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Ludonarrative Dissonance
Introduction
Ludonarrative dissonance is the conflict between a video game's narrative told through the story and the narrative told through the gameplay. Ludonarrative, a compound of ludology and narrative, refers to the intersection in a video game of ludic elements (gameplay) and narrative elements (story). The term was coined by game designer Clint Hocking in 2007 in a blog post.
Ideas such as health points are a major example of this. In the game Red Dead Redemption John Marston can survive gunshot wounds during gameplay, regenerating after a while from not being hit, however this greatly conflicts the story with the ending of the game where John Marston dies from being shot multiple times. Another example is in the game Infamous Second Son, Delsin Rowe shows that he cannot die from being shot as the bullet wounds get instantly healed, however this conflicts the gameplay with Delsin taking enough hits killing him.
The way a character acts in game versus in cutscene is also a major part of ludonarrative dissonance. For example, in Jak II our hero Jak is able to punch, shoot, and kill innocent civilians, which greatly conflicts with the story where he is willing to put his life on the line for all the innocents in the city. A more popular example comes from the Uncharted series, according to Jeffrey Matulef of Eurogamer, Uncharted has often been mocked for being about a supposedly likable rogue who just so happens to recklessly slaughter hundreds of people"[1]. This was popular enough to where Uncharted 4: A Thief's End acknowledged this and added a trophy conveniently called "Ludonarrative Dissonance" which is given through killing 1,000 enemies.
Game Mechanics
Game Mechanics is a term used in reference to games (typically video games) where there are abilities determinant on the ruleset of a game. Examples being hit points/health points, levels, stats, instant death to bottomless pits, save files, item or technique limitations, etcetera. Game Mehanics are thus "the narrative told through the gameplay" aspect of ludonarrative dissonance.
Game Mechanics are limitations and features imposed for the game to operate, using them in any sort of debate or profile is fallacious and inaccurately representing a character.
It should be noted, however, there are cases where what might be a game mechanic might otherwise be treated canon by a game, when this happens it does not fall under ludonarrative dissonance.
For a more in-depth explanation on the subject, here is an article defining what game mechanics are.
Story Mechanics
As game mechanics fall under the "the narrative told through the gameplay" aspect of ludonarrative dissonance, they are normally ignored lore wise. Thus Story Mechanics would fall under "the narrative through the story" aspect of ludonarrative dissonance. This would be the true canon form of the story. Examples like these normally come through how a gameplay boss fights tells the narrative conflicting how the actual story told the narrative. A pretty notable example comes from Star Wars games, normally ones with Jedi's and Sith fighting. In Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Cal can repeatedly slice through the Ninth Sister, with her staggering, but never being cut, while in cutscene a single slice can cut off her arm. This clearly shows through the story aspect of the battle that Cal never cut or sliced the Ninth Sister and she never did it back to him.
Narrative Meshing
At times in video games, the narrative of the story and the narrative of the gameplay will mesh. This is where the designers will normally provide reasons in-universe for why mechanics exist or how they exist. Undertale is a good example of this as while save files are usually just relegated as being game mechanics, the game makes numerous references to them as characters acknowledge the mechanic and use it themselves. OFF is another example where there are open references from characters knowing of the presence of characters such as the player acknowledging these mechanics as something present.
Game Limitations
Ludonarrative Dissonance is normally responsible due to the sheer difficulty to connect both realities together. As an example, it is very hard for game designers to show the true strength of their character in gameplay, God of War 3's director Corey Barlog has even explained that there are times in games where you just have to accept that a character is not going to be at the level the narrative is pushing them, this is due to wanting to make the game more fun. For example, if a character is FTL the designers would realistically need to animate every step of them causing an explosion or leaving massive fire trails. There's also the fact that the game would go far too fast for you to play and everything would be a constant white screen. Therefore arguing a character cannot be at a tier or speed because they haven't shown it in gameplay is completely ridiculous and goes against the nature of how an author would be able to make his game work.
Examples of Ludonarrative Dissonance
- Kratos struggling to lift a chest, yet he is able to move an entire bridge.
- Mario getting one-shotted by goombas, yet Mario can almost always casually defeat them in both gameplay and cutscenes.
- Final Fantasy characters (and by proxy most RPG characters) taking turns during a battle yet in cutscenes they're shown to attack without turns.
- Characters in Modern Warfare being able to survive Grenades.
- Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild treats Lynels as a huge mini boss fight but is able to easily defeat several enemies in an ambush including Lynels.
