Topic: Does simple story = bad story?

Whenever you hear about stories in games, its always about the ones with the deepest, the most dramatic, the most meaningful. But can a very simple story also be a good story? Kid Icarus: Uprising's story was very simple, yet it was one of the game's strongest aspects. Viewtiful Joe pretty much had an excuse plot, but it was an excuse plot I really enjoyed. Why does a game's story need to be complex or moraly thought provoking to be good all the time?

Because people want to pretend to be smarter than you

I feel like a clip from Arrested Development needs to be posted here. I couldn't find the clip maybe someone else can lol

When you put a simple story in a series that usually has an in-depth, complex story then I do not like it. If you put a simple story in a series that usually doesn't have a complex story, I don't care.

Bad story: Paper Mario Sticker Star (Mario RPGs usually have good stories)
Excusable story: Every single Mario game where Peach gets captured (New Super Mario Bros. series)

I think the mechanics should be focused on if a story is going to exist then it should be told at the same time as the game is being played as opposed to stopping the game for cutscenes.

The way Bastion / Transistor does it I like.

(Somehow Rondo of Blood gets away with cutscenes as well and I like them).

Bastion was AWESOME when it came to the way it told its story. And furthermore, to be honest, I prefer a relatively simple story: I'd rather focus on the gameplay and art direction of the title.

No... simple story does not equal bad story,
presentation of the story is more important.

This War of Mine doesnt even have a story and it tells its story MUCH BETTER than most games

Developers/People thinks that overly complicated stories with huge amounts of lore and crap means you have a compelling game, WRONG,

I agree. A story doesn't have to be complex, but it has to have an effective presentation

That is the kind of thing I like (I have died too quickly to be that invested into it yet).

I am glad you recommended it.

Thanks.

Glad you did it ! its such a powerful game (and a good game also !) we have been in the frontlines way too many times in games that we forget that there are civilians there too

I love complex stories for many reasons, most notably the mindblows occuring if it's done right.

But a simple story can be just as satisfying. It all depends on the presentation. The most convoluted plot can be seen as dumb if it's presented in a very unappealing or unfitting way (Tales of Xillia, Fahrenheit), while a simple story can be extremely involving just by presenting it in a complimenting or intriguing way (Shadow of the Colossos, Journey). It's all about how the story is put to use, and that's what determines the actual value of it in the end.

There are many aspects to a story. The complexity of the subject matter, the strength of the characters involved, the pacing and effectiveness of the narrative. etc etc.
My general view is that it's ok if one of these aspects is lacking, as long as the others compensate for it.
Most Tales games have generic plots but the characters are so endearing, you get pulled along for the ride. The Half-life 2 story is the epitome of sci-fi cliches but it's presented in an interestingly implicit manner that makes it incredibly immersive and it feels more real than most game stories. The Ocarina of time story is incredibly generic high fantasy but it's such a captivating world with near-perfect pacing for the story.
All of these different approaches are valid in their own ways. The sheer simplicity of the story, which I would take to mean either the number of different elements involved in the plot (e.g the Final Fantasy 7 story is a huge interwoven ensemble of different narratives) or the emotional or intellectual depth of the ideas in the plot, is only that 1 part of things.

Simple story is a bad story, if you're looking for value in just the story itself. But bad story =/= bad game.

Would I say Mario games have a good story? Nope. But we don't play them for the story. That's what I mean.

What's simple and what's complex? Uprising being considered a simple story is a little weird to me, considering the game has about 8-10 hours of dialogue, but in terms of depth I guess it is a pretty simple. It's nothing more than a Saturday morning cartoon in that respect. Where would the Metroid games fall? Outside of the Primes' lore and scans and cutscenes like in Other M, the story is told almost exclusively by the craft of each individual environment Samus walks in and her actions within it. To me, at least in the case of Metroid Prime Hunters, Metroid has a really deep story in spite of being presented in a simple fashion because of all the ways the games can be interpreted. I'm not really sure where that all falls though, so I'm not going to answer that I prefer simple or complex stories, but that I love to experience thought provoking stories like that in Metroid games, especially Metroid Prime Hunters.

Not really.

Plenty of games with excuse plots are plenty popular and well loved. Mario, early Zelda and Pokemon games, Donkey Kong Country, the Wario series in general, F-Zero, puzzle games like Tetris, etc. Heck, despite at least one person here talking about 'complex' plots in Mario RPGs... they've mostly still been pretty simple in execution. Save the world/princess with a few extra sub plots here and there.

And some people appreciate the plots of those types of games way more than anyone would appreciate the 'deep' story of some RPG or another.

No.

Simple stories leave more room to the imagination and quite possibly will have better gameplay, and so can be better.

Avatar has a simple story and it's the greatest movie of all time