History Main / StoryToGameplayRatio

** And in a twist of irony, ''Xeno''-creator Tetsuya Takahashi 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.

* StoryBreadcrumbs have been a more popular trend, particularly in indie titles. In games where your reason for slaying all these enemies are usually paper-thin, it scatters bits of lore throughout the game instead, not unlike ''VideoGame/DarkSouls''. Whether it's done with item flavor text or an in-game MonsterCompendium like ''VideoGame/RiskOfRain'', dedicated "lore rooms" in ''VideoGame/DeadCells'', or simple loading screen text in ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'', it helps flesh out the game's setting and characters just enough to know what they're like.

* ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'': It's [[CrazyAwesome far]] [[SerialEscalation from]] boring however, being basically an interactive action {{Anime}}.

* ''VideoFame/BeyondTwoSouls'' is much closer to ''Asura's Wrath'' in the sense that it made ''Heavy Rain'' an interactive (sometimes action) ''{{Drama}}''. It is more accurate to call it a "five-six hour movie with some interaction" than a video game as well. According to the commentary, they even minimized the interface from ''Heavy Rain'' and made it almost without a UI in the game proper.

* The selling point of the 'VideoGame/TrailsSeries'' is its detailed and very rich WorldBuilding and character-driven plots. How detailed? The first trilogy alone is larger than the Mass Effect trilogy combined. There's a staggering amount of text in every game, dialogue scenes are frequent and just as frequently go on for a good twenty minutes. While there's typically a lot of sidequests to do and dungeons to crawl, it's typically a breather for an hour before you dive back into the plot. Even then, every NPC has a name, personality, and backstory, and they'll be happy to explain why they need your help. Scripts never fall below 300000 words in length, and can easily go way above that. It's also fond of making duologies and trilogies of one interconnected plot, just getting through these is the equivalent of several novels. What's more, unlike most Eastern RPG developers, every game takes place at the same time and place with crossover plotlines.

* A more recent method in indie titles, in games where your reason for slaying all these enemies are usually paper-thin, it scatters bits of lore throughout the game instead, not unlike ''VideoGame/DarkSouls''. Whether it's done with item flavor text or an in-game MonsterCompendium like ''VideoGame/RiskOfRain'', dedicated "lore rooms" in ''VideoGame/DeadCells'', or simple loading screen text in ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'', it helps flesh out the game's setting and characters just enough to know what they're like.

* A more recent method in indie titles, in games where your reason for slaying all these enemies are usually paper-thin, it scatters bits of lore throughout the game instead, not unlike ''VideoGame/DarkSouls''. Whether it's done with item flavor text or in-game MonsterCompendium like ''VideoGame/RiskOfRain'', "lore rooms" in ''VideoGame/DeadCells'', or simple loading screen text in ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'', it helps flesh out the game's setting and characters just enough to know what they're like.

* ''VideoGame/CrimsonClover'': While most shmups will try to at least throw an ExcusePlot into why you're shooting down these bad guys or what they are, the creator flat-out admits the game has absolutely no narrative. NoPlotNoProblem indeed.

* The selling point of the 'VideoGame/KisekiSeries'' is its detailed and very rich WorldBuilding and character-driven plots. How detailed? The first trilogy alone is larger than the Mass Effect trilogy combined. There's a staggering amount of text in every game, dialogue scenes are frequent and just as frequently go on for a good twenty minutes. While there's typically a lot of sidequests to do and dungeons to crawl, it's typically a breather for an hour before you dive back into the plot. Even then, every NPC has a name, personality, and backstory, and they'll be happy to explain why they need your help. Scripts never fall below 300000 words in length, and can easily go way above that. It's also fond of making duologies and trilogies of one interconnected plot, just getting through these is the equivalent of several novels. What's more, unlike most Eastern RPG developers, every game takes place at the same time and place with crossover plotlines.

* Many puzzle games such as ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' have ''literally'' [[NoPlotNoProblem no story]]. There is not even a HandWave explanation as to why differently shaped blocks are falling into Red Square; just play the game.
** There is at least one exception: in ''VideoGame/TetrisWorlds'' there are cute little robots and their star is about to go supernova, and you have to drop the blocks into the square to power some sort of machine that terraforms other planets in other solar systems so the robots can live on them.
** There are actually several video games that consist of a story [[ExcusePlot shoehorned into]] Tetris. Another one is ''Tetris Plus'' for the original [=PlayStation=] where there was a professor "doing archeology" who had to get to the bottom of the block chamber.

* Parodying this, ''VideoGame/SubTerra'' has a short story which intentionally has nothing whatsoever to do with the game.

* ''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. ''MARZ'' met with backlash for trading stripped-down gameplay for intense storyline, however.

* John Carmack of Creator/IdSoftware maintains that story is completely incidental to gaming. The original two ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''s and the original ''VideoGame/{{Quake|I}}'' embody this philosophy, with stories no more complex than "you're here, bad guys are over there; kill them." ''VIdeoGame/QuakeII'' is only a little bit more complex, and ''VideoGame/{{Quake III|Arena}}'' eliminates even the slightest hint of a story. ''VideoGame/Doom3'', however, is considerably more plot driven, as is Raven's ''VideoGame/QuakeIV''.

--->''[[GetOnTheBoat The SHIP storyline]] is also a really good indication of how [=RPGs=] used to be versus how they are now. Playing the game blindly, there's nothing to indicate that the player needs a SHIP, and nothing that points to getting one in this town. If this scenario popped up nowadays the heroes would have a [[ExpositionBreak long unskippable discussion]] about how they desperately need a ship, run a few {{fetch quest}}s in town before overhearing someone talking about the {{PIRATE}}s, then come up with an elaborate scheme (probably involving a [[UnexpectedGameplayChange stealth minigame]]) to sneak aboard and take control of it somehow. Personally I prefered the old way: roll into town, beat up some chumps, sail away laughing. Also note: now that I have the SHIP I'm still not told what to do with it. It's "You have a SHIP now! Yay! Explore!" and not "You have your SHIP, now you can sail to the place you knew you needed to go!" Just feels like more of an adventure, you know?''

* Basically, any video game that tries to be nothing more than a game (not that thats a bad thing). There may be an intro, and an ending, with dialog, and maybe some brief cutscenes in-between.

** 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 ''VideoGame/{{Metroid Prime|Trilogy}}'' scans.

** Though the sequels have more developed plots, ''VideoGame/{{Turok}}: Dinosaur Hunter'' is one of the most extreme example of this side of the scale. Apart from a short hint that appear when you load or start a new game, and a dialogue-less ending, it has no discernible plot whatsoever.
* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' generally tends toward a greater gameplay ratio; if there is any plot relevant to the game, it is usually limited to the in-game dialogue or short cutscenes. Even as ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow'' provides probably the most in-depth storyline in the franchise history, it still has a large enough gameplay element to maintain a healthy balance against the plot element.
* ''Franchise/TombRaider'' has a plot, but it's very minimal by having cut scenes only happening at the end of each "chapter" and said cut scenes are mostly just the plot explained in a simple form. The majority of the game is focused on the gameplay itself. [[VideoGame/TombRaiderII The second game]] slid further down the ratio by having even less cutscenes than the first game, but [[VideoGame/TombRaiderIII the third game]] onward moved the scale in the opposite direction by having a cutscene for almost every level's end.

* The Japanese UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast version of ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'' is basically five stages of outright blasting and combo action with a few lines of story at the start of each stage. The most story-heavy section of the game is the last stage, where there are a few lines preceding each of the boss's four phases, and there's some "dialogue" right at the very end... And that's about it. Control is taken away from the player twice per stage; Once at the end of the intro section, again when the boss appears, (except in the last stage, since the boss appears immediately after the intro section) and at the "stage clear" screen. Any other time, the player is free to move and shoot however they like.
** In the English UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube port, even this little amount of story is ripped away; The only story to be had is in the manual, and in the very final cutscene.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series features dialogue just before each boss fight... and that's about it, unless you have the [[AllThereInTheManual Japanese manual]]. And much of that dialogue doesn't have anything to do with the main plot until the last 2 or 3 stages. This gives its vibrant fanbase plenty of room to come up with all sorts of fanon.

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''. It ''had'' a plot way back in preproduction, but it disappeared right about the time the dev team decided to cel shade everything to hide graphical flaws. The game is ten hours of chest farming and collecting macguffins to get to the next zone, framed by an ExcusePlot. (However, ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' and ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' cared significantly more about their plot and characters, and ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'' is mostly focused on plot, due to being a Creator/TelltaleGames spin-off.)

* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead''. There are small cutscenes at the beginning of each campaign that last under a minute. There is dialogue throughout the levels, but they take place during the actual gameplay. Not to mention there is writing on the walls which is optional for the players to look at.
** NothingIsScarier in effect. With this game and its sequel, much of the cause and backstory of the ensuing ZombieApocalypse are only in the footnotes. The characters only meet at the start of the game (or at least a week earlier in the case of the first game), meaning that not all of them are exactly open to sharing their personalities and getting attached, as you never know who's going to turn next.

* Considering the reputation the series acquired for its frequent use of QuickTimeEvents and taking control away from the player, it may be surprising for new players to hear the first two installments of ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' were actually very light on plot. Past the short JustifiedTutorial and skipabble narrations at the beginning of each campaigns to set the historical context of the missions, levels have very little downtime and typically have the player shooting or being shot at within the first 30 seconds.
** A staple of the series has been interrupting gameplay with unskippable cutscenes and quick time events to further develop the game's story. [[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Some of the games in the series]] have more character development and story than others, ''on top'' of the unskippable cutscenes.

** The 3D ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' games, which seem to have taken the opposite approach to their predecessors; the story is incomprehensible, uninspired and entirely uninteresting, but strictly relegated to cutscenes that are short, flashy and far-between. The main incentive for the players to keep going is simply to challenge themselves. It works for what it is, but it's ironic and somewhat sad that the [[ContinuityReboot reboot]] of a series that helped pioneer the concept of story in action games would completely abandon such a defining feature of its predecessors.
* ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' and most of its sequels/imitators. There is a story, but it definitely takes a back seat to wandering around beautiful, lonely worlds solving fiendish puzzles. (Individual sequels waver a bit -- ''Myst'' gives you almost nothing to start with, and each subsequent game adds a little more story and a little less puzzles.)
** The split between Myst and its sequels is because of the story. In Myst, all of the story is backstory and you only really learn it at the very end. The only storyline in the game itself is "go fetch" and there's only one decision in the game that's story driven, so the puzzles and the pretty pictures are all gameplay. In all of the sequels, you're an active part of the ongoing story and the puzzles are part of (or drive) the storyline, so they belong much farther down this list.

* The ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series. The cutscenes don't go on for too long, and are spaced out reasonably. Yet a lot of story is contained within those scenes.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' sits much higher on the list than one would expect with its rather frenetic violence and combat. This is mostly because in addition to a lot of cutscenes, the games makes a point of having plenty of exposition and dialogue taking place ''during'' the levels. Additionally, all the games from ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' onward have terminals, data pads, and audio logs scattered throughout the levels which give lots of additional information on the background lore, with several actually being complete stories in their own right.
* ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'', Creator/{{Bungie}}'s first FPS series, is also high on the list due to story and worldbuilding delivered through the terminals, during the time when the plot of FPS games amounted to "kill monsters." The series's story writer Greg Kirkpatrick, responded to complaints about ''Marathon's'' "confusing and unnecessary story" with an answer that is an opposite of John Carmack's own view on this near the top of this list: "Read my lips: Computer games tell stories. That's what they're for."

** ''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.
** Hell, pick a Creator/BioWare game. ''Any'' [=BioWare=] game. For good or ill, they put a lot of their efforts on characters. For every half-hour spent on dungeon-crawls and slaying monsters, expect an hour and a half of helping your [[DysfunctionJunction colorful crew]] through their {{Character Arc}}s.
* ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' is quite high on story, AND gameplay. This is part of its appeal.

* The majority of ''Franchise/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 progress. 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.

* ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' games, being based on a literature novel series and featuring adaptation that's true to its source material and many, many story driven quests -- but as the game goes on, the exploration becomes wider to the point that [[VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt the third game]] features a WideOpenSandbox with many things to do and lots of story and interaction driven quests.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' is an interesting example of this, especially for the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series, which typically relies on {{Excuse Plot}}s. 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.
* ''VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEndersThe2ndRunner'', 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.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' deserves a mention here, even by the standards of [[Franchise/KingdomHearts the series]]. 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. (Ironically, ''KHII'' allowed players to skip cutscenes much like in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]]'', likely in response to how long certain cutscenes in [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI the original]] could run--doubly so if they preceded [[ThatOneBoss particularly hellish boss fights]].) The prequel prequel ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' has a similar situation.

** ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma Chronophantasma]]'' veers even heavier towards the story side. Gameplay in the story mode 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/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 storyline only comes to light by the third stage, for example.

** 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}}''.

* Like {{Visual Novel}}s, the classic [[Creator/{{Sierra}} Sierra On-Line]]/ Creator/LucasArts-style AdventureGame genre in general can be very linear, with simpler games like ''VideoGame/{{Loom}}'' amounting to little more than a series of cutscenes separated by inventory puzzles.

* The selling point of the 'VideoGame/KisekiSeries'' is its detailed and very rich WorldBuilding and character-driven plots. How detailed? The first trilogy alone is larger than the Mass Effect trilogy combined. There's a staggering amount of text in every game, dialogue scenes are frequent and just as frequently go on for a good twenty minutes. While there's typically a lot of sidequests to do and dungeons to crawl, it's typically a breather for an hour before you dive back into the plot. Even then, every NPC has a name, personality, and backstory, and they'll be happy to explain why they need your help. Scripts never fall below 300000 words in length, and can easily go way above that. It's also fond of making duologies and trilogies of one interconnected plot, just getting through these is the equivalent of several novels. What's more, unlike most Eastern RPG developers, every game takes place in the same time and place with crossover plotlines.

** ''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 [[JustForFun/{{Egregious}} egregiously]], towards the ''very'' end of the first disc there's a cutscene that's about an hour long.
** And in a twist of irony, ''Xeno''-creator Tetsuya Takahashi 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.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pong}}''.

* CultClassic ''VideoGame/AnotherWorld'' contains no dialogue (with the exception of an introductory sequence in the SNES version) and no cutscenes; however, the game is rich with narrative, all expressed through its (linear) gameplay and setpieces. Its minimalism influenced many future games.

** There is at least one exception: in ''Tetris Worlds'' there are cute little robots and their star is about to go supernova, and you have to drop the blocks into the square to power some sort of machine that terraforms other planets in other solar systems so the robots can live on them.

* Depending on how one defines story, [[SimulationGame most life sims and management sims]] could fit at either end of the scale. ''You'' get to shape almost all the events in the game, as the game generally doesn't dictate anything narrative-related to you except for the mechanics. [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration The traditional delineation between the mechanics of the game and the themes of the story simply isn't there]] because the gameplay essentially ''is'' the story, and its mechanics are the themes (e.g. what it takes to successfully manage a [[VideoGame/SimCity city]] or [[VideoGame/{{Civilization}} nation]] or [[VideoGame/DwarfFortress underground fantasy fortress]], [[VideoGame/TheSims what makes people happy and successful and what it takes to achieve those things]], etc.).

* Depending on how one defines story, [[SimulationGame most life sims and management sims]] could fit at either end of the scale. ''You'' get to shape almost all the events in the game, as the game generally doesn't dictate anything narrative-related to you except for the mechanics. [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration The traditional delineation between the mechanics of the game and the themes of the story simply isn't there]] because the gameplay essentially ''is'' the story, and its mechanics are the themes (e.g. what it takes to successfully manage a [[VideoGame/SimCity city]] or [[VideoGame/{{Civilization}} nation,]] [[VideoGame/TheSims what makes people happy and successful and what it takes to achieve those things]], etc.).
* Creator/ParadoxInteractive's FourX games vary somewhat but all pretty much lack a traditional plot.
** ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'' is driven almost entirely by {{Random Event}}s (the first game not so much). Charlemagne gets certain preformatted events and certain horde invasions, e.g. the rise Genghis Khan, are scheduled, but overall, even without player intervention, the world will not follow anything resembling its historical course. The game's only goal is to keep your dynasty going.
** ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis'', ''VideoGame/VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun'', and ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'' are somewhat more plot-oriented. Unlike ''Crusader Kings'', you play a nation rather than a series of rulers, and the "National Ideas" mechanics and decision trees tend to push you into particular paths depending where you play (e.g. forming the Swedish Empire or founding and expanding the United States in ''[=EU4=]'', conquering Central America as an imperialist Mexico in ''[=HoI4=]'').

->""It’s not an exaggeration to say that well over half of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'''s first hour is spent watching movies. This percentage dips a bit as you get further into the story, but it’s still a great deal of the experience."

->"I played a good deal of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' this weekend. Well, actually, a lot of it I watched.\\
\\
"It’s not an exaggeration to say that well over half of [=MGS4=]'s first hour is spent watching movies. This percentage dips a bit as you get further into the story, but it’s still a great deal of the experience."

It’s not an exaggeration to say that well over half of MGS4's first hour is spent watching movies. This percentage dips a bit as you get further into the story, but it’s still a great deal of the experience.

->"''Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important.''"
-->-- '''Creator/JohnCarmack''', quoted in David Kushner's ''Masters of Doom''.

Many modern RolePlayingGame{{s}} have a high ratio. Many modern {{Action Game}}s have a low ratio.

Does this work? It depends. Games with great gameplay and no story, such as the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series, sell fantastically. Games with bad gameplay and no story tend, unsurprisingly, not to last. Games with bad gameplay but a high Story to Gameplay Ratio, especially if the story is considered great, sell to those who are willing to slog through the boring game to get at the crunchy story bits and {{Cutscene}}s. Enough of those people exist to make many of these games profitable, though with the exception of a few popular ones, most of these never go anywhere near a bestsellers chart.

** ''[[VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma Chronophantasma]]'' veers even 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.

* Meta example: classic 1982 ZX Spectrum text adventure ''The Hobbit''. Gameplay was heavily reliant on the story for direction and atmosphere, it's just that said story had been published 45 years previously.

* Basically, any video game that tries to be nothing more than a game (not that thats a bad thing). There may be an intro, and an ending, with dialog, and maybe some brief cutscenes inbetween.

** Incidentally, the writer for these games would later go on to work on a number of beloved [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft]] [=RPGs]], specifically [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger the]] ''[[VisualNovel/RadicalDreamers Chrono]]'' [[VideoGame/ChronoCross series]] and ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''. He did not, however, return for...

* [[ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld There are two types of]]] ''Franchise/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 ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' games have a plot [[labelnote:specifically,]] [[YouCantGoHomeAgain Kyle Brennan trying to get back to Earth]] in ''X: Beyond the Frontier'' and ''X-Tension]'', [[AlienInvasion defeating the Kha'ak invasion]] in ''X2: The Threat'' and ''X3: Reunion'', and [[SpaceColdWar the rising tensions between Earth and the Commonwealth]], culminating in full-scale war, in ''X3: Terran Conflict'' and ''X3: Albion Prelude''[[/labelnote]], but 99% of the game is screwing around in the WideOpenSandbox and [[AnEntrepreneurIsYou building a trade empire]].

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' 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. The prequel prequel ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' has a similar situation.

* John Carmack of Creator/IdSoftware maintains that story is completely incidental to gaming. The original two ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''s and the original ''VideoGame/{{Quake|I}}'' embody this philosophy, with stories no more complex than "you're here, bad guys are over there; kill them." ''VIdeoGame/QuakeII'' is only a little bit more complex, and ''VideoGame/QuakeIII'' eliminates even the slightest hint of a story. ''VideoGame/Doom3'', however, is considerably more plot driven, as is Raven's ''VideoGame/QuakeIV''.

*** A staple of the series has been interrupting gameplay with unskippable cutscenes and quick time events to further develop the game's story. [[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Some of the games in the series]] have more character development and story than others, ''on top'' of the unskippable cutscenes.

** Incidentally, the writer for these games would later go on to work on a number of beloved [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft]] [=RPGs], specifically [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger the]] ''[[VisualNovel/RadicalDreamers Chrono]]'' [[VideoGame/ChronoCross series]] and ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''. He did not, however, return for...

Many modern {{Role Playing Game}}s have a high ratio. Many modern {{Action Game}}s have a low ratio.

** There is at least one exception, in Tetris Worlds there are cute little robots and their star is about to go supernova, and you have to drop the blocks into the square to power some sort of machine that terraforms other planets in other solar systems so the robots can live on them.
** There are actually several video games that consist of a story shoehorned into Tetris. Another one is Tetris Plus for the original Playstation where there was a professor "doing archeology" who had to get to the bottom of the block chamber.

** ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'' is driven almost entirely by RandomEvents (the first game not so much). Charlemagne gets certain preformatted events and certain horde invasions, e.g. the rise Genghis Khan, are scheduled, but overall, even without player intervention, the world will not follow anything resembling its historical course. The game's only goal is to keep your dynasty going.

* ''{{VideoGame/Vanish}}'' has a very minimalist plot. You're thrown into the sewers by unknown people, and you have to find the exit. Also, there are plenty of subterranean monsters in the way. No further explanation is present.

* Similarly, ''VideoGame/VirtuaFighter'' gives no importance to its story at all. Oh, there is the whole thing about the machinations of J6, but they're AllThereInTheManual; none of that ''actually'' makes it into the game. In fact, the only thing in the game that reminds you that J6 even ''exists'' is that Goh wears their name on the back of his gi.
* John Carmack of Creator/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''.
* {{Roguelike}} genre is characterized by fairly thin plots. ''VideoGame/NetHack'', ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl'', ''VideoGame/{{Angband}}'' and most of its variants as well as the genre-defining ''VideoGame/{{Rogue}}'' feature plots no more complex than "retrieve MacGuffin" or "slay the BigBad". Some Roguelikes have more plot - for example VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery has a neat backstory and a more defined fantasy world than most Roguelikes, but remains ultimately driven by gameplay, not plot. Of course, for a genre that typically features {{Permadeath}}, having lots of plot to replay each time could get a bit annoying.
* Fighting games in general ''do'' have a story, but you wouldn't know it from the actual games. Most of it is AllThereInTheManual.

* Strange to think of it, but long-running console {{RPG}}s like ''VideoGame/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.

--->''[[GetOnTheBoat The SHIP storyline]] is also a really good indication of how {{RPG}}s used to be versus how they are now. Playing the game blindly, there's nothing to indicate that the player needs a SHIP, and nothing that points to getting one in this town. If this scenario popped up nowadays the heroes would have a [[ExpositionBreak long unskippable discussion]] about how they desperately need a ship, run a few {{fetch quest}}s in town before overhearing someone talking about the {{PIRATE}}s, then come up with an elaborate scheme (probably involving a [[UnexpectedGameplayChange stealth minigame]]) to sneak aboard and take control of it somehow. Personally I prefered the old way: roll into town, beat up some chumps, sail away laughing. Also note: now that I have the SHIP I'm still not told what to do with it. It's "You have a SHIP now! Yay! Explore!" and not "You have your SHIP, now you can sail to the place you knew you needed to go!" Just feels like more of an adventure, you know?''
** When ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' was released, they cut down the cutscenes; [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks and the fans didn't like it one bit.]]

** ''VideoGame/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}}.

** ''VideoGame/WarioLand The Shake Dimension'' has this, to probably the most minimal point ever. You've got an intro scene, an ending movie... and after watching them just once, you never get forced to see them again (going straight in an optional bonus menu). Same for the credits.
** Though the sequels have more developed plots, ''VideoGame/{{Turok}} Dinosaur Hunter'' is one of the most extreme example of this side of the scale. Apart from a short hint that appear when you load or start a new game, and a dialogue-less ending, it has no discernable plot whatsoever.

* ''VideoGame/TombRaider'' has a plot, but it's very minimal by having cut scenes only happening at the end of each "chapter" and said cut scenes are mostly just the plot explained in a simple form. The majority of the game is focused on the gameplay itself. The second game slid further down the ratio by having even less cut scenes than the first game, but the third game onward moved the scale in the opposite direction by having a cut scene for almost every level's end.

* ''VideoGame/BangaiO Spirits'' does not even pretend to have a plot in contrast to its predecessor which at least had an ExcusePlot. The little character interaction that there is tends to include [[NoFourthWall discussions of this issue.]]
* The first two Merlin's Revenge games had a moderately long cutscene at the beginning and end of each game, with the story having no impact on gameplay. This was changed a bit with the third game, which added a few very short, skippable cutscenes in the middle of the game, most notably the scene with the stone inscription.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' series features dialogue just before each boss fight...and that's about it, unless you have the [[AllThereInTheManual Japanese manual]]. And much of that dialogue doesn't have anything to do with the main plot until the last 2 or 3 stages. This gives its vibrant fanbase plenty of room to come up with all sorts of fanon.

* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''. It ''had'' a plot way back in preproduction, but it disappeared right about the time the dev team decided to cel shade everything to hide graphical flaws. The game is ten hours of chest farming and collecting macguffins to get to the next zone, framed by an ExcusePlot. (However, VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}} and VideoGame/{{Borderlands The PreSequel}} cared significantly more about their plot and characters, and VideoGame/{{Tales From The Borderlands}} is mostly focused on plot, due to being a Creator/{{Telltale Games}} spinoff.)

** [[http://www.teamfortress.com/movies.htm This page]] adds a bit more background to the teams, but essentially the story boils down to "two companies that control the world have hired mercenaries to kill each other. Go help them".
** Now, it has much more story with [[http://www.teamfortress.com/war/administrator/ this comic]] and [[http://www.teamfortress.com/pumpkinpatch/the_last_will_and_testament_of_Zepheniah_Mann/ this page]], the latter which describes how the whole mess started.

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

* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' tells most of the story through the passive-aggressive ravings of an AI and the implications of the environment. Most of the game is about performing physics-warping puzzles and getting from place to place - and yet the game's writing was one of its biggest selling points, being pitch-dark and very, very funny.

** Incidentally, the writer for these games would later go on to work on a number of beloved Creator/SquareSoft {{RPG}}s, specifically [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger the]] [[VisualNovel/RadicalDreamers Chrono]] [[VideoGame/ChronoCross series]] and ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''. He did not, however, return for...

* ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' and most of its sequels/imitators. There is a story, but it definitely takes a back seat to wandering around beautiful, lonely worlds solving fiendish puzzles. (Individual sequels waver a bit - ''Myst'' gives you almost nothing to start with, and each subsequent game adds a little more story and a little less puzzles.)

* ''VideoGame/{{Vietcong}}''. The briefing and debriefing cutscenes are rather long, but the rest of the game is mostly a standard jungle {{FPS}}.
* ''No More Heroes'':
** ''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.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' is an odd, hard-to-place example. The world you play on has an extremely rich and detailed backstory that's ''completely [[ProceduralGeneration procedurally-generated]]'', but in Fortress Mode they're largely irrelevant, unless you find yourself with a situation where you're the last surviving settlement of a VestigialEmpire that everyone else is at war with.

* ''{{VideoGame/Marathon}}'', Creator/{{Bungie}}'s first FPS series, is also high on the list due to story and worldbuilding delivered through the terminals, during the time when the plot of FPS games amounted to "kill monsters". The series's story writer Greg Kirkpatrick, responded to complaints about ''Marathon's'' "confusing and unnecessary story" with an answer that is an opposite of John Carmack's own view on this near the top of this list: ''Read my lips: Computer games tell stories. That's what they're for.''
* A staple of the VideoGame/CallOfDuty series has been interrupting gameplay with unskippable cutscenes and quick time events to further develop the game's story. [[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Some of the games in the series]] have more character development and story than others, ''on top'' of the unskippable cutscenes.

* There are two types of ''Franchise/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 ''Franchise/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.
* The ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' games have a plot[[labelnote:specifically,]] [[YouCantGoHomeAgain Kyle Brennan trying to get back to Earth]] in ''X: Beyond the Frontier'' and ''X-Tension]'', [[AlienInvasion defeating the Kha'ak invasion]] in ''X2: The Threat'' and ''X3: Reunion'', and [[SpaceColdWar the rising tensions between Earth and the Commonwealth]], culminating in full-scale war, in ''X3: Terran Conflict'' and ''X3: Albion Prelude''[[/labelnote]], but 99% of the game is screwing around in the WideOpenSandbox and [[AnEntrepreneurIsYou building a trade empire]].
* [[Franchise/TheWitcher The Witcher]] games, being based on a literature novel series and featuring adaptation that's true to its source material and many, many story driven quests -- but as the game goes on, the exploration becomes wider to the point that [[VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt the third game]] features a WideOpenSandbox with many things to do and lots of story and interaction driven quests.

* ''VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEndersThe2ndRunner,'' 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.
* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' 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. The prequel prequel ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' has a similar situation.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' spin-off ''Dirge of Cerberus'' is one long cutscene with occasional ThirdPersonShooter elements.

* ''Videogame/BeyondTwoSouls'' is much closer to ''Asura's Wrath'' in the sense that it made ''Heavy Rain'' an interactive (sometimes action) ''{{Drama}}''. It is more accurate to call it a "five-six hour movie with some interaction" than a video game as well. According to the commentary, they even minimized the interface from ''Heavy Rain'' and made it almost without a UI in the game proper.
* Unlike most [[CollectibleCardGame CCG]] mobile games, most of which feature some kind of gameplay (most being [[RhythmGame Rhythm Games]]), ''VideoGame/EnsembleStars'' relies on almost 0 skill - players form teams of cards but points are gained simply by tapping the screen. Only the [[RandomNumberGod RNG]]-conjured Encore system resembles any kind of traditional gameplay, and that represents only a fraction of playing time. Naturally, without gameplay to attract players, the story is a much bigger focus than for other mobile games - when it started, it was the first to feature such complex character interactions and backstories or such heavy drama.

* {{Visual Novel}}s. Someone defined the genre as "That kind of Japanese game where you pick a choice and then pray that you didn't screw it up".

* ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' is an interesting example of this, especially for the Pokemon series, which typically relies on ExcusePlots. 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.

** ''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 even 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.

* ''Creator/BlizzardEntertainment'':

** ''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/{{Hellsinker}}'' is notable for being incredibly plot-heavy for a {{Shmup}}...[[MindScrew if you can understand it]].

* Like [[VisualNovel Visual Novels]], the classic [[Creator/{{Sierra}} Sierra On-Line]]/ Creator/LucasArts-style AdventureGame genre in general can be very linear, with simpler games like ''VideoGame/{{Loom}}'' amounting to little more than a series of cutscenes separated by inventory puzzles.
* ''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.