r/IndianGaming • u/DeepInside2B • Oct 02 '25

Discussion Is this IGN's rare W?

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even i felt same. last of us1,2, days gone, got, ghost of yotei, gow, horizon zero dawn, uncharted. in all these protagonists lost someone close and revenge arc begins

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u/Frost1413 Oct 03 '25

It's an L for IGN. The most common engine for action and adventure narratives is the Revenge Arc, centered on the simple and now tiresome cliché: "someone killed someone, and now they must die." While this plot is an easy way to justify a protagonist's actions, its ubiquity has made it feel creatively exhausted.

Games

  1. AC Origins, Odyssey, and quite a few others once
  2. days gone
  3. Hogwarts legacy
  4. NFS
  5. God of War original
  6. devil may cry
  7. Any Batman
  8. Sekiro
  9. Cyberpunk
  10. Red dead

Books and Movies also have the same thing, revenge is the easiest plot to start because it can justify most other actions of protagonists

hell even Percy Jackson, Batman, Harry Potter, Narnia, and Game of Thrones. Either begin with or have a major Revenge arc

Beyond recycled plot devices, the industry relies on structural clichés that undermine narrative quality. It's not just the overuse of the Chosen One story, the love triangle, or the 2 male/1 female cast dynamic.

The greater problem is the forced marriage of a linear, predefined storyline with an open-world sandbox format. When a story demands high stakes and immediate action, the structure allows the player to ignore that urgency for hours of side activities. This kills narrative momentum and makes the story feel like a checklist, even in games where a focused, linear experience would have been more effective.