I enjoy a good video game story. I usually enjoy continuations of those stories through sequels and might even dabble in some of the multi-media if I enjoy the games world enough. However, the thing with multi-media is that it should be used to enhance what is already in the game not something that is essential to understand what is happening in the game. This is another stealth "lets complain about Assassin's Creed Valhalla" thread since I feel there have been 4-5 in the last 2 days but Assassin's Creed wants to be a "multi-media juggernaut". It's got novels, comic books, a movie that's not great, a netflix anime series, a manga, etc. However the problem with all of this material is that it is being used to actually tell the modern day storyline which has continuously begun to feel more and more tacked on as the series goes on. I have played and got the platinum trophy for every mainline Assassin's Creed game (except Rogue) and I honestly can't even explain what is happening in the modern day plotline.
With Assassin's Creed 1-3 the modern day plotline had a neat hook with Desmond. I hazard to call Desmond a good character, but I think as a narrative device he is pretty cool. The games modern day also happened within a short time period after each other and you could have a solid grasp on what was going on just by playing the games (with the exception of Lucy getting killed in Brotherhood becauseKirstin Bell's contract expired she was a triple agent who pretended to be a double agent for the assassins being explained in the DLC for revelations)
However as the games continued past 3, the modern day storyline is so barebones in the main games with zero narrative connection because everything keeps happening in the comic books.
Did you know that Desmond had a son through a one night stand and that kid is the vessel for John, the crazy video game developer from AC4 who was also the famous pirate Barthalomew Roberts and Francois Thomas Germain? Because apparently that's a thing in the comics and he was married to the magic space lady in the computer in AC4 and Syndicate?
Did you know that there was a secret cult within Abstergo who worshiped the space Lady from AC3 and they were trying to make a body for her and then she got killed by Desmond's kid because she killed his mom?
No? Because the modern day narrative of Assassin's Creed 4 Unity and Syndicate was concluded in the comic books.
So they start fresh with their new trilogy of games (Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla) with a new character Layla, and after 3 games I barely have any idea who this character even is because of how wildly the games jump because each one is taking place in the year it released (2017, 2018, 2020)
2017: Layla is an abstergo employee who is fed up with her dead end job and no advancements in her career, so she decides to break the work contract she has with Abstergo by looting the grave of an ancient egyptian couple and reliving their memories until Abstergo decides "hey lets go try and kill her with bow and arrows" since they just reuse enemies from the game but reskined as "modern day people" and Layla joins the Assassins
2018: So Layla finds a spear and has a friend now who I have no idea who they are. They are trying to open the door to Atlantis.
You might notice this giant significant jump of "wait, why are we looking for Atlantis?" so you then look into Layla's emails where she talks about all these characters I've never seen or heard of and events I've never seen because they all happen in the comic books. This new friend Layla has is a character from the comic books. Odyssey expects that you read the comic books to understand what is going on. I think the most telling thing about this is Layla has a long confrontation with this character Otso Berg and the game is treating me like "you should know who Otso Berg is" and I am going "no, I don't know who Otso Berg is, who the fuck is Otso Berg?"
Apparently he is a very important character in the comic books. So I looked up how many times Otso Berg appears in the actual video games. Otso Berg appears in
- A multiplayer cutscene for Assassin's Creed Revelations where he doesn't speak
- A few scenes in the modern day for Assassin's Creed Rogue
- One cutscene in Assassin's Creed Syndicate
The guy has more words in that scene in Odyssey than any of his previous game appearances and the game is acting like "I should know how much of a big deal Otso Berg is"
So Odyssey (the fate of atlantis DLC) ends with you crippling Otso and killing your friend who was someone from the comic books.
So how does Valhalla start?
So, that thing Desmond did at the end of Assassin's Creed 3 didn't really work. We gotta deal with that. The games just stop and start and introduce random things so if you only play the games, you literally have no idea what is going on. And my honest question as someone who actually did enjoy the modern day of AC1-3 is "if all of the modern day is happening in the comic books, why even have it in the games?"
Because it's so half-assed and disconnected that I genuinely wonder why not just let people skip over this because it is incomprehensible unless you engage with multi-media.
I use Assassin's Creed as an example, but it's not the only game series doing this.
There is this rather infamous picture regarding Halo 5.
Of things you need to read/watch/play to understand the plot of Halo 5.
It's not enough to have just played the Halo games, you gotta read the books as well.
Then arguably the actual worst with the multi-media stuff is Square-enix.
Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Nier all have this multimedia shit.
People have griped a lot about Final Fantasy 15. How the backstories of the party members are relegated to the anime and the fall of insomnia is in Kingsglaive. Personally I don't think Kingsglaive is essential viewing, but the anime somewhat is. They released those anime episodes before the game came out and I watched them... so I got really confused when the game just says "hey, Prompto is a robot"
And I am sitting there going "no! You were a chubby kid with severe self-esteem issues and you fed this cute dog and you aspired to lose weight so you could get the confidence to talk to Noctis. What do you mean you are a robot?"
It was one of the weird moments where additional context made something even more confusing.
I don't really play Kingdom Hearts, but I have friends who were baffled by the inclusion of characters from the mobile game in the pivotal moment of KH3 because they thought they played every Kingdom Hearts game.
And then their is the rabbit hole of Nier stage plays, drama CDs, stemming from the fact the Nier world is the world formed from the joke ending of Drakengard which I only know because I watched a video by a youtuber named Mr.Clemps because I watched his Nier Automata video series breaking down everything (including stage plays, drama CDs, etc) because Automata was a game that fell really flat to me but resonated with other people so much, I wanted to understand what I missed.
Multi-media should be something used to enrich a games world, but now a days it feels more like a crutch because the games don't have the time/resources to implement this content into the games themselves.
With Assassin's Creed 1-3 the modern day plotline had a neat hook with Desmond. I hazard to call Desmond a good character, but I think as a narrative device he is pretty cool. The games modern day also happened within a short time period after each other and you could have a solid grasp on what was going on just by playing the games (with the exception of Lucy getting killed in Brotherhood because
However as the games continued past 3, the modern day storyline is so barebones in the main games with zero narrative connection because everything keeps happening in the comic books.
Did you know that Desmond had a son through a one night stand and that kid is the vessel for John, the crazy video game developer from AC4 who was also the famous pirate Barthalomew Roberts and Francois Thomas Germain? Because apparently that's a thing in the comics and he was married to the magic space lady in the computer in AC4 and Syndicate?
Did you know that there was a secret cult within Abstergo who worshiped the space Lady from AC3 and they were trying to make a body for her and then she got killed by Desmond's kid because she killed his mom?
No? Because the modern day narrative of Assassin's Creed 4 Unity and Syndicate was concluded in the comic books.
So they start fresh with their new trilogy of games (Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla) with a new character Layla, and after 3 games I barely have any idea who this character even is because of how wildly the games jump because each one is taking place in the year it released (2017, 2018, 2020)
2017: Layla is an abstergo employee who is fed up with her dead end job and no advancements in her career, so she decides to break the work contract she has with Abstergo by looting the grave of an ancient egyptian couple and reliving their memories until Abstergo decides "hey lets go try and kill her with bow and arrows" since they just reuse enemies from the game but reskined as "modern day people" and Layla joins the Assassins
2018: So Layla finds a spear and has a friend now who I have no idea who they are. They are trying to open the door to Atlantis.
You might notice this giant significant jump of "wait, why are we looking for Atlantis?" so you then look into Layla's emails where she talks about all these characters I've never seen or heard of and events I've never seen because they all happen in the comic books. This new friend Layla has is a character from the comic books. Odyssey expects that you read the comic books to understand what is going on. I think the most telling thing about this is Layla has a long confrontation with this character Otso Berg and the game is treating me like "you should know who Otso Berg is" and I am going "no, I don't know who Otso Berg is, who the fuck is Otso Berg?"
Apparently he is a very important character in the comic books. So I looked up how many times Otso Berg appears in the actual video games. Otso Berg appears in
- A multiplayer cutscene for Assassin's Creed Revelations where he doesn't speak
- A few scenes in the modern day for Assassin's Creed Rogue
- One cutscene in Assassin's Creed Syndicate
The guy has more words in that scene in Odyssey than any of his previous game appearances and the game is acting like "I should know how much of a big deal Otso Berg is"
So Odyssey (the fate of atlantis DLC) ends with you crippling Otso and killing your friend who was someone from the comic books.
So how does Valhalla start?
So, that thing Desmond did at the end of Assassin's Creed 3 didn't really work. We gotta deal with that. The games just stop and start and introduce random things so if you only play the games, you literally have no idea what is going on. And my honest question as someone who actually did enjoy the modern day of AC1-3 is "if all of the modern day is happening in the comic books, why even have it in the games?"
Because it's so half-assed and disconnected that I genuinely wonder why not just let people skip over this because it is incomprehensible unless you engage with multi-media.
I use Assassin's Creed as an example, but it's not the only game series doing this.
There is this rather infamous picture regarding Halo 5.
Of things you need to read/watch/play to understand the plot of Halo 5.
It's not enough to have just played the Halo games, you gotta read the books as well.
Then arguably the actual worst with the multi-media stuff is Square-enix.
Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Nier all have this multimedia shit.
People have griped a lot about Final Fantasy 15. How the backstories of the party members are relegated to the anime and the fall of insomnia is in Kingsglaive. Personally I don't think Kingsglaive is essential viewing, but the anime somewhat is. They released those anime episodes before the game came out and I watched them... so I got really confused when the game just says "hey, Prompto is a robot"
And I am sitting there going "no! You were a chubby kid with severe self-esteem issues and you fed this cute dog and you aspired to lose weight so you could get the confidence to talk to Noctis. What do you mean you are a robot?"
It was one of the weird moments where additional context made something even more confusing.
I don't really play Kingdom Hearts, but I have friends who were baffled by the inclusion of characters from the mobile game in the pivotal moment of KH3 because they thought they played every Kingdom Hearts game.
And then their is the rabbit hole of Nier stage plays, drama CDs, stemming from the fact the Nier world is the world formed from the joke ending of Drakengard which I only know because I watched a video by a youtuber named Mr.Clemps because I watched his Nier Automata video series breaking down everything (including stage plays, drama CDs, etc) because Automata was a game that fell really flat to me but resonated with other people so much, I wanted to understand what I missed.
Multi-media should be something used to enrich a games world, but now a days it feels more like a crutch because the games don't have the time/resources to implement this content into the games themselves.
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