Heavy Rain and Good Storytelling

My wife purchased Heavy Rain for the PlayStation 3 about a week or so ago. Now, if you follow news in the video game world at all, you'll know the game received outstanding reviews for its engrossing gameplay and fantastic storyline. The most interesting thing about this game, from developer Quantic Dream, is that it ignores most (if not all) standard video game conventions.

Heavy Rain tells the story of the hunt for the Origami Killer, a serial murderer who kills his victims (all children) by drowning. His calling card is a small origami animal left beside each body. You the player alternate between four characters in the thriller -- an architect whose son is abducted by the killer, a journalist researching the story, a drug-addict FBI agent on the hunt for the killer, and a private investigator who is ostensibly working for the families of the Origami Killer's previous victims.

In watching my wife play this game, I realized that the developers told the story as a thriller rather than an action/adventure. Consider this: the architect's life is turned upside down when his eldest son is run over by a car, he is mistakenly accused of murdering other children, and must both clear his name and find his youngest son before the boy becomes the killer's next victim. Standard thriller fare, correct?

That something like this exists in video game form is fascinating. Even more so is the fact that it's been lauded so many times in the press (there's already rumors of a movie). Your average video game thriller/suspense is more along the lines of a Resident Evil or Silent Hill, where you run around shooting zombies and other eldritch creatures while trying to solve various puzzles to make your way out. Not so with Heavy Rain.

You'll recall that awhile back I talked about how video games can teach us about composing interesting stories. Heavy Rain is another example of my theories on this. Reviewers have likened the story to a blend of the movies Seven and Zodiac. Personally, I could almost see this story flowing from Lee Child, Jeffrey Deaver, or any other active thriller author.

The success of Heavy Rain in the marketplace proves even more that audiences will lap up an engrossing story no matter what form it takes. They also don't care if it's with a standard protagonist or not (the Grieving Father in this case). The only thing that matters, and thus the only question you should ask yourself, is "Will this story keep people reading all the way to the end?" If it doesn't, well you have some work you need to do.

Downside? You might not be able to tell whether your story is engrossing enough to do this. That's where your beta readers come in.

On Video Games and the Eternal Question

On Monday, Adam Heine asked me several video game questions. As video games are mentioned in my blog header, I am of course obliged to answer them.

Favorite RPG?

As it stands right now, the title for my favorite role-playing video game of all time has to go to Final Fantasy IX. The reason for this is several-fold. 1) I think the interaction between Zidane, the main male character, and Garnet, the main female character, is absolutely hysterical. Their dance toward romance reminds me of the byplay between Moriah and Nicolai. 2) The visuals in this final iteration of FF on the PSOne are just fantastic. I particularly love the scene at the end when thousands of silver dragons fly toward the hero's airship. You think the dragons are going to kill them all, but then every fecking airship in existence swoops in to save the day. 3) Zidane entertains me.

Memorable video game moment?

The ending sequence of Dragon Age:Origins. Awesome visual of a magical explosion of power. And it has some cool heroics to boot.

Mario or Luigi?

Luigi all the way. The poor guy doesn't get all the love he should. Especially when his shorter brother is the only one getting the girl.

On Applying Video Games to Writing

Fantasy video games, like fantasy novels, are fairly substantial sellers in the marketplace. Final Fantasy, StarOcean, and Baldur's Gate are just a few of the bigger titles that immediately come to mind.

An interesting point is that many of the same things fantasy role-playing gamers enjoy are also inherent in fantasy novels -- expansive world-building, stellar characterization, and an engaging storyline are among the characteristics required to make a fantasy video game popular. Unless you're talking about the Final Fantasy series. The spectacularly bad writing/cheesy storylines are part of the appeal for those games. Personally I think it's a case of translation decay -- the games are written in Japanese and then translated to English without (it appears) any sort of rewording of the dialogue.

Games like Dragon Age: Origins, a beautiful dark fantasy from BioWare, are possessed of all the above qualities and become wildly popular as a result. Of course, Dragon Age is also billed as a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, one of the biggest selling RPGs in recent history.

What can we writers learn from these video games?

One fact stands out. In non-sports games, story trumps everything. People will tolerate mediocre/cliched writing if the story is spit-shined to a high gleam; heck they'll even spend hours of their time if some of the mechanics are wonky (my wife's complaint about the Dragon Age combat system) so long as the story is fascinating enough.

Don't misunderstand me -- a book written in green crayon on 2-ply toilet paper won't sell even if it's the next Twilight -- and you need to have a basic understanding of good grammar, depth of characterization, and how to evoke emotion, but all those concepts are secondary to having an interesting story.

You can fix practically everything in your writing. Except the lack of an interesting story. Focus on developing that first, and you're well on your way to a big seller.

"We're sorry Mario, but the Princess is in another castle"

I figured I'd explain where I took the blog name from because, you know, I'm nice like that. This post title is the phrase you the player were confronted with at the end of each level of Super Mario Bros, arguably the greatest and most addictive game ever created. As a child of the 1980s (born 1983) I felt it was my duty to pay homage to the series by naming this here blog after it.

So watch this space, because we're going to talk about video games, writing, and everything in between.