Ludonarrative Dissonance occurs when gameplay and narrative are in active conflict with each other. In some cases, its immediately obvious, but other times, it requires active examination to uncover beyond a subconscious level. No matter what form it takes, a player who becomes aware of the dissonance may be pulled out of the game or be otherwise frustrated.
Common Forms of Ludonarrative Dissonance
While there's a possibly near-infinite amount of cases where ludonarrative dissonance can occur, there's several cases it commonly appears in. For each case, I'll discuss the form of dissonance, why it may occur, and ways to mitigate it.
Win the Fight, Lose the Cutscene
One of the most common and frustrating cases of ludonarrative dissonance seen in games is when a player wins a conflict in gameplay, but then a following cutscene showcases the player losing said conflict anyways. This is particularly exacerbated when a gameplay loss results in a normal game over, as the only way to progress in a game is to "win to lose." While I am insufficiently researched as to why this so commonly occurs, especially in JRPGs, I believe it may be a result of designers not wanting to cheat a player out of a "real boss fight."
This dissonance can be avoided rather cleverly just through the use of different framing methods. One is to frame the conflict as a task of survival, where the conflict is less "win the fight" so much as "survive the fight until an event occurs." A second method is to communicate during the fight that the conflict is significantly out of the player character's league and the opposition is simply toying with them. This can be done both through mid-conflict dialogue as well as gameplay patterns, such as a boss fight where the boss deliberately leaves openings or refuses to press an advantage. A third method is to have the cutscene not negate the player's victory so much as introduce an external element. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice does this in its tutorial boss. If the players dies to Genichiro in the tutorial, a cutscene plays where Genichiro slices the protagonist's arm off in an honorable duel. If the player instead beats Genichiro, the fight is interrupted by an enemy ninja attacking the player character from behind, allowing Genichiro to strike them dishonorably. While both cases have the same result, being the player character losing an arm, players who win the fight are still treated as victors in the duel.
Gameplay Competence, Cutscene Incompetence
This is another common form of ludonarrative dissonance, though it may be better described as "character capabilities do not transfer between modes of play" as it is not exclusive to gameplay vs cutscene by any means. This can happen for any number of reasons. For instance, a game with a set narrative with a high production value but a wide degree of player avatar customization might fall into this pitfall because developers simply aren't given enough time or resources to allow custom capabilities interact with the narrative. In other games, this may occur due to balancing reasons, as it is much more difficult to balance interconnected modes of gameplay than it is to balance discrete modes of gameplay. For instances involving NPCs with incongruous capabilities, this may be a result of a miscommunication between development teams or due to changes made after a scene was initially written. Other times, it can just be a lack of follow-through on an existing idea, such as in Fire Emblem: Three Houses where the protagonist has the power to repeatably turn back time, but rarely demonstrates this ability in cutscenes when it would be useful or effective. Even when it is used, the protagonist only uses it once per cutscene, giving up after the first attempt fails.
As this is a problem often caused by a lack of time and resources, there is not a particularly wide variety of ways to sidestep this form of ludonarrative dissonance. Ideally, the solution is to allow player choices in one mode to affect the other modes, but this isn't a practical solution for every game. However, one way to mitigate the dissonance when applied to gameplay vs cutscene modes is to have player options affect what the player avatar performs in-cutscene, but not change the final outcome. A similar treatment can also be applied to NPCs.
Fiction and Mechanic Misalignment
While the previous two forms can be cleanly applied to gameplay vs cutscene dissonance, this form is somewhat more nebulous. This type of dissonance occurs when the fiction presented by the game does not sufficiently match the mechanics of playing the game. For example, if a playable character who is presented as big, slow, and strong in the fiction of the game actually plays like a fragile, lightweight character, that's this type of dissonance. This form is most noticeable when two thematically divergent options are lacking in meaningful gameplay differences. One reason this happens is that a designer is concerned that the gameplay that best supports the fiction is not a good fit for the intended playerbase or the game as a whole. A specific example of this is Pathfinder Second Edition's Inventor Class. Ostensibly, the class is about creating technological marvels, but in practice, it rarely interacts with actual item creation and most of its mechanics are just typical martial abilities similar to the Barbarian but with some gadgeteer flavor. The reason behind this is that the previous item crafting class, the Alchemist, was rather poorly received.
This is another case where the best way to reduce ludonarrative dissonance is to avoid this form in its entirety. For cases where changing the gameplay to better match the fiction may result in an overall worse game, instead consider changing the fiction to match the gameplay. Alternatively, offering both modes of gameplay and letting players choose between them could sidestep the issue effectively as long as the differences are effectively communicated. Finally, it's sometimes necessary to simply accept the dissonance. After all, there's always an acceptable level of leeway thanks to willing suspension of disbelief. Riding this line in order to ensure the gameplay is fun can ultimately be necessary.
Recognizing Ludonarrative Dissonance
In order to prevent ludonarrative dissonance, one must first be able to recognize it. There's a handful of heuristics that can help in this regard. The first is what I dub the "idiot test," which is where you just ask whether a potential source of dissonance makes ludonarrative sense given previously established game elements. This first line of defense, albeit vague, is useful in catching the most obvious cases of dissonance. Other methods of recognition vary depending on the form of dissonance. For example, one can identity fiction-mechanic misalignment by examining whether the mechanics can inform the fiction and vice versa. If the relationship only works in one direction, then there is at least some level of dissonance.
Intentionally Invoking Dissonance
While ludonarrative dissonance is generally harmful to a game, though sometimes a necessary evil, I believe it may be intentionally used to jar the player. Obvious and intrusive forms of dissonance can be used to push the player to examine the game more deeply, which could be useful for mystery-oriented games. Additionally, other, more subtle forms of dissonance could unnerve or subconsciously bother players akin to a disharmonic chord.
Dissonance can also be invoked for comedic effect, something which many fighting games do by having characters whose aesthetics deliberately clash with their gameplay. Bob and Rufus from Tekken and Street Fighter respectively are obese men whose fighting styles exemplify speed and position in defiance of their body type. Hinako from King of Fighters is a young girl who, despite her appearance, is a slow and fearsome sumo wrestler who emphasizes power and control. Notably, this type of dissonance is tongue-in-cheek, with most characters who have contrasting appearances and fighting styles having jokes and lore explanations that explain the contrast.
Concluding Thoughts
While ludonarrative dissonance is typically considered a negative phenomenon, it is often necessary and may be deliberately used to great effect. However, dissonance without purpose is almost always harmful to a game experience.
Next time, I'll be covering homogeneity as a balance mechanism.
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