I think that final fantasy games are the games to go with if you want emotional relationships. Love stories+ hate/enemy relationships+flamboyant clothes+ guys that look like girls = final fantasy. Which is one emotional batch of rpgedness.

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Original post by azeime I think that final fantasy games are the games to go with if you want emotional relationships. Love stories+ hate/enemy relationships+flamboyant clothes+ guys that look like girls = final fantasy. Which is one emotional batch of rpgedness.

I thought Kuja was a woman until disk 3.

All right, here is how it is. I'm actually working on a game concept of mine fore about a year now. I'm still making a story and the whole basis of what I think my game will be different is that it will allow the player to get connected with the characters and the storyline and feel all kinds of different emotions. The difference between movies and games is that games aren't real.

Let me explain this. Movies, you can relate to the characters in movies, you can say to yourself, I've been there or I know what their going through. How often can you say that about a character in a video game? A half human, half demon is fighting to save the world from the evil underlord that his father faught against. How can you relate to that? Now, I mean, you can get into that and it can be a powerful game for you, but you can't relate therefore you can't get too close to that character. In movies like Fast and the Furious, you can relate to a guy who grew up in a rough life, his father died and he has just had a rough time. You may not have lived those experiences, but you can kinda' relate better then the half demon thing. So what I'm trying to say is, if you want the players to get connected to a character, make the character more down to earth and something the player can relate too.

If you want them to get connected to the storyline, then you have to create a storyline which they can find semi-fesible. The more realistic in where you are and how the characters act, the more the player can become attached and connected. Also you have to play on these emotions, you have to have some kick ass dialogue and scenes where you are trying to invoke one kind of emotion, or it's just not going to have the effect. Building emotion in people is very difficult, but I hope I helped.

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Original post by KymTheAssassin Let me explain this. Movies, you can relate to the characters in movies, you can say to yourself, I've been there or I know what their going through. How often can you say that about a character in a video game? A half human, half demon is fighting to save the world from the evil underlord that his father faught against. How can you relate to that? Now, I mean, you can get into that and it can be a powerful game for you, but you can't relate therefore you can't get too close to that character. In movies like Fast and the Furious, you can relate to a guy who grew up in a rough life, his father died and he has just had a rough time. (...) Also you have to play on these emotions, you have to have some kick ass dialogue and scenes where you are trying to invoke one kind of emotion, or it's just not going to have the effect. Building emotion in people is very difficult, but I hope I helped.

I agree, but you have to be careful not to play on emotion directly. Emotions are always about something, they have some reason. Otherwise it is a pathological. The focus should be on this reason, mostly creating characters with motivations that the player can relate to. You have to flesh out their stories and conflicts.
If you are too specifically aiming for one kind of emotional response, it can become harder to relate. You can only draw the scene, the player then will have to relate and emotion can arise as a consequence of that.
So the thing is that an emotional bond with the character and storyline is not about emotions actually, but imagination and empathy. I think that achieving this in a game is no different than in television or books, but with gameplay the player has influence over the course of the story which makes maintaining a certain dramatic quality complicated. This is especially true for the main character, which is often the player. Perhaps it is better that the player will not act as the main or even important character in the plot.

In order to creat a game that people can relate to and cry over heh heh you have to approch making the story like writing a novel.... like final fantasy titles have