Stories Within Stories in Video Games

[Deleted]

A while back I played through Lost Odyssey which follows the story of immortal Kaim, who has lost his memory. Beyond the amnesiac JRPG protagonist cliché we are given a look into his past through a collection of short stories collectively titled 'A Thousand Years of Dreams'. The tales add a depth to the character ok Kaim, but also can be read independently. Many are greatly moving and give separate insights to the concept of human mortality and serve as the highlight to the adventure. They are written by novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu whereas the main plot is from Sakaguchi, so the style and depth of the writing greatly differs as does the ability to create evocative text. I have included a YouTube video of the first short story below:



Anyway; I was thinking on the game and how effective telling a story within a story was in this way and wondered if there were any other examples that came to mind? I'm not necessarily looking for the same format of storytelling; they can be presented within the game in any way.

[shelverton]

I never finished Final Fantasy VIII so I don’t know exactly who this character Laguna turned out to be, but I remember his parts being sort of.... a story within the story?

In Final Fantasy VI there’s a bunch of memories/cut scenes that unfold when you rest at an inn, if you have Shadow in your party, right? Gee... my memory these days...

[dsparil]

Laguna's parts tie into the main story eventually, but FFVIII is really hard to follow at times in the first place.

The Elder Scrolls starting with Daggerfall has a bunch of books. Some of the multipart stories are pretty long although I cared more about the "non-fiction" ones.

Not really a story, but Mechwarrior 2 has an in-universe guide/book on the Clans that gets more and more unlocked as you rank up. I think it expands anyway, it's been a really long time.

The journals in the first Myst go a really long way in establishing the story of each age since the game itself is so solitary. They were also a nice way to slip in hints too. It's an element that many clones lack because it wasn't really shoved in your face.

[derboo]

Nier has a part like that.

[Deleted]

Although the Laguna scenes in Final Fantasy VIII do tie into the main plot by the end they are presented to the player as a story within a story at the time, so I think they are relevant in that context. 999 had something like that too, with the seemingly unrelated stories about the Titanic being told to the player that tied into the main plot by the end. They are both nested stories of a kind.

I'm not sure about the suggested examples in Final Fantasy VI... because I never played through it  . The game does have the opera scene though, which I presume has a small plot.

[Woody Alien]

Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but by chance I was playing these days The Enchanted Cave 2, a roguelite that was originally a Flash game. By delving deeper in the cave and finding the random secret entrances in the levels, you can find the Necromancer's hideouts which contain some useful loot and a journal telling his story and experiments. It's vaguely disturbing and also it explains nicely why the titular cave works as a typical roguelite game (including why there are more and more powerful monsters the deeper you go). If you don't find the secrets, you'll never know the game's lore, who that magician guy is and why he's so much of an asshole.
Here they are, with explanation included: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=455419806
Also here: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1404274219

[Snake]

Jul 1, 2021 11:59:43 GMT -5 shelverton said:

I never finished Final Fantasy VIII so I don’t know exactly who this character Laguna turned out to be, but I remember his parts being sort of.... a story within the story?

In Final Fantasy VI there’s a bunch of memories/cut scenes that unfold when you rest at an inn, if you have Shadow in your party, right? Gee... my memory these days...

Final Fantasy VI definitely had some subplots for the ensemble cast.  Shadow's is interesting because he has several dream sequences that allude to his past when you sleep... and if you didn't save him, Relm will have a dream that seems to point to her relationship with Shadow.   

Final Fantasy VII had one that stood out to me, where you're going through the video logs and records for Aerith's mom and dad.  FF VII did a lot of loose literature littered throughout the game to read through, to try to get you to piece together the backstory.  

Ys 1 naturally had stories contained within the books that you collected and read, though brief. 

Nier Automata had different subplots as well, like with Emil and one of the bosses in the amusement park. You just fight and kill the latter but once, but she has an extensive backstory to how she got that way.

[loempiavreter]

The the childrenbook stories of the bosses and the story of the maiden that ventured hell in Shadows of the damned