Something I’ve picked up on with my gaming preference is stories that don’t simply focus on one “mood” for the game, but alter it to fit the situation. Players get a relaxed time exploring or diving into combat, and the world is inviting and colorful, but when the story builds, it puts brutal tests of character in front of the heroes.

Some examples of generally-great games that might fail this test:

• Silent Hill 2: A game well-known for plumbing the depths of the human psyche. But it’s missing any real moments of levity, leading players to pretty much be on guard the whole time.
• Monkey Island: Undoubtedly a funny game. But since it breaks the fourth wall so much, and revels in its own illogical deus ex machinas to fit the “hero cannot die” tropes, it’s never going to make the situation feel tense or at risk even when it tries to (and Telltale did try).
• Call of Duty: Though a dudebro series, one can’t deny the series has occasionally had some great storyline twists. Many of us may not remember them years later though, because as cool as characters like Captain Price are in the moment, they don’t form a lasting impression as someone “complete” with flaws and weaknesses, in part because the storyline is often rushing you forward with action rather than poignance.
• GTA: As a crime drama, pretty much everything is falling apart all the time in GTA, whether it’s the plan, the heroes’ relationship, or the entire city. There’s moments of humor for sure, but little in the game makes you feel “awesome” or heroic, like your violence is achieving something.

Some games that prevail:

• The Walking Dead: While it is a serious game like Silent Hill, it’s more often going to have meaningful, positive and tender moments to settle from the horrors the characters are going through, as well as allowing players to creatively express themselves even if that means having Lee say something boisterous or silly to the other survivors.
• Yakuza: Sort of the posterchild for these emotional oscillations even within individual side quests. One might start through a silly situation where a man is throwing snow cones in the air, and end with using diaper fabric to simulate a snowstorm - so that a terminal cancer patient has a perfect sendoff in her final hours.
• Final Fantasy: Thinking of the one I’ve played the most, XIV, but plenty of the others have had the heroes cross-dress to get back their taken party member, perform in plays for children, before having to dive into hell and confront their dark past, or consider ending an entire civilization to save the world.
• Ace Attorney: The passion for murder tends to run hot. But, Ace Attorney is good at introducing ridiculous characters that tend to soften the blow. They may take premises as simple as security guards or journalists, and find every way they can to exaggerate their appearance and mannerisms. On the other end, the emotions behind proving the state and prosecution wrong about your innocent defendant are always worthwhile. Even when you do your best, the game delivers some poignant and well-written sad endings as well as many good ones.
• Metal Gear Solid: Though diving hard into the “Tacti-cool”, strategic warfare theme, MGS has always leaned hard into silly and highly characterized moments that have made the hard-hitting ones more impactful, as a result winning it lifetime fans.
• Borderlands: Thought I’d throw another Western developer on here. I haven’t played many of the others, but Borderlands 2 at least mastered the idea of having characters be flippant and silly 80% of the time, but getting you to really care when the jokes drop. A certain few moments around Handsome Jack come to mind in particular.

I’ve definitely seen that Japanese developers are often better at this form of emotional openness, but this is something that I’ve wanted to explore a bit more as a prompt; whether people agree this is a good goal for story/theme development, what causes some publishers to stumble in this approach, and especially what indie games people aren’t aware of that pull this off particularly well.