Shigeru Miyamoto clarifies his stance on stories in games

Over the years, Shigeru Miyamoto has been painted as a developer who isn’t interested in having stories be a central part of his games. Some have taken it a step further and believe that he’s openly against them.

Mario, the most well-known franchise Miyamoto created, has generally been about gameplay with the plot being almost non-existent. Even with a franchise like The Legend of Zelda, the story hasn’t exactly been front and center.

In an interview with IGN, Miyamoto was able to clarify his stance. He mentioned how it’s not about complex stories being unnecessary, but another aspect is “to focus on a gameplay experience that gets you to try things over and over again.”

Miyamoto stated:

“It’s not that complex stories are unnecessary, that’s not what I’m saying at all. Story is one way of explaining a game. I think story is just another way to pull out enjoyment from that experience. Another is to focus on a gameplay experience that gets you to try things over and over again. As I mentioned, story is one way to explain the game, and when that goes well sometimes people take the route of starting with the story. For me, the starting story is how to make the gameplay fun, and that’s how I begin thinking about and creating a game. So again, it’s not that story is unnecessary, it’s just how I create games.”