History Main / EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame

'''Note''': Please follow the RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment when adding or editing examples. Try, whenever possible, to limit examples to cases where there is evidence that criticism or fan reaction towards the game in question has tended to focus more on the story at the expense of the gameplay, rather than just games where you personally thought the story was better than the gameplay.''

''Note: Please follow the RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment when adding or editing examples. Try, whenever possible, to limit examples to cases where there is evidence that criticism or fan reaction towards the game in question has tended to focus more on the story at the expense of the gameplay, rather than just games where you personally thought the story was better than the gameplay.''

* ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' was widely praised for its story, but most critics were less impressed by its bland, mediocre [[TakeCover cover-based shooting]]. In fact, the most poorly-received element of the game was its multiplayer mode, which features no narrative elements at all (and wasn't even designed by the development team behind the single-player mode).

* Most of the praise for the''{{Drakengard}}'' series has gone to its story, pitch black tone, and memorable cast. The games themselves tend to have extremely poor gameplay, with repetitive and monotonous combat on the ground, and even worse controls during the air missions.

->''"The strangest thing about it is, from a cold, critical, non-gushy standpoint, the actual gameplay aspect of Silent Hill is kinda shitty... No, intuitive gameplay isn't Silent Hill's strong point; we're here to get our story on."''

->''"The strangest thing about it is, from a cold, critical, non-gushy standpoint, the actual gameplay aspect of ''Silent Hill'' is kinda shitty... No, intuitive gameplay isn't Silent Hill's strong point; we're here to get our story on."''

* The ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' series is generally considered to have SoOkayItsAverage gameplay by both fans and critics, but they developed a dedicated fanbase due to their suprisingly deep plots by Pokémon standards, sometimes even falling into WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids territory. Some even considering their storylines ''better'' than most of the main series games.

->''"The strangest thing about it is, from a cold, critical, non-gushy standpoint, the actual gameplay aspect of ''Silent Hill'' is kinda shitty... No, intuitive gameplay isn't ''Silent Hill'''s strong point; we're here to get our story on."''

Some games feature little more than an ExcusePlot to justify their core gameplay. Some games, conversely, feature virtually no gameplay and focus almost exclusively on storytelling. Then there are games which actually [[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory put quite a bit of effort into their story, but the story is nevertheless ignored or overlooked by most in favour of the gameplay.]]

This trope is the OppositeTrope of the latter case: games which significantly feature both story and gameplay, but most players, critics etc. largely ignore the gameplay in favour of its storytelling, characters, setting and so on. There are many reasons why this might happen: sometimes the game might have an unusually well-constructed narrative but rather samey, unoriginal gameplay; sometimes the gameplay might actually have significant problems with it, making the story superior by default; and sometimes it's purely subjective taste.

StoryToGameplayRatio matters here: just as a game must have a significant story focus in order to qualify as an example of PlayTheGameSkipTheStory, so a game must have significant gameplay focus to qualify for this trope. VisualNovels or experimental [[ArtGame art games]] like ''VideoGame/DearEsther'' don't qualify for this trope, as there's little meaningful gameplay to start with (with certain exceptions listed below).

'''Note:''' Please follow the RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment when adding or editing examples. Try, whenever possible, to limit examples to cases where there is evidence that criticism or fan reaction towards the game in question has tended to focus more on the story at the expense of the gameplay, rather than just games where you personally thought the story was better than the gameplay.

* The first season of Creator/TelltaleGames' episodic ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' game is excellent at being an interactive storytelling experience, and middling at best / terrible at worst whenever it tries to have game mechanics more involved than the occasional QuickTimeEvent. Occasional {{Stealth Based Mission}}s and a couple of truly regrettable shooting sequences keep the game just barely outside of the category of "interactive fiction" by a strict definition, but the story is definitely the thing to play it for, not the gameplay. (It's telling that later works by the same developer, including subsequent seasons of ''The Walking Dead'' itself, largely drop or severely downplay these action set pieces, focusing almost exclusively on story.)

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI VI]]'' are both more loved for their memorable story and cast of characters than their gameplay. The fact that they were localized in the US helps a lot too.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'''s gameplay was largely unchanged from the aforementioned predecessors, particularly VI, but it was immensely popular for its story, which most critical praise was focused on, particularly for its early usage of the PlayingThePlayer trope and one of the most infamous {{Player Punch}}es in the medium.
* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' franchise is a curious CrossOver between Creator/{{Disney}} and ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'', which of course brings legions of fans from both fandoms. Unsurprisingly, these fans tend to play the games primarily to watch their favourite characters rather than for the gameplay, which is solid but unremarkable. The main story and the original characters themselves are also really popular and continue to bring players back, despite a general impression of [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks repetition]] and [[JumpingTheShark shark-jumping]] among critics.

* While ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'''s gameplay gets very repetitive after a while (shoot some ships, beam down, shoot bad guys, beam up, shoot more ships...), the storyline gives continuity for Trekkies on what happened in the Prime universe after the supernova event depicted in 2009's ''Film/StarTrek''.
* The ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' series is generally considered to have SoOkayItsAverage gameplay by both fans and critics, but they developed a dedicated fanbase due to their suprisingly deep plots by Pokemon standards, sometimes even falling into WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids territory. Some even considering their storylines ''better'' than most of the main series games.

* Some argue that ''VideoGame/GoneHome'' isn't a game because you can accidentally complete in about a minute and there is little chance of actual failure. All agree that the story that is told while playing it is worth the experience, though.

-> The strangest thing about it is, from a cold, critical, non-gushy standpoint, the actual gameplay aspect of ''Silent Hill'' is kinda shitty... No, intuitive gameplay isn't ''Silent Hill'''s strong point; we're here to get our story on.

-->- WebOriginal/ZeroPunctuation on ''VideoGame/SilentHill2''

* The ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' series is generally considered to have SoOkayItsAverage gameplay by both fans abnd critics, but they developed a dedicated fanbase due to their suprisingly deep plots by Pokemon standards, sometimes even falling into WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids territory. Some even considering their storylines ''better'' than most of the main series games.

This trope is the OppositeTrope of the latter case: games which significantly both story and gameplay, but most players, critics etc. largely ignore the gameplay in favour of its storytelling, characters, setting and so on. There are many reasons why this might happen: sometimes the game might have an unusually well-constructed narrative but rather samey, unoriginal gameplay; sometimes the gameplay might actually have significant problems with it, making the story superior by default; and sometimes it's purely subjective taste.

* While ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'''s gameplay gets very repetitive after a while (shoot some ships, beam down, shoot bad guys, beam up, shoot more ships...), the storyline gives continuity for trekkies on what happened in the Prime universe after the supernova event depicted in 2009's ''Film/StarTrek''.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' is praised for its deep setting, well-written characters, and extensive lore, but panned for its mediocre combat and poorly-designed inventory system. Many players prefer to set the game to its easiest setting in order to steamroll through the combat without having to pay as much attention to inventory management so that they can enjoy the story and, incidentally, create a save to import into the sequels, which have much-improved game mechanics. The [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 third game]] in the series [[StoryDifficultySetting even includes a difficulty setting specifically designed to facilitate players who just want to experience the story]].

* The earlier entries ''Franchise/LegacyOfKain'' franchise were widely praised by critics for both their gameplay and their storytelling (especially in the second entry in the series, ''Soul Reaver''), but the gameplay of each subsequent entry was less and less positively received until by the time of the release of the fifth entry, ''Defiance'', multiple critics said that the only reason to play the game was for its story.

* ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'' is an example of game perfectly aware that it is just a glorified cutscene. The gameplay is very simplistic and repetitive, but it isn't the main interest of the game, which is essentially an interactive {{Anime}} about an overly muscular six-armed god punching planet-sized monsters in space accompanied by Main/ClassicalMusic. Some of the game's [[DownloadableContent DLC chapters]] are literally anime shorts with no gameplay more interactive than occasional QuickTimeEvents.

* ''[[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment Planescape: Torment]]'' is noted for its excellent story and characters, but the gameplay is not particularly impressive, with combat mechanics in particular being very clunky. Luckily you can solve most problems with dialoque options rather than fighting (the entire game has a total of three unskippable fights).

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' is praised for its deep setting, well-written characters, and extensive lore, but panned for its mediocre combat and poorly-designed inventory system. Many players prefer to set the game to its easiest setting in order to steamroll through the combat without having to pay as much attention to inventory management so that they can enjoy the story and, incidentally, create a save to import into the sequels, which have much-improved game mechanics. The [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 third game]] in the series even includes a difficulty setting specifically designed to facilitate players who just want to experience the story.

* ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' is often held up as the pinnacle of the series and one of the best examples of the SurvivalHorror genre. However, most of its acclaim was focused on its story, atmosphere and visual design, with many critics less impressed by its awkward, repetitive combat and nonsensical, unintuitive [[MoonLogicPuzzle moon logic puzzles]]. Interestingly, the game actually featured an option to disable its combat altogether, allowing players to experience the game solely for its story and puzzles.

StoryToGameplayRatio matters here: just as a game must have a significant story focus in order to qualify as an example of PlayTheGameSkipTheStory, so a game must have significant gameplay focus to qualify for this trope. VisualNovels or experimental [[ArtGame art games]] like ''VideoGame/DearEsther'' don\'t qualify for this trope, as there\'s little meaningful gameplay to start with (with certain exceptions listed below).

** ''[[VideoGame/BioShock1 BioShock]]'' attracted much praise for its story, setting and themes, but also received criticism for its radically simplified game mechanics in comparison to the game\'s [[SpiritualSuccessor spiritual predecessor]], ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', which were widely perceived as having been intentionally \"dumbed down\" for the benefit of the console market. It also attracted significant criticism for its heavy use of [[FetchQuest fetch quests]] and its DisappointingLastLevel. ''Edge'' magazine went so far as to describe it as \"an uninspired FPS with inspired presentation\".

* Most reviewers at the time agreed that the main issue with ''VideoGame/SiegeOfAvalon'' was already summed up in its own promotional tagline: \"Played any good books lately?\" Its main drawing point was the expansive LowFantasy storyline, filled with political intrigue and conspiracies, but as an [[WesternRPG RPG]] it was somewhat underwhelming.

This trope is the OppositeTrope of the latter case: games which significantly both story and gameplay, but most players, critics etc. largely ignore the gameplay in favour of its storytelling, characters, setting and so on. There are many reasons why this might happen: sometimes the game might have an unusually well-constructed narrative but rather samey, unoriginal gameplay; sometimes the gameplay might actually have significant problems with it, making the story superior by default; and sometimes it\'s purely subjective taste.

-> The strangest thing about it is, from a cold, critical, non-gushy standpoint, the actual gameplay aspect of ''Silent Hill'' is kinda shitty... No, intuitive gameplay isn\'t ''Silent Hill''\'s strong point; we\'re here to get our story on.

* The first season of Creator/TelltaleGames\' episodic ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' game is excellent at being an interactive storytelling experience, and middling at best / terrible at worst whenever it tries to have game mechanics more involved than the occasional QuickTimeEvent. Occasional {{Stealth Based Mission}}s and a couple of truly regrettable shooting sequences keep the game just barely outside of the category of "interactive fiction" by a strict definition, but the story is definitely the thing to play it for, not the gameplay. (It's telling that later works by the same developer, including subsequent seasons of ''The Walking Dead'' itself, largely drop or severely downplay these action set pieces, focusing almost exclusively on story.)