Lazy Implementation of Lore?

[cecy]

Hello, in my game (which is still a very very wip) the lore of the story is only vaguely talked about at first. I was wondering if the way it is first told is good, lazy, or too cliche.This is just a tl;dr version of the exposition btw.


The lore is the opening sequence of the game, an old storybook which was given to the protagonist, talking about a war with humans and spirits. How the Great Spirit who was considered a god was killed by a human king. And how a long and bloody war followed it. How a human hero remained victorious, with the hero's name being blank (allowing you to name the protagonist). Which is left to imply that the protagonist wrote their own name in the storybook. 


Is this too cliche or lazy? I don't particularly know. If you guys have any other suggestions, please do give your honest opinions.

 

[BaconWithoutEgg]

I'd say don't worry about being cliche. They are cliche because people love them. Everything's a cliche nowadays, anyway.


As for being lazy or not, depends on how the opening sequence is presented; is it just a giant wall of text? or is there something visual? (scenes depicting the war, pictures or animations and not just some old dude reading a book)


Personally, I think the opening you've described is good if the main protagonist is a silent one, makes it easy to inject the player into the world as it seems to be your intention, but that's just me.

 

[Mayuen]

I agree with the previous poster, cliches aren't bad by default - it is how you use them in your story. The basic idea you have there may be considered cliche by some, but I think it works, especially if it is presented in a more interesting way than a wall of text. Just some scenes that show what is going on in the story will do a lot.


And I like the idea of the protagonist writing their own name in the book, nice way to implement the name-choosing in the actual narrative.

 

[Diretooth]

Regardless of what you do, there will always be a cliche that you are invoking. Try to use the cliches in ways that are fun, even if they aren't original.