Most convoluted/confusing plots in a game/game series

[Hawki]

RE suffered the case of sequel escalation/DBZ syndrome. The whole Neo Umbrella conspiracy was stupid and I am glad they dropped it in VII. At least Blue Umbrella is trying fix past mistakes even though it's a different kind of retcon.

So, I've not played Resident Evil since 5, but from what I've read on the wiki, Blue Umbrella doesn't sound that much more logical than Neo-Umbrella.

Thing is, I actually like the idea of Umbrella employees dealing with the fallout of their company going down. I mean, Umbrella had plenty of legitimate business ventures, so how would it feel to wake up one day to discovery that the company you worked for was involved in B.O.W. production, and had created a virus that had led to the deaths of over 100,000 people? Not too good I imagine. And that's not even including Umbrella's other reprehensible activities.

On the other hand, the wiki claims that Umbrella assets were turned over to former employees (wouldn't the government just seize them?), who decide to form...a PMC? Like, sure, Umbrella maintained the USS and UBCS, but if these are average employees, where do you go from that to running a military outfit? Why not just help already existing organizations like the BSAA or world governments?

Mortal Kombat, or almost any fighting game.[/quote]

Yep. Can probably add Soul Calibur with "any fighting game" since it rebooted itself like MK.

Sonic got convoluted post SA2 until Unleashed.

Um...not sure about that.

I'll grant you that SA2 kickstarts a series of games that are all linked by Shadow's storyline, in that SA2>Sonic Heroes>Shadow the Hedgehog>Sonic Battle/Sonic 06 have to occur roughly in that order (you can add Sonic Advance 3 in that it has to take place after Sonic Battle), but I don't think that's really convoluted. That's simply a case of games proceeding one after the other. Looking at the series as a whole, most of the games have self-contained stories (with the exception of the above, and the STH2>3>S&K arc). And while I'm among those that's gone to the effort of listing every STH game in chronological order (and order that's going to vary between individuals), one can pick up almost any STH game and not miss out on much.

 

[meiam]

FFXIII's novels, like I wrote above, were available for free. You would just go to the official website and read them on your computer or even your ps3 if you only had the device that lets you play the game and nothing else. Same goes for the FFXV stuff, both kingsglaive and Brotherhood can be watched online for free. As for FFXV DLC, most of it is free I believe.

I know you can watch Kingsglaive and Brotherhood for free. That's not the point. The point being, if you can make a 40-50 hour game, it really isn't too much to ask that the game tell more or less the complete story. Final Fantasy was really good at this for a while, even if the stories weren't always great and numerous other RPGs I can rattle off if you want. Being able to stick a bunch of cutscenes in there does not excuse the need to tell a story properly and develop the characters.

Hell, I'm not a terribly huge fan of FFX or it's story but the story it told was pretty complete without having for me to wander off into the web to watch a movie, an anime series or read a short novel. That game was linear as hell and full of cutscenes, not unlike FFXIII and it's brood(sequels), but it suceeded in using it's runtime fairly efficently to explain what was going on. FFXIII, OTOH, has a core of a good idea that's buried under some terrible pacing, crappy dialouge, boring characters who talk a lot but don't say much.

Aaaaactually...
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_X-2.5_~Eien_no_Daish%C5%8D~


FFX's　sequel novel series is also a thing, and it's pretty good. Also there were talks a while back of making a third game in the X world following the story of Eien no Daisho based on the popularity of the story since it was written by the writer of the games themselves. Though they're too busy with the VII remake atm to work on that too.

I dunno about pretty good, everything I've read up on it says it's awful

https://gamerescape.com/2014/01/03/final-fantasy-x-novella-causing-a-stir-among-japanese-fans/

https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/23fw1g/a_summary_of_final_fantasy_x25/

 

[sXeth]

Yep. Can probably add Soul Calibur with "any fighting game" since it rebooted itself like MK.

Oh did they decide 6 was a full reboot now? They were still going with a sort of bundled up retelling with the custom character side-story (though conspicuously absent of the events of 4/5) last I'd read of it.

 

[Dalisclock]

FFXIII's novels, like I wrote above, were available for free. You would just go to the official website and read them on your computer or even your ps3 if you only had the device that lets you play the game and nothing else. Same goes for the FFXV stuff, both kingsglaive and Brotherhood can be watched online for free. As for FFXV DLC, most of it is free I believe.

I know you can watch Kingsglaive and Brotherhood for free. That's not the point. The point being, if you can make a 40-50 hour game, it really isn't too much to ask that the game tell more or less the complete story. Final Fantasy was really good at this for a while, even if the stories weren't always great and numerous other RPGs I can rattle off if you want. Being able to stick a bunch of cutscenes in there does not excuse the need to tell a story properly and develop the characters.

Hell, I'm not a terribly huge fan of FFX or it's story but the story it told was pretty complete without having for me to wander off into the web to watch a movie, an anime series or read a short novel. That game was linear as hell and full of cutscenes, not unlike FFXIII and it's brood(sequels), but it suceeded in using it's runtime fairly efficently to explain what was going on. FFXIII, OTOH, has a core of a good idea that's buried under some terrible pacing, crappy dialouge, boring characters who talk a lot but don't say much.

Aaaaactually...
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_X-2.5_~Eien_no_Daish%C5%8D~


FFX's　sequel novel series is also a thing, and it's pretty good. Also there were talks a while back of making a third game in the X world following the story of Eien no Daisho based on the popularity of the story since it was written by the writer of the games themselves. Though they're too busy with the VII remake atm to work on that too.

I know about the Novel. I just haven't bothered with it since I was pretty much done with X after X was finished. Tried to get into X-2 and after about an hour or so I just couldn't bother to keep on going. Again, I wasn't super into X's plot and spending an entire game to try to get Tidus back felt like "WTF am I doing? I found Tidus obnoxious and I'm not gonna waste 30-50 hours to try to get him back"

It's bad enough they did the whole "I'm sacrificing my existence to save the world from Sin" only to completely undermine with the the "Hi Dad!" at the end. Oh, the abusive dad you just killed to save the world? High Five!

Yep, I was fucking done after that.

 

[Hawki]

Oh did they decide 6 was a full reboot now? They were still going with a sort of bundled up retelling with the custom character side-story (though conspicuously absent of the events of 4/5) last I'd read of it.

Both Wikipedia and Wikia list it as a reboot.

 

[BrawlMan]

RE suffered the case of sequel escalation/DBZ syndrome. The whole Neo Umbrella conspiracy was stupid and I am glad they dropped it in VII. At least Blue Umbrella is trying fix past mistakes even though it's a different kind of retcon.

So, I've not played Resident Evil since 5, but from what I've read on the wiki, Blue Umbrella doesn't sound that much more logical than Neo-Umbrella.

Thing is, I actually like the idea of Umbrella employees dealing with the fallout of their company going down. I mean, Umbrella had plenty of legitimate business ventures, so how would it feel to wake up one day to discovery that the company you worked for was involved in B.O.W. production, and had created a virus that had led to the deaths of over 100,000 people? Not too good I imagine. And that's not even including Umbrella's other reprehensible activities.

On the other hand, the wiki claims that Umbrella assets were turned over to former employees (wouldn't the government just seize them?), who decide to form...a PMC? Like, sure, Umbrella maintained the USS and UBCS, but if these are average employees, where do you go from that to running a military outfit? Why not just help already existing organizations like the BSAA or world governments?

Mortal Kombat, or almost any fighting game.

Yep. Can probably add Soul Calibur with "any fighting game" since it rebooted itself like MK.

Sonic got convoluted post SA2 until Unleashed.

Um...not sure about that.

I'll grant you that SA2 kickstarts a series of games that are all linked by Shadow's storyline, in that SA2>Sonic Heroes>Shadow the Hedgehog>Sonic Battle/Sonic 06 have to occur roughly in that order (you can add Sonic Advance 3 in that it has to take place after Sonic Battle), but I don't think that's really convoluted. That's simply a case of games proceeding one after the other. Looking at the series as a whole, most of the games have self-contained stories (with the exception of the above, and the STH2>3>S&K arc). And while I'm among those that's gone to the effort of listing every STH game in chronological order (and order that's going to vary between individuals), one can pick up almost any STH game and not miss out on much.[/quote]

I'd still say Sonic got convoluted post SA2. It just didn't real noticeable until 06. Sonic Heroes being the start of it.

Blue Umbrella I don't have a problem with, it's still retcon though. It's obvious from RE5 that Capcom didn't think of making them until RE7's inception. Also, the loose plot threads in the Revelations games can die in a fire. Especially the cliffhanger from the "Good" ending in Rev2.

Speaking of convoluted there is Killer 7, but that is the entire point and works to its advantage.

Almost anything from David Cage, which is a huge disadvantage.