The Problem With Ludonarrative Dissonance

Ludonarrative dissonance is a problem many games seem to face, yet many people seem to ignore it. Despite this, it can have some striking consequences. Ludonarrative dissonance, to put it simply, is the disconnect between a game's story, and its gameplay, oftentimes contradicting certain themes or story elements. It’s an easy mistake to make, especially with more games introducing themes of moral ambiguity, which often struggle to tie into freeform gameplay instances. This is commonly seen in action games; the player character may be seen as a “hero”, yet, the player in control may choose to take actions which can directly contradict this viewpoint, yet the narrative may not have options for a non-heroic player character.

Dishonored is a perfect example of a game which ties its ludic nature in with the narrative incredibly well. The player’s choices in gameplay directly affect the way the story pans out, and vice versa. Corvo is always seen a

s being dishonourable due to the game’s introduction, however, the changes through low and high chaos playthroughs accurately portray the effect Corvo’s influence has on the world. The Last of Us is another title which manages this concept exceptionally. As soon as we meet Joel after the intro, he already seems a tad morally dubious, but not outright villainous, yet as the game develops, Joel kills more and more, and it begins to seem as though not all of his targets really seem to deserve to die. This culminates at the end of the game where he slaughters a facility of innocent people purely on a selfish whim, potentially dooming humanity in the process. As the player gets more adept in the art of killing, Joel himself starts to lose his morals and kills more. This, however, can have its own consequences: making the player do something they would otherwise be opposed to can make players feel disconnected from the game themselves.

I found this issue to be incredibly prominent in one of my favourite titles from the previous generation: Ghost of Tsushima. Jin’s growing reputation as the Ghost is an essential plot point throughout the game and is the direct cause of many of the game’s pivotal moments. The game heavily emphasises the use of stealth and ghost weapons, which is obviously how Sucker Punch wants you to play the game, yet you can entirely forgo all of this. If you so choose, you can take basically every single encounter head-on, avoiding all of the “dishonourable” things the story punishes Jin for. This has absolutely no effect on the proceeding story, with characters still treating Jin as if he outright betrayed the Bushido code even if you absolutely do nothing of the sort. This is to allow the story to remain consistent with the developers’ vision, but can highly contradict the player’s own mindset. I found this to be incredibly bizarre, as Sucker Punch also developed the InFAMOUS series. Ghost of Tsushima seems like the perfect title to add a reputation / moral system similar to their previous games, yet it is completely absent.

Some games seem to accept that they can’t always manage this disconnect, and simply embrace both sides of the coin. The prime example of this is the Yakuza (well I guess it’s Like a Dragon now…) series, which manages to juggle incredibly deep and emotional themes, with a real estate managing chicken named Nugget, which you win at a bowling alley… When initially getting into the series I wasn’t sure how much it’d impact the story, as I was definitely caught off guard initially. Despite this huge disconnect, they manage to keep the sillier parts of the game and gameplay entirely distinct from the deeper and darker stories and themes the main story tries to portray. There are some moments which feel a little lacking though, such as Kiryu “never killing anyone” despite throwing people out of windows, crushing people's rib cages with motorbikes, and even shooting and blowing up a manned helicopter…

Ludonarrative dissonance at its worst can really throw a spanner in the works of some narratives, yet more often than not is nothing more than a minor inconvenience. Despite all of this, I do often feel it’s highly disregarded for the sake of gameplay freedom, without a care for the larger implications…