button the player will cause their character to roll, this can be used to avoid attacks due to the animation of the roll having what is called “i-frames” or invincibility frames. This allows the player to avoid damage and move into more advantageous positions, either for getting a critical backstab for massive damage or moving into more advantageous position.

While dodging damage might seem easy after that description, it really isn’t takes damage and must restore it by either using an Estus Flask, which is an item collected by the player at the very start of the game BUT has finite uses, or by resting at any of the far and few between Bonfires. Using an Estus Flask will put the player at risk of being hurt further if not timed correctly. Bonfires however allow the player to heal and level up, as well as store any excess items they’re holding and even repair weapons and armour. It does come with a massive downside though, it brings back any enemy the player may have killed already. This does have a limit though, it will NOT bring back Unique or Boss enemies. Players will also respawn at their last used Bonfire before death.

The Safety of Firelink Shrine, *Dark Soul’s* main hub

Can these Actions be presented as a Story?

The actions of the player can certainly be presented as a story, any boss the player may encounter has a reason to it, the player is driven to press on and finds it necessary to defeat any given enemy. The tale of their fight is almost always a legendary one, from finally defeating the tough boss through trial and error to somehow defeating a boss most find “hard” on their first try. Everyone has a story to tell of their first time in Dark Souls.

A Timeline of Dark Soul’s Events

The game itself does have a very loose narrative, not told by conventional means. I will here list a timeline of events and since a lot of the game can be taken in any order I will list my personal experience.

The Player Character is shown locked away in an Undead Asylum, left to Hollow and Rot. Until a key to their cell is dropped in by an NPC known as Oscar of Astora.
The Player is then tasked with escaping the Asylum and after finding their first Bonfire and receiving the Estus Flask from Oscar, who is now on Death’s Door. find themselves standing in front of the first boss. The Asylum Demon.
After defeating the Asylum Demon they are whisked away by a large Black Crow and taken to the game’s hub, Firelink Shrine
By interacting with an NPC in the area known as “Crestfallen Warrior”, the player finds that there is something called “The Chosen Undead” and this Undead must ring the “Bell of Awakening” located above Firelink Shrine to eventually Link the First Flame and gain the prevail of the Gods.
The Player then heads upwards, away from the safety of Firelink Shrine towards the Undead Burg, a town and heads towards the first bell.
After defeating the Bell’s Guardians, The Bell Gargoyles, the player interacts with the Bell and rings their first bell. Interestingly enough players in other game can hear the bell ringing when another player does so.
Upon heading back to Firelink Shrine the player will find a large snake-like creature jutting out of the ground. This is a new NPC known as “Kingseeker Frampt”. Frampt goes on to tell you that there is not 1, but 2 “Bell of Awakening” and that he will assist you in any way he can.
The player is then tasked with going deep below the Undead Burg and even Firelink to a place called Blighttown. They reach this by beating 2 bosses, these being The Capra Demon and The Gaping Dragon.
In Blighttown they find the Second Bell, protecting by a half Spider, half Woman monstrosity called “Queelag”. After her defeat the Player safely rings the second “Bell of Awakening”
While speaking with Frampt the player finds that they must ascend to the city of the Gods called “Anor Londo” where they will meet Gwynevere, Princess of Sunlight.
After ascending “Sen’s Fortress”, a death trap of moving obstacles and Giants, and defeating the boss defending the path to “Anor Londo” called “The Iron Giant”, the player is lifted up into the sunlight filled city of “Anor Londo”
Upon arriving, the player meets a new character called the “Darkmoon Knightess” who describes the horrendous pair defending Gwynevere, “Ornstein and Smough”.
After traversing over precarious walkways and castle architecture, the player finally confronts “Ornstein and Smough”.
A tough victory is awarded to the player and they meet Gwynevere, who tells them that they must find the 4 Lord Souls to appease the First Flame. These Lord Souls take form of part of the Sun God Gwyn’s Soul that he bestowed upon people of importance during his reign. The player is also gifted the Lordvessel, an item to hold the Lord Souls and open the way to link the fire. This must be placed at Firelink Altar, deep below Firelink Shrine to open the way to the Lord Soul(s).

**The Player Character, talking with The Princess of Sunlight, Gwynevere.**

The player then forges ahead into the Grand Archives to defeat “Seath the Scaleless” and collect the first Lord Soul, after they promptly die to an invincible “Seath” in their first encounter, and push on into the Crystal Caves to face “Seath” properly.
After the player then takes on “Gravelord Nito” to collect their second Lord Soul, after descending even further than Blighttown below Firelink Shrine to the Catacombs to defeat “Pinwheel” and then onto Tomb of Giants where they will find “Nito”
Thirdly, the player must take on the “Bed of Chaos” deep within the ruins of Izalith, hidden even further down than the Tomb of Giants. After defeating “Firesage Demon” and “Demon Centipede” they are finally able to face the dreaded “Bed of Chaos”
Fourth, and finally, the player must face the “Four Kings”, to do this they must venture into the sunken city of New Londo. After draining it they find a path deep into a place called The Abyss, where the player cannot survive. They must find a ring that allows them to walk in the Abyss. They find this ring guarded by a large sword wielding boss called “Sif”, after this fact they can defeat the “Four Kings” and collect their final piece of the Lord Soul
Finally the player will venture down to Firelink Altar to place the Lord Souls in the Lordvessel and head into the Kiln of the First Flame.
The player finds the game’s final boss, “Gwyn, Lord of Cinder” deep inside the kiln and proceeds to fight him.
After his defeat the player can interact with the central Bonfire to Link the First Flame and finish Dark Souls.

**The Player Character, choosing to Link the First Flame.**

Which are the most significant events in the story?

Now, I will specify that these dot points were from my first play-through of Dark Souls and is specifically vague as that is how the game shows it. The significant events through this story are certainly the ringing of the “Bells of Awakening”, ascending to “Anor Londo”, defeating and collecting the four Lord Souls, and finally defeating Gwyn and linking the first flame (or letting it fade for that matter). For each of these significant events I will now list what the player does to cause them, whether the player does it themselves or is it presented non-interactively.

To ring the “Bells of Awakening” the player must traverse through the game’s worlds and reach the physical locations themselves and then defeat the Boss guarding it. The player themselves does indeed ring the bell themselves by walking up to the bell and interacting with it. If the game had just rung it automatically for defeating the boss it would not be quite as impactful as it takes the player out of the immersion of having just beaten such a powerful enemy to reach this feat.

To ascend to “Anor Londo”, once again the player must traverse through an area, a very dangerous one at that, and eventually defeat a boss to be pulled up to the city. The player themselves doesn’t really do this themselves as they interact with a literal ring on the ground which causes a cutscene to play. In this cutscene the player character is shown being pulled up and over a large wall by flying demons. This doesn’t deny the brilliance of ascending the the City of the God’s for the first time though, it truly is a glorious sight.

Collecting the Lord Souls is very much like the last two points, but on a much more grand scale. Beating bosses and harvesting their souls to advance is very much a non-interactive event, each Lord Soul is presented directly to the player as a reward for defeating the 4 Bosses possessing the Lord Souls.

Finally, defeating Gwyn, Lord of Cinder and linking the first flame is much like the past 3 events. After defeating Gwyn the player can interact with the First Flame OR walk out of the arena. Interacting with the First Flame will show a cutscene of the player doing so. This is very much an interactive experience as the player can decide the outcome of the game itself.

Anor Londo, City of the Gods, as the player sees it upon their first arrival.

What is the Player’s Role in the Story?

Our timeline shows that the story of Dark Souls itself is quite literally centred around the player character, “The Chosen Undead”. Each event, major or minor, in the game’s story is influenced by the character. The game itself sees these events as nothing but hurdles, a means to an end, challenges that the player must overcome to see the end. The story itself is very vague and most of the exposition takes place through world building and back-stories shown through item descriptions. The game itself gives the player next to no rhyme or reason to any of this.

The player takes direct control of these events, regardless of if they know why they are there or not. Regardless of that they will ALWAYS have a story to tell after the fact. Meaning that the story itself is mostly about the player’s experience with the game Each decision, or lack there of, influences the story that a player will tell. Different story endings require different things to be completed during the game and so each play-through will have different endings, major points and experiences via the player alone.

**A screenshot of one of the endings of *Dark Souls*.**

Is this a STORY-DRIVEN game, or a game that HAS A STORY?

Dark Souls tells the story of a dark and bleak world, where all looks lost to humanity. The world is sinking into chaos, in some parts literally, and nobody knows what to do.

Throughout the game the player will tackle these areas, bosses and characters without not really knowing why. The draw of Dark Souls is that it is deep in terms of character Builds and challenging in combat.

That being said, Dark Souls is most certainly a game that has a story. The focus is the gameplay elements, and while the story and lore is phenomenal, it is NOT the focal point of the experience.

The game is top tier without knowing the details of any given event. Knowing these details however gives the player a deeper appreciation for the characters and areas they encounter. I could give a multitude of examples but I won’t. I’ll leave them for you to find if you’re interested.

On that note, the Youtube Channel VaatiVidya, is a fantastic source of lore and story explanations for Dark Souls (as well as other FromSoftware titles e.g. Bloodborne and Sekiro). Below is a video from his ‘Prepare to Cry’ series, which focuses on the tragic back-stories of the game’s beloved bosses and NPCs. This one in particular is about the infamous, Artorias the Abysswalker.

That’s it for this post, there will be another this week, tackling the topic of Ludonarrative Dissonance (the concept of story and gameplay matching) in Video Games.

Thanks again for reading!
– Nathan “Naff” Hibbert

Tag: Story

Ludonarrative Dissonance in Video Games

A Look at Dark Soul’s Story Elements in Relation to Gameplay