8 Convoluted Video Game Narratives NOBODY Understands
"Just go with it".
While there might be some who sigh in despair over video games moving away from the pursuit of points and prizes to a more "cinematic" focus, you can't deny that when it comes to keeping players hooked, one of the easiest ways is a stonkingly good narrative.
Complex character arcs, intriguing plots and mysteries, double-crosses that leave you stunned, all of these can both knock the player on their ass and keep said rump glued to the sofa as they dive in further and further.
Yet, in the pursuit of player investment, some video game developers went a little too far, and by that, I mean that the narrative ended up disappearing up its own behind, leaving both gamer and characters wondering what the hell is even going on.
With betrayals around every corner, out of nowhere swerves you had no idea were coming, and good old fashioned plot holes created by too many changes and loops, these games definitely told one heck of a tale.
However, you need a tin hat and a whole lot of glue to patch things together into something even remotely coherent.
8. Final Fantasy 13-2
Final Fantasy 15 infamously held a lot of its narrative in a two-hour movie that most fans didn't watch, and Final Fantasy 13 took an idea that was simple on paper and made it so arduous to understand, that many fans switched off long before the game became any good. And yet, it's Final Fantasy 13-2 that truly takes the cake when it came to convoluted plots.
The reason why it's so taxing on the mind is that it takes all of the Square-Enix twists and turns and then adds time travel to the mix, or should I say terrible time travel that doesn't even follow its own logic in most instances.
The plot in a very simplistic manner is that Lightning, the protagonist from the previous game has been all but erased from existence thanks to a time paradox, and now her sister and new boy Noel have to travel through time correcting mistakes like a Hot Topic Time Cop.
HOWEVER, what this means is that you're basing a game on fixing things that don't make sense, and therefore is it any wonder that the throughline of this game is so confusing??
You're literally playing through something which, as I've just mentioned, DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.