We have plenty of opportunities in games to venture off and conquer unknown lands…but we frequently have to leave our homes and families to do so. Do we always need to abandon home to quest and grow?This episode of Intelligame Radio dives a bit into some memorable moments of protagonists with families in the gaming space. More stories about families could deepen our connections to games and their storylines.
Sampling a bit on Final Fantasy XV, God of War, and even Dragon Quest II, I dive into gameplay involving families and protagonists. Getting older and also being pretty far away from most of my family, I think this kind of topic’s been on my mind for a while. I also talk a bit about a criticism a friend levied towards the stream we did a couple months back on God of War; he felt like we missed some of the positive points that the game hits in dealing with a father/son connection by focusing on things like the fridging of the mother earlier on in the game. I go into some detail about this in the episode, but even though I still think tropes are more often than not lazy writing, I also acknowledge that the game likely needed more time to say what it was going to say. I’m planning on looping back to GoW at some point, and streams will go up for it when I do.
In the meantime, I’m thinking more about this “family in gaming” thing. Do you have good examples of families represented in gaming? And not just as backstory or NPCs, but as playable characters? Leave your recommendations in the comments below; I’d love to check them out.
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