games

Game people definitely play for the story: has to tell you the story explicitly in 30 minute unskippable cutscenes that offer a theatrical presentation and perfect narrator. Only played by people who both know what a wall scroll is and have several.

Games that people don’t play for the story: uses environmental cues and bits of information gained from item descriptions and in game dialogue to present a story with multiple unreliable narrators and ultimately no real clear truth. Needs multiple playthroughs to even access all the information and ostensibly normal people will have gone to these lengths.

The jrpg is a post modern invention that lulls the player into taking on the mantle of the hero of inaction and provides no reward or punishment. It simply exists, making more of a statement about a society that would produce it by its mere presence than any piece of art codes into its message.