Author Topic: Describing Video Game Plots  (Read 2240 times)

DjinnAndTonic

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Describing Video Game Plots
« on: October 22, 2013, 07:43:13 PM »
So one of my students is a young girl from Thailand learning how to speak English. She is very bright and we have a lot of fun with her assignments. Recently she told me she is a big anime fan but doesn't know many video games. So I wrote her a quick description of the plt of one of my favorite video game plots (Disgaea), and had her break down each sentence into its components and make sure she understood the text. She found it funny and it livened up the exercise from the more standard English practice.

It got me thinking about how to encapsulate other rpg plots into quick, 5-sentence summaries, but it was a lot harder for other games. I mentally tried to break down the plot of some recent popular ones, like kingdom hearts and xenoblade, and I just couldn't summarize it easily enough o the point it would have any value for the lesson. But I thought the DL might have some ideas on it.

For reference, this is the Disgaea description:

Laharl is a young demon boy. His father is the overlord of hell. When his father dies, Laharl decides to become the next Overlord. An angel comes to assassinate him, but they become friends. Laharl fights many demons and becomes the new overlord!

Cmdr_King

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2013, 07:57:23 PM »
Kingdom Hearts you just have to selectively summarize.

A young boy named Sora wants to explore the world with his friends Riku and Kairi.  One night an evil storm swallows his home, and separates him from his friends.  He finds new worlds and has to protect them from evil, helped by Donald Duck and Goofy, trying to find his friends again.
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superaielman

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2013, 08:48:55 PM »
FF4: Cecil is a Dark Knight and loyal to the king. He is expelled when he objects to the King's methods. Cecil overcomes his dark past to be a Paladin. He meets many friends along the way and destroys many villains, including the old king. Cecil frees his brother and beats the incarnation of hate and becomes King.

As Cmdr said, it's mostly just boiling things down. Doesn't seem too hard, though does require some thought to fit into five relatively brief sentences.
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Lord Ephraim

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2013, 11:25:49 PM »
One of my favorite video game pastimes is telling the plot to Star Ocean III to people.

A guy taking a vacation with his slutty girlfriend gets stranded on a medieval planet and later finds out his entire existence is a MMO and kills Anime Bill Gates.  Also MY MONEYYYYYYYYYYYY.

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2013, 12:52:24 AM »
Wild Arms: A girl goes through incredible lengths to justify sleeping in class. After saving the world from some incestuous, backstabbing aliens, she shrugs off her duties as a queen to travel around with two dudes.

Xenogears: When somebody asks if you are a god, you say YES.

Shadow Hearts 2: A guy reponds to the greatest tragedy in his life by assembling a cast of comic relief characters. You will cry when he attempts to fix what happened. He ends up having to fight an old friend who suffered similarly at the hands of fate and makes the ultimate sacrifice. He is rewarded for his efforts.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2013, 12:55:21 AM by Hunter Sopko »

Grefter

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2013, 01:12:51 AM »
Grandia 1 - ADVENTURE
Grandia 3 - FLYING
Portal 2 - SPACE
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DjinnAndTonic

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2013, 01:24:28 AM »
Apart from Cmdr and Super's contributions, these are kinda useless lesson-wise, but I am amused, so continue ;)

Hunter Sopko

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2013, 01:36:10 AM »
SH2 is about right, and you can't deny XG isn't spot on.

Nephrite

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #8 on: October 23, 2013, 01:48:41 AM »
Shadow Hearts 1: Two men fight each other over a girl on a train. The hero is thrown from the train and is led by a mysterious voice to go to England and find a spiritualist, a vampire, a spy and her child. A guy gets hit in the face with a shoe. The hero goes to the Moon and kills a bad guy.

Breath of Fire 1: A long time ago, a goddess named Myria made dragons fight each other. The hero is a dragon who must go on a journey to find his sister. He meets a bird, a dog, a fish, an ox, a snake, a mole and a shapeshifter on his adventure. He eventually makes Myria cry before she turns into a giant monster that is defeated.

Breath of Fire 2: A young man escapes town with his friend, a dog, when everyone forgets who he is. He meets a terrifying monster and almost dies. He goes on an adventure and meets a bird, a frog, a monkey, a snake (again), a plant, an armadillo and a cat. He eventually goes to the bottom of Infinity and defeats the spawn of Myria.




Luther Lansfeld

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2013, 02:15:45 AM »
A boy lived in a town floating in the sky. The town was invaded and the boy went to the surface of the planet. The planet was mostly destroyed after a war. The boy met some friends and traveled around the world. They fought against an enemy to save the world!

This is harder than I thought. <_<

Will try to think of more!
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Meeplelard

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2013, 02:41:26 AM »
Well, part of the question is how deep do you want to go? How much do you want to spoil?  If you want to keep things basic and avoid spoilers and such, but still want a full explanation of the plot, well...hmm...let's try it with something simple first:

Fire Emblem 7:

The game starts off with Lyn meeting a wandering Tactician, the two embark on a journey together and come across various companions.  Lyn learns she's the sole Granddaughter of a noble who is sick, and thus the only heir, and sets out to meet said Grandfather before an ill fate becomes him.  Along the way, she also learns her great uncle is trying to usurp the throne in her Grandfather's time of weakness.

A year after Lyn's adventures, Eliwood, a friend of Lyn, and a noble himself, goes searching for his father, Elbert, who went missing.  Aided by his best friend Hector and his most trusted knights and friendly locals, he discovers a plot by an evil wizard named Nergal, who using a rival noble in Darren (was that his name?), and a band of thieves known as the Black Fang, wishes to take over the world.  After what seems like a small scale war, and releasing some legendary weapons, Eliwood and his friends successfully fight off and defeat Nergal.


yeah, I left out some notes like, say, anything related to Ninian, but trying to not be too complicated, and trying to get the point across.  You can add along the way toss in stuff like "The quest ranges the entire world, encounters with Dragons from a forbidden land" and what not.  Granted, maybe it would have been easier if I chose a game with better plot than FE7, since that game isn't exactly well known for it.
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Meiousei

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2013, 03:04:48 AM »
Lemme take a crack at this.

Breath of Fire 3: A dragon child wakes up and is adopted by a tiger man and another child. They get separated, the first child makes friends with other people and they go on a grand adventure to find out why the world is the way it is. Also death. Lots of death.

Magic Fanatic

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2013, 09:13:56 PM »
Suikoden: Tir becomes a soldier of the corrupt empire.  His best friend is killed, and he is made a target because of a special rune.  Tir then becomes the leader of the resistance to the empire.  Four of Tir's close friends or family are killed over the course of the game because of this rune.  Tir overthrows the empire and then leaves.

Meeplelard

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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #13 on: October 23, 2013, 09:27:56 PM »
Fire Emblem 10:

Freedom Fighters led by a prophet like Silver Maiden named Micaiah fight against an oppressive Begnion Empire 3 years after a major war.  Shortly after, in a neighboring kingdom, the young queen must suppress a rebellion led by one of her nobles.  Afterwords, the famous mercenary hero, Ike, of that very country joins the Laguz Alliance against the Begnion Empire in a war that eventually covers the entire continent.  This wakes up the Goddess who petrifies all but a select few strong hearted soldiers.  Aided by her sister, Ike and Micaiah's forces band together to fight off against the awakened Goddess and her "holy order" in hopes to save all life on the continent.
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[21:39] <+Mega_Mettaur> Sonic Chaos
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Re: Describing Video Game Plots
« Reply #14 on: October 23, 2013, 09:56:00 PM »
MGS4: old gay sex
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