Better Gaming Through Broader Story Telling

A hallmark of good entertainment is a compelling story. In a video game, a background story is sometimes used to merely support the game-play. But in role-playing games (RPGs), the story is forefront, giving the player an immersive role in a grand story-arc. So I was excited and surprised to discover an RPG video game with a story so important that it spans across mediums.

The promising RPG I found is waiting on my backlog: Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition.

I’ve been looking forward to playing this game for a while now. It ticks all the boxes that almost any RPG fan would crave; good story is one of them. And it will be my first “Tales of…” game ever. As part of a long-standing and successful action-RPG franchise by Bandai Namco, I can’t wait to dive into it!

But to sweeten the deal, I found more to the story. Literally!

Thanks to Amazon’s smart suggestions, while shopping the website recently, I stumbled upon Tales of Vesperia: First Strike (check it out on Letterboxd). It’s a movie prequel to the story found in the game. Wow!

Wait, what? Based on reviews, I learned that this movie sets up the video game by telling the back story of some of the characters. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this kind of expanded story-telling before, other than a book/movie tie-in. This is a video game/movie tie-in!

I’ve got to try this new experience, so I bought the movie right away. And now, instead of looking forward to only the video game, I’m also eager to see the prequel story set it up. It should make my role in the RPG more immersive and satisfying.

I never expected an RPG to be enriched by a movie complement. So, yeah, I’m pumped about it. It’s exciting to find new stuff like this. And what impresses me, too, is that a company cares enough about a franchise to create its art in multiple formats for the sake of good story-telling.

Through the mediums of both movie and video game, I hope to connect with the world and characters in Tales of Vesperiamore deeply and be moved more emotionally while playing the RPG.

Are there other movie/game or book/game tie-ins to find? Hope so!

Anything to make a good RPG great and the role-play more immersive, bring it on.