History Main / StoryBreadcrumbs

* The PC version of ''VideoGame/MarioIsMissing'' has all of the ExcusePlot set up for you in the opening, but during the actual gameplay, you can check newspapers for developments on things like what is currently happening with the [[EverythingsBetterWithPenguins penguins]], as well as Mario himself keeping in contact with you on how he's doing and how the Koopas are reacting toward your efforts to stop the funding of their "melt the South Pole with hairdryers" plot.

%%* ''VideoGame/AlienVsPredator2''

* In ''VideoGame/MegaManZX Advent'', when Grey/Ashe copies their first enemy Mega Man form (from Atlas), they get a strange vision about someone detailing "The Game of Destiny". Later on you'll find more ciphers like this, and eventually you'll discover who's behind all this and his intentions.

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'':

* The important backstory of ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' is hidden in obscure dialogue options, which may or may now show up depending on your gender, Force alignment, influence with each particular companion and even the number of previous walkthroughs. It takes at least two of them to get even a vague idea of what's going on and even more of those, combined with lurking through the dialogue files, to get all subtleties.

* ''VideoGame/{{Dezatopia}}'' starts off seeming to have an ExcusePlot at best; all you get is "Reach the top of the tower and stop Momoko." However as you play the game, you meet bosses with [[BossBanter pre-battle dialogue]] which often explains their relationship to the area or to other characters, and when you face Momoko you learn she's [[spoiler:a WellIntentionedExtremist who [[AnimalWrongsGroup wants to make the world a better place for animals at the expense of humans]].]] You can also uncover hidden items throughout the game that, when picked up, add files about enemy and character data, as well as short stories of the characters detailing the backstory of the game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Dezatopia}}'' starts off seeming to have an ExcusePlot at best; all you get is "Reach the top of the tower and stop Momoko." However as you play the game, you meet bosses with [[BossBanter pre-battle dialogue]] which often explains their relationship to the area or to other characters, and when you face Momoko you learn she's [[spoiler:a WellIntentionedExtremist who [[AnimalWrongsGroup wants to make the world a better place for animals]].]] You can also uncover hidden items throughout the game that, when picked up, add files about enemy and character data, as well as short stories of the characters detailing the backstory of the game.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' series reveals various background details about its world, the Inklings, Octarians and various other creatures that inhabit it via the Sunken Scrolls. Each game has them as [[CollectionSidequest collectibles hidden in the single-player levels]], with the scrolls being pictures of various elements with research notes attached to them.
* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'': The ''Octo Expansion'' DLC campaign is more upfront with its story elements, but still has eleven unlockable chatlogs which expand on some of the game's characters and the nature of the Deepsea Metro, in addition to poems attached to the collectibles received at the end of each test chamber, reflecting [[PlayerCharacter Agent 8]]'s inner thoughts.

** ''VideoGame/Splatoon2''[='=]s ''Octo Expansion'' DLC campaign is more upfront with its story elements, but still has eleven unlockable chatlogs which expand on some of the game's characters and the nature of the Deepsea Metro, in addition to poems attached to the collectibles received at the end of each test chamber, reflecting [[PlayerCharacter Agent 8]]'s inner thoughts.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' series reveals various background details about its world, the Inklings, Octarians and various other creatures that inhabit it via the Sunken Scrolls. [[CollectionSidequest One is hidden in each single-player level]], with the scrolls being pictures of various elements with research notes attached to them.
** The ''VideoGame/Splatoon2''[='=]s ''Octo Expansion'' DLC campaign is more upfront with its story elements, but still has eleven unlockable chatlogs which expand on some of the game's characters and the nature of the Deepsea Metro, in addition to poems attached to the collectibles received at the end of each test chamber, reflecting [[PlayerCharacter Agent 8]]'s inner thoughts.

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' and [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 its sequel]] reveal various details about its world, the Inklings, Octarians and various other creatures that inhabit it, and its backstory via the Sunken Scrolls. [[CollectionSidequest One is hidden in each single-player level]], with the scrolls being pictures of various elements with research notes attached to them. The second game's ''Octo Expansion'' DLC campaign is more upfront with its story elements, but still has eleven unlockable chatlogs which expand on some of the game's characters and the nature of the Deepsea Metro, in addition to poems attached to the collectibles received at the end of each test chamber, reflecting [[PlayerCharacter Agent 8]]'s inner thoughts.

* Creator/FROMSoftware's ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'', the ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' trilogy, and ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' all take a minimalistic method of storytelling to an extreme. Almost all backstory and plot development (occasionally even information [[JigsawPuzzlePlot vitally important to understanding the plot]]) being told either through the short inventory item descriptions, sparse dialogue with [=NPCs=], or occasionally just hinting at things [[MoreThanMeetsTheEye through the level design]]. Even then, the information provided is still spotty and the players are left to fill in much of it with their own imaginations, thus making multiple interpretations of the game possible.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Journey}}'', the backstory of the world you travel through is explained through brief visions at the end of each level and murals that you can uncover by exploring each game area thoroughly.

->''"[The setting] leads us to conclude early on that we're in some kind of simulation but as to who, or what, we are and why we are here, we have to piece that together from --all together now-- ♫''Random documents and audio logs''♫"''

When a video game has an ApocalypticLog, it's almost always split up to be pieced together non-linearly. Is often presented in AnachronicOrder or hidden inside FlavorText, and may be interspersed with [[SignpostTutorial playing tips]]. Compare the non-videogame ScrapbookStory.

* Many background events in ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' are explained only in optional Web of Intrigue nodes.

There are multiple ways for a video game to tell a story, but they generally fall into are two major categories. The first is more direct, with player control (or at least a good amount of it) being briefly removed to deliver [[{{Cutscene}} a short movie or cinematic]] that will convey the game's narrative. The other is more indirect, and comes in the form of epistolary [[InfoDrop scraps of information]] lying around the game world for the player to find or ignore at one's leisure. This includes [[FlavorText item and enemy descriptions]], NPC dialogue, and even details in the environment itself such as worn architecture. These are called Story Breadcrumbs, as rather than deliver a information in a large loaf of bread, information is given in much smaller bite-sized morsels. In academic game design they may also be called "embedded narrative"[[note]]though this term frequently refers to ''all'' story elements embedded in the game, including the aforementioned control-removing cutscenes, and is used to distinguish it from EmergentNarrative[[/note]] and "environmental storytelling."

** The VR game has Tape Girl's tapes.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'', the abandoned, wild-Pokémon-overrun Pokémon Mansion on Cinnabar Island holds a scattered number of journal entries describing the capture of Mew and the mysterious birth of its child Mewtwo, whose "vicious tendencies" apparently cannot be curbed. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Well, not without a Poké Ball...]]

** FROM's director-in-chief Hidetaka Miyazaki claims that this form of storytelling was inspired by his own attempts to read Western fantasy novels as a teenager despite not knowing much English, which caused him to only understand brief fragments of the story, much of which referred to [[CrypticBackgroundReference mysterious sounding events]] explained in the parts he could not read.