Games that employ linear stories are those where the player cannot change the story line or ending of the story. Many video games use a linear structure, thus making them more similar to other fiction, but it is common for such games to use
interactive narration in which a player needs to interact with something before the plot will advance, or
nonlinear narratives in which events are portrayed in a non-chronological order. Many games have offered premature endings should the player fail to meet an objective, but these are usually just interruptions in a player's progress rather than actual endings. Even in games with a linear story, players interact with the game world by performing a variety of actions along the way. More recently, some games have begun offering
multiple endings to increase the dramatic effect of moral choices within the game, although early examples also exist. but eventually they were abandoned as too expensive.
Facade, a video game often categorized as an
interactive drama, features many branching paths that are dictated by the user's text input based on the current situation, but there is still a set number of outcomes as a result of the inherent limitations of programming, and as such, is nonlinear, but not entirely so.
Visual novels Branching storylines are a common trend in
visual novels, a subgenre of interactive narrative and
adventure games. Visual novels frequently use multiple branching storylines to achieve multiple different endings, allowing nonlinear freedom of choice along the way. Decision points within a visual novel often present players with the option of altering the course of events during the game, leading to many different possible outcomes. Visual novels are popular in
East Asia, especially in
Japan where they account for nearly 70% of
personal computer games released there. An acclaimed example is
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, where nearly every action and
dialogue choice can lead to entirely new branching paths and endings. Each path only reveals certain aspects of the overall storyline and it is only after uncovering all the possible different paths and outcomes through multiple playthroughs that everything comes together to form a coherent well-written story. It is not uncommon for visual novels to have morality systems. A well-known example is the 2005 title
School Days, an animated visual novel that
Kotaku describes as going well beyond the usual "black and white choice systems" (referring to video games such as
Mass Effect,
Fallout 3 and
BioShock) where the players "pick a side and stick with it" while leaving "the expansive middle area between unexplored".
School Days instead encourages players to explore the grey, neutral middle-ground in order to view more interesting, "bad" endings. It is also not uncommon for visual novels to have multiple protagonists giving different perspectives on the story. C's Ware's
EVE Burst Error (1995) introduced a unique twist to the system by allowing the player to switch between both protagonists at any time during the game, instead of finishing one protagonist's scenario before playing the other.
EVE Burst Error often requires the player to have both protagonists co-operate with each other at various points during the game, with choices in one scenario affecting the other.
Fate/stay night is another example that features multiple perspectives.
Chunsoft sound novels such as
Machi (1998) and
428: Shibuya Scramble (2008) develop this concept further, by allowing the player to alternate between the perspectives of several or more different characters, making choices with one character that have consequences for other characters.
428 in particular features up to 85 different possible endings. It provides enough freedom to allow for the player to
experiment with the game, such as using it as a resource for their own
role-playing game campaign, for example.
Role-playing games in
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. During certain
cutscenes,
Geralt will be faced with options that may affect quest progression, characters' fate and even the game's ending. Branching storylines are also often used in
role-playing video games (RPGs) to an extent. An early example, published in 1999, is the
fantasy role-playing game
Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor, where players have to choose between Light and Dark. While the dark side wants to destroy the world of Enroth, the light side tries to save it. The choice determines which grandmaster levels the player characters can obtain and the quests they have to do in that part of the game. Earlier in the game, the player already has to choose sides in a border conflict between Elves and Humans, or remain neutral. This affects the flag in their Castle Harmondale and a few quests, but not the outcome. A second example is
Obsidian Entertainment's
Fallout: New Vegas, where the player's decisions influence whether one of three different factions gain control of the area surrounding post-apocalyptic
Las Vegas. These factions include Caesar's Legion, a group of
Roman-esque slavers; the
New California Republic (NCR), an expansionist military government; and Mr. House, the enigmatic
de facto ruler of New Vegas, in command of an army of robots that patrols the city. Each of the three sides aim to control
Hoover Dam, which is still operational and supplying the
American Southwest with power and clean, non-irradiated water; thus, control of the dam means effective control of the region. A fourth option, siding with a robot named Yes Man and prevailing upon or eliminating the other faction leaders, enables the player to go solo and take over the Hoover Dam for themselves. Another RPG example is
tri-Ace's
Star Ocean series, where the storyline is not affected by moral
alignments like in other role-playing games, but inspired by
dating sims, by friendship and relationship points between each of the characters.
Star Ocean: The Second Story in particular offers as many as 86 different endings with hundreds of permutations, setting a benchmark for the number of possible outcomes of a video game. A similar type of conversation system later appeared in a more recent
action role-playing game also published by
Sega,
Alpha Protocol. Another unique take on the concept is combining nonlinear branching storytelling with the concepts of time travel and
parallel universes. Early attempts at such an approach included
Squaresoft's
Chrono role-playing game series (1995–1999)
Radiant Historia takes it further by giving players the freedom to travel backwards and forwards through a timeline to alter the course of history, with each of their choices and actions significantly affect the timeline. The player can return to certain points in history and live through certain events again to make different choices and see different possible outcomes on the timeline. The player can also travel back and forth between two parallel timelines, and can obtain many possible parallel
endings. The
PSP version of
Tactics Ogre featured a "World" system that allows players to revisit key plot points and make different choices to see how the story unfolds differently.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 also features a similar nonlinear time travel system to
Radiant Historia. == Early examples ==