Climax key to game’s success

Most stories or video games build up expectations and build up to the tip of their story. This is known as the climax. There is a right and wrong way to write this, and a perfect way.

A good way to do it is the average fight. The villain’s plan has an opening, so the heroes swoop in and weaken or defeat him.

This is an average and simple plot, but it works. Simple things are jewels in some people’s eyes. The reason such a simple structure works is because it doesn’t overdo it, and it reaches just the right level to be a great ending. This is not a perfect ending, but it’s satisfying.

A bad way to do a climax is  the anti-climax route. This is where it builds up to the main hero doing something very specific, which will cause a series of events, allowing the villain to be defeated, but then an unexpected variable messes up the entire plan.

This will usually come in the form of “that weak admin you thought you killed is actually alive.” This trope is mostly used in JRPG games, and it sometimes works. The reason it doesn’t work is because unless that admin does something memorable, like fight you to stall time for their boss and not for their own grudge, the fight is pointless. If this admin fights you to stall for time, it builds up a bigger time limit.

Then there’s the perfect way to do a climax. A perfect climax usually has multiple parts.

The first part is when you build up to make you fight who you think is the villain. After beating this villian, you learn they were only a pawn in the bigger plan and are sent back to square one. This builds tension but isn’t by itself a good climax, which is how part two comes into play.

This is usually where tension builds within the group, and the main character and usually one of the females in the group have a fight and cause a break in it.

This leads into the third and final part. The group regathers through making up and realizing they’re stronger together and fight together to beat the true battle; however, within the group, members get separated, resulting in a death or some sort of reason to fight harder in some fashion.

With this new thing burning in the hero’s heart, he goes on, along with his remaining friends to defeat the boss. While this sounds more like an ending, the death of a friend and all such things are like one long climax that leads to the end.

Building up to a climax can be hard with some stories, but it’s always possible. Most writers build up that suspense without even trying. It’s that suspense of not knowing what’s going to happen that makes you want to keep playing.