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Dungeon Encounters is a little bit of a black sheep within the Square Enix household of JRPGs. Between its return to the long-dormant Active Time Battle fight system and its pared-down visuals, it is obvious from the bounce that this can be a totally different sort of Square Enix sport. What’s most shocking about Dungeon Encounters, although, is that there is virtually no story in any respect — and it is nonetheless a deeply satisfying narrative expertise.
When Dungeon Encounters begins, it offers the participant a two-paragraph rundown of an extremely generic inciting incident. There’s a mysterious labyrinth someplace, a band of heroes goes to enter it, and whereas contained in the dungeon, they’re sure to have a few encounters. Beyond that, there’s fairly near nothing. Each get together member has a couple of sentences explaining their background, however there is no dialogue, no cutscenes. How, then, does Dungeon Encounters inform such an efficient story?
The fact is, it does not. Instead, the participant tells the story in Dungeon Encounters. The sport offers the participant precisely sufficient info to venture their very own tales onto the characters. A disgraced hero who fell to spoil in his previous age could possibly be on a mission to rediscover his personal bodily energy, but when the participant chooses to outfit him with extremely robust magic assaults, then abruptly the story modifications: a person who’s devoted his life to honing his physique is failed by the merciless march of time and discovers the mystic arts. None of that’s written, a minimum of not by the sport; it is inferred by way of gameplay and a bit of labor on the participant’s finish.
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In latest years, Square Enix’s flagship titles — video games like Final Fantasy VII Remake, Dragon Quest XI, and Kingdom Hearts 3 — have turn into considerably passive affairs. In between bombastic battles, a cutscene performs out to tell the participant of what is going on on. A narrative is advised to the participant. Sometimes that story is profoundly affecting, however participant company isn’t given a lot thought. Dungeon Encounters, alternatively, goes within the precise wrong way. There are not any cutscenes in any respect, no exchanges between characters. There’s almost no story at hand out. Instead of giving the participant a narrative, Dungeon Encounters asks that the participant inform their very own story.
If all of that sounds a bit acquainted, it may be as a result of it is the very same method utilized by tabletop role-playing video games. Handing two gamers the identical pre-constructed character sheet and operating them by way of the identical Dungeons & Dragons journey will virtually definitely lead to two profoundly totally different tales. After all, character sheets aren’t scripts. Knowing only a few traits is commonly sufficient to encourage gamers to construct out their very own picture of an individual, and discovering that character by way of play could be considerably extra rewarding than merely having the character introduced to you.
The comparability to tabletop video games like Dungeons & Dragons is one which Dungeon Encounters gladly invitations. While there is no roll of the cube to verify towards armor class, the map that the characters inch throughout is laid out like a meticulously organized sheet of paper. It’s not arduous to think about a well-prepared Dungeon Master whipping out a map that appears an terrible lot just like the one in Dungeon Encounters.
Games, whether or not they be tabletop or digital, are a singular medium. No different inventive format encourages its viewers to take management of a personality or story. Unfortunately, most video games do not actually know learn how to benefit from the strengths of the medium. Many tales advised in video games could possibly be simply as successfully advised in books or films. Dungeon Encounters is the daring exception. There is not any means for the story Dungeon Encounters tells to suit into actually every other medium. That’s as a result of Dungeon Encounters does not truly inform a narrative by itself. Dungeon Encounters invitations the participant to behave as a co-author, feeling their very own means by way of the narrative.
Everyone’s expertise with Dungeon Encounters might be totally different, not as a result of the sport itself is filled with randomized components, however as a result of human beings are random. When everybody who performs is given the chance so as to add part of themselves to their expertise, each playthrough is destined to really feel extra private. Compared to video games like NieR:Automata or Live A Live, it is a dramatically totally different option to inform a narrative, but it surely’s one which makes sensible and chic use of its medium.
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