Stories are one of the most powerful forces in shaping our lives and our societies, and video games, as I have said on many occasions, are the most powerful form of storytelling that has ever been at our disposal. The reason is that, in addition to having all the sensory fullness of a movie, video games make us, the players, participate in their stories through our efforts and choices.
After seeing bestselling author and my personal hero Brandon Sanderson talk about his favorite video games and why they were important in shaping who he is, I got a sudden inspiration to do the same. So here we are, a list of video games in no particular order that have either touched my life or influenced my practice as a storyteller.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
The core gameplay mechanic of Ace Attorney is presenting pieces of evidence to refute inconsistencies in the stories told by others, be they witnesses in court, suspects under investigation, authority figures covering up injustices, or your companions who need cheering up.
This game trained me in the philosophy of empiricism, in the construction and deconstruction of narratives based on evidence, which I have put to use in all of the philosophically-themed posts on this blog. If it weren’t for the Ace Attorney games, the way I approach philosophical and scientific ideas might have been different.
I could list all nine of the English-translated Ace Attorney games on my list of favorites, and my number one would be Trials and Tribulations, a masterful work of art full of incredible characters and well-crafted mysteries. But the first game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, was the one that cracked open the door in my mind, the one that started me down this incredible path of logic and evidence.
Celeste
On the surface, Celeste is a challenging platformer with distinctive mechanics to test our reflexes, puzzle-solving, and muscle memory. And if that were all it was, I would have been happy. But it also has a powerful story about overcoming anxiety and depression, of a woman named Madeline climbing a magical mountain that brings her face-to-face with the things in her mind tormenting her.
In chapter 2, a copy of Madeline embodying the negative voices in her head breaks out of a mirror to haunt and torment her. In chapter 3, we meet Mr. Oshiro, a ghost who has been stuck for an untold amount of time in the hotel he used to manage, who failed the challenges Madeline must still face. In order to reach the summit of the mountain, Madeline must stop running away from her alternate self and make peace with her instead.
Celeste has the best mixture tough love and positive affirmation, with levels that challenge us to our limits mixed in with wonderful, compassionate characters. This game has helped me tremendously in dealing with my own emotional struggles, and it has influenced how I view and interact with others who are struggling.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
It has long been a theme of storytelling to remind us of the magic and mystery the world was full of when we were children. In my opinion, nothing does this as well as the Legend of Zelda. The player goes out to explore, discovering magic and learning skills, ultimately fulfilling their destiny and playing a role in the grand narrative of the world.
Breath of the Wild does this more fully than any other game in the series. From the beginning, we know we are meant to save the world. But we also know we are far too weak to take on the evil that threatens it. How do we get stronger? By running off to the ends of the earth. Climbing mountains. Discovering natural and artificial wonders. Meeting people and helping them.
I have played many games that encourage the spirit of exploration and adventure, but none of them reach quite the level of mastery as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Riven
The Myst games are renowned in video game history for putting point-and-click puzzlers on the map, for using videos of real-life actors to play the characters, and for telling stories as much through their environments as through text.
Every Myst game requires the players to figure out the science and technology of each of its worlds. In Riven, this is taken to the next level, as the entire game is one giant meta-puzzle, and to solve it, the player must learn the story of the world.
I, unfortunately, was too young to appreciate it when I first played it, and I used a guide. But maturity has given me new eyes with which to see how profound this game really is.
God of War Ps4
You may not have expected a game with a title like God of War would make it onto a list of profound and positive games. Nevertheless, I knew within the first ten minutes of God of War 4 that this story is something above and beyond.
All of the God of War games are filled with grandiose mythological imagery, from the Steeds of Time wading through the ocean to the mountain-sized Atlas literally holding the world above the realm of Hades. However, whereas the first three games were mainly gratuitous power fantasy with a little bit of story, the fourth game is mainly story with a little bit of power fantasy.
And what a story it is. Instead of tearing up the world on a quest for redemption or vengeance, the Greek hero Kratos now has a tiny shrimp of a son named Atreus whom he loves dearly. The dynamic between these two characters gives the story a fire that is rare to see in video games.
Both father and son learn from each other, as Kratos teaches Atreus the ways of the world by telling him the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare and trains him to deduce what happened on an old battlefield by reading the clues. At one point, they come upon a chained dragon. Kratos wants to leave it alone, believing it will attack them and they will be forced to kill it. But he is persuaded by Atreus to free the dragon on the slim chance it will be grateful and help them on their journey.
I have only played a few hours of God of War for the Playstation 4, less than half of it. But from what I have seen, I already know it is going to be one of the most incredible stories I have ever experienced.
Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight has depths of metaphorical significance on levels rarely attained by any work of art. It explores themes of worthiness and divinity by having the player take control of a bug in a world where life is cheap, and which is constructed and dictated by powerful forces that are either long dead or immaterial and instinctual.
The player can finish the game not knowing what they have done or the impact of their actions on the course of the world. This may seem frustrating from an outside perspective, but it is woven into the design of the narrative so well as to be one of the story’s most powerful and unique aspects.
Add to this the exploration, the treasure collection, the artwork and music, and the challenge, and we have a recipe that puts Hollow Knight solidly at number 2 on my list of favorite games of all time.
NieR: Automata
I did not enjoy playing NieR: Automata. Action games were never my strong suit, and the battles, which constituted the main challenge of the game, felt to me unsatisfying and repetitive. In addition, the unusual structure of the story rubbed me the wrong way.
However, I did notice that all of the robot characters and enemies were named after real-life philosophers, and that the aesthetics and themes of the different chapters had method beneath their veneer of absurdity. After talking with friends and watching analysis essays on YouTube like this one and this one, I have come around to the view that NieR: Automata may be the most profound piece of existentialist literature ever created. And also, the lead character is an attractive woman, which is always a plus.
Danganronpa V3
This entry will most likely come as a surprise. Most of you will probably think, “Dragon-what?” And then if you look it up, you will find it is a story about a group of teenagers who are trapped in a school together and forced by bizarre circumstances to kill each other to escape. And then you might think, how could a story like that possibly rank on a list of most positive life-changing video games?
The answer is because the ending of the final game is the most powerful, most profound ending of any story I have ever experienced, be it video game, novel, movie, theater play, or spoken word. And, I can’t tell you what it is, because it wouldn’t be half as impactful without the rest of the story building up to it.
What I can tell you is that the theme of truths not always leading good places and lies sometimes being the best way forward has had a great impact on my view of the usages of language and storytelling beyond their literal meaning and the truth values of their words. Danganronpa V3 showed me that fiction is the bricks by which we construct our narratives of our world.
The Witness
Although most of the other games were not in order, The Witness takes its solid place among my favorites at number 1. Nothing else, not stories, not people, not transcendental experiences have had as much of an impact on my view of the world as this game has.
The premise is simple: take a walk around an island, solving puzzles and contemplating the nature of existence. At the beginning, there is no apparent goal, just go out and explore. Here and there you find videos and audio quotes from famous philosophers, theologians, and zen masters, bringing together the best of Eastern and Western philosophy.
Through the course of the game, your perspective of the game world shifts, and you see the same things in new ways, and some of these new perspective lenses unlock new mechanics of the game. In fact, it is possible to get the true ending within the first minute of playing, but it is almost impossible to notice it unless you’ve already gone through the world.
The Witness has influenced my views of many philosophical topics, from metaphysics to consciousness to psychology to theories of knowledge. It has gotten me to look at the real world in new ways, just as it taught me to look at the game world. If anyone ever asks me to name one video game they should play, my answer will be, without hesitation, The Witness.
Games that will probably make this list once I play them:
The Talos Principle
All I know of The Talos Principle is that it is a puzzle game where you play as a robot contemplating its own existence. People have told me it is the perfect game for me, and I believe them. I own it on Steam, but I cannot play it because I can’t afford a powerful enough computer at the moment.
Miegakure
It’s 4D! Need I say more? When Miegakure is released, it will make video game history as the first 4-dimensional game in existence.
The way it works is that you can only see one 3D slice at a time. With the press of a button, you can rotate this 3D slice through the larger 4D landscape. This has the effect of making things look like they are changing shape, growing out of nowhere or shrinking into nonexistence, or floating in midair. But this apparent nonsense is perfectly logical, once we realize we are looking at 4-dimensional structures.
And that is my list of the most influential video games that shaped who I am today.
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