Analysis : Morgana's Ludonarrative Harmony

Hey guys, Unicky here and I'm here to talk about ludonarrative harmony and why I think Morgana is one of the simplest, but most effective cases of it in this game. The first thing you're probably asking is, what the hell is "ludonarrative harmony"? Well my dear reader, ludonarrative harmony is when a game's mechanics harmonize (or flow if that works better for you) with the narrative or character, to truly encapsulate you in the game. This is something that a lot of designers fail to perfect, and it's the one thing that turns a great game into an amazing game.

Morgana is one of the strongest and one of the simplest cases of ludonarrative harmony in League of Legends. Just from reading her oh-so-short bio and listening to her quotes you get a very clear picture of who Morgana is and what she wants. As you lore-readers may know, Morgana is a part of a family of angels split by their differing ideals. One side, values order and justice while the values freedom and individuality.

Morgana wants nothing other than to take down who she perceives as tyrants and put an end to their reign. She believes her sister Kayle and those on her side cannot see what she sees and is trying to take her down to prove it.

Morgana is vindictive, obsessive and rebellious. She wants to show them how it feels to be less than, and she'll do anything to prove it. When you hear "Feel my pain." and "share my torment." you can tell that she feels clearly suffered for her ideals, she just wants you (yes you the player) to understand. "You to shall be judge" tells you that she wants to bring you the very justice she was given.

Now, that we know all of that let's take a look at her gameplay. You takes away their freedom by holding you to the ground with your Dark Binding. You make them feel the suffering you felt while under control as they stand on your Tormented Soil. Just when they think they're getting away or when they're trying to oppose you tie them up with Soul Shackles. Just in case they thought they could take your freedom away again by holding you down, you uses your black shield to avoid ensure you won't be held down again. All while you take great pleasure in sipping away at their spirit which is how you felt being restricted by higher order and put down by your sister. The only way they can stop you is if they wear down your shield and keep you down by with brute force.

In conclusion, Morgana is quite an interesting champion when you look at how her lore connects to her gameplay. After seeing this for myself, I really did care more about reading the lore of champions. Really, great lore and gameplay depend on each other to make great champions. Same holds true for any game, not just League of Legends. In order to create a truly immersive environment.

So that's my analysis, I never really done anything like this so I hope it ended up okay. Seriously, game design is my passion and writing something like will help me get a better feel for it. Let's hope Morgana gets some great new lore that supports her gameplay as well as this lore does and let me know if you want me to try doing this for other champions and leave your suggestions in the comments.

TL;DR : When playing as morgana you take away their freedom to show them how it feels to be restricted by a tyrant.

Thank you for reading and have an awesome day.