Fans appreciate a game with a great storyline but it can't feature too many unwarranted twists. One of the benefits of video games is that they give people the opportunity to participate in the action like an interactive storybook. This helps them create closer connections with the characters and get swept away in all the ins and outs of a truly great story. In addition, a good complex story can create franchise loyalty, with fans waiting eagerly for the next installment in their favorite game series.
However, some games have such a complex story that gamers become completely lost when trying to keep up. The addition of characters, time loops, multiple enemies, and fantastical events make the games exciting but can often require a fan to continue extensive research into the game's lore just to keep up. Redditors love many of these games, but could not help but feel that the following titles just had a little bit too much going on.
NieR:Automata
Several NieR:Automata. "So many people worship that game and its story but it just feels like it tries way too hard to be deep and mysterious," they said.
NieR:Automata is set in the year 11945 AD and follows a war between androids and an army of machines from another world. A lot of imagination certainly went into the creation of this game, and the visual effects were outstanding, but the story might have gone too far out of its way to be too complex.
BioShock Infinite
Between BioShock Infinite's beautiful graphics and steampunk aesthetic, the game gathered quite a few cosplay fans. In addition, the complicated story and lore led gamers to play the game over and over just to capture every little piece of information they might have missed.
This was what BioShock Infinite that worked, the complicated story turned some gamers off.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Redditor Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice but stated that they "barely lasted an hour of playing" before they had to quit, feeling 'confused and scared.'"
The game is set in the Viking age and has the feel of a psychological thriller. The protagonist, Senua, is a Celtic warrior who has experienced severe trauma and suffers from psychosis. Gamers play as Senua as she embarks, through a vision, on a quest through hell to save the soul of her dead lover. The game greatly twists the ideas of reality, aiming to give players the experience of someone who has suffered mentally the way that Senua has.
Kingdom Hearts
The first Kingdom Hearts' main character, Sora, being ed by the likes of Donald and Goofy, some might have expected a simple Disney-like story, but that was not the case.
Not only was the story complicated, but the large period of time that ed in between the sequel releases made it even harder for gamers to keep up. One Redditor stated that they were "mostly following along until KH2, then [got] totally lost and didn't even finish the game," sharing that the crisscrossed story made them feel "dumb."
Metal Gear Solid
The Metal Gear Solid as their pick for the most complicated game stated that the game was "a given," and that they weren't sure how "anyone can follow that plotline."
Fans know that Metal Gear Solid has a lot of hidden details that keeps players confused. The games are a stealth-adventure series that follows Solid Snake, a genetically engineered soldier. Between gene therapy, gigantic robotic weapons, a huge political conspiracy theory, and the various versions of "Snake," it would be virtually impossible for anyone to pick up this story halfway through without a whole lot of research ahead of time.
SaGa Frontier 2
SaGa Frontier 2 is a game developed by Square Enix, who are notorious for their complicated stories. The game follows two different storylines that are seemingly unrelated: the journey of a king to reclaim his throne, and another of a young man trying to get to the bottom of the death of his parents.
Redditor TurkTurkle said that when they played, they had no idea what was going on and eventually put the game down and never picked it back up again. But then they said "years later I looked at a guide for it and turns out I was less than an hour away from the best ending," as the two storylines eventually meet to great effect.
Path Of Exile
The online action RPG Path of Exile is set in a fantasy world. Players can choose a class, and the story will progress depending on that choice. The player's character is exiled to a land called Wraeclast, where they must kill monsters that are threatening the other exiles that reside there.
Redditor Cavissi cited it as the "most unintuitive game to pick up and play." They said they enjoyed it in all, but the fact that the story contains so much that is never explained, and the lack of instruction on how skills work makes it a "rough road to learn what is even happening."
Final Fantasy XIII-2
The Final Fantasy XIII-2, two sisters named Serah and Noel set out in a realm called Valhalla to find Serah's sister, Lightning. The game features time travel, which always makes for a very confusing story.
Redditor SnowArcaten said "It's about time paradoxes. There's a creature in [the] game that went into the past in order to create itself," stating that playing this tile made their brain hurt.
Blasphemous
The story in Blasphemous is an allegory for religion. The land in the game is ruled by a force known as "The Miracle," which will sometimes give blessings and other times dole out cruelty, transforming citizens into cursed creatures. With the parallels between real-world religion and the theologies within the game, this metaphor gets messy very quickly.
"There's a lot of crazy bullsh** going on in Blasphemous," says Redditor EarthDragon2189, "Wikis/forums are a must for understanding that story."
Children Of A Dead Earth
Children of a Dead Earth is a game about war out in space. Players can design their own spacecraft and control them in fleets, seeing if they can defeat their enemies in battle. This game is a real science lover's dream, as it uses true-to-life science and technology.
While the story isn't so complicated, Redditor Brenden1k chose this game because it "is a lesson in rocket science disguised as a combat game." For someone with the aptitude for such things, the game could be a lot of fun, but others may find Children of a Dead Earth to be much too confusing.