Story? Huh? What story?

What's your impression about the story of the game? Is it deep or shallow? Is there a story at all, or is Knytt Underground really just all about platforming, exploring, and collecting?

Nifflas was pretty clear about his intention for the storyline in the game: "Knytt Underground is the biggest game I’ve ever developed and is the first game where I feel that I have a story to tell." But the fact that one of its earliest reviews (linked above) could dismiss such a core element kinda begs the question how successful the game is about telling its story.

In KU the stories are told through witty text dialogues and funny item descriptions. Which is cool, but it also means that gamers who equate 'quality storytelling' with 'action-packed cinematic cutscenes' will likely glance over these text-based narratives, no matter how clever or deep those narratives are.

For example, to find out what really happened 500 years ago on the surface, we have to talk with NPCs who are only guessing at the events but lay down the background information. Then for the definite answer, we have to find an item called and read its nonsensical description which reveals the truth in a creepy manner only if we recognize that the item is in fact a
Compare all this effort and reward with the usual unskippable epic CGI that would shove all this info in your face in three minutes. If someone expects that sort of thing from a game in 2012, they won't find out like, 99% of stories here, and then no wonder that the game becomes really "just all about platforming, exploring, and collecting".

Besides this, I can think of only a few other reasons why some would miss out on the story: speedy playthrough or early quitting, for example.


Well, that's my two cents anyway. What do you think about the way the story is presented in KU?

I liked the story a lot, I hope it gets an IGF nomination in their new excellence in narrative category. The character interactions are quite charming, and the overall adult/whimsical feel reminded me of Jonas Kyratzes' work.

It doesn't feel like a traditional narrative structure, though, even for a videogame. At times the game reads more like a series of loosely connected anecdotes. There's also the matter of the seemingly big chunk of time/plot omitted between chapters 2 and 3, the details of which are only implied by optional character interactions. But those aren't things I mind at all.

I liked the story and the way it's told. One thing that was confusing for me is usage of certain characters' names in dialogs, namely Miriam, Ezra, Hubert. I had no clue who they are, as I talked to them only once before or only heard of them.

The story was ok... But my expectations were too damn high (especially after Zero Escape which is visual novel for Vita&3ds, the sequel to NDS title 999).

I think the way the story is given is good - giving random facts about the world, so you will have to combine them by yourself to get the full picture. But that picture was not that big.

The atmosphere at the end of Juni story was right, but it ended soon... So I expected deeper mystery in chapter 3, but got almost nothing.

I may be an outlier, but I enjoy the cobbling approach to plot in KU.  It follows the way you often discover things in reality - bits and pieces, not always in order.  It also creates a very different kind of puzzle to solve, and due to my peculiarities the mental puzzle is much more of the game to me than the physical one.

It's my intention with the game. It's not a "plot" kind of story and I'm fully aware of that. It's more a world and people living in it, and figuring out how things connect is sort of a puzzle. The reason the game is designed like this is that it reflects my own attemps to figure our life out, something I fail at ofc. As life doesn't make things happen in a way that has meaning or makes sense, I wanted to make a game that also didn't. I'm realize it's not everybody's kind of thing though, but I'm happy there are plenty of people who did appreciate the story, because it is a very personal one

I loved how the character story was revealed naturally through natural-sounding dialogue.  This is one of very few games I can think of that does "in media res" right. 

To me, what made this game made it appealing to follow the story as much as possible, is how the humour is involved in the whole. All the dialogs are shown with a sense of humour.

So that aspect alone is what makes it a great story already. It manages you to not skip the whole story just to play the game, which I tend to do. The story itself is pretty well build up, especially since it starts in episode 1 where the gameplay is more linear until you get to chapter 3, so the foundation for the story is there.

The entire "collect bits and puzzle it together" is a good thing, because that alone makes it a good replay value. I've seen different movies (to name two, Memento, the sixth sense) that uses the same principle. When you watch this movie again, you start to notice more things and more things are starting to make sense. This game falls into that category. I bet if you play the game for a tenth time, you'll still get some aha moments for the story. Then, the many many secrets do tell some parts of the story too, though they are (as secrets are) bonus to the game.

So, for a first playthough, it may be that the story is not picked up much because of the beauty and atmosphere of the game, but given if you play it more than once (something that is actually stimulated by the game itself for the following reason) the story gets much more focus.

I loved the "story."
It felt like an adventure show, almost. Something to a similar feel as Avatar, the Last Airbender.
I don't really know how else to describe it, but it's one of the first games to ever make me attached to the characters.