History Main / StoryToGameplayRatio

* ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' is an interesting example of this. Most of the story is done in decently long cutscenes before having to go somewhere. [[EndingFatigue The ending is also about an hour long]] and due to the lots of cutscenes the game is roughly 30 hours long compared to other Pokémon games which had it roughly being 18 hours long so there is almost 2x the amount of story to gameplay. [[SerialEscalation This escalates at the end of the third island]] where most of the story is told then.

AND AGAIN!

[[AC:Even Story-to-Gameplay Ratio]]

[[AC:Highest Story to Gameplay Ratio]]
%%* ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' is an interesting example of this. Most of the story is done in decently long cutscenes before having to go somewhere. [[EndingFatigue The ending is also about an hour long]] and due to the lots of cutscenes the game is roughly 30 hours long compared to other Pokémon games which had it roughly being 18 hours long so there is almost 2x the amount of story to gameplay. [[SerialEscalation This escalates at the end of the third island]] where most of the story is told then.

* There are two types of ''FireEmblem'' players: the type that only see the support system in terms of the bonuses it gives to combat, and the type that launches [[http://forums.feplanet.net/index.php?showtopic=26098 The Support Conversation Project]].

* The majority of ''ShinMegamiTensei'' games are usually very plot-driven (even the NES games have surprisingly high content in story), but they rely on the player grinding through several hours of dungeons to progess. In fact, they average out at the approximate center, but they rely on gameplay more than story. Exceptions to this are the ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' games, which are actually higher in story than gameplay.

* ''VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEnders: The Second Runner,'' while not as exposition-heavy as [[VideoGame/MetalGear a certain other Hideo Kojima franchise]], frequently splits up the action with scenes upwards of ten minutes long, but the game also has some versus mode with no story. In fact, this is roughly the middlepoint of the scale, being completely balanced between story and gameplay.

** The Warcraft universe in general has really good story-lines but it is safe to say that the game's immense popularity is not because of its plot. The game would likely still be as popular as it is even if it had virtually no story. The same can be said about ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}''.
** Starcraft is in an odd place in that has two distinct fanbases, one that loves the story and lore and one that skips this altogether and just plays multiplayer. The last few entries actually had different game mechanics for single and multiplayer.

* ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' has a great story [[FridgeBrilliance especially when you get to thinking about it.]] Its gameplay is still challenging and/or enjoyable, but the story is the reason why half of its pages even exist. It's the darkest of the VideoGame/{{Mother}} series but still keeps the quirky charm of its predecessors, if that's even possible.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'', a game which deserves a special place, due to the sheer length and quantity of its cutscenes being [[SerialEscalation substantially greater than the previous games in the series]]. Granted, there's plenty of gameplay, but the ratio against cutscenes is vastly balanced towards the latter -- it's less like one game and more like ''five full-length movies''. The game was even awarded two Literature/GuinnessWorldRecords for "longest cutscene in a video game" (at 27 minutes) and "longest cutscene sequence in a video game" (at 71 minutes).\\

Notably, while it tends to overshadow the previous games due to its sheer amount of cutscenes, ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' actually has a much lower and more balanced StoryToGameplayRatio compared to the earlier games in the series due to having longer gameplay sequences. For a counter-example, check out ''Metal Gear Solid 2'', which has about one hour of gameplay for every ''two'' hours of cutscenes.

[[quoteright:286:[[Franchise/MetalGear https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TacticalHomoertoScene.png]]]]

* ''VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEnders: The Second Runner,'' while not as exposition-heavy as [[Franchise/MetalGear a certain other Hideo Kojima franchise]], frequently splits up the action with scenes upwards of ten minutes long, but the game also has some versus mode with no story. In fact, this is roughly the middlepoint of the scale, being completely balanced between story and gameplay.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' Rivals the tenth entry for cutscene ratio; it's even been called an interactive 50-hour film.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' sets a new bar for the series; it's even been called an interactive 50-hour film.

** Drops closer to the story-heavy end with the release of The Sacrifice and the accompanying comic.

** ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' is similar, being essentially a part of the same series. Not only does the game interface come off as somewhat hastily assembled (and it probably was), but the game's story is extremely involved. Disc 2, which the dev team didn't even have time to finish, is essentially one huge cutscene interrupted by a couple dungeons. You finally get access to the world map just before the final dungeon, for the sake of sidequests. Most [[{{Egregious}} egregiously]], towards the ''very'' end of the first disc there's a cutscene that's about an hour long.

* John Carmack of IdSoftware maintains that story is completely incidental to gaming. The original two ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''s and the ''VideoGame/{{Quake I}}'' embody this philosophy, with stories no more complex than "you're here, bad guys are over there; kill them." ''Quake 2'' is only a little bit more complex, and ''Quake 3'' eliminates even the slightest hint of a story. ''Doom 3,'' however, is considerably more plot driven, as is Raven's ''Quake 4''.

** ''SuperMario64'' is a perfect example of this. A voiced intro, a voiced ending, and nothing else except the occasional snippet of dialog from an {{NPC}}.

** Nintendo in generally makes many games of that kind even today. If there is any real depth to the story, chances are that those parts are completely optional, like the ''MetroidPrime'' scans.

** And in a twist of irony, ''Xeno''-creator TetsuyaTakahashi specifically described ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' ([[ThematicSeries no relation to previous]] ''Xeno''-titles) as being on the exact opposite end of the scale from his (in)famous previous works, calling the pursuit of excessive story-to-gameplay ratio "a dead end". In fact, Xenoblade has long cutscenes and a complex plot... but it's set in [[SceneryPorn one heck of a]] WideOpenSandbox. Basically, they made the gameplay big enough to contain the story. That Takahashi is now working with Creator/{{Nintendo}} (see above) may or may not have anything to do with this new direction.

* ''{{N}}'': Even after being cleverly embellished to sound like a grand quest, the page describing the ninja's basic goal (getting gold, avoiding enemies, and reaching the exit) is quite tiny.

* John Carmack of IdSoftware maintains that story is completely incidental to gaming. The original two ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''s and the first ''{{Quake}}'' embody this philosophy, with stories no more complex than "you're here, bad guys are over there; kill them." ''Quake 2'' is only a little bit more complex, and ''Quake 3'' eliminates even the slightest hint of a story. ''Doom 3,'' however, is considerably more plot driven, as is Raven's ''Quake 4''.

* Strange to think of it, but long-running console {{RPG}}s like ''DragonQuest'' and ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' used to belong on this end of the scale. You had some exposition from a quest-giver to tell you what your newest goal is, some {{NPC}}s to hand out clues and advice, and the other 99% of the game was you exploring the world and thrashing monsters. The "story" was just a series of obstacles and objectives that ensured you gradually progressed from the easy areas to the hard ones. ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' is a modern throwback to this style of game.

Many modern {{Role Playing Game}}s have a high ratio. People who hate these types of {{RPG}}s criticize them by saying they lack gameplay.

* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' has several-minute-long cutscenes before and after boss fights, but most of the game is spent doing odd assassination jobs around the city, exploring the city, fighting through the levels, etc.
** [[Creator/{{Suda51}} Its creator's]] [[VideoGame/{{Killer7}} previous game]], on the other hand, was notorious for having well-directed, stylish cutscenes (and a lot of them) and an extremely complex and ambitious story... juxtaposed with highly linear and questionably interesting gameplay.

*** Ironically, the second game actually had a far more developed and interesting story.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' sits a bit lower down than some would expect, as a lot of its dialogue is skippable. However, it is quite hefty on the talking side of things, but still has plenty of action. Well, not to mention that the dialogue is playable, so it's really not ''not'' gameplay.

* [[Franchise/TheWitcher The Witcher]] games, being based on literature novel series and features adaptation that true to its source material and many, many story driven quests but as the game goes on, the exploration is wider to the point that the third game features wide open sandbox with many things to do and lots of story and interaction driven quests.

* ''VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEnders: The Second Runner,'' while not as exposition-heavy as [[Franchise/MetalGear Hideo Kojima's ''other'' franchise]], frequently splits up the action with scenes upwards of ten minutes long, but the game also has some versus mode with no story. In fact, this is roughly the middlepoint of the scale, being completely balanced between story and gameplay.
* ''KingdomHearts II'' deserves a mention here. Entering a new room? Cutscene! Wait, it's just a corridor. Regain control of your character long enough to walk down it for three seconds. Next room: Cutscene! Goofy says something, monsters appear, regain control to fight them, battle ends, Cutscene! "That sure was a tough battle, Sora..." and so on.
** It's prequel ''Birth By Sleep'' has a similar situation.
* {{Dating Sim}}s are rather similar to {{Visual Novel}}s as far as gameplay goes, differing in that they you a greater variety of choices and actually allow your mistakes to play out instead of slapping you with a bad ending immediately.
* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' has a very large, very complex plot, especially for a fighting game. A character's story usually consists of about six or seven short matches and up to an hour of text.
** ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueChronoPhantasma Chrono Phantasma]]'' veers heavier towards the story side. Gameplay in the storymode has been reduced to single round combat, and many times, the fight will end when the enemy A.I. has barely loss half of their health.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' is a little odd in this regard. There's lots of story in terms of dialog from [=NPCs=] and other characters, but all of it can be (and often is by most players) ignored by those who just want to jump into the quests.
** The Warcraft universe have a really good story-lines but it is safe to say that the game's immense popularity is not because of its story. The game would likely still be as popular as it is even if it had virtually no story.
** Ditto for ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}'', also known as ''Indigo Prophecy'' in the USA, has been defined as an "interactive movie" by its creators. Its gameplay and story very much overlap and complement each other.
** Despite being almost entirely focused on its plot, the story is surprisingly flexible and control is only very rarely taken away from the player due to the almost entirely contextual control scheme.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' series, which is essentially several movies with occasional interactive parts.
** Just to show how bad it was in the first game, in the first few hours, playtime was only about a fifth of the cutscene time. And the scene when you first get on to the ship you're going to be going around in for the rest of the game, is ''thirty minutes long'', and they even let you save mid-scene.
*** The second game was slightly better, but not by much.

*** And in a twist of irony, ''Xeno''-creator TetsuyaTakahashi specifically described ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' ([[InNameOnly no relation to previous]] ''Xeno''-titles) as being on the exact opposite end of the scale from his (in)famous previous works, calling the pursuit of excessive story-to-gameplay ratio "a dead end". In fact, Xenoblade has long cutscenes and a complex plot...but it's set in [[SceneryPorn one heck of a]] WideOpenSandbox. Basically, they made the gameplay big enough to contain the story. That Takahashi is now working with Creator/{{Nintendo}} (see above) may or may not have anything to do with this new direction. Or maybe he just played...

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' sets a new bar for the series: it's been called an interactive 50-hour film, somewhere.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' is an interesting example of this. Most of the story is done in decently long cutscenes before having to go somewhere. [[EndingFatigue The ending is also about an hour long]] and due to the lots of cutscenes the game is roughly 30 hours long compared to other Pokémon games which had it roughly being 18 hours long so there is almost 2x the amount of story to gameplay. [[SerialEscalation This escalates at the end of the third island]] where most of the story is told then.
* On its surface, ''VideoGame/ThomasWasAlone'' doesn't look like much more than a puzzle/platformer where you move blocks with differing abilities around. The real charm in this game is the surprisingly deep story about an artificial intelligence named Thomas awakening and becoming self-aware enough to develop lasting friendships with other A.I.s.

* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' is interesting on that regard. While there is a who, where, when, why and how, and a very charismatic set of characters to carry those nicely, it's not given to the player ''at all'' until they're at least out of the NoobCave. And even then the plot trickles slowly, yet increasingly. The semblance of a serious plot only comes to light by the third stage, for example.

* Like the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series, ''{{Ultima}}'' and its prequel ''Akalabeth' began on this end of the spectrum. As both gameplay and story depth evolved, later Ultimas shifted toward the middle.

* The ''TraumaCenter'' series has long dialog scenes before and after operations, but after you've beaten the operation once, you can skip right past them.

* ''VideoGame/VirtualOn'' has an even lesser ratio than the other typical fighting games. Whatever the ExcusePlot might say, the sole purpose of the game is to entertain the Gundam-maniacs; the mechas, save for [[TheChick Fei-Yen]], do not even have a personal story of their own.

* ''TalesSeries'' games have their praise and fanbase in each game's storylines. Character backgrounds are diverse and very detailed, mostly explained through cutscenes and sometimes into the side-conversations between characters known as "skits". For most games, the Lore of the worlds may even be explained in these cutscenes and skits as well.

* ''DragonsLair'' is basically a movie where the player has to [[PressXToNotDie press certain buttons at certain times or die]].

*** And in an insane twist of irony, ''Xeno''-creator TetsuyaTakahashi has specifically described his newest next game, ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' ([[InNameOnly no relation to previous]] ''Xeno''-titles) as being on the exact opposite end of the scale from his (in)famous previous works, calling the pursuit of excessive story-to-gameplay ratio "a dead end". In fact, Xenoblade has long cutscenes and a complex plot...but it's set in [[SceneryPorn one heck of a]] WideOpenSandbox. Basically, they made the gameplay big enough to contain the story. That Takahashi is now working with Creator/{{Nintendo}} (see above) may or may not have anything to do with this new direction. Or maybe he just played...