During times like these, diversity and variation in stories are more important than ever.
The story is one of the most critical aspects of many modern games, from The Last of Usto God of Warand Assassin’s Creed.While the mechanics and gameplay are important, the stories within these games give them a reason to existaround such an interactive medium.
Although the stories in games are important, each has to be fresh and unique to prevent the medium from growing stale. While many like to complain about video games changing things like stories up, especially in new IPs, if gaming companies didn’t take risks, we wouldn’t have what we do now.
There would be no Last of Uswithout Jak & Daxter.There would be no Final Fantasy XVIwithout the fifteen previous titles taking bold risks in their stories.
When new and diverse writers flex their storytelling skills, we get to experience worlds and narratives we wouldn’t have thought possible in our smaller cultural bubbles.
Courtesy of IGDB
One recent example of diverse storytelling is Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.When the game was first announced, I was dubious about Ubisoft’s prospects in the franchise since so many people have grown disillusioned or bored with it. However, after I watched the trailers and read up on its historical setting, Sengoku-period Japan at the end of the 16th Century, I was fascinated.
Assassin’s Creed: Shadowstells the stories of two characters: Fujibayashi Naoe and Yasuke. Naoe is a young assassin who pledges revenge on a mysterious group of powerful people who killed her father. While I love her story, Yasuke’s is far more fascinating because he was a real historical figure.
Yasuke was a slave to the Jesuits given to Oda Nobunaga, who later gave him the rank of samurai. While Yasuke’s real story ends in the aftermath of the Honno-ji Incident, in Shadows,he finds his way to Naoe’s side to avenge Nobunaga’s death.
Yasuke’s story in Shadowsis about finding acceptance and peace in a tumultuous world that often does not want him. As the only black man in Japan at the time, he is isolated, yet he fights on for a cause he wholeheartedly believes in. It may not be “historically accurate,” but there isn’t much room to use that criticism in a franchise where you literallyfight the Pope in the Vatican for a mind-controlling artifact.
Courtesy of XboxAchievements
Yasuke’s story is one of many that would not get told without a push to try diverse, interesting narratives in video games or otherwise.
Celesteis another game that uses its unique interactivity to talk about important themes. Celestedeals with mental illness and the mountains one has to climb to process and understand them. Countless other games deal with different mental illnesses, but Celesteis the one that spoke to me the most.
Proper representationis also important in gaming, especially in our world today. It’s vital to show queer characters and characters who are people of color, as well as representations of other minority groups. Many video games aim to be an escape from reality, and having positive representation should be a part of that.
As a gay man, I often look for queer representation in games and base some of my opinions off that. Assassin’s Creed Shadows,for example, has a romance system with multiple love interests for Naoe and Yasuke, and there are same-sex options for both. While some have questioned the “accuracy” of this, ultimately, the player chooses who they might want Yasuke and Naoe to romance. There’s nothing saying you haveto pick the same-sex option.
I think Shadowsis better off for giving players that option, even if most won’t pick it. The option is there for the players who want to see themselves represented in a game, such as myself.
Image courtesy of IGDB
Another example of great queer representation in gaming comes from the Dragon Ageseries, particularly Inquisition.All the main NPCs have set sexualities, and the gender of your character changes who you’re available to romance. If you play as a male character and want to romance other men, you can choose between Iron Bull and Dorian Pavus, but are locked out of heterosexual options such as Cullen and Blackwall.
If you romance neither Dorian nor Iron Bull, they also get together organically throughout the game. Without them, I wouldn’t have understood aspects of my identity as soon as I did. These characters are an excellent example of how important it is to have diverse representation in gaming.
Image courtesy of IGN
In 2025, big video game releases are picked apart and analyzed to the smallest detail. Some of this criticism can be unfairly focused on factors such as representation that people have focused on in games like Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.
Because of this, it’s incrediblyimportant that video games have positive forms of representation through characters or storytelling. I never would’ve understood my identity as a gay man as well without good representation in games such as Dragon Age.
