If Square takes over almost all of Star Wars rights....

Not to mention the fact that, even in other mediums, narratives are considered less important the further away we move from text as the sole storytelling apparatus.

Hell, Avatar has a mediocre-at-best story, but is still generally considered a good movie.

edited 15th Oct '11 3:52:04 PM by JotunofBoredom

YMMV on that. Plenty of people consider Avatar pretty mediocre despite its technical achievement.

True enough, but even stuff with near universal scorn from critics, like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, can sell gangbusters.

It simply isn't true that dumb stuff isn't popular in other mediums, though there's certainly a case to be made that narrative emphasizing games sell proportionally less to narrative emphasizing movies.

Not considering the interactive elements of a game is like not considering cinematography in a movie.

Those elements are what separate them from other mediums. If you're not gonna consider them you might as well stick to books.

Of course, emphasizing gameplay doesn't mean narrative has to suffer.

edited 15th Oct '11 5:04:39 PM by JotunofBoredom

I don't believe any one element is the most important. Context is key. For instance, point-and-click adventure games can be buckets of fun simply because of the narrative. "Narrative" not necessarily referring to the plot, but to the experience as a whole. Game mechanics are also some of the best ways to express narrative, because they put the player directly in the driver's seat to choose first-hand what to do. Consider Amnesia The Dark Descent. There's no way to attack the monsters in that, so the limitations of the gameplay contribute to the narrative by putting you in an entirely defensive position.

One great narrative element of recent games is the death mechanic in Dark Souls. Let me try to explain it as concisely as possible with context:

In Dark Souls, you play as someone afflicted with the Darksign, rendering you cursed with immortality. The caveat is that you're Undead, slipping towards becoming a Hollow. Hollows are the mindless, ravenous Undead as we know them through pop culture. A regular Undead has their own personality and mental faculties as per Medieval mythology. Your goal in the game is to ring the Bells of Awakening, which will end the Undead curse for all — including yourself.

As you are immortal, you can't die as such. If your HP reaches zero, you're thrown to your last bonfire — a checkpoint that allows you to heal, level up, change spells and manipulate your gear — with all your game currency (souls, used for both purchases and experience) and Humanity gone.

Humanity is a rare resource. The more you have, the higher your resistance to status afflictions and the better enemy drop rates are. By spending one Humanity, you can restore yourself to human form until you die again, in which case you will revert to being Undead. Only players in human form can be assisted, assist, or battle other players. Assisting another player gains you a humanity point if you help them kill a boss, plus a soul reward. Killing one nets you all their souls and humanity.

As you can see, the benefits of being in human form are somewhat subtle, but they definitely count in such a difficult game. Since the world is consistent with your actions, the immortality aspect is also thrown into sharp relief and can even be a tactical tool. A certain type of enemy might not respawn, so you might go on a berserk suicide run to take them out before dying. You might have to pull a lever that opens a shortcut, or make a mad dash for an item. In this game, you have to weigh up the costs and benefits of death.

And you will die.

So that's an example of how a conventionally impeding story element (immortality) is turned into gameplay for the sake of the greater narrative experience. The immortality isn't just a plot device, you experience and use it. There need be no separation between narrative and gameplay, because a clever game will blur the line.

I.... I think I love you.

-ahem- Sorry, it's just that it's so hard to find people actually willing to talk about ludo-narrative.

S'cool. I get that sometimes.

As a life long Star Wars fan who feels like Lucas Arts has been crashing and burning since about 1999 (give or take Jedi Outcast and the first Kot OR...) I still think this is a bad idea. Square wouldn't, judging by the results of their Disney works, capture the feeling of the universe and would probably screw around with the established canon/continuity (and the EU already has enough of that) to an extent that it wouldn't be Star Wars anymore.

Thread: it is my opinion that Square taking over Star Wars would be as good a move as letting Disney take over Warhammer 40,000.

Thread Hop

If that happens, say hello to gay bishonen Palpatine and Chewbacca.

Palpatine = Master Xehanort

Luckily, he's far from bishie.

And he's voiced by Leonard Nimoy.

However, this does not rule out Bishounen!Vader, so we'd probably have to deal with that.

He already exists.◊

edited 15th Oct '11 7:49:49 PM by Kostya

Do not want!

Terranort is less like Vader, and more like Palpatine decided to possess Anakin.

Star Wars in hands of Square Enix is like Half Life in hands of Activision

and you dont want that to happen, dont you?

@LOEADITO Ox: Explanation please...

SqEx has quite a bit of subsidiary studios that they can use to help, or just get them to make it instead...

Also like Rocket Dude's idea...although only 1 planet or more?

Also, properly done another Star Wars RPG doesn't look too bad...

edited 15th Oct '11 11:07:49 PM by onyhow

Bah, Star Wars games long lost my interest when they started being about Jedi fights instead of the starfighter battles that were the OT's big setpieces in the first place. Though if SE made some crazy, over-the-top game based on the original trilogy, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

^ Consider the popularity drop of space sim games, especially the realistic ones in general (just try to make I-War or Freespace today...it'll only generate smaller revenue...although if they can make it on low budget then they might make profit out of it, I think...), can you blame Lucas Arts to shift to more lucrative market?

Then again...I want a game that you can control and manage capital ships...at least X: Rebirth seems to be able to do that...and probably NorthStar...whenever it will come out anyway...

edited 15th Oct '11 11:16:28 PM by onyhow

Well to be fair, they switched to the focus on lightsaber battles during the prequel trilogy. Since the lightsaber battles were the big set pieces of the prequels, it'd make sense for the games to focus on them.

They should make a DMC or Ninja Gaiden-style lightsaber action game.

edited 15th Oct '11 11:17:08 PM by Rynnec

^ Isn't The Force Unleashed already like that?

edited 15th Oct '11 11:18:11 PM by onyhow

Which is one of my biggest problems with the prequels.

The Force Unleashed seems a lot like Curbstomp Battle: The Game from what I've seen.

I also find it funny how it runs with this generation's obsession with not bothering to model hair.

edited 15th Oct '11 11:23:54 PM by TheGunheart

The Force Unleashed apparently hasn't been doing so well, so my Just Cause 2-style Bounty Hunter T Ps idea might work better.

edited 15th Oct '11 11:24:35 PM by RocketDude

Wait until you get to the fighting the Star Destroyer part...I quit the game there...

I'd say it's one of the prequels redeeming qualities. Not only do they differentiate the PT from the OT, they also make sense from a story perspective.

While it made sense for lightsaber duels to be a special event in the OT, it wouldn't for the prequels. Remember, it'd make more sense for lightsaber battles to be the main focus, we were obviously going to spend a lot of time on the Jedi, showing lightsaber duels regularly just reinforces how different the two eras are to each other.