Branching Story Line

Overview

The storyline branches depending on which "path" or "route" the player has taken through the game's narrative. These narrative paths are usually determined by the choices the player has made at various points throughout the game, including dialogue choices and moral decisions, which can alter the storyline and lead to multiple endings. This approach tends to be most common in the visual novel genre, which tend to be the most non-linear, though there are also plenty of examples among games in the RPG, adventure and action-adventure genres.

Some games, again mostly visual novels, take this approach further and encourage players to view all the endings in order to fully understand the game's overarching narrative. For example, various endings might give differing perspectives, with the plot elements that may not make sense in one ending making sense in another ending; by viewing these differing perspectives, the player thus gains a better understanding of the game's overarching narrative. This approach was largely pioneered by the visual novel Yu-No, and has since been used in many subsequent visual novels (such as Clannad, Fate/stay night, 428, Steins;Gate, and Zero Escape) as well as some adventure games (such as Shadow of Memories), action-adventures (such as Way of the Samurai), and RPG's (such as Drakengard and Radiant Historia).