I’ve been playing two games that are entirely narrative-driven back-to-back recently; World’s End Club and Sumire. They’re thematically different, but structurally both games exist exclusively to tell a story.
The difference? World’s End Club, which is lovely, undermines itself by forcing “gameplay” bits on players. Sumire is comfortable being itself and just telling its story.
I often feel that on the art side of games there’s still too much of an expectation that they check certain boxes, and it’s to their detriment.
– Matt S.