I love the game Hades, which has a really cool architecture. Hades is narrative-heavy action rogue-like where you slay enemies as you fight your way out of the underworld. It has the high-frequency loop of killing all the enemies in a room, then earning an upgrade or reward. It has the medium frequency loop of going on runs, attempts to escape the underworld, and regrouping at Hade’s mansion where you can buy upgrades to help in future runs. What is really cool about hades is how it architects the delivery of its story. First, hades has a ton of micro-narrative moments where characters comment on a particular action you took or outcome you experienced on your last run in the underworld. These are tiny arcs of content that immerse the player, and which are unlocked through interaction with the main gameplay loops. The main story has a similar functionality, it progresses through a chain of arcs, but often taking the next link in the chain requires going on another run of the dungeon-crawler. In this way, rather than become a loose thread, the chain of arcs that makes up the narrative regularly weaves the player back into the main gameplay loop.
