Games often act as a vessel for enjoyable stories. Some of these stories are celebrated to this day. However, once in a while things can get a little messy. Sometimes just playing the game isn’t enough. Occasionally, playing the game isn’t even the first step to understanding what is going on.
While it is nice for fans to be able to engage with ancillary material associated with the games they love, some of that material feels deadly important. Whether you are required to go digging through in-game glossaries, read the affiliated novels, or watch the movies associated with them, it is undeniable that some games ask a lot of their players.
10 The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age
The Third Age exists as a companion piece to the movies. Your adventure will frequently see you stumble into noteworthy characters, and participate in noteworthy battles, all taken from the movies. It isn’t that The Third Age does nothing to help set the scene - the general premise is covered by the clips taken from the movie.
But to the unaware, The Third Age essentially plays out like a piece of self-insert fan-fiction. What is the point of playing a game that is essentially a giant piece of stitched-together references if you don’t understand any of them? The whole point of this game is defeated if you haven’t at least watched the Peter Jackson trilogy.
9 Enter The Matrix
On some level, it is fair to say that Enter The Matrix assumes that you have at least a passing interest in the film series. But if you don’t, then you are in for a rough time. This game is not interested in being an introduction to the universe, it exists for fans of the series.
So, if you are interested in playing Enter The Matrix, you better get your bowl of popcorn, as you have some movie watching to do. Unfortunately, this movie watching will include The Matrix Reloaded, which this game is very closely tethered to. Our sincerest apologies.
8 Final Fantasy 13
In medias res is when an author begins the story partway through. Crafting a narrative in this manner can lead to a pretty engaging story with a more natural approach to world-building. However, it needs to be done well, or it will just present itself as a confusing mess. Final Fantasy 13 is, unfortunately, an example of the latter. The game buries the player in terms that will mean nothing to them and refuses to provide much in the way of context.
But wait, they have a solution! There is an in-game “datalog” that will explain everything! And honestly, if you don’t want to spend the first few hours of the game furrowing your brow, you should read through that datalog before you begin playing in earnest (and every time it updates afterward). Nothing like engaging in a little pre-reading before you play your shiny new RPG, right?
7 Suikoden Series
Each game in the Suikoden Series can absolutely be enjoyed on its own. Absolutely. But it really feels like you are missing out if you don’t engage with all the material. Characters from previous games return. Past events are referenced. And you can even carry your save data over. But it goes even deeper than that.
Suikoden 3’s Nash Latkje is a major character who headlined a series of visual novels that were never even released in North America. If you didn’t at least read a summary of these games, there are a number of things that he will reference that won’t mean anything to you. This is a series that is worth playing, but it really feels like you need to engage with all the content if you want to get the fullest experience.
6 Halo 5: Guardians
The Halo series used to tell pretty self-contained stories. However, as of the fourth game in the series, it felt like the lore started to expand beyond what was contained in the games themselves. You see, the Halo franchise had been building up a pretty substantial collection of novels. With novels, comes a lot of backstory and lore, and 343 started to incorporate more and more of it.
Things came to a head with Halo 5: Guardians. It isn’t that you won’t understand the primary plot in Halo 5 unless you read half-a-dozen books, it’s just that you will constantly feel like you are out of the loop if you don’t. Our recommendation is to get a library card.
5 Metal Gear Solid Series
The Metal Gear Solid games can quickly become a tale of two narratives. The one is typically pretty easy to follow, with clear antagonists, and recognizable motivations. The other is an overarching story of corruption, intrigue, and secret organizations.
The overarching narrative can get a little messy. There are cutscenes that will bury you in names and dates. Ten-minute long dialogues about who is controlling who and how they were responsible for this and that. If you are interested in following the larger narrative for yourself, then we recommend that you take notes during these cutscenes.
4 Kingdom Hearts Series
In most series, you can just stick to the mainline numbered games and you will be fine. Kingdom Hearts is not most games. This is a series where damn near every game needs to be played in order to understand what is going on. Even then, after you play them you should probably read a synopsis online.
Kingdom Hearts fans love the series for being an over-the-top, convoluted mess. But for all its charm, this is a series that needs players to commit a great deal of their brain space to it if they really want to “get” it.
3 All Souls Games
Every Souls game can be played without needing to really engage with the lore. If you are here for the grim vibes, then you will get that without putting in any work. Otherwise, if you want a more precise understanding of this world, and what is really going on, you are going to have to become a part-time Souls scholar.
You will need to read all the item descriptions, scour the environments for clues, as well as interpret the words of every cackling tarnished you encounter. If you are serious about getting to know the Souls lore you are going to be reading essays online, and watching hour-long videos. It is a deep, deep rabbit hole to fall down.
2 Final Fantasy 15
What, you want to know what happened in the Kingdom of Lucis? Well, just watch this movie. Want to have a better understanding of Noctis’ relationship with Luna? You should play through this demo. Are you wondering why the characters receive such small amounts of character development? Well, you see, that stuff is all wedged into the DLC content and the Brotherhood anime.
We aren’t making any of the above up. Never before has a game parceled out more elements of its story than in Final Fantasy 15. And, unfortunately, this isn’t just trivial side content, either. They divvied out all these important elements of the narrative to a number of disparate mediums. So, if you are dead set on getting the most out of this Final Fantasy, prepare to watch a movie, anime, and play multiple pieces of DLC.
1 Balan Wonderworld
Balan Wonderworld is a game set in a nonsense world where all the characters speak a nonsense language called “Balanese”. At the end of every chapter, there is a dance number (no, we aren’t making this up). Each one of these is also accompanied by a unique song… which is sung in Balanese.
So then, this is just an odd game where everything is gibberish. What’s to miss? Everything! The nonsense songs? Buy the album and you can hear them sung with actual lyrics. Read the book (yes, there is a book) and you get actual dialogue, and the world, and what it represents, is actually explained. That’s right, playing through the entire game will do almost nothing to enrich your understanding of what is happening. You need to buy the album and the book if you really want to “get” Balan Wonderworld. Yuji Naka sure made some choices, eh?