8 RPGs That Tell Stories in Unconventional Ways

RPGs are, for the most part, acclaimed for their stories, commonly told in a linear structure, even when they give players freedom or put the narrative's turning points in their hands. Even in titles like Baldur's Gate 3, where even micro‑decisions can affect the outcome of an arc or a character's fate, there's still a clear structure of beginning, middle, and end.

Some games try something different: changing how the story is told, rather than where it goes. Titles like Baten Kaitos or Undertale reshape the player's role in the plot, while NieR: Automata distributes storytelling through different runs.

Below, we present eight RPGs that found unique and innovative ways to present stories to players, making use of elements that only a medium like video games could truly exploit.

The NieR series is known for its unusual use of the game's ending as a new beginning. Automata asks the player to finish it three times to see a definitive conclusion, with 26 different endings scattered across dozens of possibilities.

Each run adds a new layer: the first, as 2B, tells the story of the war between humans and machines. The second, as 9S, repeats the same events but with information only that character has access to, which substantially changes the interpretation of the plot; and the third is a direct continuation of events, now from the perspectives of 2B, 9S, and the new android A2, leading to the true ending.

No character in Dark Souls sits the player down in a chair and explains what happened to Lordran. The entire lore of the series is there, but the game never tells it: you need almost an archaeological effort to understand the world, and anyone who moves from boss to boss without paying attention will understand nothing beyond needing to defeat the next enemy.

To grasp Dark Souls' universe, the player must pay attention to every detail: item descriptions, the position of a corpse, how a cathedral connects two areas that shouldn't be together, or the brief dialogues with the few NPCs scattered across the map.

In Valkyrie Profile, Lenneth is a Valkyrie who recruits dead warriors for the battle of Ragnarok, and each recruitment begins with the moment of the Einherjar's death. Each story lasts relatively little time, and it's up to the player to decide which warriors are worthy of ascending to Valhalla and joining the Aesir.

The title has a main story, and it revolves, in a way, around Lenneth. But the true value of the plot (and it's inevitable; the player must send at least one Einherjar per chapter) lies in the recollection of each warrior's final moments, where we understand their motivations and regrets.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter (or Breath of Fire V) is possibly the most hated title in Capcom's forgotten franchise, and many fans blame it for the death of the series for changing various elements in favor of more experimental choices. Storytelling was one of them.

The game is designed to be played more than once and with the certainty that you'll see the Game Over screen at least once. BoFV has a counter that rises as the player uses the dragon's power. When it reaches 100%, it's Game Over; and the game is challenging enough that most players can't finish it in a single attempt.

With each new attempt, more details of the story are revealed, and the setting where the plot unfolds becomes more contextualized. Capcom's idea was to reward players for accepting that losing is part of the game with a bit more meaning on each new run, but the choice was widely criticized at launch.

Ironically, with the rise of the Roguelike genre, Dragon Quarter might have found more success and its target audience today.

Disco Elysium puts the player in charge of rebuilding the protagonist Harry's psyche through his skills. The police case is just a backdrop, because the real story lies in making Harry recover his memories and rediscover his identity, and the process is carried out by the player orchestrating his skills and listening to their voices to rebuild a complete character.

Discovery also materializes through other gameplay mechanics, such as a cabinet where Harry can internalize ideas he hears from the world and his own voices to grant bonuses and new dialogue options, giving the player an in‑game feeling of rebuilding the character.

Baten Kaitos turns the player into a character within the game — the "guardian spirit." The protagonist, Kalas, speaks directly to it, and NPCs acknowledge its presence, creating an experience where the fourth wall barely exists.

This dynamic between the game and the person playing creates an interaction like no other RPG title had done before, and it remains innovative to this day, with plot twists and developments only possible because of the link between medium and player. Believe me, you'll rarely play anything like it.

Undertale's story couldn't be told in any way other than through a game. Saving, loading, and starting a new game are permanent parts of the narrative, and the characters in the story know about the player's history of saves and previous campaigns.

The player's actions build the story in a way that isn't limited to worldbuilding through role‑playing their character but through the conscious or unconscious decisions the person behind the screen makes during their campaigns.

With thirteen protagonists and intersecting timelines, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim places a puzzle in the player's hands in the form of an RPG, where the order in which the story is explored significantly changes the experience from one run to another.

Each character has unlockable chapters, and a devastating revelation from one of them may only matter if the player has seen the ending or beginning that triggered that event in another story, with another character. Likewise, the same events can have different interpretations depending on the character's perspective, creating a narrative prism that few titles can offer so freely.

It's up to the player to assemble the story however they want, and even if all stories converge to the same ending, it's the path there that makes the experience of 13 Sentinels so different between players.