Stories in video games have become more complex than ever before. Gone are the days when the simplicity of games like Tetris and Pong was enough to keep fans occupied.
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If you're wanting to play a SNES game with a solid story, give one of these a try.
Now, players want to enjoy video games with a ton of effort behind them, and a great story will capture their attention in no time. However, some games go a bit too overboard in this department, to the point where these stories become harder to engage with.
Blue Prince
The Story May Be Riveting, But Dealing With RNG To Uncover It Is Frustrating For Many
Blue Prince
- Released
- April 10, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Everyone 10+ / Alcohol Reference, Simulated Gambling
- Genre(s)
- Puzzle, Adventure, Exploration, Strategy
This is going to be a very controversial pick, since there's no denying that Blue Prince's incredible narrative is one of the highlights of the experience. The credits may roll after reaching Room 46 once, but veterans know that this is just when the game starts.
Players must reach this room again to figure out what to do next, but one thing to keep in mind is that Blue Prince is a roguelike puzzler. RNG plays a huge role in governing the player's progress, which is why it can be very frustrating for them if sheer dumb luck prevents them from uncovering more of the story over and over again.
Void Stranger
An Epic Narrative, But One That Punishes Players With Its Brutal Difficulty
Void Stranger
- Released
- September 1, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Puzzle, Adventure, 2D
Void Stranger is a Sokoban-style puzzler at heart, which is ridiculously challenging, but the game's surprisingly engaging plot will keep fans coming back for more. The early-game difficulty curve can be overcome once players solve certain puzzles and find objects that make things easier for them.
However, Void Stranger's difficulty doesn't let up, forcing players to repeat levels if they don't complete a level Unvoided or succumb to fail states introduced later on. It can be downright unfair at times, with the deep plot going down wild routes that become more annoying to discern since players must deal with some of the hardest video game puzzles of all time to pull back the curtain.
Detroit: Become Human
The Racial Allegories Are Downright Tasteless In The Eyes Of Some
Detroit: Become Human
- Released
- May 25, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
David Cage's games may be fun cinematic experiences, but the stories themselves can be rather lacking. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Detroit: Become Human, where the rise of the AI revolution has allegories to real-life race riots during a dark period in American history.
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If the game had told a riveting story, this could've been an enlightening way to show the trials and tribulations of the repressed, but Detroit: Become Human's surface-level exploration of discrimination is downright insulting. The plot could've done without such heavy-handed allegories that exploit historical riots for entertainment, which leads to the story trying to appear way deeper than it actually is.
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
The Real-World Plotline Was Even More Boring, Especially After Desmond's Death
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
- Released
- October 29, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure, Open-World
Black Flag is one of the greatest video games, there's no denying that. Edward Kenway's simulated adventures are a joy to mess around with, but it's the real-world Abstergo plotline that will become unbearably boring after a point.
The previous Assassin's Creed games still had a largely bearable modern-day plotline because of Desmond. However, with his death in the third game, players control a nameless protagonist and must endure everything from meaningless walking segments to mind-numbing minigames, all to uncover an uninteresting storyline that is far too complicated for most people's liking.
Five Nights At Freddy's
The Lore Of This Series Is Off The Charts, Perhaps To An Unreasonable Extent
Five Nights at Freddy's
- Released
- August 8, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- m
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
For a game that's essentially about creepy animatronics wreaking havoc in a pizzeria at night, it's fascinating to see just how deep the lore of Five Nights at Freddy's is. What could've been a jumpscare fest turned into a labor of love at the hands of its creator, Scott Cawthon.
In fact, the lore becomes so ridiculously deep that most people can't even keep track of the plotline present in later games. This is what contributes to their meandering quality, although it doesn't help that the reliance on cheap jump scares means that players looking for a game with more substance may not enjoy FNaF's trappings.
Kingdom Hearts 3
The Poster Child Of Overly Complicated Stories
Kingdom Hearts 3
- Released
- January 25, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
While the first two Kingdom Hearts games were complicated in their own right, they still marked the beginning of something and were still comprehensible, for the most part. The same can't be said for Kingdom Hearts 3, which arrived after the release of so many spinoffs on other gameplay platforms that it became downright nauseating to track this game's plot.
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It tried to tie things together and completely failed, since fans had no idea what was happening in a story that had become way too complex for most fans' liking. The overly complicated plot of Kingdom Hearts is what has led to many people developing a love-hate relationship with Tetsuya Nomura's brand of storytelling.
Xenogears
The Game Ran Out Of Budget And Had To Cram A Ton Of Story In Verbose Slideshows
Xenogears
- Released
- October 20, 1998
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- e
- Genre(s)
- JRPG
Tetsuya Takahashi may finally be enjoying the success he deserved, but his lack of experience as a video game director was exposed in Xenogears. The first disc boasts some of the best storytelling seen in a JRPG that makes this title feel like a playable Neon Genesis Evangelion, but Takahashi's ambitions were too lofty for the budget and time allocated to him.
These constraints led to Takahashi having to summarize huge chunks of the storyline in infamous slideshows that did nothing to enhance the plot. Players were just rerouted from one set-piece to another with huge chunks of exposition complicating things further, leading to a rather disappointing conclusion to what was shaping up to be a very promising experience.
Final Fantasy 13
If A Story Requires A Lorebook With Numerous Complicated Terms, It Might Be A Bit Too Much
Final Fantasy 13
- Released
- March 9, 2010
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- t
- Genre(s)
- JRPG
As beautiful as Final Fantasy 13 may be, the intro sequence itself throws a bunch of complex words at players that they must understand using the in-game glossary. This is just the start of the game's many, many problems that led to it becoming the black sheep of the Final Fantasy family.
The world was simply way too complex and not introduced properly, and it didn't help that the title's pacing was all over the place. The plot becomes largely nonsensical over time, and the lack of level variety or gameplay freedom until Chapter 11 is unreasonable, which is why most people drop this game well before it opens up.
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