So, while Mother 3 clearly is not an example, what would everyone think of Earthbound and Earthbound Beginnings (particularly the latter)?
I mean, some things actually do tie in together. For example, Ana awaits Ninten in Snowman after her mother disappears; the party later comes to Youngtown where all the adults are gone, and it turns out in the end that they are being held captive atop Mt. Itoi.
On the other hand, there are lots of things that don't seem to tie in with anything else.
In Beginnings, you visit a community of humanoid birds, run some errands for the mayor of Podunk, retrieve a bottle rocket from inside a factory so that someone joins you, fire another bottle rocket from a different factory to blow up a rock obstructing some train tracks, visit a war veteran in the desert, explore a haunted house, and perform at a karaoke joint. (Someone a friend of mine knows inferred some underlying themes from where you find each of eight melodies, but still...)
Earthbound is somewhat more coherent, but still seems a bit random. I know there's this gimmick at the end where everyone you've helped along the way prays for your victory against Giygas, and I did once write something on LiveJournal
about how stuff actually does intertwine throughout the game. However, that segment about the Sharks doesn't seem to affect anything afterwards. A friend of mine even once described the plot as a whole as follows:
Characters move from point a to point b, learn and advance along the way. You could replace any enemy with rabid noodles, and the helpers with dancing trampolines and it wouldn't make a difference for the outcome. All of this plot is a long sequence of moving on. There may or may not be deep themes and characterization, but the plot itself? Nope. It's really, really simple.
Edited by SeaRover
Thar be flabbergasting!
Is True Art Is Incomprehensible related to this too, in a way? That is, what someone might see as a bunch of random stuff happening may be seen by someone else as aking total sense.
I find The Odyssey an unusual thing to put here, too.
This trope should probably be YMMV, except when confirmed by Word of God.
Edited by ArcadesSabboth Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.
Finding Nemo
OK so it was pretty whimsical... but random events plot, really? I'd argue it shouldn't be here.
So about that missile pony you promised me.
This looks like what the Turkey City Lexicon calls the "And Plot": "Picaresque plot in which this happens, and then that happens, and then something else happens, and it all adds up to nothing in particular."