Amazing games with pointless stories

Some players come to video games to be moved, or fascinated, by one storythe same way they would go to the cinema to get a movie. There are plenty of examples of video game stories that have quality writing, such as Baldur's Gate 3, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and The last of us.

Then there are games with wildly imaginative stories that are hard to follow or don't make sense, but they're fun to play through nonetheless. They may need additional material to help players understand them, from articles to video essays, but that doesn't detract from their overall entertainment value.

Who is the boss?

Most of the Metal Gear games seem a little unimportant or meaningless just because they are both grounded and supernatural at the same time. The last post, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Painis perhaps the best example. The story begins at Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroesa kind of prologue game where Big Boss is sent to a base to recover allies. On the way out, their helicopter explodes, leading to the beginning of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Painwhere Big Boss must escape from a hospital overrun by enemy soldiers, a flaming paranormal entity and the sight of a whale in the sky.

It's beyond bizarre, but eventually Big Bobb will recover, be taken to Mother Base, and be renamed Venom Snake, which is when the real game begins. In the finale, it is revealed to the players that they were not Big Boss all along. Instead, they were a random soldier who got plastic surgery to take on the guise of Big Boss to fool his enemies, while the real Big Boss was off doing other missions. It's an elaborate twist that goes through such logical leaps that it almost feels like a twist just to be a twist. This isn't even considering the other wild things in the plot, from the aforementioned flaming man to a plant woman.

Kingdom Hearts 3

The culmination of darkness

Kingdom Hearts 3 is the culmination of eight other major games in the series that took seventeen years to come together, all working to tell the story of Sora, who had a simple dream: to explore other worlds. The first game was relatively simple as Sora was taken away from his home world and led into others through interdimensional doorways. With a magical sword called the Keyblade, he fights monsters called the Heartless and seals these doorways to prevent corruption. The sequel is when things started to get hairy story-wise with new entities called the Nobodies and organization 13's prominence on full display.

Kingdom Hearts 3 had to deal with answering many questions from each game in the series, which became complicated with each new entry seemingly extending this simple story of a boy who went on a Disney adventure. There are body doubles, digital doubles, how and where powers come from, and so on. Even players who played through every match had trouble figuring things out, and Kingdom Hearts 3 was effectively the end of the first saga, all centered around a single villain, Xehanort, and his conquest to become a god. As hard as it is to follow Kingdom Hearts franchise is beloved for its gameplay, characters, and upbeat positivity, and the first two games are considered some of the best JRPGs of all time.

Final Fantasy 15

The hunt for a budget

Final Fantasy 15 had a difficult development cycle to say the least. First announced in 2006 as a spinoff to Final Fantasy 13 called Versus Final Fantasy 13, before being rebranded and launched in 2016. In those ten years, the story changed several times, which may be one reason why it feels like it falls apart halfway through. The first half is solid enough and involves a runaway prince, Noctis, traveling the world with his three best brothers. The goal is to gather as much power as possible from lost tombs to help fight back against an empire taking control. The game is action-based and the world is open, giving players a lot to do.

But in the second half it becomes more linear and party members disappear for long periods of time or completely, which is later explained in DLC episodes. The DLC was made in an attempt to clear things up, which it does, but it doesn't help the fact that the endgame is still rushed. The final act of the game skips ten years, during which time Noctis goes to bed to harness his power. While he sleeps, the empire's strength grows, and monsters are everywhere. Once Noctis wakes up, it's a race to the finish line, with nothing really explained about what happened while he slept. Also, the main villain, Ardyn, doesn't get much screen time, so why he's the villain isn't really clear, even with his DLC episode. From time jumps to development problems, Final Fantasy 15's the story asks many players.

Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille Zur Macht

angels in space

Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille zur Macht is the first game in what became a trilogy on the PS2. As Kingdom Hearts 3might it be better to nominate the last game in the trilogy because it also has a lot of narrative questions it needs to answer. That said, this original game starts at eleven and only gets more complex, so it's the better choice overall. The game begins with archaeologists on Earth uncovering an artifact called the Zohar before jumping forward about 4,000 years. Humans are at war with aliens called the Gnosis, who can harm humans and technology, but they are invisible to humanity without an energy source present to make them solid. That's where Shion and her research team come in, who develop a robot, KOS-MOS, that can fight these aliens more effectively.

It's a basic enough start, but then the Zohar is added to the mix, and an evil cult that wants to use it to control God's power emerges. There are cyborgs, angels, doppelgangers, clones, mechs and so much more. The game tries to mix science fiction with religious architecture, which makes it interesting for an RPG, but players really have to pay attention to the long cutscenes and codexes to understand any of it. By the end of the trilogy, Jesus basically gets involved, and the road to get there starts with the tightly packed Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille zur Macht. It's a confusing but enjoyable ride, just like many Xeno project out there.

A lot of rain

The missing link

A lot of rain is the kind of exciting adventure game that players will play through once and find it a great story with a brilliant twist. Then, after thinking about it, the story starts to completely fall apart. Actions and choices made by all four playable characters will affect how the story unfolds, which may include each character dying at some point. The game begins with Ethan, who loses his son, Jason, in a shopping mall. This ends with Jason getting hit by a car and thus ruining Ethan's life. From there, players also get to play as Madison, a reporter, Scott, a private investigator, and Norman, an FBI agent, all of whom investigate murders revolving around the Origami Killer. As for Ethan, he is the next victim chosen; to be more precise, his other son, Shaun, is kidnapped.

Ethan must then go through a series of trials orchestrated by the Origami Killer, such as driving against traffic and crawling through glass. The idea is that by proving himself worthy, Ethan can find Shaun, who will then be released. There are red herrings scattered throughout the game to make players believe that Ethan is actually the killer, as he often blacks out and even wakes up with origami animals in his possession. Why this happens is not explained, and Scott is actually the Origami Killer. His chapter has plot holes because the player's actions contradict what Scott is trying to do in the story. These are just a few examples, but while there are plenty of confusing dead ends to justify the twist at the end, A lot of rain is still worth a playthrough just to see how wild things get.