Some of my all-time favorites are the classic Legend of Zelda games and Jordan Mechner's Prince of Persia trilogy (minus the newest 4th installment, which however tragically, I haven't checked out yet since not having an Xbox bars you from experiencing anything recent and awesome). Both series are built on an imaginative, decidedly mythic plotline, in a world that's close enough to our own to relate to, and yet far enough away to allow us to escape from our daily realities when we play though it.
Seen in films like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, the monomyth of the "Hero's Journey" outlined by mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell is a pretty safe bet for any epic action/adventure game storyline. I've been something of a Joseph Campbell fan since I was eight, when my family first began our yearly ritual of watching the "Power of Myth" video series (VHS tapes, whaat??), and I've been able to notice his observations in a lot of the games I play. The Journey highlights an ages-old pattern of plot devices and characters that often fit Jungian archetypes, beginning with the hero's call to adventure, playing through the obstacles the hero faces on their quest to end up returning home, transformed through their experiences. I found this exemplified in each title in the Prince of Persia series, as well as the 13th Zelda excursion, Twilight Princess, which I have finally been obsessively playing through for the past few days after having first purchased it at the time of its release.
The Ordinary World from which the hero originates is clearly established in Twilight Princess as the bucolic and peaceful village of Ordon before the conflict is introduced and Link receives his call to adventure. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time begins during less expected everyday circumstances with the Prince's army is besieging an enemy city, though the opening cutscenes nevertheless describe the romanticized world of medieval India/Persia the story is to take place in. Both heroes are quickly thrust into an alternate world, Link into the realm of Twilight that has covered the lands of Hyrule in an ominous darkness, and the Prince into the catastrophic world he has created by unwittingly unleashing the Sands of Time; neither hero distinctly refuses their Call to Adventure, but each warrior discovers their destiny is something other than what they were expecting- the Prince leaves his visions of honor and glory behind to undo his terrible mistake, while Link discovers through the help of a light spirit that he has become entangled in a quest that is not merely to recover the lost children from his village, but that he is the champion that has been chosen by the gods, fated to face the forces of darkness and lift the twilight the evil lord Zant has cast over his homelands.
Farah, the Indian princess the Persian forces took captive, acts as the Prince's mentor figure in Sands of Time, lending him vital information and help after he's reduced his world to crumbling, sand-dusted ruins fraught with zombified soldiers and bloodthirsty, overgrown crows. A more traditional mentor appears in the second "PoP" installment, Warrior Within, where an old blind man appears in a flashback to tell the Prince he's messed up the timeline in the first game where he cheated death, so a big, shadowy, Balrog-type creature called the Dahaka is chasing after him to set things straight (like in those painfully terrible Final Destination movies- You really can't cheat death.) The Prince's encounter with the old man begins his quest, inspiring him to travel back in time to the birthplace of the Sands to ensure they are never created in the first place, and he will therefore be erased from the Dahaka's hit list. Link is given similar guidance in Twilight Princess from a variety of sources, ranging from the ancient light spirits that task him to free them, to the princess Zelda who describes how her lands came to be under Zant's control, and Midna, the shadow creature that accompanies you throughout the game and reminds you of your duties (she looks a little like a demon baby, but at least her unintelligible reminders are a step up from Navi's shrill, annoying outbursts.)
Once the heroes willingly commit to their tasks and enter the alternate world, they are tested through various challenges, and often meet up with allies and enemies along the way. This usually takes up the bulk of any lengthy action and/or adventure game like PoP or LoZ title. Zelda players know they can expect a dizzying swarm of quests and subquests from Twilight Princess, in which you spend hours running here and there over the non-linear environments of Hyrule, navigating dungeons, fighting baddies, herding goats, collecting "Tears of Light", delivering items, talking to countless NPCs, planting bombs near suspicious-looking rocks, trying out the minigames in the castle town, and throwing a bone for every dog you see or grabbing the nearest cucco to use as a hang glider in hopes you'll be rewarded with a hidden area, a heart piece to extend Link's health, or a few rupees to line your pockets (they apparently use the Indian monetary system in Hyrule too). Whether or not you feel obligated to test out every little detail, the non-linear gameplay and interactive citizens of Hyrule certainly create a depth and richness players have come to expect from a Zelda game.
While the Prince of Persia games do not possess such an open storyline and are not quite so vast or bursting with content, they do allow the player to explore as much as any decent platformer, navigating booby-trapped environments, finding allies and enemies along the way. As expected, no title in the PoP trilogy is devoid of sand creatures and evil minions to slay, though there are significantly less secondary characters or friendlies besides the Prince, a boss enemy, and a love interest or two in the worlds ravaged by the Sands of Time. In Sands of Time and The Two Thrones, the Prince teams up with Farah to combat the evil Vizier, though in Warrior Within the Empress [who turns out to be Kaileena] the still nameless Prince thought to be his enemy in Warrior Within ultimately
LE GASP! SPOILERS! SHIELD YOUR EYES!
becomes his ally and lover after he kills her, only to journey back before her death and save her instead after discovering destroying her is actually what creates the Sands. (Yes, it's probably crawling with plot loopholes, but even thinking about it usually gives you so much of a headache that you never actually grasp it enough to notice.)
The biggest challenge the hero faces in Campbell's Journey is the Ordeal, in which the hero faces the main villain and displays vulnerability. Though I admittedly haven't reached that point in Twilight Princess, I expect Link will eventually confront the evil Zant, and ultimately triumph even after signs of failure. In each PoP game, the Prince eventually comes to clash with the power-hungry Vizier, wresting control of the Sands of Time away from him to restore peace and freedom to the world the Sands have ruined. Even against all odds, with the help of Farah/Kaileena the heroic Prince defeats the Vizier/Dahaka and releases himself and the land from the curse of the Sands.
After the Ordeal, the heroes navigate The Road Back, choosing either to stay in the alternate world or return to the one they began in. Usually, the hero's triumph returns the world to its previous "rightful" state, as the Hyrule of Twilight Princess probably will be, just like in Ocarina of Time (Which Twilight Princess is basically a copy of formatwise what with the elemental dungeons and all, give or take a few plot changes and gameplay features- somewhat unoriginal, but still enjoyable). After finally finding the Vizier and the Hourglass he has stolen in The Sands of Time, the Prince stabs the Dagger of Time into the Hourglass, rewinding time to before the Vizier murdered Farah (who the Prince had fallen in love with by that point, of course), even before he released the Sands and his father's armies invaded her kingdom. Thus, he returns the world to its previous order, choosing to confront the Vizier and defeat him before he can work his evil and trick the Prince into releasing the Sands. The next two PoP installments, Warrior Within, and the Two Thrones individually end with enough of the Prince's triumph over evil (within and without himself) to leave the player satisfied, though they leave room for sequels, which the franchise can actually afford to do in this case without dragging out their success for too long. (Do we really need more Final Fantasy games or Simpsons episodes? I think not.)
The completion of the hero's circular journey and culmination of the story Campbell calls the Return with the Elixir is characterized by the hero's return home from the special world with their prize or after having completed their quest, and it is clear the hero has been transformed for the better by their experience. This is true in every adventure of Link or the Prince, as the player sees them through to victory in some way or another, and they emerge noticably different from how they began. Link, an unlikely hero, sheds his past identity of young villager to realize his inner strength and courage in order to help those in need, while the Prince evolves from a naive, glory-seeking youth to a battle-hardened warrior, capable of conquering himself as well as the evil and cruelty around him throughout the series; while Link can generally be found sporting the characteristic green tunic and stocking cap, the Prince even changes in appearance too, and for some reason strips from a longsleeved shirt and a headpiece to being topless in Sands of Time (I can just see him saying in his decidedly misplaced English accent "Oh look, Farah, I seem to have lost my shirt, how unfortunate". It'd fit right in with all the Prince's whiny monologues and the Prince and Farah's playful banter- That totally helped to make the game).
I actually loved the story of Sands of Time so much I secretly wished someone would eventually make it into a film, that is, until I learned they'd cast Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince and some pasty bitch as Farah (excuse me, "Tamina"). I'm still optimistic though- I'm not sure a Jerry Bruckheimer movie can go too much more wrong, especially with Ben Kingsley as the villain. And if someone doesn't make a Legend of Zelda movie soon instead of teasing us with fake movie trailers on April Fools, I will.
In short, a compelling story is an essential part of creating an effective game- Drool-worthy graphics and innovative gameplay aside, the story can make or break it in my opinion, and the framework of the mythic Hero's Journey is more than a good place to start.
good details and you used a lot of the important content from the readings. like the images
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