The writer of Final Fantasy XII and a host of other RPGs has spoken of her shock at being told by other production staff that RPGs “don’t need storylines” as the players aren’t looking for them.
Miwa Shoda, a game designer and scenario writer who for many years has worked for Square Enix, is best known for such RPGs as Final Fantasy XII and Legend of Mana. As a “scenario writer” she explains she is responsible for the design of the story and world, but also quests, tutorials and scripting.
Speaking about her experiences designing games in a lengthy exchange on Twitter, she reveals her shock at being told that RPGs don’t actually need a storyline:
I’ve worked all over the place and gained a great deal of valuable experience from all sorts of people, and learnt approaches to writing games I would not have been able to do on my own, but the one approach I could never understand is the notion that “games don’t need storylines.”
Now, I don’t think all games need storylines. But when I was told that RPGs don’t need storylines, I was really shocked. They said players weren’t after a storyline, so the bare minimum of events would suffice.
I’ve enjoyed RPG stories ever since I was a child. A thrilling adventure in a new world, with interesting companions. Events are how you enjoy that, together with a storyline, or so I thought.
So I can’t believe it when people say a storyline is unnecessary in an RPG.
Since she has primarily worked for Square, and then Square Enix, it would not be unreasonable to assume that they were the ones to tell her of the unimportance of the RPG storyline.
That some JRPG developers think storyline is unimportant probably explains a great deal, not least the pathetic string of overwrought cliches and endlessly recycled science fantasy settings which generally pass for storyline and setting in Japanese RPGs.
Bioware and company’s reaction at learning that their carefully crafted stories are actually superfluous, at least according to a mercifully unnamed JRPG developer, can only be guessed at.
It’s half right, sandbox rpgs don’t really need much of a storyline. Minecraft survival mode is pretty much a sandbox RPG with no storyline but it’s also a builder, a game like skyrim can’t be created without a story because otherwise no worldbuilding will get done. even games like X3: Terran Conflict a sandbox space rpg, couldn’t ghet made without some story to back up the existence of all the factions.
she needs to leave square-enix and let them drown in their own stupidity. and find a company that knows the importance of STORY.
a nice saying from square soft it self. no wonder FF12 was a laugh at the storyline. maybe after getting more money from online game. they forget where they came from.
Even the infamous S4 League which is an MMORPG shooter sports needs a storyline of some sorts…. So to the one who says that RPG does’nt need a storyline…..
FUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUU! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUUUUUCK ARE YOU SAYING!
What? S4 League has a story? Maybe in S.Korea since they have dungeon mode (and looked shitty), but in US there’s only PvP yet it still pretty big as a Shooting MMO here.
S4 League is not “RPG” btw.
Funny. I think FFXII have the worst and most boring story/plot of all FF games. Seriously there is no character that I like in that game and the story aint epic at all.
it’s like watching old kingdom movie