Les jeux qui bifurquent : narration non-linéaire et spatialisation de l'intrigue. Le cas du Tactical RPG

Abstract

As it crosses borders between role-playing games and turn-based strategy games, Tactical RPG seems to be a hybrid object, which has to reconcile the narrative tension one can find in role playing games, and the a-diegeticness of chess. I propose studying such hybridity by focusing on the years 1990-1995, from the first Fire Emblem to October 95, i.e. the release of Tactics Ogre. As I study the way T-RPG turns the isometric squares of the ludic space into a true geographic world, I bring out the fact this geographical turn plays the main role in the spatial and temporal dynamics of the narrative. By considering the specific case of forking paths in narration, this paper wished to points towards the possibility of a transmediatic narratology.

Keywords

• tactical rpg
• time
• space
• non-linearity
• forking paths